Frank Giacoia

Thor #240 (October, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As I’ve mentioned numerous times before on this blog, Thor was my favorite Marvel superhero back in the 1970s.  (Just for the record, he still is.)  That didn’t mean that Thor was my favorite Marvel superhero comic book for most of that decade, however — at least, not so far as the new issues coming out then were concerned.  The reason for that disparity stems from the fact that, while my enthusiasm for the Son of Odin might have originally been inspired by a general affinity for myth and legend (and for modern heroic fantasy fiction derived from them), it was based at least as much on my admiration for the work that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done on the feature in the mid-to-late 1960s.  Thor/Journey into Mystery was the one major Marvel title I endeavored to acquire a complete run of back in my collecting heyday (I eventually made it back as far as JiM #96, if you’re curious).  So I had those Lee-Kirby classics — which I was picking up sporadically, just a few at a time — to compare the current issues to.  And despite regularly featuring a high quality of artwork (usually by John Buscema, working with a variety of mostly sympathetic inkers), the new stories (which for most of the first half of the 1970s were written by Gerry Conway) just didn’t measure up in my eyes… neither to those great old Thor/JiM comics, nor to the best of what Marvel was offering elsewhere in the superhero genre in those days.  Read More

X-Men #94 (August, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As you may recall from our post about Giant-Size X-Men #1 back in April, that landmark comic book concluded with one of the mutant superhero team’s original members, the Angel, posing the query: “What are we going to do with thirteen X-Men?”  That question was reflective of the fact that while Marvel Comics had just introduced seven new members to the team (the majority of whom were also brand-new characters), there were still six veteran heroes of the old guard to be dealt with in one way or another.  It seemed unlikely that even a giant-sized version of the freshly-revived “X-Men” feature could easily accommodate such a large number of costumed crusaders in every issue — and once Marvel decided to use the existing regular-sized X-Men title (which since 1969 had only presented reprints of old X-stories) as the relaunched series’ primary vehicle instead, that question became even more acute.  Read More

Captain Marvel #39 (July, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When last the regular readers of this blog saw Captain Marvel, he’d just been defeated and taken prisoner by the Watcher — a formerly benign, self-declared non-interventionist, whose sudden heel turn after over a decade of Marvel Comics appearances seemed to come out of nowhere — who had then proceeded to hand him over to the mysterious, heretofore unseen enemies who’d been giving our hero trouble ever since the end of auteur Jim Starlin’s run on the series — the Lunatic Legion.

Our first glimpse of those baddies (see right) made them look pretty loony, indeed.  But, considering that storytellers Steve Englehart (co-plotter/scripter), Al Milgrom (co-plotter/penciller) and Klaus Janson (inker) were giving us a Captain Marvel’s-eye view of the LL, here — and also considering that Mar-Vell was, at the time, tripping balls on LSD (euphemistically referred to in the story as “Vitamin C”, so as not to draw the unwelcome attention of the Comics Code Authority) — one might reasonably doubt whether the image we saw here was entirely representative of objective reality.  Read More

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover layout by Gil Kane, featuring only the new X-Men team lineup.

The completed original art for the cover, with the new team pencilled by Kane and the old team pencilled by Dave Cockrum; all inks by Cockrum.

Half a century after its original release, there’s little doubt that the subject of today’s post was the most historically significant mainstream American comic book released in 1975; indeed, it’s arguably in the very top tier for the entire decade of the Seventies.  But in April, 1975, it arrived with very little fanfare — at least in the relatively isolated comics-reading world of your humble blogger, who at age seventeen still wasn’t tuned in to what little fan press there was at the time.  I don’t recall seeing any house ads for Giant-Size X-Men #1 ahead of its release, and the only promotion of the book I’ve been able to locate in any Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page published around then is a brief mention in the column that ran in the company’s March-shipping issues, reporting how artist Dave Cockrum’s being chosen to illustrate the project represented the realization of the “fan dream of a lifetime”.  That may well have been the only heads-up I had that this book was coming out at all, prior to seeing its soon-to-be-iconic cover by Cockrum and Gil Kane staring out at me from the spinner rack. Read More

Defenders #24 (June, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last month, we took a look at the first half of Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema’s “Sons of the Serpent” storyline with a single blog post covering Defenders #22 and #23.  Today, we’ll be wrapping things up in a similar fashion, with one post serving for our survey of both the third and fourth chapters of this half-century old graphic narrative.

Before we get into the story itself, however, I invite you to take a closer look at Defenders #24’s excellent (if just a bit crowded) cover by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson (and also by John Romita, per the Grand Comics Database).  Specifically, at the blurb trumpeting the presence within of “5 fearsome Defenders and 3 startling guest stars“.  Five Defenders?  I guess that means that Yellowjacket’s been bumped up to full membership status, huh?  That’s certainly what the anonymous Marvel Comics bullpenner who wrote that copy appears to have thought, at any rate.  (Of course, if you accept the notion of the Defenders being a “non-team”, as your humble blogger has always chosen to do, it’s basically a moot point, since any superhero who shows up in any issue may reasonably be called a member.  Or a non-member.  You know what I mean.)

And now, on with the show…  Read More

Captain America #186 (June, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Art by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.

The last issue of Captain America we discussed in this space, was, as I’m sure you’ll remember, a highly significant one for the series, featuring as it did not only the tragic death of Roscoe, the young man who’d attempted to replace Steve Rogers in the titular role, but also Steve’s inevitable response to that tragedy: the abandonment of his briefly-held “Nomad” identity to once again take up the shield of Captain America, as he prepared to deal with the return of his greatest arch-enemy (and the man who’d brutally murdered Roscoe) — the Red Skull.

Interestingly, however, issue #183’s letters column devoted at least as much attention to the hero who shared the series’ title logo with Cap (even if the book’s “official” title, per the indicia, had been, and would remain, simply Captain America) — namely, the Falcon.  In response to a missive from reader Bob Stenson that included a brief, vaguely critical remark about the Falcon’s decision not to come to the aid of his erstwhile partner Steve Rogers against the Golden Archer back in CA #179, the book’s anonymous letters-page answerer (identified by the Grand Comics Database as series scribe Steve Englehart) took the opportunity to preview some upcoming — and ominous-sounding — developments in regards to Marvel Comics’ first Black American superhero:  Read More

Defenders #23 (May, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The fifty-year-old comic book referred to in the title line of this blog post presents the second chapter of a four-part storyline.  And, seeing how we didn’t feature a post about Defenders #22 here in this space last month, regular readers of the blog know what that means: we’ll be covering that issue before moving on to our ostensible main topic, i.e., Defenders #23.  But wait, there’s more!  Because, although the story chronicled in another half-century-old comic, Giant-Size Defenders #4, isn’t technically part of the same arc, its events do preface those of the main Defenders title’s “Sons of the Serpent” saga in some significant ways.  For that reason, we’ll be spending a little quality time with it before proceeding even as far as Defenders #22.  It’s a three-fer today, folks.  Read More

Avengers #134 (April, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

While it may say “Avengers #134 (April, 1975)” on the title line above — and, yes, that is that very issue’s cover (pencilled by Gil Kane, inked by Joe Sinnott, and probably touched up by John Romita) that’s displayed right above that — we’ll actually be beginning this post by looking at the preceding issue, Avengers #133 (whose cover by Kane, Dave Cockrum, and Frank Giacoia is shown at left).  That’s because the last time we checked in with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was in November’s post about Giant-Size Avengers #3, which, as you may remember, ended right in the middle of the extended storyline that today is generally known as the “Celestial Madonna Saga”.  And while covering more than one comic in a single blog post is hardly anything new around these parts, your humble blogger feels moved to point out that, even more than with most continued stories of this era, this one happens to be so information-dense, particularly at this juncture, that a brief synopsis could never, ever cut it.  Read More

Captain Marvel #37 (March, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover art by Jim Starlin.

Cover art by Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia.

Back in June, we took a look at Captain Marvel #34 — the last issue produced by auteur Jim Starlin, who would soon be moving on to “Warlock” in Strange Tales.  As you may recall, Starlin’s swan song ended on a cliffhanger, with Mar-Vell lying unconscious after having been exposed to a deadly nerve toxin.

On one level, this cliffhanger wouldn’t be fully resolved until 1982, when Starlin’s graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel, revealed that the hero had contracted cancer as a result of the nerve gas — a cancer which did indeed ultimately prove fatal.  But in 1974, Mar-Vell wasn’t going anywhere, and so it would be up to the creators who picked up the ongoing storyline in Captain Marvel #35 to get him out of the fix Starlin had left him in — even if it ultimately turned out to be only a temporary reprieve, seen in retrospect.  Read More

Captain America #183 (March, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Fifty years and one month ago, on the final page of Captain America #182, writer Steve Englehart promised his readers that the next issue would feature “The Return of Captain America!  Eight months in the making, and worth every second of the wait!”  That bottom-of-the-page blurb struck an unmistakably triumphal tone — but it was a tone that was significantly tempered by the full-page splash panel that immediately preceded it, in which the Red Skull — Captain America’s greatest foe — was shown not only to have returned, but also to have gotten the drop on Cap’s longtime partner, the Falcon, as well as his would-be replacement, a Brooklyn youth named Roscoe — both of whom now lay helpless at the Skull’s feet.  Clearly, the return of Steve Rogers to the role of Star-Spangled Avenger wasn’t going to be purely an occasion for celebratory fireworks and parades — a message that would be visually underscored when CA #183 showed up on stands in December, 1974, featuring a brutally dramatic cover by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.  Read More