Tom Palmer

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

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 #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

Howard the Duck #1 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

What a difference a couple of years can make.

From Fear #19 (Dec., 1973). Text by Steve Gerber; art by Val Mayerik and Sal Trapani.

From Man-Thing #1 (Jan., 1974). Text by Steve Gerber; art by Val Mayerik and Sal Trapani.

In the autumn of 1973, Howard the Duck’s debut in the last few pages of the “Man-Thing” story in Fear #19 had been followed just one month later by his apparent demise in the first few pages of Man-Thing #1.  Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief at that time, Roy Thomas, hadn’t thought that the publisher’s readers were ready for a “funny animal”-style character in what was at least ostensibly a horror comic, and had asked Man-Thing writer Steve Gerber to get Howard out of the book as quickly as possible.  But Thomas turned out to be wrong; the fan response to the acerbic waterfowl was overwhelmingly favorable, and Gerber was eventually given the go-ahead to resurrect Howard in his own solo backup feature in Giant-Size Man-Thing.  After two such stories had appeared, and were again well-received, the author pitched Marvel publisher Stan Lee on the idea of giving Howard his very own solo title — and Lee, who not all that long before had reportedly been utterly bewildered when attendees at his college campus appearances quizzed him about when Howard the Duck would be coming back, immediately said yes.  And thus it came to pass that in late October, 1975, Howard the Duck #1 — featuring a guest-appearance by Marvel flagship character Spider-Man, no less — was hatched into the comic-book-buying world. Read More

Conan the Barbarian #57 (December, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The cover of this issue of Conan the Barbarian, as produced by the art team of Gil Kane and Vince Colletta, is unquestionably a solid piece of work; if it has any real flaw, it’s that it’s a little generic.  Yes, Conan is shown holding a length of chain in one hand, which at least vaguely nods to the “A Barbarian Chained!” title blurb at the cover’s bottom (and, for the record, we will indeed see our hero so bound before this issue’s story is over and done).  But other than that, it’s just a generic Conan illustration, which could have appeared anywhere, anytime, over the past several years of the title’s run, and has little true relation to this specific issue’s contents.

But, in a way, that was an appropriate choice, back in September,1975.  Conan the Barbarian was at this time on the verge of making a major shift in direction, setting a new course that the series would henceforth follow all the way through issue #100, published more than three and a half years later.  So the cover of Conan #57 could be taken as a capper for the entire run up to this point — a run that as recently as the past year (the last for which the Academy of Comic Book Arts’ “Shazam” Awards were given) had been deemed “Best Continuing Feature” — a fact the cover itself proudly proclaims.  In that sense, this cover serves not only (or even primarily) to promote the single story contained within the comic’s pages, but to commemorate this whole era of the series… what we might call “Conan the Barbarian B.B.”. Read More

Doctor Strange #10 (October, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Fifty years ago this month, writer Steve Englehart and artist Gene Colan were just coming off a four-part storyline in Doctor Strange that had focused on a couple of the Master of the Mystic Arts’ best-established arch-foes — the Dread Dormammu and his sister Umar — when the latest issue of the title arrived on stands with a cover signaling that the creative team was returning to the well for another deep dip into the feature’s past.  After all, Baron Mordo was arguably Doctor Strange’s oldest adversary, having first appeared in the heroic magician’s second published adventure (in Strange Tales #111 [Aug., 1963]), and then soon thereafter being confirmed to have played a role in his origin story (Strange Tales #115 [Dec., 1963]).  Meanwhile, Eternity (who wasn’t exactly a villain, per se) had almost as distinguished a provenance, his debut appearance having come near the end of the seminal run of Dr. Strange’s creators, writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales #138 (Nov., 1965).  Read More

Doctor Strange #9 (August, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When we last left Doctor Strange back in January, he and his lover/apprentice Clea were trapped in the Dark Dimension, facing down the demonic minions of the Dread Dormammu — a group led by Dormammu’s chief disciple, Orini, whom both Doc and we readers had just learned was Clea’s own father.

That startling revelation had come on the closing page of Doctor Strange #7; for that reason, despite the fact that the title up there says this post is about issue #9, we’re going to be starting things off instead with a look at #8, whose cover by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer is shown at right.  If you’re a regular reader, you already know this drill by heart… so, let’s get started:  Read More