Steve Englehart

Avengers #149 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The issue of Marvel Comics’ Avengers that we’re discussing today is the first ever of the title to have had not only its interiors, but also its cover, pencilled by artist George Pérez (though we should note for the record that John Romita is alleged to have done some touch-ups on the piece, and that the inks were provided by Frank Giacoia).  That seems quite appropriate, given that Avengers #149 also brings to a close the storyline that kicked off with Pérez’s first outing on the title, in issue #141; besides that, it’s a really attractive piece of work (especially if you’re as big a fan of the Mighty Thor as is your humble blogger)… and, of course, the first of many fine George Pérez Avengers cover to follow.  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

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

Avengers #147 (May, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Avengers #145 (Mar., 1976). Art by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins.

Cover to Avengers #146 (Apr., 1976). Art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom.

Back in November, we looked at Avengers #144, featuring the latest (as of Nov., 1975) installment in writer Steve Englehart and artist George Pérez’s “Serpent Crown Saga”.  As readers of that post will recall, despite the comic’s final-page “Next” blurb’s promise that the following month’s issue would present the next chapter in the still-ongoing storyline, when Avengers #145 arrived on stands in December its pages were instead filled by the first half of a completely unrelated, out-of-sequence story scripted by Tony Isabella and drawn by Don Heck.  That issue, together with the fill-in yarn’s second part in the next month’s Avengers #146, pushed the continuation of Englehart and Pérez’s epic out to February, 1976.

According to later reports, both halves of this story had originally been intended for publication in Giant-Size Avengers #5 — a plan that was up-ended by Marvel Comics’ mid-1975 decision to phase out their whole line of mostly-new-material-filled giant-sized comics.  (While GSA #5 was indeed published in September, it was an all-reprint book.)  Given that 30-plus pages of Isabella-Heck material had already been both produced and paid for, it’s certainly understandable that Marvel would want to get it into print sooner or later.  But smack-dab in the middle of a complex, multi-issue story arc?  That hardly seems like an optimal solution. 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

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

Avengers #144 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I tend not to talk very much about the covers of the half-century-old comics we discuss here; unless they’re really strikingly good, my tendency is simply to note who drew them — to the extent that that’s known, anyway — and then move on.  (And just this week, in writing about Defenders #32, I forgot to do even that much; my thanks to reader Ben Herman for stepping into the breach.)  But I’m going to make an exception this time, simply to express my disappointment with this particular job by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.  While there are aspects of the composition that work well, the central figure of Hellcat — a significant new character (OK, technically a new combination of two pre-existing characters) whom readers are seeing here for the very first time — is almost painfully awkward, at least to my eyes.  Kane was a great talent, but among the very many (probably too many) covers he cranked out for Marvel in the 1970s, it stands to reason that there’d be at least a few clunkers; and for me, this is one of them.  (Naturally, your mileage may vary.)  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

Avengers #143 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The cover of this issue, pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Frank Giacoia (and maybe Mike Esposito), might fairly be called a bit misleading.  Sure, the Avengers fight a big scaly monster inside, but not these Avengers — Captain America, Iron Man, the Beast, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch — who, setting aside the whole monster business, show up for only two of the story’s nineteen pages, besides.  On the other hand, the promises made by the cover’s blurbs are right on the money: these five Avengers do indeed “break loose” from the confinement we saw them trapped in back in Avengers #142; plus, this issue also features “the final battle against the power of Kang!” — or, at least, a final battle, since, then as now, nothing lasts forever in Marvel superhero comics.  Read More

Marvel Preview #4 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in the early months of 1973, Marvel Comics confidently made a big push into the black-and-white comics magazine market then dominated by Warren Publishing with a slate of four horror titles — Dracula Lives, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie, and Vampire Tales — obviously designed to go head-to-head with Warren’s trio of Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.  Within two-and-a-half years, however, all four of those books had shuffled off back to the graveyard, victims of a general downturn in the horror genre’s appeal to American comics fans that had also prompted a significant pruning of Marvel’s color comics of that ilk.  (TTFN, Man-Thing; catch ya later, Morbius; Living Mummy, we hardly knew ye.)

Still, if you’d taken a look at the magazine racks in October, 1975, Marvel’s confidence in its ability to compete in the B&W comics field — or, at least, its determination to do so — would hardly have seemed to have diminished since the heady days of the “Marvel Monster Group”.  That month, you might have scored copies of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #18, Planet of the Apes #15, Savage Sword of Conan #9… maybe even Crazy #15 or Doc Savage #2 (which had both come out in August, but wouldn’t be bumped off the stands by new issues until December).  And also, of course, the book that’s the main topic of today’s post:  the fourth issue of Marvel Preview.  Read More