Post by berkley on Jul 2, 2015 17:22:40 GMT -5
From Mike's News-stand for July 1975:
Beowulf #4 - one of the few DC comics I read back then; I remember this as a somewhat odd sword & sorcery series, and not only because of Beowulf's weird-looking costume.
Champions #1 - the artwork wasn't great but I liked the idea of forming a new superhero team with Hercules and the Black Widow. Has Marvel ever tried reviving the Champions? I don't even remember what the rationale behind the team was now, if there was one - they all just happened to be living in the same city or something?
Conan the Barbarian #55 - my first CtB issue since the early BWS days. Great artwork from John Buscema and Tom Palmer - wish Palmer had inked more CtB.
Daredevil #126 - lackluster story and artwork, though Klaus Janson helped the latter look better than it would have otherwise. I continued to follow this series more or less out of loyalty to the character (hey, I was 13 years old), as it really was in a long-term slump until Frank Miller came along a few years later.
Defenders #28 - great cover, great new character; loved this series back then. Amazingly, it was soon to get even better than the absolutely first-rate superhero/science-fiction series it already was.
Fantastic Four #163 - Pretty solid FF story. The cosmic hockey-player seems laughably hokey now, but at the time I accepted it as part of the craziness of the superhero fantasy-world.
Giant-Size Daredevil #1 - reprint of a story from the Stan Lee/Gene Colan era. The contrast in quality with then-current DD series didn't help the latter.
Giant-Size Hulk #1 - reprint of a Hulk vs Inhumans story with really nice artwork from Marie Severin . I was a bigger fan if the Inhumans than of the Hulk so I would have enjoyed the story more if they had stomped his arse. Stallior and Leonus should be more prominent characters - Marie drew a great centaur and Leonus is like Wolverine only better.
Incredible Hulk #192 - decent Hulk story. Staton's inks were nice but a bit too slick, to my taste.
Inhumans #1 - as a big Inhumans fan, had to grab this. Don't remember much about the story but nice Perez artwork.
Kull and the Barbarians #3 - I liked Kull even mor than Conan, and this issue contains one of the best-drawn Kull stories of all time, with art by Vicente Alcazar. Unfortunately it was the last issue.
Man-Thing #22 - One of my all-time favourite comics, mainly for Gerber's multiverse-spanning story, but Jim Mooney's art was solid in a workmanlike way. It would be years before I managed to find all the back-issues that led up to this finale.
Marvel Feature #1 - as a sword & sorcery fan I've always wanted to like Red Sonja but have never really taken to the character, for some reason.
Marvel Presents #1 - Bloodstone was a great concept but never seemed to find the right creative team to do it justice. It would have been interesting to see someone like Gerber have a crack at it over an extended run.
Marvel's Greatest Comics #59 - reprint of an FF story I remembered reading when it first came out. Since comics in 1975 had been reduced to 17 pages, it left out several pages from the original, but this was the only way to read the old Kirby FF for someone like me at the time.
Skull the Slayer #2 - another concept with loads of potential that was never fulfilled. Still, fun while it lasted - which wasn't very long.
Thor #240 - introducing the Egyptian gods was a cool idea, but the writing and artwork didn't do a lot with it here. Nice Janson inks, though.
Tomb of Dracula #37 - One of the best series of its time, which is really saying something when you look at all the other great books Marvel was putting out around then.
Werewolf by Night #34 - The Moench/Perlin team were quietly turning Werewolf by Night into a top-notch horror series.
Beowulf #4 - one of the few DC comics I read back then; I remember this as a somewhat odd sword & sorcery series, and not only because of Beowulf's weird-looking costume.
Champions #1 - the artwork wasn't great but I liked the idea of forming a new superhero team with Hercules and the Black Widow. Has Marvel ever tried reviving the Champions? I don't even remember what the rationale behind the team was now, if there was one - they all just happened to be living in the same city or something?
Conan the Barbarian #55 - my first CtB issue since the early BWS days. Great artwork from John Buscema and Tom Palmer - wish Palmer had inked more CtB.
Daredevil #126 - lackluster story and artwork, though Klaus Janson helped the latter look better than it would have otherwise. I continued to follow this series more or less out of loyalty to the character (hey, I was 13 years old), as it really was in a long-term slump until Frank Miller came along a few years later.
Defenders #28 - great cover, great new character; loved this series back then. Amazingly, it was soon to get even better than the absolutely first-rate superhero/science-fiction series it already was.
Fantastic Four #163 - Pretty solid FF story. The cosmic hockey-player seems laughably hokey now, but at the time I accepted it as part of the craziness of the superhero fantasy-world.
Giant-Size Daredevil #1 - reprint of a story from the Stan Lee/Gene Colan era. The contrast in quality with then-current DD series didn't help the latter.
Giant-Size Hulk #1 - reprint of a Hulk vs Inhumans story with really nice artwork from Marie Severin . I was a bigger fan if the Inhumans than of the Hulk so I would have enjoyed the story more if they had stomped his arse. Stallior and Leonus should be more prominent characters - Marie drew a great centaur and Leonus is like Wolverine only better.
Incredible Hulk #192 - decent Hulk story. Staton's inks were nice but a bit too slick, to my taste.
Inhumans #1 - as a big Inhumans fan, had to grab this. Don't remember much about the story but nice Perez artwork.
Kull and the Barbarians #3 - I liked Kull even mor than Conan, and this issue contains one of the best-drawn Kull stories of all time, with art by Vicente Alcazar. Unfortunately it was the last issue.
Man-Thing #22 - One of my all-time favourite comics, mainly for Gerber's multiverse-spanning story, but Jim Mooney's art was solid in a workmanlike way. It would be years before I managed to find all the back-issues that led up to this finale.
Marvel Feature #1 - as a sword & sorcery fan I've always wanted to like Red Sonja but have never really taken to the character, for some reason.
Marvel Presents #1 - Bloodstone was a great concept but never seemed to find the right creative team to do it justice. It would have been interesting to see someone like Gerber have a crack at it over an extended run.
Marvel's Greatest Comics #59 - reprint of an FF story I remembered reading when it first came out. Since comics in 1975 had been reduced to 17 pages, it left out several pages from the original, but this was the only way to read the old Kirby FF for someone like me at the time.
Skull the Slayer #2 - another concept with loads of potential that was never fulfilled. Still, fun while it lasted - which wasn't very long.
Thor #240 - introducing the Egyptian gods was a cool idea, but the writing and artwork didn't do a lot with it here. Nice Janson inks, though.
Tomb of Dracula #37 - One of the best series of its time, which is really saying something when you look at all the other great books Marvel was putting out around then.
Werewolf by Night #34 - The Moench/Perlin team were quietly turning Werewolf by Night into a top-notch horror series.
