Back Issue #88 by TwoMorrows Publishing

COMIC MAGAZINES OF THE ’70s & ’80s

May 20

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Marvel’s mags, from Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated t Kirby’s “Speak-Out Series” Eisner’s The Spirit magazine t The Unpublished Paul Gulacy t plus Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Skywald, & Warren mags t with Adams, Moench, Norem, Uslan, & more

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“Let’s Get Small!” Marvel’s Micronauts, The Atom in the Bronze Age, JAN STRNAD and GIL KANE’s Sword of the Atom, the rocky relationship of Ant-Man the Wasp, Gold Key’s Microbots, Super Jrs., DC Digests, and Marvel Value Stamps. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, JACKSON GUICE, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, ALEX SAVIUK, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, & more. Cover by PAT BRODERICK!

“When Comics Were Fun!” HEMBECK cover and gallery, Plastic Man, Blue Devil, Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, VALENTINO’s normalman, Bronze Age’s goofiest Superman stories, and the Batman/Dick Tracy team-up you didn’t see! Featuring MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PARIS CULLINS, RAMONA FRADON, ALAN KUPPERBERG, MISHKIN & COHN, STEVE SKEATES, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, and more!

“Weird Issue!” Batman’s Weirdest TeamUps, ORLANDO’s Weird Adventure Comics, Weird War Tales, Weird Mystery Tales, DITKO’s Shade the Changing Man and Stalker, CHAYKIN’s Iron Wolf, CRUMB’s Weirdo, and STARLIN and WRIGHTSON’s The Weird! Featuring JIM APARO, LUIS DOMINGUEZ, MICHAEL FLEISHER, BOB HANEY, PAUL LEVITZ, and more. Batman and Deadman cover by ALAN CRADDOCK.

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“Charlton Action Heroes in the Bronze Age!” DAVE GIBBONS on Charlton’s WATCHMEN connection, LEN WEIN and PARIS CULLINS’ Blue Beetle, CARY BATES and PAT BRODERICK’s Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and a look at Blockbuster Weekly! Featuring MIKE COLLINS, GIORDANO, KUPPERBERG, ALAN MOORE, PAT MORISI, ALEX ROSS, and more. Cover by AL MILGROM.

“Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age” (crossover with ALTER EGO #132)! In-depth spotlights of their 1970s and 1980s adventures, MARK WAID’s look at the Flash/GL team, and PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Lost GL Fillins. Bonus: DC’s New York Office Memories, and Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale by LARRY NIVEN and JOHN BYRNE. With BARR, BATES, GIBBONS, GRELL, INFANTINO, WEIN, and more. Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ.

“DC Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” An indepth exploration of DC’s 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS, plus: a history of comics giants, DC indexes galore, and a salute to “human encyclopedia” E. NELSON BRIDWELL. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, RICH BUCKLER, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT, BOB ROZAKIS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. Super Spec tribute cover featuring classic art by NICK CARDY.

“Bronze Age Events!” With extensive coverage of the Avengers/Defenders War, JLA/JSA crossovers, Secret Wars, Crisis’ 30th anniversary, Legends, Millennium, Invasion, Infinity Gauntlet, and more! Featuring the work of SAL BUSCEMA, DICK DILLIN, TODD McFARLANE, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOE STATON, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE ZECK, and more. Plus an Avengers vs. Defenders cover by JOHN BYRNE.

“International Heroes!” Alpha Flight, the New X-Men, Global Guardians, Captain Canuck, and Justice League International, plus SpiderMan in the UK and more. Also: exclusive interview with cover artists STEVE FASTNER and RICH LARSON. Featuring the work of JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, RICHARD COMELY, KEITH GIFFEN, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! Alpha Flight vs. X-Men cover by FASTNER/LARSON.

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“Supergirl in the Bronze Age!” Her 1970s and 1980s adventures, including her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and her many rebirths. Plus: an ALAN BRENNERT interview, behind the scenes of the Supergirl movie starring HELEN SLATER, Who is Superwoman?, and a look at the DC Superheroes Water Ski Show. With PAUL KUPPERBERG, ELLIOT MAGGIN, MARV WOLFMAN, plus a jam cover recreation of ADVENTURE COMICS #397!

“Christmas in the Bronze Age!” Go behind the scenes of comics’ best holiday tales of the 1970s through the early 1990s! And we revisit Superhero Merchandise Catalogs of the late ‘70s! Featuring work by SIMON BISLEY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, the KUBERT STUDIO, DENNY O’NEIL, STEVE PURCELL, JOHN ROMITA, JR., and more. Cover by MARIE SEVERIN and MIKE ESPOSITO!

“Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” In-depth exploration of Marvel’s GIANT-SIZE series, plus indexes galore of Marvel reprint titles, Marvel digests and Fireside Books editions, and the last days of the “Old” X-Men! Featuring work by DAN ADKINS, ROSS ANDRU, RICH BUCKLER, DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, WERNER ROTH, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by JOHN ROMITA, SR.!

“Batman AND Superman!” Bronze Age World’s Finest, Super Sons, Batman/Superman Villain/Partner Swap, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane go solo, Superman/Radio Shack giveaways, and JLA #200’s “A League Divided” (as a nod to Batman v. Superman)! Featuring work by BRIAN BOLLAND, RICH BUCKLER, GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, GEORGE PÉREZ, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by DICK GIORDANO!

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Volume 1, Number 88 May 2016 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Gray Morrow (Cover painting originally produced for Marvel Preview #2, 1975. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.) COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Neal Adams Richard J. Arndt Michael Aushenker John Bolton Jerry Boyd Frank Cirocco Chris Claremont Ben DuBay Jo Duffy Grand Comics Database Steven Grant Robert Greenberger Paul Gulacy Heritage Comics Auctions Tony Isabella John K. Kirk Henry Kujawa Evans Lee Dave Lemieux Alan Light Marvel Comics

Dave McDonnell Doug Moench John “Speak-Out” Morrow George Pérez Paul Sager Jim Starlin Roy Thomas Steven Thompson Michael Uslan Nicolas Waldmann George E Warner John Wells In memory of Earl Norem

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OFF MY CHEST Guest Editorial by John Morrow: Don’t Buy It, Just Ask . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Our fearless leader laments DC’s half-hearted marketing of Kirby’s “Speak-Out Series” FLASHBACK: The Mighty Marvel Magazine Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 The evolution of Marvel’s magazine line, with comments from creators including Earl Norem GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Shadow—The Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Former Shadow scribe Michael Uslan reveals DC’s unrealized plans to publish B&Ws FLASHBACK: Skywald and Seaboard: The Other B&W Mags of the ’70s . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 You might’ve overlooked these publications from Brodsky, Waldman, and Goodman FLASHBACK: Warren Publications’ Third Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 From Eisner’s The Spirit to the slap-happy superheroes of The Goblin, Warren’s Bronze Age mags BACK IN PRINT: The Revival of the Rook! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Ben DuBay, Steven Grant, and Paul Gulacy discuss the character’s return GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Unpublished Paul Gulacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 A gorgeous gathering of uncommon Gulacy goodies FLASHBACK: Charlton Magazines of the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Charlton Spotlight publisher Michael Ambrose explores three TV tie-ins INTERVIEW: Neal Adams Discusses Charlton, Dick Giordano, and Continuity Studios . . . .53 Go behind the scenes with one of our favorite artists INTERVIEW: Continuity Memories by Frank Cirocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Ever wonder what it was like to work at Neal Adams’ studio? BEYOND CAPES: Epic Illustrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Jim Starlin, Chris Claremont, and Jo Duffy revisit Archie Goodwin’s magnum opus BACKSTAGE PASS: Comics Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Robert Greenberger reveals the story behind this fondly remembered ’80s fanzine BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 Standard US, $85 Canada, $104 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Gray Morrow. The Punisher and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2016 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

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“Mighty Marvel is on the move again!!” This stirring proclamation became a mantra of the House of Ideas in the 1960s as “Merry” Martin Goodman’s company moved from triumph to triumph. Costumed, mighty-muscled superheroes and their equally colorful enemies, whether done seriously, silly, or “camp” (for sophisticated adults who were mildly intrigued) became all the rage. In the 1940s, Superman could leap a tall building in a single bound. In the 1960s, he could fly to other star systems, and he and his DC brethren, as well as a slew of other mystery men and women from other companies, followed suit. In deeds, the superhero boom knew no bounds. Comic magazines of the four-color variety were “hip” and “happening.” In the 1970s, the Marvel bigwigs would test those bounds again in the black-and-white arena in titles that would become some of the most memorable efforts in sequential-art history.

Jerry Boyd

All covers TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc., except for Conan TM & © Conan LLC, Planet of the Apes TM & © 20th Century Fox, and Doc Savage TM & © Condé Nast.

THE ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS (MAGAZINES, THAT IS…) As with many things of the Marvel persuasion, there’s an origin story. It all started in the late 1960s, when their wildly popular Wall-Crawler debuted in B&W in the magazine The Spectacular Spider-Man (July 1968). Spidey faced off against a deranged politician running for NYC mayor, whose hulking brute of an assistant was sent off to intimidate the candidate’s opponents. The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Nov. 1968) saw the return of the equally deranged Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. The Goblin was “more dangerous than ever” as Stan Lee liked to put it. Since The Amazing Spider-Man #39 in ’66, Osborn had figured out that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were one and the same. This was one of the Web-Spinner’s tensest battles ever. A third issue was planned, but never came about. It was probably a tough sell. Even though the second issue was in full color, and put together with beautiful scripting by Lee, and artwork by John Romita, Sr., Jim Mooney, and John Buscema, it didn’t find enough of a buying audience. J. Jonah Jameson might have asked this next question: “Why was Stan even interested in doing The Spectacular Spider-Man in the first place?” Roy Thomas graciously answers. “He wanted Marvel to escape the color comic book ghetto, the way it was then constructed … not have to go through the [Comics] Code … find ways to get more money for the work, too.” At 35 cents a pop, TSS could’ve made for greater profits for all involved, but Omnipotent Odin willed it not to be. TSS appeared on magazine stands, away from the spinner racks that wild-eyed youngsters (like this fan) were used to … and 35 cents was a bit daunting back then. And I’m sure that many fans probably reasoned that they could get almost THREE 12-centers for one Spidey mag, soooo… Fans had their own business sense going. Stan knew that new comic buyers were coming into the fold all the time, so Spidey’s origin was retold in TSS #1. Another origin would have to take place for Marvel’s next sojourn into B&W graphic excitement … and that would take three more years to come about.

SAVAGE BLACK-AND-WHITE TALES The Comics Code restrictions lessened to a degree in the late ’60s/ early ’70s, and it’s been reported that Jack Kirby mulled the possibility of a comic starring Dracula around that time. He wasn’t the only one. Dracula was “alive and well,” so to speak, in B&W stories outside of the Comics Code and in new movies. His old movies were staples of late-night TV-show horror-host fare from sea to shining sea. Stan Lee was promoted to Marvel publisher near the end of 1971, but he wasn’t quite ready to pull the publishing trigger on Dracula … not just yet. So, he pulled a sword. Conan the Cimmerian proved himself to be a sensation for the House of Ideas in 1970. A reaver, a slayer, a thief— a bloody-handed barbarian … and Robert E. Howard’s novel and short stories promised more to come—was an ideal choice for a B&W magazine. Conan’s world was one of fear-fraught fantasies too wild, in some ways, for the Comics Code. Women were often scantily dressed, men killed and killed often (no Daredevil dragging the defeated Matador to the police here), and arcane spells and demonic monsters were the norm. Conan was a new deal. Somehow, in the waning days of “peace and love,” a war-torn Vietnam, campus protests, and race riots, an indomitable

Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

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Early Marvel Mags (top) The Spectacular Spider-Man covers, sumptuously served up by “Jazzy” Johnny Romita. The second issue’s cover is still just too much! (bottom) John Buscema’s Conan was every bit as savage as Frazetta’s! This Buscema painting for Savage Tales #1 (May 1971) spoke the proverbial thousand words… Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan TM & © Conan LLC.

hill-man from “an age undreamed of” won the hearts and minds of fandom and hacked his way to big success in 1970. One Marvelite, writing in to the regular book, asked, “Is it real or fiction in the Baxter Building?” It didn’t matter. Conan was here. His title quickly went monthly. Savage Tales #1 (May 1971) would be his magazine showcase—with a large “M” aimed at “the Mature Reader.” Inside the covers was the Thomas/Smith tour-de-force adaptation of Howard’s “The Frost Giant’s Daughter.” While Frank Frazetta was THE Conan artist on paperback covers, very few who read “Bashful” Barry Smith’s rendition of this short story were dissatisfied. Smith’s early style had rapidly matured, merging the pre-Raphaelite school of art with dashes of Erte and a few flourishes of his hero, Jack “King” Kirby. And Roy’s writing was up to the task, also. Truly, this was the beginning of something big, it seemed. And it wasn’t all Conan. “Black Brother,” by Dennis O’Neil (under a different name) and Gene Colan, gave us a look at racial struggles in a fictional African nation and its apartheid state. “Man-Thing” was executed by Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow, and the swamp came alive in the form of a muck-encrusted mess that lived after his human side was betrayed by his lover for the secret formula he’d been working on. Lee and Romita played to any feminist fans who may have taken a chance on ST with “The Femizons,” where warrior women ruled over men on a futuristic Earth. Mr. Romita wasn’t happy with there being no Femizons follow-up to ST #1. He told Roy in Alter Ego Presents John Romita – All That Jazz (2007), “That was supposed to be a 40-page epic, but we only published the first part. It was so long before Savage Tales [#2] came out that the momentum was lost. We even had a movie company interested in it at one point. It broke my heart not to be able to continue it.” Mr. Thomas’ assessment of ST #1 follows: “I think Savage Tales #1 was a good package, though my favorite stories were “Frost Giant’s Daughter” by Barry and me, and “Man-Thing,” which I co-plotted.” However, this proud package didn’t do it for Marvel. Perhaps the “M” label scared as many kids away as it enticed older readers. There was partial nudity and the type of violence outside the regular stun-guns and blast rays of the 15- and 25-centers—maybe those factors had something to do with it. In any case, it’d be another two years before this title would make a savage return. 6 • BACK ISSUE • Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

THE SAVAGE RETURN OF CONAN! By 1973, the once-upstart Marvel was the number-one comics publishing house. Fandom was generally enraptured! Rival DC was also doing quite well, quality-wise, with Kirby’s gods-at-war tetralogy, O’Neil and Kaluta’s The Shadow, Kubert’s Tarzan, the stunning Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing, and Batman by O’Neil and Adams. But the House of Ideas kept the overall quality of their ’60s flagship titles on a high level, and having that comfort zone, now stood poised to give B&W mainstays Warren Publishing and Skywald Magazines a run for their money. Savage Tales #2 (Oct. 1973) was the icebreaker. Stan and Roy had determined that Conan was a big enough star on his own to have most of the content wrapped around his Hyborian Age, and hedging their bets, there were reprints from the ’50s that smacked of sword and sorcery. Reprints would loom large during the Marvel Magazine era and were welcome, introducing youngsters to the works of Joe Maneely, Russ Heath, Fred Kida, Dave Berg, Paul Reinman, Joe Sinnott, and others. If Thomas and Smith had blown out eyes with their contribution to ST #1, ST #2’s Conan story would truly be “senses-shattering,” as Stan might put it. “Red Nails” went beyond superlatives, so I’ll have to stop here. Roy and Barry didn’t. They took Howard’s poem “Cimmeria” and gave it a visual style that’s not to be forgotten. Happily, there’d be a Savage Tales #3, concluding the “Red Nails” story, and the beat would go on. Mr. Lee was enjoying the expansion in the color and non-color lineup, but his years of experience made him a prophet in some ways. He told an interviewer in ’73, “I am glad to see Marvel expand into new areas. However, one big problem we’re having and will continue to have is with manpower. There are so many talented writers, artists, and inkers in the business right now and many of the ones we’re adding on are young and enthusiastic. Still, experience is needed … and deadline problems will be a big factor when you put out more titles. We have great veterans doing a number of our titles and wonderful youngsters, but people now are going from company to

Graphic Goings-On (below) Peeks at Savage Tales #1’s Man-Thing and Ka-Zar tales, in original art form. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Shown at left, courtesy of Jerry Boyd, is a futuristic Femizon, captured in a Romita portrait. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Creepy Magazines by

(left) From editor Sol Brodsky, Skywald’s Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). Cover art thought to be by Brendan Lynch, according to the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org). (right) A groovy, gruesome Jeff Jones cover highlights Seaboard’s Weird Tales of the Macabre #1 (Jan. 1975), from editor Jeff Rovin.

Steven Thompson

When publisher James Warren premiered Creepy in 1964, it’s doubtful that he was expecting the high-quality publication he actually got. He was most likely looking for another inexpensive way to exploit the monstermania created by the release of the Universal horror films to television and fanned by his own Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Instead, with Creepy and its later companion magazines, Eerie and Vampirella, he almost literally got the second coming of EC Comics, the already legendary horror comics publisher that had gone out of business in the ’50s when the Comics Code came in. Success breeds competition, and Warren had no shortage of that. Former comic-book horror artist Myron Fass teamed up with Human Torch creator Carl Burgos to foist Eerie Publications on the market using a mixture of redrawn reprints and increasingly gory new artwork. Despite contributions from a few mainstream comics creators, Fass was to Warren as Herschell Gordon Lewis movies were to Hammer Films. There were others, too, such as the short-lived cult classic, Web of Horror, but the closest thing to a serious Warren competitor was Israel Waldman.

SKYWALD Israel Waldman was the man behind Skywald Publications. Previously, he had been the man behind the I.W./Super Comics reprints that were sold in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Since he had purchased a large number of printing plates, he apparently presumed he had the rights to publish Plastic Man, The Spirit, Phantom Lady, Blue Beetle, and many, many more characters and stories that were not his to legally publish. His comics were not Comics Code-approved and were distributed via different channels (grocery stores, dime stores, etc.) than regular comic books. After a run of nearly a decade, though, Waldman disappeared from the scene for a few years, only to return with Skywald. When Skywald came out with its first black-and-white comics magazine, Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970), it was an odd hybrid of redrawn reprints and

new material. The “Sky” in “Skywald” referred to Sol Brodsky, a man so instrumental to the early days of Marvel Comics that when Jack Kirby would later do “What if the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?”, Brodsky would be the Human Torch. Thus, it was perhaps inevitable that the new work was from Marvel veterans like Syd Shores, Tom Palmer, Ross Andru, Bill Everett, and Don Heck. The reprints were seriously altered, with what appears to be Mike Esposito’s hand in completely redrawing a Wally Wood story originally published 20 years earlier and Bill Everett’s major retouching/reinking of a Vince Alascia story. For some reason, they even felt the need to mess with a Joe Kubert reprint! Sol Brodsky had been a bit of an also-ran as a penciler in comic books beginning early in the World War II era and continuing on unspectacularly until the late 1950s. By that point, though, Sol had also tried his hand at publishing and was, in fact, one of the men behind Cracked, which would end up as the longest-running MAD imitator. Most of his time had been at Timely/Atlas, though, and Stan Lee put Brodsky on staff to be his “right-hand man” and production manager in the early 1960s just as Marvel began its rise to industry prominence. Brodsky would continue to rise in the company—eventually being named a vice president—and is credited with a major role in its success, but it was during a relatively brief break from Marvel toward the end of the decade that he teamed with Israel Waldman to launch Skywald. Having been the founding editor of Cracked, Sol Brodsky was no stranger to black-and-white mags. In fact, he had then most recently been heavily involved with Marvel’s 1968 attempt to do a blackand-white Spider-Man comic magazine, The Spectacular Spider-Man. Still, it would take a while before Skywald really found its footing and, by then, Sol would be back at Marvel. In the end, the new company would last less than five years. The cover of that first issue of Nightmare looked almost like a late ’50s Atlas tale with its giant monster, but its pollution theme, its cyclist protagonist, and his semi-clad female companion looked like they’d

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Excedrin Headache #88 (top left) Brendan Lynch’s head-splitting cover to Skywald’s Psycho #1 (Jan. 1971). (top right) Psycho #2 (Mar. 1971) hoses off the Heap. Cover by Hector Varella. (bottom) Tom Palmer’s untouchably awesome shoot-’em-up cover to Skywald’s short-lived gangster mag, The Crime Machine. Issue #2 (May 1971). © 1971 Skywald.

motored over from the cover of an issue of Stag or Male. It wasn’t a bad first issue cover, but the following issue offered an immediate upgrade with a cover by the soonto-be omnipresent Boris Vallejo. Nightmare #2 (Feb. 1971), though, was literally more of the same as the previous issue with doctored Avon reprints by A. C. Hollingsworth and Gene Fawcette awkwardly sharing space with new material by Dan Adkins, Bill Everett, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito. At the end of the issue, though, is a letter from the editors stating that things were moving faster than expected and that the following issue would be much improved in quality and at a level that would continue on from that point. They weren’t kidding. Boris—aptly named for a horror magazine cover artist—was back with that next issue, too, covering a lot of sci-fi/fantasy ground with an overly muscled Neanderthal, a naked lady, alien monsters, and a spaceship. Skywald had a plan right out of the gate. While Nightmare was a bimonthly, the publisher already had another magazine up its sleeve which would come out in the alternate months: Psycho. With Brodsky initially as editor of both periodicals, they were actually fairly interchangeable. The benefit of having two bimonthly mags rather than a sole monthly was that magazine retailers generally would keep an issue on the stands until the next issue came out. Thus, each issue of both Nightmare and Psycho would tend to get two months to sell rather than only one. Psycho #1 (Jan. 1971) opens with a pulpy-looking Brendan Lynch cover strikingly similar to that of Famous Monsters of Filmland #29 (July 1964), which depicted the poster art from the movie, The Flesh Eaters. Here, we see the skull and the revealed brain of an unhappy-looking gentleman, a sort of scene from the book’s first story, “The Skin and Bones Syndrome.” This 1950s-style sci-fi story, expertly illustrated by Gray Morrow, sets a high standard that the rest of the magazine has trouble maintaining. Once again, the reader is given poorly doctored pre-Code material and just a couple of so-so new stories. At this point, Skywald was already looking like an also-ran. 28 • BACK ISSUE • Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

Skywald’s Editor (top left) Magazine editor Al Hewetson, author of the OOP book Skywald! The Complete Illustrated History of the HorrorMood. Photo courtesy of George E Warner, who tells BACK ISSUE, via Steven Thompson, that Skywald’s publisher, Israel Waldman, shunned photographers in connection to his comic book or magazine careers. (top right) Writer Gary Friedrich’s hell-raising superhero-cyclist Brick Reese hits the streets in Skywald’s Hell-Rider #1 (Aug. 1971). Cover by Harry Rosenbaum. (bottom) Hell-Rider’s backup featured comics’ first AfricanAmerican superheroine, the Butterfly. Script by Friedrich, with art by industry vets Ross Andru and Jack Abel. © 1971 Skywald.

It wasn’t all about horror, though. In an obvious effort to tap into the burgeoning detective magazine market—and possibly to cash in on the popularity of the original bestselling book version of The Godfather— Waldman and Brodsky also released the first of two issues of The Crime Machine just after the horror mags debuted. This time, though, there were no new stories at all. One of Marvel’s top inkers, Tom Palmer, stretched his wings with a couple of suitably garish cover paintings, but, inside, the buyer found more retouched (and rather murkily printed) Avon crime comics stories. The only thing new was a decidedly weak attempt at creating a narrator for the tales in the form of a sideburned investigator named Matt Grover … or NAT Grover in the second and final issue. His entire existence consists of one full drawing (which the Grand Comics Database says is by Jack Abel but which could just as easily be by Win Mortimer or Syd Shores or some combination of the above) and a couple of headshots. If the intent was ever to do more with the character or move on to new stories as in the horror books, the cancellation of The Crime Machine after only two issues meant that was never to be. The early failure of The Crime Machine may or may not have had something to do with the deep-sixing of an announced science-fiction mag to have been entitled Science Fiction Odyssey. Advertised in the fourth issue of Nightmare as “Coming Soon,” the cover shown highlighted Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Terry Carr, and Gardner Fox with Jeff Jones art later recycled for use on Psycho #12 (May 1973). No issue ever appeared and the completed contents were gradually used up over time in the other Skywald mags. Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

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RECOMMENDED READING • For more reading on Skywald, check Amazon or eBay for overpriced copies of the late Al Hewetson’s out-of-print book, Skywald! The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood. • George E Warner has a Skywald blog at superggraphics. blogspot.com and has reprinted the entire Human Gargoyles saga at www.thehumangargoyles.webcomic.ws. • You can find a wonderfully obsessive Skywald checklist from Richard J. Arndt at www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/ The%20Complete%20Skywald%20Checklist.html. • Atlas/Seaboard editor Jeff Rovin talked about its black-andwhite mags in this interview from Comic Book Artist #16 (2001): twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/16rovin.html. • BACK ISSUE will be devoting a future edition to the Seabord/Atlas comic-book line. Keep reading!

The fact that the second issue was delayed two months was an early indicator that all was not well at Seaboard. The third Seaboard black-and-white, Thrilling Adventure Stories, at least tried to be something different, seemingly a comics version of the so-called “men’s sweat” magazines. The cover of issue #1 (Feb. 1975) was a bright and bloody mess by classic Richie Rich artist Ernie Colón, whose Atlas color comic character Tiger Man leads off Inside the issue, there is some genuinely first-class the issue. A war story from Russ Heath is an artistic comics art on view from former Charlton regular Pat highlight of the issue, as is Frank Thorne illustrating Boyette, along with sometime Warren regulars Ernie the first of a planned series starring the real-life Colón, Leo Summers, and Ramon Torrents. Writers Lawrence of Arabia. include Augustine Funnell, whose work turned up often So, naturally, since it was easily the best of the bunch, at Skywald. There’s also a full-page ad for Tales of the issue #2 of Thrilling Adventure Stories (Aug. 1975) didn’t Sorceress, the next Seaboard mag due out featuring show up until six months down the line, by which point Devilina, a scantily clad woman depicted with satanic no one really much cared about Atlas and the other imagery like Skywald’s Lady Satan, which was a jeff rovin Seaboard comics mags had all long since died. The second response to Vampirella and/or the similarly semi-naked issue cover is by Neal Adams—seemingly guaranteed Satana who had appeared more than a year earlier in Courtesy of Comic Book Artist. to sell books in those days, even though this was hardly the Marvel black-and-whites. Again, nothing really original. his best work. Jack Sparling’s “Kromag” saga from the first issue, written by Two months later saw the second and final issue of Tales of the Macabre John Albano, continued. Essentially a redo of Joe Kubert’s classic Tor, it was (Mar. 1975), and outside of the addition of some lovely art by EC veteran an excuse to draw naked and semi-naked people, which had become John Severin, it was more of the same, but nothing really special. pretty much expected in the black-and-white mags by that point. In the interim, the announced Tales of the Sorceress was released The highlight of all the Seaboard magazines appears here, though, instead as Devilina, seemingly after an editorial decision to emphasize that too, as Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson, fresh from their nowcharacter. Why then does Devilina #1 (Jan. 1975) have a fairly generic classic revival of DC’s “Manhunter,” offer 11 pages of pure comics fantasy cover by Alberto Pujolar (whose name was misspelled inside) perfection called “The Temple of the Spider.” rather than the scary-sexy pinup type illustration of its own main character But it was too little, too late. Skywald was that one might logically expect. In fact, Pujolar’s cover is SO generic gone and Atlas/Seaboard soon followed, leaving that he sold it again eight years later, this time to the actual Vampirella, Warren and Marvel the waning market for blackissue #111 (Jan. 1983), where it ran in a mirror image to its original and-white horror mags. The arrival of the full-color printing, presumably with no one at Warren being the wiser. slick sci-fi/fantasy mag Heavy Metal in 1977 was Ric Estrada, a longtime utility man at DC Comics, mainly in war likely the beginning of the end for the genre, comics and romance comics, gets the credit for the title character, but, as they say, that’s another story. both writing and art. At this point in his career, though, his art was wildly stylized similarly to that of Jerry Grandenetti and hardly a fair STEVEN THOMPSON is Booksteve of Booksteve’s comparison to Vampirella’s sensual Jose Gonzalez illustration style. Library (http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com) Other artists with work appearing in the two issues of Devilina and a dozen other blogs. He has written for include Pablo Marcos and Suso (again, shades of Skywald!), Leo Fantagraphics, TwoMorrows, Yoe Books, Bear Manor Media, and Time Capsule Productions. In 2015, Summers, Jack Sparling, Ralph Reese, and Frank Thorne, all veterans of he published Lost Girl in collaboration with Land of Warren and Marvel mags, giving the title the no doubt hoped for feel the Lost star Kathy Coleman. of familiarity to the casual reader. 34 • BACK ISSUE • Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

Warren Publications had three distinct waves of publication for its comic magazines. The initial wave of 1964–1966 saw the introduction of its flagship titles Creepy, Blazing Combat, and Eerie. The “comeback” wave of 1969, featuring Vampirella, highlighted Warren’s creative resurrection after a couple of very tough years that mostly featured good reprints mixed in with mediocre new stories. Then, finally there was the third wave that ran from 1974–1982, a wave which featured many new titles as Warren moved from being a publisher that created the next trend to a publisher looking for the next one.

WILL EISNER’S THE SPIRIT

Richard J. Arndt

This “third wave” began on a high note with the publication of Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Although largely a reprint title, Eisner’s 1940s work on the strip was so good that even 30 years later it looked like cutting-edge material. Although the 1940s are called the Golden Age for a reason, the reality is that much of that period’s comic art and stories are, frankly, badly drawn and written. Those stories can be and often are exciting and fun to read, but even classics of the era rarely hold up as intelligent, thoughtful, beautifully illustrated adult stories, largely because they were never intended to be. The stories were aimed at children. Eisner’s work on The Spirit, however, is all of those things an adult story should be and more. Even lesser Spirit tales loom over the best of the Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel Adventures, Captain America, etc. stories of the period. You’d have to go to such offbeat and wildly divergent efforts as George Carlson’s Jingle-Jangle Comics, John Stanley’s Little Lulu, or Walt Kelly’s Pogo (the Dell comic book, not the later comic strip) to find similar examples of excellence. Each week, from June 2, 1940 to October 5, 1952, Eisner delivered a weekly 16-page comic book for Sunday papers, featuring the lead character “Denny Colt as the Spirit,” as well as a number of backup features. He had assistants, some quite notable, but during the key pre-war years of 1940–1941 and the postwar years of 1945–1951, Eisner was the main writer and artist, overseeing everything. He did seven to eight pages of story and art every week, 52 times a year, for the better part of a decade! And what art and stories! Hundreds of beautifully written and illustrated stories. Literally hundreds of them! There’s a reason why the prestigious awards presented at the San Diego Comic-Con are named the Eisners. There are a lot of great comic artists and writers, but only a handful belong on comics’ Mt. Olympus, and head-and-shoulders above all the rest—including creators like Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Bill

Golden Age in Bronze 1973 poster promoting Will Eisner’s The Spirit, from Warren Publications. (inset) Eisner reinterpreted that image for the premier cover of The Spirit #1 (Apr. 1974). The Spirit TM & © the Will Eisner Estate.

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Many of you probably wonder from time to time about the ratio of published vs. unpublished artwork from your favorite artist. To be fair, it takes a true collector to identify all the published work from any artist (Ah! the pleasure of getting one’s hands on an obscure drawing or fanzine we missed years ago!), and it takes a truly dedicated fan to thoroughly track the rarest and unpublished work from any artist. A few years ago, I [Nicolas Waldmann] was fortunate enough to “e-meet” Dave Lemieux, a truly dedicated fan of Paul Gulacy and also a key contributor behind the Gulacy website (www.gulacy.com). Dave’s research and our respective exchanges with Paul over the past few years, combined with online monitoring, form the basis of this article. What follows is not exactly a checklist but rather references, stories, pictures, and anecdotes about the unpublished body of work from Paul Gulacy, world-renowned artist extraordinaire of Batman, Master of Kung Fu, and Six from Sirius, and co-creator of Marvel’s Coldblood, among many others. A few caveats, though: Firstly, we define “unpublished art” as work not published in the way or medium it was intended to be published in. As you will read, some of this unpublished artwork actually made it to print, but in a different format or publication. Secondly, “unpublished” may also that the concept or the art never actually came to life, so no visual is available.

THE 1970s: THE MASTER OF KUNG FU YEARS Quick facts: Paul Gulacy’s major contribution to the 1970s is dominated by his legendary run on Master of Kung Fu, and his early years horror stories published in Dracula Lives! and Vampire Tales. Paul reports that he completed an unused horror story for Marvel in the 1970s that was written by Marv Wolfman that is probably in a file cabinet somewhere at Marvel. An unused Count Dracula cover was produced by Paul for Dracula Lives! magazine by Marvel. The pencils to this cover were reproduced in Marvel Preview #24 in 1980. In the mid-1970s, Paul completed a Woman in Space painting for Now Magazine (in the UK) that went unused, as it was deemed too sexy for the content material of the magazine. Two pages were completed by Paul (in black and white) for a story called “Cupid” that was to have appeared in a Warren magazine. Page 1 of this delightful story is featured in this article. In the late ’70s, two pages were completed by Paul (in black and white) for a short story entitled “Circle of Life,” intended for use in either Epic Illustrated or one of the Warren magazines. Due to its sexual content, we’re unable to share that art in this magazine but wanted to mention it for the record. The 1979 published cover painting to Warren Presents #2 by Gulacy, which features the Rook at the Alamo, eliminated all of the background details including the soldiers engaged in a fierce battle and the scene of the Alamo itself under siege. Only the Rook and his robot were featured in the published version by Warren. The entire painting was published, in color, in 2005 in the book Spies, Vixens and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy. On the topic of the Rook, Paul also completed a 20-page story for the first issue of The Rook magazine, published by Warren in 1979. The story was written by Bill DuBay but was never used. It was later

Woman in Space From the mid-1970s, a painting produced by Paul Gulacy for the UK’s Now Magazine considered too risqué for publication. Most art in this article is courtesy of its writers. © the respective copyright holder.

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and

by D a v e L e m i e u x Nicolas Waldmann

Missing in Action (top left) A ’70s page from the uncompleted Warren story, “Cupid.” (top right) Paul’s ripped rendition of Ol’ Greenskin, produced for The Rampaging Hulk. (inset) Gulacy’s cover art to Warren Presents #2 (May 1979), depicting an Eastwood-esque Rook, was truncated from his original printing. (bottom) Paul’s completed artwork finally got its due in 2014 once Dark Horse published vol. 17 of the Eerie Archives.

redrawn by Lee Elias for use in that issue. The story was titled “The Original Master of Time.” Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy had also planned a Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover in the 1970s for either the Master of Kung Fu series or a one-shot special. It was to have included an underwater battle scene and the villains Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw. It never occurred, but we can just imagine. An extensive article by Dave, which included interviews with Moench and Gulacy, was featured in BACK ISSUE #26 under the “Greatest Stories Never Told” section. Presented with this article is a 2015 Shang-Chi/Nick Fury commission done by Paul that may be the closest thing we’ll ever get to seeing this project materialize. There also exists an unpublished Hulk oil painting done by Paul in 1978–1979 that was intended for The Rampaging Hulk magazine from Marvel Comics. Paul and Doug were scheduled to do a series of stories featuring Elric of Menibone in Marvel’s black-and-white magazine Kull and the Barbarians. Paul only completed a pinup of Elric prior to the magazine being canceled after issue #3 in 1975. This pinup later appeared in Supergraphics’ Mediascene #23 (1977) and TwoMorrows’ Comic Book Artist #7 (2000), Comic Book Artist Collection vol. 3 (2005), and Alter Ego #92 (2010).

“Cupid” and Eerie © Warren Publishing. Hulk TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Rook TM & © Time Castle Studios.

TM & © Dynamite Entertainment.

1980s: THE SIX FROM SIRIUS YEARS Quick facts: Paul’s key contributions to comicbookdom in the ’80s were his creator-owned series Six from Sirius I and II (1984) and Slash Maraud (1988). In 1989, he also completed a nine-part serial in Marvel Comics Presents featuring the cyborg Coldblood, a.k.a. Eric Savin, a version of which appeared in the film Iron Man 3 (2013). An unused cover for the Warren magazine Vampirella exists (at least in pencil form), done by Paul in 1980. It featured the Cult of Chaos and is different from the Vampirella vs. The Cult of Chaos TPB cover he produced in 1991 for Harris Comics (at left).

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Spies and Tough Guys From the collection of Evans Lee, Paul Gulacy’s 2015 commission starring Shang-Chi, Nick Fury, Leiko Wu, and friends facing off against the insidious Fu Manchu. Please join us with a jaw-dropping “Wow!” as we gush over this masterpiece!

An unused Gulacy cover to Eternal Warrior #38 exists that features a collage of Gilad’s various incarnations throughout history. It was quite impressive. A color ad of this cover was featured in the Previews and Advance Comics solicitation books for coming comics in 1995. Why Valiant didn’t use this awesome cover is anybody’s guess. In 1996, Paul and Doug were originally scheduled to do the first three issues of Killer Instinct for Acclaim Comics, based on the video game. It never happened. The first issue was solicited in the December 1995 Previews, with a full-page ad. While Paul and Doug did not do the series, Gulacy did do the cover and art for a 13-page story in the small-sized Killer Instinct Preview Edition #1 (produced by Acclaim Comics and written by Mark Moretti). This mini-comic was only available with the Nintendo Power Magazine that shipped in January of 1996 and with the video game itself. To date, this is a rare collectible item, hard to find.

Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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2000s: RETURNS TO OLD FAVORITES Quick facts: This decade will go down in comics history for the return of Paul Gulacy to Batman and Master of Kung Fu, and for his spectacular run on Catwoman. The Art of Paul Gulacy is published by Vanguard in 2005.

Paul did at least two unused CD jacket illustrations for hip hop artist Necro, going back to the ’90s. Eventually, another drawing was picked up and used for the cover of Ill Bill’s What’s Wrong with Bill, released and produced by Necro’s production company (Psycho+Logical Records) in 2004. Several completed T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents stories exist with Gulacy pencils and Terry Austin inks that were originally intended for the now-defunct Nemesis imprint of Harvey Comics in 1994 and subsequently for Omni Comix (in a magazine format) by Penthouse Comics in 1996. The first chapter of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents story entitled “The Kaleningrad Incident” was published in Omni Comix #3 in 1995. Parts 2 and 3 were reportedly completed, along with issue #0, before the magazine ceased publication. Gulacy and Austin were reported to have done most of the art. James Lyle inked the final chapter (Part 3). A trade paperback of the entire run had also been planned. TwoMorrows’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Companion in 2005 did print the five unpublished Gulacy pages from issue #0 in black and white, with Terry Austin inks. Paul had originally intended to produce a new cover for BACK ISSUE #26 (published in 2008), which would have featured Shang-Chi and Nick Fury in a scene from that unproduced story. However, an editorial decision was made to go with an unpublished Black Widow illustration done by Paul instead, due to the appearance of several male Marvel heroes (including Dr. Strange and Iron Man) on the previous covers of BI. Paul completed a 20-page story featuring Sabre that was scheduled to be in The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #10 from Dark Horse Comics in 2006. The series was canceled by Dark Horse before Doctor Fate TM & © DC Comics. issue #10 ever came out. Jimmy Palmiotti did the inks for this story. Paul was scheduled to provide the art for a new Doctor Fate series in 2007 from DC Comics, written by Steve Gerber. However, due to an editorial decision, Paul did not do the interior art for the series. He had completed two covers, though (see inset). The planned cover to issue #1 appeared as the cover to the Comic Shop News 2007 Spring Preview issue and in promotional ads from DC Comics and Previews for the series, but never on an actual Doctor Fate comic. The second cover was used as the cover to Countdown to Mystery #2, which featured both Doctor Fate and Eclipso. The Doctor Fate series ended up being canceled by DC Comics and replaced with an eight-issue limited series instead. Paul completed the cover to Nowhere Man #0 prior to Virgin Comics going out of business in 2008 and being sold to Liquid Comics. Gulacy was also scheduled to produce the 16-page Nowhere Man #0, which would have been a preview to the series written by Marc Guggenheim and Hugh Jackman. An alternate cover was also produced by Marko Djurdjevic. Nowhere Man #1 was finally published in January 2012 by Dynamite Comics, but without the Gulacy cover.

When Marvel and DC launched full-size comics magazines in the 1970s to capture an important slice of the newsstand, second-tier publisher Charlton Comics was not about to be left behind. But Charlton was cautious. Its magazine line would consist of a mere three titles, all licensed from popular television series of the time: Space: 1999, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Emergency! Charlton was no stranger to magazine publishing. Founded in 1942 with the first “legitimate” issue of Hit Parader, Charlton Publications’ main business was, first and last, magazines (“legitimate” because Charlton’s cofounder, John Santangelo, had spent a year in jail for ignoring copyrights and publishing unsanctioned song-lyric magazines for years). A sampling of Charlton’s 1970s magazine titles shows a wide range of popular interests served: alongside the venerable Hit Parader was such fare as Real West, Official Karate, 911 Detective, Country Song Roundup, Skyjack, Sick (another MAD imitator), a bushel basketful of crossword puzzle and craft magazines, and much, much more—whatever was topical. Unique among comics publishers then and now, Charlton was entirely self-contained: content, editorial, production, printing, advertising, and distribution were all literally under one factory roof in small-town Derby, Connecticut. Charlton’s comic-book line, begun in 1944 and developed slowly and haphazardly over time, existed primarily to keep the presses running three full shifts. Nicola Cuti, Charlton assistant comics editor and staff writer in the early ’70s, recalled this about the comics in his interview in Charlton Spotlight #8 (2014): “They were just fodder to keep the presses going. They only closed the presses twice a year to clean them, so they were running continuously, 24 hours a day, and they needed material.” Magazines poured from those presses in a continuous flood for decades. Comic books filled unscheduled press time. Over time the comics became a bigger concern and an important source of revenue, with worldwide licensing and distribution. By 1976, Charlton was publishing nearly 50 bimonthly comic titles, with per-issue print runs

Michael Ambrose

in the hundreds of thousands. It held licenses from King Features, Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward Productions, and others, alongside its own original titles in a variety of genres. The comics had always served a younger and perhaps less sophisticated comics audience, though by then discerning comics fans were following innovative, offbeat Charlton offerings like E-Man, The Phantom, and Doomsday+1 by fresh young talents such as Cuti, Joe Staton, John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Paul Kupperberg, and Don Newton. Charlton didn’t pay much, but it was friendly to up-andcomers, and to say the least it offered wide latitude to flex creative muscles on the comics page.

Charlton’s TV Magazines Photorealistic painted covers grace these three premiere issues: Space: 1999 #1 (Nov. 1975), cover by Gray Morrow; The Six Million Dollar Man #1 (July 1976), cover by Neal Adams; and Emergency! #1 (July 1976), cover by Adams. Unless otherwise noted, all scans for this article are courtesy of Michael Ambrose.

SPACE: 1999 So what could be more natural than to expand the regular comic-book line to a comics-magazine line? According to Cuti, as interviewed in Comic Book Artist #12 (Mar. 2001), the reasoning was “basically, to try and reach a more adult audience. … The biggest buyers of comics were not the kids anymore, but college students.” In mid-1975, executive editor George Wildman dispatched Cuti to New York to watch the premiere of an interesting new science-fiction TV show and report back on its potential for comics adaptation. “I’ll never forget the time I sent Nick to New York, to see this new show coming up called Space: 1999,” Wildman recalled in Comic Book Artist #12. “I said, ‘When you get done, tell me if this is as good as—or equal to—Star Trek.’ He comes back, ‘Oh, man, it was off the wall. It was wonderful.’ ” British science-fiction TV series Space: 1999 ran for two seasons, originally airing from 1975 to 1977 with no regular network syndication, which often made it difficult to find in local TV programming, depending on where in the country (or the world) one lived. Created and developed by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (known for such innovative “Supermarionation” series as Fireball XL5, Supercar, and Thunderbirds and the live-action show UFO), the series was coproduced with British ITV and Italian RAI and starred Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Barry Morse Comic Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s Issue

Space: 1999 TM & © ITV Studios. Six Million Dollar Man TM & © Universal Studios. Emergency! TM & © Mark VII Ltd. & Universal Studios.

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“We can rebuild him” (left) From The Six Million Dollar Man #1 (July 1976), “The Cyborg is Born,” page 5, art by Continuity Associates, script by Joe Gill. (right) From Emergency! #1 (July 1976), “The Paramedics,” page 1, art by Continuity Associates, script by Joe Gill. Six Million Dollar Man TM & © Universal Studios. Emergency! TM & © Mark VII Ltd. & Universal Studios.

interview. However the deal was arranged, all agree it was a great match from the start. “George called us about doing Six Million Dollar Man and Emergency! B&W magazines,” Giordano recalled. “They were licenses purchased from Universal, a pretty big deal for Charlton, because they weren’t in the habit of buying high-priced licensing, and we said, ‘Well, we can do it in our studio, but we have to get at least $100 a page,’ which for Charlton was four times what they were paying. Neal somehow got the higher rate through, and we said, ‘We’d have to get the artwork back.’ ” Half of the page rate went to the artists and half to the company. According to Wildman, that rate was the highest Charlton ever paid anybody. Continuity packaged each issue, providing finished story pages from scripts by the same Space: 1999 writing team of Cuti, Gill, and Pellowski. Individual art credits are difficult, perhaps impossible, to pin down, but besides Adams and Giordano, who went over all pages to firm up the art to house style, any of the following artists probably worked on the stories: Jack Abel, Vicente Alcazar, Steve Austin, Terry Austin, Joe Barney, Cary Bates, Joe Brozowski, Rick Bryant, Frank Cirocco, Karin Daugherty, Ed Davis, Joe DeEsposito, Bill Draut, Russ Heath, Mike Hinge, Klaus Janson, Mike Netzer, Bruce Patterson, Carl Potts, Mark Rice, Ralph Reese, Marshall Rogers, Josef Rubinstein, and Jack Sparling. Adams provided painted covers for the first two issues of each title. “There were a lot of young artists who were working at the studio,” Cuti recalled. “They did great jobs. Everything that came out of Continuity was quality stuff.” Continuity packaged the first three issues of each title, through the November 1976 cover date. Then things suddenly changed: Continuity was out and the Sparling Studio was in. Again, memories differ about what happened. Giordano said, “George found out … that Charlton’s contract with Universal, which he’d just gotten a copy of, prohibited him from giving us back the artwork. He let us know immediately, because he knew that he was reneging on his part of the deal. And we just stopped right there, canceled the agreement, and sent him back the reference material. Right in the middle of whatever job we were on!” Wildman recalled a different scenario. At one point he called Adams and told him he needed some sample pages for display at a promotional event. “The Old Man [publisher Santangelo] has personally asked for it. And [Adams] said, ‘You tell the Old Man if he wants it, he can pay for it. $200 a page.’ I said, ‘Forget it!’ And the Old Man says, ‘Who does he think he is?’ and all that. ‘Screw them. Get two other artists.’ That’s right. So I got Jack Sparling.” Sparling’s studio took over the remainder of the run of each title, completing the unfinished material in the third issue of The Six Million

Dollar Man. Artist Win Mortimer, most famous as one of DC’s Superman illustrators, largely drew the fourth and final Emergency! Remaining covers for both titles were provided by Sparling and Earl Norem, the prolific cover illustrator of scores of men’s magazines in the 1950s and ’60s as well as of ’70s comics magazines for Marvel. The Six Million Dollar Man would run a total of seven mostly bimonthly issues from July 1976 to November 1977. The comic-book version ran for four bimonthly issues from July to December 1976 and then five additional issues on an erratic schedule from October 1977 to June 1978; stories and art were handled by Gill, Staton, Demetrio Sánchez, Gómez, Boyette, and Fred Himes. (A Bionic Woman spinoff comic-book series, produced by the Sparling Studio, saw five issues during that same time frame.) Emergency! magazine had four bimonthly issues from July 1976 to January 1977 and four bimonthly comic-book issues from June to December 1976. Gill, Byrne, Demetrio, Staton, and Sparling produced the comic book. It’s impossible to know at this late date exactly why the magazines ended, but it’s easy to speculate. Charlton largely halted production of original comics material in September 1976, resuming with a much-diminished line consisting almost entirely of reprints late the following year. A handful of titles carried on for a few more months before petering out, and then Charlton lost its licenses from King Features, Hanna-Barbera, and others, probably due to nonproduction. Also, original broadcasts of the TV series on which the magazines were based also finished up around the same time. Space: 1999, always on an erratic schedule, ended by 1978, as did The Six Million Dollar Man. Emergency! wound up its final season in mid-1977. All the shows would eventually go into syndicated reruns, but without the immediacy of a TV tie-in, the magazines had lost an essential element of popular appeal. Charlton’s limited experiment with blackand-white comics magazines may have been brief and erratic, but the stories are a lot of fun, and the involvement of Continuity Associates certainly provided a valuable training ground for many young artists who would go on to brighter careers. MICHAEL AMBROSE publishes Charlton Spotlight, an occasionally published fanzine devoted to the history of the Derby, CT, comic-book publisher. For more information, visit www.charltonspotlight.net.

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In the 1970s, Neal Adams was everywhere. He blew my mind and millions of others’ with brilliant work on Batman, Green Lantern, Detective Comics, and The Avengers. Those were just the superheroes! He also made time for deliriously atmospheric mystery/horror tales that showed up in Tower of Shadows, House of Mystery, Dracula Lives!, and The Witching Hour, among others. Over at Warren Publishing, his work could be found in Creepy and Eerie Annuals and new work in Vampirella. By the mid-’70s, however, the comic world was sorely missing Neal. He’d gone into business with Dick Giordano, and the pair mentored a number of young talents at Continuity Studios. From there, Neal’s Charlton Comics period began with work on The Six Million Dollar Man and Emergency! Both magazines were based on popular TV shows. Neal graciously consented to a phone interview conducted on July 31, 2013. – Jerry Boyd

Jerry Boyd

JERRY BOYD: Charlton paid the lowest rates for art. NEAL ADAMS: Not for us! Not for us! [laughter] BOYD: Why did you do Emergency! for them? Did you drive over to the Derby offices? ADAMS: No, we didn’t drive up for them. We contacted them by phone and they paid us well. We let them know it was a top priority job for us and that we’d please them with the project and the finished work. It was a lucrative project, probably neal adams because it was studio-generated. Charlton paid “double-normal.” We got $100 a page for that magazine. I believe our artists got $50 a page and $50 went into the company. We had the two things— Six Million Dollar Man and Emergency! There were about 55 pages and we knocked our butts off to do a very good job. These were, as you know, hot properties. BOYD: Did you ever watch the shows? If so, what were your impressions? ADAMS: I would guess our family would watch them on and off. As an artist, we had to get the likenesses right. We had the photos the show provided, however, but no one ever asked, “Hey, did you see The Six Million Dollar Man or Emergency! last night?” We had notes on the shows, photos to work from, and written scripts. They weren’t difficult to do. BOYD: Did you want the Emergency! and Six Million Dollar Man projects to continue? ADAMS: I thought they were good projects for the studio, our studio, but I don’t know how profitable it was for Charlton. Our freelance assistant guys were making income beyond their regular projects. Art-wise, it was good for them. These were their first jobs and their samples, really. They could show copies of these finished pages around as their work, so from that standpoint, I was happy for them that they’d done these books. BOYD: Any recollections of Pat Boyette, Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Sanho Kim, or others from Charlton? ADAMS: No, those guys were essentially out of there by the time our studio was going strong. Steve Ditko came to DC, I believe…

Bionic Catfight An impressive action cover prelim by Neal Adams for Charlton’s The Six Million Dollar Man #2 (Sept. 1976). Six Million Dollar Man TM & © Universal Studios.

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When thinking about Marvel’s Epic Illustrated (1980–1986), what immediately comes to mind is the staggeringly innovative and daring art boasted by this magazine. While this phenomenal publication featured Kirk seasoned pros’ and emerging artists’ work, it included new writers, novel perspectives on existing characters from the Marvel stable, daring new story models, and topics that would have been impossible to cover under the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority. Epic was a novel approach to graphic storytelling that required immense vision and imaginative conceptual ability in a framework that was light-years ahead of its time. At the time, Marvel editorin-chief Jim Shooter entrusted the care of this magazine to the person who epitomized these attributes: Archie Goodwin (1937–1998). Looking at the formulation of this magazine lends not only insight into the creative abilities of this widely venerated editor and writer, but also archie goodwin into the wide range of fantastic talents that were at Marvel’s disposal during this time in the publisher’s history. We need to visit each of these issues in order to gain a sense of the odyssey that Goodwin provided for Epic’s readers, and in this article I will survey some of the high points from each issue. But first, we need to understand a bit of Archie Goodwin’s vision. In the March 1980 edition of Comics Feature, Goodwin was featured in an interview about Epic Illustrated. The first question involved how Epic would be different from the European graphic album Heavy Metal. Goodwin responded by pointing out how important it was that the stories reflected the same level of quality as the art. While Goodwin wanted Epic to be “visually spectacular,” there was a mix of storytelling in the magazine that was either straightforward serial stories or stories that were “wilder, in terms of layout and page design.” In short, Epic was designed to stand out from the competition and present a North American comicreading audience with something that had never really been seen before in the marketplace.

AN EPIC FIRST ISSUE Issue #1 (Spring 1980) certainly delivers with its swordand-sorcery cover, by legendary artist Frank Frazetta, featuring a squadron of heavily armed and well-hewed Roman Legionnaires ready for combat. As an opening shot in the first salvo that was to be Epic’s five-year barrage, Frazetta’s cover completely captures the imaginations of fantasy readers in the comic-reading audience. “The Answer,” a tale of the Silver Surfer, is the first story we read in this issue, featuring art by John Buscema and story by Stan Lee himself, who also gives his endorsement of Marvel’s new experiment in an

“A New Experience” Epic Illustrated #1 (Spring 1980). Cover by Frank Frazetta. ’Nuff said! Epic Illustrated TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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editorial titled “The Next Plateau.” Lee lauds the new publication as a “presager of a new form of publishing, a new form of art … [that] will lead us along the fascinating trail of fantasy and saga, perhaps further than we have ever gone before.” It is in this spirit that “The Answer” is a tale in which the Surfer puts the notion of the mysteries of the universe to the near-omnipotent Galactus. What is the answer? In Galactus’ mind, there is none, and the Surfer must discover this for himself. Though the story is short, but compelling, as well as daring, to invite thought on as serious a notion as the existence of God and His relationship to the universe, we also see spectacular colorization in the form of the full-color offset process that was one of Goodwin’s ambitions for the magazine. The Silver Surfer has a luster in his reflective surface that rarely received justice prior to this rendition because of the limitation of typical four-color comics, and the wonders of space are revealed in a similar rich variety of color. In short, this story truly elevates the medium, making it simply wonderful to behold. Looking at the twopage spread on pages 14 and 15 gives one a sense of the artistry that was involved in the creation of this magazine. Wendy Pini’s “Homespun” follows the Surfer’s discovery of the eternal question. Elfquest fans will recognize the fairy-like preservers in this rich but short tale. It is a story that would roughly coincide with the appearance of these tiny creatures in WaRP Graphics’ Elfquest and would hint at what their purpose was during the captivity stage in the story when the Wolfriders and their allies would discover the Blue Mountain. This story is unique from the contemporary Elfquest stories in that it is colorized, in contrast to the typical black-and-white format that Wendy and husband Richard Pini were putting out at the time. It also shows how diverse Epic was in its pursuit of stories that were outside of the typical Marvel Universe. [Editor’s note: For a detailed look at Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest saga, see BACK ISSUE #75.] The first three chapters of Jim Starlin’s Metamorphosis Odyssey are featured in Epic Illustrated #1 as well. We are introduced to Aknaton, the Zygoteans, Za, and Juliet in a story of … epic proportions and stellar art without parallel. In an interview with the author of this article, Jim Starlin recounts some of the process in producing such highquality work for this magazine: “Well, I started off drawing the series on gray paper, using that as the paintings mid ground. The darks were usually ink, with an occasional pencil thrown in. The highlights were white paint with an occasional pastel being used. When we switched to full-color, I used various colored boards to work on and all sorts of mediums were used to illustrate the page: everything from pen and paint to colored tape.” Starlin had the freedom to create stories for Epic in the way he wanted to. This was the atmosphere that Archie Goodwin was attempting to create for this magazine; by allowing creators more freedom outside of the typical Marvel “house style,” creators cared more about the work

“The Answer” (top) Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), an original art page to the Silver Surfer story from Epic Illustrated #1. By Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Rudy Nebres. (bottom) A two-page spread from the tale, with colors by Rick Veitch. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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they were putting into the magazine. Though smaller companies were experimenting with creator-owned product, Marvel, under Epic and Goodwin’s direction, was the first major company to try it. This approach was not lost on creators like Starlin, who respected Goodwin’s direction. “Archie was, by far, the most professional editor I ever worked with,” Starlin says. “He knew if it wasn’t broke, don’t go bothering to fix it. The man had a great eye for the construction of a story, being a terrific writer himself. When I turned in a job, I knew if I didn’t hear anything from him afterwards, I’d done okay. If there was a problem, he’d present it to me, usually in a onesentence memo, and I’d know exactly what needed to be fixed. Straightforward, that was Archie.” This issue also features work by Arthur Suydam, Ernie Colón, and Carl Potts. Additionally, the inclusion of an excerpt from the fantasy novel Elfspire by John Pocsik (Ariel Press) is a fundamental change in the way comic readers traditionally viewed their fiction. More text and less comic frames for four pages out of the 98-page magazine is a welcome break and shifts the pace of reading for the audience.

YEAR ONE CONTINUES

of Aknaton’s weapon—his sword—and it reveals new abilities its creator did not foresee. It is an awkward process maintaining the pace of a serial, especially a rich story like Metamorphosis Odyssey, but there is an inherent power in Starlin’s story that makes its richness and details a perfect choice for Epic’s eclectic story format. Originally, Metamorphosis Odyssey was conceived to be published in eight-page monthly chapters. Since Epic’s first year run was quarterly, Archie Goodwin made the decision to run the first three chapters in the first issue and end the serials where he liked. Clearly it was a story that fit perfectly within the “spectacular” format the editor had envisioned for the magazine. This issue is also supplemented by stories by Goodwin himself. The three-page “Forest Magic,” illustrated by George Bush, and the five-page “Worker in the City,” illustrated by Terry Lindall, are featured. The former story has a Brothers Grimm vibe to it in which the daughter of a witch plots the downfall of an aristocrat’s castle. The latter story also has a somewhat fable-like flavor in which the symbiosis between a city and its population is illustrated. The Winter edition of Epic (#4) marks the last issue for 1980—and

Issue #2 sees the beginning of Roy jim starlin Thomas’ adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Almuric, with art by Tim Photo by Pat Loika. Conrad. Howard’s pulp-fiction tale of an adventurer transported to another world to find fortune and glory is a perfect choice for the new magazine. As Conan was already featured in his own magazine and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter, Warlord of Mars in his own comic, this was a chance for a lesser-known REH character to receive his due recognition in a new and unique format. Next appeared Marv Wolfman’s “Hope’s End,” a two-page short prose piece about the resilience of hope. An untraditional six-paragraph piece by a comic writer, it had a place within Epic. “Metamorphosis Odyssey” also continues in issue #2. At this point, Aknaton returns to the planet where he created life to select a representative to assist him in his plan to rid the galaxy of the Zygotean evil. This is Whis’Par— the chosen one. Her role in this grand adventure would be revealed in further installments of the serial. One of my favorite Epic stories appears in this issue: “Tarn’s World,” drawn by Robert Wakelin and written by Archie Goodwin. In this story, we see the struggle between the dreamer and his inability to deal with the mundaneness of his own reality. It takes the intervention of the Reality Police to snap poor Tarn out of his fantasy world of myth and legend and return him to his regular life of suburban living—an excellent choice of story material that would appeal to the audience of Epic, a good many whom would be of the same mindset themselves. The Autumn issue of Epic (#3) sees continuations of both Roy Thomas’ adaption of Alumric and Starlin’s Metamorphosis Odyssey. In Almuric, Esau Cairn has established himself as a man of Kosh, and Howard’s story really comes to life. Cairn’s status as a denizen of this new world gives him the freedom to interact with it more fully and to assume a mantle of leadership, very much in the same way as Howard’s other creation, but seeing this told in a comic format is a completely new experience. Starlin’s Aknaton encounters Byfrexia’s first son, namely Vanth Dreadstar, in this issue, and we finally meet the Cold Man in all his power and fury. For the first time, this story is in full color. Vanth shows his mastery

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Epic Endings (top) Epic #32 featured this sexy cover by Jerry Bingham. (bottom) Arthur Suydam’s Cholly and Flytrap, cover-featured on the final issue of Epic Illustrated, #34 (Feb. 1986). Epic Illustrated TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Cholly and Flytrap © Arthur Suydam.

prolific Epic contributor Rick Veitch on “Love Doesn’t Last Forever.” As teased on the cover, Arthur Suydam produces a Cholly and Flytrap story. John Byrne’s unfinished serial The Last Galactus Story is a casualty in this decision to end Epic. If only it could have run for one more issue! In the preface, Archie Goodwin thanked everyone who had been supportive of the magazine, but realized he couldn’t fit all of its supporters onto one page. However, he did make specific mention of four people: Stan Lee, Jim Shooter, Michael Hobson, and Jo Duffy. The last supporter, he made sure to note that her efforts were instrumental in “making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be when it’s supposed to be there at each and every stage, adding her creative input and considerable writing skills to the magazine’s contents, and in general making the gentleman whose name appears at the end of this column look far better than he would if left to his own devices.” If Archie Goodwin was the saint of editors, then Jo Duffy had to be the one who venerated him, and summarizes what it was like to work with Archie in this anecdote: “One year I did not know what to get Archie for Christmas. I bought him this little gizmo that looked like a sculpture that could record a message that could be played by the next person who picked it up. Next to it on his desk was a candy jar—he was insanely hospitable. Despite Archie’s trim young fighting weight, he had a bit of a sweet tooth. One evening, my younger sister came into my office—she and I were going out someplace. I was still working and Archie had left for the day. She said that she couldn’t hold out for the evening and that she was starving. She grabbed his candy jar and a couple of candy bars and then picked up the sculpture wondering what it was. “From out of the sculpture came Archie’s voice, saying: PUT THIS DOWN! IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS WHAT THIS IS OR WHAT IT’S DOING ON MY DESK. NOW GET OUT OF HERE AND DON’T TAKE ANY OF MY CANDY EITHER! “She threw down the candy and ran for the hall. The next day I told Archie what had happened and he laughed so hard that he slid under his desk. That was the epitome of working with Archie. It wasn’t about the magazine, it was about the experience. He had foresight enough to set up a joke like that. That was Archie.” Looking back at Goodwin’s initial thoughts about Epic Illustrated in the inaugural edition of Comics Feature, it was his intention to make Epic succeed. Though it was only a five-year run, its success was measured in quality rather than quantity of its duration. Its quality was truly measurable in epic proportions. Legendary creators, dazzling art, and relevant contemporary commentary on the nature and topics that mattered to its readers, Goodwin succeeded in making this magazine memorable in the hearts and minds of a generation of comic readers who saw its literary dimensions and potential. Goodwin had not only managed to make a magazine, but he had enabled a generation of dreamers to see his spectacular vision as well. JOHN K. KIRK is a librarian and English teacher with the Toronto District School Board in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who incorporates comics and comics history into his classroom teaching.

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Robert Greenberger

Growing up a comics fan in the early 1970s meant you could learn about the doings in the comics business by subscribing to Don and Maggie Thompson’s Newfangles or Paul Levitz’s Etcetera and The Comic Reader. All offered news and commentary and fueled endless discussions when two or more fans got together. In 1973, Levitz sold TCR to Jerry Sinkovec and Mike Tiefenbacher, while Alan Light’s predominantly ad-based The Buyers’ Guide added news and commentary of their own. After Newfangles faded away, the Thompsons moved their newsgathering to TBG under the headline Beautiful Balloons and in time wound up running the joint. They were soon after joined by Murray Bishoff’s “What Now?” column until he was succeeded by cat yronwode, with issue #329 (Mar. 7, 1980), who retitled the column “Fit to Print.” She was the Rich Johnston of her day. Jim Steranko went beyond his two-volume history of the comics to introducing Comixscene in late 1972, widening its focus and changing its title a year later to Mediascene. He covered movies, television, books, and comics with an insider’s knowledge, aided by reporters like Dave McDonnell (the former TBG news columnist who did “Media Report”) and Steranko’s right-hand man, Ken Bruzenak, before Ken became a premier letterer. In 1980, the publication was reimagined as a slick magazine, Prevue, but it limped along until it faded away for good in 1985. Gary Groth went from producing the slick Fantastic Fanzine to owning The Nostalgia Journal, and in 1977 changed its title to The Comics Journal, launching the Fantagraphics publishing empire, aided by Kim Thompson and Michael Catron. The magazine’s increasing sophistication and coverage went beyond the four-color titles from the major publishers to the point in 1981 where they created the spinoff Amazing Heroes, which served up superhero creator interviews, previews, and reviews to satisfy the most rabid reader. With the advent of comic shops and direct-sale distribution, more publishers were arriving with regularity, which increased demand for knowledge about them and their wares. Distributor-turned-publisher Hal Schuster launched Comics Feature in 1980, initially edited by Carol Kalish and Richard Howell. Formatted like TCJ yet with a more fannish sensibility, it sputtered along, ending after 57 issues in mid-1987. Various retail chains started up their own newsletters for their readership, the best of the lot being Comics & Comix’s The Telegraph Wire handled by Diana Schutz, just before she began her august comics editorial career. During this time, I, too, was in transition from fan to staffer at Starlog Press. Although hired to be Fangoria’s managing editor, I was also contributing to Starlog, and both magazines covered comic books to a degree.

The Men from Marvel Stan Lee and Jim Shooter, and friends, gather to celebrate the House of Ideas’ birthday on the cover of Comics Scene #1 (Jan. 1982). Scan courtesy of John Wells. Comics Scene © Comics World Corp.

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