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Post by rberman on Mar 13, 2019 13:47:53 GMT -5
I hadn't realized until recently how invested Marvel still was in monster books even in the mid 1970s. I thought of the monsters as a pre-FF thing, but I guess there was still a market, especially for the B&W non-code mags. I saw one Tomb of Dracula issue which boasted that Marvel had ten monster mags running in parallel. Did they pay for the rights to all those old movie stills they used to fill pages?
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 13, 2019 14:19:23 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #29-30  This is actually half of a 4-part crossover, with Invaders #5 and 6.   Creative Team: Roy Thomas-wrier/editor (Nyah!), Don Heck-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, John Costanza-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors, Marv Wolfman, left with nothing to do. Synopsis: Over in Invaders #5, the Red Skull has turned up and has brainwashed the Invaders (except Bucky) to attack America and its defense industry, among other things. Bucky escapes and this issue opens with him barging into a radio studio and interrupting the Patriot, in the midst of a broadcast. They have a little judo match, while they cut to commercial. Bucky convinces the Patriot he is the real McCoy and lets him broadcast an appeal to the various mystery men operating out there to help stop the Red Skull and the Invaders. What follows are individual chapters, with each hero introduced, with their origin, then in a current fight scene, before they all converge on the radio station. We first meet Red Raven, then the Thin Man, Whizzer, Miss America, Blue Diamond and Jack frost (he turns up at the station, without an intro). They stop a 5th columnist producer and then announce the forming of the Liberty Legion, possibly followed by a commercial for Lucky Strikes. "Hello, Mr and Mrs America, when you want the flavor of Liberty, look for the smooth, rich flavor of Lucky Strikes....'cause Luckies taste better..... So firm, so fully packed......"  They head back to Invaders and skirmish, in small teams, before coming back here, where Bucky and the Thin Man fight the Human Torch. Toro was beaten by the Whizzer and Red Raven and regains his control. He joins the rest. The Skull sends out a challenge to meet the Invaders at Yankee Stadium. The Legion takes the field....  and the betting is 2 to 1, in favor of the Invaders. The Red Skull knows how to make an entrance and shows up in a dirigible, where the Invaders leap and fly out, headed for the attack...  Well, Cap throws at Bucky's head, the benches clear and a brawl breaks out on the field...  and even young Billy Martin is out there, kicking dirt on the ump! Bucky and Toro slip away and check in with a G-Man, revealing that Bucky has been masquerading as Toro and the faux-Bucky is a Yankee batboy. They awake the sleeping Toro, who heads back to report to the Skull and ends up igniting the hydrogen in the airship gas cells, destroying it and breaking the mind control. The heroes defend the crowd from the debris and the Invaders leave America in the hands of the Liberty Legion, to head back to England, to take the fight to the Nazis. Thoughts: What sounded cool on paper was a rather mixed bag. Roy trots out the standard cliches, with the origin recaps and modern action, then splitting into squads for small skirmishes, before everyone comes together for the big battle. The choice of Yankee Stadium is an homage to Golden Age stories, set on baseball fields and stadiums. It's not bad; but, it is really a glorified extension of the Invaders comic. Nothing else would be done with the Liberty Legion, other for them to turn up late in the Invaders, as captives needing rescue, before Whizzer and Miss America join the Invaders for their final storyline (to ultimately lead to the post-war stuff we saw in What If? and the original All-Winners pair of stories). Quite frankly, Timely was not the best place to search for classic old heroes. Roy already had the best, in the Invaders, leaving a pretty mixed bag. Patriot, Miss America and the Whizzer had the longest lives, with Red Raven only getting 2 issues. Blue Diamond, Thin Man and Jack Frost didn't set the world on fire. Roy ignored Vision, The Fin, Blazing Skull and others from his Kree-Skrull War story, in Avengers, plus characters like Destroyer (who would turn up later, in Invaders) and the batch of 4th stringers that Joe Straczynski would use in The Twelve. No one seemed to care about Mercury. Roy ended up doing a better version of the concept in All-Star Squadron, where he had better material to work with (and which better suited his fan days).
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 13, 2019 14:22:00 GMT -5
I hadn't realized until recently how invested Marvel still was in monster books even in the mid 1970s. I thought of the monsters as a pre-FF thing, but I guess there was still a market, especially for the B&W non-code mags. I saw one Tomb of Dracula issue which boasted that Marvel had ten monster mags running in parallel. Did they pay for the rights to all those old movie stills they used to fill pages? Probably, though not much; or, at least, got permission to use them in articles. For stories they used their own monsters. Forry Ackerman used his personal collection for Famous Monsters; but, Warrne still had to get an okay, I would assume. I think the studios looked on it as free advertising, so long as it was informational, not adapting the material from the films. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Mar 13, 2019 14:31:09 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #28 Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-ghastly writer, Frank Robbins-horrific artist, Steve Gan-chilling inker, Karen "The Bride of" Mantlo-letters,Janice Cohen-screaming colors, edited by the Wolfman! Nothing much cam of this, until Marvel Preview #8. There was a separate Legion of monsters magazine, before this, which was a horror anthology title, in Marvel's b&w magazine line; but, with a different line-up. As it is, Marvel preview featured solo stories, not another team-up. Nice idea but rather poor execution. Nothing much may have come from this, but the issue itself is, surprisingly, one of the most often-reprinted Marvel comics of that era. The GCD only lists two reprints, but there have been a lot more I've spotted. Also notable for one of the few Nick Cardy covers for Marvel's standard color comics line. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 13, 2019 14:38:23 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight #27 Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer (uh-oh), Jim Mooney-art, Karen Mantlo-letters, Petra goldberg-colors, Marv Wolfman-editor Synopsis: Because we demanded it (says so, on the cover), namor is without Dr Doom, hanging ou on Easter Island, smashing the monoliths. he heads off to see his comatose people, when a saucer flies behind him. On board is Capt. Simon Ryker, who will gain a promotion to Col, by the 1990s and the age of deathlok...  He dumps the Symbionic man into the ocean, to hunt Namor. There is an ambush in a sunken ship graveyard, which leads to a big fight...  Symbionic gets an octopus for a tag partner and it turns into a handicap match, until namor switches things up. Apparently, this was an Atlantean Death Match, as Symbionic Man is killed and we get a plea to write in for a new Namor series. Didn't work, for about a decade or two. Thoughts: Meh....... More mediocre Mantlo myths; mostly moot!
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Post by rberman on Mar 13, 2019 15:36:56 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #29-30Thoughts: Quite frankly, Timely was not the best place to search for classic old heroes. Roy already had the best, in the Invaders, leaving a pretty mixed bag. Patriot, Miss America and the Whizzer had the longest lives, with Red Raven only getting 2 issues. Blue Diamond, Thin Man and Jack Frost didn't set the world on fire. Sounds like part of the problem is that the old heroes didn't have any personalities. What's the point of Jack Frost and Red Raven, when Marvel already has Iceman and Angel, who already have at least a rudimentary identity as girl-crazy pranksters? Readers had come to expect more than "heroes who are heroic" by then, especially from Marvel. Any one of these characters could have been the subject of a good story with an interesting character, but just "fighting a villainous villain" is not that story. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 13, 2019 16:00:43 GMT -5
Marvel Fanfare #19 Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer, Glynis Wein-colors, Al Milgrom-editor Chapter 1: Tony Salmons-art, Rick Parker-letters Chapter 2: Rick leonardi & Terry Austin-art, Rick Parker-letters Chapter 3: Kerry Gammill & George Freeman-art, Muns-letters This was originally intended to run as a series of back-up stories; but, the first chapter's art was lost (see below). Bill Mantlo had copies, and it was run as this issue of MF. Synopsis: Cloak and Dagger turn up, as a dealer, called Candy Man (of course) gives junkie pure heroin, to kill him.  Dagger hits the junkie with her light daggers, while Cloak sucks Candy Man into his, er...cloak, and the junkie is saved, as the daggers cleanse his body of the heroin and its chemical addiction. They then warn off the guy and dump a jibbering Candy Man on the pavement, as a warning to stay clean. yep, that will cure the underpinning psychological basis for substance abuse. No junkie ever returns to drugs after being detoxed, right? The pair go off and Dagger whines about their mission and goes off to do some dancing..... Dagger goes to a club and starts dancing  This being a disco, drugs aren't far away. A pusher, whose supply has dwindled, thanks to C&D, sees dagger on the dance floor and makes like Tony Manero and joins her...  Meanwhile, Cloak breaks in on a rich party, filled with coke and goes medieval on their stash!  Without Dagger, he can't control the urge to suck everyone into the void. They get it bad, because they are rich users. Tony Manero leads Dagger outside (she's, like gone, man!) and then sucker punches her, dumps her in a cab and takes her to the mob.  Cloak goes searching, but is losing control. Dagger is brought to mobsters and the dealer, called Jack, is paid off. Dagger awakes and goes nuts, throwing light daggers everywhere.   Cloak shows up, running into Jack and zaps him, then is reunited with Dagger, who falls into his arms and cries. They need each other to keep control, both curse and blessing. Together, they are I....I...I....Stayin' Alive.....  Thoughts: Pretty good story from Mantlo, told with different art, in the three chapters. Part one was supposed to appear in the previous issue; but, the pages disappeared. Tony Salmons snuck into Al milgrom's office and removed them, apparently (at least, according to Al Milgrom's inside cover cartoon). They couldn't run it until they found the pages and ran all three in one issue. It's a bit disjointed; but, it works fairly well. This was published in 1985; but, the disco scenes look like 1977. The characters were created in 1982; so, we are definitely not looking at some unused 70s story. I guess Mantlo hadn't left the 70s behind, or hadn't been in a disco since then. There should have been more neon, shoulder pads, mini-skirts, bigger earrings and hair and a synth soundtrack. The use of different art teams is an interesting experiment, if not due to scheduling conflicts. Salmons has a sketchier style, reflecting the gritty opening, as C&D face the heroin junkie and dealer. Leonardi & Austin are brighter, slicker, at the disco, while Gammill and Freeman are dark and moody, reflecting the depths the characters have reached. They end up as good choices. Not sure about Mantlo's messages, though. The junkie in chapter one gets detoxed and set on the straight and narrow; but, that doesn't address why he uses. That just deals with the biological component. It takes therapy to help a junkie deal with life without drugs, even when you get the stuff out of their system. Comic book fixes. the pusher gets the vigilante treatment; but, that does nothing to take down his source or curb demand for his product. If the demand wasn't there, the drugs wouldn't be there, which is why the Nancy reagan campaign was such a hollow thing. Just say no; wow, why didn't I think of that? meanwhile, the rich cocaine users get harsher treatment because they have money and don't need drugs to escape. Money doesn't erase insecurities and the desire for escape; it just gives easier access to higher grade chemicals. I sympathize with the socio-economic lecturing; but, it ignores the root. This was a problem with a lot of drug-themed comics. they were so focused on attacking the supply; but, had few answers for the demand. A little detox and everything is okay. Tell that to drug treatment counselors. Addiction is a powerful thing and vigilantes aren't the solution. But, this is superhero comics. Maybe is just me; but 80s Marvel seemed to have a bit more of a conservative bent to things. Maybe it was a reflection of the Reagan 80s or maybe they were swiping more from 80s action movies, which did have a conservative bent to them, especially people like Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Maybe it's the absence of the more bleeding heart liberal voices of 70s Marvel, most of whom were either working at DC or the indies. Let's just blame Shooter, who is the go-to for that period.  Anyway, hardly a justification for the costs involved in the issue; but, a more worthy story than many, so far.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 13, 2019 16:08:18 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #29-30Thoughts: Quite frankly, Timely was not the best place to search for classic old heroes. Roy already had the best, in the Invaders, leaving a pretty mixed bag. Patriot, Miss America and the Whizzer had the longest lives, with Red Raven only getting 2 issues. Blue Diamond, Thin Man and Jack Frost didn't set the world on fire. Sounds like part of the problem is that the old heroes didn't have any personalities. What's the point of Jack Frost and Red Raven, when Marvel already has Iceman and Angel, who already have at least a rudimentary identity as girl-crazy pranksters? Readers had come to expect more than "heroes who are heroic" by then, especially from Marvel. Any one of these characters could have been the subject of a good story with an interesting character, but just "fighting a villainous villain" is not that story. Well, they didn't, as Timely wasn't exactly a writer's company. Simon & Kirby and Bill Everett were putting out the best material and much of the rest wasn't even second rate. Martin Goodman wasn't paying quality rates and his material often reflected that. Stan was a rookie and wasn't setting the world on fire, either. Their humor world had guys like Kurtzman and Jaffee, which certainly helped. Goodman followed trends and without Simon & Kirby to churn out great concepts, he just threw out knock offs. Timely wasn't even close to being a Big Two. DC, Fawcett and Quality were putting out the best material and had the best writers (and most of the best artists). JMS did more with the Twelve than Roy did with the Liberty Legion. My guess is he wasn't as invested in anyone outside of Miss America and Whizzer, who he knew from All-Winners. Compare with his love for the JSA and the other DC/All-American heroes. Red Raven had appeared in an X-Men issue, prior to this. |
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Post by zaku on Mar 14, 2019 6:36:16 GMT -5
They head back to Invaders and skirmish, in small teams, before coming back here, where Bucky and the Thin Man fight the Human Torch. Toro was beaten by the Whizzer and Red Raven and regains his control. He joins the rest. The Skull sends out a challenge to meet the Invaders at Yankee Stadium. The Legion takes the field.... They fought in a stadium full of people against two beings who could easily set fire to it...?  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 14, 2019 17:26:38 GMT -5
Standard Golden Age conceit. It's not beyond conception, as, in 1896, a train wreck was staged for an audience. The trains were unmanned; but, the crash caused the boilers to explode, showing the crowd with debris, which resulted in 2-3 deaths (depending on accounts) and multiple injuries to the crowd. The 1973 Indianapolis 500 was marred with a series of crashes and fatalaties. One of the crashes resulted in injuries to the crowd, which led to changes in raceway safety structures and crowd seating arrangements. People are morons and like to be near spectacles, to watch, even to the point of absurdity (and stupidity). |
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Post by zaku on Mar 14, 2019 18:00:24 GMT -5
Standard Golden Age conceit. It's not beyond conception, as, in 1896, a train wreck was staged for an audience. The trains were unmanned; but, the crash caused the boilers to explode, showing the crowd with debris, which resulted in 2-3 deaths (depending on accounts) and multiple injuries to the crowd. The 1973 Indianapolis 500 was marred with a series of crashes and fatalaties. One of the crashes resulted in injuries to the crowd, which led to changes in raceway safety structures and crowd seating arrangements. People are morons and like to be near spectacles, to watch, even to the point of absurdity (and stupidity). You have (unfortunately) a point... |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 20, 2019 17:01:17 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #31 Amazingly, this comic has no connection to Wally Wood! Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-scribe, Kieth Giffen-portrait painter, Klaus Janson-refiner of images, Karen Mantlo (what a surprise)-calligrapher, Petra Goldberg-color artificer,Marv Wolfman-driven away by pitchforks and torches. Synopsis: A satyr is stumbling through town (as they do) looking for its father. The town is deserted and one lone figure reveals that they are all dead; and, he only survived, because he is drunk (on sterno?)  The sleeper has awakened! Oh, wait, that was Dune; never mind. The drunk dude tosses a rock at our satyr and billy goat get gruff! The man flies through a store window and we get a flashback to David Pace, a bio-researcher, who created the satyr, via genetic engineering and cloning. His growth is rapid, though his comprehension lags. It would catch up; but, some local yokel riles up the town about mad scientists; and, before you can say "Frankenstein," Kenneth Mars leads the rabble to attack Pace's farm. Before you know it, a container of nerve gas is broken and everything goes mammary glands up. Everyone but the creature (and the drunk dude) is killed and we are back to Pan walking the streets. We cut to some government base, where Captain Kirk wants to know what has happened.  Off go a bunch of Kirby-type scientists, to investigate,  which leads to a confrontation,  where James Olson asks Woodgod how he survived the nerve gas. Woodgod just wanders off, yapping about "the scream." Thoughts: One of Mantlo's mediocre stories (though a fairly gonzo idea),with Giffen doing the pseudo-Kirby art, though Janson pulls it back from Kirby. This thing is mostly a rip-off of the Andromeda Strain (which featured James Olson, as Dr Mark Hall, who enters a dead town, in a hazmat suit, along with Arthur hill, as Dr Jeremy Stone) and Frankenstein and not a particularly good one. Must have been a hole in the schedule and Marv just said, "Sure, whatever...." It's only memorable because it is totally bizarre; but, little came of it. Mantlo was about the only one who used Woodgod, adding a few more appearances; but, nothing of any real note. On can only imagine what Wally Wood would have done with a title like that (probably the same story as Wizard King; but, you never know). Neil Gaiman would have revived him in Sandman, if it had been DC. If you like to collect bizarre experiments, and the price is cheap, this is worth a buck or two; otherwise, there isn't much to recommend here. This is definitely a case of the inmates running the asylum!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 20, 2019 17:49:22 GMT -5
Amazingly, this comic has no connection to Wally Wood! Nor is it an adaptation of one of that era's adult theater features...  |
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Post by badwolf on Mar 20, 2019 18:02:01 GMT -5
I remember reading Woodgod when Bill used him Hulk's comic.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 20, 2019 18:24:43 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight #28-29  Moon Knight, baby! Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Don Perlin-artist, Irv Watanabe-letters, Irene Vartanoff-colorist, Marv Wolfman-afraid of a guy in silver! Synopsis: A group of crooks, trying to break into a building, are interrupted by a figure of the night....  There's a new Caped Crusader in town! While he kicks butt and takes names, some people are waiting for millionaire Steven Grant and, at a taxi cab station, for cabbie Jake Lockley. After Moon Knight finishes with the crooks, his helicopter pilot, Frenchie, asks him whether he will be Grant or Lockley, tonight. We cut to some shadowy figures and learn the break-in was a frame-up to pin on the mayor, against a political rival in the upcoming election, ala Watergate. They even have a dossier on Moon Knight, who is a mercenary, expert in savate and hapkido (which is misspelled, in the issue) and a veteran of wars in Africa, Latin America, and possibly Vietnam (they say Marine Commando; but, don't specify US Marines or the Royal Marine Commandos). They also bring up his previous battle with Werewolf By Night (his debut, in issues #2 and 33) and his heightened strength, allegedly due to being bitten by the werewolf. They know he is Grant and the cabbie, and suggest he may have other identities.  The police find the unconscious thugs and all are undercover cops! Weasel's boss, the Conqueror-Lord, confirms that only Weasel and their inside man (at Grant's) know about his multiple aliases and kills Weasel to keep the secret. He activates his contingency plan to kill the mayor, trusting it to himself and his snazzy costume. Moon Knight tries to talk to some cops about the thugs and gets shot at. He splits and heads home, entering via an underwater entrance...  Moon Knight has a date with Marlene; but, forgoes it to be Jake Lockley, which ticks off Marlene. He uses the cover to snoop around and finds out about the undercover cops and Conqueror-Lord. He calls Marlene (conveniently partially undressed, in a bra and half slip) to tell her they will be going to the mayor's party, after all, and uses that as a cover to infiltrate and catch C-L and his goons. Fights break out and Marlene gets caught in the way, as, Moon Knight monkey-flips C-L into her, allowing him to grab her and use her as a hostage, as an aide yells out that the mayor has been shot! The next issue has Moon Knight help get the mayor first aid and his promise to alert the police that he is innocent, as he goes after Marlene. he stops at home and catches his new valet, merkins, listening at keyholes...  He suckers Merkins into believing he knocked MK out, then follows him to the C-L, who has Marlene hanging upside down, tied to some kind of apparatus, with a counter weight...  He reveals his plans, then we see the alligator pit below marlene and C-L cuts the outer bag of the counter-weight, letting loose the sand, as Marlene slowly dips closer to the pit! MK follows Merkins (who he refers to, alternately, as a pansy and twinkletoes). Merkins leads him to the boss and MK kicks butt, takes names, and spots the deathtrap, on closed circuit montiors. he rushes to intercept, while C-L has Merkins killed, then drops MK onto a large chessboard, for their battle.  MK has to move like a chess knight or he sets off death traps. Well, he cheats and fights and C-L retreats up a ladder to a control room, taking the ladder with him. MK uses a boobytrapped square to propel him up to the hatch and kicks C-L's hinder and rescues Marlene.  MK and Marlen take Lockley's cab for some burgers, at his favorite diner, while C-L os left trussed up, for the police, along with the evidence. Thoughts: Well, the story is a bit goofy, in parts; but, it is pure pulp goodness! This is Moon Knight's second appearance, after his debut in Werewolf By Night (Model By Day!) 32 & 33. He was created to be an anti-hero villain, to hunt Jack Russell; but, response was good and he was given a tryout here, as a more heroic figure (though he switches sides in the Werewolf story). This introduces his cover identities, a concept swiped from the Shadow (whose agents included the cabbie, Moe Shrevnitz, and whose real name was Kent Allard, who only masqueraded as Lamont Cranston), as is the bizarre villain, Conqueror-Lord. The Shadow and his many imitators would fight enemies such as this, with elaborate plans to kill and/or replace politicians and conquer lands (either cities, states, or countries). The Spider ran up against an entire fascist organization, who turned the state of New York into a Nazi allegory. The Shadow faced men like Shiwan Khan, while doc Savage ran up against John Sunlight, who would discover his Fortress of Solitude and his many inventions. Moench is one of the best comic writers at doing pulp stories, though he is still developing, here. he came into his own, on Master of Kung Fu, taking the Sax Rohmer material, adding some James Bond and more pure Bruce Lee and then taking it as far as he could. Here he is feeling around; but, he will develop Moon Knight beyond a pulp hero in superhero costuming into something a bit more than just a superhero; kind of a fusion of pulp, comics, and psycho-drama, turning the cover aliases into multiple personality disorder, adding further layers to things. Don Perlin is fine here, and less restrained than in his Defenders work. Some of his figures are a bit odd, especially Conqueror-Lord, with some rather odd proportions. He's more cartoony an inks himself, which adds to the lighter touch to the whole thing; it sort of reads as parody and sort as serious pulp adventure, not far different from some of the first season episodes of Batman, where they used some comic material and actually kept things straight. You could enjoy the satirical nature of things, as an adult; but, there was a solid, exciting adventure at the core, in a few of those episodes. Same here. Moench seems to make fun on the one hand, and embrace on the other. Merkins is a troubling aspect. He is played as slightly effeminate, a dandy, and Spector refers to him a "pansy" and "twinkletoes." This being a Code-approved book, that is as close as we will get to worse slurs for a homosexual (or an allusion to one). it fits within the pulp/hardboiled detective genre, from which Moon Knight draws (check out the Maltese Falcon, sometime). It's a cliche; but, thankfully, not pursued to much detail.
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