No I understand how it works, I just don't understand why it exists or people enjoy it.

Marvel Preview #14



Starlin cover; but, alas, he is not doing the Star Lord story.

Creative Team: Star Lord- Chris Claremont-writer, Carmine Infantino-pencils, Bob Wiacek-inks; Starworld Cyndriana-David Anthony Kraft-writer, Bob Wakelin-art; Detour-Rick Marschall-writer, Alfredo Alcala-art; Rick Marschall-edits

Rick Marschall may be a bit of an unfamiliar name, if you mainly stuck to monthly color comics. His specialty was newspaper comic strips and he edited the publications Nemo and Hogan's Alley, both dedicated to the history of classic comic strips and coverage of new material. He became an editor at Marvel, with the black & white line and special projects. His editorial here announces his new book, The Sunday Funnies, from Chelsea House. He talks of higher quality European publications and discussions with Marvel about using some of their techniques. This would lead to the development and launch of Epic Illustrated, begun by Marschall; but continued by Archie Goodwin.

He promises the best of black & white techniques in this magazine and we get a mix of traditional, airbrush and chemically treated art board, in the three different stories. he certainly brings one change, which I will get to, in a minute.

Synopsis: Peter Quill are cruising through the cosmos, near a desert world, when some jerk cuts them off...



Ship hits the brakes and the jerk flies past, then it lives out our driving fantasies by transforming into a gunship and blasts the space hogs out of the sky.  Peter decides oit's time to roll, before the state troopers show up, when the smokies turn up, hit their lights and blast ship from the sky.  Peter ends up face down on the planet...



He is found by a lizard alien, one of the attackers, when it suddenly dries up and dies, the victim of a nasty little scorpion creature.  The arachnid turns to Quill and gets zapped by ship.  Ship sends out the widgets to get Peter and bring him back inside, to heal.  Meanwhile, she is damaged too and decides to create something that can help repair her.  She forms a shape, which transforms into a skeleton, than a female humanoid form then...........

HOLY CRAP; THIS CHICK IS NAKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't mean conveniently covered by shadow or mist or strategically placed hair; she's starkers.

Looks cold on board Ship, too.

The female admires her.......um.......lines, then sets to work on fixing up Quill.   Or something.  I keep having trouble concentrating on the story.  

Peter wakes up, sees a female face and realizes he is naked, too. (No full frontal on that one, though).  He's a bit anxious, so ship gives a false name, Caryth Halyan , and feeds him a line.  He checks it on the records and Ship makes sure it comes out true.  They then notice the attackers above and that they seem to be searching the surface for something. They head out together to find out what.  They traipse across the desert and stop for a break.  Ship/Caryn convinces Quill to chuck his helmet and put on a hat, and she compliments his face.  This is getting into a whole weird area.  They move on and find a mesa, that Quill seems drawn to.  He tries to fly up; but is still too weak and Ship catches him.  Ship is at the end of her sensor range and it is affecting the body's performance.  They climb up the mesa before a dust storm hits, making it into a cave, where it really starts to get weird...



Ship runs away and peter catches up and she shows him a ledge, before he runs off of it.  there is a bigger cavern inside and a tremor hits, dumping them over the side.  Peter saves them and lands and they find the cavern filled with crystalline light.  Peter gets the feeling that it is a holy place.

They check out opposite sections when the scorpions attack.  Peter uses his element gun to attack with water, and it sets off a weird chain reaction with the crystals.  the scorpions are gone and Peter is fully healed.  He receives images from the scorpions and it is clear they are worshipping the mound they stand upon.  They poke into it more.  The area where Peter's water hit is dry, but there is a damp area behind the mound, suggesting it had soaked up major quantities of water, possibly an ocean.  their exploration is interrupted by my bombing from space.

Peter tries water again and we get another chain reaction.  The scorpions seem to be dying, yet their mental song is of joy.  Turns out, the mound is basically an egg of the new generation, which needs an ocean of water to be born.  So, Pete keeps a filling and the mound explodes.  pete and Ship hightail it out of there and Ship has a wardrobe malfunction.  Ship flies back to.......Ship, boards and pilots it against the lizards, destroying one,.  it takes a lot of punishment and goes down, landing in the form of caryth.  Sta Lord flies up, attacks one ship, causing it to crash into the other, then tells the remaining commander to get lost and he does.  Quill goes back to find the dying Caryth, then witnesses the birth of the Trinity, a crystalline structure, who thanks himbefore disappearing.  Caryth is gone, as is Ship, only his belt remains.  Suddenly, in a burst of energy, Ship reforms herself around Quill and tells the truth about Caryth.  Peter seems very okay with it and I really don't want to know more.

An essay about fandom follows, from Don & Maggie Thompson, mostly talking about SF fanzines, such as Locus and Algol.

There is an add for a Vaughn Bode portfolio, The Bode Broads, via Pacific Comics (the Schanes Brothers).  Copyright is listed as Barbara Bode.  Vaughn Bode died in 1975, after an auterotic asphyxiation stunt that ended (predictably) badly.  If I recall the circumstances correctly (as described in Mike richardson's Between the Panels), his son Mark was in another room, when it occurred.  You can imagine the trauma.  Mark went on to his own career as an artist.

Starworld Cyndriana-  A ship lands on a planet, and a couple are forced out of it, without spacesuits, at laser point. They are being hijacked by the pilot, who kills them, discards a fake pilot's license, then loots the ship. 



He goes to stash the loot, when he runs into a lady, named Cyndriana, with some conveniently positioned leaves (guess Wakelin wasn't told nudity was okay, like Carmine).  She pulls off his helmet and they get down to some beasts with two backs and he his helmet gets swallowed by the grass, then he starts getting enveloped by plants and runs away.  He is attacked by the planet, then the skeletons of the murdered couple, who kill him and take back the wedding ring he stole.



The letters page announces new changes coming, including a Satana magazine and Rampaging Hulk turning into the color Hulk Magazine.  Satana would not be published but Hulk did become a color mag, to better attract the tv show audience.

Detour- This is an illustrated text piece, with Marschall's story having spot illustrations by Alcala.



Cathy Bailey is headed home for the holidays, when she stops for coffee, at a diner.  A biker comes in and also has coffee and they engage in small talk, until the biker starts to get too friendly and she leaves.  She drives on, then sees lights in her rearview mirror.  Eventually she sees the biker alongside, trying to yell something to her.  She panics and runs off the road, into a field and some trees.  He smashes her window and pulls her out and they both see the UFO he tried to warn her about, as it flies away.

An ad says to expect Weirdworld, in two issues; but that will prove as false as Thor and Titan/Man-God.

Thoughts:  The Star Lord story is good, if decidedly weird. but the switch from Byrne to carmine Infantino is a bit disappointing.  Nothing against Carmine; as he has a history with space opera and did some fine work on Star Wars; but, his art had taken on a kind of angular quality, in the 70s, that wasn't there in the 50s and 60.  His storytelling was good, though his layouts tended to get repetitive, if you read more than one story, in succession.  Byrne added something new and fresh to the whole thing.

The helmet is jettisoned, so we will see Peter's face more, from here on out.  What is surprising was what else we got to see, full nudity!  Carmine finally got to draw a naked one in a comic book story.  I can't verify this; but, to my knowledge, this may be the first instance of nudity in a Marvel comic, apart from, maybe, the Comix Book (I have scans of that; but have only glossed through them) and that wasn't entirely a "Marvel" product.  What's even more surprising is that it wasn't just one panel.  Carmine will be back, next issue.

Bob Wakelin was a Welsh artist, who had done work for Marvel UK.  He would go on to greater fame creating packaging illustrations for video games, in the 1980s, including things like Operation Wolf, Contra, and Highlander.  He passed away last year.

Apparently, he didn't get th word that nudity was okay, or else that hadn't been decided.  The story itself is pretty derivative, typical EC/Twilight Zone ending, with a Heavy Metal look to things.  That last is no coincidence, as heavy Metal had launched, in the US, the previous year.  Marvel had already been looking for a way to grab some of that audience and it sounds like Marschall is the editor tapped to do something in that direction.  This issue of MP is a step in the direction; but, the ultimate package will be Epic Illustrated.  However, marschall would be gone before the magazine will debut, under Archie Goodwin.  It never really competed with Heavy Metal; but, it was a good magazine, in its own right.  Sadly, I suspect the biggest area it couldn't compete was in the rates paid for contributors..  Ownership seemed to be the only major thing going for it.

Marschall's own story is even more derivative, a blend of urban legend and UFO lore.  We've all heard the story of someone seeming to run a vehicle off the road, yelling and screaming at them, only to reveal that they were saving them from a hidden killer.  This is the same template, with the UFO twist at the end.  It isn't especially clever; but, it makes for decent filler.  The text/illustration style doesn't really elevate the story, as much as an actua comic story would have, especially with Alcala.

Marvel Graphic Novel # 9 Futurians



Looks vaguely familiar..........

Creative Team: Dave Cockrum-story & art, Jim Novak-letters, Paty Cockrum-colors, Al Milgrom-edits

Dave Cockrum had pitched Futurians to Jim Shooter a year before this book was published and it sat on his desk, during that time. Cockrum was on his second stint with the X-men, the series he helped revive and make a hit. Shooter gave the okay and Cockrum was faced with a dilemma, as he couldn't do it and the X-Men, because the time it would involve. Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson convinced him to do futurians, based on his passion for it. Cockrum resigned from the X-Men; but came to regret it, as royalty checks had just started and his first was for $2000. Futurians never resulted in that kind of money and also led to headaches with a shady publisher. By his estimation, he could have continued on X-Men and his bank account would have been far happier (and that would have helped his later health issues). Still, Cockrum followed his passions and the graphic novel became one of the more popular of the early ones, going into 3 printings.

Synopsis: In the far future, man has gone to the stars and come home. Wars continue and technology grows to where most are protected, though innocents still die. The world is split between two states: Groh, with its mutant army, the Inheritors; and, Terminus, with its scientists. groh decides to destroy Terminus with a weapon, called the Star-Gripper, which pulls the moon towards the Earth, to crash into Terminus!



It killed the Earth, but not Terminus.........



However, all is not well. The sun has turned into a red giant, millions of years before it should. Scientists determine that the Inheritors travelled in time and fired a beam at the sun, causing it to expand. They must go back in time to stop it. They will send a mind to the past, with the aid of the sun creature, Sunswift. She can already contact her consciousness in the past, to aid the agent that will follow. They also launch genetic "bombs" to the past, to push evolution of a select group, who will aid the agent.



The Terminus leader, Callistrax, has his mind sent back through time, to 1962, where it makes contact with an ancestor and takes over. From there, he builds the Future Dynamics corporation, to create the method to stop the Inheritors. In the "present," a group of special individuals have been gathered at Future Dynamics. After some tall tales and and sniping, they meet the head of Future Dynamics, Vandervecken. they are told the all possess special skills that will aid the group, as agents. They suit up in weird costumes, then are put in chambers and bombarded with energy, provided by Sunswift, who arrives in a ball of plasma, radiating the energy into a collector. They have been reborn...



Andrew Pendragon, the new Avatar, recognizes Sunswift and calls her Neif. there is something different from the rest, about him. They speak to each other in ancient Egyptian, surprising Vandervecken. Ex-football star and geologist Harry Tremayne (Terrayne the Earthmover) is unhinged by his change, while Walter Bonner (Blackmane) makes jokes. They come to blows. Tremayne, Jonathan Darknyt (Silver Shadow), and Michael Blackfeather (Werehawk) confront Vandervecken, angrily, who responds by manipulating their minds, to make them more compliant. Avatar is unaffected, but keeps that fact to himself.

The argument is interrupted by an alert that the Inheritors have struck in four parts of the globe: St Louis, Chicago, San Diego and the Southwest. The team heads out to meet the threats.

Terrayne and Blackmane are sent to St Louis, where a drilling machine has surfaced and an army of mutants attack. they are there to grab nuclear material from a research center. terrayne and Blackmane teleport in and go to work. Terrayne can manipulate geological forces and melt into the earth, while Blackmane is a animalistic fighter. In a violent battle, they succeed in stopping the mutants, but soon face the Army. they say goodbye to them and teleport out (after a misdial on the phone, which is tied to the retrieval teleportation mechanism.

Avatar and Silke (Tracy Winters) arrive in San Diego, where a large monster is attacking the city, while the Inheritors attack a seaside research facility, working in generating electricity from sea water. Avatar is incredibly strong and nearly impervious to harm, wile Silke can generate bio-electricity and transform into a manta shape, to fly. She can also manipulate water, in large volumes, and brings a deluge on the Inheritors. Avatar can also fly and brings a missile fired at him back to the Inheritors. Silke tries to talk to the monster, which chomps Avatar into its mouth. he punches his way out, through the teeth. The duo then use steel cable to lasso and hogtie the monster, before teleporting out.

Werehawk and Mosquito (Dana Morgan) arrive in Chicago, where a hovering ship is attacking. Mutants are flying down from the ship and Mosquito dives into the crowd, firing her weapon, only to find out it is a dart gun, not an energy weapon or firearm. Werehawk turns into a literal hawk and attacks the group with his talons, going berserk in the process. Mosquito uses ultrasonics on the mutants, while Werehawk intercepts their target. However, he is hit and transforms back to human. The Inheritors get the Activator Sphere, which was their target. The pair is pulled back.

In the Southwest, Sunswift and silver Shadow meet the Inheritor threat. Sunswift fights them with plasma fire, while Silver Shadow infiltrates their ship, transporting through shadows. Together, they destroy the tripod machine of the Inheritors.

The Inheritors next strike with an attack in new York, as well as London, Paris, Moscow and Beijing. Te group is concerned about family in new York but is forbidden to go there. Avatar confronts Vandervecken and reveals that he is several thousand years old and that Vandervecken's mental powers don't work on him. he puts him on notice, once the crisis is over.

In the Canadian Rockies, the Inheritors have their base and we see their leader, Temujin (the name of Genghis Khan). They are having problems. They can't return home, their Sky gripper was damaged and their raiding parties, gathering material to repair, have met with limited success. they use the Gripper for an attack, ringing a meteor down on themselves. their shileds partially protect, then they face the Futurians.



Temujin orders the use of the Annihilator, which creates death within its effective radius. it is killing the team until Avatar directs their extraction. Sunswift's energy revives them. Then, Terrayne is able to cause the Inheritor battleship to sink into the earth, where they end up at the earth's core, trapped. Terrayne survives



Thoughts: the story is a bit confusing and complex and Cockrum could have used a better editor to smooth things out (he had plotted before; but, this was his first time writing the complete story). the art is fantastic, as we would expect to the man who breathed life into the Legion of Superheroes and the X-Men. The character designs are rather derivative of his past Legion and X-Men designs (which were adaptations of characters created for a Legion offshoot); but, they are pushed into different territories and personalities. The X-Men connection probably helped sell this, aside from the very dynamic and exciting art. There is a good concept at the heart, which should have proved intriguing for a series; but, some bad decisions doomed this.

Rather than continuing at Marvel, Cockrum went with David Singer, the publisher of Deluxe Comics and Lodestone, after all kinds of amazing promises (especially money). it proved disastrous. Singer was a con artist, operating on a shoestring. he did a good job of selling the concept to distributors; but, he didn't know what the hell he was doing. He quickly ran into cash flow problems and legal problems, as he mistakenly believed the Tower Comics THUNDER Agents characters were in the public domain. He soon lost that fight. He had pretty much stolen cockrum's artwork (without payment) which Kieth Giffen stole back and returned to Cockrum. 3 issues of a follow up series were published. They were collected, with an unpublished 4th issue, by Eternity. Later, Cockrum printed that 4th issue, in black & white, via his own Aardwolf imprint, to test the waters for a revival. Friend Clifford Meth published an Avatar mini-series, at David Miller Studios. meth also created a screenplay, for IDT Entertainment, which was not produced. In 2017, Rob Liefeld announced he had optioned the series to revive it. Kirby help us if he does! Then again, Rob isn't known for finishing projects, or even launching them, in some cases.

On the surface, this just looks like an X-Men rip-off; but, Cockrum helped create that X-men and his enthusiasm glows in this work. It is lively and fun, if a bit convoluted and it reminds one of the enthusiasm in the early days of the X-men, before subplots and heavy drama had overwhelmed it. There is a strong background at the heart of this and many intriguing characters to explore. If Cockrum had kept the project at Epic or went to someone like dark Horse, who knows how we would view it now?

Just out of curiosity, when was published the first bona fide naked (i.e. parts not strategically covered) woman in a Marvel comic..? And  while we're at it, in a Dc comic..? And, just to be fair, the first naked man (I suppose Doctor Manhattan)?

Ditching the helmet was a bad move. I can't be the only reader at the time who was drawn to the character due to the distinctive and unique costume design, especially that helmet. 

I'm really fascinated with all the hints to be found in these Marvel B&W magazines as to what had been envisioned for a more expansive and successful line. Evidently, the planned Star-Lord magazine got pretty far along in development, with five full-length installments eventually appearing in Marvel Preview (surely most if not all of those had been intended for the Star-Lord magazine promoted in the subscription ads). And in the letters page of this one, the tease you mentioned for Satana:

"Marvel is about to begin a new horror title. Tentatively, the book has been titled SATANA; but this is a whole new SATANA, unlike anything that has gone before. Nearly the whole Bullpen brain-trust has been brought into consultation on how to make the new SATANA one of the most dynamic magazine concepts in our history. And not only is it a new magazine, this Satana is an entirely different character, taking only the name from the satanic sweetheart you've known in the past. Sound intriguing? We thought so."

They go on to say that Don McGregor's Hodiah Twist character would be appearing in the new Satana, but instead, that story runs a few issues later in Marvel Preview. Also, the new Satana is announced to be a full-color publication. 

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That's one reason I don't like getting the omnibuse b&w collections. I don't care about the nudity per se (and in fact, in most of these the nudity was gratuitous and exploitative anyway), I just don't care for the idea of someone offering a bowlderised reprint.

I think that would just be a pain all the way around: from production to retailers figuring what to order/sell to who, and customers (especially completists).