Roy Thomas

Marvel Premiere #33 (December, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in September, 1976, the artist of the comic book story we’ll be discussing today — Howard Chaykin, that is — wouldn’t have ranked among the most prolific of the generation of talented young illustrators who’d entered the American comic book industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Unlike other such “Young Turks” of the era as Barry Windsor-Smith, Bernie Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and Jim Starlin, Chaykin still hadn’t had a run on a series lasting more than four issues — and that personal record had been set back in 1973.  Nor had his one- (or two-) off jobs over the past few years been all that plentiful, or frequent.  Read More

Fantastic Four #176 (November, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Regular readers of this blog will recall how, three months ago, we celebrated “Marvel Milestone Month” in honor of four long-running Marvel series all having hit significant numerical markers in May, 1976.  Today, we’ll be looking at yet another comic that signified a notable Marvel milestone of that year, coming out as it did on the fifteenth anniversary of the launch of the Fantastic Four title back in August, 1961 — although, as best as I’ve been able to determine, no one took much notice of that fact at the time.  Read More

Conan the Barbarian #68 (November, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

With this post, we’ve reached the final chapter of Marvel Comics’ five-part crossover between Conan the Barbarian and Marvel Feature (starring Red Sonja) — and as this installment’s cover by Gil Kane, Pablo Marcos, and John Romita makes clear, Conan and Sonja — not to mention Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast — are going to be joined for the occasion by the third sword-and-sorcery star derived from the works of Robert E. Howard who was currently headlining their own Marvel color comic:  Kull the Destroyer!  Read More

Marvel Feature #7 (November, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

With this post, we’ve arrived at the penultimate installment of Marvel Comics’ five-part crossover between Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword, as originally published in the summer of 1976 — although, if you’ve been following along the last couple of months, you might be feeling that, three chapters in, the story seems to have barely gotten started.  After all, the first two installments (in Marvel Feature #6 and Conan #66) were basically solo adventures that served to set up a face-to-face confrontation between the two principals on their respective last pages.  And the subsequent episode (in Conan #67) moved the main storyline forward only incrementally, as its primary focus was a sidequest by Conan on behalf of a couple of his former comrades, Tara and Yusef, in which Sonja didn’t figure at all. (Though for what it’s worth, Conan’s current partner in both adventure and romance, the pirate queen Bêlit, didn’t play an active role in those proceedings, either.) Read More

Conan the Barbarian #67 (October, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

In this post, we’ll be looking at the third chapter in Marvel Comics’ 1976 five-part crossover between Conan the Barbarian and Marvel Feature, featuring Red Sonja — though this issue’s status as such is completely ignored by the cover, which, nice as the illustration by Gil Kane and Pablo Marcos is, gives no indication whatsoever of the She-Devil with a Sword’s role therein, either by image or blurb-text.  Read More

Savage Sword of Conan #14 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

You’d likely never guess it from the wholly acceptable, but not especially memorable Earl Norem cover to the comic book that’s our topic for today — but, half a century ago, Savage Sword of Conan #14 represented something of the end of an era… even if no one knew it at the time.  That’s because its pages contained the very last collaboration between writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams — two creators whose previous joint efforts, though relatively few in number, comprised some of the high water marks of the late Silver and early Bronze Ages of comics.  Read More

Conan the Barbarian #66 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

A week ago, we took a look at Marvel Feature #6, the first installment of what will eventually turn out to be a five-part crossover between that title and Conan the Barbarian.  Today, we’ll be dealing with the second chapter of this event — although, in fact, Conan #66 can just as easily (and perhaps more accurately) be described as the second prologue to the crossover “proper”, which won’t really get going until the next month’s Conan #67.  That’s because this comic, like Marvel Feature #6, is entirely concerned with getting the storyline’s three principal characters — i.e., Conan, his lover and partner-in-piracy Bêlit, and Marvel Feature headliner Red Sonja — all on the same page.  And I mean literally the same page, in more ways than one; since, as regular readers will recall, MF #6 ended with a full-page splash panel depicting Red Sonja facing down Conan and Bêlit over a priceless magical artifact: a single page from the Iron-Bound Book of Skelos.  Our story’s first prologue told us how Sonja got herself into that situation; now it’s time for us to check out the second, the better to learn what path Conan and Bêlit have followed to arrive at the very same place as Big Red.  Read More

Marvel Feature #6 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Savage Sword of Conan #1 (Aug., 1974). Art by Boris Valejo.

It’s been a while since we discussed Red Sonja on this blog — since the 50th anniversary of the publication of Savage Sword of Conan #1, to be precise, and that was back in June, 2024, a full two years ago — so before we jump into the main topic of today’s post, it’ll behoove us to spend just a little bit of time tracking what the She-Devil with a Sword had been up to between her appearance(s) in that black-and-white comic magazine and her sixth solo outing as a headliner in the second volume of the color “showcase” comic title Marvel Feature.  Beyond that, a brief recap of the heroine’s earlier history may also be useful, both as a primer for anyone out there not already thoroughly familiar with Big Red, and as a refresher for those who are.  (Though if you do already know all this background material backwards and forwards and choose to skip the next couple of paragraphs, that’s fine.  After all, how will the rest of us ever know?)  Read More

Invaders #8 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As longtime readers of this blog well know — actually, as anyone who just started reading it three posts back has likely already sussed out — your humble blogger was very partial to superhero team books back in the day.  In the particular period we’re currently dealing with (i.e., in and around 1976), either Marvel or DC Comics could drop a new team title (or revive an old one) and it was all but a sure thing that I’d sample at least one issue.  There were a couple of exceptions, both on the DC side (the new Freedom Fighters and the revived Teen Titans, for the record); but, generally speaking, you could throw a bunch of costumed characters together, slap a group name on them, and my younger self would feel compelled to take a look — even in cases where the team seemed to have no real reason to exist (yeah, I’m looking at you, Champions).  Read More

Avengers #148 (June, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last month we took a look at Avengers #147, the cover of which we noted found its penciller, Rich Buckler, operating in “full Kirby mode”.  By contrast, the cover of today’s fifty-year-old comic happens to have been pencilled by Jack Kirby himself… and may I just say, ain’t nothin’ like the real King, baby.  (For the record, Mike Esposito inked this piece.)  Read More