Jim Starlin

Warlock #13 (June, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in November, we looked at Warlock #11, in which artist-writer Jim Starlin wrapped up the “Magus” storyline he’d originally initiated with his first episode of Adam Warlock’s revived feature, one full year earlier.  It was a conclusion that, among other things, had given us a glimpse of Adam’s future death by cosmic suicide, as well as setting up a future conflict between our hero and his unlikely ally against the Magus, i.e., Thanos the Mad Titan.  As we asked at that time, what was the auteur going to do for an encore?  Read More

Howard the Duck #2 (March, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

If you were a savvy comics fan scanning the spinner racks in December, 1975, artist Frank Brunner’s cover for the second issue of Howard the Duck would likely suggest that, following his and writer Steve Gerber’s recent skewerings of a couple of popular comic-book genres — namely, horror (in Giant-Size Man-Thing #5) and sword-and-sorcery (in HtD #1) — they were about to turn their satirical sights on the most popular of them all (at least in the American comics of the 1970s); you know, the one that revolves around colorfully costumed people with funny names.

But while that assessment would ultimately prove to be very much on the money, a turn past the cover to the book’s opening splash page would have clued you in that, before taking on the sacrosanct superhero tropes on which Marvel Comics’ hallowed House of Ideas has been built, Gerber and Brunner (joined by Steve Leialoha on inks) had one other genre stop to make first…  Read More

Warlock #11 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As regular readers of this blog may recall from our post on Warlock #10 back in September, that issue ended on a relatively quiet note, with the titular hero grimly preparing to enter his personal timestream for the express purpose of ending his own life — and, thereby, preventing his evil future self, the Magus, from ever coming into existence at all.  Or at least that was what should happen, according to the theory espoused by Adam Warlock’s unexpected new ally, Thanos the Mad Titan — and it’s not like there were any better options for saving the universe on the table, so what was a onetime messiah to do?

But while the beginning of our latest object of discussion, Warlock #11, seems to be taking place a mere moment after the ending of issue #10, it’s clear from auteur Jim Starlin’s opening splash that things are no longer the least bit quiet, and probably won’t be again for some time:  Read More

Warlock #10 (December, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Fifty years and two months ago, the ninth issue of Warlock ended with a shocking revelation — Thanos, the Mad Titan, who’d been missing and presumed dead since the climax of Captain Marvel #33 (Jul., 1974), was alive — and had shown up to offer Adam Warlock his personal assistance in the latter’s battle against his evil future self, the Magus.  Could it be true?  Going by the cover of Warlock #10, which boldly promised us readers of September, 1975 “Thanos versus the Magus”, both in its blurb copy and in its spectacular illustration by Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss, it sure seemed like the return of the villain of Starlin’s last great cosmic epic was indeed back, and ready to throw down with the villain of Starlin’s current great cosmic epic.  But, of course, if we wanted to know for sure, we were going to have to turn past the cover and dig into the comic’s contents, beginning with its opening splash page…  Read More

Captain Marvel #41 (November, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in April we looked at Captain Marvel #39, featuring “The Trial of the Watcher”.  As you may recall, that issue’s trial of “our” Watcher, Uatu, had been held on the home planet of his people, and ended with him getting off the charge of breaking the Watchers’ vow of non-intervention by promising he’d be a good boy and never doing it again.  That might have seemed like an exceedingly small slap on the wrist, given that Uatu had conspired with the group of renegade Kree known as the Lunatic Legion to not only capture but to outright kill our hero, Captain Marvel, before coming to his senses, but whattya gonna do?  The story ended with Mar-Vell literally shrugging off the whole episode, and implicitly inviting us readers to do the same.  Read More

Warlock #9 (October, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The banner that’s emblazoned above the title logo on the cover of Warlock #9 — “Pulse-Pounding PREMIERE Issue” — can fairly be called misleading, if not outright dishonest.  After all, “premiere” means “first” (in this context, anyway), and the issue of a periodical that numerically follows its eighth can hardly be its first, now can it?  In fact, this isn’t even the premiere issue of the “Warlock” feature’s revival, which would of course have been Strange Tales #178, published back in November, 1974.  But I suppose we can forgive Marvel Comics for wanting to trumpet the return of Adam Warlock in “his own senses-shattering mag” (to quote from the cover’s other blurb) with language a little less clunky that “Pulse-Pounding Fifth Issue of Relaunch” or even “Pulse-Pounding First Issue Under This Title Since 1973”.  It was a special occasion, after all. Read More

Strange Tales #181 (August, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When we last left Adam Warlock at the end of Strange Tales #180, he’d just been driven into unconsciousness by his guilt over his Soul Gem’s stealing the soul of Kray-Tor — the judge who’d been presiding over our hero’s show trial prior to his breaking loose and fighting back.  But, as we learned in the story’s closing panels, the woman behind Adam’s ordeal — the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth — had actually planned the whole thing as a way to safely subdue Warlock without hurting him, so that she could subject him to being brainwashed by her underlings in a facility she called “the Pit”.  Read More

Avengers #137 (July, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As we discussed in our Giant-Size Avengers #4 post back in February, that comic had marked the end of a long sequence of stories by writer Steve Englehart and his various artistic collaborators — the “Celestial Madonna” saga — that had brought significant changes to the team.  Perhaps the most of critical of these were the exits of the Swordsman (who’d actually perished in Giant-Size Avengers #2, but had been kinda-sorta brought back since then) and Mantis (who’d only “officially” become an Avenger in the final pages of GSA #4, but had been such a regular part of their adventures since issue #114 that she really might as well have been a member all along).  Whatever else might be in store for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, it certainly made sense that one or more additions to the team’s roster — whether in the form or returning veterans, fresh new recruits, or a mix of both — lay in the near future.  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

Strange Tales #180 (June, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Fifty years ago this month, the third installment of Marvel Comics’ revived “Warlock” feature arrived sporting yet another cover pencilled and inked by Jim Starlin, as well as a 19-page story pencilled, inked, colored, and written by… Jim Starlin.

Characteristically, the auteur didn’t let his multifaceted role in the comic’s production stop him from having a little fun with the credits on its opening splash page, even at the risk of confusing any newcomers:  Read More