Sundown For A Superhero!

Jeff Aclin and Bob McLeod

Frank Miller and Terry Austin

Al Milgrom
When Captain Marvel was cancelled for the third time in 1979 the stories already written and drawn for the series showed up a few months later in the pages of a revived Marvel Spotlight. The first three issues of the new title were produced by Doug Moench and Pat Broderick and closed out the good Captain's struggles against sundry cosmic menaces.

Steve Ditko
The fourth issue produced drawn by the enigmatic Steve Ditko and scripted by the late great Archie Goodwin is a real charmer, but it was clearly a file story which had been set aside to forestall the "Dreaded Deadline Doom" which afflicted so many Marvel series during the era. It's neat to think that Ditko put his creative hand to the character who was in point of fact inspired to no small degree by his own creation, Charlton's Captain Atom. Read "Shadow Doom" here.

Frank Miller and Terry Austin
Marvel Spotlight then went on to feature other characters such as Star-Lord, Dragon Lord, and Captain Universe. In the midst of that though Captain Marvel continued to appear, such as the eighth issue which featured some early impressive work by Frank Miller.

Michael Nasser
As it turns out Captain Marvel had one more Bronze Age story in him, which was scheduled for Marvel Spotlight #12. Alas the series ended with issue eleven and the story went unpublished and largely unknown for many years. The cover by Michael Nasser was produced for the never-to-be-published-on-its-own 1980 final epic.

Keiron Dwyer
The story "Last Night the Sun Came Down...and Sang to Me" written by Peter B. Gillis and drawn by Jerry Bingham and Bruce Patterson was at last published a decade later in 1990 in the third issue of the revived Marvel Super-Heroes, a series specifically developed it seems to clear out the files in Marvel's offices.

The story dealt with Appala the Queen of the Sun and how Captain Marvel was accidentally harming her. For more check out this link.

In the case of Captain Marvel, a hero cancelled and revived repeatedly, the sun came down exceedingly slowly. But it did eventually come down. 

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Gemini Two!

Here is a delightful Captain Atom image by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. This is a better and more complete scan of the magnificent art than when I featured it in this post. The striking similarity between the Captains Marvel and Atom is well on display in this awesome illustration.  Cosmic baby!

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Skullduggery!

There's no denying the sheer excitement that Jim Starlin brought to the moribund Captain Marvel comic book. As much as I personally adore the original Kree Captain, it's clear that cancellation which had come so many times before was inevitable had not Starlin injected the series with his then still-new style of cosmic wonder.  He changed Mar-Vell into another kind of hero entirely, but it turns out it was a hero who was still compelling to read.

That said, like many visionaries, Starlin did not seem to have a firm grip on all the details of production, at least not in the opinion of his editorial masters. Here we see the artwork for the downright exciting cover for Captain Marve #31 by Starlin and embellished by his most agile inker Al Milgrom. A close look shows that Mar-Vell's noggin seems a bit different than we might expect from the Starlin of that time. There are signs that stalwart Bullpen ace John Romita has been at work touching up Starlin's figure, making the good Kree Captain a bit more traditionally handsome in the classic Romita mode. The GCD confirms this alteration, though I must confess it is blended in exceedingly neatly.

It would not be the first time Romita did that. It's much more obvious on this earlier issue of Captain Marvel from Starlin illustrious run.

Compared with this original artwork, in which the refined head is missing, the changes are all too evident. It's always fascinating to me, that for all the often much deserved attention we laud on particular grand talents in comics, that the medium is very much a collaborative effort.

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Vampire Tales!

Bob Larkin
When Marvel jumped into the black and white magazine business in a big way in the early 70's, they did it with gusto. Riding the wave of interest in monster characters which had blossomed in the color comics, they sought to do a somewhat more "mature" version of these characters in the less restricted black and white arena. Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed featured iconic monsters, Dracula and Frankenstein respectively, characters with at least some name recognition beyond the Marvel Universe.

Not so with Vampire Tales, a title which featured the misadventures of Marvel's own Morbius the Living Vampire. Created in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, Michael Morbius was a neat fusion of science and sorcery and a striking character visually. He is featured in these issues with some very muscular artwork by Pablo Marcos, Rich Buckler and later Tom Sutton. Also on hand in this series was Satana the Devil's Daughter and sibling to Damon Hellstrom, and a spin-off character from the successful Tomb of Dracula series, Blade the Vampire Killer.  The series ran for eleven issues plus an annual full of reprint material. Then the black and white boom was done and the characters moved onto mostly four-color adventures since.

Until now.

Recently Marvel reprinted the whole of the Vampire Tales material in three not-quite digest-sized volumes. The reprints are on quality stock and featured the color covers in vivid hues. The magazines are reprinted in order and in total.  All the material is  here,  including vintage articles on all manner of things vampire and horror in general. It's always a hoot to read contemporaneous articles about movies which have long ago become classics. These little volumes are true time capsules from the early 1970's, one of my favorite places to hang out.

Never shy about its vintage material Marvel also included lots of stuff from the 1950's Atlas days in these comics to fill them out. It's all here. The volumes at twenty bucks stalled me, it seemed this stuff was worthy of single Essentials volume, but this past week I was able to bring two of the volumes home with some in-store credits and picked up the third one off Amazon for small money. So given that, I'm able to enjoy without feeling especially gouged.

Below are the covers of the three new volumes, done in a very low-key two-tone style along with the issues they contain. There's something disturbingly attractive about the truly lurid covers for Vampire Tales.

Pablo Marcos

Estaban Maroto

Jose Antonio Domingo

Luis Dominguez

Pablo Marcos

Boris Vallejo

Estaban Maroto

Boris Vallejo

Jose Antonio Domingo

Tony DeZuniga

Jose Antionio Domingo

Jose Antionio Domingo

Richard Hescox

Richard Hescox
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Devil Doctor Daddy!

Master of Kung Fu is one of those great comic series that came out of nowhere. Suddenly it was upon us, born out of the pop culture obsession with matters Oriental generally and martial arts specifically. The idea to adapt television's Kung Fu was the spur, but that niche to no small degree had been unofficially filled by Charlton's Yang as I point out here. Shang-Chi was clearly in the tradition of the laconic but lethal fighters played by Bruce Lee with such aplomb. But the genius of Master of Kung Fu was taking that premise of an estranged son fighting against the mysterious forces of his own father and placing that struggle in the licensed universe Sax Rohmer's utterly fantastic "Yellow Perilous" mastermind, the Devil Doctor himself Fu-Manchu.

This decision added immediate depth and scope to the story. The rich tapestry of past stories woven by Rohmer were suddenly in play. I'd never personally read those stories, so this was my first exposure to Fu-Manchu, but it was clear from the natures of Sir Nayland Smith and Dr.Petrie that there was much history concerning the Asian menace.

Sadly this licensed backdrop is the same thing which precludes these stories being reprinted. It's amazing that Marvel with the huge resources of the "House of Mouse" behind it cannot put together a deal which would make this happen, but there it is.

Here's the amazing piece of artwork which served as cover to Shang-Chi's debut. This work by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, the "Gemini" team is a stunner and even more so in this raw form.

Here is the artwork transformed into a house ad for the series. I love the "subtle" way they try to get you to take notice of this small series begun so humbly.
 

The Fu-Manchu novels are currently being reprinted in the chronological order of their publication by Titan Books. I've savored all four volumes so far, the latest Daughter of Fu-Manchu the first of the post-WWI stories was really gripping. I'm eager for the next installment The Mask of Fu-Manchu due out this spring.

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Drums Across The Newsstands!

It's a tradition to make a great noise when welcoming the New Year. This comic book cover drum corps gallery should fill that bill neatly as they stride across the covers banging away on those giant bass drums. That should drive out any evil spirits who want to sneak over into the new year.

Happy New Year Everybody!

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Happy New Year!

The coming year is going to be a good one I hope and pray. The infamous 2012 has been okay, but typically I yearn for a fresh start in many areas of life. Indulge me in an annual reflection.

My wife's health proved to continue to be a tribulation this past year, but thanks to some new technology her profound back pain has been brought under control. Also her second knee replacement surgery should now allow her after several years of limitations to regain mobility and some degree of independence. As always we plan to stay away from hospitals and doctors and such, but one never knows.

My daughters have found some personal and professional stability this past year. Careers continue to plug along in the new economy and indications are right now that things will continue to improve. It was a very nice holiday this past week or so when they were in and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. Smiles and laughter were the order of the day nearly every day and that's a blessing. I miss them, and that's a good thing.

My own professional situation has stabilized this past year and with luck I hope to finish out my career in my current school. It's a top notch institution with high standards, and that pushes you every day to dig in a little harder and push a little more. Financially there's always room to improve, and with some discipline and good planning and some luck we can end 2013 ahead of schedule a bit.

On the pop culture front, I'm planning this coming year to buy far less and take still greater advantage of the riches I have stacked up in various places in the house. This past year has been a great one for reading vintage pulp adventures.  I have scores of pulp reprints to read, piles of vintage comic strip collections to peruse, and shelves full of vintage television shows and films to watch. I've plenty to dig into, lots to keep me occupied.

Now that we have all survived doomsday its time to enjoy life as much as possible. I sure plan to do so. I hope you do too. Happy New Year!

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