Back Issue #156

BRONZE AGE GRAPHIC NOVELS ISSUE! b Decem

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No .95 ™

X-MenThing, TM &and © Marvel.

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Hulk, other characters TM & © Marvel, except Dreadstar TM & © Jim Starlin. All Rights Reserved.

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Spotlighting 1980s GNs from Marvel, DC, and First Comics, featuring Bolton • Byrne • Chaykin • Claremont • García-López • Guice • Kaluta Kirby • Russell • Sienkiewicz • Starlin • Wrightson & more!

Satiate Your Sinister Side!

“Greetings, creep culturists! For my debut

All characters and properties TM & © their respective owners.

issue, I, the CRYPTOLOGIST (with the help of FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON), have exhumed the worst Horror Comics excesses of the 1950s, Killer “B” movies to die for, and the creepiest, kookiest toys that crossed your boney little fingers as a child! But wait... do you dare enter the House of Usher, or choose sides in the skirmish between the Addams Family and The Munsters?! Can you stand to gaze at Warren magazine frontispieces by this issue’s cover artist BERNIE WRIGHTSON, or spend some Hammer Time with that studio’s most frightening films? And if Atlas pre-Code covers or terrifying science-fiction are more than you can take, stay away! All this, and more, is lurching toward you in TwoMorrows Publishing’s latest, and most decrepit, magazine—just for retro horror fans, and featuring my henchmen WILL MURRAY, MARK VOGER, BARRY FORSHAW, TIM LEESE, PETE VON SHOLLY, and STEVE and MICHAEL KRONENBERG!” (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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CRYPTOLOGY #2

CRYPTOLOGY #3

CRYPTOLOGY #4

The Cryptologist and his ghastly little band have cooked up more grisly morsels, including: ROGER HILL’s conversation with our diabolical cover artist DON HECK, severed hand films, pre-Code comic book terrors, the otherworldly horrors of Hammer’s Quatermass, another Killer “B” movie classic, plus spooky old radio shows, and the horror-inspired covers of the Shadow’s own comic book. Start the ghoul-year with retro-horror done right by FORSHAW, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, RICHARD HAND, VON SHOLLY, and editor PETER NORMANTON.

This third wretched issue inflicts the dread of MARS ATTACKS upon you—the banned cards, the model kits, the despicable comics, and a few words from the film’s deranged storyboard artist PETE VON SHOLLY! The chilling poster art of REYNOLD BROWN gets brought up from the Cryptologist’s vault, along with a host of terrifying puppets from film, and more comic books they’d prefer you forget! Plus, more Hammer Time, JUSTIN MARRIOT on obscure ’70s fear-filled paperbacks, another Killer “B” film, and more to satiate your sinister side!

Our fourth putrid tome treats you to ALEX ROSS’ gory lowdown on his Universal Monsters paintings! Hammer Time brings you face-to-face with the “Brides of Dracula”, and the Cryptologist resurrects 3-D horror movies and comics of the 1950s! Learn the origins of slasher films, and chill to the pre-Code artwork of Atlas’ BILL EVERETT and ACG’s 3-D maestro HARRY LAZARUS. Plus, another Killer “B” movie and more awaits retro horror fans, by NORMANTON, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, VOGER, and VON SHOLLY!

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Volume 1, Number 156 December 2024 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury ASSOCIATE EDITOR Roger Ash

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Bernie Wrightson (Detail from the cover of the Marvel graphic novel The Incredible Hulk and the Thing in The Big Change.

Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions.)

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Kevin Sharp SPECIAL THANKS Mike Baron Paul Kupperberg Cary Bates Gary Kwapisz Jerry Bingham James Heath Lantz John Bolton Ed Lute Liliana Bolton Ralph Macchio Pat Broderick Elliot S. Maggin Richard Bruning Marvel Comics Bob Budiansky Brian Martin Gerry Conway Val Mayerik Arthur Byron Cover Matt Merante Tom DeFalco David Michelinie Tom DeHaven Pat Mills J. M. DeMatteis Doug Moench Robert Loren Fleming Carl Potts Stephan Friedt Ron Randall José Luis García-López Bob Rozakis Alex Grand P. Craig Russell Robert Greenberger Pat Scanlon Jackson Guice Jim Starlin Larry Hama Roger Stern Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Roy Thomas Heritage Auctions Rick Veitch Klaus Janson David Wenzel Todd Klein

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions!

C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Roger Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: The Death of Captain Marvel and the Birth of the Marvel Graphic Novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 It all started with a Jim Starlin project…

BEYOND CAPES: Marvel’s Graphic Novels of Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 From Elric to Heartburst to Neuromancer, Marvel’s eclectic early graphic novels FLASHBACK: Marvel Superhero Graphic Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The expanded exploits of the X-Men, Spidey, the Punisher, and other Marvel heroes BEYOND CAPES: Marvel’s Conan Graphic Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Robert E. Howard’s popular barbarian was perfect for graphic interpretation PRINCE STREET NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 A new cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. FLASHBACK: The DC Graphic Novel Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Hope you’re not looking for Superman or Batman among DC’s earliest GNs BEYOND CAPES: The DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 An ambitious but short-lived effort to adapt sci-fi novels to comics FLASHBACK: First Comics’ Graphic Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 1980s indie publisher First released an impressive array of GNs BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 BACK ISSUE™ issue 156, December 2024 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. Roger Ash, Associate Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Roger Ash, Associate Editor, 2715 Birchwood Pass, Apt. 7, Cross Plains, WI 53528.

Email: rogerash@hotmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by Bernie Wrightson, originally produced as the cover of Hulk/Thing in The Big Change graphic novel. All characters depicted are TM & © Marvel, except Dreadstar © Jim Starlin. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2024 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury, except Prince Street News © 2024 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

by R

Photo credit: Jesse Chieffo.

Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green by Don McGregor and Marshall Rogers. I’m sure I didn’t grasp all the nuances of the story when I read it as a teen, but it’s a gripping tale of revenge, sex, and murder. The story reads like a very adult version of the classic television show, I Spy. Eclipse would score a couple more times for me as well. I discovered McGregor’s earlier graphic novel Sabre, drawn by Paul Gulacy, and Stewart the Rat by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. The latter was Gerber’s attempt to create lightning in a bottle again after leaving Marvel and suing them for ownership of Howard the Duck. Unfortunately, the graphic novel was the one and only appearance of Stewart.

Other early graphic novels that influenced me include two from Heavy Metal. The first I consider the best movie adaptation ever, Alien by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson. If you’re a fan of the Alien franchise and you’ve never read this, do yourself a favor and seek it out. The other is 1941 by Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch, which is the most bizarre movie adaptation I’ve ever read. It reads like a fever dream version of the movie and is downright hilarious!

But for many mainstream comic fans, it was Marvel’s entry into graphic novels that introduced them to the form. You’ll read much more about them, and graphic novels from DC and First, in this issue. Marvel’s first, The Death of Captain Marvel, remains a personal favorite. I find it interesting that Mar-Vell is one of the very few superheroes who has never returned from the dead. I’m glad for that. His death from cancer was impactful, and writer/artist Jim Starlin actually tied it back to Captain Marvel #34 (Sept. 1974) and his battle with Nitro.

Of course, other publishers got into the act as well. Doug Wildey’s Rio from Comico is an outstanding Western and beautiful to see. It was likely Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the story of his father’s trials in Nazi Germany, that introduced the general public to the form.

But, enough from me. You’ve got some great reading ahead.

Just turn the page.

Graphic novels © the respective copyright holders.

If you were with us last issue, you know that editor-in-chief Michael Eury is retiring and I am stepping in as the new editor of BACK ISSUE. I fully realize those are some mighty big shoes to fill.

While my name may not be familiar, I have been involved with comics for over 30 years. Many of those were spent working for the mail order retailer, Westfield Comics. I wore many hats there but spent most of my time working on the monthly catalog, website, and blog. That included writing columns, editing guest columns, and conducting interviews with a wide variety of comic creators. That would eventually lead me to do the interviews for two Modern Masters volumes (Walter Simonson and Mike Ploog) as well as writing for BACK ISSUE, where I have been contributing off and on since issue #23.

Also, while still at Westfield, I met Marc Nathan, the man behind the Baltimore Comic-Con. Marc asked me to be in charge of programming for the show, I happily agreed, and did that for many years.

I started reading comics in the late ’70s, so Bronze Age comics are near and dear to my heart. I am thrilled and honored that TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow and Michael Eury asked me to be a part of this team. We’ve got some great stuff planned for you. Let’s begin with what’s in store for this issue.

According to Wikipedia, graphic novels have been around since the 1800s in Europe. There were none produced in America until the 1970s, depending on how you define graphic novel. For the longest time, I heard that Will Eisner’s A Contract with God was the first American graphic novel. I have since heard legitimate claims that Jim Steranko’s Chandler: Red Tide deserves that title. And there are some who would argue that the first American graphic novel came before either of those books. Whatever the case may be, there were few more vocal proponents of the graphic novel than Eisner. His Dropsie Avenue, a tale of a neighborhood, may be his finest work. Personally, my favorite is his shorter work, The Dreamer, which is a story about his early days in comics.

My first exposure to graphic novels was Eclipse’s Detectives

oger Ash

2 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

THE DEATH OF

AND THE BIRTH OF THE MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL

by A l e x

Grand

As laid out with more detail in my book, Understanding Superhero Comic Books, in order to maintain the American public’s interest in the superhero comic book, innovators had to incorporate the realism of everyday life. Matching the audience’s sensibilities by progressing the narrative gravitas of the genre was pioneered by few and followed by many. The Golden Age idealism of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman and the hero’s mission of justice matched America’s inevitable march to combat Nazism in World War II. DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz’s emphasis on believable science fiction matched the Eisenhower era’s foray into the use of atomic energy, while adding plausibility to the idea that everyday humans can be powered by radiation. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko demonstrated that superheroes would have flaws in the real world during the Marvel revolution of the JFK-era space race and the countercultural civil rights movement. But it was writer/artist Jim Starlin who found an important aspect of realism missing from the everyday jim starlin superhero adventure story and Kim Scarborough/ Wikimedia Commons. filled that void with the existential threat of death, and the eventual birth of the Marvel Graphic Novel series.

DEATH COMES TO COMICS

In the early ’70s, Marvel Comics began exploring themes of mortality through poignant narratives.

Stan Lee set a precedent with Captain George Stacy’s heroic demise in The Amazing Spider-Man #90 (Nov. 1970), a trend furthered by Gerry Conway’s harrowing tale of Gwen Stacy’s fatal fall in issue #121 (June 1973). Transitioning to the Sub-Mariner series, Leonard McKenzie’s tragic end came in issue #46 (Feb. 1972) under Conway’s pen, while Roy Thomas orchestrated Lady Dorma’s suffocation in issue #37 (May 1971), intensifying the stakes in superhero narratives. Jim Starlin capitalized on this thematic shift, weaving death into the fabric of his cosmic metaseries. Drawing from early fanzines his own reflections of the Vietnam War, and the storytelling mastery of comic pioneers Ditko and Kirby, Starlin’s saga deepened the narrative exploration of mortality while heightening the stakes for Marvel’s superheroes.

THE HISTORY OF STARLIN

Tracing back to his early roots, Jim Starlin’s fascination with the somber theme of death was nothing short of a prelude to his later illustrious contributions to superhero comic lore. Starlin, a

First and Last The first Marvel Graphic Novel, and one of the best, is the last adventure for Mar-Vell, writer/ artist Jim Starlin’s The Death of Captain Marvel.

TM & © Marvel.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Death Comes to Marvel Comics (top) The Marvel Universe could be deadly, as these pivotal issues show. (bottom) “The Death of Captain Marvel” statue from Art Asylum/ Dynamic Forces, 2002. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

Catholic by upbringing, found his early inspirations in the pages of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby’s creations, admiring Kirby’s style even before he could put a name to the genius in the 1950s, as he remarked in the 2018 book, The Art of Jim Starlin: A Life in Words and Pictures. A memorable encounter with Ditko at his studio during the crafting of The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (May 1966) served as a masterclass for Starlin, where Ditko’s meticulous sketches caught his eye. Starlin’s stint in the Navy during the Vietnam War was marred by the grim reality of death in the aviation division, a period when his off-duty hours were spent sketching for fanzines, as he stated in Comic Book Artist #18. His early public dalliance with the theme of death emerged in the narrative of “Doomsday!” in Star Studded #16 (Nov. 1969), where he unfolded the tale of a veteran orchestrating a planetary Armageddon on a dystopian Earth, aimed at eradicating an infestation of Neucromian lizards. Starlin’s exploration of death and sacrifice deepened in “The Miracle” in Star Studded #18 (Summer 1972), as he introduced readers to Dr. Weird, entangled in a cosmic duel of life and death. This narrative wasn’t just a leap further into Starlin’s fixation with the mortal theme but also a nod to Ditko’s Doctor Strange aesthetics, weaving a tale that not only resonated with readers but also hinted at the distinct Starlin style that would later become synonymous with superhero comic narratives. Through these early endeavors, Starlin was not merely sketching characters and plots; he was sketching the blueprint of his noteworthy contributions to come in the superhero comic realm.

The early explorations of life and death themes in Jim Starlin’s work found a grander canvas at Marvel Comics. One notable instance is his reincarnation of Dr. Weird as Drax the Destroyer in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973). Starlin further delved into the persona of Death in a non-canon narrative 4 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

for Journey into Mystery vol. 2 #1 (Oct. 1972), titled “You Show Me Your Dream, I’ll Show you Mine!!,” illustrated

by Starlin and penned by Steve Skeates. It narrates a tale of a hitman haunted by recurrent dreams of a young woman, leading to a fatal crash in a rainy chase of the elusive figure, culminating in a chilling scene where the entity of Death laughs in limbo as the woman’s dreams cease.

Starlin’s portrayal of Death in this piece bridges the aesthetic between his earlier Dr. Weird narrative and the skeletal depiction in Captain Marvel #26 (May 1973). The latter, scripted by Mike Friedrich with Starlin handling plot and art, marks Death’s debut in the Marvel Universe alongside the demi-god Thanos, post a heated confrontation between Captain Marvel and the Thing.

Unbeknownst to the heroes, the ominous duo of Death and Thanos on the horizon heralds a new era of heightened stakes for superheroes in the Marvel Universe, subtly alluding to Ditko’s earlier rendition of a hooded evil figure in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963). Through these narratives, Starlin not only expands on his cosmic scale of life and death but also lays the groundwork for an enhanced narrative gravitas within superhero adventures.

THANOS AND DEATH

Starlin’s creation of Thanos and Death drew inspiration from realms beyond Marvel, with Thanos nodding to Thanatos, the ancient Greek embodiment of death.

A post-military service psychology class sparked the inception of Thanos, as Starlin said in Comic Book Artist #18. Upon integrating Thanos into Marvel, Roy Thomas challenged Starlin to eclipse Darkseid, morphing Thanos into a Kirby-esque figure embodying Starlin’s darker instincts. In Starlin’s narrative, Thanos, smitten by Death, serves her, introducing a cosmic threat to Marvel’s superheroes through their lethal alliance. Starlin’s fascination with Death transcended Marvel, notably appearing in Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach #1 (Apr. 1974), an indie comic adorned by Starlin’s art, featuring Death’s enigmatic silhouette alongside two captivating green females on the cover, perhaps an attempt to evoke the allure Thanos felt for Death. Within, two stories underscored Death’s inevitability: “Death Building” narrated a surreal encounter by Starlin with Death at Marvel’s office, while a biblical tale explored Death’s divine inception for reprimanding defiant angels and humans.

These tales emphasized Starlin’s view of Death as an intrinsic cosmic force, foreshadowing the thematic essence of his subsequent narratives.

Starlin orchestrated a cosmic saga across titles like The Invincible Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and others, confronting Marvel superheroes with mortality, a vivid contrast to Kirby’s philosophical interplay in DC’s Darkseid narrative. Notably, Thanos’ earthbound menace in Captain Marvel #32 (May 1974) demonstrated brutal pragmatism, eliminating Arthur Douglas and his spouse to safeguard his clandestine agenda. This act spurred Kronos to reanimate Douglas as Drax the Destroyer, mirroring Starlin’s earlier life-affirming creation, Dr. Weird. Further, in Warlock #10 (Dec. 1975), the faltering Matriarch mistook Adam Warlock for Death, a grim foreshadowing emphasized by Death’s visage overseeing her demise. Such instances heightened the narrative’s emotional intensity, reminding audiences of the superheroes’ fallibility. The harrowing scene in Avengers Annual #7 (1977), where a helpless Adam Warlock witnessed Gamora’s painful end at Thanos’ hands, underscored this theme. Starlin’s storytelling accentuated the general superhero community’s impotence, with Thanos’

Death, the Early Years Starlin brings Death to Star*Reach #1 (Apr. 1974) in “Death Building,” a structure where visitors have to survive an encounter with Death. © Jim Starlin.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

Sanctuary spaceship, reminiscent of a Star Wars scene, triggering a sun’s explosion to obliterate a solar system, leaving Moondragon aghast at the sensed mass demise and her team’s inability to prevent it. The unfolding “stellar genocide” led to a fatal confrontation between Adam Warlock and Thanos, with Death ominously overseeing Thanos’ taunting over Warlock’s corpse, only for Warlock to return the favor. This finale to the 1970s’ Thanos saga encapsulated a brutal reality: in this perilous narrative, death loomed for all, hero and villain alike.

A CHANGE IS COMING

Strange Bedfellows Lush coloring and printing techniques elevated Starlin’s storytelling to an exciting new level in The Death of Captain Marvel.

TM & © Marvel.

The advent of the Copyright Act of 1976, effective 1978, ushered in a new era for creators, including Starlin, who sought better contractual terms for their work. This legal shift steered Starlin toward the creator-centric platform of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, under editor Archie Goodwin, beginning with “Metamorphosis Odyssey” in its inaugural issue in 1980, a periodical conceived by Rick Marschall, according to the article “Archie Goodwin” in The Comics Journal #78. The favorable contracts of Epic Illustrated, which retained creators’ copyrights while buying only the first printing rights, as stated in Robert Greenberger’s article in Comics Scene #2, resonated with Starlin, reflecting his past preference for payment on reprint rights showcased in Star*Reach. This contractual framework not only

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provided a financial incentive but also allowed for narrative autonomy, breaking free from Marvel’s standard practice of a transient illusion of change.

In his self-crafted universe, Starlin wielded the narrative liberty to depict character demises that served the storyline, a freedom underscored in his meticulously painted 14-chapter saga, “Metamorphosis Odyssey.” This narrative dexterity was drawn from his recent stint in book cover illustration, leading to a more sophisticated visual storytelling. “Metamorphosis Odyssey” chronicled the journey of Vanth Dreadstar, an asocial protagonist, whose quest alongside elder god Aknaton to eliminate the intergalactic menace, the Zygoteans, was rendered in visually captivating illustrations.

The narrative, lauded for its sci-fi and adventure elements, culminated in a cosmic mercy killing in Epic Illustrated #9 (Dec. 1981), as the Infinity Horn obliterated the Zygoteans along with the Milky Way’s billions. This cataclysmic finale, which saw a wrathful Dreadstar killing ally Aknaton, left readers with a contemplative anti-hero, pondering the cyclical nature of cosmic calamities as he gazed into the unknown realms of a new universe.

Amid an evolving comic industry landscape, with direct market comic stores clamoring for more content, as reported in Santa Rosa, California’s The Press Democrat in 1984, Starlin tapped into the burgeoning demand,

Saying Goodbye Back cover to The Death of Captain Marvel, where Starlin gathers Marvel’s mightiest for the graphic novel’s somber event.

TM & © Marvel.

aligning with Eclipse Comics for the sequel to “Metamorphosis Odyssey,” titled The Price (Oct. 1981). This narrative unveiled the sinister genesis of Darklock, a cybernetic sorcerer, whose ruthless quest for power led to a trail of allies and foes alike in his wake. The narrative arc culminated with Darklock confronting the sacrifices of his past, a narrative depth resonating with the mature audience of direct market comic stores, who had a penchant for adult-centric graphic novels. This shifting marketplace saw independent publishers fulfilling the growing appetite for creator-owned graphic novels, a trend that didn’t escape the attention of industry stalwarts DC and Marvel. Responding to market dynamics, these behemoths introduced royalty programs, with Marvel orchestrating a collaborative effort among editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, vice president Michael Hobson, Star*Reach publisher Mike Friedrich, and Starlin. Recognizing the triumph of Tintin–style European comic albums, Shooter spotted a golden opportunity within the domestic market. He persuaded the executives at Marvel to venture into the graphic novel format, aimed at distribution through the burgeoning direct market, stated Shooter in an interview on Comic Book Historians YouTube (CBH, 2021). As reported in Comics Scene #2, this coalition birthed a novel contract for creators, laying the foundation for Marvel’s Graphic Novel line. This corporate interest revitalized the medium with legal contracts that also benefited the creators. Distinct from the brief episodic nature of comic books tailored for a younger demographic, graphic novels offered a lengthier, mature, and often artistically nuanced narrative encapsulated in a standalone sequential-art book. This format found a home not only in the rising comic shops but also traditional bookstores, unveiling a lucrative revenue stream for Marvel and DC. The evolution not only reflected the industry’s adaptive strategies to market trends but also marked a significant stride in accommodating a diversified readership, while providing creators like Starlin an avenue to explore complex themes in a more expansive narrative canvas.

DREADSTAR AND CAPTAIN MARVEL

Allotted a non-repayable upfront payment offset by future royalties, Starlin inked a deal for two additional graphic novels.

Dreadstar (1982), a sequel to both “Metamorphosis Odyssey” and The Price, revisited the anti-hero, now settled and married in a quaint village. A belated warning from Darklock about an imminent threat leaves Dreadstar vengeful after the slaughter of his wife and village.

Together, they shun tranquility to retaliate against two cosmic forces, the Monarchy and the Instrumentality. The saga straddled Epic’s comics line, eventually finding a home at First Comics, stretching into the 1990s.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

The other venture was The Death of Captain Marvel (1982), a cathartic narrative for Starlin, helping him navigate the emotional turbulence of his father’s passing, said Starlin in Comic Book Artist #18. He proposed a plot where the cosmic crusader succumbs to cancer, an idea that had Shooter exclaiming, as seen in the Comic Book Historians YouTube interview, “A superhero dying of a disease. Holy cow… I don’t think anyone’s ever done that. Let’s do it.” Al Milgrom, Starlin’s childhood friend and inker of the Captain Marvel series in the late 1970s, oversaw the graphic novel as editor. When asked about his involvement, his words were, “When you have a great creator working, you should get out of his way and fix the spelling errors!” This implied that the story and all its elements were completely those of Starlin with no interference, which worked well with fans. The concluding pages orchestrated a serene transition as a deceased Captain Marvel, accompanied by Thanos and Death, embraces mortality, stepping into an emblematic light of the afterlife. This novel narrative not only humanized superheroes but presented death with a touch of realism seldom seen in the genre. The sparse battle scenes and an authentic display of human vulnerability resonated well, with Shooter lauding Starlin in the YouTube interview for infusing “some real human stuff into the superhero genre.”

The triumph of the new graphic novel line was loudly echoed in the industry when, within a few months, The Death of Captain Marvel boasted sales of 80,000 copies at $5.95 each across comic book stores and major bookstore chains. Fan consumption was tremendous, requiring multiple reprintings. The blend of legal frameworks, production acumen, and this commercial success carved out a blueprint that steered Marvel to unveil the Marvel Graphic Novel series, buoyed by a consumer base willing to invest in them.

NY’s Daily News of September 12, 1982 speculated, “maybe Jim Shooter will have his way and something will come of Marvel’s plan for adult comic books.”

Starlin’s tales struck a chord with audiences by melding established comic book storytelling methods with fresh dramatic novelties. While Kirby’s philosophical undertones in New Gods couldn’t snare enough market share to sustain its viability, it did influence Starlin’s creative engine, who laced his narratives with pervasive death, amplifying the superheroes’ dalliance with risk and signaling to readers the gravitas of the literature in their hands. The post–Vietnam War portrayal of superheroes, often powerless in averting death, instead merely mitigating it, resonated deeply. Starlin’s embodiment of Thanos as a cosmic annihilator accentuated these elements, successfully realizing Kirby’s vision of a cosmic metaseries for mature readers. This narrative crescendo harmonized in The Death of Captain Marvel, marking the dawn of the Marvel Graphic Novel line.

A Sequel and Another Sequel (top left) The Price GN and (top right) the Dreadstar GN continued Starlin’s “Metamorphosis Odyssey” story and led into the Dreadstar series. (bottom) Captain Marvel literally fights for his life in his mind as his body succumbs to cancer.

Dreadstar © Jim Starlin. Captain Marvel and Thanos TM & © Marvel.

ALEX GRAND is the author of Understanding Superhero Comic Books, the award-winning Journey Into Mexico comic series, and the co-writer of the graphic novel Hashman. He is the host of Lego Art: Spider-Man and the Comic Book Historians social media, and was also featured in the Russo Bros’ Slugfest docuseries, the New York Times, Today Show, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, and the Life According to Stan Lee documentary.

8 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

by E

d Lute

Graphic novels are comic books that are novel length, usually in a larger format with betterquality printing and paper than traditional comic books, and are sold in bookstores and comic book speciality shops as opposed to on a comic book rack. With their Graphic Novel series, Marvel wasn’t afraid to stray away from their usual superhero fare to take advantage of what this format offered. From creator-owned books such as Walter Simonson’s Star Slammers, to Marvel-owned characters that aren’t part of the regular Marvel Universe such as Killraven, to humorous stories like Death of Groo, to movie adaptations such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Marvel Graphic Novel series contained a wealth of variety. Each graphic novel was distinct and stood out from the books that Marvel usually published. Marvel wasn’t called the House of Ideas for nothing!

Come along on adventures to mythical realms, futuristic worlds, and even cartoon towns as BACK ISSUE looks at some of Marvel’s most original graphic novels.

ELRIC: THE DREAMING CITY

With the outstanding first graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel, you might think that Marvel would have a hard time following it up. Not so, with writer Roy Thomas and artist P. Craig Russell on board for their adaption of Elric: The Dreaming City, the first Elric short story

by Michael Moorcock, in Marvel Graphic Novel #2 (July 1982). Thomas tells BACK ISSUE, “I like Elric as a character, and I like the world that Michael Moorcock created.”

The graphic novel was broken down into five parts. The first two parts were reprints from Marvel’s Epic Illustrated magazine. Epic was a comic anthology magazine published by Marvel that featured non-Comics Code Authority-approved stories as well as some creator-owned material. The first part originally appeared in issue #3 (Sept. 1980), with the second part seeing print in the following issue (Dec. 1980). The rest of the story was new to the graphic novel.

According to Thomas, “Those deals [to bring Elric to Marvel] were made by my agent Mike Friedrich, who controlled the rights to Elric at that time. He made a deal with Marvel before any with Pacific or First.

“I seem to recall that we planned out the first bit for Epic Illustrated, though I think Mike always had it in mind that it would be a graphic novel soon afterward, telling the entire story.”

Moorcock Comes to Mighty Marvel Writer Roy Thomas’ appreciation of the work of novelist Michael Moorcock inspired Marvel Graphic Novel #2, Elric: The Dreaming City, lushly rendered by P. Craig Russell. © Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell. Elric © New Republic Pictures.

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Our Introduction to Elric Elric broods in this gorgeous portrait by P. Craig Russell. © Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell.

Elric © New Republic Pictures.

Thomas continues, “I preferred the graphic Michael Moorcock? You would love Elric.’ Which novel, because I didn’t have to wade through turned out to be true. a lot of other people’s stories as I did in “I got my depiction of Elric by reading Epic. I was happy to see the Pacific Moorcock’s descriptions of him. He had and First material also collected sort of two guises. One the black into graphic novels.” armor that was sort of thorny and Russell tells BI, “The Marvel the other time he dressed almost Conan stories [Conan the Barbarian as a jester with all of these pat#14–15 (Mar.–May 1972)] were terned clothes and such. He didn’t my first exposure to Elric and wear the battle armor unless Michael Moorcock, though. I he was going into battle. I just hadn’t read any of the Moorcock followed Moorcock’s lead and books before that, they just weren’t made my own version of it.” available when I was a kid. You “At that time I had done the had Edgar Rice Burroughs and Dr. Strange Annual for Marvel,” Robert E. Howard, and H. P. Russell continues. “It had all of p. craig russell Lovecraft, but in the Midwest in these art nouveau, supernatural Portrait by Michael Netzer. the ’60s, there was no Michael visual elements to it and it was Moorcock. I didn’t read him until I was asked to the same way with Elric. That played to my do The Dreaming City. That’s when I read it for the strengths. I just had a lot more fun things to first time. People would tell me, ‘You haven’t read draw as far as I was concerned. One of the things that I liked about it was that he wasn’t portrayed as a superhero. He was a skinny guy who got all of his power from his sword.”

Although Elric made his way to other comic publishers, Marvel was the first and this graphic novel stands as one of the best adaptions of Moorcock’s character. “Doing Elric was an offand-on experience for me. I missed the work of first Russell, then Gilbert after they departed, even though the other artists were talented,” Thomas states.

STAR SLAMMERS

Before he laid down the hammer with his character defining run on the God of Thunder, writer/artist Walter Simonson gave readers the Star Slammers graphic novel (Dec. 1982). The Slammers were mercenaries Sphere, Ethon, and Jalaia. While the setup sounds kind of generic, it was anything but in the hands of Simonson who made the graphic novel something special and truly worthy of the format.

However, the graphic novel wasn’t the beginning of the Slammers’ story. It had a long history before Simonson even hit the scene as a professional. In fact, the concept helped to get him a job.

In a 2014 interview with Comic Book Resources, Simonson discussed the genesis of the concept, “The ‘Slammers’ really began life as an ashcan comic. I belonged to a science fiction club in Washington, D.C., where I grew up. The Washington Science Fiction Association or WISFA for short. In the early ’70s, they decided to bid to host the World Science Fiction Convention, which was to be held somewhere on the East Coast. I was doing drawings for the WIFSA journal and had an idea to do a comic strip to advertise to get the convention. The club liked it, so I began writing and drawing. It took on a different form than I anticipated and very quickly morphed into the ‘Star Slammers.’

“Ultimately, I did a series of six-page episodes.

One of the guys in the club had a printer in his basement, so he would print them up and then different members of the club would hand them out when they’d go to conventions around 10 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

the country. I did new chapters every three or with work. That was really the beginning of my four months, which culminated in a final chapter career. ‘Star Slammers’ really was my entry in to coinciding with the World Science Fiction the professional world of comics.”

Convention voting in ’72 for the ’74 convention.

Where does the Star Slammers graphic And I will say that WIFSA won. I don’t know novel fit into the continuity of the series? if I can take the credit for that, but it worked According to Simonson, “Many years later, out okay.” in ’82, I did a Star Slammers graphic novel That was only part of the story, as Simonson for Marvel Comics. It was a partial origin story continued to work on the Star Slammers for the Slammers. The rest of the tale is as part of his college project. He really implied.” related, “I was in art school at Simonson wasn’t finished with the Rhode Island School of the Star Slammers after the graphic Design, and the timing worked novel. Even though it took out great. I did the project almost a decade, he returned to while I was in RISD, over a their world. “Then there was a two-year period, and the work five-issue miniseries (published eventually served as my RISD under Malibu Comics’ Bravura degree project. I wrapped it up imprint) in the early ’90s, right before I graduated. I took the with different characters, much second half of the book, bound later in the Slammers’ history,” it into a single volume and when Simonson revealed. walter simonson I came to NYC in the summer The graphic novel was a of ’72, brought it along as my testament to what the format Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki. portfolio to show editors. could do to showcase not just “As it happened, completely by accident, the talent of the creators themselves, but Carmine Infantino ended up seeing my portfolio. to also show that comics were more than At the time, Carmine was the EIC at DC. just kids’ stuff and stories with adult themes He was the main guy. He ended up seeing could be showcased in an illustrated format. It it and he really liked the work. He encouraged also remains one of the best from the Marvel me and made sure I walked out of his office Graphic Novel line.

Don’t Mess with These Three (left) Marvel Graphic Novel (MGN) #6 (1983), Star Slammers, written and illustrated by Walter Simonson. (right) The Star Slammers are in control, as always. © Walter Simonson.

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KILLRAVEN: WARRIOR OF THE WORLDS

He Has the Power (top) Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell’s MGN #3, Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds, continuing the title hero’s saga from his Bronze Age Amazing Adventures run. (bottom) Killraven has an incredible power, but it has its drawbacks. © Marvel.

In the 1970s, Marvel’s “Killraven” series in Amazing Adventures presented a futuristic sequel to H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel War of the Worlds. When Marvel’s Amazing Adventures was cancelled with issue #39 (Nov. 1976), it seemed that Killraven’s adventures were cancelled with it. That wasn’t the case, though. Writer Don McGregor and artist P. Craig Russell weren’t done telling the story of Jonathan Raven. Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds (July 1983) was published as the seventh graphic novel in the line.

According to Russell, “[Don and I] had done ten issues more of less of ‘Killraven’ in Amazing Adventures when [Marvel] cancelled the book.

We never really got to finish the story that would take him to Mars and defeat the Martians. So a few years pass and Epic magazine came out. Don approached [editor] Archie Goodwin with the idea of doing a ‘Killraven’ series in Epic. It was science fiction and fantasy and it was the perfect fit. He gave it the go-ahead. That’s when I started working.

It was a four-part series that would run in four issues.

It was a standalone piece. It wasn’t supposed to end the series, it was just another Killraven adventure that furthered them on their way to Mars.

“About that time, Marvel was coming out with this series of graphic novels,” Russell continues, “There was suddenly a hole in the schedule when someone didn’t finish theirs. They looked at Killraven, which was 64 pages, and we said could do this as a graphic novel. They asked Archie if that was okay with him because he had editorial control of Epic, and he said yes. He remained the editor on it. That was how it became a graphic novel. It was just moved from one spot to the other. They were able to plug it in, and it did fit perfectly well.”

Russell reveals, “The difference between the graphic novel and the bimonthly comic was the comic was done in the so-called Marvel Method, where you are given a synopsis and you flesh it out and design the page and then the writer comes in and writes the final script over top of it, and the graphic novel was done full script. For the graphic novel, I told Don to write as much as you want just give me a full script so that I can design all of that into the artwork so that it just breathes together.”

While readers got another Killraven adventure with the graphic novel, they never got the final story that would complete his journey. Maybe one day that final story will be told.

SUPER BOXERS

If you were looking for a 1980s action film in comic form, you came to the right place with the Super Boxers graphic novel (Aug. 1983). In a dystopian future run by corporations, Max Turner joins the underground Super Boxers circuit. Super Boxing was like regular boxing but with futuristic suits, spiked gloves, and hover boots. Just like in most ’80s films, the underdog wins in the end.

The book was written by John Byrne, from a concept by artist Ron Wilson, who illustrated it. Editor Bob Budiansky tells BI, “I had just been hired back

by Jim Shooter for my third tenure at Marvel on staff as a full editor. One of the books that I was editing from the get-go was The Thing book. Ron was the artist on that book. Ron had this idea about this story called Super Boxers. He pitched it to Jim. 12 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

“Jim was looking for ideas for the graphic novel program because he was trying to launch it at this time. He thought it would make a good graphic novel.

“Ron didn’t want to write it though,” continues Budiansky. “He came up with the concept and plot and wanted to present it to a writer. Ron was working on The Thing with John Byrne at the time. Ron liked what John was doing on Fantastic Four also. He liked John Byrne’s writing, so he wanted him to write it.

John was contacted and agreed to do it.

“In writing it, John took what Ron gave him, what was basically the germ of an idea, and he replotted it to a large degree,” Budiansky discloses. “He took the original concept that Ron came up with and thought that it needed to be shaped into THE FUTURIANS more of a story with traditional Superheroes, time travel, and Dave structure, to have a beginning, Cockrum—sign me up! That’s what middle, and end. He wasn’t trying readers said when writer/artist to reinvent it. That wasn’t his job.

Cockrum produced the graphic I give him credit for taking on the novel The Futurians (May 1984). task and taking the raw ideas that Cockrum helped to refine the were presented to him and finessing X-Men with his outstanding character them to some degree. I think that designs for Storm, Colossus, and he also wanted to play up to Ron the other new mutants in GiantWilson’s strengths and Ron’s bob budiansky Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). He strengths were showing incredible, brought the same sense of style © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. dynamic, powerful action—boxing to this creator-owned graphic like nobody ever boxed before. novel where he introduced time-traveling super“The lasting impression I have after 40 years is heroes Avatar and Blackmane, amongst others. there was a lot of action and it didn’t have as much The book didn’t disappoint as fans were given not depth as some of the other graphic novels. It was only the above-mentioned superheroes and time presenting a bigger story than a comic book, travel, but an engaging story. plus it wasn’t connected to the Marvel Universe Much like the aforementioned X-Men book characters, it stood alone, so it was given the graphic helped to set up a rejuvenated regular series novel format. It had nicer coloring to bring it for Marvel’s Merry Mutants, this graphic novel up to a higher standard of the day. I think it was left readers wanting more than could have been entertaining on its own level. It was well crafted,” fulfilled with an ongoing title. However, readers Budiansky concludes. were only given three more issues of The Futurians,

This Ain’t Rocky (left) MGN #8, Super Boxers. Cover

by Bill Sienkiewicz. (right) Ron Wilson’s art really packs a punch as these two Super Boxers pugilists go at it. Story by John Byrne, inks by Armando Gil. © Marvel.

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A Legion… in the Future! (right) MGN #9, The Futurians, the brainchild of writer/ artist Dave Cockrum. (left) The origin of the Futurians. © Dave Cockrum estate.

but not under the Marvel banner. In The Futurians your hands. Due to the vagaries of publishing, #0, Cockrum wrote about what happened and however, it never saw print as an individual issue what could have been: “The Futurians began as until now. It was collected together with the a graphic novel for Marvel (Marvel Graphic previous three issues into a limited-edition Novel #9), wherein I recounted the second graphic novel in 1987. That second adventures of eight extraordinary graphic novel was short-printed and is humans with powers gained by next-to-impossible to find.” way of genetic manipulation from HEARTBURST the future. The graphic novel did Marvel’s graphic novel format was a pretty well, went into three printshowcase for the writing and artistic ings, and a series was called for. gifts of many talented creators. This “Unfortunately, I let myself was certainly the case when writer/ be lured away from Marvel and artist Rich Veitch brought Heartburst did the series for an independent to readers in Marvel Graphic Novel publisher who promised pie-in#10 (June 1984). the-sky money. If I’d stayed with Many science fiction stories Marvel, we might be publishing dave cockrum have alien races attacking Earth or Futurians #250 or something by Portrait by Michael Netzer. enslaving the human population. now. Instead, I went with the independent, occasionally called Lodestone Veitch’s tale turns this on its ear as it was the Publications, and my run only lasted three issues. story of Earthmen who conquered the peaceful A fourth issue was finished; this book you hold in Ploo. However, the graphic novel offered readers more than that as Veitch played with the themes of xenophobia, fear, and forbidden love.

According to Veitch, “Heartburst was originally planned for Epic Illustrated. The art was underway when [editor] Archie Goodwin asked if I would be okay with Marvel doing it in their brand new graphic novel format. I thought that would be a great idea and gave the go-ahead.

“I was inspired by the amazing stuff that was coming out of Europe at the time: Pilot, Metal Hurlant, and the Italian adventure artists, like Hugo Pratt.”

Not only did Veitch make good use of the freedom that the graphic novel format enabled him regarding the subject matter, but also with the artwork. The gorgeous artwork, which could not be shown in a regular Marvel comic due to its graphic sexual nature, showcased Veitch’s talents as an artist.

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Veitch discusses, “The art was done in precomputer days, on 3-ply Strathmore using pen and ink, Dr. Martin dyes, colored pencils, and gouche.

Lots of airbrush and a little photo collage too.

Lettering done by me on the boards. I injured my back in the middle of the job and couldn’t sit for long hours, so I set up my drawing board to work standing up, which is how it was finished.

“After I delivered it to Archie at Marvel, my friend Steve Bissette showed me the first scripts he had received from Alan Moore on Swamp Thing.

These made a big impression on me. I knew the comics were changing, and I had to up my game.”

VOID INDIGO

Fans of Steve Gerber know that his works are out of the box. That includes the graphic novel Void Indigo and its subsequent two issues of a planned six-issue miniseries from Marvel’s Epic Comics imprint. The graphic novel introduced readers to Jhagur (known as Jaggar), a human who was reincarnated as an alien that came to Earth. Gerber wrote the scripts, while artist Val Mayerik completed the artwork.

According to Mayerik, “Void Indigo came entirely from Steve Gerber. It was his brainchild.

My contribution was to provide visuals to what Steve wanted to portray.

“What inspired [Steve] was reincarnation.

I don’t think that he was really interested in it.

I think he just used it as a device for the story.

I think he wanted to make an interesting story that was multilayered. “[Editor] Archie Goodwin called me and said Steve wants to work with you on this graphic novel,” Mayerik continues. ”I think that one of the reasons that Steve wanted to work with me on this was that we worked really well together. I never necessarily was on the same wavelength in my own mind as Steve was, but I was always able to translate onto the page what he was thinking.”

The graphic novel format allowed Mayerik to work in an artistic medium rick veitch that very few comics provided at Facebook. that time. He relates, “The graphic novel was all painted as opposed to line work.

The first few pages were really strong. I thought they were really good. Of course, it takes more time to paint five panels on a page than to draw them, so it took me longer to complete. Subsequently, it was Steve being as late as he was that made me rush the painting process, which I really didn’t want to do.

The last part of the graphic novel was not to my satisfaction. Archie just really wanted to get this thing in.

“I had done some painted work for Heavy Metal in the ’70s and I always liked it. I enjoy working with paint. Some comic book artists don’t feel comfortable with that. With things being colored digitally now the art almost looks like a painting, but back then there weren’t that many people doing painting, full color right on the page work. I was really hoping to get more out of that, but I had to rush the work.

The quality wasn’t up to my liking.”

After the graphic novel was released, the first two issues of the planned six issues saw print. There was

A Forbidden Romance (bottom) MGN #10 (1984), Heartburst, written and illustrated by Rick Veitch. (top) Things do not go well for these two starcrossed lovers. © Rick Veitch.

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Aren’t They a Cute Couple? (inset) MGN #11 (1984), Void Indigo,

by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik. (right) Michael Jhagur and Linette, two of the main characters from Void Indigo, as seen in Mayerik’s original color art to page 11 of the graphic novel.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). © Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.

val mayerik Comicvine.

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backlash against the level of violence in both the graphic novel The play had been optioned by producers, so the Lees couldn’t and series. produce any more stage work with it at the time, but they wanted Mayerik states, “Steve got pretty graphic with it. Archie told to continue to work on the concept. Kaluta had a workaround, me to tone it down a little bit, so I did. I heard about how though, as discussed in a 2009 interview on Newsarama: “I people found it controversial and the negative reaction. did suggest Elaine do a comic book version of the play Shortly after the first couple of issues, I was invited when all the rest of the rights were tied up by the thento be a guest at a comic book convention in producer, I didn’t want to draw the comic book.”

Toronto. I went up there and I liked it up there However, he did end up doing the artwork. “But and found it to be a friendly place. I didn’t realize the material and especially Elaine’s witty approach that Canada had banned Void Indigo. I was put to everything she writes set a small fire under me.” on a panel to talk about Void Indigo. There were Elaine Lee loved the idea. In a 2009 interview fans who wanted to read the book. They wanted with Tim O’Shea, she related, “Going from stage me to tell them why some branch of the governto comics, we were able to expand the universe, ment banned it. I really had no idea. I explained introduce more characters, and scatter them across to them that it had some gory scenes and some multiple planets, settings that would be impossible weird stuff in it. I didn’t see anything much too to build. Throw in some aliens! We could give different from the early underground comics Kalif a twin, without having to clone an actor. michael kaluta coming out around the same time. Maybe if You can show the whole line of 333 Erotica Ann it had been an underground comic or not Kyle Cassidy. pleasure droids. People can float in a gravity-free published by Marvel it might have been seen as okay.” atmosphere, without the use of rigs and wires. You can have However, it wasn’t the backlash Marvel received that extreme long shots and closeups, scenes of one army attacking caused Goodwin to cancel the series. Mayerik another. Violence is easier to convey. We could reveals, “It was causing quite a stir and a lot stretch the story to cover longer periods of time. of negative reaction. Marvel was willing to And we could go inside the mind or a character.” deal with that. Archie never told me he was The comics, a prequel to the play, were first sericancelling the book because Steve did somealized in the Spanish anthology Comix Internacional thing controversial. Not to tell tales out in 1982. They were then reprinted for an American of school, but Steve was chronically late. In audience in Heavy Metal magazine that same year. fact, it’s one thing to be a few days or a week Marvel Comics reprinted the Heavy Metal stories as late, but Steve was months late. I was the one Marvel Graphic Novel #13 (Sept. 1984). having to catch up on the deadline situation with The graphic novel led to a six-issue bimonthly getting things to Marvel and the printer on series from Marvel’s Epic imprint. The story was time. So, there is only so much that can be continued by other publishers afterward, stretching endured from the editorial standpoint. One day into the new millennium. Pretty impressive for a Archie just called me and said, ‘We just can’t go story that started out as a stage play. on with this book. Steve’s just been too late.’

That was that for the series. It died right there.”

Mayerik remembers, “During that time, Steve was very generous with me. I did speak with him about a year or so before he passed. We have [sic] always talked about that we wanted to do just one more thing.”

STARSTRUCK: THE LUCKLESS, THE ABANDONED, AND THE FORSAKEN

Not many graphic novels can say that they got their start as a stage play, but Starstruck: The Luckless, the Abandoned, and the Forsaken can. Actress Elaine Lee, who played Mildred Trumble on the NBC soap opera The Doctors and even won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role, and her sister actress Susan Norfleet Lee started their own theater company to produce more content with strong female leads. As one of their projects they created the science fiction play Starstruck, which dealt with Captain Galatia 9 (Lee) and her pilot Brucilla the Muscle’s (Norfleet Lee) adventures after the fall of the Dread Dictator. Comic book artist Michael Kaluta, a neighbor, was hired to help design sets and promotional material for the play that was first staged in 1980.

What’ll You Have? (inset) MGN #13, Starstruck, by Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta. (right) From inside the GN, our heroes stop for some refreshments on this gorgeous page

by Kaluta. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #133 for a further look at Starstruck.] © Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta.

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THE SWORDS OF THE SWASHBUCKLERS

Avast, Ye Scalawags! (top) MGN #14 (1984), Swords of the Swashbucklers,

by Bill Mantlo and Jackson Guice. (bottom) There’s cool—then there’s pirateaction-in-outer-space cool.

And in Guice’s hands, it couldn’t get any cooler! © Bil Mantlo estate and Jackson Guice.

Writer Bill Mantlo was masterful at taking almost any concept and turning it into a quality product.

His work on Marvel’s long-running ROM: Spaceknight is a testament to that as the concept came from a generic toy line that ultimately failed.

Mantlo, along with artist Jackson “Butch” Guice, was able to turn the name of an illustration studio into a graphic novel and follow up series with Swords of the Swashbucklers.

Guice discusses the genesis of the concept.

“I was working on Micronauts—probably around issue #55 or 56, and sharing some studio space with another artist, Alfred Ramirez, and a couple of other folks. The other two left for various reasons, and Alfred and I chose to move to a much better lit, much larger one-room affair in a nearby beautiful old flat iron building— a lot more space than we actually needed for less than what we had been paying previously. We needed an operating name for the business placard in the building—or deliveries and such—and for who knows why, decided to call it Swashbuckler Studios. One day the phone rings and I answer, ‘Hello. Swashbuckler Studios...’— and it was Bill Mantlo on the other end, who says, ‘Swashjackson guice buckler? That would make a great name for a comic!’ We went on with our discussion about Micronauts or whatever, I didn’t really think anything more on Bill’s initial remark, and a couple of weeks pass.

Bill calls once again, and this time asks if I want to leave Micronauts with him after issue #58 (he was going, whatever my answer) and go draw a graphic novel and follow-up series for Archie Goodwin in the Epic Comics office, to be called The Swords of the Swashbucklers.”

The graphic novel and subsequent series dealt with a band of pirates who rob and pillage their alien overlords in order to survive. The story took place in an alternate reality in the Marvel Multiverse. Their reality, called Earth-21394, resembles the time in our history when pirates sailed the seas and were feared by sailers. “[Bill] already had it pretty much worked out—Domino and the cat, the beacon on the beach, Raader and her crew—everything pretty much as it played out in the graphic novel,” Guice recalls. “I said I’d love to join the project and started doing character designs. I think I might have been responsible for the looks for both Logik and Servitor—the praying mantis and gorilla body builds—I don’t remember Bill describing them specifically as such—more like, ‘This one is insect-like’ or ‘hairy and brutish’— that sort of descriptor which gave me a direction but was still open for my own input. Bill did have Spyeye described as a ‘floating brain’ type organism. I do recall that. Anyway, after some back and forth sketching and talking, we settled on everything and dove into the project.

“After we started, as soon as the discussion of coloring came up, I suggested Alfred to be the colorist on the project,” Guice continues. “My

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background was fine arts—painting and such—but he was eager to try and break into comics. If I remember correctly, he painted the wraparound graphic novel cover right on my line art, and then had to teach himself on the fly how to color the interior pages using the blue-line method—a process where the line art and lettering was reproduced in black on a piece of acetate, which was taped over a copy of the same image on a separate piece of art board, printed in light blue. You had to hand color the blue image, and then the black line would be flopped down and registered with the piece below it to give you strong black lines over hand-rendered color work. It was a fussy and complicated method of the day which comics moved away from using as quickly as they could—but Alfred labored well into a lot of evenings over those blue lines to really paint up that graphic novel.”

According to Guice, “My favorite part of working on the graphic novel was the genre—and working with Bill and Alfred. In many ways it didn’t feel that far removed from the sort of thing Bill and I had been doing on occasion with Micronauts—sort of a pirate version of the gangster issues, or the pseudo–Native American ‘World of Never-Summer’ story we did in Micronauts #57 (Mar. 1984). I have always enjoyed pirates—at least from the time of 10 or 11 years of age on, and had also been a big fan of comics such as Howard Chaykin’s Ironwolf stories over at DC in the early 1970s— so this was me essentially getting to play with a bunch of stuff I had enjoyed since my childhood. It is all mixed in there together—pirates, Ironwolf, Star Wars, Treasure Island—along with a bunch of other more obscure books and movies.

“I suspect [Swords of the Swashbucklers] was popular because it was big and campy, but done with a whole lot of love and a sense of fun. We had a great time putting it together—especially that graphic novel—and I think our fun, Bill’s and mine—both in the project, as well as just working in comics where we could tell wacky stories about wooden pirate ships flying through space, crewed by alien roughnecks getting into trouble, I feel like it comes across in the work itself. Maybe I am alone in thinking so, but that is where I would credit whatever success we enjoyed with it.”

Even though the graphic novel was completed over 30 years ago, Guice wasn’t done with Swords of the Swashbucklers yet. “It was both a surprise and a joy to be asked back to draw the covers for Dynamite’s Swashbuckler issues. I enjoyed revisiting those characters again after all the years, it was very comfortable, as well as hearing from assorted fans of the original series talking about their own memories of our work,” he concludes.

GREENBERG THE VAMPIRE

Marvel’s vision to use the graphic novel format to expand the comic book medium was on display with Greenberg the Vampire, about a Jewish vampire who gets writer’s block and doesn’t drink human blood. If that sounds offbeat to you, that’s because it is. Greenberg the Vampire definitely did not fit the mold of what readers usually found on their comic book racks or with what they could find in other graphic novels.

Writer J. M. DeMatteis reveals, “‘Greenberg’ started as a short story that I wrote, back in the days when I was playing in bands, doing rock journalism, and spending my free time writing short stories. (Never sold a single one in those days, but it was a great way to build up the writing muscles and learn to deal with rejection, something that’s part and parcel of the writing life.) A little while later, I took a screenwriting class at the New School in Manhattan and began working on ‘Greenberg’ as a screenplay. Again, it was more an exercise than anything else: a way to learn, expand my creative palette and grow.

“When I finally broke in at DC, I was working with the great Len Wein and he was developing ongoing series for House of Mystery and Weird War Tales. I pitched him ‘Creature Commandos’ for WW and ‘Greenberg’ for HoM. Len bought ‘Creature Commandos’ but didn’t go for ‘Greenberg.’ He was right: The lighter tone didn’t work for a straight-up horror book.

I turned around and created ‘I… Vampire’ and that one did sell.”

So how did Greenberg end up at the House of Ideas instead of House of Mystery? DeMatteis continues, “But I kept ‘Greenberg’ in my back pocket and, when I started at Marvel, I met with another all-time great editor, Denny O’Neil, who was editing Bizarre Adventures at the time. I pitched him the story, he totally

Duck! (left) MGN #20 (1986), Greenberg the Vampire, by J. M. DeMatteis and Mark Badger. (right) It’s just another night in the life of a writer/vampire. © J. M. DeMatteis and Mark Badger.

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got it, and bought it, assigning Steve Leialoha to do the art. (And editor and she, like Denny, totally got the story. She gave us what a wonderful job Steve did! His style fit the story perfectly). all the freedom we needed to tell the story in exactly the way “Bizarre Adventures was a far more suitable home for ‘Green- we wanted to.” berg‘—and I was delighted with the results. It was so different The graphic novel was a fitting addition to the world of from anything else I was doing at the time and allowed me to Marvel Graphic Novels that continued to bring original material take the first step toward finding my own unique voice as a writer. to readers. ”I think (and it’s been a long time, so I can’t swear to it) DeMatteis concludes, “Greenberg remains one of my all-time the idea came from pondering classic vampire tales and their favorite projects. It’s a piece of work I’m very proud of.”

Christian iconography: crosses, holy water, etc. So I wondered, What about a Jewish vampire? Would he burn if his skin touched MARADA THE SHE-WOLF a Star of David? And what if these were contemporary New Marvel has published some of the best adaptions and original York Jews, straight out of a Woody Allen movie… or my own stories dealing with Robert E. Howard’s creations. However, one story based on Red Sonja never saw print, at least as a Red Brooklyn upbringing (I come from both Italian-Catholic and Sonja story.

Russian-Jewish backgrounds)? The characters, and the Writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bolton story, formed from there.” were supposed to bring stories starring the From that one-off tale in Bizarre Adventures, red-trussed heroine to Marvel readers. However, Greenberg lay dormant for a few years before as with the best-laid plans, this isn’t what being resurrected as Marvel Graphic Novel #20 ultimately happened.

(Mar. 1986). DeMatteis reveals, “I knew there According to Bolton, “Chris Claremont had was more I wanted to say and, since those were been offered to write Red Sonja by Ralph Macchio. the early days of Marvel graphic novels, I pitched Chris had seen my work on Kull and asked to work it to Jim Shooter—who turned me down. I can’t with me. During a visit to the UK, Chris and I met blame him, it was an oddball concept and not up and he pitched the idea of collaborating on the wildly commercial. But a couple of years later, my story. Fate, however, interceded because Marvel Marvel freelance contract was up for renewal had lost the license to Red Sonja.” and one of the things I asked for when we were john bolton Fortunately for fans, this wasn’t the end negotiating was the chance to do ‘Greenberg’ of the story. Bolton reveals, “Epic Illustrated in [graphic novel] form. That time Jim said yes. I recruited Mark Badger—we were working together on had recently been launched and Jim Shooter suggested the Gargoyle miniseries at the time and I was knocked out by restructuring the story for Epic. We changed Red Sonja’s his work—and we were off. The brilliant Ann Nocenti was our hair to silver-white, I designed a new costume, and Marada was born. It is well documented that Jim Shooter’s mother selected the name Marada. Jim Shooter also gave Chris and me the copyright to Marada, an almost unheard thing in the comic industry of the ’80s.”

With the change from Red Sonja to Marada, the location was also changed from the Hyborian Age to the Roman Empire. This wasn’t the Roman Empire of history books, but instead a swordand-sorcery-filled Roman Empire filtered through the imagination of Claremont and the fantastic artwork of Bolton.

Bolton discusses, “I like to work from a loose script/plot and the many great writers I have worked with leave me to visualise the story, they do not tell me how it should look, this gives me complete freedom. It takes a good writer to allow this.”

Claremont, known for his depiction of powerful and independent women in comics such as Storm and Kitty Pryde, did the same in the Marada stories. However, Marada Starhair and Arianrhod “Ari” MacLlanllwyr were more mature takes on female S&S characters than could be depicted in a Red Sonja tale.

Bolton states, “There were three stories of Marada. The first was ‘Shattered Sword,’ which was done in B/W wash [Epic

Donal to the Rescue? (inset) MGN #21 (1986), Chris Claremont and John Bolton’s Marada the She-Wolf. (left) Marada is introduced, and you get her origin, all on one amazingly rendered Bolton page! © Chris Claremont and John Bolton.

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Illustrated #10–11 (Feb.–Apr. 1982)] and ‘Royal Hunt’ [Epic Illustrated #12 (June 1982)], again in B/W. ‘Wizard’s Masque,’ the fully painted Marada story, was also published in Epic [#22–23 (Feb.–Apr. 1984)].”

The stories and artwork are first-class, but what do they have to do with Marvel Graphic Novels? Two of the three Marada stories which originally appeared in Epic Illustrated were reprinted as Marvel Graphic Novel #21 (May 1986).

Not only did the new format give more exposure to the stories, but the artwork was also given a second chance to shine. “When Marvel decided to publish ‘Shattered Sword’ and ‘Royal Hunt’ as a graphic novel, they wanted it in color. I did not want to paint over the black-and-white art, so Marvel supplied me with a really good reproduction of each page. I then painted the pages in inks over the black and white, the process was time consuming, but worked,” Bolton reveals.

Even though the first Marada story started as a Red Sonja one, the creators were able to make it something more. No longer would the tale have to be Comics Code Authority–approved, and both writer and artist took advantage of the freedom given to them. This story, along with the second one, were definitely fitting of the graphic novel format.

Since Claremont and Bolton own the copyright to the characters, the stories could be reprinted by carl potts publishers other than Marvel. Bolton states, “All the Marada stories were collected into one volume by Titan Books in 2013, but they used the hand colored version of the B/W stories. All three stories are in this book.”

Deadly and Silent (top) Alan Zelenetz and Carl Potts’ Alien Legion: A Grey Day to Die. Art by Frank Cirocco and Terry Austin. (bottom) The Legion engages in covert activity.

Alien Legion © Warner Bros.

ALIEN LEGION: A GREY DAY TO DIE

With Marvel Comics‘ Epic imprint, the company wanted to offer readers stories and concepts that would not fit in with the regular Marvel Universe titles. Alien Legion was a perfect fit. Creator Carl Potts discusses the concept with BI: “Around 1974, I was in the San Francisco Bay Area working on comics art samples to mail into the NYC comics publishers to try and get work. I’d make up my own scenarios to illustrate. I was working on two unconnected sets of science fiction samples. One story featured an allhuman military force in space. The other was about a battle between two aliens, one of which had a serpentine lower body. My drawing table was next to my bed where I kept the small piles of original art.

I accidentally knocked the original art pages off the bed, and they got mixed up on the floor. As I started to sort them out, it occurred to me that the military force should include aliens and that the alien with the serpentine tail should be the leader.

“When I was asked to join Marvel’s editorial staff at the start of 1983, I pitched the Alien Legion concept to the Marvel editor-in-chief. I did not have time to do hands-on writing or drawing work on the series, so the plan was for me to edit the project with a creative crew I’d hire and oversee. The editor-in-chief liked it and approved it. After a month or so of work on the book, the editor-in-chief changed his mind about the project. Fortunately, Epic Comics editorin-chief Archie Goodwin heard about this and asked Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

Dark Knight (left) Dracula adapter Jon J. Muth’s lushly painted artwork was intoxicating, don’t you agree? (right) The graphic novel’s cover. © Marvel.

me to make Alien Legion the third title in his new line of Epic Comics creator-owned titles. Archie and I had a good relationship due to the work I did for him on Epic Illustrated magazine, including Last of the Dragons.

“Writer Alan Zelenetz and I had long conversation about how the Alien Legion universe worked and how the Legion was a science fiction extrapolation of the French Foreign Legion. Penciler Frank Cirocco (another Bay Area native) and I traded character designs back and forth before settling on the initial set of legionnaires. Terry Austin agreed to join the art team. Walter Simonson designed the original Alien Legion logo.”

During the run of the series, a graphic novel was published. The story, by writers Potts and Zelenetz and artists Cirocco and Austin, has the Legion assigned to an assassination mission, but it was much more than that. Potts discusses, “Frank Cirocco agreed to pencil the first six issues of the comics title. He then concentrated on the Alien Legion: A Grey Day to Die graphic novel. I sometimes like to use historical events as a jumping off point for brainstorming stories. Alan and I brainstormed ideas before he wrote the plot which was, in part, based on the history of the French Foreign Legion history in Mexico.”

The original series ran for 20 issues (cover dated Apr. 1984–June 1987). The graphic novel took place during the run of the series. According to Potts, “Vol. 1, issue 16 is the last time Mescad is seen in the series. He dies in the Grey Day to Die graphic novel. So, in vol. 2 of the Dark Horse Omnibus collections, the graphic novel story is placed between issues 16 and 17 of vol. 1 of the comics series.”

[Editor’s note: Be on the lookout for BACK ISSUE #164, which will include a deeper study of Alien Legion.]

DRACULA: A SYMPHONY IN MOONLIGHT & NIGHTMARES

Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula is a seminal piece of literature. The graphic novel Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares by writer/ artist Jon J. Muth is a reimagining of the classic story. Muth retells Stoker’s story in only 48 pages using prose and artwork to propel the story forward. Since the story is condensed, alterations were made, including swapping the roles of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra. The book is more of an illustrated story than a traditional graphic novel, but the outstanding artwork makes up for any shortcomings of the prose.

A SAILOR’S STORY AND A SAILOR’S STORY BOOK TWO: WINDS, DREAMS, AND DRAGONS

While Marvel’s Graphic Novel line was producing some of the best fiction stories in the comic book medium at the time, the publisher wasn’t afraid to shy away from real-life stories as well. Writer/ artist Sam Glanzman’s two-volume memoir of his time during World War II stands as an outstanding example of a wartime chronicle in any form.

When Glanzman turned 18, he enlisted in the US Navy and spent his time during World War II on the Pacific Front on the USS Stevens. After the war, Glanzman began working on war comics for

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Charlton before moving onto DC’s war titles including Our Army at War, Star-Spangled War Stories, and G.I. Combat. In 1987, Glanzman was given the chance to step out of the shadow of these fictional stories and become the main character. With A Solider’s Story, Glanzman related his time during World War II. While there have been many books dealing with the war, this was the first graphic novel on the subject. A sequel, A Sailor’s Story Book Two: Winds, Dreams, and Dragons, was published in 1989. Both books were edited by Larry Hama and his assistant editor Pat Scanlon (then Pat Redding).

In an article for the April 2016 issue of Naval History, Hama recalled, “Sam Glanzman wasn’t just doing but Sam and Larry came up with a fancy comic book—he was the idea for Marvel to do a larger testifying, and memorializing. graphic novel of Sam’s life story.

There are many books about the “My duties at the time as an U.S. Navy in the South Pacific assistant (and then managing) editor during WWII, but no other graphic also included design, if necessary. novels, to my knowledge, written I remember Sam knowing how and drawn by somebody who had he wanted everything to look. actually been there. Somebody pat scanlon His overall aesthetic was strong who meticulously chronicled all and clear. He knew what he was that he saw in sketchbooks and doing. Sam Glanzman had kept diaries. Somebody who could remember the sights, the sounds, the smells, the joys and sorrows, the illustrated diaries from his military years. The fear and the boredom—and who had the power to books, the story arcs, were the results.

“Sam was cool,” Scanlon continues, “We always translate it all into pictures and words.”

Scanlon tells BACK ISSUE, “Sam Glanzman would made sure there was fresh coffee in the small Mr. come into the office starting when Larry Hama Coffee we had in our office, and we let him smoke was there—they knew each other already. Sam did cigarettes there too (nobody else was allowed to some stories in the back of [Marvel’s] Semper Fi, do so, usually).

A Sailor’s Life for Me (top) Writer/artist/ US Navy veteran Sam Glanzman’s two Marvel Graphic Novels, A Sailor’s Story (1987) and A Sailor’s Story 2 (1989), memoirs of his WWII service on the USS Stevens. (bottom right) Pat Redding (now Scanlon) at her Marvel editorial desk, circa mid1980s. Courtesy of Pat Scanlon.

A Sailor’s Story © Sam Glanzman estate.

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“Sam was probably one of my favorite creators,” reveals Scanlon, “He’d led an adventurous life, he rode a motorcycle, he got along well with me and my boyfriend at the time, Vincent Waller. Vincent would often be in the office when Sam showed up, Sam was a pleasure to work with and I was proud of A Sailor’s Story, it was a really personal thing that Sam did. An unusual Marvel book, certainly.”

DEATH OF GROO

Groo the Wanderer, a humorous sword and sorcery character, is one of the most popular creator-owned characters in comics.

Created by writer/artist Sergio Aragonés in the 1970s, Groo first fumbled onto the comic book scene in Destroyer Duck #1 (May 1982) from Eclipse Comics. The character has been published by Pacific, Image, and Dark Horse, but his longest run was 120-issue series from Marvel’s Epic imprint. It was during this time that the Death of Groo graphic novel was published in November 1987.

The creation of the graphic novel worked much like the work on a regular Groo comic; Aragonés plotted and illustrated the story, which was then dialogued by writer Mark Evanier.

The format allowed Aragonés and Evanier more room to play and they took advantage. While the story featured the usual humor associated with the character, Groo was allowed to see how the citizens actually saw him when they thought that he was dead.

This was an eye-opener for him and gave his character more depth.

On his blog, Evanier discussed the graphic novel: “In 1987 I wrote, Sergio Aragonés drew and Marvel published a graphic novel entitled The Death of Groo. It was one of my favorite Groo projects… or, at least, would have been, had we not had so much trouble with the printing. Tom Luth did his usual terrific coloring job but when it went to press, it went to a low-quality color separator who did a poor job. No, let’s be honest here: They did a rotten job. There were folks at Marvel who, upon seeing the proofs, wanted to reject the separations and have them done over but they were overruled.”

Even with the less-than-spectacular print job that the book deserved, the tale stands as one of the best Groo stories, allowing the creators to give more depth to the character while still retaining the humorous aspects that fans were expecting.

THE SHADOW: HITLER’S ASTROLOGER

Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men? Writer Denny O’Neil and artists Michael Kaluta do. DC licensed the radio and pulp character in 1973 for what would be a 12-issue run. O’Neil wrote almost every issue, and showed that he understood the mysterious Shadow. Although Kaluta only worked on five issues, he penciled the first four and perfectly captured the feel of the character and his world. His artwork brought a pulp feel which set the tone for the rest of the run.

In 1988, the duo reunited on the Marvel Graphic Novel, The Shadow 1941: Hitler’s Astrologer. Once again, the creators were able to capture the feel of the character while delivering an outstanding story with the Nazis being used effectively as the villains of the tale. Although other comic creators have worked on the character, these creators set a high standard on both the series and the graphic novel.

Familiar Faces (top) Sergio Aragonés’ and Mark Evanier’s bumbling barbarian, in Marvel’s Death of Groo graphic novel. (bottom) DC’s Shadow team of Denny O’Neil and Michael Kaluta, with inker Russ Heath, reunited for the Marvel hardcover, The Shadow 1941.

Groo the Wanderer © Sergio Aragonés. The Shadow © Condé Nast.

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THE LAST OF THE DRAGONS

While Carl Potts gave us a science fiction tale with the Alien Legion graphic novel, he went the fantasy route with The Last of the Dragons. The story mixes ancient Japanese and Chinese mythology, ninjas, and dragons to craft an original story. According to Potts, “I like variety and have broad tastes in subjects and genres. This was evident in the wide range of Marvel titles I edited including The Punisher, Doctor Strange, Power Pack, Amazing High Adventure, Rocket Raccoon, Hulk, Cloak & Dagger, What The –?!, Solomon Kane, etc. My own creative work includes science fiction, superhero, fantasy, action/adventure, historical fiction and comedy.”

While the concept, plot, and artwork came from Potts, legendary writer Denny O’Neil did the scripting. Potts states, “Denny was a pleasure to work with. At the time Last of the Dragons was being created, Denny and I had met a few times at comics professional and social gatherings. I did not know him well and had to work up the nerve to ask him to check out my project and see if he wanted to script it. He was very approachable and friendly. If I recall properly, he agreed to script the project during our first conversation about Last of the Dragons.”

The story, first serialized in six parts in Epic Illustrated before being released as a graphic novel, featured an aging samurai and a half-American ninja who save America from dragons. “After I’d plotted out the overall arc of the series, I’d plot each chapter before penciling it,” Potts tells BI. “I gave little thought to the actual dialogue and focused on making the sequential visual storytelling as clear and exciting as I could. After each chapter was penciled, I’d give Denny Xeroxes of the full-sized (11x17) penciled pages and my plot.

Denny would then send the finished script back to me. I was pleasantly surprised when Denny brought out themes that he saw in my work— some of which I was not fully conscious of.”

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT and ROGER RABBIT: THE RESURRECTION OF DOOM

In 1988, Touchstone Pictures released the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. With cameo appearances not just from Disney mascot Mickey Mouse and his friends but a madcap face-off between Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, the movie stands as a classic cartoon fan’s dream.

The movie was adapted into comic book format

by Marvel Comics. However, unlike most Marvel movie adaptions of the time it was not featured in the Marvel Super Special format, as a miniseries, or both, but was instead released as Marvel Graphic Novel #41 (Jan. 1988). The story was adapted

by Daan Jippes with dialogue credited to Don Ferguson. Jippes and artist Dan Spiegle completed the artwork.

Even though the movie featured cameos from some of the most iconic animated characters ever, the graphic novel did not include any licensed characters other than those original to the movie, although a silhouette of Dumbo does make an uncredited appearance.

Reptiles and Samurai (left) Cover to the Marvel/Epic graphic novel The Last of the Dragons, conceived, plotted, and penciled by Larry Hama, with dialogue

by Denny O’Neil and inks by Terry Austin. (right) The combatants prepare for battle on this stunning page. © Carl Potts.

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The graphic novel was a good adaptation of the film even without those iconic characters. The humans were illustrated in a more realistic fashion than the cartoon characters. This works for the adaptation to help make it feel like the movie itself.

It contained scenes not in the film. One such scene saw Judge Doom and the Toon Patrol kidnap Eddie and give him a cartoon pig head. The other scene depicted Eddie and his brother Teddy going after the toon who robbed the Toon Town Bank. Teddy was crushed by a piano during the pursuit—his death was referenced in the movie but never shown.

In the 1990s, Disney created a series of unmemorable direct-to-video sequels to their classic movies. This wasn’t the case for Who Framed Roger Rabbit though. The closest fans would get to a sequel was with Marvel Graphic Novel #54, Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom.

While the sequel did not bring the same level of outlandishness that the film did, it was a humorous tale that captured the feel of the movie.

The graphic novel was written by Bob Foster with artwork by Spiegle.

Like the movie adaptation, the sequel did not feature any licensed characters other than Roger, Jessica, Eddie, the weasels, and the titular villain. As with the movie adaptation, Spiegle did a great job of making the humans look realistic while Roger and the other toons remain looking like cartoon characters, making it a great companion piece.

The ending of the story led to C. B. Maroon starting up the cartoon division again, with their first animated feature being a short starring Roger and Baby Herman called Tummy Trouble. The short was an actual cartoon that accompanied the 1989 movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

The sequel graphic novel included an adaptation of this cartoon. Artist Mike Kazaleh did a nice job of capturing the feel of the short. This was a great way to include the cartoon short in the adaptation and make it feel natural. Two more Roger Rabbit shorts were produced, but none of them ever saw the four-color treatment.

Let’s Frame This Roger Rabbit Art (bottom) This stunning hand-painted cel by artists Todd Kurosawa and Ron Dias was produced as the wraparound cover art for Marvel’s second (of two) graphic novels featuring Toontown’s floppy-eared fave. Roger Rabbit in The Resurrection of Doom original cover art courtesy of Heritage Auctions. (top) Cover to the first Roger Rabbit GN. © Disney.

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WILLIAM GIBSON’S NEUROMANCER: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

William Gibson’s multiple award-winning 1984 novel Neuromancer is not only one of the founding stories of the Cyberpunk genre of science fiction, it remains one of the best. The story made the perfect subject for a graphic novel adaptation, at least the first half of the book anyway.

Writer Tom DeHaven and artist Bruce Jensen were tasked with bringing this seminal book into the graphic novel format. DeHaven tells BI, “I did a lot of work for Byron Preiss during the 1980s, and Neuromancer was one of those projects. Byron and I started out in our careers at roughly the same time and I was fortunate that he liked my stuff. I liked getting some paid writing work while I was working on one of my own novels.

I never dealt with anyone at Marvel or Epic; everything went through Byron’s office. He’d broker these book deals with different publishers, then go find writers to do the work.”

DeHaven continues, “It turned out to be a lot of work. Reading the book a couple of times, marking it up the second time, doing the general pageby-page breakdowns, then scripting from the pencils.

I didn’t mind the time, though. At that point, I was hoping to do more comics scripting so I was game for putting in the time to learn the craft. Taught me that fullscript was the only way I ever wanted to write comics ever again, though!”

Unfortunately, only the first half of the novel was adapted by Marvel.

DeHaven divulges, “There was a time lapse between the first book being published and any deal for remain some of the most memoraa second volume. I might’ve done ble of the line. They helped to showthe second book if I could’ve done it case the variety in genre, art styles, full script, but I’d probably moved on and themes that could be used in to some other projects by then.” the format, show that comics were Marvel continued to produce not just for kids, and showcase the graphic novels not set within the tom dehaven talents of the creators in ways a regular Marvel Universe. Works © Richmond Magazine; Target Communications Inc. traditional comic book could not such as The Dream Walker written

by Miguel Ferrer and Bill Mumy with art by Grey do. Former Marvel writer and editor Ralph Macchio Morrow; Ax by writer/artist Ernie Colón; Arena states, “Stan [Lee] wanted to expand comic books. by writer/artist Bruce Jones; and Rick Mason: The Marvel Graphic Novels were a way to do that. I think Agent by writer James D. Hudnell and artist John that they accomplished his goal pretty well.”

Ridgway continued to bring a variety to comic book readers no matter what genre they were Thank you to John Bolton, Liliana Bolton, Bob Budiansky, Tom looking for. The final graphic novel not to feature DeHaven, J. M. DeMatteis, Jackson Marvel characters was the 1990 Western Rio Rides “Butch” Guice, Ralph Macchio, Again by writer/artist Doug Widley.

Val Mayerik, Carl Potts, P. Craig The Marvel Graphic Novel line lasted until 1993, Russell, Pat Scanlon, Roy Thomas, but the rest of the titles were set squarely within and Rich Veitch. the MU. The publisher brought the graphic novel line back in 2013, but so far all of those books ED LUTE isn’t very adventurous.

These graphic novels come in featured Marvel characters. handy when he wants to time While the Marvel Graphic Novel line contained travel or visit a fantasy realm, but some exciting stories whether featuring Marvel doesn’t want to leave the comfort heroes or not, those that were set apart from the MU of his favorite reading spot.

The Joy of Being Online (inset) The Marvel/ Epic GN Neuromancer, adapting the William Gibson property. By Tom DeHaven and Bruce Jensen. (above) Surfing the Internet has never quite been like this. © William Gibson.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

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The Marvel Universe is a big place. When the publisher’s first in its series of graphic novels—The Death of Captain Marvel—was released, that universe got even bigger.

BACK ISSUE will take a look the scale by which the home of the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers increased with the advent of the oversized graphic novel format. Read on, dear Bronze Age fan. Just don’t let Thor’s hammer hit you in the head while you do.

NO CODES REQUIRED

by J a m e s

Heath Lantz

When comparing the monthly Marvel periodicals to the then-new, larger-sized graphic novel format, it’s perhaps easiest to look at, say The Incredible Hulk, more like a serialized television series, whereas The Raven Banner could be more similar to a single film one would find in their local cinema. The scale of both is certainly diverse, but also the method of storytelling is radically different. Twelve issues of Avengers are mapped out, and plot points and characters grow and evolve in each 20-to-30 page chapter, like each episode of Lost. However, the 60-plus oversized pages contained within Avengers: Death Trap The Vault are one single tale with a beginning, middle, and an end, like director Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Both monthly comic books and graphic novels from the House of Ideas each have their distinctive methods of spinning their yarns for their hardcore fans and new readers alike, but perhaps the graphic novel is the better way to introduce Marvel’s vast array of heroes and villains to newcomers tom defalco to the sequential legends that permeate Hildy DeFalco. the Marvel Universe.

The graphic novel format for Marvel, much like the magazines from the 1970s, was advantageous for creative teams of the 1980s and 1990s who wanted to do something bigger and grander than the typical monthly put out on newsstands and in comic shops. One factor for this was the fact the Comics Code Authority did not oversee their release like they did the standard issues of The Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil. Former editorin-chief and Thor scribe Tom DeFalco confirms this in his conversation with BACK ISSUE. “Since they weren’t distributed on the newsstands, the graphic novels didn’t have to go through the Comics Code and were never submitted to it,” DeFalco states.

Graphic novels not needing the Comics Code Authority’s approval allowed creators to have more freedom in their work. Writers could tell tales that they normally could not in a monthly book, and artists were permitted a bigger canvas in which to display their visual talents, thereby making the Marvel Universe an even bigger place than it already was.

When a Mere 22 Pages Won’t Suffice Many of the stars of Mighty Marvel’s monthly comic books had the red carpet rolled out for them for expanded, lushly rendered adventures in the Marvel Graphic Novel series.

TM & © Marvel.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

MUTANT MAYHEM

‘God Loves, Man Kills’ (left) Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com), Brent Anderson’s preliminary artwork for the cover of Marvel Graphic Novel #5, starring the X-Men. (right) The published cover.

TM & © Marvel.

of the outlaw team of mutant heroes to evolve, grow, and have a life beyond the normal superheroversus-supervillain tropes, thereby feeling bigger in scale and storytelling than a lot of monthly comic books published by both Marvel and DC Comics. Yet, there are some tales featuring the X-Men and other mutants in their corner of the Marvel Universe that are just too big to be placed in a 32-page periodical. Perhaps the best example of this point is Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.

The inspiration for the 2002 film X2: X-Men United, God Loves, Man Kills is story of Reverend William Styker’s fanatical war against mutants.

There have been many anti-mutant antagonists in the main X-books. Yet Chris Claremont’s script and Brent Anderson’s art could not be confined to a mere normal-sized comic book. God Loves, Man Kills absolutely needed to be larger than the mutant mayhem Marvel was putting in the spinner racks at the time.

Chris Claremont’s reflections on God Loves, Man Kills in its 2020 extended cut state that the graphic novel was intended to be a standalone tale outside of main X-Men continuity. In fact, Claremont’s first draft featured the death of Magneto, something that had not occurred in the Uncanny X-Men chris claremont comic. However, God Loves, Man © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Kills became canon around the time the X-Men 2 movie had come out, with a sequel serial, God Loves, Man Kills II, appearing in Claremont’s X-Treme X-Men #25–30 in 2003. While later editions of the Essential X-Men trade paperbacks place it after Uncanny X-Men #167, it’s still unclear as of this writing where the original God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel fits in

One of the most unusual graphic novels featuring Marvel’s merry mutants is Excalibur: Weird War III. The team must take on an alternate, more corrupt version of the X-Men as a parallel world in which the Axis won World War II bleeds into the regular Marvel Universe. The story by Michael Higgins, and Tom Morgan and Justin Thyme’s art, take on many of the themes that the overall X-Men line of comics do. However, Weird War III also tackles the dark side of humanity much like the Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror.” Reaction to this graphic novel was mixed. Yet it’s not really something that could be published in the main Excalibur comic book, not so much for its content, as it really isn’t overly violent. The scale of the writing and visuals, which seem more influenced by comics published in the UK rather than those on American spinner racks, is just too big for that format.

One could argue that writer Chris Claremont’s original, celebrated, and lengthy run on The Uncanny X-Men and its related spinoffs is one huge graphic novel. It’s a continuous saga, with character arcs that allowed Storm, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and the rest

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within the main X-Men comics’ continuity.

Brent Anderson’s art looks phenomenal in God Loves, Man Kills. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine the classic graphic novel without Anderson’s stunning visuals. However, according to Jon B. Cooke’s “The Adams Impact: Celebrating Our Featured Artist and his Stint at Marvel Comics,” Neal Adams was originally approached by then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who Adams said conceived the idea for God Loves, Man Kills. Adams had drawn some pages from the script’s original draft, but contract negotiations were unsuccessful. Plus, Chris Claremont stated in an interview published in Marvel’s X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut that had Neal Adams worked on the graphic novel with him, the story, while just as good, would have been completely different.

While Marvel Graphic Novel #12, Dazzler: The Movie, has not aged as well as many of the tomes discussed in this article (or in this issue of BACK ISSUE, for that matter), it does discuss the man’s inhumanity to man conflict, albeit taking it in a different direction. God Loves, Man Kills, like Dazzler: The Movie, shines the spotlight on bigotry. Yet, God Loves, Man Kills also talks about religious zealotry and how it can lead to hate of a person or group.

Dazzler: The Movie deals with misogyny and the impact of being outed.

The fact that Alison Blair (Dazzler) is a mutant becomes public knowledge when she doesn’t give in to the whims of a VIP, thus affecting her career.

“Mutie,” an epithet used by anti-mutant persons and groups throughout the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Universe, is a word that featured prominently in both God Loves, Man Kills and Dazzler: The Movie. The term is written on a dead mutant in God Loves, Man Kills and on house ads for Dazzler: The Movie.

Mutie would turn up in X-comics and other media such as the X-Men Legends video game through the years. Yet as Kitty Pryde points out to her dance teacher Stevie in God Loves, Man Kills, it’s an expression that hurts just as much as a certain racial slur that could be used against Stevie. Such a scene would probably not be published today or have made its way into the X-Men monthlies of the time due to Comics Code Authority. Yet the graphic novel format of the early 1980s proved how much impact words can have on humans and mutants alike, and those reading about them.

Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants, which was also written by Claremont, is not as thought-provoking as God Loves, Man Kills, and it feels reminiscent of 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 with its formation of a fledgling team. There are similar moments to God Loves, Man Kills that give readers an example

Dazzling Art Marvel’s GNs often featured cover art by industry titans like Bill Sienkiewicz, who illustrated the cover for Marvel Graphic Novel #12, Dazzler: The Movie, shown here in layout and published forms. Scans courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

of man’s inhumanity to his own kind. The openings of both The New Mutants and God Loves, Man Kills examine this conflict perfectly.

Rahne Sinclair is chased by angry villagers led by Reverend Craig when Moira MacTaggart finds her in the first pages of The New Mutants. The original beginning (the extended cut contains a new framing sequence) of God Loves, Man Kills has William Stryker’s Purifiers hunting two mutant children. Both graphic novels prove that Claremont could give readers food for thought and tell stories of every type.

The New Mutants, Claremont states in the God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut interview, was originally intended to be an extra-sized first issue of a new monthly X-Men spinoff starring new students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. A schedule gap forced it to become what is now Marvel Graphic Novel #4, with The New Mutants #1 containing a story that takes place after MGN #4, proving the debut of Marvel’s new mutant team was just too big for the premiere issue of a monthly comic, even an extra-sized one.

Monthly comics in the X-Men universe allowed for more gradual development of character, plot, and events under Claremont’s unique storytelling. Yet graphic novels like The New Mutants and X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills allowed the famed X-scribe to experiment and take the characters to another level that the format of monthly comic books could not permit, giving fans and casual readers alike larger, more impactful sagas that still resonate with audiences to this day.

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THE BEST HE IS AT WHAT HE DOES

Clawing His Way into Graphic Novels Wolverine slashed out of the pages of X-Men into the Marvel Graphic Novel series in projects including Bloody Choices. (left) Joe Jusko’s original cover painting for Bloody Choices. Courtesy of Heritage. In the graphic novel’s interior pages, (right) the legendary John Buscema cuts loose!

TM & © Marvel.

Wolverine is perhaps the best-known member of the X-Men. Much of his career within the pages of Uncanny X-Men and his solo series focused on the war of the two sides within Logan—his rage-fueled bestial nature and his calmer, “human” side. Alan Davis and Paul Neary’s Wolverine: Bloodlust explores that internal conflict; however, it’s Logan’s interactions with Nick Fury in what’s been later called “The Wolverine and Nick Fury Trilogy” that really show Logan’s true self. Howard Chaykin’s work as artist on The Scorpio Connection and writer of the sequel Scorpio Rising had mixed reactions from fans. However, the buddycop action film atmosphere mixed with the spy genre give readers stories that show Fury and Logan at odds with one another while they must work together to stop Nick’s son Mikel, the new Scorpio.

While not connected to the Scorpio stories, the second book in “The Wolverine and Nick Fury Trilogy”—Tom DeFalco and John Buscema’s Wolverine: Bloody Choices—really shows the full potential of the graphic novel. Its story is one that perhaps would not have been published in a monthly Wolverine or Nick Fury comic book due to its subject matter. Logan has promised to protect a boy from being assaulted by the bloated Bullfinch, who Nick Fury has promised immunity in exchange for testimony in a trial. Meanwhile, Bullfinch still has the boy’s brother.

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Ralph Macchio, in his introduction for Bloody Choices, wrote of the duality of human nature and how well both Tom DeFalco and John Buscema tackle it in Wolverine’s character— a killer whose heart is in the right place. In their graphic novel that pulls no punches for either the reader or the characters involved, the creative team captures the intensity of the plot’s subject matter in a way few could do in modern comics.

Tom DeFalco discusses with BACK ISSUE the making of Wolverine: Blood Choices and working with the John Buscema on the project. “Bloody Choices has always had a special place in my heart,” DeFalco begins. “I loved working with Big John.

“If I remember correctly—and I may have this completely wrong—Bloody Choices began with a conversation that I had with John. He told me that he preferred drawing Conan to superheroes, but he wished Conan sold better. I asked him if there were any superheroes he liked doing. He gave me two answers—Wolverine and Nick Fury. We started talking about doing something that combined Wolverine and Nick, something that John could pencil and ink in his ‘spare’ time.”

According to DeFalco, “I remember sending the finished plot to John and asking he what he thought of it. He said something like, ‘It ain’t Shakespeare, but I think I can save it.’”

Regarding the advantages of the graphic novel format as a presentation for John Buscema’s art, DeFalco remarks, “The oversized graphic novel

Norrin Radd is Rad! (left) The Silver Surfer: Judgment Day (1988). Cover art

by Joe Jusko. (right) The Silver Surfer: Homecoming (1991).

Cover art

by Bill Reinhold.

TM & © Marvel.

definitely enhanced John’s artwork. “For my money, John SENTINEL OF THE SPACEWAYS Buscema is one of the finest illustrators this medium has ever Perhaps more than any character created by Stan Lee and seen. He did a fabulous job on Bloody Choices, but you can say Jack Kirby, the Silver Surfer is best suited for the graphic novel that about almost any job he drew.” format. From a visual standpoint alone, an oversized Silver Surfer DeFalco continued to reminisce on Bloody Choices with story would be the comic book equivalent of seeing a film BACK ISSUE. “Even though John planned to ink Bloody like Star Wars in a cinema. Case in point, Stan Lee and John Choices, he turned in full finished pencils. A number of Buscema’s Silver Surfer: Judgment Day was drawn entirely in our artists heard that John was doing detailed pencils and splash pages roughly two years before Superman was killed by demanded copies of the job so that they could study/ Doomsday in the all-splash-page Superman #75. However, the admire his work. I remember noticing something odd larger size of Judgment Day gives Norrin Radd and his adventure when the inks started coming in. Some of the figures starring Galactus and Mephisto a more grandiose look. had changed. The characters had different body Tom DeFalco stated that the graphic novel language. I questioned John about it, and he enhanced John Buscema’s already-tremendous told me that he didn’t like what he originally art. Silver Surfer: Judgment Day, a story Buscema drew and felt it needed improvement. The wanted to illustrate with a single image on man was a perfectionist and kept trying to every page, proves DeFalco’s point a thousandimprove his craft.” fold. Looking at Judgment Day and the DeFalco shares the following about the aforementioned Wolverine: Bloody Choices Marvel graphic novel program and how he can make readers wonder what it would have and Buscema were paid by the publisher: been like if Buscema’s work on such titles as “When Marvel originally set up the program, Avengers and Conan the Barbarian had originally it paid artists an advance against royalties. been released as bigger graphic novels instead You received a lump sum before you began of the standard comic books of the time. work on the project. Most comic book Stan Lee would return to the Silver Surfer stan lee people are used to being paid after they with The Enslavers graphic novel drawn by Gage Skidmore. deliver the work. They weren’t used to Keith Pollard, and while Buscema was a getting the money before they did the work. Some guys tough act to follow, Pollard provided cosmic visuals worthy immediately spent their advances and needed to take other of any movie by George Lucas or James Cameron. The title assignments to stay afloat. Some artists kept coming back characters capture Marvel’s heroes, with Norrin Radd—the and asking for additional advances, but never actually got Surfer—being the only hope of saving them. around to working on their graphic novels. John and I didn’t The Silver Surfer has a Homecoming in his next graphic have this problem with Bloody Choices. John chose to receive novel outing thanks to Jim Starlin and Bill Reinhold when his advance after he completed the graphic novel, and I Empress Shalla Bal calls him to find the missing planet and didn’t take an advance.” former homeworld of the Surfer, Zenn-La. Granted, the DeFalco and Buscema were grand talents in their own story does have its detractors. However, combined with rights. However, Wolverine: Bloody Choices, like any other Reinhold’s art, it gives readers a sense of how huge the graphic novel starring the clawed Canadian, shows that universe really is for Norrin Radd when one sees each image that talent was just too big for mere monthly comics. The of Homecoming. The mainstream comic book, while good oversized format proved that their larger-than-life storytelling at sequential storytelling, just couldn’t capture the scale of skills were right at home with Bloody Choices. such things in the way the graphic novel could.

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ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE

Gang Warfare Artist Ron Wilson’s Wolfpack, written by Larry Hama, bowed in Marvel Graphic Novel #31 (1987).

TM & © Marvel.

his abilities as a visual storyteller. He uses a combiEqually as important as mutants and cosmic nation of the otherworldly look of his Marvel Twoin-One run and the gritty inner-city imagery adventures in the Marvel Universe graphic normally seen in Daredevil. Wilson displays novels are stories that take place on the a versatility in every page of the streets of New York City in Marvel’s Wolfpack graphic novel which could main reality, Earth-616. Among only be demonstrated in that format. these oversized tomes is Ron Wilson Larry Hama took time out of his and Larry Hama’s Wolfpack. busy schedule to talk to BACK ISSUE Malcolm Brown, Sharon, “Slag” about the Wolfpack graphic novel.

Slagley, Rafael Vega, Slippery “Ron probably spearheaded it. It Sam, and Wheels Wolinski are was really his baby, and I just came brought together by retired Navy on board to help him out. officer Mister Mack to use their “Monthly comics and one-shot special abilities to protect the graphic novels are all the same Bronx and battle the Nine. tasks, as far as I was concerned,” While best known for drawing larry hama Hama continues. “I write everyadventures starring the Fantastic Michael Soloff/Scoop. thing the same way. I start on Four’s Ben Grimm, Ron Wilson truly shows incredible artistic skill in Wolfpack, a page one, and write page by page until I get to graphic novel that gives the artist a chance to show the end. I don’t know what is on page five until I get to page four. I never identified as a writer, I identify as a penciler, and I had to draw comics for 15 years before anybody ever let me write one, and that was only because everybody else turned the job down. I imagine the story as a series of images, like a silent movie. When I sit down at the word processor, I just describe the images I see in my head. Dialogue comes dead last, after the job is entirely drawn in pencil.”

While we’re on the subject of superpowered youths protecting the streets of the Big Apple, writer Bill Mantlo’s Cloak and Dagger star in a pair of graphic novels, Predator and Prey and Shelter from the Storm. The latter co-stars Power Pack.

Predator and Prey features a murderous parasite found in Cloak’s cloak. It later attaches itself to a serial killer, leading Cloak and Dagger on a chase through the darkened alleys of New York. Shelter from the Storm has a desperate Cloak recruit Power Pack to help him rescue Dagger.

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Larry Stroman and Al Williamson (Predator and Prey) and Sal Velluto and Mark Farmer (Shelter from the Storm) convey every page excellently from a visual standpoint. However, Mantlo’s stories in both graphic novels are worthy of his more well known ROM, Micronauts, and Incredible Hulk runs. One can see his love for Cloak and Dagger and the passion he puts in this duo of adventures that would just be too big for a normal-sized comic book, no matter what the page count. Mantlo had to tell these tales in graphic novel format. Any other means would not do them justice.

The Savage Land is our next stop on our graphic novel tour, as Ka-Zar must stop an oil company from devastating his homeland in Ka-Zar: The Guns of the Savage Land. Writers Chuck Dixon and Timothy Truman, and artists Gary Kwapisz and Ricardo Villagran crafted a graphic novel that reads like a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This story itself is full of action, but it’s Kwapisz and Villagran’s stunning visuals that, quite frankly, would not fit into a standard comic without a loss of quality.

Among the most celebrated runs of the Bronze Age is Frank Miller’s Daredevil. In 1985, Miller got together with Elektra:

Dinosaurs Attack!

The Lord of the Hidden Jungle— plus pals Shanna the She-Devil, Wyatt Wingfoot, and everybody’s favorite sabertooth, Zabu— are in big trouble on Earl Norem’s stunning cover painting for the graphic novel Ka-Zar: The Guns of the Savage Land.

Original art scan courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

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A Moment of Silence (top) Original Joe Chiodo color artwork—sans writer Jim Starlin’s script—for page 14 of the 1993 Daredevil/Black Widow graphic novel, Abattoir. (bottom) Writer Gerry Conway’s 1990 graphic novel The Coldest War, illustrated

by George Freeman, gave Marvel’s lady spy a rare (for the day) moment in the spotlight.

TM & © Marvel.

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Assassin artist Bill Sienkiewicz for Daredevil: Love and War, a graphic novel that shows Kingpin trying to save his comatose wife Vanessa Fisk. While placement in the main Daredevil continuity has been debated, that doesn’t stop Love and War from being considered among the best of Marvel’s graphic novel line.

Sienkiewicz pulls off some the best art of his comics career. The format helps him to make Miller’s story a cinematic giant that brings Daredevil and Hell’s Kitchen to new readers and Ol’ Hornhead’s established fans alike. Sienkiewicz has some great standard comic books under his belt. However, Daredevil: Love and War allows the artist and Frank Miller to take advantage of storytelling and sequential art in ways that monthlies could not do.

Daredevil returns to team up with his old flame the Black Widow in Jim Starlin and Joe Chiodo’s Abattoir as they must match wits with a sadistic psychic killer. This graphic novel does show Starlin’s versatility as a writer, as he’s transcended the cosmic, science-fiction tales that made him famous in comics. Yet, it’s Joe Chiodo’s art that stands out in Abattoir. There are more mature scenes in the graphic novel, allowing for Chiodo’s graphic depictions that could not function as well in a Comics Code–approved standard issue.

Speaking of the Black Widow, her only solo outing in the Marvel Graphic Novel series, The Coldest War by Gerry Conway and George Freeman, expands on the title character and her past when she discovers her husband, the Red Guardian, may be alive. However, Russia wants her to betray the United Stated before she can even think of seeing him again.

Freeman’s art seems influenced by George Tuska and Barry Windsor-Smith, while adding his own style to The Coldest War, making it grander than any MCU film. Yet it’s Gerry Conway’s writing that enhances the protagonists’ and antagonists’ development throughout the graphic novel. Conway, having written the Black Widow as part of his Daredevil run in the 1970s, gets inside her psyche, thereby making her more than the typical spy or superhero.

Black Widow fans and casual readers alike will want to check gerry conway out The Coldest War if they want a one-anddone story about the Black Widow. Yet Conway admits to BACK ISSUE that he was displeased with one aspect of The Coldest War. “My main issue was with the color reproduction on the Black Widow graphic novel. I was horrified by how it turned out and would have hoped it was corrected when the book was reprinted a few years ago, but Marvel dropped the ball. I don’t know why.”

In spite of Conway’s disappointment with the coloring, Black Widow: The Coldest War, like the graphic novels featuring Daredevil, Wolfpack, and Cloak and Dagger, are must-reads for anyone craving something set on the streets of New York and beyond.

WORTHY OF THE GODS

Gods have been a part of mythology since man could tell tales in front of a campfire. Superhero comics have been called by some, including Samuel L. Jackson, a modern mythology, and Marvel expanded on that idea with graphic novels starring gods.

Bob Layton brought his own spin on the powerful Greek demigod Hercules in his two Prince of Power limited series. The cast of the latter comic returned in Layton’s Hercules: Full Circle graphic novel. Some readers have lamented Full Circle’s excess of dialogue. However, Layton concludes his comedic take on the Son of Zeus with solid art and storytelling worthy of the omnipotent beings living on Mount Olympus.

Greek myths aren’t the only inspiration for gods in Marvel graphic novels. Thor: I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy, like the Thor monthly comic, features Nordic deities. This Mjolnir-sized tome of Thor and human alter ego Donald Blake’s inner conflict with themselves takes place before Walter Simonson’s celebrated Thor #337. The graphic novel was plotted by Jim Shooter, scripted by James Owsley (Christopher Priest), and drawn by Paul Ryan. Ryan, while more known for his amazing work on Fantastic Four with Tom DeFalco, started to show the comics reading public his unique imagery which, like the music of Miles Davis and Prince, continued to evolve throughout the years of his illustrious career.

The Raven Banner: A Tale Of Asgard, written by Alan Zelenetz with art by the legendary Charles Vess, may be one of the graphic novels to use its format to its full potential. Based on a Nordic myth, according to Vess in an interview with Kelly Searsmith of Mythic Imagination, it was put under the Marvel imprint for its use of their versions of Odin and other Norse deities, and it gave the creative team a chance to tell a story that predates

the comic book and graphic novel while using the latter’s size to give it the scale it deserved. Vess’ depiction of the banner and the warrior carrying it into battle is too great to be limited by a monthly periodical. It needed to be larger than any banquet in Valhalla.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

These days the Avengers are big, thanks to the MCU. Before they gained popularity in the cinema, their grandest stories were told in the Marvel Graphic Novel series.

Iron Man scribe David Michelinie was a part of the creative teams for a trio of such sagas. The first, The Aladdin Effect, plotted by Jim Shooter and drawn by Greg LaRocque and Vince Colletta, takes female heroes Storm, the Wasp, Tigra, and She-Hulk to a parallel world to give a little girl the strength she needs to be a hero.

The Living Monolith attacks New York in Michelinie and Marc Silvestri’s Avengers graphic novel Revenge of the Living Monolith, based on a concept by James Owsley/Christopher Priest. It was inspired by those old films in which a gargantuan monster lays siege to a city. It’s one of those sequential tales that is perfect for the graphic novel— too gigantic to be in any other form, especially in the hands of Michelinie and Silvestri.

The Brave and the Balder Just look at the extraordinary level of lush detail packed into Charles Vess’s glorious original artwork from Marvel Graphic Novel #15 (1985), the Thor spinoff, Raven Banner: A Tale of Asgard Story, written

by Alan Zelenetz.

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

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The best known of Michelinie’s Avengers graphic novels is Emperor Doom, in which an alternate Earth is ruled by Victor Von Doom. Another story based on a Jim Shooter idea, Emperor Doom was illustrated by Bob Hall, no stranger to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, having drawn numerous issues of various Marvel comics and co-created the West Coast Avengers. Emperor Doom allows Hall to cut loose and use a bigger canvas to give the tome the grandiose status it deserves.

“For me, the main difference between writing a regular series and writing a one-anddone story is in the plotting,” opines David Michelinie to BACK ISSUE when considering

the differences between writing comic books and graphic novels.

“In a series you have history, not only from the issues that came before yours, but you’re creating future history as you write. You can use previous stories as stepping stones to new ones, while laying the groundwork, in things such as subplots or teasers, for new stories to write down the line.

“Unfortunately, I can’t be very specific about the plotting in the works mentioned,” Michelinie explains. “The Aladdin Effect was already plotted by Jim Shooter when I was brought on to the project. Matter of fact, I think the book had already been penciled before I started to write the dialogue, captions, etc. (though I will lay claim to the title). Revenge of the Living

david michelinie

Evolution of a Cover (top left) John Romita, Sr.’s cover rough for the David Michelinie– penned GN, The Aladdin Effect. (right) Original cover art by Keith Pollard and Vince Colletta. (bottom left) The published cover. All, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

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Monolith was editor Jim Owsley’s idea. I think he down-and-dirty realism that would not usually see wanted to do something like a Godzilla-type movie in something featuring the Avengers or Spider-Man. about a giant creature in New York—in this case Both graphic novels in Zaffino’s hands, much the Living Pharaoh, ramped up into the Living like the Ka-Zar outing discussed earlier, convey the Monolith—and we worked out the general flow, feeling of an action movie. However, this time, the the characters, and such together. influence of Charles Bronson can be felt as Frank “As for Emperor Doom, Marvel honcho Castle punishes the guilty in the only way he Jim Shooter thought it would be cool can—with lots of bullets. Zaffino worked if Doctor Doom, who always seems on various projects, yet his work on this interested in taking over the world, pair of Punisher stories gave him a actually succeeded in doing just larger canvas to work on, allowing that. It was his idea to use the him to show his strengths in the Purple Man to give us a way to graphic novel format. He truly made focus Doom’s commands. Other writer Jo Duffy’s Assassin’s Guild and elements were added by one or writer Chuck Dixon’s Kingdom Gone the other of us, then I typed it up two of the grandest tales of Frank in plot format, and Bob Hall did a Castle’s search for justice. great job of bringing one of my Mike Baron has had a prolific favorite Doctor Doom stories to career as a comics writer with his the printed page.” work on such titles as Badger and mike baron Was there a creative advantage The Flash. His run on The Punisher Facebook. in writing a graphic novel, as monthly comic book is perhaps opposed to a regular comic book? “I don’t think the what BACK ISSUE era Marvel fans recall the most graphic novel format helped or hurt,” Michelinie fondly. His Punisher work was not limited to the replies. “Both it and monthly comics have their standard format. Baron’s graphic novel The Punisher: own pluses or minuses. You just have to solve the Intruder delves into the title character’s past while problems that are endemic to each one. It’s like showing him infiltrating with a secret military jigsaw puzzles: you just have to find the right piece organization who killed an innocent couple. Bill to make the end product work.”

Reinhold’s art truly gives the reader the impression At a time when the character was at his most that Intruder is just too big of a story for a mere popular, Venom turned up to redeem himself in a sense as he aids the East and West Coast Avengers and Freedom Force to defuse a bomb in the supervillain prison the Vault in Danny Fingeroth and Ron Lim’s Avengers: Deathtrap The Vault, later renamed Venom: Deathtrap The Vault in reprinted editions.

Lim’s technique stands out as well as his work on Silver Surfer and complements Fingeroth’s nailbiter of an adventure worthy of anything he oversaw as Spider-Man editor. Both creators would have been too confined, some might even say trapped, if Deathtrap The Vault had been published in the standard monthly comic book format.

Pardon the Intrusion Badger collaborators Mike Baron (writer) and Bill Reinhold (artist) joined creative forces for the hard-hitting 1991 graphic novel The Punisher: Intruder.

TM & © Marvel.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

In the mid-to-late 1980s and much of the 1990s, grim-and-gritty characters were a large part of comic book shops and newsstand spinner racks. Frank Castle, better known to the underworld as the Punisher, was among those who gained popularity in that period. His monthly adventures spanned numerous comic series, including limited series and specials. While the Punisher left behind a cautiously rendered body count and trail of bullet casings in Marvel’s mainstream publications, the graphic novel was the place where Frank’s stories could be told without the Comics Code Authority overseeing them in a time that predates the Marvel Max line of mature reader Punisher comic books.

In the Punisher graphic novel Assassin’s Guild, Frank Castle joins forces with a cult of assassins to kill a crime boss, even though the matter leaves the Punisher questioning his own values. The graphic novel Kingdom Gone takes the Punisher to a tropical island to eliminate a drug lord and his army. The late Jorge Zaffino provided art for the Assassin’s Guild and Kingdom Gone graphic novels starring the Punisher. Each image gives the reader a sense of the Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

The Doctor Is In (the ‘Marvel Graphic Novel’ Series) Courtesy of Heritage, original color art for a Marvel ad promoting the Doctor Strange GN, Into Shamballa, written by J. M. DeMatteis.

TM & © Marvel.

monthly. Its double-page spreads throughout the graphic novel in particular look stunning in a much larger book.

“I had an idea for an original Punisher story that was longer than 24 pages,” Mike Baron informs BACK ISSUE. “I imagined a butte jutting out of the desert in the shape of an aircraft carrier and went on from there. Bill Reinhold knocked it out of the park with his art.”

Baron also found the editorial process monitoring the production of his graphic novel to be a breeze. “In all my years at Marvel and DC, I can count editorial changes I was asked to make on the fingers of one hand. There were none with Intruder.”

Frank Castle travels to Scotland in Alan Grant, John Wagner, and Cam Kennedy’s Punisher: Blood on the Moors to meet the Clansman in order to settle an old score. This graphic novel, while featuring an American anti-hero, has more of a United Kingdom–style of storytelling. In the case of Blood on the Moors, only a huge graphic novel could contain the over-the-top action that came from the minds of creators who gave us Judge Dredd comics.

The Punisher’s last entry in the original Marvel Graphic Novel line put him on a mission with the Black Widow. Spinning Doomsday’s Web by D. G. Chichester, Larry Stroman, and Mark Farmer has a Frank Miller influence to its art, but Stroman does not imitate Miller.

He does add lines and scenes that are combined with that influence.

Both characters work together well as they attempt to stop a military organization bent on world domination.

THE MASTER OF MYSTIC ARTS

Like the Silver Surfer, Doctor Stephen Strange is a good fit for the expanded scope of a graphic novel, as Strange’s use of magic and his interactions with the supernatural make the Sorcerer Supreme adapt smoothly to the format.

Into Shamballa, by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Dan Green, takes Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts to the Himalayan home or his mentor, the Ancient One, to find a gift. “The fact that these were graphic novels and not standard comics gave us permission to experiment,” DeMatteis explains to BACK ISSUE. “From the beginning, Dan Green and I knew we wanted to do something different; more of a prose-driven illustrated book than a comic book. If you look through Into Shamballa, there are only a few scattered word balloons, the vast majority of the text is straight prose. And, of course, graphic novels had a longer, more leisurely deadline, which gave Dan the room he needed to do those gorgeous paintings. You can’t paint like that on a monthly schedule.

“Keeping in mind that it’s been a long time and there may be gaps in memory, here’s how it worked,” DeMatteis says. “Since Dan and I lived in the same town and we saw each other regularly, that allowed us to work very closely every step of the way, bouncing things back and forth, building the story together, brick by brick. After we talked the story through and came up with a framework that excited us, we pitched it to then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and he had some very valuable insights that helped bring our story into deeper focus.

I then wrote up a five-page story outline for our editor, Carl Potts, that we also shared with Doctor Strange monthly writer, Roger Stern. We wanted to make sure that our story didn’t overlap with anything he was doing.

From there Dan and I worked out more details of the story, discussed layouts, tone, etc. Then, based on our conversations, I wrote up another outline, breaking the story down, which Dan used as a jumping-off point, laying out the entire graphic novel and adding new details along the way. I wrote my script from Dan’s layouts, but I was free to change things, make shifts, as I went along. I still have some of the layouts—and I use the term loosely!—I’d sketch out if, in the writing, J. M. Dematteis my script deviated from what Dan had already done.

Federico Vinci.

This way he had a sense of what I was seeing in my head as I was writing. I’m sure Dan had feedback about the script that I then incorporated into a another draft and, with that in front of him, Dan worked out the final layouts. I suspect we discussed that, 40 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

making sure we were both happy, after which he went on to the finished art—which still stands as some of the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen in a comic book or graphic novel.

“The fact that were were able to do so much work face-to-face, and that we had the extended deadline that graphic novels afford, allowed us to really collaborate in a way writers and artists in comics working on monthly comics just can’t.

It was a magical collaboration as befits such a magical character.”

Writer Roger Stern and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola worked together on the second graphic novel starring the Master of the Mystic Arts. This time, he’s an unlikely ally of Victor Von Doom as the pair must save the Latverian dictator’s mother’s soul from Mephisto in Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph And Torment.

Roger Stern talks about the making of Triumph and Torment with BACK ISSUE: “It may seem odd, but from the pitch being approved to the graphic novel seeing print, about seven years passed.

When the story was approved, Marvel’s publishing schedule seemed to be in a constant state of flux, and deadlines were changing so fast that it was hard keeping up with them. Every time that I was about to start plotting the novel, the deadlines for my regular assignments would get moved up. It wasn’t until I was fired from Avengers that I was able to carve out time to plot the story, but in those intervening years, Mike Mignola came along, developed into a great artist, and wound up drawing Triumph and Torment. So things ultimately worked out for the best.

“A graphic novel, ideally, reads as a novel— as a long-form narrative that tells a complex, imaginative story that builds through a number of scenes to a satisfying climax—and all under one cover,” remarks Stern of the differences between writing a graphic novel and working on a monthly comic. “A monthly title is more like a short story. And of course, with a monthly comic, there is a physical limit to the number of pages we have to tell that story.

However, even if you’re telling a with the differences in pacing and continuing story as serial fiction, the recaps needed each issue in order each issue should provide a full to bring new readers up to speed. chapter that satisfies the readers— What eventually became Triumph and hopefully intrigues them roger stern and Torment was one of four or five enough to buy and read succespossible stories that I pitched as Alexander Fuld Frazier. sive issues.” graphic novels, but it was the one According to the scribe, “I approached writing that editorial liked best. Another pitch—which was Triumph And Torment much as I would write a prose dismissed as ‘not big enough for a graphic novel’— novel. Although, of course, in writing a graphic involved Doctor Strange dealing with the threat of novel, I had the advantage of working with a talented Dracula once and for all. Since Marvel didn’t want artist and visual storyteller in Mike Mignola. But I that story as a graphic novel, I decided to use it in started with the overall story in mind and broke the regular Doctor Strange comic, where it took us the plot down from scene to scene until I reached five issues to tell the story. That added up to 110 the end. In fact, I didn’t know how long the novel pages, which was considerably longer than was would run until I did reach that ending and counted budgeted for most graphic novels in those days.” up the pages. Triumph and Torment was originally Doctor Strange’s duo of graphic novels are the pitched as a graphic novel. It certainly would have among the most complex and visually amazing of been structured quite differently if I had plotted it the Marvel Graphic Novel series. Every word, every as anything other than a novel, and if it had been image, and every page show just how magical published in chapters over a series of issues. We the character and the format are together in the would have needed many more pages to tell, what Master of the Mystic Arts’ world.

Double Dose of Doctors Writer Roger Stern was joined by artists Mike Mignola and Mark Badger for the Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom GN, Triumph and Torment.

TM & © Marvel.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

THE SPIDER‘S WEB

You Can Never Go Wrong with Wrightson The wiry Web-Slinger faced freakish foes in Marvel Graphic Novel #22 (1986), Spider-Man: Hooky.

Written by Susan K. Putney and illustrated by our featured cover artist, the late, lamented Swamp Thing co-creator, Bernie Wrightson.

TM & © Marvel.

Perhaps the most accessible character in the Marvel Universe for single story graphic novels is SpiderMan. The iconic status of the much-loved WebSlinger makes such tales easier for new readers to absorb if they are new to the comics medium.

Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk’s Parallel Lives is the perfect example of what a graphic novel can do for fledgling readers. The story retells the origins of Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and Doctor Octopus, while showing their similarities and differences. This allows Conway and Saviuk to expand on what Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and those who followed them on the various Spider-Man monthly comic books of the past did, providing one of the best starting points for those wanting an introduction to Spidey.

The other Conway classic in the Marvel Graphic Novel series is the Spider-Man entry Fear Itself, illustrated by the legendary comics combo of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. According to Conway, it was based on his idea. He recalls writing a plot and part of the script, which was finished by Stan Lee. In the tale, Spider-Man and Silver Sable go to Germany to track down Neo-Nazis. “Having been lucky enough to write both the Black Widow and Spider-Man characters before, finding their voices in a different format was fairly easy,” Gerry Conway tells BACK ISSUE. “The main difference in graphic novels and regular comics was structure.

I could raise issues and resolve them later in the periodic monthlies which gave me more flexibility to spread problems out.”

42 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

Two Spider-Man graphic novels veer away from the typical comic book starring the Webbed Wonder. Susan K. Putney and Bernie Wrightson’s Hooky pits Spider-Man against monsters that could give nightmares to Alien creature designer H. R. Giger. Only Wrightson could have pulled off such creatures with the grace and grandeur that can only be presented in a graphic novel. Wrightson’s art must be seen in that format. A normal comic book would not do his macabre, eerie style justice.

Charles Vess’ Spirits of the Earth sends SpiderMan and Mary Jane to Scotland, putting city folks in a countryside setting. Vess has a love for Scotland that shows in his art and storytelling. Vess brings Spidey to another part of the world, fighting a different kind of foe unlike any of the MCU films starring the Web-Spinner ever could. Spirits of the Earth, in its original first printing hardcover, provides readers with an atmospheric story that is befitting of both Spider-Man and the experimental nature of the graphic novels of the time. However, that could also be said of all the entries mentioned starring Peter Parker’s costumed alter ego.

HULKS SMASH

Jennifer Walters became the She-Hulk after getting a life-saving blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner, who becomes the Incredible Hulk during times of great anger or stress. Jen, unlike Bruce, is not tortured by becoming a green-skinned powerhouse. In fact, she is quite happy to become the She-Hulk. John Byrne, when discussing the Sensational She-Hulk graphic

novel and his work on the character on his Byrne Robotics forum, stated that Roger Stern had come up with the idea of Jen’s elation for being an emerald superhuman. This led to Byrne using that character development when he added She-Hulk to the Fantastic Four’s roster and eventually when writing and drawing The Sensational She-Hulk graphic novel (and later, the regular series also bearing that title). One scene in particular proves this point. Reed Richards, the FF’s big brain Mr. Fantastic, tells Jen she’s going to be She-Hulk permanently. He apologizes before a long pause.

“So what’s the bad news?” Jen asks in response.

On Byrne Robotics, the writer/artist stated that the cover was a composite of two models in order to get the musculature tight. The image was also drawn with ink and colored pencils. The story, according to Byrne, was originally intended to be a two-issue standard comic book, and it was inspired by a Godzilla comic that showed a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier crash. However, Byrne wanted to do something on a grander scale. He didn’t have a place for such a big saga until someone suggested putting The Sensational She-Hulk into the graphic novel format. Byrne’s writing and art in The Sensational She-Hulk proves that that advice was sound. Such a tome truly needed to be bigger than any monthly adventure starring the She-Hulk.

One thing that Marvel graphic novels tend to do is turn typical superhero stories on their ear and/or place characters in situations that would not normally occur in their respective monthly comic books. The aforementioned Spider-Man: Hooky put the Web-Spinner in a situation where he must take on Lovecraftian monsters. The art of the late Bernie Wrightson conveys the story’s intentions with his flair for the unusual and horrific. However, another graphic novel that shows Wrightson’s strengths as a comic book artist is The Incredible Hulk and the Thing: The Big Change.

Often humorous and absurd, the Jim Starlin– written story turns rivals the Thing and the Hulk into allies as they’re transported to a planet full of odd creatures and aliens to save what Ben Grimm describes as “cosmic A-1 Sauce.” During their adventure, the Hulk and the Thing encounter a being who is literally their biggest fan, a Hulk/ Thing hybrid named Banger McCrusher. The overall tale is a comedic romp that surprisingly fits both the Thing’s and the Hulk’s personalities perfectly without being bogged down by the continuity of the main Marvel monthly comic books.

Wrightson’s art has rightly been discussed on numerous occasions in BACK ISSUE. Yet The Big Change allows Wrightson to transcend genres while playing on his strengths as a visual artist.

The graphic novel format allowed Wrightson to use a larger palette to create aliens, creatures, and monsters on a grander scale than what he had previously done in DC’s Swamp Thing. His line work and designed add nuances to established characters like the Thing and the Hulk as well as the unusual creations his macabre imagination could come with for Starlin’s offbeat tale.

Credited as colorist for The Big Change, Wrightson’s technique and style looks different from typical monthly comics’ coloring processes. These function better in the graphic novel format not

only for its size, but also for the paper quality, which was higher than that used for the monthlies Marvel produced during that era. The end result was more vibrant and otherworldly in a way that suit Jim Starlin’s story and complemented Bernie Wrightson’s art.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Mark Gruenwald had a prolific career at Marvel serving as artist, editor, and writer on various titles, most notably Captain America and Squadron Supreme [see BI #103 for more about Mark Gruenwald—ed.]. The latter series got a graphic novel sequel with Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe

by Gruenwald, penciler Paul Ryan, and inker Al Williamson. The title team must ally themselves with their foes to fight the universe destroying Nth Man. Those who survive the ordeal end up stranded in the main Marvel Universe.

Paul Ryan’s art does evolve greatly from what is seen in Thor: I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy.

A Tall Order The Jade Giantess goes solo in John Byrne’s popular The Sensational She-Hulk graphic novel.

TM & © Marvel.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

Be My Baby (top) Artist Paul Ryan and writer Mark Gruenwald’s whopping rugrat crowds the cosmos in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe. (bottom) Black Bolt and Medusa take center stage in Ann Nocenti and Bret Blevins’ The Inhumans.

TM & © Marvel.

The gigantic cosmic baby late in Death of a Universe shows Ryan’s ability to render universe-changing images influenced by other media.

In this case, the space baby scene seems to be a tribute to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Every panel balances Mark Gruenwald’s cinematic conclusion to his time with the Squadron Supreme.

Like the Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange, the Inhumans are a perfect fit for the graphic novel format in spite of having only one outing in it. Ann Nocenti, while best known for her underrated run on Daredevil, stretches her writing muscles with The Inhumans by capturing the familial conflict alongside the good versus evil that is common in the superhero genre. The graphic novel also tackles whether or not a government should decide who marries whom and if a couple should get approval to have children. These things impact the real world to this very day, offering Nocenti a chance to explore the topic without the restraints of the Comics Code. This gives artist Bret Blevins more freedom to draw realistic scenes like the birth of Black Bolt and Medusa’s son Ahura.

It’s become clear in BACK ISSUE’s conversations with creators that the graphic novel format allowed writers and artists the freedom to experiment in ways the standard monthly comic book could not.

Marvel’s first computer-generated graphic novel, Mike Saenz and William Bates’ Iron Man: Crash, might not work in standard comic book format. The printing process of the time would have maybe caused a loss in detail and quality. Yet in its graphic novel glory, Crash shows how the programs and computers of the time could tell a sequentially visual story starring Tony Stark just as well as any issue of hand drawn Iron Man from the Bronze Age. The last of the original Marvel Graphic Novel series was released in July 1993. However, it wasn’t the end of the publisher’s use of oversized formats to bring give their heroes and universe a grander scale.

Original graphic novels like The Thanos Imperative came out in 2013 and 2014, and more recently, gallery editions, including the X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut, are available for fans to enjoy in their gigantic glory. Plus, Taschen Books has The Marvel Comics Library. Each volume reprints Silver Age Marvel Comics in gargantuansized books that allow more discerning collectors to enjoy blasts from the pasts on a scale almost as big as the Marvel Universe itself.

Yet the Marvel Graphic Novel line of the 1980s and early 1990s will continue to have a special place in the hearts of Marvel fans and creators for many years to come.

Dedicated to my beautiful and wife without fear Laura, whose love is greater than every multiverse; Jadis, Pupino, Odino, and our four-legged feline and canine Watchers, who observe every event within Earth-616; my nephew Kento, who created the Marvel Universe; Tom DeFalco, J. M. DeMatteis, Larry Hama, Roger Stern, Mike Baron, David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, and all creators who made, make, and will make Marvel graphic novels the most gigantic adventures ever published. May every hero’s soul be a part of you always.

JAMES HEATH LANTZ is a freelance writer whose stories, essays, and reviews can be found online and in print at Sequart.org, Superman Homepage, his blog, and such publications as his self-published Trilogy of Tales and PS Artbook’s Roy Thomas Presents Sheena Volume Three. James currently lives in Italy with his wife Laura and their family of cats, dogs, and humans from Italy, Japan, and the United States.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

IN GRAPHIC DETAIL Robert E. Howard’s brand of fantasy was ideal for Marvel’s original line of graphic novels

by G

lenn Greenberg

When Marvel Comics launched its line of oversized graphic novels in 1982 with Jim Starlin’s The Death of Captain Marvel, the intent was to recruit the best and brightest talents in the comic book industry to create special, extra-length, one-shot stories.

These books would be published using the high-end production values of the time and would not have to adhere to the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority. In that environment, one would think that Robert E. Howard’s Conan, a Marvel mainstay since 1970, would be an immediate choice for the format, given the epic scope and the abundance of violence and sexuality in his sword-and-sorcery sagas. It would actually take three years for Conan to show up in a Marvel graphic novel—but once he did, he would keep returning, more times than any of the company’s longest-running and most beloved characters. Of the 75 graphic novels Marvel published between 1982 and 1993, Conan starred in seven, surpassing all the heavy hitters of the era, including the Punisher, who starred in six, Spider-Man, who headlined four, and even Wolverine, whose total came to three, tying with the Silver Surfer. It seems that when it came to the graphic novel format, gun-toting vigilantes and sword-wielding barbarians were surefire sellers.

WITCH WAY TO GO

Big Book from Big John Fans of artist John Buscema’s long run on Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan delighted in the master’s pencils, inks, and colors for the graphic novel Conan the Rogue. Hand-painted color Buscema art courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). © Conan Properties International, LLC.

For the first graphic novel to showcase the black-haired, sullen-eyed Cimmerian, Conan: The Witch Queen of Acheron (1985), Marvel turned to writer Don Kraar, penciler Gary Kwapisz, inker Art Nichols, and colorist Julianna Ferriter. Both Kraar and Kwapisz were relatively new to Conan at the time but would soon establish longstanding ties to Marvel’s line of comic book and magazine titles devoted to the character.

The story begins with Conan being seized by royal soldiers in Belverus, crown city of Nemedia, after he pays off a harlot with ancient gold coins from the evil, long-extinct Acheronian Empire. Brought before Prince Tarascus, who demands to know where Conan obtained the coins, the Cimmerian is ultimately coerced into helping the prince locate the lost treasure mines of Acheron, unseen for 3,000 years.

Tarascus intends to use the treasure to fund his planned conquest of the kingdom of Aquilonia.

En route to the mines, Conan, Tarascus, and an accompanying search party are confronted by the Sons of Acheron, the last pure-blooded descendants of the long-gone empire, who warn the group to turn back. After ignoring the warning and surviving an attack launched by the Sons of Acheron, Tarascus, Conan, and the rest of their group find the mines and enter the treasure-filled tomb of Queen Xaltana, who was believed to have been in league with a powerful demon god. As the Sons of Acheron launch another attack, the demon god is inadvertently awakened and possesses the body of Prince Tarascus’ lover, Demetzia. Trapped in the mines, Tarascus, Conan, and other survivors of the attack soon find themselves the prey of the possessed Demetzia, who takes on the demon god’s true form with the intention of consuming the hearts of everyone in its sight, so it can spawn more of its kind.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

Kwapisz’s first work on Conan was a pinup published on the inside cover of The Savage Sword of Conan #89 (June 1983). More pinups followed.

“I was persistent,” Kwapisz tells BACK ISSUE. And he stood out—his style was a departure from that of John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, and Ernie Chan, the artists whose work most dominated the magazine in those days.

“I was one of the few people who was looking at Hal Foster, which is why my stuff was a little bit different,” Kwapisz says. After penciling and inking several back-up tales in the magazine, Kwapisz graduated to penciling lead stories starting with #102 (July 1984). He was first paired with writer Don Kraar on The Savage Sword of Conan #105 (Oct. 1984), which marked Kraar’s first work on Conan. (Attempts to interview Don Kraar for this article were unsuccessful.)

Having begun inking his own pencils on the lead stories as of The Savage Sword of Conan #110 (Mar. 1985), Kwapisz hoped to take his work to the next level. “I always wanted to do a Conan graphic novel,” he says. “I wanted to have it in color and on the nice paper, because my inking was fairly detailed and whenever I would get the printed copy, I would look at it and my stomach would just drop down to my shoes. I would just see that all the edges of my lines dropped off, because I had a real Frazetta sort of inking style, which just didn’t reproduce well.”

Kwapisz was enthused when Conan editor Larry Hama offered him The Witch Queen of Acheron, but there was a catch.

“I wanted to ink it,” he says, “but Larry was like, ‘No, no, no,

you’ve got to get back to work on Savage Sword, so we’re gonna get someone else to ink you.’”

By that point The Savage Sword of Conan was an ongoing commitment for Kwapisz, requiring him to pencil and ink at least 50 pages a month.

“I loved the heck out of doing Savage Sword,” he says. “There was no other book at Marvel I would have rather worked on. The stories were long and I got to do my double-page spreads and stuff.”

His experience working on The Witch Queen of Acheron ended up being not quite as satisfying, however. “Right after it left my hands, it became a complete disaster,” Kwapisz says. He explains that the original inker dropped out after turning in the first few pages, which left the book behind schedule. Kwapisz adds that there were also issues with the coloring, only some of which could be addressed in time. Art Nichols was brought in as a replacement inker, and Kwapisz acknowledges that by that point, the book was, by necessity, a rush job, as it had to get to the printer on time or Marvel would incur additional costs. Readers got a glimpse at the lush detail and texture that gary kwapisz Kwapisz had originally envisioned © Eclipse Enterprises. for the graphic novel courtesy of two black-and-white pinups that he penciled and inked that were included at the end of the book.

Although the final product was not all that he hoped it would be, Kwapisz says he had a good time working on it. “I liked the script better than [Kraar’s] Savage Sword scripts,” he says. “It was more visual. It was fun to draw. But really, it was basically an issue of Savage Sword—you did 50 pages a month and then you moved on.”

Marvel Graphic Novel #19: Conan: The Witch Queen of Acheron (1985) Cover artist: Douglas Beekman

Witchy Woman Are you sitting down? If not, you’ll need to after surveying this spellbinding Gary Kwapisz original art page from The Witch Queen of Acheron. Courtesy of Heritage. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

A REAVING RETURN

Conan the Reaver (1987)

For the second Conan graphic novel, Conan the Reaver (1987), Don Kraar once again handled the writing, but this time he was joined by esteemed veteran artist John Severin, who provided both pencils and inks. Severin’s sister Marie, a highly respected artist in her own right, served as colorist. The Severin siblings were a fitting choice, as they both had experience working on Marvel comic books based on concepts created by Robert E. Howard, most notably their collaboration on Kull the Conqueror #2–9 (Sept. 1971–July 1973), with Marie penciling (and often coloring) and John inking.

Conan the Reaver begins with Conan as a young thief, being pursued by royal guards after he attempts to rob the treasure chamber of King Yildiz of Turan. The captain of the guard, Damonides, who has been plotting with a splinter group to steal the treasure for themselves, forges an alliance with the Cimmerian. But Conan ends up earning the king’s gratitude when he saves the elderly monarch’s beautiful young wife, Queen Yasmin, from fanatical assassins known as the Red Mist. Aware of Conan’s true intentions, Yildiz makes a deal with the Cimmerian: Conan can have access to the treasure chamber if he promises to protect Yasmin and her infant child upon the king’s death. Soon after, Conan finds himself under siege by the Red Mist when he disrupts a ritual in which an innocent peasant child will be sacrificed to a large, tentacled, bloodthirsty creature called the Mother of Darkness, which dwells within the bowels of the palace. At the same time, King Yildiz is murdered, and the Red Mist launch an insurrection to seize power over Turan. Conan, determined to keep his promise to the king, sends Damonides and the splinter group away with the vast treasure and sets out to save Yasmin and her baby from the Red Mist and the insatiable Mother of Darkness.

Conan the Reaver, like The Witch Queen of Acheron, was edited by Larry Hama, who says he always had full confidence in the teams he put together. “What I did as an editor was choose the right people to do the job and let them loose,” he explains. “I never rewrote a single word of dialogue. Never had anything redrawn in-house, but had the artist do it himself. My job was to have taste, not correct spelling. I let my assistants do all that.”

John and Marie Severin remained active as comic book artists for many years after their work on Conan the Reaver.

John died on February 12, 2012, at the age of 90, and Marie passed away on August 30, 2018, nine days after her 89th birthday.

Cover artist: John Severin

ISLES BE BACK

With the third Conan graphic novel, Conan of the Isles (1988), longtime fans were undoubtedly thrilled to see the creative team they had been awaiting all along—writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, who had of course collaborated on most of the Conan stories published by Marvel between 1973 and 1980. The book, however, was not a new reunion of the duo. In fact, most of the work had been completed nearly a decade earlier, and some of it had already been published.

In adapting L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter’s 1968 novel of the same name, Thomas had intended the comic book version of Conan of the Isles to be a three-part story, published in three successive Annuals. Shortly before leaving Marvel for DC in late 1980, Thomas plotted all three chapters, which Buscema illustrated as layouts, and then Thomas fulfilled his remaining obligations to the project by scripting all the pages. The first chapter was published in Conan the Barbarian Annual #7 (1982), with inks by

Severin Ties Conan battles a giant creepy crawly in the graphic novel Conan the Reaver, penciled and inked by acclaimed artist John Severin and colored by his equally respected sister Marie. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

Danny Bulanadi, Ricardo Villamonte, and Armando Gil, under Chronologically, Conan of the Isles is the Cimmerian’s the editorial guidance of Louise Jones (now Simonson), who last adventure—it is set when he is around 70 years old presumably intended to follow Thomas’ plan. But Larry and the widowed king of Aquilonia. Reigning with his Hama took over as Conan editor in 1983 and had a 20-year-old son Conn at his side, King Conan has different perspective—Hama, according to Thomas, grown restless and weary of spending his twilight called to tell him that he had decided to shelve years sitting on a civilized throne. He answers the remaining two chapters, objecting to the the call back to action when 700 Aquilonians idea of having Conan Annuals that were not are snuffed out in attacks by swarms of crimson completely self-contained. The rest of the story objects called “Red Shadows,” and the threat sat in a drawer in the Marvel offices for years. grows with each passing day. The spirit As Thomas explained in a 1993 interview of an ancient, long-dead prophet named with this writer, “[Marvel editor] Craig Anderson Epemitreus, which Conan had encountered in found the remaining chapters and was really the past, returns to the Cimmerian in a dream pleased with them.” It was ultimately decided and urges him to turn his throne over to to bring in Dave Simons to ink the rest of Conn and depart immediately to save the the story and George Roussos to color it, and world from the Red Shadows. Hoping for one roy thomas to reprint the first part alongside the “rediscovlast battlefield to fight and fall upon instead © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. ered” chapters in one huge publication—at 96 of dying in bed, Conan complies. He assembles pages, Conan of the Isles would be the longest Conan graphic a crew that includes some of his old pirate companions and novel Marvel ever published. heads for the outermost reaches of the western ocean. But ultimately Conan ends up alone in Ptahuacan, the last city inhabited by the descendants of the survivors of ancient, sunken Atlantis. There, he falls in with a brotherhood of thieves who pledge to help him defeat those who control the Red Shadows: The priests who serve the demon god Xotli, lord of terror and devourer of souls.

Thomas fully supported the resurrection of the material and was especially enthusiastic about having all three chapters together in one book. “In retrospect,” he wrote in his introduction to Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume 5 (2021), which reprinted the full graphic novel, “I’m actually glad Larry made the decision he did.”

READY, SET, GO!

The next Conan graphic novel, Conan the Barbarian in The Skull of Set (1989), brought together another popular creative team: writer Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy, along with inker Gary Martin and colorist Steve Mattsson.

The book gave Moench a chance to work on Conan again— he had been the regular writer on King Conan (later retitled Conan the King) from issues #9–15 (Mar. 1982–Mar. 1983).

For Gulacy, The Skull of Set marked his first and only time working on Conan. Moench reveals that he felt neither of them was ideally suited for the project.

Moench tells BACK ISSUE that he had been a huge Conan fan, dating back to before Marvel’s association with the character.

“But I thought of myself as more of a ‘Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’ kind of guy, or Elric—that kind of sword and

Conan of the Isles (1988) Cover artist: Doug Beekman

The Barbarian and the Beast Conan battles a giant sea creature attacking his ship in this scene from Conan of the Isles featuring action-packed layouts by John Buscema. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

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Conan: The Skull of Set (1989) Cover artist: Paul Gulacy

sorcery, and I didn’t think Conan was my strong suit,” he says. He changed his mind, he explains, after reacquainting himself with the original source material. “Just the Robert E. Howard stories,” Moench notes. “Not the ones by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp or anyone else.”

Moench says he still believes he wasn’t the ideal choice to write Conan, and adds, “I thought Gulacy was all wrong for the art. I thought Gulacy was perfect for Elric and could do a pretty good Fafhrd, but big, strong musclemen [like Conan] weren’t his forte—he did thinner hero character physiques.” When it’s pointed out that original Conan the Barbarian artist Barry Windsor-Smith gave the character a slim, lithe physique, in sharp contrast to John Buscema’s brawny barbarian, Moench replies, “I thought Barry Windsor-Smith was all wrong, but I loved it—I loved it! But it was all wrong. If you read the Robert E. Howard pulps you see [it’s not this] airy-fairy, dainty sh*t. The original Conan stories are Frazetta.”

Still, Moench jumped at the project because, as he explains, “I always enjoyed working with Paul. We’re pretty good together! [I figured], is a spy who murdered a government official and stole secret war plans. Since the identity of the it’ll be an interesting thing and let’s hope spy is unknown, the soldiers have been it won’t piss off the purists too much.” ordered to kill everyone in the group— (Attempts to interview Paul Gulacy and Conan knows that order includes for this article were unsuccessful.) him. As it turns out, there is also a The story begins with a war fanatical sorcerer lurking within the raging between the nations of ruins, determined to resurrect the Argos and Koth and Conan being giant demonic being Khorus and hired by the magistrate of Argos to other evil, supernatural servants of escort a wagon carrying weapons the serpent god Set. The key to comto the port city of Napolitos. pleting the process is a ruby-adorned Along the way, he rescues four crystal skull—an item hidden travelers stranded in the middle amongst the cargo that Conan of nowhere—an arrogant himself has been transporting.

Argossean aristocrat named Arides; doug moench And the sorcerer will use whatever his beautiful, frustrated wife, means necessary to obtain it.

Vassalia; a merchant named Moench says that he ended up being pleased Borondo; and Tamara, a priestess of the god Mitra.

But the group is pursued by ruthless bandits and with the finished product, particularly Gulacy’s soon end up in the ancient, isolated, and aban- artwork. “[Paul] wasn’t ideal for Conan, but I doned city of Eidoran, situated on a high plateau. think he did a great job on that graphic novel— There, they are also confronted by soldiers from I would maybe even prefer him to an artist who Argos, who declare that one of Conan’s companions would be ideal!”

Lean, Mean Fighting Machine Paul Gulacy offered a more lithe interpretation of our favorite barbarian in The Skull of Set than found in Marvel’s other Conan comic adventures. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

THE SHADOW KNOWS

Make Way for Kull (top) Artist Tony DeZuniga’s cover rough for the back cover of the Marvel graphic novel The Vale of Shadow, starring Robert E. Howard’s Kull. (bottom) DeZuniga’s completed painting of the GN’s back cover. Scans courtesy of Heritage. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

Conan was the not the only character created

by Robert E. Howard to get the graphic novel treatment from Marvel. The same year that The Skull of Set was published, Marvel also released Kull: The Vale of Shadow (1989), written by Alan Zelenetz, illustrated by Tony DeZuniga, and colored by Tom Vincent.

The story begins with King Kull badly wounded in battle while leading his army against the kingdom of Commoria. As he lies near death, Kull’s closest associates—Count Bora Ballin, Brule the Spear-Slayer, Counselor Tu, and Ridondo the Minstrel—wait by his bedside for what they believe is his inevitable passing and share their memories of the king and tales they have heard about his daring exploits over the years. Unbeknownst to them, as he approaches the afterlife, Kull is confronted

by Death herself, who appears before him as a beautiful seductress. Kull’s resistance to her warm embrace begins to weaken, even as he accepts that it will mean the end of his mortal existence.

According to Roy Thomas, The Vale of Shadow was conceived by Barry Windsor-Smith. “[Barry] did the plot, and Alan expanded on it,” Thomas explained in a 1993 interview. “Originally, Barry was going to do [the whole thing].” Zelenetz had already worked on Kull for Marvel, having written Kull the Conqueror #2–10 (July 1983–June 1985).

(Attempts to interview Alan Zelenetz for this article were unsuccessful. Tony DeZuniga passed away in 2012 at the age of 79, after a long and successful career in comics.)

Kull: The Vale of Shadow (1989) Cover artist: Doug Beekman

HORN TO BE BAD

Marvel returned to Conan the following year for a fifth graphic novel, which stands as one of its most unique. Penciled by Mike Docherty, inked by Tony DeZuniga, and colored by Tom Vincent, Conan the Barbarian: The Horn of Azoth (1990) gave writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway the opportunity to adapt the original draft of the screenplay they had written for what became the 1984 movie, Conan the Destroyer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thomas and Conway’s draft, entitled Conan, King of Thieves, differed in many ways from the filmed version— as they explained in the book’s introduction, producer Dino De Laurentiis had his own ideas for 50 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

the movie, which led to significant changes and additions to the script. Thomas and Conway wrote four additional drafts and felt that each one moved further away from the direction they’d intended. “About par for the course for the way movies are made, and who’s to say who was right and who was wrong?” Thomas and Conway wrote. “No one—producer, director, writer, or audience—can ever be quite certain whether ‘his way’ would have worked out better on the screen than what was actually filmed.”

Director Richard Fleischer also contributed ideas and hired another screenwriter, Stanley Mann, to rework the script. On the finished film, Thomas and Conway received “story” credit while Mann was given “screenplay” credit.

For the Horn of Azoth graphic novel, Thomas and Conway changed some names, including that of the title creature, originally called Dagoth. As the writers explained, the rationale was “to avoid confusion with Marvel’s 1984 adaptation of the movie.” (Though it should be noted that not every reference to Dagoth was switched to Azoth in the book, undoubtedly causing some confusion of another kind.)

The basic plot is somewhat similar to what moviegoers saw in 1984. While operating as a thief in Shadizar, capital city of the kingdom of Zamora, Conan is recruited

by Natari, daughter of the high priest Karanthes, to infiltrate a temple in the middle of a lake. There, he is to steal an object called the Eye of Ibis. Conan succeeds, killing the temple’s master, a wizard named Rammon, in the process. The wizard’s security chief, a woman named Shumballa, leads a team in pursuit of Conan to kill him and retrieve the Eye—a goal shared by the wizard’s young son, also named Rammon. Conan soon learns that Natari also intends to kill him once he has served his purpose, on orders from her father. But with Shumballa and her troops in hot pursuit, Conan agrees to accompany Natari to obtain another treasure, which only the Eye of Ibis can help them gain. Reaching their destination, Natari performs a ritual that gives her access to the golden Horn of Azoth, which she intends to bring back to Shadizar. Natari’s hulking mute companion, Strabo, attacks Conan. Believing the Cimmerian to have been killed, Natari and Strabo leave him behind. Conan regains consciousness and survives an attempt on his life by young Rammon before setting out in pursuit of Natari and Strabo for retribution. Along the way, Conan once again encounters young Rammon and Shumballa—and this time, they convince him to join their effort to prevent the horn from being used to resurrect the ancient, long-dormant demon god Azoth, whose return will, as the boy explains, “mark the end of Man’s rule on Earth.”

Docherty, whose association with Conan began in 1985 with issues of Conan the King and The Savage Sword of Conan, told this writer in 1993 that he enjoyed illustrating the Conan movie that never was. “It’s fun to see the way the movie turned out and how it might have turned out,” he said. Docherty would later become the regular artist on Conan the Barbarian, starting on #248 (Sept. 1991) and remaining till the series ended with #275 (Dec. 1993).

GOING ROGUE

Marvel’s sixth Conan graphic novel, Conan the Rogue (1991), marked a true reunion between Roy Thomas and John Buscema, albeit after a long gestation period.

Buscema had initiated the project and wore numerous hats on it—plotter, penciler, inker, and colorist—making the book a showcase for his varied and remarkable talents. But it also took much longer to produce than

Conan: The Horn of Azoth (1990) Cover artist: Dorian Vallejo

Access Denied …except for Conan. Original art page from The Horn of Azoth, exquisitely rendered by penciler Mike Docherty and inker Tony DeZuniga. Courtesy of Heritage. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

Having a Brawl Conan engages in one of his most frequent activities— hand-to-hand combat with a much larger opponent— in this scene from Conan the Rogue, plotted, penciled, inked, and colored

by John Buscema, with scripting by his longtime collaborator, Roy Thomas. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

he had expected, as he admitted to an audience it could have been placed anywhere in Conan’s of fans at I-Con VII, a science fiction/comic book career. I consider it a ‘potboiler.’ It had some of convention in Stony Brook, New York, in the spring John’s best artwork in many years.” of 1988.

Conan the Rogue begins in the Turanian city “I got an advance on it from Marvel, and I’m of Fort Ghori, where the dwarf Count Bashi is supposed to be finishing it up soon, but I haven’t plotting to overthrow the king, Shamgar Shah— really gotten started on it yet,” Buscema told his own brother. Bashi is allied with Nassidren, the crowd. Then he added with a smirk, “Keep the vizier to Tarsu Khan, ruler of sister city that just between you and me, okay?” In a 1993 Khawarizm. Scheming to foment a war between interview, Buscema said it took him six years to the two cities, Bashi and Nassidren intend to use complete the project. the ensuing chaos as an opportunity to seize Thomas got involved very late in the creative power for themselves. Conan just happens to process, once Buscema realized the book would be in town and foils an attempt to assassinate benefit from having an experienced writer Tarsu Khan, who has arrived in Fort Ghori on a handling the scripting. And who had more diplomatic visit. Tarsu Khan hires Conan as his experience writing Conan for Marvel new bodyguard, which leads Nassidren than Roy Thomas? “Working with Roy to then frame Tarsu Khan for the is a pleasure,” Buscema said in 1993. murder of Shamgar Shah’s son and According to Thomas, Buscema heir, Darik. Shamgar Shah has Tarsu called him personally to ask him to Khan’s companions killed one by come aboard. “Most of it was illusone in a gladiator pit, but Conan trated and some of it was written escapes—and takes Shamgar Shah’s already by the time I became beautiful but extraordinarily selfish involved,” Thomas explained in daughter, Zaida, as a hostage 1993. “I got partial story credit, before fleeing the city. Pursued by but I really consider it to be John’s Shamgar Shah and his troops, project. … It was a good story, Conan, with Zaida in tow, heads into the fog-shrouded Nightmare john buscema Swamp, from which, according to legend, no one ever returns alive or sane. Once inside, Conan and Zaida learn that Nightmare Swamp is aptly named, as it is filled with seemingly unlimited horrors of an increasingly unearthly nature.

“I had a ball [working on it],” Thomas said in 1993. “It’s one of my favorite things that I’ve done with Conan.” In an interview published in Alter Ego #139 (May 2016), Thomas said, “In my eyes, John’s all-time greatest Conan work was the graphic novel Conan the Rogue.”

Buscema felt similarly. During an interview at the 2001 San Diego Comic-Con, transcribed in Alter Ego #15 (June 2002), he said, “I’m very proud of [Conan the Rogue]. I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Buscema died in 2002 at the age of 74, leaving behind one of the most impressive and beloved bodies of work in the history of the comic book medium.

Conan the Rogue (1991) Cover artist: Joe Jusko

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The Gang’s All Here Writer Roy Thomas gathered REH’s swashbucklers together in the 1992 graphic novel Conan: The Ravagers Out of Time. Art by Mike Docherty and Alfredo Alcala. © Conan Properties International, LLC.

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

For Marvel’s seventh—and final—Conan graphic novel, Roy Thomas returned as writer, joined by penciler Mike Docherty, inker Alfredo Alcala, and colorist Tom Vincent. While he did not know at the time that it would be the last Conan graphic novel he would write, Thomas did know that he wanted the book to feel momentous. The result was Conan: The Ravagers Out of Time (1992), in which the Cimmerian was not the only Robert E. Howard creation in the spotlight.

The book was a sequel to two stories that had run in Conan the Barbarian: “The Curse of the Golden Skull,” in #37 (Apr. 1974) and “Of Once and Future Kings!” in #68 (Nov. 1976). “The Curse of the Golden Skull” featured a confrontation between Conan and a sinister, gold-skinned Lemurian wizard, Rotath the All-Conquering, and in “Of Once and Future Kings!,” Conan and Red Sonja—along with Conan’s then-lover, the pirate queen Bêlit—improbably encountered King Kull, who was mystically thrust forward in time thousands of years to the Hyborian Age. Set years after those two stories, The Ravagers Out of Time begins in northern Turan, where Conan leads a band of outlaws in an attack on mercenaries transporting gold for King Yildiz. During the battle, Conan is joined by Red Sonja, who helps him defeat his adversaries. She decides to accompany Conan and his band on a quest to raid the Turanian gold mines. Once there, they encounter the giant slug that dwells within the mines and consumes their gold—only now the creature is possessed by Rotath, whom Conan had watched get consumed by the slug nearly a decade earlier. Rotath wants a new human body to inhabit—the body of the man he considers the greatest warrior of all time: Kull of Atlantis. Conan explains that Kull has been dead for more than 80 centuries—a fact of which Rotath is well aware, since a young Kull was the first to slay him. Now Rotath uses dark sorcery to go back in time to take Kull’s body as his own and thus gain revenge over the Atlantean—and he brings Conan and Red Sonja along with him.

They arrive in Valusia, where Kull rules as king. Upon learning of the return of Rotath, Kull springs into action, leading his forces toward a confrontation with the wizard. But Rotath, still in his slug form, coerces Conan to capture Kull for him, threatening to cause great physical harm and torment to Red Sonja if the Cimmerian does not comply. Compelled by Rotath, and over Red Sonja’s objections, Conan and Kull engage in hand-to-hand combat to the death—with the survivor to become Rotath’s new host body.

“I just wanted to do another story that tied some of Robert E. Howard’s heroes together,” Thomas explained in 1993. “The story has to be special for a graphic novel.” Indeed, this would be only the second—and the final—time that Conan and Kull would cross paths.

(While Red Sonja was present for both encounters, she was only partially based on a character created by Howard; the “she-devil with a sword” that appeared in the Marvel comics was created by Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, and developed further by Thomas and subsequent writers, including Bruce Jones, Tom DeFalco, and Louise Simonson.)

COMEBACK TRAIL

All of Marvel’s Conan graphic novels have long been out of print, with some more rare than others—Conan the Rogue is particularly hard to find, with prices on eBay usually exceeding $100. But the stories have slowly been making their way back into the public’s hands, courtesy of hardcover omnibus editions published initially by Marvel and more recently by Titan Comics. Following the reprint of Conan of the Isles in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus vol. 5, The Witch Queen of Acheron made its return in The Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Comics Omnibus vol. 9 (2024). Even Kull: The Vale of Shadow resurfaced, in Kull the Conqueror: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus (2021).

As long as these hardcovers continue to be published, there is reason to believe that all the Conan graphic novels will be brought to light again, for readers to revisit or experience for the first time. So it would seem the real power here lies not with Crom, but with the sales figures.

Conan: The Ravagers Out of Time (1992) Cover artist: Bob Larkin

GLENN GREENBERG is a former editor and writer for Marvel.

He wrote some of the company’s most popular characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the Silver Surfer, as well as Star Trek and Dracula—but alas, not Conan.

More recently, Glenn has written a number of well-received, magazinesize nonfiction books, for Time and other publishers, about a variety of pop culture topics, including the Beatles, Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Dracula, Superman, and Batman— but not Conan. At least, not yet.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

54 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

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“The happiest place on Earth.” “Must-see TV.” “Impossible is nothing.” “Keeps going, and going, and going….” “A triumph of comic art.”

These are just a few hyperbolic advertising statements from history. Maybe you recognize them. Relax, though—this isn’t a quiz. It’s really just the last one on the list that concerns us.

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR

by B

rian Martin

Elsewhere in this very magazine you will find an enthralling article detailing Marvel Comics’ entry into the graphic novel field with the release of The Death of Captain Marvel in January of 1982. Given the well-documented rivalry between Marvel and DC, it is surprising that it took until August 1983 (with comics having a November cover date) before DC published its first graphic novel. To possibly make up for the delay, the ads that were run the same month were enthusiastic, to say the least!

DC kicked off the advertising campaign for its first graphic novel, Star Raiders, with the exuberant phrase, “A triumph of comic art.”

Then, just to be sure everyone knew they were serious, the next lines in the ads read, “Stories so vivid, elliot s. maggin art so lavish, reproduction so true…” DC also wanted to make sure that this promo would not be missed, so it was included as a four-page insert in Omega Men #8 (Nov. 1983) that featured a centerspread that only showcased art from the book, while other pages reproduced the cover and mentioned the creative team. Since Omega Men was DC’s only ongoing regular title distributed exclusively via Direct Sales prior to that month (both Vigilante and Thriller joined it that very month), it would best reach the book’s prospective audience, as graphic novels were also only sold via comic shops. Just to be sure, DC decided to place single-page ads in fanzines that month, generally buying back cover space so a color art sample could be included along with the same catch phrases.

DC would repeat the process when they advertised its second graphic novel, Warlords, using the same four-page insert format and slogans in the center of Omega Men #11 (Feb. 1984).

All that being said, despite the fanfare, the first two DC graphic novels were not even initially intended for the format!

Famous First Edition Superman scribe Elliot S. Maggin wrote DC Comics’ first graphic novel—and no, it didn’t star the Man of Steel. Cover to DC Graphic Novel #1, headlined by Star Raiders, part of the publisher’s initiative with video game manufacturer Atari. Cover art by Stephen Hickman. © Atari, Inc.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

GAMES WITH FRONTIERS

The editor of the first graphic novel, Andy Helfer, commented in an article in Comics Interview #12 (June 1984), “Atari and DC came to the conclusion that many of the people who played video games were also reading comics. So they decided that DC would do ‘In-pack’ comics to be included free with Atari video games. But so many people who didn’t know comics were involved in the project that it didn’t jell that well.” There were in fact a number of these miniature comics produced and included with game cartridges (remember those?) before the campaign was scrapped.

Returning to our focus, Star Raiders author, Elliot S. Maggin, tells BI, “The four Star Raiders mini-comics (‘in-packs,’ we

called them) were supposed to get packaged with releases of four different Atari computer games over the course of about six months. It was a good marketing idea, I thought, and we little worker bees never got an explanation for why the release got scuttled. So crowbarring the four stories together as a single standalone graphic novel—cutting and pasting and making do—was our way of salvaging the overall project. What it resulted in was DC’s initial release of a graphic novel.”

Artist José Luis García-López recalls, “It was originally done for a magazine to be divided into different chapters. But after doing the first eight pages or so, DC decided to publish it as a graphic novel. A first for them, and me.”

García-López Gets His Game On Original color artwork by José Luis García-López from DC Graphic Novel #1 (1983), Star Raiders, inspired by Atari’s space-combat simulator video game first sold in 1979. With this project, José had the opportunity to color his own artwork.

Scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). © Atari, Inc.

josé luis garcía-lópez

58 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

Looking at the artwork in Star Raiders, it is difficult to envision it in a mini-comic included with a video game. Maggin offers, “I have no idea what process or quality of paper Atari had planned for the in-packs, or whether anyone over there had thought about it.” García-López reveals that he created the art “the usual way—layouts, pencils, and inking and the coloring with Dr. Martin paints, watercolors, and some Prismacolor pens, etc.” It is even more amazing that it turned out as spectacular as it did since the artist confides, “I had no experience with color and I said that to the editors, Joe Orlando and Andy Helfer.

But they trusted me and we went ahead. I was lucky.

After all, it was my first coloring and a complete learning experience!”

The plot of the Star Raiders graphic novel begins just after a previous in-pack comic ended. Anyone who had that comic would get the connection but it was not necessary to understand the story being presented.

The human Atari Force have just left a battle with the Zylons, an insect-like alien race. Two freelancers named Jed and Tommy detected signals from the nowcompleted battle and arrive. On the planet involved they find an old man named Ezekiel. After they battle the remnants of the Zylon force, they discover an old Star Raiders cruiser. The ship becomes integral as one of a group of rebels our protagonist duo recruit steals the ship and uses it to destroy the Zylon home world and the majority of the evil race.

The book did suffer just a bit from being cut up and reworked, with Maggin lamenting, “Some of the pages got jumbled up and re-ordered and I applied a lot of new and retooled copy to the newly sequenced pages.

That was pretty confusing, and I wasn’t terribly happy with the final script. Thankfully that didn’t affect the quality of the art.”

The creation of the characters was, maybe a little surprisingly, left up to the comic book folks. Asked if he was given any direction, Maggin reveals, “Not from Atari. I discussed them with Andy Helfer. This kind of thing is generally a fairly organic process and in the final analysis no one is ever able to put a finger on who comes up with what.

“I do remember that the mentor character—the old slovenly bald guy in the dome surrounded by a mess of electronic gizmos and dog-eared books— was living the way I envisioned my own lifestyle as I got older. I made up the characters, put them in a series of situations, described them down to their clothing and living conditions, and José painted them up pretty much as I envisioned them. He envisioned them better, as I recall. I’ve had a thing about girls with eyepatches ever since.” [Elliot is referring to the Tommy—short for Tomorrow—character here.]

For his part, José tells BI, “I had complete freedom to design the characters, spaceships (all except one already created), and the aliens. For the two chief characters, I remember Andy Helfer told me to take as a base the costumes used by a rock band, Adam and the Ants.”

To say DC was proud of Star Raiders would be a bit of an understatement. At that point in time, comics still emphasized the visual aspect of the medium significantly more than the writing. So when DC hyped the Atari Force series penciled by García-López, that debuted two months after this graphic novel, the tag line on the ads read, “The visual excitement of Star Raiders—Every month.” BI asked Elliot Maggin

The Graphic Novels Continue (top) DC Graphic Novel #2: Warlords (cover by Thomas Blackshear) and #3: The Medusa Chain (cover by Ernie Colón). (center) #4: The Hunger Dogs (cover by Jack Kirby and Greg Theakston) and #5: Me & Joe Priest (cover by Howard Chaykin). (bottom) #6: Metalzoic (cover by Bill Sienkiewicz) and #7: Space Clusters (cover by Alex Niño).

Warlords © Atari, Inc. All others TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

Sorcerer Supreme Stunning David Wenzel artwork made writer Steve Skeates’ Warlords graphic novel, based upon an Atari property, a visual standout for DC. Warlords © Atari, Inc.

if he was ever considered for the writing job LORDS OF WAR on that series which went to Gerry Conway. The second novel in the series was again a holdover “There was no talk of an Atari Force comic from the books planned for the Atari video game book at the time that I was aware of, packages. Warlords was scripted by veteran or my possible involvement with it.

Steve Skeates and illustrated by a bit of Might have been nice, though.” a newcomer, David Wenzel. The artist When asked if he was aware of had a few comic book credits to his the upcoming series, Garcíaname previous to this, most notably López says, “Not at that time, issues #174–177 (May–Aug. 1978) this came later. I enjoyed Atari of The Avengers, the concluding Force very much, where I had the chapters of “The Korvac Saga.” chance with Gerry to create and Story-wise, Warlords featured develop most of the characters.” four kings who were brothers, one He did mention in CI #12 that of them a wizard, another a techno“at first, I wasn’t too excited. I phile. Their father had an amulet wanted to do another graphic that he broke into four, and each david wenzel novel. I had learned a lot of brother has a piece. The story things with Star Raiders and felt parallels the play of the video I could do even better with a new graphic novel. game which pitted four ruling Warlords against Andy [Helfer] convinced me it would be better each other, each with their own icon. The hero to do a monthly comic book.” of this story is a troll named Duane. He comes into contact with all the kings, steals the amulet piece from the wizard, subsequently becomes leader of the trolls and succeeds in vanquishing the wizard, destroying the amulets and uniting the other three kings in peace.

“I did Kingdom of the Dwarfs (with writer Robb Walsh, in 1980) before this, and that might be one of the reasons they chose me to work on this,” Wenzel tells BI. “I have been interested in fantasy ever since I read The Hobbit in college. It was the basis for all of my art in my senior year. It was much more in my wheelhouse than superheroes, although I really enjoyed working on Avengers.

This book allowed me to test out techniques that I eventually refined for The Hobbit graphic novel [originally published as a three-issue miniseries by Eclipse in 1989].”

Wenzel uses the phrase “chose me to work on this” since he further states, “The script for Warlords was already established when they brought me onboard. It was the entire script, with art directions. It was a story based on the video game.

Paul Levitz was the editor who suggested me.”

The artist was also given free rein when it came to character design. “I did character concepts for all off the characters,” reveals Wenzel. “I think I submitted them before I started as there were a lot of key characters that needed to be fleshed out.

The giant and the troll were right up my alley and the kings were fun to visualize.”

Beyond the character design, the book also included a map of the kingdoms. “The map was something they provided art directions for,” says Wenzel. “I may have made up some of it, but I don’t recall. It is a cool map.”

As with Star Raiders, though the interior art was painted, the cover art for Warlords was by a different, non-comics related painter. For his part, Wenzel states, “The cover was never offered to me so I’m not sure of the process for designating that assignment.” For his part, García-López recalls, “It was not my decision. I did, however, the sketch they used for the cover. But Joe Orlando thought it was better to give the finished job to a real painter.” Star Raiders featured a cover by Stephen Hickman, while Warlords sported a Thomas Blackshear II painting.

60 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

CHAIN OF FOOLS

With its third offering, DC broke the yoke of the Atari association, publishing The Medusa Chain, a graphic novel almost solely produced by veteran Ernie Colón. “It began as a science fiction novella. I showed it to Dick Giordano,” Colón told Comics Interview in their 13th issue (July 1984). Colón said it took Giordano a bit of time to get to it, but “once he read it, he loved it.” As the project progressed, “I found myself taking on more and more responsibility because I really loved the project. So I dialogued and penciled ernie colón and inked it. I wound up lettering it because I didn’t © Marvel. want it to leave my hands. And now I’m coloring it. And I’m also the de facto editor. I took it all on.”

The story Colón birthed concerns Chon Adams, a man who is crewing aboard a space freighter but finds that the equipment they have consists of cheap knockoffs, and only 1/8th of the necessary food for the voyage has been supplied. He takes charge of the ship and they turn back. Unfortunately there are still not sufficient resources for the return trip and they have to eject most of the crew to survive.

This crime gets him sentenced to a space penal colony. The ship commissioned to take prisoners there is named the Medusa Chain. But the ship has an ulterior mission: They are carrying planet destroying chemicals that have to be dropped on Earth, which by this time is a wasteland and the survivors have mutated into creatures able to survive the depths of space. The creatures attack the Medusa Chain and steal the chemicals, killing a lot of the crew. Adams takes charge of the ship and proceeds on toward their destination.

On the promotional side, things had, to put it mildly, cooled down a little. No DC titles that month carried ads for the book. Not even Omega Men! The issue of Comics Interview that carried the Colón dialogue did have an ad for the book on the back cover in which it was described as “A DC graphic novel.” Yup, that’s it. It did seem the bloom was off the rose.

Tunnel Vision DC Graphic Novel #3, The Medusa Chain, featured the art and writing of Ernie Colón.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

THIS IS THE END

Kirby Krackle The King of Comics himself, Jack Kirby, with collaborator Greg Theakston, produced his sequel to his Bronze Age classic New Gods in DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs.

TM & © DC Comics.

Art-wise, Mike Royer, inker of the original Next to appear, The Hunger Dogs was Jack Kirby’s pages Kirby handed in, was not available and so finale to his famous New Gods series. For those other inkers completed the graphic novel, leading interested in a deep dive into the backstory to some obvious clashes in style. As well, artwork surrounding the book, I refer you to The Jack had to be extended to fit the larger size required Kirby Collector issues #6 and 46, published by for the graphic novel.

The story involves Darkseid’s homeworld of the same distinguished people that brought Apokolips developing tiny destructive devices you this magazine. capable of destroying entire planets, and For our purposes, all you need to know in the end the world of New Genesis is is that Kirby had unfinished business destroyed—but its Supertown survives. at DC. His New Gods series was left In a preview in Amazing Heroes #47 incomplete after being cancelled by (May 15, 1984), Kirby stated, “The DC back in 1972. Not long before Hunger Dogs are us, ordinary people. this graphic novel, the company In the end the Hunger Dogs are had begun to reprint that series the ones who change everything.” which had since gained considerStaying true to that idea, Darkseid able stature in the fan community. is deposed as leader by the Hunger So DC invited Kirby to come back Dogs, the lowly citizens of Apokolips. and create a denouement. UnfortuBut there is no ultimate confrontanately, that did not go smoothly tion between him and Orion and at all. Originally the saga was to the main characters are left availbe concluded in a single story in jack kirby able for future use. Good for DC, the back of the last reprint issue— Susan Skaar. unsatisfying to most fans. problem being, DC did not like the When it came to promotion of the book, DC story Kirby handed in. It seems it really did finish the series, possibly killing off some major characters. certainly did not shirk, but the focus was slightly Since DC was probably concerned about licensing different than their advertising for the first two those characters, that plot was nixed. So they had graphic novels. The ads did not concern the prestige him change it. But so as not to lose all of the rejected of the format itself but proclaimed it, “Jack Kirby’s pages, they scheduled a graphic novel and had a crowning achievement. A 64-page graphic novel” whole new story prepared to lead into it that was and “The astonishing sequel to the New Gods saga used in the last reprint issue instead. No one was by the legendary Jack Kirby.” This would pretty really happy with the final outcome as, even com- much be the end of the line for exuberant hype bined, comic and graphic novel did not provide a where DC’s line of graphic novels was concerned.

Well, at least Hunger Dogs finished off something. finish to the saga as had been the original intent.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

HEY, JOE!

DC Graphic Novel #5 (on sale in August 1985) was crafted by writer Greg Potter and artist Ron Randall. Titled Me & Joe Priest, it featured a future world where all men and many women have been rendered infertile. One man is still potent. He just happens to be a priest who has been given a message from “God” to seek out those still fertile women and repopulate the Earth. The “Me” in the title is a former Desert Ranger who agrees to be the priest’s bodyguard. After a few adventures, they end up taking over the seminary the priest was raised in and plan to house pregnant women, thus speeding up the repopulation. At story’s end, the priest receives another message. He is needed on another planet and a spaceship arrives and takes him away.

This issue returned to the mold of a separate writer and artist. Randall tells BACK ISSUE, “I was handed a fully finished script, and my job was to bring those words and panel descriptions to life as best I could. There were only two ‘novel’ differences with Joe Priest. One was the slightly different page dimensions—a wider page ratio than the taller, leaner comic page. The second difference has to do with the coloring.”

Being only the fifth graphic novel from DC, it’s no surprise that the book was a new experience for Randall. “Joe Priest was the first story that I colored,” Ron relates, “and it was also one of the first stories where the coloring was done with the ‘Blue line’ technique, which was exploring completely new ground for me. I did regular pencils and inks. Then, the inks were scanned, printed on clear acetate sheets that were then taped to art boards, where those inked lines were printed in light (non-photo) blue lines. Using these blue lines as a guide, I would color directly onto those boards, and then lay the acetate with the fine art over the colors to see how things matched up.

“This allowed an artist to use paints, markers, colored pencils—any medium—for the color, and yet still have the crisp line art printed on top of the color to get a clean final, full-colored image.”

And there you have a clear and concise primer on how this sort of art was produced.

By the time this graphic novel was published, the advertising train had settled into its new normal. A full-page promo appeared in various fanzines of the time, but they only included the names of the creators, a plot teaser, and the line, “An original graphic novel from DC Comics.”

When it came to the marketing of the books, Ron believes “they were trying to get books into bookstores, and grab some attention from new eyes. We all knew it was an ‘experiment’ that might or might not find success.”

Frequent BI contributor and former DC staffer Bob Greenberger elaborates, “As the line grew, original ideas were welcomed such as Me & Joe Priest. But the marketing didn’t reach the target audiences for any of these, which was a serious problem.

There needed to be an effort to work with bookstores (and this was well before DC’s foray into stores with Dark Knight and Watchmen in 1986) and maybe the Science Fiction Book Club. Neither [DC marketers]

Mike Flynn or Bruce Bristow possessed that specific expertise; they were all aimed at the rising comic shop.”

The page count was down from the 64 pages of the first four books to 48 and once again a different artist illustrated the cover, albeit in this case comic veteran Howard Chaykin.

When asked if he recalled why he did not get the cover assignment, Randall tells BACK ISSUE, “It’s only a guess that Howard Chaykin is both a very strong cover artist with a terrific eye for design, and he was also a much bigger ‘name’ than I was, so I assume the choice was made for commercial reasons like that.”

A mere month after the ads for Me & Joe Priest, the same fanzines contained full-page spreads promoting DC’s new line of Science Fiction Graphic Novels (dissected shortly in this very periodical) with the line, “Stories & Art worthy of the format.” After three books in that series had been released, DC’s regular line of comics presented proclamations touting the SF series as “a new dimension in storytelling.” At this point, two tomes in the original graphic novel line were still to come. Methinks the balance of power had shifted just a little, don’t you?

These Rites Are Wrong A chilling altar call, written by Greg Potter and illustrated

by Ron Randall, from DC Graphic Novel #5, Me & Joe Priest.

TM & © DC Comics.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

METAL AS ANYTHING

prior to the book market explosion, so you still had to go to a Next in line was a book by veteran British creators Pat Mills and comic shop to see and buy them, which most people had zero Kevin O’Neill. This book actually received ads in books published interest in doing.”

Metalzoic takes place in a future world where robots

by DC. The back covers of DC’s July 1986-dated Deluxe Format books touted the book as “an original graphic novel” and listed rule but have taken on anthropomorphic characteristics. the creators by name. Not quite the fanfare trumpeted for the Armageddon, leader of one tribe, wants to kill “god beast” first duo, but at least DC readers would know about it. DC did Amok. After many trials and tribulations for both, they purchase ad space in the newszine Amazing Heroes as well, so meet at an old spaceship launch site. Amok is damaged and they did have some outside promotion though it was inside a Armageddon beats him and downloads his programming that includes the history of Earth, making him the new “god black-and-white magazine.

This book marked a change in the trade dress that DC had beast” and setting him up to rule the planet now.

Reprising the circumstance surrounding the first two books, used for the first five novels. Richard Bruning had become production designer at DC with Me & Joe Priest and tells BACK Metalzoic was not initially meant for North American publication.

ISSUE, “I completed the ones which Neal [Pozner, designer of Scribe Pat Mills tells BI, “We had plans to run it as a separate the series before Bruning] had started that hadn’t gone to the story in a British magazine Look Alive, but then the magazine printer yet, which were in various stages of production. I tried to folded. We considered Nemesis [an iconic British character created by the same duo, not the DC character introduced in maintain his design approach for these.

“DC editorial management (Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, Dick The Brave and the Bold #166], but it didn’t quite fit. At the time Kevin had come up with the Concorde bird [a giant Giordano) was always happy to let me make each project mechanical bird that appeared in the Nemesis series], my own. I maintained some structural assets but my so that approach was very much in our mind.” design style wasn’t Neal’s style.”

O’Neill was involved with DC at the time and Echoing earlier sentiments, Bruning feels, sent the idea along to them. DC asked what “Unfortunately, I don’t believe sales on this line format the creators would like for the book, were that great. It was DC getting out of the fans’ and they chose the graphic novel format. “We comfort zone with these, deliberately and bravely thought it was a great format, but unaware trying something new and fresh, instead of that they were about to shelve it,” opines Mills. just more Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman, The change in focus by the publisher probably did etc. That’s the thing I always admired about DC, not help the book at all as, when asked if there something Jenette Kahn embodied. Trying new was any thought of a sequel, Mills states merely, things was her focus, even if it meant taking “It didn’t sell well enough to justify a sequel.” financial risk, an opinion I shared. Sadly, this is The book was, however, reprinted in black-andpat mills white in Britain in issues #483–492 (Aug. 16– Lisa Mills.

Oct. 18, 1986) of the weekly 2000AD. Once again, a different artist than the one who illustrated the interior was called upon to create the book’s cover. In this case the artist was Bill Sienkiewicz. Mills recalls, “I think we were disappointed Kevin didn’t do the cover and that he was under pressure to complete [the book].”

From a production side, Bruning states, “The comic biz has never been shy about using ringers. It was very exciting to now be in the glorious position of seeking and working with top name professionals. The editors and I would discuss appropriate potential cover artists first.”

SEVEN TURNS

By the time DC released the seventh and final novel in the series, crafted by writer Arthur Byron Cover and artist Alex Niño, the advertising campaign had pretty much ground to a halt. Unlike previous releases, Space Clusters was not listed in the DC checklist included in their Deluxe Format books that month. In fact, the only advertising I could find in a DC book was a note in those everpresent UPC boxes that used to adorn covers. The newsstand versions included a bar code used for distribution, but direct sales copies generally featured company ads. “Space Clusters is coming!” appeared in the boxes for DC books released in August of 1986. But that’s it. Now granted, the weekly Superman relaunch comic Man of Steel featured the slogan, “Who watches the Watchmen?” on its next issue, but we all know there was a much more significant ad campaign for that seminal series.

Robots Rule!

There’s more than meets the eye to the automatons that run the world of writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O’Neill’s Metalzoic, a.k.a. DC Graphic Novel #6.

TM & © DC Comics.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

“I got zero publicity,” concurs the book’s writer, Arthur Byron Cover, (Not Necessarily) The Last Graphic Novel “because it was the end of Julie’s tenure and I think it was a vanity Space Clusters, DC Graphic Novel #7, concluded project the company allowed, because I betcha the sales of the first DC’s original branded line of graphic novels. Writer graphic novels weren’t that great.”

The “Julie” that Cover mentions is, of course, legendary DC editor Arthur Byron Cover’s intergalactic smuggling tale Julius Schwartz, the editor of Space Clusters. Cover does not recall the featured lush, hypnotic illustrations by Alex Niño, incident, but in a preview for the book in Amazing Heroes #98 (July 1, 1986), he related, “I crashed a cocktail party Paul Levitz and Jenette sampled here in original art form (courtesy of Kahn threw at a posh hotel for their LA-based staffers and friends.

Heritage) for page 40 of the adventure.

While talking with Paul it occurred to him… that someone with TM & © DC Comics. my imagination could write an original and striking graphic novel.”

When it comes to Schwartz’s involvement, Arthur tells BI, “My friend Harlan Ellison talked to Julie at least once a month, and when Julie was on the verge of retirement he was working on the last batch of novels. I was at the tail end of a long comic addiction and working at a bookstore at the time. So that connection was easily made.” Tying a ribbon around the whole promotional angle, Arthur tells BI, “My only promotion was to hold an autograph party at the book shop!”

When it comes to working with artist Niño, Cover recalls, “Alex also lived in the San Fernando Valley as I did. I went to his apartment once to look at the pages. [I did] the plot outline and the dialogue. I figured there would only be one shot at the artwork. And Alex was great, better than great.”

Space Clusters itself concerns a law officer who trails an art smuggler across the galaxy. She finally trails him to a planet where the populace loves him. The arthur byron cover smuggler flees again and a local cop kills his lover, wildcardsworld.com but not before she gives the fugitive an amulet to remember her by. The chase eventually leads the duo through a black hole. Arriving in another galaxy/universe, they are reincarnated as gods.

The law officer finally tracks the smuggler down and destroys him. She leaves a hive-mind race to rule and goes off wanting only to be alone.

But one of the race finds that amulet the smuggler was given…

The financial fortunes of these books and the remaining ones in the Science Fiction line may have pushed DC to realize what Marvel had known from the beginning: Comic book readers at that time loved superheroes. You could do original stories, but the bulk of your output should star the long-underwear set. So, the next phase of the format for DC began in September 1987 with Son of the Demon, by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham, an all-new graphic novel starring Batman.

In a step up from earlier attempts, it was even published initially as a hardcover, setting a precedent for many subsequent releases.

One final note. Batman may have facilitated the demise of DC’s graphic novels in another way. In 1986, DC published the four-issue Dark Knight by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley. The book was in what was then called the Prestige Format (an article in BI #98 will fill you in on its development). Standard comic book size but squarebound and closer in page count and print quality to the graphic novels, the phenomenal success of the series led to many, many progeny and continues to be used to this day. DC has recently rekindled the publication of books in the 8 1/2 x 11-inch size with their “Black Label” line, but these again feature characters from the DCU. The experiment personified by the seven books examined here was really the last hurrah for the format as a venue for stories featuring original concepts for DC, becoming an entertaining stepping stone in comics ongoing development.

The author would like to thank Richard Bruning, Arthur Byron Cover, José Luis García-López, Robert Greenberger, Elliot S. Maggin, Pat Mills, Ron Randall, Bob Rozakis, and David Wenzel for their assistance in preparing this article.

BRIAN MARTIN lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, where he has a huge collection of novels, graphic and otherwise.

He generally only advertises this in BACK ISSUE.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

From Beyond the Unknown Front covers of all seven DC Science Fiction Graphic Novels. Cover artists: Bill Sienkiewicz, (top row) issues #1-3; Neal McPheeters, (opposite page) issues #4 and 7; Marshall Rogers, issue #5; and Jan Duursema, issue #6. © the respective authors.

Science fiction short stories have coexisted in a Venn diagram- editors on how to best present the material… I deliberately esque relationship with comic books for decades. From alien formatted the covers to mirror SF prose book covers, invasion yarns to Silver Age space race allegories, science particularly in employing large author’s names on the covers, fiction comic book adaptations reinterpret, reveal, and unite something comics have rarely done.” the overlapping visions of their respective creators.

Bruning reflects fondly on some of the opportunities During the mid-1980s, under the guidance of thenthis series bestowed upon him. “Being a lifelong SF DC editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz and art director reader, the opportunity to collaborate with some Richard Bruning, several masterworks of Ray of the biggest name authors of the genre was Bradbury, George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, a special treat,” he says. “Due to having the Robert Bloch, Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, office right next to line editor Julie Schwartz, and Larry Niven were adapted for the comic he frequently asked if I’d like to meet Ray book direct market. A seven-issue series was Bradbury, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, or produced between 1985 and 1987 that invited some other SF luminary!” premiere comic book talent to reinterpret classic The graphic novels in the series are as SF epics. Please join me, BACK ISSUE readers, follows: in a journey not of sight and sound, but of DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #1 mind and graphic art, to wondrous realms of (1985): Hell on Earth by Robert Bloch unlimited imagination... There is a spinnerGraphic Adaptation by Keith Giffen and rack sign up ahead—welcome to the DC Science julius schwartz Robert Loren Fleming Fiction Graphic Novel series!

Prior to his tenure as an editor at DC Comics, H. P. Lovecraft protégé Robert Bloch wrote Julie Schwartz co-published one of the first SF fanzines, the original story Psycho, which Alfred Hitchcock famously co-founded a SF literary agency, and assisted with the directed in cinematic form. Bloch was well known for his space, development of the first-ever world SF convention (as stated horror, and pulp stories during a prolific career, including 30 in his 2000 memoir, Man of Two Worlds). Due to these defining years in television and film (robertbloch.net). roots, Schwartz was the obvious choice to manage the DC His story, Hell on Earth, was the initial feature of the Science Fiction Graphic Novel series, where each issue featured DC SF series. It was adapted by Robert Loren Fleming and a Deluxe Format self-contained tale adapted by a top-tier Keith Giffen, with additional support from Greg Theakston, comic book team.

Bill Wray, and Gaspar Saladino. This dark demonic tale comSeries art director Richard Bruning notes to BACK ISSUE bines some classic “deal with the devil” themes, intertwined his distinct vision for the project: “My primary duties in with art from Giffen’s Muñoz period, where he controversially regard to the SF line was to work with the creators and aped the style of Argentine artist José Muñoz [see next issue 66 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

by M a t t

Merante

for details—ed.]. It features a moody and discomforting color palette, with each page structured in a 16-panel layout.

The main protagonist and POV, fantasy writer Guy Roberts, is invited to witness a clandestine ritual that will transport a demon to the mortal plane. Dark forces invade the hearts and minds of several characters, and unfortunate repercussions occur.

Scripter Bob Fleming says that he convinced Keith Giffen and Julie Schwartz to make one robert loren fleming major change to the adaptation, “turning the detective into a horror author like Stephen King or Clive Barker… This made the narrator and central figure an integral part of the tale, not a neutral observer—and it placed him at the heart of the story’s concerns.” Fleming adds, “A major disappointment was that nobody ever compared our adaptation to the original Bloch short story. I expected a combination of praise and condemnation for the major change I’d made to the sacred text, but to this day I don’t think anyone has even noticed!”

A Sci-Fi Thriller Ambush Bug collaborators Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming take on Psycho writer Robert Bloch’s Hell on Earth, the first of the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel line.

Hell on Earth © 1942 Weird Tales.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #2 (1985): Nightwings by Robert Silverberg Graphic Adaptation by Cary Bates, Gene Colan, and Neal McPheeters

In the Hugo Award–winning (1969) and Nebula-nominated (1968) Nightwings, three distinct travelers—a flier, a watcher, and a changeling—band together on a quest in the futuristic city of Roum (Rome) on an Earth 40,000 years in the future.

There are multiple layers to each character, a traitor is eventually revealed, love is bequeathed and lost, and political intrigue pervades throughout.

Gene Colan provided beautiful penciled art to the book. “I thought he did a great job on this, which was enhanced further

by Neal McPheeters’ masterful coloring,” contends Cary Bates, who also admits he was never a hardcore reader of SF prose, but had always been a rabid fan of SF films.

Bates does recall one experience related to Nightwings: “About a year after it was published, at the 1986 San Diego Comic-Con, I happened to run into Robert Silverberg at a coffee shop. He gave the DC adaptation a thumbs up—though who knows, that may have been him just being polite. In any case, he was classy and gracious.”

Gentleman Gene Flies High Original color artwork from DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel #2, Nightwings. Pencils

by Gene Colan, watercolors by Neal McPheeters.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

Nightwings © Robert Silverberg.

cary bates © DC Comics.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #3 (1985): Frost and Fire by Ray Bradbury Graphic Adaptation by Klaus Janson

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #4 (1986): The Merchants of Venus

by Frederik Pohl

Graphic Adaptation by Neal McPheeters and While taking a pause from his historic work Victoria Petersen on Batman: The Dark Knight with Frank Miller, Klaus Janson received a creative windfall: the Frederik Pohl’s The Merchants of Venus is a chance to write, color, and ink a complete cautionary tale about the pitfalls of late 20th Century capitalism wrapped in the guise of project while being the final hand that an Atomic Age SF travelog. The main touched it. This was also an opporcharacter, Audee Walthers, makes a tunity to adapt the works of one of living by scamming tourists on Venus the most prolific and respected with his space tour business. Ultimatescience fiction writers of all time: ly, his latest mark turns the tables Ray Bradbury. on him, and both end up the worse In Frost and Fire, Janson unfor wear after the encounter. leashes his full artistic arsenal Unlike most of the books in on this trippy tale of time and the DC Sci-Fi series, artist Neal choice. In a future world, people McPheeters’ illustrations are bright are forced to live in caves, as and cheerful, creating some visual both night and day are equally irony considering the satirical dangerous and humans age to nature of the story. adulthood in about a week. A klaus janson Eisner and Harvey Award winner commentary of sorts on post© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Todd Klein lettered this issue (plus WWII modern living, Bradbury’s tale takes readers to the extreme depths of graphic novels #5–7) and notes of his specific process for the book, “The main difference was working over human survival.

Klaus’ coloring is quite astounding; he painted art, which meant I was lettering on vellum focused on his process by drawing/inking/ overlays. I doubt it was the first time I had done that, coloring one scene at a time rather than page but the usual process was to letter on the penciled by page or panel by panel. “Having the freedom pages. Since the art was also larger than typical to determine your own rhythm is a big benefit,” comics art of the time, I may have made photoJanson tells BACK ISSUE. He recalls that he was copies of the art to bring home and work over.”

With regard to meeting artist McPheeters, Todd given the creative freedom to make adjustments as needed directly from Julie Schwartz. “He told adds, “Neal McPheeters, I met for the first time me I could do whatever I wanted!” This included while lettering Merchant of Venus, and he was a shortening the climax to make the adaptation fit delight: friendly and appreciative of what I was doing, and I thought his painted pages were the graphic novel format.

In a final reflection, Janson beams, “It was terrific. Neal had a successful career as a painter the cat’s pajamas… If someone asked me to do of paperback book covers, including many science fiction ones that you can find online.” it again, I would.”

Bradbury and Pohl (left) Klaus Janson received the opportunity to color his own artwork when adapting Ray Bradbury’s Frost and Fire, the third of DC’s sci-fi GNs. (right) Stir-crazy space travelers highlight this beautiful page from Neal McPheeters and Victoria Peterson’s adaptation of Frederik Pohl’s The Merchants of Venus.

Frost and Fire © Ray Bradbury.

The Merchants of Venus © Frederik Pohl.

todd klein

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #5 (1986): Demon with a Glass Hand by Harlan Elison Graphic Adaptation by Marshall Rogers

The mysterious Trent wakes up with no recollection of how he came to be and why he happens to have a robotic translucent hand that is missing three digits. As random attackers surround him, he tries to recover each missing finger in order to unlock the mystery of his identity and purpose. The final twist is that he is not quite who he thinks he might be, but rather… well, you’ll have to read it to find out!

The inimitable Harlan Ellison originally wrote this script for The Outer Limits TV series, featuring actor Roger Culp as Trent.

It originally aired on ABC-TV on Saturday, October 17th, 1964.

Marshall Rogers masterfully adapted the script, utilizing his professional design and architecture background.

Most of the plot takes place in a multilayered building based on the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. This is the same location where both the original TV episode was filmed and the movie Blade Runner! The imagery in this adaptation is incredibly detailed and hyperrealistic. Many of the fight sequences have the feel of a late ’80s or early ’90s action film combined with a salient cyberpunk undertone. The original episode was listed on TV Guide’s 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time (1997 version) and is remembered as one of Ellison’s most notable works.

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #6 (1986): The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven

Graphic Adaptation by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away serves as both a metaphor for the energy crisis during the 1970s and a brilliant sword-and-sorcery tale. Several wizards seek the last of the universe’s “mana,” for their finite magic is running out. They embark on an epic quest to find the final remnants of this nonrenewable resource.

Making up the party are some warlocks, a sorceress, a savage warrior, and a magical talking skull. Not everyone survives.

Adaptation scribe Paul Kupperberg playfully “threatened” Julie Schwartz for the writing duties, as he had strong feelings for both Larry Niven’s Ringworld and The Magic Goes Away: “I was very fond of it.” He started out writing the adaptation too closely to the paul kupperberg source material, but quickly realized he would bypass the allocated page count. “I had to make concessions to fit it all in; it made me uncomfortable… I had immense respect for the material.”

Paul Kupperberg was a fan of Jan Duursema’s art, and had worked with her on Arion, Lord of Atlantis (which was loosely based on The Magic Goes Away). Sadly, due to the specific paint used (it faded in sunlight), Jan does not have any of her fabulous original art. Ironically, the paint suffered the same fate as the magic!

Ellison and Niven (top) Harlan Ellison’s Demon with a Glass Hand was in good—well, hands, with adapter Marshall Rogers. (bottom) The Magic Goes Away? Jan Duursema’s art and Paul Kupperberg’s script to the sixth SF GN look magical to us!

Demon with a Glass Hand © Harlan Ellison. The Magic Goes Away © Larry Niven.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

Literary Titans (inset) Each DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel’s back cover spotlighted the source material’s author, as with Sandkings’ George R. R. Martin on issue #7. (right) A starling swarm, as interpreted by artist Pat Broderick in the final DC SF GN, George R. R. Martin’s Sandkings, adapted by writer Doug Moench.

Sandkings © George R. R. Martin.

DC SCIENCE FICTION GRAPHIC NOVEL #7 (1987): Sandkings by George R. R. Martin

Graphic Adaptation by Doug Moench, Pat Broderick, and Neal McPheeters On an alien planet, a cruel and sadistic collector tries to find various creatures that he can use to bolster his demented sense of self-worth. He ends up getting more than he bargained for when he takes ownership of the Sandkings, a race of tribal, patient, and intelligent insectoids. This early story by George R. R. Martin is a cautionary tale about cruelty, arrogance, and dictatorships.

Doug Moench wrote the adaptation and Pat Broderick provided the pencils. Pat informs BACK ISSUE about how the art process occurred for the graphic novel.

“I had to create finished penciled pieces which Neil McPheeters could color [watercolor] and go around a drum scanner… the art for the story was futuristic yet still “I will give DC a lot of credit, especially during believable, freeing me up to 1985 and 1986,” notes Klaus Janson. “Jenette Kahn capture the drama of the story.” and Dick Giordano were very interested in broadening Additionally, Broderick recalls the idea of comics and what they could be.” Similar DC that he had the chance to meet experimentation eventually led to Dark Knight, Watchmen, George R. R. Martin. “He’s a really and the Vertigo line. sweet, easygoing man,” the artist Richard Bruning reflects, “I believe the line was partially discloses. “We did speak briefly pat broderick successful in offering big name SF writers a graphic platform about the project, and he said he for their stories… It was, as a number of other DC attempts, Thomso200. loved it. That was a relief—you never something perhaps ahead of its time.” know what to expect when writers of George’s and Please enter into the outer limits of the longbox Harlan Ellison’s stature walk up to your table.” zone and see if you can find some of these tremendous SF issues. Our timeline may have finally caught LEGACY AND IMPACT Several new paths were paved and old trails up to them! uncovered with this ambitious project. Bringing science fiction prose to comics and vice versa is mutually beneficial to each medium. Although the costly nature of the series may have doomed its fate at the time with a hefty $5.95 cover price, the risk taken with a larger-sized deluxe format demonstrated that comics can be produced in various shapes, densities, and genres.

Thanks to Paul Kupperburg, Klaus Janson, Robert Loren Fleming, Pat Broderick, Todd Klein, Richard Bruning, and Jan Duursema for their time and insight.

MATT MERANTE is a freelance writer/essayist and literacy specialist whose interests include comics, art, film, and pulp fiction. He greatly admires the work of Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Norm Breyfogle, John Byrne, and Keith Giffen, among others. Matt lives with his family in Virginia.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

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tephan Friedt

First Comics was an American comic book publisher active from 1983 to 1991. They resurfaced in 2011 as 1First Comics. The first incarnation was known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable, Freelance.

First, along with Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics, took early advantage of the direct market. They attracted a number of writers and artists from DC and Marvel to produce creator-owned titles which were free to feature more mature content because they were not subject to the Comics Code.

The lineup of graphic novels that First Comics, Inc. provided the comic-reading masses with was a run of 27 publications.

Though often listed in numbered order, none have a number on the cover and only the first few are numbered on the copyright page. Most, but not all, have “First Graphic Novel” printed on the spine.

First started with all-new original material, but quickly realized that the public was clamoring for this style of format faster than they could vet all-new material. So they interspersed collected runs of currently popular comics with occasional all-new material.

What follows is a glimpse at a few of First’s most significant graphic novels, concluding with a checklist of the entire run.

BEOWULF

First started its graphic novel line with writer/artist Jerry Bingham’s Beowulf, an adaptation of the ancient folk tale.

Theslingsandarrows.com, a website devoted to graphic novels, notes that “Scholars are unable to nail a precise origin for the epic Scandinavian poem Beowulf, only knowing for certain the oldest written copy dates from somewhere between 975 and 1025, yet the enduring popularity of its plot is somewhat simpler to nail down….

“Beowulf originates in simpler times, when it was enough to include a monster in a story to induce a shiver of fear amongst the bravest warriors. The audience didn’t read a book or watch a play, they listened to a recitation…

“This is a rousing and inspirational campfire tale and Bingham keeps it that way…”

Beowulf’s literary significance offered First’s adaptation an unexpected audience. As Jerry Bingham posted on his website (quotes are used with permission), “The first time I said, ‘Wow! Neat-o!’ (or whatever the slang of that era might’ve been) [about Beowulf] was about a year after publication when a high school teacher wrote me a great letter saying he bought a whole case of my books for his classroom. This is something I never

First’s First Graphic Novel Jerry Bingham’s Beowulf, a beautifully rendered original graphic novel adapting the epic hero’s saga, launched First Comics’ First Graphic Novel line in 1985. (Bingham discusses the project’s roots in the sidebar.) Original art for Chapter 3’s title page, courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (inset) The graphic novel’s cover. © First Comics, Inc./Jerry Bingham.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

JERRY BINGHAM’s BEOWULF EXPERIENCE Jerry Bingham, the writer/artist of First’s Beowulf graphic novel, referred BACK ISSUE to his related blog entry, from which we’ve harvested these quotes, which are used with permission.

In reminiscing about how the book came to be, Jerry wrote: “It was early days. I was married, had bills, I had been a working professional (I use that term guardedly— I was getting paid for my comics) for about six years. The quality of my work was still ‘developing’ and I was bouncing around a lot, company-to-company, comic-to-comic, mainly because, I believe, I wasn’t very good…. I had apprenticed under veteran Dan Adkins for my first two years, and with his insightful, never-ending voice of encouragement he’d always said, ‘Bing-haam’ (he always pronounced it that way), ‘Bing-haam, you’re never going to make it. You either have It, or you don’t, and you don’t.’

“Then it hit me. My next project. I was in the middle of my second reading of Tolkien’s trilogy. I, like many virile young men back then, loved the Conan movie (the first one), I’d read all the Howard books, so I was starved for anything Conan, and my favorite artist was drawing most of the Conan comics. I had also had a life-long love of English Lit (thanks again to Mom). So I decided to show the young Tolkien and S&S [sword and sorcery] and comic book fans where all these stories originated. I clawed through my library and found my copy of Beowulf. Tolkien was the Beowulf expert, after all, and spoke on the subject often. He’d admitted much of The Hobbit, especially the conversation with the fire-drake, Smaug, the thief in the night, came from there.

Comics’ Other Grendel “So, Ta-Daa! It took a bit of doing, trips to the library, every translation was different—most were difficult to The mighty Beowulf fears neither man nor beast in understand for those who would rather read Stan Lee’s this sample page from Bingham’s impressive Beowulf Shakespeare-isms. But I managed to cobble together adaptation. something I considered readable and began with my page layouts. Fun stuff. No pay, I was living off © First Comics, Inc./Jerry Bingham. piece-money, but fun to do my own thing. (…)

“In extreme retrospect, I wish I had done more imagined when I was originally trolling through my head in research on the visuals, tried to incorporate more of the search of ideas to work on. historical accoutrements of the time, but I was deliberately “[I]t is still the most rewarding book I’ve ever trying to keep the Conan look hoping familiarity been involved with—if not monetarily—as every would help get exposure. Imaginary tradeoffs? year or two, even all these decades later, I still get The inking was the most difficult for me. I had letters from teachers across the country thanking never really inked with a quill, apart from me and telling how they used my book in their butchering a number of panels Adkins was classrooms.” working on in my earlier days. But I studied Bingham’s Beowulf was the winner of the 1985 as quickly as I could from some of my Kirby Award for Best Graphic Album. favorites. Took my cues everywhere, from TIME BEAVERS Dick Giordano to Hal Foster to Jean Giraud First followed Beowulf with Time Beavers, a rollicking and Victor De la Fuente. And after a couple tale with story and art by Tim Truman. years of extreme poverty, and much rejection Just a little after the debut of Teenage Mutant by the major companies, I found a buyer.

Ninja Turtles, but months before the avalanche of jerry bingham Yeah, I had to bargain like a Casablanca copycat animal teams that followed (Adolescent street peddler, agree to work on one of their jerrybingham.com Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters and Pre-Teen comic book series for six months or so, but Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos, to name a couple), Tim and his my Beowulf would see print. team gave us the story of the Time Beavers.

“It got my struggling career off the ground (in a A funny animal version of Time Bandits (1981), the Kittyhawk sort of analogy—the Wright Brothers didn’t graphic novel’s back cover describes the tale as “An epic fly far, either).” adventure that takes the reader on an historical odyssey 74 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

from 17th [C]entury France to the Lincoln presidency, from the final days of the Third Reich to the Great Dam of Time where the eternal Time Beavers battle to protect the very essence of reality!”

Though never reprinted, Time Beavers remains available on the secondary market.

AMERICAN FLAGG!

American Flagg! was one of the earliest series published by First Comics; it ran from 1983– 1989. It followed the adventures of Reuben Flagg in a science fiction series heavy with political satire. Writer/artist Howard Chaykin set the stories in the US, particularly Chicago, Illinois, in the early 2030s. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #41 for our coverage of American Flagg!—plus the issue’s Captain America/Reuben Flagg cover by Howard Chaykin!]

First Graphic Novel #3 published a collected album of American Flagg!, with a new nine-page prologue from Chaykin. This album reprinted issue #1–3 of First’s American Flagg monthly series.

American Flagg! Southern Comfort, First’s 13th graphic novel, would publish the next three issues, American Flagg! #4–6. At the time, American Flagg! was so popular this was also published in a standard hardcover format and in an exclusive signed/ numbered hardcover edition.

Continuing the reprints, First Graphic Novel #23, American Flagg! State of the Union, collected American Flagg! issues #7–9 and was also available in a hardcover edition.

NEXUS

Nexus is a comic book series created by writer Mike Baron and penciler Steve Rude in 1981. The series combines superhero and science fiction genres and is set 500 years in the future [which you read about in these pages way back in BACK ISSUE #9, which featured a Nexus cover by the Dude himself, Steve Rude!—ed.].

Nexus debuted as a three-issue black-andwhite magazine, followed by an ongoing full-color series which lasted 80 issues. The black-and-white issues and the first six color issues were published

by Capital Comics. When Capital Comics crashed, First Comics took over publication.

Nexus was the subject of two First Graphic Novels.

First Graphic Novel #4 reprints the three magazine-sized issues of Nexus from Capital Comics as created by Rude and Baron.

First’s 26th graphic novel, The Next Nexus, would collect the four issues of First’s 1989 Next Nexus miniseries that told the story of the Loomis Sisters. This one included words of praise from Harlan Ellison on the back cover.

THE WORLD OF L. FRANK BAUM’S OZ

Writer/artist Eric Shanower would supply the material for graphic novels #5, 7, 14, and 16 with his original additions to the Oz world of author L. Frank Baum.

Graphic novel #5 was The Enchanted Apples of Oz. Using the characters Scarecrow, Billina, Dorothy, Valynn, Bortag, the Wizard, Drox,

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Future Shocks Original painted cover art by Howard Chaykin for First Graphic Novel #3 (1985), a.k.a.

American Flagg!: Hard Times. Courtesy of Heritage. © First Comics, Inc./ Howard Chaykin, Inc.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

Core Values Eric Shanower’s beautifully rendered explorations of L. Frank Baum’s fertile Oz world began at First with its fifth graphic novel, The Enchanted Apples of Oz. © First Comics, Inc./Jerry Bingham.

Ozma, Professor Wogglebug, and the Wicked Witch of the South, Eric weaves a story about the magician Bortag attempting to steal the Golden Apples of Oz. Novel #7 was The Secret Island of Oz. This time, Eric brings us the characters of Royal Gardner, Scarecrow, Dorothy Gale, Jellia Jam, the Wizard, Ozma, Cowardly Lion, Eureka, Belina, Trinkarinkarina, Knotboy, the Snake, the Toad, and the CrimsonTailed Quipperug. Eric tells the tale of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and Eureka as they go on a mission to recover a fish that is missing from Ozma’s garden pool.

Novel #15 was The Ice King of Oz. This volume did not mention what number it was in the graphic novel library, but it did note on the back cover that it was the third book in the new Oz series.

In this one, the Ice King kidnaps Ozma and her friends come to her rescue.

Novel #19 was The Forgotten Forest of Oz. While there is no indication in the indicia what number this one is in the series, but its back cover does

mention it’s the fourth book in the Oz series. For this story, a wood nymph is expelled from Burzee and is taken under the wing of the Troll King.

In 2006, IDW collected all four in a single volume, Adventures in Oz. Eric Shanower has continued his adventures in Oz with several series and collections at Marvel.

ELRIC OF MELNIBONE

The sixth graphic novel (though not noted as such in the indicia) was another collected album, Elric of Melnibone. This time, First collected the six-issue run of Pacific Comics’ original Elric series written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by P. Craig Russell and Michael T. Gilbert. Elric creator Michael Moorcock provided the introduction, which included a history of the illustrated versions of his book. That series is covered in depth in The Pacific Comics Companion (TwoMorrows, 2023).

First would follow it up with graphic novel #14, Elric: Sailor on the Seas of Fate, which reprinted the 1985 First Comics miniseries, and novel #27, Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf, which reprinted the First comics miniseries of the same name.

TIME²

Graphic novels #8—Time²: The Epiphany—and #11—Time²: The Satisfaction of Black Mariah— would feature Howard Chaykin’s Time² characters, first introduced in the American Flagg! Special #1 (Nov. 1986).

As Howard Chaykin wrote in the afterword “Oh, Now You Get it?” for the Time² Omnibus: “I had made critical gold with American Flagg!, and took that as a sign I could write my own ticket….

When the pair of Time² graphic novels came out in 1986 and 1987, readers regarded them as, to be kind, enigmatic.

“It’s work that addresses techniques, concepts, ideas, and situations that I find interesting, of course. But, and just as important, Time² is about how I find those things interesting.”

Chaykin would combine those two graphic novels and a third unpublished story in his Time² Omnibus published by Image in 2024.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—TMNT for short— were created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird [who spoke about their co-creation in a “Pro2Pro” interview in BI #22— ed.]. It follows Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers trained in ninjutsu, who fight evil in New York City. Supporting characters include the turtles’ sensei, a rat called Splinter; their human friends April O’Neil and Casey Jones; and enemies such as Baxter Stockman, Krang, and their archenemy, the Shredder.

The franchise began as a comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which Eastman and Laird conceived, and the first issue was published in 1984 by Eastman and Laird’s company Mirage Studios. The rest is history, as they say. Toys, animated series, movies… it was huge! (Still is.)

First Graphic Novels #9, 10, 16, and 20 would reprint the early run of the TMNT Mirage Studio comics.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

Things Are Gettin’ Grim, Jack!

John Ostrander and Flint Henry’s Demon Knight starred Ostrander’s popular Grimjack in a lavishly rendered graphic novel format. (inset) Its cover, by Keith Parkinson. © First Comics, Inc./John Ostrander.

BADGER

Badger, created by writer Mike Baron and illustrated by several artists over the years, started as a four-issue run at Capital Comics [see BI #40]. When Capital went under, the series moved to First Comics and ran there for 66 issues, a miniseries, and a one-shot.

Badger also popped into Nexus comics on occasion.

In the 17th graphic novel from First Comics, Badger: Hexbreaker, Mike Baron and artist Bill Reinhold tell the incredible story of Badger’s inclusion in a “once-everyhundred-years martial arts tournament pitting the hundred greatest martial arts experts against each other in hand-to-hand combat,” as reported on the back cover blurb.

MAZINGER

Graphic novel #22 was something completely new—manga in color! It was a slightly different size, wider and shorter than standard. It had painted art, and very little dialogue.

As the blurbs on the back cover exclaimed: “Go Nagai, the father and master of the giant robot genre, recreates the legend as never before. With his new fully painted Mazinger, Nagai reaffirms his position as one of the pre-eminent artists and animators of Japan and the world.

“Mazinger: The first Japanese manga ever produced in full vivid color. Mazinger: The first manga ever produced specifically for an American market. Mazinger: A world premiere. Mazinger: The Robot from Hell.”

If you enjoy manga or giant robot comics, or just beautiful painted art, this one must be seen to be appreciated.

GRIMJACK

Grimjack was created by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman.

It began as a backup feature in issue #10 of the First series (continued from the Pacific Comics series; see The Pacific Comics Companion) Starslayer [BACK ISSUE also covered Grimjack, in issue #9—ed.]. The setting for the stories was the pandimensional city of Cynosure.

The Grimjack backup story, which ran from issues #10 through 17, was popular with the readers of Starslayer, so First Comics gave the character his own title. Grimjack guest-starred in the main Starslayer story in issue #18. The First Comics series ran 81 issues from 1984–1991, all written by John Ostrander, working with changing teams of artists.

With the 24th graphic novel, Grimjack: Demon Knight, Ostrander, utilizing the artwork of Flint Henry, finally reveals secrets about the “Demon Wars” talked about in the regular series. The series impressed science fiction writer Roger Zelazny so much, he asked to write the introduction to the graphic novel.

GRAPHIC ALBUMS AND PERIPHERALS

Several of First’s graphic novels like the Nexus, Elric, and TNMT books were were “graphic albums”—collections of issues from those titles.

First Graphic Novel #12, Jon Sable, Freelance, collected the first six issues of the original First series by written and drawn by Mike Grell, starring children’s writer/mercenary Jon Sable [see BI #10].

Issue #18 Hawkmoon: Jewel in the Skull, collected the five issues of the First miniseries from 1986 about the character created by Michael Moorcock.

Issue #25, Team Yankee, was a smaller-sized edition co-published with Berkley Books that collected the First miniseries from 1988 that adapted the bestselling novel.

First Comics also published 45 issues of the manga sensation Lone Wolf and Cub in the Prestige Format, basically trade paperbacks in a standard comic book size.

First Comics’ final major project of the first incarnation of the company was a revival of Classics Illustrated. In partnership with Berkley Books, First acquired the rights to the name Classics Illustrated, and returned with new adaptations featuring a lineup of artists that included Kyle Baker, Dean Motter, Mike Ploog, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Staton, Rick Geary, and Gahan Wilson. The line only lasted from 1990–1991 for 27 issues.

STEPHAN FRIEDT has been around comics for more than 50 years and writing about them since his first letter was published in a Marvel comic in 1973.

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

FIRST GRAPHIC NOVELS CHECKLIST #1: Beowulf (1985) Original material. Script, art, and colors by Jerry Bingham.

#10: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Book II (June 1987) Reprints Mirage’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4–6.

Script and art by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. At least three printings. #11 (NN): Time²: The Satisfaction of Black Mariah (Sept. 1987) Original material. Script and art

by Howard Chaykin. #12 (NN): Jon Sable, Freelance (Sept 1987) Reprints First Comics’ Jon Sable, Freelance #1–6. Script and art

by Mike Grell.

#2: Time Beavers (1985) Script by Timothy Truman and Mark Acres (co-plotter), art by Timothy Truman. #3: American Flagg!: Hard Times (June 1985) Reprints First Comics’ American Flagg! #1–3. Script, pencils, and inks by Howard Chaykin. #4: Original Nexus (Nov. 1985) Reprints Capital Comics’ magazine-sized Nexus #1–3.

Script by Mike Baron, pencils and inks by Steve Rude.

#13 (NN): American Flagg!

Southern Comfort (Oct. 1987) Reprints First Comics’ American Flagg! #4–6. Script and art by Howard Chaykin. Available in trade paperback and hardcover editions.

#17 (NN): Badger: Hexbreaker (Mar. 1988) Original material. Script

by Mike Baron, art by Bill Reinhold.

#24 (NN): Grimjack: Demon Knight (Nov. 1989) Original material.

Script by John Ostrander, art by Flint Henry.

#18 (NN): Hawkmoon: Jewel in the Skull (June 1988) Reprints First Comics’ Hawkmoon: Jewel in the Skull #1–5. Created by Michael Moorcock, adapted by Gerry Conway, art by Rafael Kayanan.

#25 (NN): Team Yankee (Mar. 1989) Reprints First Comics’ Team Yankee #1–6. Based on the New York Times’ bestselling novel by Harold Coyle.

Co-published with Berkley Books. Smaller format. Adapted

by David Drake, art by Rod Whigham.

#19 (NN): The Forgotten Forest of Oz (Oct. 1988) Original material. Script and art

by Eric Shanower. #20 (NN): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Book IV (Nov. 1988) Reprints Mirage’s Leonardo #1 (1986) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10–11 (1987).

Script and art by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

#14 (NN): Elric: Sailor on the Seas of Fate (Nov. 1987) Reprints First Comics’ Elric: Sailor on the Seas #1–7 (1985). Story

by Michael Moorcock, adaptation by Roy Thomas, cover

by P. Craig Russell, interior art

by Michael T. Gilbert, inks and colors by George Freeman.

#26 (NN): The Next Nexus (Oct. 1989) Reprints First Comics’ The Next Nexus #1–4. Script by Mike Baron, pencils and inks by Steve Rude. The painted cover

by Steve Rude is original to this edition.

#5: The Enchanted Apples of Oz (Apr. 1986) Original material. Script and art

by Eric Shanower. #6 (NN): Elric of Melnibone (May 1986) Reprints the Pacific Comics’ Elric of Melnibone #1–6 (1983).

Script (adaptation of Michael Moorcock novel) by Roy Thomas, pencils by P. Craig Russell and Michael T. Gilbert, inks by P. Craig Russell. #7: The Secret Island of Oz (Oct. 1986) Original material. Script and art

by Eric Shanower. #8: Time²: The Epiphany (Nov. 1986) Original material. Script and art

by Howard Chaykin. #9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Book I (Nov. 1986) Reprints Mirage’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1–3.

Script and art by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. At least four printings.

#21 (NN): Lone Wolf and Cub Deluxe Format (Nov. 1988) Reprints First Comics’ Lone Wolf and Cub #1–6. Dust jacket cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz, book cover art by Frank Miller, written by Kazuo Koike, art by Goseki Kojima. #15 (NN): The Ice King of Oz (Nov. 1987) Original material. Script and art

by Eric Shanower. #16 (NN): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Book III (Dec. 1987) Reprints Mirage’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7–9, plus a new story, “Shellshock.”

Script and art by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Dave Sim. At least three printings.

#22 (NN): Mazinger (Dec. 1988) Original material. Script and painted art by Go Nagai, English adaptation by David Lewis and Alex Wald. #23 (NN): American Flagg!

State of the Union (Apr. 1989) Reprints First Comics’ American Flagg! #7–9. Script and art by Howard Chaykin. Available in trade paperback and hardcover editions.

78 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue

#27 (NN): Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf (Sept. 1990) Reprints First Comics’ Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf #1–5 (1986–1987) and stories from Marvel Comics’ Epic Illustrated #14 (1982). Cover art by Robert Gould, story by Michael Moorcock, adaptation

by Roy Thomas and Michael T. Gilbert, interior art by Michael T. Gilbert, P. Craig Russell, and George Freeman.

Either way, there is all this time spent immersing myself in the medium I love so much. Hmmm, in retrospect, I guess that is a good thing.

You know, I really love BACK ISSUE all the time.

— Brian Martin

Find BACK ISSUE on

YOUR DESTINY AWAITS

Just finished BACK ISSUE #151 and have to compliment you and all the writers on your hard work. The depth of information on Sandmen, Gaiman or otherwise, was over and beyond the usual standard (which normally is mindblowingly great). I love when I learn esoteric facts about the comics and their creators, and this issue did not disappoint.

— John Schwirian

NO SANCTUARY

In the “Dreaming of Sandmen” article, the author left out the Sandmen from the novel/movie/TV show/Marvel comic Logan’s Run. — Mark Drummond Thanks for the reminder!

THERE’S A THIN LINE

You know, I really hate BACK ISSUE sometimes.

Take issue #151. Having transcribed the Neil Gaiman interview, the other major interview of the issue was what really got me excited. That’s not to belittle all of the other articles contained therein. As always, I enjoyed everything in the magazine.

I loved Sandman Mystery Theatre when it was released.

It was a gritty take on an old hero that I always had a soft spot for, and though the subject matter was often extreme, it seemed to have more hope and was not oppressively grim like a lot of other series at the time. It had adult characters who acted like real people.

So having the two main architects of the series story wise examine the minutiae of the series had me doing my Pavlovian dog impression, and the article did not disappoint.

The reason it makes me angry is, now I have to go back and reread the series, taking these new thematic insights into consideration! And this is not the first time this has happened after reading a BI article. Heck, sometimes it’s an article about a series I’d never read before. So then I get to experience something totally new as well as knowing intriguing background information!

Ambush Bug TM & © DC Comics.

BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows. All Rights Reserved.

WAKING UP TO THE GOLDEN AGE SANDMAN

I’ve written to you before about the various series which I’ve collected, years after the event, having read about them in the pages of BACK ISSUE. There’s another series now to add to that list: Sandman Mystery Theatre. I knew about the Wesley Dodds Sandman character from Golden Age reprints, and his occasional crossovers in Justice League of America. When the Justice Society was rebooted and rebranded in the ’70s and ’80s, the Sandman—with his brightly colored suit, gas mask, and gun—never quite made the cut. So when another new title hit the stands in the early ’90s, my limited comic-buying funds could not stretch to it, although in truth I didn’t give it much of a look.

But after I read the “Pro2Pro” interview with Matt Wagner and Steven Seagle in BACK ISSUE #151, I was sufficiently intrigued. Never one to do things by halves, I tracked down a complete run of the title. I’ve done the same in the past with a few other multi-issue BI featured titles that have piqued my interest, but I think that Sandman Mystery Theatre is going to be the best of them. The stories are engaging and intricately plotted, but are never so elongated that the mysteries outstay their welcome.

The four-issue runs work very well. I’m not far into the series, but I can already see the ensemble of characters developing, and the Guy Davis artwork is wonderful.

The 1930s atmosphere is well conveyed, both through the art and the language. It’s interesting to look at the language, in particular, from a distance of 30 years, and the writers themselves remarked upon it. Matt Wagner defended the use of occasional racist language on the grounds of context, and here I would agree. But it is a fine line to tread, and needs to be done with sensitivity. I suspect that such language would be much more problematic today, in a comic of 2024, although that is a whole other discussion.

— Simon Bullivant

TM & © DC Comics.

Send your comments to: Email: rogerash@hotmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Roger Ash, Editor • BACK ISSUE 2715 Birchwood Pass Apt. 7 • Cross Plains, WI 53528

Next issue: We pay tribute to the late KEITH GIFFEN with a star-studded celebration of the work of the prolific writer/artist of Legion of Super-Heroes, Rocket Raccoon, Justice League, Lobo, Guardians of the Galaxy, Blue Beetle, and many more hits from the Bronze Age and beyond! Featuring CARY BATES, TOM BIERBAUM, J. M. DeMATTEIS, DAN DiDIO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, SCOTT KOBLISH, PAUL LEVITZ, KEVIN MAGUIRE, BART SEARS, MARK WAID, and more!

Re-presenting the cover of Son of Ambush Bug #6 by Giffen and BOB OKSNER. Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, almost retired editor-in-chief

Bronze Age Graphic Novels Issue • BACK ISSUE • 79

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ZOWIE!

THE TV SUPERHERO CRAZE IN ’60s POP CULTURE

by MARK VOGER

HOLY PHENOMENON! In the way-out year of 1966, the action comedy “Batman” starring ADAM WEST premiered and triggered a tsunami of super swag, including toys, games, Halloween costumes, puppets, action figures, and lunch boxes.

Meanwhile, still more costumed avengers sprang forth on TV (“The Green Hornet,” “Ultraman”), in MOVIES (“The Wild World of Batwoman,” “Rat Pfink and Boo Boo”), and in ANIMATION (“Space Ghost,” “The Marvel Super Heroes”).

ZOWIE! traces the history of the superhero genre from early films, through the 1960s TV superhero craze, and its pop culture influence ever since. This 192-page hardcover, in pop art colors that conjure the period, spotlights the coolest collectibles and kookiest knockoffs every ’60s kid begged their parents for, and features interviews with the TV stars (WEST, BURT WARD, YVONNE CRAIG, FRANK GORSHIN, BURGESS MEREDITH, CESAR ROMERO, JULIE NEWMAR, VAN WILLIAMS), the artists behind the comics (JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA), and others. Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, HOLLY JOLLY), ZOWIE! is one super read!

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AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1945-49

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

This long awaited volume documents the comic book industry during the aftermath of World War II, when scores of writers and artists returned from foreign battlefields to resume their careers. It was a period when readers began turning away from the escapist entertainment offered by super-heroes in favor of other genres, like the grittier, more brutal Crime comics. It was a time when JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY inaugurated a golden age of Romance comics, Timely and National Comics capitalized on the popularity of Westerns, BILL GAINES plotted a new course for EC Comics, and JERRY SIEGEL and JOE SHUSTER first sued for the rights to Superman. These are just a few of the events chronicled in this exhaustive, full-color hardcover. Taken together, AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES forms a cohesive, linear overview of comics history, sure to be an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast!

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COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION (EXPANDED EDITION) by KEITH DALLAS & JOHN WELLS

NOW IN FULL-COLOR WITH BONUS PAGES! In 1978, DC Comics launched a line-wide expansion known as “The DC Explosion,” but pulled the plug weeks later, cancelling titles and leaving dozens of completed comic book stories unpublished. Now, that notorious “DC Implosion” is examined with an exhaustive oral history from JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, AL MILGROM, and other DC creators of the time, plus commentary by other top pros, examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever! This new EXPANDED EDITION of the Eisner Award-nominated book explodes in full cover for the first time, with extra coverage of LOST 1970S DC PROJECTS like Ninja the Invisible and an adaptation of “The Wiz,” Jim Starlin’s unaltered cover art for BATMAN FAMILY #21, content meant for cancelled Marvel titles such as Godzilla and Ms. Marvel, and more! NOW SHIPPING! (144-page FULL-COLOR SOFTCOVER) $26.95 • (Digital Edition) $10.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-124-0

MARVEL COMICS In The EARLY 1960s

by PIERRE COMTOIS

This new volume in the ongoing “MARVEL COMICS IN THE...” series takes you all the way back to that company’s legendary beginnings, when gunfighters traveled the West and monsters roamed the Earth! Featured here are the best of those stories not covered previously, completing issue-by-issue reviews of EVERY MARVEL COMIC OF NOTE FROM 1961-1965!

Presented are scores of handy, easy to reference entries on AMAZING FANTASY, TALES OF SUSPENSE (and ASTONISH), STRANGE TALES, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, RAWHIDE KID, plus issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, AVENGERS, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and others that weren’t in the previous 1960s edition. It’s author PIERRE COMTOIS’ last word on Marvel’s early years, when JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, and DON HECK, together with writer/editor STAN LEE (and brother LARRY LIEBER), built an unprecedented new universe of excitement! NOW SHIPPING! (224-page TRADE PAPERBACK) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-126-4

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ALTER EGO #191

ALTER EGO #192

ALTER EGO #193

ALTER EGO #194

ALTER EGO #195

#191 is an FCA (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA) issue! Documenting the influence of MAC RABOY’s Captain Marvel Jr. on the life, career, and look of ELVIS PRESLEY during his stellar career, from the 1950s through the 1970s! Plus: Captain Marvel co-creator BILL PARKER’s complete testimony from the DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and other surprises!

MARK CARLSON-GHOST documents the mid-1950s super-hero revival featuring The Human Torch, Captain America, SubMariner, Fighting American, The Avenger, Phantom Lady, The Flame, Captain Flash, and others—with art by JOHN ROMITA, JOHN BUSCEMA, BILL EVERETT, SIMON & KIRBY, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MORT MESKIN, BOB POWELL, and other greats! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

An abridgment of EDDY ZENO’s “Drawn to Greatness” book, showcasing Superman artists who followed JOE SHUSTER: WAYNE BORING, PAUL CASSIDY, FRED RAY, JACK BURNLEY, WIN MORTIMER, and others. With appreciations by ORDWAY, KUPPERBERG, ISABELLA, JURGENS, WAID, MACCHIO, NEARY, NOWLAN, EURY, THOMAS, and more! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

ROY THOMAS celebrates 60 years in comics! Career-spanning interview by ALEX GRAND, e-mails to Roy from STAN LEE, the history of Wolverine’s creation, RT’s 1960s fan-letters to JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and his top dozen stories compiled by JOHN CIMINO! With art by BUSCEMA, KANE, ADAMS, WINDSOR-SMITH, COLAN, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and cover by TONY GRAY!

NEAL ADAMS REVISITED! Interviews by ALEX GRAND and BILL FIELD, as well as EMILIO SOLTERA—and an overview of Neal’s merchandising art for Marvel and DC Comics and in other fields, conducted by JAMES ROSEN! Plus Adams art, as inked

by PALMER, GIORDANO, VERPOORTEN, ROUSSOS, SINNOTT, DEZUNIGA, and others! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #91

KIRBY COLLECTOR #92

KIRBY COLLECTOR #93

KIRBY COLLECTOR #94

BRICKJOURNAL #87

30th Anniversary issue, with KIRBY’S GREATEST VICTORIES! Jack gets the girl (wife ROZ), early hits Captain America and Boy Commandos, surviving WWII, romance comics, Captain Victory and the direct market, his original art battle with Marvel, and finally winning credit! Plus MARK EVANIER, a colossal gallery of Kirby’s winningest pencil art, a never-reprinted SIMON & KIRBY story, and more!

IN THE NEWS! Rare newspaper interviews with Jack, 1973 San Diego panel with Jack and NEAL ADAMS discussing DC’s coloring, strips Kirby ghosted for others, unused strip concepts, collages, a never-reprinted Headline Comics tale, Jimmy Olsen pencil art gallery, 2024 WonderCon Kirby panel (featuring DAVID SCHWARTZ, GLEN GOLD, and RAY WYMAN), and more!

Cover inked by DAVID REDDICK!

SUPPORTING PLAYERS! Almost-major villains like Kanto the Assassin and Diablo, Rodney Rumpkin, Mr. Little, the Falcon, Randu Singh, and others take center stage!

Plus: 1970 interview with Jack by SHEL DORF, MARK EVANIER’s 2024 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con, neverreprinted Simon & Kirby story, pencil art gallery, and more! Unused Mister Miracle cover inked by MIKE ROYER!

SPACE RACES! Jack’s depictions of cosmic gods and life on other planets, including: how Ego, Tana Nile, and the Recorder took Thor to strange new worlds, OMAC’s space age future, time travelers in Kirby’s work, favorite Kirby sci-fi tropes in his stories, plus: a 1967 LEE/KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, never-reprinted Simon & Kirby story, robotic pencil art gallery, cover inked by TERRY AUSTIN!

Take to the air with JESSE GROS and his wondrous airships! KEVIN COPA’s renditions of the ships from International Rescue, a.k.a. the Thunderbirds, are also featured, as well as JACK CARLESON and his airliners! Plus BRICKNERD, BANTHA BRICKS: Fans of LEGO Star Wars, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #36 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #37 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #38 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #39 AMERICAN COMIC BOOK STEVE ENGLEHART is spotlighted in RICK VEITCH discusses his career from THOMAS YEATES career-spanning interCHRONICLES: 1945-49 view about the Kubert School, Swamp

TOM PALMER retrospective, career-spanning interview, and tributes compiled by GREG BIGA. LEE MARRS chats about assisting on Little Orphan Annie, work for DC’s Plop! and underground Pudge, Girl Blimp!

The start of a multi-part look at the life and career of DAN DIDIO, part two of our ARNOLD DRAKE interview, public service comics produced by students at the CENTER FOR CARTOON STUDIES, & more!

a career-spanning interview, former DC Comics’ romance editor BARBARA FRIEDLANDER redeems the late DC editor JACK MILLER, DAN DIDIO discusses going from DC exec to co-publisher, we conclude our 100th birthday celebration for ARNOLD DRAKE, take a look at the 1970s underground comix oddity THE FUNNY PAGES, and more, including HEMBECK!

undergrounds and the Kubert School; the ’80s with 1941, Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal; to Swamp Thing, The One, Brat Pack, and Maximortal! Plus TOM VEITCH’s history of ’70s underground horror comix, part one of a look at cartoonist ERROL McCARTHY, the story behind Studio Zero— the ’70s collective of artists STARLIN, BRUNNER, WEISS, and others, and more!

Thing, Eclipse Comics, and adventure strips Zorro, Tarzan, and Prince Valiant! GREG POTTER discusses his ’70s Warren horror comics and ’80s reboot of Wonder Woman with GEORGE PÉREZ, WARREN KREMER is celebrated by MARK ARNOLD, plus part one of a look at the work of STEVE WILLIS, part two of ERROL McCARTHY, and more!

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Covers the aftermath of WWII, when comics shifted from super-heroes to crime, romance, and western comics, BILL GAINES plotted a new course for EC Comics, and SIEGEL & SHUSTER sued for rights to Superman! By RICHARD ARNDT, KURT MITCHELL, and KEITH DALLAS.

(288-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-099-1

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BACK ISSUE #155

BACK ISSUE #157

BACK ISSUE #158

BACK ISSUE #159

BACK ISSUE #160

KEITH GIFFEN TRIBUTE ISSUE! Starstudded celebration of the prolific writer/ artist of Legion of Super-Heroes, Rocket Raccoon, Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, Lobo, Blue Beetle, and others!

With CARY BATES, TOM BIERBAUM, J.M. DeMATTEIS, DAN DIDIO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CULLY HAMNER, SCOTT KOBLISH, PAUL LEVITZ, KEVIN MAGUIRE, BART SEARS, MARK WAID, and more!

HEY, MISTER ISSUE! The FF’s Mr. Fantastic, STEVE DITKO’s Mr. A, the 40th anniversary of MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Mr. Monster, Mr. X, the Teen Titans’ Mr. Jupiter, R. CRUMB’s Mr. Natural, Archie’s Mr. Weatherbee, and a Mr. Freeze villain history! Featuring BYRNE, CARDY, CONWAY, DeCARLO, DINI, ENGLEHART, the HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, MOTTER, and more!

Cover by ED McGUINNESS.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 40th ANNIVERSARY! Pre-Crisis tour of DC’s multiple Earths, analysis of Crisis and its crossovers, Crisis Death List, post-Crisis DC retro projects, guest editorial by MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Featuring BARR, ENGLEHART, GREENBERGER, LEVITZ, MAGGIN, MOENCH, ORDWAY, THOMAS, WAID, and more! With GEORGE PÉREZ’S Crisis on Infinite Earths Index #1 cover.

SUMMER FUN ISSUE! Marvel’s Superhero Swimsuit Editions, Betty and Veronica swimsuit gallery, DC’s Strange Sports Stories, the DC/Marvel softball rivalry, San Diego Comic-Con history, Impossible Man Summer Vacation Specials, DC Slurpee cups, DC/Whitman variants, and more!

Featuring BATES, DeCARLO, HUGHES, JIM LEE, LOPRESTI, MAGGIN, ROZAKIS, STELFREEZE, and more! GUICE cover.

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

THIS ISSUE IS HAUNTED! House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Unexpected, Marvel’s failed horror anthologies, Haunted Tank, Eerie Publications, House II adaptation, Elvira’s House of Mystery, and more wth NEAL ADAMS, MIKE W. BARR, DICK GIORDANO, SAM GLANZMAN, ROBERT KANIGHER, JOE ORLANDO, STERANKO, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and others. Unused cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ & WRIGHTSON.

RETROFAN #36

RETROFAN #37

RETROFAN #38

RETROFAN #39

Feel the G-Force of Eighties sci-fi toon BATTLE OF THE PLANETS! Plus: The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’s STEFANIE POWERS, CHUCK CONNORS, The Oddball World of SCTV, Rankin/Bass’ stop-motion Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, TV’s Greatest Catchphrases, one-season TV shows, and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER & MICHAEL EURY.

The Jetsons, Freaky Frankensteins, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling’s HOLLYWOOD, the Archies and other Saturday morning rockers, Star Wars copycats, Build Your Own Adventure books, crazy kitchen gadgets, toymaker MARVIN GLASS, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Tune in to Saturday morning super-heroes Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Mod Squad, Hanna-Barbera cartoonists, Jesus Christ Superstar, Mr. Potato Head, ‘Old Yeller” actress BEVERLY WASHBURN, Flying Nun collectibles, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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BACK ISSUE #161

MUTANT MAYHEM ISSUE! BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH’s Weapon X Wolverine, the romance of Havok and Polaris, Rogue and Nightcrawler limited series, Brood and Arcade villain histories, “Mutant Massacre” crossover, and more! With JON BOGDANOVE, JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, LOUISE SIMONSON, MIKE WIERINGO, and more!

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