American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s

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TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

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Dedication To everyone who has been part of Comics Bulletin. You are the best group of companions anyone can ask for.

Now go write your next article!

Contributing Writers: Jim Beard, Keith Dallas, Dave Dykema, Jason Sacks, John Wells Editors: Jason Sacks and Keith Dallas Logo Design: Bill Walko Layout: David Paul Greenawalt Cover Design: Jon B. Cooke Publisher: John Morrow

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • 919-449-0344 email: twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • July 2014 • Printed in China ISBN 978-1-60549-056-4

American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s is ©2014 TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All rights reserved under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical. Photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. All reproductions in this historical overview of comic books are copyright by the respective copyright holders, and are used here strictly for historical purposes. Attempts have been made to properly attribute copyrights for use in this book; if you are a valid copyright-holder and have not been properly credited, please contact TwoMorrows so that this can be corrected in any future printings. The viewpoints expressed in the text are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TwoMorrows Publishing..

Micronauts TM and © Abrams/Gentile Entertainment. The Stars My Destination TM and © Alfred Bester. Archie, Josie and the Pussycats, Madhouse, Sabrina the Teenage Witch TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Maus TM and © Art Spiegelman. Cheech Wizard TM and © Barbara Bodé. Big Apple Comix TM and © Big Apple Productions.

Captain Canuck TM and © Captain Canuck Inc. Star Trek TM and © CBS Studios Inc. Abortion Eve TM and © Chin Lively and Joyce Sutton. Baby Huey, Casper, Herman & Katnip, Hot Stuff, Little Audrey, Richie Rich, Spooky TM and © Class Media, Inc. Close Encounters of the Third Kind TM and © Columbia Pictures. The Shadow TM and © Condé Nast.

Conan, Kull TM and © CPI. Cerebus TM and © Dave Sim. The Cross and the Switchblade TM and (C) David Wilkerson. Alfred, Aquaman, Atom, Batman, Beowulf, Big Barda, Billy Batson, Binky, Black Canary, Blackhawks, Black Lightning, Calculator, Captain Marvel, Darkseid, Demon, Doom Patrol, Dr. Fate, Firestorm, Flash, Forever People and all associated characters, Funky Flashman, Golden Age Atom, Golden Age Flash, Golden Age Green Lantern, Granny Goodness, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, The Guardians of Oa, Haunted Tank, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Hercules Unbound, Hourman, Houseroy, Huntress, Iron Wolf, Jimmy Olsen, John Stewart, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt, Joker, Jonah Hex, Judomaster, Justice League of America and all associated characters, Justice Society of America and all associated characters, Kamandi, Karate Kid, Kong the Untamed, Legion of Super-Heroes and all associated characters, Lightray, Man-Bat, Manhunter, Mary Marvel, Mister Miracle, Mr. Terrific, New Gods and all associated characters, OMAC, Prez, Ra’s Al Ghul, Red Tornado, Robin, The Rose and the Thorn, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Sandman, Scalphunter, Secret Society of Super-Villains and all associated characters, Sgt. Rock, Shade the Changing Man, Spectre, Speedy, Stalker, Star Hunters, Starman, Steel, Sugar and Spike, Superboy, Superman, Swamp Thing, Talia, Vigilante, Warlord, Wildcat, Wonder Woman TM and © DC Comics. Excerpt from Comix Book TM and © Denis Kitchen. Buck Rogers TM and © The Dille Family Trust. Mickey Mouse TM and © Disney Enterprises Inc. Sabre TM and © Don McGregor. Tarzan TM and © ERB, Inc. Fafhrd and the Grey Mauser TM and © The Estate of Fritz Leiber. Fu Manchu TM and © The Estate of Sax Rohmer. The Best of Dateline: @!!?#. TM and © Fred Hembeck. Dynomutt, The Flintstones, The Great Grape Ape, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch TM and © Hanna-Barbera Productions. American Splendor TM and © Harvey Pekar Estate. ROM The Spaceknight TM and © Hasbro. Heavy Metal TM and © Heavy Metal Magazine.

Cody Starbuck TM and © Howard Chaykin, Inc. Space: 1999 TM and © ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Olive Oyl, The Phantom TM and © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Excerpt from Star*Reach TM and © Jim Starlin. E-Man TM and © Joe Staton. Doomsday + 1 TM and © John Byrne. Cover to Comix Book TM and © John Pound. Star Wars TM and © Lucasfilm Ltd. Adam Warlock, Ant-Man, Avengers and all associated characters, Beast, Black Bolt, Black Brother, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blade, Brother Voodoo, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Cat, Champions and all associated characters, Crazy, Crystal, Daredevil, Deathlok, Defenders and all associated characters, Devil Dinosaur, Doctor Doom, Dr. Strange, Eternals, Fantastic Four and all associated characters, Ghost Rider, Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Human Torch, Inhumans, Invaders and all associated characters, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Jarella, Ka-Zar, Killraven, The Living Mummy, Luke Cage, Machine Man, Man-Thing, Man-Wolf, Moon Knight, Morbius, Ms. Marvel, Night Nurse, Nomad, Nova, Omega the Unknown, Phoenix, Punisher, Red Wolf, Shanna the She-Devil, Silver Surfer, Son of Satan, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Sub-Mariner, Thor, Vision, Warriors of the Shadow Realm, Wendigo, Werewolf by Night, Wolverine, X-Men and all associated characters TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Shogun Warriors TM and © Mattel. Ronald McDonald TM and © McDonald’s Corporation. Elric TM and © Michael Moorcock. Eerie TM and © The New Company. Star Trek TM and © Paramount Pictures Corporation. Garfield TM and © Paws, Inc. 2000AD TM and © Rebellion A/S. Red Sonja TM and © Red Sonja LLC. Comic Book Price Guide TM and © Robert Overstreet. Battle of the Planets TM and © Sandy Frank Film Syndication, Inc. Destructor, Ironjaw, The Scorpion, and Tiger-Man TM and © 1974 Seaboard Periodicals, Inc. Godzilla TM and © Toho Co., Ltd. Alien, Planet of the Apes TM and © Twentieth Century Fox. 1941, Battlestar Galactica, Jaws TM and © Universal Studios. Superman The Movie, Welcome Back, Kotter, Wizard of Oz TM and © Warner Bros. Elfquest TM and © Warp Graphics, Inc. A Contract With God, The Spirit TM and © Will Eisner Studios Inc. 1984, Comanche Moon, Dell Comics’s Ghost Stories, Friday Foster, Ghita of Alizarr, Grim Ghost, Gullivar Jones, The Heap, Hell-Rider, Human Fly, It Ain’t Me Babe, Jason Monarch, Real Pulp Comics, Rog-2000, Slow Death, Smash, The Sundance Kid, Vicki, Young Lust TM and © respective copyright holder.

Table of Contents Introductory Note about the Chronological Structure of American Comic Book Chronicles.................. 4

By Keith Dallas

Note on Comic Book Sales and Circulation Data.......................................... 5

By Keith Dallas

Introduction & Acknowledgements . ........... 6

By Jason Sacks

Chapter One: 1970 Experimentation & Elevation...........................8

By Jim Beard, Keith Dallas and Jason Sacks

Chapter Two: 1971 Cracking the Code.............................................. 34

By Jim Beard, Keith Dallas and Jason Sacks

Chapter Three: 1972 The Paradigm Shifts.......................................... 60

By Jason Sacks

Chapter Four: 1973 Innocence Lost..................................................... 92

By Jason Sacks

Chapter Five: 1974 No More Heroes................................................ 124

By Jason Sacks

Chapter Six: 1975 The High Cost of Expansion.......................... 150

By Dave Dykema

Chapter Seven: 1976 Bicentennial Fireworks................................... 178

By Dave Dykema

Chapter Eight: 1977 A Renewed Hope............................................... 204

By Dave Dykema

Chapter Nine: 1978 DC’s Explosive Implosion............................... 230

By Keith Dallas

Chapter Ten: 1979 Post-Implosion Malaise.................................. 254

By Jason Sacks

Works Cited....................................................... 278 Index................................................................... 286

Notes Introductory Note about the Chronological Structure of American Comic Book Chronicles

By Keith Dallas The monthly date that appears on a comic book cover doesn’t usually indicate the exact month the comic book arrived at the newsstand or at the comic book store. Since their inception, American periodical publishers—including but not limited to comic book publishers—postdated their issues in order to let vendors know when they should remove unsold copies from their stores. In the 1930s, the discrepancy between a comic book’s cover date and the actual month it reached the newsstand was one month. For instance, Action Comics #1 is cover dated June 1938 but actually went on sale in May 1938. Starting in 1940, comic book publishers hoped to increase each issue’s shelf life by widening the discrepancy between cover date and release date to two months. In 1973, the discrepancy was widened again to three months. The expansion of the Direct Market in the 1980s, though, turned

the cover date system on its head as most Direct Market-exclusive publishers chose not to put cover dates on their comic books while some put cover dates that matched the issue’s release date.

This all creates a perplexing challenge for comic book historians as they consider whether to chronologize comic book history via cover date or release date. The predominant comic book history tradition has been to chronologize via cover date, and American Comic Book Chronicles is following that tradition. This means though that some comic books that were released in the final months of one year won’t be dealt with until the chapter about the following year. Each chapter, however, will include a yearly timeline that uses a comic book’s release date to position it appropriately among other significant historical, cultural and political events of that year.

Jim Steranko’s seminal 1970 and 1972 History of Comics volumes remain a pinnacle that historians of the medium aspire to. Steranko drew on fanzine historical articles and his own interviews with first-generation comic book creators to deliver a thorough and extremely readable history of the medium and provide a groundwork upon which future historians could build. TM and © Jim Steranko.

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Notes Note on Comic Book Sales and Circulation Data Determining the exact number of copies a comic book title sold is problematic, regardless if the sales outlet under consideration is the newsstand or the Direct Market. The best one can hope to learn is a close approximation of a comic book’s total sales. This is because the methods used to report sales figures were (and still are) fundamentally flawed.

During the 1970s, most comic books sold on the newsstand printed an annual “Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation” in one of their issues as was required by the United States Post Office for all periodicals with Second Class Mail subscribers. These statements divulged—among other information—a comic book title’s average print run, average paid circulation, and average returns from the newsstand. The data in these statements were as accurate as the publishers could provide. The publishers certainly knew how many copies they printed, but they relied on the distributors to inform them of how many copies were sold on the newsstand and how many unsold copies were being “returned” for a refund. Most distributors actually didn’t return unsold copies—or even stripped covers of the unsold copies—back to the publishers; instead they sent to the publishers affidavits of the number of unsold copies they destroyed. In essence, an “honor system” was in place that relied on the newsstand distributors to be truthful about the number of copies bought by consumers and the number of unsold copies being destroyed. And perhaps unsurprisingly, once the publishers couldn’t dispute what the distributors were reporting in their affidavits, the whole system became corrupted.

What muddies the clarity of circulation data from the 1970s even more are the Whitman comic packs. Throughout the decade, Western Publishing ordered large quantities of Marvel and DC comics in order to sell them to department stores (like K-Mart) on a non-returnable basis as sealed packs of three books.

Initially, the Whitman logo appeared on the bags but not on the comics themselves, and since unsold packs couldn’t be returned for store credit, publishers didn’t know (and likely had no interest in knowing) how many copies of their

Like many DC comic books of the era, Batman #307 was printed with both a standard DC logo and a variant Whitman logo. TM and © DC Comics.

comics remained in the department stores. Some retailers, though, opened unsold packs and returned the individual copies for credit. Marvel countered this practice by changing its cover on all copies being delivered to Western Publishing. In the antecedent to what would eventually become Marvel’s Direct Salesonly cover variant, the UPC code box was removed and the issue number box was altered to a diamond shape. Likewise, on its covers, DC swapped out its logo for a Whitman logo. Only copies adorned with Marvel’s UPC code or DC’s logo could be returned for credit. Potentially then, reported sell-through rates for many 1970s comic books were skewed upward, simply because of the volume of Whitman comics (which some estimate as high as 50,000 copies for some titles per issue). Considering how bad the sell-through rates became during the 1970s, the likely reality is that they were actually even worse because the unsold Whitman packs didn’t get calculated into the percentages.

This Whitman comic pack included three consecutive issues of Star Wars. TM and © Lucasfilm.

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American Comic Book Chronicles then recognizes the flawed nature of newsstand and Direct Market circulation data but is resigned to the fact that it is also the only data available and will consider it a close approximation of a comic book’s total sales numbers.

The

Turbulent Voices of the

Bronze Age

INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I was born in 1966, right at the tail end of the “Baby Boom.”

(Or at the beginning of “Gen-X.” Opinions differ on that topic, the same way that comics fans debate the beginning of the Bronze Age of Comics.) Comics were a big part of my life in the 1970s, as they were for many of us born around that time. When I was in elementary school, in Queens, New York, nearly all my friends read comics. It was part of our normal life as kids to pick them up every week at the local corner store – in between riding our bikes, playing with our Evel Knieval action figures and pretending we were the cops on the TV show SWAT. Along with discussions of Evel jumping over the Snake River Canyon (spoiler: he missed) and how much we hated long division, my friends and I would argue over important comics matters – the Talmudic debate of whether the Thing was as strong as the Hulk was a major topic – and then trade comics after school. My allowance each week was even pegged to the price of five new comics, and I distinctly remember having to negotiate with my dad for a 25¢ raise after the cover price of new comics rose to 30¢ in 1976. When we moved in the middle of my fourth grade year to bucolic Cooperstown, New York, the same pattern developed: I’d buy my comics at the Five and Dime on Main Street, then debate those purchases with my new friends at the YMCA, at sleepovers and during lunch hours.

We paid close attention to the writers and artists who were creating our favorite comics. We felt that the guy who drew of all the super-team books, George Pérez, was the best at drawing details and that Steve Gerber was the best at writing weird stuff; we agreed that Superman acted like an adult but Spider-Man was a kid like us; and we agreed that Jack Kirby was a hack. We were right about some things and wrong about others, but we talked comics all the time.

And our younger siblings read Richie Rich and Archie, kid stuff compared to the “mature” literature that my pals and I were consuming.

As I got older, the industry seemed to grow with me: Gerber’s comics became more experimental; I fell in love with the intense passion of Don McGregor’s writing on “War of the Worlds” (which, combined with the gorgeous artwork 6

of P. Craig Russell, made a potent and heady mix); I discovered the wonders of Eisner’s Spirit in reprint form through friends’ parents and a fateful trip to a comics shop after my family relocated to Reno. By the time I was in my teens, riding my bike on a morning paper route in order to be able to afford my own copies of X-Men, Daredevil and Iron Man, comics were as much a constant in my life as my family, my Schwinn, and my faithful mutt.

In comics, too, the 1970s were extremely turbulent.

Though the same seven comics companies operated at the end of the decade as did at the beginning – Archie, Charlton, DC, Gold Key, Harvey, Marvel and Warren – each of the companies was changed deeply by the times. A formerly dominant publisher went from selling more copies than anyone else to nearly shutting down. Another might have shut down if they hadn’t received an unexpected boost from the greatest pop culture force of the generation. Meanwhile, in the span of less than ten years, the King of Comics went from superstar to afterthought, and men who were in middle school in 1970 would be comic industry stars by 1979.

So when my old pal Keith Dallas approached me to cowrite a history of the comics industry in the 1970s, I was thrilled. Though I love today’s avant garde and cutting-edge comics, and work as the Publisher of the website Comics Bulletin (please do check us out), the comics of the 1970s are special to Comics have influenced me. As I dug deep into my the way I view the world – research on the decade, I was through the passion of Don reminded of the complexMcGregor, the doubt of Steve ity of the time, both inside Gerber, the mystery of Berni and outside comics. In fact, Wrightson, the independent a case can be made that the fervor of Dave Sim and even ’70s were the most turbulent the restless spirit of Gerry Adventures, by Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell. decade in modern American “War of the Worlds” in Amazing Conway. For me, more than TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. history. It began with a war anything, the 1970s was the raging in Southeast Asia and era of the individual creator, of the rise of distinct voices ended with a hostage crisis in the Middle East. In between in comics that presented material that was interesting, we had a Presidential resignation, a gas crisis, runaway inunconventional, and sometimes surreal. It was work that flation and, of course, the terrible scourge of disco. always seemed more motivated by personal vision than by the quest for a large paycheck.

As we tried to convey that spirit throughout this volume, our efforts were aided by many people whose assistance proved invaluable. We are grateful to Stephen Bissette, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Jamal Igle, Tony Isabella, Bob Layton, Paul Levitz, Elliot S. Maggin, Don McGregor and Renee Witterstaetter for their illuminating testimonies and feedback; to Jon B. Cooke, Jon Mankuta, Jose Maria Mendez, John Jackson Miller, Julio Molina-Muscara and Glen Fischette and the staff at Fourth World Comics for their generosity in providing scans and information. Very special thanks go to Roy Thomas and John Wells, both of whom went way out of their way to help make this challenging project as accurate and as informative as possible.

Finally, on a personal level, I would also like to thank Liisa, Andy, Robin and Leah for putting up with all my time spent sitting at my computer late at night.

Left: Iron Man #100 with cover art by Jim Starlin. Right: The All-New X-Men debut in their own standard-size comic in X-Men #94. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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1970

Experimentation and Elevation

As the 1970s dawned, comics were on the brink of a transition. Old ways of creating comics seemed to be rapidly passing into history, while a new generation of mainstream and underground comics creators enthusiastically embraced an era of experimentation.

The 1960s were a fertile time in comic book history, but by the end of the decade, sales were slumping. The world outside the scripts, the art boards and the printing presses was changing by the minute. Comics’ mostly sunny optimism starkly contrasted with the country’s troubling times. The ongoing Vietnam War shadowed the nation, a struggle which galvanized many younger Americans in ways that the nation’s older citizens may never have imagined two decades before.

Many of the ascendant Baby Boom generation rejected the world that their parents had created for them. Drugs such as marijuana and LSD were ubiquitous in some urban areas, while many people in that generation chose to renounce modern society in favor of their own culture of communes, head shops and underground comix and other media.

The Kids Are Alright On May 4, 1970, four unarmed college students were slain

by National Guardsmen during a protest rally on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. The students were demonstrating against President Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia. The massacre showed that the Nixon Administration’s concern over youth and their increasingly strong ideals had reached a boiling point. Soon after the shooting, college campuses across America exploded in protest and over 100,000 students marched on Washington, D.C., to denounce the events in Ohio.

CHAPTER ONE

In the world of music, endings were prevalent, underscoring the fact that the 1960s were truly over. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix—who memorably performed the “Star Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock Festival just a year earlier— died suddenly in September from substance abuse at the age of 27. Female singing sensation Janis Joplin, another Woodstock veteran, died only two weeks after Hendrix, also at the age of 27 and also from a drug overdose. Reflecting one perception of the era, rock music had been growing darker since 1968 and the advent of the heavy metal genre, which was solidified with the arrival of the hard-edged Black Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut album.

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The Beatles, once spokespeople for an entire generation of the young and young-at-heart, called its quits in the decade’s first year. DC Comics commented upon the then-recent controversy over the Fab Four in Batman #222 (June 1970), which told of the fictitious Oliver Twists musical group and a rumor that one of their members was dead. This story mirrored the real-life “Paul is Dead” legend surrounding Beatles bassist Paul McCartney. Interestingly, Batman #222 hit newsstands mere weeks after the announcement of the Beatles’ break-up.

coming of age in the underground comix arena. Men and women such as Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Rand Holmes, Bobby London, Trina Robbins and Gilbert Shelton were finding expression for their more radical and open vision of the world in comics published by loosely organized companies with odd names like Rip Off Press, the Print Mint and Last Gasp Eco-Funnies.

State of the Industry The December 14, 1970 edition of the financial publication Barron’s assessed the fiscal state of the mainstream comic book industry: “This year, comic book publishers expect to sell about 300 million copies for roughly $50 million, about the same as in 1960” (Beerbohm 83). Taking inflation into account, this news meant the entire industry had seen much better times. Sales continued to slip

Music legend Elvis Presley, ironically concerned about the youth of 1970’s interest in illicit drugs, dropped in on U.S. President Richard Nixon at the White House to express a few thoughts on the matter. In theaters across the country, Woodstock packed viewers in with its documentation of “three days of peace and love” at the famous “outdoor music festival” of 1969, which featured Joplin and Hendrix, among dozens of other performers. Films released in 1970 like M*A*S*H, Five Easy Pieces, Little Big Man and Zabriskie Point also reflected the youth culture of the times.

All in all, youth and youth culture dominated the news in 1970. Comics reflected what was topical at the time.

Baby Boomers were coming of age, and as they were doing in other fields and professions, they were taking over the comic book industry. Writers like Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway and Mike Friedrich—much younger than most of their colleagues in the industry—brought a new enthusiasm into the medium’s old characters and situations.. While many of those creators had been comic book professionals for several years, they were finding greater acceptance among their peers as the decade began, and more writers joined their ranks. These writers were aided and abetted by youthful artists such as Neal Adams, Barry Smith and Jim Steranko who built upon the past with visual sensibilities that often shocked their older compatriots.

At the same time as a new generation of creators made its way into the mainstream comics medium, a whole other cohort of creators was

This dynamic cover by Neal Adams for Green Lantern #76 heralded the arrival of Green Arrow and a bold new direction for the series. TM and © DC Comics.

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TIMELINE: 1970

April 11: The Apollo 13 mission is disrupted when a ruptured oxygen tank cripples the spacecraft en route to the moon. Commander Jim Lovell transmits the soon-to-be immortal line, “Houston, we have a problem.” The three astronauts on board safely return to Earth on April 17.

A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

February 24: With Green Lantern #76, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams begin their seminal run on the title.

April: The short-lived Marvelmania fan magazine debuts.

April 15: Underground publisher Last Gasp releases its first comic book, Slow Death Funnies #1, featuring stories by Robert Crumb and Kim Deitch, among others.

June 22: President Nixon signs the U.S. Constitution’s 26th amendment, which lowers the voting age to 18.

May 4: At Kent State University, Ohio National Guardsmen fire upon students protesting the war in Vietnam. The gunfire kills four students and wounds nine others.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

M AY

JUNE

April 28: Acting on orders from President Nixon, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops enter Cambodia in order to root out suspected Viet Cong strongholds. The invasion provokes anti-war protests across the nation.

January 18: Jim Lawrence and Jorge Longeron’s Friday Foster follows in the footsteps of Jackie Ormes’ Torchy Brown as one of the first comic strips to star a black woman.

March 6: A bomb, constructed by the leftist Weathermen movement, prematurely detonates, demolishing a New York City Greenwich Village townhouse and killing three Weathermen members.

April 10: In a press release, musician Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded.

April 22: Millions of Americans celebrate the first annual Earth Day as a way to express concerns about environmental problems.

Green Lantern TM and © DC Comics. Black Bolt TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan TM and © CPI. Friday Foster, Slow Death TM and © respective copyright holder.

due to an ever-growing interest in other entertainment vehicles such as television.

Comics from all standard comics publishers—Archie, Charlton, DC, Dell, Gold Key, Harvey and Marvel—sold for 15¢ per copy, a 50% increase in cover price since 1960. Giant-size comics sold for 25¢ per copy. Warren, which released the magazine-sized comics Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, sold its titles for 50¢ per copy, as did Warren’s competitors Eerie Publications and Stanley Publications. Horror comics magazine Web of Horror cost 35¢ per copy. As the new decade began, DC Comics had the largest comic book line. DC released 28 comic books with a January 1970 cover date. The same month Marvel released 26 comics, Charlton 20, Harvey 18, Gold Key 17, Archie 16, Dell 5 and Warren 4.

Comic book publishers operated much as they had since the late 1930s. One area in particular had continued much the same since 1954:

the Comics Code Authority. For the industry’s antiquated system of selfcensorship 1970 would turn out to be a watershed year.

The Comics Code had been created as a way for companies to avoid the specter of the government stepping in to regulate the content of comic books.

After a 1954 Senate subcommittee hearing on the “dangers” of comics to the youth of America, most comics publishers banded together to set down a code of “ethics” that banned the depiction of, among other things, violence, sex, the supernatural and crime as a way of life. Until 1970, the Comics Code was rigidly maintained.

But the Code was too restrictive and no longer reflected the social mores in the complicated world that Americans lived in at the dawn of the 1970s.

There was no better demonstration of this than an appeal Marvel Comics made at a June 1970 meeting of the Comics Magazine Association of America—the body that oversaw the 10

Code. Marvel informed the CMAA that the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare had sent Marvel a letter requesting the publication of a story to warn comic book readers about the dangers of drugs. Marvel asked the CMAA for permission to publish this story even though it would clearly violate the Code’s prohibition of even the mere mention of drugs.

At the June meeting the CMAA denied Marvel’s request… but simultaneously agreed that the time had come to change the Code. The publishers were sent back to their offices, tasked with discussing with their editorial staffs the changes that should be made to the Code. A special meeting of the CMAA in December then reviewed the various proposed revisions, and the members ultimately approved the relaxation of many of the Code’s previous restrictions.

Among other things, sex, crime, supernatural monsters and drug use

July 21: Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian #1—an adaptation of pulp novelist Robert E. Howard’s famous sword-and-sorcery hero by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Smith—arrives at newsstands.

December 2: Created by President Nixon, the Environmental Protection Agency begins to operate. Its first task is to administer the Clean Air Act, also passed in 1970.

September 17: Superman #231, the final DC comic book edited by Mort Weisinger, appears on newsstands.

September 18: Rock music guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies at the age of 27 of a drug overdose.

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER October 4: Rock musician Janis Joplin dies at the age of 27 of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

August 24: A bomb planted by anti-war extremists explodes at the University of Wisconsin’s Army Math Research Center, killing a 33-yearold researcher.

August 1: The three day “San Diego’s Golden State ComicCon” begins in the basement of the U.S. Grant hotel. Jack Kirby was the guest of honor of the convention which was attended by 300 people.

The Con would become an annual event, eventually morphing into “Comic-Con International.”

were now all allowed to be depicted in comic books, if done so in a reasonable and responsible manner (Nyberg 139-140). The new Code would go into effect in February 1971. That date would actually come too late for one prominent comic book publisher, as 1971 would prove.

While the CMAA sought to update itself for the times, Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief Stan Lee wanted something else. He conceived a whole other effort that he hoped would aid the comic book business. Lee proposed the creation of a new organization that would act as a kind of industry advocate to the outside world that had a hearty disdain for comic books.

If Lee was able to see his vision come to full fruition, this new group would become the comic book equivalent of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, even handing out annual awards to the best comic books and comic book creators like the AMPAS’s Oscars. Ultimately, Lee wanted

December 21: Elvis Presley meets with President Nixon at the White House to discuss drug use in America.

September 21: NFL Monday Night Football airs for the first time on the ABC television network, showing the Cleveland Browns beating Joe Namath’s New York Jets.

August 25: Jack Kirby’s first new work for DC Comics in a decade appears on newsstands in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133.

J U LY

October 26: Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, Doonesbury, debuts in nearly two dozen newspapers across the nation. It would become one of the most critically acclaimed strips ever, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

September 19: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, starring Moore as an unmarried career-focused woman, debuts on the CBS television network. The show would run until 1977.

the new organization to help the comics industry gain “prestige,” and he looked to his peers in the business for support for the idea.

Lee got that support. The Academy of Comic Book Arts, or ACBA, was an immediate success as it attracted almost every mainstream publisher of 1970.

What Lee didn’t anticipate, however, was the desires of other comic book professionals to turn the ACBA into something other than a promotional enterprise. As comics historian Jon B. Cooke explained: While the Academy of Comic Book Arts (ACBA) was established to be a kind of funnybook motion picture academy – a self-congratulatory organization focused on banquets and awards – it quickly served as a soapbox for the Angry Young Men in the industry, particularly Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin, and their ilk of educated, informed and 11

NOVEMBER November 14: The entire Marshall University football team dies when their plane crashes in Kenova, West Virginia.

Seventy-five people are killed in total.

DECEMBER

December 16: With a tagline of “love means never having to say you’re sorry,” Love Story premieres in movie theaters. The tragic romance, starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw as star-crossed lovers, would become the highest grossing film of the year.

gutsy artists and writers, selfconfident and with a strong sense of self-worth, an attitude sadly absent from the field for decades. (Cooke 15) In other words, Adams wanted ACBA to act as a labor union, focusing on creator rights, pay rates and the like.

These were matters that Lee didn’t want any part of. “I was very frustrated and disappointed that in some way I couldn’t get everybody to have the same vision that I had for ACBA,” Lee said in 1998. “ACBA became divided into two camps, it seemed. I wasn’t interested in starting a union, so I walked away from it.” The group continued, albeit in a divisive fashion that perhaps accurately mirrored the disparate nature of the comics industry at that time (Thomas 11-12).

“More for your Money…and Better” As the decade dawned, National Periodical Publications (known to most fans as DC Comics) was at the top of

the sales heap among mainstream super-hero publishers. The caveat to that accolade is that DC Comics entered the new decade not only with an aging staff and upstart Marvel Comics nipping at its heels, but an equally aging line of comics and characters as well.

DC was still struggling just two years after the company had been sold and the leadership shifted from Publisher Jack Liebowitz, who acquired the company in 1938, to artist-turned-Editorial Director Carmine Infantino. The editorial department was changing rapidly as longtime staffers were being replaced with younger folk, artists favored over editors. They were still adjusting to the new corporate paradigm while recognizing that Marvel’s success wasn’t a fad that would be going away any time soon.

New blood would be required to keep DC’s aging output fresh for the onrushing sensibilities of the new decade, though the rise of that new blood would necessitate the departure of several of DC’s long-time employees and freelancers, along with sweeping changes to many of the company’s core characters. Many of DC’s series began shifting their tone to emulate Marvel’s “hipper” approach to storytelling and characterization. The more modern and soap-operatic feel of series like Amazing Spider-Man and

Fantastic Four seemed to fit the new era of turmoil more than DC’s conventional line of books. If DC was to stay on top in sales, they would have to do more to embrace the youth culture of 1970. As Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones describe in The Comic Book Heroes, “it was becoming increasingly clear that DC would have to channel…creativity in a different direction if the company was to withstand the increasingly serious challenge of Marvel Comics” (139).

In the 1960s, DC had made nods to the ever-growing phenomenon of youth culture in such titles as Teen Titans, Doom Patrol, Metamorpho, Hawk & the Dove and Swing with Scooter. The Superman and Batman line of books, on the other hand, seemed to exist in a time warp compared with comics like Silver Surfer and Thor. Evidently, DC’s executives needed a better understanding of its readers’ interests.

In a bid to do just that, DC released a survey—called a “private census”—in some of its September cover-dated books. (Marvel had already printed a short survey for its readers in its June cover-dated comics.) The private census features an illustration of Superman—very obviously 1940s-’50s artwork—addressing the reader with the words “Let’s Rap!” before going on to implore respondents to “…answer all the questions so we know who you

House ad for the double-sized reprint Superman #227. TM and © DC Comics.

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are and what you think is groovy.”

The survey also drops slang such as “Dig!” and “Hang in there,” while inquiring about buying, reading, listening and TV-viewing habits and asking if the survey-taker was interested in such diverse topics as pollution, space flights, sports, astrology, and “Black People.” An alternate version of the survey ran in DC’s romance comics with advice columnist Barbara Miles standing in for Superman.

DC released only four new titles in 1970. Among them were Hot Wheels (a licensed property from toymaker Mattel and based on the ABC cartoon of the same name) and new versions of All-Star Western and Three Mouseketeers (the latter of which offered 1950s reprints under new covers).

DC’s remaining new title, Super DC Giant, would be a significant addition to its line. DC published up to five issues of Super DC Giant per month.

Each issue contained a mix of new and reprint stories. Special giantsized issues of ongoing comics had been a staple of DC’s line throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, but, aside from the ongoing quarterly DC Special, those comics were one-shots that were published as special issues of ongoing comics. In 1970, DC decided to experiment more with its prices by producing a sub-line of ongoing comics that sold for 25¢ per copy. Previously tagged on its cover as “Adam” Strange Adventures, that long-running sci-fi series went to 64 pages and was labeled on its cover as “Gigantic” Strange Adventures beginning with issue #226 (Sept-Oct 1970).

The next month brought “SuperSize” From Beyond the Unknown #7 and “Big” G.I Combat #144. Humor title Binky went to giant-size with issue #77 (Feb-March 1971), the same month that Young Romance #170 and Scooter #32 moved to the new format as well. The success of those 25¢ comics would lead to major changes for DC in 1971.

At the same time these four new titles appeared, DC cancelled three of its longest-running comics. Metal Men, which premiered in Showcase #37 in 1962, reached the end of its 41-issue run with the appropriately titled “Requiem for a Robot,” cover-dated De-

cember 1969- January 1970. Challengers of the Unknown, which premiered in 1957’s Showcase #6, was cancelled with issue #77 (Dec. 1970-Jan. 1971) with a reprint of a comic drawn by Jack Kirby. Showcase, the long-standing anthology comic that had birthed such Silver Age icons as the Flash, Green Lantern, and the Atom, ended with issue #93 (September 1970). The comic that was planned to be used for Showcase #94 would become a very influential new DC series in 1971.

Challengers of the Unknown #77 was hardly the only Kirby work readers found in a 1970 DC comic book. Indeed, the biggest change DC made in 1970 was bringing the King of Comics into its ranks.

Kirby is Coming!

In January of 1970 Jack Kirby, perhaps the most popular and prolific comic creator of the 1960s, opened the mailbox at his new home in sunny Irvine, California. In the mailbox Kirby found a thick envelope from Marvel Comics. Inside the envelope was a new contract from the “House of Ideas,” one that the artist had expected and perhaps even dreaded. That contract represented a kind of demarcation line between the previous decade and the one yet to come.

This ad appeared in many DC Comics cover-dated September 1970 and was used to get a better understanding of readers’ interests. TM and © DC Comics.

also deteriorated. Goodman was still selling comics in record numbers, and the characters were being merchandised. Jack’s plots and designs were on TV shows, his art was on toys… and he wasn’t seeing a nickel from any of it; just the occasional rate increase of a dollar or two per page. There was still nothing for him to live on if he became unable to draw. (Evanier 150)

The terms of Marvel’s new contract weren’t gratifying. It would neither raise Kirby’s page rate nor credit him for the characters he co-created. There wasn’t even a guarantee of job security. Marvel could fire Kirby whenever it chose.

And if Kirby chose to sign the new contract, he would be waiving his right to sue Marvel for any mistreatment in the past, present or future (Evanier 163). With terms like these, Kirby had to consider his options.

A lawsuit initiated by Joe Simon over the copyright on Captain America—a character that Simon and Kirby co-created—was resolved out of court in 1969. Under pressure from Marvel’s owner, Martin Goodman, Kirby signed away his own rights to the patriotic hero and thus effectively threw his hat in with Marvel against Simon. In the end, Simon relinquished his rights to the character to Marvel for a mere $7,500. Goodman had promised Kirby a deal that matched Simon’s, but that money wasn’t paid to the artist until Marvel cleared the copyright on Captain America in 1972, at which time Kirby signed a release and received less money than Simon did, though Simon was forbidden from sharing the actual details due to the terms of his contract (Cooke 120). Throughout the process, Kirby, being the breadwinner for his family, felt forced by necessity to keep silent on his own part in the creation of Captain America (Ro 134-135).

Kirby already made one major change in his life: in 1969 he moved his family from his native New York to California in order to help with his daughter Lisa’s asthma and attempt to get a foothold in the movie business. Stan Lee would not care to entertain thoughts of losing one of his favorite and longest standing collaborators, so the pair worked out an arrangement to have Kirby ship his artwork to the company’s Manhattan offices from the Golden State.

That allowed the artist to remain loyal to Marvel (Wyman 144).

But Jack Kirby was 52 years old in early 1970, and he had grown restless with both his job at Marvel and with the conventional comic book package. After collaborating with Stan Lee at Marvel throughout the 1960s, Kirby had grown particularly disenchanted with his position at the company. For one, Kirby was frustrated that he wasn’t profiting from the huge success of Marvel’s super-hero line that he had helped spearhead throughout the 1960s: Kirby’s relationship with [Marvel publisher] Martin Goodman

The impending arrival of Jack Kirby was heralded with house ads that appeared in many DC Comics during 1970. TM and © DC Comics.

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Furthermore, a 1966 New York HeraldTribune article about Marvel painted Kirby in a poor light in comparison to Lee. The artist and his wife had never forgotten the embarrassment that the article brought the Kirby family. The profile downplayed Kirby’s contributions to the comic stories while building up Lee as the most important creative force behind Marvel’s recent successes in sales and storylines (Evanier 147).

Though Lee and Kirby had been work-

fans each month. Kirby knew that Marvel could easily replace him on any book that he was intimately involved with, too.

The best that the older creators could do was reinvent themselves. Leaving superheroes behind, Arnold Drake became a prolific (if uncredited) contributor of humor and suspense stories for Gold Key throughout the 1970s.

With revenue shrinking on his Johnny Hazard newspaper strip, cartoonist Frank Robbins (a scant three weeks younger than Kirby) stepped outside his comfort zone to write superheroes for DC and reinvigorated both the Superboy and Batman features in 1968. He was joined on the latter by Irv Novick (then illustrating war comics), himself six years older than Kirby.

Still, the “old boy” days of the comic industry were numbered. Most of 1970’s superhero comics were produced by men only a decade or so Kirby’s junior but the relatively small number of teenage and twenty-something creators were poised to take over in the next few years. Kirby had toiled steadily since 1938 within the industry and maintained his good reputation throughout the ups and down of the business. As the 1970s dawned, Kirby’s eye for innovation and trends, most especially concerning youth, may have helped him survive in the ongoing youth-centric industry movement.

Jack Kirby with visiting fans in his California home. Courtesy of the Kirby Estate.

Kirby could especially relate to the fate of Bill Finger. Finger had co-created Batman with Bob Kane, but he was always Kane’s employee. While Kane made millions from Batman, Finger scraped by financially. Similarly, when Marvel Comics was sold to Perfect Film & Chemical in 1968, Stan Lee was offered a large and lucrative contract.

Kirby was offered no such deal. Lee and Kane had longterm financial security because of the characters they cocreated; Finger and Kirby did not.

ing together for more than a decade as 1970 dawned, and the two brought about such powerful fan-favorite stories as 1966’s “Galactus” epic, their relationship was definitely showing signs of strains.

Add to this the fact that, by 1970, Jack Kirby’s contemporaries in the industry’s super-hero field faced extinction in alarming numbers. Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, was fired from his DC writing assignments because of concerns of his again suing DC for the rights to Superman (Ricca 261). DC writing veterans such as Gardner Fox, John Broome, Bill Finger, Arnold Drake and Otto Binder had seen their assignments dry up in what some believed was retaliation for their lobbying for things like better pay and health insurance. Robert Kanigher, prolific purveyor of war comics and many other books, continued to work into the new decade, but he and fellow scribes Bob Haney and Leo Dorfman stood as notable exceptions to this trend. Even longtime Archie Comics veteran Bob Bolling was taken off his signature Little Archie feature without explanation, although he heard rumors that management feared he was seeking work elsewhere.

Kirby also wanted to move away from the conventional comics he had been producing for some thirty years: “Jack…wanted to get away from cranking out comics of conventional size and subject. He thought he had more to say than he could in superhero comics” (Evanier 165).

Kirby may have been as old as many of his colleagues in the industry, but his ever-questing brain kept him young at heart.

Carmine Infantino had known Kirby since the 1940s. In fact, Infantino and his brother had worked for Kirby and his partner Joe Simon at one point. As Kirby’s increasing dissatisfaction with Marvel became more and more obvious to industry insiders, Infantino contacted his former mentor in April 1969 to gauge his status with Marvel and to float the idea of Kirby jumping ship to DC. DC’s new corporate masters saw that their new acquisition was quickly losing market share to upstart Marvel and decided to take decisive action by poaching one of Marvel’s most iconic creators. After flying out to California, Infantino viewed art boards of a grand idea, one Kirby had originally intended for the pages of Thor. Because of his distrust of his Marvel employers, though, Kirby decided not to unveil his concept—the likes of which had never really been attempted in the industry before—in a Marvel comic book. Instead, he presented it privately to Infantino, and DC’s editorial

The mainstream comic book industry was still overwhelmingly an old boys’ network, but membership required one to play by the rules. Making noise about creative rights, financial security, or anything beyond the here-and-now of the next assignment could have consequences more dire than Stan Lee throwing up his hands at an ACBA meeting.

When Steve Ditko quit Marvel of his own volition in 1966, he unwittingly proved to Marvel that a feature could not only survive the loss of a key creator, it could thrive. Under artist John Romita, The Amazing Spider-Man had reached new heights by 1970, and the loss of Ditko’s outsider vibe in favor of Romita’s romanticized angst bothered fewer 14

director liked what he saw. Together, Infantino alleged, the two men drew up a hand-written contract there and then, with assurances from Infantino that appealed to Kirby far more than the seemingly endless stonewalling coming from Marvel and Stan Lee (Cooke, “Director Comments” 9). As Kirby’s long time friend Mark Evanier described: Marvel was not willing, at that point, to even discuss changing the terms of Jack’s employment in any meaningful way. One of the things that drove him away, was the fact that Jack hit this brick wall every time he said, ‘I think I deserve a better deal.’

Marvel would say, ‘Go back to your drawing board and get the new Fantastic Four in. Keep drawing. (Cooke, “The Unknown Kirby” 5)

by’s mind when he put voice to the situation.

DC gave the King the royal treatment, including a house ad in its books that bombastically heralded the monarch’s impending landing on its shores. “THE GREAT ONE IS COMING!,” the ad virtually shouted at the consumer. Assuming every comic book reader knew quite well who was so “great,” DC declined to mention Kirby’s name anywhere within its ad.

That kind of trumpet-blowing had to feel good to the man after years of alleged mistreatment at Marvel.

Lee had tossed a few bones to Kirby earlier in the year, perhaps as appeasements to the growing tension. The artist was allowed to illustrate and write an Inhumans strip for the first four issues of a resurrected Amazing Adventures, as well as draw Silver Surfer #18 (Sept.

1970) – written by Lee. The latter represented a particularly sore point for Kirby; the Surfer’s own comic had launched with Lee and artist John Buscema, a fact that Kirby saw as another slap to his face.

proved it. After some tinkering, Kirby unleashed his grand concept on an unsuspecting comic book populace in—of all DC series—Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

With average monthly sales of 333,000 copies per month, Jimmy Olsen was the fourth best-selling title in the Superman family of comics. It was also reportedly the only book in DC’s line-up that didn’t have a regular creative team, and therefore the book that Kirby could take over without feeling guilty for taking away somebody’s assignment. Kirby knew what it was like being out of a job and didn’t care to steal food out of someone else’s mouth. Despite what Kirby was led to believe, however, the title did have what amounted to a “regular” penciler in the form of artist Pete Costanza, who did effectively lose his position with Kirby’s arrival. Regardless, with an eye towards revamping Superman’s world in total, Infantino agreed that Jimmy Olsen would be a good fit for Kirby’s new comics (Evanier, “Introduction” 4).

For the first part of 1970, Jimmy meandered through his usual adventures and mishaps, brought about by writers Leo Dorfman, E. Nelson Bridwell and Bob Haney, in lockstep with Olsen’s previous decades as a headliner. However, in August 1970, a radical departure took the famous redheaded “cub reporter” into previously-uncharted territory: the mind of Jack Kirby. The differences between Jimmy Olsen #132 and #133 are those between night and day.

Despite his frustration with the way he was treated at Marvel, Kirby vacillated as to whether to give up his biggest account.

One of Jack Kirby’s final new comics published at Marvel in 1970 Finally, on March 6, 1970, Kirby was his “Inhumans” solo story in Amazing Adventures #1.

Inside his first issue, Kirby laid made his fateful phone call to TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. out his own ideas about 1970s Lee. From that point on, there youth, combined with his own would be no turning back. For So, with a sweet DC deal under his personal cosmic vision. Decades later, better or for worse, the King of Combelt and a desire to deliver what was comic writer Grant Morrison would ics was now a DC man. promised in the ad, Jack Kirby let describe reading the unfolding story loose with all barrels. Kirby had been “I don’t say I wasn’t comfortable at as “like someone slipped LSD into preparing grand new ideas for half a Marvel, but it had its frustrating moJohnny DC’s Kool-Aid…” (Morrison 8). decade by the time he moved to DC, ments and there was nothing I could often creating large colorful presenKirby begins Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct. do about it,” said Kirby after his split tation boards that could be shown to 1970) by re-introducing one of his with the company. “If I did come up prospective buyers. One of these was “kid gangs” from the 1940s, the with an idea at Marvel, they’d take it called “Young Gods,” which would Newsboy Legion. After that, the kids away from me and I lost association present a new generation of the Asand their new friend Jimmy Olsen with it” (Hamilton 60). No doubt cogardian heroes from Thor. Kirby danare launched into a bizarre advencreations like the Silver Surfer, Thor gled this idea to Infantino, who apture into the Wild Area, which Kirby and the Fantastic Four were on Kir15

sham “hip” act, for a few pages later when Superman is greeted by that incredible sight of the sprawling city made from giant trees, his 1950s narrow-minded view of youth kicks in when he stammers, “I can’t conceive of a dropout society being that industrious!” Kirby had adopted the language of the hippies and tried to appreciate their unique take on society, but, as filtered through Superman, he was unable to bridge the generation gap. He couldn’t really “rap” with the kids. Ironically, DC attempted to become hipper with the radical spirit of 1970 by inserting their most iconic and conservative character in the middle of a hippie scene.

Besides the radical shift in Jimmy’s adventures, readers may have found something else a bit strange after cracking the cover of that first issue: not all of the art was Kirby’s. In fact, in every panel in which Olsen and Superman appear, their heads were re-drawn by longtime Man of Steel illustrator Al Plastino. According to E. Nelson Bridwell in Superman’s Girl Jack Kirby’s first comic at DC in 1970 was Jimmy Olsen #133. TM and © DC Comics.

Friend, Lois Lane #121, the changes had come at the request of inker Vince Colletdescribes in a caption box as “a veritable city hewn from ta, who’d likewise never drawn a Superman story before. the giant trees of a great forest,” a landscape inhabited by Preferring that the characters be as on-model as possible, Kirby’s take on the era’s hippies and other free-living souls.

Colletta asked that someone (first Plastino, then Murphy By reading that first tale, one can easily see the effect that Anderson) fix the faces on all the stories he worked on, moving to California had on Kirby, a boy from Manhattan’s both Kirby’s and those penciled by Werner Roth in Lois Lower East Side now surrounded by such otherworldly obLane. The practice continued from Jimmy #133 to #145 jects as giant redwood trees and love beads.

(Jan. 1972) and Lois #109 (April 1971) to #123 (July 1972).

Superman himself is welcomed to the Wild Area by a bearded individual who lets him know that he’s “now free to do your own thing!” The Man of Steel gets into the groove one page later by dropping lines like “I can’t play your scene!” and “It stands for peace—something you should dig—but fast!” But Superman is only putting up a

Whether Colletta acted on his own accord or on orders from DC’s management to promote a consistent brand for its licensors, the practice was neither a new one nor a personal slight. Several Curt Swan and Wayne Boring Superman stories of the 1960s included Kurt Schaffenberger faces on their rendition of Lois Lane while Stan Lee some16

selling series in the industry. Finally, the editor made the call himself and broke his ties with the company. After decades of service to DC helming the Man of Steel’s titles and so-called “mythology,” Weisinger stepped down. Effective with Action Comics #393 (Oct. 1970) and Superman #232 (Jan. 1971), he was gone.

Rumors abound that Weisinger was upset that Kirby was being assigned to one of his titles—Jimmy Olsen— without him being consulted about it first (Infantino 111). Rather than comply with the editorial decision, Weisinger retired. Weisinger’s son, Hank, however, offers a different reason for his father’s departure: “I think the real reason he left was he wanted to go on to other things, like novels, perhaps try a screenplay” (Zeno 17).

Indeed, at the time of his retirement Weisinger had already received advance money to write a Signet paperback novel titled The Contest about a fictitious beauty pageant. The Contest was eventually published in 1971.

Top left: A psychedelic Kirby collage. Bottom left: The first appearance of Darkseid.

Right: The Wild Area, a sprawling city made of giant trees. TM and © DC Comics.

times prevailed on John Romita to fix the face of a particular Marvel Comics character. If Kirby cared about this latest alteration of his artwork, he didn’t make a fuss. He simply moved on with his grand vision.

The artist-writer’s search for ways to entertain and enlighten led him into exploring the 1970s groove. The result was a set of comics unlike anything he or any other creator had ever produced. In 1971, Kirby would reveal his full “Fourth World” vision.

His experiment in appealing to the new wave of readers would reach a whole new level. But as 1970 closed, Kirby teased his readers with a brief glimpse of a character that would take up residence at the center of the Fourth World web as the most villainous of all spiders. In the final two panels of Jimmy Olsen #134 (Dec. 1970), Galaxy Broadcasting president Morgan Edge communicated with a strange, grey-faced fellow he called “Darkseid,” and, as Kirby himself told us in the final caption, “the outline of a vast, ominous intrigue begins to take shape!”

Fitting words, perhaps, for the biggest gun in DC’s colorfully-costumed arsenal, the vaunted Man of Steel himself.

Super Sales

But during his time as a comic book editor Weisinger had a well-earned reputation as a taskmaster and an overbearing overseer, so few at DC were unhappy to see him go. “I don’t think Mort opened his arms to anybody,” said Neal Adams. “Mort was not an ‘open-your-arms’ type of guy.

His best relationships seemed to be

In 1970, Superman dominated DC Comics’ output and in many ways that of the industry overall. The character’s combined sales over his halfdozen related titles exceeded two million copies per month in the first year of the 1970s, outselling all his four-color brethren – even if the number of issues sold wasn’t as great as it once was. For nearly 30 years, the Man of Tomorrow and his adventures remained under the dependable stewardship of longtime editor Mort Weisinger.

Inarguably, then, one of Superman’s greatest changes came in the form of Weisinger’s retirement from the industry. Claiming that he had for many years asked for ridiculouslyhigh salary raises to force his employers to oust him, Weisinger found that until 1970 DC supposedly just couldn’t do without him. After all, the Superman titles were the best 17

The final issue of Superman edited by Mort Weisinger. TM and © DC Comics.

with science-fiction writers and letter writers. After they worked their way into his good graces…but for an actual human being to meet him first time, I think he just wanted to crush them” (Eury 99).

that Schwartz took notice of before establishing the duo on Superman. One of the casualties of Weisinger’s retirement was the Legion of Super-Heroes. Their back-up strip ended with Action #392 (Sept. 1970).

With reported sales of almost 450,000 copies on average per issue, Superman out-sold the Batman title by nearly 150,000 copies, and Wonder Woman by more than 250,000. Going into the year, Weisinger’s editorial grip on the title limited the book’s tales to the same fare he had mass-produced in the 1960s: aliens, bizarre changes, misunderstandings and that old DC staple, the “imaginary” story. Interestingly, the editor’s one, rare concession to the then-growing youth movement in his stable of writers was the 22-year-old Cary Bates, who provided the majority of 1970’s Superman stories. “He loved Cary Bates,” Neal Adams pointed out as an exception to Weisinger’s crush-them-all attitude. “The sun rose out of Cary Bates’ ass. Because Cary had ideas that were his kind of ideas” (Eury 101).

But Action Comics didn’t clock in as the second strongestselling Superman title in 1970; that honor would fall to Superboy, which sold 377,000 copies per issue. In fact, Superboy was the second-highest seller of DC’s entire line that year. The first Superman “family” title to leave Weisinger’s editorial fiefdom, Superboy had received an infusion of Marvel-style teenage insecurities in 1968 under new editor Murray Boltinoff and the Frank Robbins-Bob BrownWally Wood creative team. The response to the approach emboldened DC to trying new things with the rest of the Superman franchise and the Superboy team (minus Wood) continued unimpeded in 1970.

Action also fell behind two other Super-titles in sales during 1970. Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen averaged 355,000 and 333,000 copies per month respectively. Lois Lane, which was edited by Weisinger until his retirement in late summer, then

by Weisinger’s former assistant, E. Nelson Bridwell, was written mostly by Robert Kanigher and penciled by veteran artist Irv Novick through 1970.

When Bridwell took full rein on Lois Lane with issue #105 (Oct. 1970), he attempted to update the character for the times.

In that issue, Kanigher introduced a brand-new back-up strip that revived a Golden Age villain with a split personality: “The Rose and the Thorn.” The strip was a heroic revival of the villain Thorn, who Kanigher created at the end of the Golden Age. Her stories reflected the onrushing advent of relevance in comics, as its tone was one of street-level violence and intrigue, rather than cosmic super-hero action. With art by Gray Morrow and Dick Giordano, it was visually set apart from the lead, but her popularity was reflected in the letter column that had its mast adjusted to add Thorn.

Also dominating the Superman title was artist Curt Swan.

The then-fifty-year-old Swan “distilled the look of Superman into a platonic form of what children would like to grow up to be,” and “was the first to make the Caped Kryptonian friendly and approachable” (Zeno 7-8).

By 1970, Swan had been associated with Superman and his supporting characters for over twenty years.

He would be the main penciler on Superman and Action Comics throughout the 1970s.

Julius Schwartz took over as editor of Superman after Weisinger left the company. Reluctant to accept responsibility for the Supertitles, Schwartz, along with writer Denny O’Neil, took a giant leap into the new decade. They immediately set about revising and refreshing the 32-year-old character for the coming year. Longstanding editor Murray Boltinoff received the reins of DC’s secondoldest title, Action Comics with issue #393 (Oct. 1970) and brought in inker Murphy Anderson to spruce up Curt Swan’s penciling on the book. The so-called “Swanderson” art team electrified writer Leo Dorfman’s scripts, something

“The Rose and the Thorn” began its run as a Ross Andru/Mike Esposito-illustrated backup strip in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105. TM and © DC Comics.

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The lead stories in Lois Lane also emphasized relevance, as her adventures became more motivated by

Lois’s role as a reporter for the Daily Planet. In “I Am Curious (Black),” published in Lois Lane #106 (Nov. 1970), Lois decides to interview the residents of a never-before-seen section of Metropolis called Little Africa in order to write a profile of that area of town for the newspaper. She is initially rebuffed by everyone she meets in the neighborhood.

In the span of three pages, 19 people turn a cold shoulder to the intrepid reporter. Among those who snub her is an idealistic young man named Dave Stevens, who berates Lois with accusations that the white people of Metropolis wanted to quarantine black people in a separate section of the city filled with rat-infested slums while refusing to allow them to live in other sections of the city. “That’s why she’s our enemy,” Dave yells, which prompts Lois to think, “He’s wrong about me, but right about so many others.”

Lois decides she needs to find out the true story of Little Africa. After discussing her problem with Superman, he mentions that he has a device called the Plasmoid that can change her skin color to black for 24 hours. Lois enters the magic device and becomes a black woman. On returning to Little Africa, Lois’s experience is completely different.

She is embraced by the people who previously rebuffed her. One woman, who had previously slammed her door in Lois’s face, instead calls the black-skinned Lois “sister” and offers help to the reporter. In her explorations after changing her skin color, Lois discovers a whole different world than she did before – a place where James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” is the virtual soundtrack for the neighborhood, where men and women wear dashikis, separate improvised pre-Kindergartens teach black power, and a pervasive sense of community reigns.

In “I Am Curious Black,” appearing in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #106, Lois becomes an African-American woman to discover the truth about the ghetto in Metropolis. TM and © DC Comics.

inject relevance into occasional Lois Lane adventures, such as her exploration into Native American rights in Lois Lane #110 (May 1971).

Lois runs into Dave Stevens again, and just as the two start talking, Stevens is shot by drug dealers. Lois rushes an unconscious Stevens to the hospital and offers a blood transfusion in order to save his life. As the blood goes into the man’s body, Lois’s skin gets paler again. The Plasmoid’s effects are prematurely wearing off. Superman wonders to Lois, “If he still hates you with your blood in his veins, there may never be peace in the world!” But in a silent conclusion, Stevens first is shocked about the identity of the woman who saved him before gratitude crosses his face, and Lois and Dave happily shake hands as the story concludes.

As the 1970s began, Adventure Comics, hosting the adventures of Superman’s cousin, Supergirl, was the lowest selling title in the Superman family. The comic had lost over 200,000 copies in sales over the previous five years, first with cover-feature Legion of Super-Heroes and then in 1968 with the heroine. The prolific Kanigher and Dorfman handled the bulk of the writing chores for the Maid of Might in the first half of the year, with Kurt Schaffenberger and J. Winslow Mortimer on art. In mid-year, with Adventure #397 (Sept. 1970), Mike Sekowsky took over the Supergirl feature. Concurrently driving a 180-degree turnaround of DC’s Wonder Woman character, Sekowsky acted as editor, writer and artist for what Adventure’s covers would declare as the “New” Supergirl. Sporting a drastically-revised “mod” costume, Supergirl’s new adventures took on a more topical 1970s flavor, but the changes did not translate into increased sales.

Odd as it was, the story was an attempt to portray the real racial tensions that were pervasive in America’s big cities in that era. A few issues after the story appeared, a DC editorial claimed that the response to the story was overall positive (one letter that was printed in Lois Lane #110 called it “the story of the year”) and that “I Am Curious (Black)” gained attention on national television.

World’s Finest, the title Superman shared with Batman since 1941, sold almost as well in 1970 as those of the Man of Steel’s friends, Jimmy and Lois. But in World’s Finest #198 (Nov. 1970), Batman was booted from the book by editor Julius Schwartz, charged with shaking up the status quo. The title now mirrored the successful The Brave and the Bold by pairing Superman with other heroes from the DC Universe, beginning with a two-part race between the Man of Steel and the Flash. There was perhaps no surer sign of the Gotham Guardian’s late ’60s decline than being shoved aside in favor of other characters.

A sequel to “I Am Curious (Black)”, also by Kanigher and Roth, appeared in Lois Lane #114 (Sept. 1971). The new story featured the return of Dave Stevens and included a two-page spread spotlighting historical black figures. Less shrill than the earlier story, the issue concluded with Stevens being hired as “the first black columnist on the (Daily) Planet” after a protest against a real estate development promoted by a group of criminals. Stevens would hold that job for much of the 1970s. Bridwell would continue to 19

Tearing Down the Camp As the 1970s began, Batman and Detective Comics were two of the lowerselling comics in the DC line. However, big changes were ahead for Batman that would help to return the character to iconic status.

DC editor Julius Schwartz, who had overseen a radical alteration of the character in 1964—known as the “New Look”—instituted what is sometimes referred to as “New Look II” at the end of 1969. Written by Frank Robbins and penciled by Irv Novick, Batman #217 (Dec. 1969) aimed to suffuse the Caped Crusader with dark surroundings and detective abilities while jettisoning the baggage that was perceived to weigh the Caped Crusader down, specifically Robin, the Batcave and the more outré Batmobiles. Enthusiastically received by loyal readers, “New Look II” dominated 1970.

Batman’s 1970 began with a bang in Detective #395 (Jan. 1970). Neal Adams had long desired to return Batman to his classic “creature of the night” status and had made some

strides towards a darker approach beginning in 1968’s The Brave and The Bold #79, along with writer Bob Haney. Adams felt keenly than DC’s management just didn’t understand Batman. He was finally given the chance to illustrate Detective over a Denny O’Neil script (Kronenburg 129).

The results were highly acclaimed.

Interestingly, Adams and O’Neil did not know each other well at the time that they began working together.

They were teamed more for editorial convenience than for creative spark (Kronenburg 196). Whether by intent or not, however, the creative team clicked on Batman. O’Neil saw Detective #395 as “our announcement to the world that this is not your father’s Batman” (Kronenburg 194). The story was, in fact, more akin to the readers’ grandfather’s Batman. Together, Adams and O’Neil helped solidify a more modern look and tone for Batman that has become iconic.

“The Secret of the Waiting Graves” is set in Mexico, on the estate of a wealthy acquaintance of Bruce Wayne. This acquaintance, along with his hauntingly beautiful wife, attempts to murder a government agent. Batman saves the agent’s life but that intervention embroils the Caped Crusader in the mystery of his strange hosts.

There is a supernatural aspect to the story as the duo purport to be immortal, due to the “Sybil flower” they grow in a ruined monastery.

By the story’s end, Bat-

Man-Bat debuted in Detective Comics #400.

TM and © DC Comics.

man prevails, but questions linger as to his hosts’ true natures.

The 16-page story features only Batman; there is no Batmobile, Robin, Commissioner Gordon or bat-gadgets present, nor any glimpse of Gotham City. O’Neil fills the tale with gothic panache, putting his hero into situations that require ingenuity, detection and, ultimately, sheer force of will.

“The Secret of the Waiting Graves” barely resembles the previous few decades’ worth of Batman tales.

O’Neil and Adams would only team up a total of three times on Batman stories in 1970. The person who wrote the most stories for Schwartz’s Batman titles during the year was Frank Robbins. Trained as an artist and known for his writing and illus-

Left: writer Denny O’Neil saw Detective Comics #395 as “our announcement to the world that this is not your father’s Batman.” Above: Man-Bat’s return was heralded in an ad in Detective Comics. TM and © DC Comics.

20

trating the Johnny Hazard comic strip, Robbins’ first scripting work on the Caped Crusader came in 1968. He would have to wait a bit longer to provide DC with his art.

Robbins wrote for both Batman and Detective, as editor Schwartz seemed to see no real difference between the two books and shuffled writers and artists between them at will. For the Bat-titles with a 1970 cover date, Robbins wrote nineteen scripts, O’Neil wrote eleven and Mike Friedrich contributed seven back-up stories. Robbins was responsible for such stand-out 1970 Batman moments as an appearance of the Beatles-like Oliver Twists musical group and the debut of Man-Bat. Years later, Schwartz and Neal Adams both took credit for that name, acknowledging the impact Man-Bat had as the Batman series’ most enduring new creation of 1970. Detective Comics #400 (June 1970) introduces Kirk Langstrom, an “eminent nocturnal-mammal expert” (as he describes himself) who experiments on bats and injects himself with “ever-increasing doses of gland-extract.” The injections cause Langstrom to transform into a “man-bat,” a monstrous blending of human and bat with much of the natural abilities of the latter but the intelligence of the former. After helping Batman foil a gang of thieves who can operate in complete darkness, the transformed scientist runs away when the hero insists on knowing his true nature. At story’s end, Batman muses to himself that ManBat “would make a formidable friend! Or…foe?” Man-Bat returned two issues later and became a mainstay of the Batman family.

Missing from Batman’s 1970 adventures is his famous rogues gallery. In fact, there are really no costumed villains present at all in Batman comics that year. The last established villain to appear was the Joker, in the June 1969 issue of Detective.

Green Arrow exposes Green Lantern to the real problems in society, in Green Lantern #76. TM and © DC Comics.

STOP! This is NEW

offensive to witness Mal kissing the white Lilith. Mal, portrayed in the story as an inner-city youth, would earn the trust and respect of the other Titans, yet never fully that of the book’s fans.

The notion that characters needed to address relevant issues was prevalent throughout DC and Marvel’s titles. The cover year kicked off with editor Dick Giordano bringing that relevance to Teen Titans by having the young heroes take on real world matters.

Experimentation was definitely on everyone’s minds at DC in 1970, whether it was trying out radical new characters in mid-level books or shaking up the status quo in struggling titles—such as Green Lantern. The Emerald Gladiator took a heavy hit in sales in 1969, dropping from a monthly sales average of 211,000 copies to 160,000. Fans felt the title had become directionless, with a rotating group of writers creating mainly uninspired tales. According to the newszine Newfangles, Green Lantern was three issues away from cancellation.

Giordano tasked writer Robert Kanigher to try his hand with the junior version of the Justice League, as the two men decided to try something different for the former sidekicks: they dispensed with their colorful costumes.

Flush with the initial success of Wonder Woman’s “Emma Peel” phase, DC guessed that readers might appreciate a more realistic tone to the teenage super-hero book. In Teen Titans #25 (Feb. 1970) the Titans became embroiled in a shooting at a “peace rally” that resulted in the death of a white activist similar to Martin Luther King Jr. Feeling guilty over his assassination, the young heroes laid down their powers and color-laden fighting togs to enter a world of ambiguous grays.

Then Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams completely changed Green Lantern’s status quo. Topped by the words “STOP! This is the NEW Green Lantern Co-Starring Green Arrow,” the intense cover of issue #76 (April 1970) signaled a new era in the life of the emerald warrior. On the cover, the Emerald Archer shatters his friend’s power lantern while Green Lantern is reciting his oath. That image sets the tone for what would transpire inside the book. O’Neil wove a narrative of social issues and political idealism in “No Evil

In the next issue, DC introduced one of its very first—albeit non-costumed—black heroes, with Mal Duncan. That same issue also included what is considered the first interracial kiss in a comic book, a scene that was colored mono-chromatically to “hide” it from those who might find it 21

1970), Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen begin their “fact-finding” trip across the country accompanied by a Guardian known only as the Old-Timer. Their first stop brings the group to the insular American town of Desolation, where the heroes involve themselves in a complicated battle between townspeople fighting for a better way of life and the rich man of the town as he tried to keep the poor people from organizing. Green Arrow’s girlfriend Black Canary joins the team in Green Lantern #78 (July 1970). She lends a hand against a mind-controlling cult leader in that issue.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow won multiple Academy of Comic Book Arts’ Shazam Awards for 1970. The comic book won the award for Best Continuing Feature while “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight” won the Shazam Award for Best Story. The creative team each won his own award: O’Neil for Best Drama Writer, Adams for Best Drama Artist and Giordano for Best Drama Inker. The comic was written up in Newsweek and The Village Voice and became popular on college campuses (Brodsky 66).

In one of the most famous panels in comics history, Green Lantern is confronted by the idea that he needs to learn about his own world. TM and © DC Comics.

Despite the accolades, revenues for the title did not improve. In fact, Green Lantern continued to sink in sales over the course of the year.

As editor Schwartz noted, “sales had dropped. The average reader was not interested in relevancy. Publicity is not worth two cents if you don’t buy the magazine” (Brodsky 67). Despite the low sales, relevance was in fashion, and GL would influence a number of other comic book titles both in 1970 and for years to come. As a testament to its importance, Green Lantern #76 would end up being one of the most reprinted comics of the entire era.

Shall Escape My Sight” that displaced Green Lantern’s usual penchant for cosmic escapades and crafty super-villains.

In this radically different comic, which seemed to fit the mood of the times, Green Lantern faced an angry, liberalminded Green Arrow and was presented with arguments of social injustices from more than one side. By the end of the story, and with no easy answers, Green Lantern agrees to a cross-country road-trip with his friend and one of his intergalactic bosses to “find” America.

O’Neil was handed the book as the result of editor Julius Schwartz’ frustration with its sales and indifference to the series’ direction. After arriving from Charlton with Giordano, O’Neil quickly captured Schwartz’s fancy. The veteran editor trusted O’Neil, who had written GL #63 (with a cover

by Neal Adams), #64, #68 and #72 as well as several other stories for Schwartz’s comics. With nothing much to lose in terms of sales, O’Neil was given Green Lantern as a fulltime assignment. Provided more creative freedom than he was accustomed, O’Neil decided that Green Lantern would become a venue for his own interests in peace activism, as well as his experience as a journalist in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in the mid-1960s. “Hal Jordan would stand for middle America conservatism,” O’Neil explained. “And Ollie [Green Arrow] being the East Village radical. People always assumed that my politics were Ollie’s and though I was closer to his than Hal’s, I was not Ollie Queen” (Cooke, “Shadows of Reality” 58).

Meanwhile, DC’s modernization of Wonder Woman as a stylish plainclothes adventurer celebrated its second birthday in 1970 under writer/penciller/editor Mike Sekowsky.

Venturing into territory inconceivable to most of her former costumed comrades, Diana Prince even journeyed into Southeast Asia and defended herself against Red Chinese pilots with a machine gun in WW #189 (July-August 1970).

Stories like that and issue #190-192’s foray into sword-andsorcery were unconventional, perhaps enough so to derail the sales momentum that the revamp had originally fueled. For 1970, Wonder Woman’s sales averaged 171,000 copies a month, placing it as one of DC’s lowest-selling super-hero titles—only a bit ahead of fellow Justice Leaguer Green Lantern’s 158,000 monthly sales average.

The ubiquitous O’Neil led DC’s collection of their most popular heroes, the Justice League of America, into the decade.

During 1970 JLA sold an average 200,000 copies a month, which meant the title ran far behind rival Marvel Comics’ equivalent team books, Fantastic Four and Avengers, which sold, on average, 285,000 and 217,000 copies per issue, respectively. As in Green Lantern, O’Neil explored relevance

For the next dozen issues, O’Neil and Adams explored the world right outside of the readers’ windows rather than the one in their imaginations. In Green Lantern #77 (June 22

in the pages of JLA, with a treatise on pollution in issues #78-79 (Feb. & March 1970). He gave way to Kanigher, who picked up the social relevance theme with a story about curbing aggression in JLA #84 (Nov. 1970). Just to shake things up—or at least make the attempt at aping Marvel’s serialized sub-plotting —Kanigher even suggested a heretofore-unknown romance between old-timer Batman and Earth-2 transplant Black Canary in JLA #84. Sales on the title improved only marginally in 1970. Mike Friedrich was then installed as the series’ regular writer and he focused on ecological disaster in JLA #86 (Dec. 1970). Just as with Green Lantern, Justice League was three issues away from cancellation in 1970 due to declining sales. However, the modern focus and feel of the Justice League—perhaps best exemplified by the modernization of the team’s base via the introduction of their satellite headquarters in JLA #7879—helped stabilize the comic’s circulation.

DC’s romance titles also introduced several multi-part continued stories in 1970, with one of the most notable being the Giordano-edited “20 Miles to Heartbreak,” a treatise on racism which centered on an affluent white woman and her Hispanic boyfriend. The tale began in Young Love #78 (Jan./Feb. 1970), continued in Secret Hearts #141-142 (Jan.Mar. 1970) and concluded in Young Love #79 (Apr. 1970).

All of the chapters were written by Barbara Friedlander with art by Alex Toth and Vince Colletta.

War comics also still had a home at DC in 1970. StarSpangled War Stories #151 replaced the adventures of the World War I flying hero Enemy Ace with the first missions of a new character, the bandaged secret agent known as the Unknown Soldier. Meanwhile, Our Army at War continued to feature Sgt. Rock while G.I. Combat spotlighted the Haunted Tank. The Tank had also played host to a new collection of former lead characters in a 1969 try-out story, and in Our Fighting Forces #123 (Jan. 1970) the Losers—Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud and Gunner and Sarge—won out over Hunter’s Hellcats for a continuing spot in the title.

But costumed—or non-costumed—crusading wasn’t the only genre DC produced in 1970.

The company maintained a line of romance titles, including Falling in Love, Girls’ Love Stories, Girls’ Romances, Heart Throbs, In addition to its war line, DC reSecret Hearts, Young Love and vived its dormant western comYoung Romance. As the decade ics line with a classic title that dawned, the “girl’s” line was had been cancelled nine years still in the throes of an idenpreviously: All-Star Western. The tity crisis following the firing first issue from editor Dick Giorof editor Jack Miller which left dano featured cover-to-cover the books divided among Murreprints, but in All-Star Western ray Boltinoff, Dick Giordano, and #2 (Nov. 1970), new Western Joe Orlando. The visual moderncharacters Outlaw and El Diablo ization spearheaded by Miller rode into town courtesy of writer was still in place, but the scripts Robert Kanigher and artists Tony themselves became stodgier as DeZuñiga and Gray Morrow. The younger voices like Gerry Conlong-running Tomahawk did an way (who scripted Secret Hearts abrupt about-face in issue #131 #147’s full-length “Cry Soul: Cry (Nov. 1970) when that series Love” (October 1970)) and Barbaleft the Revolutionary War bera Friedlander were supplanted hind and focused on the titular by middle-aged men such as Bob hero’s son Hawk and his Native Haney, Bob Kanigher, George American wife. The series was Kashdan, Jack Oleck, and Carl renamed Son of Tomahawk.

Wessler. Reprints still peppered Super DC Giant #S-17 presented reprints behind its new cover – with many issues—including Super To compete with companies like women’s hairstyles and fashions updated to fit the times.

TM and © DC Comics.

DC Giant #S-17’s “Love 1970” giGold Key and Harvey, both of ant—with the original female whom focused on licensed prophairstyles and fashions scrupulously updated. erties, DC revved up its engines with Hot Wheels #1 (April 1970). Based on Mattel Toys’ popular line of miniature Current events were sometimes name-checked (as in Fallautomobiles and the then-current ABC animated cartoon, ing In Love #118’s “I Found My Love at the Woodstock FesHot Wheels boasted the talents of legendary artist Alex tival”), but stories like Girls’ Love Stories #148’s “My Double Toth, who had also worked on designs for a Hot Wheels Love” betrayed the relative conservatism of their writers. animated cartoon. The book ran out of gas just five issues Ditching her straitlaced boyfriend for a hippie, Leah soon later. wised up, shuddering, “You’ve got B.O., buster…and (ugh) those filthy fingernails!” Occasional stories rose above the herd, though, such as Girls’ Romances #153’s tale of a woman moving on after her husband’s death in Vietnam while trying not to scare off a prospective new boyfriend with her young son.

That summer, DC also made an investment against rising page rates, the loss of dependable old pros, ever-increasing printing costs and the threat of unionization. Infantino and DC’s president Sol Harrison journeyed to the Philippines, guided by Tony DeZuñiga, to scout experienced talent who 23

would work relatively cheaply. As a result, they found incredibly prolific, fast, and gifted artists. They signed a deal with Nestor Redondo, who ran CRAF Publishing, a group that included Alfredo Alcala and Alex Niño, paving the way for a new wave of talents to gain work in the coming years. Led

by Redondo, who had a lush, illustrative style, these artists would provide countless stories across the genres, a need that was about to explode the following year (Knowles 125-6).

“Mighty Marvel’s On the Move Again!!”

By 1970, Stan Lee had become both the driving force and the public face behind Marvel’s prominence in the comics industry. Lee was Marvel Comics to its fans. Behind the scenes, though, he had begun to relinquish more and more writing chores to others, especially Roy Thomas. Lee took on even more public relations duties as 1970 progressed, such as his speaking engagements on the lucrative college campus circuit. And though Lee was stung by the loss of his most popular collaborator, Jack Kirby, he took the high ground. With his September 1970 “Stan’s Soapbox” column Lee offered only a sober and succinct mention of the industry-shattering event: Who says lightning never strikes twice? Remember a few years back when Steve Ditko suddenly left the hallowed halls of Marvel to seek his fortunes elsewhere? Well, at the time of this writing (early in March), Jack Kirby has unexpectedly announced his resignation from our surprised but stalwart little staff.

And with that announcement, an era officially ended: the King had abdicated his throne.

As Roy Thomas— a writer and Lee’s assistant editor at Marvel since 1965—recalled: “Everybody was really stunned when Jack quit and nobody more so than Stan, because he really hadn’t seen it coming” (Amash 14). While Kirby produced

no new comics for Marvel’s line, his artwork still appeared in reprint titles like Marvel’s Greatest Comics and The Mighty Marvel Western. This kept Kirby’s work in print at Marvel even after he left the company.

Even aside from Kirby’s departure, Marvel was somewhat in flux in 1970. For nine years the publisher had created a universe of action/adventure titles and characters that fused into a continuity never seen before by the industry. Much of this continuity sprang from the shared work of Lee and Kirby, but as the 1960s wore on, Lee had steadily given up the writing chores on many of his titles.

Sales were good across almost the entire Marvel line. Most core Marvel titles sold on average between 200,000-250,000 copies per month, though linewide sales were not enough to overtake rival DC’s full line of titles. That milestone would come before long.

Marvel’s line in 1970 was The fanzine Marvelmania #1 reported Kirby’s departure from quite diverse. Less than half Marvel as “Possibly the biggest news-story in Marvel history.”

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. of the comics that the House of ideas published in most returned to all full pages with its Sepmonths were new super-hero titles. tember 1971 issues, the page numFor instance, Marvel released 26 combers disappeared. ics with a January 1970 cover date.

Of those, eleven were new superIn 1970, Lee not only released a few hero comics, five were humor comnew titles, he had also cancelled a fair ics, three were westerns, two were number of series as well, like Silver war comics, two were reprints, two Surfer, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, were horror comics, and one was a roX-Men, the war hero Captain Savage mance comic. and the spy world of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel mostly treaded Marvel took an odd tack cautiously in 1970 with super-hero to cutting its costs in anthologies (Amazing Adventures, 1970. From May 1970 Astonishing Tales), Westerns (Outlaw to August 1971, Marvel’s Kid, Ringo Kid, Western Gunfighters), reduced its story pages reprints (Fear, Ka-Zar, Where Creafrom twenty to nineteen tures Roam, Where Monsters Dwell), in a very unusual way: parody (Spoof), and a couple of kid two half pages ran across humor books (Harvey, Li’l Kids) repreeach issue’s center-spread senting the majority of its new titles. yet were numbered as full pages in order to give But one new Marvel title in 1970 the appearance that the caused a major stir among fans of hestories were still twenty roic comics. pages long. When Marvel 24

The Hyborean Hustle The youth movement of the 1960s renewed interest in fantasy and pulp literature. According to Roy Thomas, by the end of the 1960s, Marvel had been receiving a multitude of requests from its readers for the company to adapt the works of such fantasists as Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard. To appease the readers, Stan Lee tasked Thomas with writing a memo to Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, requesting some funds for the licensing of an extant sword and sorcery property. When Goodman approved, the search began. Assuming the rights to Howard’s popular barbarian character Conan wouldn’t fit within Marvel’s budget, Thomas instead pursued other properties. Failing with those, he returned to Conan… and scored him. Thomas describes how it happened: We didn’t initially go after Conan because we thought his popularity in all the paperbacks would have too high a price tag.

So we went after Lin Carter’s Thongor, but Lin’s agent…stalled us. Finally, I just got annoyed, picked up the latest book, Conan of Cimmeria, and saw the address in there of this guy [Glenn Lord]…listed as ‘literary agent’ for the Howard estate. So I dropped him a line, and said, ‘Look – we don’t have much money to offer you but I have the go-ahead to do a sword-and-sorcery comic from Goodman, so…’” (Cooke, “The Heir Apparent” 21).

The Cimmerian, who made his debut in a 1932 Weird Tales pulp story, was officially given the Mighty Marvel treatment in Conan the Barbarian #1 (Oct. 1970), written by Thomas and illustrated by British artist Barry Smith (who would win the Shazam Award for Best New Talent of 1970). Smith had begun drawing for the company a year earlier, with a heavy Kirby influence but by this point, his own style was rapidly evolving into a distinctive look, more illustrative than powerful.

Bowing to reader requests, Marvel launched Conan the Barbarian, written by Roy Thomas with art by Barry Smith. Conan TM and © CPI.

to explain why, starting with Conan #8, sales on the title began to improve. The series lasted until the early 1990s, and Marvel would continue to publish other Conan comic books even after that.

The sword and sorcery comics genre wasn’t a hit from the get-go. As Thomas explained in an interview for American Comic Book Chronicles, Conan #1 had a small print run but a good sell-through percentage. Its scarcity added to its allure. The next six issues each sold worse than its preceding issue, so much so that with Conan #7, Stan Lee decided to cancel the series. Lee told Thomas he was cancelling Conan to free up Smith for a different Marvel title. Thomas countered that a series shouldn’t be cancelled simply so an artist can be moved to a different assignment. With that, Lee put Conan back on schedule. Months prior to the cancellation (which lasted all of one day), Lee encouraged Thomas and Smith to have Conan’s covers feature humanoid menaces rather than the animalistic monsters the covers to issues #4 through #7 displayed. That’s as a good a reason as any

The Wider Web Marvel’s best-selling series of 1970 was Amazing SpiderMan, which sold an average of 330,000 copies per issue. It remained one of the few series still written by Lee as he divested himself of most of his writing chores. Stan Lee had encapsulated every quirk and stumble of youth in the title. By 1970 Spider-Man was being held up as an example of “real” emotions and feeling among the super-hero set.

Along with a rotating crew of artists, including John Romita, John Buscema, Jim Mooney and Gil Kane, Lee was poised to make the 1970s a swingin’ time for the wall-crawler, utilizing terms and ideas in his stories that would resonate 25

tim of a frenzied attack on the wall-crawler by the tentacled Doctor Octopus. After this event, SpiderMan’s world would never be the same – and that would be no hype. The worst was yet to come for the popular hero and his readers, as 1970 ended with a distraught Gwen blaming Peter’s alter-ego for his presumed murder of her father.

This was the first death of a major Amazing SpiderMan cast member. In fact, up until 1970, permanent death in comic book stories had been a rarity. Heroes and villains fought and lived to fight another day, while funny animals and goofball teens lived in a kind of deathless vacuum. Previous to Stacy, only Frederick Foswell, a villain-turned reporter, had lost his life in Spidey’s title years before. The death of Captain Stacy sent a signal to readers that the new decade would be different from the one that just ended. No character was safe. Spider-Man would learn that fact the hard way in the years to come.

The Kirby-Less Fantastic Four

Captain George Stacy, Gwen’s father and Spider-Man’s friend, is killed saving a boy’s life while Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

with political-minded readers, like “commie,” “liberal” and “protest rally.” He knew what fans were thinking about in 1970. The shooting at Kent State in Ohio and similar news items would provide much fodder for Amazing Spider-Man in the year to come.

Kirby’s speed and his devotion to duty ensured several issues of FF were fully drawn when he announced his flight to DC, so several final Lee-Kirby extravaganzas appeared through most of 1970 on the title. The year began with the very belated christening of Reed and Sue Richards’s son, Franklin Benjamin Richards, in Fantastic Four #94 (Jan. 1970). The witch Agatha Harkness is introduced as Franklin’s governess in that issue, which offered readers an unusually creepy and atmospheric Lee-Kirby FF tale. From there, the team encountered their usual adversaries and even the famous “First Man on the Moon” astronaut Neil Armstrong (FF #98, May 1970), but all eyes looked forward to the book’s “centennial” installment.

Spider-Man’s second decade kicked off relatively quietly, with stories of the hero combating old foes like the Chameleon and Electro, along with new opponents like the Kangaroo and the Schemer. Unrest among young people was a central theme of both the times and the Spider-Man comic.

That theme grew as the year progressed; Peter Parker’s world darkened as real-life concerns like drugs and campus protests became more prevalent. It was only a matter of time before Amazing Spider-Man would shoot out with its first real punch to the guts of the readers, in terms of storytelling.

By the November 1970 cover-dated issue, Peter’s relationship with the beautiful naïf Gwen Stacy took a turn for the worse. The cover of Amazing Spider-Man #90 portended the death of a character, alluded to by the caption “Spider-Man – The Killer!” and the limp, shadowy figure cradled in the hero’s arms. The figure from the cover was Gwen’s father, Police Captain George Stacy, who was the vic-

In 1970 Fantastic Four was the company’s secondbest selling book with average monthly sales of 285,000 copies per issue. More than any other Marvel title, Fantastic Four was truly the joint brainchild of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. As a result, the title felt Kirby’s departure more than any other book he had worked on.

Fantastic Four #100 was the first new Marvel Age comic to hit that milestone issue. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

26

Fantastic Four #100 (July 1970) was a milestone as the first “Marvel Age” title that debuted in the 1960s to hit the hallowed one-hundredth issue mark. For the occasion, Lee and Kirby pulled out all stops to feature just about every foe the FF had ever previously fought – albeit in android form.

At that time, few fans were aware that Jack Kirby had already defected to DC, so the anniversary played out in relatively festive form for loyal FF followers. However, after Fantastic Four #102 (Sept. 1970), Kirby’s art left

the lives of Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben. Lee installed longtime Amazing SpiderMan artist John Romita in Kirby’s place, and readers immediately proceeded to argue over the merits of Romita versus Kirby.

Marvel Universe In 1970, sales on The Avengers title trailed the sales of the series’ individual heroes’ respective solo books. The Avengers averaged about 217,000 copies sold per issue, while Captain America and Thor sold slightly better (225,000 and 232,000 respectively).

The Black Panther, often considered the first true black costumed super-hero, became the focus of an Avengers story when a racist terrorist group, the Sons of the Serpent, targeted him in Avengers #73 (Feb. 1970). Artist John Buscema and writer Roy Thomas then introduced the otherworldly warrior Arkon the Imperion in issue #75 (April 1970). AvengThe Native American hero Red Wolf debuted in Avengers #80. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. ers #80 (Sept. 1970) continued the trend of minority super-heroes by unveiling taking the place of the strip’s original teenager, Rick Jones, Red Wolf, a Native American do-gooder later revealed as who had since been moved by Thomas to Captain Marvel. the descendent of an Old West Red Wolf. The Western Red Wolf would go on to receive his own short-lived comic in Iron Man #21 (Jan. 1970) brought in black boxer Eddie 1972.

March and placed him in Tony Stark’s famous armor, predating the later and more well-known “black Iron Man” of the 1980s, War Machine Jim Rhodes. Six months later, Iron Man #27 (July 1970) introduced black villain Firebrand.

Frustrated after years of peaceful civil protests seemed to have gotten him nowhere, Firebrand put on a costume— with a bold “clenched fist” logo emblematic of the Black Power movement—and started committing terrorist acts to get his point across.

Native Americans were front-and-center in 1970 thanks to a nineteen-month stand-off on Alcatraz Island between a protesting band of Indians and the American government. Begun in 1969, the occupation of the former prison site raised much public awareness of the Native Americans’ plight and led to some government deregulation of tribes. Avengers #80 seemed to advise against radicalism of any stripe, a centrist position that went hand-in-hand with Stan Lee’s ideology. But as the decade progressed, the younger writers coming into the comics industry would begin to change that view in favor of more liberal thought and deed.

One of the most curious behind-the-scenes Marvel stories of 1970 revolved around the X-Men title, which had meandered through the 1960s with ever-declining sales. In 1966, the book sold around 255,000 copies per issue. By 1970 it was at the bottom of Marvel’s sales chart at 180,000 units per issue.

Thor, another book dominated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby throughout the 1960s, also felt the loss of Kirby in 1970.

Kirby’s pencils were being inked on the title by his fellow Golden Age titan Bill Everett, but by late 1970 Kirby’s defection to DC allowed the art chores on Thor to move first into the hands of Neal Adams and then quickly to John Buscema. Both men’s work was inked by veteran embellisher Joe Sinnott.

Though the book didn’t sell well, that wasn’t due to a lack of creativity by the writers and artists who worked on it. In X-Men #64 (Jan. 1970), Roy Thomas, with the help of artists Don Heck and Tom Palmer, created a new Japanese mutant called Sunfire whose powers sprang from the radiation his mother was exposed to from the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. In the next issue, writer Denny O’Neil, working once again with Neal Adams, resurrected the XMen’s leader Professor Xavier, who had “died” in X-Men #42 (March 1968). Unfortunately, his resurrection came too late to be expounded upon as the decision was made to cancel ­X-Men with issue #66 (March 1970).

With writer Roy Thomas and artist Herb Trimpe in tow, 1970 brought the possibility of a wedding for the longsuffering couple of the Hulk’s alter-ego Bruce Banner and Betty Ross. Banner’s on-again-off-again transformations into the brutish Hulk would, however, set the actual wedding date back for two decades. The Incredible Hulk #131 (Sept. 1970) shook up the status quo a bit by introducing a black character into the mix. Jim Wilson, born in strifetorn Watts, California, became the Hulk’s new “sidekick,”

The story doesn’t end there, though, because shortly thereafter—and much to Marvel’s surprise—sales figures showed that the final few issues of X-Men had actually sold 27

rial for more than thirty years. Archie, the perennial teenager, could be found in no less than seven different titles sporting his name in 1970, plus various books about his friends, such as Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Reggie and Josie and the Pussycats. Archie’s publisher won sales success by constantly updating fashions, fads and language to reflect the times and appeal to the girls who loved the adventures in Riverdale.

Ka-Zar, written and drawn by Jack Kirby, and Doctor Doom, by Roy Thomas and Wally Wood, shared the split-book anthology Astonishing Tales #1. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

quite well. X-Men was subsequently revived as a reprint title. Released nine months after the final all-new issue, X-Men #67 (Dec. 1970) reprinted X-Men #12 and #13 (July-Sept. 1965).

There was no chance X-Men would become one of Marvel’s best-sellers by reprinting stories from the 1960s, but at least the title remained on the newsstands. The true heyday for the mutants would come several years later.

Two new double-feature comics appeared on the stands in May 1970, reviving the split-book idea that had wrapped up in 1968 with the transfer of Captain America, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Sub-Mariner into their own solo titles. Both of the new comics premiered with stories created by Jack Kirby. Amazing Adventures #1 boasted a ten-page Kirby story featuring the Inhumans alongside a ten-page Black Widow story

by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten. Astonishing Tales #1 led with a Kirby story, written by Stan Lee and starring Ka-Zar, Lord of the Hidden Jungle, followed by a Doctor Doom story by Roy Thomas and Wally Wood.

Both anthologies would run as split books throughout 1970 and 1971.

Ka-Zar also received a three-issue reprint series in 1970, which, uniquely enough, featured new back-up stories. Ka-Zar #2 and #3 presented solo adventures of X-Men member The Angel, written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

A significant boost to sales also came from the continued updating of the existing Archie TV cartoon, from 1968’s Archie Show to 1969’s The Archie Comedy Hour and finally to 1970’s two-and-a-half hours of Sabrina and the Groovy Goolies, Josie and the Pussycats and Archie’s Funhouse.

Sabrina, a teen witch character, did not have a comic book of her own in 1970, but she received prominent cover billing in the quarterly 64-page giant Archie’s TV Laugh-Out, which had a title reminiscent of the highest rated TV show of the 1968 and 1969 seasons, Laugh-In. In the coming year Sabrina’s star would rise even higher.

In a nod to the relevancy trend of the day, a story in the landmark Archie #200 (June 1970) played on the recently-introduced movie ratings system and the growing reputation of “G” rated films as simply dull kiddie fodder. For its part, Archie Comics had

Bigger things were still ahead for “little” Marvel; the company would merrily march into the decade with several big changes just over the horizon.

Teens, TV Tie-ins and All the Rest Aside from the fictional fisticuffs and angst offered up by Marvel and DC, one of the most amazing comic book success stories of 1970 was that of a fictional teenager from the heartland of America. This young lad did not come out of nowhere; he’d been sipping malts, cutting class, and getting into more than his fair share of hijinks since 1941. His name was Archie, and his eponymous comic book sold on average 483,000 copies per issue in 1970. That meant that Archie sold more copies than Superman.

Archie Comics Publications had been releasing its tried-and-true mate28

Josie and the Pussycats were Saturday Morning cartoon stars and comics leads.

TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

in fact built a thriving and healthy brand on that very same variety of parent-approved wholesomeness.

Archie Comics offered the appeal of not solemn pontification on issues of the day, as with DC and Marvel, but ample humor and endless variations on their central cast of characters. DC and Marvel courted a progressivelyaging male audience, while Archie profited by extending an invitation to kids to muse on their own life experiences and not just about men wearing colorful costumes. And the company knew that a significant number of those young readers were teen and pre-teen girls.

The other working mainstream comic publishers at the time gave Marvel’s and DC’s output a run for the consumers’ money. Comics such as Fawcett’s Dennis the Menace and Gold Key’s Tarzan sold 285,000 to 320,000 copies of each issue. Much of Gold Key, Dell, and Charlton’s comics product in 1970 were licensed television tie-ins such as, respectively, H.R. Pufnstuf, Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and Hee Haw, which fed the children’s market with more adventures of their favorite TV cartoon and live-action pals. Because of Gold Key’s efforts in particular, a 1970 consumer would be hard-pressed to find a TV show aimed at the younger crowd that didn’t have a matching comic book on the stands.

Gold Key also offered ample opportunities for former super-hero writers like Arnold Drake, whose diverse résumé on characters ranging from Jerry Lewis to Deadman made him well qualified to contribute to such titles as New Terrytoons, Dudley Do-Right, and Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery. As Drake recalled: In 1970, I met with Wallace I. (Wally) Green, who ran the East Coast division of Western Publishing [parent company of Gold Key]. They needed someone to write Little Lulu. Wally preferred the writer work with a pencil instead of a typewriter—that is, I draw storyboards instead of typing manuscripts. Having enjoyed cartooning as a kid, I decided to take a crack at it. I found that Wally was right, you could get far more

Archie Comics characters were a major part of CBS-TV’s Saturday Morning cartoon line-up in 1970.

TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

juice out of the story if you actually laid out each panel and placed the balloons. All the animated magazines I wrote at Western were done that way. (Reed 61) Connecticut-based Charlton Comics had bowed out of the super-hero scene by 1970 with the notable exception of newspaper-strip adaptation The Phantom, which Charlton had acquired from Gold Key the previous year. The early stories were written by veteran Dick Wood and relative newcomer Steve Skeates. Initially illustrated by various artists such as Charlton mainstays Frank McLaughlin and Pat Boyette, The Phantom was eventually illustrated by Jim Aparo.

Arguably the first costumed adventurer, the jungle hero was part of the King Features Syndicate collection of characters that Charlton was licensing, a group that included Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Beetle Bailey, Blondie and Popeye. Critically acclaimed artist Mike Kaluta’s first color comics story appeared in Flash Gordon #18 (Jan. 1970). Selling an average of 205,000 copies per issue that year, Popeye sold better than some DC titles, like Justice League of America, Flash and Wonder Woman. Also in 1970, Charlton offered up a one-of-a-kind comic: a fastfood tie-in, Ronald McDonald. That title sat oddly alongside the company’s horror books at the time, The Many 29

Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Ghost Manor and Ghostly Tales. Charlton also had a large and thriving line of romance comics.

Harvey Comics, home of Casper the Ghost, Little Dot, Little Audrey, Little Lotta, Sad Sack and Richie Rich, the “Poor Little Rich Boy,” continued to put out a multitude of titles revolving around its kid-friendly characters.

The Friendly Ghost, Casper racked up a sales average of 200,000 copies per issue.

Casper and his friends were also TV stars in 1970.

TM and © Class Media, Inc.

Setting the Standards Several events happened outside the mainstream and underground comics industries that would have lasting impact on fans and collectors.

Robert Overstreet, a Tennessee collector of coins, gemstones and arrowheads, realized that his interest in comics had flared into a passion.

In his spare time Overstreet began to compile a price guide for like-minded comic book collectors. He mailed the first edition of The Comic Book Price Guide—priced at $5.00—to interested fans in 1970. The Guide’s cover featured twenty different logos of comic companies, some defunct, some not. The publication eventually earned enough to cover its costs, and subsequent editions boasted original artwork by industry artists. Today, the Overstreet Price Guide is still recognized as the gold standard for collectors.

The San Diego Comic-Con debuted on August 1-3, 1970, as the relatively humble and unassuming “San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Con.” Organized by Shel Dorf and a merry band of fellow comic book devotees, the show struck a chord with attendees and would eventually grow into the largest pop culture gathering in the world. That first gathering, attended by a mere 300 fans, was held in the basement of San Diego’s U.S. Grant hotel and featured comic book displays and books for sale and special industry guests like Forest J. Ackerman and Ray Bradbury.

The very first Guest of Honor at the very first San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Con was, perhaps fittingly, Jack Kirby. Kirby’s presence alone most likely justified the $3.50 advance ticket price and the at-the-door $5.00 cost to attend the convention.

The “King” would become a staple attendee at the convention until his death in 1994. In many ways, Kirby had come home by moving to California, and 1970 would prove to be the beginning of a whole new world for him – and for the entire industry.

Another cartoonist was just starting to receive acclaim from the many fans who loved his work over the years. Disney fans were finally able to attach a name to the man who they called the “Good Duck Artist,” and Carl Barks was finally able to earn a few dollars in his retirement.

The Good Duck Artist had retired from creating comics in 1966 but continued to write a handful of stories for Gold Key Comics as the new decade dawned.

Barks scripted several short tales for Huey, Dewey and Louie Junior Woodchucks, for which he was awarded the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Humor Division) in 1970.

The first edition of Robert Overstreet’s Comic Book Price Guide.

TM and © Robert Overstreet.

More importantly for him, Barks began to sell some of his original art to collectors, at the then 30

princely cost of $100 per page (Kylling). Fans were thrilled despite the fact that the cost had ballooned from only $25 per page only a year or two before. Those same fans would prevail on Barks to start producing paintings of his beloved characters, which would earn a huge income for the Good Duck Artist in his retirement.

The Shazam Award for Special Recognition outside the Field in 1970 was presented to Woody Gelman’s Nostalgia Press for its lovingly restored comic strip reprints. An editor and art director at Topps Chewing Gum for many years, Gelman indulged his passion for American comic strips as a fun side job. In 1970 Nostalgia released two volumes of Scorchy Smith reprints as well as volumes reprinting Terry and the Pirates and Mandrake the Magician. In 1971 he released the extremely influential EC Horror Library of the 1950s along with a Thimble Theatre collection that would deeply influence comic fan Jules Feiffer’s script of the 1980 Popeye film.

Fanzines were growing more sophisticated, adding color and offset printing, connecting fans when comic book letter columns would not suffice. Don and Maggie Thompson’s Newfangles was the main news source, announcing Kirby’s defection to DC in late spring. Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine seemed to have a special connection with Jim Steranko, whose Black Condor cover to issue #11 is one of the iconic images of the era.

Long Island fan Adam Malin partnered with his Queens pal Gary Berman to publish Infinity, one of the slickest zines around, boasting artwork from newcomers Berni Wrightson and Frank Brunner along with well-established illustrators ranging from Roy G. Krenkel to Al Williamson.

Down south, the long running character Dr. Weird gained his own fanzine with stories by fan writers George R.R. Martin and Jim Starlin.

The first generation of comic book fans had their perseverance rewarded in 1970 when All in Color for a Dime was released by Arlington House.

Co-edited by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson, the hardcover collected essays that appeared under that um-

brella title in Lupoff’s zine Xero, which is considered the first publication devoted to comic books.

“The format of the articles was essentially similar – each author, as his turn came around, dredged up memories of his own favorite childhood hero, and reinforced them with the aid of decades-old comic books, much less expensive to obtain in the days before the explosions of camp and pop culture turned them into premiumpriced collector’s items,” they wrote in the volume’s introduction. The table of contents is a spectacular line-up of fans, such as Ted White, Bill Blackbeard, Ron Goulart, Tom Fagan, Chris Steinbrunner, Roy Thomas, and Harlan Ellison, many of whom went on to professional writing careers. While not the first book to celebrate comics, it was one of the rare entries during this period of change and the first to offer a fan’s perspective.

Horror in Black and White Magazine-sized comics were also popular in 1970. Jim Warren’s Warren Magazines produced Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella throughout the year. Warren had suffered a major cash-flow crunch in 1968 and 1969, which had forced him to mainly present reprint stories in his titles.

However, he emerged from the worst of the downturn as 1970 dawned. Unencumbered by the Comics Code, Warren’s magazines enthusiastically embraced horror in a way that standard newsstand comics could never do. His magazines represented a more independentminded sensibility than Marvel and DC Comics did.

Warren gloried in the idea of presenting great material by new creators. In 1970, his magazines featured work by underground cartoonists Vaughn Bode and Mark Todd, along with stories drawn by such 1970s comics Some of Berni Wrightson’s first comics work appeared in the magazine Web of Horror.

TM and © Bernie Wrightson. luminaries as Tom Sutton, Neal Adams (adapting the Harlan Ellison short story “Rock God,” which was inA new company joined this market in 1970. Web of Horspired by a painting by Frank Frazetta), Bill DuBay, Alan ror debuted in 1969 and only ran for three issues on newsWeiss, Richard Corben, Billy Graham, and Doug Moench. stands, though a fourth issue was created but only published piecemeal in later fanzines. Published by Robert The Eerie Publications line of magazine-sized comics conSproul, who also managed the popular MAD imitator tinued throughout 1970. Edited by Carl Burgos, who creCracked, this magazine is best-remembered as the first ated the Human Torch in 1940, and published by Myron place that many of comics’ 1970s “young turks” were printFass, Eerie’s lurid line of books included Tales of Voodoo, ed. Issue #1, for instance, featured a cover by Jeff Jones and Tales from the Tomb, Terror Tales, Horror Tales, Witches’ interior art by Frank Brunner, Bruce Jones, Michael Kaluta, Tales and Weird. They featured graphically violent covers Ralph Reese and Berni Wrightson along with writing by and repackaged stories—spiced up with additional gore such well-known creators as Mike Friedrich, Otto Binder and cleavage—from decades earlier. Creators of Fass’s stoand Marv Wolfman. ries had an unusual way of producing the material he featured: “Pick a story from a pre-code comic and photocopy it. Get the copy to an artist with instructions to redraw Going Underground and Finding Happiness the art, making it gorier and more horrific” (Howlett 67).

While mainstream comics struggled to hold on to its readChic Stone, who had inked Jack Kirby’s pencils on Fantastic ership in 1970, underground comix had become ubiquiFour, was one artist who clearly gloried in the material he tous in college towns and big cities across America. presented. Other artists on these series were Burgos, Ezra Mainly sold in “head shops” (stores that sold drug paraJackson and Larry Woromay. phernalia along with lifestyle items such as blacklight The even more lurid Stanley Publications released Advenposters, records, clothing and political minded books), untures into Horror (whose first issue cover promised a story dergrounds found a welcoming audience among readers about “Naked Slaves of the Master of Hell”) as well as Chillwho were looking for material that reflected their way of ing Tales of Horror, Ghoul Tales, Shock and Stark Terror. seeing the world. Undergrounds—called comix as a way Publisher Stanley Morse also reprinted pre-code horror to differentiate them from mainstream comics—featured comics in his magazine-sized line of titles. stories that weren’t beholden to the hidebound Comic 31

Code. Creators could produce any kind of material they wanted.

market with a multitude of unreadable, incoherent books. … They behaved like any other business in the throes of a trend… pump it for all it’s worth ’til the bubble bursts. (Rosenkranz 161)

Predictably, many created comix about sex, drugs and visceral horror, but many other cartoonists presented material that reflected the politics and world-view of the time.

The very purchase of underground comix was a kind of illicit thrill, since it required the buyer to wander into a store in which their parents would not have wanted to see them.

This, of course, fed the idea that buying underground comix was a rebellious act.

Rip Off Press released one of the best-remembered undergrounds of the year. It was a typical horror comic from the underground side, and in some ways it anticipated the horror movement that would grab the mainstream comic book industry over the next few years. Skull Comics #1 (Mar. 1970) was a no-holds-barred anthology of terror tales. The book’s cover promised its readers that the insides were “100% Horrid,” and the interior work lived up to that hype, as Greg Irons, Dave Sheridan, Jack Jackson, Fred Schrier, and the incomparable Rory Hayes delivered deliriously horrible stories. Predictably, Skull sold phenomenally well.

In 1970, the business of selling undergrounds was booming. Allied with underground newspapers like the East Village Other, The Berkeley Barb and the Chicago Seed, comix were selling in extremely strong numbers—so strong that there was a minor “gold rush” to print new underground comix. But as comix legend Robert Crumb noted, these massive sales sowed the seeds of the underground comix’ destruction:

Skull originated from Gary Arlington’s love of EC comics.

The owner of the San Francisco Comic Book Company—one of the country’s first comic book specialty stores—Arlington was in the perfect location to find and cultivate great comix artists because San Francisco was the heart of the underground movement. Arlington also had a deep passion for EC Comics and had a vision of EC rising from the grave like a vengeful corpse in an EC horror story. His vision drove the title. Skull was a much-beloved title among fans of scary and sexy comics.

The biggest threat to the developing comix movement was overproduction. Circa 1970, those ‘UG’ publishers like the Print Mint, Last Gasp Eco-Funnies and others would publish anything that faintly resembled an underground comic, flooding the

Skull #1 was a joint production between Rip Off Press and the San Francisco Comic Book Company. Gary had the idea but didn’t have the money to publish the comic.

Rip Off passed Skull off to Last Gasp Eco-Funnies, which released the second issue later in 1970, with material by creators such as Sheridan, Irons and Jackson, along with Richard Corben. A professional animator from Kansas City, Corben was an Arlington discovery who had no idea he could even be involved in the underground movement: “I thought Zap was the only underground comix and that they were produced by a closed group of artists. It was like a door had opened to a whole new universe of possibilities” (Rosenkranz 140). Corben would go on to a long and fruitful career in the undergrounds and at Warren Magazines in the 1970s.

A different type of horror comic reached the streets in time for the first Earth Day on April 1, 1970. Slow Death Funnies was created as a benefit comic themed around ecology that would support the Berkeley Ecology Center.

Ron Turner—a San Francisco resident who had been a fan of undergrounds since a mind-blowing New Year’s Eve party that included many drugs and a copy of Zap—was seized by the idea of releasing an underground of his own.

Funded in part by a guy who had an acid lab in Berkeley, Turner recruited a slew of creators, including Greg Irons, Willie Mendez, Rory Hayes, Gilbert Shelton and Dave Sheridan, to contribute to the book. Slow Death appeared each year throughout the 1970s as an ecological-themed horror comic (Rozenkranz 138).

Turner’s second comic was It Ain’t Me Babe (July 1970), an anthology comic that celebrated the then escalating women’s liberation movement. Behind a cover by Trina Robbins that included Wonder Woman, Sheena, Olive Oyl,

The cover of Young Lust #1 parodied mainstream romance comics.

TM and © respective copyright holder.

32

Mary Marvel, Nancy and Elsie the Cow, the comic featured work by an allwoman crew of Meredith Kurtzman, Michele Brand, Willie Mendes, Lisa Lyons, Nancy Kalish and Robbins. The comic grew out of Robbins’s short-lived tenure as an artist for the feminist newspaper It Ain’t Me, Babe, which she left because she was frustrated by ongoing editorial interference. Regardless, Robbins shared half of the book’s considerable profits with the original newspaper. The comic sold through two printings (Rosenkranz 150-151).

Young Lust #1, on the other hand, grew out of two cartoonists hanging out and having fun Through his Last Gasp Eco-Funnies, Ron Turner published the feminist It Ain’t Me, Babe and the with each other. As Bill ecological-themed Slow Death Funnies. TM and © respective copyright holders.

Griffith recalls, “through just bullshitting we came up with the idea of doing a comic with Zap under surveillance. So it was a considerable act book that would be a parody from cover to cover of girls’ roof courage to release Zap #5, and, thankfully, nothing hapmance comics” (Rosenkranz 152). Griffith and co-editor Jay pened to threaten the distribution of this comic that feaKinney created almost the entire comic (aside from a brief tured material by underground greats such as Robert Wilstrip by Art Spiegelman). As Kinney points out, Young Lust liams, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Moscoso, S. Clay Wilson and took the tack of “cloaking tales of swingers, groupies and Robert Crumb. The real standout strips in Zap #5 include collegiate longhairs in the trappings and narrative conven“Bludgeon Funnies” by Robert Williams and Wilson’s cold tions of romance comics.” It was a potent combination, assassin, “Lester Gass, the Midnight Misogynist.” and Young Lust #1 went through 12 printings.

An Apex Novelties logo appears on the cover of all the isUnfortunately for Griffith and Kinney, the company they sues of Zap because Crumb liked the logo. Print Mint, howlet publish Young Lust was Co. & Sons, run by a pair of ever, was the actual publisher. Don Donahue used the logo shysters who jumped on the then-roaring undergrounds on his books as well. bandwagon. Consequently, Griffith and Kinney only got Besides the Apex logo, the cover to Zap #5 also carried the paid a fraction of the royalties owed to them because the sarcastic label “Special Business Executive Issue!,” which publishers fudged the print run figures. When Co. & Sons some readers could view as a dig against the conservalater went out of business, Griffith and Kinney discovered tive mainstream comics industry that underground comix thousands of undocumented copies of Young Lust #1 in were rebelling against. But truth be told, in 1970 both the their warehouse. mainstream comics industry and the underground comix One of the underground’s most iconic and best-selling copublishers were simultaneously embracing a spirit of inmix returned in 1970 with the publication of Zap Comix novation and experimentation. Comics like Green Lantern #5 (May 1970). Zap #5 came under a black cloud of potenand Slow Death may have sold in different types of stores, tial censorship due to the contents of Zap #4, which was but both comics represented a reaction to the tumultureleased in 1969 and featured a cheerful strip by Robert ous times in which people were living. At a time when the Crumb about incest in a happy middle-class family. Judge Vietnam War was raging on and the Kent State and My Lai Joel Tyler of the Criminal Court of the City of New York massacres shocked a nation, when Woodstock and the idefound Zap #4 to be obscene, which triggered a raid on the alism of the Baby Boom generation met the hard reality of offices of Print Mint, Zap’s publisher. That meant that the drug-related deaths among their biggest stars, comics were underground comic actually had to go underground and forced to react to the world around them. Mere escapism could only be distributed by hand to trusted recipients, wasn’t enough anymore. Spider-Man and R. Crumb’s Mr. even in the extremely liberal community of Berkeley, CaliNatural had to provide perspectives on the world that were fornia. There were allegations that phones were tapped grounded firmly in 1970s reality. by police, and the authorities had the people involved 33

1971

Cracking the Code

It was an era of change. The rigid, unbending establishment was being chiseled away by the youth movement who didn’t simply question the existing status quo but sought to create a new one. Consequently, the establishment began to doubt its very foundations, for the first time unsure of what the future held.

On January 12, 1971 a new television series attempted to encapsulate that era. All in the Family proved to be not only a controversial situation-comedy but also a microcosm of America’s then-current conflict between the generations.

In the show, the cantankerous Archie Bunker, a World War II veteran and dyed-in-the-wool blue collar man, was confronted by the burgeoning youth movement and America’s growing acceptance of racial and gender equality. He attempted to stick to his mid-century values but soon found himself sinking in a sea of change. Archie was an unapologetic bigot and in many ways a distorted reflection of America itself.

Like All in the Family, the mainstream comic book industry was playing out its own generational conflicts. Publishers continued to deal with ever-slumping sales, and their hope was that unconventional projects—executed, more often than not, by the younger creators—could reverse that downward sales trend. That meant that professionals who had been toiling in the industry for years—if not decades—were finding themselves being pushed out in favor of the young.

As the battle between the generations waged on, however, a matter of greater immediate concern affected just about every American citizen and business in 1971: inflation.

Raising Prices The U.S. inflation rate in 1971 exceeded 4%, a number that frightened many. In August President Nixon made a series of moves to combat inflation. In what would become known as the “Nixon Shock,” the President suspended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold and instituted a 90-day freeze on both wages and retail prices. Nixon’s decisions were praised by many among the press and public as necessary protections against price gouging.

CHAPTER TWO

Meanwhile, artist Carmine Infantino had been rising through the management ranks at National Periodical Publications (a.k.a. DC Comics) since 1967 when he was promoted to the role of the company’s Art Director. His cover designs were hailed as innovative and fresh. Though not 34

a particularly young man himself, he had an eye for design that appealed to DC’s youthful fanbase. Infantino soon took over the Editorial Director role and in the spring of 1971, he was named National’s Publisher, an unprecedented position for a “mere artist.”

Infantino had his work cut out for him, though. Recognizing there’d be no cushy times ahead, Infantino immediately started instituting changes that he hoped would improve DC’s product. As he explained years later, “The DC books were very sterile-looking in those days. My feeling was that we needed visual people… So, I installed a couple of artists as editors…

I started infusing new blood into the company” (Infantino 102-103). But seeking out new visual styles and hiring young storytellers would only solve some of DC’s creative problems.

The more pressing matter that needed to be addressed was DC’s revenues.

Infantino inherited a mandate to increase DC’s cover price . Effective with its August cover-dated comics, DC raised the standard price of its comic books a full dime to 25¢. Instituted by Independent News, DC Comics’ thendistributor, the cover price increase to 25¢ was meant to compensate for the inflated cost of printing, engraving and shipping. It was the single biggest price hike in comics history at that time. DC made this change after the success of the subset of titles at the 25¢ price-point in late 1970 and early 1971, including “Big” G.I. Combat, “Super-Size” From Beyond the Un-

Using then-popular slang like “telling it like it is,” DC Editorial Director Carmine Infantino announces a rise in cover price to 25¢ for the entire DC line.

known, and 64-page, 25¢ editions of Binky and Young Romance.

Behind the scenes, the distributor was charging DC a higher brokerage fee than it did to other companies. That took a bite out of DC’s profits, despite the heftier cover price on the books (Cooke 12). As DC’s new publisher, Infantino was tasked with addressing this situation. Simultaneously, he continued to strive to offer the consumer something more for that extra dime every month.

For that precious extra 10¢, DC added more pages to all of its standard-size comics. All DC series were now 52 pages (including advertisements and covers), a significant increase from the standard 36 pages that DC had maintained since 1954. Most comics featured a mix of both new material and reprints while the reprint

titles simply added more pages. Jack Kirby’s series contained reprints of his Golden Age “Manhunter” and “Sandman” strips, co-created with Joe Simon, while the Superman and Batman series featured archival reprints of their main characters from the 1940s and 1950s.

Initial sales across DC’s line at the new price point were excellent. Contemporary reports show that sales with the August cover date were the second-highest of the year. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, 5,253,860 copies of DC Comics were sold, down just slightly from April’s 5,253,860 sold. Other months sold between 200,000 and 500,000 copies of those numbers (Levitz 18).

Other publishers responded to DC’s cover price increase in varied ways.

Harvey Comics moved its entire line

Before raising their prices to 25¢, DC set a subset of titles at that price point in 1970 and 1971. TM and © DC Comics.

35

TIMELINE: 1971

April 20: The villainous Ra’s Al Ghul makes his first appearance in Batman #232.

A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 12: All in the Family, a sitcom starring Carroll O’Connor as a bigoted working-class father, premieres on the CBS television network. It would become America’s highest-rated show from 1971 to 1976 and win multiple Emmy Awards.

February 1: The Comics Code Authority’s revised Code goes into effect. Among other things, the new Code now allows for the depiction of vampires, ghouls and werewolves, as long as they are presented in the “classic” literary tradition (i.e. Dracula, Frankenstein). Depictions of drug abuse are also now permitted.

March 8: In “The Fight of the Century” Joe Frazier retains his World Heavyweight title against challenger Muhammad Ali in a boxing match at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The event transcends the sport as it draws the attention of the entire nation and becomes a symbol of the country’s racial divide (even though both boxers are African-American).

FEBRUARY

MARCH

June 12: Former DC Comics romance editor Zena Carol Brody dies of cancer at the age of 43.

June 13: The New York Times begins publishing “The Pentagon Papers,” a classified Department of Defense history of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. The papers principally reveal that the Lyndon B. Johnson administration had lied to both the American public and Congress about its intentions in Vietnam.

April 6: The “Kree/Skrull War” begins in Avengers #89. The nine issue story arc would become one of Marvel’s most celebrated tales.

JANUARY

June: DC Comics raises the price of its standard comic books from 15¢ to 25¢. Each title has its page count raised from 32 to 48.

APRIL

M AY

JUNE

April 1: Swamp Thing is introduced in DC’s House of Secrets #92 in a story written by Len Wein and drawn by Berni Wrightson.

January 14: The first issue of Mister Miracle—the third of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World titles—goes on sale at newsstands.

March 28: CBS airs the final broadcast of the The Ed Sullivan Show. After three months of re-runs and pre-emptions, CBS announces in June that The Ed Sullivan Show has been cancelled.

June 24: In a story written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Neal Adams, Green Lantern #85 reveals that Green Arrow’s ward, Speedy, is a heroin addict.

February 9: Written by Stan Lee with art by Gil Kane and John Romita, Amazing Spider-Man #96 focuses on drug abuse. Because the issue was produced before the Comics Code Authority’s new Code went into effect, no CCA symbol appears on the cover. It is the first Marvel Comic to appear without a Code seal since the Code went into effect in 1954.

Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Mister Miracle, Ra’s al Ghul, Speedy TM and © DC Comics. Avengers, Defenders, Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

of titles, including the Richie Rich group, Little Lotta and Casper to 25¢ in cover date November and December 1971. On the other hand, Archie, Charlton and Gold Key avoided the 52-page, 25¢ size format for most of their titles. Maybe most significantly, Marvel’s Martin Goodman made a handshake deal with Infantino and agreed to implement DC’s price hike for his own standard titles.

Nine of Marvel’s 15 titles with an October 1971 cover date had 52 pages (mostly devoted to new stories but with substantial reprints as well) and a 25¢ cover price. In November, 23 of Marvel’s 29 titles sold for a quarter.

With the December cover date, however, only nine of Marvel’s 25 comics—mostly reprints—were 25¢. After a brief flirtation with running his entire line at the 52-page, 25¢ price, Goodman changed his mind. He dropped the comics back to 36 pages (counting covers) and dropped the cover price to 20¢.

Goodman was no dummy. By offering comic books that were five cents cheaper than a typical DC title, he made Marvel look like a hero to consumers. In actuality, though, Goodman was offering books with the same page count from earlier in the year for five cents more. Goodman also manipulated the business from the distributor side. Goodman approached newsstand owners and operators and offered them a larger slice of the profit pie than they had normally received from selling comics.

In return, Goodman received more space on the newsstand racks for Marvel Comics.

Goodman’s decision to revert back to the smaller page count caught three of Marvel’s most important employees off-guard: Editor Stan Lee, Associate Editor Roy Thomas and Production Manager John Verpoorten. When first informed that Marvel’s comic books would have more story pages, the three men compensated by com36

June 30: The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. It lowers the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.

missioning longer stories. One month later, they were told their page counts were being reverted. That meant the longer stories that had already been produced couldn’t be printed in one issue.

The short-term result was a mishmash of content and formats across Marvel’s line. In some titles—like Fantastic Four and Hulk—the longer stories were simply spread out over two issues and a short back-up story was inserted in order to fulfill the second issue’s page count. Other titles—like Sub-Mariner—reprinted classic material. As Roy Thomas told American Comic Book Chronicles, “We got by as best we could... and then it was back to business as usual.”

Marvel maintained a line of 25¢ reprint titles throughout 1971 and 1972, including reprint “Specials” for Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, Tower of Shadows, Avengers, Daredevil, Hulk, Mad About Millie and Sub-Mariner. In addition, several

July 3: Jim Morrison—lead singer of The Doors—dies of a heart attack at the age of 27.

September 9: Prisoners riot and seize control of the Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York. The siege lasts four days until New York State Troopers retake the facility through tear gas and gunfire. Ten hostages and 33 inmates die.

July 24: Golden age comic book artist Lou Fine dies at the age of 56.

J U LY

October 1: Walt Disney World officially opens in Orlando, Florida.

August 15: In order to combat inflation, President Nixon suspends the conversion of dollars to gold and imposes a 90 day freeze on prices, rents and wages.

AUGUST

July 20: Marvel Feature #1 collects the Hulk, the SubMariner, and Doctor Strange as the Defenders in a story written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Ross Andru and Bill Everett.

SEPTEMBER

December 14: The conclusion to the Kree-Skrull War arrives at newsstands with Avengers #97, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

September: One month after increasing the price point of all its standard comic books to 25¢, Marvel lowers its price point to 20¢. Page counts are dropped back to 36.

October: African American hero John Stewart debuts in Green Lantern #87 in a story written by Denny O’Neil and drawn

by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.

ongoing series remained at the quarter cover-price, including the reprint series Fear, Marvel’s Greatest Comics, Special Marvel Edition, Western Gunfighters and Marvel Tales.

Marvel’s move back to 20¢ would have seismic effects on the industry.

When Marvel dropped its cover price to 20¢ per issue, industry newszine Newfangles #48 noted that “wholesalers objected to the 25-cent books which sell fewer copies and make the dealer only a penny more than the better-selling 15-cent books (yes, only a penny more).” Newfangles #49 then reported that Marvel was offering its comic books to retailers at half the cost: every 20¢ Marvel comic book would cost retailers 10¢. Since DC was only giving retailers 5¢ for the sale of its 25¢ comic books, DC was being undercut, and retailer support shifted to Marvel.

By Newfangles’ next issue, the “pricing war” was seen to have escalated, in a way, with DC announcing it

would match Marvel’s offer of 10¢ a copy for every sale of its 25¢ books.

However, retailers were still selling more Marvel books at 20¢ than DC books at 25¢. The same issue of Newfangles announced that DC might offer the newsstand 12½¢ a copy for a couple of months (with the loss being underwritten by the Kinney conglomerate, DC’s parent company) in an attempt to force the rest of the comic book industry to adopt the 25¢ cover price.

That didn’t work, as Newfangles #52 explained: There are indications that DC is in serious trouble. Dealers are not too keen on the 25¢ comic book, sales are skyrocketing for Marvel, Charlton, and Gold Key (GK has 15¢ books, Marvel and Charlton 20¢), DC is contemplating major changes in Superman and Batman (and no one fools around with success, so…)

37

DECEMBER

November 24: D.B. Cooper hijacks a plane departing from Portland, Oregon.

Upon landing in Seattle, Washington, Cooper receives $200,000. After the plane takes off for Reno, Nevada, Cooper parachutes out the tail end.

He is neither seen nor heard from again. His story, however, will become the stuff of legend.

and DC has taken to labeling its 48-page books as 52-page books (a cheap trick; no page increase, they just started counting the covers)…. DC’s titles are also reported to be dying in droves on the stands, if they get that far - wholesalers prefer to handle the 20¢ books, apparently.

Infantino later looked back on the situation with resignation. “The price stricture was set up by [NPP accountant Paul] Wendell, [Kinney executive Marc] Iglesias, and [Warner Publishing President Harold] Chamberlin,” he said. “Marvel had the 20¢ books and they took the lead in sales. Why they took the lead is the 50% discount so the distributors and wholesalers made more money with Marvel. So the distributors put out Marvel and couldn’t have cared less about us.

Eventually we had to give 50% off because we were getting slaughtered.

We had to drop to 20¢” (Cooke 12).

DC’s price point reduction to 20¢ wouldn’t occur until late spring of 1972. By the end of 1971, however, it was obvious that DC’s decision to move to a line of 25¢ comic books would have longterm ramifications, not only for DC but for Marvel as well.

Jack Kirby’s Brave New World Though DC was losing space on the newsstands, it could at least take pride in publishing two of the biggest comic book events of 1971.

The first one was the release of Jack Kirby’s first new titles for DC Comics since the late 1950s. Two of those new titles were provocative magazine-sized comics that Kirby dubbed “Speak Out Series.” These magazines were similar in format to the horror and adventure comic magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella that were then gaining popularity on the newsstands as a more adult alternative to standard-sized comics. Spirit World focused on paranormal activities (or in the words of its cover copy: “Prophecy! Reincarnation! Haunting!

Black Magic!”). In the Days of the Mob concentrated on famous mobsters of the 1930s, like Al Capone and Pretty Boy Floyd. Both magazines—published by DC’s imprint “Hampshire Distributors, Ltd” in the fall of 1971— retailed for 50¢ and were printed

in black and white. Kirby produced most of the contents of both magazines: writing, drawing and also supplying photo collages and fumetti (caption-filled photos). Vince Colletta inked both magazines. Kirby hoped his “Speak Out Series” would expand the industry’s reader base by catering to the tastes of a more mature audience (McAvennie 147). But DC got cold feet about the magazinesized comics, and neither Spirit World nor In the Days of the Mob sold well enough to earn a second issue. (True Divorce Cases and Soul Love, two more proposed “Speak Out Series” titles, never saw publication either.)

At the same time that he was creating the magazines, Kirby was also producing his personal magnum opus for DC Comics, work that involved several interconnected comic books that told an ambitious tale. The first glimmers of that tale arrived in 1970 when Kirby assumed the writer/artist role in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. The core of Kirby’s budding saga, however, really debuted in Forever People #1 (Feb.-March 1971). Readers were blitzed by an onrush of new characters and concepts from that comic’s opening pages, a Kirby hallmark that would continue throughout the rollout of his linked titles.

The first eight pages of Forever People #1 introduce the Boom Tube, four of the five Forever People

Jack Kirby’s In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World were magazine-sized comics that only ran one issue each. TM and © DC Comics.

38

and their Super-Cycle, the sentient computer called Mother Box, and the villainous Inter-Gang who could communicate via a hand-held viewscreen with the mysterious Darkseid.

From there, even more big ideas walk on-stage: Supertown, Sigma-Guns, Gravi-Guards with the ability to “transmit gravity waves from heavy mass galaxies,” the Infinity Man, the Anti-Life Equation, the fifth Forever Person—the aptly-named Beautiful Dreamer—and, somehow, in the middle of all that, Superman himself.

Kirby added a rare wrinkle to Superman’s normally staid cape: super self-doubt. After an interview with a boxer who feels inadequate next to

The Forever People were space hippies from Supertown. TM and © DC Comics.

I think it’s repellent” (“Train of Thought” 19).

Superman, Clark Kent lays on the selfpity. In an inner dialogue, Kent wonders if the average man-on-the-street secretly resents his colorful alter-ego.

Our hero then thrills to the news of the Forever People’s otherworldly city, Supertown, where he might find others like him, equals amongst whom he could be himself. In the end, though, Superman stays on Earth, recognizing the need for his presence on what could potentially be “the battleground for some strange super-war.”

Even in rolling out that war, Kirby emphasized that his young band of Forever People were “nonviolent.” Kirby insisted that they were in step with what the youth of America wanted: peaceful coexistence. “The Forever People are a challenge to see how nonviolence can work in comics,” he said.

“I feel that nonviolence coupled with some kind of sustaining influence can work in comics. I don’t feel that you have to show blood and gore and guts.

Nothing like the first issue of Forever People had ever really been attempted in comics up to that point. Sure, it contained the usual Kirby touches of intense characters and explosive action, but it was not truly a super-hero comic.

Forever People #1 was one part of an interlocking science fiction epic spread out over four titles, and it was obvious that Marvel’s former favorite son was working towards a different dynamic than the normal industry fare. This was hammered home in the next release of the saga, New Gods #1 (Feb.-March 1971).

Like Forever People, New Gods opened with its own fully-laden trove of fantastic ideas. The cover of the first issue announced “An Epic for Our Times” and its Prologue—labeled as the “Epilogue” in the story—told readers “There came a time when the old gods died!” while a cataclysmic scene of fiery battle surrounded the words, dwarfing them with grand Kirby spectacle. It was as if Kirby was putting the nail in the coffin of his Marvel toils and troubles in order to create a new mythology that was solely and undeniably his.

The whole work felt very Biblical, 39

and to reinforce that perception, page two of New Gods #1 ends the introduction of the creation of Kirby’s two new worlds, New Genesis and its dark twin Apokolips, with a bold caption: “Then – There Was Light!”

And then came the characters and concepts: The supreme warrior Orion, the playful optimist Lightray, the allknowing Highfather, and the knowledge-seeking Metron and his “Mobius Chair.” There is also the Source, a flaming hand that writes on walls in tongues of fire and predicts the coming war with Orion at its center.

Darkseid, briefly introduced in Jimmy Olsen the previous year, stepped on-

New Gods was the center of Jack Kirby’s new universe.

TM and © DC Comics.

The book’s two leads, Scott Free and the statuesque, zaftig Big Barda introduced in Mister Miracle #4 (Oct. 1971), were based in part on real people: comic book artist Jim Steranko and singer Lainie Kazan, respectively. Steranko had been a magician and escape artist of sorts in his younger days, and Kazan’s October 1970 Playboy layout—along with a sizable dash of Kirby’s wife Rosalind’s plucky spirit—inspired Barda’s larger-than-life presence (Evanier, “Introduction” 4).

Because of Kirby’s tireless work ethic, readers could buy the next issue of one of his new titles every three weeks.

Over the course of the year and through successive issues, the triumvirate of titles introduced Darkseid’s minions. Mister Miracle #2 (May-June 1971) debuted Granny Goodness, a manly female with a face like a gargoyle who ran the Apokoliptian “orphanage” from which Scott escaped as a boy. Forever People #3 (June-July 1971) brought Glorious Godfrey, Kirby’s version of a charismatic speaker whose empty words sway audiences to evil.

That issue begins with a quote from Adolf Hitler while Godfrey’s placards read “Life Will Make You Doubt! AntiLife Will Make You Right!” and “You Can Justify Anything With Anti-Life!”

The “Anti-Life” equation lay at the heart of the saga.

Darkseid searched high and low for it throughout Kirby’s four titles. New Gods #1 described Anti-Life as “the outside control of all living thought,” which was countered by what Highfather called the “Life Equation,” or the “right of choice.” It’s hard not to see the concept as a metaphor for Kirby’s own struggle with Marvel over creative rights. In fact, Kirby would up that ante in the coming year with characters that expanded his tirade against his former employers.

The equally-crucial ideas of family and good versus evil would dominate the saga, though. Describing his creative intentions, Kirby said, “My conjecture—which is part of good storytelling, I think—still had to do with good and evil, and therefore I contrived an evil world with an evil family, and a good world with a good family” (Kirby 6). As Kirby’s tale progressed, readers learned more about the dynamics between New Genesis and Apokolips, and the more personal inside struggle between Orion and Darkseid. “Oddly enough, it was Darkseid, the most evil of the characters, that brought the others all together,” Kirby noted. “It was Darkseid’s dealings with all of them that became the manner in which I could demonstrate how we deal with evil” (Kirby 7). The real story of Orion’s origins would be revealed the next year, in a story that his creator would call his own personal favorite of his entire career.

The fourth title in Jack Kirby’s new universe was Mister Miracle. TM and © DC Comics.

stage on the final page of New Gods #1 as a god-like being, eager for battle and with eyes glowing red. Into this mix, Kirby also injected a small group of humans, four people from Earth who Orion rescued from the dark world of Apokolips and returned to their home.

After all that cosmic grandeur, the release of Kirby’s third new title of the year, Mister Miracle #1 (March-April 1971), completed the saga in comparatively sedate fashion. It featured a young man named Scott Free who took on the name and legacy of an older man, an escape artist billed as “Mister Miracle.” Much of the first issue revolved around more standard super-hero fare, compared to the galactic struggle glimpsed in Forever People and New Gods, but the series would go on to reveal Scott’s ties to New Genesis and his part in the so-called “super-war” between the peaceful planet and the evil world of Apokolips.

Besides a DC house ad, the term “Fourth World” appeared only once on each of Jack Kirby’s new DC comics. TM and © DC Comics.

40

With the fourth issue of each new title, Kirby’s interconnected story received a unifying name. Appearing as a banner on the top of the covers to Forever People #4, New Gods #4, Mister Miracle #4 (as well as Jimmy Olsen #139) was the

tag “Kirby’s Fourth World.” As to why “Fourth World” was specifically chosen, Kirby’s former assistant Mark Evanier theorized,

The big changes came down to a few major points: the reduction of Superman’s over-inflated, world-moving strength, the departure of Clark Kent from the Daily Planet and perhaps most monumentally, the elimination of Kryptonite. “We took away the big crutch,” said O’Neil. “How are you going to get Superman in trouble; put kryptonite in the story again, and again, and again…how much of that stuff got to Earth, for God’s sake?” (Cooke 60).

Steve Sherman—who worked with me as Jack’s assistant at the time—recalls Jack coming up with [Fourth World] as a variation on the term, “The Third World,” as used in a socio-economic context.

Apparently, Jack also told a few folks that he considered the material his fourth universe in comics.

Personally... I think it was just a term that popped into Jack’s head and he liked the sound of it. Later on, he came up with several different retro-active explanations. (Reed)

Schwartz commissioned a special cover for Superman #233 (Jan. 1971). Artist Neal Adams’ bold image of the Man of Steel snapping kryptonite chains by merely expanding his chest and standing legs akimbo over the slogan “Kryptonite Nevermore!” surely stood out on drugstore and newsstand racks the day the issue was unpacked. Schwartz also added a banner over the book’s logo that announces “The Amazing NEW Adventures of Superman,” along with a “Num-

Only years later would “Fourth World” become the term commonly used to describe Kirby’s early 1970s DC output.

That’s because in 1971 DC used the “Fourth World” tag only once for each of Kirby’s four titles, and then it was then never seen again (with the exception of a cover date March 1972 DC house ad that promoted Kirby’s work).

As it turned out, beyond 1972, DC would have little need to use the “Fourth World” tag anyway.

Kryptonite Nevermore DC’s other big story of the year involved the revamping of the most famous super-hero of them all: Superman.

The Man of Steel’s big change for 1971 should have surprised no one as it followed major re-workings and modernizations of several of the company’s other big characters: Wonder Woman in 1968 and Batman and Green Lantern in 1970. Perhaps also not surprisingly, all those events involved writer Denny O’Neil. Editor Julius Schwartz labeled the young scribe the “number-one writer in my stable” (Schwartz 136). Schwartz had been put in charge of Superman in the wake of editor Mort Weisinger’s retirement in 1970 and claimed that he’d only take on such a monumental task if he could institute changes in the character.

“I warned [the DC brass] that I would want to change things around,” said Schwartz, “the way I had when I took over Green Lantern and Batman” (Schwartz 131). This prompted what the editor called concern over interfering with a “proven commodity” like the vaunted Man of Steel (Schwartz 131-132).

Denny O’Neil was reportedly not too keen on the idea of a revamp himself. Schwartz noted that, like himself, O’Neil was a lukewarm Superman fan at best and not “chomping at the bit” for the assignment. Still, after “coaxing, pleading, bargaining, and co-plotting” Schwartz got the writer to accept the assignment and together, the two began to fundamentally alter the world that Weisinger had created over the previous two decades (Schwartz 136).

A dynamic cover by Neal Adams on Superman #233 heralded a new era for the Man of Steel.

TM and © DC Comics.

41

ber 1 Best-Selling Comics Magazine!” blurb for good measure. The numeral “1” is five times the height of the rest of that text, perhaps giving potential buyers the idea that they were being offered a first issue. In a way, they were.

Schwartz’s plan to de-power the hero, but the two had another ace—or a joker—up their sleeves. At issue’s end, in a black-bordered Epilogue, the other super-shoe dropped: from a full-body impression in the sand made by a falling Superman after the kryptonite engine explosion, a “thing… cast in the mold of Superman” pulls itself up from the sand and walks away, “moving slowly, relentlessly to a terrible destiny…”

Inside, the first page cautions readers that they are about to read a “return to greatness.” The titular hero is referred to as “an old majesty” who stands on the threshold of new “thrills, tragedy…and heroism!”

From Superman #233 to Superman #242 (Sept. 1971), Denny O’Neil and artist Curt Swan wove a long-form epic. The so-called “Sand Superman” bedevils the Man of Steel by lurking around the fringes of the stories and sapping our hero’s strength at inopportune moments. “There’s something loose on Earth!” worries Clark in the coda of Superman #234 (Feb. 1971). “I have no idea what it is…except that it’s dangerous – menacing – and that I may be powerless to stop it!”

In “Superman Breaks Loose” an explosive accident involving Professor Bolden’s “kryptonite engine” transforms every piece on kryptonite on Earth into harmless iron.

Jimmy Olsen is overjoyed for his super-friend, but Galaxy Broadcasting System president Morgan Edge—on double duty from Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books—cites the old adage that “power corrupts...and absolute power corrupts absolutely!” (Edge would have known, being a servant of Darkseid and all.)

The key word was “powerless,” for when Superman fully encounters his grainy doppelganger, he finds his strength and speed reduced by a third. In effect, his handlers had dialed the Man of Steel back down to his 1940s power levels.

As Schwartz put it, somewhat cheekily, “So where during [Weisinger’s] editorship Supes was able to hold the world up on the tip of one finger, under my tutelage he would have to use both hands” (Schwartz 132). Perhaps O’Neil said it best when he declared, “I think that faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound is enough for anybody” (Cooke 60).

O’Neil’s story goes on to offer more change in the form of Clark Kent’s new assignment as an on-the-spot TV reporter and a super-boost to his confidence when flying into action. “Morgan Edge was wrong!” Kent muses to himself. “Power isn’t corrupting…it’s freeing me – to do unlimited good!” Readers might have wondered how taking away Superman’s main weakness would serve O’Neil and

Then, something happened – or rather didn’t happen. DC’s new Superman didn’t stick. By the end of 1971, O’Neil was off the book and his big changes mostly ignored by subsequent writers. “I was just having a hellish time doing Superman,” the writer noted. “After about a year, I asked off of the assignment. I don’t know how I had the guts to do enough to do that, because I had mouths to feed and no other income source, but I did it. I discovered I couldn’t handle [Superman] very well.” O’Neil seemed resigned that his work on the title would be swept under the rug when he viewed the cover of World’s Finest #208 (Dec. 1971), with Superman pulling the entire Earth through space with chains. “I think that was Julie’s signal to the reader that ‘the experiment’s over,’” O’Neil added (Eury 117).

The “experiment,” truth be told, was not a consistent one.

The other Superman family titles—Action Comics, Superboy, Adventure Comics, World’s Finest—had made little use of Superman’s revamped Man of Steel. “I think that was a problem DC had,” observed O’Neil. “There really was no attempt to reconcile this version of the character with the other books’. Julie’s Superman was different from [Action editor Murray Boltinoff’s]. It was a very compartmentalized company” (Eury 117).

Before it was all over, Denny O’Neil introduced one other noteworthy change in the mythos while scripting World’s Finest #202 (May 1971), namely the deactivation of all of Superman’s look-alike robots due to pollution and “manmade radiation” in Earth’s atmosphere. Remarkably, this alteration lasted far beyond any of those in Superman, and continued until decades-old original Man of Steel continu-

Superman confronts the “Sand Superman” in Superman #238. TM and © DC Comics.

42

DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-6 boasted a wraparound cover by Neal Adams that featured “The World’s Greatest Superheroes.” TM and © DC Comics.

ity ended in 1985’s universe-smashing Crisis on Infinite Earths.

ral issue—strangely designated “DC-4”—showcased Weird Mystery Tales. The next issue, “Love Stories,” sold out almost its entire print run, with only 178 unsold copies (Levitz). DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-6 boasted a wraparound cover by Neal Adams that featured “The World’s Greatest Superheroes.” Inside, the issue reprinted the first meeting between the JLA and JSA (from 1963’s Justice League of America #21-22) as well as a Silver Age Hawkman tale (from 1960’s The Brave and the Bold #36) and Spectre, Johnny Quick, and Vigilante stories from the 1940s and 1950s.

This new book was priced at 50¢, but Infantino was optimistic it would perform well financially (especially since the creators of all these reprinted tales weren’t being paid again for work they performed years and decades ago). Infantino’s faith was later rewarded by pleasing profits… if only for this one title (Cooke 12).

In all, 1971’s “Amazing New Adventures” surfaced and submerged in a relatively short time. By the September coverdated issue of Superman, the “New” was dropped from the banner. It read simply “Amazing Adventures.” Industry and fan buzz for “Kryptonite Nevermore” aside, O’Neil claims Schwartz blamed low sales for the reason for the experiment’s ultimate demise. “I think he looked upon it as an interesting thing that ultimately didn’t work,” the writer said (Eury 117). Sales figures bear this out, as in 1971 Superman continued its drop in sales from the 1960s, losing an average of 23,000 copies sold per issue from the previous year. It would seemingly take much more than depowering the world’s greatest hero to save him from a downward economic spiral.

Roy’s Avengers War

If DC’s sales couldn’t be improved by tinkering with its most iconic character, perhaps it could be improved in another way. One of DC’s more notable efforts of 1971 was the creation of a new, enormous reprint title called DC 100Page Super Spectacular, which came overflowing with reprints that ran the gamut from recent 1960s fare to Golden Age stories from the 1930s and 1940s that many of DC’s younger readers had never been exposed to. The inaugu-

By 1971, Stan Lee had been slowly relinquishing his tightly-held reins on Marvel’s titles, allowing others to step into the breach and prove themselves as storytellers. One of the most unique choices for a Lee stand-in was eighteen-yearold Brooklyn native Gerry Conway.

Having already written scripts for DC Comics since 1969 (mostly for House of Secrets), Conway became acquainted 43

Avengers #94, part of the Kree-Skrull War story arc.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

with Marvel editor Roy Thomas. To see if Conway had the talent to work for the “House of Ideas,” Thomas gave him Marvel’s “writing test.” Conway’s results impressed Thomas more so than Lee. Nonetheless, Thomas began giving Conway some short writing assignments (Harvey 4). One of Conway’s first jobs for Marvel was writing the jungle-lord character of KaZar beginning with Astonishing Tales #3 (Dec. 1970). By the end of 1971, however, Conway had evidently proven enough to Thomas to earn work on several other Marvel comics, including Thor, a title upon which Lee had put his definitive stamp.

For his part, Roy Thomas was taking on more and more responsibility at Marvel, eager to take what Lee had begun in the 1960s and weave it into his own tapestries. One such opportunity presented itself in 1971 over nine issues of Avengers, a title Thomas had been writing since 1966, in a story that would eventually become known as the “Kree-Skrull War.” The conflict began with two alien races that Stan Lee had created in the 1960s: the shape-shifting Skrulls and the warrior Kree.

After receiving Lee’s permission to plunge the Skrulls and Kree into allout intergalactic combat, Thomas centered the story on the Captain Marvel character whom he had revamped in 1969 from a Kree soldier into a cosmi-

cally-charged super-hero. The epic began in Avengers #89 (June 1971) with Captain Marvel running afoul of the Avengers. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would soon get their first glimpse of the larger war. “Did I have some ‘master plan’ when I started out?” asked Thomas rhetorically. “Not really. I simply knew that Kree and Skrulls would be at war in the far reaches of space, and that their conflict would be threatening to spill over onto the Earth, turning our planet into the cosmic equivalent of some Pacific Island during World War II. Here I was unabashedly influenced by Raymond Jones’ 1950s novel This Island Earth” (Thomas 208).

Skull, the Sub-Mariner, and the Golden Age version of the Human Torch.

The saga also served to tease one of the most curious romantic relationships in comics history: the mutant Scarlet Witch and the artificial Vision.

In its opening chapters, the KreeSkrull War meandered a bit, taking some digressive paths. But then Thomas invited his X-Men collaborator from 1969, artist Neal Adams, to join the fray. Adams assumed the title’s pencil duties with the doublesized Avengers #93 (Nov. 1971). Reunited, the two creators brought the story to its full potential, delivering a spectacular sci-fi action epic that spanned the stars and explored the body of the artificial intelligence Vision.

But Stan Lee hadn’t stopped writing comic books yet. Indeed, two months

The Kree-Skrull War became one of Marvel’s most renowned story arcs, not only of the decade but in Marvel’s history. What’s more, in 1971 the Kree-Skrull War served notice that even with Stan Lee becoming less and less devoted to creating comics, Marvel could still be capable of producing tales of bombastic grandeur.

Drugs and the New Comics Code

By the time the Kree-Skrull War finished in Avengers #97 (March 1972), it fulfilled Thomas’s own vision of furthering the Marvel Universe by including not only the Avengers and the two warring alien races, but also the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans, and sidekick Rick Jones, who psychically conjures manifestations of such World War II-era heroes as the Blazing

Top: Ant-Man battles robot microbes in the body of the Vision.

Bottom: The Avengers prepare to battle in the Kree-Skrull War. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

44

The three-part battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 were the first Marvel comics to be published without the Comics Code Authority seal. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

before Thomas’s Kree-Skrull War got underway, Marvel published a Leewritten Amazing Spider-Man issue, one that focused on a matter of serious concern to the early 1970s American society: drugs.

By 1971, the influence of drugs in the United States was no longer a problem anyone could deny, ignore or hope would go away. Aspects of popular culture such as television, films and novels were exploring the situation and addressing its effects on the youth of America. Musicians had explored the power of LSD, marijuana and stronger drugs in their music since the 1960s, which helped lead to the popularity of head shops.

The problem of drugs even extended to American servicemen overseas: in 1971 two U.S. congressmen produced evidence that 10% to 15% of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin. That drug’s popularity began around 1966, but by the dawn of the 1970s its use peaked and was considered a serious social problem.

On June 17, 1971, President Nixon announced the opening salvo of the “War on Drugs.” Dr. Robert DuPont, the Director of the Narcotics Treatment Administration from 1970 to 1973, commented on the problem of drugs in early 1970s America: And the question was, why did it happen? What made it

happen? One reason it happened was because drug use got very caught up with the youth culture. So drug culture and youth culture became virtually synonymous at that time. And the drugs were just not a matter of having pleasure. Drugs were a way of consciousness expanding. You could see and think and feel things with drugs that you could not do without drugs.

You were entering a new and magical land through the use of drugs. (“Interview – Dr. Robert DuPont”) In 1970 the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare wrote to Stan Lee with a proposition: publish a comic book that addressed the drug use problem head-on. “They were concerned about drug use among kids,” remembered Lee. “Since Marvel had such a great influence with young people, they thought it would be commendable if we were to put out some sort of anti-drug message in our books” (Thomas, “Stan the Man & Roy the Boy” 13). Lee’s take on his company’s youth connection is borne out by the interest by college students in Marvel’s titles. The House of Ideas’ 1960s audience had matured and the books reflected that, especially in Amazing Spider-Man’s titular teen hero. So Lee accepted the charge 45

and prepped the tale for inclusion in Amazing Spider-Man. But Lee had one problem: the Comics Code banned themes that violated “good taste,” like, specifically, the depiction (or even mention) of drugs in comic book stories. On that ground, in June 1970 the Comics Magazine Association of America denied Marvel’s request to publish the anti-drug story.

But in doing so, the CMAA recognized the Code needed updating. Code revisions were scheduled for the end of 1970, but rather than wait to see what changes were going to be made, Lee decided to go ahead with his antidrug Spider-Man story anyway. Lee proposed to Marvel publisher Martin Goodman that the Amazing SpiderMan issues that included the antidrug sub-plot simply be published without the Comics Code symbol on their covers. Goodman approved (Thomas, “Stan the Man & Roy the Boy” 14).

Amazing Spider-Man #96 (May 1971), then, became the first Marvel comic book to not be approved by the CMAA since the regulatory agency’s inception in 1954. Drawn by Gil Kane and John Romita, the issue starts out innocuously enough with Peter Parker worried about the maintenance of his secret identity and the potential return of his nemesis, the Green Goblin.

Halfway through the issue, though, Spider-Man must rescue a “stoned”

worth anything – to get her out of my mind!” An unhappy Harry tries to make up with Mary Jane on the ESU campus, but free-spirited MJ rejects Harry who subsequently decides to kick Peter out of his apartment out of jealousy. The life of the hotheaded rich kid is falling apart, so a furious Harry takes the pills he has bought. “The pills!,” he thinks, “It – it must be the pills – they’re driving me – out of my mind!” By the end of the issue, Harry collapses from a drug overdose.

After a furious battle with the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #98, Peter accompanies his friend to a hospital for treatment. The next day on the ESU campus, Peter is confronted by the same drug dealer who sold Harry the bottle of pills. Peter easily thrashes the pusher and his two henchmen and threatens the pusher with a worse beating if he doesn’t quit dealing drugs: “Before you go sleepybye, remember one thing – and remember it good – if I see you pushing this stuff anywhere again – you’ll think this is just a playful picnic.” On the next page the scene shifts to the offices of the Daily Bugle where J. Jonah Jameson learns that Robbie Robertson intends to run a story about Harry Osborn being hospitalized for a drug overdose.

When Jameson asks what “angle” Robertson will use for

Peter Parker’s roommate Harry Osborn is exposed as a “pill-popper.” TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

youth who jumps off the roof of a building because he believes he can walk on air. After depositing the drugged-out young man on the ground, Spider-Man puts some serious thought to the matter. “Any drug strong enough to give you that kind of trip – can damage your brain – but bad!,” he muses to himself. “But how do you warn the kids? How do you reach them?” Though basically a “kid” himself at the time, Peter—through Lee—places himself above his peers and thinks more like a concerned adult.

On the next page, Peter Parker’s friend Randy, a black youth and son of Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson, angrily declares, “Man, this drug scene really bugs me! Everyone figures it’s the black man’s bag – but it ain’t! We’re the ones who hate it the most! It hurts us more than anyone else – ’cause too many of us got no hope – so we’re easier pickin’s for the pushers! But it ain’t just our problem! It’s yours, too!” The young man then berates rich Norman Osborn— secretly the Green Goblin—for doing nothing with his money to help those impacted by the drug problem.

The following month, Amazing Spider-Man #97 identifies Harry Osborn—both Peter’s roommate and the Green Goblin’s son—as a “pillpopper.” No such mention of Harry’s drug problem appeared previously in the title, and Peter later theorizes that his friend only recently developed his habit in order to cope being rejected by the beautiful Mary Jane Watson, who had been openly flirting with Peter in front of Harry. First, a sweaty and jealous Harry confronts Peter for his friend’s lack of loyalty, then flings a handful of pills into his mouth and collapses. The next day on the Empire State University campus, Harry buys a bottle of pills from a slick-talking drug dealer who declares, “Don’t take my word for it, Osborn! Just try a few – and nothing’s gonna bother you.”

To which Harry replies, “It will be

Editor Robbie Robertson persuades J. Jonah Jameson to report on New York City’s pervasive drug problem.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

46

the story, the editor declares, “I’m showing that drugs aren’t just a ghetto hangup! They hit the rich—same as the poor. It’s everyone’s problem! We’ve all got to face it.” To which, Jameson commands, “Well, don’t just stand there, man! I want it in the next edition.”

Amazing Spider-Man #96 arrived at newsstands on February 9, 1971. It quickly earned nationwide attention and acclaim. Eight days prior to the issue’s release, the CMAA met to approve and implement its revised Comics Code. The depiction of drug use in comic books was now officially allowed. Because comic books were sent to the printer well in advance of their release dates, none of the issues of the Amazing Spider-Man anti-drug story carried the Comics Code seal.

At the February 1 meeting, Martin Goodman’s son, Chip, acted as Marvel’s representative and promised that Marvel would never again publish a comic book not approved by the CMAA (Nyberg, Seal of Approval 141).

The May 1971 issue of the Comics Magazine Association of America heralded the Code’s change with the headline “CMAA Code Modernized.” Presumably to comfort retailers and distributors alike, a sub-header added, “Remains Strictest Code For Any Communications Media.” Regardless, the new Code opened up a whole new world of comic book story possibilities, and DC Comics didn’t wait long to take advantage.

Green Lantern #85 contained a letter from New York Mayor John Lindsay commending DC Comics for its depiction of the problem of drug abuse.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, DC’s first Code approved anti-drug story was published in Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’s socially relevant Green Lantern. Adams claims he presented the cover idea for Green Lantern #85 (Sept. 1971)—showing Green Arrow’s ward Speedy as a junkie—in early 1971. At that time, he encountered resistance from DC editorial due to the Comics Code’s prohibition of drug depiction. While DC waited for the new Code to come into effect, Marvel published its Amazing Spider-Man story, and as Adams himself recalled, “It became the thing to talk about. DC Comics was fit to be tied. They had it in the palm of their hands and they dropped it…. From that point on, comics were allowed to show drug addiction, among many other things” (Lawrence 78).

TM and © DC Comics.

visual element is Speedy himself, having obviously just injected himself with heroin, his drug paraphernalia clearly laid out before him.

In the story Green Arrow enlists the aid of his partner, Green Lantern, to locate Roy Harper (a.k.a. Speedy), who has gone missing. They find Roy with some junkies, but Green Arrow just assumes his ward has been working undercover. Roy even rescues the two heroes from drug pushers who injected them with heroin, inducing a “bad trip” for Green Lantern. The issue ends back at Green Arrow’s apartment where the Emerald Archer discovers Roy is indeed a heroin addict. Green Lantern #86 (Nov. 1971) then begins with a disgusted Green Arrow kicking Roy out of his home. With the support of Black Canary and Green Lantern, Roy quits his habit “cold turkey.” But the story doesn’t end on a victorious note. Instead, Harper assaults his guardian (both physically and verbally), revealing that he sought refuge in heroin only because Green Arrow had neglected him. Roy then argues that society needs to stop attacking the symptom (the drug addicts) and focus more on the disease (the drug suppliers).

At least with the new Code in effect DC could advertise its story’s drug abuse theme in a more transparent manner than Marvel could earlier in the year. For the cover for Amazing Spider-Man #96, Marvel had to dance around outright salacious copy with vague pronouncements like, “What You’ve Been WAITING For! THIS One’s Got it ALL!” and “The Last Fatal Trip!” The covers to Amazing SpiderMan #97 and #98 don’t even hint at the story’s drug theme.

The cover to Green Lantern #85, on the other hand, has the top banner declaration “The Shocking Truth About Drugs!”

If that didn’t catch readers’ eyes, perhaps the lower caption box did. It reads, “DC Attacks Youth’s Greatest Problem…

DRUGS!” Undoubtedly, though, the cover’s most dominant

O’Neil and Adams’s work received just as much attention and accolades as Stan Lee’s Amazing Spider-Man story. Indeed, New York City mayor John V. Lindsay commended 47

The Incredible Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Daredevil were three Marvel Comics that included prominent female characters. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc

DC for its efforts (in a letter printed in Green Lantern #86), and Green Lantern #85 won the 1971 Shazam Award for “Best Individual Story.”

sexuality, the family, and legal issues.

Singer Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” was beginning to climb the music charts, and August 26 was recognized

Both stories demonstrated the kind of material that could be produced with a less strict Comics Code in place.

And while the Green Lantern story pontificated on America’s drug problem in more depth, both stories included a significant amount of racial commentary. In Amazing Spider-Man, Randy and Robbie Robertson both argue that drug abuse is all-pervasive, affecting all races and social classes. Green Lantern offers a different racial message. In DC’s story a young black addict complains that his people are being targeted.

by Congress as “Woman’s Equality Day.” Female characters were slightly better served by Marvel in 1971 than by other comic companies, though many of them were still given their identities through male leads. No new titles debuted with female stars at the helm during that year. DC, however, maintained its three long-time female diehards either in their own titles (i.e. Wonder Woman and Lois Lane) or as the headliner of a title (i.e.

Supergirl in Adventure Comics). Super-heroines would have to wait another year before one of their own would be awarded a new book.

The state of America’s racial relations would continue to impact the content of comic books for years to come.

Ladies First Also impacting the content of comic books was the rise of Feminism. In 1971, the Women’s Liberation Movement was in its second “phase,” addressing such issues as

Big Barda was Mister Miracle’s equal in every way. TM and © DC Comics.

48

The Hulk found a kind of peace in a sub-atomic world with a green-skinned blonde princess named Jarella in Incredible Hulk #140 (June 1971). Created by guest-writer and science fiction showman Harlan Ellison, the story spun off from Ellison’s guest-spot writing Avengers #88 (May 1971) and placed the green behemoth in an unusual situation: a love affair. Before that story, only the Hulk’s alter ego of Dr.

a year before she received the same marquee treatment in Daredevil.

DC’s new female characters in 1971 included the aforementioned Big Barda, premiering in Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle #4 (Oct. 1971), and the beautiful and mysterious Talia. Taking her first bow in Detective Comics #411 (May 1971), Talia debuted as something of a prize in a series of Batman stories creator Denny O’Neil began the year before concerning a Dr. Darrk and the shadowy League of Assassins.

The beautiful and mysterious Talia. TM © DC Comics.

Bruce Banner had felt the pangs of romance, but Jarella’s own sorcerers mystically brought Banner’s milder personality to the fore, and the Hulk enjoyed a brief respite with the fetching female.

The fierce Sub-Mariner loved and lost in 1971 through two strong female characters, Namora and Dorma. Namora had actually debuted in 1947, though after a three-issue run of her own title in 1948, she was abandoned as a character when Timely Comics’ short foray into femaleled titles ended with disappointing sales. Sub-Mariner #33 (Jan. 1971) reintroduced Namora to modern readers and explained her significance as Namor’s cousin from Atlantis. Before the Monarch of the Seas could enjoy the reunion, though, he suffered through the horror of marrying the wrong woman in Sub-Mariner #37 (May 1971). A female foe, Llyra, had disguised herself as Dorma for the wedding, but when she discovered that Atlantean law upheld Namor and Dorma as the true wedded couple, Llyra murdered the Sub-Mariner’s true love in retaliation.

The Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, had had an interesting career path by 1971; originally a plainclothes villainess, the Russian redhead later adopted a super-hero persona and was given a strip of her own in 1970 in Amazing Adventures. That spotlight came to an end in Amazing Adventures #8 (Sept. 1971), but Natasha’s writer in that series, Gerry Conway, bounced her over to another book he was writing and gave her a recurring role beginning in Daredevil #81 (Nov. 1971). Unlike the Falcon, whose name became part of the Captain America masthead with issue #134 (Feb. 1971), the Black Widow would have to wait

In “Into the Den of the Death Dealers!” O’Neil and artist Bob Brown took the Dark Knight to the Middle East and inserted him between Darrk and his abduction of the sensuous yet lethal Talia. After a severe thrashing at the hands of the assassins, Batman lies wounded and helpless as the woman removes his cowl to tend to his injuries. At that moment, readers might not have suspected that Talia was anything but just another beautiful female in Batman’s world, but her amoral tendencies would soon become apparent. Talia struck a chord with both creators and fans and was destined to become a permanent part of the Batman mythos, especially since her own father became one of the most significant additions to Batman’s cast during the 1970s. His name was Ra’s al Ghul.

how he crafted the name from both Arabic and Hebrew words, but conceded that Denny O’Neil “fleshed out the character’s background and manner and made him real” (Schwartz 127).

For his part, O’Neil claimed he thought up the villain’s distinct name—allegedly “head of the demon” in Arabic— and then handed it off to Adams to work with. O’Neil admits that beyond that, he contributed little else to R’as’ creation (Kronenberg 196-197). Adams said that the writer initially gave him “too little to work with,” so the artist put careful thought into the villain’s features, taking great pride in his unique facial hair and the absence of eyebrows (Kronenberg 140). R’as al Ghul came off as a kind of analog to the classic interpretation of Count Dracula, with an ancient air, flowing cape and piercing, disturbing eyes.

By 1971, there had been no new stand-out Bat-villains created in the previous decade, making the arrival of someone like R’as al Ghul overdue. Bat-foes with an international background had come before (such as 1966’s Dr. Tzin-Tzin who headed up his own global crime cartel), but R’as

The Demon’s Head A month after Talia’s introduction in Detective Comics #411, eco-terrorist R’as al Ghul made his debut in Batman #232 (June 1971). As these things go in the world of comics, determining the exact person responsible for the creation of the character is a tricky affair.

Some sources credit the ubiquitous Denny O’Neil as the source of the idea for R’as, with Neal Adams shoring up the visual look (McAvennie 145). But Julius Schwartz, then the Batman editor, remembered things differently: “Artistically, Neal [Adams] came up with the look of R’as al Ghul, but I came up with the idea for the character.”

Schwartz went on to explain 49

Batman #232 begins with news of Robin’s abduction.

TM and © DC Comics.

eschewed the usual gimmicks of Batman’s adversaries. Without a villainous costume and code name, R’as concentrated more on sinister style and subterfuge to confront the man he simply called “Detective.” And one of the greatest weapons in R’as’ arsenal by far was his knowledge of Batman’s secret identity.

O’Neil set the darker tone of Batman #232 (June 1971) within its first three pages: Robin is waylaid in his own dorm room and seemingly shot at point-blank range.

Bruce Wayne then receives a photo via an anonymous messenger of the trussed up Teen Wonder, but it’s a photo addressed to Batman, not Wayne. Making his way to the Batcave for a Batman meets the mysterious Ra’s al Ghul and begins to fall in love with Ghul’s daughter, Talia. TM and © DC Comics. “full analysis” of the photo, the Caped Crusader receives the biggest shock of all: an R’as al Ghul would return later in the stories that might have passed unintruder in his private sanctum who year, along with Talia, and he swiftly der some readers’ radar. The mystical addresses him as Bruce Wayne. The became one of Batman’s most danmage Doctor Strange had come to an first shot of R’as al Ghul reinforces the gerous and challenging opponents. ignoble end when his own series had Dracula comparison. Ghul asks for He would be a decidedly different adbeen cancelled with Doctor Strange Batman’s help in locating his recently dition to Batman’s rogues gallery. #183 (Nov. 1969), but Thomas gave abducted daughter. Shown a picture, the magician one last hurrah by conThe team of O’Neil and Adams also Batman recognizes Ghul’s daughter tinuing his battle against the “Undybrought back one of the Caped Cruas Talia. After some quick detective ing Ones” in Sub-Mariner #22 (Feb. sader’s oldest villains in Batman #234 work, Batman deduces that Talia and 1970) and Incredible Hulk #126 (Apr. (Aug. 1971). Not seen since 1954, the Robin have both been kidnapped by 1970). On that latter issue’s final page, hideously scarred Two-Face seemed an organization based in India called Strange “put aside the trappings of a to fit in better with the modern era of the “Brotherhood of the Demon.” The former life” to “walk among men – as Batman tales. His distorted countetwo men agree to work side-by-side. a man!” nance would have been out of place in The high-flying story then takes Batthe character’s 1950s-1960s “science Shorn of their new-found ally, the man out of Gotham City, and jets fiction” era and the later “New Look” Sub-Mariner and the Hulk found a him and Ghul to Calcutta and on to and television series “pop art” times. new temporary teammate in the form a mountain-climb in the Himalayas.

This return would lead to a healthy of the cosmic-powered Silver Surfer.

O’Neil infuses the tale with mystery revival for Two-Face and cement him In a new story arc beginning in Suband intrigue, giving it a heavy James as one of Batman’s most popular foes.

Mariner #34 (Feb. 1971) and continuBond feel and loading up the tale ing into Namor’s next issue, the trio with neat detective work for our hero.

A Different Kind of Team of oddball characters, none of them By the story’s climax, Batman reveals truly “super-heroes” in the common Over at Marvel, the quest for differthat he knew all along that the person sense, went by the sobriquet “Titans ent ways to present super-heroes beresponsible for the kidnappings was Three.” Something clicked within the came evident in a new team for 1971, Ghul himself, but Batman can’t fathtwo teamings, and Thomas decided one that eschewed the typical founom Ghul’s motivation. That’s when to bring this group of nonconformists dations that most other super-hero Ghul reveals he was conducting a test together in one series. Together, Docgroups had been built upon in the to see if Batman is worthy enough to tor Strange, the Sub-Mariner and the past. both lead the Brotherhood—which Hulk became The Defenders.

Ghul currently runs—and marry his As both an editor and a writer, Roy daughter. Batman steadfastly deThe team debuted under its new Thomas had been experimenting clines to do either, and the issue ends name in Marvel Feature #1 (Dec. with the second and third tier of Marwith a perplexed Batman reacting to 1971). A former foe of Dr. Strange’s, vel characters by teaming them in an unexpected kiss from Talia.

Yandroth the evil scientist, was near 50

price points dropped to 20¢, Marvel Feature #1 was priced at 25¢ with 48 pages. The nineteen page Defenders story and the ten page Dr. Strange story were joined by a reprint of a 1954 Sub-Mariner tale that was written and drawn by Bill Everett.

Everett also served as the inker of Marvel Feature #1’s Defenders story that was penciled by fellow longtime comics veteran Ross Andru. The styles of the two artists did not mesh well as Everett was frustrated by the abundant pencil lines that Andru drew on each page. In his frustration, Everett chose to ink every one of Andru’s lines, and the end result was one of the most heavily inked Marvel stories of the Bronze Age.

Bazaar of the Bizarre The Defenders premiered in Marvel Feature #1.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

death. Soon after his death, the world would face nuclear devastation unless Yandroth’s nefarious plans were stopped. Dr. Strange seeks out the Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer and Hulk to help him stop the world’s destruction. The Hulk and Namor reluctantly accept Strange’s request, but the Surfer was unconscious at the time that Strange tried to contact him and thus was unable to hear the Sorcerer Supreme. The bickering team is able to defeat the threat, but at issue’s end they angrily go in their own separate directions. The Hulk made clear on the last page that he never wanted to see the others again, though he would be a featured member in the comic’s long run. Thomas characterized the team by implying that its members would only come together when there was a need to “defend” the Earth. There would be no real team structure as with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Thomas filled out the book’s pages with a short story called “The Return”, illustrated by Don Heck and Frank Giacoia, which clued readers in on why Strange emerged from his retirement. Dr. Strange would also end up becoming one of the mainstays of the Defenders during its long run.

Although published the same month when most Marvel titles had their

With 1970’s Conan the Barbarian showing some tentative signs of success, Thomas cautiously but optimistically launched another Robert E. Howard barbarian character at Marvel (Comtois 58, 75). Kull made his comic book debut in a seven-page pilot strip in Creatures on the Loose #10 (March 1971) (drawn by fledgling artist Berni Wrightson) before graduating into Kull the Conqueror #1 (June 1971). Kull’s solo series began with Thomas on scripting duties with Ross Andru penciling and Wally Wood inking, but with Kull #2 (Sept. 1971), the brother-sister team of John and Marie Severin took over the art chores on the series.

Kull was a safe bet for Marvel’s fledgling sword-and-sorcery line, as he resembled Conan and adventured in a world not too dissimilar to the Cimmerian’s.

Conan himself also appeared in another 1971 Marvel experi51

ment: a black-and-white comic magazine, similar to Jack Kirby’s magazines as well as the magazine-sized comics published by Warren, Eerie and Skywald. Marvel had tried to break into the magazine field with 1968’s Spectacular Spider-Man, but that title only ran for two issues. Savage Tales #1 (May 1971) was Marvel’s next attempt to crack that market. Showing the more mature approach to the material, the cover to Savage Tales #1, painted by John Buscema, featured Conan thrusting upward his foe’s decapitated head. A warning box on the cover reads, “This Publication is Rated M for the Mature Reader!”

The magazine was released against the recommendation of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman. From Thomas’s point of view, Goodman was leery of skirting the Comics Code Authority with “adult” magazines. Regardless, Stan Lee wanted to try it (Johnson 18).

“With themes that were not of immediate interest to younger readers, but showing a bold measure of restraint with language and sex,” said comics historian Pierre Comtois, “the stories in Savage Tales, despite their fantastic

Splash page from the “pilot” Kull story in Creatures on the Loose #10.

Kull TM and © CPI.

Marvel expanded its sword and sorcery line with Kull the Conqueror #1 and the magazine sized Savage Tales #1. Kull and Conan TM and © CPI.

elements, did turn out to be one of the few successes in comics history to incorporate adult material in a way that wasn’t flat out exploitive” (66).

Despite Lee’s ambition for Savage Tales, Martin Goodman just wasn’t going to allow a second issue to be published. While the comic may have been an aesthetic success, it didn’t sell well. As was reported in fanzines of the time, distribution problems caused a poor sell-through rate (Krolik 29). Though the comic was rumored to be revived sooner, Marvel waited two years before releasing their next magazine-sized comic (Arndt 201; Love 72). Lee would have to wait for Goodman’s departure from Marvel before he could resume the series. For the moment, then, magazine-format comics would remain the domain of such publishers as Warren, Skywald, Eerie and Mad. But in 1971, Lee certainly gave the magazine venture its best shot. Savage Tales #1 includes the work of

some of the most notable writers and artists of the time: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, John Romita, Barry Smith and Gene Colan. Along with such features as Conan, Ka-Zar, “The Sisterhood” and “Black Brother,” the first issue presented the debut of a swamp creature that would end up having a long life as a Marvel character.

Mirrored Muck Monsters Kids were consuming horror stories in other mediums as far back as the 1950s when such TV shows as Shock Theater and Creature Features ran old horror films and introduced them to a new generation of fans. By 1971, horror aficionados could find their beloved supernatural creatures in every corner of the entertainment world… except in comic books. The Comics Code Authority strictly forbade the comic book depiction of zombies, vampires and werewolves. Ironically, though, products like Dark Shadows model kits—featuring a vampire and 52

a werewolf—could advertise in those very same publications.

The 1954 Code banned “scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with, walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism,” but the landmark CMAA meeting of February 1971 finally dissolved those strictures. With the new, revised Code, comic books could finally feature things that go bump in the night… with an important caveat. Creatures like vampires and werewolves could run free across the pages if they were “handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula and other high caliber literary works…read in schools throughout the world” (Nyberg, “Cracking the Code” 44). Thanks to the revision of the Comics Code, undead monsters were finally unleashed on an eager audience of comic book readers.

At first, Marvel and DC got back into the horror business hesitantly. The ghouls and lycanthropes proved

sparse as the mainstream industry adjusted itself to the liberties the new Code allowed them. In the meantime, both DC and Marvel continued providing the kind of brutish monsters the Code had always permitted them to publish. In 1971 that included two shambling swamp monsters that looked suspiciously similar to one another.

Publishing coincidences between Marvel and DC happened before. In 1963, DC’s Doom Patrol debuted almost simultaneously with their virtual Marvel doppelgangers, the X-Men, and in 1968 the red-skinned android called the Vision was sent to infiltrate Marvel’s Avengers while over at DC the red-skinned android Red Tornado was a left: “Black Brother” premiered in Savage Tales #1 but never appeared again. Above: Man-Thing also sleeper agent designed to destroy the Justice Abovepremiered in Savage Tales #1 and would become a Marvel mainstay. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Society. Lightning could strike twice in the same city that housed two rival comic book of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971), an issue that was published companies. And in 1971, lightning struck again. roughly two months after Man-Thing’s first appearance.

That story, illustrated by Berni Wrightson, told of a man After receiving from Stan Lee the suggested new character transformed into a vegetation-based creature, but unlike name of “Man-Thing,” Roy Thomas wrote a brief two-page Man-Thing, Swamp Thing did not seem to have a life waitstory plot, inspired by science fiction writer Theodore Sturing for it past the final page. Unexpectedly, House of Secrets geon’s It. He gave the plot to writer Gerry Conway to script. #92 became DC’s best-selling book the month of its release The result was an 11 page story in Savage Tales #1 that inand fan mail flooded in, praising the Swamp Thing’s debut. troduced Man-Thing as a muck monster born from both a Everyone was impressed, much to the surprise of Wein and chemical bath and a dip into a swamp. With atmospheric Wrightson (Johnson 5). art provided by Gray Morrow, the introductory story’s denouement showed the creature slinking away and into an Readers and creators alike noticed the similarities between open-ended future. Conway went on to other work and did Man-Thing and Swamp Thing. Conway told Roy Thomas not ponder what that future would hold for Man-Thing he had mentioned previous comic book swamp creatures (Johnson 16). to Wein when his roommate was plotting the first Swamp Thing story. Ultimately, though, as Thomas describes it, At the same time, Conway’s then-roommate, Len Wein, pro“[Wein] didn’t think of any particular similarities. So he duced a story for DC that featured a muck monster. Swamp just went ahead and did it… [Since Man-Thing and Swamp Thing debuted in an eight page anthology story in House 53

“Swamp Thing” by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson in House of Secrets #92 was an extremely popular gothic horror tale. TM and © DC Comics.

The Sky(wald)’s the Limit Thing] were both derived from other characters, outside that one particular story, there wasn’t any problem.

There were a few grumblings at the time, but there was no sense in making a mess over one story. An origin story is, after all, an origin story, but then the characters diverged into their own directions” (Johnson 17).

As Conway implied, comic book bog beasts were nothing new. As recently as 1969, Marvel presented the swamp-based Glob as an adversary for the Hulk. DC already had its own swamp monster in the form of Solomon Grundy, who was introduced in 1944 and last seen in a 1966 issue of Justice League of America.

And then there was the original comic book swamp monster, the Heap, introduced in Hillman’s Air Fighter Comics in 1942. The Heap was even revived in 1971, one month prior to Man-Thing’s debut, thanks to Skywald Publications, a black-and-white horror magazine publisher co-founded by former Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky in 1970. It was Roy Thomas who suggested to Brodsky that Skywald bring back the Heap (Khoury). Skywald’s Heap first appeared in Psycho #2 (March 1971) in a story written by Charles McNaughton and drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Skywald then granted the swamp monster his own full-color comic book, titled simply The Heap (Sept. 1971).

Written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Tom Sutton, The Heap only lasted a single issue.

The Heap was one of 34 comics published by Skywald in 1971, including 20 comic book size books and 14 magazines. The company name was derived from its co-founders, Sol Brodsky (“Sky”) and Israel Waldman (“Wald”), the latter of which was a comics entrepreneur who bought printing plates from Golden Age comics. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Waldman sporadically released a series of unauthorized reprints of those comics under the I.W. and Super Comics nameplates. In 1970, Waldman teamed with Brodsky to form Skywald. Waldman’s son, Herschel, was brought into the venture as Skywald’s business manager.

Skywald also suffered from a lack of focus on super-hero comics (Siegel).

Clearly, much of the success of Skywald’s comics line was predicated on readers who loved 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture.

Of the four magazine series that Skywald published in 1971, Crime Machine reprinted pre-code crime comics while Psycho and Nightmare

Skywald’s standard comics carried a cover price of 25¢ for 52 pages. The line was comprised of Western titles (Blazing SixGuns (starring the Sundance Kid), The Bravados, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, and Wild Western Action), romance series (Tender Love Stories) and the Tarzan knockoff Jungle Adventures. Among the creators who produced new material for Skywald’s color comics were Dick Ayers, Gary Friedrich, Robert Kanigher, Jack Katz, Kurt Schaffenberger, Syd Shores and Len Wein.

Skywald’s color comics did well, but ultimately became victims of the price war between Marvel and DC (Sim). Skywald Comics published its own swamp monster, The Heap.

TM and © respective copyright holder.

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Skywald published a range of comics, including the western Sundance Kid (left) and the motorcycle-riding Hell-Rider (above). TM and © respective copyright holder.

produced one-shot horror stories that were similar to the material published by Warren. The latter two magazines featured a roster of creators seemingly plucked from the staff at Marvel, DC and Warren: Dan Adkins, Ross Andru, Rich Buckler, Mike Esposito, Gardner Fox, Pablo Marcos, Rich Margopoulos, Tom Palmer, Phil Seuling, Tom Sutton and Marv Wolfman, among others. Crime Machine lasted only two issues, but Nightmare and Psycho remained on the newsstands for several years.

Skywald’s fourth magazine title, HellRider, was written by Gary Friedrich and featured a crusading, motorcyclist anti-hero whose martial arts skills and flame-throwing cycle helped keep beautiful, scantily clad women safe from heroin smuggler the Claw and bestial avenger the Ripper. While only lasting two issues, Hell-Rider presaged a different motorcyclist hero that Friedrich would create for Marvel Comics in 1972.

Ghosts and Ghouls Galore Like swamp monsters, ghosts were relatively safe from potential Comics Code censorship in 1971. Since some

of the tried-and-true comic book genres were no longer selling particularly well during the early 1970s (e.g. superheroes and humor), several publishers looked to package something different in an attempt to boost sales. As a result, spirits of the dead enjoyed several new haunts in 1971, many of them debuting with, fittingly, October cover dates.

As a non-subscriber to the Code, Gold Key and Dell Comics had regularly published horror material, and one of Gold Key’s frequent contributing writers, Leo Dorfman, convinced DC to launch its own supernatural title (Evanier, “More on Leo Dorfman”).

The spooky new anthology materialized in the form of Ghosts #1 (Oct. 1971). With a tagline that read, “True Tales of the Weird and Supernatural,” Ghosts #1 boasted cover art by Nick Cardy and interior art by Sam Glanzman, Filipino newcomer Tony DeZuñiga, DC’s publisher Carmine Infantino and Charlton Comics transplant Jim Aparo. Besides two John Broomescripted 1950s reprints, Dorfman wrote all of the issue’s disconnected tales, but Ghosts editor Murray Boltinoff had Dorfman use pseudonyms in that first issue to avoid the appearance of a single writer monopolizing the book (Wells 22).

DC also experimented with hybrids, combining horror with other genres.

Weird War Tales (first issue cover dated October 1971) was overseen by 55

war comics veteran Joe Kubert and later hosted by a literal representation of Death. To capitalize on TV’s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, DC combined gothic-style supernatural tales with romance in two anthology offerings, Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love (Sept. 1971) and Sinister House of Secret Love (Oct. 1971). Both books ultimately had short shelf-lives, a reflection perhaps of Dark Shadows’ own demise on television in 1971.

Charlton Comics released three new supernatural anthologies that year, all edited by Sal Gentile. Haunted #1 (Sept. 1971) joined Ghostly Haunts #1 (Sept. 1971) and a new volume of Ghost Manor (Oct. 1971) in an ode to the spirited atmosphere going around the industry. One of the only ghosts who didn’t find life that year was Timmy the Timid Ghost. Charlton cancelled the second volume of Timmy’s self-titled book after four years of humorously spooky shenanigans.

Archie Comics moved its entertaining supernatural star into her own title with Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 (April 1971). Since 1969, Sabrina had appeared regularly in Archie’s TV Laugh-Out but her prominence in CBS’ Sabrina and the Groovy Goolies animated series demanded a book of her own. Sabrina was, of course, a good witch and though troubled by the same teenage woes that Archie and his other friends suffered, she came across as wholesome and friendly, the perfect supernatural neighbor and no apparent threat to the Comics Code.

In 1972, Sabrina would become the host of one of the oddest horror series in comics history.

Morbius would go on to have a long life past his initial appearances as a guest of the wall-crawling super-star Spider-Man. And with this creation, Roy Thomas opened the door to a parade of monsters that would almost completely dominate the next year’s new offerings in the industry.

This Is The End For as many stand-out beginnings the year encompassed, there were significant final bows for titles, characters and creators, too, some of them reflective of the infant decade’s theme of “out with the old, in with the new.”

After ninety-eight issues, DC’s once-beloved humor title Sugar and Spike came to an end in 1971. Created, written, and wholly illustrated by the legendary Sheldon “Shelly” Mayer, the book would go down in comics history as a tribute to one man’s vision and his unique sense of humor.

Begun in 1956 after Mayer retired as one of DC’s most influential and prolific editors, Sugar and Spike followed the adventures of its two infant protagonists, loosely based on Mayer’s own children, in a series of stories, gags, paper doll cut-outs and other miscellaneous offshoots of the man’s creative imagination. But that imagination flagged with failing eyesight and in 1967, Mayer had a diagnosis for his condition: pre-senile cataracts in both eyes.

Ghosts boasted “True Tales of the Weird and Supernatural.” TM and © DC Comics.

In the summer of 1971, Marvel featured one of the undead creatures the revised Code now allowed: the vampire. True to form, Marvel unleashed a different kind of bloodsucker.

Stan Lee had been the writer of Amazing Spider-Man since its first issue in 1962. He left the title for a four-month vacation not long after his monumental anti-drug story.

However, before Lee left the series, he crafted the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #100 (Sept. 1971) in which Peter Parker grew four extra arms. Then Lee handed the book over to his second-in-command, Roy Thomas, with a suggestion to introduce a costumed villain with a Dracula theme. The vampire that Thomas introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971) wasn’t the typical cursed individual but a scientific bloodsucker, inspired not only by a radiation-derived vampire from a dimly-remembered film from Thomas’s youth, but also by the legendary science fiction film Forbidden Planet (Buchanan 29).

Called Morbius after that 1956 movie’s Dr. Morbius, the so-called “Living Vampire” was, as the title implies, not deceased and therefore not technically one of the undead.

Still, as readers learned in Amazing Spider-Man #102 (Nov. 1971), Michael Morbius was responsible for his own vampiric state by experimenting on himself with vampire bats and an “electro-shock device” to cure a disease that was dissolving his blood cells. The treatment turned the scientist into a vampire with a thirst for the blood of others but without killing him first. Spider-Man, upon meeting Morbius, noted that his opponent was “like a costumed version of – a vampire.”

Morbius was a man turned into a vampire via a scientific experiment gone wrong. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“In 1971, Sugar and Spike sales were down again,” said Mayer. “The book needed another shot in the arm. But this time I just couldn’t seem to manage it.” With an eye operation still two years away, Mayer looked to other ways to continue to work for the company that had provided a life-long career for him, namely writing scripts in other titles for artists to draw (Tollin 11). The cover of Sugar and Spike #98 (Oct.-Nov. 1971) portrayed its toddler stars out for Trick or Treats, with Spike in a devil costume ringing a doorbell with his pitchfork; the devilish wit of Shelly Mayer would continue on past the hurdles of 1971, albeit in limited fashion, until his death twenty years later.

Sugar and Spike was part of an unfunny full cancellation of DC’s humor line that year, an axing that also included Binky, Date with Debbi, Swing with Scooter, Three Mouseketeers, and Adventures of Jerry Lewis, which had enjoyed a mirth-filled nineteen-year run.

Aquaman, the original 1941 King of the Seas, had gone along swimmingly in his own title since 1962. But with average sales of 141,000 copies per issue in 1970, Aquaman was not making big waves in the comics world.

Artist Jim Aparo, who would soon begin his long run on The Brave and the Bold, had given Aquaman real energy in its final two years, but by Aquaman #56 (Apr. 1971) even that couldn’t save it from cancellation. The final story by writer Steve Skeates, “The Creature That Devoured Detroit,” also signaled the end of the “SAG” team of Skeates, Aparo and Dick Giordano, in place since 1968 on the book. Aquaman would have to be content with merely being a member of the Justice League until he regained a solo spot in Adventure Comics in 1974.

DC also cancelled its mostly-reprint title DC Special, after a final issue that offered a selection of 1940s Plastic Man stories from the defunct Quality Comics, the first ever reprinted

by DC. The book’s short four-year run would be granted a two-year extension in 1975. Also on the 1971 chopping block, Super DC Giant lost its short lease on life, as well as the 80 Page Giants which were recurring specials throughout the DC line since the 1960s. Both of the Giants were barely larger than the company’s new

DC’s humor line was cut dramatically in 1971. Among the titles cancelled were Sugar and Spike and Binky.

TM and © DC Comics.

25 cent comics, so they were replaced with the aforementioned DC 100Page Super Spectacular.

Perhaps one of the most significant cancellations of 1971 was one that most likely went unnoticed by a legion of comics fans who fixated on super-heroes and splashier publications. Classics Illustrated, published since 1941, came to an end after decades of offering abbreviated fourcolor versions of some of the greatest works of literature and other books of historical value. Created under the original title of Classic Comics, the series covered nearly one-hundred and seventy different adaptations of literary works under the auspices of Gilberton Publications but by 1971 had become only reprints of past titles.

The series had stopped active production in 1962, with only two sporadic new titles appearing in 1969. Gilberton’s foreign editions of Classics Illustrated continued unabated for a few more years, but in the United States, the books would be relegated to mark-down bins in supermarkets and other such general stores.

Slip Sliding Away Despite the influx of new blood and beyond the experimentation and innovation, overall improvement in the one area that truly mattered still eluded comic book companies in 1971: sales.

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No publisher was immune to the downward slant on the sales chart and, on average, most titles’ sales figures slipped by six percent from the previous year – not a cataclysmic drop, but still part of an over-arching trend for the new decade. Some new books showed initial signs of piquing readers’ interest… but soon mellowed out to the same flat line that was the norm for existing books and characters. The vibrancy of youth and the dawn of relevance had little effect on making the cash registers ring.

Superman and his family of books shouldered an average five percent reduction in sales, with Adventure Comics—starring Supergirl—taking the biggest hit when it sold an average of 21,000 copies less each issue than the previous year. Action Comics came out the “winner” with only a drop of 5,000 copies on average each issue from 1970 to 1971. The Caped Crusader didn’t seem to benefit much from Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ attention; Batman lost almost 50,000 copies sold on average, while Detective Comics fell off by “only” an average of 10,000 copies sold from issue to issue. The Brave and the Bold virtually held the line with a loss of just 1,000 units on average.

DC’s only true sales gains in 1971 came from a trio of somewhat unlikely titles: Green Lantern, Justice League of America, and House of Mystery. The

inal Big Little Book, the bags are marked “MAIL”). Readers may also have noticed the small lettered statement on the cover “Nix kids – Adults only!” and the fact that the issue was being published by “Hell” comics rather than Dell.

first two could boast O’Neil’s presence—despite his performance with Batman books—and the third perhaps felt the boost from the renewed spotlight on horror at the time.

Marvel’s sales slump resembled DC’s to some extent, though such titles as Fantastic Four and Thor fell a relatively small two to three percent of their average copies sold per issue. Captain America took the largest loss of any major Marvel book when it slumped by 16,000 copies on average, most likely owing to the growing discontent among America’s youth and their questioning of their country’s values and identity. Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers each lost five percent in sales from 1970 to 1971, but interestingly, Incredible Hulk actually showed a gain of five percent, perhaps due to his place in the Marvel Universe as a “monster,” and not a traditional super-hero. In fact, Marvel would exploit their monsters to a high degree in the coming year, as well as be rewarded for their comparatively healthier sales picture than that of their Distinguished Competition across town.

Inside the comic, along with a funny-animal strip by London and a “Dopin’ Dan” strip by Richards, were two strips that sparked real controversy. First, Dan O’Neill produced an X-rated version of Disney’s classic Silly Symphonies cartoons with eight pages featuring the adventures of Dan Bug and a horny millipede. The really outrageous strip, though, was “Silly Sympathies Presents the Mouse,” a rollicking tale featuring salty language, drug usage and ex-

By the end of the year and despite the drop off in sales, the companies continued to either maintain or increase their production output. DC published more than 350 separate issues of their titles, matching the previous year’s output, while Marvel put out slightly fewer, from 277 in 1970 to 264 in 1971. This would change dramatically in the very near future.

The Air Pirates Battle Corporate Oppression Just as the mainstream comics publishers increased their output, so too did the publishers of underground comix. In fact, 1971 had the most comics published thus far by the undergrounds, and one of the most notorious published that year was Air Pirates Funnies #1 (July 1971) and #2 (August 1971).

Air Pirates Funnies was the production of a San Francisco collective of cartoonists. Dan O’Neill was their unofficial “instigator,” in collaboration with Bobby London, Ted Richards, Gary Hallgren and Shary Flenniken. The group shared a small studio in an anonymous industrial space in San Francisco, where they lived together in poverty while drawing and studying the work of classic cartoonists such as George Herriman, H.T. Webster and the anonymous artists for Walt Disney Studios.

It was that love for vintage Disney artwork that was most prominently on display in both issues of Air Fighters. The first issue features an image of Mickey Mouse adapted from a vintage Big Little Book, with the feisty rodent flying a decrepit tiny airplane through the clouds, shooting his machine gun at an unseen enemy. But there were several tipoffs that this version of Mickey Mouse wasn’t as squeaky-clean as his Disney counterpart. Beyond the 50¢ price tag lettered in classic underground style, attentive readers might have noticed that Mickey had several bags strapped to his plane marked “DOPE” (in the orig-

Mickey Mouse and his friends smuggled drugs and had explicit sex in the unlicensed Air Pirates Funnies.

Mickey Mouse TM and © Disney Enterprises Inc.

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ing venture they called Rip Off Press and decided to collect the Brothers’ newspaper adventures in comic form. In a haze of marijuana smoke, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #1 inaugurated a healthy run for its dopeaddicted protagonists.

plicit sex between Mickey and Minnie Mouse. O’Neill made sure the comic found its way into the hands of a lawyer at Disney. Not long after the equally outrageous second issue was released, Disney’s lawyers served the Air Pirates creators an injunction to cease and desist producing and selling the Air Pirates comics. These creators, who were living in destitution in San Francisco, were sued for a half million dollars.

Away from the spinner racks and head shops, one 1971 publication stood not only as an oddity but also as an important link in the developmental chain of an art form. Blackmark, conceived and drawn by comic book legend Gil Kane and scripted by Archie Goodwin, offered almost 120 pages of an original adventure hero story told in panels and captions and word balloons but published in a traditional paperback book format. In other words, Kane’s creation ranks as one of the very first “graphic novels.”

Other cartoonists, including Wally Wood, Joel Beck, Victor Moscoso and Willy Murphy, had drawn Disney characters (or caricatures of Disney characters) into their underground stories, but no creators had quite poked Disney in the eye in the same way that the Air Fighters team did. Disney’s lawsuit meandered its way through the Blackmark’s fantasy saga was legal system until the end of meant to be, as the paperback’s the decade. Along the way, bencover proclaimed, the “first in a efit concerts and books helped series,” but further installments raise funds for O’Neill’s legal dewould not appear on bookstore Real Pulp Comics #1 featured the first appearance of fense… but it really didn’t matZippy the Pinhead. TM and © respective copyright holder. shelves. It would be eight years ter as time and again, O’Neill exlater before Kane’s sequel would acerbated the situation through be published by Marvel as part of the anthology magazine his unwillingness to stop taunting Disney. The case was Marvel Preview. quietly resolved in early 1980 when an out-of-court settleIn the world of the underground comix publishers and crement was reached between the titanic Disney Corporation ators who operated on the fringes of the industry, anything and the nearly impoverished O’Neill (Levin). was possible. With the 1971 changes in the Comics Code, almost anything seemed to be possible for every other Their Own Way comic book professional. The influx of youthful energy and Air Pirates Funnies was one of many new underground coideas drove that forward into the new decade. mix releases in 1971. While maybe not as scandalous as O’Neill’s work, all underground publishers and creators ofBut there were always risks to experimentation. Comic fered personal visions unabated by rules and regulations, book fans continued to infuse the industry with new talalternatives to the standard fare of the uptown comic ent, but those who “graduated” into the big leagues weren’t book firms. Put simply, underground comix “did their own necessarily being replaced in the readership base. With evthing.” ery intrinsic change to the industry and its core tenets and beliefs, the old guard of readers who’d followed right along Take, for example, Real Pulp Comix #1 (March 1971), the since their childhoods in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s could rebfirst home of Bill Griffith’s avant-garde character Zippy the el at any moment. A balance had to be struck by companies Pinhead. The muumuu-wearing, non sequitur-spouting as they sought the perfect mixture of new and old. oddity began his four-color life almost as an afterthought when Real Pulp Comix’ editor Roger Brand asked Griffith The bright world of comic books became increasingly darkto come up with something on the fly for the book’s first er, owing to the loosening of the code and youthful shirking issue. Griffith had been inspired by the microcephalic of authority. If monsters reared their ugly heads in 1971 to Schlitzie in the infamous 1932 film Freaks and crafted Zipsome effect, the coming year would open the door for more py as a mouthpiece for a kind of existentialist thought. The of their brethren to the point of dominating the industry surreal strip would segue into a popular newspaper strip a with their shadowy adventures. The unlikely hero, or even few years later (Dueben). anti-hero, would begin to demand his place alongside the stalwart super-heroes as the decade progressed.

Debuting in 1968 in an underground newspaper, Gilbert Shelton’s trio of weed-smoking losers, the Fabulous FurAnd the “old men” at the top of the companies would step ry Freak Brothers, gained their very own comic book in aside and allow it to happen.

1971. Shelton had teamed with two friends in a publish59

1972

The

Paradigm Shifts

In the 1972 U.S. Presidential election Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeated Democratic challenger George McGovern in a 49-state landslide. Throughout his campaign, Nixon appealed to his “Silent Majority” of constituents who believed in traditional American power, influence and morals.

But while Nixon’s reelection could be seen as a triumph for conservative political and social values in the post-hippie era, 1972 was also the year that old-style attitudes collided with a shift in pop culture. The movies and television shows that Americans had been previously eager to consume were now considered out of touch with the tenor of the times, replaced with more provocative material. For instance, the most watched film of 1972, The Godfather, combined a classically American embrace of family with anti-heroic protagonists who thought nothing of killing their rivals and creating terror among ordinary people.

Three of the ten highest-grossing movies of 1972—Deep Throat, Beyond the Green Door and Fritz the Cat (based on a character created by Robert Crumb)—featured explicit sex scenes and were restricted only to adults. Just a few years earlier, such material would have been banned from most American theatres. The massive success of these movies spurred a great national debate about pornography and censorship.

On TV, new technology and approaches abounded. On the top-rated CBS sitcom Maude, Beatrice Arthur’s character debated whether to have an abortion. Several months prior to that episode, M*A*S*H, based on the irreverent 1970 anti-war film, started its decade-long run. The influential show Kung Fu debuted in the fall of 1972, and for the first time, more than half of all U.S. households owned color TV sets. On November 8, 1972, pay TV service HBO began its programming with a hockey game between the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks.

For the comic book industry, 1972 was a year of transitions.

Stan Lee handed the day-to-day management of the Marvel line over to his protégé Roy Thomas, just as that line was expanding with new series that were intended to diversify Marvel’s readership and which could not have been published just a few years previously. Elsewhere, DC dealt with a major slump in its sales, while the underground comix movement—which represented a more irreverent,

CHAPTER THREE 60

Keeping Art Director duties for himself, Lee named Thomas Marvel’s Story Editor while longtime artist Frank Giacoia became Assistant Art Director. The experienced inker was excited to take the staff job because it gave him the opportunity to earn good money without having to draw and ink every day. But in the arrangement that Lee set up, Thomas, production manager John Verpoorten, and Giacoia were each other’s peers, none of them empowered to break any deadlocks of opinion. The key obligations of the Assistant Art Director included the oversight of corrections and the creation of cover designs. From Thomas’s perspective, though, Giacoia wasn’t doing either obligation quickly enough. Production was getting bogged down because Giacoia wasn’t as reliable as he needed to be.

freer approach to comic art that included explicit sex and violence—became increasingly popular among readers.

Unquestionably, 1972 was a landmark year for comic book sales. DC’s 1971 move to a 25¢ cover price with 52 pages for all their series ended up being financially disastrous, so much so that the unprecedented happened: Marvel passed DC in overall sales in 1972. That was a pyrrhic victory, however, since the industry as a whole was shrinking. As baby boomers reached their late teens and early twenties, they were turning away more and more from mainstream comics in favor of movies, TV, underground comix, and the everyday concerns that life brought them. Super-heroes were waning in popularity while horror titles were ascendant, no doubt due, in part, to the loosening of the Comics Code.

The new cohort of creators—many of them former fans turned professional—were taking more and more control of the comic books that Marvel and DC were releasing, producing material that was paradoxically both more experimental and more conservative than what had come before.

As the arrangement proceeded, Thomas became increasingly frustrated with Giacoia’s lack of dependability. In fact, Thomas was so annoyed by the situation that he briefly considered quitting the company in order to accept DC Publisher Carmine Infantino’s standing invitation to join

Roy the Boy Becomes the Man By 1972, Roy Thomas had worked on staff at Marvel Comics for over half a decade, acting as Stan Lee’s right-hand man for editorial matters. Though job titles didn’t matter much at Marvel during those days, Thomas was formally the “Associate Editor” by 1968, assisting Lee with any matter that concerned Marvel’s comic line. In that loose setup, Thomas was empowered to make any editorial decisions that were delegated to him. It was a comfortable job, easily managed by working two to three days per week in the office with the other days spent at home working on scripts (a similar schedule to Lee’s at that time). Thomas’s power at the company accumulated slowly: “It was a case of a gradual evolution. If I’d looked from one year to the next, I was probably handling a little more and I was having to deal with a few other writers and a bit more with the art—less with the art than with the writers. But I wouldn’t have noticed from dayto-day or week-to-week” (Amash 3).

Then in 1972 Lee became Marvel’s Publisher (and, briefly, President), taking over the role from Chip Goodman by going to Marvel’s owners, Cadence Industries, and demanding the job (Gustaveson 93). Stan then officially promoted Thomas to his own former role as the editor-in-chief in charge of the entire Marvel Comics Group… though only after a bit of behind-the-scenes drama. As Publisher, Lee was freed from most of his daily comic bookrelated responsibilities. However, Lee was initially reluctant to give his former job title to his protégé, believing that Thomas’s strongest skills were in the scripting side of the business and in leading the direction of the Marvel line (Amash 18). Since Thomas respected Lee so much, he wasn’t looking to supersede his mentor in the role. Instead, he just wanted a formal title to match his professional responsibilities.

The extra-long Tomb of Dracula #1 kicked off a nearly decade-long run for the Lord of Vampires as star of his own Marvel Comic. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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TIMELINE: 1972 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 14: Sanford & Son, a sitcom based on BBC’s Steptoe and Son, debuts on the NBC television network. Starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson as a father and son who own a junkyard in Los Angeles, the show would become one of the most successful African American-oriented series in TV history, ending in 1977.

JANUARY

March 4: Charles Biro, comics creator most famous for a lengthy run on Lev Gleason’s Daredevil comic book during the early 1940s, dies at the age of 60.

February 3: The Winter Olympics begin in Sapporo, Japan.

March 24: The Godfather—a film directed

by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the father figures of an organized crime family—arrives in theaters. It would become the highest grossing film of the year and win three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

February 22: The final issue of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’s run on Green Lantern—issue #89—arrives at newsstands. (Their Green Lantern/Green Arrow story would continue as a back-up for three issues of Flash.)

FEBRUARY

February 21: President Nixon arrives in Shanghai to begin his historic trip to China, a country not diplomatically recognized by the United States at the time.

May: After 11 months selling 48 page comic books for 25¢, DC Comics reduces the price and page count of its regular comic books to 20¢ and 36 pages.

May 15: Alabama Governor George Wallace is shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer while campaigning in Maryland for the Democratic Presidential primary.

May 22: President Nixon travels to the Soviet Union, the first time a U.S. President has visited the Communist nation.

Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign an arms reduction agreement known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).

MARCH

APRIL

March 22: Congress passes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, designed to guarantee equal rights to women. The amendment is sent to the states for ratification where, by 1982, it falls three states short of the 38 needed for approval.

March 21: Marvel introduces its own “blaxpoitation” hero in the form of Luke Cage in the Roy Thomas-written/George Tuska-drawn Hero for Hire #1.

February 29: DC Comics begins publishing the adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous jungle lord with Tarzan #207, written and drawn by Joe Kubert. (DC continued the numbering where the Gold Key Tarzan series had left off only two months previously.)

M AY

June 17: Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel.

The five burglars are soon linked to President Nixon’s Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP). The Watergate scandal has begun.

JUNE June 22: Jack Kirby creates two new comic books for DC Comics: Demon and Kamandi. The first issue of the former arrives at newsstands on this date.

June 29: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”

States are forced to revise their capital punishment laws.

Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, the Demon, Rudolph, Superman, Wonder Woman TM and © DC Comics. Avengers, Luke Cage TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Tarzan TM and © ERB, Inc.

DC’s staff. Thomas’s close friend Gil Kane, though, advised the writer to be patient and wait for the state of affairs to resolve itself. Gradually, Lee himself became annoyed with the problems he had unknowingly created. After a few months of this set-up, Lee called Thomas into his office and discussed with his longtime assistant the fact that he was unhappy with Giacoia’s performance. Lee wondered why Thomas wasn’t pushing Giacoia to be more productive.

When Thomas reported that it was because the men were set as equals, without one in a position of authority over the other, Lee officially moved Thomas into the editor-inchief position so that he could finally resolve the problems.

Giacoia soon left the Assistant Art Director role to return to life as a freelancer, with longtime Amazing Spider-Man artist John Romita assuming Giacoia’s former post. Romita would remain as Marvel’s Art Director for the next two decades.

had to support the salaries of its own publisher, comptroller and other corporate jobs mostly unrelated to the comics themselves.

In 1972, DC published a total of 369 individual issues to Marvel’s 356. This would prove to be the final year that Marvel published fewer comics than DC. For the rest of the decade, Thomas and his editorial successors would publish more issues each month than DC. During Thomas’s regime, the company assumed a subtly different personality, experimenting with a multitude of new concepts, approaches, characters, formats and storytelling motifs that would radically change the composition of the Marvel Comics Group while maintaining its core characters. Facing the challenge to stay relevant in an era when underground comix were seizing readers’ imaginations with their uncensored content, Stan and Roy embraced story elements that reflected the spirit of the era: a line of female heroines created in light of the Women’s Movement; a “Blaxploitation” hero corresponding with a popular film trend; additional sword-and-sorcery characters reflecting the popularity of Conan; a brand new Western comic that explicitly addressed racism; a comic book version of pulp hero Doc Savage; a series of science fiction adaptations that embraced the college crowd; and a burgeoning set of supernatural heroes to tread the line between heroes and horror. Marvel even briefly revived a

With Roy Thomas as the man in charge of its day-to-day operations, the Marvel Comics Group accelerated its embrace of fresh concepts. Eight months after releasing only 20 titles with an April 1972 cover date, Marvel nearly doubled its output by producing 38 titles with a December cover date. This expansion was partly an attempt to increase Marvel’s market share and push DC off the nation’s newsstands, but it was also driven by a need for additional revenue; as an independent company for the first time, Marvel 62

August 26: The Summer Olympics open in Munich, West Germany. U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins seven gold medals while the U.S. men’s basketball team loses a controversial gold medal match against the Soviet Union.

The U.S. team refuses to accept the silver medal.

July 1: Gloria Steinem’s Ms. magazine publishes its first regular issue. The cover displays DC Comics’ Wonder Woman.

September 17: M*A*S*H, a “dramedy” starring Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers as doctors serving in a surgical unit during the Korean War, premieres on the CBS television network. It would become one of the celebrated programs in television history.

October 1: Artist Sid Greene— who most notably worked as a DC Comics inker during the 1960s on such titles as Detective Comics and Justice League of America—dies at the age of 66.

J U LY

AUGUST

August 8: With issue #105, Steve Englehart takes over the writing chores of Avengers from Roy Thomas.

Englehart’s run on the title would last four years.

small collection of funny animal and humor series, and expanded its war comics offerings. Confirming Lee and Thomas’s commitment to diversity is the fact that for a brief period, Marvel produced series in more genres than any other company. If super-heroes weren’t as popular as they once were, Lee, Thomas, and their creative teams would lead Marvel into other areas that would—they hoped—drive higher sales.

Lee and Thomas were so excited about Marvel’s expansion that they even made overtures to a number of writers who had been well known for their work at places other than Marvel. For instance, in early 1972, Lee approached Harvey Kurtzman—creator of Mad and the popular Playboy comic strip “Little Annie Fannie”—to ask the former EC Comics editor if he would be interested in editing a satirical magazine to be titled Bedlam. The two men had a protracted back-andforth, trading memos and ideas on

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

September 5: In Munich, eight Palestinian terrorists break into the Olympic Village.

They take 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in order to demand the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails. An 18 hour standoff ends at a military airport where a failed German rescue attempt results in the death of five of the terrorists and all of the Israelis.

December 7: America’s last moon mission is launched as Apollo 17 blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It lands on the moon on December 11.

November 14: Inspired by a Robert E. Howard character, Red Sonja is introduced in Conan the Barbarian #23 in a story written

by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Smith.

November 30: American troop withdrawal from Vietnam is completed, although 16,000 Army advisors and administrators remain to assist South Vietnam’s military forces.

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER December 14: Nineteen years after his last Fawcett Comics appearance, “The World’s Mightiest Mortal,” Captain Marvel is revived for DC Comics’ Shazam!, a series written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by C.C. Beck.

October 24: DC reprints a collection of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer stories from the 1950s in an 80 page, oversized tabloid, priced at $1. It would become the first of many tabloid books that both DC (and Marvel) would publish throughout the 1970s.

the proposed magazine. Ultimately, Kurtzman felt Bedlam sounded too much like a Mad imitator, stating “it would be a warmed-over Mad with all the personally embarrassing inferences” (Howe). As a result, the two men were never able to see eye-toeye on the project so it never saw fruition. Marvel would go on to revive its 1970 comic book Spoof. Its second issue—with a parody of the smash-hit TV show All in the Family—had a November 1972 cover date. Marvel followed that up with the blatant Mad imitator, Crazy Magazine, in 1973.

Lee also approached literary figures such as the Czech surrealist playwright Václav Havel, British satirical writer Anthony Burgess (whose novel A Clockwork Orange was adapted for a cult favorite film in 1971) and popular American writer Kurt Vonnegut to write for a line of adult-oriented comics. British playwright Tom Stoppard, perhaps best known for his absurdist Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are 63

November 7: Bolstered by a good economy and several foreign policy successes, Richard Nixon is re-elected President of the United States in a landslide victory over Democrat George McGovern. McGovern only wins one state.

Dead, also expressed interest in working for Marvel. None of these projects ever got past the talking stage (Howe 122).

While Marvel didn’t produce a line of literary comic books, it did offer a collection of titles of a different genre: monster horror comics. The loosening of the Comics Code in 1971 allowed comic companies to present material featuring classic monsters. A clause added in the February 1, 1971 revision of the Code allowed that “Vampires, ghouls and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when in the classical tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula and other high quality literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki (H.H. Munro), Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools throughout the world” (Nyberg 172). Lee and Thomas embraced the Code’s loosened standards, launching a mini-line of comics that featured monsters and supernatural creatures as protagonists.

Jack Russell’s Life Gets Hairy The first ghoulish protagonist to appear was Werewolf by Night, which premiered in the 52-page, 25¢ Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972). Plotted by Roy Thomas with his wife Jean, scripted by Gerry Conway and drawn by Mike Ploog, the comic told the story of wealthy Jack Russell, who learns on his 18th birthday that he has been cursed with the wolfman disease, lycanthropy. Russell turns into a werewolf every night that the moon is full. The explanation of his curse comes from Jack’s mother, Laura, who is near death after an auto accident. On her deathbed, Laura reveals a past life that she had kept hidden from her children. While a student abroad in the Baltic countries, Jack’s mother had met and fallen in love with a handsome and mysterious man.

She bore the man’s children, ignorant to the terrible secret that he was also a werewolf. As Laura states, “I’d read it in the family tomes – knew it was a hereditary curse – one that you may well have been damned with – to become a man-like beast – first on the night of your eighteenth year – and forevermore when the full moon blooms.”

Marvel expanded further into the monster genre with Werewolf by Night.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Roy and Jean Thomas plotted the origin of the character while sitting in New York City’s Columbus Circle after leaving an auto show they had become bored with. They then turned the comic over to trusted writer Gerry Conway to flesh it out. Conway added the clever naming of the protagonist after a breed of dog, and also contributed much of the rest of the background of the story, including its unconventional setting in Los Angeles. (At that time, most comic book series were set in New York.) Artist Mike Ploog received the art assignment when he simply walked into Marvel’s offices looking for work. He had been an assistant to Spirit artist Will Eisner on Eisner’s educational comic work for the U.S. Army. Ploog’s art style was professional and different from his peers, closely resembling that of his mentor, so Thomas and Lee quickly snapped Ploog up since he was one of the rare comic book artists in the early 1970s whose style was not influenced by Jack Kirby or Neal Adams. After a false start on a new western title that would have been called Tin Star, Lee reassigned the artist to his new supernatural comic. Ploog would become associated with many of Marvel’s best known horror characters over the next decade. After three try-out issues in Marvel Spotlight, the Werewolf moved to his own title with Werewolf by Night #1 (Sept. 1972), also by Conway and Ploog. The series

The story is told in a distinctive first-person narrative with Jack commenting on his story as it proceeds, including shattered reflections of his human mind when Russell is in animal form. Werewolf by Night was an extremely different series for mainstream comics. For the first time, the Marvel formula of heroic angst was applied to a man whose problems were literally life and death. As the Werewolf, Jack Russell often killed both enemies and bystanders—a rarity for a hero. In their portrayal of a teen lead character, Thomas and Conway created a man with whom readers could empathize and whose problems—while outlandish—were relatable in a figurative sense, an echo of the Marvel formula of presenting lead characters with major problems.

The idea for the comic came from Thomas, who had created a concept that was a cross between the 1957 B-movie classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Spider-Man, and narrated by the lead himself. Thomas called his idea I, Werewolf. Lee liked the concept but not the title; since Thomas’s main concern was that he be allowed to keep the unique first-person narration for the book, he was happy to go with Lee’s suggestion of Werewolf by Night (Johnson 32).

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motorcyclist hero Hell-Rider from 1971. This new Ghost Rider was different than all those previous characters. He was born when Friedrich came to Thomas with a weird concept for a villain to be used in the pages of Daredevil. As Friedrich told his longtime friend about his idea, Thomas decided that the creation was too intriguing to be used as a simple one-shot super-villain. After running the proposal past Stan Lee, Thomas gave this new Ghost Rider his own solo series.

Thomas made an appointment for Friedrich to come to the Marvel offices to discuss this new project, but Friedrich missed the meeting. Undaunted, Thomas and Ploog plunged ahead with the book. Thomas suggested that Ghost Rider wear a costume similar to the leather jumpsuit that Elvis Presley wore in his 1968 comeback special. Ploog started drawing what Thomas described, adding flames around Ghost Rider’s head, simply because he thought it would look great if the character’s head was on fire. When Friedrich arrived at the office the next day, he saw Ploog’s designs and told Thomas, “Yup. Just like I envisioned him” (Cooke, “Heir Apparent” 28).

Friedrich and Ploog then collaborated to produce Ghost Rider’s origin, one as spectacularly bleak as any that had appeared in comics to that point. The pathos of the tale is emphasized by the fact that it is narrated in the second-person, as if the narrator is speaking to Blaze. Johnny Blaze’s father Benton was a daredevil motorcycle stunt rider who died in a horrifying crash when Johnny was very young. Benton’s partner Crash Simpson adopted Johnny and raised him like his own son alongside his own daughter, Roxanne. But tragedy strikes the Simpson family as well: at the age of 15, when training to join the Simpson stunt show, Johnny’s adoptive mother is killed in an accident. On her deathbed, Johnny swears to his second lost parent that he will never ride in the show. Blaze keeps his promise to himself even while Crash berates him for his ap-

Ghost Rider combined motorcycle stunt riding and supernatural vengeance with a super-hero element. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

that succeeded the Werewolf in Marvel Spotlight was another major addition to Marvel’s horror-driven mini-line.

Johnny Blaze’s Life Catches Fire Ghost Rider first blazed onto the comic book scene in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972). The cover to that issue, drawn by Ploog, shows a black leathered motorcyclist attacking a street gang. Fire streaks from his ghostly skull.

Various blurbs claim, “A legend is born!,” “Is he alive… or dead?,” and “The most supernatural super-hero of all!”

The story inside proved that the superlatives were not just Marvel hype.

Created by the team of Roy Thomas, Mike Ploog and writer Gary Friedrich, Ghost Rider bore a visual similarity to the 1940s hero Blazing Skull. Golden Age comics fan Thomas, though, didn’t have that previous character in mind as he co-created his new anti-hero. Thomas and crew also weren’t looking to revive Marvel’s (and Magazine Enterprises’) western hero Ghost Rider. Coincidentally, the 1967 adventures of that Ghost Rider were scripted

by Friedrich, as had been Skywald Magazines’ short-lived

Johnny Blaze transformed into the supernatural Ghost Rider.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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parent cowardice. Secretly, though, Blaze has been training himself to be a rider—a fact he only shares with his beloved Roxanne. On the eve of the biggest chance of Crash’s career, the father figure reveals that he has an illness that will kill him in one month’s time. Johnny Blaze takes action in a surprising way: he makes an invocation to Satan, promising his eternal servitude in exchange for saving Crash’s life from the disease. Before Satan’s word can be tested, Crash decides to tempt fate at the end of his life with a major spectacle: he chooses to jump 22 cars, an almost impossible feat.

Crash jumps his cycle, but it falls short of the landing ramp and once again tragedy has struck Johnny Blaze. His second father has died. In an attempt to get over his anger, Johnny goes to a darkened arena and jumps the 22 cars himself. The act forces Roxanne to angrily break up with him. Soon the devil appears and lets Johnny know his fate: “from this day forth, you will walk the earth as my emissary in the dark hours… and in the light you will join me in Hades.” True to his threat, the Devil turns Blaze into a skeletal figure with a blazing skull as the issue wraps up. Johnny Blaze flees his surroundings, desperate to find some real peace in his world.

Clearly, Ghost Rider’s story contains elements that likely never would have passed the Comics Code only two years previously, especially the central concept of the lead character selling his soul to the devil. The comic taps into many interests that were part of the public imagination in the early 1970s: the popularity and rebel spirit of motorcycles, the admiration of motorcycle stunt riding as exemplified by Evel Knievel’s widespread fame, and finally, an increased interest in the occult.

Little surprise then that Ghost Rider became another major hit for the rapidly evolving Marvel line.

Dracula Lives Since the revisions to the Comics Code allowed for depictions of Dracula, it was inevitable that Marvel would launch a new comic featuring the Lord of Vampires as soon as the opportunity arose. In fact, Marvel’s Dracula

Gene Colan created a try-out page in order to win the art job on Tomb of Dracula.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

series was hyped a year before it actually appeared. A Marvel Bullpen Bulletin, appearing in all of Marvel’s July 1971 cover-dated comics, proclaimed: Savage Tales looks like such a howlin’ hit that we’re following it up with a ghoulish 50¢ goodie called The Tomb of Dracula (or The House of Dracula. We haven’t decided yet.) It’s a wholly new concept, starring Dracula himself, as he is – was – and 66

perhaps will be. With art by Gene Colan, Berni Wrightson and Gray Morrow among others, and a team of the world’s most titanic scripters, headed

by Marvel’s merry masters, Smilin’ Stan and Rascally Roy themselves! May we modestly say – it ain’t to be missed!

Three months after that announcement, Marvel notified its readers that Tomb of Dracula would be released as a standard sized comic priced at

25¢. Gene Colan was initially attached to the project after telling his boss “Stan, I’ll literally beg for this,” but the series was inadvertently offered by Lee to SubMariner writer/artist Bill Everett. Colan and his wife Adrienne were aghast that Lee had taken away an assignment that Colan considered very important to him.

Growing tired of drawing super-hero stories, Colan was anxious to tackle a different genre. Inspired by the stories that actor Marlon Brando had auditioned for his role in The Godfather, Adrienne persuaded her husband to create some tryout images in order to persuade Lee to give him the project. Colan worked up a full page, ink-wash portrait of the vampire king in different poses, with an appearance based on actor Jack Palance.

Colan had seen Palance in the 1968 TV movie The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the image of him in that film stuck with Colan over the years. The day after he received Colan’s tryout, Lee called Colan and said, “You got it” (Field 98-99). Colan was also granted permission to ink the book, then still planned as a black-and-white magazine. That was unusual for the time; Tomb #1 would be one of a very few Marvel Comics that Colan inked during his two-decade tenure at the company.

Gene Colan inked his own art on Tomb of Dracula #1.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Gerry Conway was assigned to script the comic over a plot by Roy Thomas (and a two-sentence suggestion by Lee). Tomb of Dracula #1 (April 1972) finally appeared as a standard-sized 20¢ comic nine months after it was announced to a waiting world. Lee’s original plot— subsequently fleshed out by Thomas—recalled the 1940s Universal Monster movies. In the comic book, Frank Drake, the spoiled descendent of the vampire, inherits Dracula’s castle and journeys with his fiancée Jeanie and friend Clifton to Transylvania to see his new home. Exploring the castle, Clifton wanders into Dracula’s tomb, opens his coffin and lifts the stake from the evil creature’s body. Dracula rises from his grave to imperil the next generation of mortals, seemingly killing Clifton and biting Jeanie on her neck, transforming her into his vampire companion.

Conway wrote the first issue with some spectacular purple prose that he hoped would fit the story: “I tried to bring to it a kind of an eerie, dark, mysterious style of writing – pretentious, let’s say” (Field 98). Along with Conway’s writing, readers were presented with Colan’s moody artwork, albeit delivered without the gray ink wash that the artist had lovingly placed on his pages to add mood to the tale. Though Tomb of Dracula was fairly successful in sales terms, fan reaction was muted. Future Marvel writer David Michelinie summed up reader opinions well in his letter published in Tomb #3: “The only thing I uncategorically liked about #1 was the potential of the general concept.

A horror mag with a full-length, non-reprint story featuring a continuing lead character (and a monster at that) is

something new to today’s comics world, and much can be done with it.”

Conway only stayed with the comic for one more issue before leaving due to his very heavy workload. (The May 1972 Bullpen Bulletins notes that Conway “authored six full comic-mags this go-around” out of 20 Marvel Comics that featured new material.) Conway turned the reins over to Archie Goodwin, who likewise only stayed on the 67

After premiering in Savage Tales #1, Man-Thing received its own series with Fear #10. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

horror stories by the master; an anthology comic hosted by longtime Doctor Strange villain Nightmare, and other horror anthologies with proposed titles like Beware! This Magazine is Haunted! and At the Stroke of Midnight.

What Marvel did publish in 1972, though, were new stories featuring the macabre Man-Thing. After being introduced in the 1971 Savage Tales magazine, and fresh off a two-part guest shot in the Ka-Zar series in Astonishing Tales #12 and #13 (June and Aug. 1972), the swampdweller received its own solo series in the reprint monster anthology title Fear. The ubiquitous Gerry Conway wrote Man-Thing’s premiere issue—Fear #10 (Oct. 1972)—before being succeeded by Steve Gerber with the very next issue. Over the next few years, Gerber would deliver his own idiosyncratic vision to the title, providing complex political matters, detailed character studies, cosmic-spanning action… and one unforgettable talking duck. series for two issues. After Gardner Fox wrote two issues, Marv Wolfman assumed the writing duties with Tomb #7.

Wolfman, Colan and inker Tom Palmer (who began with issue #3) would remain on the series for the rest of its run, ending with issue #70 (Aug. 1979). Along the way, Tomb of Dracula presented not only some of the most beautiful artwork of Gene Colan’s long career but also became the most critically acclaimed horror comic book of its era, a series much-loved and acclaimed for its mix of complex characters, intricate storylines, the introduction of Blade the Vampire Hunter, and the improbable humanization of Dracula himself.

Leading the New Wave of Comic Book Writers: Steve Englehart The other new monster comic of 1972 had its roots in a moribund Marvel super-hero comic book: The X-Men. Amazing Adventures #11 (March 1972) transformed the merry, acrobatic, brainy mutant Beast into a gray (later blue), furry creature who skulked around a mysterious research facility. Once again, Stan Lee proposed the series and the prolific Gerry Conway wrote the first chapter of the Beast’s solo run, which only ran for six new issues. Tom Sutton, who had drawn horror strips for Warren Magazines and Charlton Comics, did the art chores on each issue of the series. Steve Englehart wrote the remaining five chapters, his first professional writing credit on a superhero story. Previously, he had anonymously revised Gary Friedrich’s script for Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #94 (Jan. 1972), then earned his first writing credit at Marvel with an obscure seven-page story called “The Terror of the Pterodactyl” in the back of Monsters on the Prowl #15 (Feb. 1972).

Dracula had a long basis in literature, dating back to the novel by Bram Stoker. Being a former high school English teacher, Thomas had a longstanding and deep interest in literature. In the summer of 1972, he launched the horror anthology series Journey into Mystery, which included adaptations of stories by such authors as Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. A companion comic, Supernatural Thrillers, premiered the following month with adaptations of stories by Theodore Sturgeon, H.G. Wells, Robert Lewis Stevenson and Robert E. Howard. Thomas also proposed several other horror series that never saw the light of day: The Macabre World of H.P. Lovecraft, adapting

Englehart was part of the next wave of creators—like Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein and Gerry Conway before him—who entered the industry because of his passion for comics. A conscientious objector from the U.S. Army 68

who was stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in 1970, Englehart would drive up to New York on weekends to network with his friends in the comic industry, hanging out at the DC offices and with his new pal Neal Adams. It had been Englehart’s dream since childhood to work in the comics industry, and he was able to join together with a group of like-minded cohorts such as Jim Starlin, Don McGregor, Steve Gerber and Walt Simonson to be part of a new generation of creators in the industry: the fans-turned-pros who would add a more contemporary and passion-driven approach to comics.

Englehart had actually started out as an artist, doing early work for Warren Publications’ Vampirella and Eerie, as well as a competing horror magazine, Psycho, before landing his first job at Marvel, illustrating (of all things) romance stories. Joining Marvel’s staff when Gary Friedrich’s wife asked her Neo-writer Steve Englehart turned the Beast hairy and complicated Captain America’s life.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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husband to move back to Missouri, Englehart soon found himself ensconced. Englehart believes he received most of his subsequent work assignments simply because he was in the right place at the right time. As he reflected, “Sooner or later they were going to need somebody to fill in, so if you could show them your stuff and if they thought that there was something to that, then they would use you fairly quickly.

Just because of the nature of the business. Everything I did up to ‘The Beast’—romance, war, monster, whatever—got me ‘The Beast’. Then, as things opened up, they plugged me into openings” (Arndt 11).

Several months after his initial published comics work, the writer assumed the reins on three Marvel titles: Defenders with its premiere issue (Aug. 1972); Captain America with issue #153 (Sept. 1972); and Avengers, taking over from Roy Thomas with issue #105 (Nov. 1972).

Avengers’ authorial change, in particular, can be seen as a symbolic passing of the torch from Stan Lee’s immediate successor on the series to one of the leaders of a new wave of comic writers. Englehart represented a younger generation of more radical thinkers, a man who happily embraced the culture of free love and easy drugs that the underground comix embodied. Englehart brought a different, revolutionary (rather than evolutionary) approach to his material: his heroes lived in a more real world than the one that Stan Lee created and Roy Thomas sharpened. Englehart’s characters

sometimes took drugs and engaged in premarital sex; they dealt with racism, fascism and the betrayal of dreams in ways that resonated with many readers of the era.

ment. As declared in the November 1971 Bullpen Bulletins, “For years now, we’ve wanted to start a comic mag which dealt exclusively with the derring-do of a gal superstar.”

Englehart’s radical approach was on clear display in his “Captain America: Commie Hunter” storyline. The opening pages of Captain America #153 show a Captain America beating up black men, calling the Falcon “boy” and, amazingly, still partnered with the long-deceased Bucky.

As the story plays out, it’s revealed that this second Captain America was actually the man who wore the Cap suit during Marvel’s short-lived “Captain America, Commie Hunter” period in the 1950s. The story provided Englehart the chance to meditate on racism and also to perform one of comics’ first “continuity implants,” by which he explained a seeming inconsistency in a character’s history.

Roy Thomas suggested the idea of reviving the ’50s Captain America and Bucky, but Englehart gave the story his own unique spin, delivering a heady mix of political satire and super-hero action (Arndt 12).

Stan Lee came up with the titles of the three new books in the same day: The Cat, Night Nurse and Shanna the SheDevil (Amash 49). The three series all explored different genres and were written by different female scripters, all somewhat new to the medium because there were virtually no women writers in comics at the time outside of the romance titles. The Cat was the most conventional of the series, a super-heroine adventure scripted by Marvel staffer Linda Fite (who had previously scribed a handful of western and super-hero stories) and illustrated by industry veteran—and longtime Marvel staffer—Marie Severin, with inks by the very male Wally Wood. The Bullpen Bulletins rather chauvinistically said of this creative team, “At least this time, nobody’s gonna be able to write in and say we’ve got writers and artists who don’t understand the female of the species.” Quiet homemaker Greer Nelson was the victim of a scientific experiment that gave her catlike super-powers as well as an intense “female intuition.”

Donning a bright yellow suit with black gloves and boots that had claws in the fingers and toes, The Cat battled evil throughout her four-issue run.

Englehart would go on to have one of the most popular and acclaimed runs on Captain America of any writer. Perhaps more importantly, Englehart’s success and Thomas’s editorial “hands off” policy towards freelancers created an atmosphere of creative freedom at Marvel.

Shanna the She-Devil—written by Carole Seuling, wife of convention organizer and occasional comics scripter Phil Seuling, and illustrated by George Tuska and Vince Colletta—told the story of a beautiful jungle adventurer who lived in Africa with her pet leopards and contemplated her man troubles while battling evil menaces. Obviously inspired by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger’s hugely popular Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (1938-1953), the first two issues of Shanna’s solo series featured covers by Jim Steranko.

It became an atmosphere the writers both appreciated and eagerly exploited.

The Derring-do of a Gal Superstar In an attempt to diversify readership, Stan Lee placed several female characters as leads in their own series. Though Marvel was continuing to publish the bi-monthly Our Love Story and My Love, which included stories created by women such as Lee’s assistant Holli Resnicoff and Thomas’s wife Jean Thomas, Lee saw an opportunity to draw in more female readers empowered by the nascent feminist move-

The third female-centered series was Night Nurse, penned

by Jean Thomas, though her experience writing this series was difficult for both her and her husband Roy, partly be-

Marvel’s line of comics featuring female protagonists included Shanna the She-Devil, The Cat and Night Nurse. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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cause she didn’t have a firm grasp on the approach of the series and partly because shortly before she began work, Jean had notified Roy that she was seeking a separation from him. (Ultimately, the couple got divorced.) Illustrated by veteran artist Winslow Mortimer, Night Nurse’s plotlines were often incoherent and confusing, and the title was poorly received by readers.

Ultimately, all three comics in this mini-line suffered from low sales and none lasted past their fifth issue. Night Nurse was quickly forgotten, but Shanna’s storylines continued into Daredevil in 1973, and the Cat would become much more catlike two years later. Both DC and the underground comix movement wrestled with sexism in 1972 as well.

Sweet Christmas Marvel attempted to jump into another market in 1972 with the premiere of its own “Blaxploitation” character, Luke Cage, Hero For Hire. It was described at the 1971 Creation Con as “a combination of Superman and Shaft” (Pinaha 7).

The 1971 low-budget film Shaft, starring an African-American anti-hero, was extremely popular and influential, especially in urban centers like New York City. The movie ultimately earned $13 million against a $500,000 budget, saving MGM Studios from bankruptcy. The film triggered a boom in the genre that would soon be dubbed “Blaxploitation” by NAACP President Junius Griffin as a clever derivation of the then-popular term “sexploitation.” The Blaxploitation films were characterized by specific genre tropes: strong male or female leads, an intense metropolitan environment, and a concentration on law and order along with a contemporary funk soundtrack.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire was Marvel’s entry in the Blaxploitation genre.

Before the Blaxploitation genre swept movie theatres nationwide, spawning black gangster films (Hit Man), black horror films (Blacula) and even direct imitations of Shaft (Super Fly), Stan Lee decided it was finally the right time for Marvel to release a comic he had long hoped to publish, one that featured a black super-hero as its main character.

The prospect of a comic starring the Black Panther, an African king, had previously been dismissed for a number of reasons, including the unfortunate similarity in names that the Panther had with a radical political group that had gained notoriety in the late 1960s.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

the sadistic Rakham, the guards beat Lucas in an attempt to get him to get along with others, but the beatings only make Lucas angrier and more defiant. As the story unfolds, readers discover that Lucas has been framed by a childhood friend for the crime that sent him to prison. Lucas has created his own share of trouble, but he’s innocent of the charges for which his old friend Willis set him up. As a result, Lucas is desperate to get out and clear his name, so he volunteers for a risky medical experiment that will cure major diseases. If Lucas participates in the experiment, it may result in his parole. However, the experiment backfires, thanks to Rackham’s sabotage. Lucas gets a superdose of the drugs, which gives him tremendous strength and offers him the possibility to escape prison. Breaking down a prison wall and jumping into the surrounding river as bullets litter the water, Lucas swims away from Seagate and eventually finds himself back in Harlem.

There he dons a blue and gold costume with a belt made out of chains, takes the name Luke Cage, and sets himself up as a freelance “Hero for Hire” who can redeem his name at the same time he earns an honest buck.

But with the success of Shaft, Lee plunged ahead with the idea for a new black superhero, consulting with Roy Thomas. Journeyman Archie Goodwin was brought onboard to write the series. Though white himself, Goodwin had written a number of comics that featured African-American lead characters for Warren Magazines and other publishers. In addition, Goodwin brought an attitude to the book that was different from many of Marvel’s other writers.

As the man known only as Lucas is introduced in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972), he is an angry prisoner in corrupt Seagate Prison, sometimes called “Little Alcatraz” by its inmates. Continually condemned to solitary confinement because of his attitude and refusal to get along with either the vicious guards or venal prisoners, Lucas is an outsider in a place that doesn’t tolerate outsiders. Led by

It was Roy Thomas who contributed the name “Cage” and the title Hero for Hire. In an interview for American Comic Book Chronicles, Thomas reports: 71

Stan didn’t want a typical super-hero name for the comic, but wanted him to want to make a paying career of crime-busting, and was looking for a title. I had some months ago written an Avengers issue called “Heroes for Hire,” so I suggested Hero for Hire. Stan also wanted a good one-word name for him that was atypical, and I suggested “Cage.”

It was only later...when it was too late to rescind... that I realized I had subconsciously taken that name from a list of hero names that Gil Kane had shown me some time before (the name “Chane,” which he later used for a sword-and-sorcery hero, was also on that list). I apologized to Gil for that, but he said not to worry about it... there were plenty more names out there.

ciling at some later stage when George was moved on to other things.”

As far as the level of Cage’s powers, Thomas based them on Philip Wylie’s classic novel Gladiator. While Cage couldn’t perform superhuman leaps like Gladiator’s main character, he could withstand bullets. In order to fit his groundlevel purview, Cage would be powerful but not too powerful. Larger weapons, for instance, could hurt him. Cage was strong but not nearly as mighty as the Thing or the Hulk.

The issue begins with a hero identified only as Him, a goldskinned, perfectly muscled man whose body is shown in a classic crucifixion pose. Writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane crafted this pose intentionally. The story next flashes back to the High Evolutionary, a former Earthman given immortality and a space-borne angst at the planet he had shaped in a pair of 1966 issues of Thor. That idealized world was soiled by an evil creature known as the ManBeast. The Evolutionary suspends his wanderings through space when he comes across a strange cosmic cocoon. In it, he discovers a being whose appearance, as he states, is “the gold-hued dream of human perfection – features carved from some divine model.” This divine dream is named simply Him. Now, with Him next to him, the High Evolutionary decides to create an unadulterated copy of our Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. There’s one major change, however. The Evolutionary’s version of Earth would not have aggression or base human emotions, and would be protected by the demi-god. As the issue proceeds, the High Evolutionary crafts the planet and progresses humanity through all the levels of its evolution. But a problem arises: the Man-Beast is back. He represents the return of sin to humankind; in one dreadful instant, a Neanderthal lifts a club to another, and evil has been loosed on this former paradise. With the assistance of Him, the High Evolutionary defeats the Man-Beast in battle and despairingly prepares to destroy the planet that he created. But Him prevails on the godlike Evolutionary to spare the lives of his creations and offers his own life to protect this CounterEarth and help fight the Man-Beast’s pernicious influence.

As he beams down to Counter-Earth, Him is told, “Men shall call you Warlock!”

Though the series was never a huge hit, Hero for Hire was strategically significant to the Marvel line; in a 1972 internal company memo listing Marvel’s most important characters, Luke Cage received the highest rating for marketing potential, along with Spider-Man, the Hulk, Conan, Ka-Zar, Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer.

Return of the Kings A very different sort of super-hero was also born—or perhaps reborn—in 1972. According to its cover, Marvel Premiere #1 (April 1972) presented “tomorrow’s superhero... today!”

John Romita designed Luke Cage’s costume, with a bit of supervision from Lee and Thomas. One of Romita’s flourishes was Cage’s chain belt, which was meant to be a reflection of his origin story. Thomas assigned the pencil chores for the book to longtime cartoonist George Tuska (who had drawn street-crime stories in the 1940s and ’50s Crime Does Not Pay) while adding African-American Billy Graham as inker. As Thomas reflects, “Billy Graham was brought in to ink, and was instructed to make certain that George’s African-American characters looked AfricanAmerican; I think there was always the idea in my mind, probably Archie’s and John’s as well, that Billy, a talented artist who was still developing, might take over the pen-

At 27 pages, Warlock’s origin was much longer than the standard 20-page tales featured in most Marvel books that year, a relic of the short-lived bump that Marvel’s line took to a 52-page package in 1971 (as well as a sign of how long the comic had been in the production pipeline). But even at that length, Warlock’s adventure was deep and complex, a thoughtful meditation on power and morality that stood out from its peers on the stands due to Kane’s passionate art (as inked by Dan Adkins). Thomas intended the religious parallels to be a reflection of the cultural zeitgeist of the early 1970s that made musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar a smash hit: “I had some trepidation about the Christ parallels, but hoped there would be little outcry if I handled it tastefully, since I was not really making any serious

After escaping from prison, Luke Cage discovers he has skin like steel.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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statement on religion … at least not overtly” (Walker 3).

Warlock was very much Thomas’s creation, fueled by his deep love for Jesus Christ Superstar, which he enjoyed both in the original 1970 cast recording and in the theatre (Thomas vi). The idea of a Counter-Earth on the opposite side of the sun was derived from theories evolved from the philosopher Pythagoras, who had posited the concept of anticthon—or Counter Earth—in the 6th Century B.C. Thomas ran with that idea in this story.

The comic was also driven by Gil Kane’s passion for mythology and heroic fantasy. Kane was Thomas’s first and only choice for the book (Cooke 5).

Premiering in Marvel Premiere #1, Adam Warlock (called Him in the 1960s) was a Christ-like super-hero.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

As part of Marvel’s massive expansion in 1972, other Marvel heroes returned to their own comics. After being prominently displayed as part of The Defenders in Marvel Feature #1, Doctor Strange emerged from solo hiatus in Marvel Premiere #3 (July 1972). Written by Stan Lee (one of his final comics of the Bronze Age) and drawn by Barry Smith (whose style was then evolving into its pre-Raphaelite glory), the two creators presented a trippy and thrilling psychedelic magical adventure before the stories settled down to a long H.P. Lovecraft-influenced run written by DC expatriate Gardner Fox. Strange would star for the next two years in Premiere.

Marvel Premiere #2 (May 1972) presents the tortured hero in an open-armed costume co-designed by Thomas and Kane. It was Kane who added a lightning bolt on Warlock’s chest (influenced by Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel) and a gem on his forehead (Thomas vii). Warlock lands on Counter-Earth and gains a group of devoted teenage followers, one of whom christens the hero with the first name of Adam. The relationship between the kids and their parents illustrated the generation gap that was so prominent in public conversation at that time, while creating a specific parallel between Adam and Christ, who both gain Disciples to help them improve their world.

After the initial two issues of Marvel Premiere, Warlock graduated into his own solo title (first issue cover dated August 1972). Still set on Counter-Earth, that comic presented interesting alternative versions of major Marvel characters, including a masked but gallant Doctor Doom, and a version of Reed Richards that turned into an evil creature called The Brute. Warlock only lasted eight issues, but its revival in 1975 would usher in a cosmic era of critical acclaim for the character.

Thomas also revived Captain Marvel after a two-year absence from the newsstands with issue #22 (Sept. 1972) based on strong sales from the previous run (Gustaveson 85). Written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by former Superman artist Wayne Boring, who’d been fired by DC in 1967, the first three issues of the new run presented standard super-hero action before it reached new cosmic heights in 1973 under Jim Starlin.

Doctor Strange returned to solo status after a hiatus with an appearance in Marvel Premiere #3 that features lovely art by Barry Smith.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Red Wolf returned from obscurity with his own comic, premiering with a May 1972 cover date. Mainly written

was succeeded by Gerry Conway, Kull was drawn by the brother/sister team of John and Marie Severin. An oddball additional Kull story ran in the mainly-reprint anthology Monsters on the Prowl #16 (April 1972) by Thomas, Severin and Severin – perhaps a backdoor pilot for the revival in much the way that 1971’s Creatures on the Loose #10 provided a pilot episode for the first run of the comic.

Gullivar Jones combined swords and sorcery with sci-fi. TM and © respective copyright holder.

by Fox and illustrated by Syd Shores, this comic continued the old-west adventures of the hero who had previously appeared in Marvel Spotlight #1 in 1971. Lee suggested that the Red Wolf’s stories be set in the past because, according to him, many people in the comic field yearned to work on a Western comic (Cooke 28). The Wolf howled for a mere nine issues.

He shared a brief time on the stands with a second all-new western comic which paired a white cowboy with a black one. Gunhawks #1 (Oct. 1972) introduced readers to Reno Jones and Kid Cassidy, a mixed-race pair of friends who fought for justice in the post-Civil War period. Gary Friedrich wrote the stories, paired with the ubiquitous Western comic artist Syd Shores.

That adaptation would eventually see print, as “Skulls in the Stars,” by Roy Thomas and Ralph Reese, in Monsters Unleashed #1 (Oct. 1973).

Another new series was hyped in the March 1972 Bullpen Bulletins as “in the timeless tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.”

Creatures on the Loose #16 (March 1972) presented an adaptation by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and Bill Everett of “Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars,” adapted from the 1905 fantasy novel

by Edwin L. Arnold. This comic allowed Marvel to test the waters for an additional barbarian title to join its line. “Gullivar” only lasted six issues before giving way to Lin Carter’s barbarian character “Thongor, Warrior of Lost Lemuria,” which had a similarly short run in 1973.

Marvel’s core Robert E. Howard character, Conan, had a unique crossover in Conan the Barbarian #14-15 (March-May 1972), with the popular adventure hero Elric. Co-authored by Roy Thomas and Elric’s creator, Michael Moorcock, along with collaborator James Cawthorn, the story was titled “A Sword Called Stormbringer!” As Moorcock remembers, “I was asked to write an Elric meets Conan story by Roy Thomas, then also the editor, I think, of Conan. He’d always wanted to see Elric in US comics (he’d already appeared in Druillet’s story first published in about 1965 in Moi Aussi, Paris) and in Jim Cawthorn’s Stormbringer, done for Savoy Books.

So this was a way to introduce him to comic readers, Roy thought. In the end I sketched the story and Jim filled it in, then Roy adapted it to work best in his Conan series” (Moorcock, “Elric… and Conan?”).

There was talk of creating new stories for another Robert E. Howard hero in 1972, but those plans took a long time to come to fruition. Fanzines reported that Roy Thomas was planning on adapting Solomon Kane to comics, starting with the story “Skulls and Stars,” which was to present art by Gene Colan and Alan Weiss (Levitz 5).

Elric and Conan embodied opposing characteristics: Conan was muscular and physically vital while Elric was a weak Albino; Elric was moody and feckless while Conan was steadfast; Conan was suspicious of sorcery while Elric embraced mysticism and has a supernatural sword; Conan dismissed civilization while Elric was

Gunhawks #1 featured the adventures of a pair of cowboys - one white and one black.

Michael Moorcock’s Elric guest-starred in Conan the Barbarian #14 and #15. Conan TM and © CPI. Elric TM

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

and © Michael Moorcock.

Hank Pym re-emerged as Ant-Man in a solo run beginning in Marvel Feature #4 (July 1972). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe stranded the erstwhile Avenger at six-inch size and put him through tremendous peril. Pym’s solo run only lasted six issues.

Marvel also resurrected Kull the Conqueror after a ten-month hiatus between issue #2 and issue #3 (July 1972). Based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, Kull was a warrior king in a prehistoric age (much like a different Howard character, Conan).

Initially scripted by Roy Thomas, who

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cultured. In fact, Elric was created to address genre tropes (Moorcock, “Conan”). Together, the two heroes save Melniboné and Hyborea from the threat of the terrible Queen Xiombarg. In the story, artist Barry Smith drew Elric in an odd pointed hat based on the cover of the only U.S. paperback collection of Elric stories. The likeness disappointed Moorcock: “I was never particularly pleased with that version and Barry always said he wanted to draw another Elric sometime closer to how I’d imagined him” (Moorcock, “Conan”).

Marvel’s oddest resurrection of 1972 was, arguably, the unearthing of a long-forgotten war comic from the 1950s, Combat Kelly. Perhaps inspired by the relative success of Sgt. Fury, which was then appearing in both a new comic and in the reprint Special Marvel Edition, war comics enthusiast Gary Friedrich was assigned to write Combat Kelly and His Deadly Dozen #1 (June 1972) with Dick Ayers and Jim Mooney providing artwork. Kelly spun out from a pilot episode in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #98 (May 1972).

Friedrich and Ayers went on to create all nine issues of Kelly, which is notable for the gruesome manner in which the team was killed in the series’ finale: in the Grand Guignol ninth issue, nearly all the members of the Deadly Dozen were systematically massacred by the Nazis.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends In 1972, Amazing Spider-Man remained one of the industry’s most popular comic books, selling an average of 288,379 copies per month. In the face of such favorable sales numbers, and the continuing growth of the Marvel line, Stan Lee decided that Marvel needed a second Spider-Man comic. But to avoid diluting the wall-crawler’s solo exploits, Lee came up with a twist: Spidey would team up with a different super-hero each month. Thus, Marvel Team-Up was born.

Spider-Man and the Human Torch teamed up in Marvel Team-Up #1.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Premiering with a March 1972 cover date with a story written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by veterans Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Marvel Team-Up #1 teamed the wallcrawler with one of his favorite comics companions, the Human Torch. In this very modest initial story (which also serves as a charming Christmas tale), Spidey and the Torch battle the Sandman. Thomas only wrote the first issue of Marvel Team-Up before he handed the scripting chores for the series over to Gerry Conway.

ing Spider-Man #1. Roy Thomas, however, recalls that the comic had always been intended to team Spider-Man with other heroes. In the issues following Marvel Team-Up #3, Spidey joined forces with Marvel luminaries both famous and obscure: Thor, the Thing and Captain America as well as the Cat, the Vision, and a then-rare appearance by the X-Men. Interestingly enough, throughout 1974 and 1975, MT-U featured semi-regular team-ups between the Human Torch and other Marvel heroes (Cronin #450).

After only two years in the industry, writing second-line super-hero comics like Iron Man and Daredevil along with pilot issues of other new series, Conway was excited to assume the reins on Spider-Man’s second title. He was the first person other than Stan Lee to be an on-going writer of a series featuring the web-slinger, and because of that, Conway felt like he had hit the big time. He would soon be handed the writing chores for Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding Lee on that series and delivering an influential run.

“Best in Comics” While Marvel was seeing explosive growth in both sales and the number of comics available at the 36-page, 20¢ size, DC’s books remained at the 52-page, 25¢ size for the first few months of the year. This caused Marvel to pass DC in total line wide sales for the first time in its history. While DC’s larger format initially seemed appealing to readers, the higher price and smaller cut per copy for distributors resulted in a downward spiral for DC’s sales and popularity.

DC was stuck at the 25¢ size in part because the Nixon Administration set wage and price controls in August 1971 that expressly forbade the arbitrary raising or lowering of product prices. But these wage and price controls came af-

Conway recalled the initial conception of Marvel Team-Up as always featuring team-ups between Spider-Man and the Human Torch (Conway v). The two heroes had had a friendly rivalry since they first appeared together in Amaz75

Martin Goodman, then still publisher at Marvel, took the whole Bullpen out for dinner at DC’s favorite hangout. DC would not pass Marvel again in terms of line wide sales for many years.

ter Marvel had already sent its initial group of 20¢ books to the printer. When these books finally appeared on newsstands a few months later, it seemed that Marvel had pulled a fast one by offering the same number of pages in its new 20¢ books that it had in its 15¢ books. Marvel simply explained to the Nixon Administration that the decision to lower Marvel’s books to 20¢ came before the establishment of the price controls. To placate any government—or consumer—ire, Marvel produced a special fourpage glossy insert in Fantastic Four #128 (Nov. 1972) that presented John Buscema-drawn pin-ups of the FF’s friends and foes (Cronin #62).

DC had already taken steps by early 1972 to cut costs, printing with recycled paper and moving to a new binding system for its comics. Both moves saved DC $2000 per book— an overall savings of $700,000 per year (Levitz 29).

DC also attempted to improve its fortunes by launching a line of tabloid comics that could be sold in non-traditional outlets. Premiering with a collection of stories featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-20 (Christmas 1972), DC produced 80 page, 10”x15” comics that that sold for $1 per copy at places like bookstores and airports where standard comics were never sold. DC Comics Vice President Sol Harrison came up with the idea of tabloid comic books after making a visit to the World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois, where comics were printed. He recalls, “I began to play around with different sizes for comics. None of the sizes seemed to work, because they couldn’t be put on a newspaper high-speed color press. But by opening the comic up, with one less fold, we could create a tabloid size comic that could stand out on the newsstand” (Gafford 13). Harrison convinced DC publisher Carmine Infantino to test the format, and when the Rudolph collection proved to be a hit, DC and Marvel both jumped in with more tabloid comics. The format would prove to be a mainstay of 1970s comic books. For the remainder of the decade, DC’s tabloids included: Famous First Edition reprints of classic comics such as Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) and Detective Comics #27 (the first appearance of Batman); Limited Collectors’ Edition compilations like “Christmas with the Super-Heroes” and Dick Tracy newspaper strips; and new, original stories. This diversity of content was intended to give readers and vendors a wide selection of material that could satisfy many creative appetites. Meanwhile, Marvel released Marvel Treasury Edition which reprinted superhero comics like Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Thor, among many others.

Like DC, Harvey Comics was forced to maintain the higher price, having converted to the thicker 25¢ package from its December 1971-dated issues through those dated September 1972. Putting most of its titles on hiatus for a few months, Harvey returned with a vengeance with its March 1972-dated editions and began rolling out fourteen new ongoing titles—in addition to its old ones—over the course of the year. The new books were all variations on pre-existing series, ranging from Sad Sack USA to Spooky Haunted House. In addition to new Casper and Wendy, Casper and Spooky and Casper and the Ghostly Trio series, Casper Space Ship specifically took advantage of the Friendly Ghost’s official status as mascot of Apollo 16’s April mission to the moon. Space Ship along with Casper’s Ghostland and the original Casper title played up the NASA connection on every remaining 1972-dated cover.

For all Casper’s prominence, Harvey now realized that its most lucrative property was, fittingly, Richie Rich, and it introduced five new books to take advantage of the Poor Little Rich Boy’s popularity: Richie Rich Riches, Richie Rich Diamonds, Richie Rich Money World, Richie Rich Bank Book and Richie Rich Jackpots. By year’s end, Richie headlined ten ongoing titles…with more to come. “At one point in the mid-‘70s,” historian Mark Arnold wrote, “Richie was starring in 32 different titles every 60 days! More Richie Rich stories have been published than any other U.S. comic book character, probably in the entire history of the industry, with over 2,000 issues to the kid’s credit. Certainly Richie was the most successful feature in American comic books in the 1970s” (Arnold 30).

Three months ahead of Harvey and eleven months after its own rollout of the 25¢ price point, DC Comics went back to the 36-page package with its July 1972-dated issues, now matching Marvel with a 20¢ cover price. All of DC’s non-reprint comics ran a banner across the top of their covers, included there so they could easily be seen on comics spinner racks.

The banner screamed, “ALL NEW STORIES/BEST IN COMICS.” (The cover banner on DC’s reprint-only titles read “FIRST IN COMICS/ BEST IN COMICS.”) Alas, those were empty boasts. Marvel had won both the price and popularity wars. To celebrate, an ebullient

But Marvel’s tabloids wouldn’t appear until 1974, and in 1972, its energies were more focused on expanding its line by leaps and bounds, reviving character after character in an attempt to gain more space on the newsstands. By contrast, DC maintained a line of approximately 30 ongoing titles, including several samples of super-hero, war, romance, horror, reprints and even one Western. When a new title launched, chances were that the new title would fit comfortably next to all the other series that DC was publishing. Thus, the new Supergirl series (first issue cover dated November 1972, written by main Superman writer Cary Bates and illustrated by vetCarmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz and Nick Cardy discuss Cardy’s erans Art Saaf and Vince Colletta) cover to Superman #254 in 1972. seemed more like a continuation 76

ter Miracle, Forever People and two fledgling titles that represented a creative apex for him.

Perhaps most notably, Kirby filled in major gaps in his everexpanding Fourth World saga, giving heft and context to its titanic cosmic battle. Kirby Museum curator Norris Burroughs states, “Although opinions differ on the subject, many of Kirby’s fans believe that the King reached his artistic peak in 1972 with a sequence of three issues of The New Gods from #6 through #8” (Burroughs).

of the character’s four-year run in Adventure Comics than a completely new series. (With Supergirl’s departure, Adventure became another anthology comic for several months.)

Even though Marvel became the new king of the industry, another “king” was gleefully taking potshots at Marvel’s chief editors. He was ex-Marvel employee Jack Kirby, the “King of Comics,” and he couldn’t resist inserting thinly-veiled caricatures of “The Glory Boat” in New Gods #6 Stan Lee and Roy Thomas (Dec. 1971-Jan. 1972) has been within his Fourth World often acclaimed by fans—and comics. In Mister Miracle

by Kirby himself—as one of his #6 (Jan.–Feb. 1972), Kirby greatest works. It juxtaposes introduces the smarmy several of his favorite themes: Appearing in Jack Kirby’s comics, Funky Flashman and Houseroy were Funky Flashman and his Jack Kirby’s caricatures of Stan Lee and Roy Thomas TM and © DC Comics. the conflict between generasycophantic assistant Houtions, the ways that pacifism is seroy. In that story, the bald-haired, clean-shaven Funky forced to confront violence, and, of course, the continuing attempts to get a job as Scott Free’s tour manager. Showbattle between Apokolips and New Genesis, all drawn in ing up at the subsequent business meeting in a toupee and some of the most spectacular art of his career. In the isbeard, Funky uses a patter much like Lee’s Bullpen Bulsue’s climax, New God Lightray transforms a wooden boat letins jive in order to convince Scott to employ him. Scott into a kind of gleaming techno-active organism. That led does, but Funky soon reveals himself as a servant of the to a conclusion that, as critic Charles Hatfield describes, “is evil Darkseid and attempts to steal Scott’s Mother Box. The a pure example of Kirby’s technological sublime, at once biting satirization couldn’t escape anyone who knew about redemptive and seductive, healing and cataclysmic. … This Kirby’s feelings toward his former employer: in his endless rhapsodic episode suggests a glorying in, but also a fearful false patter, self-centered attitude and strained attempts ambivalence about, the blurring of the living and the techto be cool, Funky could only be read as an unflattering ananological” (Hatfield 191-193). logue for Stan Lee. (And if anyone had any doubts about New Gods #7 (“The Pact”) delivered another of the most Kirby’s intentions, the presence of Flashman’s henchman iconic of all the Fourth World tales by bringing together all “Houseroy” dispelled them.) As Kirby painted it, Flashof the New Gods elements into one over-arching narrative. man’s attempt to rip off Scott Free reflects Marvel’s exploiWhile the story can also be read as a commentary and critation of Kirby’s work throughout the 1960s. tique of the Vietnam War (as it’s all about the ambiguity Ironically, Kirby didn’t initially intend to satirize Lee and and moral costs of war), “The Pact” is a creation myth in Thomas. Originally, Funky was meant to be a caricature of comics form, providing readers deeper context about both Don Wallace, the former manager of Marvelmania, a Marthe struggle between Apokolips and New Genesis and the vel fan club that was notorious for not shipping the items great sacrifices that have to be made to create peace in the that fans had ordered. However, when Kirby finally sat at face of overwhelming destruction. his table and drew Flashman, he ended up basing him on “The Pact” begins with a moment of real peace. “In the bea man he knew quite well: Stan Lee. Kirby’s former assisginning,” as Kirby starts his account, evoking Biblical verse, tant Mark Evanier theorizes that Kirby had been thinking about Lee during the week he created Mister Miracle #6, life is calm but imperfect. Izaya and his lovely wife Avia reperhaps reflecting of the disrespect that he felt Marvel’s lax in an Eden-like paradise, waterfalls and green grass all staff gave him, and that anger came out with a viciously around them. But the paradise has its snakes. Izaya talks satirical character (Morrow 114). of war, and as the narrative plays out, war comes to this paradise. Raiders emerge from the corners of this Eden, viBut anger wasn’t the only thing Kirby was channeling ciously attacking the happy couple. The evil Steppenwolf through his comics; in more sublime ways he also chanslays Avia, then Steppenwolf’s cousin shocks Izaya, seemneled his thoughts on weapons of mass destruction and ingly to death, with a powerful glove. That cousin’s name other important topics of the day. is Darkseid.

The King’s Technological Sublime

In fact, it was Darkseid’s idea to initiate this battle; as son of the Queen of Apokolips, he’s in a position to lead armies.

A portentous caption informs readers that “as he has engineered the incident – Darkseid has begun the war!” Hat-

Jack Kirby produced some of the finest comic art of his career in 1972, delivering a group of tales in New Gods, Mis77

field states that this opening segment has set the tone for the entire Fourth World epic: “‘The Pact’ establishes its milieu and symbolic conflicts: New Genesis versus Apokolips, war versus the desire for peace, cunning versus valor, vengefulness versus mercy and forbearance, and Edenic nature versus hellish technology” (Hatfield 208-9). As the story proceeds, Kirby’s glory in his high-tech inventiveness is on full display with the appearance of futuristic destruction machines like the electro-axe, destructo-poles, dog cavalry and more. Yet as Kirby revels in all the destructive machines of war, and delivers a series of pages of mechanized devastation as dynamic and terrible as any that he ever produced in his career, he also displays an ambivalence about the machinery of annihilation, as shown in a dialogue between Izaya and hesitant New God Metron that echoes the debates about the use of the Atomic Bomb after World War II.

as it shifts once again to Izaya, who has been emotionally devastated by the battle. In the face of absolute desolation, the New God has a flash of insight: the cataclysm must end. In his moment of spiritual despondency, Izaya turns to God in the name of The Source, a great wall that speaks in printed words to its servants.

amounts to a tremendous sacrifice: Darkseid’s son Orion will be sent to New Genesis while Izaya’s son, christened Scott Free by the vicious Granny Goodness, and later to be nicknamed Mister Miracle, will be sent to Apokolips. With this, Kirby has finally given context for the complex arrangement between New Genesis and Apokolips.

Finally, that religious vision leads way to a secret pact. A bargain will buy peace between Apokolips and New Genesis, at least for a while.

Darkseid may continue to scheme to destroy his valiant counterparts, but the citizens of New Genesis will enjoy a temporary relief from war. Darkseid and Izaya agree to a compromise that

Next, “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin,” in New Gods #9, places a Kirby analogue at the center of the interstellar conflict. A cigar-chomping, toughas-nails New York City cop, Detective Daniel Turpin finds himself in battle with a vicious being from Apokolips, the terrible Kalibak. Turpin will just not yield in his efforts to defeat Ka-

The battle reaches still another level of intensity as Darkseid rains planetoids upon New Genesis. From there the battle grows cosmic, impacting suns and threatening to bring cataclysm upon everyone. Kirby, as a World War II veteran, was reflecting on the way that the fog of war corrupts everybody involved, no matter how noble one’s motives. As the battle progresses relentlessly and destruction gets more and more immense, the scene reaches its climax

“The Glory Boat” in New Gods #6 featured Jack Kirby’s “technological sublime.” TM and © DC Comics.

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libak, flinging grenades at the villain and not even allowing a fall from a tall building to stop him in his seemingly futile efforts. “No super ‘mukmuks’ are gonna use this town—as—a—fight arena!!,” he moans, before breaking out a machine that can drain all the power from the city as a way of defeating Kalibak.

Turpin fires the weapon and collapses himself – we’re not sure if he’s alive or dead. No matter the status of the hero, though, Turpin has been an inspiration for humanity in its fight against the powers of these gods. In his relentless spirit, Turpin encompasses both a distorted autobiography of Kirby and the striving of all humanity to persevere.

Unfortunately, despite the Above:“The Pact” in New Gods #7 reveals that Orion and Scott Free were exchanged as babies in grandeur of these stories order to keep peace between New Genesis and Apokolips. TM and © DC Comics. (and others like the much-acinto the sunset in their final panel. It was if the utopian claimed “Himon” in Mister Miracle #9), sales on the Fourth values of the 1960s had collided with the harsh reality of World comics began strongly but slowly fell into cancellathe 1970s, and the Me Decade had no place for these exemtion territory. As Carmine Infantino recalled, “When the plars of the 1960s lifestyle. numbers for Jack’s books started coming in, the first issues came in at 50% on the button [indicating good sales]. Then Just a few months before those cancellations, Kirby left the next issues would start to go down: 47, 42. I’ll never Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen with issue #148 (April 1972), forget those numbers. Then one was 39, and I said, ‘Uh-oh, with a small note in that issue’s letters page that read, this is not good.’ I put Jack on other books” (Cooke, “Direc“Jack feels that he’s extended himself too far, too. He’s falltor Comments” 12). New Gods was cancelled with issue en a bit behind in his schedule, so he’s turning this mag #11 (Oct.-Nov. 1972), which was a sequel of sorts to “Terover to Joe Orlando with the next issue. He needs more rible Turpin.” Forever People also concluded with issue #11 time for his other mags – including a new one he has in (Aug.-Sept. 1972). Though the epic war between Apokolips the works.” Interestingly, Olsen #148 also ends with Jimmy and New Genesis remained unresolved, the final page of and his friends flying away from their old lives and into a Forever People #11 setting sun. depicted the team Mister Miracle remained as the sole Fourth World title still of young hippies being published. With New Gods and Forever People rein exile on a farmoved from his schedule, Kirby transitioned Miracle into off planet, litera more traditional super-hero title which would run to ally walking off early 1974. Oddly, within months of New Gods and Forever

As revealed in Demon #1, Jason Blood has a demon living inside him.

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TM and © DC Comics.

People’s conclusions, there was talk of a revival of the Fourth World titles – this time in trade paperbacks that would be published by the Modern Library. The collections would have begun with reprints in the first volumes, and if those were successful, new stories would have been published (Levitz 2). No such reprints ever appeared.

To fill the holes in Kirby’s workload, he launched two new titles: The Demon and Kamandi, which he had been working on simultaneously with his Fourth World stories. Both new series were slightly less grand than the Fourth World books, though possibly no less ambitious.

Kamandi was the only non-bestial human in a post-apocalyptic Earth in which the animals are intelligent.

TM and © DC Comics.

acclaimed comic strip Prince Valiant.

Kirby never denied that was true (Cronin #189). Demon #1 sold well— which helped accelerate Kirby’s move away from the Fourth World books— but sales soon trailed off (Evanier 181). Kirby had hoped to assign Demon to a different creative team, but Infantino requested that he remain as its writer/artist for the duration of its run.

The first to be published was Demon #1 (Aug-Sept 1972), which actually appeared on the stands the same month as the tenth issues of New Gods and Forever People. The main protagonist was a strange man named Jason Blood, who had red hair with a streak of white. Blood is the human form of a demon named Etrigan, who Merlin turned to the forces of good during the epoch of King Arthur. Along with his allies Randu Singh, Glenda Mark (Blood’s love interest) and Harry Matthews (another Kirby analogue), Etrigan battled the mystic forces of evil in a set of adventures that were very loosely connected to the main DC Universe.

Kirby’s other new title, however, was the biggest hit that he created during his DC tenure. The post-apocalyptic world of Kamandi—in which largebrained talking animals have come to Earth to enslave the now inarticulate humans—especially captivated DC’s younger readers. Kamandi sold well starting with issue #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1972), and both it and Demon quickly went monthly—an unprecedented move for any new series at the time and a sign of their popularity. The opening splash for Kamandi #1 is one of the most famous and dramatic scenes in all of Kirby’s comics: the long-haired young protagonist rows his raft around a ruined New York City, a still-standing Statue of Liberty ironically reminding the boy of a world that was long gone.

Etrigan’s bizarre appearance has a lot to do with one of Kirby’s favorite artists; he derived the Demon’s unique face from a sequence in Hal Foster’s

There’s some dispute about whether Kirby or Infantino was the main creative force behind Kamandi’s characters and settings, but everybody 80

agrees that the comic was deeply influenced by the massive success in the early 1970s of the Planet of the Apes films, which had put the idea of animals with human sized brains into the public’s imagination. Kirby claimed that Infantino came to him with a request to create a comic similar to POTA, after DC had tried and failed to acquire the comic book rights to the movies. Infantino, however, remembered differently: “I created the Kamandi book for him after seeing Planet of the Apes and thought that would be a good idea to kick off a character. The character’s name, ‘Kamandi,’ was Jack’s idea, but I created the idea of the kid alone in a postapocalyptic world. That was a good one” (Cooke, “Director Comments” 12). In 1957, Kirby had drawn a oneshot horror story for Harvey’s Alarming Tales that featured sundry talking animals, and he had even worked on an unpublished comic strip in 1957 called Kamandi of the Caves.

Whatever the truth behind Kamandi’s creation, Kirby would work on it throughout his remaining tenure at DC, never quite fulfilling his ambition to pass the writing or art chores on to other creators. Ironically, that transfer only happened when he left DC entirely several years later.

The much-praised Green Lantern/ Green Arrow series by Denny O’Neil

Flash #217-219 (Aug.-Sept. 1972 to Dec. 1972-January 1973) in ten-page segments. In that threeparter, Green Arrow accidentally breaks his code against killing any criminals. In emotional turmoil about the death, Arrow travels to an ashram to meditate, only to be brought back to Coast City when he learns that his girlfriend, Black Canary, needs an emergency blood transfusion. This passionate tale provided an appropriate end to the GL/GA saga.

John Stewart debuted in Green Lantern #87.

TM and © DC Comics.

and Neal Adams also reached its end in 1972 with Green Lantern #89 (April-May 1972). Many questioned after the fact why the comic was cancelled. Some believe GL/GA was killed because the “relevant” subject matter of the stories was too controversial or because distributors refused to provide copies to the newsstand. Infantino, though, asserted that it was a combination of sales and scheduling that caused the cancellation: “in this case, the artist was very late. We had to cobble up the next-to-last book out of reprints almost overnight. It was a marginal book and the printer’s late fees killed the book” (Cooke, “Director Comments” 8). In fact, Neal Adams turned in the art for his final Green Lantern comic some 18 weeks late (Levitz 3).

Various ideas were floated as means to save the book, including splitting up the two characters into different stories and replacing Hal Jordan with John Stewart, who was introduced in GL/GA #87 (Dec. 1971-Jan. 1972) as the first African-American Green Lantern. Neither of those ideas came to fruition.

The team of O’Neil and Adams were given the chance to tie-up their loose ends in a three-issue back-up run in

O’Neil and Adams hardly had time to sit idle, though. Since the duo’s introduction of the mysterious Ra’s al Ghul in 1971’s Batman #232, O’Neil had continued to build up the villain’s threat in Irv Novick/ Dick Giordano-illustrated adventures in issues #235, #240 and #242. Concluding that Ra’s was a global menace, the Darknight Detective set to work in assembling a small strikeforce to take down the evil mastermind in a pair of Adams-penciled stories (Batman #243-244). The quest seemed to end anticlimactically with the discovery that the villain was already dead, but Batman didn’t realize that his foe could cheat even death thanks to immersion in a boiling Lazarus Pit. The true climax—which included a sword fight between Ra’s and a hairychested Batman—would become a high point of the O’Neil/Adams collaborations.

Elsewhere, editor Julius Schwartz was cultivating his next generation of writers, notably Brandeis University student Elliot S. Maggin, who’d broken in with his moving Green Arrow story for 1971’s Green Lantern #87. Throughout 1972, Maggin began writing scripts for World’s Finest and the “World of Krypton” back-up feature but his best-remembered tale appeared in Superman #247 and asked “Must There Be a Superman?” The premise—inspired by Maggin’s conversation with his school vicepresident’s son (and future comics writer) Jeph Loeb—forced the Man of Steel to consider the possibility that his heroics were inadvertently stunting the development of the human race.

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Another favored Schwartz scripter was perhaps not as introspective but he brought a deeper characterization to his dialogue than much of the generation that preceded him. When Len Wein took over Justice League of America with issue #100, he immediately embarked on a celebratory three-part team-up with the Justice Society that set out to revive the dormant 1940s heroes known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory. In terms of story construction, Wein’s plots were often old school—such as his division of the assembled heroes into small teams—but he delighted in individualized character flourishes that made the cast less interchangeable.

Acquiring Action Comics with issue #419, Schwartz looked to Wein to create a back-up series to follow the lead Superman stories. The writer immediately recalled his unused concept for 1968’s Jonny Double feature and dusted it off as the Human Target: the adventures of a private investigator named Christopher Chance who impersonated clients in order to figure out who was trying to kill them.

Prevailing on DC’s President and Publisher, Wein convinced Carmine Infantino to pencil the origin before the episode’s inker Dick Giordano began doing full art with Action #420.

Beginning in issue #247, Superman ran backup stories telling “The Private Life of Clark Kent.” TM and © DC Comics.

him. As drawn by DeZuñiga, half of Hex’s face remains hidden in shadow. Because of this, it’s not initially clear why Hex induces fear in the people that he meets. But then, on page seven, Hex lights a match and his horrible, face-distorting scar is revealed. Clearly this vicious, damaged man is a gunfighter for a new generation of consumers – a point that’s reinforced on page 12 when a young boy tries to make friends with Hex. He dismisses the boy with a casual “Visit you? What fer?” Later, when Hex rides out of town, the boy tries to ride alongside him… but Hex just abandons him.

As a relentless, self-centered, vicious bounty hunter, Hex caught the sentiment of the times, an era of anti-heroes and the deconstruction of western iconography in films such as 1971’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller and 1972’s Jeremiah Johnson. As editor Joe Orlando remembered: [John Albano] came in with the story and I contributed to the character as it went on. It’s an old idea— Jekyll and Hyde, Two-Face, a very tried-and-true concept. John and I had rules about Jonah Hex. You were only supposed to see his face when he was terrorizing somebody. Ordinarily he would look like a handsome normal cowboy but people took it over who did not understand that premise and Hex went around looking like the Phantom of the Opera all the time. Remember the first story “Welcome to Paradise”? That was influenced by Shane and you couldn’t get across that love story with the ugly side of his face—it’s always in shadow in that story. It’s a visual representation of Cain and Abel; of what we are. We have our good side and our bad side. (Cooke, “Orlando” 25) DeZuñiga was the one who designed the facial scar; after being given the name and the idea for Hex’s Rebel outfit, DeZuñiga began sketching ideas for the character, and the scar evolved organically from the designs. Albano loved it, so Hex kept his scar (Browning). The anthology comic, which changed its name to Weird Western Tales to embrace the newly-loosened Comics Code regulations, quickly became a full-length solo series featuring the scarred gunslinger. Jonah Hex would star in Weird Western for the next five years before receiving his own title. DeZuñiga drew virtually every solo Hex tale for the first three years of the character’s publishing existence while Albano wrote Hex’s first ten issues. During this time, Hex gained his famous tagline, “He was a hero to some, a villain to others...and wherever he rode people spoke his name in whispers. He had no friends, this Jonah Hex, but he did have two companions: one was death itself...the other, the acrid smell of gunsmoke...”

The scarred anti-hero Jonah Hex fit the temper of the early 1970s beginning with his debut in All-Star Western #10. TM and © DC Comics.

Schwartz acquired Action as part of a swap that saw his World’s Finest Comics go to fellow editor Murray Boltinoff.

Brainstorming with writer Bob Haney, Boltinoff abandoned the recent series of Superman team-ups with various heroes in favor of the earlier Superman-Batman template…sort of. In WFC #215, Haney (with artists Dick Dillin and Henry Scarpelli) introduced the Super-Sons of the two iconic heroes—teenagers with trendier clothes, longer hair and more attitude than their famous fathers. Devotees of comics continuity were baffled but casual readers ate it up and World’s Finest’s sales started to rise.

The Acrid Smell of Gunsmoke One of DC’s most popular characters of the 1970s was perhaps the most unexpected success of all. Premiering in the pages of All-Star Western #10 (February-March 1972), the scarred, rough-riding anti-hero Jonah Hex made his first strides into comic book history through swinging saloon doors. Written by series creator John Albano and illustrated by Tony DeZuñiga, Hex is introduced as an intense man, clad in a Southern Army uniform and with a scowl to match. In his first scene, Hex rides into the small, dusty town of Paradise, dragging two dead men behind his horse like a pair of animals. Hex displays brutal anger, a sure shot and draws horrified reactions from many who meet

Mere months after Hex’s debut, Tomahawk concluded its 22-year-long run. With its final ten bi-monthly issues featuring Son of Tomahawk, Tomahawk #140 (May-June 1972) saw the end of that classic series. In its last two years, the series drifted under 150,000 copies sold per issue—deadly numbers for any adventure hero—and the change to Son of Tomahawk did nothing to slow the downward momentum of sales. The market was moving away from traditional westerns and hungered for protagonists who fit the un82

bert launched his dynamic take on the jungle hero. Appearing just two months after Paul Norris’s staid adaptation of Tarzan and the Lion Men, Kubert’s bold vision of the jungle lord must have been a shock to fans expecting a safe and quiet story. Kubert immediately embarked on a straight adaptation of Burroughs’s first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes, and drew the comic with the same intensity, energy and slashing lines that had been hallmarks of his artwork on “Sgt. Rock” in Our Army At War for quite some time.

certain times. Besides, DC needed space in its production schedule for new Tarzan comics.

The Jungle Lord Comes to DC Early in the year, DC published its first issue featuring one of the most iconic heroes in all of fantasy literature, with Tarzan #207 (April 1972). Created in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the jungle lord had appeared in film, books, magazines and comic books for decades. Tarzan’s comic book adventures, published since 1948 first by Dell, then

by Gold Key Comics, were often a bit bland and homogenized, a long way away from the fierce jungle warrior that Burroughs had created. The management at ERB, Inc., the company that controlled the rights to Burroughs’s creations, was reportedly disappointed with the quality of art and story on the Gold Key series and was actively looking for an appropriate new publisher to take over (Kyle 1). Gold Key’s Tarzan also didn’t sell well and was often hard to find on the newsstands (Rose 25). In 1971 Carmine Infantino had a chance meeting with ERB Inc. Vice President Robert Hodes and that led to DC taking over the publishing rights to several ERB properties, including Tarzan. DC’s Tarzan series continued the numbering from the Gold Key run.

This was a dream assignment for Kubert. He had been a huge fan of the character since he was a boy reading Tarzan of the Apes comic strips in the New York Daily Mirror.

In fact, soon after Infantino met with Hodes, and before he had been formally assigned to the book, Kubert was sketching the character. A September 1971 sketch included this description of how Kubert would approach the jungle lord: “The real Tarzan – the ape-man. Once again the lord of the jungle – as devised and created by ERB – written and drawn in the manner that stirred the original readers almost 50 years ago!” Kubert took to the project like a kid getting his dream job. He reread all the original Burroughs books, created small thumbnails of each page, then wrote dialogue and captions longhand on separate pages. Kubert studied the Tarzan art of his hero Hal Foster as well as Foster’s successor, Burne Hogarth, but then decided to create

The issue numbering was about the only thing that continued from Gold Key’s Tarzan comics, as writer/artist Joe Ku-

Joe Kubert’s muscular and intense Tarzan arrived at DC in 1972 starting with Tarzan #207. Tarzan TM and © ERB, Inc.

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his tales with a calculated simplicity in his artwork, focusing just on the most dramatic elements of the stories. The veteran artist even attended life-drawing classes to ensure that he got Tarzan’s anatomy correct (Schelly 174-181).

Despite the quality of Kubert’s material, Tarzan wasn’t a commercially successful comic for DC. Sales never averaged more than 225,000 copies per issue – the same average that Gold Key had sold, which was already the lowest in the character’s history. The comic book reached a nadir of 145,000 copies sold per issue in 1975.

In the end, Kubert’s adaptation of Tarzan the Ape Man ran 73 pages in four parts, sometimes swiping Hal Foster’s perfectly-composed panels rather than creating new images himself (Schelly 182). But even when Kubert reused an image from Foster, he took pains to make that image his own by adding his archetypical slashing style and boldness. Kubert later adapted The Return of Tarzan and Tarzan and the Lion Men for DC as well.

Along with the license to adapt Tarzan, DC also took on adaptations of other ERB properties. Korak, Son of Tarzan arrived with a May-June 1972 cover date. Again, DC’s numbering continued from the Gold Key series with a premiere issue #46. This 25¢, 52-page comic featured several ERB adaptations: “Korak” by Len Wein and Frank Thorne, “Carson of Venus” by Wein and Mike Kaluta, and “Pellucidar” by Wein and Alan Weiss. When the comic shrank to the 20¢, 36-page size, “Pellucidar” was moved out to the new series Weird Worlds, which premiered with issue #1 (Sept. 1972) and co-featured stories of “John Carter of Mars” (which began as a back-up feature in Tarzan #207-209) by Marv Wolfman and Murphy Anderson.

Kubert’s Tarzan received much fan praise. Noted critic Arlen Schumer called Kubert “the definitive Tarzan artist… because never before has an artist’s style – the savage brush strokes and sinewy pen-lines that only Kubert ever made – been so perfectly matched to that character and that character’s milieu – jungles as savage and bloodscarred as any of Sgt. Rock’s battle scenes” (Schumer 58).

Other commentators concurred. The ERB fandom of the time was rhapsodic in their admiration of Kubert’s work on the jungle lord, as were other contemporary and historicalminded critics.

Muck Encrusted Mockery Aside from Tarzan and the new Kirby books, DC’s other major new title in 1972 was Swamp Thing. Loosely based on an eight-page gothic horror story in the best-selling House of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971), the spin-off Swamp Thing series took place in the modern day and gave the monster a new origin. In this update, scientist Alec Holland is working with his wife Linda in the middle of a Louisiana swamp to create a formula “that can make forests out of deserts.”

When the mysterious Mr. E. plants a bomb in Holland’s lab, the resulting explosion sends the scientist screaming into the swamps, where the life of the swamp combines with his special formula to create a “muck-encrusted mockery of a man.”

Written with passion by Len Wein and drawn by Berni Wrightson in a deeply unsettling style influenced by the great E.C. artist “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, Swamp Thing was a massive hit with fans in 1972, winning the 1973 Shazam Awards (awarded for comics created in 1972) for Best Individual Story (“Dark Genesis”—Swamp Thing #1), as well as for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) and Best Penciller (Dramatic Division). Fans seized upon Alec’s pathos, falling in love both with Wrightson’s artwork and the deeply introspective creature that would pity itself and take action to defeat a series of bizarre creatures based on classic horror films – not to mention The Batman (in the memorable issue #7—Nov./Dec. 1973).

The early Swamp Thing stories overlapped with another celebrated Wein horror series, this one in collaboration with artist Jim Aparo. From The Phantom Stranger #14 (July-Aug. 1971) through #26 (Aug.-Sept. 1973), the duo effectively refocused that series— adding shades of personality to the black clad, cryptic title character as well as making him an active participant in his own stories rather than a glorified host. With the introduction of blind psychic Cassandra Craft in issue #17 (Jan.-Feb. 1972), the Stranger even had a love interest of sorts. “The Len Wein/Jim Aparo run on Phantom Stranger in the 70s was absolutely stunning at the time,” writer Neil Gaiman declared. “Nobody

Swamp Thing was written with passion by Len Wein and drawn by Berni Wrightson in a deeply unsettling style. TM and © DC Comics.

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else, apart from Alan Moore very briefly, has ever done the Stranger right” (Hibbs).

Wonder Woman Becomes An Icon One of the most notable changes among DC’s standard titles in 1972 was a return to old ways; Wonder Woman #203 (November 1972) was the final issue in which Diana Prince wore regular clothes rather than her tiara and eagle-emblazoned costume. The turn of events was evidently precipitated by DC’s corporate owner bankrolling and publishing Gloria Steinem’s very influential Ms. Magazine in July 1972—with a Murphy Anderson-illustrated rendition of Wonder Woman in her traditional outfit on the cover. An interior article declared that the Amazing Amazon would soon regain her classic look in the comics, and that came to pass in issue #204.

Steinem, who had worked as an assistant on Harvey Kurtzman’s Help magazine in the early 1960s, also contributed to a new hardcover reprint collection of Wonder Woman stories that was published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1972, in collaboration with Ms. as an endeavor at crossmarketing books and magazines (Matsuuchi 140). Steinem wrote the introduction as well as prefaces to many of the major sections of the book, providing context to the stories in relation to the exploits of the great heroine and the feminist attitudes that were prevalent in America in the 1970s, especially the virtues of strength and independence. Painting Wonder Woman as a feminist icon, Steinem’s introduction complained that the super-heroine’s depowering could be seen as a way of shaming her.

Perhaps mercifully, Steinem’s commentary caused an extended “women’s lib” Wonder Woman storyline by noted science fiction author Samuel Delany to be cut short before the subsequent two chapters were published. Despite her reversion to the red, white and blue, the plainclothes era of Wonder Woman had breathed new life into the character.

Writer-editor Robert Kanigher’s hasty return to the previous status quo—minus the heroine’s still-dead boyfriend Steve Trevor—was viewed as a stodgy letdown. That said, the costume change did help Wonder Woman’s moribund circulation, which had reached a low point of 133,918 copies per issue in 1972 – down from a 159,263 copy average in 1971. By 1974, sales had rebounded to a 149,917 average.

Diana Prince put her Wonder Woman costume back on beginning with Wonder Woman #204. TM and © DC Comics.

of Secrets and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, while Marvel had its line of “monster” series such as Werewolf by Night and Tomb of Dracula. Not to be left out, Archie Comics released its own new horror comic in 1972, but it would be perhaps the oddest horror comic of its era.

Chilling Adventures In Sorcery As Told By Sabrina #1 (Sept.

1972) presented serious tales of terror featuring bog beasts, vampires, witches and zombies, all drawn in the typical Archie style by artistic mainstays Dan DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg and narrated by Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch. Sabrina had been an animated TV star since 1970, appearing in her own silly horror tales reminiscent of Scooby Doo, which may explain why the publisher thought it would be a good idea to create a horror comic featuring the popular witch.

The HR&W Wonder Woman collection was one of three deluxe hardcover “nostalgia” books published in the early 1970s featuring DC’s iconic super-heroes. Superman: from the Thirties to the Seventies was a 388-page collection of stories featuring the Man of Steel from all eras of his history, from his origin by Siegel and Shuster up to 1971’s “Kryptonite No More” story that destroyed all Kryptonite on Earth. Its companion volume, Batman: from the Thirties to the Seventies, similarly published material from every segment of Batman’s life, from the original Bob Kane/Bill Finger stories up to 1970 stories by Frank Robbins, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Denny O’Neil and Irv Novick.

But these were not the adventures Shaggy and Scooby were having on Saturday mornings! Scripted by Frank Doyle, these tales were surprisingly shocking for an Archie comic and likely gave young kids nightmares if their parents inadvertently bought these books that looked similar to the other squeaky-clean comics in Archie’s line. For instance, “Behold the Beast,” the first piece in the first issue, tells the story of Tommy, born with four arms, an ugly face, and a temperament to match. Tommy lives chained up in his parents’ attic but one day manages to escape his steel shack-

Archie Gets Mysterious In 1972 the horror boom hit all comic book publishers. DC had its subset of “mystery” titles, including Ghosts, House 85

les and run away from home.

Wandering out of his neighborhood, Tommy attracts a posse of attackers. To escape them, he flees into nearby woods where a blind girl happens to be wandering. The girl talks to Tommy and comes to like him. However, fate intervenes and the girl falls into a quicksand pit. In the end, poor misunderstood Tommy jumps into the quicksand and saves the girl, sacrificing himself in the process. The monster is dead, the posse walks away, and the blind girl is left sobbing and alone in the woods.

With Sabrina’s Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, the Archie house style got weird. TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Chilling Adventures appeared right alongside Archie’s regular Sabrina the Teenage Witch title, which featured standard teen humor shenanigans much like the rest of the line. Only two issues of Chilling Adventures were published before the comic was shelved for refitting. It emerged again in 1973 as the more typical fright comic Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, which appeared under Archie’s more anonymous and short-lived Red Circle Comics imprint. Edited and mostly illustrated

by Gray Morrow, the new Sorcery eschewed the standard Archie storytelling for Morrow’s more appropriate moody and mysterious style.

Still, the idea of introducing more dramatic content into Archie’s teen titles didn’t simply drop away. Mad House Glads moved toward more serious stories with mystery and supernatural elements involving its rock band cast. Life with Archie touched on the same elements, along with comparatively heavy subjects like Archie leaving home (LWA #117, Jan. 1972) or the challenges of hearing impairment (LWA #119, March 1972). That approach even extended to the new Archie At Riverdale High series, with a variety of stories that ranged from the dramatic—the impending demolition of the Chocklit Shoppe (issue #1: Aug. 1972)—to the reflective, as in issue #2’s musing on high school relationships left behind after graduation. One Archie creator believed things could go even further.

overtly religious comic books. Two of Spire’s 1972 releases were The Cross and the Switchblade, a story about inner city violence that ended through a conversion to God’s Word (the story had been made into a movie, starring Erik Estrada and Pat Boone, two years earlier) and God’s Smuggler, about a boy who smuggles Bibles into the Soviet Union. Altogether, Hartley and his team created nearly 60 religiousthemed comics that were published throughout the 1970s.

They included a 1973 biography of Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, 1975’s notorious Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika, and a 1977 series aimed at young children featuring Barney Bear.

But perhaps Spire’s most fascinating releases are the religious comics that featured the previously secular Archie characters. Hartley’s relationship with John Goldwater helped Revell obtain a license to use the Archie characters.

Boasting such titles as Archie’s One Way, Archie’s Love Scene and Archie’s Car, these 19 comics were virtually indistinguishable by their covers from nearly any other Archie title on the stands. The only way a casual reader could tell the difference was the “Spire Christian Comics” cover logo.

These releases sold a cumulative total of between ten and twenty million copies, likely to church groups and other evangelical organizations. That kind of circulation undoubtedly encouraged Goldwater to continue licensing his stars to Revell (Strömberg 120-124).

Archie Gets Religious Archie artist Al Hartley was a born-again Christian who wanted to share The Word with readers worldwide. He had gone through a religious awakening in 1967 and decided to turn his life over to God. Within ten years Hartley had converted over two dozen family members to the ways of Jesus, and he planned to continue evangelizing. To that end, Hartley began infusing evangelical themes into Archie’s secular stories, so much so that Archie Publisher John Goldwater, who was Jewish, finally asked Hartley to tone it down. Then Christian book publisher Fleming H. Revell approached Hartley and asked him to produce some comic books that explored evangelical themes to match the similar text-oriented books that Revell published in other genres. The result was Spire Christian Comics, a line of

Sold on a non-returnable basis, the Spire comics sported a 35¢ retail price, considerably higher than newsstand issues and higher than the standard Archie line. Although 86

and Lidsville to its line-up in 1972 along with a revival of Bullwinkle (cancelled in 1963). When The Three Stooges was cancelled with issue #55 after more than a decade of continuous publication, Norman Maurer (cartoonist and son-in-law of the trio’s Moe Howard) successfully pitched a replacement series that he would write and draw. The Little Stooges spotlighted the teenage sons of the originals and—in the estimation of Stooges fans—compared favorably with the trio’s comics stories that Maurer had done in the 1950s.

Archie had expanded a number of its titles to 25¢ giants during 1971-1972, it resisted going across the board as DC and Harvey had done and was able to make the move to a 20¢ price point with its May 1972-dated issues, following the lead of Marvel and Charlton.

Charlton Becomes Fans

In 1972, Charlton Comics was licensing a slew of properties from TV, newspapers and cartoons, taking many of the characters that Gold Key didn’t publish. Those properties inShowing its more serious side, Gold cluded Blondie, The Jetsons, Popeye, Key introduced the ongoing Grimm’s The Phantom and the syndicated TV Ghost Stories—narrated by an old crone program Primus (the latter drawn named Hephzibah Grimm—with the by newcomer Joe Staton). Charlton January 1972-dated issue and featured also aggressively pursued the fervent regular contributions from artists teen market with comics featuring like John Celardo, Joe Certa and Jack then-popular teen idols David CasSparling as well as writers like Arnold sidy and Bobby Sherman, a burgeonDrake. The publisher also expanded its ing romance line (which included 12 digest line by one with the creation of different titles in December 1972 out Mystery Comics Digest, which reprintof 31 total comics being published ed material from Ripley’s Believe It or

by Charlton) and a comic adaptation Not, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery and of the Partridge Family TV show. The The Twilight Zone in rotation.

Partridge Family was so well-received The digest also included a sampling of that Charlton included mini-posters new material, including short stories of Partridge Family members in some by 28-year-old writer Don Glut. After of its romance comics. I Love You #96 pitching two Sword and Sorcery sto(March 1972) and Just Married #89 ries involved a hero called Dagar, Glut’s (Nov. 1972) included posters of star editor suggested the character had the Susan Dey, and Romantic Story #127 potential to star in his own series. Re(May 1973) featured a poster of star developing the character slightly, Glut Danny Bonaduce. Charlton also inand artist Jesse Santos unveiled their cluded mini-posters of Sherman in blond barbarian in the unwieldy Tales Career Romances #69 (June 1972) and of Sword and Sorcery Dagar the InvinJust Married #87 (Aug. 1972). (Oddly, cible #1 (October 1972). Elsewhere, the Sherman made an appearance in DC’s hero in Glut’s original short stories— teen comedy comic Binky #77 (Febrenamed Duroc—debuted in Mystery March 1971), in a one-page article Comics Digest #7, #14 and #15 before titled “The Secret Side of Bobby SherGlut rechristened him again as Durak man.”) The Cassidy and Sherman comand folded the character into Dagar’s ics were likely meant to tie in with Charlton’s non-comics magazine line Spire Christian Comics evangelized to children, often with recurring cast in Tales #7.

Archie Comics characters. TM and © David Wilkerson. and their low-rent imitations of the Meanwhile, attempting to fill the void popular teen magazines of the day, as left by Tarzan’s move to DC, Gold Key well as their group of music magazines. The Cassidy and added more jungle action comics to its line. Editors asSherman comics featured short, silly stories about the teen signed the Tarzan creative team of Gaylord Du Bois and idols. Cassidy was illustrated by Turkish-American carPaul Norris to a new series called The Jungle Twins, and toonist Sururi Gümen, who also worked as a “ghost” on the revived Tarzan’s old back-up strip Brothers of the Spear for Kerry Drake comic strip and produced movie and TV satires its own comic book, now illustrated by Jesse Santos. Even for Cracked magazine, while Sherman was drawn by sevMighty Samson—cancelled in 1969 but walking much the eral journeyman artists including Charlton veteran Tony same ground as Tarzan—was revived for a single issue by Tallarico. writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Thorne.

While Charlton licensed quite a number of characters, Gold A notable advantage that Gold Key had over its competiKey Comics still boasted the largest selection of such proptors was its cover price. Still smarting over the disastrous erties, adding Saturday morning-based titles The Funky impact of 1960s price increases, the publisher held firm Phantom, The Hair Bear Bunch, The Harlem Globetrotters, to the 15¢ price point long after nearly everyone else had 87

be a taboo act. The scene was completely at odds with the point of the script, but it was printed nonetheless.

Thus began Don McGregor’s comic book career, and he would prove to be one of the most important writers of the decade. Like Steve Englehart, McGregor was a comic book fan who turned professional. He had been a prolific letterhack during his teens, with letters appearing in numerous series in the 1960s including Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, as well as freelancing for his local newspaper, The Providence Journal. McGregor spent most of 1972 doing freelance comics work for Warren. Late in the year, the bearded, intense, deeply ardent 27-year-old man moved from Rhode Island to New York to join the staff of Marvel Comics as a proofreader, earning $125 per week. As he notes, “I came to Marvel Comics because I loved Marvel Comics” (McGregor vi). His proofreading role didn’t stop McGregor from obtaining various writing assignments at Marvel, specifically for the horror anthologies Journey Into Mystery and Chamber of Chills, before taking the helm on a solo strip featuring the Black Panther in 1973.

Also like Englehart, McGregor wasn’t interested in mimicking the writing styles of the comic book writers who came before him. Instead, he developed his own unique narrative voice, one that synthesized the attitude of Stan Lee with that of crime novelist Ed McBain as well as McGregor’s own deeply felt ideas. Before long, readers recognized that what Don McGregor brought to his work was a passionate concentration of verbal power. He delivered extremely wordy scripts that expressed his characters’ complex inner lives as accompaniments to the strongly felt action that happened around them. As Roy Thomas reflected, “I don’t think Don’s work sold terribly well, but I always thought he was doing some interesting things, and I thought, ‘Well, the kind of stuff we put him on was the kind of stuff that we didn’t expect to become great sellers anyway.... So let him experiment with it and see what happens’. And he certainly did a lot of interesting things with it” (Amash 70). Warren’s interracial kiss may have been an error, but it fit McGregor’s approach to his work, as he delighted in pushing the limits: alluding to sex in Codeapproved comics, presenting another interracial kiss in a “War of the Worlds” story in Amazing Adventures, and utilizing an entirely black cast in his “Black Panther” run in Jungle Action.

Charlton Comics licensed the popular TV series The Partridge Family into comics form. TM and © Screen Gems and Sony Pictures.

gone to 20¢, not caving in until its May 1973-dated issues.

Only Gold Key’s one-time partner Dell Comics, then in its last few months of publication, stuck with 15¢ almost as long. In 1972, Dell’s desultory publication schedule was spotty, with the company releasing only 20 comics: three with January or April dates, seven with a July date, six in November and one in December. The end of the famous Dell Comics was obviously near.

Warren Publishing, run by the mercurial James Warren, was also quite progressive when it came to the treatment of the races, though in a different way than McGregor treated people: Warren treated everybody alike. African American artist Billy Graham held the role of Art Director at the small publishing house during the early 1970s, helping to produce outstanding black-and-white artwork from a large crew of American and Spanish artists, including Tom Sutton, Mike Ploog and Richard Corben. However, Graham left the staff over a dispute over a page layout for a feature article in Vampirella – a layout that Warren had himself suggested (Cochran). Warren was also notoriously slow with his paychecks, which prompted Jim Steranko to joke at a convention, “You know, I saw a strange thing on the way up here by the elevators. There were about a half

Black and White and Kissed All Over In 1972, Warren Publishing printed a provocative blackand-white story… by mistake! Don McGregor wrote the full script for a 14-page anthology story titled “The Men Who Called Him Monster” for Creepy #43 (Jan. 1972). When Spanish artist Luis Garcia received McGregor’s script, he read over the story, which included a scene where a black private eye interviews a white woman about a boy’s disappearance. In the script McGregor included the note “and this is the clincher” to indicate the climax of a scene on the sixth page. Garcia, however, misinterpreted the comment, thinking McGregor wanted the black man and white woman to have a romantic moment. Consequently, Garcia drew an interracial kiss, which many in the 1970s considered to 88

More Than Just an Industry

a dozen artists praying in front of the elevators that someone named Warren would come through the doors and give ’em a check” (Pinaha 4).

The underground comix movement took a major step forward in 1972, both in terms of the number and quality of comix sold. Comix sold Despite the spotty paymore copies through ment schedule, Warren head shops and other attracted experienced places than ever before industry talent, includ(though that didn’t preing Steve Skeates, who vent some publishers wrote an oddball crossfrom having financial over between Warren’s troubles), and ever more Eerie magazine and and more personal mahis recently-cancelled terial was published Aquaman comic book. along with the flood Free from DC’s control, of comix that focused Skeates repurposed sevmainly on drugs and eral of his old Aquaman sex. As much as anyscripts to run in Eerie thing, comix were a #36, #37 and #40 with movement. As cartoonThe Human Gargoyles were recurring characters in Psycho magazine.

Prince Targo as new TM and © respective copyright holder. ist Justin Green releading man. His “Atflected, “Arriving at the lantis” series can be considered a kind of unofficial sequel epicenter [in San Francisco] with a sense of adventure and to his Aquaman work, and Skeates would revisit the sunkpersonal destiny, I soon realized that the scene was more en continent one final time in 1974 with another oddball than just an industry. … Like mercenary sailors and hardcomic. Skeates scripted the story under his own name, but scrabble voyages for weeks at a time, we lived just to sail” Steve Englehart wrote his short-lived run on the “Vampire(Green 54). lla” solo strip under the penname Chad Archer (Englehart One of the most influential of the undergrounds published also scribed for Marvel’s romance books under the nom de that year was Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin plume of Anne Spencer).

Mary, a 48-page autobiographical tale of the effects of orWarren competitor Skywald returned in May 1972 with ganized religion on Green as he grew up. Drawn in a delibPsycho #6 after a six-month hiatus forced by the colerate, detailed style that demonstrated both his fine arts lapse of their color line (Arndt, Horror Comics 167). By training and his deep passion for underground comix, and Nightmare #9 (Oct. 1972) and Psycho #8 (Sept. 1972), edipublished through Last Gasp Eco-Funnies, Binky Brown tor Al Hewetson had brought on several ongoing serials, was one of the first comix that explored pubescent psychosomething that would characterize his run on the magalogical drama in a realistic way. zines until they ended. Among those series were “NightOften called “the father of autobiographical comics,” Green mare World,” in which creators interpreted fans’ dreams; shared a history of sexual awakening, Catholic repression “Shogoths,” which posited H.P. Lovecraft’s eerie creatures and childhood rituals suffused with Jungian philosophy as villains; and Skywald’s most popular series, “The Huand intense psychological imagery, influenced by Green’s man Gargoyles.” experiences with LSD. Binky Brown has many surreal eleThe Human Gargoyles were a pair of cathedral gargoyles ments to it, which serve the book well by presenting abfrom Europe that come to life and quickly have a child tostract ideas in ways that readers can understand. A series of serendipitous events along with Green’s research into gether. Pursued by a Satanic cult that believes that Satan the Tarot, his commitment to craft and acceptance of the himself has given rebirth to the Gargoyles, the strange book’s imperfections helped Green to complete an epic family journeys to America in an attempt to flee the cult. confessional, the likes of which had never been seen in eiWhile in the United States, the family encounters horther comics or comix before (Green 57). rors that reflect America’s uncertain times. As noted horror writer Ramsey Campbell wrote about the Gargoyles Though he was paid a small advance by Ron Turner, Last in the letters page for Psycho #23, “As polemic and social Gasp’s Publisher, Green made very little money off of Binky comment it works better than almost any other monster Brown. However, the book’s very positive reception made saga, by refusing to be taken as a literal monster story; it the artist extremely happy (Green 60). Green’s work would drops its living Gargoyles into contemporary America as have a profound effect on the world of comics over the next symbols, and the alienating juxtaposition works, maybe several decades. because [artist Maelo Cintron gives the Gargoyles a sad Art Spiegelman was a professed admirer of Green’s codignity and alienness without sentimentalism.” mix. He declared, “What the Brontë sisters did for Gothic 89

es and wouldn’t work” (Rosenkranz 172). The 50,000-copy print run sold out quickly, though, so Turner found another printer for the second run. After the second printing was complete, the printer destroyed the negatives, preventing additional reprintings. Since the material was considered to be pornographic under the rules of the day, Turner didn’t have legal recourse to take action against the printer.

romance, what Tolkien did for Sword-and-Sorcery, Justin did for confessional autobiographical comics” (Rosenkranz 170). Spiegelman himself was a popular creator of underground stories in the early ’70s. In a story published in 1972’s anthology Funny Aminals, Spiegelman produced his own autobiographical work, a three-page tale called “Maus.” Though brief, this story made a huge impact. As he told the story of his parents’ experiences in the Holocaust, Spiegelman drew “Maus” with a shaky line, bespeaking his neuroses and conveying a difficult mental state. With the Jews drawn as mice and the Nazis drawn as cats, Spiegelman embraced powerful imagery to convey a deeply personal story. He would follow up with another major autobiographical tale in 1973. Together, those two stories would form the foundation for Maus, which—in the tradition of Green’s Binky Brown—would be expanded into a highly acclaimed graphic novel that would be published in the 1980s.

Wimmen’s Comix joined Tits ’n’ Clits and Trina Robbins’s solo comic Girl Fight (also released in 1972) as attempts to carve out a place for women in the often chauvinistic world of undergrounds. Wimmen’s was produced by the Wimmen’s Comix Collective, and was, as an editorial stated in issue #2, “intended to give support and encouragement to aspiring women cartoonists throughout the country.” Among those who contributed to Wimmen’s were Michelle Brand, Lee Marrs, Sharon Rudahl, Aline Kominsky and Trina Robbins. Tits, created in Laguna Beach, California, by Joyce Sutton and Lyn Chevli, was intended to provide a response to the overly sexist nature of underground comix (Rosenkranz 175). As Robbins reflected, “The sexism in the underground comix was incredibly graphic. As soon as I saw the stuff, I said, ‘This is hostile to women’” (Duin 372).

Other underground cartoonists also incorporated personal reflection into their work. Robert Crumb and Shary Flenniken contributed to Funny Aminals, among other comix, and explored their childhoods and neuroses in their stories. Rick Griffin, an early contributor to Zap Comix, created his own look at the world with his Man from Utopia. Published by the San Francisco Comic Book Company, a San Francisco comic book store that occasionally dabbled in publishing, Griffin’s comic was a portfolio for his carefully crafted artwork that reflected his three major passions: surfing, LSD and Jesus. It was mysticism colliding with hallucinogenic surrealism. Vaughn Bode, Rand Holmes and Richard Corben were among the other cartoonists who created solo comix in 1972.

Though many great comix were released in 1972, they were often lost amongst the flood of subpar material that was appearing in head shops that year. As James Vance reflects, “Few, if any of [the newcomers], approached the quality of the established comix, turning off readers and creating congestion in head shop comix racks. Many of the established titles continued to sell, but the Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” first appeared as a three-page story in saturation led to returns at Funny Aminals #1. TM and © Art Spiegelman. an accelerated rate, cutting into publishers’ overhead Last Gasp published some and artists’ royalties” (Vance 12).

18 undergrounds in 1972, including Guy Caldwell’s emotional Inner City Romance #1-2 and Ted Richards’s Dopin’ While underground comix and mainstream comics apDan as well as the anthologies Wimmen’s Comix #1 and pealed to very different readers, both sides of the industry Young Lust #3. Young Lust was Last Gasp’s first color comic offered many more titles in 1972 than they did the previand caused new production and legal problems. Publisher ous year.

Ron Turner had trouble finding a press that would agree to print the comic. When he finally found one, the quality And both sides of the industry would face major obstacles of the printing turned out to be substandard. As Turner exin 1973. plained, “The women in the bindery objected to the imag90

Mego’s World’s Greatest Super-Heroes In 1972, a toy developer helped bring to the marketplace a comic book-inspired product that would become a mainstay of the 1970s: Mego’s line of 8-inch action figures called “World’s Greatest Super-Heroes.”

In the 1960s, Stanley A. Weston sold G.I. Joe and Captain Action as toy concepts to Hasbro and the Ideal Toy Company, respectively.

By the early 1970s, Weston had brainstormed a new idea: a Hanna-Barbera cartoon show that presented the origins of famous super-heroes. He called it, “Secret Origins of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes.” Unfortunately, Weston— then the exclusive licensing agent for Marvel Comics— couldn’t secure the rights to DC Comics’ characters.

Thus was born “World’s Greatest Super-Heroes.” The line debuted in 1972 with Superman, Batman, Robin and Aquaman action figures (although the packaging also featured Captain America and Tarzan). The figures’ multiple points of articulation allowed for countless different poses.

“World’s Greatest Super-Heroes” was an instant success, becoming one of the best-selling toys of 1972. Mego quickly ordered an expansion to the line. Every year until nearly the end of the 1970s Mego rolled out new super-hero action figures as well as the inevitable accessories like carrying cases, a Hall of Justice playset, and even a Great White Shark to threaten Aquaman. The plethora of Batman accessories included a Batcycle, a Batcopter, a Mobile Bat Lab, and of course, a Batcave playset. (Not to be slighted, the Joker was provided with his own Jokermobile.)

Undeterred, Weston adjusted his animated series pitch into an action figure concept similar to G.I. Joe and Captain Action, a pitch that DC’s executives were willing to get behind. Weston constructed a presentation that consisted of an even mix of Marvel and DC super-heroes and eagerly pitched it to all the major toy companies. To Weston’s surprise, though, Mattel, Hasbro, Kenner, Gabriel and Ideal all turned him down. Kenner’s president even told Weston, “Stan, you’re a great guy, but this is the worst piece of shit you’ve ever showed me!”

Found in all the major department stores—JC Penney, Kmart, Montgomery Ward, Sears, Toy “R” Us—and even offered by such mail order businesses as Warren Publishing’s Captain Company, “World’s Greatest Super-Heroes” was arguably the most ubiquitous comic book-related product of the decade.

Weston decided to try one more company before giving up on his idea. He met with Martin Abrams, president of Mego, then a small import company of cheap toys as well as the G.I. Joe-imitative Action Jackson figures. As Weston described it, Abrams loved the presentation, not only because Mego wanted to expand into licensed properties but also because the super-heroes “sold themselves” (Holcomb 9).

The line’s legacy has even extended beyond the 1970s as proven by its enduring secondary market value. Many years after their original release, the super-hero action figures can fetch hundreds of dollars via the on-line auction sites.

“World’s Greatest Super-Heroes” Release Order: 1972: Superman Batman Robin Aquaman

1973: Captain America Tarzan Spider-Man Shazam (Captain Marvel)

1974: Wonder Woman Supergirl Batgirl Catwoman Penguin Joker Riddler Mr. Mxyzptlk

1976:

1975:

Green Arrow Green Goblin Lizard Falcon Iron Man Hulk

91

Thor Conan Mr. Fantastic Thing Human Torch Invisible Girl Isis

1977: Wondergirl Aqualad Kid Flash Speedy

1973

Innocence

Lost

By 1973, there was a pervasive feeling circulating amongst Americans that their once powerful country—which only thirty years earlier had won World War II—was now in a state of decline. People had lost faith in their government, in their military and in their economic invulnerability.

On March 29, 1973, President Richard Nixon declared in a nationwide address that the Vietnam War was over. For the first time in eleven years, no American troops were stationed in Southeast Asia. Though citizens were happy about the fact that American boys were no longer facing the prospect of death in a faraway Asian land, the Vietnam War was widely seen—at best—as a draw. For all its mighty power, the United States could not win a military conflict in a third world country, a major sign of the decline of American influence in the world.

As 1973 proceeded, revelations in the ongoing Watergate scandal continued to consume the attention and energy of President Nixon while sapping Americans’ patience.

The sordid spectacle of Congressional hearings into the unfolding scandal was an inescapable sight on TV during the spring and summer months, as aide after aide testified. Even worse, the President defied public subpoenas to release the secret recordings that he had made of conversations in the White House, only backing down after the Supreme Court forced him to do so. However, those “Watergate Tapes” contained a mysterious 18 and a half minute gap that immediately fed conspiracy theories. Compounding the nation’s deep sense of malaise and frustration was the October resignation of Nixon’s Vice President, Spiro Agnew, on bribery charges unrelated to the other events in the White House.

Meanwhile, the comics industry itself faced significant changes: Stan Lee, perhaps the most influential writer of his era, had completely divested himself from scripting— though he was still active behind the scenes and as a public face for Marvel; a newly created distribution system would radically change the way that comics were purchased in the United States; new heroes were born who represented a different view of society, and a popular character was brutally slain, underlining the loss of innocence that many Americans felt in 1973.

Undoubtedly, the United States was moving into a profoundly different period in its history. So too was the comic book industry. In fact, some analysts set 1973 as the year that comics shifted from the “Silver Age” to the “Bronze Age.” A darkness was emerging in mid-1970s America, and a tarnished Bronze Age of Comics reflected that darkness.

CHAPTER FOUR 92

Fantastic Four No More!

Marvel’s two most popular series encapsulated that sense of transition to a darker era, as Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man experienced major, painful transitions in 1973. Neither comic book was being written by the man who had helmed them since their respective beginnings, Stan Lee. Indeed, after scripting Fantastic Four #125 (Aug. 1972), Lee stepped away from comic book writing entirely.

Initially succeeding Lee on Fantastic Four was Roy Thomas, and he immediately began to splinter the fabled foursome. The turmoil started with The Thing.

Wallowing in self-pity over the fact that he will never be normal again, Ben Grimm walks out on his teammates. Then, in FF #130 (Jan. 1973) Sue Storm Richards, the Invisible Girl, becomes fed up with her husband’s thoughtless ways. She says to Mr. Fantastic, “In the heat of battle, you didn’t think of me as a member of the team – not even as a wife – only as ‘the mother of your child.’ I won’t accept that, Reed.

Not now – not ever!” Sue stayed away from the FF for several months. During that time, The Human Torch also left the group in order to travel to the Inhumans’ Great Refuge and live with his girlfriend Crystal. She, however, rejects him for the mutant Quicksilver, whom she subsequently marries in 1974.

In the course of this turmoil, the group gained a new member with FF #132 (March 1973) when Black Bolt, The Fantastic Four experienced major turmoil in 1973. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. king of the Inhumans, requests that his subject Medusa join the FF as an emissary to the outside world tions to an even higher level than Lee and Thomas had while also filling Sue Storm’s slot until she returns. In the done before him. Conway’s Fantastic Four, in particular, is same issue, Johnny switches to a red-and-gold costume an unremitting stream of changes, betrayals and anger befrom his customary blue-and-black, as a tribute to the origneath the super-heroic trappings. inal Human Torch. But even while Johnny enjoyed his new In other words, Conway kept matters quite miserable for outfit, the team’s mood could be summed up by the Thing’s the heroes: Sue and Reed remained separated, Ben spent statement in FF #133: “Swell buncha jokers we are. It’s ala great deal of effort dealing with his depression, and most midnight on New Year’s Eve an’ between the five of Johnny struggled to find his place in the team. Most terus, we can’t crack one crummy smile.” rifying of all, Reed and Sue’s son Franklin Richards started That’s when Roy Thomas handed the Fantastic Four writto manifest incredible new powers that could destroy the ing reins over to Gerry Conway. In short time, the 20-yearentire universe. In FF #141 (Dec. 1973), Reed makes a terold scribe had become a principal writer in Marvel’s roster rible sacrifice: he uses an anti-matter gun to shut down the of talent. Just as importantly, Conway frequently turned mind of his own son lest all reality cease to exist. That acup the Marvel formula of turmoil and soap-operatic emotion would trigger still more tumult in the following year.

All in all, 1973 was not a good year to be associated with the Fantastic Four.

The Night Gwen Stacy Died Nor was 1973 a good year to be a member of Spider-Man’s cast. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas and Art Director John Romita recognized that Amazing Spider-Man had been in creative doldrums (Thomas 19). Romita suggested employing a trope from his favorite comic, Terry and the Pirates: kill a supporting character to help reinvigorate the series. When it came time to choose who should be sent to the grave, Thomas felt that the logical choice would be to kill the elderly Aunt May, who always seemed to be at death’s door. But Romita suggested a more radical choice: one of the beautiful women in Peter Parker’s life: either Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson.

As the Fantastic Four ring in the new year, Johnny Storm can’t help but temper Reed Richards’s optimism. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

93

TIMELINE: 1973 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 11: The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 1051.70. The stock market then begins a 24 month decline, eventually losing 46% of its value.

March 13: Amazing Spider-Man #121—presenting the death of Peter Parker’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, in a story written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Gil Kane and John Romita—arrives on newsstands.

April 20: The University of California hosts the three day Berkeley Con which specifically focuses on the underground comix industry.

Attendees include Kim Deitch, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez and Art Spiegelman, among others.

February 25: The oncecelebrated Terry and the Pirates comic strip ends its 38-year run.

May 17: The U.S. Senate begins its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal.

February 27: Comic book artist Bill Everett, best known for creating the SubMariner in 1939, dies at the age of 55.

JANUARY January 22: In Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a woman’s right to privacy encompasses the right to terminate a pregnancy. States can no longer outlaw abortion.

FEBRUARY

January 30: A jury finds defendants G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord guilty of crimes in connection with the break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, DC.

June 1: Comic book artist Werner Roth, best known for drawing X-Men during the late 1960s, dies at the age of 52.

June 3: Comic book artist Syd Shores, best known for inking Jack Kirby’s work on Captain America in the 1940s and 1960s, dies at the age of 59.

June 27: Roger Moore is the new James Bond as Live and Let Die opens in movie theaters.

MARCH

APRIL

M AY

JUNE June 9: Secretariat wins the Belmont Stakes, becomes horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since 1948.

March 29: President Nixon announces that the last American troops have left South Vietnam. Thus ends America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

May: 18-year-old high school senior Mitchell Mehdy makes national headlines when he buys a copy of 1938’s Action Comics #1 for $1801.25, the highest price ever paid for a vintage comic book.

June 21: In Miller v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. The ruling will have a devastating impact on the underground comix industry.

The Super Friends TM and © DC Comics. Punisher, Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Shadow TM and © Condé Nast.

Blonde, beautiful, possessing a vivacious personality and, most importantly, in love with our hero, Gwen Stacy was a fan-favorite. For this reason, Romita persuaded Thomas that she should die because the killing would have shock value: “I thought if somebody had to die, it should be Gwen. I thought she was so important, [the readers] imagined she would never die” (Johnson 57). Amazing SpiderMan writer Gerry Conway didn’t need much convincing to kill her, mostly because he hated the character: “She was a nonentity, a pretty face. She brought nothing to the mix” (Howe 136). Furthermore, Stacy’s death would open the door to setting up a relationship between Peter and Mary Jane, whom Conway saw as far more intriguing.

play the story’s title. Instead, Conway teased his readers in a caption that read, “As for its title: that’s something we’d like to conceal for a while, but we promise you this, pilgrim – it’s not a title you’ll soon forget.”

The story opens with Spider-Man staring into his apartment window and seeing his best friend Harry Osborn, feverish from nearly overdosing on LSD. Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson sit alongside Harry at his sickbed. After Peter doffs his costume to head into the apartment, he’s confronted by a furious Norman Osborn, Harry’s father.

Norman blames Peter for Harry’s drug overdose. Peter, meanwhile, flashes back to the time when Harry donned the costume of his greatest enemy, the Green Goblin.

Gwen and Mary Jane pull Peter away from Norman, whose own feverish brow gets even sweatier as he soon receives a phone call informing him that he’s quickly losing his personal fortune. As the story proceeds, Norman finally snaps from all the stress he’s enduring. In his own brownstone, Osborn sees a phantom Spider-Man. He runs from his home, screaming, eventually reaching a secret apartment that contains his villainous garb. Donning the familiar green and purple suit, Norman once again becomes the Green Goblin and he quickly kidnaps Gwen, leaving a pumpkin as his calling card.

The creative decision, then, was made, but Marvel’s publisher, Stan Lee, still needed to sign off on it. Tentatively, Thomas approached his boss with the proposal, but rather than balk, Lee enthusiastically approved the killing of this character that he had written for nearly a decade. In fact, as Thomas saw it, Lee was more excited about the idea than he was (Thomas 19).

Amazing Spider-Man #121 (June 1973) features an unusual cover: Spider-Man swinging from his web, spider-sense tingling, in front of portraits of nine of his title’s supporting characters. On the cover, the hero ponders, “Someone close to me is about to die! Someone I cannot save! But who? WHO?” The issue’s opening splash page doesn’t dis-

Following his spider-sense, Spider-Man tracks the Goblin to the George Washington Bridge, engaging the villain in 94

October 6: The “Yom Kippur War” begins when Israel defends itself against a surprise attack

by Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. The war ends on October 25 with Israel prevailing.

September 2: British novelist J. R. R. Tolkien, whose work included The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, dies of an ulcer at the age of 81.

July 12: The famous pulp hero, The Shadow, receives his own DC comic book, written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Mike Kaluta.

September 8: The first episode of Super Friends—a Hanna-Barbera produced cartoon starring Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman—airs on the ABC television network.

October 10: Vice President Spiro Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleads no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion, and resigns his office. President Richard Nixon names Gerald Ford as the new Vice President.

December 26: The Exorcist— William Friedkin’s adapation of William Peter Blatty’s novel about the demonic possession of a 12 year old girl—opens in movie theaters. It would become the first horror movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

October 30: Amazing SpiderMan #129—written by Gerry Conway with art by Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt— introduces The Punisher.

J U LY

AUGUST

July 20: Bruce Lee, martial arts expert and film actor, dies in Hong Kong at the age of 32. His last film, Enter the Dragon, would open three weeks after his death.

a furious aerial battle in order to save the life of his girlfriend. Hero and villain grapple above the bridge, and after Peter lays a vicious blow on the Goblin, the villain flies back to the spires, where he shoves an unconscious Gwen from the bridge summit. In a long vertical panel, the girl plunges towards the Hudson River far below. Spider-Man frantically fires his webbing to catch her, and as her plummet is halted, he screams, “Did It!” A fateful sound effect appears next to Gwen’s neck: “SNAP!” The hero first exults with excitement for having saved his girlfriend, but elation swiftly turns to horror as he realizes that she has died from the fall. “I saved you, honey… don’t you see? I saved you.” As the Goblin circles around to confront Spider-Man, the villain declares, “a fall from that height would kill anyone—before they struck the ground.” Holding his murdered girlfriend in his arms, a tearful Peter Parker demands vengeance and the issue’s title is finally

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

September 20: In a highly touted “Battle of the Sexes,” defending Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King defeats 55-year-old former tennis pro Bobby Riggs in three straight sets. A reported 50 million U.S. viewers watched the televised tennis match.

NOVEMBER

November: Comic book convention organizer Phil Seuling creates the Direct Market distribution system by arranging a deal with Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Warren Publishing and Archie Comics to sell their titles to comic book shops on a non-returnable basis through his Seagate East Coast Distributors.

October 20: OPEC, a coalition of Arab oil-producing nations, ban oil exports to the United States in order to punish America for its support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The embargo causes oil prices to quadruple.

October 18: Famed cartoonist and Pogo creator Walt Kelly dies from diabetes complications at the age of 60.

displayed on the final page: “The Night Gwen Stacy Died.”

Amazing Spider-Man #122 (July 1973) then presents the most vicious battle that the hero and the Green Goblin ever fought, an intense, at times nearly operatic, clash between a cruel murderer and a grieving lover that shows how both had been pushed to their absolute limits. Enraged beyond reason, Peter starts beating Norman to death until he forces himself to stop: “In another moment I might have killed him. I might have become like him – a – a murderer!” But as Parker forces himself to allow his anger to abate, the Goblin’s glider, with a protruding spike on its front, flies free and makes a beeline directly for the Green Goblin’s chest. As Conway poetically puts it: “So do the proud men die: crucified, not on a cross of gold – but on a stake of humble tin.” The terrible tableau shocks Peter and he wanders away from the battle scene, dazedly finding his way back to his 95

DECEMBER

apartment where Mary Jane Watson is waiting for him. Peter and Mary Jane collapse in each other’s arms as the issue ends. (The two characters weren’t the only ones left in tears over Gwen’s death: Romita claims to have cried while drawing the issue, one of only three times in his entire career that he did so.)

As Peter Parker’s first real girlfriend, Gwen Stacy occupied a special place in the heart of both the hero and his readers. Her death was an especially traumatic event for them. Therefore, in the eyes of many fans and commentators, the two-issue story marks a turning point in Marvel Comics history. With her death, an age of innocence in comics comes to an end, and taking its place is a darker, more conflicted era, one that reflected the more pessimistic worldview that accompanied Vietnam, Watergate and increasing crime in the streets.

Gwen Stacy’s murder was first addressed in the letters column of

“The Night Gwen Stacy Died” in Amazing Spider-Man #121 was a major turning point in the life of Peter Parker. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Amazing Spider-Man #125 (Oct. 1973).

The editorial comment printed there (possibly written by Conway) justified the character’s demise as a preordained—and eminently logical— story development: The relationship between Pete and Gwen had been through a lot of inconsequential ups and downs, and unless the two were to be married, there was nowhere else to take it. But marriage seemed wrong, too. Peter just wasn’t ready. So Gerry, Roy and Stan debated the question . . . All had reached the same inescapable conclusion.

Gwen’s death was simply fated to happen. Events had shaped themselves in such a way that their only logical resolution was tragedy.

So don’t blame Gerry. Don’t blame Stan. Don’t blame anyone. Only the inscrutable, inexorable workings of circumstance are culpable this time.

That rationalization, however, satisfied nobody, as Marvel’s personnel soon found out. John Romita claims fans were so distraught by Gwen’s demise that Marvel actually received death threats. In his speaking tours

of college campuses, Lee was taken aback by how vehemently fans reacted to the killing. Lee often claimed in his lectures that he didn’t know that Stacy would be killed – likely a reflection of his forgetfulness rather than an attempt to deceive his audience.

Perhaps predictably, Conway faced the strongest backlash from the fans; 96

in fact, he couldn’t even attend comic book conventions for about ten years after the event (Johnson 137).

As time went on, the fan anger over Gwen’s death showed no signs of abating. To appease the fans, Lee mandated a new storyline, one that would see print in 1975.

Steve Englehart, circa 1973.

Battle of the Marvel Stars While the Fantastic Four were fighting battles inside their team, and Spider-Man was fighting his greatest nemesis, two of Marvel’s most popular super-teams were fighting each other. In 1973, Steve Englehart was scripting both Avengers and Defenders and lamented the fact that Marvel discontinued the “giant” events that used to be featured in its Annuals. As a way of compensating for the missing Annuals, the enthusiastic scripter proposed something different to Roy Thomas: a struggle between his two super-teams that would span across both titles. After persuading Thomas that he would stay on schedule with this unprecedented crossover, Englehart was given the green light. Thus, he created comics’ first cross-title summer event.

Beginning with Avengers #115 (Sept.

1973) and Defenders #8 (Sept. 1973) and ending with Avengers #118 (Dec. 1973) and Defenders #11 (Dec. 1973), Englehart and artists Bob Brown and Sal Buscema delivered an epic battle.

To start the “Avengers/Defenders War,” Loki and Dormammu conspire to convince the heroes that each team must gather as many pieces as possible of an arcane artifact called the Evil Eye. In doing so, the evil pair push members of both teams to fight each other. Readers got to witness clashes such as the Vision and Scarlet Witch tangling with the Silver Surfer; Iron Man combating temporary Defender Hawkeye (reprising their fights from the 1960s); Doctor Strange opposing Black Panther and Mantis; Valkyrie crossing swords against the Swordsman; a battle between Golden Age heroes the Sub-Mariner and Captain America; and finally, an inconclusive struggle between the Hulk and Thor. In the saga’s grand conclusion, in Avengers #118, Englehart brings in nearly every character from the Marvel Universe as the effects of the Evil Eye change the world. Stars like Warlock, Luke Cage, Ka-Zar, Dracula, Dr. Doom and the Man-Thing are forced to fight against the chaos that the Eye creates.

The colossal crossover was a hit with readers. The event also reflected how fans turned pro had moved into positions where they could create the

Spanning eight issues and four months, the Avengers/Defenders War was the first Marvel summer crossover.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The Avengers/Defenders War was fought “To the Death.” TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

comics that they had always wanted to read. As Englehart reflects, “It was great fun for me to use these guys and come up with all the original stories” (Arndt, “I Think…” 16). The only part of the book he didn’t appreciate, as a conscientious objector from the military, was the use of the phrase “war” in the title. Englehart always referred to the story arc as the “Avengers/Defenders Clash,” but that term never stuck with fans.

The Most Cosmic Super-Hero of All! The trend of fans turning pro— which had begun with Roy Thomas in 1965—continued to accelerate in 1973, with several more former fans making the leap to professional ranks. Primary among them was the multitalented Jim Starlin who would emerge as one of Marvel’s key writers, artists and conceptualizers of 1973.

Indeed, his work on three hit comics earned Starlin the prestigious 1973 Shazam Award for Best New Artist (an award Starlin shared with fellow fan-turned-pro Walter Simonson).

Born and raised in Detroit, Starlin was an avid comic reader during the industry’s glorious Silver Age era. He particularly adored Marvel’s monster titles. One day, his father, who worked at Chrysler, brought home tracing paper and pencils from the company’s drafting room. That was all the material the boy needed. From that point on, Starlin was always creating artwork. He began by tracing pages

Under the guidance of Jim Starlin, Captain Marvel became cosmic and acquired a Darkseid-inspired foe named Thanos. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

the new creators took over, Captain Marvel had featured a directionless and ordinary super-hero battle between the Kree warrior and a dull super-villain, drawn by comics legend Wayne Boring, who proved to be a poor fit for the Marvel style. Beginning with Captain Marvel #25 (March 1973), Starlin led the Kree warrior’s adventures into a more imaginative direction, creating a spectacular star-spanning saga.

The success of Captain Marvel rested in great part on Starlin’s vision, which was strongly influenced by a television show that he was introduced to by complete chance. One Saturday night, Starlin was spending time with some of his industry friends, among them Steve Englehart and artist Steve Harper. As the group was about to leave for dinner, Harper announced that he wanted to stay behind to watch a brand new television show, Kung Fu, then on its second episode. The group stayed with Harper and watched the show, and Englehart and Starlin, in particular, fell in love with it (Cooke 6). As Starlin states, “It was about this martial artist in the old West being enlightened through discipline and training. I decided I wanted to do something like that on a space level. That’s basically where Captain Marvel started going; it was about to be cancelled, so they said, ‘do what you want with it.’ And we saved it; I was surprised” (Cooke 63).

from Superman and Batman comics. By the time he began serving in the Navy in the late 1960s, Starlin was producing comic stories for fanzines like Star Studded Comics as well as his own Doctor Weird. His art style was deeply influenced by four main favorites: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Kubert and Carmine Infantino.

After his military discharge in 1972, Starlin came to New York to try to break into the comic book industry. He was hired onto Marvel’s staff as an assistant art director, designing covers for $10 per page. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Stan Lee to decide that the young artist just wasn’t very good at his job (an assessment that Starlin didn’t disagree with). Stan Lee rejected most of Starlin’s cover designs because they weren’t dynamic enough. In short order, then, the artist was fired, but even with his minimal experience Starlin secured a two-issue assignment on Iron Man #55-56 (Feb.-March 1973) which Lee also reportedly hated (Cooke 19). Then, a fortuitous vacancy came up on the Captain Marvel comic. It was close to cancellation, so Roy Thomas assigned Starlin to the strip, along with writer Mike Friedrich (Cooke 62-3).

That Kung Fu template was juxtaposed into space, as a grand opera orbited around the plans that the evil Titan Thanos had to destroy the Universe to appease the love of his life: Death. Captain Marvel was dragged into the battle alongside the Avengers, the Fantastic Four’s Thing, the Titans Eros (later Starfox) and Mentor, the mysterious Drax the Destroyer, and a number of other characters in a story that spanned space and reality, sometimes moving beyond the tangible world to the deep place of “cosmic awareness,” in which the hero could perceive events happening across the galaxy. Among the strangest creatures in this bizarre celestial pantheon was the cosmic being known as Eon – He Who Waits, who lives outside of space and time and pushes Captain Marvel into becoming a warrior capable of deep emotional and spiritual peace, even as he fights the evil of Thanos. No wonder the comic’s covers began featuring the blurb “The Most Cosmic Super-Hero of All!”

As with several of that era’s second-tier comics, Starlin and Friedrich were given the freedom to do whatever they wanted with the title. Since sales on Captain Marvel were terrible, there was nothing to lose by giving the neophyte cartoonist free reign to reinvent the moribund title. Before 98

In Shang-Chi’s first storyline, his father sends him on a mission to assassinate Dr. Petrie as a way of helping maintain the common good in the world (or at least, that’s how Fu Manchu describes it). But after Shang successfully kills Petrie, he is confronted by Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Fu’s adversary from the early Fu Manchu pulp novels and a member of British Intelligence. Smith convinces Shang that his father is evil. Traveling back to his father’s lair, Shang confronts and renounces him. Henceforth, Shang will oppose Fu Manchu, and henceforth, Fu will work to defeat Shang.

This heady attitude was specific to Starlin’s generation.

He—like other creators who rose to the professional ranks in the early 1970s—enjoyed drug use, and in many ways, reading a Jim Starlin comic book was akin to dropping LSD or smoking marijuana and experiencing the psychedelic insights that go along with those drugs. Numerous fans of the era not only grasped but also revered that sort of hallucinogenic storytelling. Stan Lee’s generation could never have executed a story in the same way that the newer generation could. Two years after Green Lantern and Amazing Spider-Man preached about the evils of drug use, Captain Marvel essentially encouraged its readers to get high on its stories.

“Master of Kung Fu” was an immediate hit, quickly spinning out into its own series and going monthly with Master of Kung Fu #19 (Aug. 1974) (the comic continued its numbering from Special Marvel Edition). Shang-Chi’s adventures kicked off a mini-line of martial arts comics that would become a major part of the Marvel Comics Group in 1974, coinciding with a nationwide fad for kung fu adventure. Ironically, the first monthly issue of Master of Kung Fu was Englehart’s final issue. Starlin was only able to draw the initial three chapters before his busy schedule forced him away from the book he co-created. Doug Moench, another fan-turned-pro, took over the writing chores, which he wouldn’t relinquish until a few issues before the series ended in 1983.

Though Starlin acknowledged his debts to Jack Kirby for some of the ideas that he developed, the Thanos saga’s weird cosmology arguably owes more to the work of Steve Ditko. Just as Ditko’s Doctor Strange fought bizarre cosmic battles against unimaginable villains outside the view of most people, so too did the new Captain Marvel. The surreal execution of Captain Marvel, though, was all Starlin.

By his second issue on the series, Starlin was coloring his own stories and getting official credit as a plotter. By Captain Marvel #29 (Nov. 1973), he also received full credit as the writer. That was an arrangement that suited Roy Thomas just fine: “At this point, CM was going to rise or fall on Jim’s vision. Except to keep an eye on the book to reign Jim in if he was going too far, or doing something that would get us in trouble with the Comics Code, I mostly became a fan and admirer” (Thomas vi). For the first time since Jack Kirby left the company, a creator was both writing and drawing his own stories for Marvel, another sign of the company’s openness to new talent.

The Rising and Advancing of the Spirit Along with Captain Marvel, Starlin directed his admiration for Kung Fu into another creative outlet. With Steve Englehart, Starlin proposed to Thomas that Marvel publish a Kung Fu-inspired comic book. (Marvel couldn’t adapt the actual television show because they were unable to acquire the rights to it.) Roy Thomas was no fan of Kung Fu (Englehart remembers Thomas calling the show “pretentious nonsense”), but he was willing to let the creators have a go at it. Thomas even added an additional element to the story: the series would include Fu Manchu, a criminal mastermind from Sax Rohmer’s early 20th century novels, a villain for whom Marvel had acquired the license (Cooke 6).

With that, Special Marvel Edition #15 (Dec. 1973) introduced Shang-Chi as the “Master of Kung Fu,” the rebellious half-white son of Fu Manchu. Though slightly bothered by the traditionally racist portrayal of Fu (born from the 1930s “Yellow Peril”), Englehart was fascinated by the villain’s potential complexity, as a man who was not so much as evil but willing to do anything to achieve his goals for improving the world as he saw it. As such, Englehart saw a chance to explore a villain who was not completely malicious, and a hero who was torn between Eastern and Western philosophies. If “Master of Kung Fu” had a theme, it was the rising and advancing of its protagonist’s spirit – which is how the name Shang-Chi can be translated into English.

Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart chronicled the rising and advancing of the spirit of Shang-Chi, son of the evil Fu Manchu. Shang-Chi TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu TM and © The Estate of Sax Rohmer.

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The Ever-lovin’ Blue-eyed Lead The prolific Starlin also had his hand in the launch of another long-running series. Beginning with Marvel Feature #11 (Sept. 1973), he joined with writer Len Wein to create a comic for one of Marvel’s most popular heroes who didn’t have his own title: the Fantastic Four’s ever-lovin’, blueeyed Thing. This new comic was intended to be similar to Spider-Man’s adventures in Marvel Team-Up, where each issue depicts the featured star joining forces with popular and obscure characters from all corners of the Marvel universe. Pulling out all the stops to launch the series in a classical Marvel manner, Wein and Starlin engineered a no-holds-barred Thing/Hulk battle in the premiere issue, setting the story in a New Mexico ghost town where the two heroes could tear up the landscape and create massive destruction without killing anybody.

Somewhat inevitably, Marvel Feature #12 (Nov. 1973) crossed-over from Starlin’s sprawling “Thanos” saga that was then playing out in Captain Marvel. Written by Friedrich and illustrated by Starlin, the tale has the Thing battling Thanos’s henchmen, the Blood Brothers, who were under orders from Thanos to kill Iron Man, who defeated him earlier that year.

The Thing team-ups in Marvel Feature began with a no-holds-barred battle between the Thing and the Hulk. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Singing About a New Heroine

while also displaying a more feminine side. He also hoped she could expand Marvel’s sword-and-sorcery genre by spinning out into her own series (Thomas). As written by Thomas and illustrated by Smith in their final collaboration together for the color Conan series, Sonja is a self-directed and resolute individual. She was, therefore, a much better representation of the women’s movement than the more tepid creations of Marvel’s “girl’s line” from the previous year.

In 1972 Marvel presented a line of all-new series that featured female protagonists. Despite best intentions, none of those series caught on. It was a real surprise, then, that a year later Marvel finally introduced a female hero that captured readers’ imaginations. In Conan the Barbarian #23 (Feb. 1973) Roy Thomas and Barry Smith presented Red Sonja. Loosely based on the Robert E. Howard character Red Sonya of Rogatino (from the short story “The Shadow of the Vulture”), this new creation was a fierce warrior who proved to be Conan’s match in every possible way.

In her first scene, Sonja wields her sword against guards who are trying to keep her inside their castle walls. She screams oaths worthy of Conan himself, and her red tresses gleam in the evening light with only her long-sleeved

Indeed, Thomas developed Sonja specifically as someone who could comfortably battle alongside the barbarian

Red Sonja was designed specifically as someone who could comfortably battle alongside Conan while also displaying a more feminine side.

Conan TM and © CPI. Red Sonja TM and © Red Sonja LLC.

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Rich Buckler drew an origin story that reads like a B-movie plot. After a ten-month hiatus, the Mummy returned in Thrillers #7 (June 1974) and completed an eleven-issue run in that comic, mainly drawn by Val Mayerik and written by Tony Isabella.

chain mail T-shirt protecting her. The two-part tale, which concluded with the epic “Song of Red Sonja,” was an ambitious introduction to one of comics’ most memorable female warriors, a woman who was more ready for combat than for romance. As Conan #24 wraps up, Sonja tells her male counterpart that he has met a woman who is finally his equal, “No man’s lips will touch mine, Cimmerian, save those of him who has defeated me in battle – and that, even you shall never do.” She then kicks Conan in the gut, grabs a jeweled tiara from him and rides off into the sunset. The ending showed what made this warriorwoman so popular: she was brash, bold… and subservient to no one.

Greeted with tremendous reader enthusiasm, Red Sonja would quickly reappear, not only in future issues of Conan, but also in the pages of The Savage Sword of Conan and Kull and the Barbarians before receiving her own solo series in 1975. “The Song of Red Sonja” also won the Shazam Award for Best Individual Story among comics published in 1973.

This Man, This Monster!

While Marvel’s core super-hero and sword-and-sorcery titles delivered action, adventure and turbulence in 1973, its monster titles continued to push the company into fresh, new directions.

The first new title, Frankenstein (first issue cover dated Jan. 1973), brought the classic monster back to comics pages as writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog debuted the series with a loose adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel. The team of Friedrich and Ploog began the Ghost Rider series in 1972 to great success (the motorcycle-riding demon would win his own title beginning with a Sept. 1973 cover date), but former high school English teacher Roy Thomas had hoped to write the Frankenstein comic himself before reluctantly turning to Friedrich due to scheduling problems. Ploog used an illustration by Art Director John Romita as the basis for his depiction of the Monster. There was a conscious decision in the Marvel office to create a version of Frankenstein’s Monster that was markedly different from the

Marvel’s monster line expanded to Frankenstein.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

classic Universal Pictures version. To that end, Ploog’s gave the monster an elastic and empathetic face in order to create a sharp deviation from Boris Karloff’s iconic visage.

The reworking of Shelley’s Frankenstein novel ran in the first four issues, a task that both creators enjoyed.

Friedrich adopted a text-heavy style that echoed the original novel’s timbre and tone. As he notes, “I hadn’t seen what I thought to be a truly faithful adaptation of the novel, so I thought I would take a crack at it.”

Ploog loved being able to draw from Shelley’s classic book since her terseness gave him quite a bit of creative space: “There was plenty of room in the short story to expand on visually.

A lot was left to the reader’s imagination, which was great as far as I was concerned” (Browning 12). After the adaptation was complete, the pair created new stories of the Monster, in which he confronted werewolves and Dracula, all the while searching fruitlessly for his own humanity during the 1800s.

Marvel also began publishing other lead characters based on classic horror motifs. The Living Mummy was born in Supernatural Thrillers #5 (Aug. 1973), the story of African tribal prince N’Kantu, who revives in the 1970s to seek vengeance on the descendants of those who originally killed him. Steve Gerber wrote and 101

The modern-day Dracula met one of his most tenacious enemies in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as Blade the Vampire Hunter made his first appearance. Unique in a number of ways, Blade was a hot-tempered lone wolf who fought with a desperation verging on the pathological. He was also the human product of an attack by a vampire upon a woman in labor. The vampiric enzymes mixed in his blood, giving him supernatural strength, a prolonged lifespan and immunity from vampire attacks.

However, he did not turn into a vampire himself.

Unusually, Blade dressed in normal clothes. Writer Marv Wolfman believed it more interesting for his complex hero to wear clothing appropriate for his battles rather than super-heroic type garb. As with Luke Cage, Blade rode a bit of the contemporary “Blaxploitation,” influenced in part by the hit 1972 film Blacula. In fact, the company had negotiated unsuccessfully to adapt Blacula.

Already presenting series featuring werewolves, vampires and mum-

The Living Mummy ran for eleven issues of Supernatural Thrillers. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

mies, Marvel took aim at another popular horror concept: zombies. Len Wein and Gene Colan premiered “Brother Voodoo” in Strange Tales #169 (Sept. 1973), from a notion

by Thomas, who suggested the name “Dr. Voodoo” to Lee as a new character’s name. Lee requested the name be changed to Brother Voodoo. Premiering a month before the magazine-sized Tales of the Zombie, Wein and Colan’s moody story features psychologist Jericho Drumm, who returns to his native Haiti to be reunited with the spirit of his dead brother and becomes transformed into the Lord Loa to seek revenge on Damballah the serpent god. Despite its reforms, the Comics Code still forbade the word “zombie” from appearing in Code-approved comics. Because of that, the creators used the euphemism “zuvembie,” which Thomas borrowed from the Robert E. Howard story “Pigeons from Hell.” Though the artwork by Colan, Dan Adkins, Frank Giacoia and Dick Giordano was attractive, the series only lasted five issues.

Even a giant monster briefly starred in its own Marvel series, as “It! The Living Colossus” was scribed by Tony Isabella and drawn by Dick Ayers for a quick four-issue run starting with Astonishing Tales #21 (Dec. 1973). “It!” came about because Thomas loved the idea of a comic called “It” and because an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s short story “It” sold well in the pages of Supernatural Thrillers #1 (Dec. 1972) (Millsted 69).

Blade was a popular supporting character in Tomb of Dracula.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

vel made sure to take advantage of that allowance. With its twelfth issue (Oct. 1973), Marvel Spotlight—the same comic that spawned Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider— introduced Marvel’s oddest supernatural super-hero: the Son of Satan.

The Mark of Satan

As with many Marvel series, “Son of Satan” began with an idea from Stan Lee. Noticing the modest success of Tomb of Dracula, Lee asked Thomas to engineer a new series called “The Mark of Satan” in which the hero/villain would be the devil himself — not a standard Marvel substitute like the old Silver Surfer enemy Mephisto but the actual devil from Judeo-Christian religion. Thomas didn’t like the idea of the devil as the protagonist of an ongoing Marvel series because of fears of a backlash from religious readers (Cooke 20). He instead persuaded Lee to change the title to “Son of Satan”—coincidentally, the same name of a fan character created by Thomas’s close friend Biljo White—and that led to a new supernatural series, with writing by Gary Friedrich and art by Herb Trimpe. According to Trimpe, Friedrich did most of the design work: “That was totally engineered by Gary. He talked to me about it” (Aushenker 8-9).

Amazingly, no members of Marvel’s staff expressed reservations about the title of the series – an indication of both the loosening of the Comics Code and also, perhaps, the era’s changing values.

While the Comics Code forbade the use of the word zombie, it did allow depictions of the devil. In the early 1970s, Mar-

Though his first solo appearance occurred in Marvel Spotlight, Daimon Hellstrom’s story begins with a crossover from Ghost Rider #2 (Oct. 1973) where the strange man visits an Apache reservation to perform an exorcism on a Native American woman. As evening falls, the hero transforms into a dark creature with a giant Satanic star tattooed on his bare chest, wearing a flashy red and yellow costume that seemed to shine with evil fire. As the story makes clear, Daimon Hellstrom was the actual son of the devil, born from the devil-worshipper Victoria Wingate.

While his sister Satana embraced her hellspawn lineage, Daimon rejected it. As an adult, Daimon became a professor of anthropology, setting up shop as an occult investi-

“Brother Voodoo” was a short-lived series that explored Jamaican voodoo.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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usually delivered in humorous or bizarre ways. His “Man-Thing” stories, for instance, were a heady mix of teen mystics, naïve aliens and angry construction workers (who were employed by the cleverly named F.A. Schist). Meanwhile, his Daredevil run was an odd portrait of the times: Daredevil #100 (June 1973) includes a guest appearance by Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine – one of the newsstand’s most popular magazines. Other storylines featured Daredevil and his paramour the Black Widow fighting the hippie villain Angar the Screamer and thwarting a plan by the mind-controlling Mandrill and his barely-clad assistant Nekra to raise a cult of black women to overthrow America.

The Son of Satan literally was the son of Satan, doing good deeds to stop his father’s evil plans. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

gator/exorcist, and striving to destroy his inner demons by destroying the demons that lived in others.

Gerber’s unconventional storytelling methods became emblematic of his era. Born in St. Louis, he was an active letter writer and editor as well as a longtime friend of Roy Thomas. He

The character boasted strong visuals, with Hellstrom riding a flaming chariot and fighting terrible demons, but maybe because of the title of his series, the Son of Satan never quite caught on as a protagonist. Artists Trimpe, Gene Colan and Bob McLeod never felt a deep connection to the series, and Friedrich left the book shortly after its debut. Despite some spooky issues written by Steve Gerber, “Son of Satan” ran to Marvel Spotlight #24 (Oct. 1975) before spinning out to a short, eight-issue run.

Marvel’s Craziest Writer Writing “Son of Satan” suited Steve Gerber perfectly as he was one of Marvel’s most eccentric—and most prolific—writers. In 1973, the indefatigable Gerber contributed to several Marvel Comics titles, including Daredevil, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, the “Zombie” feature in Tales of the Zombie, “ManThing” stories in Fear, and pieces for Crazy and Vampire Tales, among others. Through his stories, Gerber often shared his neuroses about New York City, violence and life in general,

to bring his pal to Marvel as an Associate Editor. Though Gerber had trouble staying awake on his day job due to narcolepsy, he rapidly found himself with enough writing assignments to earn decent money as a freelancer.

Writing was his real passion anyway.

As his frequent artistic collaborator Val Mayerik recalls, “Steve was very ambitious, and not in the sense of wanting money or power, but he had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do with comics. He was very committed, and he didn’t want anything to stand in his way. He really wanted to write the stuff he wanted to write” (Johnson 16).

In fact, Gerber pushed the envelope as much as any writer of his era, engaging such topics as women’s rights, environmentalism, and existential doubt in a unique style that combined Stan Lee’s glibness with an element of angst that seemed an ideal reflection of the stress of the era. Steve Gerber respected the Marvel heroes and attitude, but he was too smart and too devoted to his own approach to the world to compromise his unique and personal attitude.

Such an attitude was welcomed at Marvel, and as the succeeding years proved, Gerber thrived in that setting.

Crazy About the Monsters One of Gerber’s favorite assignments was writing for Crazy, part of a line of humor and horror magazines that Marvel launched to contend with Warren Publications, Mad (which was selling two million copies per month) and its competitors.

Steve Gerber suffered from narcolepsy but was one of Marvel’s most prolific writers in the 1970s.

published a number of fanzines in the ’60s, including one called Crudzine.

After college, Gerber landed a job at a St. Louis advertising agency but found the work so unsatisfying that in 1972 he wrote a letter to Thomas declaring that his advertising work was driving him crazy. Thomas quickly replied, directing his longtime friend to script six pages of a Daredevil car chase story. It was a test that enabled Thomas 103

Martin Goodman, Marvel’s former Publisher, had been discouraged by the poor distribution and low sales of three earlier Marvel magazines: Spectacular Spider-Man #1 and #2 (July and Nov. 1968) and Savage Tales #1 (May 1971).

But by 1973, Marvel had new owners, Cadence Industries. With Goodman out of the picture—and with Skywald, Warren and the frequently schlocky Eerie Publications all profitable—Lee felt the time was ripe for Marvel to encroach onto the comic magazine marketplace.

Marvel’s magazine line competed with other popular comic magazines such as the Warren Magazines and Mad. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The first to appear was Monster Madness, a collection of images from classic horror films combined with Stan Lee’s style of silly jokes (like the Bride of Frankenstein declaring, “Only my hairdresser knows for sure” or Frankenstein asking, “Hey man, any good head shops in this town?”). Monster Madness was cheap to produce and sold for 60¢ per copy. It ran three issues between October 1972 and April 1973.

Then, in a three-day period, Lee came up with the titles and concepts for Marvel’s next four magazines. On the first day, Lee created Dracula Lives. On the second, he formulated Monsters Unleashed and Vampire Tales. On the third, he fashioned the final new title, Tales of the Zombie. Lee then turned them all over to Thomas to produce.

Dracula Lives! #1 (May 1973) featured a bizarre painting by Boris Vallejo of a Dracula whose face was modeled on Hammer Films star Peter Cushing atop a bat’s body with a cobra, caveman, female vampire, skull and demons in the foreground. Inside, the first issue presented a mix of old and new stories. The new material comprised 35 pages of story and art, including the reunion of the original Tomb of Dracula team of Gerry Conway and Gene Colan on “Dracula 1973” (with inks by Tom Palmer) along with new stories by Thomas, Dick Giordano and Alan Weiss and

Gerber, Rich Buckler and Pablo Marcos. The rest of the issue was filled out with reprints. In Dracula Lives! #5 (March 1974), Thomas and Giordano began a faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula.

Similarly, Monsters Unleashed included a mix of new stories and reprints, including an adaptation of a Robert Bloch short story by Conway and Marcos and an adaptation of a Robert E. Howard Solomon Kane story by Thomas and Ralph Reese.

comic story that had appeared twenty years previously. Menace #5 (cover dated July 1953) presented a sevenpage story by Stan Lee and Bill Everett called “Zombie” that featured an introspective member of the walking dead named Simon Garth. Tales of the Zombie #1 reprints that story and then offers a new Garth story as a sequel, written by Gerber and Thomas and drawn by John Buscema and Tom Palmer. Thomas dictated to Gerber that the story and Garth’s like-

Two other titles joined the line with August 1973 cover dates. Vampire Tales was a companion to Dracula Lives!, this time featuring the adventures of Morbius, the Living Vampire (who debuted as a conflicted villain in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971) and would spin out into his own color series in 1974). The first “Morbius” story was written by Gerber with art

by Marcos. Don McGregor succeeded Gerber on the writing chores with issue #2. Along with a collection of reprints, Vampire Tales #1 also included an adaptation by Thomas, Ron Goulart and Winslow Mortimer of John Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” a classic novel that was born out of the same night that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.

Marvel’s second new magazine that month was even more unusual because it took its inspiration from a 104

Spider-Man supporting character Morbius starred in the magazine-sized Vampire Tales.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ness should be used as the basis of that new protagonist. That Zombie— different from the characters in the “Brother Voodoo” series—would continue as the magazine’s lead feature until issue #9, with writing by Gerber and later by Tony Isabella.

The October 1973 cover date brought the revival of Savage Tales after that title had been off the stands for over a year, during which all the stories that had been planned for the first version of Savage Tales #2 appeared in other comics. The return issue prominently headlined Conan atop a lurid painted cover by John Buscema. Inside, readers were treated to perhaps the finest Roy Thomas/Barry Smith Conan adaptation to that point. The 21-page “Red Nails” included some of Smith’s lushest art and most detailed presentation. As writer Alan Zelenetz comments in a reprinted edition of the story, “Final judgment of the quality of Barry Windsor-Smith’s work as a comic artist rests not on the fastidious presentation of his line, the majestic sweep of his landscapes, or the subtlety of his figures’ gestures, but on his storytelling ability.” Zelenetz went on to praise the “breathless visions” of Smith’s artwork (Zelenetz).

Also appearing with an October 1973 cover date was the first issue of the magazine Steve Gerber loved contributing to: Crazy. If readers had any

Haunt of Horror was a digest-sized fiction magazine.

Savage Tales was brought back from limbo when Marvel expanded into magazines, and featured the classic “Red Nails” in issues #2 and #3 Conan TM and © CPI.

doubt about Crazy’s intent, its first issue’s cover dispelled them. Kelly Freas painted a pointed comment about Marvel’s dreams for its first major foray into humor, as Crazy’s mascot, the Nebbish, prepared to blow up the logos for the magazines with which Crazy was competing: Mad, National Lampoon, Sick and Cracked. With Marv Wolfman as de facto editor, the first issue of Marvel’s new humor mag delivered parodies of Kung Fu and the popular movie The Poseidon Adventure. The back cover was provided by underground sensation Vaughn Bodé of his Junkwaffel series. Contributing short comedy pieces were not only members of the Marvel bullpen but also such well-known writers as Jean Shepard and Harlan Ellison. Future issues would feature reprints of classic strips by Mad’s creator, Harvey Kurtzman, as well as material by humorists like Art Buchwald.

Steve Gerber was a major creator for Crazy with such satirical pieces as “Rock ‘n’ Rollin’ Stone” (Crazy #3, Mar. 1973). A parody of the popular film Billy Jack (Crazy #5, July 1973) prompted Wolfman to declare, “Steve always had an off-kilter sense of humor that I thought translated perfectly for what I wanted to see in Crazy” (Arnold 52). Gerber wrote some two dozen features for Crazy, and briefly

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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held the editor’s role from issue #11 (June 1975) through #14 (Nov. 1975).

The final new magazine Marvel launched in 1973 was unusual in a different way. Assembled by Gerry Conway, The Haunt of Horror was a digest-sized anthology which featured prose fiction interspersed with illustrations. It sat comfortably next to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine on the nation’s newsstands. Haunt of Horror #1 (June 1973) included a representation of “Conjure Wife” by Fritz Leiber (with accompanying illustrations by John Romita and Gene Colan) as well as stories by Harlan Ellison (illustrated by Walt Simonson), George Alec Effinger, Denny O’Neil, Ramsey Campbell and Conway. The second issue featured material by O’Neil, Arthur Byron Cover, Ron Goulart, Anne McCaffrey and Conway. Though a third issue was advertised, it never appeared.

McGregor’s Rage In 1972, a brand new African American character, Luke Cage, was granted his own title: Hero for Hire. A year later, Marvel made another black character the star of his own series. It occurred in the pages of Jungle Action, which up to that point had been reprinting white jungle warrior stories from the 1940s and ’50s, like “Lorna of the Jun-

gle.” Thomas decided to replace those reprints with new tales starring the Black Panther, then a member of the Avengers. Jungle Action #5 (July 1973) reprints the Panther’s first solo story from Avengers #62 (March 1969). Jungle Action #6 then begins an all-new saga called “Panther’s Rage”, written

by Don McGregor with art by Rich Buckler. By the time it finished, “Panther’s Rage” became Marvel’s longest self-contained narrative, earning McGregor a well-deserved reputation for long-form plotting and thoughtful characterization.

Running from Jungle Action #6 (Sept.

1973) to issue #18 (Nov. 1975), “Panther’s Rage” is a 209-page epic that takes place in Wakanda, an African nation ravaged by a revolution against its king, T’Challa, the Black Panther.

McGregor’s passionate writing style fueled an ambitious tale of rebellion and romance, friendship and fear, with characters exploring the depths of their emotions. Throughout the epic, the Panther also battles the natural beasts of the jungle, such as a rhino (in JA #9, illustrated by Gil Kane) and the awesome white gorillas of Wakanda (in JA #13, illustrated

by Billy Graham and frequent McGregor collaborator Craig Russell), providing a primal travelogue for the jungle king.

“The Black Panther” in Jungle Action told the story of a revolution in the Panther’s native African country of Wakanda. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In 1973, McGregor also assumed the helm of another series, one which had gone through considerable turbulence after its conception. In 1971, Stan Lee approached Roy Thomas with the request that he propose some new series for Marvel’s expanded lineup.

Lee accepted many of Thomas’s suggestions, including a sequel, of sorts, to H.G. Wells’s classic alien invasion novel, The War of the Worlds. Marvel’s continuation of the novel would have the Martians returning to Earth in the 21st century with a newly engineered

Killraven led a band of brave rebels in “War of the Worlds.” TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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immunity to human viruses. In the starring role Thomas created a young warrior who escapes from the Martian slave pens before acting to free his fellow human beings and restore a destroyed planet.

The series proposal sat on the shelf for a time before Thomas was able to move ahead with it. Considering Neal Adams to be his ideal collaborator for “War of the Worlds,” Thomas called up the artist one day and described the general concept. He asked Adams to meet him in a few days to flesh out ideas. Adams, though, proved so excited by Thomas’s pitch that the very next day he arrived at Marvel’s office with a proposed plotline and lead character designs. Adams called the protagonist “The Junkman,” based on the hero’s penchant for converting discarded scrap into weapons to be used against the Martians.

Thomas accepted Adams’s “Junkman” concept, but at the same time he felt some of the artist’s other ideas just didn’t dovetail with his own vision for the series, which was greatly influenced by the “Man on Putney Hill” chapter in The War of the Worlds novel. That chapter featured an artilleryman who envisioned what life on Earth would be like under Martian rule. Thomas planned on using the artilleryman’s speculations—which included humans living in subways and drains—as the principal basis for Marvel’s “War of the Worlds” series.

tained a strong sense of stability. Most of DC’s core titles showcased fixed creative teams. For instance, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Elliot S. Maggin and Cary Bates produced the whole year’s run on Action Comics; Jack Kirby worked on Kamandi and Demon; Joe Kubert produced Tarzan and the “Sgt. Rock” stories in Our Army At War; Bob Haney and Jim Aparo collaborated on The Brave and the Bold; and the usual mix of tyros and veterans wrote and drew the war, “mystery” and love comics. This creative stability seemed to fit both creators and readers’ interests well. Average sales on such core titles as Batman, Justice League of America, Flash, G.I. Combat and Superboy went up slightly in 1973, and only one DC title saw a major plunge in sales: Adventure Comics, whose Supergirl feature had been replaced with tales of the obscure Black Orchid and generic fantasy stories. Truth be told, though, no DC series was selling as well as it had in 1971.

Thomas also wanted to infuse aspects of the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired “Lost World” series from Planet Comics of the 1940s and early 1950s, in which a hero called Hunt Bowman commanded his fellow humans in guerilla warfare against conquering aliens. “War of the Worlds” then, from Thomas’s undeviating point of view, would be an intriguing blend of different genres: part H.G. Wells and part Edgar Rice Burroughs (Thomas 10).

The two creators began to develop their series… and then Thomas’s workload as editor-in-chief became too burdensome for him to carry on. He was forced to tap Gerry Conway to finish the first issue’s script, and it was Conway who ultimately gave “The Junkman” a more vivid name: Killraven. With Thomas removed, Adams lost his incentive to continue with the project (Schumer 32-33).

Having completed the first eleven pages, he passed the artistic baton to his protégé Howard Chaykin. As a result, the unwieldy group of Thomas, Conway, Adams and Chaykin produced the (somewhat muddled) introduction to the “War of the Worlds” feature in Amazing Adventures #18 (May 1973).

Two of DC’s major new titles of 1973 featured characters that were well-known to many readers, despite the fact that neither had appeared in comics form for quite a few years.

With One Magic Word!

Conway and Chaykin continued on the In the early 1970s, fandom was abuzz strip for one more issue before Marv with the news that a fan-favorite charWolfman and Herb Trimpe arrived acter would be returning to print for the with issue #20. Since Wolfman was first time in about twenty years: DC restoo busy editing Marvel’s burgeoning cued Captain Marvel and the Marvel magazine line, Amazing Adventures Family from limbo. was subsequently handed off to Originally published by Fawcett in McGregor with issue #21. At a staff the 1940s and early 1950s, Captain meeting, Wolfman tried to tell the Marvel was the bestselling hero in new writer what he had intended comics. In 1944, his eponymous for the series, but McGregor wasn’t series averaged monthly sales of interested. As far as he was con1.3 million copies. However, the cerned, “War of the Worlds” was “World’s Mightiest Mortal” was now his, and he would decide also nagged by a longstanding where to go with it. “I don’t think lawsuit by National Comics (i.e. that went over too big,” McGregor DC Comics) for copyright inremembers. “I think [Wolfman] fringement, as National’s lawthought, and maybe others yers claimed that Captain Marvel thought as well, that I thought was too similar to their SuperI was better as a writer. I didn’t P. Craig Russell’s baroque art was a standout of “War of the Worlds.” man. After many years of legal TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. even consider what other writwrangling, and in reaction to ers were doing. I didn’t care. That declining sales and ongoing legal fees, Fawcett stopped was their business, not mine” (Sacks). McGregor was soon publishing Captain Marvel stories in the United States in joined by Craig Russell on art chores, and the pair delivered late 1953 (though characters derived from him continued a unique science fiction adventure far from Thomas and to be printed in Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom).

Adams’s initial conception of it.

Fawcett stayed in the publishing business with a wide and McGregor had one goal in mind for both Jungle Action and diverse line of magazines that included Family Circle, ModAmazing Adventures: “All I wanted to do was take my two ern Mechanix and Cavalier but the only comics Fawcett little books and find stories I felt were worth the writing” continued to publish in 1973 starred Dennis the Menace.

(Sacks). Like many of Marvel’s other writers, Don McGregor By 1972, the pressure from fans to revive Captain Marenjoyed practically unfettered creative freedom to help vel had reached a thunderous cacophony. Fandom united him do just that. around the collective wish to see the World’s Mightiest Mortal return to the comics pages despite the fact that he DC’s Status Quo of 1973 hadn’t been on the stands in nearly twenty years. PopuThough DC didn’t provide its writers with the same kind of lar fan artists like Don Newton and Bill Black drew him on creative freedom that Marvel offered, the company mainfanzine covers, and articles about the character abounded.

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Beck was a surprising choice since he rarely worked in comics since the end of Captain Marvel’s original series, only drawing 1967’s three-issue Fatman the Human Flying Saucer for Milson Publishing (a.k.a. Lightning Comics) in the interim. Beck reflected on how he received DC’s assignment: I got a call from Superman’s publisher. They were reviving Captain Marvel in a new comic book… and wanted me to submit samples of my artwork in competition with some other artists whom they were considering.… In response I simply sent Carmine Infantino a drawing of Captain Marvel as Rip Van Winkle with a long white beard, a rusted musket and a look of wonder on his face. The DC people all loved the drawing. They responded by sending me a couple of poorly written scripts. I drew them up; they loved them. (Beck 66) Marvel’s own Captain Marvel comic prevented DC from releasing a series of the same name. For a fee, though, Marvel permitted DC to display Captain Marvel’s name on the cover. Schwartz elected to title the new comic Shazam!. The first issue (dated Feb. 1973) displays the wordy cover blurb, “With One Magic Word… Shazam! The Original Captain Marvel” as well as a symbolic image: Superman—drawn

by Nick Cardy and with a face drawn by Murphy Anderson—pulling back a blue curtain to reveal Billy Batson shouting his magic word and transforming into Captain Marvel.

The cover was emblematic of several aspects of the new series, most notably that it was out of step for the times.

Though written by Denny O’Neil, who was famous for his “relevant” Green Lantern and Justice League of America comics, the first issue included an odd trio of tales: a new depiction of Marvel’s origin, a silly new trifle of a story, and a reprint of a story from 1946. The next several issues followed a similar pattern: each issue featured three stories, including a reprint from the Golden Age, with the new stories all illustrated by C.C. Beck in a style that was simpler than what DC or Marvel Comics featured—possibly because Beck didn’t have the assistants who had worked with him during the 1940s and 1950s (Eury 5). Beck also revised O’Neil’s scripts without getting his editor’s approval, in one instance changing the way that Captain Marvel dealt with a circus stampede in order to keep the hero in accordance with Beck’s understanding of him (Smith).

Superman himself welcomed Captain Marvel to DC Comics on the cover to Shazam! #1. TM and © DC Comics.

That continual drumbeat for Captain Marvel helped push DC to revive him. Looking to add a new icon to its line with a built-in fan following, DC reached an agreement with Fawcett to license the rights to publish new Marvel Family comics. (Many commentators appreciated the irony that the same company that sued Captain Marvel out of publishing existence was now bringing him back to bolster sales of its line.)

Editor Julius Schwartz was assigned to the title, in part because he was seen as DC’s resident expert at reviving moribund properties (Eury 4).

Schwartz considered artists such as Kurt Schaffenberger, Bob Oksner and Murphy Anderson for the title before choosing an artist who was associated with Captain Marvel during his Golden Age: C.C. Beck.

Responding to fan clamor, Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family returned in 1973. TM and © DC Comics.

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Shazam! sold well initially, but before long sales dropped precipitously. The premiere issue may actually have sold even better than DC realized, as thousands of copies were sold by distributors to the nascent Direct Market rather

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?

than to newsstands – sales that were not reflected in the bottom line reports that the distributors sent to DC. As writer Mark Waid recalls, “It was one of the first speculator books. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow stuff, I think, had run into problems with speculators where they were buying extra copies off the stands to create weird sales reports.

But Shazam! #1 was one of the first, if I recall, where retailers and fans were buying up copies” (Smith). Even Warren Publications tried to get in on the Captain Marvel miniboom, including a cover story on his old movie serials in Famous Monsters of Film Land #101 (Sept. 1973).

In the early 1970s both Marvel and DC vied to revive The Shadow. For several months, Marvel was rumored to be working to acquire the license to the former popular radio and pulp magazine hero. If obtained, Marvel would have abandoned the character’s pulp roots and re-oriented him as a super-hero. The Shadow would have been linked to Marvel’s version of another pulp hero, Doc Savage.

In the end, though, DC acquired the rights to the Shadow and began promoting the project to the fan press. Early publicity had Jim Steranko attached as the series’ artist, a logical choice considering he had been drawing the covers for the paperbacks that reprinted Shadow pulps. The artist even drew a presentation piece. Steranko, however, didn’t just want to draw a Shadow comic, he wanted to write it as well, essentially creating a complete package for DC as he did for Marvel with Captain America and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the late 1960s. DC, though, frowned on writer/artist set-ups (with Jack Kirby being a sole exception), so Steranko became paired with writer Denny O’Neil (Arndt, “I Feel Like…”

48). Their collaboration didn’t last long, as the pair couldn’t agree on how the comic would be managed. With that, Steranko quit the project.

Captain Marvel wasn’t the only 1940s-era super-hero that DC revived in 1973. Writer Len Wein brought back the Quality Comics super-heroes in the pages of Justice League of America #107 (Sept.-Oct. 1973). The previous year, Wein had established a tradition in the annual Justice League/ Justice Society crossover by bringing back some of DC’s time-lost heroes. In JLA #100 (Aug. 1972), Wein dusted off the Seven Soldiers of Victory (Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy, Vigilante, Shining Knight, Crimson Avenger and the Earth-2 Green Arrow and Speedy). A year later, Wein (with Dick Dillin again on art chores) incorporated Uncle Sam, Phantom Lady, The Human Bomb, Doll Man, Black Condor and the Ray into the DC Universe… but with a twist.

The Freedom Fighters, the new name for this collection of Quality Comics super-heroes, were stuck on Earth-X, a planet where the Nazis won World War II and the Freedom Fighters worked as underground heroes to liberate the planet. (Wein initially wanted to call the planet Earth-Swastika, but editor Julius Schwartz wouldn’t allow it.) With the assistance of the JLA and JSA, Hitler is defeated on yet another Earth, and the Freedom Fighters were set free from their planet.

While the Shazam! revival fell flat with fans in 1973, another received a large amount of fan acclaim.

Steranko’s departure created an opportunity for rising star Berni Wrightson. Attached to The Shadow during its developmental phase, Wrightson produced a stunning promotional sequence for the series that ran in many DC Comics. But he, too, quit the project in deference to his work on the ongoing Swamp Thing series.

The Shadow #1 had an intensely foreboding cover, colored and drawn in DC’s gray tone style, depicting a giant Shadow looming over the skyline of 1930s-era New York. TM and © Condé Nast.

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The person who would end up becoming the artist on The Shadow did so through sheer luck as much as by hard work. One day, Wrightson’s studiomate Michael Kaluta— who up to that point, had drawn a handful of “Carson of Venus” back-up stories for the Edgar Rice Burroughs line and several covers for DC’s horror com-

ics—was hanging out in DC’s coffee room with friends.

Kaluta made small talk with O’Neil, and as Kaluta recalls, “Denny said they were contemplating who would draw The Shadow. I asked, ‘Well, who would you want?’

Denny said, ‘Oh, Jim Aparo, but he’s drawing everything else.’ [Kaluta’s friend Steve] Harper started nudging me on the side, saying ‘Ask him if you could do it.’” After Kaluta offered to take on the assignment himself, O’Neil left the coffee room to talk to his editor. With a smile on his face, O’Neil shortly returned and let Kaluta know he had the job (Johnson 4-5).

in a dark and crime-ridden world, captured fans’ attention right from his premiere.

But the exacting Kaluta soon found he had trouble meeting his deadlines on the project. He had an unlimited amount of time to draw the first story, but with subsequent issues, Kaluta was faced with unyielding deadlines. He therefore recruited Wrightson to help illustrate The Shadow #3, and Wrightson, Howard Chaykin and Steve Hickman to draw issue #4. Frank Robbins stepped in to draw issue #5 in his very different, Milton Caniff-influenced style, then Kaluta wrapped up his run with “The Night of the Ninja” in The Shadow #6. According to a letter that Kaluta wrote to fan Russ Maheras, The Shadow #1 sold through at 52% of its print run, and issue #2 at 54% - the highest sell-through of any DC Comic during that time period.

However, despite its promising start, this comic would only last two years before being cancelled in 1975.

The Shadow #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1973) appeared on the stands with an intensely foreboding cover, colored and drawn in DC’s gray tone style, depicting a giant Shadow looming over the skyline and elevated trains of 1930s-era New York.

Inside, a full-length story presented a grimy portrait of New York City, plagued by crime and violence during the Great Depression. As the story proceeds, it introduces the Shadow’s henchmen and the hero himself, who is an almost supernatural force of vengeance who lives in the darkness, with a horrifying laugh and with his guns of fury always at the ready.

One month after the release of The Shadow #1, Batman #253 (Nov. 1973) featured a unique team-up. Kaluta’s cover to the issue shows a giant Shadow against a twilight sky pointing his guns at a cowering Batman. In In marked contrast to his the story—written by O’Neil somewhat awkward writing and drawn by Irv Novick and on Shazam!, O’Neil’s work on Dick Giordano—Batman The Shadow was true both travels to the tiny town of In Batman #253, Batman meets the Shadow for the first time. to the character and his setTumbleweed Crossing, AriBatman TM and © DC Comics. The Shadow TM and © Condé Nas ting – something reinforced zona, in an attempt to track by the copious research that down a ring of counterfeitboth O’Neil and Kaluta put into the series. DC bought O’Neil ers. He soon discovers he isn’t the only hero investigating several of the original Shadow radio plays on record and he the crimes. So too is a man dressed in a long black jacket, read many of the original novels. Likewise, Kaluta found swirling red scarf, and face-hiding hat. It’s the Shadow. a steady supply of packages appearing on his doorstep Together, the two heroes defeat the counterfeiters in with Shadow-related material. Because of this research, their own inimitable manners. Before the Shadow leaves the men brought a verisimilitude to their work. As Kaluta town, Batman tells him, “I’ve never told anybody this, but recalled, “Drawing the period material in The Shadow was you were my biggest inspiration. I’d be honored to shake like putting on a comfortable pair of socks” (Johnson 5). your hand.” By having one crime-fighting legend pay tribute to another, O’Neil tipped his hat to the history of the The grim, determined and unforgiving Shadow was an pulp icon. Although the story indicates that the Shadow ideal fit for the mood of the early 1970s; as opposed to the was operating in the same fictional universe that Batman naïve stories featured in Shazam!, the Shadow, who lived 110

Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams restored the Joker from his campy abyss with “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” in Batman #251. TM and © DC Comics.

inhabited, it—and a sequel in 1974’s Batman #259—became the only appearances of the Shadow in the 1970s in a title other than his own.

Another 1973 Batman story also received much attention. Batman #251 (Sept. 1973) presented the return of Batman’s greatest villain, arguably the most iconic villain in the history of comics: the Joker. The clown prince of crime had not appeared in a Batman comic since 1969 and was considered a bit of an outdated relic by many fans. But in “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge,” O’Neil and Neal Adams cast off the last vestiges of the Batman TV show. This Joker was no longer the campy villain portrayed by Cesar Romero. Instead, he was a truly fearsome and insane master criminal on a vicious quest to kill five former aides who betrayed him. The Joker delivers a series of bizarre murders: he poisons one man’s water with laughing serum, creates an exploding cigar for another, hangs another from a noose, and attempts to throw another man in a wheelchair to a hungry shark. But the Joker also evinces a grudging respect for Batman, choosing not to kill his nemesis when he has the chance because “without the game that Batman and I have played, winning is nothing. He shall live – until I can destroy him properly.”

It was a return to form for the Joker from the same team that had brought the Caped Crusader new acclaim. Batman #251 would also be O’Neil and Adams’s final collaboration together and the artist’s penultimate Batman tale of the era, as Adams refused to work for DC due to problems the company had with the theft of original art.

Original Art Gone Missing For years, the boards that artists used to draw comic book pages were considered to be as disposable as the comic books themselves. Original art would be indiscriminately destroyed or given away to fans or guests. On rainy days, Marvel staffers even laid art board on the floor for people to walk over with their wet shoes. By 111

the early 1970s, however, publishers’ lawyers began to fear that disposing (or disseminating) original art could have undesirable consequences. As DC’s Vice President/Production Manager Sol Harrison explained in 1973, “[our legal department] seemed to feel we should hold on to all our artwork. They were really frightened that if someone had the originals to a complete story they would run to South America and print it. We had copyrights to protect and the legal department felt holding the artwork was the best procedure” (Brancatelli 13).

The publishers’ retention of original art upset many comic artists for two principal reasons. First, quite a few artists felt that the work they produced legally belonged to them. Sec-

artwork would have fetched on the collectors’ market.

Marvel would frequently loan artwork to galleries for exhibitions, but this is the only documented example of when they actually sold the original artwork. (The Winnipeg Gallery later returned the art to Marvel.)

Clearly, the fight for the return of original art was coming to a head, but in the meantime, publishers simply stored the material in warehouses and offices.

Then some of that stored original art went missing, 1928 pages of DC art, according to one account. Staff members stole the pages during a company move in 1973. The pages were stacked on skids and tied down with baling wire in DC’s offices, then moved from office to office along with furniture such as desks and drawing boards. The older staffers and moving men ignored the artwork in the offices, but younger staffers, knowing the value of the original art, grabbed pages and resold them on the collectors’ market. As an anonymous collector was reported to have said, “no one but an insider could have done the job. They got a couple of hundred beautiful pages. It was a perfect set up” (Brancatelli 13).

The stolen items included: many pages drawn by Neal Adams, including ones printed in Green Lantern #84 and #86 and Batman #232 and #234; Jim Aparo artwork from Aquaman #53, Phantom Stranger #9 and #17; Jack Kirby material from Jimmy Olsen #140, and pages drawn by Michael Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Gray Morrow and others. The thief first tried to sell the artwork at August 1973’s New York Comic Book Marketplace. He sold a few pages, but numerous dealers were in San Diego that same week for that year’s Comic-Con. Therefore, he was unable to sell in New York the material that was valued at up to $60,000. Frustrated by his inability to unload the pages at their full value, the thief ended up selling all of his remaining stock to a dealer from New Jersey for a mere $5000. That dealer was careful in selling off his inventory, only hawking pages to trusted Original art from Green Lantern #84 was stolen from DC’s offices. TM and © DC Comics. buyers, but he then tried to sell pages at San Diego Comic-Con. That’s when DC learned about the theft. ond, the proliferation of fanzines and comic conventions Sol Harrison attended the convention and recognized that created a new market for original art. In other words, artthe pages for sale should never have even left DC’s offices. ists discovered they had venues through which they could He called on Warner Communications’ internal security sell their artwork. Therefore, by retaining the boards, pubdepartment to investigate, but the thief was never caught lishers were depriving their artists of a secondary source (Brancatelli 14-16). of income.

After this theft, Neal Adams stopped drawing comics for And that source of income had the potential to be quite luDC. A strong advocate for a creators’ union and an outspocrative, as evidenced by the time Marvel sold several pages ken critic of industry practices, Adams refused to work for of originals to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. That Canadian a company that didn’t value its artists as Adams believed it gallery had run a show called “The Structure of Comics” should. He would continue to provide occasional DC covers that displayed original art, proofs and color guides for six but wouldn’t draw another interior story for DC until 1977. covers (Amazing Spider-Man #116 by John Romita; Avengers #107 by Rich Buckler; Thor #207 by Gil Kane and Joe SinThat wasn’t the only theft that came to light at that nott; Daredevil #95 by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer; Iron Man year’s San Diego Comic-Con. On the Saturday morn#54 by Gil Kane; Captain America #157 by Sal Buscema; ing of the show, a thief entered the dealer’s room and Conan #22 by Barry Smith), along with the full interiand shoplifted many high-end back issues. The thief ors for Amazing Spider-Man #115 by John Romita and Tony then returned to the floor later in the day in an atMortellaro. After the show ended in May 1973, the gallery tempt to sell the comics that he had stolen. Mile High asked to purchase this artwork, and Marvel obliged, asking Comics owner Chuck Rozanski recognized the books that for payment in the amount of $1000, well below what the the man was trying to sell back to him and called for se112

curity. As Rozanski recalls, when he realized he was found out, the man started to run away. “What the guy didn’t factor in, however, was the anger of the dealers he had ripped off. As he sprinted out of the room, several dealers ran after him. In a scene right out of the movies, one dealer leaped forward, tackled the guy by his knees, and dropped him to the carpet. Hotel security then hauled him away to a small room, to await the police” (Rozanski).

The New Magazine of Weird Humor Riding high on the success of DC’s horror and mystery comics which included such series as House of Mystery, Ghosts and Weird War Tales, publisher Carmine Infantino decided to expand DC’s line with an offbeat humor comic. After considering such names as Black Humor, Weird Humor and Zany, he settled on the peculiar title, Plop!, based on the sound effects from “The Poster Plague,” a darkly funny horror story by artist Sergio Aragonés and writer Steve Skeates that appeared in House of Mystery #202 (May 1972). As Aragonés recalls, “Carmine came up with the name. We were talking about it, and he said, ‘We can call it anything because if the magazine is good, it will stay.’ And he said, “No, we can’t call it, for instance, Plop’. And I said, ‘Yes we can.’ And so I made sketches of things going PLOP! and they laughed and decided the name was good” (Cassell 22).

In its developmental phase, Plop! was briefly called Zany and included comedic treatments of DC characters. TM and © DC Comics

Plop! was a critical success, winning the Shazam Award for Best Humor Story and Best Writer (Humor Division) for Skeates and Wrightson’s work on “The Gourmet.” As the series evolved, according to Skeates, “the comic developed a voice of its own. It had sort of a very cynical, bitter sense of humor, growing out of what was happening nationally at that time. Its underlying message seemed to be that all organizations are corrupt and it’s the innocents who get stepped on” (Cassell 26). Though Infantino loved Plop!, the series suffered low sales.

Infantino first considered publishing Plop! as a magazine but then followed the advice of his friend William M. Gaines—publisher of the phenomenally popular Mad— and released Plop! as a 36 page comic book with no ads.

Though Mad and Plop! both played their stories for laughs, their respective approaches weren’t comparable. DC editor Joe Orlando eschewed the parodies that were the stock-intrade of Mad and most of its competitors (including Marvel’s Crazy). Instead, Plop! plumbed the depths of dark and frequently gross situations. Each issue featured a hilariously grotesque cover by Basil Wolverton that included one of Wolverton’s trademark weirdly distorted people, while the interiors found laughs in such concepts as prison riots, medieval dungeons, Satan, and murder – all done in a way that didn’t upset the Comics Code.

The creator of a popular Mad competitor had his hand in an oddball DC comic in 1973, as Joe Simon, editor of Sick magazine and Jack Kirby’s former partner, created the adventures of Prez, the first teen President of the United States. Spurred on by the passage of the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote, Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti imagined a blond-haired, idealistic 18-year-old who gets elected into the Oval Office. Vaguely a sequel to Simon’s notorious 1968 comic Brother Power the Geek, which was intended to explore the youth culture in America, Prez tells the story of Prez Rickard from the town of Steadfast who runs on the Flower Power Ticket. By the power of the 18-year-olds’ vote, Prez earns the Presidency, defeating the evil Boss Smiley.

While Aragonés was featured in every issue with collections of single-panel cartoons, the comic book also presented work by some of DC’s most fruitful creators, such as Alfredo Alcala, Nick Cardy, Bill Draut, Frank Robbins, Berni Wrightson and Steve Skeates. Other contributors to the series were mainly from outside of DC’s core group of creators – artists and writers like Dave Manak, Robert Johnson and underground cartoonist Lee Marrs.

It was a truly bizarre comic as evidenced by Boss Smiley’s giant smiley face (much like the pins that were then popular) and Prez’s best friend, the Native American Chief Eagle 113

DC’s reprint line of 1973 also included Boy Commandos, G.I. War Tales, Secret Origins, Trigger Twins and Wanted. TM and © DC Comics.

wrapped with editor Mort Weisinger’s retirement in 1970, the Legion of Super-Heroes began running as an occasional back-up series in Superboy. The length of the back-up stories—never more than 11 pages—posed a problem for the creative team: they could only focus on a few Legionnaires at a time, never the entire team. This limitation upset many Legion fans, who had acquired a reputation of being extremely vocal and clubbish, often attending comic conventions as a group, each dressed as his or her favorite Legionnaire.

One thing most Legion fans weren’t complaining about, though, was the work by the on-going creative team of writer Cary Bates and newcomer artist Dave Cockrum.

Practically born with the passion to draw, Cockrum had been an avid comic reader for as far back as he could remember. He became such a prominent fan that his induction into the United States Navy was noted by Stan Lee on the letters page of Fantastic Four #36 (March 1965). While in the Navy, Cockrum kept preparing for a career in the comic book industry. He even mailed in cover suggestions to DC Comics, two of which were used as springboards for stories in Green Lantern #40 (Oct. 1965) and Hawkman #11 (Dec. 1965-Jan. 1966). Cockrum also contributed to fanzines, and when his term of enlistment was coming to an end in 1970, he told Fantastic Fanzine editor Gary Groth, “I hope to go pro when I get out of the Navy” (Cadigan 7).

Prez was a truly odd comic that imagined the first teen President of the USA. TM and © DC Comics.

Free, who becomes head of the F.B.I. Prez only ran four issues but has lived on ever since among fans of eccentric comic books.

Prez was part of DC’s response to Marvel’s saturation of the newsstands. To avoid marginalization, Infantino took steps to protect DC’s rack space. Marvel published some 42 comics with a January 1973 cover date. That same month DC released 29 comics. To help offset the disparity, Infantino approved a small line of reprint titles that would also act as possible teasers for new series. Joining the existing science fiction reprint series From Beyond the Unknown and Strange Adventures, DC released eleven new or revived reprint books: Boy Commandos, Trigger Twins, Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown, Four-Star Battle Tales (featuring Johnny Cloud the Navajo Ace, the War that Time Forgot, and anthology stories), Johnny Thunder, Metal Men, Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origins, Wanted and Black Magic. Most of the titles were published for just a handful of issues. The longest-running series, Wanted and Black Magic, lasted nine issues, but the sales of the Legion reprint comics helped to bring about a major change to one of DC’s longest-running series.

Cockrum moved to New York City to start his professional career. At first, he had trouble finding work at DC because the editors there didn’t feel his artistry was quite yet proficient enough for them. Recognizing Cockrum from his fanzine work, Neal Adams recommended the young artist to Warren Publishing, where he contributed to both Creepy and Eerie (Cadigan 7). Soon afterwards, Cockrum began assisting veterans such as Wally Wood and Murphy Anderson. That’s when Cockrum got his big break: one day in 1971 Anderson let him know that DC was looking for an artist to draw Legion of Super-Heroes back-up stories in Superboy. Cockrum practically sprinted to DC’s office to meet with editor Murray Boltinoff and offer his services.

Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

While Boltinoff wasn’t sure that Cockrum was up to the task, he gave him the assignment for two principal rea-

After their run as the lead feature in Adventure Comics ended in 1969 and their back-up strip in Action Comics 114

Tales of Fantastic Adventure!

sons: first, Boltinoff expected Murphy Anderson to fix any problems in Cockrum’s art, and second, no other artist wanted to draw Legion stories (Cockrum 5). So with Superboy #184 (April 1972), Cockrum began his Legion tenure.

Oddly, the credits for Cockrum’s first Legion story list Anderson before him despite the fact that Cockrum was the story’s penciller (and pencillers always get first billing).

Boltinoff listed Anderson first because he believed that the veteran inker would be upset if his name came after that of an inexperienced artist. Boltinoff’s assumption was offbase. As Cockrum attests, “Murphy was too much a professional and too much a gentlemen to have been that petty” (Cockrum 5). The slight was short-lived as Cockrum’s second Legion story (Superboy #188, July 1972) lists his name in front of Anderson’s.

As Infantino expanded DC’s line, he took a tentative step into the world of heroic fantasy with a new comic called Sword of Sorcery featuring Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a popular duo of fighting freebooters with a sharp sense of humor and the sword blades to match. Leiber created these characters in the 1930s as a much more human alternative to the fierce and otherworldly Conan. In sharp contrast to Robert E. Howard’s brooding Conan stories, Leiber infused his tales with a leavening sense of humor. Fafhrd is a passionate romantic in the form of a redhaired, seven-foot tall Northern barbarian. Mouser is the

Cockrum tackled the Legion with exuberant imagination, from creating spaceships that truly looked futuristic to redesigning the Legion’s 30th century environment. It was a match made in heaven… or maybe outer space. “I put as much of myself into the strip as I possibly could. I loved creating worlds with rich detail, I loved drawing exotic people, hardware and spaceships, and I had a ball with the Legion,” Cockrum reflected (Cadigan 9). For proof of Cockrum’s enthusiasm for the assignment, one need only look at how many characters’ costumes he updated from dull, conservative early ’60s fashions to the modernistic—and often sexy—outfits of the 1970s.

Because of his traditionalist nature, Boltinoff proved reluctant to approve many of the changes that Cockrum proposed. When Cockrum showed he wouldn’t be deterred, Boltinoff grudgingly allowed some to be incorporated. The changes that Boltinoff didn’t allow, Cockrum made anyway with the hope that they would slip past Boltinoff’s notice (which proved to be the case) (Cadigan 10).

Cockrum’s efforts separated him from most other comic book artists of the era who simply wanted to do a professional job with their work. In an age when creators weren’t paid royalties, when there was no economic incentive for an artist to draw anything more than was absolutely necessary, Dave Cockrum demonstrated an incomparable passion to his assignments.

Cockrum was rewarded with an appreciative fanbase who continued to inundate Boltinoff and Infantino with letters demanding that the Legion once again be given its own series. Finally, in 1973, Boltinoff and Infantino relented: the Legion was moved to the front slot of the Superboy comic beginning with issue #197 (Sept. 1973). The cover logo even changed to Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Legion fans couldn’t be happier, as Mike Flynn, founder of The Legion Fan Club, testifies: “After Superboy/LSH #197, I felt that there wasn’t anything left for Legion fandom to fight for” (Kingman 7).

While the super-teens of the future received their own title, the super-teens of the ’70s suffered their last issue; Teen Titans was cancelled with issue #43 (Jan.-Feb. 1973).

With writing by Bob Haney and art by Art Saaf, the final issue (perhaps appropriately) downplayed super-hero action in favor of having the Titans battle a supernatural horror.

Dave Cockrum’s new costume designs preceded the Legion of Super-Heroes’ promotion to lead feature in Superboy #197. TM and © DC Comics.

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smaller teammate with a more cynical and darker spirit but also with a sentimental side that comes out in unexpected moments. Together, the pair gamble, chase women, brawl, bicker, steal and rent their swords for hire by any interested parties.

The ubiquitous Denny O’Neil scripted the adventures of these free-spirited companions, adapting Leiber’s original stories in some issues and providing new stories in others, with pencils by Howard Chaykin, who was succeeded in later issues by Jim Starlin and Walt Simonson. Chaykin was recruited for the series from his work on the science fiction/swashbuckler series “Ironwolf” that appeared in the DC anthology Weird Worlds in 1972. When Weird Worlds got cancelled, both Chaykin and O’Neil became available for Sword of Sorcery. Because Chaykin had a terrible time meeting his deadlines, his work was frequently inked by a group of freelancers loosely called “The Crusty Bunkers” who would chip in and help each other when they ran into deadline problems. Some of the members of that loose amalgamation of talent included Vicente Alcazar, Sal Amendola, Mike Kaluta, Steve Mitchell, Walt Simonson, Frank Springer, Alan Weiss and Berni Wrightson.

The Boy from Brooklyn Makes it Big In the early ’70s DC had many assistant editors who went on to illustrious careers. Assisting Joe Kubert, for instance, was writer Marv Wolfman, followed by historian Allan Asherman, and then future New York Times bestselling novelist Jeff Rovin. In 1973, a recent high school graduate was hired to be Joe Orlando’s assistant for the summer. His name was Paul Levitz. He was asked to fill in for Orlando’s former assistant, Michael Fleisher. While Fleisher never returned to his staff job, Levitz remained at DC for decades, first arranging his college courses around his DC schedule, then becoming a full time staffer in 1976.

Sales on the first issue of Sword of Sorcery were bad, and fanzines quickly reported the rumor of the book’s cancellation (Arndt 22). Sword of Sorcery only lasted five issues.

A precocious fan from Brooklyn, Levitz published industry news fanzines such as Etcetera and The Comic Reader from his parents’ house while studying at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. One of Levitz’s English teachers at Stuyvesant was Frank McCourt (who would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Angela’s Ashes). McCourt was quite struck by Levitz’s considerable fanzine work and invited him onto his brother Malachy’s radio show on popular station WMCA to discuss it.

In order to gather news for his fanzines, Levitz spent a lot of time in DC’s offices. He became a very familiar face amongst DC’s staff. One day in December 1972, DC editor Joe Orlando pulled the 16-year-old Levitz into his office to ask him to write letter columns for his titles. Soon thereafter, Levitz was asked to handle other tasks, like the “Direct Currents” editorial pages. And that’s when Levitz got hired to be an assistant editor. That would hardly be the last promotion Levitz would receive at DC. Indeed, Levitz would eventually become one of the most important executives—if not the most important executive—in DC Comics’ history. But Levitz had a lot of work to do before he gained that distinction.

In the 1970s, DC also ran an internship system that allowed young people to serve on staff. Pioneering graphic novel publisher Byron Preiss had participated, working on educational comics, as did future film producer and comics writer Michael Uslan. By 1974, DC staffer Bob Rozakis called the current crew “The Junior Woodchucks” (named after the Boy Scout-like group that Huey, Dewey and Louie belonged to in Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge stories). Besides producing DC’s in-house fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics, the Woodchucks also provided support and gofer work for DC’s editors. Permanent staffers were soon mixed with the “trainees,” so the Woodchucks eventually included Rozakis, Levitz, Uslan, Jack C. Harris, colorists Carl Gaf-

Howard Chaykin brought adventure heroes to life, including Iron-Wolf and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Iron-Wolf TM and © DC Comics. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser TM and © The Estate of Fritz Leiber.

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ford and Anthony Tollin, and artist Pat Broderick, among others.

DC’s Heroes are Super Friends Viewers of Saturday morning cartoons were already familiar with DC’s super-heroes. Batman, Superman and Aquaman all had separate adventures as animated network shows, and as far as super-hero teams went, three segments of 1967’s Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure presented the Justice League of America as Superman, Hawkman, Green Lantern, the Flash and the Atom. The next time the Justice League would appear on TV sets came on September 8, 1973 when the ABC network premiered the Super Friends cartoon, courtesy of Hanna-Barbera animation.

The Super Friends consisted of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Robin and three “Junior Super Friends”: the non-super-powered youngsters Wendy and Marvin and their pet Wonder Dog. Together, the group dealt with natural disasters and other emergencies brought to their attention by the TroubAlert in their headquarters, the Hall of Justice. As a show targeting children, Super Friends had to adhere to parent groups’ broadcast standards. Among other things, Super Friends episodes couldn’t present virtually any violence. As a result, the show didn’t feature the typical costumed villains associated with DC’s heroes. Instead, the Super Friends confronted foes whose motivations were revealed to be misguided but not evil. For instance, in one episode, a fanatic creates environmental catastrophes but only because he wants to stop industrialists from destroying the planet. In another episode, scientists decide that gold is the root of all evil and thus create a beam that will destroy all gold in the world.

The beam, however, has terrible side effects and ends up causing ecological catastrophe. Each episode’s conflict ends in peaceful fashion with the Super Friends typically lecturing their erstwhile opponent about finding better ways to solve their problems.

The first Super Friends season had 16 one-hour episodes. Some episodes were aired several times until ABC canceled the cartoon after its August 24, 1974 showing. Curiously, DC did

relatively little to promote the show in its titles, perhaps because someone decided the cartoon’s target audience (pre-adolescent children) wasn’t the same age as the standard readers of DC Comics (adolescents and teenagers). Regardless, the most visible promotion that Super Friends got on the comic books was a (barely noticeable) banner that ran near the top of Justice League of America covers in 1974 and 1975 which read, “Here Come TV’s Super Friends.”

DC didn’t even produce a Super Friends comic in either 1973 or 1974.

That would come later in the decade, as would a revival of the Super Friends cartoon.

Dell Shuts Down As Super Friends hit Saturday morning fame, the publisher that made its name with adaptations of TV series ironically published its final titles.

Dell was one of the first publishers of comics in the United States, and for many years was just about the most respected company in the industry by parents and observers. During Dell’s golden era, from the late 1940s to early 1960s, no company sold as many individual comics as Dell did, nor did any company publish as many popular characters as them. Dell was the home of iconic characters such as Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Tarzan, Little Lulu, Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny, as well as thousands of comics based on popular movies and TV series of the era. Aside from the august Classics Illustrated, Dell was the only comic book publisher not to sign on with the Comics Code Authority after its establishment in 1954. Dell advertised itself as the gold standard for parents, using the slogan “Dell Comics Are Good Comics” as an indicator of its wholesomeness.

But Dell in 1973 wasn’t quite the same company that it was when created in 1938. In 1962, Dell and its longtime partner Western Publishing severed their long relationship due to a dispute about money. Western started its own separate company, called Gold Key Comics (which also 117

The most promotion DC gave the Super Friends cartoon was the banner “Here Come TV’s SuperFriends” on the covers of Justice League of America and a “Making of…” feature in World’s Finest #224.

TM and © DC Comics.

never joined the Comics Code), while Dell continued with a mix of new features such as Ghost Stories and a plethora of movie and TV adaptations and reprints. By the early 1970s Dell’s line had shrunk considerably, and its release schedule of almost entirely reprinted material was intermittent.

In July 1973, Dell released its final three issues: Alvin #28, Combat #40 and Ghost Stories #37. While Dell’s closure may have made little impact on the industry, it had great symbolic significance because it showed the dramatic shifts happening in the industry. In the 1970s, both Dell and Gold Key had major troubles finding distribution for their more youthoriented comics, frequently resorting to grouping their titles in plastic bags and selling them in three-packs to department stores and gift shops at a

talents. After only a little racking, I thought of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man. As a kid, I was crazy about this offbeat character, but I didn’t want just a copy of Plas. I wanted to take him further. Ergo, using Einstein’s classic formula—E=mc2—I came up with a shape-changing energy being. (Cuti) Thus, E-Man was born. Initially, Cuti created an origin story that involved a factory worker who gains superpowers after getting caught in an explosion. Staton used one word to describe that origin: awful. Going back to his design work, Cuti came up with the idea of sentient energy being born as a result of a star going supernova.

Staton told Cuti, “That’s cool. Let’s do that” (Read 38).

Ghost Stories was one of the final comics that Dell published. TM and © respective copyright holder.

bargain price (Evanier). While Harvey Comics was releasing two dozen children’s books per month starring such characters as Casper, Sad Sack, Richie Rich, Little Dot and Wendy the Good Witch, the comics industry as a whole was shifting to series that targeted older audiences.

Charlton’s Return to Super-Hero Comics In contrast to Dell, Charlton Comics expanded its line in 1973. Editor George Wildman persuaded the company’s owners to dip their toes back into the super-hero waters. Though Marvel and DC seemingly had the super-hero realm all locked up to themselves, Wildman believed Charlton couldn’t survive in the comic book marketplace if the publisher limited itself to ghost, romance, and war titles and licensed properties like The Flintstones, The Partridge Family, The Phantom and Yogi Bear. Charlton had to play Marvel and DC’s game. Wildman told his assistant editor, Nick Cuti, to come up with some super-hero ideas. In turn, Cuti linked up with artist Joe Staton, who had recently finished drawing a Charlton adaptation of the TV show Primus. As Cuti tells it, I especially liked Joe’s comic art style… and started racking my brain to come up with the right hero for his unique

E-Man #1 (Oct. 1973) presents the story of a living packet of energy that travels to Earth and takes the form of a blond-haired man in a bright yellow and orange jumpsuit. He begins to fight evil, often with the help of a stripper/college student named Nova Kane, who eventually gains superpowers herself. Unfortunately, E-Man didn’t sell well. As Cuti reports, “EMan hit the streets with a resounding… THUD” (Cuti). Though the series only lasted ten issues, E-Man stood out on the newsstands for its light-

hearted style, its distinctive artwork and for the charmingly loose vitality of Cuti’s storylines.

One of the oddest items that Charlton released in 1973 wasn’t available on newsstands. The Charlton Comics Guide to Artists and Letterers was given away free to anyone who subscribed to their comics. Perhaps in the hope that readers would take the hint and apply their creativity to the titles that Charlton published, the comic-sized magazine offered practical, step-by-step information for creators who hoped to produce comics professionally.

Opening the Sea Gate of Direct Sales Since their inception, comic books had been sold in the same manner as magazines: a distributor, acting as the middleman, delivered them from the printers to the newsstands to be sold. Unsold copies were then returned to the publishers for credit.

For publishers, this system had several major—and ultimately financially devastating— facets.

First, publishers were beholden to the wishes of the 440 local distributors scattered across the United States— many of them mafia-owned—who were responsible for getting everything from highly profitable magazines like Time, Playboy and Rolling

Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton co-created the whimsical energy creature E-Man. TM and © Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti

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Finally, since newsstand distributors weren’t financially motivated to supply comic books, circulation was spotty. It could be hard to find a favorite title at the corner store or supermarket, and whatever issues were shipped to those stores were frequently damaged. It was not uncommon during that era to hear stories of fans who would bike from newsstand to newsstand in order to find a good copy – or any copy – of certain favorite new comics.

Stone to the average 20¢ comic book – to retailers.

The wholesalers received a percentage of every sale made at the newsstand, proportional to the cost of the periodical. Therefore, as far as the distributors were concerned, comics were one of the least important items that they carried because they made far less profit than the more expensive (and more popular) magazines. The newsstand’s royalty-based system was a big reason why Marvel passed DC in sales in 1972; though DC’s titles cost more, the distributors’ cut was the same, and since more Marvel books could be included in a shipping box, net profits were higher for the distributors.

DC’s Vice President Sol Harrison tried addressing this problem in a unique way.

He called his new creation The Comicmobile. The idea was to help out suburban kids who couldn’t get to their local stationary stores or 7-Elevens by Secondly, and equally imhaving a Comicmobile—a portant, the newsstand sysleased blue van with supertem meant that publishers hero stickers plastered all always had to over-print, over it—drive through their with a certain amount of neighborhoods and sell that print run planned for The Comicmobile was like an ice cream truck – for comics.

DC comic books directly to pulping or other means of them. Stocked with returns disposal. Most comics that held in DC’s library, the Comicmobile was first driven sold less than half their print run would end up cancelled. through the streets of northern New Jersey by Michael UsHowever, because of the “affidavit returns” system, which lan in the summer of 1973. Once Uslan had to leave New only required the wholesalers to sign a piece of paper statJersey to attend the University of Indiana, the van was ing their sales numbers, the unsold comics often didn’t given to Bob Rozakis who navigated it through his native end up in landfills or shredders. Instead, seeing a chance Long Island. According to Rozakis, many children mistook to make money on the secondary market, many distributhe van for an ice cream truck and were angry that they tors turned around and resold the comics that they had recouldn’t buy frozen treats on hot days. Their frustration, ported as returns to local toy stores, used book stores and perhaps, matched that of Rozakis’s father who asked his speculating fans. Even the distributors who were honest son with exasperation, “I sent you to college for four years could make mistakes on their affidavit forms that could so you could drive a comic book truck?” (Rozakis). inadvertently cost publishers thousands of dollars in revenues. Major magazine publishers had a system to audit Over the course of six summer weeks, Rozakis managed to and verify newsstand sales, but the comics industry was build up a steady clientele for the Comicmobile, but sales too small to support such a system. barely covered the cost of the gasoline that the van guzzled. Consequently, DC retired the Comicmobile after one Sales to fans in the secondary market had become rampant summer’s use. The van was then shipped to dealer Bruce by the early 1970s, to the point where it became a truism Hamilton in Arizona. There, it met a sad ending: the Comthat fan-favorite comics sold poorly on the newsstand. That icmobile was demolished in an accident with a semi-truck. may have been due in some part to the typical newsstand consumers’ disinterest in comics, but it may also have been While a mobile comic book store didn’t prove to be the sodue to the fact that unscrupulous suppliers would sell caslution to the industry’s distribution problems, Phil Seuling es of more collectible books “under the table” directly to locreated an alternative system that showed some promise. cal speculators, who would then jack up the prices of those An English teacher at Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School, issues and reap large profits. Several analysts believe that Seuling had a side venture selling old comic books, which this was among the reasons why Jack Kirby’s Fourth World led to his organizing some of the first comic conventions titles failed: the system seemed wired to underreport sales in America (as well as writing a handful of horror stories and made it near impossible for Kirby’s ambitious epic to for Warren Magazines and other publishers). Seuling was succeed. loud, boastful and self-effacing, declaring in an ad in the 119

about the link between comic reading and juvenile delinquency before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee. His testimony, along with the testimony of other members of the comics community, subsequently led to the creation of the restrictive Comics Code and the demise of EC Comics. Because of his influence, many in comics fandom saw Dr. Wertham as their mortal enemy.

1972 Comic Art Convention Guide, “Perhaps others can offer THE COMICS, THE BOOKS, THE ARTWORK, OLD AND NEW PREMIUMS. But can they offer arrogance?”

Seuling started a business that would turn comic book distribution on its head and ultimately result in the creation of the Direct Sales market. In 1973, he cut a deal with DC, Marvel, Warren and Archie that essentially guaranteed them profits on all items that they sold though him. The publishers would sell to Seuling’s new company, Seagate East Coast Distributors, at a steep discount without a middleman. Most significantly, where previously the publishers had been responsible for absorbing the costs of unsold copies, Seagate offered to buy all comics on a nonreturnable basis. The risk of unsold copies was passed on to the retailers, who preordered from Seuling at a higher discount than they received from the newsstand wholesalers. Specialty retailers didn’t consider unsold new comics to be a nuisance. Quite the contrary, any leftover inventory was simply moved to back issue bins at marked-up prices, potentially earning the retailers even more revenue.

Imagine, then, the surprise that members of the thriving late 1960s and early 1970s comics fanzine movement felt when they received complimentary letters from none other than the Doctor himself. Dr. Wertham had always envisioned himself as a critic of the unconscionable use of media rather than as a crusader against comics. He subsequently became fascinated with the conscientious and open way that the fan world used media. He frequently ordered fanzines through the mail, taping quarters and dimes to handwritten notes just as most fans did (Beaty 188-191). In 1974, the 78-year-old cultural critic released a new monograph called The World of Fanzines that celebrated these fan-driven publications as “an important social phenomenon worthy of being taken up… spontaneous efforts of young people to cope with their problems, to express their doubts and ideas, to experiment with their creative potentialities” (Wertham).

Seuling set up a warehouse in Sparta, Illinois, where most comics were printed, and then arranged to have them “drop shipped,” via sub-distributors, to stores that ordered from him. This business, very small at first, would not have been possible without the burgeoning fanbase and the initial breed of comic shops that had begun to appear mainly in big cities around the country, such as Comics and Comix in the San Francisco Bay Area, Roy’s Memory Shop in Houston, the Collector’s Bookshop in Los Angeles and Supersnipe in New York. These stores rose to meet the needs of discerning readers, who craved fast and dependable availability (new comics were often available in the shops up to two weeks before they appeared at other retail locations), easily obtainable back issues, a knowledgeable staff, and undamaged copies. In addition, comic shops sold items that would not have been sold at newsstands or most bookstores, such as art portfolios, trade paperbacks and underground comix.

In his scrupulously researched 144page thesis, focused on zines of all formats and styles, Dr. Wertham celebrates the deep communications and passions that informed fanzine readers, noting that fanzine work was fresh and unclichéd, free of censorship and commercial interests, and a very healthy form of personal interaction (Beaty 190). Not surprisingly, given Dr. Wertham’s reputation in the world of comics, The World of Fanzines was greeted with extremely diverse reactions. John Adkins Richardson, writing in the widely circulated fanzine The Rocket’s Blast and Comicollector, said of the work, “[it] is a modestly superior job which should be of interest to serious students of popular culture and social psychology.… If nothing else, however, this book should prove to all of fandom that Fredric Wertham is more openminded and vastly more gracious than any of his fanzine critics” (Richardson 54).

Seuling earned healthy profits, which quickly inspired competitors. Pacific Distributors in Southern California, New Media/Irjax in the Southeast and the Donahoe Brothers in the Midwest had all sprung up by 1974. Though small in the mid-1970s, the Direct Sales market would flex its muscles and prove its importance by decade’s end.

Wertham’s appreciation of fanzines hinged on their element of freedom, of the work for zines as being separate from commerce and thus “purer” or more pristine than other media. As detractor Stephen Bissette points out, however, Wertham’s views were self-contradictory and neglected his own malignant role in the formation of fan culture. That is to say, much of comics fandom formed around the deification of the same EC Comics that was closed down due to the anti-comics crusade that centered around Wertham’s Congressional testimony. Wertham also failed to consider the fact that an artist can create mass culture work that’s just as idiosyncratic and personal as anything published in the small press. In fact, underground comix

The Return of Dr. Wertham One of the most notorious figures in comics history is psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham, best known in comics circles for writing The Seduction of the Innocent. Published in 1954, SOTI argued that the explicit material presented in comic books during that era encouraged children to engage in deviant—and often criminal—behavior. On the same day that SOTI reached bookstores, Wertham testified 120

mentality as several publishers hastily produced low overhead, high profit margin undergrounds, many of which were filled with amateurish story and art. The abundance of poorly-created content obscured the good material.

were founded on that idea, something that that seems overlooked in World of Fanzines. Finally, and maybe most damningly, the very people who were doing “free” work for the fanzines soon turned around and produced professional work in the industry. Their freedom didn’t disappear. If anything, the era in which this monograph was published was arguably one in which professional creators enjoyed the most personal freedom.

The saturation of amateurish products in the marketplace concerned quite a few comix creators, and one prominent cartoonist refused to be silent about it. He opted to express his views in a very public way. In a full-page rant in the April 13, 1973 While Wertham celebrated the freeedition of the popular bi-weekly San dom of comics fanzines, one shudFrancisco Phoenix, Bill Griffith unders to consider what he would have leashed “A Sour Look at the Comix thought of some of the more sexuScene or Out of the Inkwell and ‘Into ally explicit and violent comix of the the Toilet.’” The co-creator of Young era. As it turned out, at least one of Lust and creator of Zippy the Pinhead comix’s prominent creators was also expressed his disgust with the stoconcerned about the types of materies that his compatriots in the unrial that was being published.

Fredric Wertham’s final book, The World of Fanzines, praised derground movement were creating. comics fandom for its enthusiasm.

Though he didn’t advocate censorA Sour Look at the Comix Scene ship, Griffith pointed to over-the-top The nation’s conservative resurgence—epitomized by the depictions of sex and violence and screamed, “What’s this landslide re-election of Richard Nixon in 1972—had major business with TITS and MONSTERS and WEREWOLVES? consequences for the comix industry. The FBI and other Hey, I want to know what’s ‘underground’ about rotting government agencies ran secret surveillance operations corpses!

Besides buryin’ ‘em, huh? And inflated rubber against the counterculture, including underground newswomen with bulbous, 48-inch chests?” (Griffith 20). He papers and publishers. They engaged in illegal wiretapwent on to describe those stories as thoroughly fanzineping and paid informants to spy on their coworkers. The level escapism produced by the same sort of nameless, government also opened front operations. For instance, faceless assembly lines that mainstream comics utilized.

The Denver Arrow, a member of the Underground Press In short, he declared the openness of comix was leading Syndicate, never published an issue and may have been to work being created by people who secretly aspired to be part of an attempt to gain access to that organization’s pros at Marvel and DC. membership information. The creators of undergrounds were feeling oppressed and afraid, worried that the same fate that hit Zap Comix in 1970 could hit them as well. Unfortunately, something worse happened.

Needless to say, Griffith’s tirade did not go over well with his comrades. In his calls for restraint, he seemed to deny the very thrust that helped undergrounds capture the public’s imagination in the first place. As Tom Veitch replied in a later article in the Phoenix, “Bill is against the whole violent tradition in the undergrounds.” Veitch went on to point out that the term “underground comix” described the work of a multitude of different artists of varying styles, all creating the material that they wanted to create.

On June 21, 1973 the Supreme Court issued a ruling that would forever damage the comix industry. In Miller v.

California, the Supreme Court imposed the idea of “community standards” on the distribution of “adult” content, which meant that municipalities across America could apply their own criteria to determine whether or not media was too “obscene” for public consumption within civic or state borders. Among other businesses, the ruling impacted head shops that sold underground comix and other similar counterculture-based material. As Robert Crumb explained, the Supreme Court unleashed “vigorous forces of conservatism, right-wing Christians, etc., riding the wave of panic over ‘pornography.’ The Mafia and other large-scale disseminators were able to shield their stuff, but shopkeepers who carried underground comics were running scared. The business took a big nose dive and never did recover” (Rosenkranz 186).

The fact that many cartoonists lived off subsistence wages exacerbated Griffith’s argument. As Justin Green pointed out in an article for the Boston Phoenix that ran later in 1973, “These artists have had complete freedom to do whatever they’ve wanted, provided they remained strapped to their drawing boards” (Rosenkranz 188). Indeed, Green made much more money painting signs than he ever did drawing comics.

Berkeley (Comix) Con Exactly a week after the San Francisco Phoenix published Griffith’s reprimand of his colleagues, the University of California hosted a celebration of comix in the form of Berkeley Con. The first convention mainly intended for un-

Truth be told, the comix industry was contending with major problems prior to the Supreme Court decision. Specifically, the industry was being impacted by a “gold rush” 121

a focus on the undergrounds, there were panels addressing Steve Englehart’s Marvel series and the comics of Carl Barks (presented by then-Berkeley Professor Donald Ault, an expert on the works of William Blake who had incorporated Donald Duck comics in some of his lectures) – an eclectic group of topics that reflected the eclectic nature of the Bay Area comix industry. Attendees included Englehart, Kim Deitch, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Rodriguez, Art Spiegelman and many other popular cartoonists.

It Ain’t Exactly a Happy Decision

Berkeley Con was the first convention devoted to underground comix.

derground cartoonists and publishers ran from April 20 to April 22, 1973.

Organized by the Bay Area chain of Comics and Comix, admission for all three days was $4. While most conventions sold a smattering of comix, this was the first convention that mainly catered to the bustling comix scene (although a few mainstream comics could also be found at Berkeley Con). The venue was logical since most of the major comix companies were located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Publishers such as Apex Novelties, Print Mint, Last Gasp and Krupp set up large displays of their titles, and cartoonists of all types worked the tables, exhibited their artwork, and took part in panel discussions on such topics as Sex and Sexism in Comics, Overground and Underground Comics, and Women’s Comics. The convention celebrated the fact that over 200 comix had been published in the five years since the launch of the underground industry.

The convention was well attended, not only by fans but by representatives of Bay Area press outlets, along with journalists from Time, Playboy and England’s Oz magazine. Stickers and buttons were designed by stalwarts such as Greg Irons, Spain Rodriguez and Trina Robbins. Along with

While the undergrounds were well known for their explicit depictions of sex, they seldom showed the consequences of sex. To help women make a choice about whether to have an abortion, Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli, who had previously created the female-centered Tits ’n’ Clits, produced Abortion Eve, a 32page comix that explored the issue of abortions, recently legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision. Chevli used the penname Chin Lyvely on the comic, and Farmer used the surname Sutton – possible indicators of the controversy that swirled around the topic of abortion.

The comic was, as Joyce Farmer describes, “a how-to manual on how to figure out if you’re the sort of person

who will want one or not want one.

I call it pro-choice because it is pro choice, in that you can make your choice either way” (Campbell). Made available at bulk rates to women’s groups, free clinics, hospitals and doctors, the comic tells the story of four women whose names are all variations of “Eve” as they discuss whether they want to have abortions due to unwanted pregnancies. A 42-year-old woman has four children with one in college and doesn’t want the hassle of another pregnancy; a younger woman is emotionally tortured by the idea of having an abortion; still another young woman is giddy at the thoughts of the drugs that the doctor’s office will give her to help with the pain of the abortion.

Together, the women explore their own thoughts on abortion, asking questions like “what’s an abortion really like?,” “Is it completely legal?” and “Will I be able to have children again?” among others that deal with both the physical and emotional stress of abortion and childbirth.

The comic is a practical, non-preachy (though a bit turgidly written) guide to an important decision. This was not the first comic story to focus on abortion—“A Teenage Abortion” by Lora Fountain in Wimmen’s Comix #1 (Nov. 1972) preceded it—but Abortion Eve was the first to devote a whole comic to the topic.

1973: A Spirited Year in Undergrounds

Abortion Eve explored several women who consider having abortions. TM and © Chin Lively and Joyce Sutton.

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As if to demonstrate the creative diversity of undergrounds in 1973, Denis Kitchen formed a partnership with Spirit creator Will Eisner to publish a reprint volume of Spirit stories under his Kitchen Sink Press imprint.

Since he was a big fan of underground comix, Eisner was so delighted by Kitchen’s advances that he contributed a cover to Kitchen’s Snarf #3 (Nov. 1972) as well as a cover and brandnew material for The Spirit #1 (Jan. 1973) and #2 (Nov. 1973). The first Kitchen Spirit sold out its full print run and brought Eisner’s name back to prominence with the comics publishers, including Marvel Comics, who sent Eisner a feeler about integrating the Spirit into the Marvel Universe.

Eisner declined Marvel’s offer, however, because he was done creating

adventures for the character and didn’t seriously consider selling his rights to Marvel to allow other creators to work on the Spirit. Eisner also reached the talking stages of producing a new humor magazine for Marvel that would be a cross between Mad and the National Lampoon but nothing ever came from those talks.

Meanwhile, Richard Corben emerged in the underground movement in a big way in 1973. Then 32 years old and a veteran animator, Corben had been creating his own comics out of Kansas City as a side job from his paying work.

He released hundreds of pages of comics in 1973, including work on his Neverwhere and Den series and material for Warren magazines – frequently with extravagant painted colors. By 1973, Last Gasp sold over 30,000 copies of Corben’s Fantagor—very impressive numbers—and over 20,000 copies of his Rowlf. Corben’s style was distinctively vivid due to his unique airbrush technique and for the strange otherworldly specters he created. For his work that year, Corben won the Shazam Award for Superior Achievement by an Individual.

Another unusual comic released in 1973 was a single volume adapting the Elric story “The Fall of the Dreaming City” by Steven Grant and John Adkins Richardson from Windy City Productions. This 44-page black-and-white comic retailed for $1.00 and included a back cover by John Byrne. The rarely-seen and never-reprinted publication also featured “The Gates of Tyranna,” the first chapter of

The little-seen Elric: the Fall of the Dreaming City. TM and © Michael Moorcock.

an original Elric adventure by George Olshevsky, Jr. and John Allison. Grant and Robert Gould, who later painted several Elric paperback covers, would go on to produce a new Elric story, “The Prisoner of Pan Tang,” for Star*Reach #6 (Oct 1976).

The most popular underground publishers released a smaller assortment of undergrounds than usual in 1973.

Print Mint came out with Zap Comix #6, Insect Fear #3, Manhunt and a handful of more titles. Last Gasp published Tales of the Leather Nun, Wimmen’s Comix #2, Slow Death Funnies #5 and several more. Apex Novelties produced Funny Aminals and a few additional titles. Bill Griffith, Kim Deitch, Jerry Lane and Jay Lynch pooled their resources to create the Cartoonists Co-Op to publish Middle Class Fantasies, Tales of Toad #3, Nard ‘n Pat #1 and Corn Fed Comics #2, but poor sales and major mistakes doomed them.

Like the violent and sexually explicit underground comics that Bill Griffith attacked, the Elric underground represented a new generation of thought in comics: edgier and more attuned to the turmoil of everyday life than many mainstream comics. As 1974 dawned, ongoing national crises would be reflected in still more confrontational material.

Will Eisner drew new covers for the underground revival of his much-beloved character The Spirit. TM and © Will Eisner Studios Inc.

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1974

No

More Heroes

As 1974 began, most Americans had to be hoping that the frustrations of 1973 were behind them. Unfortunately, the troubles that began in 1973 didn’t go away once the new year started. In many ways, they only got worse.

In October 1973, OPEC—a coalition of most of the major oilproducing nations—launched an embargo of oil exports to the United States in response to America’s support of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The resulting shortage caused the price of a barrel of oil to spike from $3 to $12. Across the country, gas rationing commenced, which in turn caused lengthy gas station lines. The American public was tense and frustrated at the situation, reflected by the actions of the nation’s truck drivers, who engaged in a two-day nationwide strike in December 1973 to show their anger at what they felt was the federal government’s insufficient response to the crisis.

Though OPEC lifted its embargo in March 1974, America’s economic turmoil continued throughout the year. In 1971, Americans fretted over an inflation rate that exceeded 4%.

Three years later, the inflation rate had nearly tripled to 11%, the highest rate in 27 years. What’s more, the stock market crash that began in January 1973 proved unrelenting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 45% of its value from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1974.

As if that wasn’t bad enough of a financial shock, a paper shortage—brought on by a series of strikes at paper mills and railroads in Canada—increased the price of paper by approximately 50% (Brancatelli). Publishers found themselves scrambling to gather enough paper to print their publications. For the comic book industry, the shortage resulted in several comics being published on irregular schedules during the year. DC Comics had to go one step further and cancel half a dozen titles. Charlton Comics, which operated as its own printer, halted its comic book line in late 1973. When production resumed in February 1974, the price of one of Charlton’s comic books had increased to 25¢ (up from 20¢).

The strong sense among average Americans was that the country was being destroyed from within. The crime rate in America was growing at an alarmingly rapid rate. The number of violent crimes, burglaries, rapes, robberies and murders reported to the police in 1974 was nearly twice the number reported in 1967. The fear of crime accelerated Americans’ migration to the suburbs, further continuing the fracturing of the country.

CHAPTER FIVE 124

ing battle exposes a schism in the relationship between the Jackal and the Punisher. Unlike the Jackal, who sees himself as evil, the Punisher cares only for justice: “When I agreed to work with you, Jackal, it was with the understanding that we were fighting for the same thing: the complete destruction of the crime world in New York.” The Punisher was a moral man, though readers didn’t know yet the motivation for his morality. After Spider-Man confronts the Punisher with the Jackal’s evil, the man in black walks away, and the Punisher’s final words set the tone for his subsequent appearances: “I’m just a warrior… fighting a lonely war.”

Maybe worst of all, something unparalleled in American history occurred in the middle of the summer that seemingly encapsulated the discontent of the times: on August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon—facing the prospect of impeachment due to the ever-widening Watergate scandal—resigned his high office. It was an unprecedented act, one that sent shockwaves throughout the world. Succeeding Nixon was his former Vice President, Gerald Ford.

Upon being sworn in as President, Ford declared, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

That was only partly true. One nightmare may have been over, but others remained. American society was suffering through some dark, unsettling times, and pop culture couldn’t help but be influenced by it all. Marvel Comics, in particular, began introducing characters and storylines that reflected the cynical cultural mindset of the early 1970s. These new—and soon to be iconic—characters clearly demonstrated that Marvel had undergone a radical change since the days when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and their colleagues were crafting the stories.

The Jackal was a behind-the-scenes, controlling influence of a long story arc in which he sent one villain after the next against Spider-Man as a way to take the measure of his enemy. Conway created the Punisher simply to be one of the many puppets manipulated by the Jackal, but the

The Punisher Begins His War One of the most auspicious character debuts of the era occurred in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974). The cover of that fateful issue shows an intense-looking man dressed mainly in black, with a white skull on the chest of his shirt and a frightening looking gun in his hands. The cover declares, “He’s different! He’s deadly! He’s – the Punisher!” For once, Marvel’s hype was right on target. The Punisher was different for his time; he was a hero who would kill.

The issue opens with the Punisher shooting a plaster statue of Spider-Man. The evil Jackal encourages the Punisher to attack Spider-Man, declaring “You like the death – the killing – the joyful revenge.” The Punisher replies, “I kill only those who deserve killing, Jackal. And SpiderMan deserves to die!”

It’s a star-making introduction from writer Gerry Conway and artists Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt. The power of the introduction continues throughout the issue. J. Jonah Jameson—who admires the Punisher—assigns Peter Parker to find and take pictures of the gun-toting hero/villain. As Spider-Man, Peter soon is attacked by the Punisher, who delivers a speech about the web-slinger that could have come right out of the mouth of actor Charles Bronson in the summer 1974 smash hit film Death Wish: You’re all alike… using whatever means to get control of the public… drugs, gambling, loan-shark operations… some of it legitimate, but all of it evil. Sometimes I wonder if that evil’s rubbed off on me… but I know that it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the job.

Spider-Man escapes the steel wires that the Punisher had used to trap him, but the ensu-

“He’s different! He’s deadly! He’s – the Punisher!” The Punisher debuts in Amazing Spider-Man #129. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

125

TIMELINE: 1974 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 2: In an attempt to curb gasoline consumption, President Nixon signs legislation that requires states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.

January 24: Continuing the numbering of the cancelled Jimmy Olsen series, Superman Family #164 arrives at newsstands as a 100 Page Super Spectacular. The series’ lead feature would rotate among Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane.

JANUARY

January 18: The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors as a government operative with bionic implants, premieres on the ABC television network.

FEBRUARY

March 1: A Washington, D.C. grand jury concludes that President Nixon was involved in the Watergate cover-up. Seven people, including former Nixon White House aides, are indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in.

March 12: The ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week is a two-hour Wonder Woman movie pilot starring Cathy Lee Crosby as an espionage field agent under the command of Steve Trevor.

MARCH

April: Mike Friedrich publishes the first issue of Star*Reach, a Direct Market-exclusive comic book featuring stories produced

by Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Steve Skeates and Jim Starlin.

April 5: The 110-story World Trade Center, the tallest building in the world, opens in New York City.

APRIL

March 17: OPEC—with the exception of Libya— ends its oil embargo of the United States.

June 24: Seaboard Periodicals opens for business. The magazine and comic book publisher is run by Martin Goodman, the former owner of Marvel Comics, and his son Chip.

M AY

JUNE

April 24: Doubleday releases Stephen King’s first published novel, Carrie, about a high school girl who uses her telekinetic powers to exact revenge on her classmates.

April 8: Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s career home run record by hitting his 715th home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

January 18: Bill Finger— comic book writer best known for work on (and co-creation of) Batman— dies at the age of 59.

Batman, Captain Marvel TM and © DC Comics. Captain America, Nomad, Wolverine TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Cody Starbuck TM and © Howard Chaykin, Inc. The Grim Ghost, Vicki TM and © respective copyright holder.

writer quickly discovered that the vigilante had a life of his own. As Conway remembered in an interview conducted for American Comic Book Chronicles:

in black leather with a skull and crossbones on his chest— on his mind as he designed the striking costume, making a point of keeping the Punisher barefaced rather than putting him in a mask. Romita’s design was driven by the principle that a man who doesn’t care about a secret identity is even more dangerous than a man who worries about his privacy.

As we got through the stages of designing a costume, naming the character and the actual writing of the story, I found that this guy had an interesting point of view. He’s not the typical Marvel character. He’s a bad guy who’s also working from what he considers to be good reasons. He’s primarily going after bad guys, so he’s not like Doctor Doom, where while he thinks he has good reasons he obviously doesn’t. He’s not a hired gun. He’s somebody who’s doing it because he has a moral compass. It’s strangely pointed, but it’s a moral compass. The Jackal misuses him, gives him misinformation, but once he’s aware of what it is, where things are, he’s not going to be used.

Conway had initially planned on calling his new character The Assassin. The creative team also considered calling him The Grim Reaper or The Executioner. Finally, Stan Lee was called upon to settle the matter. Lee chose the Punisher (Johnson 53-54).

The Punisher was somewhat derivative of the popular Executioner and Destroyer series of novels whose retribution fantasies catered to the readers’ fears about rampant street crime. Don Pendleton’s Executioner novels and Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s Destroyer series joined films like Dirty Harry as exemplars of the “lone vigilante” genre of fiction that featured armed individuals taking revenge against criminals. As Conway reflected in 2013, “The notion of the lone vigilante doing things that society couldn’t do was in the air. So I wanted to use that as a framework for this character who I honestly thought was going to be a one-shot.” Instead, the Punisher captured the zeitgeist of the era. Conway and his editors swiftly realized the Punisher had potential beyond a mere one-shot appear-

Marvel’s Art Director, John Romita, was responsible for the Punisher’s memorable costume design, a distinctive, startling look that has remained essentially unchanged through the anti-hero’s career. Conway worked up some ideas for the Punisher’s initial design, but Romita added the flourishes that made it so memorable. For instance, Romita changed the Punisher’s trademark skull logo from a small design on his breast to the dynamic full-torso look.

Romita had the 1940s hero Black Terror—who dressed all 126

July 2: The sharp-clawed Wolverine makes his first appearance on the final page of The Incredible Hulk #180, interrupting a battle between the Hulk and Wendigo.

August: Roy Thomas steps down as Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief. He is replaced by Len Wein (who is in charge of the color comics) and Marv Wolfman (who is in charge of the black-and-white magazines).

October 1: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—a horror film featuring a chainsaw-wielding cannibal who is partly based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein— premieres in an Austin, Texas movie theater.

October 13: Otto Binder—science fiction and comic book writer best known for his work on Fawcett’s Captain Marvel—dies at the age of 63.

November: The first issues of Atlas’ color comics line go on sale.

July 24: Death Wish—starring Charles Bronson as a New York City architect who becomes a vigilante after the murder of his wife— arrives in movie theaters.

J U LY

July 9: DC and Gold Key writer Leo Dorfman—who wrote many Superman stories during the 1960s— unexpectedly dies at the age of 60.

September 7: Shazam!—a live action children’s show starring Michael Gray as Billy Batson and Jason Bostwick as Captain Marvel—debuts on the CBS television network.

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

August 9: Facing impeachment due to the Watergate scandal, President Nixon resigns from office. Gerald Ford becomes the 38th U.S. President.

Fierce Warrior from the North Marvel’s other key debut character of 1974 appeared in another major Marvel character’s series. Though it would take some time, Wolverine would eventually become one of Marvel’s most popular super-heroes.

In Incredible Hulk #180 (Oct. 1974), the Hulk and the white-furred monster Wendigo are waging a fierce battle in the deep woods of Quebec. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are desperate to prevent the Hulk from

DECEMBER

October 8: President Ford announces his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) program in response to the nation’s high inflation rate.

September 10: In Captain America #180, written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Sal Buscema, a disillusioned Steve Rogers adopts the codename Nomad.

ance. They brought him back just six months later in Amazing Spider-Man #135 (Aug. 1974) with the words “The Return of the Punisher” included in bold letters on the cover. (That cover would soon be merchandised as part of a collection of Marvel-themed Trapper Keepers, meaning it would be in the school backpacks of thousands of American schoolchildren.) Clearly, the man with the guns was destined to become a star.

NOVEMBER

wreaking damage in the province, especially since he had created massive destruction to the country in a 1973 storyline. An RCMP captain orders, “Mobilize Weapon X!” Fourteen pages later, the issue climaxes with the arrival of a snarling, yellow-and-blacksuited man with sharp claws poking from his gloves. He announces, “All right, you freaks – just hold it! If you really want to tangle with someone – why not try your luck against – the Wolverine!” The final caption of Hulk #180 declares, “He’s a living, raging powerhouse who’s bound to knock you back on your emerald posterior.”

That dramatic entrance sets the tone for the epochal Incredible Hulk #181, as Wolverine injects himself into the middle of the intense clash between the Hulk and Wendigo. As writer Len Wein describes in a caption, Wolverine fights “with the savage ferocity of the creature from which he was named.” Wolverine battles the Wendigo tooth and claw, finally triumph127

December: DC’s 100-Page Super-Spectacular format comes to an end.

ing over the monster. After the Wendigo is defeated, Wolverine quickly turns his attention to the Hulk. The duo engage in a vicious struggle, full of twists and turns as drawn by artists Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel. At a standstill, the two combatants are incapacitated by a bystander who hopes to cure her brother from the Wendigo’s curse.

With a debut as equally vivid and star-making as that of the Punisher, Wolverine’s vicious fighting skills, fierce fury and mysterious back-story made him stand out from Marvel’s usual characters. What’s more, Wolverine’s initial appearance is peppered with vague allusions to a long, complex back-story involving the Canadian military. Appropriately for a character whose whole comics career has been shrouded in mystery, Wolverine begins his four-color life as an intriguing enigma.

Wolverine was the creation of several different hands. Initially, Marvel’s ed-

John Romita’s sketches for a new Hulk villain included a note that Wolverine is only 5’ 5” tall. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

itor-in-chief Roy Thomas simply wanted writer Wein to create a Canadian superhero as a way of showing appreciation for Marvel’s Canadian fans. Thomas supplied Wein with a name—Wolverine— and turned Wein loose to create the character. Wein applied himself to researching the nature of wolverines and soon found inspiration in the idea of a character who had the same tenacity as the small, ferocious, fearless creatures that will attack animals much larger than themselves. Interestingly, Wein did not see Wolverine’s claws as part of his body; rather, Wein considered the claws as embedded in the mutant’s gloves (Eury 27-28). John Romita designed Wolverine’s initial look, one that featured a “whisker” design on Wolverine’s face and lowcut ears.

Splash page from Hulk #181.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

But no matter the design, Wolverine was fated to be a star, and in 1975 he would become central to the most 128

influential super-team of the late 1970s. Wein and Thomas dispute whether Wolverine was planned from the beginning to be a member of Thomas’s proposed globe-spanning new X-Men, but the character’s initial blockbuster debut clearly indicates he was definitely slated to become a key member of the Marvel Universe.

Another violent Marvel character first appeared in 1974 as Deathlok the Demolisher began his run in the pages of Astonishing Tales #25 (Aug. 1974), succeeding the short-lived “It! The Living Colossus.” The creation of Fantastic Four artist Rich Buckler and writer Doug Moench, Deathlok was a mutated half-human, half-cyborg named Luther Manning living in the dystopian future of 1990. Manning was a trained assassin who rebelled against his handlers, pursuing violent revenge against those who had destroyed his body and turned him into a killer.

The concept of cyborgs captured the public’s imagination in the early 1970s. Martin Caidin’s popular sci-

character to Roy Thomas, Moench suggested the name “Deathlok.”

Thomas preferred Moench’s suggestion, and the name stuck (Cooke 8). While the subtitle “the Demolisher” was added by Marvel’s editorial team, this ambiguous hero/villain lived up to that name, demolishing everything in his path in his righteous quest for vengeance (Buckler). Clad in futuristic armor, with a halfrotted face and carrying a laser gun and From the mind of Rich Buckler, Deathlok the ankle knife, Deathlok Demolisher premiered in Astonishing Tales #25. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. was a horrific vision of futuristic nihilism and violence. He was perhaps the most ruthless “anti-hero” of Marvel’s mid-’70s period, practically assuring his status as a cult favorite. Deathlok’s series was also notable for containing the first professional work by an artist who would soon attain legendary status: George Pérez. Working as an assistant to Buckler at the time, Pérez drew a two-page backup in Astonishing Tales #25 that told the humorous take of how Buckler and Moench created Deathlok. After assisting Buckler on stories featuring Deathlok, the Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, Pérez went solo and quickly received acclaim as a Marvel artist in his own right.

Cap Hangs It Up!

ence fiction/espionage novel Cyborg presented the idea of Steve Austin, an American astronaut who is nearly killed in a flight but has his limbs and an eye replaced by a mysterious government agency. Caidin used the term bionics to describe the technology that was used on Austin. That novel was adapted for the hugely popular TV movie The Six Million Dollar Man, which aired on ABC-TV on March 7, 1973 and inspired two follow-up films later that year and a top-rated TV series that premiered in January 1974. The public quickly grasped the idea of a man merging with a machine and the term “bionics” entered the national lexicon, especially among kids.

Courtesy of writer Steve Englehart, one of Marvel’s most iconic super-heroes experienced a soul-shattering disillusionment in arguably the most politically charged story that Marvel would publish during the decade.

During late 1973 and into 1974, Captain America and his partner the Falcon traced the tendrils of the terrible Secret Empire, a mysterious offshoot of the nefarious Hydra. As part of a Secret Empire plot, a group calling itself the Committee to Regain America’s Principles (a.k.a. “CRAP”) frames Cap for the murder of a super-villain called the Tumbler.

CRAP is led by Quentin Harderman, an advertising mogul who has been running radio and TV commercials intended to discredit Captain America. One advertisement, featured in the pages of Captain America #169 (Jan. 1974), makes horrible claims against Cap: “For years, Captain America has been a one-man vigilante committee, attacking anyone he deemed a criminal. Some were clearly such – but others were private citizens – men the legal agencies had never molested.”

Thus the ground was set for Buckler’s long-simmering creation, which seized upon both the public’s interest in bionics and its passion for more violent heroes. Deathlok was the epitome of the protagonist who used any means necessary to struggle for causes that he desperately believed were right – most especially those involving his estranged wife Janice and their son.

The character was first referenced in the fourth issue of Marvel’s in-house fanzine FOOM (Winter 1973) as an upcoming feature with the note “Worlds Unknown will concentrate on the Doug Moench-Rich Buckler presentation of a strip based on a half-man, half machine… Cyborg.” Buckler provisionally called his character “Deadlock,” but ten minutes before Buckler and Moench were to present the

The advertising message works. The death of the Tumbler—along with Cap’s subsequent aided escape from prison—results in Captain America being denounced in the media during much of 1974. Harderman’s agency presents a new national hero to the public, the secretly villain129

Some GL 84 original art Copyright Info.

Marvel readers in 1974 knew that the man committing suicide in Captain America #175 was President Nixon.

Nixon’s suicide triggered an existential crisis for Cap. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ous Moonstone, who is sent on media junkets to appear on programs like the Today Show (where he flirts with starlets) and perform newspaper interviews. Moonstone even appears before Congress to testify about the evils of Captain America.

The multi-part epic climaxes in Captain America #175 (July 1974) with a no-holds-barred clash on the White House lawn. Manipulated for the media, Cap and his allies fight a pitched battle against Moonstone and the Secret Empire. The heroes finally win the upper hand as Cap captures the leader of the Secret Empire, Number One, and overcomes Moonstone. In defeat, Moonstone reveals the truth of the Secret Empire’s plans on nationwide TV. At last, the fighting is over and peace is restored …

Except for one loose end. Number One dashes away from his S.H.I.E.L.D. captors and rushes into the Oval Office.

In pursuit, Cap tackles the villain and rips off his hood. Number One’s face is revealed to Cap but hidden from

the readers. “Good lord! You!! But you – you’re…,” Cap mutters. “Exactly!,” Number One responds. “But high political office didn’t satisfy me! My power was still too constrained by legalities!” The man puts a gun up to his head, declaring, “I’ll cash my chips, then!” Number One pulls the trigger which produces a massive KRAK! From there, an emotionally ravaged Cap wanders off, trying to find some measure of inner peace.

Anyone reading the comic in 1974 knew that the leader of the Secret Empire was Richard Nixon. If Number One’s final speech didn’t clarify his identity, there were the blatantly obvious Watergate analogues: Quentin Harderman called to mind H.R. Haldeman, a former advertising executive and Nixon’s former chief of staff as well as a key figure in the Watergate conspiracy. The Secret Empire’s Committee to Regain America’s Principles (CRAP) resembled the real-life Committee for the Re-Election of the President (often abbreviated by Nixon’s enemies as CREEP).

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In short, in the pages of a Marvel comic book, Englehart made the President of the United States the leader of a terrorist organization and then had Nixon commit suicide. But Englehart’s political statement didn’t end with Number One’s demise. Instead, it continued as Marvel’s most patriotic character experiences a crisis of faith. As revealed in the searingly contemplative Captain America #176 (Aug. 1974), Steve Rogers doubts everything he believes in. The trauma of President Nixon’s suicide had been too severe for him to withstand. He could be Captain America no more.

Thus began a saga that would last all the way until Captain America #184 (April 1975). Initially, Cap tries to enjoy life away from the super-hero spotlight, but it seems the world always needs someone to wear the Captain America suit. First Bob Russo, a baseball player and Steve Rogers’s

friend from his gym, tries to put on the red, white and blue suit in order to fight evil. Russo, though, quickly learns that being a hero is harder than it looks, as an ill-fated rope swing ends his Captain America career in issue #178. Biker “Scar” Turpin considers wearing the Captain America costume in issue #179 (an oblique allusion to the 1969 cult classic film Easy Rider, which featured a main character called Captain America), but that idea is swiftly beaten out of “Scar” by one of his friends.

The really fateful moment in this storyline happens in issue #179, when Hawkeye, dressed up as the villainous Golden Archer, suggests that Steve Rogers take on a new identity. Thus, in Captain America #180, Steve Rogers decides to become a new super-hero. He buys his own fabric and sews a black and gold costume for himself. As for what to call himself, he considers names like the Swashbucker, the Privateer and the Gypsy, but then he decides on something that couldn’t be more perfect: the Nomad – the man without a country. The name was suggested by Englehart’s then-girlfriend, Martha Dukeshire (Englehart).

As Nomad, Steve Rogers has some exciting (and humiliating) adventures, but his crime-fighting career in blue and gold never quite feels as important as dressing in the red, white and blue. He is prompted to change back into his old uniform due to the horrific events that happened to his friend Roscoe Simons, who, in issue #181, becomes the second man to temporarily wear the Captain America uniform. In that issue, Roscoe teams up with the Falcon to try to stop the Serpent Squad. He battles valiantly in issue #182, only to be confronted by Cap’s worst enemy, the Red Skull.

The Skull is enraged that the Captain America confronting him is not the same person he’s opposed since World War II. As the Falcon says in Captain America #183, “he captured Roscoe and me, thinking he had you. When he found out it wasn’t ‘his’ Captain America, he went nuts. Started screamin’ that he hadn’t devised his greatest plan to waste on a kid! He slaughtered ‘im, Steve… and beat me to a pulp as a warning.”

After hanging up the red, white and blue of Captain America, Steve Rogers briefly took on the mantle of Nomad, “the man without a country.”

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

going without Captain America in it?’ My answer led to the Nomad, Roscoe and all this stuff” (Brodsky 71).

Namor Hangs It Up! While Captain America went through a journey of selfdiscovery, one of his long-time allies lost his spotlight.

Sub-Mariner finished its six-year solo run with issue #72 (Sept. 1974). Despite a major change to the title only seven issues before, and Namor’s change of clothes from his slim green swimsuit into an open-necked black finned suit in issue #67, declining sales pushed the “Savage Sub-Mariner, Scourge of the Seven Seas,” to his ultimate fate.

Confronting the ultimate consequences of his actions, Captain America thinks long and hard. He comes to peace with the evil that was done to the country. He embraces the horror that Number One had wrought and uses his anger at the events to drive his zeal to see the world as morally complex. Ironically, the actions of his greatest enemy encourage Cap to embrace his place in the modern world.

As Englehart sums up the storyline at the end of Captain America #184, “34 years ago this month, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America. There are many risings and advancing of the spirit.”

Sub-Mariner #72 was the second half of one of the most unique intercompany crossovers in comic book history. It was written by Steve Skeates, who had also written the final issue of DC’s seafaring protagonist Aquaman, #56, in 1971. At the end of Aquaman #56, DC’s oceanic hero remotely detonated a satellite that been unleashing an ecological disaster on Earth. Three years later, in the final issue of the Sub-Mariner’s solo adventures, the detonation panel was re-enacted – though by a hero wearing a blue glove rather than Aquaman’s green glove. As a caption in Sub-Mariner #72 declared, “Who that man is... and why he wished to destroy the satellite... that need not concern us!” What did concern Namor was an alien entity that

Englehart had always planned on the storyline taking the turn that it did. He imagined the sequence pretty much as published: “Everybody sort of assumed that Cap would be gone for an issue or two, maybe four issues, but he was gone a long time. Doing the book month after month without him – you talk about challenges, that was a challenge. I loved every minute of it. I would think, ‘How can I keep this

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Ka-Zar joined the steady march of characters who left their homes in anthology titles for their own series.

The Lord of the Hidden Jungle moved from Astonishing Tales—in which he’d starred or costarred since late 1970— to his own solo series beginning with Ka-Zar #1 (Jan. 1974), with Mike Friedrich remaining at the writing helm and journeyman Paul Reinman taking over the art.

Ka-Zar also headlined Marvel’s Savage Tales beginning with issue #6 (Sept. 1974).

Marvel Feature’s team-up stories featuring the Fantastic Four’s Thing spun out into a new series titled Marvel Two-In-One where Panels from the final issue of Sub-Mariner (bottom) echoed writer Steve Gerber paired a scene from the final issue of Aquaman, published in 1971 (top).

Aquaman TM and © DC Comics Inc. Sub-Mariner TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Ben Grimm with other Marvel super-heroes, including had been exploring the satellite and Daredevil, the Sub-Mariner and the which was hurled to Earth where it Guardians of the Galaxy. The first morphed into a rampaging creature. issue had the Thing take a trip to The fact that the impetus for the story Florida, where he encountered the was a three-year-old comic from the Man-Thing and had a silly battle over “Distinguished Competition” was an the name “Thing.”

Gerber wrote the inside joke that went way over the adventures of the strongest member heads of most readers, but that fact of the Fantastic Four with real affecdidn’t diminish Skeates’s delight. tion and joy, frequently crossing over Despite Sub-Mariner’s cancellation, with storylines from his other titles.

Marvel continued to release an averMarvel Two-In-One’s Daredevil issue, age of 44 comics per month through for instance, wrapped up threads 1974, topping out at 59 releases with from Gerber’s run on DD’s title, while October 1974 cover dates. Compared the Guardians of the Galaxy appearto the year before, Marvel stabilized ance would become part of a plotline the rapid expansion of its line, albeit in Gerber’s Defenders in 1975. at a very high number of comics.

Gerber also helmed the launch of another Marvel character into his

Among the characters who moved from anthology titles to their own comics in 1974 were Ka-Zar and Man-Thing.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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own series. In this case, the transition literally happened in the middle of a story. The universe-spanning adventure that had introduced Howard the Duck, among other characters, in Fear #19, immediately continued into Man-Thing #1 (Jan. 1974) for its conclusion. (This wouldn’t be the last that Marvel fans would hear from Howard.)

Succeeding the Man-Thing in Fear was Morbius, the Living Vampire. Beginning with Fear #20 (Feb. 1974), the adventures of the pallid and tortured scientific vampire were initially writ-

Marvel’s roster of new titles in 1974 included a new monster series (“Man-Wolf” in Creatures on the Loose), a new Dr. Strange series and a new martial arts series (“Iron Fist” in Marvel Premiere.) TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ten by Mike Friedrich and illustrated by fan-turned-pro Paul Gulacy.

Later, Steve Gerber would take over the writing of the series and deliver a meandering, often psychedelic, storyline.

In 1974, Morbius was joined on the stands by another former Spider-Man supporting character as Man-Wolf began a solo run with Creatures on the Loose #30 (July 1974). Similar to Morbius, the Man-Wolf was a monster with a scientific twist to his origin, as astronaut John Jameson (son of J. Jonah Jameson) received the curse of lycanthropy on an ill-fated space journey. Initially manned by writer Doug Moench and artist George Tuska, this short-lived series eventually featured fervent stories by writer David Anthony Kraft and artist George Perez in the final five of its eight issues.

By the end of 1974, Marvel was publishing fourteen different comics featuring supernatural or monstrous protagonists, a huge jump from just two years before. Series included Dracula Lives!, The Frankenstein Monster, The Golem in Strange Tales, Ghost Rider, The Living Mummy in Supernatural Thrillers, Man-Thing, Man-Wolf in Creatures on the Loose, Monsters Unleashed, Morbius in Fear, Son of Satan in Marvel Spotlight, Tales of the Zombie, Tomb of Dracula, Vampire Tales and Werewolf by Night. By

contrast, DC offered just three titles with mystical leads—The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre in Adventure Comics and Swamp Thing—and only the only other comic books featuring supernatural protagonists were Warren’s Eerie and Vampirella, and Skywald’s horror magazines.

Another mystic Marvel mainstay moved into his own title in 1974, as Marvel Premiere #14 (March 1974) led into Doctor Strange #1 the following month. In the new series, writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner continued presenting astonishing stories that literally spanned all space and time. Under Englehart and Brunner, Doctor Strange was one of the most cosmic series of the 1970s, much beloved by fans for its psychedelic storylines. In one issue—after a closely implied sexual encounter between Dr. Strange and his disciple Clea—Strange is attacked and nearly killed by the dangerous Silver Dagger. After facing Death, Strange is transported to a land influenced by Alice in Wonderland, complete with a hookah-smoking caterpillar, all in an effort to help the mystic master face his own mortality.

Doctor Strange was succeeded in Marvel Premiere by a new series that was part of a growing sub-line of comics intended to capitalize on the martial arts fad. Following the 1973 debut of 133

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and Dick Giordano introduced Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974). Daniel Rand was the child of a wealthy businessman who had discovered the mystical city of K’un-L’un as a young boy. After his father is killed by some strange assassins, Daniel is brought to that mystical city where he learns the ancient martial art of the Iron Fist.

Rand is tattooed with an image of a dragon on his chest before he is sent back to America to seek his revenge on the men who stole his father’s business. Writer Thomas based the name and some of the concepts of his new action star on the 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film Duel of the Iron Fist, which contained a plot element called “the ceremony of the iron fist,” a name that stuck in Thomas’s mind (Amash 38). In the movie David Chiang, who plays the heroic Chiang Nan, wears a tattoo on his chest as a symbol of his search for the lovely woman nicknamed “Butterfly.” The Utopian elements of Iron Fist’s origin also owe some credit to Bill Everett’s seminal 1939 creation Amazing Man. Iron Fist would prove to be popular enough to spin out into his own series a year later.

Joining Marvel Premiere and Master of Kung Fu was a third martial arts comic: the black-and-white magazine

the Apes universe and an adaptation of the first Apes movie, as well as several text and photo pieces about the world of the Planet of the Apes.

The Savage Sword of Conan—whose eventual 21-year run surpassed every other Marvel black-and-white title—also joined the burgeoning magazine line in 1974, with every title providing slightly more adult versions of the stories printed in Marvel’s color comics. By year’s end, Marvel’s twelve magazines encompassed sword & sorcery (Savage Tales, Savage Sword of Conan), hor­ror (Monsters of the Movies, Monsters Unleashed, Vampire Tales, Dracula Lives, Haunt of Horror, Tales of the Zombie), humor (Crazy, Comix Book), kung fu (Deadly Hands of Kung Fu) and movie adaptations (Planet of the Apes). In 1975 a science fiction series would join them.

Marvel’s magazine line didn’t include one series that was planned for release that year: Marvel was reported in early 1974 to be closing negotiations with Toho Studios in Japan to adapt Godzilla as a magazine-sized comic. Tony Isabella was to write the series and Larry Lieber to illustrate it.

However, Marvel didn’t publish Godzilla until 1977. Iron Fist was also slated to receive his own black-and-white magazine in 1974, written by Len Wein, illustrated by Gil Kane, and featuring a back-up series starring a brother-sister team called “Dragons Two” that was created by Isabella and Mark Evanier. The magazine, though, never appeared.

Marvel’s expansion in the magazine market impacted Skywald and Warren, the companies that previously had the magazine-sized comic space all to themselves. Both publishers were financially devastated by Marvel’s intrusion into their business. Marvel’s distributor actively worked to push Skywald’s Psycho, Nightmare and Scream off the newsstands, making it impossible for that company to survive, even if it could withstand the poaching of its creators to work on Marvel’s magazines. By 1975 Skywald would be out of business.

After a long pursuit, Marvel acquired the rights to produce a Planet of the Apes magazine in 1974, just as a new TV series was about to debut.

TM and © Twentieth Century Fox.

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Each issue of Deadly Hands featured a mix of comics and feature articles. Under glorious covers by Neal Adams, the comics in the magazine featured the kung fu adventures of Shang-Chi and the Sons of the Tiger, while feature articles discussed topics such as the legend of Bruce Lee and effective martial arts moves.

One of the most exciting licensed properties that Marvel snapped up in 1974 was the wildly popular film series Planet of the Apes. Marvel’s first magazine-sized Apes issue was released in June 1974, just a few months prior to the launch of the POTA TV series and the re-release of all the films in the Apes cycle to movie theatres. The comic series presented both original stories set in

Besides setting its sights on magazine rack space, Marvel also attempted to grab its share of the oversize comics market that DC had been monopolizing for a couple of years.

In June 1974, Marvel released Marvel Treasury Edition #1. Retailing for $1.50 and printed at the larger size DC pioneered in 1972 with its Famous First Edition and Limited Collector’s Edition books, Marvel Treasury Edition’s collection of Spider-Man tales included classic 1960s stories by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita. However, in order to fit Marvel actively worked to push Skywald’s magazines, such as Scream and Nightmare, off the stands. the tabloid’s differTM and © respective copyright holder. ent dimensions, the 134

Giant-Size Spider-Man and the notoriously suggestive Giant-Size ManThing. Some of these Giant-Size comics were integrated with the ongoing series. Giant-Size Avengers #1, for instance, was written by Roy Thomas (off the title for several years) and provided payoffs for some of the main title’s storylines with the reveals that Golden Age heroes the Whizzer and Miss America were the parents of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (an idea which would later be retconned away). Giant-Size Defenders, on the other hand, kicked off a major storyline that continued into the team’s (or more appropriately, non-team’s) main title.

bottom quarter of many pages had to be lopped off. Marvel would publish treasury tabloids until 1981.

Other Giant-Size books featured oneshot stories. Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2 presented a 30-page time travel epic by Gerry Conway and John Buscema while Giant-Size Conan #1 offered an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “The Hour of the Dragon” by Thomas, Gil Kane and Tom Sutton.

In 1974, Marvel also began publishing 48-page quarterly Giant-Size comics. The line initially started with the generically named Giant-Size SuperStars (May 1974, starring the Fantastic Four), Giant-Size Super-Heroes (June 1974, starring Spider-Man), Giant-Size Chillers (June 1974, starring Dracula) and Giant-Size Creatures (July 1974, starring Werewolf by Night). By summer, Marvel replaced the generic titles with books that spun off from their main series, such as Giant-Size Avengers, Giant-Size Conan, Giant-Size Defenders, Giant-Size Fantastic Four,

The problem with the Giant-Size books was that they were put on the production schedule so abruptly that some creative teams found themselves in a bind to meet deadlines. This necessitated the use of partial reprints… or artistic shortcuts. For example, for Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3, artist Rich Buckler literally penciled stick figures on the art board for inker Joe Sinnott to finish drawing. Buckler had to supply notes so Sinnott could figure out how the stick figures correlated to specific characters. Nearly all of the Giant-Size books carried some re-

Readers could order Treasury tabloids directly from Marvel. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Roy Thomas poses for Marvel’s in-house fan magazine, FOOM.

prints and many featured all reprints, including 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #2, Giant-Size Spider-Man #6 and GiantSize Thor #1.

Roy Hangs It Up! Despite the dramatic expansion of Marvel’s line, Marvel’s editorial system was the same as it had been when Stan Lee was responsible for running his small stable of titles. Essentially, one person—with the help of some assistants—managed Marvel’s entire catalog. More and more, it was becoming a task that few men could possibly handle alone. As Roy Thomas, Stan’s protégé and successor as editor-in-chief, reflected, “It was like the old Alice in Wonderland line about having to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place” (Amash 32).

Thomas managed his workload as best he could, mainly by giving his creators a large amount of freedom to sink or swim on their own. Most of the writers were given the autonomy to create comics that matched their

Among the many Marvel comics that received the Giant-Size format were Creatures, Avengers, Chillers and Conan. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan TM and © CPI.

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nearly as much time at Marvel as he had. Needless to say, Conway wasn’t happy.

artistic sensibilities. As writer Marv Wolfman put it, “Roy was very open to ideas, and allowed you to do almost anything” (Howe 150). Always more a writer at heart than a manager, Thomas believed in putting his creators ahead of business… which didn’t always help him with Marvel’s internal corporate politics.

And with that, the seeds for Conway’s departure from Marvel had been sown.

Original Stan

Marvel moved into the trade book market for the first time Thomas’s reign as editor-in-chief with the September 1974 publicame to an end in August 1974 cation of Origins of Marvel Comwhen freelance artist Frank Robics, from Fireside Books, a youngbins lied about the rate DC was adult imprint of Simon and paying him in an attempt to Schuster. Following the example negotiate a higher wage with of earlier books like Jules Feiffer’s Marvel (Quattro). After Stan Lee The Great Comic Book Heroes, Les found out about Robbins’s deceit, Daniels’ Comix, Batman (and Suhe and DC publisher Carmine Inperman) from the 30s to the 70s, fantino went out to lunch. Upon and Ms. Books’ Wonder Woman, discussing the matter, the two Origins reprinted the origin stoexecutives came to an agreery and one newer story from five ment: going forward, they would of Marvel’s key heroes: Fantastic share information about what Four #1 and #55; Spider-Man’s their freelancers were being origin in Amazing Fantasy #15 paid. Whether they realized it or and an adventure from Amazing not, this essentially amounted to Spider-Man #72; Thor’s origin collusion to hold down pay rates. from Journey Into Mystery #83 Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics presented an avuncular Infantino later vehemently deand a thrilling adventure from and kid-friendly view of the founding of Marvel Comics along nied that he had colluded with with several classic stories. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Thor #143; Hulk #1 and #118; Lee, but nevertheless, when Lee and Doctor Strange’s debut from told Thomas of the mutual agreeStrange Tales #110, his origin from Strange Tales #115, and ment, the latter felt it was unacceptable. As a former freean story from Strange Tales #155. lance writer himself, Thomas considered the accord “imStan Lee wrote the book’s introduction as well as anecmoral, unethical and probably illegal,” and wrote Lee a dotal lead-ins to every story. Thanks to Lee’s avuncular, memo outlining his position. When Thomas returned to self-effacing writing style, the history of Marvel Comics the office the next day, Lee said to him, “I guess you meant was presented with undeniable charm, allowing Origins to this as your letter of resignation.” Thomas hesitated a moperpetuate an idyllic notion that was established in Lee’s ment in surprise… and then agreed. popular “Stan’s Soapbox” columns: Marvel was a really fun After serving for over two years as Marvel’s editor-in-chief, workplace.

Roy Thomas stepped down from the position. Following a Origins was a smash hit among its target audience, becomshort amount of wrangling, Thomas negotiated a special ing a popular public library mainstay as well as an ideal title for himself: writer/editor on his series. No matter how Christmas gift. Consequently, Fireside commissioned anMarvel’s policies changed, Thomas would remain autononual sequels to the book: Son of Origins followed a year latmous on the comic books that he worked on (Amash 23-24). er; Bring on the Bad Guys was published in 1976, and The Lee subsequently split the editor-in-chief responsibilities Superhero Women saw print in 1977. between two people who also happened to be good friends: Len Wein (who would manage the color comics) and Marv Marvel Goes Underground Wolfman (who was in charge of the black-and-white Perhaps the oddest Marvel release of 1974 was a magamagazines). Wolfman had extensive editorial experience zine-sized comic that didn’t carry the Marvel Comics banwith Warren Publishing and DC Comics before working for ner. Comix Book was the surprising result of a three year Marvel, but Wein had been a Marvel Assistant Editor for a courtship by Stan Lee of underground comix publisher Demere three months at the time of his promotion. That fact nis Kitchen. didn’t sit well with some people, particularly writer Gerry Conway, who believed Stan Lee had previously promised Similar to the way he pursued Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzto promote him to the editor-in-chief position if Thomas man, Tom Stoppard and other prominent comics and litever resigned (Gustaveson 72). But now, without explanaerary figures, Lee had been after Kitchen for several years tion, Conway found himself passed over for the role, and to launch a kind of “ground-level” book to be published he would have to answer to two men who hadn’t spent through Marvel’s auspices. Kitchen owned Krupp Comic Works, a company that included Kitchen Sink Press. At 136

One of the oddest comics Marvel ever released was Comix Book, a collection of short stories by underground cartoonists. Appearing alongside Denis Kitchen is Stan Lee, rendered as a J. Jonah Jameson lookalike.

TM and ©Peter Poplaski. TM and © Denis Kitchen.

comics, and that cut out a good part of our mainstay” (Cooke 103).

Kitchen Sink, Denis Kitchen published some of the most prominent underground cartoonists of the era, including R. Crumb, Skip Williamson and Trina Robbins. Kitchen believed that Lee courted him because Marvel was always looking to expand its line into popular genres and styles: “we had something that he needed, which was fresh blood, fresh perspective.

He’d seen all these genres go; it was cyclical, and here was a new generation, doing these newfangled underground comix, and he wanted a piece of it” (Cooke 104).

By 1974, however, the comix industry was fading thanks in part to a glut of substandard books (Cooke 103). Furthermore, the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. California established a rule for determining ob­ scenity that helped drive head shops out of business. The “community standards” principle in Miller was fre­ quently used against adult movie the­ atres and bookstores in cities across the United States. Miller was also spe­ cifically used to justify the targeting of head shops that sold sexually ex­ plicit material. Therefore, stores often stopped selling underground comix, forcing publishers to scramble in or­ der to survive (Brownstein). In 1970 undergrounds were a hot commod­ ity; in the wake of Miller, by 1974, comix were marginalized and titles like Jack Katz’s revolutionary new The First Kingdom struggled to survive.

As Kitchen remembered, “Overnight, a lot of our head shop customers literally stopped buy­ing underground

Lee had offered Kitchen’s business a lifeline at precisely the moment Kitchen needed help the most. In fact, not only did Marvel help subsidize Krupp during a lean period, Lee also offered Denis Kitchen an unprecedented amount of latitude to create his new magazine and recruit creators for it.

Perhaps most significantly, Lee agreed to Kitchen’s strictly non-negotiable condition that all original art produced for Comix Book be returned to its creators. This was a unique arrangement for Marvel Comics to enter into. In fact, at this point, of all the major comic book publishers, only Warren Publications had instituted a policy of returning original art to its creators. This initial crack in the wall of publisher unanimity would later lead to major reforms from both Marvel and DC. Also exceptional in the agreement was the fact that Marvel did not own the copyright to the characters that were published in Comix Book. Rather, Marvel only signed to receive “First North American Serial Rights,” which was the standard policy in the book and magazine publishing industries but virtually unprecedented in comics outside of the undergrounds. In addition, Kitchen remembered being allowed to include “swear words, but not the ‘ultimate’ swear words,” along with mild nudity, a positive approach to drug use and other ideological positions (e.g. disrespect for the police, mistrust of traditional family values) that never would be allowed by 137

the Comics Code (Cooke 104). Finally, Marvel paid the extremely high rate of $100 for completed comics pages that would run in Comix Book (Cooke 107).

The premiere issue of Comix Book, dated December 1974, featured material by such comix luminaries as Justin Green, Art Spiegelman, Skip Williamson and Howard Cruse. The magazine-sized comic carried a cover slug that read “Curtis” rather than “Marvel.” This was the case with other Marvel Magazines of the era, so that wasn’t unusual. What was unusual, however, was Stan Lee’s masthead title on the project: “Instigator.” With that title, Stan wouldn’t be blamed if the book failed, but if Comix Book succeeded, he could get credit for “instigating” the project.

Unfortunately for Lee and Kitchen, the former occurred: The ambitious union of underground comix and Marvel Comics was ultimately unsuccessful. Comix Book sold approximately 30% of its 200,000-250,000 copy print run – a very low number (Cooke 106).

Ultimately, Comix Book only lasted three issues at Marvel. Kitchen was working on Comix Book #3, with issues #4 and #5 partially finished, when the magazine was cancelled by Marvel’s executives, so Kitchen decided to complete the run of Comix Book at his own publishing house. All five issues include stories and art by some of the most acclaimed underground cartoonists of the mid-1970s.

Art Spiegelman’s early three-page underground version of his acclaimed “Maus” was reprinted in issue #2,

Selection of the 100-Page Super Spectacular issues of World’s Finest Comics, The Unexpected, Superman Family and Shazam! TM and © DC Comics.

early exposure for a breakout talent. Other well-known cartoonists who produced material in some of the five issues included Sharon Rudahl, S. Clay Wilson, Ted Richards, Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Kitchen himself and even Marvel artist Mike Ploog.

a quarter. Following the successful revival of the 100 Page Super Spectacular, DC began publishing several of its books in the squarebound 100-page format.

Twelve ongoing comics were published as 100-page bimonthly series between March 1974 and April 1975—nearly a third of National’s full line of books at the time—with seven others adopting the format for single-issue specials.

The comics—initially priced at 50¢ and then bumped up to 60¢ with cover date April 1974—featured a mix of new stories alongside reprints of classics culled from DC’s deep library of archival material.

Denis Kitchen credits the ultimate cancellation of Comix Book not to low sales or the controversial nature of some of its stories, but to the resentment and frustration that many Marvel freelancers felt about the greater freedoms granted to Comix Book’s writers and artists. Marvel’s creative staffers groused that the underground upstarts were receiving better treatment than the creators who were putting together Marvel’s most popular series. The project had a kind of “Pandora’s Box Effect,” as Kitchen called it. “I still don’t know if Comix Book was killed because of sales alone, or if the political issues were causing so much trouble that [Lee] just had to cut it” (Cooke 107).

The comics published in the 100-page format included: Batman #254-261 (Jan.-Feb. 1974 - March-April 1975), The Brave and the Bold #112-117 (April-May 1974 – Feb.-March 1975), Detective Comics #438-445 (Dec. 1973-Jan. 1974 – Feb.-March 1975), House of Mystery #224-229 (April-May 1974 – Feb.-March 1975), Justice League of America #110116 (March-April 1974 - March-April 1975), Shazam! #1217 (May-June 1974 - March-April 1975), Superman Family #164-169 (April-May 1974 – Feb.-March 1975), Tarzan #230235 (April-May 1974 – Feb.-March 1975), The Unexpected #157-162 (May-June 1974 - March-April 1975), World’s Finest Comics #223-228 (May-June 1974 - March 1975), Young Love #107-114 (Dec. 1973-Jan. 1974 – Feb.-March 1975) and Young Romance #197-204 (Jan.-Feb. 1974 - March-April 1975).

DC Gets More Super and More Spectacular In an average month in 1974, DC Comics had 24 comics on the newsstand while Marvel had 44. In some months, Marvel released over twice as many comics as DC did. In fact, Marvel released nearly a third of the approximately 1670 comic books released in 1974 while DC released about 18% of that total, with the remainder split among Archie, Charlton, Gold Key, Harvey, Skywald and Warren.

But what DC lacked in quantity, it more than made up for in size. The majority of Marvel’s comics were in the standard 36-page, 25¢ format, with its Giant-Size books delivering 68 pages for 50¢. DC, on the other hand, dove back into giant-size comics in a big way in early 1974, just two years after dropping its line back from 48-page comics sold for

DC’s romance comics also went to the 100-page size. TM and © DC Comic

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While the 100-page package was popular with DC’s staffers, it faced resistance from both fans and distributors.

Columnist Howard Siegel noted in the popular fanzine RBCC that “I was hard put [on a trip to the South and Midwest] to find any outlets with a full display. The 50-60¢ DC SuperSpectaculars were nowhere to be seen” (Siegel). Some consumers balked at the inflated

Sam Glanzman, Frank Robbins and Jack Sparling.

price point, especially because the majority of material within each issue was reprints.

But Goodwin really made his mark at DC in 1974 with his innovative editing of Detective Comics. Taking over the title with issue #437 (Oct.-Nov. 1973), Goodwin wrote the first two issues himself, jolting fans with his depiction of Bruce Wayne as a shallow playboy rather than the compassionate philanthropist of recent years. Issues #437 and #438 were the first Batman solo stories ever drawn

by Brave & Bold artist Jim Aparo but the rest of Goodwin’s run on the title presented intriguing artwork from creators who were not ordinarily associated with the Dark Knight Detective at all.

Between 1973 and 1974, sales of most DC titles remained essentially unchanged. The elevated cover price, however, meant more profit for DC. For instance, in 1973, sales on Justice League of America averaged 187,051 copies per issue. In 1974, with its cover price tripled, the title’s monthly sales average climbed to 189,392.

Similarly, sales on the Batman teamup title The Brave and the Bold edged up from an average of 190,047 in 1973 to 191,722. Sales on World’s Finest Comics (featuring Superman and Batman) edged down slightly from 246,871 in 1973 to 242,726 in 1974.

Several titles reported improved sales with the 100 page format: both Young Love and Young Romance had jumps of over 10,000 sales per issue between 1973 and 1974. Tarzan, though, experienced the biggest jump, leaping from an average of 209,790 in 1973 to 223,710 in 1974.

One of them was Sal Amendola, who convinced Goodwin to run a story that Julius Schwartz had recently rejected. Inspired by a Batman “incident” suggested by Neal Adams, The 100-page issues of Tarzan included stories by Russ Amendola had penciled a story (coManning. TM and © ERB, Inc. plotted with his brother Vin) that incorporated the scene and had Steve Englehart lined up to dialogue it. Where Schwartz saw a The Tarzan 100-page comics were remarkable not just for vignette with no plot, Goodwin saw a tale with vivid atmothe intense new Tarzan stories that Joe Kubert wrote and sphere and characterization. With Goodwin approving the drew, or for the wonderful Korak stories by the likes of Robstory for production, Englehart came on board and then ert Kanigher, Alex Niño and Russ Heath, but for providing Dick Giordano inked Amendola’s pencil work. “Night of comics readers with extended runs of Russ Manning’s Tarthe Stalker” was published in Detective Comics #439 (Feb./ zan newspaper strip. Many of Manning’s comic strips were March 1974). reprinted in the freestanding Tarzan Digest #1 (1972) and DC 100-Page The story—which would subseSuper Spectacular #DC-19 (1973). quently earn a Shazam Award DC continued that new tradition nomination—has Batman stalking throughout the run of 100-page Tara group of criminals that brutally zan issues. For the previous six years, shoot a boy’s mother right in front of Manning’s Tarzan was a highlight of his eyes, an event that reminds Bruce daily and Sunday newspaper pages; Wayne of why he donned the cape finally in 1974 his earlier stories had and cowl. In this story, Batman is a a regular home in comic books for a silent avenger, tracking the criminew group of fans to enjoy. nals deep into the forest like a feral animal. The story’s final panel shows Another remarkable 100-page title Bruce Wayne—still in his Batman DC published throughout 1974 was costume but with the cowl pulled Detective Comics, edited for just one down from his face—crying in front year by one of comics’ most beloved of a portrait of his parents. Ameneditors and writers, Archie Gooddola reminded readers of both the win. Goodwin moved to a staff job at humanity and passion of the Caped DC after several years mainly doing Crusader – something that Englehart freelance writing for comic strips. would do himself when he returned DC assigned him to edit three of its to write the character three years latwar comics: Our Fighting Forces, Star er in a definitive run of issues.

Spangled War Stories and G.I. Combat. Goodwin did an outstanding Amendola and Giordano next job of juggling DC’s deep roster of teamed with Goodwin for an intrigucreators who worked mainly in the ing story of mountain madness in war comics line, including Robert “Night of the Stalker” from Detective Comics #439 Detective #440 (April/May 1974). is considered to be one of the most classic Batman Kanigher, John Severin, Russ Heath, stories ever told. TM and © DC Comics.

The fan appreciation for the How139

up in knots” while creating it (Tiefenbacher 7), “Death Flies the Haunted Sky” garnered tremendous acclaim, becoming a story that Toth was praised for throughout the remainder of his life.

The unquestioned breakout stars of Goodwin’s run on Detective were an artist and a character. The artist was Walter Simonson, and the character was Paul Kirk, Manhunter. Debuting in Detective #438 (Jan. 1974) Manhunter ran as a back-up feature for six issues before Detective Comics #443 presented an explosive teamup between Manhunter and the Batman in a story titled “Götterdämmerung.”

The seven chapter Manhunter serial showcased globetrotting adventures of a man cloned from the cells of an action hero long thought dead. In the 1930s Manhunter hunted the world’s most dangerous game – evil criminals – before Uncle Sam recruited him to fight in World War II. After the war, Manhunter is trampled to death by an elephant while on safari.

(The circumstances of Kirk’s death raise the possibility that it was a manipulated event rather than a tragic accident.) Regardless, death is not the end for Paul Kirk. The mad genius Dr. Mykros clones the former Manhunter’s cells in order to help support The Council, a secret, evil group dedicated to ruling the world.

The seven-part “Manhunter” serial wrapped in Detective Comics #443 with a team-up between Manhunter and Batman. TM and © DC Comics.

ard Chaykin-drawn story in Detective Comics #441 was topped only by what was offered in issue #442, which was drawn by the legendary Alex Toth.

Written by Goodwin, “Death Flies the Haunted Sky!” indulges Toth’s love for classic aviation and his passion for stark chiaroscuro shading as it tells the story of a battle between two rival groups of aviators. Batman is largely an outsider in this tale of pilots, love and murder, but the real star is Toth’s art. Though the story had Toth “tied

Intended to be the leader of an army of Manhunter clones, Kirk is trained in ninjitsu, the Japanese spy art which involves mastery of almost all other martial arts. Kirk needs all those skills when he rebels against his masters and eludes his clones (who are ordered to kill him) in a thrilling adventure story that hops from Nepal to Kolkata to Zürich, Brasilia, Marrakech and Gotham City. In Gotham, Kirk meets and teams up with The Batman, and the pair, along with their allies, engage in a final, desperate struggle to prevent The Council from destroying the world. In the end, Manhunter makes the ultimate sac140

rifice to destroy The Council’s headquarters and save civilization.

Goodwin and Simonson won several Shazam Awards for their work on the Manhunter serial, including the 1974 and 1975 Best Individual Story awards for “The Himalayan Incident” in Detective Comics #438 and “Götterdämmerung” in Detective Comics #443; Best Individual Short Story (Dramatic) award for “Cathedral Perilous” in Detective Comics #441; and Goodwin himself won the Best Writer (Dramatic Division) award in both years.

Not bad for a little backup story that Goodwin created as a counterpoint to Detective Comics’ lead Batman stories.

As Simonson explained, “While Batman was dark and grim and very urban, [Manhunter] would be a guy in brighter colors and the whole world would be his stage. Where Batman was more or less an empty hand combatant, this guy would carry weaponry” (Nolen-Weathington 16). After Simonson joined the project, the two creators worked up a treatment for Manhunter, working in a collaborative way to develop the character’s costume, storylines and motivation.

Drawing its title and influence from a character that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created in the 1940s, the world of Manhunter quickly grew more complex than Goodwin and Simonson had expected. Simonson drew some of the most densely packed pages of his career and Goodwin labored over his scripts. Their work on the series came at a cost, however: Simonson contracted walking pneumonia and mononucleosis, while Goodwin fell behind on his editing chores and gained fifteen pounds (Goodwin 10).

But the care and passion the creative team felt for Paul Kirk was on display in every page of the story.

The Wrath of the Spectre In 1974, DC published its most bloodthirsty character of the decade, as editor Joe Orlando, writer Michael Fleisher and artist Jim Aparo revived the classic Golden Age hero the Spectre in the pages of Adventure Comics.

Created in 1940 by Jerry Siegel of Superman fame, the Spectre reflected the same dark mood that influenced the creations of Marvel Comics’ Wol-

verine, the Punisher and Deathlok.

Premiering in Adventure Comics #431 (Jan.-Feb. 1974), this series was unlike anything that ever been approved by the Comics Code Authority. The Spectre was an unyielding spirit of vengeance, a supernatural tool for otherworldly revenge against those who committed evil crimes.

lightfully ironic—and bloody—fates.

Fleisher’s stories had a dark, often Biblical sense of horror to them. “The Spectre was for me a sort of a vengeful Old Testament God-like character, wreaking vengeance from beyond the

Deeply embedded in his research in the DC offices for his Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Fleisher suggested to Orlando that he revive the Spectre, a character that had been dormant since his ten-issue eponymous series ended in 1969. Fleisher imagined the new series as a revival of the spirit of the early years of the character. As Fleisher stated several years later, “The early ‘Spectre’ stories were much more in keeping with my own sensibility” (Sanderson, “The Wrath Against… the Spectre”). Fleisher lent Orlando his drafted Encyclopedia entry about the Spectre. After reading it, Orlando agreed to feature the character in Adventure.

In many ways “The Spectre” was a resurrection of the spirit of a classic comic book that Orlando had contributed to in the 1950s: E.C.’s Tales from the Crypt. In his tales of dark vengeance wreaked in tremendously imaginative and bizarre ways, Michael Fleisher took readers on a dark thrill ride in which evil villains met their de-

The Spectre strip in Adventure Comics presented the character as the spirit of vengeance, meting out terrible fates to evil-doers. TM and © DC Comics

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grave,” Fleisher declared (Sanderson, “The Dark Justice of… the Spectre!”).

During this ten-issue Adventure Comics run, one evil man was turned into a block of wood and then cut to pieces with a chainsaw. Another villain had

Heroes Aren’t Dead A Recollection by Elliot S. Maggin [Editor’s note: From 1972 to 1976, Elliot S. Maggin wrote many issues of Batman, Detective Comics, Justice League of America, and Shazam!, but he was principally assigned to the two main titles featuring the Man of Steel: Action Comics and Superman.]

In 1974, I told Julie [Schwartz], and later wrote in a memo to Carmine [Infantino], that heroes aren’t dead.

More specifically, that they were no longer dead. This was the early-/mid-Seventies and the culture had gone through a traumatic time. JFK, Dr. King, Malcolm and Bobby were gone – gunned down, all of them, like a bunch of bleeding western marshals from another century, for heaven’s sakes. The current President was involved in a deepening scandal that would bring him to ruin and disgrace. News was coming around weekly, it seemed, of one peccadillo or other that disillusioned us with regard to everyone we admired, living or dead.

One of the few times that the Spectre did not kill. TM and © DC Comics.

his car hurled into the upper atmosphere by the Spectre, while others were mauled by stuffed gorillas or multiheaded venomous hydras brought to life, or thrown into a pit of alligators, or destroyed by a giant squid, or turned to glass and shattered, or cut in half by giant scissors, with each scene carefully staged by Aparo to meet Comics Code guidelines.

And here I was writing Superman and trying my damnedest to evade the gathering fashion of cutting down the hero for whose legend I was currently responsible, to make him more human, more accessible to our audience. Denny and Neal were filling Green Lantern, the man without fear, with self-doubt. Gerry was killing off the people closest to Spider-Man and showing that with great power came no particular personal advantage at all. Batman was returning to his obsessive, raging, lunatic roots. Heroes were hardly heroic any more and even the academics were noticing. A close friend of mine, a college president, wrote a well respected book about it called When Dreams and Heroes Died.

This was disturbingly dark content, which only a few years earlier would have been rejected out of hand by the Comics Code. By 1974, however, these Spectre comics received the Comics Code Authority seal, something that tickled Orlando to no end. As he confessed years later, “The fact is, I would read the Code and figure out all the things I couldn’t do, then figure out how I could do them and give the Code all kinds of problems. … In effect, we were constantly testing the Code” (Sanderson, “The Four Lives of… the Spectre!”).

But Superman wasn’t about accessibility. He was about the possibility of exceeding human potential, about pointing the way to the future. So I wrote a memo to my publisher contending that the sociological ground was shifting again, that it was time to make a Superman movie and I was the guy to write it.

Carmine loved the memo. He pulled Julie and me into his office, shut the door and said we were going to do precisely that, although he stopped short of saying I could write it. I went home and wrote up my idea of a feature film treatment anyway. And I didn’t get to work on the movie, but I did get to turn my story into a book [Superman: Last Son of Krypton] that sold really well. I think it was half a generation before I spoke about that story with anyone who had actually read it. The guys at DC at the time really didn’t read books with thousands of words strung together one after the other – certainly not books written by the likes of me.

I think they were startled, in fact, to make so much money off the thing.

The Comics Code approval didn’t mean that the series avoided controversy. On the contrary, “The Spectre” had more than its fair share of critics, including DC’s own editors who bugged Orlando about the series’ grimness. Many fans of the time were horrified by the new Spectre, and several writers complained that Orlando and Fleisher were “destroying the American super-hero” (Sanderson, “The Sudden End of… the Spectre!”).

“The Spectre” series ran less than two years and was cancelled so abruptly that Fleisher had completed three scripts that weren’t illustrated at the time. Those three stories were only completed and published a decade later, in 1988.

Though some believe the Spectre was cancelled due to its controversial nature, Fleisher offered a more prosaic explanation: “I believe it was cancelled because of poor sales” (Sanderson, “The Sudden End of… the Spectre!”).

I waited for my audience to grow up to learn that I was probably right about the notion that heroes and heroism were coming alive again. But it felt good to hear it, no matter how long it took.

One odd postscript to Fleisher’s run on “The Spectre” came as the result of a raucous five-hour 1979 Comics Journal interview with science fiction writer Harlan Ellison. As both a writer and a public speaker, Ellison has always been tremendously outspoken and glib, seemingly eager to produce controversy. No surprise then that Ellison’s Comics

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Journal interview included some candid views on comics, particularly about Michael Fleisher’s Adventure Comics run.

In the interview, conducted by Gary Groth, Ellison made a series of comments about Fleisher that were perhaps intended to be complimentary but which came across as much more insulting than Ellison had apparently intended. After offhandedly comparing Fleisher with Charles Whitman, the infamous Texas Tower shooter who massacred 14 people in Houston in 1966, Ellison continued his rant about Fleisher’s work: “It’s like looking at the paintings of Giger. There’s a genuine, twisted mentality at work here, and it’s fascinating to look at.” Ellison continued, “Fleisher – I think he’s certifiable. That is a libelous thing to say, and I say it with humor.… He really is a derange-o. And as a consequence, he is probably the only one writing who is interesting. The ‘Spectre’ stuff was… bloodchilling, which it was supposed to be.… It was the most perfectly nauseous ghoulish thing for him” (Groth 94-5).

Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel get married in Superboy #200. Artist Dave Cockrum was so excited to draw this story that he bought oversize art board at his own expense. TM and © DC Comics.

changed their wedding vows. The giant illustration, originally printed sideways, featured no less than 40 witnesses to the wedding that included every member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, plus Supergirl, the Legion of Substitute Heroes and a couple of Martians (one each from DC’s and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s continuity). Cockrum bought the oversized artboard necessary to create this incredible tableau. It was vitally important to him that he do justice to a key moment in the Legion’s history.

Fleisher was outraged at the way he was described in the Ellison interview. He subsequently sued Ellison, Groth and The Comics Journal for over two million dollars for libel. Seven years after the interview was conducted, the case reached Judge Vincent Broderick’s courtroom at the Southern District Federal Court in Manhattan. At the trial, Fleisher’s attorney stated that Michael Fleisher’s “business reputation has been destroyed by the interview” (Platt 23).

After four long weeks of arguments and tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees – Ellison claimed the suit cost him $85,000 (Platt 26) – the nine-member jury took less than 90 minutes to find judgment in favor of Groth, Ellison and The Journal. Evidently, Fleisher’s attorney could not meet the very high bar for proving libel against Fleisher.

The wedding scene, though, became the crux of a dispute that drove Cockrum not only from the Legion but from DC Comics altogether. After the issue had been sent to the printer, Cockrum asked his editor, Murray Boltinoff, that the original art to the wedding scene be returned to him.

Not only had Cockrum invested so much time and energy into drawing the scene, but, again, he paid for the oversized artboard out of his own pocket. Considering that expense nearly offset the amount DC was paying him to draw the page, it seemed only fair to Cockrum that he receive the original art back. Initially, Boltinoff acquiesced to Cockrum’s request… but then DC Publisher Carmine Infantino got wind of the request, and he let Boltinoff know that under no exception was original art allowed to be returned to its artist. The rules were the rules. When Boltinoff informed Cockrum of Infantino’s edict, the artist said, “If I can’t have it back, I’m quitting” (Cadigan 75). Cockrum immediately defected to Marvel Comics where he soon would become the artist on one of the most fabled and popular comic books of all time.

The Wedding of the (30th) Century Assigned in 1973 to draw Legion of Super-Heroes stories in the pages of Superboy, Dave Cockrum was living his dream.

For Superboy #200 (Jan.-Feb. 1974), Cockrum got the exciting opportunity to depict a piece of comic book history: the first Legion wedding. Under the guidance of writer Cary Bates, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel were joined in holy matrimony.

Cockrum went all-out with his visuals for this issue, striving hard to create a futuristic wedding that also respected contemporary mores.

The issue’s coup de grace came in an eye-popping splash page that captured the moment when Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel ex-

In Mike Grell’s first solo Legion of Super-Heroes story, in Superboy #203, Invisible Kid is killed. TM and © DC Comics.

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Cockrum’s final Legion story was printed in Superboy #202 (May/June 1974). That issue’s

the reduction in expenses made Superman Family more profitable than its 36-page predecessors. It was a no-brainer for DC to continue publishing the title even after reducing it from the 100-page size down to a 68-page giant with issue #170 (April-May 1975).

six-page lead story featured inks over Cockrum by another artistic newcomer, Mike Grell, who received the assignment partly because of fortuitous timing: he was looking for work just as Cockrum resigned. Boltinoff liked Grell’s work enough that he was comfortable letting the former Brenda Starr comic strip assistant be the next full-time Legion artist. Boltinoff said to Grell, “Congratulations, you got the job. Now for the bad news: you’re going to get hate mail.” When Grell asked why, the editor explained, “Well, number one, you’re replacing the most popular artist we ever had on the Legion, and number two, we’re killing off one of their favorite characters” (Schweier 3). Grell took over full art chores with Superboy #203 (July/Aug. 1974) with a story that featured the death of longtime Legionnaire Invisible Kid.

While the Superman family of characters had its publishing life extended, many of DC’s other characters didn’t survive, as the decline in the popularity of heroic comics took its toll. Case in point: two of Jack Kirby’s titles were cancelled. Mister Miracle, the final remaining member of the Fourth World family of titles that had taken the comics world by storm only three years before, limped to its finish with issue #18 (Feb.-March 1974). That issue featured the wedding of one of the Fourth World’s greatest couples: Big Barda and Mister Miracle.

Despite the circumstances of his debut, Grell’s dynamic artwork and futuristic designs would eventually turn the Legion fanbase around. From there, Grell’s artistry would receive a much wider appreciation.

The wedding is a grand event and kind of an elegy for the majestic power of Kirby’s Fourth World titles. In the story, heroes and villains from Kirby’s New Gods, Forever People, Jimmy Olsen and Mister Miracle runs attend the wedding. But an uninvited guest, arch-villain Darkseid, appropriately summed up the events in Kirby’s life: “I did spoil it, though! It had deep sentiment – yet little joy. But – life is at best bittersweet!”

At the same time that Superboy saw the spotlight of his own book shift over to the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Superman line of comics shrank by two titles in 1974. Three Superman series published their final issues: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen concluded its twenty-year run with issue #163 (Feb.March 1974); Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane concluded its sixteen-year run with issue #137 (Sept.-Oct. 1974); and Supergirl concluded its much shorter ten-issue run with its Oct.-Nov. 1974 issue, guest starring the immortal Prez, First Teen President, whose own series ended several months previously.

Indeed, Jack Kirby’s DC contract had come to a bittersweet impasse by 1974, as his action/horror series The Demon was cancelled with issue #16 (Jan. 1974). Kirby’s proposed new comics such as The Dingbats of Danger Street sat on DC’s shelves, unpublished. The King of Comics had to content himself with the post-apocalypse series Kamandi, the war comic “The Losers” in Our Fighting Forces (starting with issue #151, Oct.-Nov. 1974), and perhaps Kirby’s strangest title: OMAC: One Man Army Corps.

But fans of the extended Superman cast didn’t have to wait long before getting to read their favorite characters again. As a 100-page Super SpecOMAC was a bizarre, often surreal tacular series with an April-May 1974 comic that wedged in readers’ minds cover date, the first issue of Superman and never quite let go. It was the story Family continued the numbering of of a dystopic future world where orthe Jimmy Olsen title, and featured roTwo of Jack Kirby’s new comics for DC in 1974: gan transplants were commonplace tating new lead adventures of Jimmy, a one-shot Sandman special with Joe Simon and and beautiful plastic women beckoned TM and © DC Comics. the new series OMAC. Lois and Kara with reprints filling the musclemen from behind cellophane balance of the title. In effect the three wrappers. The cover of OMAC #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1974) showed a titles were combined into one while also saving DC the exmuscled man in a super-hero costume and a giant Mohawk pense of having to create new stories for all three of their flinging a box at readers – a box that contained a woman’s characters each month. Sales on the combined title slipped face, arms and legs floating in an amorphous pool of fluid. badly from the previous Jimmy Olsen as average sales Set against a pure white background, the cover screamed dropped 17,000 copies per issue. The savings in publishing to readers that the book was “A Startling Look Into… the one title rather than three was tremendous, though, and World That’s Coming!”

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reverse the book’s plunging sales. With the heroine’s history in disarray following years as a mortal adventurer and recent issues that rehashed 1940s plots, Justice League of America writer Len Wein was brought in to explain away the continuity glitches and set up a new direction in WW #212 (June-July 1974). Reunited with her former JLA teammates, the Amazing Amazon discovered that she’d lost all memory of her powerless days and refused to join the team until she was certain her judgment hadn’t been impaired. Recalling the twelve labors of Hercules, Wonder Woman suggested that the JLA members monitor her next dozen cases and decide for themselves if she was worthy of their ranks.

Inside, the comic was equally as weird, as our hero was transformed from the innocent and weak Buddy Black into the massive OMAC by Brother Eye, an all-seeing satellite right out of George Orwell. OMAC was reused from an idea that Kirby had at Marvel; if the King had launched this series at Marvel Comics, the hero would have been a futuristic version of Captain America (Evanier 181).

Kirby launched one other final comic for DC in 1974, and it would prove to be his most successful of the era… though it appears the popularity of the title had little to do with the true demand for it.

Sandman #1 (Winter 1974, published in January) reunited Kirby with his longtime partner Joe Simon for a one-shot adventure of a man who walks through dreams. While Sandman was as weird and unusual as OMAC, the comic still sold in giant numbers because it was released during a giant blizzard on the East Coast that prevented many new comics from reaching corner stores. Because Sandman #1 was on the stands longer than other books, it ended up selling more copies than it otherwise might have sold.

The canny decision to place prominent guest-stars (starting with Superman) in every issue immediately helped sales, if not to the degree DC had hoped.

A number of fans—including future TV and comics writer Allan Heinberg— count Wonder Woman #212 as the first issue of the series they ever bought.

Since the late 1940s, DC’s default version of the Amazon Princess had been a fantasy figure mostly detached from the real world. The update, which also did away with the mousy demeanor of her Diana Prince alter ego, was embraced by many fans. The Comic Reader editor Mike Tiefenbacher declared that they’d been “given, finally, a readable version of the super-powered costumed heroine that we should have been getting all these years” (20).

1974 was a tough year for fans of many DC titles, as the paper shortage forced Infantino to aggressively prune the line of low-selling titles. Among the nixed series were: Weird Worlds (with issue #10, featuring Howard Chaykin’s Iron Wolf), Korak (after 11 DC issues – the contents slated for Korak #57, including a “Carson of Venus” backup was published in the first Tarzan SuperSpectacular, after which the character Super-Heroes on TV appeared in eight-page back-ups in While DC Comics strove to weather the the 100-page Tarzan), Joe Simon’s Prez paper shortage, two of its characters (with issue #4), Forbidden Tales of Dark appeared on network television.

Mansion (with issue #16), Secrets of Sinister House (with issue #18), ChamThe ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week for pion Sports (after only three issues) and March 12, 1974 (repeated on August the reprint series Secret Origins (with 21, 1974), featured a two-hour Wonder issue #7). Due to the paper shortage, Woman movie pilot starring Cathy Lee DC published a number of final issues Crosby. In the film, Wonder Woman many months after their previous isoperates as an espionage field agent sue. There was a gap between Supergirl under the command of Steve Trevor #9 (Dec. 1973-Jan. 1974) and #10 (Sept.- While Wonder Woman went through trials to rejoin the (played by Kaz Garas). The team must League in the comics, a very different Wonder Oct. 1974), Secret Origins #6 (Jan-Feb. JusticeWoman stop the plans of the suave, evil Abner had a TV pilot. TM and © DC Comics.

1974) and #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1974), SuperSmith (Ricardo Montalban), who has man’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #136 (Jan.stolen codebooks that contain classified information about Feb. 1974) and #137 (Sept.-Oct. 1974) and Weird Worlds #9 government agents. This Bond-type adventure was sparse (Jan.-Feb. 1974) and #10 (Oct.-Nov. 1974). on action – the only notable action sequence was a fight

between Wonder Woman and a rogue Amazon named Angela (played by Price is Right model Anitra Ford). It was also far away from the version of Wonder Woman shown in the comics. In fact, very few elements of the film matched up with the comics.

DC house ads had promoted Supergirl, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman as female-centric (or “Ms.”) titles a year earlier.

Unfortunately, that promotion didn’t help the popularity of any of those titles. Consequently, editor Julius Schwartz was handed Wonder Woman with a two-year timeline to 145

The movie, though, was a modest ratings success, which eventually led to a different kind of Wonder Woman television show the following year.

At the time, fans were enthusiastic about the pilot, with Tiefenbacher particularly singling out Crosby for praise: “The role was played with humor, intelligence, wit, sophistication and poise” (Tiefenbacher 21).

Later that year, on Saturday morning, September 7, 1974, Shazam! premiered as part of CBS’s kids lineup.

Trendsetting for the time, Shazam! was a Filmation-produced live action series rather than a cartoon. Season one followed the adventures of Billy Batson (played by Michael Gray) and his guide (given the not-toosubtle name of “Mentor” and played

by Les Tremayne) traveling around the country in Mentor’s RV, helping children and animals out of difficult situations. When faced with real danger, Billy hollered the magic word “Shazam” and transformed into the amazing Captain Marvel (played in season one by Jackson Bostwick) who could fly and perform other feats of derring-do.

Unlike the Wonder Woman pilot, The Shazam! TV series deviated only slightly from its hero’s comics roots.

For instance, in the television series Billy spoke directly to the elders

The Shazam! TV series prompted a 1976 revamp of the comic book. TM and © DC Comics.

whose initials made up the name Shazam (Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury) rather than to a wizard called Shazam as in the comics. The elders gave Billy appropriate advice and taught him moral lessons as he sought to help innocent people.

The show was a huge hit and had the strong secondary effect of making the character very well-known among its target audience. Shazam! ran on CBS for three years, combined later in its run with the adventures of the heroine Isis for a grouped adventure hour. In its time, the TV series eclipsed the popularity of its comic book counterpart.

Also appearing on a kids’ television program in 1974 was one of Marvel Comics’ super-heroes. With its fourth season, the popular PBS kids’ show The Electric Company began featuring Spider-Man as a recurring character in five-minute segments titled “Spidey Super Stories.” Puppeteer and dancer Danny Seagren portrayed Marvel’s friendly neighborhood wallcrawler, and many of the segments also included future movie actor Morgan Freeman. From 1974 to 1976, The Electric Company provided over 25 different “Spidey” skits that promoted reading. Spider-Man never spoke; his dialogue appeared as word balloons above his head. The nefarious villains that he fought were ones young children could understand, such as pranksters, burglars and thieves. Marvel allowed the Children’s Television Workshop, producers of The Electric Company, to have use of Spider-Man free of charge.

In return, The Electric Company joined with Marvel to produce Spidey Super Stories, a special ad-free comic targeted to pre-adolescents. As another logo on each cover declared, “Easy Reader says, ‘This comic book is easy to read!’”

Edited by Roy Thomas and written by Jean Thomas, the comic book debuted with an October 1974 cover date. It not only encouraged children to read but also introduced them to the Marvel Universe as guest-starring characters in the first year alone included such villains as Kraven the Hunter, the Shocker, and the Green Goblin.

One Marvel oddity of 1974 was a Spider-Man film created by Bruce 146

Spidey Super Stories brought easy to read stories for kids who watched The Electric Company on PBS. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Cardozo and his fellow NYU students.

The movie adapted Amazing SpiderMan #15, depicting Kraven’s arrival to America and Spider-Man’s efforts to defeat him. Cardozo got Stan Lee’s permission to adapt the story as long as the film was never shown in commercial outlets due to Marvel’s existing licensing of the character. Despite its small budget, Cardozo worked hard to produce a quality film, using professional special effects of the era to create a fairly realistic take on the web-slinger. Spider-Man’s suit was acclaimed as seeming realistic, and Andrew Pasatorio (who played J. Jonah Jameson) and Joe Ellison (who played Peter Parker) received acclaim from Marvel’s staffers for their likenesses to the characters (Cardozo).

Reaching for the Stars In April 1974 veteran Marvel and DC writer Mike Friedrich launched a “groundlevel” comic that, in its own way, would change the course of comics history. It title was Star*Reach, and the first issue presented a cover

by Howard Chaykin of his privateer hero Cody Starbuck, ready for action with a beautiful woman at his feet.

(Jim Starlin’s back cover of two barebreasted, green-skinned beauties sitting in front of a giant green skull face was equally stunning.) The comic, available only at Direct Market stores,

Among the artists featured in Star*Reach #1 were Howard Chaykin, with a “Cody Starbuck” story, and Jim Starlin, with a thinly-veiled tirade against Marvel Comics.

TM and © Howard Chaykin, Inc. TM and © Jim Starlin.

came back to comics after a sojourn as a paperback illustrator. The opportunity to do a short piece here and there was just another way to make a living, and Star*Reach was just another account.”

While Star*Reach was just another job for Howard Chaykin, for Jim Starlin it was an opportunity to present how he felt about working at Marvel at the time. His first Star*Reach story, “Death Building,” features an artist who walks into a New York City office building—at Madison and 55th Streets, where the Marvel offices also were located—and drops acid while he rides up the elevator. The artist, who claims he’s a “being of imaginations,” gets off the elevator and quickly slays a cloaked Death figure right before he himself is slain. In the final panel, another artist enters the building, a lamb to the slaughter. That artist’s name is revealed as Jim Starlin.

promised “48 pages of story for 75¢,” and featured some of the hottest artists in the industry. Star*Reach #1 offered three stories by Jim Starlin, then riding high for his art on Captain Marvel and Master of Kung Fu; a 16 page “Cody Starbuck” story by Howard Chaykin, who was winning fan acclaim for his work on “Iron Wolf” in Weird Worlds; a strip called “A Tale of Sword and Sorcery” by Ed Hicks and Walt Simonson; and two short humorous pieces by longtime comics writer Steve Skeates.

Star*Reach #1 was originally slated to be 32 pages. Friedrich, though, was hoping the book’s length could be stretched to 48 pages because “I, as a collector, had really liked the comics from the late 1940s through the early 1950s that had been 48 pages” (Arndt 23). Fortuitously, Simonson had a story that he and his friend Ed Hicks had created in college that was available for reprinting. Thus, Star*Reach #1 attained the page count that Friedrich hoped for.

Friedrich had been thinking about creating Star*Reach since 1972, when he began trying to assemble an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn character as its own freestanding comic. Friedrich got the very popular Barry Smith to work on that project, and Smith drew ten pages for the feature before abandoning it. (The story would later appear in a Marvel black-and-white magazine with art by Tim Conrad.) Smith and Friedrich’s management of the Bran Mak Morn comic consequently led to conversations with Jim Starlin and Howard Chaykin that in turn led to the first issue of Star*Reach.

Though the comic cost nearly four times what a standard comic cost at the time, Friedrich sold out his initial 15,000 copy print run within six months. Thanks to a one-day comic convention in Berkeley shortly after the first issue was published, Friedrich was able to network with Bud Plant and Last Gasp, two of the major Direct Market comics distributors of the time. The show was held on a Saturday. By Monday, Plant and the team at Last Gasp had come back to Friedrich requesting reorders. As Friedrich later reflected, “I covered my printing costs within the first week” (Arndt 25). The comic sold by word of mouth, with

Friedrich simply called up a few of his professional colleagues and asked them to contribute material to the book.

As Chaykin stated in an interview for American Comic Book Chronicles, “They were just fun to do and the money was alright. Basically back then, myself, I did not have the energy, skills, or enthusiasm to do a consistent monthly book.

I just wasn’t good enough. I didn’t get good enough until I 147

sales mushrooming from readers who had few real alternatives to the mainstream publishers other than underground comics. It also helped spur traffic to the nascent comic book stores, as fans were anxious to read uncensored comics by their favorite Marvel creators.

Star*Reach represented a unique middle ground between the mainstream and underground publishers, combining an underground sensibility with professional quality. Artist Trina Robbins referred to Star*Reach as “groundlevel comics.” Even though the label was intended as a slam, it stuck through the comic’s five-year run (Cooke 61).

After the sellout success of Star*Reach #1, Friedrich needed a full year to gather the material for the second issue of his comic. Star*Reach #2 reached Direct Market stores in April 1975.

Getting into the Spirit of Things Warren Publisher Jim Warren was a huge fan of Will Eisner’s Spirit, dating back to his childhood in the early 1940s reading Spirit Sections in the Philadelphia Record. Warren editor Bill DuBay was also a big Spirit fan who had been turned down

by Eisner for a job illustrating educational comics for P*S Magazine. One day in 1973, DuBay decided to stop by Eisner’s offices on a whim and introduce himself as Warren’s new editor. The visit was congenial enough that after some laughs, DuBay persuaded Eisner to allow Warren to publish magazine-sized collections of the classic 1940s and ’50s Spirit stories. When DuBay returned to the Warren offices— with an enormous smile on his face—he informed his boss that they had a new title to publish.

Warren took Eisner to lunch at the Friar’s Club to finalize the deal. The publisher pulled out all the stops to impress the brilliant artist. He told Eisner that he believed a new Spirit magazine could sell in excess of 100,000 copies per issue. Rather than negotiate as he would with any other creator, though, Warren simply met Eisner’s terms: $1,000

per issue, paid in advance, plus a bonus from profit sharing. Years later, Warren confessed he would have given even more if Eisner requested it. He told Eisner, “I would have sold the farm, I would have mortgaged the house, I would have sold my firstborn because working with you has been a dream since fifth grade” (Andelman 198).

Manager W. R. “Bill” Mohalley and his staff were responsible for putting the magazine together for Eisner’s approval. Each issue required more and more complicated overlays and other difficult production tasks. Some of the production chores became so detailed and complex that Mohalley would often work until one in the morning to complete his work on an issue.

By way of advance promotion, Eerie #54 and #55 (cover date February and March 1974) included a couple of Spirit reprints. And then the first issue of Warren’s The Spirit appeared on newsstands on January 29, 1974.

It was the first time that the classic strip was published in an ongoing comic series in nearly a decade. After the abortive Spirit runs from Harvey Comics (two issues in 1966) and Kitchen Sink Comics (two “underground” issues in 1973), the Warren Spirit reprints brought Eisner’s great creation back into the hands of comics readers.

The magazine sold well at the beginning but never quite reached the 100,000 copy threshold that Warren promised (Andelman 193-201).

Warren allowed Eisner to have absolute control over the work being done on the book. Whatever Eisner decided was the law, and Eisner’s decisions, as the series went on, became increasingly elaborate. Warren Production

While buffeted financially by the impact of Marvel’s magazine line, Warren Magazines nonetheless produced some of their finest stories in 1974 with contributions from creators like Bruce Jones, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Tom Sutton, T. Casey Brennan, John Severin, Wally Wood, Howard Chaykin, Esteban Maroto, Richard Corben—whose work often appeared in sumptuous painted-color inserts— and Berni Wrightson, who then was at the height of his considerable creative powers. Wrightson delivered several memorable strips for Warren Magazines in that year, including a gorgeous adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” in Creepy #62 and his spellbinding “Jenifer,” often referred to as the finest work of Wrightson’s career, in Creepy #63.

Will Eisner brought his classic Spirit to Warren Magazines in 1974, after receiving entreaties from Jim Warren and his editor Bill DuBay. TM and © Will Eisner Studios Inc.

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Another niche title that continued throughout 1974 was Red Circle Comics’ Chilling Adventures in Sorcery. A continuation of the bizarre Sabrina’s Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, this new series featured traditional adventure comic style art that was different from the weird Archie Comics style that was used for the previous run of the title. Though most casual fans likely never realized the connection, Red Circle was the tiny adventure comics side of the phenomenally popular Archie Comics empire, a small tip of the hat to Archie Publisher Louis Silberkleit’s short-lived 1930s pulp magazine line. Some months Archie would publish 19 titles in their Archie family of titles while the smaller Red Circle line would only release one comic.

In addition to Sorcery, three issues of Madhouse were published as Red Circle horror comics before that series moved to being a standard Archie humor comic.

The man in charge of the mini-line of Red Circle comics was veteran artist Gray Morrow. Having begun his career in 1954 as a freelancer for Toby Press, Morrow subsequently worked for Classics Illustrated, Marvel’s predecessor Atlas Comics, as well as trade book publishers and DC’s horror titles before moving to Archie’s Red Circle line. Morrow always had hopes of expanding the line. The comics news zines of the era frequently mentioned a new Red Circle comic in the planning stages. For instance, The Comic Reader #102 (Dec. 1973) discusses an “as of yet untitled book to have the stories revolving around a large detective agency.” That series seemed to linger in limbo as it received repeated mentions in The Comic Reader over the next several months before drifting off Red Circle’s schedule.

Intriguingly, The Comic Reader #108 (July 1974) reports that plans were afoot to expand the Red Circle line to six titles, including a revival of the super-hero Black Hood, with art by Morrow, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano that was scheduled for release in September, along with a sword and sorcery title, a mystery-detective comic and another hero revival – later revealed to be potential revivals of both the Hangman and the Wizard. Some of these stories later were published in an Archie super-heroes digest.

However, only a handful of Red Circle comics other than Sorcery ever graced newsstands. Super Cops (July 1974) was initially intended to be an ongoing series but only one issue ever appeared. The comic told the story of policemen Bob Hantz and Dave Greenberg, based on a movie of the same name.

In fact, the entire Red Circle line was killed at the end of 1974, with the final issue published being Red Circle Sorcery #11 (Feb. 1975). Since the line was terminated with a well-stocked inventory and with up to five new titles in the pipeline, a decision must have been made quite abruptly. A house ad in Red Circle Sorcery #11 promotes an issue of Madhouse that

The short-lived Red Circle Comics line was a serious-minded spin-off from Archie.

TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

wasn’t published. Though many theories have been advanced for the cancellation of the line by prominent comics historians like Robin Snyder—including a glutted market, the slowing of the mystery fad, and fierce competition—no solid reason has been found for the line closing down.

If nothing else, Red Circle’s demise allowed Archie to focus on its breadand-butter humor comics.

Working the Seaboard One of the industry’s biggest announcements of the year—if not of the decade—came in the summer. It was the kind of announcement that intrigued fans, encouraged creators who were looking for work, and gave other comic book publishers cause for concern.

Martin Goodman, the previous owner of Marvel Comics, and his son, Chip, declared they were back in business with a company called Seaboard Periodicals. Starting in September, they intended on rolling out four blackand-white magazines along with eight color comic books (which would be branded as Atlas Comics). As the Goodmans put it, the comic books would all be “totally different in both concept and execution” from other super-hero comics. Press reports also mentioned a reprint title at 100 pages for 60¢.

149

The Goodmans advertised for an editor in The New York Times classifieds and found their man in Jeff Rovin, an energetic 22-year-old who came over from Warren Magazines. Rovin was paid $20,000 per year – an excellent salary for the time – and very quickly he got the Goodmans to agree to the implementation of better work terms for creators: the return of original art and the payment of royalties, among other benefits that neither DC nor Marvel offered (Barlow). These innovations produced the desired effect as many fan-favorite creators agreed to work for Seaboard.

Only one Seaboard title was released with a 1974 publication date: the magazine-sized Gothic Romances.

Comics fans stayed away from it in droves because the magazine seemed intended for women; it contained ads for such female-oriented products as wigs, Maybelline make-up, convertible nude bras and the always ubiquitous weight loss miracles. The magazine did, however, include art by Neal Adams, Ernie Colón and Howard Chaykin.

Without question, Martin and Chip Goodman put the comic book industry on notice: Seaboard was here, and it was here to stay, so the other companies better watch out.

Few, though, could have predicted what would happen next in 1975.

1975

The High Cost of

Expansion

A shark fin sliced through the surface of the Atlantic Ocean on June 20, 1975, creating a sea change in the way Hollywood made films. The overwhelming success of Jaws started an annual cycle of summer blockbuster films. Its influence splashed over into all sorts of other media, from board games to pop music. Comics picked up on the trend late in the second half of 1975, and carried it over well into 1976, likely due to the fact that comics are prepared months ahead of time. Covers featured man-eating sharks threatening bathers and super-heroes alike. A partial list of those comics includes The Phantom #66 (Aug. 1975), Tarzan #243 (Nov. 1975), Action Comics #456 (Feb. 1976), Ghost Rider #16 (Feb. 1976), Casper the Friendly Ghost #184 (March 1976), Midnight Tales #17 (March 1976), Adventure Comics #444 (April 1976), House of Yang #5 (April 1976), Spidey Super Stories #16 (April 1976) and Weird Wonder Tales #16 (June 1976). If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Steven Spielberg—the film’s director—and Roger Kastel—the man who came up with the artwork for the Jaws novel and movie poster—should be forever honored.

Movies were becoming louder, bolder, and more actionoriented, the exact qualities that typified comics, and in 1975, readers found plenty of new exciting comic titles to choose from. But every publisher was about to learn the high cost of expansion, particularly one new company, Atlas/Seaboard Comics, who tried to stand out from the crowd and take over the comics industry with a vengeance.

The Life and Death of Atlas/Seaboard Martin Goodman launched Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, but the company’s first comics had a 1975 cover date. The founder of Marvel Comics back in 1939 when it was known as Timely Comics, Goodman changed his company’s name several times over the years in order to avoid taxes and stay ahead of postal inspectors. In 1951 Goodman started his own distribution company, Atlas News Company, and his comics displayed an Atlas globe on their covers. Atlas News collapsed in 1957, but it wasn’t until the early 1960s that Goodman began branding his company as Marvel Comics. That name would stick. When Goodman sold Marvel to Perfect Film and Chemical in 1968, the new owners promised to keep his son, Charles “Chip” Goodman, as Marvel’s Editorial Director and Martin himself was given a five year contract to remain with the company. In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical changed its name to Cadence Industries, and Martin’s nephew-by-marriage, Stan Lee, made “an apparent power move” to become Marvel’s Publisher (Cooke 14).

Chip lost his job as a result.

CHAPTER SIX 150

Martin was outraged by those developments, and he wasn’t going to take them lying down. He started up a new periodical company, not only to give his son gainful employment but also to beat Marvel at its own game. For this reason, Goodman deliberately invoked Marvel Comics’ lineage by naming his new comic book line Atlas Comics. (To distinguish the comic books Goodman published in the 1950s from those he published twenty years later, comic historians have referred to Goodman’s 1970s line of comic books as Atlas/Seaboard.) Atlas/Seaboard editor Jeff Rovin said, “I really think at the time we started, [Martin] was just plain angry. He wanted to get something onto the newsstands fast, wanted to put money into it, wanted it to look good, just wanted to eat up rack space, and he wanted to punish Cadence Industries for mistreating Chip” (Cooke 28).

To accomplish all this, Martin Goodman knew he had to lure creators away from Marvel and rival DC by offering top dollar. Artist Ernie Colón recalled that when Rovin contacted him, he asked Colón what his page rate was.

After the artist gave an inflated figure of $65, Rovin said that Colón was “too good for that” and added $40 per page to Colón’s inflated rate. As Colón explained, “It was big money, that was a big raise!” (Cooke 49). At Rovin’s behest, Goodman sweetened the pot by offering writers and artists profit-sharing as well as ownership of the characters they created for Atlas. Goodman also promised to return all original artwork to his freelancers (Rovin 101).

Goodman’s work terms enticed an impressive number of comic book creators to cross the street (literally, in Marvel’s case) over to Atlas/Seaboard. Besides Colón, Atlas’s recruits included such prominent creators as Neal Adams, Sal Amendola, Pat Boyette, Howard Chaykin, Steve Ditko, Michael Fleisher, Dick Giordano, Archie Goodwin, Russ Heath, Jeff Jones, Pablo Marcos, Al Milgrom, Mike Sekowsky, John Severin, Walt Simonson, Frank Thorne, Alex Toth and Wally Wood.

Contributors to the Atlas line of comic books included Neal Adams (Ironjaw), Steve Ditko (Destructor), Howard Chaykin (The Scorpion) and Ernie Colón (Tiger-Man).

TM and © 1974 Seaboard Periodicals, Inc.

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TIMELINE: 1975 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 4: Archie creator Bob Montana dies of a heart attack at the age of 54.

JANUARY

April 9: Len Wein steps down as Marvel Comics’ editor-inchief. Marv Wolfman—who had been editing Marvel’s black-and-white magazines— becomes editor of Marvel’s entire line.

February 6: Longtime Batman nemesis The Joker receives his own title, courtesy of writer Denny O’Neil and artist Irv Novick.

FEBRUARY

May 11: The Khmer Rouge regime seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters off the coast of Cambodia. Four days later, 200 U.S. Marines storm the Cambodian island of Koh Tang. The captured Mayaguez crew members are released, but 40 U.S. servicemen are killed in the operation.

April 10: The long-absent Dr. Solar returns for a guest appearance in Gold Key’s Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #14.

MARCH

APRIL

January 6: The television game show Wheel of Fortune premieres on the NBC network.

June 20: Jaws— directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw—is released to movie theaters. It would become the year’s top grossing movie, earning over $260 million at the box office.

M AY

JUNE

April 30: North Vietnamese soldiers surge into Saigon. The last American forces evacuate the city as South Vietnam surrenders to Communist North Vietnam. The Vietnam War— which killed over 58,000 American soldiers and wounded over 153,000 more—is over.

February 20: Long-time Marvel Comics letterer Artie Simek dies at the age of 59. Besides lettering nearly every Marvel title during the 1960s, he also helped design the title logos.

April 1: Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum, presents a new version of the X-Men: Cyclops, Wolverine, Banshee and Sunfire are joined by new heroes Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus and Thunderbird.

June 26: Harvey Comics’ Super Richie #1 presents Richie Rich as a blue-and-red costumed super-hero with Cadbury as his sidekick. Undoubtedly due to objections from DC Comics, Super Richie’s costumes are changed to a green and yellow color scheme effective with issue #5.

The Joker, Warlord, Wonder Woman TM and © DC Comics. X-Men TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Jaws TM and © Universal Studios.

In order to give Atlas immediate name-value in the comic book marketplace, Rovin sought to license some recognizable properties: Godzilla, Richard Matheson’s apocalyptic vampire novel I Am Legend, television’s Kolchak: The Night Stalker, pulp heroes the Avenger and the Spider, even T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, the spy-oriented super-hero team published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. But Martin Goodman wasn’t interested in Kolchak, found the rights to Godzilla too expensive, and suggested an imitation of I Am Legend rather than a full-on adaptation. Goodman also bypassed T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents in order to license a different Tower Comics’ property: the teen humor book Tippy Teen (Rovin 98).

structor by Archie Goodwin, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood; Morlock 2001 by Fleisher and Al Milgrom; the I Am Legend knock-off Planet of Vampires by Larry Hama and Pat Broderick; Howard Chaykin’s 1930s adventure The Scorpion; Weird Suspense by Fleisher and Pat Boyette; Wulf the Barbarian by Larry Hama and Klaus Janson; and Vicki, which reprinted late 1960s Samm Schwartz stories from Tower Comics’ Tippy Teen. Stan Lee’s younger brother, Larry Lieber, edited four Atlas anthology comics—Police Action, Savage Combat Tales, Tales of Evil and Western Action— as well as Seaboard’s black-and-white magazine division which included the Vampirella knock-off Devilina; the Famous Monsters of Filmland imitation Movie Monsters; the self-explanatory Gothic Romances; the action-adventure Thrilling Adventure Stories; and Weird Tales of the Macabre, an anthology intended to compete with Warren’s Creepy and Eerie, Skywald’s Nightmare, Psycho and Scream, and Marvel’s burgeoning black-and-white line.

After publishing the magazine-sized Gothic Romances (Dec. 1974), Seaboard released two more magazines (Devilina and Weird Tales of the Macabre) and the initial issues of its first three Atlas comic series, all with January 1975 cover dates. Ironjaw #1 boasted a Neal Adams cover, a Mike Fleisher script, and interior art by Mike Sekowsky and Jack Abel. Fleisher also wrote The Grim Ghost with art by Ernie Colón. Atlas’s third title in its inaugural month, Phoenix, was written by editor Rovin and drawn by Sal Amendola.

Atlas’s line ran the gamut of genres: super-hero, fantasy, teen humor, horror, science fiction, war, western, and adventure. For a short time the company seemed to be holding track on a bimonthly schedule for its books, but according to comics historian Robert Beerbohm, readers were having a hard time actually finding them. In California, Beerbohm says that Atlas/Seaboard put out “too many titles at once which caused the major wholesaler distributors to not place Atlas comics out on the racks.” Owning several

The following month, Goodman made his big push to bump Marvel comics aside on the racks, as twelve more Atlas titles made their debut: the Hulk-derivative Brute

by Fleisher and Sekowsky; the Spider-Man-evocative De152

September 5: In Sacramento, California, former Charles Manson disciple Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempts to assassinate President Ford in order to make a statement about environmental pollution. Her pistol fails to fire, however, and she is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

July 17: An Apollo spacecraft—carrying three American astronauts—docks with a Soyuz spacecraft—carrying two Russian cosmonauts—in Earth’s orbit in the first outer space linkup between the United States and the Soviet Union.

October 1: Dubbed “The Thrilla in Manila,” Muhammad Ali becomes boxing’s Heavyweight Champion of the World when he defeats Joe Frazier in Manila, Philippines.

September 9: Welcome Back, Kotter—a sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a Brooklyn high school teacher whose unruly students include John Travolta—debuts on the ABC television network. The show would last until 1979.

July 18: Underground cartoonist Vaughn Bodé—most famous for creating the character Cheech Wizard—dies at the age of 33 of autoerotic asphyxiation.

J U LY

July 30: Former Teamster union president Jimmy Hoffa disappears from a suburban Detroit parking lot. He is presumed dead, although his body is never found.

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

November 7: The pilot for The New Original Wonder Woman—starring Lynda Carter in the title role—airs on the ABC television network.

It does well enough in the ratings for ABC to authorize the production of two more episodes to air in April 1976.

October 9: DC Comics revives its Golden Age-era Justice Society of America title, All-Star Comics, with issue #58. Written by Gerry Conway with art by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood, the issue introduces the cousin of the Earth-2 Superman, Power Girl.

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

September 18: Police and FBI agents arrest fugitive Patty Hearst in San Francisco. In 1974, she had been abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army but soon began participating in the revolutionary group’s crimes. She is subsequently convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison.

August 19: The Warlord—a sword and sorcery character created by writer/artist Mike Grell—debuts in 1st Issue Special #8. Two months later, Warlord would graduate to his own series.

Distribution problems aside, Atlas was also suffering battles between its editors and owners. Martin Goodman wasn’t satisfied with the actual content of the Atlas comic books. From his perspective, the books needed

DECEMBER

December 6: The U.S. Congress authorizes a $2.3 billion emergency loan to help New York City avoid bankruptcy.

September 22: Seventeen days after Lynette Fromme attempted to assassinate President Ford, Sara Jane Moore shoots at Ford outside a San Francisco hotel. She misses and is subdued. Subsequently, Moore is sentenced to life in prison.

comic stores in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time, Beerholm was being contacted by store owners in Los Angeles, asking if he could send them Atlas comic books to sell since they couldn’t get hold of them (Beerhohm).

Meanwhile, in the Chicago area, Russ Maheras, who worked for the Charles Levy Circulating Company, saw that a lot of Atlas comics never even left the warehouse. He wrote, “I’ll wager that with the market already glutted the way it was, more Atlas comics were probably shredded than distributed, making strong-selling Atlas titles an impossibility. Face it, Atlas had even less clout with distributors than lowly Charlton” (Maheras). Beerbohm, however, speculates that “if Goodman had intro’d his line slower, it would have thrived” (Beerholm).

December 1: Neal Adams appears on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow—an NBC television talk show—to plead the case that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster deserve compensation for their creation of Superman.

October 11: Saturday Night Live—a late night sketch comedy and variety show— debuts on the NBC television network with an inaugural cast of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner. Comedian George Carlin is the show’s first guest host.

to be changed. He released a list of complaints to Rovin: Chaykin’s art on The Scorpion was confusing and the writing too sophisticated; since sci-fi comics didn’t sell, Morlock 2001 needed to be taken out of the future; the “Lawrence of Arabia” strip needed to be bounced from Thrilling Adventure Stories because it was about Arabs; Steve Ditko had to take over for Ernie Colón on Tiger-Man to make that comic look more like Spider-Man. The list went on and on (Rovin 99).

It was particularly important to Goodman that the Atlas books ape Marvel’s style. While Rovin wanted the Atlas line to have a “unique look and feel,” Goodman just wanted his books to mimic Marvel. The reason Goodman provided Rovin was that “Marvels sell” (Rovin 98-99). Goodman was merely carrying out in the 1970s the modus operandi that served him well in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s: determine which comic books were selling the best and then imitate them. Once those books stopped sell153

December 29: A bomb explodes in New York City’s LaGuardia airport’s main terminal, killing 11 people.

ing well, move on to imitate the new best-selling comic book.

To make his Atlas line more like Marvel’s, Goodman ordered many changes during Spring 1975: the Phoenix got a new costume and powers along with a name change to the Protector with Phoenix... the Protector #4 (October 1975); The Scorpion shifted from the 1930s to a contemporary setting with The Scorpion #3 (July 1975); Morlock was killed in his own book which then was renamed to Morlock and the Midnight Men with issue #3 (July 1975).

It didn’t take long for Atlas’s creators to start leaving the company in droves, if they hadn’t already been fired because of the Goodman-mandated changes. Fed up with all the shenanigans, Rovin also resigned.

Lieber inherited all of Rovin’s editorial duties on the Atlas comic books.

Added to his oversight of the Seaboard magazines, the workload overwhelmed Lieber. Alan Kupperberg,

who was around during the final weeks of Atlas/Seaboard, said: Larry Lieber does what he does very well but he’s not a ground breaker [sic]. He’s not a creative genius. And he doesn’t pretend to be. He’s just very good at what he does, because he’s sincere and he works very hard. To sell a whole line of comic books, you’ve gotta have something special. There’s got to be a magic spark somewhere.

(Cooke 114) And according to most, you can clone Marvel Comics all you want, but without Stan Lee along for the ride, the magic spark will be missing.

Atlas/Seaboard closed its doors for good by the fall of 1975. The company’s total comic book outBy declaring itself the “NEW House of Ideas,” Atlas took aim at Marvel Comics. TM and © 1974 Seaboard Periodicals, Inc. put was only 67 issues. Only four comic book titles reached their When she left Marvel in 1968, Steinberg eventually ended fourth issues: The Destructor, Ironjaw, Phoenix and Vicki. up in San Francisco. She went there “because that hippyAfter dissolving his company, Martin Goodman retired to dippy thing was happening and I was friends with some Florida while Chip devoted his efforts to Swank, an adult underground cartoonists like Trina Robbins and Michele men’s magazine he purchased at the end of 1974.

(Brand) Wrightson” (Cooke 162). In San Francisco, Robbins exposed Steinberg to the underground comix scene (Cooke Atlas/Seaboard became a “textbook example of how not to 45-B). run a comics company” (as Jeff Rovin put it), but it also at least unintentionally improved the working conditions for Steinberg returned to New York City in 1972 and found many of the industry’s professionals. To stop the exodus of work at Warren Publishing. She was in charge of Capfreelancers to Atlas, DC publisher Carmine Infantino set up tain Company, Warren’s mail order business, sending out compensation that would not have been considered only tchotchkes like rubber spiders and Vampirella posters to a few months prior to Atlas’s founding. Infantino handed fans across the country. Having been around the underout bonus payments, increased page rates, instituted the ground scene for a time, she became inspired to produce return of original artwork, and established a reprint pay an underground book, specifically one about New York. rate of 25% for writers. The only caveat was that freelancSince many comix had such a San Francisco flavor, she felt ers had to be working exclusively for DC Comics in order to an underground focused on New York would be a unique receive these benefits. change of pace (Cooke 162). Steinberg goes on to tell the tale of her comix’s origin:

Biting into the Big Apple

I just imposed on people I knew—Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Larry Hama, Ralph Reese, Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe, and so many others worked on the comic. They got about $10 a page! [laughs] … I was hoping it would sell well and it did get some nice write-ups. It’s sort of politically incorrect when you look at it now, and while I was embarrassed about it for a few years, now I think it’s a riot! [laughs] I’m really fond of that book. (Cooke 162)

During Atlas’s demise, another ex-Marvel employee published an independent comic in late summer/early fall 1975. This former employee wasn’t an artist or writer with an extensive portfolio or an axe to grind. No, Big Apple Comix was published by Stan Lee’s ex-secretary, Flo Steinberg.

When the “Marvel Age” began in the early 1960s, Marvel only had two full-time employees. Stan Lee was one. Flo Steinberg was the other. Together, Lee and Steinberg shared a one-room office surrounded by people who worked for Martin Goodman’s magazine division. Freelancers did the rest of the work, and Steinberg took care of them when they dropped by. Artist Jim Mooney recalls, “She was wonderful! … She was great.” According to Mooney, Steinberg treated him like a celebrity, a stark contrast to when he’d leave a DC meeting thinking, “Oh God, I need a drink” (Best).

Besides the help from friends who provided art and stories, she also had help with distribution. Jim Warren, her boss at Warren, gave her advice and let her store books at his office. Neal Adams allowed her to use his Continuity Studio as the address for Big Apple Productions (Cooke 162).

The black-and-white comic, dated Sept. 1975, consists of mostly three or four page vignettes about life in the Big 154

hiatus since the publication of the inaugural issue. As with Star*Reach #1, the San Francisco-based Friedrich recruited both local friends and longtime comics pros to be part of the comic. Issue #2 featured Friedrich and artist Dick Giordano chronicling the adventures of Stephanie Starr—a bare-breasted woman in space facing terrible trouble—alongside work by cartoonists such as Jim Starlin, John Workman, Mike Vosburg and Frank Brunner (who had recently left a long and much-loved run on Doctor Strange). Brunner’s sword-and-sorcery yarn in Star*Reach #3 was quite popular with fans.

Former Marvel Comics secretary Flo Steinberg became part of the underground scene when she published Big Apple Comix. TM and © Big Apple Productions.

Apple. The sleaze and sex shops that were then rampant in Times Square are a running theme in many of the tales. Underneath that slime, the creators demonstrate a deep love for New York. Denny O’Neil, in the comix’s Foreword, writes: “I liken my adopted home to a cold bitch. She’s a challenge. Stay with her, try one more time, and maybe, just maybe, she’ll give you the best orgasm you ever dreamed of.” Likewise, Steinberg in her Afterword—which she calls her “Backword”—writes: “For good, for bad, for whatever—we feel a poignant bond to our city, certainly the most fascinating, irrational, egotistical, decadent, eccentric, eclectic, brash, and frisky metropolis in the world.”

Back on the east coast, New York based publisher Sal Quartuccio released the second issue of his groundlevel anthology Hot Stuf’ in 1975 as well. Behind a moody cover by science fiction painter Ken Barr, Quartuccio presented material by Mike Vosburg, Richard Corben, Gray Morrow and more.

The most prominent comix publication of the year, however, was Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman’s Arcade: The Comics Revue, released

by The Print Mint. In light of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Miller v. California that set the Community Standards rule for prosecution of obscenity, head shops—the main venue of undergrounds—were being driven out of business by local authorities.

Combined with the tremendous glut

Steinberg’s comic allowed mainstream Marvel, DC, and Gold Key creators a chance to play in her unrestricted sandbox. When critic Ken Jones called Big Apple Comix one of the “first true alternative comics,” the writer meant Steinberg’s fun little project served as a link between underground and mainstream comics: “Little did anyone realize that this book would point the way to a whole new era of comic books” (Jones 49).

In 1975 Big Apple shared the ground level comics playground with other titles. Mike Friedrich released Star*Reach #2 (April 1975) and #3 (September 1975) after a one year

Among the many characters cartoonist Vaughn Bodé (pictured right) created was Cheech Wizard (above).

TM and © Barbara Bodé.

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of substandard comix that filled the remaining head shop racks, sales on all underground titles were down. As a result, comix publishers were suffering major cash crunch problems.

Arcade was intended as a boutique product that would, as Spiegelman’s stated, “do something to help comix break out of the diminishing world of head shops in something that could appear on newsstands, thereby accepting the limitations that maybe we’ll do the hardcore sex stuff in some other context, but not for this project, and we’ll see what we make” (Cooke 73). In other words, Arcade would present a truer portrait of underground comix than Marvel’s Comix Book foray while also appearing on the nation’s newsstands.

Arcade featured some of the biggest names in undergrounds. R. Crumb provided five covers for the magazine and had stories or features in every issue. Other contributors included Kim Deitch, Jay Kinney, Aline Kominsky, Jay Lynch (who also drew a cover for one issue), Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton and S. Clay Wilson. The magazine also featured text fiction and articles. For instance, issue #5 included “The Calvin Coolidge Story” by Jim Hoberman with illustrations by Kim Deitch, and issue #7 featured an article about “The Mass Psychology of Disneyworld” (sic) by Hoberman with art by Robert Wiliams.

Though its intentions were grand, Arcade only lasted seven issues due to a number of problems. Not only was distribution spotty but Spiegelman lived in New York while Griffith lived in San Francisco. This meant that much of the production work fell on Griffith’s shoulders, and it became hard to motivate creators to do work for the magazine. Regardless, Arcade stands as an important transitional magazine between the underground’s high times of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the tougher era to come.

Death of the Lizard King In 1975, the comix industry experienced tragedy as cartoonist Vaughn Bodé died at the age of 33 of autoerotic asphyxiation. The creator of the popular characters Cheech Wizard and Deadbone, Bodé was a staple of underground and ground-level comics since the late 1960s. His most prominent contributions were found in National Lampoon and New York’s countercultural newspaper East Village Other, but he also provided memorable covers for several Warren magazines and paperback books as well as illustrations for school magazines and other mainstream publications.

John Byrne’s Rog-2000 strip for Charlton Comics also featured the cartoonist’s reallife friend Duffy Vohland (1952-1982) as a bartender (seen on right) in E-Man #6.

TM and © respective copyright holder.

ics, and Batman made me an addict” (Nolen-Weathington 9). After his family moved to Canada, Byrne became exposed to Marvel Comics. He found himself particularly excited by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four: “it was the characters, it was the stories, it was just the whole milieu, I guess, the whole fantasy milieu was just so compelling” (Nolen-Weathington 12).

Bodé had a style that was all his own, a uniquely idiosyncratic approach to the world that involved humanized lizards, large-busted women, bodiless wizards and a shocking amount of violence. Some of his contemporaries even called Bodé a revolutionary cartoonist due to his radical, progressive and philosophical moves to transform the underground comix movement (Beahm 23). Perhaps Bodé’s most heartfelt work was The Man, a meditation on loneliness published by The Print Mint.

His bestselling work, though, was Deadbone Erotica, a collection of edgy, slightly erotic comic strips previously published in the adult magazine Cavalier.

In 1970 Byrne enrolled in the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary with the intention of becoming a commercial artist.

He felt the best way to make a living was drawing advertisements and designing billboards, among other commercial pursuits. But things changed when he wrote and drew a comic book for a freshman year project. Once Byrne completed his comic, he knew what he really wanted to become: he wanted to be a comic book artist.

A much-beloved raconteur, Bodé often performed what he called his “Cartoon Concert,” a slide show presentation of his art in which Bodé would perform all the voices for his characters. The show was tremendously popular on the college lecture circuit as Bodé’s natural charm would often win over the most skeptical viewers.

Byrne made his professional debut with a two-page story (“The Castle”) in the back of Skywald’s horror magazine Nightmare #20 (Aug. 1974). Al Hewetson wrote the story and Duffy Vohland—a friend that Byrne described as “one of those peripheral people who seem to populate comics”—inked Byrne’s pencil work. Vohland worked at Marvel for a few years—mostly as an inker and assistant editor—but he never quite made it in the comics industry (Cooke 54).

Enter John Byrne The same year underground comix lost one of its most imaginative cartoonists, the mainstream comic book industry began showcasing the work of an artist who would eventually become a superstar. Born in England in 1950, John Byrne grew up a super-hero fan.

His early exposure to the Adventures of Superman television show led Byrne to foreign reprints of DC comic books. As Byrne described it, “Superman introduced me to com-

Byrne’s first assignment from Marvel was an eight page horror story that eventually saw print in Giant-Size Dracula #5.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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As an assistant editor, Vohland started pushing Marvel to give his friend work. According to Byrne, “It was because of Duffy that Tony Isabella saw my work, and gave

sent CPL a doodle of a robot with its arm blown off. Layton and Stern used the doodle to illustrate an editorial, and since CPL had many guys named Roger floating around the project, Layton named the robot Rog-2000. The fans loved it, and the robot went on to become a kind of mascot for the fanzine (Cooke 54). Eventually, Stern wrote, and Byrne drew, a story called “The Coming of the Gang” that featured Rog-2000 that was published in CPL #11 (1974).

And then Byrne got lucky. Steve Ditko quit drawing the back-up strip for Charlton Comics’ E-Man, and the title’s editor, Nick Cuti, needed to find a replacement. By chance, Cuti saw CPL’s Rog-2000 story. He contacted Byrne to ask if he would like to produce a regular Rog-2000 back-up feature for E-Man. Byrne accepted the offer. “That Was No Lady,” written by Cuti and penciled and inked Byrne’s first full-length comic assignment came in the form of Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #1

by Byrne, premiered as an eight-page back-up in for Charlton Comics. Original art from Wheelie #3 courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

E-Man #6 (Jan. 1975). The assignment would last TM and © Hanna-Barbera Productions. until E-Man was cancelled with its tenth issue me my first official Marvel assignment” (Cooke 54). In an (Sept. 1975). interview for American Comic Book Chronicles, Isabella— By then, Byrne had earned himself more Charlton work. a Marvel Comics editor at the time—recalls buying some Byrne’s first “full issue” comic was Charlton’s whimsical Byrne illustrations for FOOM magazine (specifically issue Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #1 (May 1975), based on #5 (Spring 1974) alongside an illustration by fellow Canathe Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Wheelie was the good guy— dian Ken Steacy), but he also remembered seeing an una red Volkswagen Beetle—and the Chopper Bunch were solicited Fantastic Four story that John Byrne had written the bad guys, plotting ways to ruin Wheelie’s prospects and drawn. Byrne sent that tale to Marvel back in 1973 in auto races. Mike Pellowski wrote the first issue, which with the hope of getting an assignment. “I thought he was Byrne drew, but then Byrne took over the writing chores a terrific storyteller and artist. I with issue #2 (Sept. 1975). “I put thought deadline-challenged Marall my energy into that first isvel should have bought it,” Isabelsue,” Byrne says. Unfortunately, la said. Isabella even went so far as Hanna-Barbera deemed the stoto volunteer to script Byrne’s story ry “too scary” and told Byrne to if Marvel bought it. dumb it down. “So I dumbed it But Marvel didn’t buy the submisdown for the second issue and it sion. In 1974, Isabella was editing just sucked the life out of me.” He some of Marvel’s black-and-white quit the series after issue #3 (Nov. horror magazines and was respon1975) (Nolen-Weathington 21). sible for handing out the assignSimultaneous to his work on ments for those books. Isabella Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, wanted to give the young CanaByrne produced a book that was dian artist a chance, so he pulled not only much more enjoyable out one of his plots—a horror for him but also far higher in story called “Dark Asylum”—and concept. Doomsday + 1 presented handed it to Byrne at a conventhe end of the world. In the near tion. It was nothing more glamfuture, a misunderstanding proorous than a tryout assignment, vokes the United States and Rusbut that eight-page story became sia to fire their nuclear missiles at Byrne’s first sale to Marvel (Noleneach other. Much of the world is Weathington 23). “Dark Asylum” destroyed in the ensuing nuclear remained in Marvel’s inventory war. Hours before the bombardfor a year until it finally saw print ment begins, three astronauts as filler in Giant-Size Dracula #5 are launched into space where (June 1975). they survive the global holocaust.

Meanwhile, Byrne continued Upon returning to Earth, they endrawing for fanzines like Chron­icle counter a 3rd century man revived and Epoch, but most of his work from suspended animation from appeared in Roger Stern and Bob a Greenland ice field. The four Layton’s fanzine CPL (Contempo­ Doomsday + 1 provided Byrne with the opportunity to work with take on savage fallout survivors Charlton Comics’ most prolific writer, Joe Gill. TM and © John Byrne. rary Pictorial Literature). Byrne in a world gone mad.

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continued from Marvel Premiere #25.

Iron Fist was given his own title, and the first issue (Dec. 1975) continued the creative pairing of Claremont and Byrne. Iron Fist would prove to be the first of several Claremont-Byrne collaborations, including a book that would become one of the most celebrated titles in comic book history.

That title had to get off the ground first.

Byrne’s Charlton work gained the attention of writer Chris Claremont, and the pair would soon collaborate on Marvel’s Iron Fist series. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Joe Gill had been not only Charlton’s main writer for decades but also one of the most prolific writers in comics history. Together, he and Byrne created the storyline for Doomsday + 1. When they began their run on the series, Byrne asked Gill if he could rewrite some little things along the way, since he was lettering the book too. Gill told him, “Oh, rewrite whatever you like.” After that, Byrne took the framework of Gill’s story and wrote everything himself (NolenWeathington 21). It gave Byrne a good opportunity to practice form and content (Cooke 55).

For Byrne, one opportunity was leading to another, which was then leading to another. Just as Byrne’s Rog-2000 doodle yielded him work at Charlton, Byrne’s subsequent Charlton output gained the attention of other industry professionals,

particularly Marvel writer Chris Claremont. Byrne’s talent made such an impression on Claremont that the writer made clear he wanted the artist for one of his assignments.

Byrne explains what happened next: “When Pat Broderick missed a deadline on the Iron Fist series in Marvel Premiere [issue #25 (Oct. 1975)], John Verpoorten fired him and offered the book to me… I turned around [Claremont’s] script in time to meet the deadline” (Byrne).

Byrne wasn’t the only artist who was making a name for himself working at Charlton Comics in the mid-1970s.

Several other notable cartoonists had their work featured by the Derby, Connecticut publisher too. One wellknown fan, Don Newton, found a home at Charlton, drawing horror comics before assuming the regular artistic reigns on The Phantom with issue #67 (Oct. 1975). A high school art teacher from the Phoenix, Arizona area who dreamed of working fulltime in comics, Newton drew dozens of covers and illustrations for fanzines in the early 1970s before getting his break drawing one of his favorite characters. Newton’s brief run on the Phantom series included a celebration of America’s bicentennial in a 1976 issue. Other up-and-coming fan artists who did their first professional work at Charlton included Mike Zeck.

To be clear, low-paying Charlton didn’t just utilize rookie talent. Many veteran creators chose to work for Charlton because they enjoyed the complete

With that, Byrne was on his way to becoming entrenched at Marvel. Over the course of the next year, Byrne continued producing work for Charlton, not only on Doomsday + 1 but also the television tie-ins Space: 1999 and Emergency!. Byrne’s destiny, though, no longer resided at Charlton; it resided at the House of Ideas. Byrne’s first ongoing Marvel assignment

Popular fanzine artist Don Newton earned his first on-going professional assignment with Charlton’s Phantom comic. TM and © King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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Space: 1999 TM and © ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

A few circumstances caused Marvel’s bosses to decide to create a new X-Men team. In 1974, during Thomas’s tenure as Editor-in-Chief, Marvel’s President, Al Landau, came up with the idea of an international super-hero team. Because Landau repackaged Marvel comics for foreign markets, he thought that comics featuring European and Asian characters might sell well overseas. Landau passed the idea on to Thomas, who had been mulling over a revival of the mutant team. Thomas thought a team of new X-Men might give Landau what he wanted, so Thomas met with longtime Marvel writer (and Star*Reach editor) Mike Friedrich and artist Dave Cockrum (newly defected from DC Comics) to brainstorm a roster of new international characters.

Thomas wanted Friedrich and Cockrum to design the new set of X-Men as if it was the mutant version of the Blackhawks, DC Comics’ international team of fighter pilots (Anderson).

After some initial brainstorming sessions, the concept then languished for several months. During this time, Thomas stepped down as Editor-in-Chief and was replaced by Len Wein. In late 1974, when Wein assigned himself and Cockrum to be the creative team of a new X-Men series, the goal of creating a comic book for foreign markets was either forgotten or abandoned (Anderson). Instead, the new X-Men simply became Marvel’s new super-hero team, albeit one with an international composition.

Initially, the new X-Men had eight members. Four of them had been previously introduced. Adamantium-clawed Wolverine, from Canada, had already seen action in The Incredible Hulk #180-182 (Oct.-Dec. 1974). From Ireland, Banshee, possessor of a sonic scream, had a history as an X-Men adversary, starting in X-Men #28 (Jan. 1967), but he A new version of the X-Men burst onto the scene in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Cover art by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

freedom that editor George Wildman gave them. Tom Sutton, who drew Werewolf By Night among other Marvel series, contributed to Charlton’s line and painted cover art to series like The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, From Beyond the Grave and Scary Tales. He was joined by Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Jack Sparling, Pete Morisi, Dick Ayers, Gray Morrow and other longtime comics professionals. Morrow and Gill launched eight issues of the adaptation Space: 1999 for Charlton, while Neal Adams’s Continuity Studios provided the artwork for Emergency!.

The X-Men: All New, All Different They weren’t yet “Uncanny,” but they were “The All-New, All-Different” X-Men. Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975) relaunched Marvel’s mutants into a franchise that would eventually become the company’s own tent-pole, with seemingly countless spinoffs and new titles.

But few could have predicted that massive success based on the history of the series. X-Men had been languishing for five years as a reprint book. The final new issue of one of Marvel’s poorest-selling titles was X-Men #66 (March 1970). Despite some spectacular final stories by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams—which also briefly led to a bump in the series’ sales—the original X-Men couldn’t stave off cancellation.

The new X-Men had an international composition with members from Canada, Germany, Kenya, Japan and Russia as well as the United States.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Legion of Super-Heroes. In 1973, Cockrum proposed a Legion spin-off series called The Outsiders. That group had six members: existing heroes Power Boy and Reflecto, along with new heroes Trio, Quetzal, Typhoon and Nightcrawler.

DC Comics editor Murray Boltinoff rejected the proposal, which allowed Cockrum to recycle some of his character concepts for the new X-Men. As Cockrum explained, “I do tend to hang on to ideas and use them…. They hang around until they get used, or versions of same” (Cadigan 74).

Nightcrawler was one of the ideas that Cockrum held onto and re-used. Nightcrawler looks almost exactly the same as when Cockrum first pitched him to Boltinoff. In his character design sketch for Nightcrawler, Cockrum humorously warns other artists that “the tail is connected to the base of his spine…it does not grow out of his ass! … When drawing Nightie from the front: do not connect the tail directly to his crotch—you’ll give the Code fits & [art director] John Romita ulcers!!” (Cockrum 175).

Storm, on the other hand, is an amalgam of several of Cockrum’s creations. As Cockrum described it, “She was a little bit Quetzal and a little bit Typhoon, both of whom I’d proposed as Legionnaires, along with a Black Cat who wasn’t the one that wound up in Spider-Man, which I’d proposed as an X-person” (Cadigan 74). Wein and Roy Thomas suggested that Black Cat’s costume should be combined with Typhoon’s powers to create Storm. She became one of comics’ first black female super-heroes.

In the opening pages of Giant-Size X-Men #1, the eight new X-Men are gathered together by Professor Xavier. In his Westchester-based School for Gifted Youngsters, Xavier explains his reason for collecting the mutants is to rescue the original X-Men who were sent on a mission to the island of Krakoa to locate a powerful new mutant that Cerebro—the mutant-detector computer—discovered. On that island, the original team had been captured, with only Cyclops escaping under mysterious circumstances. Cyclops then leads the new group of X-Men back to the island where, after fending off a series of attacks, they realize the enemy they’re fighting is the island itself! Krakoa feeds itself on mutant energies, and it allowed Cyclops to escape, just so he could bring more mutants back to the island. The new X-Men free the original team and together, the thirteen mutants defeat the island by sending it into space. As the first issue ends, the heroes fly back to the United States, prompting Angel, an original member of the X-Men, to ask, “What are we going to do with thirteen X-Men?”

The X-Men series resumed with issue #94 in which the old team separated from the new team. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

later befriended the team. Banshee appeared in the pages of Captain America #172 (April 1974), possibly in anticipation of the X-Men revival. The Japanese Sunfire, who controls solar radiation, had also previously appeared in the title in X-Men #64 (Jan. 1970). The final veteran member was Cyclops, who had been part of the X-Men since the team’s beginning and was the first member recruited by Professor Charles Xavier. The X-Men’s field leader, Cyclops can project optic blasts from his eyes, but he needs to shield them with protective eyewear, lest they blast uncontrollably.

Four new characters filled out the new X-Men roster. Colossus is a young Russian named Peter Rasputin who can transform his body into steel armor. Germany is represented by Kurt Wagner, a.k.a. Nightcrawler, who has blue skin, three fingers and toes, pointed, Spock-like ears and a tail, along with acrobatic skills and the power of teleportation. Thunderbird, an Apache Indian named John Proudstar, has superhuman strength, stamina, and speed. Ororo Munroe, from Kenya, is Storm. The new team’s only female member, Storm can control weather events.

Two of the new X-Men have ties to DC Comics’

Professor Xavier psychically witnesses the death of Thunderbird in X-Men #95.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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That question was meant to be answered in the next issue of Giant-Size X-Men. Marvel, though, decided to retire its entire GiantSize line. Consequently, the adventures of new XMen were moved to the pages of the bi-monthly X-Men title, its numbering continuing where the reprints had left off.

Thus, X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975) and X-Men #95 (Oct. 1975) contained an edited

that series The Champions and cast Iceman and Angel as his protagonists. When Len Wein reviewed Isabella’s proposal, however, he mandated a set of changes that Isabella had to incorporate: (1) the team had to have five characters, (2) the team had to include a woman, (3) one member had to have superstrength and (4) one member had to have his own title (Howe 158).

To make the series compliant with Wein’s guidelines, Isabella cast Black Widow as the team’s resident female character, Hercules as the muscle, and Ghost Rider as the character who had his own comic.

With art by Don Heck and Mike Esposito, Champions #1 went on sale with an October 1975 cover date.

version of material intended for Giant-Size X-Men #2. (The second— and final—issue of Giant-Size XMen (Nov. 1975) ended up reprinting several Thomas/Adams X-Men issues.)

After plotting (and partially scripting) the story meant to follow Giant-Size X-Men #1, Wein removed himself as X-Men writer. Years later, he explained why: “At the time, I was Editor-in-Chief and could only write a book a month with the schedule I was keeping. I was writing Incredible Hulk and the X-Men so something had to give. The Hulk was my favorite book and my favorite character so I had to find someone to take over the X-Men” (Anderson). Before Wein left the X-Men, he shook up the team’s roster. In the opening pages of X-Men #94 Sunfire quits the team. All of the original X-Men soon follow his lead. All, that is, except Cyclops, who can’t bring himself to leave because of his loyalty to the team. He remains to train the new members.

Operating in Los Angeles, the Champions were the first West Coast Marvel super-hero team, but the creative problem that couldn’t be overcome was that the team’s roster essentially had no chemistry. That fact made it all the more surprising that the series lasted The Champions collected together an incongruous assortment of Marvel super-heroes. Cover art by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins. over two years, until issue #17 That left the new X-Men with sevTM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. (Jan. 1978). Isabella—who wrote en members… a number that was Champions #1-3 and #5-7—told new assignment to last all that long. quickly reduced to six at the end of American Comic Book Chronicles that Indeed, he assumed the new X-Men X-Men #95 when Thunderbird dies “though the book never came totitle would last six issues before it was while trying to prevent the villaingether as I originally envisioned it or cancelled (Howe 155). X-Men sales in ous Count Nefaria from escaping. as I retooled my concept into ‘cham1975 were quite low: 119,000 copies Besides serving a dramatic purpose, pions of the people,’ I am pleased so on average per issue. (By comparison, Thunderbird’s death also solved a cremany readers enjoyed it. In a way, Marvel’s best-selling title, Amazing ative problem as Dave Cockrum extheir enjoyment is making me look Spider-Man, averaged over 273,000 plained: “we didn’t know what to do at what I considered something of copies per issue in 1975.) with Thunderbird because we never a creative failure in a new light.” He thought him out. It was easier to kill And X-Men’s sales weren’t going to added, “There’s a great comic book him off than to think him out” (Animprove anytime soon. The readers in my original ‘on the road’ concept, derson). Thunderbird’s personality who were buying the title, though, though, obviously, I’d have to do it was also too similar to Wolverine’s. were hooked. It would take several with different characters.”

Thunderbird’s death, then, rectified a years, but X-Men’s cult following character redundancy. would eventually mushroom into the The Invaders Invade the Racks biggest fan base in the comic book For his replacement as X-Men writX-Men and Champions were only industry. Once that happened, Clareer, Wein tapped the person who had two of several new super-hero team mont’s name would become synonybeen pitching in story ideas, who had books that Marvel launched in 1975. mous with the group of characters he dialogued issues #94-95, and who Courtesy of Roy Thomas, one of these was writing. seemed to have genuine enthusiasm new teams had adventures not in the for both the title’s characters and swinging 1970s but during the comic concept. That writer was Chris ClareWe are the Champions book industry’s “Golden Age,” when mont. Claremont was ecstatic about Since both Angel and Iceman were Marvel was known as Timely Comics. the opportunity to write the X-Men, jettisoned from the new X-Men comIn an interview for American Comic especially since he knew he would ic, they were ripe for the taking for a Book Chronicles, Thomas admits that enjoy unfettered creative freedom: new book. That’s at least what Tony he was devoted to 1940s super-he“we were trusted to do our jobs to the Isabella thought. He had an idea for roes: “even as a kid, I was always fasbest of our ability. And, because there a buddy book, featuring two guys cinated when I ran into an occasional were no real expectations for the on the road, learning about life and comic from that period.” Thomas’s book, we were left alone” (Claremont death and each other while fighting love for that era—and those heroes— vi). Not that Claremont expected his the occasional criminal. He called served him well as he searched for a 161

new concept to write. “I was looking for a series that would use some of the super-heroes I liked, without being tied into current continuity,” he said. “And it seemed to me that, since all three of Timely’s Big Three— Captain America, SubMariner, and the original Human Torch—had come to prominence in the era of WWII, that would be a good time to set a series.”

Truth be told, Thomas already had experience writing Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch as a team. He used them in two different AvengRoy Thomas reset Marvel’s World War II-era superers’ story arcs: issue #71 heroes as the Invaders. Cover art by Frank Robbins (Dec. 1969) and issue #97 and John Romita. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. (March 1972). But now, in 1975, Thomas called his new team Man) track him down, The Invaders, and they included both the Sub-Mariner finds Captain America’s sidekick, Bucky, Master Man attackand Human Torch’s sidekick, Toro. ing a British battleThe group was incorporated into the ship ferrying Winston Marvel Universe with Giant-Size InChurchill to the United vaders #1 (June 1975).

States. Together, all the In the editorial published in GiantSize Invaders #1, Thomas explained where the Invaders name originated: it dated back to when the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner shared Marvel’s Tales to Astonish title. Stan Lee toyed with the idea of pairing the two as “The Invaders.” But then a TV series of the same name aired, so Lee’s idea died. “The name was still a good one,” Thomas wrote. “We had Avengers— we had Defenders—we had Demolishers, Destroyers, Exterminators, Punishers, Crushers, and Destructors.

Why not an Invaders?”

The Invaders operate during the same time when the United States and the Allies are plunged into war with the Axis powers. In Giant-Size Invaders #1, the Nazis think they’ve duplicated the formula with which Captain America obtained his powers. They apply the super-soldier formula to their own volunteer, who grows in size and stamina and becomes Master Man. While Cap and Bucky, along with Human Torch and Toro (who’ve already had a scrap with Master

heroes confront Master Man, simultaneously defeating the villain and destroying a hidden Nazi U-Boat. After the battle, the group begins to fight amongst themselves (as Marvel heroes are wont to do), but Churchill implores them to “shelve your own petty squabbles for the duration!” and asks the five to “act as our own unofficial Invaders.”

The regular-sized Invaders #1 (Aug. 1975) finds the team first arguing over their new name. Captain America prefers something more along the lines of “Protectors” or “Preservers” to indicate the team’s cause to defend America. Human Torch is “hottertempered” than Cap and goes for “Revenge Squadron” or the “American Avengers.” Namor votes for keeping the name Churchill gave them as they “Invade Adolf Hitler’s Fortress Europa!” With that, the matter is decided.

The Invaders blended war with super-heroics as the series’ opening issues position the team against one Axis super-menace after another. In The Invaders #3 (Nov. 1975) one of 162

Namor’s subjects, a scientist named Meranno, develops super powers and calls himself U-Man, allying with the Nazis. U-Man hopes to convince the world that a fourth nation—Namor’s Atlantis—has been added to the Axis powers. As would be expected, this scheme rankles Namor’s sensibilities.

After much skirmishing with troops, U-Man is taken down.

Frank Robbins—veteran illustrator of the Scorchy Smith and Johnny Hazard newspaper strips as well as a writer for DC Comics’ Batman, The Flash and The Unknown Soldier—was the series’ regular artist. In the first issue’s letters column, Thomas wrote that, “Fightin’ Frank R. is chafing at the bit to make use of all of the World War II legend and lore he’s stored up over his years as a first-rate cartoonist.”

Robbins took some artistic license, adding swastikas to German U-boats’ conning towers, but overall he kept the title’s aesthetic authentic.

If The Invaders’ letter column is any indication, readers waffled back and forth as to their liking of the period piece. Robbins’ art style was truly

Catching wind of the prophecy in his 31st century citadel, Kang tries over and over between Avengers #129 (Nov. 1974) and #135 (May 1975) as well as Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 (Nov. 1974 – June 1975) to find and kill the Madonna. The wild storyline spans multiple timeframes with Kang enlisting the aid of Frankenstein, the original Human Torch, Baron Zemo and Wonder Man, among others, but the conclusion of the saga in GiantSize Avengers #4 may have been the most unusual ending that readers could imagine. In that issue, Mantis marries a sentient alien plant called the Cotati in the form of the resurrected body of the Swordsman, in a double wedding with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. Thus ended one of the most tangled and weird storylines the Avengers had ever had.

Steve Englehart’s “Celestial Madonna” story arc concluded with two marriages in Giant-Size Avengers #4. Cover art by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

atypical for a Marvel comic book of this time, and the book’s usage of such WWII-era phrases like “Keep ’em Flying!” and “Holy Toledo!” seemed to grate on some readers’ nerves. Others, though, embraced the nostalgia offered by the title. The Invaders was a simpler book, lacking some of the character depth of other contemporary comics on the racks.

The Invaders lasted over four years, until issue #41 (Sept. 1979). Though the series never sold especially well, Thomas says that of all the work he’s done, “The Invaders is the Marvel series I’d most love the chance to write again.”

1975 was a big year for Marvel’s super-teams, as the Avengers became enmeshed in one of the most cosmic events in their history: the Celestial Madonna saga. Writer Steve Engle­ hart had introduced the antennawearing Vietnamese martial arts master Mantis in Avengers #112 (June 1973) as a former bar-girl who becomes a disruptive force among Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, playing the Vision and Swordsman against each other in a weird emotional entanglement. Unbeknownst to anyone, Mantis was the fulfillment of a long-standing prophecy: she was to become the Celestial Madonna, a woman who will give birth to an immensely powerful child.

Deadline Disasters Four months after the introduction of the Invaders, perennial Fantastic Four guest-stars The Inhumans also received their own title with writer Doug Moench and artist George Pérez attached to the series.

It was one of Pérez’s first book-length ongoing assignments for Marvel (he was simultaneously assigned to Avengers and Fantastic Four), and he wanted his work to look the best it could be. To do so, though, Pérez had to overcome several obstacles.

Pérez’s first dilemma was that he found Moench’s plot for The Inhumans #1 too compressed for a 19 page story. As Pérez described it, “Doug Moench’s plot was so dense I could not fit all of it into the number of pages I had to work with. I called up Marvel, who in turn talked to Doug, and then I talked to Doug, and we found a fitting place to break the story with the second half going into issue #2 with a little modi163

fication. So, as hard as it is to believe, Inhumans #1 and #2 were supposed to be issue #1” (Nolen-Weathington 22).

Another problem for Pérez to solve was the fact that Frank Chiaramonte, a Cuban-American Marvel contributor since 1972, was assigned to ink his pencils, and Pérez wasn’t particularly fond of Chiaramonte’s work. By chance, Pérez was in Marvel’s offices when the inked pages for Inhumans #1 arrived. Seizing the opportunity, Pérez grabbed the artwork and took to them with a bottle of correction fluid to make some changes (NolenWeathington 23). Luckily for Pérez, that was the only issue of Inhumans that Chiaramonte was assigned to ink.

It was nothing short of miraculous that Pérez even finished penciling Inhumans #1. In order to make the printer’s deadline, Pérez was given only one week to draw the entire issue. That sort of time crunch wasn’t unusual at Marvel. Deadline crises were rampant at Marvel during Len Wein’s reign as editor-in-chief, for a

One of George Pérez’s first on-going assignments for Marvel Comics was Inhumans. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

variety of reasons. For one, under Marvel’s then-traditional approach to freelance work, some writers were given too much leeway to manage themselves. Their tardiness created scheduling problems. Other writers, though, weren’t accorded as much freedom. Wein micromanaged those writers’ work, often to the chagrin of Marvel’s production manager, John Verpoorten. From Verpoorten’s point of view, once a book risked missing a printing deadline— which would cause the printer to charge Marvel hundreds of dollars in late fees—the time had passed to make any changes or corrections. Verpoorten would grab unread pages out of a proofreader’s hands and growl, “You’ll read it when it comes out!”

(Howe 158).

hoped he could relieve Marvel’s deadline pressures by commissioning more inventory stories that could be slotted into titles that risked being late to the printer. Wolfman called this initiative “Marvel Fill-In Comics,” and as Wolfman explained, it was an actual assignment put on Marvel’s production schedule: It would have actual deadlines and be produced like every other book, only it would never be published. Every month John Verpoorten, the head of production, and I would get together and discuss which books were on the verge of being late. Let’s say one month it was Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers and The Hulk. I would have Bill (Mantlo) write a teamup between those characters so it could be slotted into any of the four places. The regular writers of books were told in advance that none of the fill-in stories would be used if they got done on time. (Yurkovich 13)

That was Marvel’s operational status quo, and it was taking a heavy toll on one person in particular: Len Wein. Besides dealing with the monthly deadline pressures, Wein also found himself fighting with company president Al Landau, an increasingly distant Stan Lee or Marvel’s accountants over sudden title cancellations, reduced page counts and creators’ page rates — never mind keeping track of the four dozen comic books Marvel was publishing every month and figuring out which ones needed his input (Howe 167). To cope, Wein regularly consumed tranquilizer pills (Anderson). The demands of his job, though, proved unmanageable as Wein admitted later, “It took me a year to understand why [Roy Thomas] left; it was an impossible job. And as long as we kept doing that impossible job, [Marvel’s executives] wouldn’t believe it was impossible” (Howe 153).

While Wolfman strove to resolve one of Marvel’s nagging problems, parent company Cadence Industries grew concerned about an entirely different matter. Cadence CEO Sheldon Feinberg had become skeptical of Marvel’s profit reports. For one thing, Al Landau’s estimated newsstand sell-through rates seemed far too high to be realistic. An investigation was launched, and it confirmed the worst case scenario: Marvel was losing tremendous amounts of money. In the first six months of 1975 alone, Marvel had an operating loss of two million dollars. Al Landau was fired.

The introduction of Moon Knight in Werewolf by Night #32 foreshadowed Marvel’s almost exclusive emphasis on super-heroes. Cover art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom. TM Taking his place was Jim Galand © Marvel Characters, Inc. ton, the former president of Popular Library Books, a paOn April 9, 1975, Wein resigned as Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief. perback publishing company owned by CBS Broadcasting.

He would remain a part of Marvel’s stable, though, securFeinberg charged Galton with making Marvel profitable. If ing the same kind of arrangement Roy Thomas got when Galton couldn’t do so within a year or two, Feinberg threathe stepped down as Editor-in-Chief: Wein received creative ened to shut Marvel down (Howe 169-170). autonomy as a writer/editor. His regular writing assignGalton could see that Marvel was producing too many timents mostly consisted of Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible tles, and the time had come to start pruning the line. The Hulk and Thor. first set of series to go was a genre that wasn’t earning its Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief was Wein’s close friend Marv keep anymore: the monster and horror comics. OversatuWolfman. (Archie Goodwin, recently returned to Marvel ration burned out the marketplace on horror comics, so by after brief stints at DC and Warren, replaced Wolfman as cover date December 1975 the following Marvel titles went editor of Marvel’s black-and-white magazines.) Wolfman 164

to their graves: Creatures on the Loose, Crypt of Shadows, Dead of Night, Fear, Frankenstein, Giant-Size Chillers, Giant-Size Man-Thing, Giant-Size Werewolf, Man-Thing, Night Rider, Supernatural Thrillers, Uncanny Tales, Vault of Evil and Where Monsters Dwell. Also removed from Marvel’s magazine line were Dracula Lives, Haunt of Horror, Masters of Terror, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie and Vampire Tales.

Marvel’s horror output, then, was reduced to Tomb of Dracula (written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan), Werewolf by Night (written by Doug Moench and drawn by Don Perlin), and three reprint titles: Chamber of Chills, Tomb of Darkness and Weird Wonder Tales. Joining those series was Son of Satan, recently graduated from Marvel Spotlight, a title which soon started housing more standard, super-hero fare after being home to such characters as Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider.

Indeed, Marvel’s entire comic book line was becoming less diverse, consisting almost totally of super-hero and sword-and-sorcery titles by the end of 1975. Even the series that ostensibly represented other genres couldn’t help but present super-heroic fare. For proof, one need only look at Werewolf By Night—which introduced the super-hero Moon Knight as part of its cast in issue #32 (Aug. 1975)—and Ghost Rider (“the most supernatural superhero of all!”)—which featured a guest appearance by the Hulk in Ghost Rider #10 (Feb. 1975). The writing was on the wall: most comic books representing other genres (like the westerns Ringo Kid and Mighty Marvel Western, and the romances My Love and Our Love Story) wouldn’t last much longer in Marvel’s line-up.

Marvel’s rapid expansion into the black-and-white magazine comics line had impacted the other companies that were publishing horror magazines. Warren maga- Jim Stenstrum and Neal Adams’s disturbing tale “Thrillkill” in Creepy #75 featured a sniper who randomly kills people on the streets below him. TM and © respective copyright holder. zines suffered a downturn in sales despite such creative masterpieces as “Thrillkill” by Jim Stenstrum and Neal Marvel and then went to California for a week’s vacation.

Adams in Creepy #75 (Nov. 1975) and material by stalWhen Starlin returned to New York, then-Marvel editor-inwarts such as Alex Toth, Doug Moench, Richard Corben chief Roy Thomas asked him what comic he wanted to take and Luis Bermejo. Sales of Warren’s Creepy, Eerie, Vampireon next. Starlin had given the matter some thought the lla and Comix International never recovered from the drop night before the meeting, and he requested Thomas give in sales they experienced at the end of the horror boom. him the opportunity to work on a Marvel character that Skywald Publications, which had been around since 1971, had lapsed into obscurity: Warlock. Thomas approved the published its final horror comics magazines with Nightassignment, and Starlin was on his way toward producing mare #23 (Feb. 1975), Psycho #24 (March 1975) and Scream one of Marvel’s most uniquely energetic and stylish comics #11 (March 1975). According to editor Al Hewetson, Skyof the decade (Cooke 64). Critic Douglas Wolk describes it wald’s comics had done well on the newsstands, enjoying as “a crazily dense, heady, philosophy-minded space opera a friendly and fruitful rivalry with Warren until Marvel enthat includes some of the oddest and most dazzling maintered the magazine market. When Marvel began its blackstream comic books of their era” (Wolk 304). and-white magazine line in earnest, Marvel’s distributor Adam Warlock’s original series had been cancelled with pushed Skywald’s magazines off the newsstands. Fans issue #8 (Oct. 1973), and his saga was concluded in Incredsimply couldn’t find books that never reached the stands, ible Hulk #176-178 (June-Aug. 1974) where the character so cash flow dried up, and the line collapsed (Arndt 164). died, was resurrected, and then ultimately sent adrift into Ironically, Skywald’s co-founder Sol Brodsky had moved the cosmos. Starlin brought Adam back in Strange Tales back to Marvel in mid-1972 to work as Vice President of #178 (Feb. 1975). After a four-issue run in Strange Tales, the Operations. Horror fans mourned the loss of the unique enWarlock title was revived with issue #9 (Oct. 1975). Starlin ergy and style of the “horror-mood” stories that Hewetson used his new series to explore different concepts than he edited. had with Captain Marvel. He explained, “Warlock was a different head. Warlock was me working out my parochial Send in the Clowns school upbringing” (Cooke 64). Like Steve Gerber, Don McIn 1974 Jim Starlin finished his fan-favorite eleven-issue Gregor and other Marvel professionals of the era, Jim Starrun as artist, plotter and subsequent scripter on Captain lin was given a tremendous amount of freedom to explore 165

You can’t be standing there! You’re DEAD!” Turns out, Spidey was right: the real Gwen wasn’t there. The girl he’d seen popping up around New York City was in fact Gwen Stacy’s clone, manufactured by a villain who had been haunting him for the previous year: the Jackal.

Jim Starlin revamped Warlock as a nihilistic anti-hero who opposed the God-like Magus.

Original art from Strange Tales #178 courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

his own ideas via the means of an obscure comic character. Unlike those creators, however, Starlin was both writer and artist on this series.

In Strange Tales #178, Warlock saves the life of a space-faring woman fleeing from the Universal Church of Truth, which is led by a five-thousand-year-old being named the Magus. The Magus turns out to be one and the same being as Warlock. The story that follows is a bizarre twisting and turning time-travel tale of religion, ego, and the meaning of God, all played out in a cosmic scale that includes Thanos, the In-Betweener, and a set of 1000 Clowns that stand in as satirical avatars for Marvel staff and fellow creators. In sharp contrast to the way Adam was depicted in his initial run, Starlin portrays his protagonist not as a messiah but as a deeply flawed, at times nihilistic, fatalistic and even insane being. At one point in Starlin’s saga, Warlock says, “My life has been a failure. I welcome its end.” This was a hero for the 1970s, an era of doubts, an age of anti-heroism. In the end, Warlock sacrificed everything to thwart the plans of the Magus – whose dream was to bring about cosmic peace.

Conway’s Clones As Stan Lee toured college campuses, being paid for speaking engagements, he was consistently assaulted by the same question: “How could you let Gwen Stacy die?” (in 1973’s Amazing Spider-Man #121). Offering words of assurance to a crowd at Penn State University, Lee promised that Gwen Stacy would return (Howe 137138). As directed by Lee, Spider-Man scribe Gerry Conway plotted to bring back Gwen Stacy—in a story arc that would have major consequences for Marvel in subsequent decades.

In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, readers began catching sights of Gwen Stacy—a glimpse here, an impression there—but since Spider-Man was in the middle of a fight with his villain Mysterio, who dealt with illusions, Spider-Man believed that his vision of Gwen was just another of Mysterio’s tricks. Gwen’s first major reappearance came as a teaser on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #144 (May 1975). Protruding from the cover’s left edge is a leg clad in a familiar white high-heeled boot. Spider-Man gawks, “I m-must be seeing things!

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In his alter-ego of Professor Miles Warren, the Jackal extracted cells from the students in his college biology class, which included Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. The professor had fallen in love with Gwen; when she died, he couldn’t take the grief of her passing.

Warren remade Gwen as a clone, one that retained all of Gwen’s memories up until the sample was taken. Thus, the clone was in love with Peter but had no idea she had already died. In the finale to this multi-part epic, Amazing Spider-Man #149 (Oct. 1975), the Jackal clones Peter Parker as well, and has the two Spider-Men fight each other to stop a

Gil Kane and John Romita’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man #144 teased readers about the return of Gwen Stacy. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ing freelance for Atlas/Seaboard and then becoming a staff writer and editor at DC Comics.

The Return of the King Just as Conway exited Marvel’s stage, another prominent creator returned to it. He was one of the most revered figures in the history of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby. By the start of 1975, Kirby was not happy working for DC Comics.

He was writing and drawing OMAC, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth and “The Losers” feature for Our Fighting Forces.

Since his arrival at DC in 1970, Kirby created a variety of new titles… and then suffered their relatively quick cancellations: both New Gods and Forever People were stopped after their eleventh issues in 1972, The Demon lasted sixteen issues before its demise in 1973 and Mister Miracle was cancelled in 1974 after its eighteenth issue. The California-based Kirby wasn’t getting along with DC’s New York City editors and executive staff, and it was clear to Kirby that DC no longer wanted to use him as a writer/editor (Gartland). More and more, DC’s editors, a mix of longtime veterans and young tyros, considered Kirby’s writing as “stilted” (Howe 163). Beyond that, though, Kirby sensed that DC was in trouble. From Kirby’s point of view, DC gave up too quickly on almost everything it put out, not letting the comics build an audience, and lowering the ax with the slightest poor sales report (Cronin #113).

Peter Parker reunites with Gwen Stacy… before learning she’s only a clone of his former girlfriend. Pencils from Amazing Spider-Man #145 by Ross Andru with inks

by Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

bomb from blowing up. In the end, the bomb does explode, killing the Jackal and one of the Spider-Men. Gwen decides that she doesn’t want to pretend to love someone who doesn’t love her back—as Peter is very committed to Mary Jane Watson at this point—and walks off to a waiting taxi, suitcase in hand.

Meanwhile, across town, Stan Lee had made it known that he never wanted Kirby to leave in the first place and that Marvel’s door would remain open for his return. The only

The following issue provides the epilogue to the saga, as Peter wonders if he’s a clone or if the clone died in the explosion at Shea Stadium. In a story written by Archie Goodwin, Peter regains a sense of who he is. He remembers that just as he was about to die, his thoughts went to Mary Jane, not Gwen. For a moment Peter wonders if he was the clone, but in the end he realizes that he experienced deep feelings that a clone taken from two-year-old cells couldn’t have.

The reason why Conway didn’t write that epilogue is because he had already departed Marvel Comics. Conway’s frustration with Marvel dated back to August 1974 when Roy Thomas stepped down as Editor-in-Chief. Stan Lee had previously assured Conway that if Thomas ever resigned, Conway would be next in line to run Marvel Comics (Gustaveson 72). Much to Conway’s disappointment, however, Lee forgot his promise and instead divided the Editor-inChief role between Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, two DC Comics imports who hadn’t been working at Marvel as long as Conway had.

Rather than having the prominent status that he felt his experience and loyalty accorded him, Conway was now just another one of Marvel’s writers. That fact made Conway very bitter, an emotional state that festered for months until a final straw was broken: a character Conway created in Amazing Spider-Man, the Punisher, was featured in Marvel Preview #2 (July 1975). Thomas, during his editorial tenure, had promised Conway the opportunity to edit a Punisher book if one ever came about. But now the black-and-white magazines were Marv Wolfman’s territory, and Conway was only allowed to write the Punisher story. Angered by this development, Conway left Marvel Comics, first work-

The eleventh issue of Marvel’s in-house fan magazine, FOOM, heralds the return of Jack Kirby to the House of Ideas. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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obstacle to Kirby’s return was a lingering bitterness between the two men. “If only Jack wouldn’t hang up on me,” Lee once told a mutual friend, “I’m sure something could be worked out” (Gartland). In early 1975, Kirby and Lee finally did smooth things out, so much so that Lee offered Kirby a contract. Kirby worked through the remainder of his DC obligations and then bid farewell to his ill-fated tenure there.

Kirby replaced Gil Kane as the company’s primary cover artist to reintroduce his style to readers and warm him up for a return to the Marvel Universe. Kirby’s new Marvel series material began to hit the stands with comics cover-dated January 1976. Unfortunately, the fan reaction to his new comics would not be as rapturous as it was to the King’s presence at the convention.

Kirby’s return to Marvel was announced in late March 1975 at the Mighty Marvel Convention in New York City. Kirby flew into town and tried to meet clandestinely with Lee at Marvel’s offices. Marvel staffer Marie Severin, however, saw Kirby when he came into the office. Lee tried to stop Severin from making a commotion, but Severin’s excitement got the best of her. She ran into the hall and yelled, “Kirby’s back!” (Morrow 41).

The fans’ reception to Kirby at the convention was as delighted as Severin’s, multiplied by the hundreds of fans in attendance. Introducing Kirby during the Fantastic Four panel as a surprise guest, Lee later wrote about the experience in a “Stan Lee’s Soapbox” column that appeared in Marvel’s October cover-dated comic books: As I started telling about Jack’s return, to a totally incredulous audience, everyone’s head started to snap around as Kirby himself came waltzin’ down the aisle to join us at the rostrum! You can imagine how it felt clownin’ around with the co-creator of most of Marvel’s greatest strips once more.

As the fans’ cacophony died down, Kirby participated in a Q&A session. Naturally, an audience member asked which Marvel titles he would be working on. Kirby offered only the bold declaration that “Whatever I do at Marvel, I can assure you that it’ll electrocute you in the mind!” (Caputo 26).

Kirby’s contract paid him $85 per page for 13 pages a week, less than the Atlas/Seaboard rates going around the industry several months before, but still pretty good for the era and the best Kirby felt he could get (Gartland).

Before his new series would arrive,

Jim Shooter spotlighted his 1966 creations Karate Kid and Princess Projectra when he returned to the Legion of Super-Heroes after a five year absence.

TM and © DC Comics.

The Return of the Pittsburgh Kid Kirby wasn’t the only one to make a “return” in 1975. Wunderkind Jim Shooter was coaxed back to comics by, of all people, Legion of Super-Heroes fans.

Shooter’s professional career began in 1966 when he was only 14 years old, writing Legion of Super-Heroes stories for Adventure Comics (starting with July 1966’s issue #346). Shooter’s Legion run was acclaimed for its thoughtful characterization and ample helping of teen angst.

After Shooter left comics in 1969, he went into the advertising business.

As a teen, Shooter had received some press in his local Pittsburgh area for his wunderkind status in the comics field. That publicity led to job offers from local advertising agencies that called Shooter, unsolicited, offering 168

work to create cartoon-style ads. Unfortunately, it was hard to make a living working in advertising in Pittsburgh. Shooter recalls that, “it was spotty. It paid fantastically well, but you’d go for a while and you wouldn’t have any work, and then you’d get another job, kinda on and off” (Cadigan 101). Over time, Shooter created ads for U.S. Steel, Levi’s jeans, and other big corporations as well as some local Pittsburgh companies. Shooter compared the words, captions and pictures of ads to something he was familiar with, “so even when I wasn’t in comics, I was doing comics” (Cadigan 101).

The “Super-Talk” letter column in the back of Superboy #209 (June 1975) described how Shooter returned to the comic book industry. DC had been trying to “lure” Shooter back but to no avail. Then one day two fans, Harry C. Broertjes—publisher of the fan magazine The Legion Outpost—and Jay Zilber—an active voice in DC’s letter columns—were in the Pittsburgh area and dropped by Shooter’s home. They sought to renew Shooter’s interest in writing comic books. When Duffy Vohland phoned a few days later, suggesting a visit to DC’s offices, Shooter’s mind was made up. The next day he traveled to New York City and met with editors Julius Schwartz and Murray Boltinoff. The latter offered him an assignment on Superboy, once again writing Legion of Super-Heroes stories, only this time Shooter would be sharing the load with writer Cary Bates who had been crafting Legion stories since 1971.

During his first run as Legion writer, Shooter worked for editor Mort Weisinger, a traumatic experience from which it took Shooter years to recover. In Shooter’s words, Weisinger treated him “like dirt,” calling him a “retard” for every error Shooter made (Cadigan 58). Fortunately for Shooter, Weisinger had long since left DC, having retired in 1970. Unfortunately for Shooter, working for Boltinoff came with a completely different set of headaches. Shooter describes Boltinoff as “sort of the last dinosaur of the old-fashioned, 1950s kind of editors,” which meant Boltinoff had myriad arbitrary rules, guidelines and formulas that he forced upon his writers (Cadigan 94). In 1981, Shooter reflected on

Broertjes’s cry called for Shooter to have free rein and scope on the Legion, but Shooter was sharing the Superboy title with Cary Bates. That sharing proved problematic, as Shooter explained years later: Cary Bates wrote his stories, and I wrote mine, and there was a vague continuity, because I’d set something up and later I’d find out that Cary had either ignored it, forgotten it, or trompled it to death.

And I’m sure I screwed up his stuff too, ’cause I didn’t know all the things he was going for, but it was just a very bad situation. (Cadigan 94) Shooter found himself struggling to determine whether the fault for the inconsistent Legion stories was his or Boltinoff’s. Eventually, Shooter realized the time had come to look for other job opportunities. He didn’t have to wait long. In December 1975 Marv Wolfman asked Shooter to join Marvel as an Associate Editor. Shooter accepted the offer but continued writing Legion stories on a freelance basis through the next year. His final Legion story of the decade would appear in Superboy #224 (Feb. 1977). By that point, Shooter was firmly entrenched at Marvel, where he would remain for the next eleven years, becoming one of the industry’s more important— and controversial—figures.

Creator’s Curse Besides the Legion, Jim Shooter also wrote a handful of new Superman stories. TM and © DC Comics.

his second term as a Legion of SuperHeroes writer: Now the editor is responsible for a book’s success or failure, and so, by definition, he’s always right. Murray’s editorial approach was highly successful, making the LSH a top book for DC. But frankly, I couldn’t adjust to this newfangled angle on that old gang of mine.

It showed. My stories were heavily edited and often had to be rewritten (both new experiences for me). (Shooter 13) Shooter’s rustiness was also obvious. His first story back with the

LSH, “Who Will Save the Princess?”

(Superboy #209), was hardly an epic.

As Harry Broertjes noticed, Shooter’s subsequent stories didn’t show much improvement, either. He described Shooter’s new work as satisfying as “a glass of watered-down Coca-Cola” (Broertjes 8). However, Broertjes understood the editorial circumstances Shooter was working under. In an article in Legion Outpost #9 Broertjes wrote that “the second Shooter era of stories are quite unlike the first era stories not because Shooter has changed, but because his editor has changed” (Broertjes 8). Broertjes ends his article with a rallying cry: “FREE JIM SHOOTER!” 169

In August 1974, the father-son team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind—best known for producing two Musketeer films (1973’s The Three Musketeers and 1974’s The Four Musketeers)— teamed with French film producer Pierre Spengler to purchase the film rights to Superman. According to Carmine Infantino, DC Comics received an upfront fee of $500,000 plus 7.5% of worldwide box office gross revenues (Infantino 124). The fan community soon learned that the Salkinds and Spengler were looking to hire the most famous writers, directors and actors to work on the project. After Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Goldman declined the Salkinds’ offer to write the film, noted science fiction author Alfred Bester— who wrote for National Comics dur-

Periodical Publications, Inc., for the right to use the famous comic book super-hero in the new movie.

The script is by Mario Puzo, who wrote The Godfather and Earthquake. The film is to have a starfilled cast.

ing the 1940s—turned in a script. Ultimately, though, Alex Salkind didn’t consider Bester to have the name recognition that the film needed, so he paid Bester a generous kill fee and opened his checkbook instead to famed Godfather novelist Mario Puzo, who would receive five percent of the film’s gross revenues for his efforts (Tye 191-192).

I, Jerry Siegel, the co-originator of SUPERMAN, put a curse on the SUPERMAN movie! I hope it superbombs. I hope loyal SUPERMAN fans stay away from it in droves. I hope the whole world, becoming aware of the stench that surrounds SUPERMAN, will avoid the movie like a plague.

More profit percentages (and more millions of dollars) also went to Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, who were hired to portray Jor-El and Lex Luthor, respectively. To shoot the film, the producers considered such distinguished directors as Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, the James Bond franchise’s Guy Hamilton, and Sam Peckinpah (Tye 193). In 1975, the Salkinds hired three planes to fly over the Cannes Film Festival every hour with a banner that read “SUPERMAN, SALKIND, PUZO.” Clearly, the Salkinds signaled they were going to spend a lot of money to give their Superman movie not only visibility but also legitimacy.

Why am I putting this curse on a movie based on my creation of SUPERMAN? Because cartoonist Joe Shuster and I, who co-originated SUPERMAN together, will not get one cent from the Superman super-movie deal. (Best)

But there were two people who weren’t going to receive At first, no members of the press stepped forward to cover any money from the Superman the story. But after artmovie, and they were the Man ist Phil Yeh reported Sieof Steel’s creators: writer Jerry gel and Shuster’s plight Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. In in his San Francisco arts 1975, both men were 61 years weekly Cobblestone, the old, in poor health and living in national press latched onto poverty. Siegel lived in Califorthe story of two down-onnia and toiled as a clerk-typist their-lucks and reached for the state. Shuster holed up out. The Washington Star in Queens, working as a mesran a front-page interview senger and slowly going blind. with the two creators; The Neither had worked in the New York Times, Washingcomic book industry for quite ton Post and Chicago Sunsome time—Shuster since the Times—three of the most 1950s and Siegel since 1971. prominent newspapers of Over the decades the two men the day—soon followed had attempted several times suit (Tye 215-216) (Ricca to gain an ownership stake in 278-279). Popular syndiSuperman via the courts. Their cated Chicago Sun-Times most recent effort, however, columnist Bob Greene conhad been denied by an appelcluded his article about the late court in December 1974. men with a heartbreaking Rather than continue the apquote from Siegel: “My peal process, Siegel and Shusspirit is broken. I will admit Photo of Joe Shuster, Neal Adams, and Jerry Siegel from 1975. ter tried to negotiate a settleit. I’ve contemplated suiment with DC Comics… but cide. I brought Superman talks between the two parties quickly stalled. out of my own heart. I hope people remember that after I’m gone” (Greene 29).

Then in 1975 news was rampant that Superman was being made into a movie, a big-budgeted epic that many As a passionate advocate for creators’ rights, Neal Adams people were going to profit from: the film’s producers, the knew he had to do something. He decided to orchestrate screenwriter, the actors, even DC Comics itself. Seemingly a publicity effort to gain a pension for the two men. With everyone was making money from the Man of Steel except the help of TV producer Robert Lipsyte and fellow carfor Superman’s actual creators. That fact sent Siegel into toonist Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker and Robin and a rage. In September 1975, Siegel mailed a scathing nine president of the Association of American Editorial Carpage essay to every single press outlet for which he had toonists), Adams brought Superman’s creators to the atan address, detailing his and Shuster’s struggles over the tention of the media. Articulate and influential, Adams years. The letter began like this: and Robinson proved to be the best advocates that Siegel and Shuster could ask for (Best). Adams escorted the pair It has been announced in the show business trade around New York City, persuading the media to pay for the paper that a multi-million dollar production based creators’ hotel rooms. He got Siegel and Shuster booked on the SUPERMAN comic strips is about to be proon the Today show, and on December 1, Adams appeared duced. It has been stated that millions of dollars on Tomorrow—a popular NBC talk show hosted by Tom were paid to the owners of SUPERMAN, National 170

Siegel and Shuster also won an important concession: henceforth, every Superman appearance—whether in print or on screen—would be accompanied by the phrase “Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster” (Tye 217). That slug first saw print in the comics in Superman #302 (July 1976).

The settlement cleared perhaps the most important hurdle in the effort to create and release a blockbuster Superman movie.

The Princess and the Pilot (Again) While preproduction of the Superman movie got underway, another prominent DC Comics character returned to the small screen in 1975. Ratings for the 1974 Movie of the Week Wonder Woman pilot—starring Cathy Lee Crosby Neal Adams-drawn image of Superman with his two creators. in the title role—were solid, but the producers Snyder—to plead Siegel and Shuster’s decided to try something different. case (Hughes). Adams told The Comics They brought in producer Douglas Journal, “I was speaking to newsmen S. Cramer, whose previous work inevery day, four or five a day, some cluded Mission: Impossible, Mannix, days more, because it got to be hot The Odd Couple and the third season and heavy. It was a battle for three, of Star Trek. Cramer was a supthree-and-a-half months” (Dean 15). porter of the women’s moveAdams also remembers that “Joe was ment of the time and felt like an angel sent from heaven, and I Wonder Woman could make never heard him utter an angry word. a great statement for that Jerry was very bitter” (Tye 216-217). cause. Cramer describes his The appearance schedule exhausted approach to making Wonthe aged creators (Ricca 281). der Woman appealing to a ’70s audience: In the end, though, the massive pressure against DC and parent company We did a new piWarner Communications worked. lot and went Two days before Christmas, 1975, Naback to tional agreed to pay Siegel and Shusthe origiter a pension of $20,000 a year for life nal com(some accounts claim the amount ic book, was $30,000). The amount was initialwhich they ly intended to be fixed, but it would hadn’t done constantly be in flux over the years. with the Cathy National also provided the men a Lee Crosby [pilot]. one-time bonus of $17,500 each, and We started back in the agreed to pay their current and future days of Greek heromedical bills. As DC marketing whiz ines and mythology Jay Emmett put it, “We were about and showed where to put out a movie worth tens of milWonder Woman lions and I said, ‘Let’s not worry about came from, and chicken feed’” (Tye 217). then brought her to 171

World War II, thinking that you needed heroes and some identifiable heavies that had the same kind of mythology attached to them that Wonder Woman did (Pingel 7).

Given this, it was perhaps contradictory for Cramer to cast Lynda Carter in a role intended for a feminist character. After all, Carter was a beauty queen. The Arizona native won the Miss World United States Pageant in 1972, and she finished in the Top 15 in the Miss World Pageant. The statuesque charmer did have the physical features Wonder Woman required, but her acting résumé left much to be desired, being mostly auditions and screen tests—including an audition for the role in the Wonder Woman pilot that Crosby got (Pingel 9). Carter’s lack of experience caused ABC television some concern, and Cramer almost quit over the wrangling over Carter’s casting (Cruz). “Alan Shayne, who was the head of casting at Warner Brothers, found Lynda Carter and brought her to me,” Cramer said. “I loved her. We went into the network and sold her” (Pingel 9).

Stanley Ralph Ross, who wrote 27 episodes of the Batman TV series, along with episodes of All in the Family, Columbo and Mod Squad, was brought on to write the screenplay for the premiere episode (Pingel 9-10). Wonder Woman’s origin story follows the tale from All Star Comics #8 (Dec. 1941) fairly closely, with a disguised Princess Diana competing against her fellow Amazonians—and against her mother’s wishes—to escort castaway Steve Trevor back to the United States from Paradise Island. Diana wins, after breaking a tie by participating in the dreaded “bullets and bracelets” test. As she is about to leave for the mainland, Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, gives her daughter a uniform she made in the spirit of the American flag and

of comics but increasing the number of 100-page titles that sold for 60 cents. As that year came to a close, DC was publishing no more than 23 titles a month, nearly a third of which were of the 100-page variety.

But the end of 1974 also brought an end to the paper shortage. In fact, there was such an abundance of paper that East Coast recycling centers refused to buy newsprint at any price (Tiefenbacher 4). If that didn’t convince DC to expand its line, another fact did: Marvel was producing even more titles than ever before, threatening to tie up much of the available printing time. With upstart Atlas Comics preparing to make a big splash, Infantino knew he had to do something to protect both DC’s market share and its rack space on the newsstand (Infantino 127).

To that end, DC expanded its output by 62% by releasing 37 titles in January 1975 (cover date April 1975). The 100-page format was retired to make way for 64-page “Giant” comic books that cost 50¢. (The first DC titles to bear the 50¢ price were Batman #262, Superboy #208 and Wonder Woman #217.) Many DC titles were published more frequently in 1975. Titles such as Batman, Detective Comics, G.I. Combat and Justice League of America were bumped to monthly status. Other titles such as The Brave and the Bold, Flash, Superboy and World’s Finest were now being released eight times a year. New comics featured the smallest number of pages they had ever included: a new low of 18 pages per story, with the rest of the comic filled with advertising, house ads and letters pages.

Lynda Carter is Wonder Woman in ABC-TV’s The New Original Wonder Woman. TM and © DC Comics.

tells her in the ordinary world she will truly be a “Wonder Woman.”

The TV movie presented a unique way for Wonder Woman to change into that outfit. In the comics of the time Diana Prince spun her magic lasso around herself in order to become Wonder Woman, but that would be too difficult to pull off on a TV budget. Carter suggested to the director, Leonard Horn, that she could do a spin and transform into the character. Carter performed the twirl for Cramer, who happily agreed. That spin then became part of the lexicon of the series. However, the effect, using stop-motion cameras, was the most expensive part of the pilot and was later simplified in the weekly series to save costs. In subsequent episodes, Diana spun, a white flash was added in editing, and then Wonder Woman appeared, spinning until she stopped (Pingel 14-15).

DC also added a plethora of new—and diverse—titles to its lineup. Seven new DC titles were grouped together and promoted as an “All-New Adventure” line which consisted of fantasy and action characters like Beowulf, Claw, Kong, Stalker, Tor, The Warlord, and Justice, Inc. (a license of pulp

The New Original Wonder Woman (sonamed to distance itself from its predecessor) scored a mixed bag of critical responses. Leonard Maltin called the show “silly but tolerable” while TV Guide’s Judith Crist wrote that it was “produced with taste and fine period feeling” (Cruz). No one called the show a masterpiece, but The New Original Wonder Woman did well enough in the ratings after its November 7, 1975 airing for ABC to authorize the production of two more episodes to run in April 1976. Those paved the way toward a weekly Wonder Woman series.

Carmine Expands The Line In 1974, DC Comics had a banner year.

Publisher Carmine Infantino successfully rode out the national paper shortage by reducing DC’s overall line

Included in DC’s “All-New Adventure” line were Joe Kubert’s Tor and Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko’s Stalker.

TM and © DC Comics.

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To protect its newsstand rack space, DC Comics expanded its line in 1975 with titles like Beowulf, Kong the Untamed, Hercules Unbound and a Sherlock Holmes one-shot.

TM and © DC Comics.

had been glimpsed in other DC comic books like OMAC, Kamandi and the “Atomic Knights” tales in Strange Adventures. When writer Cary Bates took over the title with issue #10 (May 1977), he even had the Knights crossover with Hercules.

hero the Avenger which had been on Atlas’s radar just months earlier).

Fantasy Firsts Beowulf was a standard reinterpretation of the legendary hero’s quest to kill the monster Grendel, written by former staffer and future film producer Michael Uslan and illustrated by Ricardo Villamonte.

Besides Hercules, DC also published the exploits of a different public domain character in a Sherlock Holmes one-shot.

The English sleuth from 221b Baker Street was brought to life by writer Denny O’Neil and artist E.R. Cruz in an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale of Holmes’s death and resurrection after battling Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.

Tor, on the other hand, had a previous life under the guidance of writer/artist Joe Kubert in 1953 in the St. John Comics publication 1,000,000 Years Ago! (Sept. 1953). That title was renamed 3-D Comics for the character’s second appearance and wouldn’t become Tor until issue #3. “Tor…was my incarnation of Tarzan in a cave,” Kubert said. “When I was a kid, when I started having an interest in cartooning, the Tarzan strip by Hal Foster was one that really gave me the impetus to be a cartoonist” (Quattro). DC’s Tor comprised mostly of reprinted (or reworked) material from the 1950s.

The Joker’s First The Joker was arguably DC’s strangest new title of 1975.

After all, it’s a comic book about a psychotic murderer. The Clown Prince of Crime had recently undergone a revival of sorts in 1973’s Batman #251 and The Brave and the Bold #111, in which the Joker returned to his unpredictable, murderous ways after decades of being a silly goon. While that chilling fact was lost on the oblivious parents buying comic books for their children, the comic book nonetheless created a distinct challenge for its creators. “[The Joker] was a problem,” says O’Neil, who wrote the first three issues as well as issue #6. “The Comics Code still had enough teeth left that we had to kind of follow their rules” (Kronenberg 202). As a result, almost every issue presented a toned-down Joker battling his fellow baddies for scoundrel supremacy. The inaugural issue (May 1975) featured TwoFace, who had recently undergone a resurgence of his own.

Subsequent issues presented the Creeper, the Royal Flush Gang, Lex Luthor, Scarecrow and Catwoman mingling with the Man of Mirth. The Joker could never truly win, though.

As then-DC editorial assistant Bob Rozakis explains: “You could not have the main character of the book getting away with murder. As I recall, the Joker ended up back in a cell at the end of most of the issues” (Kronenberg 151).

A different prehistoric comic book, Kong the Untamed, featured a blond-haired caveman destined to become the leader of his tribe. This series was written by Jack Oleck and illustrated by Alfredo Alcala, among others. The first issue (cover date June-July 1975) boasted a cover by Berni Wrightson.

Stalker was written by Paul Levitz with art by Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. In this series, a brash, young warrior sought immortality, but upon doing so, lost his soul. Thus began his quest to regain his soul. “Stalker was an amazing experience for a young writer, getting the chance to work with two of the greats [Ditko and Wood],” Levitz told American Comic Book Chronicles.

Hercules Unbound showcased the adventures of the Greek demi-god in a bleak, post-apocalyptic future. His first issue (cover date Oct.-Nov. 1975) was written by Gerry Conway, in the first of many assignments at DC, and illustrated by José Luis Garcia-Lopez and Wally Wood. The story took place after the conclusion of World War III. In fact, nuclear explosions were what freed Hercules from his centuries’ long imprisonment. This began “The Great Disaster” that

Still, blood ran through the killer’s fingers—if not literally, then figuratively. Over the course of the series’ nine issue run, Joker killed at least a dozen people. One of them 173

shrinking the straightjacket he’s bound in. The Harlequin of Hate then says, pointing to a painting of a balding likeness, “A pity you can’t stay for the rest of my story…because it involves a rather interesting gentleman…my father!” The tease for the next issue promised a tale with an even more awkward title: “Oh, Dad—Poor Dad! The Joker’s Hung You in the Closet and He’s Laughing like Mad!”

First Issue Firsts The new title that DC perhaps had the highest hopes for in 1975 was 1st Issue Special. It was a “try-out” book, much like Showcase had been years before for DC. Gerry Conway explains the series’ origin and purpose: First [sic] Issue Special was a brainstorm of [DC publisher] Carmine Infantino. Because the first issue of any given comic always seemed to sell better than the subsequent issues, Carmine thought that a comic made up solely of first issues would be a hit best-seller…. If an editor had an idea for a tryout, he would pitch it to Carmine, who would either approve it, or not, for a First [sic] Issue. (Harvey 17-18) Jack Kirby wrote and penciled issue #1 (April 1975), which introduced “Atlas.” For the second issue, Kirby’s old partner

Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker, received his own title in 1975.

Cover art by Dick Giordano. TM and © DC Comics.

was his own henchman who revealed the location of the Joker’s Ha-Hacienda hideout; the Joker caused him to die from laughter. Martin Pasko and Elliot S. Maggin were the most bloodthirsty writers of the series, with Pasko killing three characters in The Joker #5 (Jan.-Feb. 1976) and Maggin offing three each in both The Joker #8 (July-Aug. 1976) and #9 (Sept.-Oct. 1976). Many characters faced the threat of death, but luckily for them, the Joker’s plans went awry.

The green-haired fiend was supposed to take on the Justice League of America in the solicited, but never published, issue #10. The story—titled “99 and 99/100% Dead!”—was written by Martin Pasko (with an assist from Paul Kupperberg) and drawn by Irv Novick. Bits and pieces of the story have popped up over the years, but the completed story has yet to be printed in its entirety. Ernie Chan’s cover— featuring Joker running off with Wonder Woman in his arms, pursued by Green Arrow, Flash, and Black Canary— showed up for sale in 1997 in an ad in Comic Buyers Guide #1230. Several Xeroxes of interior pages were auctioned off on eBay in 2011. Apparently, the Joker/JLA tale had a three part structure, in which the Joker tells a psychiatrist how he killed every member of the Justice League… except for Batman. The cliffhanger for the first part of the story has the Joker putting the psychiatrist in a death trap by

Among the characters featured in DC’s new try-out title, 1st Issue Special, were Creeper, Dr. Fate, Jack Kirby’s Atlas and Joe Simon’s Green Team: Boy Millionaires.

TM and © DC Comics.

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Joe Simon wrote “The Green Team: Boy Millionaires.” Subsequent issues featured such recognizable characters as Metamorpho (by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon) and the Creeper (by Michael Fleisher and Steve Ditko) alongside such forgettable debuts as “Lady Cop” (by Bob Kanigher) and “the Dingbats of Danger Street” (by Jack Kirby).

And then came 1st Issue Special #8, introducing a character that would prove to have a very long publishing life: Mike Grell’s Warlord. United States Air Force pilot Lt. Col. Travis Morgan is flying over the Arctic Circle, spying on the Soviets, when he is shot out of the sky. Ejecting himself from his failing aircraft, Morgan passes through a hole in the Earth’s crust to land in a tropical, prehistoric world called Skartaris. He soon meets a warrior princess named Tara, and before long, the two join forces to oppose Deimos, an evil sorcerer bent on ruling Skartaris. With little hope of returning home, Travis Morgan is no longer an Air Force pilot; he becomes the Warlord.

For years, Grell had been developing the concept, which has echoes of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s jungle adventures, in his spare time. Grell called his proposal “Savage Empire” and hoped to turn it into a newspaper strip one day (McAvennie 165). But in 1974, when Grell learned that Atlas/Seaboard was open for business and looking for new titles to publish, he decided to pitch “Savage Empire” to that fledgling company. Jeff Rovin accepted the pitch and offered a better page rate than Grell was receiving from DC. Grell,

The most successful new character to debut in 1st Issue Special was Mike Grell’s Warlord who would go on to star in his own title. TM and © DC Comics.

though, wanted to mull over the offer before agreeing to work for Atlas.

Upon returning to the DC offices after his meeting with Rovin, Grell found Carmine Infantino waiting for him.

DC’s publisher had heard via the industry grapevine what Grell had just done, and he asked the young creator why he didn’t bring his idea to DC first. “Money aside, I told him that, considering DC’s lack of success with the sword & sorcery genre, I didn’t think he’d be interested.” But once Infantino saw Grell’s proposal, he was indeed interested.

Infantino asked Grell to meet with editor Joe Orlando, and if Orlando also liked the proposal then Infantino promised that DC would publish it for at least a year. That guarantee convinced Grell to stick with DC rather than go with Atlas/Seaboard (a good decision considering Atlas’s relatively quick demise) (Cronin #54).

With some changes, “Savage Empire” became The Warlord, and it would be the first comic book series that Grell would fully draw and write. What’s more, The Warlord would become the only 1st Issue Special feature to immediately graduate to its own series. (The feature in the final issue of 1st Issue Special, “Return of the New Gods” sold well but wasn’t revived as a series until the launch of a full new New Gods series some 16 months later.)

1st Issue Special #9 showcased Golden Age super-hero Dr. Fate in a story written by Marty Pasko and drawn by Walter Simonson. TM and © DC Comics.

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second issue was drawn by veterans of Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu title: Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss and Al Milgrom. Jack Kirby drew Richard Dragon #3 then Ric Estrada settled in as the title’s artist, drawing every issue until the series’ demise in 1977.

Family Firsts Following the 1974 success of Superman Family (which had merged the Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen titles), DC rolled out three other “Family” anthologies during the summer of 1975, all of which were 64-page “Giant” books that offered a mix of new stories and reprints. Batman Family featured tales of Robin, Batgirl, and other Batman supporting characters such as Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Man-Bat. In the premiere issue (cover date Oct. 1975) Batgirl and Robin confront none other than General Benedict Arnold in a story written by Elliot S. Maggin, drawn by Mike Grell, and originally intended for an issue of 1st Issue Special. After Arnold is defeated, he is pulled back into the pits of Hell by the devil himself.

Denny O’Neil’s Richard Dragon series saw a succession of artists—Leopoldo Durañona (#1), Jim Starlin & Alan Weiss (#2), Jack Kirby & D. Bruce Berry (#3)— before Ric Estrada settled in with issue #4 as regular penciler. TM and © DC Comics.

Kung Fu First In the Fall of 1974 DC announced it had obtained the license to publish a comic book based on the ABC television show Kung Fu, starring David Carradine (Tiefenbacher, Comic Reader #111, 4). Despite the popularity of Carl Douglas’s disco song “Kung Fu Fighting,” the martial arts craze in America was showing signs of winding down. Nonetheless, the Kung Fu license was a coup for DC….

One month after Batman Family’s debut, Super-Team Family appeared on newsstands, reprinting Flash, Teen Titans and World’s Finest stories from the late 1960s. Before long, the title was offering new stories featuring superhero pairings as diverse as Creeper and Wildcat, Flash and Hawkman, and Aquaman, Captain Comet and Atom. DC’s final new anthology title of the year was Tarzan Family, taking over the numbering of Korak, Son of Tarzan with issue #60 (Dec. 1975). That series starred many of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s creations such as Tarzan, Carson of Venus, Korak, and John Carter of Mars.

That is, until DC announced that it would not be publishing a Kung Fu comic book after all, due to creative disagreements with the licensors (Tiefenbacher, Comic Reader #113, 5). DC forged ahead with their kung fu plans, only now with a character that first appeared in the 1974 novel Dragon’s Fists by Jim Dennis (a pseudonym for Jim Berry and DC writer Denny O’Neil). The first issue of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter (cover dated May 1975) was written by O’Neil and drawn by Leopoldo Durañona. The

But if readers weren’t interested in Burroughs’s fantasy characters (or in sword-and-sorcery characters or mar-

After the success of Superman Family in 1974, DC expanded its line of “Family” titles with Super-Team Family, Batman Family and Tarzan Family.

TM and © DC Comics. Tarzan TM and © ERB, Inc.

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tial art characters or super-hero characters), DC continued to provide its fair share of war titles (e.g. G.I. Combat, Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, Star Spangled War Stories) and horror/mystery titles, of which Secrets of the Haunted House was the latest addition. By the end of 1975 then, DC was publishing as varied a line of comic book titles as could be found.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter was that DC’s line wasn’t selling well. Indeed, many of the new titles introduced in 1975 would be cancelled within a year’s time, and some titles—like Beowulf, Justice Inc., Kong the Untamed, Stalker and Tor—didn’t even make it to the next year. DC found itself in a situation similar to what Marvel was facing: it was losing a lot of money. This was something Carmine Infantino would have to answer for in 1976.

Joining Forces For The First Time In a strange turn of events, DC and Marvel co-published a tabloid-sized comic book in 1975: an adaptation of MGM’s 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. Nearly forty years after its theatrical release, The Wizard of Oz still enchanted television audiences, especially in the pre-VHS/DVD age when the only way one could watch The Wizard of Oz was during its annual network television reruns. Both publishers decided that a lot of money could be made by adapting one of the most popular fantasy movies of all time.

To adapt The Wizard of Oz, DC tapped Sheldon Mayer, who had produced not only the legendary children’s comic Sugar & Spike but also a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tabloid and DC’s ambitious adaptation of The Bible into comics form. Unbeknownst to DC, however, Marvel Comics had Oz plans of its own, intending to adapt L. Frank Baum’s original Oz novel into its Treasury Edition format with Roy Thomas as the scripter and John Buscema as the artist.

Rather than publish competing adaptations of MGM’s 1939 movie Wizard of Oz, DC and Marvel opted to co-produce a tabloid version. Wizard of Oz TM and © Warner Bros.

According to Thomas, Stan Lee found out about the two projects while attending a toy fair where a line of new Oz toys was announced. “By some weird coincidence, Marvel and DC were poised to launch dueling Wizard of Oz adaptations, book and movie. The two men [Lee and DC’s Carmine Infantino] decided to join forces and make it the first intercompany collaboration.” Thomas’s memory fails him on the reasons why the collaboration happened, but Marvel ended up producing the issue all on its own. “I’ve no recol-

lection of DC seeing the job before it was printed, though you’d think they must have” (Abramowitz 29).

As for the issue itself—titled MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz #1 (Nov. 1975)—the Buscema artwork, inked by Tony DeZuñiga, is topnotch with characters looking exactly as they do in the film. “Without any notes from me,” Thomas recalls, “[Buscema] drew the entire story perfectly—except that one or two minor scenes were transposed in order.” In order to script the book, Thomas had to listen to black market audio cassettes of the movie and constantly rewind to get the dialogue just right (Abramowitz 30).

Many readers found The Wizard of Oz comic book the next best thing to watching the movie itself. The tabloid was a success that both companies could share.

The Wizard of Oz’s four yellow brick road companions as rendered by artists John Buscema and Tony DeZuñiga.

Wizard of Oz TM and © Warner Bros.

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Marvel and DC would co-publish another project in 1976— one with more far reaching implications.

1976

Bicentennial

Fireworks

Bicentennial fever gripped the United States in 1976. Replicas of the Liberty Bell toured the country. Tall ships sailed into New York and Boston Harbors. The Statue of Liberty was officially designated a New York City Landmark. Items of Americana—which included George Washington’s copy of the Constitution, the original Louisiana Purchase, the dress Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz, boxing trunks worn by heavyweight champ Joe Frazier, and Martin Luther King’s pulpit and robes—crisscrossed the continent via the “Freedom Train” (Wines). Red, white, and blue bathed everything from state license plates to beer cans to comic books.

On all 33 of its July 1976 cover dated titles, DC Comics featured a cover banner that read, “DC Comics Salutes the Bicentennial.” A number appeared in every cover’s upper right corner. Readers who cut off the top of at least 25 different covers and sent the banners to DC by July 4, 1976 would receive “a metal Superman belt buckle! (in antiqued silver finish!).” Meanwhile, the “Superman Salutes the Bicentennial” tabloid (Limited Collector’s Edition #C-47, Aug. 1976) reproduced an old cover from Superman #14 (Jan. 1942) featuring an eagle perched in the crook of the Man of Steel’s arm with a star-spangled shield behind them.

Inside, “6 titanic tales of heroic history—featuring George Washington and the men who made America great!” awaited. Ironically, despite Superman’s appearance on the cover, he wasn’t included in any stories inside the tabloid.

Meanwhile, Our Army at War #295 (Aug. 1976) showed Sgt. Rock drawn by Joe Kubert posing proudly while the official seal of the bicentennial appeared next to him. That issue’s top banner proclaimed, “An American Heritage of Freedom and Independence.”

Marvel also got into the Bicentennial spirit. Its 1976 calendar was billed as “The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar” with Spider-Man, Hulk, and Captain America marching along, playing fife and drums and carrying an American flag, mimicking the style of Archibald MacNeal Willard’s portrait The Spirit of ’76. The calendar portrayed memorable moments from U.S. history with Marvel characters inserted right in the thick of things, like riding along with Washington crossing the Delaware and participating in the battle at Valley Forge. A special Bicentennial issue of Captain America came out—appropriately, it was issue #200 (Aug. 1976)—which threatened that “On the 200th anniversary of the United States, America will die!” unless Cap can stop the menace imperiling the country.

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Like every other segment of America, the comic book industry got caught up in 1976’s Bicentennial spirit.

Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Sgt. Rock TM and © DC Comics. Archie TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Ronald McDonald TM and © McDonald’s Corporation.

Cap also was featured in an all-new Marvel Treasury Special (Sept. 1976)

by Jack Kirby titled “Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles.” Steve Rogers teamed up with Spider-Man as well for Spidey Super Stories #17 (July 1976), with the two of them posing in front of the Liberty Bell. Furthermore, Marvel offered superhero-themed Bicentennial T-shirts, one with Captain America standing in front of the Declaration of Independence, the other with the aforementioned fife and drum trinity.

Charlton Comics Cease Circulation But that wasn’t the only final bit of news from Charlton.

A major announcement came at the tail end of a listing of upcoming Charlton Comics in The Comic Reader #136 (Oct. 1976). The fanzine had already reported: “Due to what they term an ‘industry-wide recession,’ Charlton has cut its output by half—cancelling fourteen titles and four that haven’t yet started.” The news article went on to state that, like a fading relationship, some Charlton romance books would be published less frequently. Then came the coup de grâce, highlighted within a text box:

Archie Comics celebrated “The Birth of a Nation” in Life with Archie #172 (Aug. 1976). In that story, the kids from Riverdale High travel to Washington, D.C. While viewing the Declaration of Independence, Archie finds himself whisked away from his friends and through time. Along the way, he takes part in the Boston Tea Party in 1773, rides along with Paul Revere, goes to Philadelphia to watch the signing of the Declaration of Independence, suffers the horrible winter in Valley Forge during the American Revolution, and witnesses the Battle of Yorktown.

LATE ANNOUNCEMENT: After thirty years in the industry, Charlton had announced that they are abandoning their comics line entirely and that all employees have been layed [sic] off. We don’t know how many of the already completed titles will make it to the stands, including those titles listed this issue. Our thanks to all of the kind people at Charlton who’ve helped us over the years and continued good luck. (“Charlton” 9)

Even McDonald’s got into the Bicentennial comic book act, with McDonaldland Comics #101, a free giveaway available at the fast food chain. The issue featured “The 200 Year Trip” and was packed with historical trivia (Rasmussen).

Over at Charlton Comics, the final issue of The Phantom (#74, Jan. 1977), featured “The Phantom of 1776,” written and drawn by Don Newton. In the course of helping a slave return to Africa, the Phantom of 1776 seeks out Ben Franklin on the eve of his signing the Declaration of Independence. Franklin arranges passage for them, but not before they get to witness the signing of the famous document hidden on the balcony of Independence Hall.

Once the home of such original characters as Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, E-Man and The Question, Charlton now housed many Hanna-Barbera titles (Betty and Barney Rubble, The Flintstones, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, Dino, The Great Gazoo, The Great Grape Ape, Hong Kong Phooey, 179

TIMELINE: 1976

April 13: The United States Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.

A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January: Archie, Charlton and DC Comics raise the cover price of their standard-size comic books to 30¢.

Marvel and Harvey follow suit in June and July, respectively.

May 3: Four years after its cancellation, Green Lantern returns to DC’s schedule. Issue #90 is written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Mike Grell.

January 2: The 96 page tabloid-sized Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man—written by Gerry Conway, drawn by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano and co-published by DC and Marvel Comics—arrives on newsstands.

JANUARY January 19: Carmine Infantino is let go as Publisher of DC Comics after nearly five years in the position. He is succeeded by children’s magazine publisher Jenette Kahn.

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

February 4: The Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.

April 13: The first issue of The Eternals—created, written, and drawn by Jack Kirby—arrives on newsstands.

M AY

JUNE

May: DC Comics hires longtime inker Vince Colletta to become its art director.

February: Marv Wolfman resigns as Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief. He is replaced by Gerry Conway, whose tenure lasts all of six weeks.

Archie Goodwin becomes Marvel’s new Editor-inChief after Conway’s resignation.

January 14: The Bionic Woman—a Six Million Dollar Man spin-off starring Lindsay Wagner— debuts on the ABC television network.

June 28: Shazam! #25—featuring both the “World’s Mightiest Mortal” and the new television super-heroine Isis—is the first DC title to be re-branded a “DC TV Comic.”

Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman TM and © DC Comics. Phoenix, Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Speed Buggy, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, Valley of the Dinosaurs, and Yogi Bear). The company also published King Features newspaper comic strip adventures (Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Popeye, and Sarge Snorkel), and TV series adaptations (Emergency!, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Space: 1999). The common denominator of all these series is that they were all licensed properties. Most of these were the first to get cancelled because “despite whatever tie-in possibilities the books may have had, licensed properties couldn’t cut it saleswise” (Hildebrand 12). Some TV properties remained because of contractual obligations. They were joined by a dwindling collection of romance, war, and horror books.

The last month Charlton published comic books with any sort of regularity was October 1976 (cover date Jan. 1977). Ten different Charlton comics were released that month, compared to 17 the month before, and 22 the

month before that. Meanwhile, Harvey released 15 titles with a January 1977 cover date, Archie had 18, Gold Key had 23, DC had 30, and Marvel had 48.

The Great Grape Ape was one of many HannaBarbera properties that Charlton published in the 1970s. TM and © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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For its part, Archie Comics had several titles reach milestone issues with a 1976 cover-date: Archie #250 (Feb. 1976), Jughead #250 (March 1976), Laugh #300 (March 1976), Everything’s Archie #50 (Aug. 1976), Jughead’s Jokes #50 (Sept. 1976), Archie Giant Series Magazine #250 (Oct. 1976), and Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #250 (Oct. 1976). The most historic story, though, may have been one in Pep #309 (Jan. 1976) wherein Chuck Clayton’s girlfriend Nancy Woods debuted. Although Josie and the Pussycats’ Valerie Smith had preceded her as the publisher’s earliest recurring African American female, Nancy was the first to be featured in the Archie series itself.

Two Gold Key comics also reached milestones: Daffy Duck #100 (April

September 3: The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 lands on Mars to take the first color photographs of the planet’s surface.

July 4: The United States of America celebrates 200 years of independence.

September 22: Charlie’s Angels— starring Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith as a team of private investigators— debuts on the ABC television network. Due primarily to the sex appeal of its cast, the show would become one of the late 1970s most popular shows.

July 17: The Summer Olympics open in Montreal, Canada. American athlete Bruce Jenner becomes a household name after winning the gold medal in the Decathlon.

J U LY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

October 4: Barbara Walters makes her debut on ABC Evening News, becoming the first female nightly network news anchor.

October 4: In Gregg v.

Georgia, the United States Supreme Court lifts the ban on the death sentence in murder cases, restoring the legality of capital punishment, which had not been practiced since 1967.

OCTOBER

November 2: In the Presidential election, Democratic candidate—and former Georgia Governor—Jimmy Carter defeats Republican incumbent Gerald Ford to become the nation’s 39th President.

November 7: The NBC television network airs MGM’s 1939 movie Gone with the Wind over two nights. The airing becomes the highest-rated television event of the season.

NOVEMBER October 19: President Ford signs the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, which will go into effect on January 1, 1978.

July 20: X-Men #101 shows mutant Jean Grey transformed into Phoenix, a being of near limitless power.

DECEMBER December 3: Rocky—starring Sylvester Stallone as a working class Philadelphia boxer who earns the chance to fight the world’s heavyweight champion—is released to movie theaters. It would become the year’s top grossing movie and win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

September 28: A third on-going Spider-Man title—Spectacular Spider-Man—goes on Marvel’s schedule. The series is originally written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito.

1976) and Woody Woodpecker #150 (May 1976). They were both continuing tales of licensed properties. Another licensed property came to an end, five years after the show it was based on was cancelled by ABC. Dark Shadows slipped permanently into the night with issue #35 (Feb. 1976).

Its relatively low issue count was due to the fact that the title started as a quarterly book before later advancing to a bi-monthly release schedule. Stories were written by Donald Arneson and Doom Patrol/Deadman creator Arnold Drake. Joe Certa—credited with drawing and co-creating J’onn J’onzz, The Martian Manhunter— drew Gold Key’s entire Dark Shadows run. The last issue was the only one to not have a cover photo of Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins. Instead, the cover displayed a drawn likeness.

Gold Key also notably abandoned its digest presence, leaving the pocketsize comic presence to Archie and Fawcett. Following the recent cancel-

lation of Mystery Comics with issue #27, Gold Key also dropped Golden Comics Digest and Walt Disney Comics Digest (with 1976-dated issues #48 and #57, respectively). Plans for a revival of the digest line in the chain store market under the Whitman imprint went unrealized.

Gold Key targeted chain stores with its Star Trek: The Enterprise Logs reprint book. TM and © CBS Studios Inc.

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Instead, Gold Key explored other formats in the chain stores. As Golden Press, the publisher began reprinting old Star Trek stories for the book market in thick $1.95 editions as Star Trek: The Enterprise Logs along with utilizing the same template for a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not edition. Meanwhile, science fiction writer-editor Roger Elwood negotiated a deal with Western Publishing that culminated in four 64-page issues of Starstream for retail chains under the Whitman name. Boasting cardstock covers, better paper, and a 79-cent price-point, the comic books featured adaptations of science fiction stories by writers Arnold Drake, Wally Green, George

cancelled in an early 1976 girl-purge. Wendy, the Good Little Witch #93, Playful Little Audrey #121, Little Lotta #120, and Little Dot #164 ended series that had run a respective 16, 20, 21, and 23 years.

DC and Marvel Crossover Again Released on January, 2, 1976, the Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man tabloid was the second collaboration between powerhouse publishers Marvel and DC. In fact, it was one of the most important comic book events of the decade, because even though 1975’s MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz became the first collaboration between the companies, Superman vs. Spider-Man marked the first original meeting between iconic comic book characters from competing fictional universes.

Strangely enough, according to writer Gerry Conway, the project’s origins date back to 1974 with a hot New York agent named David Obst, who had negotiated the deal for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s book All the President’s Men to be made into a major Hollywood movie. Soon after closing the deal, Obst ran into Stan Lee, who was still trying to put together Marvel properties for films. Obst and Lee had lunch, and over the meal Obst asked Lee why Marvel and DC had never co-published any sort of crossover

While Harvey Comics’ National League #1 celebrated “100 Years of Baseball Fun!,” Hot Stuff #136 paid tribute to the Bicentennial. TM and © Classic Media, Inc.

Kashdan, Steve Skeates, and Paul S. Newman and artists Jack Abel, Frank Bolle, Jose Delbo, José Luis Garcia-Lopez, Alberto Giolitti, Alden McWilliams, and Jack Sparling.

Gold Key also started a new comic titled Gold Key Spotlight.

It performed the same function as DC’s 1st Issue Special, putting the spotlight on a variety of Gold Key features in anticipation of their stand-alone title. The first issue (May 1976) featured “Tom, Dick and Harriet.” The high school trio provided comedic adventures but never graduated into their own comic. Those characters appeared four times in Spotlight’s eleven issue run, the most of any other feature. Writer Mark Evanier explained the impetus for this creation, based around Gold Key’s fondness for artist Lee Holley’s cartooning: “Everyone felt he could draw the cutest girls you could imagine, so Gold Key asked me to create a ‘teen’ comic he could illustrate. They came up with the name of the comic (which I didn’t like) but it was otherwise all ‘mine’ (and Lee’s)” (Evanier). Western’s old mascot, Cracky the Parrot, appeared in Gold Key Spotlight #2 (July 1976) and #5 (May 1977). Likewise, Wacky Witch turned up in two issues for more wacky fun beyond her title. O.G. Whiz appeared in one issue, as did more serious adventure characters Dagar, Tragg, and The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor. (Dr. Spektor was also the narrator of all four issues of Spine-Tingling Tales.)

Harvey continued publishing its successful line of Richie Rich comics. Cover-dated October, a new title, Richie Rich Zillionz joined the lineup. Previous greedily titled series were Richie Rich Millions, soon joined

by Richie Rich Billions. Skipping Trillions, Zillonz followed. Another book, published in time for baseball season, the one-shot Richie Rich, Casper and Wendy— National League #1 (June 1976) celebrated “100 Years of Baseball Fun!” It was a promotional giveaway.

Each National League team at the time had a variant issue produced with its individual logo above the title. A generic version was also produced, which sold for 50¢ at newsstands.

Richie’s success wasn’t shared by the female-centric titles in the Harvey line, virtually all of which were

DC and Marvel’s second collaboration, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, was only made possible through the mediation of agent David Obst. Cover art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano. Superman TM and © DC Comics. Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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both super-heroes with an almost mathematical equality: Superman captures Lex Luthor and then Spider-Man battles Doctor Octopus.

One-page interludes placed after each prologue chapter help explain who’s who and what’s what for readers unfamiliar with either super-hero (or his fictional universe).

comic book. Lee responded that he’d be happy to create a crossover, but that the team at DC would never agree to such a deal. Obst asked, “Look, if I could set it up, would you be willing?” Stan said he would.

Obst then went to DC Comics Publisher Carmine Infantino and offered to negotiate an equitable deal between the two companies.

Infantino agreed, and with that, the Superman/Spider-Man project was a go (Greenberg 34).

Conway and Andru put the book together using the Marvel style of comic book production: Conway wrote a full story plot which was then drawn by Andru. Conway scripted the fully drawn pages. “[Andru] and I sat down and worked it out as we were going along,” Conway said. “That was actually how Ross and I worked on Spider-Man also, after the first year or so.” Conway also says that he tried to use fewer words, since DC would be providing the letterer (in this case, Gaspar Saladino). Conway says that DC’s staff lettered larger than Marvel’s did (Egan 32).

As the negotiations between the two publishers got underway, Conway left Marvel to work as a writer/editor for DC. Infantino loved the fact that DC had acquired the services of one of Marvel’s best talents, and Infantino also loved to, as Conway described it, “poke people in the eye.” The eventual contract signed between the two publishDC and Marvel’s agreement stipulated that the ers stipulated DC would provide Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man tabloid the writer for the cross-over while provide equal space to both super-heroes.

Marvel would select the artist. In- Superman TM and © DC Comics. Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. fantino informed Marvel that he Besides those credited, several other artists had their was tapping Conway to write the book. As Conway later dehands in the mix. Dick Giordano had the penciled pages scribed, “[this] was kind of a poke at Marvel, because I had sent to him at Continuity Associates—the company he cojust left Marvel! And I had just left writing Spider-Man!” founded with Neal Adams—and would do the work there, But Conway claims it was also logical for him to write the often leaving pages out on his desk when he went home. project since his extensive experience with Spider-Man As Giordano explained years later, “Neal took it upon himand his more recent work writing Superman stories made self to re-draw the Superman figures without telling me him familiar with both sets of characters (Greenberg 34). that he was going to do it. I didn’t complain but I also never mentioned it to anyone at the time… mostly out of respect Marvel’s choice of artist for the cross-over also made sense for Ross and his work” (Best). Giordano went on to say that because it was someone who was as familiar with both most of the work done by Adams involved the correction Superman and Spider-Man as Conway: Ross Andru. About of anatomy since Andru had some problems with his eyethe choice of Andru, Conway remarked, “I had wanted to sight. John Romita did similar (although not as extensive) work with Ross Andru, who I had worked with on Spiderwork on the Marvel characters (Cronin #65). Continuity AsMan” (Greenberg 34). The reunion of the old Spider-Man sociates teammates Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek and Joe Ruteam was quickly approved by everybody and the title binstein also pitched in with background inks (Greenberg started coming together.

36).

Editors from both companies demanded not only that the The story doesn’t address the fact that it is merging two cross-over story have a balance between the two universes separate fictional universes, but as Conway explained, but also that their super-heroes (both DC’s and Marvel’s) “[Superman vs. Spider-Man] was never intended to fit in looked good and acted in character. Conway and Andru [with continuity]. This was a story just for the fans.” From delivered on those requirements. The story introduces

A plethora of artists contributed to the Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man tabloid. Dick Giordano inked Ross Andru’s pencils with the aid of his Continuity As­sociates colleagues Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, Joe Ru­binstein and even Neal Adams. Superman TM and © DC Comics. Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

183

ing Marvel’s bluff long enough for them to come to their senses and cancel the poorer-selling titles” (Infantino 127).

Conway’s perspective, the big problem with trying to explain how Superman and Spider-Man could team up was that “you waste so much time on the nonessential information” (Greenberg 35). He goes on:

As Infantino told the story, his superiors didn’t seem interested in learning why DC lost so much money. They only cared to know that DC lost so much money. When Warner executive Jay Emmett said, “You lost a million dollars,” Infantino responded, “Right, and Marvel lost two million” (Amash 131). That comparison didn’t mollify the Warner executives. Just the opposite, they let Infantino know they no longer had any confidence in him running National Periodical Publications. So they let him go.

The big argument against the Superman/SpiderMan book was, there were fanboys who said, ‘No, no, this isn’t rationalized.’ And then there were people like me, who said, ‘You can’t rationalize this. And you should never try, because that takes the magic out of it, sucks the life out of it, and just kills it dead’ (Greenberg 35).

Infantino felt betrayed. In his nearly five years of service as Publisher, he considered himself more devoted to DC Comics than anyone else at the company. He worked around the clock, sacrificing his personal life in order to improve the company’s fortunes. He created new titles, designed covers, plotted stories, recruited talent, and supervised the production of the upcoming Superman movie, among other myriad tasks (Infantino 124).

And now—as far as he was concerned—he was out of his job only because of one bad year.

The book was anything but dead at the newsstand. With a cover price of $2.00, Superman vs. Spider-Man was an expensive book, roughly eight times the price of a standard comic and double the price of a standard comic tabloid. Despite this, Conway reports that Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man “made a ton of money for both companies, so from a financial point of view if nothing else, it was really worth it” (Greenberg 36).

If comic book readers of 1976 hoped this project would be the first of many inter-publisher cross-overs, they were in for a disappointment. Neither DC nor Marvel announced any subsequent collaborative efforts, and the next Superman/SpiderMan team-up would end up being many years away.

Infantino turned back the clock on his career and once again became a freelance comic book artist. Jim Warren was the first to give Infantino work on such Warren Publishing magazines as Creepy and Eerie. By 1977, Marvel was offering him art assignments too, and by the early 1980s, Infantino was even back The Firing of Carmine Infantino to drawing the title that gained After a publicity tour to prohim a fan following in the 1950s mote the Superman/SpiderAmazing World of DC Comics #11 announced not only that Carmine Man book that included several Infantino had been dismissed as DC’s Publisher and President but also that and 1960s: The Flash. But even though Infantino ended up with Production Manager Sol Harrison and children’s radio and television interviews, he had been replacedmagazine publisher Jenette Kahn. working for DC again, he would Carmine Infantino arrived back never again step one foot inside in New York City. He had to meet with executives from DC Comics’ offices: not to meet with editors, not to drop off Warner Communications—National Periodical Publicaart pages, and not to attend special events that DC invited tions/DC Comics’ parent company—to discuss DC’s perhim to.

For the rest of his life, Infantino would never forget formance from the previous year. According to Infantino’s nor forgive how Warner executives ended his tenure that autobiography, Warner’s executives were dismayed by January day in 1976. how much money DC lost in 1975. Infantino tried to explain that the loss was a result of having to protect DC’s rack space against the glut of new Marvel product. DC had to publish more comic books (consequently increasing its operating costs) or else risk being permanently shut out of the newsstand. “I knew many of the new Marvel and DC titles would lose money, but if I didn’t match [Marvel’s] production, we would lose existing titles and be blown off the racks by the new Marvel books,” Infantino wrote years later. “The resulting loss of our share of the market would be devastating and take much longer to recoup than call-

DC Comics’ New Publisher Is An Outsider… And A Woman Infantino’s departure was announced in DC’s in-house fan magazine Amazing World of DC Comics #11 (March 1976): “Carmine Infantino has relinquished his post and turned the company over to a new management team, while he moves on to new challenges elsewhere.” The magazine goes on to declare Infantino’s successor as “newcomer” Jenette Kahn. She arrived at DC Comics on Groundhog’s Day, 1976. Years later, Kahn would describe her arrival in a 184

reprints. Sarnoff went on to contend that licensing and other media should be the focus of the company, since that’s where the majority of money was made. Kahn, though, disagreed with Sarnoff’s logic. She thought that if new adventures vanished, the characters “would have a radioactive half life and all the other revenue would dry up” (Tye 211). Evidently, Kahn made enough of an impression on Sarnoff that a job offer came her way the very next day.

Sarnoff wanted her to become National Periodical Publications’ next president.

way appropriate for the day, “I saw my shadow and stayed forever” (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 8).

Kahn was 28 years old, and despite that young age, she had a long background of creating magazines for kids. In fact, Kids was the name of her first magazine. Children from schools in Boston and New York wrote and illustrated Kids. Some students also acted as editors. Kahn gathered an advisory board for the magazine that was comprised of top-notch educators, who helped the magazine gain a good reputation for quality. The press loved the idea, and Kids garnered lots of positive write-ups. But the magazine was also distributed on the newsstand, and that, Kahn believes, led to its downfall, because “children didn’t frequent newsstands and their parents who did were looking for Newsweek, Time, and Forbes, not magazines for their kids. We were lucky if we sold 20 percent of our press run” (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 6).

Kahn accepted the offer, excited about the challenge ahead of her. Little did she know that not everyone was going to accept her with open arms. For one, Sol Harrison, who had been working at National since 1941—first as its Art Director and then as its Production Manager—felt he was next in line to become National’s President.

He would be damned if he was going to step aside and let some Despite Kids’ financial failure, industry outsider takes a posiexecutives at Scholastic were tion that he felt was owed to interested in having Kahn crehim. So Harrison rounded up ate a magazine for them to some of his staff, went before publish and sell. The result was one of Warner CommunicaDynamite, featuring pop cultions’ executives and threatture aimed at kids. Dynamite ened to leave if he wasn’t made wasn’t sold on the newsstand, President of National Periodical but rather through book club Publications. That was a threat brochures sent to classrooms that had to be taken seriously. across the United States. ChilDC Comics could ill afford the dren selected which books they loss of both Infantino and Harwanted, got money from their rison. Sarnoff was forced then parents (or their piggybanks), to capitulate to Harrison’s deand the teachers sent the orders mands. After he did so, Sarnoff back to Scholastic. Since Schocalled Kahn and said, “I know lastic printed to order, there One of the children’s magazines that Jenette Kahn created before she became that’s not the basis on which were no returns. As Kahn put DC Comics’ Publisher was Smash. TM and © respective copyright holder. you were hired and if you don’t it, it was “an equivalent to the want to come, I understand. But direct market in comic books” (Greenberger, “The Path of I really have to give Sol the title of President” (Greenberger, Kahn” 6). Dynamite became the most successful publica“The Path of Kahn” 12). Having already shut down Smash, tion in Scholastic’s history.

Kahn was committed to starting the next chapter of her However, because of a dispute over her contract, Kahn left career. With the President position occupied, Kahn became the magazine after its third issue. “Even when I offered to National’s Publisher instead. accept a 1% royalty instead of the 4% royalty every other The scorn directed at Kahn wasn’t just because she was an author of the book-club selection received, Scholastic said industry outsider, upsetting the company’s chain of comI’d be earning too much money and turned me down” mand that had been regimented over the decades. She (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 7). So Kahn created was also scorned simply because she was a woman. News Smash, named after her urge to pummel her previous emabout Women’s Liberation and the Equal Rights Amendployer. Xerox published it, and it too was aimed at kids. ment was served up daily in newspapers and the evening Kahn’s experience in children’s publishing led to a call news. Many men were very uncomfortable with these defrom Warner Communications, wanting to chat since velopments, including some of DC’s staffers. Legend has it she was “the expert now in publishing for young people” that when news broke that Kahn had been hired, DC editor (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 7). No job offer was menJoe Orlando went to the men’s room and threw up (Greentioned or discussed in the first phone call. Ideas were just berger, “The Path of Kahn” 8-9). Kahn, though, believes one bantered back and forth. During a subsequent lunch, Bill reason why Sarnoff hired her was precisely because she Sarnoff, head of Warner Publishing, suggested that the was a woman: production of new comics be discontinued, replaced with 185

Not long before I came to DC, Warner Communications had bought an interest in Ms. Magazine. In our talks, Bill [Sarnoff] readily confessed, “Gloria Steinem has raised my consciousness.” Had Warner Communications not bought part of Ms., I believe they would never have hired a woman, and certainly not a woman of my age…. If it had been just a few years earlier, being a woman would have discounted me for the job.

(Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 8) But Sarnoff’s progressive perspective wasn’t shared by many of the other men in DC’s offices. Kahn admits that her “early days were challenging.

DC Comics branded the titles that tied directly to The staff was aghast that I had television shows with a “DC TV” logo.

TM and © DC Comics. been hired. I was from outside the industry, I was 28 years old, Paul Levitz rose so high in the and I was a woman. There couldn’t company: because he was the have been a more dire combination” only person to say no to her (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 8). in the early days. While Kahn didn’t always agree with Levitz, a respectful Like it or not, though, everyone had dialogue developed between the two. to accept that the Harvard-educated Kahn was now in control. As such, Feeling her time to make an impresKahn says many of the men around sion was limited, Kahn acted quickly her became obsequious “yes men,” aconce she officially became the Pubquiescing to her requests just to curry lisher. One of her first executive acts favor. She believes that’s the reason was changing the company’s name.

“National Periodical Publications” didn’t roll off the tongue, was bland, and mostly served as a cover to the general public that hid what the company really published. Besides, kids had always referred to National’s product as DC Comics. So Kahn decreed that the company’s official name would now be DC Comics. The change showed she embraced the four-color world she had entered into, and she wasn’t ashamed to scream its name from the tallest skyscrapers in New York City.

DC’s version of Welcome Back, Kotter didn’t enjoy the same success the TV show had.

Welcome Back, Kotter TM and © Warner Bros.

One major addition to the DC line was clearly influenced by Kahn’s days publishing kids’ magazines: DC began producing more television adaptations that were “kid friendly.”

The titles in DC’s new TV line—which included Shazam! (already in print), Isis, Super Friends, and Welcome Back, Kotter—were aimed at a more general audience than many of DC’s tra186

ditional super-hero titles. In order to distinguish these titles from DC’s other books, the term “A DC TV Comic” appeared in a rectangular box on the cover’s upper left corner. Commenting on her decision to publish a TV line, Kahn said: It seemed like the logical thing to do since we had, in a sense, this built-in marketing on television. But I don’t know that the comics were actually that successful. We started publishing them at a time when we were moving into the collectors stores where the audience, the average age of the buyer, was 16 years old. And Super Friends and Shazam! on Saturday morning were not of interest to them. (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 13) Mark Evanier worked for a time as story editor on the Welcome Back, Kotter TV show, and he has a theory as to why DC’s TV-Line failed: the DC editors didn’t grasp the shows’ concepts.

By way of example, Evanier related his experience writing a few issues of the Welcome Back, Kotter comic book: “I had more arguments with DC editor Joe Orlando about what was ‘in char-

acter’ for Mr. Kotter and the Sweathogs than I ever did with anyone who worked on the TV show, including the actors who played those roles.” Evanier also believed the art by Ric Estrada and Bob Oksner contributed to the problem because they worked under orders by DC to make their style broad: “I admire both men but believe that, had they drawn the characters as Gold Key might have (making the people look less cartoony), it would have been a hit” (Evanier).

Kahn made another decision soon after becoming DC’s publisher, one that helped all creators. She gave writers and artists 20 percent of the licensing fees for new characters they created (Tye 214). “I knew what it was like to be a creator and not be given one’s due,” Kahn said (Greenberger, “The Path of Kahn” 7). Slowly but surely, comic book creators were getting a bigger piece of the revenue pie.

For creator Mike Grell, Kahn’s arrival came at the perfect time. A few weeks prior, Infantino had changed his mind from his 1975 commitment and cancelled Warlord—the comic that Grell wrote and drew—before the series had been published for a year. Kahn decisively reversed that decision, as Grell related, years later:

DC revived Green Lantern after a four year hiatus.

Cover art by Mike Grell. TM and © DC Comics.

It seems that [Jenette] made it a point to read all the titles in the lineup and THE WARLORD was her favorite. When she came to the roster and found it missing, she asked what had happened to it and was told that Carmine had cancelled it. I’m told (and I choose to believe it, because it makes a great story) that she said, “Well, I just cancelled Carmine. Put it back on the schedule.” (Cronin #54) Warlord returned with its third issue (Oct.-Nov. 1976), eight months after the publication of its second issue.

Its return was heralded in the July 12, 1976 edition of the Daily Planet, a faux newspaper/house ad that plugged DC comics scheduled to go on sale the following week and offered features like trivia quizzes and an outlet for reader questions called “Ask the Answer Man.” The Answer Man was writer and DC production staffer Bob Rozakis, who had conceived the page earlier in the year and successfully convinced Sol Harrison to run the feature in many of DC’s titles each week, beginning with the May 3, 1976 edition. Via the mock articles, readers got a heads-up on such 1976 events as the death of Flash Rogues’ Gallery member the Top (Flash #243), the revival of Teen Titans (with issue #44), and the first meeting of Superman and Captain Marvel (Justice League of America #137), not to mention plugs for comics that were never published like The Joker #10 and Swamp Thing #25.

The Daily Planet premiered the same week that Green Lantern/ Green Arrow was resurrected with issue #90 (Aug.-Sept. 1976) after four years on hiatus. Even though it was officially titled Green Lantern, the Green Arrow logo shared equal space just like it had for the classic Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams issues earlier in the decade. Still written

by O’Neil, the stories didn’t take on social issues as it had several years previously. Instead, straightforward sci-fi adventure was more the norm. With his love for Green Arrow, Mike Grell begged to draw the book, jok187

As Publisher, Jenette Kahn put Mike Grell’s Warlord back on DC’s schedule. TM and © DC Comics.

ily offering to kill whoever it took to make it happen. Grell would remain on the title for the next two years, tremendously enjoying working with O’Neil: “He’s another of the best writers working in comics” (Greenberger, “From Skartaris to Sable”).

Batman’s Origin Retold… and Revised Besides the relaunch of Green Lantern, in 1976 O’Neil also had regular assignments on Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter and Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth. And then there was O’Neil’s involvement in an expansion of Batman’s origin in Detective Comics #457 (March 1976). “There is No Hope in Crime Alley!,” by O’Neil and artist Dick Giordano, opens with dark, foreboding streets. Gotham’s once elegant Park Row has descended into the cesspool known as Crime Alley.

O’Neil has described the ideal setting of a Batman yarn as, “Batman’s Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November” (O’Neil 344). That is the atmosphere O’Neil provides for Detective #457.

Every year on the same night, Batman visits Crime Alley to see Leslie Thompkins, an elderly woman introduced in this issue. As the Caped Crusader searches for Thompkins, he comes across two separate muggings. With furious anger, he lashes out at the

Wonder Woman Returns to the JLA Though she was one of DC’s most iconic characters, Won­ der Woman hadn’t been a member of the Justice League of America for the previous seven years. The Amazing Amazon left the super-team in JLA #69 (Feb. 1969) after she lost her super-powers and the lengthy “Twelve Trials” that she embarked on in 1974 only delayed the inevitable. That day finally came in Woman Woman #222 (Feb.-March 1976) when the Justice League members unanimously welcomed Diana back to their team.

Marty Pasko had become Wonder Woman’s regular writer with issue #218 and was on hand to script the Amazing Amazon’s first new mission with the team in JLA #128 (March 1976) wherein she finds her colleagues suffering visions of their own deaths. The group disbands, refusing to put their lives in danger anymore. Wonder Woman discovers that the visions have been caused by an evil alien named Nekron who feeds off fear. In JLA #129 Wonder Woman’s attack against Nekron goes poorly, but the Red Tor­nado—immune to Nekron’s fear pro­jections because he’s an android—ul­timately sacrifices his life, blowing himself up to save Midway City and foil Nekron’s plot.

The JLA letter column was soon abuzz… but not because Wonder Woman had rejoined the team. Fan mail, instead, mourned the loss of Red Tornado. In the heroine’s own title, though, reader discussion centered on a resurrection.

Wonder Woman’s beloved Steve Trevor—slain in 1968— was literally brought back from the dead by the goddess Aphrodite in WW #223 (April-May 1976) and soon began a new life as secret agent “Steve Howard.”

Denny O’Neil expanded Batman’s origin in Detective Comics #457 to include a kind woman who comforted Bruce Wayne on the night his parents were murdered.

TM and © DC Comics.

criminals. The second mugging victim is Thompkins herself, and when one thug draws out a gun, Batman becomes even more unhinged, spurring him to remember the fateful night when a gunman shot and murdered his parents.

With his parents’ bodies lying lifeless, young Bruce sits crying, until Leslie Thompkins arrives on the scene. Unlike the police officers and reporters who pay Bruce little attention, Thompkins kneels down next to the traumatized boy and comforts him.

Diana experienced rebirth on film, too. Happy with the ratings from 1975’s one-hour Wonder Woman specials, ABC ordered eleven more episodes for the upcoming season. When the show aired in the fall, episodes were initial­ly spaced sporadically apart, not air­ing weekly until mid-December.

The flashback ends as Thompkins pulls Batman off her mugger and chastises him for losing his temper. As the two walk away from the crime scene, she confesses that she doesn’t understand why Batman returns to Crime Alley year after year. Batman declares, “Call it a memorial…a reminder of who I am!... Of my beginning… and my probable end!” Thompkins states her reason for staying in Crime Alley is to devote her life trying to prevent further such tragedy as she once witnessed “a child whose parents were murdered in front of his eyes.” As he leaves, Batman kisses Thompkins’s forehead and wishes her well.

O’Neil feels the story answered a necessary question that had lingered in the Batman mythos: if Batman were a real person, how could he hang on to so much anger and vengeance and remain mentally healthy? Somehow, Batman’s obsessive side had to be balanced. “Leslie served two functions,” O’Neil said. “One, there was a gap in the continuity, in the biography. Somebody had to have paid attention to [young Bruce Wayne] after that happened. But also, I wanted to put into the series a voice that espouses nonviolence” (Kronenberg 191).

It took seven years, but Wonder Woman finally rejoined the Justice League of America. TM and © DC Comics.

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Like in the 1975 pilot, the series was set during World War II with Wonder Woman incessantly combating Nazi spies. One episode introduced Wonder Woman’s sister, Drusilla (played

by Debra Winger), who becomes Wonder Girl. She would appear in two more episodes before the first season ended on February 16, 1977.

The Wonder Woman comic book would undergo some changes to try and keep it more in line with the TV show. In 1977, DC’s most popular heroine would experience “The Strangest Wonder Woman Adventure Ever!”

Conway’s Comics Corner In 1970, DC scored a promotional coup when Jack Kirby defected from Marvel. Half a decade later, another popular Marvel creator crossed the street to DC: Gerry Conway. As with Kirby, DC gave Conway the luxury of cultivating his own group of titles, and as with Kirby, DC prominently advertised Conway’s work. In house ads, DC referenced the group of books that Conway edited as “Conway’s Corner.” While Conway appreciated that kind of promotional spotlight, he nonetheless found himself at odds with how DC operated: “I was trying to do comics the way I’d done them at Marvel, and that put me up against a pretty entrenched creative structure.”

One of the first titles that Marvel Comics transplant Gerry Conway edited for DC was Man-Bat. Cover art

by Jim Aparo. TM and © DC Comics.

For one thing, that meant Conway was given artists that the other DC editors didn’t want to employ, which included such veterans as Steve Ditko, Ric Estrada and Wally Wood (Thomas 6).

But Conway also had to contend with some unexpected managerial decisions. Shortly after Conway started working at DC, the company’s executives laid off all the assistant editors in order to cut costs. Conway’s assistant was Paul Levitz. Besides being new to the editor’s chair, Conway had a burdensome workload. Levitz’s assistance was vitally needed, and to make sure Levitz was around to provide that assistance, Conway and Joe Orlando (the other editor Levitz assisted) agreed to pay Levitz’s salary out of their own pockets (Thomas 6-7).

Artist George Evans’ passion for aviation art made him a

natural to draw the revival of Blackhawk. TM and © DC Comics.

Man-Bat #1 (Dec. 1975-Jan. 1976) was the first of Conway’s from Quality Comics: Uncle Sam, titles to see publication. Conway felt Black Condor, Doll Man, The Human Man-Bat, after a number of appearBomb, Phantom Lady and The Ray. ances in both Batman and Detective, While all the characters originally had achieved enough popularity to date back to the late 1930s/early be spun-off into his own series. Steve 1940s, their first DC Comics’ appearDitko drew the first issue in which ance came in a JLA/JSA crossover in Batman appropriately guest-starred.

Justice League of America #106-107 In the only time he ever drew the (Sept.-Nov. 1973). As positioned in Caped Crusader, Ditko obscured BatDC’s fictional universe, the Freedom man’s face or kept it hidden in shadFighters hailed from Earth-X, where ows in every panel. A completely difthe Nazis won World War II, and their ferent creative team wrote and drew own series (first issue cover dated the second, and final, issue.

March-April 1976) has the team on Conway’s Corner also boasted a pair the run from the police. of comics that featured several old Another Conway’s Corner title, Kobra, Quality Comics heroes that Conway was originally a joint concept of Steve was fond of: Blackhawk and the FreeSherman and Jack Kirby. Taking exdom Fighters. Conway hoped to give cerpts from Kirby’s completed story, the former—originally World War IIscripter Martin Pasko and artist Pablo era fighter pilots—new relevance as Marcos devised a more mainstream a team of mercenaries. The first issue product that premiered in Kobra #1 of the new Blackhawk series—issue (Feb.-March 1976). The plot centered #244 (Jan.-Feb. 1976)—resumed the on an unnamed newborn who was num­bering of the original series that stolen by the Cult of the Kobra god had been cancelled in 1968. The 1976 to fulfill a prophecy that claimed he revival, as written by Steve Skeates would help them rule the world. He and illustrated by George Evans, had one major problem: he was born placed the Blackhawks in low-necked with a Siamese twin, Jason Burr, with jumpsuits to fight evil-doers like the whom he shared a psychic link.

Bio-lord.

Code Name: Assassin was teased as a Freedom Fighters, on the other hand, Conway’s Corner title but ultimately, collected heroes that DC had bought

189

it only appeared in try-out comic First Issue Special #11 (Feb. 1976). Reminiscent of The Punisher, Conway’s creation from a couple years earlier, Jonathan Drew differed from his Marvel counterpart in possessing actual super-powers that he used to seek violent retribution after the Mob murdered his sister.

The All-Star Return of the Justice Society of America For over a decade The Justice Society of America shared annual summer adventures with the Justice League of America, but the team hadn’t been featured in its own title since All-Star Comics was converted to AllStar Western in the early 1950s. That changed courtesy of Gerry Conway and his friend Roy Thomas. One night at Conway’s apartment, while discussing what new projects Conway could get rolling for his DC sub-line, Thomas, a life-long fan of the Justice Society, suggested reviving All-Star Comics (Thomas 4).

Conway liked the idea, but he felt the JSA needed some youth in order to make the group more “modern” (Thomas 7). There was also the concern that too many readers would view the JSA as just another version of the JLA, so Conway committed himself to presenting the JSA in a much different way than the group had been presented up to that point. To that end, All-Star Comics #58 (Jan.-Feb. 1976)—resuming the series’ numbering from the point it became All-Star Western—showcases not only the middle-aged Justice Society members but also three youthful compatriots: the Earth-2 Robin, the Star-Spangled Kid, and a completely new character, Power Girl.

Conway’s intention was to combine the JSA and the three young superheroes into a new group called “The Super Squad.” Evidence of the attempt to rebrand DC’s first super-hero team can be seen in nearly every aspect of the revived All-Star Comics: the covers (which print “Super Squad” in large bold letters), the letter columns (in which the editors explain the distinction between the Super Squad and the JSA) and the stories themselves (at the end of issue #58, Power Girl tells

Wildcat to consider himself no longer part of the JSA but part of a Super Squad). But the Super Squad moniker just didn’t stick. The Justice Society’s legacy proved too great for the team’s name to be casually retired. Nine issues into the All-Star Comics revival, the Super Squad tag was dropped altogether from the book, and the cover displayed a very large Justice Society of America logo.

While Gerry Conway couldn’t successfully change the team’s name, he could change the team’s dynamic.

Conway didn’t present your father’s Justice Society of America. If anything, he presented the JSA as if it were published by Marvel Comics.

In other words, the team bickered

was a take-no-prisoners, take-noshit kind of character,” Conway told American Comic Book Chronicles. “My goal was to make her very independent, to make her as—it’s a cliché to say Women’s Lib—but we were trying to be conscious of women as powerful beings.” He added, “Here was an opportunity—because it was taking place on Earth-2—to create a version of Supergirl that didn’t impinge on the Linda Lee version.”

Joe Orlando designed Power Girl as a buxom, blonde bombshell. According to legend, All-Star Comics artist Wally Wood told his friends that he planned to increase the size of Power Girl’s breasts with every issue until the editors finally wised up and told him to stop. As the story goes, Wood was never told to stop (Darius). The comic books themselves, however, seem to refute this legendary story as the proportions of Power Girl’s body don’t appear to change during Wood’s eight issue tenure on the title.

The one thing that did change about Power Girl during her first year of publishing existence was her costume.

Originally, Power Girl’s costume had a large open circle on her chest that revealed her cleavage. Jenette Kahn considered that display to be sexist, so she ordered a change. By All-Star Comics #64 (Feb. 1977) Power Girl’s chest was entirely covered by her costume (Thomas 7).

Roy Thomas encouraged Gerry Conway to revive AllStar Comics as a vehicle for DC’s Golden Age superheroes, the Justice Society of America. Cover art by Mike Grell. TM and © DC Comics.

amongst themselves a lot, particularly with its newest member, Power Girl. As All-Star Comics #58 indicates, Power Girl arrived on Earth-2 from Krypton as the cousin of Superman, Kal-L of Earth-2. Like his Earth-1 counterpart, the Earth-2 Superman kept his cousin’s existence hidden from the world, but he did so for far longer than Kal-El did. Power Girl had the same powers as Superman.

In essence, Power Girl was Earth-2’s Supergirl, but unlike Supergirl, Power Girl would get annoyed when people treated her as a normal human. “She 190

After Ric Estrada provided layouts for All-Star Comics #58 and #59, he was replaced by newcomer artist Keith Giffen. Even as a novice, Giffen’s artistry displayed imaginative panel designs and a strong Kirbyesque influence, but the New Jersey native almost blew his chance to become a professional comic book artist. In 1975, Giffen was 22 years old and working as a hazardous materials handler. As a life-long comic book fan, he always wanted to become a comic book professional, so he put together a portfolio, headed into Manhattan and dropped it off at Marvel’s receptionist desk. Giffen didn’t actually expect to get hired by Marvel. He just figured he might as well get rejected by the industry’s leading comic book publisher first and then work his way down the ladder. Figuring there was no rush,

Giffen waited a couple of days before returning to Marvel to pick up his portfolio. When Marvel’s receptionist saw Giffen arrive, she jumped up from her desk and frantically told him that the editors had been trying to get in touch with him. Turns out Marvel writer Bill Mantlo saw Giffen’s samples and liked them enough that he wanted Giffen to draw an assignment that was fast approaching deadline.

Giffen, though, neglected to put his contact information anywhere in his portfolio (Cadigan 140).

Giffen’s earliest professional work then included an inside cover illustration that saw print in Marvel’s The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #17 (Oct. 1975) and a three page piece in Marvel Preview #4 (Jan. 1976). But beyond a few more assignments, there really wasn’t much work Marvel could provide Giffen. Realizing this, Mantlo called Gerry Conway to see if Giffen could get work at DC. Conway looked at Giffen’s samples and felt that they demonstrated a strong sense of storytelling and design but the draftsmanship needed polishing. Conway hired Giffen to provide breakdowns for Wally Wood starting with All-Star Comics #60, but first Conway wanted Giffen to pay a visit to Carmine Infantino (who was still DC’s publisher at that time) for some instruction.

As Giffen tells it, Infantino looked through his pages and then said, “I want to show you something. I’m only gonna take you through this once, kid, so you pay attention. Here’s how you tell a story; here’s how you lead the eye.” Infantino then placed some tissue paper over Giffen’s pages and began drawing some pencil lines.

It was only a two minute lesson, but as far as Giffen was concerned, Infantino proceeded to teach him everything that needed to be learned about visual storytelling: “It was like a white explosion [went] off behind my eyes…. [Infantino] was simply a master” (Thomas 12).

After providing layouts for four issues of All-Star Comics (#60-63), Giffen was told by Conway that “Woody’s having so much fun on the book that he wants to do it solo” (Thomas 13).

Giffen had no resentment about being removed from the title. Wally

Power Girl reveals she is the cousin of the Earth-2 Superman in these panels from All-Star Comics #58.

TM and © DC Comics.

Wood was an artist he had long idolized, and if anything, Giffen felt privileged to work with Wood on his first on-going professional assignment.

Besides, Conway was already giving Giffen work on other titles like Kobra and Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth.

In short order, Giffen’s career was coming together. Unfortunately, it just as quickly fell apart. As Giffen later admitted, he soon became the kind of professional who editors didn’t want to hire: he became arrogant, he became difficult to work with, and he became unreliable. Inexcusably, he missed deadlines (Thomas 14). By 1978, Giffen had effectively kicked himself out of the comic book industry. He went back to various odd jobs, like selling vacuum cleaners door to door. It would be a while before the comic book industry heard from Keith Giffen again.

Society of Super-Villains Secrets There was still one more book that Gerry Conway created for DC in 1976.

It had a unique concept: it teamed up 191

various villains of the DC Universe as the Secret Society of Super-Villains. Conway was inspired by Julie Schwartz’s creation of Flash’s “Rogues’ Gallery.” “Obviously, this was lifted from Dick Tracy, but having costumed villains with a shared goal—even if it was simply the destruction of their common enemy—seems to be something that was unique to DC,” Conway said. “Creating a team of supervillains that existed as a kind of ‘evil’ Justice League struck me as a fun idea” (Greenberger, “Bring on the Bad Guys: Secret Society of Super-Villains” 26).

In SSOSV #1 (May-June 1976), the villainous group’s inaugural lineup consists of Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Gorilla Grodd, Copperhead, Sinestro, Star Sapphire, Manhunter, Shadow Thief and The Wizard from Earth-2.

Catwoman is mentioned as being a member but she is neither seen nor heard from. Conway says he used whichever villains other editors would let him use, as they tended to be protective of their more mainstream antagonists. “These were vil-

lains who weren’t particularly active in their host titles,” Conway explained (Greenberger 26). The leader Conway chose for the Secret Society was none other than Darkseid, available for use because the Fourth World Saga was on hiatus.

If everything had gone according to the original plan, though, readers would have seen a slightly different Society. Drawn by Ric Estrada and inked by Pablo Marcos— who would go on to be the first penciler of the series once it was published—the original first issue would have presented a smaller Secret Society membership that included only Captain Cold, Star Sapphire, Manhunter, Grodd, and a different rogue, Clayface. This version essentially cast the team as quasi-heroes who were recruited to take down the larger threat of Darkseid. When Conway showed the finished inks of the story to Carmine Infantino, the publisher didn’t like the issue. According to Paul Levitz, “Carmine’s concept of the magazine was significantly different from [Conway’s]” (Levitz 186). Levitz also recalls that Infantino wanted to see the villains’ headquarters (Greenberger 27).

Conway rewrote the script, adding more villains, emphasizing their desire to commit crimes and oppose super-heroes, and providing a detailed schematic of the Sinister Citadel in San Francisco. The original version of the story saw print in Amazing World of DC Comics #11 (March 1976).

The covers to the first two issues of Secret Society of Super-Villains were respectively drawn by Ernie Chan and the team of Dick Giordano and Terry Austin.

TM and © DC Comics.

The Future of Racial Diversity DC’s 30th century Legion of Super-Heroes had members with green skin, orange skin, even blue skin, but finding one with brown skin was like trying to beat the odds against the Luck Lords. Jim Shooter’s original plan for his 1960s character Ferro Lad was to have him have brown skin.

Editor Mort Weisinger, however, rebuffed that idea, telling Shooter, “No. We’ll lose our distribution in the South.”

Shooter fired back that the character wore a mask; no reader would ever know the color of his skin. But Wesinger wouldn’t budge. “So basically,” Shooter says, “I killed him off because it annoyed me that I couldn’t do with him what I wanted” (Cadigan 53-54).

With SSOSV #2, Captain Comet became the comic’s in-house hero because Conway says, “I wanted a regular ‘lead hero’ for the villains to interact with.” Captain Comet’s presence also helped steer the book around the Comics Code Authority, which normally frowned on presenting the antics of evildoers in a positive light. Comet had last been seen in the pages of DC’s Strange Adventures in 1954, so he ranks as yet another hero that Conway revived from the dust heap of comics history. Captain Comet worked undercover, and despite bringing a villain to justice every few issues, he never really made any progress in his fight against the Secret Society. A new foe would simply replace the fiend that Captain Comet incarcerated, and the feud would continue… for at least the next couple of years.

In 1976, Mike Grell was also annoyed by the lack of black characters in the Legion. Looking to rectify matters, Grell drew Science Police Officer Dvron as an African-American in Superboy #207 (April 1975). This time it was editor Murray Boltinoff who refused a creator’s wishes. Unlike Weisinger, however, Boltinoff’s objections were grounded in social connotations rather than vague concerns about sales. Officer Dvron started out the issue making mistakes, even betraying the Legion at one point. Boltinoff said, “You can’t do that because we’ve never had a black person in the Legion of Super-Heroes, and now you’re gonna have one in there who’s not perfect. We can’t do that.” Boltinoff promised Grell that the artist would soon get the opportunity to draw a black Legionnaire as there was one in the pipeline. Appeased, Grell made some changes to the art in Superboy #207, but an observant reader could still tell that a black character had been colored pink (Cadigan 89).

Amazing World of DC Comics #11 printed the original version of Secret Society of Super-Villains #1 that publisher Carmine Infantino rejected. TM and © DC Comics.

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The new black Legionnaire debuted in Superboy #216 (April 1976), courtesy of writer Cary Bates. The character’s name was Tyroc. “They might as well have named him Tyrone,” Grell quips. “[The story’s] explanation for why there were no black people ever featured in the Legion of Super-Heroes up until this point was that all black people had gone to live on an island. I was dumbfounded. It’s possibly the most racist concept I’ve ever heard in my life.” Grell laughs at

the thought. “I mean, it’s a segregationist’s dream, right?”

(Cadigan 90).

Tyroc wore white briefs, a white collar, white gloves and white booties. Chains crossed his mostly bare chest. Visually, Grell modeled the new Legionnaire on ex-professional football player and actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and describes the outfit as “somewhere between Elvis’ Las Vegas costume and something you would imagine a pimp on the street corner wearing” (Cadigan 89-90).

Not only was Tyroc’s costume embarrassing, his superpower was rather lame. By shouting different sounds, Tyroc could do pretty much whatever the story demanded.

In his initial appearance alone, “EEYYAHH!” caused jetbackpacks to catch on fire; “RRYGGG!” formed orbs around prisoners, complete with connecting chains; “OYUUU!” caused Tyroc to disappear. From Paul Levitz’s perspective, the character just didn’t fit the comic book format: “I always thought he was just such a stupid character. The idea of using a sound-based character is, I think, intrinsically futile in a silent medium” (Cadigan 111).

Other attempts were made by various creators in the mid1970s to make the Legion of Super-Heroes more racially diverse. For instance, Dawnstar, a Native American, soon joined the book’s cast. And then there was Karate Kid who had always been drawn as a white teen with brown hair.

Mike Grell started slightly altering Karate Kid’s look, changing his hair to dark black and slanting his eyelids, making the character’s Asian roots more pronounced. According to the letters page in Superboy #213 (Dec. 1975), “hundreds of faithful fans” asked about Karate Kid’s new look in his origin story, “Lair of the Black Dragon” from Superboy #210 (Aug. 1975). In response, the editor printed this reply from Grell:

Tyroc, a super-hero with sonic powers, became the first black member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. TM and © DC Comics.

“If you’ve wondered about the sudden change in KARATE KID’S appearance, the reason is simply this: It is altogether fitting and proper that the greatest karate champion of the 30th century should be modeled after the greatest martial arts expert of THIS century … the late, great BRUCE LEE.

into his own title as a safeguard against the dying martial arts trend. His logic was that a Karate Kid solo book would appeal to both martial arts and Legion of Super-Heroes fans (Wells 25).

Paul Levitz wrote Karate Kid #1 in which the title hero, a.k.a. Val Armorr, travels back in time to the 20th century to capture the 30th century fugitive Nemesis Kid. At the end of the story Val opts to remain in the past, exhilarated by “an age when people did things!”

“This is just a small tribute to a man who has provided many hours of great entertainment to moviegoers everywhere.”

Three months after the publication of that response, DC released the first issue of Karate Kid’s own solo series (cover date March-April 1976). Of course, by this time, martial arts-themed comic books were nothing new as publishers had been tapping into the nation’s martial arts craze for several years. The fad, though, had run its course, as evidenced by the fact that David Carradine’s Kung Fu television show was already off the air. Undeterred, DC Comics committed itself to having another martial arts title on its schedule. As Paul Levitz observed, “This is the period when the standing joke about DC was when we started putting out something matching a trend, you could be absolutely sure the trend was over” (Cadigan 108).

Paul Levitz, however, didn’t remain on Karate Kid.. He was pulled off the title and replaced with David Michelinie (writing under the pseudonym Barry Jameson). Apparently, the person responsible was publisher Carmine Infantino who, after reading through Levitz’s comic book work, concluded that the 19-year-old writer was in over his head.

Infantino wanted Levitz’s writing workload drastically lessened, and in retrospect, Levitz can appreciate Infantino’s rationale: “I think it was probably a pretty reasonable decision. My skills were not where they ought to have been at that time. So off I went back to my assistant editor’s desk to play and polish for a little while” (Cadigan 108).

Once he learned that editor Joe Orlando was trying to figure out what new martial arts book DC could publish, colorist Carl Gafford suggested that Karate Kid be spun off

Paul Levitz’s next chance at writing the Legion of SuperHeroes would come soon enough.

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important for a black hero not to have to have white heroes come in to save the day” (Howe 181). Much to Wolfman’s aggravation, then, McGregor stayed the course, which meant his books continued to sell poorly.

While Native American Dawnstar joined the Legion of Super-Heroes, fellow member Karate Kid received his own title. Art for both covers provided by Mike Grell. TM and © DC Comics.

Marv Wolfman’s Had Enough Legion of Super-Heroes writer Jim Shooter departed DC in January 1976.

Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief Marv Wolfman hired him to be an Associate Editor, and it didn’t take long for Shooter to assess Marvel’s situation.

From Shooter’s perspective, the House of Ideas was an asylum being run by the inmates: Marvel writers were on their own. Writers sent plots directly to the pencilers, pencilers sent the pencils directly back to the writers, writers sent the script, pencils, and balloon placements directly to the letterers, letterers sent the lettered pages directly to the inkers, and the inkers finally sent the pages to the office. So, the first time the work was seen by someone in editorial was when the pages were finished, all but colored… So, if there were major problems with a story, or major mistakes, they had to be corrected on the inked, lettered boards! (Vaughn 19) Wolfman hoped to remedy this situation by having Shooter read story plots and scripts before they were sent on to artists and letterers (Vaughn 19).

That way, mistakes could be detected

and corrected far in advance of the printer’s deadlines.

Ultimately, though, Shooter didn’t work under Wolfman for very long, and that’s because in February 1976 Wolfman stepped down as Editorin-Chief. His tenure lasting less than a year, Wolfman came to the same conclusion about the Editor-in-Chief role that his friend Len Wein came to in 1975: “It was a job that was just impossible” (Howe 182). On top of supervising the contents of nearly 40 titles, Wolfman had to contend with the creators of those titles, several of whom refused to cater to Wolfman’s editorial requests.

Case in point: writer Don McGregor.

According to Wolfman, McGregor’s assignments (Amazing Adventures, Jungle Action, and Power Man) were Marvel’s worst selling titles. To improve the sales on those books, Wolfman encouraged McGregor to add guest stars (Thompson 41). On the face of it, a team like the Fantastic Four would have been a natural fit for Jungle Action since the Black Panther—the title’s featured star—first appeared in Fantastic Four. In 1976, however, McGregor was weaving a multi-issue story arc in which the Black Panther confronted the Ku Klux Klan, an opponent seemingly ill-suited for the Fantastic Four’s involvement. More importantly, McGregor objected to the use of guest stars because “it was 194

McGregor was just one of several Marvel creators with whom Wolfman grappled. As Wolfman remarked years later, “I was working at that particular time with very highly tempered people. It was very difficult—maybe a stronger editor could do it—to tell Steve Englehart to do something, or Steve Gerber, or Don [McGregor]…

90% of the staff that was there was very emotionally high-strung people” (Howe 179). So Wolfman became the latest Marvel editor-in-chief casualty.

Privately, he and Len Wein predicted the impending collapse of the comic book industry and began to explore the possibility of becoming Hollywood screenwriters (Howe 182). Until he could transition to screenwriting, Wolfman remained at Marvel as a writer/editor. His on-going assignments included Daredevil, Tomb of Dracula, Power Man and a brand new title he created, Nova.

Wolfman had a specific goal in mind when he created Nova. He noticed that in recent years many new Marvel protagonists were inspired either by specific entertainment fads (e.g. the martial artists Shang Chi and Iron Fist, the supernatural Son of Satan) or the general disillusionment of the times (e.g. The Punisher, Howard the Duck, Deathlok). While Wolfman appreciated these new characters, he felt Marvel really needed to get back to presenting the kind of heroes that appealed to the mass market. To aid that endeavor, Wolfman redesigned a character he had created as a teenager into a purely “fun” super-hero, one that harkened back to Marvel’s early 1960s age. In the editorial column printed in Nova #1 (Sept. 1976), Wolfman writes that “Nova is a throwback to the days of Spider-Man, of the early Fantastic Four, of Iron Man and the others. The days when heroes fought bad guys, and there weren’t as many questions as to who the bad guys were.”

The cover banner to Nova #1 reads, “In the Marvelous Tradition of SpiderMan!” The title’s protagonist, Richard

Rider, unquestionably evokes Peter Parker: a down on his luck high school student who can’t seem to catch a break.

From there, the new super-hero’s origin takes a page from DC Comics’ Green Lantern: a dying alien warrior, a Centurion, appoints Richard to be his successor, transferring his awesome powers to the teenager. As Nova, Richard defends Earth from would-be world conquering aliens and other cosmic menaces.

Gerry Conway’s Deferred Promotion In his Soapbox column that appeared in all of Marvel’s September cover-dated comics, Stan Lee announced Marv Wolfman’s departure as Editor-in-Chief. He then reassured his readers about Wolfman’s successor: Not to worry, chappies. With all the indescribable talent running rampant in the hallowed halls of Marvel, we’re sure to come up with another winner! In fact, we’ve already practically decided who our editorial ramrod will be—but, just to keep you guessing, we’ll announce the big decision next ish! We’ll tell you this much, however—you’ll flip when you learn the name!

That might have been what Stan Lee told Marvel’s readers. The fact of the matter, however, was that the editorin-chief position changed hands several times over the course of just a few months. Initially, Marvel’s Production Manager John Verpoorten convinced Roy Thomas to return to the role he resigned from in 1974. Thomas thought it might be worth giving the job another shot, especially since Al Landau was no longer around to frustrate matters.

Returning to Marvel’s offices, Thomas met with Marvel’s new president, Jim Galton, as well as the other editors, production staffers and some of the creators. Thomas gauged what needed to be done and what he needed to do to get it done. But before tackling the stressful workload that is part and parcel with being Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, Thomas decided he needed some rest and relaxation. He flew to Los Angeles for a vacation.

Marv Wolfman created Nova as a throwback to the kind of super-heroes Marvel published in the early 1960s. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

his first managerial acts, Conway cancelled Amazing Adventures and Jungle Action. Since Marv Wolfman took over the writing chores on Power Man, Don McGregor no longer had any regular assignments for Marvel. At the same time, Conway also contacted the writers he believed needed specific intervention—Steve Englehart, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman—and made clear to them that he wouldn’t tolerate tardiness (Howe 184). Writers who couldn’t deliver plots and scripts on time were going to have their workload reduced (Shooter).

While he was there, the unexpected happened: Thomas fell in love with the West Coast lifestyle. Prior to Thomas’s vacation, Gerry Conway asked him, “Why are you taking the job again?” Now in the warm, sunny climes of southern California, Thomas found he couldn’t really provide a good answer. He rented an apartment in Los Angeles and informed Stan Lee that he changed his mind: he wasn’t going to be Marvel’s next Editor-in-Chief, after all. Instead, Thomas recommended that Lee tap Conway for the role (Howe 182-3).

Soon after, Englehart missed the deadline on Avengers, even though he had received a respite via a two-part fillin published in Avengers #145 and #146. Issue #150 (Aug. 1976) intended to unveil a new Avengers roster, and Conway told Englehart of his intention to plot a fill-in issue over the weekend to make deadline. Englehart regarded Conway’s decision not only unnecessary but downright disrespectful. A fill-in issue would interrupt Englehart’s overall storyline, and besides, from Englehart’s perspective, his four-year long stint on Avengers warranted better treatment. Therefore, Englehart let Conway know that he’d quit if Conway indeed let a fill-in issue go to print. But Conway felt “if I was going to have any authority as an editor, I had to do what I said I’d do. Maybe someone else would have backed down and given Steve another chance to deliver his plot by Monday. I didn’t feel I had that option” (Riley 15).

Rather than plot a fill-in issue, however, Conway instead inserted a reprint. Ultimately, then, Avengers #150 pre-

In March 1976, Conway became Marvel’s fifth Editor-inChief since the start of the decade. His editorial tenure at DC Comics lasted only a year, but when Conway returned to the House of Ideas, he found a lot had changed: “When I came back [to Marvel], it was chaos. They were missing shipping deadlines all over the place, penalized by the printers, almost to the point of losing the profit margin.

And nobody was responsible” (Howe 184). It now fell on the 23-year-old Conway to be responsible for the company’s longstanding problems of missed deadlines and overindulgent writers, and he accepted the challenge. As one of 195

sented five new George Pérez drawn pages followed by a reprint of another famous roster change story, Avengers #16 (May 1965). The following month, Avengers #151 introduced the team’s new lineup—Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Beast, Wasp and Yellowjacket—in a story credited to Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart. In that issue’s letters page, “The Bullpen” offers an apology to the readers: “We’re sorry, gang, really sorry, that in the past six months, half of the Avengers published have been either out-ofcontinuity fill-in stories or reprints.”

The editorial then expounds on the perils of an overcommitted writer before stating for the record that Steve Englehart couldn’t submit his plot for Avengers #150 on time. Not too subtly, Englehart had been thrown under the bus. True to his word, Englehart quit, and he didn’t just quit Avengers; Englehart quit all his Marvel assignments, which at that time included Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange and Super-Villain Team-Up. If Conway thought Englehart’s departure signaled the end of his problems with creators, he had another thought coming, and soon. Jim Starlin called Conway, angry over art corrections Marvel’s production department made on Warlock #14 (Aug. 1976).

Rather than have Marvel’s production department continue to revise his work, Starlin wanted the opportunity to make his own corrections. Conway, however, refused Starlin’s request on the basis that the printing schedule simply didn’t allow for the time for Starlin to make his own corrections.

It was an arrangement that would guarantee late charges incurred by the printer, which, again, was a problem Conway wouldn’t allow to continue. Put off, Starlin stopped working for Marvel.

I met a great deal of entrenched opposition and resentment from some people whose egos were offended by the idea I’d been put in charge. Maybe that was because I’d left Marvel for a year and then returned to the top job. Maybe it was because of my personality. Whatever the reason, the hostility I encountered made the job intolerable, and I left after about a month and a half. (Riley 15)

So within weeks of Conway becoming Marvel’s new editor-in-chief, Marvel lost two of its most popular creators. Not only that, both Englehart and Starlin contacted Stan Lee to demand that Lee do something about Conway’s rules. He did; Lee backed Conway (Howe 186-187). Ultimately, though, Lee’s support for Conway was futile. In short order, Conway’s new duties started taking a toll on him, both mentally and physically.

Describing the Marvel editor-in-chief position in an interview for this book, Conway said, “to the extent that you wanted people to like you, that was not a job that you were going to be comfortable with.” Unable to sleep and feeling perpetually nauseous, Conway came to a realization: he was in over his head. As Conway tells it:

In Marvel’s October cover dated books, Stan Lee declared,

Steve Englehart’s acrimonious departure from Marvel occurred when he missed a deadline for Avengers #150.

Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart and Jim Shooter are the credited writers of Avengers #151.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“Here it is—the big news that we’ve been promising you.

I’m proud and delighted to announce that one of the most skillful and popular writer/ editors in comicdom has just been named editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. I’m referring, of course, to my good friend and fellow bullpenner, none other than amiable Archie Goodwin!”

Considering his experience, his editorial acumen and the high regard his fellow professionals had for him, Archie Goodwin seemed perfectly suited to be Marvel’s editor-in-chief. Goodwin, though, accepted the promotion reluctantly. More than content managing Marvel’s black-and-white magazines, Goodwin really had no desire to be in charge of Marvel’s entire line.

However, he recognized that the offer to become editor-in-chief was one he couldn’t—and shouldn’t—decline (Howe 188). It was a decision Goodwin would soon regret making.

Meanwhile, Conway negotiated the same work arrangement that his editor-in-chief predecessors received.

Just like Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman before him, Gerry Conway stepped down as editor-in-chief and became a Marvel Comics writer/ editor. Unlike those other three men, Conway would be handling a veritable plethora of titles that included not only the recently Englehart-abandoned Avengers and Captain Marvel but also Defenders, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, and a new brand comic book titled The Spectacular Spider-Man.

It was an epic story, one that fit perfectly within Marvel’s grand superhero tapestry, but before long, fans noticed that Kirby’s Captain America didn’t truly operate within the same fictional universe that included Marvel’s other super-hero titles. With the exception of the Red Skull, Kirby didn’t use any established Marvel villains (Gartland). It was a clear sign that the King wanted to stand alone, and his next comic further proved that fact.

Written by Gerry Conway and drawn

by Sal Buscema, Spectacular SpiderMan didn’t introduce any new characters or provide a new direction for the Friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler. Instead, the title positioned itself as just another part of the ongoing Spider-Man saga. In a text page in Spectacular Spider-Man #1 (cover date Dec. 1976), Conway wrote that he was going to “coordinate [his] stories with the stories in The Amazing Spider-Man, and what isn’t covered in that book, will be covered in this one.”

Via caption boxes, Spectacular SpiderMan let readers know which comic book they needed to read next in order to follow the overall Spider-Man continuity.

In the same first issue text page, Conway justified the production of a third on-going Spider-Man title—joining Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up—by claiming Spidey’s cast needed “room to live, breathe and develop.” That rationale wasn’t going to fool the fans and commentators who believed Marvel was producing a new Spider-Man title for a more obvious reason: it was a guaranteed bestseller. To put readers at ease, Conway joked that Marvel wasn’t planning on publishing a book called Spidey’s Girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson—an obvious dig at DC Comics for its overabundance of Superman titles. Conway claimed, “There were so many books about [Superman] and his friends and acquaintances and his nephews and dogs and people he met in the street and total strangers who’d seen him once on TV that pretty soon, all the stories became alike.” Nonetheless, some fans worried that an excess of Spider-Man titles would eventually diminish the quality of the stories.

Kirby’s New Marvel Stuff Marvel’s other writer/editor wasn’t a former editor-in-chief. He was Jack Kirby. When Kirby signed back with Marvel in 1975, he stipulated that he would operate as his own writer, artist and editor. He would also decide who would ink his pencil work. Essentially, Kirby would be in charge of every creative decision associated with his books. Still living out in California, nearly 3,000 miles away from Marvel’s Manhattan offices, Kirby

Spectacular Spider-Man became the webslinger’s third on-going title (not including the PBS tie-in Spidey Super Stories). Cover art by Sal Buscema.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

was truly out on his own, which is exactly how he wanted it.

Initially, Marvel wanted to assign its prodigal son to Fantastic Four or Thor, but Kirby had no interest in revisiting the past glories that he cocreated with Stan Lee (Howe 164). Instead, Kirby decided he would return to Captain America, a character he co-created in 1940. His first issue— Captain America #193 (Jan. 1976)— carried eight words on its cover that were intended to excite fans: “King Kirby is Back—and Greater than Ever!” The issue kicked off an eight issue story that would become known as the “Madbomb” arc. Initially, a sonic device codenamed a “Dumpling” detonates in Harlem, causing the whole neighborhood to go crazy.

Citizens run wild, attacking each other. After Cap and his partner Falcon get the situation under control, they are called upon to stop more bombs from going off. Turns out the bombs are being used by the Royalist Forces of America who intend to destroy democracy in the United States. Their plan is to explode a “Big Daddy” bomb from Philadelphia’s Taurey Towers Building on the Bicentennial. The resulting explosion will be big enough to blanket the whole country with its maddening effects.

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UFO fever gripped the nation in the 1970s. People reported sightings in droves. Abduction stories started to move to the front of newspapers instead of being buried in the back sections. In 1968 a West German man named Erich von Däniken wrote a curious book titled Chariots of the Gods?: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past that captivated readers on its way to becoming an international bestseller.

The book hypothesized that millennia ago, aliens visited Earth and bestowed advanced technology to ancient civilizations. In Search of…, hosted by Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy, premiered on television in 1976 as a weekly syndicated series that examined paranormal mysteries, including UFOs. The public’s alien intrigue fueled the ideas for Kirby’s next work.

Its title was The Eternals. It tagline read “When Gods Walk the Earth!”

The first issue (July 1976) introduced readers to a team of scientists excavating ruins beneath the Andes Mountains while seeking out the legendary Chamber of the Gods. One member of the team is strangely able to find all the necessary clues and lead the others right where they need to be. His name is Ike Harris, but is later revealed to be Ikaris, one of the Eternals. He tells a tale of how gods came to Earth and seeded an ape with cosmic chemistry that would father three races to come.

The Deviants, the first of the alien races, are seen as failures. They are everchanging and structurally unstable, with monstrous appearances. War is the Deviants’ way of life. The Eternals, on the other hand, are like gods. They are few in number and are immune to both aging and death. Like true gods, the Eternals live apart from other liv-

ing beings. Positioned between the Deviants and the Eternals are the Humans. They embody a true balance of structure and disposition. While violent in nature, humans are also capable of building for peace.

printed in issue #3 (Sept. 1976). That opened the floodgates. Marvel was assailed with letters from other readers who wanted to debate whether or not the Eternals fit into the larger Marvel Universe.

In the inaugural “Eternal Utterings”— the title of The Eternals’ letter column—Kirby writes how the inherent themes of Gods, Myths, and UFOs led him to “project its mystifying questions into comic magazine storytelling.” He ponders whether gods have visited Earth, and, if so, “how many of them have inspired the potent myths which not only laid the groundwork for man’s many religions, professions, and sciences, but have left man with a massive mystery on his hands—one that just won’t go away…” Kirby had walked this philosophical ground before, with the Kree in Fantastic Four and even the New Gods for DC, but he never took it to the extreme shown in The Eternals.

It wasn’t merely the fans who noticed that Kirby’s new Marvel work was set apart from everything else Marvel was publishing. Marvel’s editorial staff noticed it too. As a result, a rift developed between Kirby and the other Marvel editors, and as the next two years would demonstrate, this rift would not only widen but prove irreparable.

While Kirby pondered cosmic questions, fans simply wondered if The Eternals took place in the Marvel Universe. Take, for instance, Ralph Macchio, a fan who would soon start working for Marvel Comics. Mere days before he was to begin his employment, he wrote to Marvel to ask if The Eternals co-existed with the company’s other titles. His letter was

With his first issue of Captain America, Jack Kirby began the eight issue “Madbomb” story arc.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Get Down, America With Englehart and Starlin’s departure and his own assignments removed from him, Don McGregor lamented to The Comic Reader that all the “mavericks” had been weeded out of Marvel Comics (Burton 11). In actuality, at least one maverick remained, Steve Gerber, and just like most everyone else, Gerber’s workload was affected by Marvel’s editorial upheaval: Archie Goodwin removed Gerber from Defenders so Gerry Conway could fulfill his contract-mandated quota of assignments.

Nonetheless, Gerber’s work became the sole occupant of the idiosyncratic, unconventional corner of Marvel’s fictional universe with features like Marvel Presents’ “Guardians of the Galaxy” and a new comic book titled Omega the Unknown.

Co-written by Gerber’s longtime friend Mary Skrenes and drawn by Jim Mooney, who had drawn Supergirl a decade earlier, Omega the Unknown was an odd satire of Superman wrapped up in mysteries and enigmas. Omega the Unknown #1 (March 1976) introduced a tall, silent, curly-haired man in a lurid redand-white suit with the Greek letter Omega imprinted on it. As the story opens, our hero is fleeing from a ruined planet, with a group of uncaring robots in hot pursuit. He has the power to shoot power bolts out of his hands in the shape of an Omega. The story then switches to Earth, where a strange young boy named James-Michael Starling discovers that his parents are actually robots; he takes the news extremely calmly. Waking up 198

Jack Kirby’s Eternals tapped into the nation’s fascination with UFOs and alien encounters.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

in a New York hospital, after his parents are killed in a car crash, JamesMichael is shocked to see the hero break through the walls, fighting the robots. In a moment of fear and confusion, James-Michael lifts his hands and fires omega-shaped bolts at the robots.

Clearly, there was a connection between James-Michael and the strange hero, but readers were left to their own devices to come up with explanations to the mystery. Gerber and Skrenes offered few easy answers in this series, and they also offered a very different view of the Marvel Universe. Rather than bright and exciting, the New York in Omega was gritty and nasty, with rats infesting apartments, kids beaten to death in urban middle schools, street-level narcissistic villains, and heroes who lived in a world of deep moral uncertainty. Gerber and Skrenes prided themselves on the enigmas that they created in this series, and none was more compelling than the conclusion to the final issue of Omega, issue #10, in which our hero was gunned down by Las Vegas police officers on the final page.

Though a conclusion was promised for Defenders (and eventually was resolved by a writer other than Gerber), Omega’s mysteries were deliberately left open for readers to contemplate.

A slightly less quirky series, Gerber’s futuristic “Guardians of the Galaxy”

began their run with Marvel Presents #3 (Feb. 1976), after a multi-part storyline that ran in Gerber’s Defenders series in 1975. In that earlier story, Gerber presented the end of humanity’s 31st century war with the lizard-like Badoon, delivering a unique tale on gender roles, global climate change, game shows and other concepts along the way. Gerber’s “Guardians” was no less innovative and idiosyncratic than its precursor. Marvel Presents was the first major commercial comic to present a transgendered super-hero, as the enigmatic Starhawk changed between male and female forms, for reasons that Gerber never quite explained. Gerber also added another new member of the team, the vivacious and sexually active Nikki, a girl with flames for hair and emotions to match. Meanwhile, in true Gerber fashion, the other Guardians—timelost Vance Astro, Jovian muscle-man Charlie-27, frosty Martinex and alien aboriginal Yondu—became more and more alienated from normal life.

Gerber didn’t quite have an affinity for science fiction in his comics; in 1976, many of his Guardians stories veered towards the satirical and oddball rather than the cosmic. He set one story in a cosmic insane asylum and delivered a slew of jokes about mid-’70s New York; in another story he had a giant interstellar space frog imperil our heroes. And in his “The Topographical Man” in Marvel Presents #7 (Nov. 1976) Gerber has Nikki save the galaxy by having sex with Vance Astro—albeit depicted in an indirect manner by artists Al Milgrom and Bob Wiacek.

Come fall of 1976, the Bicentennial Presidential race started heating up.

The two main candidates were incumbent Gerald Ford, the Republican who moved up from Vice President in 1974 after Richard Nixon’s resignation, and a relatively unknown governor from Georgia, Democrat Jimmy Carter. Besides the usual Libertarian and Socialist Workers candidates, the non-comic book reading public remained unaware of still another candidate at the ballot box that year: Howard the Duck.

Howard ran as a write-in candidate for the All-Night Party using the slogan “Get Down, America!” as his rally cry. Gerber announced Howard’s candidacy in Howard the Duck #4 (July 1976). In part, it reads:

Steve Gerber provided few clues about his enigmatic Omega the Unknown. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

were nabbing every copy they could get in order to drive up back issue prices; as Gerber said, “Howard #1 was hijacked at the distributors.” He went on to explain that, like DC’s Shazam! #1, the first issue was assumed to be huge, so “comic book dealers bought the books off the distributor’s tables before they got to newsstands ” (Cooke 64). To remedy this situation, Marvel reprinted the story in Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (Jan. 1977).

When it came to social satire and alienation, nothing matched Gerber’s Howard the Duck. The duck wore a sports coat and tie, a beat-up hat, and even smoked a stogie. Biting commentary flowed from Howard’s bill like pus from a sore, and that kind of edgy cynicism was unique in mainstream comics at the time. Deservedly, Marvel gave the character his own title, the first issue of which carried a January 1976 cover date.

But a lot of fans almost didn’t get to read that first issue. Similarly to what happened in 1973 with Shazam! #1, Howard #1 became scarce at many newsstands because big-city dealers

The Guardians of the Galaxy acquired their own series with Marvel Presents #3. Cover art by Al Milgrom and John Romita. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Marvel Comics has never before endorsed a candidate for office, but now … we’re picking THE candidate with charisma; THE candidate who has no vested interests, owes no favors, and believes all hairless apes were created equal!

WE’RE DRAFTING HOWARD AS A CANDIDATE IN THE 1976 PRESIDENTIAL RACE! The bogus presidential run was right up Howard’s alley. The story line itself didn’t start until issue #7 (Dec. 1976).

Having just arrived in New York after an eventful bus trip with his companion Beverly Switzler and short on cash, Howard takes a job working security at the All-Night Party’s convention.

After being saved from an explosion, the cowardly Presidential candidate, saying the job is “too dangerous,” quits his campaign. The Party chooses Howard as its new nominee. Trying to keep an honest contender out of the running, special interest groups make several attempts on Howard’s life.

Howard survives, but as the election draws near, he is done in by a fake, scandalous photograph of Howard and Bev in a bathtub together. The duck loses the election. Big. Fans got to enjoy the moment anyway. In the pages of the magazine, Gerber hawked official campaign propaganda, including an election pin of Howard’s campaign drawn by Berni Wrightson. Over time, the legend of

determined to bring her back to the book and the team as quickly as possible. The first book I saw when I first came to Marvel in 1969 as a gofer was also Neal Adams’ first as X-Men penciler, with his breathtaking rendition of all the characters. I was smitten with Jean pretty much from that moment; I wasn’t about to lose her. The only thing I asked of [X-Men artist Dave Cockrum] was that we reorient her from the Scarsdale Upper Middle Class Republican WASP look she affected in #95 to something a tad more downtown and funky. In X-Men #97, he obliged. (Claremont vii) As of X-Men #97 (Feb. 1976), Claremont was the sole writer on the series. He would continue to write X-Men comics for the next fifteen years. Once he held the book’s reins, one of the first things Claremont did was alter Jean Grey’s powers.

Before Claremont had his way, Jean Grey was Marvel Girl, a mutant with rather generic telekinetic and telepathic powers. In X-Men #100 (Aug. 1976), however, Jean becomes exposed to fatal levels of radiation while trying to pilot a damaged space shuttle back to Earth. Her teammates are aboard the shuttle, protected within a shielded area, but Jean is determined to save them, knowing full well she will likely die from the radiation. But instead of killing her, the radiation causes Jean’s full potential to swell to the surface.

She is transformed into a force beyond comprehension.

Jean pilots the shuttlecraft safely into New York City’s Jamaica Bay, saving her teammates while disappearing underwater for a terribly long time. In X-Men #101 (Oct. 1976) Jean rises from the water, wearing a new costume. She has become Phoenix, arguably the most powerful heroine in the Marvel Universe.

Howard the Duck not only received his own title, he also ran for President in 1976!

Beverly Switzler is in the background of the cover of Howard the Duck #1.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Howard’s impact as a true write-in candidate for the actual election has grown with some claiming the fictional character received enough votes to qualify for national percentage points. The evidence tells otherwise though. Just like perennial write-ins like Superman and Mickey Mouse, Howard probably didn’t even receive 1,000 votes, so the legend is overstated (Cronin #310).

“We wanted something that was a new Jean, and Phoenix was it,” Claremont says. “Jean was always a very vibrant, lively character… I don’t see it as a violation of her original character. I see it as a growth of her original character” (Sanderson, vol. II 40). Cockrum goes on to describe how times were different when Stan Lee first created the characters. While not wanting to say anything bad about Lee, Cockrum admits, “all the girl characters he created were simps—the housewife heroes… they were there to be looked at and rescued, mostly…. I like female characters who support a group” (Sanderson, vol. I 65).

Though not the next President nor a big seller at Marvel, Howard was still a pop culture touchstone for a time, being mentioned in such publications as The New Yorker, Village Voice, and Playboy. A couple of years later Gerber would tussle with Marvel over ownership of the character and the curmudgeonly quack himself would tussle with Disney over his lack of pants. Until then, Howard the Duck encapsulated the spirit of the 1970s comic book industry.

He was the product of a creator’s unique vision in an age where just about anything went.

Jean Grey wasn’t the only X-Man to be changed in 1976.

A major change was made to Wolverine, though because of its matter-of-fact presentation, the change didn’t seem surprising. In X-Men #98 (April 1976), the X-Men are captured and tortured by Dr. Stephen Lang, the creator of a series of X-Sentinels, android doubles of the original XMen. At one point, while the X-Men are bound, Lang begins to slap Jean, and an enraged, bare-chested Wolverine breaks free from his chains. Wolverine’s claws come out, and since he’s naked from the waist up, there’s no disguising the fact that Wolverine’s claws emerge from inside his hands. Claremont says that they decided that, “Wolverine’s claws were a part of him, rather than being a function of the gloves as they’d originally been intended” (Claremont vii). When editor Marv Wolfman pointed out that it would

Jean Grey Becomes the Phoenix Meanwhile, writer Chris Claremont took over a title that would define the 1980s: The X-Men. In doing so, Claremont wasn’t happy with one of the changes facing him: In #94, Len established that Jean Grey was leaving the team, along with Angel, Beast and Iceman.

The pencils were done, there was no time to make changes. I wrote the scene as drawn. But I was also 200

be a realistic touch for the other X-Men to react to that revelation, Claremont says that he nonchalantly thought, “Yeah, I guess they should” (Sanderson vol. I 97). So a few pages after the big moment, Claremont had a startled Banshee exclaim, “Yer claws, laddie… Lord above, they’re a part of you—we…I…didn’t know!” Wolverine simply responds, “Why should you, Irish? It’s none o’ your business.”

It became readers’ business, however, as they pondered the mysteries of Wolverine and where the claws came from. It would take decades for them to learn the true origins of Wolverine’s claws.

Love’s Labor’s Lost Chaste in a time when the sexual mores of young Americans were undergoing a profound revolution, romance comics struggled to sell.

Back in 1950, romance comics filled the racks, comprising more than a fourth of all comics being published. Females between the ages of 17 and 25 read more four-color adventures than boys from the same age group (Lustig 16).

By mid-1976, only three publishers still played in areas of the heart—DC, Marvel, and most significantly, Charlton— but there was no longer a torrent of love books hitting the shelves. The sad reality was that romance books were selling many fewer copies than they previously had. For instance, Charlton’s Just Married sold 147,329 copies in 1969, but by 1975 that number had dropped to 94,675. Love Diary fell by about the same amount, from 151,922 in 1969 to 96,170 in 1975.

The first breakup with readers occurred when Charlton cancelled Love and Romance with issue #24 (Sept. 1975).

DC’s Young Romance was the other book not to make it out of ’75, ending with issue #208 (Dec. 1975). Marvel had two romance comics still smoldering on the racks, My Love and Our Love Story. However, both had been reprinting old stories for the previous few years. Marvel gave up on both series at about the same time: Our Love Story lasted through issue #38 (Feb. 1976) while My Love folded a month later with issue #39 (March 1976). Many Charlton romance comics called it quits in 1976—For Lovers Only #87 (Nov.), My Only Love #9 (Nov.), Secrets of Young Brides #9 (Nov.), Secret Romance #41 (Nov.), Teen Confessions #97 (Nov.), I Love You #121 (Dec.), Just Married #114 (Dec.), Love Diary #102 (Dec.)—but at least they offered up new stories until their cancellation. (Two Charlton romance titles—Secret Romance and I Love You would be given another chance in 1979. Secret Romance got seven more issues before being shown the door a second and final time, while I Love You lasted nine more issues.)

Jean Grey is transformed into the Phoenix in X-Men #101. Cover art by Dave Cockrum. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Comic Book Chronicles, “I was hoping to fill the magazine— as much as my limited budget allowed—with stories and features that might appeal to who I presumed our audience was: teenagers and women in their early to late 20s.”

To that end, Isabella went on to say, “The only concern was financial. I had a budget for only so many new pages per issue and I could not exceed it for any reasons. I thought I could get around the restriction by using unpublished material DC had written off for tax purposes—for example, a Gerry Conway story I ran in the first issue—but was then told the story would still count as new pages.”

Although mainstream popular culture started to explore sexually related themes like homosexuality and abortion, Isabella says it never occurred to him back then to do a story about those too-hot-to-handle issues. However, Young Love was one of the first mainstream comics that managed to get prostitutes past the Comics Code. Young Love #124 (March 1977) printed a Robert Kanigher story titled “Love Behind Bars II,” which Isabella calls “hands down, the best script I handled as a DC editor.” It’s a sequel to a story that appeared in issue #119 (Jan. 1976). In the original story, Stephie’s boyfriend Vic ends up in prison. In the sequel, feeling conflicted, she runs away when Vic is released, finding herself in New York City. Once there, people take advantage of her: her wallet is stolen, and two people who offer help instead bring her to a house of prostitution which is raided by cops. She finds herself behind bars. But the next day, when she is released, she is surprised to find Vic waiting to take her home. Isabella adds that “the in-

The sole remaining DC romance title, Young Love, lasted the longest of all the competitors, calling it off with issue #126 (July 1977). The series had a sporadic 1976 cover date schedule. Its first issue for the year was cover-dated January. The next issue was cover-dated “Winter,” which was followed by October and finally November. Starting with its October issue (issue #121), Young Love ran 48 pages for a 50¢ cover price. Bob Rozakis edited that issue, but he was replaced by Marvel transplant Tony Isabella with the next issue. Isabella immediately changed the series logo, calling it “The New” Young Love and added “Tales of Romance for Today’s Young Woman!” as a tagline. Isabella told American 201

tent was to add more reality to the comic books. My favorite comic books have always had a connection to the world around me.”

Joe Gill, who wrote the majority of Charlton’s romance line, said he felt a calling to keep the stories moral and clean: “I knew what I was writing was being read by young, impressionable people…and I didn’t want to corrupt them” (Lustig 19). But that approach was exactly the problem, according to DC’s Dick Giordano who argued the content of ’70s romance comics was “too tame for the more sophisticated, sexually liberated, women’s libbers that were able to see nudity, strong sexual content, and life the way it really was in other media” (Lustig 17). “R” rated films satisfied those looking for more salacious content while others gratified themselves with romance paperback novels. Comics historian Michelle Nolan notes that, “Harlequin started publishing romance novels in great numbers in the ’60s.

And then other companies came along with the ‘bodice rippers’…and took away all the adult readers of romance comics” (Lustig 20).

The Influential, Mundane Splendor of Harvey Pekar Combined with the demise of horror comics in 1975, the removal of the romance genre meant that mainstream comic books were becoming more and more homogenized.

Once again, if readers wanted to buy something unique and unconventional, they were going to have to bypass the newsstand and look to the fringes of the industry, to the places where creators like Harvey Pekar could be found.

Harvey Pekar’s self-published American Splendor explored the mundane aspects of his own life. Cover art by Gary Dumm and Greg Budgett.

In 1976, Pekar began self-publishing one of the most avant garde comic book publications of all time: American Splendor. Featuring unadorned stories about Pekar’s daily life, American Splendor made a splash because the comic itself didn’t make much of a splash about anything. It was a 52 page autobiographical comic that celebrated the mundane aspects of everyday life, with many panels consisting of Pekar, a deep curmudgeon, addressing the reader directly, riffing on whatever was plaguing him in his hometown of Cleveland. (For instance, one story in American Splendor #3 is titled “Standing Behind Old Jewish Ladies in Supermarket Lines.”)

American Splendor TM and © Harvey Pekar Estate.

would call up various artists and harangue them to take on particular stories. The singular artistic challenge of American Splendor was drawing its ordinary people in a naturalistic way. As Crumb testified, some artists couldn’t seem to break out of the “standard heroic comic book style.” That artistic adversity notwithstanding, the legendary cartoonist showered great praise for his sometime collaborator: What Pekar does is certainly new to the comicbook [sic] medium. There’s never been anything even approaching this kind of stark realism. It’s hard enough to find it in literature, impossible in the movies and TV. It takes chutspah [sic] to tell it exactly the way it happened, with no adornment, no great wrap-up, no bizarre twist, nothing. Pekar’s genius is that he pulls this off, and does it with humor, pathos, all the drama you could ever want… and in a comic book yet! (Crumb 6)

As Pekar admitted, his intentions for creating American Splendor were narcissistic: I was a jazz critic and that wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted people to write about me, not me about them. So I thought, What could I do? I can’t sing, I can’t dance, I can’t act or anything like that.

OK, I can write. I thought about comics. I had met [fellow underground comic artist] Robert Crumb when he lived in Cleveland, and I saw some of the stuff he was doing. It dawned on me that comics were not an intrinsically limited medium. There was a tremendous amount of things you could do in comics that you couldn’t do in other artforms— but no one was doing it. I figured if I’d make a try at it, I’d at least be a footnote in history. (Malice)

American Splendor’s release schedule undoubtedly tested the patience of its fans: it came out only once a year for its first sixteen issues. Because of the lack of newsstand distribution, the comic book had a limited reach. Nonetheless, American Splendor became a remarkably influential comic book. Pekar’s work simultaneously resurrected the innovative essence of underground comix from the early 1970s and paved the way for the success of future independent comic books, which would break new ground in 1977.

Crumb, the artist who drew many stories in the first few years of American Splendor’s run, wrote about how Pekar 202

from downtown Manhattan. The family set up operations at 45 Lehigh Street for the first school in the United States dedicated solely to training artists for careers in comics and animated art: The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art.

Joe Kubert Opens a School In 1976, Joe Kubert was as solid a comics industry veteran as could be found, but he never forgot his roots. The master cartoonist had started his career in comics as a “shop artist,” learning the ropes as part of the assembly line at the Harry “A” Chesler shop beginning in 1938 and the Eisner-Iger shop starting in 1941. While working to produce some of the earliest comics, Kubert had a chance to be tutored by the men who were shaping the brand-new industry.

Twenty-two students were accepted for the Kubert School’s first semester in September 1976, and they enrolled in classes such as storytelling, anatomy, sketching, inking and production. The undergraduates were expected to work hard; Kubert put a premium on accepting budding artists who had the persistence and desire for a career in comics. His students received assignments that demanded long hours at the drawing board – ideal preparation for a career in the industry. It wasn’t unusual for Kubert School students to spend eight to ten hours drawing, six or seven days a week. If the students could keep up with their assignments, they would receive freelance work: creating back-up stories for DC’s war comics, drawing retail ads and catalogs, or doing paste-up and lettering for reprint projects.

As his own career progressed, Kubert always remembered the kindness of the men who helped demystify the production process for him, and he tried several times over the years to create programs that would help aspiring cartoonists learn how to create professional comics art. In the early 1950s, Kubert and his friend Norman Maurer produced a correspondence course in cartooning, which was aborted when their publishing company closed. But Kubert maintained his deep passion to educate the next generation of comics artists. He would frequently be asked at comic conventions to provide tips to aspiring artists, and occasionally would even include drawing lessons as fillers in his comics. As student Rick Veitch recalls, “He explained how fortunate he had been to come up under a studio system where older cartoonists had made time to teach him the tricks of the trade. His goal was to give back by keeping that tradition alive” (Veitch).

In the School’s early years, Kubert himself taught classes along with industry veterans Tex Blaisdell, Lee Elias, Ric Estrada, Dick Giordano, Irwin Hasen, Robert Kanigher and many others. As student John Totleben recalls, “Joe’s approach was an intuitive, street-wise, gut-level teaching style. Nothing formal about it. His evaluation of student work was always with a keen eye towards solid basic drawing, composition and storytelling skills, and also with a solid concern for meeting the deadline, one of the all-important aspects of life as a working professional” (Schelly 191-193).

The two-year technical school was a huge success for all involved. Kubert loved teaching talented artists new skills, and was extremely popular with his students. Over the years, The Kubert School graduated many prominent comics professionals. Among the first students who graduated were:

Finally, in 1976, Kubert and his wife Muriel were able to make his dream a reality by opening a trade school dedicated to educating aspiring cartoonists. Joe would manage the curriculum while Muriel, who had a business degree, would run the financial side of the operation. Through Kubert’s daughter Lisa, the family secured a lease on the Baker Mansion, a brick mansion that was up for sale in Kubert’s home town of Dover, New Jersey. With its beautiful park-like grounds, the property was a 40 minute bus ride

Stephen Bissette, artist on Swamp Thing in the 1980s, co-creator of the acclaimed anthology Taboo and his self-published series Tyrant; Jan Duursema, co-creator of Arion, Lord of Atlantis and artist on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Star Wars; Tom Mandrake, artist on Batman, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, Martian Manhunter and The Spectre; Tim Truman, creator of Scout, writer/artist of Hawkworld and artist on Grimjack, Jonah Hex, and Conan; Rick Veitch, writer/artist of Swamp Thing, Army@ War, Bratpack, Maximortal, among others; Thomas Yeates, artist on Tarzan, Conan, Timespirits and Zorro, among others.

Perhaps Kubert’s greatest legacy is that his sons, Adam and Andy, followed in his footsteps and kept the Kubert School and its legacy alive for the next generation of comics artists.

203

1977

A Renewed Hope

In 1977, one of the biggest blockbusters in film history was released. Before it was given the subtitle of “Episode IV: A New Hope,” it was simply called Star Wars. In a pivotal scene, Luke Skywalker enters Princess Leia’s Death Star cell and declares, “I’m here to rescue you!” Luke just as easily could have been talking about Marvel Comics.

As the 1970s rolled relentlessly along, comic sales seemed to be tumbling toward the event horizon of a large black hole. At decade’s dawn, nearly every Marvel title averaged over 200,000 copies sold per issue. By 1977, only one Marvel title could boast that distinction: Amazing Spider-Man. The fabled “House of Ideas” was in a bad state, as Jim Shooter attests: “Marvel was a mess throughout the mid-1970s and during my two years as ‘associate editor,’ from the beginning of 1976 through the end of 1977. Almost every book was late. There were unscheduled reprints and fill-ins, and we still just plain missed issues here and there…. It seemed like the company as a whole was in a death spiral” (Veronese). In order to survive, Marvel needed the next big thing.

And then the next big thing found Roy Thomas.

Among his other assignments, Thomas wrote two licensed properties for Marvel: Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan. Based on the “success and quality” of those Conan titles, two men approached Thomas in early 1976, asking him to add a different licensed property to his workload. Their names were Ed Summer and Charles Lippincott. Thomas knew Summer as the owner of Supersnipe Comic Art Emporium, a comic store and gallery located just a few blocks from Thomas’s Manhattan apartment. A silent partner in the art gallery aspect of Supersnipe was a young filmmaker by the name of George Lucas. Several months earlier, Summer had introduced Thomas to Lucas and the two men traded compliments over dinner. Thomas had high regard for Lucas’s 1973 film American Graffiti while Lucas expressed his admiration for Thomas’s comic book work. Over the course of their conversation, Lucas mentioned “The Star Wars” a few times. The film was, according to Thomas, “planned to be an ambitious sf-type adventure … already seen as a potential series of movies … and that the name of the hero at that stage was Luke Starkiller … although Luke Skywalker, as an alternative, might have been mentioned, as well” (Thomas 64).

Three months after that meeting, Star Wars (sans “The”) went before the lens, and Summer and Lippincott—the man in charge of merchandising and publicity for the new film—were convinced that Thomas had the chops to pull off a Marvel Comics adaptation that Lucas wanted for advance promotion of his film. Flattered, Thomas told the two men that he didn’t have the authority to secure such

CHAPTER EIGHT 204

a licensing agreement. Instead, they needed to contact Stan Lee. That’s when Thomas learned that his boss had already turned down a proposal to adapt Star Wars in late 1975 because Lee wanted Marvel to focus on companyowned characters (Conan notwithstanding). Since Lee had already made a decision, Thomas told Summer and Lippincott that, unfortunately, the matter was settled (Thomas 65).

Undeterred, Lippincott began showing Thomas concept art for the movie. Flipping over Ralph McQuarrie’s Above: Marvel Comics was likely going production paintings out of business… until the Star Wars comic one by one, Lippincott book adaptation became an unexpected cash cow. Right: This Howard Chaykin-produced laid out the plot of poster was given away at a 1976 San Diego Luke Starkiller battling Comic Con panel. Star Wars TM and © Lucasfilm Ltd. the Empire. Thomas found it all “vaguely interesting,” but he was mostly listening to the presentation out of politeness. Then Lippincott revealed a picture of space smuggler Han Solo facing off against a horde of aliens in a Western-looking bar. Lippincott described it as “The Cantina Sequence,” and at that moment, Thomas realized that Star Wars wasn’t going to be a science-fiction film like 2001 or The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was going to be the kind of adventurous “space opera” that Thomas used to enjoy in Planet Comics and Planet Stories magazines. Interrupting Lippincott’s presentation, Thomas blurted out, “I’ll do it” (Thomas 66).

aptation to run only one or two issues, as had been the case with several other film adaptations that Marvel undertook. That way, if the movie bombed, Marvel wouldn’t be stuck producing more issues of a comic book that no one would want to buy. Thomas, however, insisted in order to do the adaptation “right,” he needed six issues. Anything less than six issues meant that Thomas wouldn’t do the project, forcing Lee and Shukin to find another writer.

Since Lucas’s people had approached Thomas to write the comic book in the first place, Shukin grudgingly relented (Thomas 67).

Thomas met with Stan Lee and convinced his boss to reverse his earlier decision. Thomas’s appeal was aided by the fact that the Star Wars licensing rights weren’t going to cost Marvel a dime. As Thomas explains, “The Star Wars people didn’t ask for any money for the adaptation…. it was free” (Veronese). George Lucas did make two requests, though. First, in order to maximize publicity, Marvel’s first two Star Wars issues had to be on the newsstands before the film came out. Second, Lucas wanted artist Howard Chaykin to draw the comic. Lucas liked Chaykin’s work on a 1973-74 three-issue run of DC’s Weird Worlds (#8-#10) starring science-fiction swashbuckler Ironwolf. Thomas thought that “Howard’s style would be a good fit with the energy implicit in the McQuarrie art” (Thomas 66). Getting Chaykin proved easy; he agreed to pencil and ink the series.

With both the screenplay and photo stills provided by Lucas’s office, Thomas and Chaykin began producing the Star Wars comic book. Unfortunately, after completing the first issue, Chaykin had to bow out of full art chores because of deadline pressures, doing only layouts from issue #2 onward. Steve Leialoha was brought on to ink issues #2 through #5, while Rick Hoberg and Bill Wray provided finished penciling and inking on issue #6, with uncredited help from their friend Dave Stevens (Thomas 67-73). The artistic shuffling did not sit well with Lucas and Lippincott, but as Thomas states, “I told them there was nothing I could do about it. Howard was a freelancer, and I couldn’t chain him to a drawing board” (Thomas 68).

Getting Marvel to go along with Lucas’s distribution plan, however, proved more difficult. Specifically, Ed Shukin, Marvel’s Circulation Director, wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of publishing a six issue adaptation of a movie that starred a cast of unknowns (except for Alec Guiness— a classically trained Shakespearean actor, then in his 60s, whom most of the comic-buying crowd wouldn’t recognize). To minimize risk, Shukin wanted the Star Wars ad-

In the meantime, Lippincott arranged for Thomas and Chaykin to join him for a panel at the July 1976 San Diego Comic-Con. It was one of the first times a movie studio uti205

TIMELINE: 1977 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 3: The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip—written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita—makes its debut. The strip’s first story arc involves Doctor Doom addressing the United Nations.

June 6: The Howard the Duck comic strip—written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Gene Colan—appears in newspapers. Distribution, however, is poor, and the strip ends on October 29, 1978.

April 26: Studio 54 opens in New York City, soon becoming the trendiest disco club in the country.

February 1: Science fiction author Edmond Hamilton—who also wrote many Batman, Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes stories for DC Comics from the late 1940s to the 1960s—dies at the age of 71.

February 26: British publisher IPC Magazines launches 2000AD, a weekly science-fiction-oriented comic. Its second issue introduces the futuristic law enforcement officer Judge Dredd.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

M AY

June 11: Seattle Slew wins the Belmont Stakes to capture the Triple Crown of horse racing.

March: Archie and DC Comics increase the cover price of their standard titles from 30¢ to 35¢. Harvey and Marvel follow suit with most of their titles in July. Gold Key doesn’t increase its cover price until October.

January 23: The TV mini-series Roots—based on the Alex Haley novel about the descendants of an 18th century African sold into slavery in the United States— begins an eight night broadcast on the ABC television network.

January 24: John Rosenberger—a comic book artist since 1946 who produced work for publishers like Dell, ACG, Archie, and DC Comics—dies of cancer at the age of 58.

JUNE

May 25: Written and directed by George Lucas, Star Wars opens in movie theaters.

It would become one of the highest grossing movies in the history of cinema. The first two issues of Marvel Comics’ adaptation—written by Roy Thomas and drawn

by Howard Chaykin—arrive at newsstands prior to the movie’s release.

Wonder Woman TM and © DC Comics. Star Wars TM and © Lucasfilm Ltd. Howard the Duck, The Hulk, Spider-Man TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. 2000AD TM and © Rebellion A/S.

lized SDCC to promote an upcoming film. The three men wore Star Wars T-shirts, presented an early movie poster that Chaykin had created, and answered questions about the film and comic adaptation that were still almost a year away. Copies of Chaykin’s poster were given away to panel attendees and sold to other convention goers for $1.75 (Jeannie). It is recognized as the very first Star Wars poster and now considered an elite collectible, selling on the secondary market for several thousand dollars.

the screening convinced Star Wars was going to be “a very good film” (Thomas 71).

Star Wars #1 (July 1977) went on sale April 12, 1977 with the second issue arriving on May 10, both released before the movie opened on May 25. They sold quite well, a 57% sell-through rate, which was better than almost every other Marvel title. Star Wars wasn’t a comic book smash, though, because Shukin—still convinced Marvel had made a tremendous mistake—only ordered a small print run (Thomas 72). But between issues #2 and #3, the motion picture premiered. It became a runaway hit, and Star Wars quickly became the best-selling comic book on the newsstands. After its initial print run, Star Wars #1 went on to sell over a million copies through reprints, at that point selling four times as many copies as Amazing Spider-Man. Since Marvel had acquired the rights for the first six issues for free, it was a cash cow (Veronese).

Thomas, Chaykin and Leialoha also attended an altogether different historic Star Wars event. In February 1977, three months before the movie’s release, Lucas gathered together several of his director friends (Brian DePalma, Phil Kaufman, Steven Spielberg), composer John Williams, 20th Century Fox executives like Alan Ladd Jr., and the three main creative people involved in the Star Wars comic, among others, to show them a rough cut of the film.

Because many of the special effects hadn’t been finished in time for the screening, Lucas inserted other footage as gap-fillers. For instance, in the scene when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo blast away at TIE fighters while the Millennium Falcon escapes the Death Star, old World War II aerial footage substituted for the Imperial Forces. Thomas wrote, “Much as I like the finished film, I’d gladly trade my copy of it for one of that rough cut, with Luke and Han shooting it out with the Axis!” Overall, Thomas walked away from

Marvel Comics President James Galton was very grateful for this success, as Thomas describes: (Galton) told several people that he should give me his regards, because I had made him rich. He felt that getting Star Wars at that time (was extremely helpful financially). I didn’t know Marvel was in such financial problems at the time because I wasn’t paying attention to sales after stepping 206

September 11: Atari, Inc. releases its Atari VCS, a video game console with a retail price of $199. Within a few years, it would become the most popular home entertainment system in America.

July 13: New York City suffers a 25-hour blackout when lightning strikes upstate power lines. Citywide looting ensues as a result.

November 28: Detective Comics #475—written

by Steve Englehart and drawn by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin—presents “The Laughing Fish,” the first part of a two issue Joker story that will remembered as one of the best ever told.

December: Archie Goodwin resigns as Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief. He is succeeded by his associate editor, Jim Shooter.

September 16: After one season on the ABC television network, Wonder Woman is picked up by the CBS television network which rebrands it as The New Adventures of Wonder Woman. The show loses its World War II setting, but Lynda Carter remains in the title role as DC’s Amazon Princess.

August 10: David Berkowitz is arrested in Yonkers, New York, accused of being the “Son of Sam,” a gunman responsible for six murders and seven woundings. He is later sentenced to six consecutive life sentences.

J U LY

October: Rock musician Meat Loaf (a.k.a. Marvin Lee Aday) releases his debut album, Bat Out of Hell. It becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time.

December 19: Marvel Comics production manager John Verpoorten is found dead in his apartment. He was 37 years old.

November 4: The Incredible Hulk—starring Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as Marvel Comics’ green goliath—debuts on the CBS television network.

The show will remain on the air until 1982.

AUGUST August 16: Pioneering Rock & Roll musician Elvis Presley dies of heart failure at the age of 42 due to a drug overdose. 75,000 fans line the streets of Memphis, Tennessee for his funeral.

SEPTEMBER

September 19: The Amazing Spider-Man— a movie pilot starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker—debuts on the CBS television network. New episodes will begin airing in April 1978.

OCTOBER

September 24: The Love Boat—a romantic comedy drama starring Gavin MacLeod as the captain of a cruise ship with different guest stars in each episode—debuts on the ABC television network.

September 20: With issue #108, John Byrne replaces Dave Cockrum as artist on The X-Men. Collaborating with writer Chris Claremont, John Byrne will produce a legendary X-Men run over the course of the next three years.

November 13: Comic strip Li’l Abner—which had been running since 1934—appears in newspapers for the last time as its creator Al Capp retires.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind TM and © Columbia Pictures.

down as Editor-in-Chief two or three years prior. I really wasn’t aware of how things had eroded, but there were little things, like the creeping up in cover price. The book evidently came out and helped Marvel out at a very important time when things were very iffy for them (Veronese).

Jim Shooter couldn’t agree more: Marvel had been losing money for several years in the publishing. And y’know, actually a lot of credit should go to Roy Thomas, who—kicking and screaming—had dragged Marvel into doing Star Wars.

If we hadn’t done Star Wars … we would have gone out of business. Star Wars single-handedly saved Marvel.

(Thomas, Michael) But Shooter soon learned that the Star Wars comic book would have an

NOVEMBER November 16: Directed

by Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in movie theaters.

Its story of UFO encounters achieves both critical and financial success.

unanticipated drawback, one that would add much aggravation to his life: “The bad thing [about the success of Star Wars] is that the people upstairs thought ‘All we have to do now is license movies,’ and took every stupid thing that came down the pike” (Irving). Over the next several years, Marvel essentially abandoned the creation of its own properties in favor of releasing a slew of titles based on movies, television shows or toys. In fact, every single new title that Marvel launched between Nova #1 (Sept.

1976) and Dazzler #1 (March 1981) would either be licensed, derivative of another Marvel character, or a solo Jack Kirby series.

Marvel’s six-issue adaptation of Star Wars followed on the heels of a fiveissue adaptation of the 1976 sciencefiction film Logan’s Run, running from issue #1 (Jan. 1977) to #5 (May 1977), with art by George Pérez and writing by Gerry Conway (on the first issue) and David Anthony Kraft (on 207

DECEMBER December 16: With a soundtrack filled with songs by the Bee Gees and starring John Travolta as a Brooklyn disco dancer, Saturday Night Fever opens in movie theaters.

It will become one of the highest grossing movies of the year.

December: Through his own Aardvark-Vanaheim Press, Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim releases the first issue of Cerebus. It will go on to become one of the most important self-published comic books in the history of the medium.

subsequent issues). The adaptation sold well, and ran for two subsequent original issues, but as it turned out, Marvel only had the rights to adapt the film and not continue with stories about the film characters, which were owned by William Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, who co-wrote the original novel. Logan’s Run #6 is remembered for more than its continuation of the film; it also contains a five-page inventory back-up story featuring Thanos – the first solo story for Jim Starlin’s cosmic arch-villain.

Five months later, incidentally, Thanos returned for the first half of a cosmic farewell in Avengers Annual #7.

Persuaded by editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin to tie up loose ends from his cancelled Warlock series, Jim Starlin returned to that feature’s cast as Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel and the Avengers united to stop the mad Titan’s plan to extinguish every sun in the universe. Incorporating a flashforward that Starlin had first depicted

god damn Hulk again.” By the time Moench got Trimpe to back down from that vow, Godzilla was cancelled (Wolf). One fill-in issue of Godzilla, by Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko, was prepared for the series but appeared instead in Marvel Spotlight #5 as the one-shot “Dragon Lord” (March 1980).

in 1975’s Warlock #11, the writer-artist climaxed the story with Adam’s death before following with a sequel in Marvel Two-InOne Annual #2 that definitively ended the threat of Thanos… at least for the next several years.

King of the Monsters

Already entrenched as the scribe on Marvel’s emotionally intense Master Another group of Kung Fu series, of properties liDoug Moench was censed by Marvel looking for someincluded one of thing “very differthe most famous ent” for additional fictional charwork. He wanted acters in pulp to write a comic literature. book that targeted a younger audiTarzan Swings Archie Goodwin convinced Jim Starlin to finish the Thanos story that had been left unresolved ence. Since Godzilla when Starlin quit Marvel Comics the year before. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Across the Street was popular among Rights to the Edgar kids, Moench felt a title featuring the Godzilla license came up for renewal Rice Burroughs properties were transfamous monster could help Marvel in 1979, Toho demanded more money ferred from Gold Key to DC Comics Comics attract new readers (Wolf). than Marvel was willing (or could afin 1972.

For five years, DC published Stan Lee liked Moench’s plan and acford) to pay. According to Moench, if such ERB titles as Tarzan, Korak, Son quired a license from Godzilla’s ownthe series had continued, fans would of Tarzan, Tarzan Family and Weird ers, Toho Studios. have seen a battle between GodzilWorlds. While American critics showla and Hulk. The two green giants With a cover caption that screams, ered praise on writer/artist Joe Kuwere perfect combatants for each “Look out, America! The mightiest bert for reinvigorating the Lord of the other, but Moench couldn’t arrange menace of them all is coming your Apes, the foreign markets—which a bout between them because Herb way!,” Godzilla #1 arrived on newsbought the most Tarzan material— Trimpe—who had been the regular stands in May 1977. The series would weren’t particularly fond of the new artist on Incredible Hulk from 1968 last 24 issues, with Moench on for the take. To solve the problem, Robert to 1975—vowed never to draw “the entire ride, and artist Herb Trimpe drawing all but two of those issues.

Archie Goodwin suggested Moench use S.H.I.E.L.D. as a way to attract regular Marvel readers to the series, and the unique law enforcement agency proves to be Godzilla’s constant pursuer. Before long, though, Moench was encouraged to bring in other Marvel super-heroes, like the Champions in issue #3 (Oct. 1977).

Moench’s favorite super-heroes, the Fantastic Four, appear in issue #20 (March 1979). Not appearing in the comic book, however, were any of the other Toho monsters, like Mothra or Gamera. That’s because Marvel’s license only covered Godzilla. Toho would have required an additional fee if Marvel wanted to use any of its other monsters, even as a guest star (Wolf).

Ultimately, Toho was also responsible for Godzilla’s cancellation. When the

For the remainder of the decade and beyond, Marvel Comics acquired the licenses to a multitude of properties, including Tarzan and Godzilla. Tarzan TM and © ERB, Inc. Godzilla TM and © Toho Co., Ltd.

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Hodes, who ran the ERB estate, re-hired Russ Manning— who had drawn Tarzan comics for Gold Key Comics and continued to draw the Sunday Tarzan newspaper strip—to oversee a line of foreign-only Tarzan/Korak comics.

abate, though, so ERB Inc. approached Hodes’s former editor about re-starting the foreign printing press that had supplied the European exclusive versions a few years ago.

He turned them down (Stewart 84).

While the overseas market asked for more and more Tarzan material, the United States indicated it had enough. DC cancelled its final ERB title, Tarzan, after issue #258 (Feb. 1977). “Tarzan didn’t do as well as we thought, for some reason,” remembered Carmine Infantino. “I was a little surprised by that. I expected big numbers. Maybe it wasn’t the right time” (Stewart 79).

Marvel Gets Animated Besides obtaining licenses to pulp novel legends and the latest movies, Marvel also moved into the world of animation when they entered into an arrangement to release Hanna-Barbera comic books.

Hanna-Barbera characters had been appearing in comic books since 1958, first published by Dell and then Dell’s successor, Gold Key. In 1970, though, the animation company signed with low-rent Charlton to publish The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, among other H-B properties. As comics historian Mark Arnold reports, “This was an unfortunate misstep, as most of Charlton’s artists were inadequate for drawing the Hanna-Barbera characters on model, whereas many of the Dell/Gold Key stories were actually written and drawn by Hanna-Barbera employees” (Arnold 19). The people soon upset with Charlton’s work included not only Hanna-Barbera’s executives but also their foreign market clients, many of whom refused to buy Charlton’s stories for international publication. Several South American publishers even took the bold step of hiring local writers and artists to create their own H-B material which they then sold to other licensees. Hanna-Barbera’s lucrative comics operation was being stifled and something had to be done to remedy the situation (Arnold 19-20).

ERB Inc. put the Tarzan license back on the market again, and Marion Burroughs, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s daughterin-law, made a deal with Marvel. Hodes, though, wasn’t informed about the deal until after all the contracts were signed as he was ousted from his position, and his foreign story shop was closed down (Stewart 80).

Four months after DC published its final issue, Marvel launched its Tarzan title with a new #1 issue (June 1977).

Stan Lee assigned the Conan the Barbarian creative team of Roy Thomas and John Buscema to handle the series (even though Thomas felt he was better suited for the other ERB property that Marvel was going to publish, the science fiction adventure John Carter, Warlord of Mars). Thomas approached his work on Tarzan in the same manner he approached other licensed properties: he committed himself to being true to the source material. Instead of revisiting novels that the DC Comics series had already tackled, Thomas began Marvel’s Tarzan with an adaptation of the 1918 Burroughs novel Tarzan and Jewels of Opar. To meet deadlines, though, he occasionally had to interrupt the longer serial with fill-ins. For those, he used stories from ERB’s 1919 anthology Jungle Tales of Tarzan. “Whenever I got behind,” Thomas explained, “I’d give John [Buscema] one of those stories to do” (Stewart 82).

In anticipation of the expiration of Charlton’s contract in 1977, Hanna-Barbera lured former Western Publishing editor Chase Craig out of retirement to manage a new line of comic books that H-B would self-publish. A consultant was hired to present mock-ups to the newsstand distributors to convince them to carry Hanna-Barbera comic books. Af-

Coincidentally, those stories had just been adapted by Burne Hogarth in 1976 in his Jungle Tales of Tarzan book. Thomas contacted Marvel’s lawyers to make sure that Marvel had the rights to the Jungle Tales stories, and they assured him that, indeed, they did. Marion Burroughs, however, was convinced that, indeed, Marvel did not. She called Thomas at his home to voice her displeasure: “She was really lacing into me because she had suddenly noticed we had come out with a Jungle Tales of Tarzan issue. She was saying we had no right to do it.” She also complained that Thomas’s adaptation was too similar to Hogarth’s. Thomas tried to explain that similarities were inevitable, given how both men were referencing the same story, even quoting directly from the original material at times, but Burroughs wasn’t appeased.

Bristling from her suggestion that he (and Buscema) had plagiarized Hogarth, Thomas quit the book (Stewart 82-83). He was replaced with David Anthony Kraft, starting with Tarzan #15 (Aug. 1978).

In the end, Marvel’s version of Tarzan fared worse than DC’s. After 29 issues, Marvel pulled the plug.

The overseas market’s hunger for Tarzan didn’t

Marvel Comics’ Hanna-Barbera line included Dynomutt and The Flintstones.

TM and © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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It is a matter of debate how well Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera line sold.

Early on, Marvel decided to cancel the line due to poor sales but relented when Hanna-Barbera threatened legal action for violation of contract. Later, H-B told Marvel it wanted to audit sales records to confirm that the reported figures were accurate. Claiming clerical errors had been made, Marvel responded by sending amended reports that provided Hanna-Barbera with higher royalty payments (Arnold 26). It took a couple of years but Marvel finally got its way when the H-B line was discontinued in 1979.

Marvel began another ongoing licensed series in 1977 with the release of The Human Fly (first issue cover dated Sept. 1977).

Arguably the oddest comic of its era, it was based on the exploits of a self-described “philanthropTwo of Marvel’s new series in 1977 were Ms. Marvel and The Human Fly. Neither series would last through the end of ic daredevil” (rumored to be Cathe decade. Human Fly TM and © respective copyright holder. Ms. Marvel TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. nadian stunt man Rick Rojatt) who traveled from town to town ter some leg work, that consultant returned with the worst to perform death-defying feats at charity events. Perhaps possible news: no distributor was willing to sign up. Hanthe most impressive feat the Human Fly accomplished, na-Barbera was shut out of the newsstand (Arnold 21). however, was convincing the biggest comic book company The consultant did, however, propose an alternative apin the United States to devote a title to him. Jim Shooter proach: both Marvel and DC were willing to carry Hannaexplains how it happened: “We editorial types sure didn’t Barbera titles but their editorial staffs would be responthink a Human Fly comic book was a good idea. My recsible for producing the contents of the comic books. What ollection is that it was thrust upon us editorial folks by emerged was a bit of a compromise: Hanna-Barbera would someone upstairs. Probably someone in our licensing deproduce the comics in-house and then deliver them to partment met the Fly’s licensing folks at a trade show and Marvel, who in turn would publish and distribute the titles convinced the president of the company that it was a good through its partner Curtis Circulation. Hanna-Barbera was idea—without consulting us” (Aushenker 43). then free to re-sell the material to its foreign clients.

With a tag line that read “The Wildest Super-Hero Ever— The timing was perfect for Marvel, who had announced in Because He’s Real!,” The Human Fly was written by Bill FOOM #15 (Sept. 1976) of the impending launch of a pair Mantlo and drawn by such Golden Age legends as Lee Elias, of kid humor titles written and edited by Marv Wolfman: Carmine Infantino and Frank Robbins over its 19 issue run.

Midas, the Million-Dollar Mouse and Super Rabbit, the MarThe comic book presents its protagonist as a young man vel Bunny (respectively illustrated by John Costanza and whose skeletal system is replaced with steel after survivSam Grainger). Given the shrinking kids market, a line full ing a car crash. He then dons a mask to perform at charity of pre-sold characters beat brand-new ones and the Wolfevents (which are often interrupted by criminals seeking man duo was abandoned. to rob the attendees).

Beginning in July 1977 (cover date October), The Flintstones Marvelous Ms. and Scooby Doo joined Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four in the Marvel Comics slate. The following month In two consecutive months Marvel shined the spotlight brought the first issues of Dynomutt and Yogi Bear. Most on three female heroes who were derivative of their male of Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera stories were written by somecounterparts. The challenge was turning them into characone who was very familiar with both the comic book and ters who could support their own titles. One of them had animation industries: longtime animation scripter Mark been part of the Marvel Universe for many years, a second Evanier. When the 66-year-old Craig opted to return to rewas a major character in the Conan mythos, while the tirement, Evanier became the line’s editor. He collaborated third was brand new. with several seasoned comic book industry veterans, like Carol Danvers first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 Dan Spiegle on Scooby Doo and Aquaman co-creator Paul (March 1968) as an Air Force Major who is saved from an Norris on Dynomutt. Other contributors included writexplosion by Captain Marvel. She became a recurring supers Jack Enyart and David Anthony Kraft and artists Scott porting character in the Captain Marvel series throughout Shaw and Alex Toth.

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It turns out she was created by the High Evolutionary who made her in the same manner as he made the New Men back in the 1960s. Calling her “Arachne,” the High Evolutionary evolved Spider-Woman from an actual spider. Others created in the same fashion shunned her, so she set off on her own. Taking refuge in a nearby village, Arachne accidentally killed a resident with her new venom-blast powers. The trauma caused her to lose her memory. At this point Hydra came along and filled her head with lies.

the late 1960s before being mostly unused in the 1970s. She returned to headline her own book, Ms. Marvel, which revealed that the explosion in her debut appearance merged her DNA with Captain Marvel’s, giving her the same superpowers he had: super-human strength, agility, endurance, and flight. (She also gained a precognitive “seventh sense.”)

Written by Gerry Conway, with art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, Ms. Marvel #1 (Jan. 1977) carried a cover blurb that read, “This Female Fights Back!” In the issue’s editorial, Conway explained that the “Ms. Marvel” name was greatly influenced “by the move toward women’s liberation. She is not a Marvel Girl; she’s a woman, not a Miss or a Mrs.—a Ms. Her own person. Herself.” Stan Lee came up with the concept of the super-powered Danvers, but there’s some confusion as to who exactly came up with the Ms. Marvel name. Conway assumes Roy Thomas thought it up, but Thomas instead claims that Lee deserves the credit. Lee says he doesn’t remember (Robbins 126).

Archie Goodwin wrote Spider-Woman’s Marvel Spotlight debut and was responsible for her origin; however, it was Stan Lee who ordered the character’s creation. He did so as a preemptive strike to safeguard Marvel’s licensing and copyright interests. In 1975, DC Comics introduced Power Girl even though Marvel already had Power Man. That annoyed Lee, particularly when, in 1964, he was unable to revive Wonder Man in the pages of Avengers because DC protested that they had previously created a robot by that name in 1963’s SuRegardless, in Conway’s hands Ms. perman #163. In 1976, Marvel got Marvel was focused on a woman’s a small amount of revenge when struggle for identity and self-libseven months after Power Girl’s eration, symbolized by the fact debut, a resurrected Wonder Man that Carol Danvers wasn’t even joined the Avengers roster as a aware she was Ms. Marvel. Whenfull-time member. But when Lee ever Ms. Marvel returned to her cigot wind that a Spider-Woman vilian persona, Danvers instantly cartoon series was being planned forgot her super-heroic exploits. by another company, he realized Conway made every effort to inthat Marvel had better beat evfuse a feminist perspective into eryone to the punch and create the comic book. That perspective its own Spider-Woman characmay have been undercut, howter. As Lee explained to an audiever, by how Ms. Marvel was preence at James Madison Universented; she wore a sexualized versity in 1978: “I wanted to protect sion of Captain Marvel’s costume the name, because it’s the type with bikini panties, bare legs and of thing someone else might say, navel, and a hairstyle that evoked ‘Hey, why don’t we put out a SpiFarrah Fawcett-Majors, the sex der-Woman, they can’t stop us’” symbol appearing on America’s (Dawson 54). Spider-Woman’s creairwaves via the hit television ation came just in time: in 1978 a show Charlie’s Angels. character named Web Woman appeared on the Saturday morning Introduced one month after Ms. cartoon Tarzan and the Super SevMarvel’s debut, Spider-Woman Created by Stan Lee in order to secure the copyright on the name, en. This wouldn’t be the last time had a far more conservative apSpider-Woman’s origin—and alter ego—changed by the time she Marvel would create a character starred in her own series. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. pearance. Her strikingly unique primarily for copyright purposes. costume—designed by Marie Severin—covered her entire body (even her hair, initially), Beyond retaining ownership of the Spider-Woman name, and as revealed in her introduction in Marvel Spotlight #32 Marvel originally didn’t have any on-going plans for the (Feb. 1977), Spider-Woman was connected to Spider-Man character. Indeed, one month after debuting Spider-Womin name only. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spian, the final issue of Marvel Spotlight featured Deathlok. der, but Spider-Woman was the creation of a godlike scienWhen the sales reports for Marvel Spotlight #32 came in, tist. In her first appearance, Spider-Woman starts out as an however, Archie Goodwin discovered the issue sold unoperative for Hydra. The terrorist organization sends her expectedly well. He assigned Marv Wolfman to write her on a mission to rescue her “lover” Jared from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ongoing series. Before that title launched in 1978, Wolfcustody. Hydra hopes that Spider-Woman will be motivatman had Spider-Woman appear in four consecutive issues ed enough to kill Nick Fury, but during the rescue attempt, of another series he was writing, The Thing team-up book Fury proves to Spider-Woman that she’s been duped and Marvel Two-In-One #30-33 (Aug. – Nov. 1977). One of the that Jared is, in fact, evil. She confronts her Hydra leader, first things Wolfman did with the character was retcon her Count Otto Vermis, who explains Spider-Woman’s origin. origin because he found the “evolved spider” angle unsus211

outfit was based on an unsolicited design sent in from Spain by artist Esteban Maroto. Thomas told the American Comic Book Chronicles that “I used that pinup in The Savage Sword of Conan #1 (p. 38, to be exact).” The bikini look proved very popular with fans, and Sonja was spun-off into her own strip in Marvel Feature #1 (Nov. 1975). After Dick Giordano drew the first issue, Frank Thorne took over art duties. Two months after the cancellation of Marvel Feature (which ended with issue #7), Red Sonja #1 (Jan. 1977) arrived on newsstands with both Thomas and Thorne attached. By that point, Thorne was well on his way to being considered the quintessential Red Sonja artist.

Indeed, his career would be forever defined by his work on the character.

Despite the fact that Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja were two swordand-sorcery books that shared the same fictional universe, their stories had distinctively different tones. True to his barbarism, Conan raised holy hell. Likewise, Sonja’s sword found its way into many men and monsters, but the sword wielder herself also displayed a full range of emotions. For instance, in Red Sonja #1, written by Thomas and Clara Noto (soon to be credited as Clair) and based on an idea

by Ed Summer (the same man who approached Thomas about Star Wars), Sonja bonds with a unicorn and risks her life to save it. At the end of the story, when the unicorn chooses to leave, Sonja sheds a few tears, vowing to “fulfill her warrior’s destiny—to roam and seek her fortune in strange lands among strange men—alone.” She upholds that vow in Red Sonja #6 (Nov. 1977) when one of her comrades proposes marriage. On the issue’s final page, after she says goodbye to him, Sonja looks at a giant phallic symbol of a tower in the distance and throws away the engagement ring.

In 1976 Thorne started producing a performance piece at comic conventions based on Red Sonja’s adventures. The play was stocked with beautiful young women, each dressed as a female warrior, while he portrayed a wizard coordinating all the activities. As this act grew in popularity, Thorne conducted Red Sonja lookalike contests. Young artist/writer/model Wendy Pini won the first contest. When New York Comic Art Con organizer Phil Seuling was invited to appear on popular TV talk show The Mike Douglas Show, he was asked to bring someone else dressed as a comic book character. He brought Pini, dressed as Sonja (Doree). Also appearing as a guest of the show that same day was Jamie Farr, who portrayed Corporal Klinger on the popular TV series M*A*S*H. A big comic book fan, Farr was delighted by Pini’s appearance, and he related to American Comic Book Chronicles that, “Red Sonja was not in my life at all but it was nice of Mike Douglas and the staff to surprise me with a comic book character.” Pini would go on to achieve considerable success with a self-published comic that debuted in 1978.

Thorne left Red Sonja after issue #11 (Sept. 1978) in order to create a similar character for Warren Magazines.

Thorne’s replacement, John Buscema, toned down the title’s sexual aspects.

Unfortunately, the series was cancelled with issue #15 (May 1979).

Previously starring in Marvel Feature, Red Sonja gained her own title.

Cover art by Frank Thorne. TM and © Red Sonja LLC.

tainable. “I realized that what Archie did couldn’t continue,” Wolfman explains. “I had to take what Archie did and spin a new story around it so she could be human” (Johnson 59). Wolfman reconfigured Spider-Woman as the daughter of a scientist who was a friend and colleague of the same doctor who would one day become the High Evolutionary. The scientist’s experiments caused his daughter to become so ill that only a mutated form of spider extract could save her.

As a result, she gained super-powers.

Wolfman gave the daughter the name of Jessica Drew (the first name derived from Wolfman’s own daughter while the last name evoked the fictional teenaged detective Nancy Drew).

The third female hero that Marvel published had been a recurring supporting character in Conan the Barbarian since her first appearance in issue #23 (Feb. 1973): the fiery redhaired warrior known as Red Sonja.

Initially dressed in a full chain mail Tshirt, Sonja’s outfit was reduced to an armored bikini, starting with Savage Sword of Conan #1 (Aug. 1974). The

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John Byrne meets the X-Men in this Dave Cockrumdrawn cover for Comic Reader #145.

X-Men TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Another female character didn’t receive her own series but did play a prominent role in an existing title.

After being resurrected as Phoenix in X-Men #101 (Oct. 1976), Jean Grey spent much of 1977 adjusting to her new powers. One idea the creative team of writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum considered was to have Jean turn into a power junkie: the more power she would use, the more she would want, on and on in a vicious cycle. That would have been the evolution of a character for whom Claremont and Cockrum had great affection. John Byrne, however, didn’t share that affection, and starting with X-Men #108 (Dec. 1977), Byrne became the series’ new regular artist because Cockrum couldn’t keep up with his deadlines. As Claremont explained, “Dave and I were more of one mind about what we wanted to do with Phoenix. It’s impossible to say what would have happened if Dave hadn’t left the book” (Sanderson 41).

What did happen would have lasting effects for the characters.

Cockrum became part of Marvel’s staff as a cover designer, but before his departure from X-Men, he debuted a new group of characters in issue #107 (Oct. 1977) that were a tribute to his former assignment, the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Imperial Guard is a team of warriors charged with serving the rulers of the Shi’ar Empire, and when they are first shown on a character-filled two-page spread, it’s obvious to Legion fans that they are replicas of DC Comics’ 30th century youngsters. Analogues of Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Timber Wolf, Shadow Lass, Brainiac 5, Star Boy, Lightning Lad, and Wildfire are easy to spot. Others can be deduced with a little bit of logic. Cockrum said, “I was having fun with ‘Let’s do the Legion in the X-Men.’… Chris [Claremont] went right along with it. He thought it was great fun” (Cadigan 74). Getting in trouble with DC didn’t concern Cockrum: “I showed the designs to Paul Levitz, and he didn’t say, ‘You can’t do that.’ If anything, he said, ‘Geez, these costumes are better than the ones the Legionnaires are wearing’” (Cadigan 74). In effect, the Imperial Guard were an alternate universe version of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Another series would explore alternate universes in a very different way.

What If? typically showed that Marvel’s super-heroes had it much worse on alternate Earths.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

What If Shows What’s What In a 1977 cover dated editorial, Roy Thomas described a story-telling “maxim” Stan Lee had taught him. He called it the “What If?” maxim. Back when Lee wrote nearly all of Marvel’s output, he plotted issues of certain comics by asking himself questions he figured the readers were also asking, like what if Thor and the Hulk had a fight to see who was more powerful or what if the Avengers’ line-up was different?

That maxim became the basis of the unique new Marvel comic What If? Each issue presents a pivotal moment in Marvel Comics history and then shows how differently that moment could have played out if alternative actions and decisions occurred. Narrating the series is Uatu, the Watcher.

First introduced in Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963), the Watcher observes and records the history of civilization as it is played out across infinite universes. As Uatu explains in What If? #1 (Feb. 1977), there are “parallel worlds of what might have been” separated by only “the thinnest web of cosmic gossamer.” In other words, What If? didn’t present the kind of “Imaginary Stories” that DC did during Mort Weisinger’s tenure. The What If? tales really happened, just on an Earth that was unfamiliar to Marvel’s readers. Though the difference may have been semantic, Marvel’s slightly older cohort of readers 213

appreciated the continuity-based explanation for the series.

The story in What If? #1—“What If Spider-Man had Joined the Fantastic Four?,” written by Thomas and illustrated by Jim Craig and Pablo Marcos—altered a seminal event from Amazing Spider-Man #1 (March 1963) when Peter Parker seeks out the Fantastic Four to help solve his financial problems. Spidey enters the Baxter Building unannounced, fighting the F.F. to a standstill, hoping they’d be impressed with his prowess. When Peter Parker finds out the Fantastic Four is a non-profit organization that doesn’t pay salaries, he leaves, ending the brief episode. This incident plays out in What If? #1 with dialogue and layouts duplicated from Amazing Spider-Man #1.

But the Watcher then reveals a parallel timeline where Sue Storm convinces Mr. Fantastic that they can afford to pay Spider-Man to be a part of their team. The Fantastic Four then becomes the Fantastic Five. Later in the issue the F.F. want to go to the moon, but there’s only room for four in the rocket ship. Reed tells Sue to stay behind, causing her to reflect that she too would be on her way to the moon “if Spider-Man hadn’t joined us, just a few days ago!” With the rest of the F.F. gone, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, mesmerizes Sue— the object of his affection—and takes her to his undersea palace. When

story revealed that it was just a Hulk robot constructed by two college students.

Little surprise, then, that Kirby’s next new work also didn’t acknowledge other Marvel titles.

Indeed, Kirby’s Black Panther (first issue cover dated January 1977) completely ignored what previous writer Don McGregor had done with the title character since 1973, despite the fact that Kirby’s new series debuted merely two months after the final issue of Jungle Action (#24, Nov. 1976). (Fans of McGregor’s “Panther vs. The Klan” story arc would have to wait until 1979 before getting a chance Ignoring everything Don McGregor to read its resolution… by anhad done with the character since 1973, Jack Kirby reset the Black Panther other writer.) McGregor’s Black as an otherworldly adventurer.

Panther was a masked force for TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. justice, grappling with such “real world” issues as African revolutions and racism. Jack Kirby’s Black Panther, on the other hand, was an otherworldly adventurer, dealing with such fantastic concepts as a time machine in the form of a frog statue, a six million year old alien, and Yeti.

If nothing else, the work that Kirby produced for Marvel in the mid-1970s was wildly imaginative. The problem was that it didn’t sell all that well, not at the newsstand anyway. By the end of 1977, Kirby found himself in a familiar place: his employer removing him from his assignments in order to have him start something new. 2001 was cancelled with issue #10 (Sept. 1977), Captain America was taken away from Kirby with issue #214 (Oct. 1977) and The Eternals was cancelled with issue #19 (Jan. 1978). Kirby’s return to Marvel – ballyhooed just two years previously was no more successful than his time at DC Comics, and Kirby had to determine if he had a future at the company at which he once was the biggest star.

the team finally learns what has happened and confronts Namor, Sue declares that even though she loves both Reed and Namor, she realizes that the Fantastic Five don’t really need her, so she chooses to remain in Atlantis. The team is reduced, once again, to the Fantastic Four, and the feelings within the team vary: Spider-Man feels responsible for how events unfolded while the Human Torch says reassuringly, “If you’d never joined the F.F., things would probably have worked out exactly the same.” The readers, of course, knew otherwise.

Kiss Off By 1977, Don McGregor no longer wrote for Marvel Comics.

Neither did Steve Englehart nor Jim Starlin. That left Steve Gerber as the last “maverick” writing for the House of Ideas, and to make sure Gerber remained inclined to stick around, Archie Goodwin made him Marvel’s latest writer/ editor (joining Gerry Conway, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman). But Gerber had trouble getting his work done on time, even though his assignments were limited to Omega the Unknown and both the Howard the Duck comic book and comic strip (the latter of which first appeared in newspapers on June 6, 1977). Exacerbating Gerber’s tardiness was his move from New York City to Las Vegas. As a result, Omega #7 and #8 (March and May 1977) were respectively scripted by Scott Edelman and Roger Stern, and Howard the Duck #16 (Sept. 1977) was an unfocused rumination—drawn by nine different artists— on Gerber’s deadline woes. Appropriately, the issue’s cover carried the large blurb “Deadline Doom!”

Depressing endings were common in What If? The heroes of parallel worlds would often die or become villains, and one reader even complained in the letters column of issue #8 that “not one story has had even a slightly optimistic ending.” Indeed, the driving theme of What If? was that as bad as things got in the Marvel universe that readers were most familiar with, they were actually much worse on parallel worlds.

The new work Jack Kirby was producing for Marvel also seemed to be occurring on parallel worlds. Readers couldn’t help but notice that Captain America was isolated from the rest of Marvel’s continuity. So too was 2001: A Space Odyssey, an on-going series that spun off from Kirby’s 1976 “Marvel Treasury Special” adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film. Even when the cover to Eternals #14 (Aug. 1977) trumpeted a guest appearance by the Hulk, the interior 214

it was Bill [Aucion] (Kiss’s manager) or Sean [Delaney] (sometime songwriter and choreographer for the band). We got into a DC3, one of those big prop planes, and flew to Buffalo to Marvel’s printing plant, where they pour the ink and make comic books (Simmons 136-137).

Despite his difficulties, Gerber was given the opportunity to write an offbeat comic book that seemed tailor made for his talents. According to a 1977 Gallup poll, the rock band Kiss was America’s most popular music act. The four band members wore make-up and costumes appropriate for a Halloween party, and their concerts were electrifying, explosion-filled extravaganzas. Kiss bassist and co-lead vocalist Gene Simmons, was a life-long comic book fan. In the 1960s he contributed to multiple fanzines—ranging from Jeff Gelb’s Men of Mystery to his own Cosmos Stiletto and Faun—under the name Gene Klein, and his subsequent onstage outfit was partly based on Marvel’s Black Bolt character (Simmons 74). The band’s manager approached Marvel about publishing a Kiss comic book, and after attending one of their concerts with a horrified Stan Lee, Steve Gerber agreed to write it (Howe 189).

The band members were photographed putting their vials of blood into the red ink. A smiling Stan Lee witnessed the act as did a notary public who certified the event. One unsubstantiated rumor claims that a printer mix-up caused Kiss’ blood to end up in an issue of Sports Illustrated rather than the comic (“Blood Money”).

Priced at $1.50 (when nearly every other Marvel publication was selling for 30¢), Marvel Super Special #1 (Sept.

1977) presented a 40 page story—drawn by Alan Weiss, Rich Buckler, and John and Sal Buscema—in which Kiss battle Marvel super-villains Mephisto and Doctor Doom.

Guest stars included the Avengers, the Defenders, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man. The magazine sold over a half million copies. “For a while,” Gerber said, “they had one drawer for Kiss mail, and another drawer for all the fan mail on all the other Marvel books” (Groth 38).

Kiss, though, made several demands. For one, the band needed to be depicted not as mere musicians but as superheroes. In addition, the comic book had to be the highest of quality products: a full color magazine printed on glossy paper. Gerber even petitioned for a cover logo that used metallic ink because he recognized that this publication had the potential to be a “respectable periodical,” the kind that attracted advertisers who were willing to shell out top dollar for ad space (Howe 189-190).

Kiss’ management and public relations team was responsible for much of the success of the magazine, with the stunt with blood in the ink receiving considerable attention. Kiss’ management also purchased a full-page color ad in popular rock music magazine Circus (Groth 38). Marvel, by contrast, had gotten cold feet once syndicated newspaper columnist Bob Greene condemned the project in an April 1977 write-up, sniffing that “the four punks are about to replace Superman and the others in your children’s galaxy of comic book superheroes.”

Prior to the completion of the Kiss comic book, someone at Marvel decided that since Kiss stole Marvel’s act by resembling super-heroes, Marvel might as well return the favor and publish a comic book that starred Kiss look-a-likes.

That didn’t sit well with Gerber, who had the band appear briefly in Howard the Duck #12 (May 1977) and #13 (June 1977) as mystical manifestations of insane asylum resident Winda Wester’s fears. Gerber felt duty bound to inform Kiss about Marvel’s plans. The band responded by threatening to sue Marvel if the Kiss comic book didn’t get produced to their liking with Gerber at its helm. After matters got smoothed over, Gerber received an unprecedented promise from Marvel: royalty payments for his work on the Kiss comic book. Even with that significant concession, the experience left Gerber with a bitter taste in his mouth about how Marvel conducted business (Howe 191-192).

The cover to the Kiss comic book touted, “Printed in real KISS blood.” That was no lie, as Gene Simmons explained: As the Kiss comic book project moved along, someone came up with the idea of putting real blood in the ink. It wasn’t me—maybe

Steve Gerber ensured that the most popular rock band in the country got the best treatment that Marvel could provide. Cover art by Alan Weiss and Gray Morrow. TM and © respective copyright holder.

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Fearful of the company image, Stan Lee and James Galton gave the Kiss issue minimal ad support in Marvel’s own comics, something that was in line with Galton’s view of their publishing output. Since his arrival, Marvel’s president had been troubled by the fact that the company’s Magazine Management division was still churning out crass confessionals and men’s magazines. “I didn’t think it was right for us to basically be in a kids’ business and publish this type of material,” Galton explained, “so I convinced [parent company] Cadence to sell off these magazines. I felt very strongly that we could take Marvel Comics and expand it into foreign licensing, publishing and merchandising, and get us on television. If we could do all that, it would more than supplant the

was hired as editor-in-chief and she joined Stan Lee in a media blitz prior to Pizzazz’s September 20, 1977 launch. “We want to produce a magazine that’s not written for kids, but something that still appeals to them and also makes them better readers and stimulates their minds,” Lee declared in a syndicated article in midSeptember. “Kids appreciate the fact that you’re not writing down to them and that you think they’re worth a quality effort.”

Marvel spent a lot of money launching Pizzazz magazine… only to see it cancelled by the end of 1978.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

income we’d be losing by selling off these other magazines” (Kraft 63).

In 1977, Galton threw his support behind a far more kid-friendly magazine. Briefly dubbed The Marvel Connection in FOOM #17, Pizzazz was explicitly designed to compete with the success of tween pop culture magazines like Dynamite and Smash. The title took the usual formula of music, movie and TV puff articles, puzzles, and cartoons and added its own exclusive comic book connections. Images of Spider-Man, the Hulk, and others abounded in each issue while serialized short stories featured Star Wars and Young Tarzan (each initially scripted by Roy Thomas).

Bobby Miller, with a résumé that included stints on the Sesame Street and Electric Company magazines,

The detail that made insiders’ eyes pop was the amount of money that Marvel was spending on the new venture, not only on print advertising but on TV commercials. One report claimed that the budget for Pizzazz alone was roughly the same as Marvel’s expenditures on “editorial content for their entire line of comics.” Noting the expectation that the magazine would theoretically defray those expenses through higher ad rates, DC’s Paul Levitz observed, “Pizzazz can be advertiser-supported and make its money there, so it is to some degree immune to the newsstand problem. That’s a far more important experiment than the much touted color magazines, which are glorified comics” (“The DC Implosion” 6).

Cautiously rolling out with regional trials, Pizzazz’s circulation had reached 100,000 by January 1978 with the expectation of its rate base increasing to 200,000 when the magazine’s April-dated issue arrived in New York and other major markets (Hentoff 30). In the midst of this, Pizzazz also became mired in controversy when writer Nat Hentoff reviewed the new novel Gentlehands and de-

After six days of build-up in the dailies, Stan Lee and John Romita’s first Amazing Spider-Man Sunday strip (January 9, 1977) let sparks fly between Spidey and J. Jonah Jameson. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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clared that it trivialized the Holocaust. Overruling Miller’s acceptance of the piece, Stan Lee deemed the review as a whole inappropriate for the magazine as did—after Lee changed his mind—James Galton. “We need things in the magazine that will grab the kids,” Galton insisted. “It all has to be entertaining. We’re not going to get the kids involved in social issues. The Holocaust just doesn’t fit.”

Bobby Miller was fired soon after— succeeded by Jeff Lewis in the transitional issue #8—and she blamed her dismissal in part on the Hentoff kerfuffle (Hentoff 31).

In the months that followed, it became apparent that Pizzazz was not the panacea that Marvel had anticipated. Retailer Chuck Rozanski later declared that the company “lost a huge sum on [its] ill-fated television advertising campaign” (Rozanski).

Quietly cancelled with issue #16 in late 1978, Pizzazz spotlighted the brand-new Superman movie on its final cover. “I consider it to be the greatest honor of my long career,” the Man of Steel declared, “to be on the cover of a Marvel magazine.”

Marvel was far more successful in another new venue. Stan Lee had coveted the mantle of successful newspaper strip writer since the 1950s and that desire hadn’t abated even with his triumphs in comic books. On the strength of his reputation, he sold two strips in 1976 that were unconnected to Marvel. Says Who? (starting September 27)—featuring photo-manipulated images of political figures with dialogue by Lee—was cancelled by year’s end while Lee and artist Frank Springer’s soap opera spoof The Virtue of Vera Valiant (launched October 11) sputtered to an end on September 10, 1977.

Despite those failures, Lee had cause to celebrate because he achieved victory with a third strip, albeit one that was tied to Marvel. Illustrated by John Romita, The Amazing Spider-Man arrived in newspapers on January 3, 1977 and quickly picked up hundreds of subscribing markets in defiance of conventional wisdom that serialized adventure strips were a dinosaur.

The revelation spawned a boom in new story strips inspired by either comic books (beginning with Howard the Duck on June 7) or Star Wars

(starting with Ron Goulart and Gil Kane’s two-tier Star Hawks on October 3) but none of the newcomers launched between 1977 and 1979 lasted for long.

The Amazing Spider-Man was another story. The trademark villains—including Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, the Kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, and the newly-created Rattler during 1977—were all there but it was the soap-opera aspects of Peter Parker and his love life—slickly rendered by Romita—that grabbed mainstream newspaper readers and kept them coming back. Still running after nearly forty years, The Amazing Spider-Man claims the title of the last successful newspaper adventure comic strip. Having conquered the funnies, Spidey could now turn his attention to another milestone on his bucket list.

Nicholas Hammond played Peter Parker in the live action version of The Amazing Spider-Man, first airing on CBS-TV on September 14, 1977.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Cast to play Peter Parker in the Amazing Spider-Man show was Nicholas Hammond, the “Big Man on Campus” from the infamous episode of The Brady Bunch in which Marcia gets hit in the nose with a football. Earlier, Hammond played Friedrich Von Trapp, the oldest singing boy, in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music. Someone from CBS saw Hammond performing in a play in Los Angeles and contacted him. “Playing a superhero was the last thing on my mind,” Hammond said, as the plays he was in at the time, Travesties and The Importance of Being Earnest, were serious works. But he was glad the producers were trying to do Spider-Man in a legitimate way. “If I were standing there with a sword in my hand attacking a giant bumblebee, I would have thought, ‘Why am I here? This isn’t what I do” (Edlitz). Giant bumblebees would have been beyond the TV series’ budget anyway.

Spider-Man and the Hulk Hit the Small Screen Steve Lemberg was dumbfounded. In 1971 the concert promoter had licensed all of Marvel characters for $2,500 with the option to renew indefinitely. “I owned more rights to Marvel than Marvel had,” Lemberg said. “I could do anything I wanted. I could make movies, records, anything. It was really a trip” (Howe 121). But Lemberg just couldn’t get much of anything off the ground. Shortly after he acquired the rights, he threw together a bizarre stage show at Carnegie Hall that celebrated Stan Lee. Billed as “an erudite evening of cataclysmic culture with your friendly neighborhood bullpen gang!,” it was a financial and creative flop.

Next, in 1972, Lemberg produced a rock musical record album titled Spider-Man: From Beyond the Grave, featuring the former lead singer from the cartoon band The Archies.

Stan Lee, however, wanted one of Marvel’s characters to get the full Hollywood treatment, but Lemberg couldn’t deliver. “[Movie studios] did not have the technology to make the film we wanted to make,” Lemberg said. “It would have cost a fortune” (Howe 195).

Appropriately, the show’s pilot movie, airing on September 14, 1977, presented the familiar story of Peter Parker—now a university student—receiving super-powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. He becomes Spider-Man to stop an evil mind-controller who threatens to cause a mass suicide if he doesn’t receive his ransom money. The pilot episode’s top-twenty ranking for the week guaranteed more Spider-Man adventures would be produced for the small screen in the following year.

After a few years, enough was enough and someone other than Lemberg had to be given the opportunity to try to sell Marvel’s characters to Hollywood. With the help of Cadence Industries’ lawyers, Marvel reacquired its rights and then sold them to other producers with standard industry contracts. In 1976, Dan Goodman optioned the rights to Spider-Man and began prepping a television show for CBS. Elsewhere, Frank Price, the new head of Universal Studios’ television division, asked his son about the green monster on his sweatshirt. Soon, Price paid $12,500 to secure the live-action television rights to twelve Marvel characters, including Captain America, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, the Human Torch, Ms. Marvel and Sub-Mariner. Like Goodman, Price approached CBS, his pitch aided by the placement of life-sized cardboard cutouts of the super-heroes around the CBS conference table. At the end of that meeting, Price had a deal: eight characters would each receive a two-hour pilot. First up would be The Incredible Hulk (Howe 195-96).

1960s television icon Bill Bixby (who had starred in My Favorite Martian and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father) was cast for the pilot of The Incredible Hulk by producer Kenneth Johnson. Though he had produced ABC’s popular The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, Johnson wasn’t initially interested in doing another super-hero show when Universal’s Price offered it to him. But Johnson was reading the classic Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables and became entranced by Inspector Javert’s endless pursuit of Jean Valjean. That’s when Johnson came up with the idea of investigative reporter Jack McGee traversing the country hunting down Hulk sightings and causing a great deal of strife for Dr. David Banner. Johnson thought, “maybe there’s a way to take a little Victor Hugo, a little Robert Louis Stevenson and this ridiculous premise called The Incredible Hulk and turn it into something” (Rathwell).

In the beginning, Richard Kiel—who played the henchman Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and 217

to various business matMoonraker—was cast as ters (like budgets, advertisthe Hulk. Blind in one eye, ing and printing bills) and Kiel discovered the contact meeting with executives lenses he had to wear for from Marvel and Cadence. the role bothered him terThose meetings became ribly, so much so that he particularly frustrating for had concerns about playGoodwin as his suggesing the Hulk if the pilot got tion to give health insurpicked up as a series. When ance and profit sharing to shooting commenced, the Marvel’s freelancers was producers realized that greeted with scorn. “Why the towering Kiel didn’t are we talking about givhave enough muscle mass ing benefits and royalties to play a convincing Hulk to these people?,” he was (Carr). Johnson called Kiel asked (Howe 191). and said, “Richard, I hired you because you were a Goodwin’s meetings with good actor but the Marvel Stan Lee weren’t very enComics people really wantjoyable either. Once a week Publicity shot of Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk for ed to have a body builder CBS-TV’s The Incredible Hulk. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Marvel’s publisher wanted muscle man.” Kiel was off to sit down with his editorthe show… and the actor in-chief to go over the printer’s make-readies and point out couldn’t have been more delighted (Holland). all the mistakes that had been made. While it was too late Since the producers wanted to use a bodybuilder to play the Hulk, the place to look was in the Mr. Olympia and Mr. Univere contests. Two men stood out in those competitions. One was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He auditioned for the role of the Hulk but was deemed too short. After Kiel’s ouster, the other bodybuilder was brought in, and the producers realized they had their man. The 25-year-old Brooklyn native had the height and bulk that Schwarzenegger and Kiel respectively lacked. His name was Lou Ferrigno.

to make any changes, Lee wanted to make sure that the errors weren’t repeated in the future. Considering his experience, Goodwin knew very well what was wrong with the comic books. As far as Goodwin saw it, he had better uses of his time than listening to Lee instruct him about things like the proper placement of word balloons. As a result, Goodwin suggested that it would be better if Lee met with Jim Shooter who performed the “hands-on editing” of Marvel’s slate of 45 titles (Shooter, “Secret Origin…, Part 1”).

The Incredible Hulk premiered on November 4, 1977. As with the Spider-Man debut, the two-hour Hulk pilot presented the super-hero’s origin… changed somewhat from the comic. Rather than being exposed to a Gamma Bomb detonation, Dr. Banner suffers an overdose of gamma radiation in a scientific experiment which causes him to turn into the monstrous Hulk. By pilot’s end, Banner was on the run, trying to find a cure for his condition while eluding both the authorities and Jack McGee. A second Hulk movie ran on November 27 with regular episodes scheduled for 1978.

Week after week, Lee met with Shooter, and week after week, Lee found things to complain about: weak plots, nonsensical dialogue, unclear storytelling. The quality of Marvel’s books wasn’t improving, and one reason was because Shooter didn’t have the power to compel creators to improve their work. Shooter couldn’t remove writers or artists from their assignments, only Goodwin could, and Shooter could only correct so much when 45 titles came across his desk every single month. Nonetheless, Lee continued to implore Shooter to make it all better. “After many months,” Shooter claims, “Stan firmly believed that I was brain damaged or stupid beyond human imagining. The lectures continued, but he started speaking as if he were talking to a kindergarten child” (Shooter, “Secret Origin…, Part 1”).

Stan Lee finally had two of his characters on TV screens across America… but would that translate into increased sales for Marvel’s comics line?

Shooter wasn’t winning any points with Lee… until the day Lee asked him to plot a Spider-Man newspaper strip story arc that Lee could dialogue. Shooter obliged, providing Lee with nearly a month’s worth of strips, broken down day by day and panel by panel. To his surprise, Lee liked Shooter’s work and asked his protégé to provide more. At that point, Shooter believes, Lee realized that despite earlier impressions, the young associate editor did indeed know what he was doing, and that the problems with Marvel’s comics had nothing to do with him (Shooter, “Secret Origin…, Part 1”).

Yet Another New Marvel Editor-in-Chief At the age of 39, Archie Goodwin was most content and comfortable when he was writing and editing. He had the respect and admiration of his peers, as Goodwin’s thenassociate editor Jim Shooter relates, “Archie had a manner about him that you just couldn’t not like him. While he was tough as nails, and he was probably the best that passed through this business, he managed to do it without offending anyone. He managed to be respected and remain friends with everyone and do his job” (Thomas, Michael). Unfortunately for Goodwin, writing and editing comic books weren’t really the editor-in-chief’s primary responsibilities. Instead, Goodwin found himself attending

In November, Lee took Shooter to lunch. The young editor thought they were going to discuss further Spider-Man strip plans, but as they ate, Lee revealed that he and Jim 218

Galton had agreed upon the necessity of a change. The two executives thought it would be best if Goodwin was promoted to Vice President to take on a more administrative role.

Shooter knew Goodwin well enough to predict that he’d never go for that, even with the lure of a better salary (Shooter, “Secret Origin…, Part 2”).

Sure enough, Goodwin declined the promotion and resigned his position as editor-in-chief, securing himself instead as a Marvel writer/editor. Lee turned to Shooter to fill the editorial vacancy, and Jo Duffy—one of Goodwin’s assistants at the time—doesn’t believe it took Shooter all that long to accept Lee’s offer: Jim Shooter wanted that job desperately, desperately, desperately. He was Archie’s right-hand man but he really wanted to be Archie. In a sense his entire tenure working for Archie was him auditioning for the job. I don’t think Archie would have left had it not been so apparent that somebody who wanted it much more was standing right next to him saying, “If he leaves, me, pick me, please, please, me me me me me.” (Howe 200) Lee thought it would be best to wait until after Christmas before announcing Shooter was Marvel’s new editor-in-chief, especially since the entire office was dealing with the news of the sudden passing of John Verpoorten earlier that month. The production manager was only 37 years old at the time of his death.

Marvel didn’t have a Christmas party in 1977, so several staffers threw an informal event at the last minute on December 23 at a local tavern. Lee was invited, but he and his wife first had to go to a prior commitment. The party was well attended, beer and spirits flowed freely, and everyone was enjoying themselves. Then Lee showed up, his tongue already loose from his previous party. With nearly the entire Marvel office present, Lee went ahead and announced Shooter’s promotion. “There was dead silence,” Shooter remembers. “Everyone… seemed to be thinking: ‘HIM? HE’S in charge now? Uh-oh.’ Fear and loath-

ing permeated the joint” (Shooter, “Secret Origin…, Part 2”).

It was Christmas 1977, but many people working for Marvel suddenly lost their holiday cheer.

DC = Dollar Comics and a New Logo When Jenette Kahn began her DC Comics tenure, she felt there “were many things that were holdovers from the past that just felt a little anachronistic” (Greenberger 17). One of them was the company logo. To change it, Kahn turned to someone she previously worked with on Smash magazine and who had received accolades for his work on New York Magazine and a 1966 Bob Dylan poster: Milton Glaser. The graphic designer enhanced DC’s logo by rotating the letters counterclockwise and encircling them with a thick border containing four stars. Glaser’s work incurred the disbelief of people like Alex Toth, who couldn’t fathom why Kahn DC’s Dollar Comics format began with House of Mystery #251.

TM and © DC Comics. would spend over $25,000 for a new logo (Amash 11). Kahn, Kahn felt the best way for comics to though, felt Glaser’s work encapsuemerge from their seemingly unstoplated DC’s new spirit: “Milton created pable inflationary cycle was to move a logo that honored our past… but to an even higher price point. From at the same time, he redrew the eleher perspective, comics were actuments with freshness and strength so ally underpriced compared to other that they looked like a corporate seal” magazines, and that low price point (Greenberger 17). To complement the hindered the improvement of sales artwork of any cover, the color of DC’s because vendors considered comics new logo could be changed accordas bargain basement items. In an atingly. Soon to be dubbed as the “DC tempt to earn some retailer notice, Bullet,” Glaser’s logo became iconic, Kahn instituted Dollar Comics. At appearing in one form or another its onset, each Dollar Comic issue offor almost three decades. The Bullet fered an 80-page package with an avfirst appeared on comics cover-dated erage of 63 pages of brand-new story February 1977, and as it turned out, it and art for a retail price of one dollar. would herald the launch of a new DC When compared to a standard comic publishing format. book (17 story pages for 35¢), Dollar Comics provided nearly four issues of By early 1977, decreasing profits dematerial for the price of three comic manded yet another price hike for all books. standard titles, this time from 30¢ to 35¢ -- a nearly threefold increase in The first Dollar Comics to hit the cover price since 1969, and the fifth newsstands were House of Mystery such increase in that time-period. DC #251 and Superman Family #182 and Archie both raised the cover price (both on sale in December 1976 but of all of their comics with their issues cover-dated March-April 1977) with cover-dated June 1977. Marvel and G.I. Combat #201 and World’s Finest Harvey raised their prices with their Comics #244 coming out the followcomics cover-dated November 1977, ing month. All four titles continued while Gold Key held onto the 30¢ covin the 80 page format, and as perhaps er price until December 1977. might be expected, all four titles lost 219

ket DC Special Series title had to do with international exports: There were problems with Canadian customs (getting the books into Canada) if they were stand-alone oneshots. The duties charged far surpassed the profit that would be made on the books.

By putting them all into the ‘series’ they were treated as periodicals and afforded a different (and substantially lower) rate. It was undoubtedly done in lieu of an annual because the annuals were also charged at the higher duty (Kronenberg 190).

DC’s Dollar Comics would continue for the remainder of the 1970s.

Steve Englehart Comes to DC Meanwhile, Justice League of America had its price—and page count—increased in order to accommodate the wishes of one of the industry’s most popular writTo order to attract readers to the more expensive format, ers: Steve Englehart. After leaving Jenette Kahn assigned superstar artist Neal Adams to draw Marvel Comics over a dispute durmany Dollar Comics covers. TM and © DC Comics. ing Gerry Conway’s short term as readers simply because many coneditor in chief, Englehart was coaxed sumers balked at spending a dollar over to DC by Jenette Kahn who spefor a comic book. World’s Finest’s sales cifically wanted the writer to breathe average dropped from 196,000 copies new life into Justice League of Amerper issue in 1976 to 161,000 copies per ica. In an interview for American issue in 1977. Yet because each title’s Comic Book Chronicles, Englehart exretail price had tripled, gross earnings plained, “The Avengers I’d been writon all Dollar Comics significantly ining had left the JLA in the dust, and creased from the previous year.

DC wanted to even the field.”

Another new giant-size-formatted However, before agreeing to write for DC comic book had rotating features DC, Englehart stipulated a few condialong with the generic name of DC tions. First, he was only going to be Special Series. The first issue, 5 Star with DC for one year because he alSuper-Hero Spectacular (Sept. 1977)— ready committed himself to moving a nod toward the reprint title Four to Spain to write novels (Englehart Star Spectacular, which had its final 4). Second, he needed Justice League issue cover-dated January-February to be a bigger book: “I realized right 1977—featured five solo stories staraway that remaking all their characring Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, ters’ characters AND telling a good Atom, and Batman. DC Special Series superhero story was going to take #5 (Nov. 1977) was labeled a “Supermore room that the 17 pages DC was man Spectacular” and contained a 63 allotting to books back then, so I told page epic—written by Cary Bates and them I needed a monthly DOUBLEdrawn by Curt Swan—that pitted Lex SIZED book.” Kahn gave Englehart Luthor and Brainiac against Superwhat he wanted. Starting with issue man. Besides further testing of higher #139 (Feb. 1977), JLA offered 34 pages priced comic books, DC Special Series of story for the cost of 50¢ (four iswas created for another important sues later, the price was increased to reason: to save money. Bob Rozakis, a 60¢). The changeover coincided with DC assistant editor at the time, recalls the conversion of DC’s other non-rothat part of the idea behind the blan220

mance 50-cent giants to all-new material, as Batman Family, DC Special, DC Super-Stars and Super-Team Family all replaced their reprinted secondary content.

In his brief, one-year tenure, Englehart infused JLA with many interesting concepts. Jack Kirby’s one-off version of Manhunter (a.k.a. Mark Shaw) from 1975’s 1st Issue Special #5 was resurrected in JLA #140 (March 1977) & #141 (April 1977) and immersed in a back story with deep ties to the Green Lantern Corps. Englehart also brought back Mantis (last seen fading away in a glimmering light as the Celestial Madonna after her wedding to Swordsman in 1975’s Giant Size Avengers #4) as Willow in JLA #142. When asked where she came from, Willow cryptically says, “this one has come from a place she must not name, to reach a place no man must know.” An amused Englehart remarked, “Everybody knew who she was—except probably [JLA editor] Julie Schwartz because he hadn’t read the original stuff. But I had explained to him what I was doing, and he said ‘Okay, whatever you say!’” (Schutz 28).

One of the Englehart’s most popular JLA tales revamped the group’s origin.

“The Origin of the Justice League— Minus One!” (issue #144, July 1977) starts with Green Arrow finding out that everything he knows about the formation of the Justice League is

DC accommodated new Justice League of America writer Steve Englehart by providing him with more pages to tell his stories. TM and © DC Comics.

wrong, and that the Leaguers have lied to him for years. Superman sighs, relieved the ruse has finally been exposed, and, along with Green Lantern, shows Green Arrow the log tape of what really happened. The real story features the long-lost J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, explaining his arrival on Earth in the 1950s. Paranoia gripped the country as folks feared Martians had invaded. To quell the threat, Roy Raymond, TV Detective, makes a call. Dozens of DC’s 1950sera characters show up, including the Blackhawks, the Challengers of the Unknown, Vigilante, Robotman, Congo Bill and Congorilla, Plastic Man, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Aquaman and Wonder Woman—joining the already-present heroes Flash, Superman, Batman and Robin—and Rex the Wonder Dog. In his American Comic Book Chronicles interview Englehart explained his intentions for the story: I just wanted to use every DC character from the ’50s, (A) because I could, and (B) because it put the JLA in a real context—their original context, and (C) because Dick Dillin was drawing my books, and he had drawn the Blackhawks and most of the others from that era. I loved working with Dick, because (A) he was good, and (B) he was part of DC tradition. I was brought over to blow up DC tradition, but only the stuff that wasn’t working, and Dick was not in that category. Finally, who wouldn’t want to write Rex the Wonder Dog? Englehart delighted in explicitly setting the flashback in February 1959 and using the cover dates of stories from that year to establish a frame of reference. Green Lantern, for instance, was said to have acquired his power ring in September 1959. “Anyway, that was the cover date on GL’s first appearance—in Showcase #22,” Julius Schwartz declared in an editorial comment. “Remember—we’re dealing here with comic mag time! And comic heroes have their own ways to stop the clock and avoid aging!”

After that tale, Englehart revived the Red Tornado in JLA #145 (Aug. 1977), undoing the android’s demise just one year earlier in issue #129 (April

screwing up on the schedule” which led to Gerry Conway—once again defecting from Marvel—coming onto the title and writing some fill-in issues. Levitz says he was “way busier than anybody with a brain ought to be. I think I peaked somewhere in that year with a month where I wrote about a hundred and forty pages of comics on top of having a full-time job” (Cadigan 110). The first half of Levitz’s classic “Earth War” story would close out the 60¢ Giant-Sized issues of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes the next year.

In one of his JLA stories, Englehart paid tribute to heroes from the 1950s, like the Blackhawks and the Challengers of the Unknown. Cover art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. TM and © DC Comics.

1976). Indeed, the Red Tornado moved to a more central role in Englehart’s final stories, even making key observations about Mark Shaw, who’d ingratiated himself to the JLA over the past several months in his new persona of the Privateer. In his interview for this book, Englehart said of Red Tornado, “It’s my nature that if a hero is perceived as being a weak character, I’ll do a story highlighting his strengths.”

Like the Dollar Comics, both JLA and Superboy and the Legion experienced a drop in sales once they moved to a higher price point… and like the Dollar Comics, both titles generated significantly higher gross revenues because of the price increase. That emboldened Kahn to launch a wideline initiative in 1978 with the hope it would solve DC’s newsstand distribution woes once and for all.

Unfortunately, DC’s parent company—and Mother Nature—had other plans.

Marshall Rogers Joins Englehart The final stipulation Steve Englehart had for DC before agreeing to write Justice League of America was that he

Englehart wrote every story from JLA #139 (Feb. 1977) to #150 (Jan. 1978) with the exception of the annual JLA/ JSA team-up that occurred in issues #147 (Oct. 1977) & #148 (Nov. 1977).

Martin Pasko handled that task with an assist from Paul Levitz who was on board because he chronicled not only the Justice Society in the pages of AllStar Comics but also the guest stars of that year’s JLA/JSA team-up, the Legion of Super-Heroes. Around the same time, Superboy had its title officially changed to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (even though the cover had advertised the pairing since 1973) and also got bumped to 34-page stories with issue #231 (Sept. 1977).

Levitz saw the expansion of Legion to 34 pages per issue as a pleasure. “I don’t think I viewed it as a burden as much as an opportunity to do longer length stories or solo back-ups and some fun like that.” He does blame it for being “a major contributor to my 221

With issue #231, Superboy’s title was officially changed to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Cover art by Mike Grell. TM and © DC Comics.

get the opportunity to write solo Batman adventures (Englehart 4). To that end, DC handed him the writing reins to Detective Comics, starting with issue #469 (May 1977), and Englehart soon provided—what many readers consider to be—“The Definitive Batman.”

Englehart’s first two Detective issues—penciled by Walter Simonson—introduced several new characters into the Batman mythos: the radioactive Dr. Phosphorus, the corrupt city councilman Rupert Thorne, and a new love interest for Bruce Wayne, the beautiful Silver St. Cloud.

Englehart told American Comic Book Chronicles that he “wanted to create a perfect woman for the Batman,” to show readers that the Dark Knight was “an unmistakable human being behind that icy façade.”

During his run, Englehart not only utilized such classic Batman villains as the Penguin and the Joker, he also dusted off foes who hadn’t been seen in decades, like Deadshot (from Batman #59, June-July 1950) and Professor Hugo Strange (who first appeared in Batman #1 and died in Detective Comics #46, Dec. 1940). Strange becomes a particularly crucial figure in Englehart’s arc. “I wanted to recreate the pulp atmosphere of the time for the readers of my time,” Englehart explained. “When I looked through the

early issues, Professor Strange was a guy I thought I could do something with. He was a clear pulp villain, with his giant monsters, and at the same time, he could fit my storyline.” In Detective Comics #471, Strange kidnaps Bruce Wayne only to discover that Wayne is the Batman. He then aims to sell the secret of Batman’s identity to the underworld… which proves to be a fatal mistake.

With Simonson, Englehart wrote in the “Marvel style”: he plotted the issue, gave it to Simonson to draw, and then wrote dialogue to match Simonson’s art. When Simonson left Detective, Englehart didn’t know who would replace him, so he began writing full scripts. The transition to this method had beneficial results: I was unused to [writing full scripts], having been a Marvel guy, but I discovered that it allowed me to control the pacing of my stories exactly, and with Batman, so heavy on atmospherics, that worked to the stories’ benefit. So I wrote scripts without knowing who would draw them, but with the lurking feeling that since DC was so short on stars, it probably wouldn’t be any good. (Englehart 4) Enter artist Marshall Rogers, who was no stranger to Detective Comics, hav-

The Calculator takes on an assortment of Justice Leaguers in these panels from Detective Comics #468.

Art by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin. TM and © DC Comics.

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ing recently drawn backup stories in issue #466 (Dec. 1976) and #467 (Jan. 1977) as well as the full story in issue #468 (March 1977). They were the last three chapters in a six-part story in which different super-heroes—Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Green Arrow and Hawkman—fought a technologically-enhanced villain called the Calculator. Detective Comics #468 collected those heroes together with the Batman for a final showdown.

Marshall Rogers had a roundabout path to his career in comics. His first attempt to break in came in 1971 as he visited various publishers. When they all turned him down, he drew illustrations for, as he called them, “low-grade schlock sleazo” men’s magazines (Groth 58). When he wasn’t collecting unemployment, Rogers worked menial jobs, but he found comic book opportunities here and there, like retouching Golden Age Batman stories for DC’s 100-Page Super-Spectacular comics. In 1975, Rogers took his samples to Atlas/Seaboard and, after a few calls, picked up some small assignments… but Rogers could tell he didn’t have the kind of Marvel Comics-influenced art style that Atlas really was looking for.

Not that Rogers truly had developed his own distinctive art style at this point. Like many aspiring comic book professionals, he started out imitating other artists: first Jack Kirby, then Neal Adams. Then he studied the work of Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin and began to appreciate— and incorporate—their storytelling methods (Groth 59).

In 1976, Rogers showed new samples to Marvel and got his first job working for Marvel’s British department, drawing new splash pages for the second half of reprinted stories (the British books reprinted Marvel stories over two issues, creating the need for a second splash page). After a time Marvel sent Rogers a telegram with the offer to draw an Iron Man issue.

It was a rush job, but Rogers was willing to take it. The problem was that because he was too poor to own a telephone, Rogers couldn’t contact Marvel to accept the assignment. A couple of days later, he finally got into Manhattan. When Rogers visited Marvel’s office, he learned he was too late; the job had already been given to somebody else. Marie Severin sug-

written overnight—measured up to his standards so the issue was credited to “John Harkness,” a pseudonym Englehart would recycle in the 1980s (Englehart, “Mister Miracle”). Englehart and Rogers’s short stint on Mister Miracle ended with issue #22 (Feb. 1978), just one month prior to the end of their Detective run.

Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers were paired not only on Detective Comics but on a revival of Mister Miracle as well. TM and © DC Comics.

gested Rogers walk across the street and show his work to DC’s art director, Vinnie Colletta. “Thank God for Vinnie,” Rogers said, “because he saw the potential that was there. He liked my strong design influence” (Groth 59).

Colletta gave Rogers a pair of six-page backup stories involving talking dogs intended for 1976’s Kamandi #47 and #48 but eventually published in early 1977’s Weird War Tales #51 and #52.

Soon after, Detective editor Julius Schwartz assigned Rogers to draw the two Calculator backup stories, and being satisfied with those, Schwartz gave Rogers his first full-length assignment: the culminating Calculator story in Detective Comics #468. “I was thrilled. I was ecstatic,” Rogers admitted. Unfortunately, when Rogers brought in his finished pages, one DC staffer (whom Rogers refused to name) wasn’t so ecstatic. He thought Rogers’s work was below standard. In fact, he found the characters’ anatomy so awkward that he felt the story shouldn’t be printed. By that point, though, the issue was too close to deadline for another artist to tackle the story, and besides, Schwartz and Colletta actually liked what Rogers produced (Groth 60). Just two months later, Simonson left Detective, and Schwartz offered the assignment to Rogers, who gratefully accepted it.

Terry Austin—also present on the

earlier Calculator and Weird War episodes—joined Rogers on inks.

Though they teamed up by complete happenstance and initially only produced six issues together, Englehart, Rogers and Austin became one of the most revered creative teams in the history of Batman comics. Englehart’s intense, action-packed pulp noir stories came to life via Rogers and Austin’s modern, innovative and original artistry. Writer, penciller and inker seemed perfectly synchronized, their individual talents meshing into an extraordinary whole. All the more amazing then that the first time Englehart saw Rogers and Austin’s pages were after the issues had been printed. Having already moved to Europe, Englehart received a package from Julius Schwartz that contained all the Detective issues he wrote. Englehart couldn’t have been happier with how it all turned out (Englehart 4).

Evidently, DC was also pleased with Englehart and Rogers’s work because contemporaneously to their collaboration on Detective, the duo also got paired on a revival of Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle. That series resumed with issue #19 (Sept. 1977), picking up where the numbering left off after the title’s cancellation in 1974. Since his time was short, Englehart could only script three issues. Then DC asked for a fourth. Englehart obliged, but ultimately he didn’t feel the script— 223

Meanwhile, Batman continued to be handled by writer David V. Reed, who had been on the title since issue #267 (Sept. 1975). The scripter of over four dozen Batman-related tales between 1950 and 1954 (none of them officially credited), Reed had moved on to science-fiction novels and television screenplays in the 1960s before returning to the comic book industry in the 1970s. DC assistant editor Bob Rozakis enhanced his mystique when he revealed in the letter column of Batman #271 that David V. Reed was actually a pseudonym. That led to successive reader deductions of his legal name (David Vern) and birth name (David Levine) in issues #280 and #286, respectively. “When we said that David V. Reed was not his real name,” Rozakis noted, “I think readers expected that he would turn out to be someone they knew—Jim Shooter or Roy Thomas, maybe—and so they kept the thing going” (Kronenberg 190-191).

One of Reed’s most memorable stories from 1977 featured the first largescale gathering of the Darknight Detective’s rogue’s gallery since 1968’s Batman #201. “Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?” (Batman #291-294: dated Sept.-Dec. 1977) centers on various villains—Catwoman, Riddler, Lex Luthor and the Joker, among others—claiming the honor of eliminating their caped menace. A court trial is convened to determine who is telling the truth, and the underworld gathers at a secluded estate to hear testimony. Six foes—Mad Hatter, The Spook, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Signalman, and Mr. Freeze—fill the jury while Ra’s al Ghul serves as judge.

Two-Face slips back into his old role as District Attorney to try the case.

The tale’s conclusion reveals that the trial was an elaborate ruse set up by Batman. Disguised as Two-Face, the Caped Crusader wanted to learn who murdered a young man who enjoyed masquerading as Batman. The culprit turns out to be the Joker. The Clown

team.” Enthused, penciler Joe Staton produced a sketch of the prospective heroine and Levitz was swept away in the excitement. With a more tragic backstory and harder edge than the mainstream Batgirl, the Huntress quickly became a favorite with fans as she joined the JSA series.

DC Super-Stars #17 introduced the daughter of the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman, the Huntress.

Cover art by Joe Staton and Bob Layton. TM and © DC Comics.

Prince of Crime would reappear soon enough in two 1978 cover dated issues that comprised the final story of Steve Englehart’s Detective Comics run.

Although the Detective issues were the most acclaimed of 1977, Batman was open to multiple interpretations like that of an embittered, adversarial Bruce Wayne who’d left his cloaked persona behind to serve as the police commissioner of Earth-2’s Gotham City. In the pages of All-Star Comics’ Justice Society feature, Wayne’s behavior was blamed in part on the insidious Psycho-Pirate but the villain was feeding on genuine anger and grief that the former Batman still carried following the death of his wife.

In this reality, Wayne had married the reformed Catwoman and DC Super-Stars #17 (dated Nov.-Dec. 1977) revealed how their daughter Helena had become the crossbow-wielding Huntress to avenge her mother.

“It began when [All-Star inker] Bob Layton started to militate for an Earth-Two Batgirl as a member of the Justice Society,” Levitz explained in that aforementioned issue, “in order to relieve Power Girl of the burden of being the only female member of the

Audiences also had the choice of a smiling Caped Crusader on two different TV networks. Filmation’s New Adventures of Batman—which included a prominent role for magical imp Bat-Mite—premiered February 12 on CBS’ Saturday morning schedule while Batman continued to be front and center in reruns of ABC’s Super Friends. The latter was retooled as The All-New Super Friends Hour on September 10 with kid heroes Wendy and Marvin replaced by the super-powered Wondertwins Zan and Jayna. Guest-stars on the cartoon ranged from the Atom, Hawkman, and Rima the Jungle Girl to (in the interest of ethnic diversity) newly-created Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and Samurai.

Yesterday’s Wonder Woman of Tomorrow That summer, issues #7-9 of the Super Friends comic book explained how the Wondertwins replaced the collegebound Wendy and Marvin. Similarly, in an effort to align itself with the TV show, the Wonder Woman comic had previously moved its timeframe to the 1940s to showcase World War II-era adventures. Promoting “The Strangest Wonder Woman Adventure Ever!,” the cover to issue #228 (Feb. 1977) features two Wonder Women, fighting each other, while a Nazi villain, the Red Panzer, watches. In the story, the Earth-1 Wonder Woman gets simultaneously sent back in time to WWII and to the parallel world of Earth-2. She encounters the Wonder Woman of that world, and after the two super-heroines engage in the requisite misunderstanding and skirmish, they team up to fight the Red Panzer. With victory seemingly secured, the Earth-1 Wonder Woman returns home, unaware that the Red Panzer is about to turn the tables on her Earth-2 counterpart. The next fifteen issues of Wonder Woman keeps the focus on the Golden Age Diana via stories written by Marty Pasko before he was replaced by Gerry Conway with issue #233 (July 1977). Taking 224

advantage of the heroine’s increased selling power, DC also placed a Wonder Woman solo feature in World’s Finest upon its expansion to a Dollar Comic.

What the comic book creators didn’t realize was that the Wonder Woman television show would soon be abandoning its World War II setting.

The show’s first season concluded in February 1977, but despite good ratings, ABC hesitated to renew Wonder Woman for a second year. The network’s overriding concern was that the show was expensive to produce, because it was a period piece. While ABC deliberated, the Wonder Woman producers accepted an offer from rival network CBS who was willing to pick up the show on the condition that its setting be changed from the 1940s to modern times.

The first episode of CBS’ The New Adventures of Wonder Woman premiered on September 16, 1977. As the new show had it, after the end of WWII, Wonder Woman returned to Paradise Island. Thirty-two years later, another plane crashes on the island, this time piloted by Steve Trevor’s son, Steve Trevor, Jr. (once again played by Lyle Waggoner). Princess Diana (Lynda Carter) follows Trevor back to civilization and becomes an agent for the Inter-Agency Defense Command as Diana Prince. This version of the show would last for two more seasons. The Earth-1 Wonder Woman wouldn’t regain the spotlight of her own comic book until issue #243 (July 1978).

Black Lightning Strikes While Wonder Woman remained the most visible female super-hero, writer Tony Isabella was troubled by the invisibility of African-American comic book characters. A white Italian, Isabella knew plenty of African-American readers who were frustrated by the fact that they didn’t have many black super-heroes to idolize, especially not at DC. Characters like the Teen Titans’ Mal Duncan, the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Tyroc and Green Lantern John Stewart were essentially relegated to the background. Marvel fared a little bit better with title characters like Power Man and Black Panther, and Isabella tried to add to that group by turning scientist Bill Foster,

an assistant to Dr. Henry Pym, into Black Goliath. True to his name, Black Goliath could become a fifteen foot tall giant, and the new super-hero even got his own book, Black Goliath (first issue cover dated Feb. 1976), but it only lasted five issues (Isabella 49).

Soon after Black Goliath was cancelled, Isabella moved to DC where he learned of the impending launch of a series titled The Black Bomber. Two scripts had already been written. The protagonist was a white racist Vietnam vet who took part in chemical experiments that allowed soldiers to blend in better with the jungle. As a result, in moments of stress, the protagonist changed color—much like the Hulk—except he turned brown instead of green. Unfortunately, the transformation didn’t alter the character’s attitudes, and he would spout dialogue like, “You mean I risked my life to save a jungle bunny?” after finding out the person he’d just rescued was an African-American. DC wanted Isabella to retool the two scripts and remain with the series starting with issue #3. Isabella, however, wanted nothing to do with it.

In fact, he begged DC to abandon the series by rhetorically asking, “Do you really want your first black superhero to be a white bigot?” (Isabella 49-50).

DC acquiesced and Isabella went off to create a different black super-hero concept for the publisher. He came up with Jefferson Pierce who was a schoolteacher because, according to Isabella, “the one thing the vast majority of our readers had in common was that they all had gone/were going to school.” He gave Pierce an Olympic athlete background to have “some sort of edge that was not the result of science or mutation” (Isabella 50).

Despite his Olympic achievements, Pierce relocated to Metropolis’s Suicide Slum, the place he grew up, to see what he could do to improve conditions and to help his students reach their goals and better themselves. A criminal organization calling itself The 100 had permeated itself in the district, pushing young people into gang life. Wanting to fight back and to inspire his neighbors, Pierce approached his friend Peter Gambi— a tailor and brother to Paul Gambi,

who designed the costumes of many of the Flash’s rogues—and they devised an outfit and power belt. Pierce wore a wig/mask combination that gave him a large afro to deflect suspicion away from his true identity.

With a belt device that generated an electromagnetic field and lightning bolts, Pierce adopted the name Black Lightning. Isabella found inspiration for the character’s name from something on Julius Schwartz’s wall. It was the Ernie Chan-drawn cover to Wonder Woman #225 (Aug.-Sept. 1976) that showed the Amazon attempting to lasso a black lightning bolt while shouting “Hera help me stop this black lightning before it splits that building in two!” (Isabella 50).

Assigned to draw Black Lightning was newcomer artist Trevor Von Eeden. At the age of 16, Von Eeden was a prodigy, going to Columbia University to study medicine, when his best friend convinced him to send DC Comics some art samples. The standard form rejection letter Von Eeden received had a handwritten personalized note that read, “If you’re ever in the area, drop by and just say hello” (Morris 53). Von Eeden took DC up on its offer and arrived in Manhattan one day.

As editor Jack C. Harris showed him around, Von Eeden remembers, “They met me and realized that I was black, which they couldn’t from my drawings. Coincidentally, they were thinking about starting Black Lightning, so the timing was perfect.” DC’s staffers were also surprised by Von Eeden’s age—another detail that couldn’t be divined from his artwork. His youth and naiveté showed through when

Black Lightning was the first black super-hero to star in his own DC comic. Cover art by Rich Buckler and Frank Springer. TM and © DC Comics.

Joe Orlando offered Von Eeden the Black Lightning assignment: I had no idea that this was their first black super-hero.

I had no idea it meant anything. It’s just that I heard I was going to be drawing a comic book at 16 years old and standing there, almost fainting. He asked me if I’d do it I said, “Sure, I’d be happy to.” He said, “We’re going to give you $22,” and I thought he meant for the whole book [instead of per page]. I was so ecstatic. To me, that was an unheard-of sum. That was like manna from Heaven (Morris 54).

After a student was killed in retaliation for his stand against the mob, high-school teacher Jefferson Pierce became Black Lightning. Art by Trevor Von Eeden and Frank Springer. TM and © DC Comics.

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That page rate was well below the industry standard. Still, Von Eeden was a novice, and soon he began to have doubts about his ability: “I started to feel that maybe I got the job because I was black, rather than because my work was good” (Morris 56). Regardless of the reason he received the job, Von Eeden would work steadily in the comic industry for many years.

Although he’d created Black Lightning with the understanding that he’d share in the profits when the character appeared in other media, Isabella was stunned when DC and Hanna-Barbera sidestepped the deal by using the alternate character Black Vulcan in the new Super Friends cartoon that fall. “My response,” the writer recalled, “was to write a story called ‘The Other Black Lightning’ [1978’s Black Lightning #10] wherein this unscrupulous promoter named Barbara Hanna—subtle, huh?—created her own fraudulent version of Black Lightning. That turned out to be my last script of the first run. It wasn’t the first time that DC had violated our partnership agreement, but it was when I knew the company would never honor it” (Hamlin).

Many of DC’s new launches in 1977 centered on characters created when the concept of such a partnership wasn’t even a consideration. Jack Kirby’s New Gods—now produced by Gerry Conway and Don Newton—returned with issue #12 while the Chal-

lengers of the Unknown spun out of a recent series in Super-Team Family to resume their own title with issue #81.

Aquaman #57 went on sale that summer, picking up its 1971 numbering and continuing from a controversial story in Adventure Comics #452 that climaxed with the death of the Sea King’s toddler son.

Showcase, the 1956-1970 title that gave birth to some of DC’s key heroes, returned with issue #94 and a threeissue revival of the Doom Patrol courtesy of writer Paul Kupperberg and penciller Joe Staton. With the exception of Robotman (now resembling John Byrne’s Rog-2000), the original DP was allowed to rest in peace and a more diverse line-up replaced them: Celsius (from India), Negative Woman (a Russian defector), and Tempest (an African American Vietnam vet).

Lacking the sentimentality of her fannish colleagues, Jenette Kahn also insisted that there was no reason to maintain the titles of the long-running books like Our Army At War and Star-Spangled War Stories when they could just as easily bear the names of their stars. Hence, issues #302 and #205 were the first respective issues of Sgt. Rock and Unknown Soldier. With the debut of Jonah Hex #1, plans were also afoot to cancel his old stomping grounds but Weird Western Tales received a last minute reprieve and a new star. Created by Hex writer Michael Fleisher, Scalphunter was a

DC also debuted a new version of the Doom Patrol (by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton) in Showcase #94 and the Civil War-era Scalphunter (by Michael Fleisher, Dick Ayers and George Evans) in Weird Western Tales #39.

TM and © DC Comics.

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Civil War-era white man who’d been raised as a Native American.

Among other new faces was the latest creation of Steve Ditko, the hero of a series many regarded as the pinnacle of his work since he returned to DC in 1975. The title starred a fugitive from another dimension who wore a powerful “M-Vest” that projected both a protective force field and the illusion that he can enlarge his body to grotesque proportions. He was Rac Shade, a.k.a. Shade the Changing Man. His first issue launched in March 1977 (cover dated June-July), and for Ditko, it was a return of sorts to the superhero genre that made him so famous in the 1960s. Aiding him was Michael Fleisher, who dialogued Ditko’s plots.

On his homeworld of Meta, Shade is a secret agent falsely framed for treason and sentenced to death. Due to a freak accident, he is teleported to the “Zero-Zone” which lies between Meta and Earth. Shade manages to make his way to Earth where he uses the M-Vest to confront those who framed him. In hot pursuit is Shade’s former lover who holds him responsible for an explosion that crippled her parents.

Heralded for its fast pace, multiple plotlines and vigorous employment of flashbacks, the innovative series garnered a devoted following who placed it in the same rarified space as earlier critical favorites like Goodwin and Simonson’s Manhunter. “While the complex storyline of Shade, the Changing Man made it a difficult book to keep up with,” reviewer Ed Via conceded, “it also made it one of the most riveting and strangely intriguing comics ever published” (Via 57) Two months after Shade’s premiere, Men of War #1 strived to distinguish itself from other combat titles as the second DC book to star a black man.

Set in 1942, the series followed Ulysses Hazard—Codename: Gravedigger—as he carried out one-man missions for the Pentagon and grappled with the institutionalized racism of the era. Creator David Michelinie was gone after four issues, passing the scripting assignment on to Roger McKenzie and Jack C. Harris while Dick Ayers soon succeeded Ed Davis as series penciler and remained until

Men of War ended with issue #26 at the end of 1979.

Michelinie’s other new creation of the year was set in a location far, far away as Star Hunters premiered in the double-sized DC Super-Stars #16 (Sept.Oct. 1977) before launching as its own series one month later. The product of a pitch that Michelinie had been trying to sell to DC since 1975, the series featured space-faring Irish swashbuckler Donovan Flint and his team of space explorers as they flee the evil Corporation, who rule the Earth with an iron fist. Joining Michelinie was artist Bob Layton who inked the work of several pencillers throughout the series (in order: Don Newton, Larry Hama, Michael Nasser, and Rich Buckler). The Michelinie/Layton partnership would produce some critically acclaimed comics two years later, but Star Hunters didn’t achieve the kind of popularity needed to remain in DC’s lineup. It was cancelled after issue #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1978).

Fan-turned-pro Don Newton had been grateful for the opportunity to design the Star Hunters cast and world before leaving to succeed Jim Aparo as penciler on Aquaman. Along with that series and New Gods, the 42-year-old artist was finding ample work at DC, something that was in short supply as his former employer Charlton Comics all but went out of business.

Fortunes and Foibles of Other Publishers Between November 1976 and April 1977 Charlton Comics published only two books—The Flintstones #50 (cover date Feb. 1977) and The Six Million Dollar Man #5 (cover date May 1977).

The machinery in Charlton’s own printing plant in Derby, Connecticut hadn’t aged well over the years, but it still managed to churn out material other than its own comics. But then Larry Flynt decided to move the production of his raunchy and popular Hustler magazine to another printer, which meant Charlton was financially on its last gasp (Jones and Jacobs 194).

Despite having shut down its comics operation on September 9, 1976, Charlton still had a presence of sorts in the spring and summer of 1977.

Approached by New York-based publisher Ron Gold, Charlton agreed to

While Star Hunters had a small but devoted following, Shade the Changing Man was DC’s third best-selling title in the infant Direct Market. TM and © DC Comics.

use its old printing plates to generate reprints of several old titles—complete with vintage letter columns— under his Modern Comics imprint.

Between 1972 and 1975, Gold’s Modern Promotions had offered tabloidsized editions of old King Features Sunday comic strips (doubling as coloring books) and Archie comics, but Modern Comics was his first foray into standard-sized issues.

Sold three to a bag, the 30 different Modern Comics reprints differed from the originals in only a few details: a rather generic-looking blue and white “M” logo (enclosed either in a circle or a box), new advertising and a 35-cent price tag. The plastic bags containing each set weren’t pre-priced, though, and any chain department store that bought them could determine their own retail (Tiefenbacher 12). Altogether, it was a motley collection of titles that featured multiple issues of the same comic, not in sequential order and seemingly picked at random.

The reprinted comic books included Blue Beetle #1 and #3 (1967), E-Man #2, #9 and #10 (1973 and 1975), Judomaster #93 and #98 (1967), and Yang #3, #10 and #11 (1974-1975). All told, the sets sold well enough to justify printing another 40 Modern Comics in the summer of 1978.

One month after the launch of Modern Comics, Charlton restored its tar227

get logo for a small line of reprints that included Billy the Kid, Fightin’ Army, and Ghost Manor, among others. Releasing six comic books in June (cover date September), ten in July (cover date October), three in August (cover date November) and two in September (cover date December), Charlton would continue to produce a small line of comics for the next year.

Charlton premiered only one new title during this time: The Bionic Wom-

Ron Gold’s Modern Comics reprinted random Charlton Comics from the 1960s and 1970s and sold them in bags of three to department stores.

Judomaster TM and © DC Comics.

an (first issue cover date Oct. 1977), based on The Six Million Dollar Man TV spinoff of the same name. The show had moved from ABC to NBC that fall, its popularity already waning. The comic version of the show certainly didn’t make any waves as it only lasted five issues.

Meanwhile, a couple of factors caused Harvey Comics to focus its line almost exclusively on a single character. Alfred and Leon Harvey were the two remaining brothers in charge of the company. (The third brother, Robert Harvey, died in 1973.) Alfred, though, hadn’t yet fully recovered from a recent minor stroke, and Sad Sack artist Fred Rhoads would soon file a lawsuit on May 3, 1978 claiming he hadn’t been paid the appropriate royalties for his work that Harvey reprinted.

To remedy matters, Alfred was ousted from Harvey Comics while Leon was demoted to a lesser role. That paved the way for longtime Harvey editor Sid Jacobson to take charge. Titles starring Little Dot, Little Lotta, Little Audrey, Wendy, Spooky, Stumbo, and Baby Huey had been removed from Harvey’s lineup by the end of 1976, and Jacobson filled that void with more comic books—including a quartet of digests—starring Harvey’s most popular character: Richie Rich (Arnold 34). Harvey released 132 Richie Rich issues in 1977 from 18 bi-monthlies and a slew of one-shots. Assum-

Dave Sim’s Cerebus would become one of the most successful self-published comics in the history of the medium. TM and © Dave Sim.

ing that not all of them were as popular as the main Richie Rich title, and adding in two years of reader erosion, comics historian John Jackson Miller estimates each Richie Rich title sold at least 100,000 copies per issue, or about 13 million copies overall.

While individual Richie Rich issues might not have earned enormous profits, that’s still a lot of comic books being sold in one year starring one character.

But Richie Rich wasn’t the most ubiquitous comic book character of 1977. That honor instead went to a teen from Riverdale. Miller explains, “There were over 200 comics in 1977 that you could reasonably say were Archie titles—160 if you knock out Jughead and Betty and Veronica titles, which all probably still had Archie as a star.” The main book, Archie, sold 155,000 copies a month in 1977, while the spin-offs and other ancillary titles—with an expanded digest line including the new Archie…Archie Andrews, Where Are You? Digest and Jughead Jones Digest Magazine—averaged about 125,000. That means close to 20 million copies of comic books featuring Archie got sold in a year. As Miller puts it, “I don’t think anything beats Archie as best-selling character for a very long time.”

Conan with a Snout

By 1977, Richie Rich was undeniably Harvey Comics’ most popular—and most profitable—property.

In December 1977 Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim began Cerebus, a selfpublished black-and-white comic book that would eventually be considered one of the most important

TM and © Class Media, Inc.

228

independent works in the history of the medium. The featured character, Cerebus, was an anthropomorphic aardvark barbarian in a land of satirical people and creatures. Sim’s girlfriend (later wife) Deni Loubert created the name. Sim was looking for a mythological name for his character, and Loubert suggested the threeheaded dog from Greek mythology which she mistakenly believed was called “Ceberus.” She then transposed the “b” and the “r” and came up with “Cerebus” (Jones and Jacobs 229). Sim took it from there.

Sim started in comics believing in a simple principle: nothing succeeds like success. “All I have to do is say, ‘I’ve appeared here, here, here, and here,’ and people will hire you just on the basis of what you’ve done elsewhere” (Thompson 69). He started out drawing and writing for fanzines before creating a syndicated newspaper strip in Canada called The Beavers. Following that was some work printed in Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach, which built up his résumé even more. Each finished product led to more work.

Success led to success.

Sim sent a sample of Cerebus to Friedrich, hoping to get a slot in Quack!, a funny animal anthology where his Beavers had found a home. When Friedrich turned it down, Sim and Loubert considered the option of

jandro Jodorowsky, Enki Bilal, Caza, Serge Clerc, Alain Voss, Berni Wrightson, Milo Manara, Frank Margerin and many others.

printing Cerebus themselves. They knew the costs of selfpublishing were significant, so they decided to commit to publishing three issues, and if they were still losing significant amounts of money by that point, they would pull the plug. With that, they founded Aardvark-Vanaheim Press and began targeting Direct Market retailers.

Mogel was quite taken by the product but little did he know that Métal Hurlant almost became a Marvel comic book. The French publishers came to the United States, seeking to have their issues reprinted in America. After the Métal Hurlant representatives made their pitch, Jim Shooter recalls that “Stan [Lee] thought that the stuff was too violent, too sexy and that good ol’ sanitized Marvel couldn’t do that. We thought he was crazy. But he was afraid that Marvel would get bad headlines, too violent, and all that” (Thomas, Michael). Marvel’s loss was Mogel’s gain, and after he returned home, he licensed an American version of the magazine and named it Heavy Metal.

Initially, a friend who owned a comic shop ordered 500 copies of the first issue, and then 500 more at cost. Displaying a misprinted copy of Cerebus #1 at a comic book convention in Toronto netted Sim an order for another 500 copies. In the end, Aardvark-Vanaheim printed up 2,000 copies of the first issue. The wit of Sim’s thorny, unlikeable lead character—and Sim’s ability to deliver each issue on time—led to an increase of orders with every issue. Needless to say, Cerebus didn’t stop after three issues.

In the beginning Cerebus was simply a black-and-white, bimonthly parody comic. Sword and sorcery provided the grist for its humorous tales, satirizing popular fantasy characters like Elric of Melniboné, Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. The basic plots had Cerebus moving into a new territory, meeting some hapless nitwits, and agreeing to perform a seemingly impossible task for them in return for a pouch of gold.

Jokes, barbs and violence followed.

It wasn’t until 1979 that Sim announced that Cerebus was more than a serial parody—it was a selfcontained, 300 issue story that wouldn’t end until the beginning of the next century (Jones and Jacobs 230). True to his word, Sim finished Cerebus with issue #300 in March 2004.

Slick, glossy, and in full color, Heavy Metal was a magazine with mature content, and its plentiful use of French reprints kept costs down.

It achieved newsstand penetration like no other comic of the time, quickly taking hold with the male high school and college crowd. Some of that success had to do with—no doubt—Heavy Metal’s liberal sprinkling of nudity throughout its pages. Stoners loved the often surreal stories too. In their self-mocking way, the Lampoon editors wrote in the first issue that “Métal Hurlant means ‘screaming metal’—whatever that means” and fixed it with the moniker “The Naked Girls with Wings Monthly” (Jones and Jacobs 219).

An essay on the Heavy Metal fan page describes what made the magazine stand out back in the Initially, Sim performed all crelate 1970s: “When Heavy Metal ative duties by himself: writing, first came out in 1977, it was seen The mature-oriented Heavy Metal was based on the French drawing, lettering, and editing. In science-fiction magazine Métal Hurlant. Cover art by Jean-Michel as something new and different.

Nicollet. TM and © Heavy Metal Magazine. doing so, he became a major advoIn an age where comics were seen cate of self-publishing. Ten years as something just for kids, this was after the publication of Cerebus #1, Sim wrote of his early definitely not that. The stories in Heavy Metal were seriwork, “Although crude, I hope the dedication of a rookie ous, thought provoking, beautiful, and sometimes humortaking his first tentative steps unburdened by editorial ous. It was revolutionary” (Cail). It also featured “huge bald interference still shows through. It was a wonderful time. men chasing football-breasted women through apocalypAnd my hair was much longer” (Sim 7). In the next decade, tic landscapes” (Jones and Jacobs 219). Therein lied Heavy Sim would become one of the most outspoken champions Metal’s draw: futuristic sophistication meshed with juveof creator rights in the industry. nile titillation, and the magazine would soon spawn its fair share of imitators (including one from Marvel Comics).

“The Naked Girls with Wings Monthly”

In completely different ways, Heavy Metal and Star Wars demonstrated the explosive popularity of science-fiction comics. Their success led to the hope that perhaps the comic book industry had turned a corner, that long-lasting prosperity could still be attained.

A European anthology washed up on American shores in April of 1977. National Lampoon publisher Leonard Mogel was in France to oversee the French edition of his magazine and came across the French science-fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant, which had been founded in 1974 by Jean Giraud, a.k.a. “Moebius” and Philippe Druillet along with other partners. Métal Hurlant featured avant-garde, often surreal comics by creators such as Moebius, Druillet, Ale-

Unfortunately, events in 1978 would dash those hopes as thoroughly as possible.

229

1978

DC’s

Explosive Implosion

Following Archie Goodwin’s resignation, Jim Shooter became Marvel Comics’ seventh editor-in-chief. The first day of his tenure came on the first working day of 1978: January 3.

At the age of 26, Shooter was responsible for the world’s largest comic book publisher. He supervised Marvel’s entire line of publications—over 40 ongoing titles, including the brand-new Spider-Woman and newly-merged Power Man and Iron Fist—with the support of two editors he hired: Roger Stern (assisted by Jim Salicrup) and Bob Hall (assisted by Jo Duffy). Rick Marschall was put in charge of Marvel’s magazine line, and five writers continued to serve as their own editors: Steve Gerber, Archie Goodwin, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman.

Having been a Marvel Associate Editor since the beginning of 1976, Shooter was very familiar with the company’s talent. After all, he was the person responsible for proofreading every book before it got sent to the printer. As such, he was the only member of Marvel’s personnel team who tried (sometimes successfully, sometimes in vain) to get writers and artists to correct problems with their work.

And now Jim Shooter was their boss. For many Marvel creators, that news went over like a lead balloon. If there was any hope amongst freelancers that Marvel could return to the days of unrestrained—and unsupervised—creative freedom, that hope was thoroughly dashed by the news of Shooter’s promotion.

In fact, some creators assumed their Marvel days were over. Writer Bill Mantlo had pretty much ignored Shooter’s requests to revise his scripts when Shooter was Marvel’s Associate Editor. Back then, Shooter didn’t have the authority to either force Mantlo to make revisions or have Mantlo fired. Now he did. Well aware of what Shooter thought of his writing, Mantlo asked the new editor-inchief if he should look for employment elsewhere. Shooter assured Mantlo that he could continue writing for Marvel, but Shooter wanted to see improvement in the quality of Mantlo’s scripts. In Shooter’s words, he demanded no more hack work (Shooter, “ROM Comments and Answers”).

Marv Wolfman, on the other hand, just wanted to know what changes Shooter had in store. Most significantly, Wolfman wanted to know if Shooter had any designs on eliminating the writer/editor position. By this point, Shooter had made clear what he thought of Marvel allowing writers to serve as their own editors: he didn’t like

CHAPTER NINE 230

it, he didn’t understand it, and he didn’t think it should continue. Letting writers edit their own work made as much sense to Shooter as letting baseball pitchers serve as their own umpires. Shooter’s philosophy was that Marvel’s writers needed editors who would act as impartial intermediaries between the creators’ singular visions and Marvel’s business needs. Editors could distance themselves from a story, pinpoint its flaws and request the writer to address those flaws. The writers who were editing their own work, however, lacked a dispassionate perspective.

Because Shooter had been very vocal about how he felt about the writer/editor position, the morning after Stan Lee announced at a Marvel Christmas party that Shooter was being promoted to editor-in-chief, Wolfman called Shooter at home and asked, “What are you going to do?” (Shooter, “The Secret Origin of Jim Shooter, Editor in Chief—Part 2”). Shooter, though, dodged Wolfman’s question by claiming he didn’t know how he was going to address the writer/editor position. Besides, at that point he hadn’t even assumed the reins from Archie Goodwin yet.

Once Shooter did begin serving as Marvel’s editor-inchief, he learned he had to handle more urgent problems than the writer/editor conundrum. For one, there was rampant corruption going on within Marvel’s hallowed halls. Shooter discovered a receptionist had been stealing money that readers had mailed to Marvel for comic book subscriptions. He also learned that Marvel’s former Production Manager, the late John Verpoorten, had performed an accounting “lapping” scheme by letting creators get paid in advance and then covering up those payments when the creators didn’t follow through on their assignments (Shooter, “Rooting Out Corruption at Marvel—Part Three”).

Neal Adams used Marvel’s new Work-For-Hire contract to galvanize his fellow comic book creators.

wanted to continue working for Marvel Comics, they had no choice but to agree to the work terms set out in the document. (Leaving Marvel for DC Comics wouldn’t have been a remedy since DC had already incorporated the new copyright laws into its payment system.) One staff member, David Anthony Kraft, however, quit writing The Defenders rather than sign the agreement (Howe 212).

Another urgent issue for Shooter to face was the implementation of new copyright laws. In 1976 the United States Congress passed legislation that, among other things, stipulated that in order for creative work to be considered “work made for hire” (that is, work that the creator wouldn’t own), the creator of that work must agree in writing to relinquish the copyright. Previously, comic book publishers would stamp the back of their checks with work-made-for-hire verbiage. When creators signed the checks that paid them for their work, they were also legally conceding that their work belonged to the publishers. But that procedure no longer sufficed, thanks to the new legislation. As Shooter’s luck would have it, the new copyright laws went into effect in 1978. Marvel’s Business Affairs department was charging him with making sure every freelancer signed a document that reinforced Marvel as the exclusive copyright holder of all the work being created for Marvel (Shooter, “The Secret Origin of Jim Shooter, Editor in Chief—Part 3”).

And then there was the prominent creator who objected to Marvel’s document so vehemently that he felt obligated to take action. He was so sick of how comic book publishers treated their creators that he took a black marker and scrawled a call-to-arms onto Marvel’s new work-madefor-hire agreement: “Don’t Sign This Contract! You Will Be Signing Your Life Away! Urgent! Comics Contract Meeting.

Sunday May 7. 9 E. 48th St. Third Floor 4:00PM.” That creator then made photocopies of his marked-up agreement and posted those copies outside Marvel’s offices—in the elevators, in the lobby, on the doors—for everyone to see.

In that way, Neal Adams attempted to rally the comic book creative community into a unified labor force that sought to reverse the relationship between comic book publishers and their creators. Adams wanted the artists and writers to dictate work terms to their employers through a collective similar to those of other creative industries, like the Screen Actors Guild or the Newspaper Guild. He called it the Comic Book Creators Guild.

Marvel’s outside counsel drafted a four page legal agreement which Shooter whittled down to a more comprehensible single page. He then distributed that contract to everyone who worked for Marvel. The freelancer reaction to the document ranged from resigned acceptance to righteous outrage. Most seemed to recognize that if they 231

TIMELINE: 1978 A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 3: Jim Shooter begins his tenure as Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief.

April: Jack Kirby declines to renew his exclusive contract with Marvel Comics, opting instead to draw storyboards for the Fantastic Four cartoon for the DePatieFreleng animation production company.

February 5: A three day blizzard hits the Northeastern part of the United States, killing almost 100 people and causing $520 million in damages.

May 7: Nearly 50 comic book professionals meet at Neal Adams’s art studio to discuss the formation of the Comic Book Creators Guild.

May 7: Mort Weisinger, most famous for editing the Superman titles in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, dies at the age of 63.

April 3: The World’s Greatest Superheroes, by Martin Pasko, George Tuska, and Vince Colletta, brings the Justice League of America to comic strips.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

M AY

June 16: Grease—a musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as a pair of teenaged lovers in the late 1950s—opens in movie theaters. It will become the most popular movie of the year.

JUNE

February: Jim Shooter removes writer Steve Gerber from the Howard the Duck newspaper strip due to chronic tardiness.

After Gerber threatens to sue for ownership of the Howard the Duck character, Marvel terminates Gerber’s contract.

January 3: Spider-Woman receives her own title with a first issue written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Tony DeZuñiga.

June: Bally/Midway releases the video arcade game Space Invaders, which has players earning points by shooting down descending waves of aliens.

June 19: Jim Davis’s comic strip Garfield—starring a lazy, lasagna-loving cat—first appears in newspapers. It will eventually become the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip.

April 2: The CBS television network premieres Dallas—a television soap opera about feuding oil tycoons from Texas—as a five week mini-series.

Subsequently turned into a regular series, Dallas will become one of the most popular shows in the history of television, airing for 13 seasons through May 1991.

March: Richard and Wendy Pini’s Elfquest premieres in Fantasy Quarterly #1.

June 22: Concerned about a downward sales trend, parent company Warner Communications orders the cancellation of 23 DC comic books, including titles that hadn’t yet appeared on newsstands. The executive order—made three weeks after the rollout of “The DC Explosion”— will forever be known as “The DC Implosion.”

Spider-Woman TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Elfquest TM and © Warp Graphics, Inc. Justice League of America TM and © DC Comics. Garfield TM and © Paws, Inc.

On May 7, nearly 50 comic book professionals gathered at Neal Adams’ art studio to discuss the formation of the Guild. Attendees included Cary Bates, Howard Chaykin, Chris Claremont, Steve Ditko, Steve Englehart, Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Paul Levitz, Frank Miller, Marty Pasko, Marshall Rogers, Jim Shooter, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. The purpose of the Guild, as Adams saw it, was “to become recognized as the sole bargaining agent for the free lance talent working in the comic book and magazine publishing industry” (Groth 25). The Guild, not the publishers, would stipulate the industry’s payment standards. To that end, Adams proposed page rates of $300 for pencillers and $100 for writers (Groth 23). These page rates were three times the 1978 industry standard.

have to be the whole industry or nothing of the industry….

You have to fight for everyone or nobody,” Wolfman told Adams during the meeting (Groth 25).

The real argument of the night, though, focused on Adams’ proposed increased page rates. More than one attendee expressed the belief that they were unrealistic and that the publishers would never agree to them, especially given the unhealthy state of the comic book industry. Both Jim Shooter and Paul Levitz testified to how greatly reduced comic book sales were in comparison to the 1960s. Levitz told the group, “The print run of Superman in 1966 was one million, 200 thousand copies. There is no print run in the industry today, with the possible exception of the tabloid specials or a very unique product, that is half that figure” (Groth 26). Marty Pasko predicted DC and Marvel would simply resort to reprinting old material if the Guild threatened to strike. “It’s not a viable industry now!,” Pasko exclaimed. As far as what would happen to DC Comics, Pasko predicted, “They’ll turn the sixth floor of Warner Communications into a parking lot before they’ll accede to these demands! They don’t need comic books!” (Groth 27).

Neither Neal Adams nor Steve Englehart, however, agreed with the assessment that the comic book industry was failing. Englehart even argued that if creators were better paid, they would be incentivized to create better comic books, which would result in improved sales (Groth 26-7).

And then the arguing began. One of the initial points of contention regarded the role of inkers, colorists and letterers. Neal Adams argued the Guild couldn’t protect them as “creators” because, as Adams saw it, they weren’t truly part of the creative process. They all merely provided a “service,” working over material created by the writer and penciller. Others disagreed with Adams’ viewpoint by asserting that the work done by inkers, colorists and letterers was critically important to the creation of a comic book.

Marv Wolfman also felt it unwise for the Guild to disenfranchise large sections of the comic book labor force. “We 232

September 4: Roy Thomas and John Buscema inaugurate the Conan the Barbarian newspaper strip.

July 27: After a nine-year hiatus, the Flash Gordon comic book returns with issue #19 from Gold Key.

November 18: In Jonestown, Guyana, California Representative Leo J. Ryan and four other people investigating the Jim Jones cult are killed by members of the Peoples Temple. Reverend Jones then orders his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid. Over 900 people die as a result, including 260 children.

September 9: The Fantastic Four Saturday morning cartoon debuts on the NBC television network. For licensing reasons, the Human Torch character is replaced with a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. The cartoon would last one season, airing 13 episodes.

October 16: Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II, the 264th Pope of the Catholic Church.

J U LY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

August 11: Disco band Chic releases the single “Le Freak,” which will become the most played song in the country.

OCTOBER

September 17: Battlestar Galactica—a science fiction television show focused on a fleet of starships searching for Earth—premieres on the ABC television network as a three hour pilot.

September 17: With President Carter presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign an historic peace agreement at Camp David, Maryland. Begin and Sadat would go on to share the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.

July 31: Fred Hembeck’s cartoons become a regular feature in DC’s Daily Planet promotional pages.

August: Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy’s graphic album Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species is published by newcomer Eclipse Enterprises.

NOVEMBER November 27: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, are shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. Subsequently, White’s lawyers argue that he suffered diminished mental capacity due to his consumption of junk food. The media will dub this the “Twinkie defense.”

December 11: Six masked men subdue 10 employees at the Lufthansa cargo area at New York’s JFK airport and make off with $5.8 million in cash & jewelry. The robbery will become the inspiration for the 1990 movie Goodfellas.

December 15: With a tagline of “You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly,” the big-budgeted, long-delayed Superman: The Movie opens in movie theaters. Directed

by Richard Donner, the film features a star-studded cast, including Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper and Glenn Ford. Margot Kidder plays Lois Lane, and playing the Man of Steel is newcomer actor Christopher Reeve.

DECEMBER December 31: Basil Wolverton—a professional writer and artist since the 1930s who produced work for Timely Comics, Mad magazine, Marvel Comics, and most recently DC’s Plop!—dies at the age of 69.

September 9: The third incarnation of Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends cartoon—Challenge of the Superfriends— premieres on the ABC television network. Joining Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman are Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and Samurai.

Conan TM and © CPI. Sabre TM and © Don McGregor. Flash Gordon TM and © King Features Syndicate, Inc.

By the end of the meeting, the attendees had selected its representatives. Artists Marshall Rogers, Howard Chaykin and Jim Starlin formed the Guild’s ad hoc committee (with Rogers as chairman). Chris Claremont and Steve Englehart represented the writers while Terry Austin and Dick Giordano represented the inkers.

But after the May 7 formation of the Guild, nothing moved forward. The Guild never officially presented itself to any of the publishers and consequently, the increased page rates were never formally proposed. Indeed, even the Guild’s own members remained uninformed about their organization’s progress (or lack thereof).

Marshall Rogers admitted the problem lied in the committee members’ inability to devote significant time and effort to Guild matters (Groth 17). That problem would never be remedied, and the Guild eventually disappeared due to its own inactivity.

The Comic Book Creators Guild, there-

fore, shared the same fate that befell the Academy of Comic Book Arts earlier in the decade. The demise of both organizations meant little hope for a true comic book labor union ever taking hold.

Getting Back On Schedule The Guild’s inability to galvanize itself just meant one less matter to preoccupy Jim Shooter’s attention.

He was determined to resolve a problem that his editor-in-chief predecessors had struggled with mightily: late books. Marvel’s profit margin was getting crushed not only by declining sell-through rates but also by late fees incurred by the printer whenever a comic book didn’t arrive for its scheduled press time. This happened too often for anyone’s liking. Marvel wouldn’t be able to return to financial (or creative) prosperity unless it could get its production of comic books back on schedule. As Shooter told The Comics Journal soon after he became editor-in-chief, “Once we get 233

back on time, then the sky’s the limit” (Thompson 45).

But fate seemed to be working against Shooter’s attempt to get Marvel’s proverbial trains running on time. The sudden death of John Verpoorten in December 1977 put Marvel’s production department into disarray. Add to that tragedy the three blizzards that hit the Northeast in a three week period from late January to early February. The region found itself buried under snow, causing major disruptions.

Postal airplanes—carrying, among other things, artwork for Marvel’s next releases—couldn’t land in New York. The Connecticut-based Chemical Color—which Marvel used as a color separator—shut down its business for a week, which meant Marvel couldn’t provide any new comics to its printer (Thompson 44-45).

Also contributing to the deadline problems was that fact that several of Marvel’s writers had workloads that were simply too demanding. Chris

A near omnipotent being, Korvac killed nearly every Avenger before resurrecting them in a final act of mercy.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Claremont, Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman all cut back on the number of titles they were writing in order to help get Marvel back on schedule (Thompson 45). That left Marvel with only a couple other frequently delinquent scribes. Jim Shooter himself was one of them as he admitted at the time, “I’m the biggest schedule problem at Marvel Comics” (Thompson 43). He was referring to his role as writer on Avengers.

Throughout cover date 1978, Jim Shooter wrote an ambitious, yearlong Avengers story arc that would eventually become known as “The Korvac Saga.” It involved not only a full complement of past and present Avengers but also guest stars like Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ms. Marvel. Together, the group confronted the robotic Ultron, the Atlantean warlord Tyrak and The Collector, an Elder of the Universe who was determined to capture every Avenger in order to safeguard them from a greater threat that he referred to as “The Enemy.” (Never mind the nuisance of Henry Peter Gyrich, the National Security Council agent who became so dismayed by the Avengers’ method of operations that he revoked the team’s government-sponsored privileges, like its “A-1” security clearance.)

The enemy that The Collector feared was Korvac, a god-like being who sought to re-thread reality itself.

Avengers #176 (Nov. 1978) presents a bizarre scene: unable to use their

Quinjets because of Gyrich’s sanctions, over a dozen Avengers board a Manhattan mass transit bus to head to the neighboring New York City borough of Queens and confront Korvac, who is living in an ordinary house on an quiet residential street. In an epic battle, Korvac seemingly kills nearly all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes before he himself dies. Before his demise, however, Moondragon psychically divines that Korvac’s true intentions weren’t megalomaniac. Instead, he merely hoped to remedy the injustices of the universe. In his final act, a remorseful Korvac resurrected the slain Avengers.

“The Korvac Saga” quickly became one of the most celebrated Avengers stories of the decade. It won Britain’s distinguished Eagle Award for “Best Continued Story.” Despite the accolades he received, Jim Shooter had struggled to meet his monthly deadlines on the story. The arc began in Avengers #167 (Jan. 1978), but only two months later, a Marv WolfmanSal Buscema inventory story had to be used for Avengers #169. That issue doesn’t even disguise its fill-in nature as its credit page announces, “Our regularly-scheduled story will return next issue!” In subsequent months, Shooter had to tap other writers to dialogue his plots: David Michelinie scripted Avengers #173, #175 and #176 while Bill Mantlo scripted issue #174. Shooter’s tardiness created production problems down the line.

George Pérez and Pablo Marcos pen234

ciled and inked the first four issues of the arc—Avengers #167, #168, #170 and #171—but Sal Buscema provided layouts for Avengers #172 and #173.

That latter issue was finished by a veritable army of inkers: Rick Bryant, Dan Green, Klaus Janson, Pablo Marcos, Bob McLeod, Win Mortimer and Josef Rubinstein. The issue credits them as “D. Hands” (a.k.a. “Diverse Hands”). The deadline pressures extended to other production aspects as well. For instance, to make the printer’s schedule for Avengers #170, Jim Shooter had to color the issue himself overnight.

Shooter did manage to plot and script the final chapter of “The Korvac Saga” (issue #177), but that would prove to be Shooter’s final fully written Avengers issue until 1981. In 1978, Shooter had to pass the Avengers baton to another writer (David Michelinie) so he could focus on his editorial duties. By that point, Marvel’s other consistently delinquent scribe had already been dealt with. Coincidentally enough, it was the same scribe who created the Korvac character in 1974: Steve Gerber.

Prior to 1978, Gerber’s chronic tardiness had already provoked Marvel to limit his on-going writing duties to just Howard the Duck, both the comic book and the newspaper strip. Despite this decreased workload, Gerber still couldn’t meet his deadlines on the newspaper strip, which impacted the number of newspapers that carried the strip, so in February 1978, Shooter removed Gerber from that assignment. It was a significant financial blow to Gerber, and he wasn’t about to take it without fighting back.

Gerber contacted his lawyer and had him inform Marvel that his dismissal from the newspaper strip was a violation of his writer-editor contract. Additionally, the lawyer notified Marvel that Gerber was considering suing for ownership of the Howard the Duck character. In response, Marvel terminated Gerber’s contract, which meant that Gerber had the Howard the Duck comic book taken away from him as well. The character that Gerber had full control over since he created him in 1973 would now be handled by Marv Wolfman and Bill Mantlo.

Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur proved to be the final Marvel series Jack Kirby worked on before leaving the House of Ideas for good. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

continue working for Marvel. Since his return to the “House of Ideas,” things had gone poorly. For one thing, his books weren’t selling well. They also weren’t regarded well, by either comic book fans or Kirby’s peers. The consensus was that Kirby’s dialogue was at best stilted and at worst unreadable. In 1977, both Stan Lee and then-editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin decided that, at least on Captain America, Kirby couldn’t continue to

edit his own work. He needed a dialogue writer. But Kirby wasn’t amenable to having anyone else write over his work. All parties therefore agreed it would be best for Kirby to move on to something else (Ro 198).

Captain America #214 (Oct. 1977) was Kirby’s last issue on that title. The final panel of that issue shows Cap and his partner, The Falcon, walking sideby-side, away from the reader. Only a few months later, Kirby’s Eternals comic book was cancelled after publication of its nineteenth issue (Jan. 1978).

The King’s Burden

While Kirby continued to write and draw Black Panther, he needed to replace Captain America and The Eternals on his monthly workload, so he created two new Marvel titles.

Both went on sale in January 1978.

Machine Man starred X-51, a “living robot” that Kirby first introduced in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977).

Devil Dinosaur, on the other hand, resulted from Stan Lee asking Kirby to create a comic book that could be turned into a Saturday morning cartoon (Ro 196). It featured an intelligent, red-colored Tyrannosaurus Rex and its proto-human companion, Moon-Boy.

Around the same time that Steve Gerber was fired, Jack Kirby had to make a decision about whether or not to

Ever the workhorse, Jack Kirby contributed to projects beyond his monthly assignments. In 1978, Roy

Gerber was reduced to freelancer status. At the time of Gerber’s termination, Jim Shooter told The Comics Journal that he regarded Gerber “one of the best writers in the business” and he had no objection to having Gerber continue writing for Marvel (“Marvel Fires Gerber” 7). Gerber, though, had other plans, which included carrying through on his threat to sue Marvel.

That battle would play out in the early 1980s.

In 1978 Kirby (sort of) returned to the Fantastic Four for an issue of What If? TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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1960s Marvel explosion: Fantastic Four. By the time cover date February 1979 rolled around, not a single Marvel Comic—new or reprint—appeared on the stands with art by Jack Kirby. The last time that happened was 1959.

Jack Kirby’s references to Stan Lee as “Stanley” in What If? #11 were edited out before the story was published although the longer spacing was visible in word balloons. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Thomas asked Kirby to draw What If? #11, an alternate universe tale that rhetorically asked “What If The Fantastic Four were the Original Marvel Bullpen?” As conceived by Thomas, the story would star Stan Lee as Mr. Fantastic, Jack Kirby as the Thing, former Marvel secretary Flo Steinberg as the Invisible Girl and Roy Thomas himself as the Human Torch. Kirby took the assignment and in a fashion, it would be the first Fantastic Four story that Kirby drew since 1970. When the finished art pages came into Marvel’s offices, however, Thomas found Kirby had removed the Roy Thomas character from the story. In his place, former Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky had been turned into the Human Torch. In an interview for American Comic Book Chronicles, Thomas acknowledges that the switch made sense since Brodsky had been an integral part of Marvel Comics years before Thomas joined the company. Nonetheless, Thomas was put off by the fact that Kirby made the switch without consulting with him first. Thomas decided to let Kirby write the story’s dialogue, which Thomas then edited before the book was printed.

The changes to the story’s dialogue did not go unnoticed by Kirby. For one, every instance of “Stanley” was shortened to “Stan.” According to Thomas, this change came at the behest of Stan Lee himself who disliked being called “Stanley.” More personal to Kirby was the fact his dialogue grammar had been corrected for all characters except one: the Thing.

What If? #11 still had that character speak like an uneducated palooka,

and since Jack Kirby was the Thing in the story, Kirby felt that he himself was being characterized as dim-witted. It can be argued that the decision to keep the Thing’s dialogue grammatically incorrect was made simply for the sake of consistent characterization: unlike the other members of the Fantastic Four, the Thing had never been portrayed as a refined speaker. But that’s not how Kirby viewed it.

He saw it as just another example of the contempt his colleagues held for him. Others noticed it too. According to Jim Starlin, “The editorial staff up at Marvel had no respect for what [Kirby] was doing. All these editors had things on their walls making fun of Jack’s books. They’d cut out things saying ‘Stupidest Comic of the Year’” (Howe 207). Years later, Kirby would describe Marvel Comics of the 1970s as a “serpent’s nest” where writers and editors actively attempted to undermine each other’s efforts for the sake of self-interest and career advancement: “A guy will create a book, another will fill his book up with knock letters—he’s off in five months, or three months, and the other guy’s got his shot… in a serpent’s nest, nothing can survive. Eventually all the snakes kill each other” (Howe 208).

When it came time for Kirby to renew his Marvel-exclusive contract in April 1978, Stan Lee suggested that Kirby stop writing and just devote himself to drawing (Howe 207). Kirby, however, had no interest in that arrangement. With that, Kirby’s second Marvel Comics tenure—lasting three years—came to an end. Among his last work was the cover for the 200th issue of the title that had ignited the

Kirby, though, wasn’t about to return to DC Comics or establish himself with a completely different comic book publisher. Instead, after forty years of drawing comic books, Kirby decided to switch careers. He took his talents to a completely different industry: animation. In an ironic twist of fate, the renowned animation production company DePatie-Freleng Enterprises hired Kirby to draw storyboards for its upcoming Saturday morning Fantastic Four cartoon.

Debuting later in the year, on September 9, on the NBC television network, the cartoon lasted 13 episodes in its first—and only—season. The episodes that Kirby was being paid to storyboard were written by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas.

While the cartoon series featured such stalwart Fantastic Four villains as Doctor Doom, the Frightful Four and the Mole Man, one member of the iconic super-heroic quartet was conspicuously absent. Fighting alongside Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl and The Thing wasn’t the Human Torch but a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. (an acronym for “Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electron-

Since the Human Torch was under option to Universal Studios, he was replaced with a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. in NBC’s Fantastic Four cartoon.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ics”), created specifically for the cartoon. Legend will have it that the reason the Human Torch was replaced was because NBC executives feared that children watching the Fantastic Four cartoon would set themselves on fire in an attempt to emulate the fiery super-hero. The true reason for Human Torch’s exclusion, though, was far less altruistic: the Human Torch wasn’t available for use in the cartoon because the character had been optioned to Universal Studios for a potential television series, one that never ended up being produced.

Marvel’s TV Sensations Meanwhile, the late 1977 television pilots for two other Marvel superheroes did well enough in the ratings that CBS picked up both as regular series for 1978. Ten new episodes of The Incredible Hulk aired from March 10 to May 31. The Amazing SpiderMan, on the other hand, had five new episodes run from April 5 to May 3.

Both shows then began their second seasons in September, sandwiched around a live action Dr. Strange pilot (starring Peter Hooten) on September 6 that never earned a follow-up.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, both The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing SpiderMan avoided the standard comic book plot conventions that might put off a non-comic book reading television

In Marvel Team-Up #74 Spider-Man met the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

audience. The live-action television Spider-Man didn’t fight colorful super-villains like the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus. Instead, he dealt with domestic terrorists, thieves, foreign kidnappers and even an evil twin clone.

On The Incredible Hulk, David Banner lived a life on the run, moving from town to town, picking up odd jobs and always making sure never to use his real name (in one episode he’s “David Benson” while in another he’s “David Brown”) in order to avoid the detection of the authorities and investigative reporter Jack McGee. As the Hulk, he foiled the plans of extortionists, smugglers and mobsters.

Marvel’s comics promoted both television shows somewhat discreetly. Beginning with cover date September 1978, the small blurb “Marvel’s TV Sensation” appeared on the covers of Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular SpiAs Marvel began reprinting its earliest stories in mass market der-Man and Incredible Hulk. paperbacks, its second Hulk edition also capitalized on the TV show.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. The following month the ic books.

Quality control, however, blurb additionally appeared couldn’t happen until books stopped on Marvel Super-Heroes (which was being shipped late to the printer, and reprinting Incredible Hulk stories by the end of the 1978, Shooter had that had originally been published in accomplished what so many of his 1969 and 1970) and the Spider-Man editor-in-chief predecessors couldn’t: co-star book, Marvel Team-Up (which he got Marvel’s entire line on schedimprobably guest-starred the cast of ule (Shooter, “ROM Comments and Saturday Night Live in issue #74). FiAnswers”). nally, with cover date December 1978, the blurb graced Marvel Tales (which Beginning with cover date July 1978, was reprinting Amazing Spider-Man every Marvel comic book listed Jim stories that had originally been pubShooter as the editor-in-chief. It was lished in 1973). Also, with its tenth a printed credit none of his predecesissue (Aug. 1978) the black-and-white sors received. Undeniably, Shooter Rampaging Hulk magazine was rewas ushering in a new “Marvel Age.” vamped into the full color The Hulk!, With a crusader’s conviction, Shooter featuring not only new Hulk stories believed he was righting Marvel’s and a gallery of Hulk villains but also ship… but as 1979 would prove, many an interview with Bill Bixby, the actor creators chose to jump overboard who portrayed David Banner on TV. rather than allow Jim Shooter be their captain.

The television shows helped boost sales on all those Spider-Man and Hulk titles, but overall, Marvel’s line sold over 8% fewer copies in 1978 than it did the previous year (Tolworthy).

Jim Shooter, though, was convinced he could reverse the sales situation by improving the quality of the com237

The Graphic Novel Before the year ended, one more Jack Kirby comic book was published. It was the latest in the line of Simon and Schuster Fireside books that were sold in mass market bookstores. How-

Stories. With the conviction that the comic book format was a legitimate medium in which to express mature literature, Eisner spent two years writing and drawing four connected stories that focus on characters living in a tenement in the New York City borough of The Bronx. The stories’ musings on despair, hardship and hope were inspired by Eisner’s own life experiences, particularly the death of his sixteen-year-old daughter of leukemia in 1970.

Eisner originally wanted to title his work Tenement Stories or Tenement in Reunited one last time, the Bronx. In order to reach his intendStan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott produced a Silver ed adult audience, Eisner pitched his Surfer graphic novel. work to book publishers rather than TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. comic book publishers. The problem was that nearly every book publisher had no interest in a comic book, even one as high-minded as what Eisner was offering. So Eisner decided to create a semantic distinction: he described his work to prospective publishers as a “graphic novel.” Small independent New York publisher Baronet Press—which earlier in the year released not only The Illustrated Roger Zelazny and The Illustrated Harlan Ellison but also Eisner’s spoof Star Jaws—accepted Eisner’s book for publication. Baronet suggested the title of one of the book’s stories serve as the title for the entire book (Duncan 144). A Contract With God went on sale in bookstores in October.

ever, unlike the previous Fireside volumes which merely reprinted Marvel stories (Origins of Marvel Comics, Sons of Origins, Bring on the Bad Guys, etc.), The Silver Surfer reunited the revered Fantastic Four creative team of the 1960s—writer Stan Lee, penciller Jack Kirby and inker Joe Sinnott—for a new 100 page story.

The three collaborators retold their classic 1966 Galactus tale, except this time the Fantastic Four are nowhere to be found. For the purposes of the story, the F a n t a s t i c Four don’t even exist, but even without that team’s prodding, the Silver Surfer defies Galactus and is subsequently exiled on Earth.

The cosmic devourer soon realizes he needs his former herald, so he attempts to bring him back into his fold through the use of a gold-skinned seductress named Ardina. It is all for naught as by the end of the story the Surfer must make a sacrifice for the sake of humanity. Besides being the final significant comic book produced by the Lee-Kirby team, The Silver Surfer is generally recognized as Marvel Comics’ first true graphic novel (Sanderson 187).

Another notable graphic novel was published around the same time: Will Eisner’s A Contract With God, and Other Tenement

Will Eisner drew on his life experiences to create the four connected stories that form A Contract With God. TM and © Will Eisner Studios Inc.

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Despite some claims, A Contract With God was not the first American graphic novel. It was preceded by several other works, including Bantam Books’ Blackmark by Gil Kane (1971), and even further back, St. John’s It Rhymes With Lust by Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller, Matt Baker and Ray Osrin (1950). A Contract With God isn’t even the first publication to market itself as a “graphic novel.” Several books published in 1976 referred to themselves as “graphic novels,” including Bloodstar (Richard Corben’s adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story), Chandler (Jim Steranko’s hard-boiled illustrated novel) and Beyond Time and Again (a collection of underground cartoonist George Metzger’s work).

What distinguishes A Contract With God from its predecessors is both Eisner’s standing within the comic book industry and his ambition for the comic book medium. Sixty-one years old at the time of Contract’s release, Eisner was universally recognized as one of comic book’s pioneering masters. He had been a comic book professional since the industry’s birth in the 1930s, and his artistic talent and business acumen were unparalleled.

A new book-length comic produced

by Eisner was bound to garner significant notice. And unlike the graphic novels that preceded it, A Contract With God wasn’t presenting the genre fiction that comic books typically offered (e.g. fantasy, super-heroes, etc.).

Instead, Eisner’s graphic novel was a piece of social realism, and as comic book historian Randy Duncan puts it: Contract was imbued with a serious attitude toward the comics art form. Not only was the subject matter more serious than what was usually addressed in comics, but the art style gave the work a look different from most mainstream or underground comic books. Eisner used rigid panel borders sparingly and only for particular effect, set narration free from caption boxes and made it an organic part of the page, and the book was printed in sepia tones rather than color or black and white (149).

A Contract With God was Eisner’s attempt to advance an art form and present it to a new audience. The book didn’t sell particularly well in 1978, but it would prove to serve as a shining example of comic books’ literary potential.

Eisner began a very different followup book to A Contract with God. In the pages of The Spirit #19 (cover date Oct. 1978 and published by Kitchen Sink Press), Eisner began serializing “Life on Another Planet,” a sprawling multi-character science fiction tale that imagined the chaos created on Earth by the discovery of life on another planet. While less acclaimed by critics than A Contract with God, the story—which would run through The Spirit #26 (Dec. 1980)—was collected as Signal from Space in 1983.

expensive. Consequently, DuBay had to repurpose 1984. He decided to turn it into an illustrated “skin” magazine. In other words, it became a sci-fi showcase of explicit sex and violence (Cooke 155).

With a cover description of “Illustrated Adult Fantasy,” 1984 was Warren Publishing’s response to the success of Heavy Metal, which billed itself as “The adult illustrated fantasy magazine.” Contributions from such talented men as Luis Bermejo, Richard Corben, Esteban Maroto, Rudy Nebres, Alex Niño, José Ortiz, and Wally Wood helped 1984 match Heavy Metal with regards to quality of art. And while there was some quality material in 1984, such as Jan Strnad and Richard Corben’s serial “Mutant World,” most of the content was, in the words of critic Richard Arndt, “juvenile, sleazy, scatological, racist, demeaning to women, heavy handed in its treatment of violence and lame in its sense of humor” (Arndt 152).

One story from 1984 #3 best demonstrates how offensive the magazine’s material could be. “The Harvest,” written by DuBay and drawn by Ortiz, presents a future where AfricanAmericans have been gathered into game reserves to be hunted by white people. In the story, a father and son shoot a pregnant woman and eat her unborn baby.

Originally intended as a venue to adapt famous science-fiction stories, 1984 instead became Warren Publishing’s knock-off of Heavy Metal magazine.

Cover art for 1984 #2 by Richard Corben.

TM and © respective copyright holder.

1984 in 1978 While Eisner aspired to elevate comic book narrative, Bill DuBay got the go-ahead to edit a new magazine for Warren Publishing. It was titled 1984, and DuBay’s initial aim was to adapt famous science fiction stories into the comic format. Warren writers Jim Stenstrum and Gerry Boudreau were tapped to adapt Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Big Space F*ck” and Harlan Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog,” respectively.

DuBay soon discovered, however, that the cost to acquire the rights to most of these famous works was too 239

Objectionable content aside, what really got 1984—and Warren Publishing—in trouble was DuBay’s decision to print an adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog,” the Nebula Award-winning tale about a boy and his telepathic dog scavenging through the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the American Southwest. According to Jim Stenstrum, Gerry Boudreau wrote his comic script version of “A Boy and His Dog” before learning that Ellison wouldn’t grant permission for his story to be adapted. So Boudreau’s script was shelved, seemingly destined to gather dust and never be used. Then one day, DuBay was desperately searching for a script to send to his star artist, workhorse Alex Niño. DuBay always wanted to keep Niño busy for fear of losing him to another comic book publisher, but DuBay just couldn’t keep up with Niño’s pace. Niño drew faster than

DuBay could write. As a last resort, DuBay scoured the pile of rejected scripts and found Boudreau’s adaptation of “A Boy and His Dog.” DuBay altered the script—substituting “girl” for “boy” and “monster” for “dog”—and sent it on to Niño. When Niño’s finished pages arrived, DuBay forwarded them to Stenstrum with instructions to rewrite the story more thoroughly. Stenstrum, however, recognized that he was being asked to disguise an adaptation of “A Boy and His Dog” and told DuBay that he wouldn’t do it. DuBay wouldn’t be deterred. Niño’s pages were already drawn (and already paid for), so something had to be done with them. Stenstrum acquiesced and rearranged the artwork to avoid outright plagiarism of Ellison’s work (Cooke 156). The end result was a twelve page story titled “Mondo Megillah” that appeared in 1984 #4 (Oct. 1978). It features a girl and her mutated monster lover who struggle to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the planet Earth.

The credited author of the story is Stenstrum’s pseudonym, “Alabaster Redzone.”

called “The World of Two Moons.” With the help of her husband, Richard, Wendy pitched Elfquest to both Marvel and DC, but neither publisher felt the proposal was commercially viable (Sanderson). Following those rejections, the Pinis found a home for “Elfquest” with the newly formed Independent Publishers Syndicate (IPS), based in Lansing, Michigan.

had increased from 30 in 1974 to almost 800 in 1978 (Tolworthy). This expansion impressed more and more creators to follow the same route that Mike Friedrich and Dave Sim took earlier: self-publish their books and sell them exclusively to comic book stores via the Direct Market distributors.

The Pinis formed WaRP Graphics (WaRP is an acronym for “Wendy and Richard Pini”) and borrowed money in order to print their first issue, Elfquest #2 (Aug. 1978). (Fantasy Quarterly #1 is effectively recognized as “Elfquest #1”.) Once the issue got into Direct Market stores, the Pinis never had to look back, as Elfquest’s popularity quickly skyrocketed.

Ostensibly an adventure featuring mythical creatures, Elfquest nonetheless presents personal drama that readers can identify with. The book’s themes of alienation, racial prejudice, feminism and sexuality aren’t the stuff of fantasy; they’re decidedly human.

“Elfquest” debuted as the lead feature in Fantasy Quarterly #1 (Spring 1978). The issue would prove to be IPS’s first and only publication as the company immediately went out of business. The fan response to “Elfquest,” though, was tremendous, so much so that the Pinis felt encouraged to undertake self-publishing. Despite the fact that neither Richard nor Wendy had any publishing experience, the two committed to learning the ropes as quickly as possible. But one problem loomed large: the IPS publisher had in his possession 60 pages of original “Elfquest” artwork that the Pinis needed to continue their story. As the Pinis soon learned, regaining these pages wouldn’t be easy At first, no one recognized as their former publisher had what DuBay and Stenstrum no inclination to return them. had done. Then a writer reNonetheless, Richard kept callsearched Warren Publishing ing him to explain their needs for some articles to be printed and get him to accommodate. in The Comics Journal. When But Richard’s phone calls ache found “Mondo Megillah,” complished nothing (except he realized it was an alteration the exacerbation of his own of “A Boy and His Dog.” He infrustration). Finally, Richard formed Ellison, who promptly decided to take a drastic measued Warren Publishing for sure to solve the matter once plagiarism. By the time Ellison and for all. It was a measure prevailed in the early 1980s, that demonstrated just how Warren was well on its way tocommitted the couple were to wards bankruptcy. Some credit having control over their creEllison’s lawsuit for accelerating Warren’s demise (Cooke While IPS went out of business soon after the publication of Fantasy Quarterly ation: Richard flew from Boston to Detroit and then rented 157). #1, the issue’s lead feature, Elfquest, would go on to become a very popular comic book. Cover art by Wendy Pini. TM and © Warp Graphics, Inc. a car to drive to East Lansing where he confronted his forDirect Market Possibilities mer publisher at his home.

A short while later, Pini was Others, though, attribute Warren’s downfall to its inabildriving back to the airport.

He had with him every single ity to tap into an alternative comic book sales venue: The page of his wife’s original artwork (Beschizza 123).

Direct Market. The number of specialty comic book stores

One married couple had to go to some arduous lengths in order to do so. In 1977, Wendy Pini created “Elfquest,” about a clan of wolf-riding elves, led by a young chief named Cutter, who strive to survive on a hostile planet 240

Within a few years, Elfquest’s circulation climbed from 10,000 to 100,000 (Sanderson). Females comprised half the book’s readership, nearly unheard of for a fantasy adventure comic book. Beyond that, Elfquest branched into other forms of merchandise including prose novelizations, clothing, and role playing games. Unquestionably, Elfquest is one of the most successful self-published properties in comic book history. In Wendy Pini’s own words, “Elfquest happened at the right place and the right time. It took off like wildfire. It was lightning in a bottle” (Beschizza 123).

And without the Direct Market, Elfquest might never have been published.

Then one day, Dean Mullaney visited McGregor. Still ignorant to the fact that Mullaney was launching a comic book company, McGregor showed him a comic strip concept that he previously pitched to Marvel. It included some design work by artist Paul Gulacy. McGregor called that concept “Sabre.” In the year 2020 Sabre is a self-reliant, swashbuckling, African-American “romantic idealist.” He stands opposed to the Overseer, who has turned the world into a police state in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Joining Sabre in his fight against oppression is his test tubecreated lover, Melissa Siren. Indeed, the story’s driving dynamic is neither action nor politics but the passion Sabre and Melissa have for each other.

At the same time that the Pinis were developing Elfquest, brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney founded a comic book company in Staten Island, New York. Eclipse Enterprises (also known as Eclipse Comics) not only sought to market itself exclusively to the Direct Market, it also guaranteed more rights and privileges to the professionals who were producing their graphic novels. The Mullaneys provided sales royalties and allowed creators to own the properties they created.

Unfortunately, as he explained to Mullaney, McGregor had withdrawn the pitch from Marvel because he realized it just wouldn’t work as a comic strip. Days after seeing the presentation, Mullaney contacted McGregor, informed him about his plans for Eclipse Enterprises and then asked him if Eclipse could be Sabre’s publisher. Once McGregor accepted that Mullaney wasn’t pulling his leg, he asked for assurances that he would get to keep all the copyrights to the material he produced and have complete creative control over his work. Without hesitation, Mullaney gave him those assurances. And then McGregor and Gulacy got to work on turning Sabre into a full-fledged comic book (Gough).

Dean Mullaney was a good friend—and avid fan—of former Marvel Comics writer Don McGregor. Unaware of Mullaney’s comic publishing aspirations, McGregor had been working on ideas outside of his work on Marvel’s Killraven and Black Panther. He developed two personal projects: one, Ragamuffins, dealt with two lower middle class In August 1978, Eclipse reAmerican boys growing up in leased its first publication: the 1950s while the other, Dethe 38 page, black-and-white tectives, Inc., featured a pair of Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endanprivate detectives—one black, gered Species. The “graphic Eclipse’s first publication was Sabre, a black-and-white graphic novel by Don one white—operating in New album” (as McGregor liked to McGregor and Paul Gulacy. Sabre TM and © Don McGregor.

York City. McGregor and some call it) seamlessly integrates McGregor’s trademark poetic verbosity and Gulacy’s beaufriends had produced a Detectives Inc. fanzine in 1969, and tifully sharp artwork. The book’s plot puts Sabre into an also made a short film featuring the lead characters in the early 1970s. McGregor eventually recognized, though, that extended Old West-style showdown against the mercenary through his Marvel work, he had gained the reputation of Blackstar Blood in an abandoned Disneyland-like amusebeing a super-hero/fantasy writer. Whatever new work ment park. Along the way to that showdown, Sabre and he would introduce to the comic book marketplace would Melissa pontificate on such subjects as freedom and herhave to appeal to his existing fanbase, and those fans oism. And then they make love. No doubt, Sabre offered would want McGregor to produce something akin to Black provocative material intended for an adult reader, and McPanther or Killraven (Sacks). It would have to be a book Gregor took full advantage of his freedom from both the corporate and Comics Code censors. that starred—in McGregor’s own words—“a strong heroic character” (Gough). Since neither Ragamuffins nor DetecDespite its six dollar retail cost, Sabre had such strong Ditives, Inc. featured that kind of hero, McGregor shelved rect Market re-orders that the Mullaneys ordered a second them both for the time being. print run for a Feb. 1979 release. Eclipse Enterprises was off and running, soon publishing comics material by fan241

than what was offered to other emerging Direct Market distributors. For instance, the publishers paid their mutual printer to “drop ship” comic books directly to Seagate’s customers. The other distributors, though, had to pay to have comic books shipped to their warehouses and then they had to charge their customers for final delivery. The differing trade terms ensured Seagate could undercut any of its competitors (Rozanski). In other words, Seagate benefitted from an inherently unfair advantage, and it was the publishers who allowed Seagate to have that advantage.

favorites such as Steve Gerber and P. Craig Russell. Don McGregor was along for the ride too. He made Eclipse his creative home for the next half decade. By the early 1980s, Sabre would be converted into a full color, on-going series, and Eclipse would publish other McGregor works, like Ragamuffins and Detectives, Inc. Meanwhile, out west, two young brothers from San Diego decided to expand into a different part of the Direct Market. In 1970, Bill and Steve Schanes began selling comic books via mail order and at comic book conventions. They were respectively 13 and 15 years old. Four years later, they opened their first comic book store. By 1978, they were operating four comic book stores in the San Diego area but were having difficulty obtaining merchandise that they wanted to sell. To solve this problem, they decided to become a Direct Market distributor (Sanford). Other retailers, having similar difficulties in obtaining product, began ordering from the Schanes brothers. In this way, Pacific Comics quickly became one of the biggest Direct Market distributors on the West Coast, and as a result, the Schanes brothers would profit considerably.

This was a lawsuit the publishers couldn’t win, and they knew it. Since the validity of Irjax’s claim could not be disputed, each publisher had no choice but to negotiate a settlement with Irjax. The only question left to be answered was how heavy a price each publisher was going to have to pay. As 1979 would prove, though, the Irjax lawsuit unexpectedly paved the way for a great expansion of the Direct Market.

Superman Turns 40

Of all the comic book publishers, DC Comics was best equipped to handle the Irjax lawsuit. As a Warner CommuWhile the Direct Market was still relatively tiny by 1978, the nications subsidiary, DC had mainstream comic book the luxury of a corporate companies began to take legal team to defend itself. notice. Jim Shooter did But for a variety of reasons, so by complete happenIrjax’s lawsuit was the least stance. As Marvel’s editorof Jenette Kahn’s concerns. in-chief, Shooter now had access to monthly sales reAs 1978 began, Kahn was ports. At the bottom of the entering her third year as reports, he saw a line item DC’s Publisher yet she was that he couldn’t fathom. It still figuring out how to was marked “Seagate.” He be a successful manager learned from his circulawithin the male-dominattion director that the line ed comic book industry. item indicated how many She was learning some copies Marvel was selling hard lessons on the job. to the Direct Market via Phil For instance, DC’s Art DiSeuling. Upon examining rector Vinnie Colletta and the Seagate figures, Shooter Editorial Coordinator Paul made a startling discovery: Levitz had lured veteran while most Marvel titles artist George Tuska away had Direct Market orders of from Marvel to work for 7,000 or 8,000 copies, the DC. Tuska’s defection was titles produced by Jack Kirby something of a coup for had Direct Market orders of In the spring of 1977, DC Comics ran a contest with a grand prize of a DC, but rather than becameo appearance in Superman: The Movie.

TM and © DC Comics.

30,000 copies. “That’s almost ing praised, Colletta and enough to sustain a book exLevitz found themselves being reprimanded

by Kahn, who clusively!,” Shooter thought. Kirby’s titles had the worst didn’t appreciate that she hadn’t been consulted before a sell-through percentages at the newsstand, but they were deal was made with Tuska. Neither Colletta nor Levitz took far and away Marvel’s best sellers at the comic shops. With kindly to Kahn’s rebuke, and they let Kahn know it. The that information, Shooter knew the Direct Market wartwo men’s reactions made Kahn realize that she had to adranted further testing and exploration (Morrow 28). just her managerial style; she had to make sure to show Even if Shooter hadn’t learned about Seagate via the sales her appreciation for people’s efforts and intentions before reports, he would have learned about the company later in expressing criticism (Greenberger 9). the year. That’s because in 1978 Irjax Enterprises—a disDespite the on-going tribulations, Kahn had every right to tribution company based in Rockville, Maryland—filed an expect 1978 to be a banner year, both for herself and DC anti-trust lawsuit against all the mainstream comic book Comics. Not only was this the year that DC would celebrate publishers (Marvel, DC, Archie, Warren, etc.) for their busithe 40th anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in Acness dealings with Phil Seuling’s Seagate. The crux of Irjax’s tion Comics #1 (1938), 1978 was also the year that movie complaint was that Seagate enjoyed better trade terms 242

Without his powers, Superman was no match against the Heavyweight Champion of the World. TM and © DC Comics.

iconic proportions. He’d sacrificed nearly four years of his best boxing years in defiance of the draft and the Vietnam War, and for all his brashness and bravado, he was considered a man of principle and an outspoken symbol of the struggle of black Americans. A Superman/Ali matchup would have to take into account who Muhammad Ali was as much outside the ring as in it” (Kahn).

Kahn tapped Julius Schwartz to edit the project who in turn assigned Joe Kubert to draw the book. Kubert produced a wrap-around cover of Superman and Ali squaring off in the boxing ring with a raucous crowd cheering them on.

Unfortunately, Ali’s representatives—which reportedly included Ali’s religious mentor, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad—weren’t happy with how Kubert depicted their client. They requested a different artist (Weiss 61).

Looking for someone who could provide more naturalistic portrayals, Schwartz turned to Neal Adams. As Adams explained years later, the project had a unique appeal, “When Julie mentioned [Superman vs. Muhammad Ali] to me, he’d expected me to laugh—and I guess I did—but it tickled my fancy to take something that seemed so insane and actually turn it into a story” (Cooke 44). Adams re-drew the wraparound cover but kept Kubert’s design. “I didn’t want any contributions that Joe had made to be wasted,” Adams explained (Weiss 61). That sentiment didn’t apply to the generic crowd that Kubert provided on the cover, though. In its place, Adams substituted something more notable: lots and lots of easily recognizable famous people from all facets of society. As Adams saw it, “If you’re gonna have this fight between Superman and Muhammad Ali, aren’t celebrities going to come, just like in a regular fight?” (Weiss 61). Every figure that appears on the cover—over 170 in total—represents a real-life person, including politicians (like Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford), cultural figures (like artist Andy Warhol and popular singers Cher, Sonny Bono, and Frank Sinatra) or comic book industry professionals (like Bill Gaines, Jenette Kahn, and Julius Schwartz).

Also included are other DC Comics characters like Batman and Plastic Man as well as Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

audiences would finally get to see a big screen version of Superman, and DC Comics pulled out all the stops to crosspromote the film and its comic books. Unsurprisingly, DC’s cross-promotion began early. In 1977 DC ran “The Great Superman Movie Contest” in which the readers were encouraged to cut out special coupons from various DC comic books and mail them in. The prize was a cameo appearance in the film. (Two teenage boys, Ed Finnerman from Massachusetts and Tim Hussey from California, won the contest and appeared as Smallville High football players.)

And then there was the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali tabloid (All New Collectors’ Edition #C-56, cover dated 1978 but on sale Dec. 12, 1977), a project that had been in the works almost as long as the Superman movie itself. In 1976, Muhammad Ali’s boxing promoter, Don King, paid a visit to DC’s offices in Manhattan. Impressed with the amount of media attention the Superman vs. The Amazing SpiderMan tabloid had received, King proposed the publication of a comic book in which the most famous super-hero in the world enters the boxing ring against the Heavyweight Champion of the World. It was a proposal that Kahn eagerly accepted.

By the mid-1970s, Muhammad Ali was more than just the best boxer in the world; he was a controversial cultural icon, a signifier of America’s racial relations. In Kahn’s own words, “Ali was a folk hero of

Joe Kubert’s original cover to the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali tabloid was rejected by Muhammad Ali’s representatives.

TM and © DC Comics.

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Prior to the book’s publication, however, Jenette Kahn learned that, legally, DC couldn’t print a cover that showed all

lighted by the book’s opening spread page that presents a bustling New York City street. Nonetheless, it took Adams and company nearly a year to complete the 72 page tale.

Ironically, three months after Superman vs. Muhammad Ali reached newsstands, Ali lost his heavyweight title to Leon Spinks. (Ali would regain his title in September 1978, but it was clear his boxing career was coming to an end; he would ultimately retire in 1981.)

these famous people. According to Kahn, the celebrities’ appearance on the cover could be considered to be “aiding in the sale of the book” (Greenberger 14). Consequently, Kahn had to travel across the country to meet with all the people Adams drew and obtain their permission to be shown on the cover. Predictably, some people refused to grant permission. Their likeness then had to be either replaced or disguised, and Adams was tasked with creating all the patches. Among other changes, Adams turned actor George C. Scott into novelist Kurt Vonnegut and gave John Wayne a mustache so he couldn’t be recognized. While in retrospect Adams may have regretted drawing so many celebrities (“Dumbest idea I ever had. It was a whole lot of extra work”), he nonetheless created one of the most iconic covers of the decade, if not of all comic book history (Weiss 61).

Adams recalls the tabloid selling better overseas that it did in the United States (Weiss 64). The book had a few aspects working against it; not only did it headline a controversial public figure, but the book’s $2.50 price tag was 50 cents higher than the cost of a typical DC tabloid, as well as over seven times the cost of a typical comic book. In addition, some critics couldn’t get past the innate ridiculousness of a book that paired a super-hero with a professional athlete.

For example, at the time of the book’s release The Comic Journal’s Gary Groth wrote, “The Superman-Ali book is a publicity stunt masquerading as a comic book. It is not so much a comic as a media event… The book is abominable in all areas but one, which is the stunning artwork” (Groth 46). Adams himself, though, ranks Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as one of the best works of his entire career (Cooke 43).

As for the story itself, Denny O’Neil began scripting it but had to stop due to his workload. (In 1977, O’Neil was not only scripting Green Lantern and Richard Dragon but also working as a DC editor on such titles as The Brave and the Bold, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Wonder Woman and World’s Finest, among others.) Adams readily took matters into his own hands and finished what O’Neil had started (Weiss 63).

The Muhammad Ali tabloid was hardly the only special Superman comic event of 1978. Labeled “40th Anniversary issue,” Action Comics #484 (cover date June 1978) offered “Superman Takes a Wife,” written by Cary Bates and drawn by Curt Swan. As its title indicates, the story presented nothing less than the marriage of Superman to Lois Lane. The catch was that the wedded couple hailed from Earth-2. (Throughout the 1970s, DC typically presented the adventures of the Earth-1 Superman, and the Lois Lane of that Earth still didn’t know who mild-mannered Clark Kent really was.)

In Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a menacing alien race, the Scrubb, comes to Earth to demand that its greatest champion fight the Scrubb’s mightiest warrior or else Earth will be destroyed by the Scrubb armada. Both Ali and Superman volunteer to act as Earth’s representative, and the Scrubb leader decides the two must first fight each other to determine who will be Earth’s champion. Brought to an alien world that has a red sun that saps Superman’s powers, Ali decisively pummels Superman. Ali must now confront Hun’Ya, a towering Scrubb warrior. While Ali and Hun’Ya engage in a pitched brawl, a recovered Superman infiltrates the Scrubb command ship and sabotages the alien armada. Just as he predicted before the fight, Ali knocks out Hun’Ya in the fourth round. Outraged, the Scrubb leader orders Earth’s destruction, but he is deposed by Hun’Ya, who feels his former leader has acted dishonorably. Earth is saved, and the book ends with Muhammad Ali shaking Superman’s hand, declaring, “Superman, we are the greatest!”

One month after the release of Action #484, DC gave the Man of Steel a new on-going comic book. Replacing SuperTeam Family on DC’s schedule, the new book was originally meant to be titled Superman Plus. It replicated the format of World’s Finest Comics from earlier in the decade in which Superman was paired with other members of DC’s fictional universe. When it reached newsstands, this new team-up book was titled DC Comics Presents.

The first two issues guest-starred the Flash in a tale written by Marty Neal Adams was aidPasko and drawn ed in his efforts by

by José Luis Gartwo of his Continuity cía-López. Pasko, Studios’ colleagues: though, couldn’t inkers Dick Giordano continue the asand Terry Austin. Aussignment because tin’s background work he had to devote was extraordinarily By story’s end, Muhammad Ali revised his signature boast to include the Man of Steel. TM and © DC Comics. his time to writmeticulous, high244

ing the World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip (Kingman 54). Subsequently, DC Comics Presents’ creative team changed almost as frequently as the fictional guest-stars themselves.

Contributing to the series’ first year were writers David Michelinie, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Steve Englehart and Cary Bates, along with artists Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin and Joe Staton. In that time, Superman teamed-up with Adam Strange, the Metal Men, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Red Tornado, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, and Sgt. Rock. DC Comics Presents instantly became one of DC’s better selling titles as well as a mainstay of its schedule well into the 1980s.

Debuting the same day as DC Comics Presents #1 (April 3, 1978), the World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip brought DC’s costumed greats—principally the Justice League of America— to comics pages for the first time since the ignominious death of the Batman feature in the early 1970s. Envious of the fact that Marvel had two strips in the papers (Amazing Spider-Man and Howard the Duck), DC was anxious to get back in the game and did so none too soon. Howard may have been cancelled on October 29 but Conan the

The World’s Greatest Superheroes— a daily newspaper comic strip starring the Justice League—was written by Marty Pasko and drawn by George Tuska. TM and © DC Comics.

Other notable events of the year included the Earth-2 Superman’s marriage to Lois Lane and a new Superman team-up book, DC Comics Presents. TM and © DC Comics.

Barbarian (September 4, 1978), Marvelous Fun and Games (September 10, 1978) and The Incredible Hulk (October 30, 1978) rose to replace it.

Steve Englehart’s Last Laugh Even though 1978 was Superman’s year, DC’s other flagship character, Batman, had his share of notable exploits. The same month that the Earth-2 Superman married Lois Lane, DC issued Batman #300. The doublelength “The Last Batman Story…?,” written by David V. Reed with art by Walt Simonson and Dick Giordano, presents the Batman and Robin of the near future. After defeating a band of color-coded criminals called the Spectrum, a middle-aged Bruce Wayne tells Dick Grayson that he has been asked by a political party to run for Governor. Simultaneously, Bruce contemplates asking the unidentified “woman he loves” to marry him. He doesn’t know, though, if she would accept his proposal nor does he know whether he will run for office. The story ends with Dick asking Bruce, “And when do I get answers?”

Despite Bruce promising he would provide his answers “tomorrow,” that day never came because the story had no follow-up. Batman #301 (July 1978) brings the Caped Crusader back to the present day, which means neither Robin nor the readers got the op245

portunity to see if the Batman of the future became engaged to be married.

Five months later, readers did get to see Batman tie the knot… in a way.

In a story written by Denny O’Neil, drawn by Michael Golden and Dick Giordano, and titled “I Now Pronounce You Batman and Wife!” (DC Special Series #15), Batman is gassed into unconscious by Ra’s Al Ghul.

When he comes to, he finds himself on a tanker ship with Ra’s pronouncing him married to his daughter, Talia. (According to the practices of Ra’s nation, consent to be married is not needed from the groom, only from the bride and her father.) Ra’s locks the newlywed couple in a stateroom where Batman confesses that Talia is everything he wants in a woman: “beautiful, intelligent, loyal.” But Batman refuses to accept the marriage as legal, so he knocks out Talia to escape the ship. As the story ends, Talia saves Batman’s life, only to leave with her father as his tanker departs Gotham City’s harbor. Batman is left standing on the dock, staring out to sea.

As memorable as that story was, the most enduring Batman tale of the year came earlier, courtesy of writer Steve Englehart and artist Marshall Rogers. That creative team produced a two-issue Joker story that began in Detective Comics #475 (Feb. 1978). In

tion. As they saw it, Len Wein had name recognition that would attract more readers to DC Comics. If Wein were to write under a pseudonym, Detective would lose its marquee creator. Wein mulled the matter over and decided it would be best for everyone if he made a clean break from Marvel (Slifer 93-4). Wein’s pal Marv Wolfman took over FF and Amazing Spider-Man, starting his 1978 run on the latter with a bang by writing Mary Jane Watson out of the series, graduating Peter Parker from college and exonerating Spider-Man in the eyes of the law.

Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’s Detective Comics swan song came in the form of a two issue Joker story known as “The Laughing Fish.” TM and © DC Comics.

novels. Englehart’s replacement on Detective, Len Wein, defected from Marvel to work exclusively for DC.

“The Laughing Fish” the Joker releases a toxin into the world’s oceans that give all fish a devilish grin that resembles his own. The Joker then attempts to copyright the “Joker-Fish” in order to extract a percentage of all fish sales in the world. When informed that his money-making scheme won’t work because a natural resource like fish can’t be copy-written, the Joker threatens to kill every member of the Gotham City Copyright Commission—one by one—until the city capitulates. Of course, Batman springs into action to stop the madman’s massacre.

“The Laughing Fish” (and its concluding chapter, “The Sign of the Joker”) would become recognized as not only one of the best Joker tales of the decade but also of DC’s entire history, reprinted many times over the subsequent years and eventually collected, with other stories, into 1989’s The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told hardcover.

For Steve Englehart, the Joker story was his Detective Comics swan song.

By the time the first issue of his eightissue run on Detective reached newsstands, Englehart had already moved to Mallorca, Spain to focus on writing

Wein was feeling burned out working for Marvel. As he told The Comics Journal in 1979, “I had become obsessively involved with the [Marvel] books. I was watching my books with such a hawk-like eye that I had no sense of perspective on this stuff anymore. I was involved and I was making myself crazy and I realized that I had to take a step back and get involved with something else” (Slifer 93). Upon visiting DC’s offices to see if he could secure some work, he learned about the Detective Comics vacancy and volunteered to take over the title. “There is no bigger Batman fan than I,” Wein confessed (Slifer 93).

At first, Wein intended on continuing his Marvel assignments (Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Thor) while writing Detective. Stan Lee, however, didn’t like the prospect of one of Marvel’s principal writers also working for the “Distinguished Competition.” Unable to convince Wein to return exclusively to Marvel’s fold, Lee offered a compromise: Wein would write Detective under a pseudonym.

Neither Paul Levitz nor Mike Gold was enamored with that sugges246

Wein’s tenure on Detective lasted until issue #479, at which point he was moved over to Batman, beginning with issue #307 (Jan. 1979). Batman would hardly be the only DC title that Wein would contribute to. Indeed, over the next 11 years, Wein would prove to be one of the publisher’s most valuable talents, involved—either as a writer or editor—with practically all of the company’s highest profile series.

DC Comics Explodes In 1977, Jenette Kahn launched the 80 page “Dollar Comics” format. She followed that up in 1978 with a bolder

The “DC Explosion” was promoted in varied, numerous house ads. TM and © DC Comics.

The DC Explosion was preceded by three new titles—Steel: The Indestructible Man, Doorway to Nightmare and Firestorm.

Their respective cover artists were Don Heck & Al Milgrom, Michael Kaluta, and Al Milgrom. TM and © DC Comics.

line-wide initiative. To coincide with the June premiere of Superman: The Movie, every DC standard title would have its story page count increased from 17 to 25 (while the total page count would increase from 36 pages—counting covers—to 44). At the same time, cover prices would increase from 35¢ to 50¢. DC promoted this as “The DC Explosion.” As Kahn explained in her June 1978 “Publishorial,” the Explosion was intended to remedy a few ills. First, it would reverse the industry trend of providing less value for the readers’ money.

Since 1970, the number of new story pages in a standard comic book had steadily decreased from 25 to 17, even though the cover price had increased from 15¢ to 35¢. Consumers were being charged more money for less content. If the cost of a comic book was going to be raised further (and the industry was indeed heading toward the 40¢ price point), Kahn felt readers needed to be properly compensated.

Second, Kahn believed that more story pages meant a creative team would now have the necessary space to produce better stories with “fullydeveloped sub-plots and characterization.” Titles that didn’t offer 25 page stories would have back-up features that spotlighted such fan-favorite characters as Atom and Hawkman (in Action Comics and Detective Comics, respectively). DC would also offer

several titles—Battle Classics, Demand Classics, Dynamic Classics, and Western Classics—that would reprint acclaimed stories from the past (like Jim Shooter’s Legion of Super-Heroes stories and Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson’s Manhunter series). Finally, Kahn hoped—much like Carmine Infantino hoped in 1971 when he increased the cost of DC’s comics from 15¢ to 25¢—that DC’s higher price point would improve distribution by encouraging more newsstand dealers to carry DC’s titles. (Retailers would earn more money through the sale of a DC title than through the sale of a cheaper comic book.)

To clear the deck for the Explosion, DC cancelled several of its lowest-selling titles, among them Freedom Fighters, Karate Kid and Shazam!. They were to be replaced with promised new titles, like ones starring Swamp Thing and a new character named Vixen. To make its readers aware of what was in store for them, DC produced numerous house ads promoting the “DC Explosion”, each ad presenting different new forthcoming features. Several last-minute changes were made, however. When the Superman movie release got pushed back to December, DC postponed various tie-ins, such as a reprint of Superman #1 and a three part “World of Krypton” story that would have appeared in Showcase (Wells 130).

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What didn’t get pushed back was the Explosion itself. As scheduled, it launched in June with 26 titles along with two Dollar Comics (including the recently revamped Adventure Comics which now hosted six different features: Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Deadman, Elongated Man and the New Gods). Unquestionably, DC had very high hopes that the Explosion would be a resounding success, one that would serve as a springboard for further expansion of the line.

Not everyone, though, shared DC’s optimism. For instance, on the eve of the Explosion’s launch, The Comics Journal’s Kim Thompson asked Jim Shooter if Marvel also planned on increasing its comic books to 25 pages for 50¢. Shooter said Marvel had no intentions of following DC’s lead. Quite the contrary, Shooter expressed serious qualms about the reasoning behind DC’s Explosion: “I don’t know why [DC] did that. I can’t figure that out at all. I think that that’s a bad move… I don’t think it’s going to work out the way they have planned it” (Thompson 44).

Shooter’s sentiment would prove prophetic. In very short time the DC Explosion became one of the most notorious events in the history of DC Comics.

DC Comics Implodes

DC Comics Cancellation List

On June 22, 1978, DC Comics’ parent company Warner Communications handed down a drastic order: effective immediately, nearly half of DC’s line was cancelled or indefinitely postponed. That meant a mere three weeks after it began, the DC Explosion was over. In fact, the event would forever be known by a different name, based on a headline that ran in The Comics Journal #41: “The DC Implosion.”

Titles Cancelled in 1977: FF DC Special FF DC Super-Stars FF Hercules Unbound FF Isis FF Plastic Man FF Ragman FF Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter FF Starfire FF Super-Team Family FF Teen Titans FF Young Love FF Welcome Back, Kotter

DC Comics spokesman Mike Gold informed the comics fan press that DC was “renovating” its distribution system because Warner’s executives felt effective newsstand sales were being hindered by a comic book glut: “There are way too many titles coming out for too few people. They can’t get the newsstand exposure” (“The DC Implosion” 5). Going forward, DC’s new strategy would be to improve newsstand sell-through rates by publishing fewer comics and reducing print runs. Beginning with comic books on sale in September (cover date December), DC was dropping its price point to 40¢ and its story page count back to 17.

Titles Cancelled in 1978 Before Cover Price Increase: FF Aquaman FF Challengers of the Unknown FF Claw the Unconquered FF Freedom Fighters FF Karate Kid FF Metal Men FF Mister Miracle FF New Gods FF Secret Society of Super-Villains FF Shade, The Changing Man FF Shazam!

The unspoken reality was that Warner’s executives weren’t happy with DC’s sales. It’s not that they weren’t happy with how the DC Explosion was selling. It would have been impossible to ascertain how the Explosion was selling a mere three weeks after its roll out. Instead, Warner’s executives were alarmed by the downward sales trend from earlier in the year, during the winter. A key factor for the poor sales in those months was the blizzards that wreaked havoc with the distribution of all newsstand products, not just comic books. Warner’s brass, though, didn’t care much about the reasons for the downturn. They just felt the financial losses warranted decisive action.

Titles Cancelled in 1978 After Implosion: FF All-New/Limited Collectors’ Edition FF All-Star Comics FF Army at War FF Batman Family FF Battle Classics FF Black Lightning FF Doorway to Nightmare FF Dynamic Classics FF Firestorm FF Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth FF House of Secrets FF Our Fighting Forces FF Secrets of Haunted House FF Showcase FF Star Hunters FF Steel: The Indestructible Man FF Witching Hour

All told, DC eliminated 24 titles from its lineup: 17 existing titles and 7 titles that were scheduled to be released later in the year. One of the latter was Starslayer, a series Mike Grell created about a Celtic warrior from the age of the Roman Empire who gets transported into the far future. One of the former was a new comic book that had only reached its fifth issue by the time of its cancellation: Firestorm. Cocreated by Gerry Conway and artist Al Milgrom, Firestorm was a unique super-hero in that he had an integrated dual identity. An explosion in a nuclear power plant fuses high school student Ronnie Raymond and physicist Professor Martin Stein. They become a “nuclear man,” able to rearrange the atomic structure of inanimate objects. In other words, Firestorm can turn automobiles into water or brick walls into thin air. Because Stein was unconscious at the time of the explosion, Ronnie dominates Firestorm’s persona, in control of all decisions and actions. Stein operates as a background voice of reason and advice (which Ronnie often ignores, much to Stein’s chagrin). When Firestorm separates into his two civilian identities, Stein is unable to remember any super-heroic exploits.

Titles Cancelled Before Publication: FF Demand Classics FF Deserter FF Starslayer FF Strange Adventures FF Swamp Thing FF Western Classics FF Vixen

For Conway, Firestorm was practically a return to his days writing Amazing Spider-Man in that both super-hero titles featured a young male protagonist with an expansive supporting cast. But while Conway’s Spider-Man run was marked with tragic angst (like the death of Gwen Stacy), his Firestorm stories presented more lighthearted adven248

tures. Firestorm even reversed SpiderMan’s heroic trope: whereas Peter Parker was a genius constantly being bullied by his school’s star athlete, Flash Thompson, Ronnie Raymond was an athlete constantly being bullied by his school’s star genius, Cliff Carmichael. Unfortunately, Conway would now have to wait before gaining the opportunity to further develop his new super-hero.

Another title marked for cancellation by the Implosion was the one that gave DC Comics its name: Detective Comics. In 1978, it was DC’s lowestselling Batman title and, therefore, ripe for purging. Fortunately, Mike Gold suggested a way to save DC’s most venerable comic book by merging it with the better selling Batman Family. With issue #481 (Dec. 1978/ Jan. 1979), Detective Comics became a 64 page Dollar Comic, released bimonthly and with a “Batman Family” sub-heading on its cover.

Of course, comic books weren’t the only casualties of the Implosion.

When a publisher’s line is cut in half, a lot of people inevitably lose their jobs. When asked about the Implosion more than 30 years after it occurred, Jenette Kahn admitted that what she remembered most was “the human toll,” the people that DC had to let go (Greenberger 16). Fired immediately were editors Larry Hama and Al Milgrom. (They had been DC’s

By submitting the in-house photocopied Cancelled Comic Cavalcade to the U.S. Copyright Office, DC secured the rights to unpublished characters like Vixen (above). TM and © DC Comics.

Right: in order to save the venerable Detective Comics from cancellation, DC merged it with Batman Family. TM and © DC Comics.

most recently hired editors, and as the saying goes, “last hired, first fired.”) Joining them were production artist Steve Mitchell and public relations assistant Paul Kupperberg, among others.

Simultaneous to their dismissal, various freelancers were notified that their assignments had been cancelled. Their completed contributions to the “DC Explosion”—including Black Lightning #12, Firestorm #6, and The Vixen #1, among others—were subsequently reproduced by DC staffers as two black-and-white photocopied issues of an in-house publication titled Cancelled Comic Cavalcade (an homage to DC’s 1940s anthology series Comic Cavalcade). Very few original copies of CCC #1 and #2 exist because they were distributed solely to the creators of the unpublished work and to the U.S. Copyright office (in order to secure DC’s ownership of new characters intended to be introduced in the Explosion).

Undoubtedly, receiving such a rare comic book was no consolation to the freelancers who now all had to petition other publishers for work. But by 1978, the prospect of gainful employment in the comic book industry was as dismal as ever because very few publishers remained in operation.

For that reason, the staffers and freelancers who escaped the Implosion’s firing line had to have breathed a collective sigh of relief. Alex Saviuk, for instance, had been drawing DC comic books—mainly Green Lantern—for less than a year when the Implosion occurred. His lack of seniority convinced him that he would be let go.

Much to Saviuk’s surprise, his editor, Jack C. Harris, informed him that not 249

only that he would remain on Green Lantern but also that of all the new freelance artists that DC had recently employed, Saviuk was the only one DC would continue to use (Dallas 92).

Similarly, when Harris walked into the office of DC’s proofreader—Mike W. Barr—he closed the door behind him and shook Barr’s hand. “Congratulations,” Harris said, “we get to stay” (Barr 72).

But even among staffers who remained employed, office morale was low, especially since rumors abounded that another shoe was going to drop. One circulated story had Warner shutting down the publication of all new comic books with only Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman continued as reprint books in order to maintain newsstand space and merchandising interest (Barr 73). Given the fact that Charlton Comics and Harvey Comics were largely doing that in 1978, the idea wasn’t unthinkable. DC’s employees had speculations like these preoccupying their thoughts in the days and weeks following the Implosion.

Because a new wave of firings could happen at any time, Barr observed that DC’s offices became less informal and more buttoned down. The days

dwelling “Hall of Doom” headquarters resembled Darth Vader’s helmet).

According to the show’s opening credits, the Legion of Doom was “banded together from remote galaxies.” More accurately, they were plucked from the pages of DC Comics and consisted of Bizarro, Black Manta, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Brainiac, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy and Toyman.

The third version of the Super Friends cartoon—Challenge of the Superfriends—expanded its cast of heroes (and villains) considerably. TM and © DC Comics.

of festivities like the monthly bagel birthday party were over. Now everyone was focused on their work tasks (Barr 79-80).

Not long after the Implosion, DC’s entire staff met to determine assignments for the contractually-secured freelancers. DC was left with a pared down roster of 20 monthly comic books and 6 bi-monthly Dollar Comics, to be managed by four full-time editors (Julius Schwartz, Paul Levitz, Jack C. Harris and newly-hired Ross Andru) and two part-time ones (Joe Kubert and Murray Boltinoff). Julius Schwartz was put in charge of the four Superman books—Action Comics, DC Comics Presents, Superman and Superman Family—as well as Super Friends while Paul Levitz bore the heaviest editorial workload: eight titles including the three Batman series—Batman, The Brave and the Bold and Detective Comics.

By August 1978, Mike Gold quit his public relations position at DC and returned to Chicago. Upon leaving, he offered this dire prediction to the fan press, “The 32-page comic will be extinct in five years, and there will be fewer titles around; in all probability only the titles such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and maybe Conan” (“Gold Leaves DC” 9).

Mike Gold was hardly the only professional who foretold the imminent demise of the comic book industry.

Challenge of the Superfriends On September 9, 1978, the third incarnation of Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends premiered on ABC television.

Originally conceived as “Battle of the Superheroes,” Challenge of the Superfriends united the five original Super Friends (Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman) with three super-heroes well known to DC Comics readers (Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman) along with three ethnic characters who debuted as guest stars in the 1977 version of the cartoon (Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and Samurai). One year after they debuted in The All-New Super Friends Hour, the Wondertwins—a.k.a. Zan and Jayna—were out (although they would continue to appear in the program’s second segment).

The show was also supposed to introduce Captain Marvel as a new Super Friend. His arch-nemesis, Dr. Sivana, would have served as the leader of “The League of Evil,” whose membership included other Captain Marvel foes like Beautia Sivana, Mr. Atom and King Kull as well as famous Batman opponents like the Joker, Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Catwoman (Nobleman). Hanna-Barbera soon discovered, however, that Filmation had already secured the licensing rights to Captain Marvel and all the villains. So instead of Dr. Sivana and his League of Evil, Challenge of the Superfriends presented Lex Luther as the leader of “The Legion of Doom” (whose swamp250

Arguably, Challenge of the Superfriends became comic book readers’ most cherished version of the Super Friends cartoon, not only because it incorporated so many recognizable characters from DC’s fictional universe but also because it depicted a similar kind of super-heroic action that comic books presented. Unlike previous seasons, Challenge of the Superfriends relied less on didacticism and more on conflict. Displays of violence (e.g. fisticuffs, gunplay, wanton destruction, etc.) were still verboten on network cartoons, but many of the episodes, as written by Jeffrey Scott, demonstrated a keen creativity. For instance, in “Fairy Tale of Doom,” Toyman invents a device that can project people into the pages of storybooks.

He uses it to trap Hawkman, Wonder Woman and Superman in the fairy tale worlds of Jack and the Beanstalk, Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver’s Travels.

ABC’s Challenge of the Superfriends and NBC’s Fantastic Four were the most prominent super-hero presences on the Fall 1978 TV schedule but they were far from alone. CBS boasted a ninety-minute bloc called Tarzan and the Super Seven, an expansion of the previous season’s show that ran animated adventures of the legendary ape-man back-to-back with those of Batman. Added to the new mix were shorts featuring the Freedom Force (including former live-action heroine Isis), and derivative heroes like Manta & Moray, Superstretch & Microwoman and Web Woman (the last of whom was the character whose impending development prompted Marvel’s creation of Spider-Woman).

Meanwhile, NBC’s live-action Krofft Supershow made the leap from TV to comics when Gold Key picked up the license for a six-issue series in 1978 featuring the likes of Kaptain Kool

and the Kongs, Bigfoot and Wildboy, Magic Mongo, and Wonderbug. Gold Key also regained the rights to the King Features’ properties that it had lost in 1966. Continuing the numbering where they’d left off at Charlton, Beetle Bailey #120 and Popeye #139 both went on sale early in 1978 while Flash Gordon #19 followed in the summer.

Although its venerable Space Family Robinson title had been cancelled in 1977, Gold Key brought the cast back in Gold Key Champion #1 to clear out an episode left in inventory. A second issue of Champion performed similar duties for Mighty Samson but the catch-all series never continued past that point. Filled out with 1960s reprints, the series had been a 48-page, 50¢ title mirroring the size of the DC Explosion titles. During the same three months as DC’s expansion, Gold Key promoted Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #84-86 and Ripley’s Believe It or Not #81-83 to the 50¢ format but then reverted them to 35¢ in the fall.

Gold Key had also intended to upgrade its Star Trek comic book to 48 pages in anticipation of the Star Trek: Phase II television series in development. When the TV plans were abandoned, the comics publisher dropped the idea.

Even as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry turned his attention to the big screen, Gold Key looked to movies for inspiration. Noting the phenomenal popularity of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind since its November 1977 release, the publisher wasted little time in reviving its old UFO and Flying Saucers title under the new name of UFO & Outer Space with issue #14 in early 1978.

Under Western Publishing’s Golden Press imprint, Gold Key also reissued stories from the original 1968-1976 series in a pair of UFO Encounters trade paperbacks for the chain store market.

The popularity of Steven Spielberg’s 1977 science-fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind inevitably led to it being spoofed by comic magazines like Crazy, Cracked and Mad. Crazy #38 cover art by Bob Larkin.

Crazy TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

also featured David Anthony Kraft, George Pérez and Klaus Janson’s “The Beatles Story” in 1978). Along with 1977 latecomers like Close Encounters and Saturday Night Fever, 1978 was a blockbuster year at the movies with films like Grease, National Lampoon’s Animal House, Every Which Way But Loose, and Halloween among those vying for consumers’ dollars. As far as many comic book fans were concerned, though, the best had been saved for last.

Close Encounters was inevitably referenced in comics stories from other publishers, ranging from Life With Archie #194 and Wonder Woman #242 to the outright farce of Crazy #38, Cracked #152 and Mad #200. Only Marvel had the rights to adapt the movie itself and Archie Goodwin, Walter Simonson and Klaus Janson did so in issue #3 of the magazine-sized Marvel Comics Super-Special (a series that

You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly Superman: The Movie reached theaters on December 15, 1978, culminating a long (and often counterproductive) moviemaking process. Although film rights were secured in 1974 and Mario Puzo had delivered his script in late 1975, principal photography didn’t commence until March 1977, a couple of months after producers Alexander and Iyla Salkind hired director Richard Donner, hot from his successful helming of the horror film The Omen.

While Marvel provided the official adaptation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, other publishers used the film as inspiration for their own comics. TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Close Encounters of the Third Kind TM and © Columbia Pictures.

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At the Salkinds’ request, Bonnie and Clyde screenwriters Robert Benton and David Newman carved Puzo’s 400 page script in half in order to create scripts for not only the first Superman movie but also its sequel. Both Superman movies would be filmed simultaneously, thereby saving the producers considerable money. Donner, however, found the revised scripts still overly long as well as unnecessarily tongue-in-cheek. In one scene Superman confronts a bald man he believes is Lex Luthor. Upon turning around, the bald man reveals his true identity;

TM and © Warner Bros.

from June 1978 to December. All the while, the Salkinds were frantic over the rising production costs. They had originally promised their creditors they could make two Superman movies for $20 million. As 1978 progressed, they realized they had spent over $50 million just to make one movie (although filming for the second movie was mostly finished). For months on end, Donner and the Salkinds fought over the film’s budget and schedule until finally, the producers had enough; they ordered Donner to stop filming. The first Superman movie was originally intended to end on a cliffhanger that would have led directly into the sequel, but without any assurances that the first film would recover the tens of millions of dollars that had already been spent, the Salkinds put the sequel on hold. Donner was instructed to give the first movie appropriate closure.

Bolstered by a rousing John Williams score, Superman: The Movie begins with Superman’s origin: Jor-El places his infant son, Kal-El, in a rocket ship to escape the destruction of Krypton. When Kal-El lands on Earth, he is discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent, two farmers from Kansas who adopt the extraterrestrial orphan and name him Clark Kent.

After Pa Kent’s death, the teenaged Clark finds a shard of Kryponite which compels him to travel to the wasteland of the Arctic Circle. There, the shard constructs a crystal Fortress of Solitude. Via interactive holograms, Kal-El “meets” his Kryptonian father who spends a dozen years educating his son on his legacy and his latent super-powers. When Kal-El emerges from the Fortress, he is Superman (played by relative newcomer Christopher Reeve). Rather than adhere to the traditional interpretation of the Man of Steel as a foreign immigrant aspiring to assimilate into American society, Superman: The Movie instead presents its hero as a Christ-like figure. He is the Son delivered to Earth by Jor-El (who completes the Holy Trinity by serving as both the Father and the Holy Ghost) to inspire humanity.

it’s actor Telly Savalas who promptly delivers the line that viewers of the Kojak television show knew all too well: “Who loves ya, baby?” (Arnold). Donner tasked his friend, Tom Mankiewicz—whose résumé included three James Bond films—with writing a tighter, camp-free script (Rossen 69).

Because of the exorbitant salaries given to actors Marlon Brando (portraying Superman’s father, Jor-El) and Gene Hackman (portraying Lex Luthor), among other preproduction costs, the Salkinds had practically blown their entire budget before filming even began (Rossen 86-7). Donner’s extended shoot then pushed back the movie’s release date

Superman: The Movie publicity photos of Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent, Margot Kidder as Lois Lane and Jackie Cooper as Perry White. TM and © Warner Bros.

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The film’s lofty religious overtones are sublimated within a naturalistic presentation. Indeed, the film’s first words after the opening credits, spoken by Jor-El, are “this is no fantasy.” From the start of the movie’s production, Donner strove for verisimilitude. It became the

mantra he beat into his cast and crew. He even went so far as to hang signs that read “verisimilitude” in every office (Rossen 71-2). In other words, he wanted the actors to play everything “straight,” as if Superman could be a real person. To reinforce the spirit of credibility, Superman: The Movie came with the tagline “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly.” Donner’s approach meant the film was devoid of the kind of camp absurdity that mainstream audiences normally associated with super-hero narratives (thanks to the popularity of the 1960s Batman television show). Donner’s commitment to verisimilitude did not mean, however, that Superman: The Movie takes itself too seriously. It does have its fair share of comic relief (mostly in the form of Lex Luthor abusing his bumbling henchman, Otis, played by Ned Beatty), and it does present plenty of super-heroic magic.

Arguably, the film’s most thrilling sequence comes when Superman flies the Metropolis skies for the first time. In order, the Man of Steel rescues Lois Lane from a skyscraper plummet, captures a jewel thief, stops an escaping gang of robbers, retrieves a cat from a tree, and finally, saves a disabled Air Force One. By movie’s end, Superman thwarts Lex Luthor’s plan to redirect a nuclear missile into the San Andreas Fault to cause half of California to fall into the Pacific Ocean. Against his father’s explicit orders, Superman also travels back in time to reverse Lois Lane’s death (a plot device that was originally meant for the end of the second Superman movie).

The Salkinds’ fears of a box office flop proved completely baseless as Superman: The Movie earned over $134 million domestically. The only movie that performed better that year was the John Travolta-Olivia Newton John musical, Grease, which earned almost $160 million. Besides making a lot of money, Superman: The Movie also earned praise from some of the nation’s most renowned film critics. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert, for instance, called it “a pure delight” (Ebert). Many commentators from the comic book fan press were equally impressed. The Comic Reader’s Mike Tiefenbacher declared, “Hopefully, this movie will become a benchmark for further super-hero productions” (10).

TM and © Warner Bros.

(Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing).

While not winning in any of those categories, the film was presented with a Special Achievement Academy Award for Special Effects. But beyond the awards, the box office receipts and the accolades, Superman: The Movie also achieved something else: it inspired a future generation of super-hero fans and professionals. Case in point: Jamal Igle, who told American Comic Book Chronicles, “Superman: The Movie was figuratively the ‘gateway drug’ that made me interested in super-heroes as a whole and Superman as a character. It came along at a time when my parents were divorcing and as a five year old, I retreated into a shell that my family had a hard time getting me out of. Christopher Reeve’s Superman became the surrogate father for an entire generation of kids who wanted to look to the skies for something more.” Sixteen years after the release of Superman: The Movie, Igle made his debut as a professional artist with DC Comics.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences subsequently nominated Superman: The Movie for three Oscars

Unfortunately, the one thing Superman: The Movie didn’t do was reverse the comic book industry’s sales trend. Fewer comic books were sold in 1978 than in 1977 and even fewer comic books would be sold in 1979 than in 1978 (Tolworthy). If the industry was going to be saved, it was going to take more than a blockbuster super-hero movie. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the industry’s saviors was already in charge of the industry’s largest publishing company.

After playing the toddler Kal-El in Superman The Movie, young Aaron Smolinski returned for a cameo with Christopher Reeve in 1983’s Superman III. TM and © Warner Bros.

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1979

Post-Implosion

Malaise

1979 was a watershed year for comics. On the heels of 1978’s “DC Implosion,” professionals openly debated the state of the industry with the consensus being that comics were on their last legs. That fatalism even spread to the people selling comic books. Pioneering comics retailer Chuck Rozanski told Marvel Comics President Jim Galton in 1979, “Given the trends that I’m currently seeing as a retailer, I have grave doubts as to whether the comics industry is going to survive more than a couple more years.

What I really want is for you to convince me that Marvel isn’t about to go out of business” (Rozanski, “Chuck Goes to New York”).

At the end of a decade that brought a steady stream of new creators to an ever-increasing number of titles, the DC Implosion stopped that boom with a resounding thud.

Truth be told, though, the crash was inevitable, as an everincreasing number of comics titles were chasing an everdecreasing amount of comics sales.

Marvel focused mainly on publishing licensed comics that had built-in audiences while Galton and Stan Lee pushed to invest in a permanent partnership with the DePatie-Freleng animation studio as a way to diversify the company.

At other publishers, staff morale was abysmal. Creators didn’t know how long they would be able to continue to work in the medium they loved. In an industry that had essentially been taken over by fans, that pessimism hit especially hard.

The events in the comics industry paralleled depressing days in America. Near the end of 1979, the country’s inflation rate exceeded 13%, one of the highest rates in the nation’s history. Homes sold—if they sold at all—at doubledigit mortgage rates, and the United States was in a deep financial recession. That meant that luxuries had to be cut in American households. Even at 40¢, comics were priced too high to sustain readership. Besides, readers received 22 pages of comics for their 15¢ in 1970, but they only received 17 pages of story for over two-and-a-half times that price in 1979.

That type of price hike affected many industries in America. Gasoline cost 36¢ per gallon in 1970 and 86¢ per gallon in 1979. The average new home price rose from $26,600 to $71,800. A first-class stamp rose from 6¢ to 15¢. However, average American household income only doubled in that era, meaning that wages rose slower than inflation. In light of all the challenges America was facing that year, President Jimmy Carter made a televised speech to the country

CHAPTER TEN 254

on July 15 in which he expressed existential despair about the future of the country. He stated that the nation’s problems stemmed from a deep “fundamental threat to American democracy.” The crisis had led to domestic turmoil and “the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.” This became known as the “Malaise Speech.”

Nobody could expect that the worst was yet to come: on November 4, 1979, a group of revolutionaries in Iran, furious at America’s imperialistic support for the despotic Shah and under orders from the Islamist Ayatollah, seized hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran. As the holiday season progressed, the hostage crisis became an American obsession as well as a symbol of both Jimmy Carter’s weakness and the loss of American influence throughout the world. Oddly, the comics industry had a small part in resolving one aspect of the hostage crisis.

Nine days after the hostage crisis began, former California Governor Ronald Reagan announced his intention to run for President. Upon his election in 1980, he would become one of the most popular and controversial American Presidents. Meanwhile, in New York Jim Shooter continued to consolidate his plans for the growth of Marvel Comics.

Though he would achieve his greatest success in the 1980s, the roots of Shooter’s triumph began with a handful of fanacclaimed runs in 1979.

A Truly Great New Artist Explodes Like a Bombshell On the splash page of Daredevil #158 (May 1979), a typically breathless bit of Marvel hype greeted the reader: “From time to time a truly great new artist will explode upon the Marvel scene like a bombshell! Ramblin’ Roger McKenzie, Kinky Klaus Janson, Joe Rosen, Geo. Roussos, Amiable Al Milgrom & Jim (Trouble) Shooter confidently predict newcomer – lanky Frank Miller is just such an artist!” And while many readers likely believed that caption was just typical Marvel bombast, it also proved prophetic.

Artist Frank Miller’s big break came when he was assigned to Daredevil, starting with issue #158. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

vel, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter recognized that the inexperienced artist truly had talent. Miller’s first Marvel work appeared in John Carter, Warlord of Mars #18 (Nov. 1978) and then, fortuitously, he was assigned to draw Spectacular Spider-Man #27 and #28 (Feb.-March 1979), a two-part storyline guest-starring Daredevil.

The fifth of seven kids raised in Montpelier, Vermont, Miller was a lifelong comics fan. He had a letter published in the pages of The Cat #3 (April 1973), and he wrote and drew stories for various fanzines and APAs during his high school years in the mid-1970s. Wanting to become a professional comic book artist, Miller showed his work to Neal Adams… and the legendary creator let the novice know everything he was doing wrong. Miller accepted the feedback and worked to improve his artistry. Miller kept bringing his new samples to Adams, and Adams kept offering more criticism. Finally, Miller decided he needed to go ahead and commit himself to becoming a professional. With little money, he moved to New York City and in his own words, “started making a nuisance of myself at the comic book publishers” (Decker 72).

Photo of Frank Miller at the 1982 San Diego Comic Con. Courtesy of Alan Light.

Before long, Frank Miller got his big break. Gene Colan had become the new regular penciller on Daredevil, starting with issue #153 (July 1978). The artist had produced a definitive Daredevil run from 1966 to 1973, but his second tenure on the title proved far less distinguished. After drawing only four issues, Colan begged off the book. Miller saw a golden opportunity to attach himself to a series that he could mold into his interests, specifically crime noir.

He explained, “When Gene Colan left Daredevil, I realized it was my secret to do crime comics with a superhero in them. And so I lobbied for the title” (Lovece).

Letting Miller take over Daredevil was a risk because the artist had no history of handling an on-going assignment, not even one that was published bi-monthly like Daredevil was at the time. But Shooter was impressed enough with Miller’s work that he wanted to give him a chance to turn around a struggling title, “I got Frank Miller on Daredevil

His first professional work came in 1978 with stories in Gold Key’s Twilight Zone and DC’s Weird War Tales. When Miller called on Mar255

TIMELINE: 1979

April 9: Originally intended to appear in Showcase before the “Implosion” cancelled the series, the first issue of World of Krypton—written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Howard Chaykin, Alan Kupperberg, and Murphy Anderson—arrive on newsstand. Preset as a three issue title, World of Krypton is the first comic book “mini-series.”

A compilation of the year’s notable comic book history events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular culture and historical events.

(On sale dates are approximations.)

January 16: Marvel’s Canadian super-hero team Alpha Flight makes its debut in the pages of X-Men #120, written by Chris Claremont with art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

JANUARY

March 28: Mechanical failures and human errors nearly cause a nuclear reactor meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. Some radioactive water and gases are released causing thousands of residents living near the plant to evacuate.

FEBRUARY

May: Vince Colletta resigns as DC Comics’ Art Director to become a freelance inker again.

May 3: In Great Britain’s general elections, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher is chosen to become the country’s first female Prime Minister.

June: Mattel, Inc. purchases Western Publishing Co., parent company of Gold Key Comics which in 1979 had licenses to properties such as Buck Rogers, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Flash Gordon, Mickey Mouse, the Pink Panther, Popeye, Turok Son of Stone, and Uncle Scrooge, among many others.

June 11: Actor John Wayne dies of cancer at the age of 72.

June 18: In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev sign the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty which, among other things, sets a ceiling on long-range bombers and missiles.

MARCH

APRIL

M AY May 25: In the nation’s worst domestic air disaster, an American Airlines DC-10 crashes during takeoff at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, killing 273 people.

January 30: Artist Frank Miller begins his seminal run on Daredevil with issue #158.

May: Colorado retailer Chuck Rozanski meets with Jim Galton, Ed Shukin and Jim Shooter. As a result of the meeting, Marvel Comics offers to allow anyone to become a Direct Market distributor of its comic books on the condition that $3000 worth of product is purchased every month. Many take up Marvel on its offer.

JUNE June 22: Alien—a sci-fi horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver— opens in movie theaters.

June 29: James Bond goes to outer space in Moonraker, the fourth movie to star Roger Moore as British secret agent 007.

Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, Superman TM and © DC Comics. ROM The Spaceknight TM and © Hasbro. Daredevil, X-Men TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Star Trek TM and © Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Demon in a Bottle While Frank Miller was adding urban realism to Daredevil, writer David Michelinie and artists John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton were adding a different kind of realism to the pages of Iron Man. They made billionaire Tony Stark an alcoholic.

Iron Man was the first on-going assignment for John Romita Jr., but even though he was the son of Marvel’s Art Director, Romita Jr. wasn’t handed the job out of nepotism.

He had to earn his assignment. He spent 18 months working as a production assistant, making photocopies, doing art corrections and drawing pin-ups for Marvel’s British department (Khoury 11). During this time, Romita Jr. also drew a six page backup story for 1977’s Amazing SpiderMan Annual #11. Having paid his dues, John Romita Jr. was finally asked to do art breakdowns on Iron Man, starting with issue #115 (Oct. 1978).

Daredevil battles Death-Stalker in a scene from Frank Miller’s first issue on the title.

Daredevil TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

as penciler around the same time Roger McKenzie started writing it. For a while, every day or so, the financial officer and/or the circulation VP would insist to me that the book, one of our lowest sellers, ought to be cancelled. I argued to keep it, on the grounds that this ‘Miller kid’ was great, and that the book would catch on” (Mithra).

Michelinie and Layton arrived on the title one month later.

They had worked together at DC on Claw the Unconquered and Star Hunters but both men had left the company before the books were cancelled due to the Implosion. Jim Shooter offered the duo the chance to take over one of Marvel’s poorest-selling books. “That was the only way you got work back then,” Bob Layton explained in an interview for American Comic Book Chronicles. “One of the books offered

Miller’s noir-influenced style delivered a new approach to the Marvel line, presenting an urban landscape that was far less escapist and far closer to the street-level fear that many New Yorkers felt during that era. As the industry moved into the 1980s, and Miller moved into the writing chores on the series, Daredevil changed from a low-selling comic to a genuine phenomenon that would revolutionize the industry.

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July 1: The U.S. Treasury releases the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, the first U.S. coin to honor a woman.

September: Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter fires Rick Marschall as Marvel’s Special Projects Editor, replacing him with Archie Goodwin.

August 10: Pop musician Michael Jackson releases his first solo album Off the Wall. It would sell seven million copies in the United States alone.

September 4: ROM #1—starring an alien cyborg based on a Parker Brothers toy— arrives at newsstands with a story written

by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Sal Buscema.

November 4: The U.S. Embassy in Teheran is taken over by militant followers of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. The militants hold 52 Americans hostage, demanding the return of Iran’s former ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for trial. The crisis ends 444 days later (January 20, 1981) when the hostages are released on the day Ronald Reagan is inaugurated President.

December 3: A rock concert performed by The Who at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum turns tragic when 11 attendees die of asphyxiation as a result of a stampede to enter the arena.

December 27: Soviet forces invade Afghanistan in order to change that country’s regime.

The Soviets will spend the next nine years fighting the Islamist Mujahideen before withdrawing.

J U LY

AUGUST

OCTOBER

September 7: The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, ESPN, makes its cable TV debut with SportsCenter, hosted

by George Grande and Lee Leonard.

July 15: President Jimmy Carter delivers his “malaise” speech in which he declares America is suffering “a crisis of confidence.”

July 11: Solar storms cause Skylab, an abandoned U.S. space station, to prematurely descend to Earth. As it burns up in the atmosphere, Skylab showers debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

SEPTEMBER

October 22: The Legion of Super-Heroes goes solo when Superboy flies off to his own book in issue #259.

August 15: Apocalypse Now—Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitious adaptation of Heart of Darkness starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall as Vietnam War soldiers—opens in movie theaters.

to us was Ghost Rider, and I don’t know what the third one was because after he said Iron Man, I was done. I said ‘we’ll take it’ because my whole life I wanted to get my hands on Iron Man.” Michelinie wasn’t familiar with the character, but he trusted his collaborator.

From the start, Michelinie and Layton acted as co-plotters and decided to add realistic conflict to the life of Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. Along with the standard pitched battles against super-villains, the creative team added several layers of additional strife to Stark’s life. During 1979, S.H.I.E.L.D. was actively working to take over Stark Industries in order to get it to produce more munitions and military grade material. Thus, Tony was essentially forced to deal with a coup organized by his longtime friend, Nick Fury. In addition, Stark was evicted from his upscale apartment because his neighbors were constantly afraid of attacks. Maybe most significantly,

Iron Man was framed for a murder that he didn’t commit, which led to tense confrontations with police and other authority figures. Ultimately acquitted of the killing, the hero nevertheless had to deal with scandal being attached to his name. To cope with his problems, Stark began to drink… heavily. The first hint of the hero’s passion for alcohol comes in Iron Man #117 (Dec. 1978), in which he ponders at a black-tie party, “the only way I’m getting through this is with a little bubbly.” At the same party he begins a tempestuous affair with the lovely security consultant Bethany Cabe. By Iron Man #120 (March 1979), Stark has begun to hit the bottle hard, downing at least four martinis on board an airplane, muttering to himself, “after all, I’m drinking for two men,” a coy allusion to his second life as Iron Man. In issue #123 (June 1979), Cabe evinces worry that her boyfriend is drinking too much, telling him, “don’t you think you’ve had enough? You need to unwind but 257

NOVEMBER

November 5: Al Capp, cartoonist best known for his Li’l Abner comic strip, dies of emphysema at the age of 70.

DECEMBER

December 7: Star Trek: The Motion Picture— starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the rest of the 1960s television show cast—opens in movie theatres.

couldn’t we find some... other way?”

But billionaire playboys are given a long leash, and Stark was seen just as a hedonist engaging in drinking and an active sex life to balance his thriving business. That is, until Tony hit bottom.

In Iron Man #128 (Nov. 1978), Stark confronts his “demon in a bottle” and finds that his personal problems are far more difficult to overcome than the threats of villains like Whiplash and the Melter. The cover of that fateful issue presents an image the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Green Lantern #85 (Aug.-Sept. 1971), in which Green Arrow’s ward Speedy was exposed as a heroin addict. Readers were shown the unusual image of a sweating and unshaven Tony Stark confronting himself in the mirror with a bottle of Canadian Club whiskey to his right and his Iron Man mask to his left. Clearly, the hero was going through some real pain in his life.

This was the first time that the title character of a comic book was shown as a substance abuser. And though the plotline was provocative, Michelinie and Layton were given the freedom to do what they wanted. For one thing, Iron Man wasn’t a strong seller so there was little that the creative team could do to make sales worse. For another, the creators were trusted to produce a storyline that grew organically out of the problems that Tony Stark was going through. As Layton recalls, “I think we presented it in such a way that it made sense. As long as we didn’t have Tony vomiting on camera or taking a piss on a flower pot in the lobby of Stark International, we were going to be fine” (Johnson).

Iron Man’s creative team of David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. pitted Tony Stark against his most formidable enemy: alcoholism. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

As the issue begins, Stark soliloquizes to his helmet in much the same way that Hamlet soliloquizes to Yorick’s skull, listing all of his recent flaws as he sips courage from a crystal glass.

After three pages of moping, Stark flies out his office window – forgetting to open it – and proceeds to the site of a train derailment – where he makes a stupid mistake and accidentally exposes the area to toxic gas.

Finally, Bethany Cabe steps in and tells Tony the terrible story of her exhusband, a man who seemed to be completely successful but who had an addiction to pills – a problem that eventually killed him, as he drove himself off a bridge one tragic night.

In a fury, Bethany demands that Tony take steps to handle his alcoholism and after a tense moment in which he’s tempted by a bottle of whiskey, the hero finally agrees to kick his habit.

For days, Bethany helps Tony through his withdrawal until finally, he starts to triumph over his addiction. In the story’s dramatic denouement, the hero stands at the bar in his office, bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand.

Stark wants nothing more than to toss back a drink, but Bethany pleads with him to stop himself. If Tony drinks, he won’t just lose his business. He’ll lose everything that makes him a good person, including her love. In the end, he puts the bottle back on the shelf.

The final page shows Bethany driving her sports car into the sunset. Sitting in the passenger seat, Stark says, “I’m going to win.”

Along with revitalizing Iron Man and giving Tony Stark a complex life, the team of Michelinie and Layton also introduced one of Iron Man’s most important supporting characters, as his friend, aide and confidant James Rhodes made his first appearance in Iron Man #118 (Jan. 1979). Rhodey was established as a former Marine

In this panel from Iron Man #128 Bethany Cabe helps Tony Stark through the suffering of addiction withdrawal.

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ica.) Snowbird was created at around the same time, while Shaman, then called Chinook, only had weather-controlling powers.

Byrne conceived the rest of the team for the X-Men two-partner.

He explains:

who served in Vietnam and he would quickly charge into action time and again in order to help his friend.

In a two-part storyline in Marvel Premiere #47 and #48 (April-May 1979), Michelinie and Layton (with penciled art by John Byrne) present a different twist on an original member of the Avengers. In that issue, Scott Lang dons a familiar-looking suit and inhales Hank Pym’s shrinking gas to become Ant-Man. Unusual for comics, Lang was a reformed burglar – not a man unjustly accused of a crime but a real, convicted criminal – who was a single dad when he wasn’t working for Tony Stark. Though Lang didn’t receive his own solo series after his try-out, he did become a recurring character in the Marvel Universe.

“When I was assigned the gig of penciling Uncanny X-Men, Photo of John Byrne that Chris Claremont mentioned originally appeared in The that Dave Cockrum had an Comics Journal #60. idea that the Canadian government probably would not be too thrilled to see their multi-million dollar investment—Wolverine—head south as had so many other Canadian resources. Surely, he suggested, Ottawa would send somebody, perhaps even a team, to get him back. This sounded like a great idea, to me, and, of course, I had just the characters to do it…. Since Marvel at that time was publishing Guardians of the Galaxy the Powers That Were nixed the name Guardian, and since my backup, the Canadian Shield, was equally problematic in the Marvel Universe, he was without a name for

Heroes from Canada Wolverine’s past was a deep mystery in X-Men comics throughout the 1970s and ’80s. His personal details were revealed only bit by bit over the years, frequently tantalizing readers. One of the most important elements of the feral hero’s story emerged in a two-part arc in X-Men #120 and #121 (April-May 1979) with the introduction of Canada’s super-team, Alpha Flight. On the first page of X-Men #120, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau discusses Wolverine with the superhero known as Vindicator, who had previously been featured in X-Men #109 (Feb. 1978) as a member of a shadowy Canadian super-team devoted to returning Wolverine to his home country. In issue #120, the membership (and name) of that team is revealed. Alpha Flight included: •

James MacDonald Hudson, a.k.a. Vindicator, an engineer who wears a battle suit of his own design that can enable him to fly, fire energy blasts and project a protective force field.

• Jean-Paul Beaubier, a.k.a. Northstar, an Olympic skier with super-speed and light powers; • Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen, a.k.a. Shaman, a Native American physician with sorcerous powers; • Corporal Anne McKenzie, a.k.a. Snowbird, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force who can morph into animals from Northern Canada; • Dr. Walter Langkowski, a.k.a. Sasquatch, a physicist who can turn into a shaggy giant monster with Hulk-level strength; • Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, a.k.a. Aurora, Jean-Paul’s sister who also has super-speed and light generation powers.

Over the course of two issues, this team fights the X-Men in an attempt to abduct Wolverine and bring him back to Alpha Flight. The story reveals the Canadian government had spent considerable money training Wolverine to lead Alpha Flight before he left to join the X-Men. Byrne created several members of Alpha Flight during his fan days. Vindicator (or Guardian, as he was originally dubbed) was planned to be the figurehead of a line of Canadian comic books Byrne hoped to produce. (With a costume designed after Canada’s national flag, Guardian would serve, in a way, as his country’s own Captain Amer-

The Canadian super-team Alpha Flight confronts Wolverine’s mutant teammates in X-Men #121. Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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a while. Chris took to calling him ‘Major Mapleleaf’, and Roger Stern said we’d better come up with a name before that one stuck. Chris then tacked on ‘Vindicator’, which absolutely did not work for me. What does Canada need to ‘vindicate’?” (Byrne).

Byrne didn’t think he’d have to worry long about the illogical name of Alpha Flight’s leader because he didn’t think the Canadian characters would ever be an integral part of Marvel’s fictional universe: “[Alpha Flight was] never really meant to be anything more than a bunch of superheroes who could survive a fight with the X-Men” (Byrne). Unexpectedly, the comics received extensive press coverage in Canada, including televised interviews with the creators on Canada’s national CBC TV network. Alpha Flight caught the eyes of many fans, and X-Men would become one of the most popular series in the history of comic books.

Another major supporting character appeared for the first time in 1979, as the happy-go-lucky Black Cat—inspired by the Tex Avery cartoon Bad Luck Blackie—premiered in Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979), courtesy of writer Marv Wolfman and artists Keith Pollard and Frank Giacoia. Wolf-

man actually didn’t plan on using Black Cat as a foil for SpiderMan. Instead, she was conceived as a nemesis for Wolfman’s Spider-Woman series. When he left the series, Wolfman moved the Black Cat over to Amazing Spider-Man (Cronin #22).

They Came from Inner Space In 1979, Marvel’s best-selling book was Star Wars with average sales of nearly 280,000 copies an issue. Because of that title’s success, Marvel expanded its line with many more licensed comics. In fact, nearly all of Marvel’s new-content titles for 1979 were based on properties created outside the House of Ideas. Along with Star Wars, Godzilla, Conan, The Human Fly, the existing HannaBarbera cartoon adaptations, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs comics Tarzan and John Carter, Warlord of Mars, Marvel added The Micronauts were adapted from an action figure line of new series based on TV series the same name. Cover art by Dave Cockrum and Al Milgrom.

Micronauts TM and © Abrams/Gentile Entertainment.

Battlestar Galactica and toy lines Micronauts, Shogun WarAmerican market, rebranding them riors and ROM. In some months in as the “Micronauts” (a name which 1979, a fifth of Marvel’s output was evokes the word “astronauts”). One licensed titles. This fact didn’t make of the most notable aspects of the certain Marvel fans too happy. As Al toy line was that the parts for the figMilgrom, a Marvel editor at the time, ures were interchangeable; children said, “To them, it was as if we were dicould transfer the arms of one figure luting the Marvel Universe. What the onto another. Earlier in the 1970s, fans didn’t want to understand is that Mego had licensed characters from it’s also a business. Comics [based Marvel, DC and other publishers for upon] licensed characters would the 8-inch “World’s Greatest Superbring in new readers that were fans Heroes” action figure line. The Microof the toys” (Aushenker 18). nauts, however, were only 3-¾ inches tall, similar to the Star Wars action Micronauts (first issue cover dated figures that became a runaway hit, Jan. 1979) was born from the germ starting in 1977. of an idea from Christmas 1977. As young Adam Mantlo opened his Christmas gifts at his grandparents’ house, his father, Marvel writer Bill Mantlo, noticed the toys that received his son’s most devoted attention were a group of action figures called the Micronauts. As Adam started playing with his gifts, his father became inspired to write a comic book based on the toys.

Amazing Spider-Man #194 introduced the Black Cat. Cover art by Al Milgrom.

The action figure line—originally called “Microman”—had been launched in Japan in 1974 by toymaker Takara. Two years later, Mego brought the action figures to the

TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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A week after Christmas, Mantlo arranged a meeting with Shooter to pitch a comic book adaptation of the toy. After a negotiation with Mego, Marvel acquired the license to create a Micronauts comic. Shooter assigned staff artist (and Broadway playwright) Bob Hall to do production art on the characters, aided by a generous collection of material supplied

by Mego. Indeed, Mego sent Shooter and Hall hundreds of character designs, including ones for unproduced prototypes. What’s more, Marvel got to pick and choose whatever characters it wanted to include in its adap-

dressed in the first few issues of the book, and had it stayed in that vein I probably would have been much more satisfied” (Waugh).

Acroyear cuts loose in these panels from Micronauts #1. Art by Michael Golden and Josef Rubinstein.

Micronauts TM and © Abrams/Gentile Entertainment.

tation and create whatever storylines it wanted to publish without any interference from Mego. Thus, Mantlo included some action figures—such as the Mecha warrior Acroyer and the mysterious Time Traveler—without consideration of the manufacturer’s intentions for them. Mantlo also changed other characters, such as Baron Karza, for his own purposes.

Artist Mike Golden was lured away from DC in order to draw the series.

Golden had been drawing Batman stories on titles like Batman Family and Detective Comics but had grown tired of super-hero adventures. Shooter offered to increase Golden’s page rate by $10, and the artist jumped companies without knowing that the Micronauts series was based on a toy line. Shooter only told Golden that the new series was a science fiction adventure (Waugh).

made clear that the Micronauts didn’t just travel to Earth, they traveled to the same Marvel universe that most of Marvel’s other titles inhabited.

Once there, Jim Shooter insisted that the Micronauts interact with characters readers were familiar with, namely Marvel’s super-heroes. Golden defected from DC Comics principally because he no longer wanted to do super-hero stories, and now he was being told that the series he was attached to had to become a superhero comic book. As Golden stated in a 2006 interview: “[Micronauts] really never was the science fiction fantasy adventure that I was told it was originally going to be in the first place. Those concepts were in fact ad-

The team of Golden and Mantlo created a comic that was, initially, a unique combination of Star Wars aesthetics and swords-and-sandals warfare, as the Micronauts, a team of rebels, flee to Earth to seek help in defeating the despotic Baron Karza, who had taken over the other-dimensional Microverse by promising its citizens eternal life. Still miniaturized, the heroes land in Florida, where they enlist a young boy to assist them in their mission – an ideal bit of wish fulfillment for many readers. Golden added a new character to Mantlo’s proposed cast with his own creation, the wisecracking Bug. Unfortunately, after a few issues, Golden became fed up with the series. The problem was that Mantlo

Golden had previously committed to draw at least twelve issues of Micronauts, and he kept true to that promise. Before Golden’s departure, Micronauts featured guest appearances by Man-Thing (in issue #7) and a brand new super-hero called Captain Universe (in issue #8). After finishing issue #12, Golden switched over to commercial work. Even though he was a bit disenchanted with the comic book industry, Golden would continue to produce covers and one-shot stories for years to come.

Introduced one month after the Micronauts’ debut, Shogun Warriors brought Mattel’s set of giant robot toys to Marvel. Created by the team that had been producing Godzilla each month, writer Doug Moench and artist Herb Trimpe presented the adventures of three of the mechanical heroes from the collection: Raydeen, Combatra and Dangard Ace. The Shogun Warriors toy line consisted of more than just the three robots. In fact, it included a Godzilla toy, among many other robots and monsters from diverse lines, but Godzilla and the Shogun Warriors were forbidden from crossing over in a Marvel comic because Marvel’s Godzilla contract was with Toho Studios while its Shogun Warriors license came from Mattel. Like Micronauts, Shogun Warriors was set in the Marvel Universe and included appearances by the Fantastic Four.

The Coming of ROM

Another toy property that Marvel licensed was Shogun Warriors. Cover art by Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom. Shogun Warriors TM and © Mattel.

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Marvel’s next toy license featured a silver space cyborg named ROM. Lawrence “Bing” McCoy—who previously invented the Electronic Battleship board game for Milton Bradley—created ROM as a unique toy that had flashing LED lights and made electronic noises (including a sound that resembles breathing) via an innovative imprinted circuit chip. McCoy aimed to have ROM become one of the first electronic toys on the market. He first pitched it as an Egyptian mystic toy, but when no company showed interest, McCoy reconfigured his creation as a robot. He named it

elements of Parker Brothers’ story, while adding others.

Rather than a part of the Solstar Order, ROM hailed from Galador, a paradise planet whose citizens have to sacrifice their humanity in order to be transformed into cyborg “spaceknights” to ward off an invasion by the Dire Wraiths. ROM was considered to be the greatest of Galador’s spaceknights and after the Dire Wraiths were turned back, he vowed to hunt them across the galaxy. Two hundred years later, his pursuit lands Left: Frank Miller drawn cover to ROM #1. him in the small town of Above: Advertisement for Parker Brothers’ Clairton, West Virginia, a ROM toy. The Spaceknight TM and © Hasbro. fictional locale intended to resemble the small Pennsylvania town in which Shooter grew up (Aushenker 20). In Clairton, ROM discovers the Dire Wraiths have infiltrated the human populace to the extent that some of them have placed themselves in influentially powerful positions.

Incredible Hulk artist Sal Buscema was assigned to draw the series, principally because, in his own words, “no one else wanted to do it” (Aushenker 20). Buscema claims that within Marvel’s offices the ROM toy had acquired the nickname “The Toaster” due to the toy’s appliance-shaped head. Regardless, Buscema took on the assignment and produced pages in his typically rapid manner. With printer deadline approaching, ROM #1 still needed a cover. Shooter requested an image reminiscent of the classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still with ROM surrounded by Clairton’s terrified citizens. Al Milgrom submitted a cover, but Shooter wasn’t satisfied with it. He wanted something that had more impact. Shooter then turned to Michael Nasser, a Neal Adams protégé who was determined to rid comics of depictions of “senseless chaos and violence” (Netzer). The cover he produced presented ROM in an idyllic setting surrounded by admiring townspeople, including Neal Adams’s family and a Christ-like Nasser. Needless to say, it was a cover that couldn’t be used. In desperation, Shooter called on Frank Miller, and the budding star provided a cover that had to be inked in Marvel’s offices in order to make deadline (Aushenker 23).

“Cobol”—after the computer programming language— and presented it to Parker Brothers. Looking to diversify its product line beyond board games, Parker Brothers bought the toy and renamed it ROM, the initials for “Read-Only Memory.” With a height of 10 inches, the toy was comparatively big, so big that it didn’t allow for multiple points of articulation, at least not without making manufacturing costs too expensive for Parker Brothers’ budget (Seitz, “McCoy”).

To help generate interest in the toy, Parker Brothers approached Marvel about licensing a ROM comic book. Considering Micronauts’ early success, Jim Galton thought another toy-based comic might have promise. Galton and Shooter met with the Parker Brothers management team and worked out a licensing deal. (As ROM’s creator, Bing McCoy earned a percentage of royalties.)

As a toy, ROM was an unqualified failure, selling less than 300,000 units (Seitz, “McCoy”). The comic book fared a bit better. ROM #1 was Marvel’s best-selling book at Direct Market stores during the month of September 1979 (Tiefenbacher 15). The series would last 75 issues. While never a consistent best-seller, ROM would outperform such super-hero titles as Captain America, The Defenders and even Thor.

At the 1979 Toy Fair, Parker Brothers played a promotional video that presented ROM as “a knight of the Solstar Order” who comes to Earth to protect our planet from the Dire Wraiths, evil magicians who can change their appearances in order to blend in with normal humans. With his Energy Analyzer, ROM can see the Wraiths as they really are, and then with his Neutralizer, ROM can disorganize the Wraith’s molecular structure (Seitz, “Video”).

For the Marvel comic book, Shooter and Mantlo changed

Ragtag Fleet In Search of Earth One of the major television premieres of 1978 was ABC’s Battlestar Galactica. Deeply influenced by the success of Star Wars, the Universal Studios-produced Galactica was 262

the story of a human civilization from a distant part of our galaxy that gets attacked by a cybernetic race called the Cylons. The devastated survivors embark on a space convoy in search of Earth. It was the most expensive TV series ever made up to that time and was greeted with major hype in major media outlets.

Acquiring the license to the show, Marvel planned to release an adaptation… and then Marvel Magazines editor Rick Marschall made the mistake of actually printing the adaptation before receiving Universal’s formal approval of it. Upon seeing the final product, Universal had several objections, including pin-ups that used actors’ likenesses without the actors’ consent. As a result, Universal forbade Marvel from releasing the adaptation to the newsstand, which meant Marvel had to pulp the entire initial print run (“Marvel Magazines: Property Problems”). Soon after, Universal sent Marvel a long list of changes that needed to be made to the adaptation.

Marvel’s Battlestar Galactica ultimately appeared as Marvel Super Special #8 (Jan. 1979) in two different formats: as a magazine with a painted cover by Bob Larkin and as a tabloid with a drawn cover by Rick Bryant.

Written by Roger McKenzie and with art by Ernie Colón, Marvel Super Special adapted the show’s three-hour

Above: Cover art to Battlestar Galactica #1 by Dave Cockrum and Bob McLeod.

Right: Interior page drawn by Ernie Colón.

Battlestar Galactica TM and © Universal Studios.

television premiere from the shooting script provided by series creator Glen Larsen. For space reasons, Marvel’s version truncated the final hour of the film.

For completely other reasons, Marvel’s version also depicted events differently than what the show presented. Unbeknownst to anyone at Marvel, changes to Larsen’s script were being made up to the time that the show was filmed. For instance, one of the characters, Cassiopeia, dies in the comic but was a recurring character in the series. The evil Baltar was killed by the Cylons in the comic but survives on TV. Marvel was able to correct these discrepancies when its adaptation spun out into an ongoing comic series. The first three issues of the Battlestar Galactica comic book (first issue cover dated March 1979) represent the show’s pilot episode with several additional and revised pages. Issues #4 and #5 adapt the series episode “The Lost Planet of the Gods,” and then new stories began with Battlestar Galactica #6 (Aug. 1979) with a rotating cast of artists, including Walter Simonson, Sal Buscema and Rich Buckler. The comic book ended up outliving the TV series, which was cancelled after the 1978-79 season.

Marvel’s adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson. Star Trek TM and © Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Battlestar Galactica was just one of a series of film adaptations from Marvel in 1979. Also fea263

tured in Marvel Super Special were Meteor (a disaster film starring Sean Connery) and Star Trek: the Motion Picture. Marvel’s Star Trek adaptation,

by Marv Wolfman, Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson, appeared on newsstands in conjunction with the movie’s release in December and led into an ongoing series in 1980. (Gold Key’s Star Trek series ended earlier in the year with issue #61, cover date March 1979.) As a huge fan of the original Star Trek television series, Cockrum was a natural choice to draw the film adaptation. He threw himself into the task with aplomb, and Marvel’s magazine included sketches of Cockrum’s costume designs for the crew, among other extras.

Unfortunately for Marvel, the Star Trek adaptation was as plagued as the Galactica one was: Marvel Super Special #15 appeared with a cover price of $1.50 rather than the intended price of $2.00; its rapid production required the use of flat coloring rather than the more time-consuming process coloring; an interview with Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had to be pulled from the book at the last minute and replaced with a picture of the starship Enterprise. One Marvel staffer said that the Star Trek book was “almost cursed,” and according to Rick Marschall, the retail price error cost Marvel at least $50,000 in lost revenues (“Marvel’s Costliest Typo”).

Marvel’s fantasy epic “Warriors of the Shadow Realm” was drawn by John Buscema and Rudy Nebres (above left with colorist Peter Ledger) and written by Doug Moench (above right). TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Marvel announced a number of other planned Super Specials to the fan press… but many of them never actually were released. They included adaptations of the films The Wiz (partly drawn by Dan Spiegle before the plug was pulled) and The Amityville Horror (pulled because Marvel couldn’t obtain the rights to the movie), a history of the Rolling Stones (by Doug Moench) to match 1978’s The Beatles Story, and a “TV superheroes volume” starring Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Doctor Strange. In addition, a proposed adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings fell through when the two sides couldn’t agree on financial arrangements, especially over foreign rights (“Marvel Magazines: Property Problems”).

Because of the failure of the Lord of the Rings negotiations, production stepped up on Marvel’s own fantasy epic “Warriors of the Shadow Realm,” which saw print in Marvel Super Special #11-13 (Spring-Fall 1979). This three part odyssey was hyped on the cover of Super Special #11 as being “In the fantasy tradition of Tolkien!” and contained writing by Doug Moench and detailed fantasy art by John Buscema and Rudy Nebres, after some character design by Mike Ploog. Produced as a Marvel prestige item, with complex processed color that was hand painted by Peter Ledger, “Warriors” continued the “Weirdworld”

saga that had been introduced as a nine-page story by Moench and Ploog in Marvel Super Action #1 (Jan. 1976) and a 17-page tale

by Moench, Ploog and Alex Niño in Marvel Premiere #38 (Oct. 1977). The epic story involved two elves named Tyndall and Velanna, from the strange island of Klarn, a rocky land that floats above the surface of Weirdworld.

Unable to remember their past, the elves go on a quest to learn their background while protecting mystic gems from the evil wizard Darklens. The art was some of the finest of Buscema’s career, with panoramic two-page (and even three-page) spreads along with a lovingly annotated scrapbook of Buscema’s sketches.

The “Weirdworld” fantasy was scheduled to continue in an ambitious new, adult-oriented magazine that Marvel was going to launch in 1980. Like the popular Heavy Metal, the new magazine would feature adult-oriented content, fortified with high production values. Rick Marschall originally titled it Odyssey… and then he learned that at least seven other magazines shared the same name. Its new title became Epic Illustrated, and it would be Marvel’s most unique publication, not only because of its “mature content” but also because contributors to the magazine got to retain copyright of their creations. Lined up to produce material for Epic Illustrated were creators familiar to most Marvel readers—Stan Lee, John Buscema, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin and Roy Thomas—as well as comics professionals who distinguished themselves away from Marvel, like Stephen Bissette, Wendy Pini and Arthur Suydam.

Rick Marschall wouldn’t be around to see Epic’s first issue get released, how264

ever, because Jim Shooter fired him in early September 1979. Over the course of the year, Shooter had been steadily divesting Marschall of his magazine duties and transferring them to new editor Lynn Graeme. Then Shooter let the other shoe drop and replaced Marschall with his predecessor as editor-in-chief, Archie Goodwin. Explaining Marschall’s firing to The Comics Journal, Shooter said, “It was not a specific incident—it’s a series of small incidents.” He cited the problems with the Battlestar Galactica adaptation from ten months prior as a specific example of why Marschall got fired (“Marvel Fires Rick Marschall” 5).

Marschall characterized his dismissal as a “power play” on Shooter’s part.

As Marschall viewed it, Shooter didn’t like the fact that Marschall was “establishing his own empire” with Marvel’s magazine line, so the editorin-chief removed the threat to his authority. Marschall also contended

Teaser house ad for Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, a magazine that allowed contributors to retain copyrights of their creations. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

that Shooter’s “neurotic” personality contributed to a “radical unhappiness among the writers and staffers” of Marvel Comics. Marschall predicted, “You’ll be seeing more resignations in the future” (“Marvel Fires Rick Marschall” 5-6). His prediction proved right.

More Licensing from Marvel Marvel’s oddest licensed property of the year appeared in the pages of Marvel Premiere #50 (Oct. 1979), a one-shot issue featuring heavy metal rock star Alice Cooper. As an adaptation of Cooper’s 1978 concept album about his stay at a New York sanitarium to treat his alcoholism, the comic carried writing credits by Cooper, Jim Salicrup, Roger Stern and Ed Hannigan, and had art by Tom Sutton and Terry Austin. In the campy story, the ordinarily outlandish Cooper is depicted as the most normal man in an insane asylum.

Or perhaps Marvel’s oddest licensed property of 1979 was the one that was never released in America. In the summer of 1978, Robert Stigwood produced a film adaptation of the famous Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring chart-topping musicians the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton along with Steve Martin, then the most popular comedian in the country. Marvel set

Marvel Premiere #50 featured heavy metal rock star Alice Cooper. Cover art by Tom Sutton and Terry Austin. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

out to adapt the film, assigning the project to writer David Anthony Kraft and artists George Pérez and Jim Mooney.

The comic was completed and even hyped in the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins for comics coverdated January 1979. However, because the film was a commercial failure and production on the comic ran late, Marvel’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was never released in the United States. It was, though, published in Japan, France and Holland. Pérez reflected on his experience on the comic, claiming the creative team received: “...nearly zero cooperation from the Robert Stigwood company and we didn’t realize that the [movie] script was still in so much flux that things we were putting in the comic were Marvel’s adaptation of the Sgt. Pep­per’s Lonely Hearts Club Band not going to appear in the film was released only in Europe and Asia, not North America. movie and things we didn’t Interior art by George Pérez and Jim Mooney. know about were going to Kirby’s fellow Marvel pioneer Steve be added to the movie. The Ditko picked up the series with issue plot was so convoluted and #10 (Aug. 1979) with writing by Marv cheesy—even on the printed Wolfman. A Sub-Mariner comic was page—and after a while we proposed and announced to the fan realized it was not really gopress in 1979 but never appeared. ing anywhere…. Also, I was The only other new ongoing comics paired with a very incompatreleased by Marvel that year were Fun ible inker because the book and Games (offering various kinds of was running so late. I was puzzles and word games) and Mardoing a terrible job on it, Jim vel Spotlight (featuring Captain MarMooney was a terrible fit for vel whose title was cancelled earlier me—though he did the best in the year). Marvel’s reprint line— he could—it was just one diwhich included Marvel’s Greatest saster after another. It was Comics (Fantastic Four), Marvel Super one of the nadirs of my caAction (Avengers), Marvel Super-Hereer. I was so grateful that the roes (Hulk), Marvel Tales (Spider-Man) book never got an American and Sgt. Fury and His Howling Comrelease.” (Nolen-Weathington mandos—expanded by three titles: 29-30) Amazing Adventures republished Aside from the adaptations and liStan Lee and Jack Kirby’s X-Men work, censed properties, only a handful of Tales to Astonish represented Roy new comics emerged from the House Thomas and John Buscema’s Subof Ideas in 1979. Man-Thing returned Mariner stories from 1968, and Fanto the stands, this time written by tasy Masterpieces showcased Stan Michael Fleisher. Though Assistant Lee and John Buscema’s Silver Surfer Editor Mark Gruenwald reported that tales from 1968. The problem with “we receive more mail requesting a these reprint titles was that since the Man-Thing revival than for nearly 1960s, a comic book’s typical page any other character,” the new comic count had significantly decreased. didn’t even last a dozen issues (“MarThe maximum number of story pages vel Plans” 10). Also short-lived was a a standard Marvel comic book had in revival of Machine Man, which had 1979 was 18. The stories that were begone on hiatus after Jack Kirby fining reprinted, however, ran anywhere ished Machine Man #9 (Dec. 1978). from 20 to 24 pages. Most of the 1979 265

put Howard in pants, but with pressure from Simon & Schuster as well as Disney, Marvel capitulated. The costume change didn’t particularly bother Jim Shooter, but Bill Mantlo was so outraged that he wanted to plot vengeance; he told The Comics Journal that he intended on writing a story where a villain named “D. Isney” forced Howard to don pants.

Mantlo also planned on writing stories where Howard was naked (“Howard to Wear Pants” 11, 13). None of those stories appeared, nor did the Simon & Schuster collection.

Marv Wolfman Leaves Marvel As this panel from the second issue of Howard the Duck magazine shows, “Sidney Land” forced Howard to wear pants. Art by Gene Colan. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

reprint titles simply truncated the original story in order to stay within 18 pages. Amazing Adventures, on the other hand, spread out each original X-Men story over two reprint issues.

(The first half of X-Men #1 is presented in Amazing Adventures #1 while the second half appears in issue #2; five page X-Men origin stories from 1968 fill the remaining page gap.)

With a cover price of 75¢, Fantasy Masterpieces presented each 36-page Silver Surfer story in its entirety.

Meanwhile, Marvel cancelled a plethora of lower-selling titles by the end of 1979, including Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Godzilla, Howard the Duck, Invaders, John Carter Warlord of Mars, Ms. Marvel, Nova, Rawhide Kid, Tarzan, Tomb of Dracula and TwoGun Kid. Tarzan’s cancellation meant that for the first time since 1948, the Lord of the Jungle was not appearing in an ongoing comic book series. In the case of Marvel’s other Edgar Rice Burroughs property, John Carter, the comic was actually cancelled twice in the same year. Marvel initially discontinued John Carter with issue #24 (cover date May 1979). The Burroughs estate, though, insisted that Marvel honor its contract, which stipulated the publication of twelve issues per year plus an annual. Restored to Marvel’s lineup, John Carter fell behind schedule but there was enough inventory material left over to fulfill the contractual obligation (Zilber 13).

The series was then cancelled again with John Carter #28 (Oct. 1979) with an Annual released the same month.

One final two-part John Carter inven-

tory story was repurposed in Star Wars #53-54 (Nov.-Dec. 1981). Chris Claremont wrote a new story based on existing art by Carmine Infantino (which was then modified by Walt Simonson) where Carter was turned into “Aron Peacebringer of Shiva IV.” The cancelled Howard the Duck and Tomb of Dracula comics were essentially continued as black-and-white Marvel Magazines. The problem with the Howard the Duck magazine was that it lacked Steve Gerber, the guiding light for the character and color comic. Though writer Bill Mantlo tried his best to capture Steve Gerber’s satirical spirit, the new magazine couldn’t recapture the spark of its color counterpart. Even the issue that returned Howard to Duckworld fell flat in Mantlo’s hands. As a result, the Howard magazine lasted only nine issues.

Oddly enough, beginning with the magazine’s second issue, Howard wore pants. The change came when publishing house Simon & Schuster and lawyers for the Walt Disney Company teamed up to persuade Marvel to cover Howard’s tail feathers with pants in order to avoid any resemblance to Donald Duck. Simon & Schuster had contacted Disney’s lawyers to ensure there would be no legal issues if they released a book featuring Howard as part of their continuing series of trade reprints of Marvel Comics. If Howard wore pants, Disney’s famously litigious lawyers promised not to sue for copyright infringement. Marvel had refused to comply with previous demands to 266

In the case of Tomb of Dracula, the monthly comic was cancelled with the double-sized issue #70 (Aug. 1979), becoming the longest lasting comic series that cover-featured a villain. Writer Marv Wolfman had written all but seven issues of the series, an accomplishment topped only by his artistic collaborator, Gene Colan, who drew every issue of the series.

The creative pair had actually produced enough material to continue the comic through issue #72. As writer Marv Wolfman recalls, “I wrote the final three issues and they were drawn.… I said the stories were done and I needed the room. [Jim Shooter] gave me a double-sized last issue, I really needed a triple-sized book. I was stuck and had to find a way to cut 14 pages from the printed book. Thank God I hadn’t dialogued them all yet, so I cut [up] pages, rearranged stuff then dialogued it so it read smoothly” (Greenberger).

The new Tomb of Dracula magazine (first issue cover dated Oct. 1979) was intended to be the flagship of a resurgent Marvel Magazine line, just as Dracula Lives! and Vampire Tales were during the mid-1970s. Wolfman and Colan reunited for an epic 43-page tale, “Black Genesis,” which set up a new status quo for the vampire and his hunters, around the Star of Bethlehem. Wolfman wrote stories for the first three issues of the magazine’s run… and that would become some of the last material that Wolfman would ever produce for Marvel Comics.

Wolfman’s contract with Marvel was set to expire at the end of the year, and Wolfman wanted to continue

try’s major problems—specifiworking as a writer/editor, not only on Tomb of Dracula cally that industry-wide sales but also Amazing Spider-Man had plunged from 600 miland Fantastic Four. Jim Shootlion copies per year in 1959 to er, though, was determined 250 million in 1978—Rozanto get rid of the writer/ediski outlined a series of needed tor position once and for all. changes, like allowing worthy As such, he drew a line in the Direct Market retailers to pay sand: Wolfman could continC.O.D. and having publishers ue to write for Marvel and he provide advance information could continue to edit for Marabout their upcoming comics. vel but he could not continue “Ours is a dying industry,” the to edit his own writing. Shootletter stated, “and if we don’t er even offered Wolfman the get together and cooperate opportunity to edit Epic Illusthere will be no comic books trated as an inducement to reat all” (Rozanski, “Evolution of main with Marvel, but in and the Direct Market Part VIII”). of itself, that wasn’t enough.

Rozanski sent copies of his Wolfman wanted creative auletter to some 300 retailers tonomy and Shooter wasn’t and publishers. Over 100 sent willing to let him have it anyfollow-up letters to Marvel to more. As Wolfman explained, support his position (Rozan“Tomb of Dracula was a book ski, “Evolution of the Direct that meant a lot to me at the Market Part VII”). time, and I had control over it.

To Rozanski’s astonishment, It was also very important to me to be careful with Spidershortly after mailing his letter, Man, and I realized that those he received a phone call from things would never function Ed Shukin, Marvel’s Vice Presismoothly with someone else dent of Marketing, who inas the editor. I was being of- ome of the last material Marv Wolfman wrote for Marvel Comics appeared in The vited the retailer to New York Tomb of Dracula magazine. TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. fered a better position to edit for a discussion. Legs shaking Epic and more money, but I and full of panic, Rozanski comic book stores in Colorado as well decided not to accept it” (Cadigan 93). made the trip east and sat down with as a back issue mail-order business.

Instead, after spending the last eight Shukin one fateful day in May. As it In 1979, though, Rozanski had beyears at Marvel, the 33 year old Wolfturns out, Shukin was the one who come fed up with how Phil Seuling’s man signed a contract to write for DC had good reason to be afraid. Several Seagate company operated as a disComics. Come January 1, 1980 Wolfmonths before Rozanski mailed his tributor. Most aggravating was the man would be contributing to Green letter, Marvel, DC, Archie and Warren fact that Seagate required all accounts Lantern, Superman and Superman had been sued by another distributo prepay for the comics they ordered, Family. tor, Irjax, for anti-trust violations in months before those comics would connection with Seuling’s Seagate actually be delivered. For Rozanski, Marv Wolfman’s departure meant company. The lawsuit claimed that this stipulation created an ongoing— one less writer/editor for Shooter the publishers provided Seuling with and debilitating—cash flow problem. to be concerned about. When he bebetter trade terms than what other Rozanski had no doubt that the Direct came Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the distributors received, effectively givMarket system had the potential to start of 1978, Shooter had five writer/ ing Seagate quasi-monopoly status. If editors on staff: Steve Gerber, Archie generate much more revenue for the Shukin couldn’t get Marvel out of this Goodwin, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, entire comic book industry. Indeed, mess, he was going to lose his job (Roand Marv Wolfman. By the end of from Rozanski’s vantage point the zanski, “Evolution of the Direct Mar1979, only one remained: Roy ThomDirect Market was the industry’s sole ket Part IX”). as. His standoff with Shooter would means of survival… but only if the come soon enough. way in which the Direct Market operBesides Shukin, Rozanski also met ated was changed (Rozanski, “Evoluwith Marvel President Jim Galton and “Ours is a Dying Industry” – and How to tion of the Direct Market Part VII”). then with editor-in-chief Jim Shooter,

Save It

Over the course of five years, Marvel’s sales via the Direct Market had increased twentyfold, from $300,000 in 1974 to $6,000,000 in 1979 (“Marvel Hires…” 9). Chuck Rozanski was one of the people who helped Marvel get to that point; he owned four

On May 9, 1979, Rozanski wrote to Robert T. Maiello, Marvel’s Manager of Sales Administration. The letter lambasted Marvel for not providing any support to the comic shops that were providing an ever-increasing percentage of its sales. After spelling out what he saw as the comics indus267

who turned out to be kindred spirit.

Like Rozanski, Shooter divined that in order for the comic book industry to thrive, it had to evolve beyond its newsstand origins and embrace the specialty store model. The industry’s future success required an expansion of the Direct Market, and to aid

that expansion, Shooter and Shukin drafted some new trade terms that would allow anyone to become a distributor of Marvel Comics. To receive a 60% wholesale discount, free freight delivery, and a 30-day billing cycle, all a person—or company—needed to do was purchase $3,000 worth of Marvel Comics every month. That amounted to nearly 19,000 comic books every month, and while that many copies was way too many for any one store to sell, retailers like Rozanski realized they could distribute many of those copies to other stores in their area. Essentially, Marvel was offering better trade terms than even Seagate could provide. Upon recognizing this, Rozanski signed on as the first Marvel Direct Market Distributor (Rozanski, “Becoming a Marvel Distributor”). As many others joined him, Seagate’s control over Direct Market distribution was ended.

In July, two issues of DC Special Series were published as digests: Sgt. Rock’s Prize Battle Tales and Secret Origins of Super-Heroes.

The digest format proved to be one of DC’s success stories for the year.

Unfortunately for DC, there weren’t many others as the company continued to deal with the aftereffects of the Implosion. The DC line—which had been burgeoning with new titles and new ideas in the summer of 1978—only saw a handful of new titles in 1979. One of them, however, gave birth to a new comic book format; its title was World of Krypton.

Inevitably, Marvel’s new trade terms would expand the Direct Market, but whether or not they would expand it to the point where comic shops could exclusively sustain the entire industry was a question that wouldn’t be answered until well into the 1980s.

project was the unofficial caretaker of the Superman mythos, E. Nelson Bridwell.

World of Krypton was originally scheduled to appear in three consecutive issues of Showcase (#104-106) in the summer of 1978 to capitalize on the release of Superman: The Movie.

Legal matters involving Mario Puzo’s screenplay disallowed DC from publishing direct adaptations of the movie (Callahan 60). Because of this, Kupperberg’s story had to remain true to comic book continuity; both Krypton and Superman’s ancestors appear as they had in previous comic books rather than as they are presented in the movie. When the film release got pushed back to December, the already completed World of Krypton story arc got rescheduled for Showcase #110-112.

But then the Implosion cancelled Showcase along with a slew of other DC titles.

By the start of 1979, Superman: The Movie’s remarkable popularity spurred DC to release more Superman comic books, including World of Krypton as its own title. Its three issues appeared in April, May and June (cover dated July, August and September). Although DC house ads announced that World of Krypton would only The Aftershocks of the DC Implosion run three issues, none of the covWhile Marvel aimed to tap into ers carry a label to indicate the the Direct Market, DC Comics series’ limited nature (most likely took one more crack at the newsso newsstand vendors wouldn’t stand. Ramping down its prorefuse to display a short-run title). duction of oversized tabloids, DC Nonetheless, fans took note of the instead released a much smaller comic’s unique nature and a surproduct: the 100 page reprint divey of the Direct Market’s top 100 gest. Sized at 5” x 6.75” and priced comic books placed World of KrypJoe Orlando gave Ross Andru and Dick Giordano’s line art a at 95¢, DC’s “Blue Ribbon” digests painted effect in order to make The Best of DC #1 stand out on racks. ton as the ninth best-selling title TM and © DC Comics. fit perfectly at the nation’s suof April—and the only DC book in permarket check-out counters a top twenty otherwise occupied by Written by Paul Kupperberg and illusalongside TV Guide and other comic Marvel (Tiefenbacher 48). The series trated by Howard Chaykin, Alan Kupbook digests, like Archie Comics Dislipped to thirteenth in the ranking perberg, Murphy Anderson and Frank gest, Fawcett’s Dennis the Menace with issue #2 but bounced back to Chiaramonte, World of Krypton took Pocket Full of Fun, and Harvey’s Richie sixth with the concluding issue #3. readers back to Superman’s home Rich Digest Stories. planet in the days before its exploConsequently, World of Krypton inision. Providing the definitive history Two DC digests were released in June tiated an unexpected trend. Comic of Superman’s Kryptonian ancestors, 1979 (Sept.-Oct. cover date): Jonah book companies had been publishing Paul Kupperberg stitched together Hex and Other Western Tales #1 and one-shots and single-issue specials stories of super-dad Jor-El and suBest of DC #1, which contained 100 for decades, but never before had a per-mom Lara from 1950s and 1960s pages of Superman reprints. The next title been released with a predeterflashbacks and the “Fabulous World three issues of Best of DC featured Batmined finite number of issues. Quite of Krypton” back-up series that ran man, the Super Friends and Rudolph innocently, DC created a new format in the Superman family titles during the Red-Nosed Reindeer, respectively. for the comic book industry, one that the 1970s. Appropriately editing the 268

Before becoming the first comic book mini-series, World of Krypton was original­ly scheduled to appear in Showcase. Original art from World of Krypton #1 courtesy of Heritage Auctions. TM and © DC Comics.

disparate back-up features like the Human Target and the Odd Man were shoehorned into Detective Comics.

had already been utilized for television: the mini-series. Publishers and creators alike soon recognized the utility of such a format. A mini-series could feature characters not popular enough to warrant their own on-going title. A mini-series could present self-contained stories that didn’t fit within existing titles. And a mini-series could provide projects to creators who couldn’t commit themselves to a lengthy assignment. After the publication of World of Krypton, more mini-series were scheduled for publication, and not just from DC Comics.

The entire industry embraced the format to such an extent that within ten years, mini-series became as common as on-going series.

The World of Krypton trilogy was far from the only DC Explosion material to surface in 1979. The Deadman story intended for Showcase #105 finally appeared—minus two pages—in Adventure Comics #464, two issues after Adventure #460-461 serialized the Justice Society of America tale meant for All-Star Comics #75. The material planned for a giant Legion of SuperHeroes edition of DC Special Series was incorporated into Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #250-251; the lead feature of Black Lightning #12 ran in World’s Finest #260; and

Ironically, further creative shuffling was required after an attempted retooling of the superhero Dollar Comics. DC intended to launch a new title called FiveStar [later simply DC] Super-Hero Spectacular during the summer of 1979 while converting World’s Finest Comics to a standard 40-cent title edited by Julius Schwartz, but rising sales figures on WFC convinced DC otherwise. In order to maintain its larger format, World’s Finest #259 was hastily stocked with material meant for Five-Star while the weakening Adventure Comics was revamped instead, the contents for its abandoned final Dollar Comics issue (#467) redistributed to other titles during 1980.

ad-free “Dollar Comic” size, Action Comics #500 boasted a cover that posed the Man of Steel with Lois Lane and Supergirl against a background of previous anniversary issues. In the issue writer Martin Pasko and artists Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte produce Superman’s life story in a full-length tale that, inevitably, included the villainy of Lex Luthor. It was a loving and sometimes moving adventure that spanned the legend of Superman, from his birth on Krypton to being rocketed to Earth and adopted by the Kents, to his days as Superboy and discovery of his Kryptonian dog, Krypto, to the death of his par-

While he lost World’s Finest as quickly as he had gotten it, Julius Schwartz did pick up Superman Family in 1979 and added the “Mr. and Mrs. Superman” and “Private Life of Clark Kent” features that he’d commissioned as backups for Superman in 1978. Attempting to reflect the status quo of Superman: The Movie in the Man of Steel’s solo books, Schwartz also contrived to have TV newsman Clark Kent return to the Daily Planet on a part-time basis in Action Comics #493 (March 1979).

Action Comics celebrated its 500th issue in July 1979 (cover dated October), making use of a pre-Implosion movie tie-in story originally meant for the tabloid-sized All-New Collectors’ Edition in 1978. Released in DC’s 64-page 269

Stories originally meant to appear during the DC Explosion were published in other titles, like in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #250.

Cover art by Joe Staton and Dick Giordano.

TM and © DC Comics.

ents, his job at the Daily Planet, and much more.

By 1979, Julius Schwartz had been a DC Comics editor for 35 years. His colleague down the hallway, on the other hand, was a rookie by the name of Ross Andru. A professional artist since 1948, Andru distinguished himself drawing Wonder Woman and Metal Men and dozens of war stories, among many other series. When Andru’s five year run on Amazing SpiderMan ended in 1978, he was “desperate” to leave Marvel Comics (Amash 28). DC subsequently hired Andru to be both an editor and a cover artist. In the wake of the DC Implosion, Andru was put in charge of five titles: Adventure Comics, The Flash, Jonah Hex, Justice League of America and Wonder Woman. Despite having experience managing the short-lived MR Publications and MikeRoss Publications in the early 1950s, Andru was in a bit over his head editing DC comic books in 1979. Mike W. Barr, DC’s staff proofreader at the time, explains: “To be an editor, you have to have both the creative skills and the organizational skills to do a good job of it. Ross had

the creative skills, but he was really very disorganized” (Dallas 97). To illustrate his point, Barr described a day when Andru entered his office in a frenzy, begging the proofreader for help. He told Barr that he mistakenly bought two covers for the same issue of The Flash.

Hoping to calm Andru’s anxiety, Barr suggested the problem could be solved either by using the extra cover as a pin-up or saving it for the next issue.

Andru said, “You don’t understand. I did the same thing last month” (Dallas 97).

Organizational blunders aside, Attending Iris Allen’s funeral in Flash #276 were Wally West and Andru attempted to breathe members of the Justice League. Art by Alex Saviuk and Frank Chiaramonte. TM and © DC Comics. new creative life into the titles in his custody. Case in point: Flash collapsing next to his wife and a The Flash. With sales down, Andru doctor declaring that one of them has and Flash writer Cary Bates recogdied. The confirmation of Iris’s death nized the series needed a “shake-up.” in Flash #276 sets off a multi-issue They then opted to do the unthinkstory arc in which the Flash not only able: they decided to kill the Flash’s comes to terms with the loss of his bewife. Iris West Allen had been a cenloved spouse but also discovers that tral character in the Flash’s adventhe person responsible for her death tures since the super-hero’s star-makwasn’t Clive Yorkin but his long-time ing debut in 1956. Unequivocally, she arch-enemy Professor Zoom, a.k.a. the was the most important charReverse Flash. Iris’s death had the efacter in The Flash other than fect Andru and Bates hoped for: sales the super-speedster himself. on the series improved, if only temIf killing her couldn’t rejuveporarily. Cary Bates recalls receiving nate a series that had gone “an inordinate amount” of fan mail, stagnant, nothing would. with half of the readers condemning Upon learning what Andru the death of Iris and the other half apand Bates had in store for Iris, plauding it (Scott 78).

The Flash’s new artist, Alex Reflecting the dark mood of the postSaviuk, at first thought it was Implosion era, DC’s comics were rife a plotted ruse, and that Iris with funerals in 1979. Iris Allen was would later be revealed to be joined by the Earth-Two Batman (Adalive. Saviuk asked Andru, venture Comics #461-462), Batwoman “But she’s not really dead, (Detective Comics #485), Mr. Terrific right?” Andru replied, “Oh (Justice League of America #171), no, she’s dead” (Dallas 94). the red-haired replacement Wonder In Flash #275 (July 1979), the Woman named Orana (WW #251), Flash and Iris decide it’s finalBatgirl’s brother Tony Gordon (Dely time they have a baby and tective Comics #482), and Zatanna’s raise a family. They attend newly-discovered mother Sindella a masquerade party, during (JLA #165). Travis Morgan was led to which the Flash gets mystebelieve that own son Joshua had been riously drugged. Unable to killed, as well (Warlord #21). shake off the drugs’ effects, While some DC titles resorted to pahe hears Iris scream for help. thos to draw in new readers, others He stumbles into a bathtapped into the renewed, Star Warsroom to find Iris lying unconinduced interest in sci-fi. Green Lanscious. Hovering over her is tern, who had been sharing his title a deranged escaped convict with Green Arrow since 1976, flew named Clive Yorkin. As YorDC house ad that teased the death of Iris Allen in Flash #275.

TM and © DC Comics. solo again, beginning with Green Lankin flees, the issue ends with 270

tern #123 (Dec. 1979). That issue’s cover—by Green Lantern’s 1960s master artist Gil Kane—boasts the hero was “back at last in solo star-spanning action,” and courtesy of the series’ longtime writer Denny O’Neil, Green Lantern’s status quo was completely reset. The title character split up not only with Green Arrow but also with his fiancée, Kari Limbo. In his alter ego, Green Lantern returned to work for his former girlfriend, Carol Ferris, which meant he was reunited with his old friend Tom Kalmaku at Ferris Aircraft. Green Lantern’s new artist was Joe Staton, brought on board by editor Jack C. Harris, who knew of Staton’s fondness for the emerald ringslinger.

Doomsday Tales and Other Things Harris also edited another new sci-fi comic book. Originally intended as a revival of Strange Adventures for DC’s Explosion in 1978, then re-titled Time Warp, DC’s latest Dollar Comic debuted in July 1979 (cover dated Oct.Nov.) with a dramatic Michael Kaluta cover. The 64 page anthology carried the subtitle “Doomsday Tales and Other Things,” and Harris’s hope for the series was that it would be “the perfect blend of… the best sciencefiction comics that ever hit the comic book scene” (Khalaf 52). Aided by Joe

Joe Staton and Dick Giordano’s cover art for 1978’s unpublished All-Star Comics #75 was used as an interior splash page in Adventure Comics #462, featuring the Earth-2 Batman’s death.

TM and © DC Comics.

DC released two new Dollar Comic anthology books in the form of Time Warp and All-Out War. Cover art by Mike Kaluta and Joe Kubert, respectively. TM and © DC Comics.

Orlando (who had famously drawn sci-fi stories for EC Comics in the early 1950s), Harris wanted to adapt science fiction prose stories by writers like Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.

When that plan got foiled, the editors had contributors—which included Jim Aparo, Dick Ayers, Mike W. Barr, J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Ditko, Arnold Drake, Michael Fleisher, Dick Giordano, Paul Levitz, Elliot S. Maggin, Shelly Mayer, Don Newton, Denny O’Neil and Tom Sutton—explore classical science fiction tropes: nuclear armageddon, an alien race that can see the future, an alien invasion of Earth, among others. Unfortunately, very little of Time Warp’s material proved memorable enough to capture readers’ imaginations. As Harris explained, “when the book finally hit the stands, the budget and scheduling restraints diluted the fine wine the book was meant to be” (Khalaf 53). Time Warp was cancelled after five issues.

Similarly short-lived was another new Dollar Comic, All-Out War. Promoted as “3 Combat Magazines in 1,” the title featured Viking Commando stories by Robert Kanigher and George Evans, along with the ongoing adventures of African-American pilot Black Eagle and the British guerillas Force Three. Dick Ayers, E.R. Cruz, J.M. 271

DeMatteis, Jerry Grandenetti and Carl Wessler also contributed to All-Out War while Joe Kubert provided the covers for all six issues.

Though genre comics didn’t perform well in 1979, a book publisher took a chance by releasing softcover trade paperback reprints of prominent DC genre stories. Simon & Schuster’s Fireside Books imprint—the same company that published Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins—reprinted some of DC’s finest war comics with America at War and finest love comics with Heart Throbs.

Simon & Schuster staff members edited the love comics volume while Michael Uslan, a former member of DC’s Junior Woodchucks program and future screenwriter, edited the war book which included a sequence from the 1940s Superman newspaper strip in which the hero takes a physical… and fails it because his vision is too good! Uslan would follow the war vol­ ume with the science fiction anthol­ ogy Mysteries in Space in 1980. Priced at $6.95 each and sold in bookstores, these volumes appeared alongside similar books featuring specific Marvel characters: Captain America, Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, and The Fantastic Four. Another paperback book released in 1979 achieved unprecedented success.

In Space, Nobody Can See You Reach the Bestseller List Though comics sales were down in 1979, one book was a true bestseller: Walter Simonson and Archie Goodwin’s adaptation of the space-horror film Alien reached the New York Times bestseller list. Ridley Scott’s frightening tale of an alien creature that imperils the crew of a space trawler was the sixth highest grossing film at the box office in 1979. Not only a breakout vehicle for director Scott and lead actress Sigourney Weaver, the film continued the momentum that the science fiction genre was experiencing in the late 1970s.

Heavy Metal acquired the license to release a series of Alien products: a comic book film adaptation, a 1980 calendar and two “making of” books about the film. HM art director John Workman was assigned the task of finding a creative team for the comic book. His first thought was to have Walter Simonson ink Carmine Infantino’s pencils – the two men had collaborated on the eight-page “Hitter’s Wind” for Creepy #84 (Nov. 1976) to good effect. However, Infantino’s phone was busy when Workman called him. Simonson, on the other hand, was free to take a call and ended up penciling and inking the entire book himself. During their call, Simonson recommended Archie Goodwin – a veteran at film adaptations – to write the book (Nolen-Weath-

ington 29). Simonson recalled his experience working on this book as an absolute joy: “Alien was one of the best experiences I ever had in comics doing a movie adaptation. Charlie Lippincott was our liaison with 20th Century Fox and Charlie was a comics fan. What that meant was he kinda knew what we needed to do a good comic book” (Nolen-Weathington 32).

20th Century Fox, the studio that produced the film, went to great lengths to ensure that the comic book creators had a good feel for the story. In December 1978, Simonson was flown to England to see a rough cut of the film, and the studio gave him the freedom to draw the characters as he wished without worrying about exact likenesses. Goodwin and Simonson even received permission to make small changes to the story to ensure that the adaptation would read well in comics form. Though the creative team had to rush through the final 20 pages in a week in order to have the comic book release coincide with the movie release, Alien: the Illustrated Story was completed on time and became a major success. Simonson modestly states, “I’m not claiming any credit—it was Alien. Anybody could have done it and [made it a best-seller]” (Nolen-Weathington 33).

Regardless, Alien: the Illustrated Story appeared on the New York Times Mass Market bestseller list for eight weeks between July and September 1979, reaching as high as #7 on that list.

Heavy Metal’s adaptation of Steven Spielberg’s film 1941 was handled by Joe Kubert School graduates Steven Bissette and Rick Veitch.

1941 TM and © Universal Studios.

Heavy Metal followed up Alien with an adaptation of the farcical Steven Spielberg film 1941. Produced

by Kubert School graduates Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch from the screenplay by Spielberg, this unique adaptation used collages of pictures from 1940s-era magazines such as advertisements and photographs along with art by the book’s creators to produce a narrative that was surreal and confusing for anyone attempting to find a plot. 1941: The Illustrated Story is filled with high-energy page layouts, absurd humor and images that most likely disturbed the sociallyconscious reader of the 1970s. Japa-

Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson’s adaptation of Ridley Scott’s science fiction horror film Alien became a New York Times bestseller. Alien TM and © Twentieth Century Fox.

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nese soldiers, for instance, were depicted as bucktoothed sub-humans.

The film was profitable but the oddball adaptation did not make the bestseller lists.

Meanwhile, prolific 1970s editor Byron Preiss organized one of the more unique graphic novels of 1979 as Howard Chaykin painted an adaptation of Alfred Bester’s classic science fiction novel The Stars My Destination.

Released in July 1979 via small New York City publisher Baronet—which had released Preiss’s previous books The Illustrated Roger Zelazny and The Illustrated Harlan Ellison as well as the first edition of Will Eisner’s epochal A Contract With God—the book adapted the first half of Bester’s novel about Gully Foyle, the sole survivor of an attacked spaceship who dedicates his life to revenge when no one comes to rescue him. Baronet offered the graphic novel in two editions: as a single softcover book and as a hardcover that shipped with a slipcase into which the second volume could be placed. However, Baronet went out of business not long after volume one was released, so volume two wasn’t published until twelve years later, when a Marvel editor found the draft of volume two in a Queens, New York warehouse and persuaded Marvel to publish the complete story in one volume.

A @#$% of an Eclipse At the same time that Baronet Publishing was fading, Eclipse Enterprises was growing. With the success of

Howard Chaykin adapted the first half of Alfred Bester’s classic science fiction novel for Byron Preiss who then went out of business. The second half was published by Marvel twelve years later.

The Stars My Destination TM and © Alfred Bester.

their first graphic novel Sabre – which had sold over 5000 copies to the Direct Market by 1979 – brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney expanded Eclipse with two new releases. In March, the brothers published a collection of comic strips by Fred Hembeck. Hembeck: The Best of Dateline: @!!?# was a 44-page collection of silly comic strips that originally appeared in Alan Light’s adzine The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom.

Hembeck was a comics fan and aspiring artist attending college in upstate Buffalo, far from his home in Long Island, New York. He had dreams of making it big in the world of comics, and for years, he drew like most other comic fans did: in a straight illustrative style that aped the material found in the Marvel and DC titles of

Above: part of a Fred Hembeck strip that appeared in Iron Man #112. Left: Eclipse’s The Best of Dateline: @!!?# collected Hembeck’s comics strips from The Buyer’s Guide adzine. TM and © Fred Hembeck.

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the time. In 1977 he tried to get hired by one of the publishers but failed.

He was even rejected in demeaning terms by DC Art Director Vince Colletta. Before making a second attempt to draw for mainstream comics, and to keep himself working, Hembeck began scribbling comics everywhere – in letters to friends on Long Island, on flyers and posters, and as letters of comment to comic books. In all of those drawings, Hembeck took on a new style – one that included a selfcaricature of the artist, complete with full beard, hair parted in the middle and elbow and knee squiggles borrowed from some combination of Al Wiseman, Mort Walker and Don Martin. Inspired by encouraging correspondence from Bill Mantlo, Hembeck drew an illustrated letter that appeared in the letter’s page of Iron Man #112 (July 1978).

That attention inspired Hembeck to draw another strip that depicted his cartoonish alter ego interviewing Spider-Man, and he sent that piece to the popular weekly comics adzine The Buyer’s Guide, which included columns and illustrated material alongside copious advertising. Publisher Alan Light accepted the piece – and paid for it, and then asked Hembeck for more material. His silly cartoons, titled “Dateline: @!!?#,” became a regular feature of the high-circulation zine, and quickly Fred Hembeck gave up the pursuit of serious comics for a career providing a loving lampoon of them (Hembeck). Eclipse’s collection sold well and inspired a half-dozen follow-up compilations and original books as well as a career for Hembeck providing short comic strips for DC’s weekly “Daily Planet” feature page (which had begun in its July 31, 1978 edition) and later for Marvel Age and other Marvel comics in the 1980s.

In November 1979, Eclipse published Night Music 1, a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by P. Craig Russell. After wrapping up his work at Marvel when “Killraven” ended in Amazing Adventures #39 (Nov. 1976), Russell drew for “ground-level” publisher Star*Reach, with stories in many issues of Star*Reach and Imagine, as well as the one-shot Parsifal that adapted the Richard Wagner opera. Russell’s work was deeply influenced by his love for opera and clas-

Ken Landgraf published his own Star Fighters, written and penciled by him and inked by a crew of comic industry veterans that included Josef Rubenstein, Jack Abel, Dave Simons and Armando Gil. Fantagraphics released a one-shot comic for $2 by Golden Age artist Jay Disbrow called The Flames of Gyro, a sci-fi adventure in the tradition of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

Jason Monarch #1 cover by Jim Craig. TM and © respective copyright holder.

sical music, and Night Music 1 was a 44-page magazine-sized comic that included an adaptation of the opera semiseria “La sonnambula” as well as the elliptical “A Breakdown on the Starship Remembrance.”

Speaking of Star*Reach, Mike Friedrich’s publishing house released its final comics in 1979 with Imagine #6 (July 1979) and Star*Reach #18 (Oct. 1979). Fellow ground-level publisher Sal Quartuccio also threw in the towel with Hot Stuf’ #8 (Summer 1978) though he continued to publish portfolios by artists like Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson. Canadian publisher Andromeda wrapped up the publication of its eponymous comic that adapted science fiction stories with Andromeda #6, an Alan Dean Foster special. Meanwhile, fan publisher Omnibus Publishing Company announced plans to release Jason Monarch #1 (April-May 1979) as a color comic with a press run of 100,000 copies. Jim Craig, who had previously contributed to such Marvel titles as Master of Kung Fu, drew the comic. Omnibus publisher Dave Lillard, however, faced major health crises, so Jason Monarch ended up as a black-and-white comic book with a smaller print run. Only one issue was released. That’s at least one more issue than Omnibus’s other announced series, Topaz and Out of the Abyss, which never saw publication. Neo-pro

Warren Magazines had perhaps its final great year in 1979, publishing thoughtful and unique work from an all-star roster of artists and writers. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin, hard at work on Marvel’s upcoming Epic magazine, contributed eleven stories to Warren Magazines that year, including one drawn by Al Williamson (a return, of sorts, to Warren’s days of glory in the 1960s). Mainstream veterans Larry Hama and Val Mayerik teamed for a samurai strip in Creepy #106 (March 1979) that was influenced by the classic Japanese comic Lone Wolf & Cub (a comic that Stan Lee was in talks to import to America in 1974). That issue also featured art by stalwarts such as Jim Starlin, Josef Rubenstein, Leopoldo Durañona and Pepe Moreno with writing by the likes of Laurie Sutton, Bob Toomey and Budd Lewis.

Other Creepy issues from 1979 presented work by such notables as Alfredo Alcala, Terry Austin, Cary Bates, Steve Englehart, Russ Heath, Carmine Infantino, Bruce Jones, Bill Mantlo, Roger McKenzie, Paul Neary, Alex Niño, Len Wein, John Severin, Walter Simonson, and Berni Wrightson.

Over in Eerie (which celebrated its gala 100th issue in 1979), Don McGregor re-teamed with his Sabre partner Paul Gulacy for the “Trespassers” series. Elsewhere, Eerie’s resident time-traveling hero even got his own book when The Rook #1 went on sale that summer. Warren also published a series of media-influenced one-shot magazines under its Warren Presents banner, including “Ring of the Warlords” in Warren Presents #1 (Jan. 1979) and “Alien Invasion Comix” in Warren Presents #3 (Aug. 1979). Warren’s controversial 1984 magazine began featuring Frank Thorne’s Ghita of Alizarr—a more sexualized take on Red Sonja, the character that Thorne was associated with during that era— starting with issue #7 (Aug. 1979).

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For Warren Magazines, Frank Thorne created the Red Sonja-derivative Ghita of Alizarr. TM and © respective copyright holder.

The magazine also included “Mutant World,” a violent and sexual on-going feature by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben, as well as many other serials

by Warren regulars. After its tenth issue (cover dated Dec. 1979) 1984 was re-titled 1994.

In December 1979 Warren publisher Jim Warren curtailed his purchasing of new stories by instituting a buying freeze. This freeze hit Warren’s magazines hard because it drove away the prominent creators who had flocked to his books for creative freedom –

Contributors to Eerie #100 included Cary Bates, Bill DuBay, Leopoldo Duranona, Budd Lewis and Jim Starlin. Cover by Jordi Penalva.

TM and © The New Company.

that fit the era: a punk rocker pulls down his pants to shown a .38 caliber gun), and work by underground legends Aline Kominsky (The Bunch’s Power Pak Comics), Skip Williamson (Snappy Sammy Smoot­) and the team of Jay Lynch and Gary Whitney (Phoebe and the Pigeon People).

and for a good paycheck in a period of industry contraction – and ultimately caused the downfall of the company.

Warren describes another reason for the company’s fall, though: he was sick with a debilitating and unexplained illness, related to his immune system, which caused him to sink into a deep depression. Because James Warren had seldom delegated work to others, or set a second-in-command, the company floundered without his presence. Ironically, had the company survived during that era, Warren had made plans to promote his protégé Bill DuBay and ultimately transition daily management of the company to him (Cooke 188-191).

Captain Canuck Crosses the Border Canadian comic book creator Richard Comely resurrected his Captain Canuck character in 1979. Three issues of the Canadian super agent were published in 1975. Those issues sold well, but not nearly well enough to offset Comely’s expenses. He accumulated $73,000 worth of debt which forced him to halt production (Goldstein 2).

Three years later, Comely acquired two partners to finance new Captain Canuck issues. To cut printing costs in half, Comely chose to have his series handled by the same press that was already being used by nearly all the major American comic book publishers, including DC and Marvel: World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois. Whereas the first three issues were distributed solely to Canadian outlets, starting with issue #4 (coverdate July-Aug. 1979), Captain Canuck now reached stores in the United States, and not just Direct Market stores, but newsstand operators as well. While a typical American comic book provided 17 story pages for 40¢, Captain Canuck provided 27 story pages for 50¢ (and issue #4 also had the bonus feature of a half-page “Beavers” comic strip by another Canadian creator, Dave Sim).

Captain Canuck would continue to appear on American newsstands until 1981.

Like its mainstream counterpart, underground comix was down in 1979, but several publishers managed to hang on. Kitchen Sink Press published the quarterly Spirit magazine, featuring sumptuously reproduced reprints of Will Eisner’s classic hero

Four years after his debut, Richard Comely’s Captain Canuck finally crossed the Canadian border to the newsstands of the United States.

TM and © Captain Canuck Inc.

with painted wraparound covers and a new Eisner serial titled “Life on Another Planet” running each issue.

Other works released by Kitchen that year included Class War Comix (the Kitchen Sink “dripping faucet” cover logo was replaced with a shaking fist for a comic that was republished from England), Hyper Comix (solo work created by Steve Stiles, “Baltimore’s #1 underground cartoonist,” as the cover states), Bizarre Sex #9 (with a cover

Jack Jackson’s Comanche Moon was one of only a few new Rip Off Press releases.

TM and © respective copyright holder.

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Other underground publishers produced small lines of comics in 1979 and chose their titles conservatively to capture the attention of aging baby boomers. Rip Off Press released a new edition of underground legend Jack “Jaxon” Jackson’s Comanche Moon (the story of the wild Comanches of Texas), along with an anthology of comics by Bill Griffith and collections of The Forty Year Old Hippie and Foolbert Sturgeon’s Dorman’s Doggie. Last Gasp published a range of different comix in 1979, including Slow Death #10 (Nov. 1979) which dealt with cancer and included attacks on the tobacco companies for encouraging smoking; the second and third issues of the wild Commies from Mars (with eye-popping covers by John Pound); Jaxon’s Recuerden el Alamo, the story of Juan Seguin’s fight for Texas Independence; and the final issue of Guy Colwell’s brilliant Inner City Romance #5 (Feb. 1979), which also happened to be the 100th comic published by Last Gasp.

Jack Kirby Frees the Hostages One of the most unique news stories of 1979 involved a creator who didn’t publish a single new comic but whose presence hanged heavy over the industry: Jack Kirby. Though Kirby had left comics for a lucrative job at RubySpears Animation, he continued to produce commissioned art for film studios and other companies. Film producer Barry Geller approached Kirby in 1978 to design sets and other items for a proposed film based on Roger Zelazny’s Hugo-award winning novel Lord of Light. Grandiose and complex, Kirby’s designs were often too detailed for most movies, but Geller didn’t have a problem with them because the producer also wanted to create a theme park, to be called Science Fiction World, which would reuse the film sets as actual attractions for attendees. Eventually, plans for both the film and its theme park were abandoned after it was discov-

aliases based on the cover story that the CIA generated for them about the film. The team then made their way to the Tehran airport, presented fake passports, and passed through the gates to make their long way home to America. Unknowingly, Jack Kirby had played a small part in the saving of six American lives (Mendez).

Jack Kirby’s production art for an abandoned film project was used by the CIA for a cover story that would help rescue Americans who were in hiding in Iran. TM and © respective copyright holder.

ered that a member of Geller’s crew had been embezzling money from the production. Regardless, the Lord of Light project would make a surprising impact on an international event: the hostage crisis in Iran.

The hero that Kirby created with Joe Simon in 1940 actually made it to film but CBS’ pair of TV movies featuring Reb Brown as Captain America (airing on January and November 23-24, 1979) were almost unanimously panned. Fans were similarly horrified by the two Legends of the Superheroes specials that NBC ran on January 18 and 25. Reprising their roles as Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward led a liveaction cast that included characters as diverse as the Huntress and Mordru the Merciless. The inclusion of such obscure characters would have delighted many fans if not for the fact that the script mocked super-heroes. If anyone missed the point that this show was camp, a laugh track underscored the point.

Reception to those shows notwithstanding, network programmers believed that after Superman: The Movie, audiences were primed for more super-heroes and scheduled accordingly. Saturday morning’s TV schedule was full of costumed characters, particularly on ABC, where The World’s Greatest Superfriends, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show and Spider-Woman aired as a 3½hour block. NBC’s counterprogramming included Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, wherein the rocky Fantastic Four member was reduced to teenager Benjy Grimm, now transformed by magic jewelry (“Thing ring, do your thing!”).

On November 4, 1979, hundreds of revolutionaries loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the American embassy in Tehran and seized hostages. The act produced shockwaves felt throughout the world. The Iranians would ultimately hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days before releasing them on January 20, 1981. Unknown to nearly everybody, a second set of Americans were hidden in Tehran: six diplomats were hiding in the Canadian Embassy, in fear for their lives and terrified that they would never return home again. Those Americans needed to be rescued as well… and Jack Kirby’s comics material would have a hand in accomplishing that.

Filmation’s New Adventures of Flash Gordon was considerably more dignified, part of NBC’s two-pronged revival of comic strips’ best-known science fiction heroes. Initially released in theaters on March 30, 1979, Buck Rogers In the 25th Century—starring Gil Gerard—continued as a primetime TV series, debuting on September 20, 1979 and beginning a two season run that spurred a revival of Buck

CIA Operative Antonio “Tony” Mendez had a plan for resolving the Canadian Embassy crisis. He would create a cover story so bizarre that no Iranian would question it: he would claim to be part of a movie production company scouting shooting locations in Iran. A movie crew had the perfect alibi for working in a foreign land. Mendez, his assistant “Jerome Calloway” and their team established a fake production company in Hollywood, took out advertisements in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, set up telephones and then chose a script that they could pretend to be using. That script was Lord of Light, a complicated storyline that journeyed between different locations, had a high budget and a science fiction theme that was fashionable. Dubbing the project Argo, the team moved ahead with their plans, using Kirby’s production art as a way of giving the project authenticity.

Under tight security and intense secrecy, the team made their way to Tehran, using the cover story of the film production to meet up with the Americans in the Canadian embassy. The hidden diplomats took on fake names and

Despite the fact it featured a plethora of DC Comic characters, the campy Legends of the Super-Heroes television special infuriated devoted comic book fans.

TM and © DC Comics.

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Steel’s eponymous series lost almost half its readership; average monthly sales in 1979 was just over 246,000 copies, and that’s after the title received a sales boost from the popularity of Superman: The Movie. To compound the bad news, Superman was DC’s only title in 1979 with average monthly sales of at least 200,000 copies. In 1970, at least seven DC titles sold over 300,000 copies a month.

Bolstered by the runaway success of its Star Wars title, Marvel Comics fared better than everyone else. Avengers and Incredible Hulk were even selling more copies per month in 1979 than they were in 1970. Releasing 45 comic books a month in 1979, Marvel dominated the comics racks, and no other company came close to being a legitimate threat to them. DC Comics was only pushing out 26 titles a month, the same number that Archie and Gold Key released. Harvey typically published around fifteen titles a month while Charlton provided half a dozen reprint books. Disney comics, which once ruled the newsstands, were now most prominent in three-for-$1.09 bags at discount stores.

Warren Magazines, which had presented top-tier stories and art, were about to take a suicidal step toward schlock and borderline pornography. Underground comix—once a thriving, prosperous oasis of creative freedom—had its point of sale vendors practically wiped out in the wake of the Supreme Court Miller v. California decision in 1973.

Gold Key Comics adapted both Buck Rogers (left) and Battle of the Planets (right).

Buck Rogers TM and © The Dille Family Trust.

Battle of the Planets TM and © Sandy Frank Film Syndication, Inc.

in both comic strips (beginning September 9) and comic books. Maintaining the numbering of its 1964 one-shot, Gold Key revived its Buck Rogers title with issue #2 in the summer of 1979, initially reprinting Whitman’s tabloidsized movie adaptation before producing original stories through issue #16 in 1982.

Comics at the end of the 1970s

The fact of the matter was that by the end of the 1970s, there was Marvel, and then there was everyone else. But even Marvel didn’t have the luxury of resting on its laurels.

After all, most Marvel titles didn’t sell over 200,000 copies an issue. Like everyone else, Marvel hadn’t truly figured out what kind of comic book sold best. And like everyone else during the 1970s, Marvel tried different genres (monsters, kung fu, sci-fi) and formats (“Giant-Size” books, magazines, tabloids) in the hope that readers would stick with them.

Unfortunately, nearly everything proved to be a trend with little lasting power. Success was ephemeral.

The comics industry at the end of the 1970s was dramatically different than the one in place at the beginning of the decade. For one thing, the content of comic books had changed. The fans of the 1960s became the comic book labor force of the 1970s, and many of them were intent on updating the medium and making it a reflection of modern times. Among other things, that meant the idealistic heroes of the previous generation were replaced with more complex and violent characters.

By extension, the comic book creators struggled just as much as the publishers they provided work for did. Talented artists like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, Barry Smith, Jim Steranko and Berni Wrightson had all left the industry for more lucrative work in other fields, and very few people blamed them. Veteran inker Dan Adkins spelled out the reality of making a career in comics, “Marvel is a sweat shop for most artists. 10% make good money (of the artists) and the rest work too much for too little” (Tiefenbacher 7).

But try as they might, the new wave of comic book creators couldn’t reverse the most important of industry trends: declining sales. While the price of a typical comic book had increased from 15¢ to 40¢, the total number of comic books being sold decreased just as significantly. There is no better demonstration of how much comic book sales had declined over the course of a decade than the performance of Archie Comics’ flagship title. In 1970, Archie sold 483,000 copies on average per month. By 1977 that average had dropped to 155,000, and in 1983 Archie would only sell 70,000 copies a month. While not as drastic, the sales decline of DC’s comic books was equally alarming. DC’s bestselling title in 1970 was Superman with average monthly sales of nearly 447,000 copies. Nine years later, the Man of

What was truly crippling the comic book industry wasn’t the kind of stories being published or the package used to present those stories. The impediment to the industry’s continued success was a newsstand distribution system that no longer cared about comic books. The DC Implosion of 1978 convinced nearly every creator, commentator and comic shop retailer that the end was nigh. The industry was about to die, and not even the nascent Direct Sales market would prove to be a panacea.

Comparatively less successful was Gold Key’s Battle of the Planets, based on the syndicated adaptation of the Japanese anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Primarily illustrated by Win Mortimer, the comic book ended with issue #10 in 1980. Still, science fiction sold better than comics based on mainstream sitcoms. Gold Key began running a Happy Days title in early 1979 and killed it before year’s end with issue #6. Even more than most comics publishers, Gold Key was becoming irrelevant to mainstream consumers.

And that’s where they were wrong. To the surprise of many, the early 1980s reinvigorated the floundering comics industry. Much like a classic super-hero plot, great success was spawned from the pit of despair.

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Thomas, Roy. “Introduction.” Marvel Masterworks: Warlock vol. 1. New York, NY: Marvel Publishing, 2007.

Vance, James. “The Birth, Death and Afterlife of Comix book.” The Best of Comix Book.

Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Publishing, 2013.

Walker, Karen. “The Life and Death (and Life and Death) of Adam Warlock.” Back Issue (No. 34). June 2009: 3-13.

Chapter Four: 1973: Innocence Lost Arndt, Richard. “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser—DC’s ‘Anti-Conans.’” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 92). March 2010: 18-22.

---. “I Feel Like My Career Has Gone Full Circle.” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 123). March 2014: 3-52.

---. “I Think [Having Been An Artist] Gave Me an Edge in Writing Comics.” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 103): July 2011: 3-28.

Arnold, Mark. “Gerber Goes Crazy!” Back Issue (No. 31). Dec. 2008: 51-53.

Aushenker, Michael. “The Son of Satan: A Trident True Devil Hero.” Back Issue (No. 21). April 2007: 6-13.

Beaty, Bart. Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Beck, C.C. “C.C. Beck: Preacher’s Son.” Streetwise. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2000: 59-67.

Brancatelli, Joe. “Superheist: The Great Comic Art Rip-off.” Inside Comics (No. 1).

Spring 1974: 12-16.

Cuti, Nick. “The E-Man Story.” E-Man. Sept.

1989.

Eury, Michael. “Shazam! DC’s Captain Marvel Revival of the 1970s.” Back Issue (No. 20). Oct. 2008: 3-10.

Evanier, Mark.

“An Incessantly-Asked Queston: What was the relationship between Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics.”

News From Me. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www. newsfromme.com/iaq/iaq07/>.

Griffith, Bill. “A Sour Look at the Comix Scene or Out of the Inkwell and ‘Into the Toilet.’” San Francisco Phoenix. 13 April 1973: 20.

Howe, Sean. Marvel Comics: the Untold Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

Johnson, Dan. “Gerry Conway and John Romita, Sr. Discuss The Green Goblin’s Last Stand.” Back Issue (No. 18). October 2006: 56-60.

---. “The Duck Requiem: Gene Colan and Val Mayerik Remember Steve Gerber.” Back Issue (No. 31). Dec.2008: 16-22.

---. “They Knew What Evil Lurked in the Hearts of Men.” Back Issue (No. 10). June 2005: 2-8.

Kingman, Jim. “Move Over Superboy! (And Tell Legion Fandom the News!): The Resurgence of the Legion of Super-Heroes During the Bronze Age of Comics.” Back Issue (No. 68). October 2013: 3-16.

Millsted, Ian. “It! The Living Colossus.”

Back Issue (No. 36). Oct. 2009: 69-71.

Browning, Michael. “The Monster of Frankenstein.” Back Issue (No. 36). Oct. 2009: 10-14.

Read, John. “Joe Staton: Drawing Comics and Making Funny Noises.” Stay Tooned!

(Vol. 1, No. 2). Sept. 2008: 32-43

Cadigan, Glen. “The Man Who Loved Comics: The Life and Legacy of Dave Cockrum.”

Back Issue (No. 78). June 2008: 3-28.

Richardson, John Adkins. “Critique.” The Rocket’s Blast and Comicollector (No. 106).

December 1973: 52-54.

Campbell, Josie. “Women in Comics: Farmer & Robbins on Abortion, Anger and Underground Comix.” Comic Book Resources. 15 March 2013. <http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44269>.

Rozakis, Bob. “The Comicmobile.” Anything Goes. 3 June 2010. <http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/2010/06/comicmobile. html>.

Cassell, Dewey. “The Hellish Humor of Plop!” Back Issue (No. 21). April 2007: 21-27.

Rosenkranz, Patrick. Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2008.

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Rozanski, Chuck. “The Summer of 1973 Part VII: San Diego Comic Con Part III.” Tales from the Database. Nov. 2003. <http:// www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg94. html>.

Sacks, Jason and Daniel Elkin. “Don McGregor on ‘Killraven,’ Part One: Stories Worth Writing.” ComicsBulletin.com. 22 Feb. 2014. < http://comicsbulletin.com/columns/5409/don-mcgregor-on-killravenpart-one-stories-worth-the-writing/>.

Schumer, Arlen. “Neal Adams: the Marvel Years.” Comic Book Artist (No. 3). Winter 1999: 13-38.

Smith, Zack. “An Oral History of CAPTAIN MARVEL: The SHAZAM Years, pt. 1.”

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Thomas, Roy. “A Fond Look Back at Big Red.” The Adventures of Red Sonja. Runnemeade, New Jersey: Dynamite Entertainment: 2011.

---. “From Mars to Zamboula.” Alter Ego (Vol. 2, No. 5). Summer 1999: 10-13.

---. “Introduction.” Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel vol. 3. New York, NY: Marvel Publishing: 2008: vi.

---. “Roy Thomas on Stan Lee.” The Comics Journal (No. 44). Feb. 1978: 19.

Wertham, Fredric. The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973.

Zelenetz, Alan. “Wind Chimes in Hyboria.”

Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian (No. 1). 1983: front and back inside covers.

Chapter Five: 1974: No More Heroes Amash, Jim. “Writing Comics Turned Out to be What I Really Wanted to Do with My Life.” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 70). July 2007: 3-61.

Andelman, Bob. Will Eisner: A Spirited Life.

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Arndt, Richard. “I Think [Having Been An Artist] Gave Me An Edge In Writing Comics.” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 103). July 2011: 3-27.

Barlow, Ron. “Seaboard Sets Sail.” Inside Comics (No. 3). Fall 1974: 7.

Brantacelli, Joe. “All for One and One for None.” Inside Comics (No. 1). Spring 1974: 7.

Brodsky, Bob. “Steve Englehart & Soul.”

Comic Book Artist (No. 2). Summer 1998: 68-71.

Brownstein, Charles. “History of Comics Censorship, Part 2.” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. 6 June 2013. <http://cbldf.org/ history-of-comics-censorship-2/>.

Buckler, Rich. “The Origins of Deathlok.”

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Cardozo, Bruce. “Spider-Man Movie.” FOOM (No. 4). Winter 1973: 22.

Cadigan, Glen. “Dave Cockrum Interview.”

The Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003: 69-79.

Cooke, Jon. “Mike Friedrich and the Saga of Star*Reach.” Comic Book Artist (Vol. 2 No. 2).

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---. “Rich Buckler Breaks Out!” Comic Book Artist (No. 7). Feb.-March 2000: 80-91.

Cooke, Jon. “Comix Book: A Marvel Oddity.” Comic Book Artist (No. 7). March 2000: 102-108.

Englehart, Steve. “Captain America III”.

SteveEnglehart.com. 5 June 2013. <http:// www.steveenglehart.com/comics/Captain%20America%20177-186.html>.

Eury, Michael. “I Was a Teenage Wolverine!”

Back Issue (No. 4). June 2004: 26-31.

Evanier, Mark. Kirby: King of Comics. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2008.

Goodwin, Archie. “Introduction.” Manhunter: the Complete Saga. Excalibur Enterprises, 1979: 5-11.

Greenberger, Robert and Chaykin, Howard.

The Art of Howard Chaykin. New York: Dynamite Entertainment, 2012.

Groth, Gary. “The Harlan Ellison Interview.” The Comics Journal (No. 53). Winter 1980: 68-109.

Gustaveson, Rob. “Gerry Conway Talks Back to the Comics Journal.” The Comics Journal (No. 69). Dec. 1981: 70-93.

Howe, Sean. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

Johnson, Dan. “Number One with a Bullet: 30 Years of the Punisher.” Back Issue (No. 4).

June 2004: 50-61.

Nolen-Weathington, Eric and Roger Ash. Modern Masters Volume Eight: Water Simonson. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006.

Platt, Charles. “The Insanity Offence: The Fleisher/Ellison/Comics Journal Libel Case.”

Ansible (No. 48). February 1987: 22-26.

Quattro, Ken. “Roy Thomas: Corrections & Suggestions.” The Comics Detective. 7 Dec. 2012. < http://thecomicsdetective. blogspot.com/2012/12/roy-thomas-corrections-suggestions.html>.

Sanderson, Peter. “The Four Lives of… the Spectre! Chapter One.” Wrath of the Spectre (No. 1). 1988: inside front cover and inside back cover.

---. “The Dark Justice of… the Spectre!”

Wrath of the Spectre (No. 2). 1988: inside front cover and inside back cover.

---. “The Wrath Against… the Spectre!”

Wrath of the Spectre (No. 3). 1988: inside front cover and inside back cover.

---. “The Sudden End of… the Spectre!”

Wrath of the Spectre (No. 4). 1988: inside front cover and inside back cover.

Schweier, Philip. “Looking Back at the Future.” Back Issue (No. 14). February 2006: 4-17.

Siegel, Howard. “Comic Collector’s Comments.” The Rocket’s Blast – Comicollector (No. 108). March 1974: 40.

Tiefenbacher, Mike. “National News.” The Comic Reader (No. 105). April 1974: 7.

---. “Review: Wonder Woman.” The Comic Reader (No. 105). April 1974: 20-21.

Chapter Six: 1975: The High Cost of Expansion Abramowitz, Jack. “The Secrets of Oz Revealed.” Back Issue! (No. 61). Dec. 2012: 29-32.

Anderson, Michael C.T. “The All-New International X-Men.” Secrets Behind the X-Men. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://secretsbehindthexmen.blogspot.com/2011/12/allnew-international-x-men.html>.

Arndt, Richard. Horror Comics in Black and White. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publocations, 2013.

Beahm, George. “Vaughn Bodé: A Retrospective Look at the Man and His Work.”

RBCC (No. 121): Sept. 1975: 23-32.

Beerbohm, Robert. Reply to Robert Greenberger’s “1970’s Atlas Comics Line Being Revived.” Comicmix.com. 14 Sept.

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Best, Daniel. “Jim Mooney.” Adelaide Comics and Books. March 2004. <http://www. adelaidecomicsandbooks.com/mooney. html>.

---. “‘A Curse On The Superman Movie!’ — A Look Back At Jerry Siegel’s 1975 Press Release.” 20th Century Danny Boy. 8 July 2012. <http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com. au/2012/07/curse-on-superman-movielook-back-at.html>.

Broertjes, Harry C. “Jim Shooter Doesn’t Write the Legion Anymore.” The Legion Outpost (No. 9). Bullville, New York: Little Brother Press, 1975: 8.

Byrne, John. “Who Is John Byrne?” Byrnerobotics.com. 27 Aug. 2013. <http:// www.byrnerobotics.com/FAQ/listing.asp?I D=1&T1=Who+Is+John+Byrne%3F>.

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Cadigan, Glen. “Jim Shooter, Part One.” Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 50-60.

---. “Jim Shooter, Part Two.” Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 94-102.

---. “Dave Cockrum.” Legion Companion.

Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 69-79.

Caputo, Nicholas. “A Shocking Story.” The Jack Kirby Collector (No. 10). April 1996: 26 Claremont, Chris. “Introduction.” Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1.

New York, New York: Marvel Entertainment, Inc., 2009: vi-vii.

Cockrum, Dave. Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1. New York, New York: Marvel Entertainment, Inc., 2009: 175.

Cooke, Jon B. “Byrne’s Robotics: The prolific Marvel/DC stalwart on his big break at Charlton.” Comic Book Artist (No. 12).

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---. “Captain of the Company: Flo Steinberg Interview.” The Warren Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2001: 162-163.

---. “Colon of the Comics: Chatting with the talented (and ubiquitous) funnybook artist.” Comic Book Artist (No.16). Dec. 2001: 44-53.

---. “In the New House of Ideas: Alan Kupperberg on the waning days of Atlas/ Seaboard.” Comic Book Artist (No.16). Dec. 2001: 108-117.

---. “Lifeboat: Art Spiegelman and Arcade: the Comics Revue.” Comic Book Artist (Vol. 2, No. 1). 2003: 67-77.

---. “Rise & Fall of Rovin’s Empire: A Candid Conversation with Atlas/Seaboard editor Jeff Rovin.” Comic Book Artist (No. 16). Dec. 2001: 24-43.

---. “Starlin’s Cosmic Books.” Comic Book Artist (No. 2). Summer 1998: 62-65.

---. “The Fab One’s Marvel Daze: That old Marvel Bullpen gang talks about their ‘gal everyday.’” Comic Book Artist (No.18).

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Cronin, Brian. Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed (#54). 8 June 2006. <http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/06/08/ comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-54/>.

---. Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed (#113). 26 July 2007. <http://goodcomics. comicbookresources.com/2007/07/26/ comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-113/>.

Cruz, Mia. “The New Original Wonder Woman.” Wonderland: The Ultimate Lynda Carter Site. 5 Sept. 2013. <http://www. wonderland-site.com/html/series/wonder/pilot75/ww75-00-00.htm>.

Dean, Michael. “An Extraordinarily Marketable Man: The Ongoing Struggle for Ownership of Superman and Superboy.” The Comics Journal (No. 263). Oct./Nov. 2004: 13-17.

Gartland, Mike and John Morrow. “You Can’t Go Home Again: Kirby’s 1970s return to the ‘Snake Pit’ of Marvel Comics.” 3 Sept.

2013. <http://twomorrows.com/kirby/ articles/2970s.html>.

Greene, Bob. “Able to Leap Tall Buildings, Superman Can’t Aid His Creator.” The Pittsburgh Press. 19 Nov. 1975: 29.

Gustaveson, Rob. “Gerry Conway Talks Back to the Comics Journal.” The Comics Journal (No. 69). Dec. 1981: 70-93.

Harvey, Allan. “Orb of Nabu: The 1970s Revival of Dr. Fate.” Back Issue! (No. 24). Sept.

2007: 17-22.

Howe, Sean. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

Hughes, Bob. “Timeline: 1970-1975.” DC Comics Artists. 5 June 2006. <http://dccomicsartists.com/DCHISTORY/DCHISTORY-5. htm>.

Infantino, Carmine. The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino. Lebanon, New Jersey: Vanguard Productions, 2001.

Jones, Ken. “The First True Alternative Comics.” Amazing Heroes (No. 89). 15 Feb. 1986: 48-49.

Kronenberg, Michael. The Batcave Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2009.

Maheras, Russ. “Confessions of a comic book killer.” Maelstrom (No. 7). Nov. 1999: 15-36.

McAvennie, Michael. “1970s.” DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle. New York, New York: DK Publishing, 2010: 136-183.

Morrow, John. “The 1997 Kirby Tribute Panel.” The Jack Kirby Collector (No. 17).

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Nolen-Weathington, Eric. Modern Masters Volume Two: George Pérez. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Nov. 2003: 20-31.

Nolen-Weathington, Eric & Jon B. Cooke.

Modern Masters Volume Seven: John Byrne.

Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, May 2006.

Pingel, Mike. The Q Guide to Wonder Woman. New York, New York: Alyson Books, 2008.

Quattro, Ken. “Archer St. John & The Little Company That Could.” Comicartville.com.

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Ricca, Brad. Super Boys. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013.

Rovin, Jeff. “How Not to Run a Comic Book Company.” The Comics Journal (No. 114).

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Shooter, Jim. “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” The Legion Outpost #10. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Little Brother Press, Spring 1981: 13.

Tiefenbacher, Mike. “National News.” The Comic Reader (No. 111). Oct. 1974: 4-5.

---. “National News.” The Comic Reader (No. 113). Dec. 1974: 3-5.

Tye, Larry. Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Enduring Hero. New York, New York: Random House, June 2012.

Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics. bridge, MA: De Capo Press: 2007.

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Yurkovich, David. Mantlo: A Life in Comics. Los Angeles, Calfornia: Sleeping Giant, 2007.

Chapter Seven: 1976: Bicentennial Fireworks Amash, Jim with Eric Nolen-Weathington.

Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Aug. 2010.

Best, Daniel. “Looking Back With Dick Giordano.” 20th Century Danny Boy. 5 Oct. 2008. <http://ohdannyboy.blogspot. com/2008/10/looking-back-with-dickgiordano.html>.

Burton, Richard. “Interview.” The Comic Reader (No. 147). Aug. 1977: 11-14.

Cadigan, Glen. “Jim Shooter, Part One.” The Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 50-60.

---. “Keith Giffen: Part One.” The Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 140-144.

---. “Mike Grell.” The Legion Companion.

Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 87-93.

---. “Paul Levitz, Part One.” The Legion Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, Oct. 2003: 107-111.

“Charlton.” The Comic Reader (No. 136). Oct. 1976: 9.

Claremont, Chris. “Introduction.” Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1.

New York, New York: Marvel Entertainment, Inc., 2009: vi-vii.

Cooke, Jon B. “Steve Gerber’s Crazy Days.”

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Cronin, Brian. Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed (#54). 8 June 2006. <http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/06/08/ comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-54/>.

---. Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed (#65). 24 Aug. 2006. <http://goodcomics. comicbookresources.com/2006/08/24/ comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-65/>.

---. Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed (#310). 22 April 2011. <http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/04/22/ comic-book-legends-revealed-310/>.

Crumb, Robert. “Introduction.” (1986). Reprinted in American Splendor and More American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar. New York, New York: Ballantine Books, August 2003: 5-6.

Darius, Julian. “Your Guide to Infinite Crisis: A Brief History of Power Girl.” Sequart Research and Literary Organization. 16 March 2006. <http://sequart.org/magazine/1502/your-guide-to-infinite-crisis-abrief-history-of-power-girl/>.

Egan, Sean. “Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man.” Death Ray. Oct. 2009: 32-34.

Evanier, Mark. “Other Comics by Me.” POV online. 11 Sept. 2013. <http://www.povonline.com/Other2.htm>.

---. “Other Comics by Me.” POV online. < http://www.povonline.com/Other6.htm>.

Gartland, Mike and John Morrow. “You Can’t Go Home Again: Kirby’s 1970s return to the ‘Snake Pit’ of Marvel Comics.”

2003. <http://twomorrows.com/kirby/ articles/2970s.html>.

Greenberg, Glenn. “Tabloid Team-Ups: The Giant-Size DC-Marvel Crossovers.” Back Issue! (No. 61). Dec. 2012: 33-40.

Greenberger, Robert. “The Path of Kahn.”

Back Issue! (No. 57). July 2012: 3-38.

---. “From Skartaris to Sable: A chat with storyteller Mike Grell.” Originally from Comics Scene (No. 9) and reprinted on MikeGrell. com. <http://www.mikegrell.com/thewarlord/articles/skartaristosable.html>.

---. “Bring on the Bad Guys: Secret Society of Super-Villains.” Back Issue! (No. 35). Aug. 2009: 25-31.

Hildebrand, Andy. “Comment.” The Comic Reader (No. 136). Oct. 1976: 12.

Howe, Sean. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

Infantino, Carmine. The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino. Lebanon, New Jersey: Vanguard Productions, 2001.

Kronenberg, Michael. The Batcave Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2009.

Levitz, Paul. “Curious Case of the Changing Criminal Club.” The Secret Society of SuperVillains: Vol. 1. New York, New York: DC Comics, 2011: 186.

Lustig, John. “The Terrible, Tragic (>Sob!<) Death of Romance (Comics!!).” Back Issue!

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Malice, Michael. “Mayor of the Mundane: Harvey Pekar.” Interview Magazine. <http://www.interviewmagazine.com/ culture/harvey-pekar-#/_>.

O’Neil, Dennis. “Afterword.” Batman: Knightfall. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1994.

Pasko, Martin. “Five Wonder Questions with Marty Pasko.” Comic Book Resources Forum. 7 May 2010. <http://forums. comicbookresources.com/showthread. php?321025-FIVE-WONDER-QUESTIONSwith-MARTY-PASKO>.

Rasmussen, Roy. “Remembering the Bicentennial: Comic Books Celebrate Independence Day in 1976.” Comic Book Collectors Club. 4 July 2012. <http://comicbookcollectorsclub.com/remembering-the-bicentennial-comic-books-celebrate-independenceday-in-1976/>.

Riley, Shannon E. “Gerry Conway on Englehart Leaving Marvel.” Back Issue! (No. 45).

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Sanderson, Peter. The X-Men Companion, Volume I. Stamford, Connecticut: Fantagraphics Books, March 1982.

---. The X-Men Companion, Volume II. Stamford, Connecticut: Fantagraphics Books, Sept. 1982.

Schelly, Bill. The Art of Joe Kubert. Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books: 2011.

Shooter, Jim. “The Secret Origin of Jim Shooter, Editor in Chief—Part 1.” Jim Shooter Blog. 23 June 2011 <http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secret-origin-of-jimshooter-editor-in.html>.

Thomas, Roy. “All The Stars There Are In (Super-Hero) Heaven!” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 14). April 2002: 4-26.

Thompson, Kim. “An Interview With Marv Wolfman.” The Comics Journal (No. 44).

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Tye, Larry. Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Enduring Hero. New York, New York: Random House, June 2012.

Vaughn, J.C. “Jim Shooter’s First Day at Marvel Comics.” Back Issue! (No. 34). June 2009: 14-19.

Veitch, Rick.

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Wells, John. “Karate Kid: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” Back Issue! (No. 67). Sept.

2013: 23-32.

Wines, Larry. “The Story of the 1975 – 1976 American Freedom Train.” 11 Sept. 2013. <http://www.freedomtrain.org/americanfreedom-train-home.htm>.

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Groth, Gary. “From Detective to Detectives, Inc.: An Interview with Marshall Rogers.”

The Comics Journal (No. 54). March 1980: 56-70.

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Amash, Jim. “I Want to Do It Again!” Alter Ego (Vol. 3, No. 100). March 2011: 6-25, 38-62.

Hentoff, Nat. “Spider-Man, Hitler, and Me.” The Village Voice (Vol. 23, No. 11). March 13, 1978: 30-31.

Arnold, Mark. “A Family Affair: The Harvey Comics Story.” Comic Book Artist (No. 19).

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---. “Hanna-Barbera at Marvel Comics.”

Back Issue (Vol. 1, No. 59). Sept. 2012: 19-27.

Howe, Sean. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.

Aushenker, Michael. “The Human Fly: Pretty Fly For a Real Guy.” Back Issue (Vol. 1, No. 20). Feb. 2007: 41-48.

Irving, Christopher. “Jim Shooter’s Secret Origin, In His Own Words—Part Two.” NYC Graphic. 26 July 2010. <http://www.nycgraphicnovelists.com/2010/07/jim-shooters-secret-origin-in-his-own_26.html>.

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Hamlin, Bradley Mason. “Interview With Tony Isabella.” Mystery Island. Nov. 2011. <http://mysteryisland.net/tonyisabella>.

Cadigan, Glen. “Dave Cockrum Interview.”

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Cail, David. “What Is Heavy Metal?” Heavy Metal Magazine Fan Page. 30 May 2014. <http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/whatis.html>.

Holland, Maggie.

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Carr, Kevin. “A Look Back: The Incredible Hulk on TV.” Film School Rejects. 8 June 2008. <http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/ features/a-look-back-the-incredible-hulkon-tv.php>.

Dawson, Jim. “‘Hello, Culture Lovers!’ Stan the Man Raps With Marvel Maniacs at James Madison University.” The Comics Journal (No. 42). Oct. 1978: 45-55.

“The DC Implosion.” The Comics Journal (No. 41). Aug. 1978: 5-7.

Doree, Pete. “Frank Thorne.” The Bronze Age of Blogs. 16 June 2009. <http:// bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2009/06/ frank-thorne.html>.

Edlitz, Mark. “Spider-Man flashback: Nicholas Hammond, reeling in the years.” Hero Complex. 16 May 2012. <http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/05/16/spider-manflashback-nicholas-hammond-reeling-inthe-years/>.

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---. “Introduction.” Batman: Strange Apparitions. New York, New York: DC Comics, 1999: 4-5.

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Isabella, Tony. “Off My Chest: Tony Isabella.” Back Issue (Vol. 1, No. 8). Feb. 2005: 48-51.

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Johnson, Dan. “Marvel’s Dark Angel: Back Issue Gets Caught in Spider-Woman’s Web.” Back Issue (Vol. 1, No. 17). Aug. 2006: 57-63.

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Kraft, David Anthony. “James Galton.” David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview (No. 1).

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American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s Index Adams, Neal 9-11, 18, 20-22, 27, 31, 37, 41, 43-44, 47, 49-50, 62, 64, 69, 81, 85, 106-107, 111-112-114, 134, 139, 149, 151-153, 155, 158-159, 165, 170-171, 183, 200, 219-220, 231-232, 243-244, 255, 274, 277 Adkins, Dan 55, 73, 102, 161 Adventure Comics 19, 57, 77, 107, 140-143, 247, 269-270 Alcala, Alfredo 24, 113, 173, 274 Amendola, Sal 116, 139, 152 Anderson, Murphy 16, 18, 84-85, 107-108, 115, 245, 256, 268 Andru, Ross 18, 37, 51, 54-55, 75, 95, 125, 167, 182-183, 250, 268, 270 Aparo, Jim 29, 55, 57, 85, 107, 112, 139-142, 189, 227, 271 Aquaman 57, 89, 117, 131-132, 220-221, 226, 227, 245, 250 Aragonés. Sergio 113 Archie Comics 28-29, 36, 55-56, 85-87, 148-149, 179-181, 219, 228, 251, 268, 277 Atlas Comics (Seaboard) 126-127, 149-154, 175, 222 Austin, Terry 183, 192, 207, 222223, 233, 244, 256, 265, 274 Avengers 27, 43-44, 58, 63, 69, 97, 135, 163, 195-197, 207, 215, 220, 234, 265 Ayers, Dick 54, 75, 102, 158, 227, 271 Barr, Mike W. 249, 270-271 Bates, Cary 18, 77, 107, 114, 143, 168-169, 173, 193, 220, 232, 244245, 270, 274 Batman 19-21, 49-50, 57, 85, 107, 110-111, 117, 127, 138-140, 176, 187-188, 207, 220-224, 245-246, 249-250, 261, 268, 270-271 Battlestar Galactica 233, 260, 263 Beck, C.C. 63, 108-109 Binder, Otto 31, 88, 127 Bissette, Stephen 120, 203, 264, 272-273 Black Panther 27, 71, 106, 194, 214, 266 Bodé, Vaughn 31, 90, 105, 153, 155-156 Boltinoff, Murray 18, 23, 55, 82, 115, 143-144, 160, 168-169, 192, 250 Bridwell, E. Nelson 18-19, 268 Brodsky, Sol 54, 165, 236 Brown, Bob 18, 49, 97 Brunner, Frank 30-31, 133, 155 Buckler, Rich 55, 101, 104, 106, 112, 128-129, 135, 215, 225, 227, 263 Buscema, John 27-28, 51, 76, 105, 135, 177, 209, 211-212, 215, 233 Buscema, Sal 97, 100, 112, 127, 130-131, 181, 197, 215, 234, 257, 262-263 Byrne, John 123, 156-158, 207, 212213, 226, 256, 259-260, 264, 266

Captain America 58, 69, 127, 129131, 161-162, 178-179, 197-198, 214, 217, 235, 262, 272, 276 Captain Canuck 275 Captain Marvel (DC Comics) 63, 107-110, 127, 138, 146, 180, 186187, 250 Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics) 44, 73, 98-99, 108, 196-197, 207, 210, 234, 265-266 Cardy, Nick 55, 76, 108, 113 Carter, Lynda 153, 171-172, 207, 224 Chan, Ernie 174, 192, 225 Charlton Comics 29, 36, 55, 87-88, 118, 124, 156-158, 179-180, 201, 209, 227-228, 249, 277 Chaykin, Howard 107, 110, 116, 126, 139, 145-149, 151-153, 205206, 222, 232-233, 256, 264, 273 Claremont, Chris 158, 161, 200-201, 207, 213, 232-234, 256, 259, 266, 268 Cockrum, Dave 114-115, 143-144, 152, 159-161, 200-201, 207, 212213, 259-260, 263 Colan, Gene 52, 66-67, 74, 102-105, 165, 206, 255, 266-267 Colletta, Vince 16, 19, 23, 38, 70, 77, 180, 223, 232, 242, 273 Colón, Ernie 149, 151-153, 263 Comely, Richard 275 Conan the Barbarian 11, 25, 51-52, 74-75, 100-101, 105, 135, 212, 233, 245, 260 Conway, Gerry 9, 23, 43-44, 49, 5254, 64, 67-68, 74-75, 93-96, 104-105, 107, 125-126, 135-136, 153, 166167, 173-174, 180-184, 189-192, 195-198, 201, 207, 211, 214, 220221, 224, 226, 248 Corben, Richard 31-32, 89-90, 123, 148, 155, 165, 239, 275 Craig, Chase 209-210 Crumb, Robert 10, 32-33, 60, 90, 121, 136, 202 Cuti, Nick 118, 157 Daredevil 48-49, 103, 132, 255-256 DC Comics (National Periodical Publications) 9-24, 34-35, 37-43, 47, 49-50, 53-54, 56-57, 75-76-85, 107117, 119, 124, 138-145, 167-169, 172-178, 182-194, 201-202, 219227, 242-251, 268-271, 277 Deathlok 128-129, 211 Defenders 50-51, 69, 97, 135, 197199, 215, 231, 262 Deitch, Kim 10, 94, 122-123, 137 DeZuñiga, Tony 23, 55, 82, 177, 232 Dell Comics 29, 88, 117-118 Dillin, Dick 82, 109, 188, 221, 245 Ditko, Steve 14, 134, 151-153, 157158, 172-173, 175, 189, 208, 226, 232, 265, 271

Doctor Strange 37, 50-51, 73, 133, 136, 196, 217, 237, 264, 272 Dorfman, Leo 18-19, 55, 127 Drake, Arnold 14, 29, 87, 181, 239, 271 DuBay, Bill 31, 148, 239-240, 275 Duffy, Jo 219, 230 Eclipse Enterprises 241-242, 273274 Eisner, Will 64, 122-123, 148, 238239, 273, 275 Ellison, Harlan 31, 48, 105, 142-143, 238-240, 273 E-Man 118, 157, 227 Englehart, Steve 63, 68-70, 89, 9799, 122, 127, 129-131, 133, 139, 163, 195-196, 207, 220-223, 232-233, 245-246, 274 Estrada, Ric 153, 176, 186, 189-190, 192, 203 Evanier, Mark 134, 182, 186-187, 210 Evans, George 189, 271 Everett, Bill 51, 67, 74, 94, 105, 133 Fantastic Four 26, 58, 76, 93, 135136, 156, 208, 213-215, 233, 235237, 246, 250, 261, 265, 267, 272 Fawcett Comics 29, 107-108, 181 Flash 107, 187, 220-221, 244-245, 247, 250, 270 Fleisher, Michael 116, 140-143, 152, 175, 226, 265, 271 Fox, Gardner 55, 68, 73-74 Friedrich, Gary 28, 54-55, 65, 68-69, 74-75, 101-103 Friedrich, Mike 9, 21, 23, 31, 74, 98, 100, 126, 132, 146-148, 155, 159, 228-229, 240, 274 Galton, Jim 164, 195, 206, 215-216, 218, 254, 256, 262, 268 Garcia-Lopez, José Luis 173, 182, 244-245 Gerber, Steve 68-69, 101, 103-105, 132, 198-200, 206, 214-215, 230, 232, 235, 241, 266-267 Ghost Rider 65-66, 161, 165, 197, 257 Giacoia, Frank 61-62, 102, 125, 167, 260 Giffen, Keith 190-191 Gill, Joe 157, 202 Giordano, Dick 18, 21, 23, 37, 57, 81-82, 85, 102, 104, 110, 133, 139, 149, 152, 155, 174, 182-183, 187, 192, 202-203, 212, 233, 244-245, 268-269, 271 Glanzman, Sam 55, 139 Godzilla 134, 152, 208, 260, 266 Gold, Mike 246, 248-250 Golden, Michael 232, 245, 261 Gold Key Comics 29, 36, 83-84, 8788, 117, 180-182, 219, 233, 250-251, 255, 263, 277

286

Goodman, Chip 47, 61, 126, 149151, 154 Goodman, Martin 25, 36, 45, 51-52, 103, 126, 149-154 Goodwin, Archie 59, 68, 71, 139140, 152, 164, 167, 180, 196, 198, 207-208, 211, 214, 218-219, 226, 230-232, 235, 247, 251, 257, 264, 267, 272, 274 Graham, Billy 31, 72, 89, 106 Green Arrow 9, 21-22, 47, 81, 112, 180, 187, 220-222 Green, Justin 89-90, 121, 137 Green Lantern 9-10, 21-22, 36-37, 47, 81, 112, 180, 187, 220-221, 245, 247, 249-250, 267, 271 Grell, Mike 143-144, 153, 175-176, 180, 187, 190, 192-194, 248 Griffin, Rick 90, 94, 122 Griffith, Bill 33, 59, 121-123, 137, 275 Gulacy, Paul 132, 233, 241, 274 Hall, Bob 230, 260-261 Hama, Larry 152, 155, 227, 249, 274 Haney, Bob 20, 23, 82, 107, 115, 175 Hanna-Barbera 117, 157, 179-180, 209-210, 226, 250, 260 Harris, Jack C. 117, 225, 227, 249250, 271 Harrison, Sol 23-24, 76, 112, 119, 184-185, 187 Hartley, Al 86-87 Harvey Comics 29, 35-36, 76, 180, 182, 219, 228, 249, 268, 277 Heath, Russ 139, 152, 274 Heavy Metal 229, 239, 264, 272273 Heck, Don 27, 51, 161, 247 Hembeck, Fred 233, 273 Howard the Duck 132, 199-200, 206, 214-216, 232, 235, 245, 266 Hulk 27, 37, 48, 50-51, 58, 100, 136, 164-165, 179, 207-208, 214, 217218, 237, 245-246, 264-265 Infantino, Carmine 12, 14-15, 2324, 34-37, 43, 55, 76, 79-84, 113-116, 136, 142-143, 145, 154, 172, 174175, 177, 180, 183-185, 187, 191194, 209, 232, 266, 272, 274 Invaders 161-163, 266 Iron Fist 133, 158 Iron Man 27, 103, 197, 222, 256258, 273 Isabella, Tony 101-102, 105, 134, 156, 161, 201, 224-226 Jackson, Jack 31, 275 Jacobson, Sid 228 Janson, Klaus 152, 234, 251, 255, 263 Joker 111, 152, 173-174, 207, 223224, 245-246, 250

Justice League of America 22-23, 43, 81-82, 107, 109, 117, 139, 145, 174, 187-189, 220-221, 232, 245, 270-271 Justice Society of America 109, 153, 190-191, 221, 224, 269 Kahn, Jenette 184-187, 190, 219221, 226, 242-244, 246-247, 249 Kaluta, Mike 29, 31, 84, 95, 109110, 112, 116, 247, 271 Kane, Gil 25, 36, 45, 59, 62, 72-74, 94, 106, 112, 133-135, 159, 161, 163164, 166, 168, 216, 239, 271 Kanigher, Robert 18-19, 21, 23, 54, 85, 139, 175, 201, 203, 271 Kirby, Jack 11, 13-17, 24, 26-28, 30, 35-36, 38-41, 62, 77-81, 107, 112, 140, 144-145, 167-168, 174-176, 179-180, 189-190, 197-198, 214, 220, 223, 226, 230, 232, 235-238, 242, 265, 267, 275-277 Kitchen, Denis 122, 136-138 Kraft, David Anthony 133, 207, 209-210, 231, 251, 265 Kubert, Joe 55, 62, 83-84, 107, 116, 139, 172-173, 178, 203, 208, 243, 250, 271 Kupperberg, Paul 174, 226, 249, 256, 268 Landau, Al 159, 164, 195 Last Gasp Eco-Funnies 10, 32, 8990, 122-123, 275 Layton, Bob 157, 224, 227, 256-259 Lee, Stan 11, 13-15, 24-28, 36, 4345, 51-53, 60-63, 67-68, 70-74, 77, 92, 94, 96, 102, 104-106, 114, 126, 134-137, 164, 166-167, 177, 182183, 195-196, 205-206, 208-209, 211, 213, 215-219, 229, 231, 235236, 238, 246, 254, 264-266 Legion of Super-Heroes 18, 114115, 143-144, 160, 168-169, 192194, 213, 221, 247, 257, 269 Levitz, Paul 116-117, 172-173, 186, 189, 192-194, 213, 216, 221, 224, 232, 242, 245-246, 250, 271 Lieber, Larry 152, 154 Maggin, Elliot S. 81, 107, 142, 174, 176, 271 Man-Bat 20-21, 176, 189 Manning, Russ 139, 208 Man-Thing 53, 68, 103, 132, 261, 265 Mantlo, Bill 164, 191, 210, 230, 234235, 257, 260-262, 266, 273-274 Marschall, Rick 230, 257, 263-265 Marvel Comics 24-28, 36-37, 43-53, 56, 58, 61-77, 93-107, 122-123, 125138, 158-168, 177-178, 182-184, 194-201, 204-219, 229-231, 233238, 246, 251, 254-268, 277 Mayer, Sheldon 56-57, 177, 271 McGregor, Don 69, 88, 104, 106107, 148, 194-195, 198, 214, 233, 241-242, 274 McKenzie, Roger 227, 255-256, 263, 274 Michelinie, David 193, 227, 234235, 245, 256-259 Micronauts 260-262 Milgrom, Al 152, 164, 176, 199, 247-249, 255, 260, 262

Miller, Frank 232, 255-256, 262 Moench, Doug 31, 99, 128-129, 133, 148, 163, 165, 208, 261, 264 Mooney, Jim 75, 154, 198, 265 Morrow, Gray 18, 23, 53, 66, 86, 112, 149, 155, 158 Mortimer, Win 19, 71, 104, 234, 277 Nasser, Michael 227, 262 Newton, Don 108, 158, 179, 226227, 271 Niño, Alex 24, 139, 239-240, 264, 274 Novick, Irv 18, 20, 81, 85, 110, 152, 174 O’Neil, Denny 9-10, 18, 20-22, 27, 37, 41-43, 47, 49-50, 52, 62-63, 81, 85, 95, 105, 108-111, 116, 152, 155, 173, 176, 180, 187-188, 243, 245, 271 O’Neill, Dan 58-59 Orlando, Joe 23, 82, 113, 116, 140142, 175, 185-186, 189-190, 193, 225, 268, 271 Overstreet, Robert 30 Pacific Comics 242 Pasko, Martin 174, 188, 190, 221, 224, 232, 244-245, 270 Pekar, Harvey 202 Pérez, George 129, 133, 163, 196, 207, 234, 251, 265 Phantom 29, 87, 118, 158, 179 Pini, Wendy 212, 232, 240-241, 264 Planet of the Apes 80, 134 Ploog, Mike 64-65, 89, 101, 137, 264 Power Girl 190-191, 211, 224 Preiss, Byron 117, 273 Print Mint 33, 122-123, 156 Punisher 95, 125-127, 167 Red Sonja 63, 100-101, 212, 274 Reed, David V. 223, 245 Reese, Ralph 31, 74, 104, 155 Richie Rich 29, 76, 118, 152, 182, 228 Rip Off Press 32, 59, 275 Robbins, Frank 14, 18, 20-21, 85, 110, 113, 136, 139, 162, 210 Robbins, Trina 32, 90, 122, 136, 148, 154 Rodriguez, Spain 9, 94, 122 Rogers, Marshall 207, 222-223, 232233, 245-246 ROM 257, 260-262 Romita, John 26, 45, 52, 62, 72, 9396, 101, 105, 112, 126, 128, 134, 160, 162, 166, 183, 199, 206, 216-217 Romita Jr., John 256, 258 Rovin, Jeff 116, 149, 151-154, 175 Rozakis, Bob 117, 119, 173, 187, 201, 220, 223 Rozanski, Chuck 216, 254, 256, 267 Russell, P. Craig 106-107, 241, 274 Sabrina the Teenage Witch 28, 55-56, 85-86 Salicrup, Jim 230, 265 Saviuk, Alex 249, 270 Schaffenberger, Kurt 19, 54, 108 Schwartz, Julius 18-20, 22, 41-42, 49, 76, 81-82, 108-109, 139, 142, 145, 168, 220-221, 223, 225, 243, 250, 269-270

Sekowsky, Mike 19, 22, 152 Seuling, Phil 55, 70, 95, 120, 212, 242, 267-268 Severin, John 51, 74, 139, 148, 152, 274 Severin, Marie 51, 70, 74, 155, 168, 211, 223 Shadow 95, 109-111 Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu 99, 133-134 Shelton, Gilbert 32-33, 59, 94, 122 Shooter, Jim 168-169, 192, 194, 196, 204, 207, 210, 218-219, 223, 229235, 237, 242, 247, 255-257, 260262, 264-268 Shukin, Ed 205, 256, 267-268 Siegel, Jerry 28, 85, 140, 153, 170171, 243 Silver Surfer 15, 24, 50-51, 72, 97, 238, 266 Sim, Dave 207, 228-229, 240, 275 Simon, Joe 13, 113-114, 140, 145, 174-175 Simonson, Walter 69, 97, 105, 116, 126, 140, 147, 152, 175, 222-223, 226, 232, 245, 247, 251, 263, 266, 272, 274 Skeates, Steve 29, 57, 89, 113, 126, 131-132, 147, 182, 189 Skywald Publications 54-55, 65, 89, 134, 156, 165 Smith, Barry 9, 11, 25, 52, 63, 73, 75, 100, 105, 112, 277 Sparling, Jack 139, 158, 182 Spectre 140-142 Spider-Man 25-26, 36, 44-47, 56, 58, 75, 93-96, 125, 127, 134-136, 146, 164, 166-167, 179-184, 197, 206-207, 213-218, 237, 245-246, 260, 264-265, 267, 270 Spider-Woman 211-212, 230, 232, 250 Spiegelman, Art 33, 90, 94, 122, 137 Spirit 122-123, 148, 275 Starlin, Jim 30, 69, 74, 97-100, 116, 126, 146-147, 155, 165-166, 176, 196, 207-208, 232-233, 236, 264, 274 Star*Reach 123, 126, 146-148, 155, 228, 274 Star Trek 181, 251, 257, 263-264 Star Wars 204-207, 216, 229, 260261, 263, 266, 271 Staton, Joe 87, 118, 224, 226, 245, 269, 271 Steinberg, Flo 154-155, 236 Stenstrum, Jim 165, 239 Steranko, Jim 4, 9, 40, 71, 109, 239, 277 Stern, Roger 157, 214, 230, 260, 265 Superboy 18, 107, 114-115, 143144, 168, 192-193, 221, 257, 269 Super Friends 95, 117, 224, 226, 233, 250, 268 Supergirl 19, 77, 107, 144 Superman 16-19, 38-39, 41-43, 57, 81, 107-108, 117, 138, 144-145, 169, 171, 176, 180, 182-184, 187, 190, 220-221, 242-245, 250-253, 267-270 Superman: The Movie 169-171, 233, 242, 251-253, 268 Sutton, Tom 31, 54-55, 68, 89, 135, 148, 158, 265, 271 Swamp Thing 53, 84-85, 110, 245, 247

287

Swan, Curt 18, 42, 107, 220, 244245, 270 Tarzan 29, 62, 83-84, 139, 176, 208209, 216, 250, 260, 266 Teen Titans 21, 115, 187 Thomas, Roy 11, 24-25, 27-28, 31, 36-37, 43-44, 50-54, 56, 60-68, 7075, 77, 93-94, 97-99, 101-107, 127129, 133, 135, 146, 159-162, 164165, 167, 177, 190, 195-196, 204207, 209, 211-212-214, 216, 223, 230, 233-234, 236, 264, 266-267 Thor 27, 136, 164, 246, 262 Thorne, Frank 84, 88, 152, 212, 274 Toth, Alex 23, 140, 152, 165, 210, 219 Trimpe, Herb 27, 74, 102-103, 107, 127, 155, 208, 261 Turner, Ron 32, 90 Tuska, George 62, 70, 72, 133, 232, 242, 245 Uslan, Michael 117, 119, 173, 271272 Veitch, Rick 203, 272-273 Verpoorten, John 28, 36, 61, 158, 163-164, 195, 207, 219, 231, 233 Von Eeden, Trevor 225-226 Warlock, Adam 72-73, 165-166, 196, 207 Warren, Jim 31, 88-89, 148, 155, 184, 275 Warren Publishing 31, 88-89, 109, 114, 123, 134, 148, 154, 165, 184, 212, 239-240, 272, 274-275, 277 WaRP Graphics 240-241 Wein, Len 53-54, 81-82, 84-85, 100, 102, 109, 127-128, 134, 136, 145, 152, 159-161, 163-164, 194-196, 214, 232, 245-246, 274 Weisinger, Mort 17-18, 41, 168, 192, 232 Weiss, Alan 31, 74, 84, 104, 116, 176, 215 Wertham, Fredric 120-121 Wildman, George 118, 158 Williamson, Al 30, 274 Wilson, S. Clay 33, 137 Wolfman, Marv 31, 55, 68, 74, 84, 101, 105, 107, 116, 127, 135-136, 152, 164-165, 169, 180, 194-196, 201, 208, 210-212, 214, 230-232, 234-235, 246, 260, 263, 265-267 Wolverine 127-128, 152, 159, 200201, 259 Wolverton, Basil 113, 233 Wonder Woman 22, 63, 85, 117, 145-146, 153, 171-172, 188-189, 207, 221, 224, 245, 247, 250-251, 270 Wood, Wally 28, 51, 70, 115, 148, 152-153, 155, 173, 189-191, 239 Wrightson, Berni 30-31, 51, 53-54, 66, 84, 109-110, 112-113, 116, 148, 173, 200, 229, 274, 277 X-Men 27-28, 128, 152, 159-161, 181, 200-201, 207, 212-213, 256, 259-260, 266

COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS ™

A Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i c a t i o n

No. 3, Fall 2013

01

1

BACK ISSUE

ALTER EGO

82658 97073

4

COMIC BOOK CREATOR

DRAW!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, including Pro2Pro interviews (between two top creators), “Greatest Stories Never Told”, retrospective articles, and more.

Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

ALTER EGO, the greatest ‘zine of the ‘60s, is all-new, focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art. Each issue includes an FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, Mr. Monster & more.

Edited by ROY THOMAS.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and stepby-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Most issues contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; Mature Readers Only. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare & unseen Kirby artwork. Now full-color, the magazine showcases Kirby’s art even more dynamically. Edited by JOHN MORROW.

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The 1970s

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AGE OF TV HEROES Examining the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes, featuring the in-depth stories of the shows’ actors and behind-the-scenes players!

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MODERN MASTERS

LOU SCHEIMER

SPOTLIGHTING TODAY’S BEST

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

25+ volumes with in-depth interviews, plus extensive galleries of rare and unseen art from the artist’s files!

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years brought the Archies, Shazam, Isis, He-Man, and others to TV and film!

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TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

It was the

1970s It was an age of great artistic highs and deep financial lows. It was the period when Marvel Comics became America’s best-selling line of comics, but would have gone bankrupt if not for the overwhelming success of Star Wars. It was the time when DC Comics tried new formats, new approaches, and new series, but withstood a shattering implosion despite the success of Superman: The Movie. It was the decade that began with Jack Kirby as comics’ greatest star, and ended with the King out of the industry. Most of all, it was an era of the expression of personal voices, when creators like Neal Adams, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Don McGregor, Jim Starlin, Will Eisner and others began to show the potential of the comics medium. It was one of the most tumultuous decades in the comics industry.

It was the 1970s.

American Comic Book Chronicles documents every decade of comic book history, from the 1930s to today. Each volume presents a year-by-year account of the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-056-4 ISBN-10: 1-60549-056-3 54195

Printed in China

9 781605 490564

All characters shown TM & © their respective owners.

TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina $41.95 in the US ISBN 978-1-60549-056-4