Mike Zeck

Marvel Super Action #1 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As was discussed in detail in our post about Marvel Preview #4 several weeks ago, by 1975 all four of the black-and-white comics magazines with which Marvel Comics had made a big push into that market just two years before were winding down.  But Marvel was far from throwing in the towel on the B&W format itself.  Accepting that the early-’70s horror boom that had inspired the launches of Dracula Lives and its ilk was pretty much over, Marvel now looked to other genres for new titles that could replace those that had made up the “Marvel Monster Group”.  Read More

Wulf the Barbarian #1 (February, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

A week ago, writing about the advent of the short-lived comics publisher Atlas/Seaboard, I touched briefly on one of the company’s first color comic-book releases — the barbarian-themed Ironjaw #1 — which, as you may recall, I didn’t rate very highly.  At the time, I promised you we’d be taking a look at the other sword-and-sorcery comic Atlas put out in November, 1974 — a book which was perhaps somewhat more generic than its immediate predecessor, at least on the surface level, but one which ultimately proved a more satisfying entertainment experience overall, simply by virtue of being so very well drawn… well, that, and not being poisonously misogynistic, as the Michael Fleisher-written Ironjaw unquestionably was.  And now, here we are.  Read More

Savage Sword of Conan #2 (October, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

In 1974, star comics artist Neal Adams had largely turned away from pencilling comic book stories.  But he did keep his hand in in the field in various ways, such as by turning out painted covers for Marvel Comics’ black-and-white magazine line on a fairly regular basis.  The second issue of Marvel’s new Savage Sword of Conan title is graced by one such; like most of the covers produced for the b&w line, by whichever artist, it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the magazine’s specific contents.  But I’m sure I didn’t complain when I first picked this book up half a century ago, and I doubt many other readers did, either.

Turning past that cover to the issue’s double-page frontispiece/table of contents, we’re greeted by the first published professional work of a young artist who was as unknown in August, 1974 as Adams was famous:  Read More