Gene Colan

Tomb of Dracula #47 (August, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in March we took a look at Tomb of Dracula #45, which in addition to chronicling the first face-to-face meeting between Blade, the Vampire Slayer, and Hannibal King, the Vampire Detective (and their subsequent decision to team up against their common enemy Deacon Frost) also served as the kickoff for a major new story arc, as our titular star became acquainted with a congregation of Satan worshipers and got the brilliant idea not just to pose as their infernal Dark Lord, but to take one of their number, the lovely and mysterious Domini, in unholy matrimony.  Read More

Howard the Duck #4 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Prior to the release of today’s featured comic fifty years ago this month, only three artists had lent their pencils to delineating the adventures of Marvel Comics’ newest superstar, at least officially:  Val Mayerik, who’d drawn the character’s debut appearances in Fear #19 and Man-Thing #1; Frank Brunner, who’d illustrated the two solo strips that subsequently appeared in Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 and #5, as well as issues #1 and #2 of Howard’s self-titled series; and John Buscema, who’d done the same for the third and most recent issue.  Read More

Doctor Strange #16 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in January, we looked at Doctor Strange #13 — which, as you’ll remember, ended with our hero witnessing the recreation of a shattered Earth just one issue after having witnessed (and been the sole survivor of) the destruction of that same planet.  His new existential status as the one person in the world who knew that everyone else had been obliterated, and then replaced with perfect duplicates bearing the memories of their original, deceased selves (except for the dying-in-a-cataclysm part), clearly gave the Sorcerer Supreme a good deal to mull over.  Unfortunately, before he had much of a chance to do so, he had to deal with the menace of the Lord of Vampires, Count Dracula, in an adventure that began in Tomb of Dracula #44 and ended in issue #14 of Doc’s own series.

It’s in the immediate aftermath of that adventure that Doctor Strange #15 begins, as we find our regular creative team of writer Steve Englehart and artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer (the latter two of whom also produced the cover) chronicling the return of a weary Stephen Strange and his manservant and friend, Wong, to their home… a return which is, alas, destined to be interrupted before they arrive at their doorstep…  Read More

Tomb of Dracula #45 (June, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Before we dive into the individual comic book that’s the main topic of today’s post, your humble blogger would like to call your attention to a more general aspect of comics history, one that’s making its debut on this site with the Gene Colan-Tom Palmer cover shown above.  Yes, it’s the Uniform Product Code — which, as best as I can tell, actually first started appearing on DC Comics’ publications in February, 1976, but, as we didn’t cover any DC books last month, had to wait for March to show up here, in conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of its adoption by Marvel.  I don’t really have anything else to say about the UPC, except that we’d all best get used to it (again), because it’s not going away anytime soon.  (Yeah, sure, around the turn of the next decade the big publishers will begin using a different graphic in its place on their direct-sales editions.  But the real estate consumed by that rectangular box won’t be coming back for a long, long time.)  Read More

Doctor Strange #14 (May, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

One week ago, we had a look at Tomb of Dracula #44, which, as regular readers will recall, ended with not one, but two cliffhangers.  To find out what happened next in regards to the second of those, which promised a face-off between Blade, the Vampire Slayer, and Hannibal King, Vampire Detective, we’ll have to wait another few weeks — but as to the first, which saw Doctor Strange succumb to the fatal bite of Count Dracula, all we have to do is turn past the cover of the comic that’s our topic today to pick up things up right where they left off.  (Although, if we’re to be honest, Gene Colan and Tom Palmer’s cover illo kind of gives the game away, at least as far as Doc’s survival is concerned — but, really, what else could you expect?)  Read More

Tomb of Dracula #44 (May, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When you look back on it, it seems inevitable.  In 1976, Marvel Comics had these two leading men who, along with sharing a heavily mysterioso vibe, had a strikingly similar penchant for high-collared cloaks and neatly trimmed mustaches.  Not to mention that the exploits of both gentlemen were then being illustrated by the same art team of penciller Gene Colan and inker/colorist Tom Palmer.  If you were Marvel editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman, why wouldn’t you stage a crossover between Tomb of Dracula and Doctor Strange — especially since you, i.e., Marv, were also the regular writer of the former book?  Sure, it might take some time to coordinate the two stars’ respective continuities; but, as it happened, in February, 1976, both Wolfman and his counterpart over at Doctor Strange, writer Steve Englehart, were simultaneously in-between multi-issue storylines.  There would never be a more opportune moment for the Lord of Vampires and the Sorcerer Supreme to cross paths… and, in the end, that’s just what occurred, over the first two weeks of that month — as, naturally, we’ll be discussing here over the first two weeks of this month.  Read More

Doctor Strange #13 (April, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As regular readers of this blog will recall from our November, 2025 post about Doctor Strange #12, that particular installment of the adventures of Marvel Comics’ Master of the Mystic Arts ended not with a whimper, but a bang.  Actually, a series of bangs, by the end of which the planet Earth (the “real” one, writer Steve Englehart’s script assured us) had been completely and utterly destroyed, along with all living things thereon.  “But then,” Englehart’s omniscient narrator pointedly asked us readers, “how is it you remain?”  How, indeed?  The answer to that poser was promised for the next bimonthly issue… which, of course, brings us to the subject of today’s post.  Read More

Doctor Strange #12 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Four months ago, we took a look at Doctor Strange #10, which presented the first chapter in writer Steve Englehart and artist Gene Colan’s latest (as of July, 1975) four-part saga of the Sorcerer Supreme — this one involving our hero’s attempt to prevent the awesome cosmic entity Eternity from destroying the Earth.  Naturally, that story had continued in the next bi-monthly issue of the series; but since we didn’t manage to fit a full post about Doctor Strange #11 into our September blogging schedule, we’ll need to cover its main events before moving on to the specific comic whose name and cover you see at the top of this post.  If you’re a regular reader, you already know how this goes… and if you’re not, I’m sure you’ll figure it out as we roll along.  Read More

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6 (November, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last October, we took a look at the first issue of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction — Marvel Comics’ latest (as of 1974), and, as things turned out, last (as of 2025) attempt to produce an SF anthology comic adapting well-known short stories and novels in the genre.  As I related in that earlier post, my younger self definitely enjoyed that premiere offering, but still somehow ended up not buying another issue until the August, 1975 release of the subject of today’s post.  Whether the magazine had been having distribution problems in my area in the ten-month interval between UWoSF #1 and #6, or I simply passed on #2 through #5 for reasons now forgotten, I’m glad that the stars aligned for me to buy this one.  Read More

Man-Thing #22 (October, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When we last checked in with the Man-Thing back in March, at the end of his 18th issue, it was for the finale of the three-part “Mad Viking” trilogy — one of the most intense and memorable storylines to have yet appeared in the feature, perhaps matched only by “The Kid’s Night Out!” (which had in fact been published concurrently with it, in the Man-Thing’s quarterly Giant-Size vehicle).  As you may recall, Man-Thing #18 concluded with Manny, his human friend Richard Rory, and a distressed teenager named Carol Selby abandoning the small Florida town of Citrusville in the wake of a book burning incident at the town’s high school in which people as well as pages had perished.  That downbeat ending presaged a significant change in direction for the series — one which writer Steve Gerber and artist Jim Mooney would manage to explore in depth for only three issues before having to abruptly wrap up everything as best they could in the title’s terminal release, Man-Thing #22. Read More