1974/75 may be best remembered as the year that the Atlas/Seaboard company temporarily shook up the industry by bursting onto the scene with a plethora of new comic book titles before just as quickly disappearing from the spinner racks. But it wasn't just Atlas that were creating and cancelling comic books, Marvel also produced a number of new comics in 1975 while cancelling many of their existing titles as the resurgence of the horror and suspense craze ended with the cancelation of most of their black and white line. Despite the loss of titles like "Dracula Lives" in June 1975, Marvel produced many new titles and characters featuring some of them in their existing comics such as the first full appearance of "Starhawk" from "The Defenders" issue 28 - cover above by Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia. Below are some of my favourite covers from the new batch of Marvel comics and characters from 1975:
"Invaders" - issue 1 - Cover by John Romita.
"Skull the Slayer"- issue 7 - Cover by Ron Wilson and Klaus Janson. Skull the Slayer only lasted for 8 issues but it was an interesting title. The comic featured some nice art by Sal Buscema and the highly talented Steve Gan ( who just didn’t do enough comics).
"Black Goliath" - issue 1 - Cover by Rich Buckler and Mike Esposito. I have always liked size changing characters (Giant Man, The Wasp, Colossal Boy, Ant -Man etc) and had great hopes for this series. Sadly this comic never really got of the starting blocks and ended with issue 4.
"The Champions" - issues 1 - Cover by Gil Kane an Dan Adkins. The Champions lasted a respectful 17 issues but it was never a match for other team titles like the Fantastic Four, Avengers or the Defenders.
Astonishing Tales issue 29 - cover by Gene Colan and Frank Giacoia. This excellent issue suddenly appeared after 4 issue of the "Deathlok the Demolisher series. Reprinted from "Marvel Super-Heroes" issue 19 (1969) this reprints the first appearance of the original "Guardians of the Galaxy". Later in 1975, new Guardians of the Galaxy stories would appear and the rest (after another long absence) is history.
Marvel Presents - issue 3 - Cover by John Romita. After their reprint appearance in "Astonishing Tales" issue 29 (above) in January 1975 the Guardians were given their own series in "Marvel Presents" which lasted for 10 issues (issue 3 - 12)
"Creatures on the Loose" - issue 34 - Cover by George Perez. Man-Wolf would last for 8 issues before "Creatures on the Loose" was cancelled in June 1975 as part of the cull of Marvels horror/suspense titles.
"Amazing Adventures" - issue 30- Cover by P Caig Russel. "Killraven/War of the Worlds" was an interesting comic that lasted for 22 issues before ending with issue 39.
KA-ZAR - issue 12 - cover by Jack Kirby and John Romita. This was a good series from issue 6 until issue 20 (the last issue) which featured some nice art by John Buscema , Russ Heath, Val Myerick and Larry Hama.
Warlock -issue 10 cover by Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss. After a successful run in "Strange Tales" Warlock was again given his own title starting its numbering from the previous title "Power of Warlock" (with issue 9). Sadly, this excellent series only last for 7 issues before being cancelled.
Iron Jaw - Issue 2 - Cover by Neal Adams. Obviously, this is not a Marvel comic book but in 1974/75 Atlas comics were everywhere so I thought I would add an Atlas cover to my "
1974/75 Spinner Rack" posts, plus it’s a great Neal Adams cover cover.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
Out of all the comics shown, I have 5 of them, though they're replacements I acquired years later as I didn't keep my originals. Having said that, I've had them for longer than their predecessors. I love that Marvel Presents #3 cover (Guardians), but as for Black Goliath, I'm not a fan of tacking on the word 'black' to a title in an attempt to make it socially relevant. Hank Pym or Clint Barton were never called White Goliath, so why make colour an issue?
ReplyDeleteI should add that in the case of the Black Panther, the word 'black' referred to his costume (and the animal it symbolised), not the colour of T'Challa's skin.
DeleteMost of these are the original issues that I had in the 1970s with the exception of the Invaders issue 1 which I missed at the time, and The Champions issue 1 which is a replacement . Marvel Presents 3 is a second copy as my original which I still have, is badly creased. Yeah the use of the word "Black" to denote the character was of African origin was a strange one. I only really noticed this with the Black Goliath comoc, it must seemed unnecessarily to me.
DeleteI bought every last one of these when it appeared. At this time I was still considering giving up Marvel, and I did for a few months in favor of E-Man from Charlton and the Atlas-Seaboard books. But I'd be back before very long. Warm memories.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many new comics at this time that I also stopped buying a few of my preferred Marvel, Marvel and DC titles ( I stopped almost all my Marvel UK weeklies) in order to pick up the Atlas comics. I was never going to miss a copy of E-Man though.
ReplyDeleteThat cover of The Defenders featuring Starhawk was later used as a cover on Marvel UK's Rampage weekly so it reminds me of Spring 1978 around the time I saw Star Wars at the cinema. And Skull The Slayer appeared in Marvel Comic during its' brief run in 1979.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing that issue of Rampage but I wasn't aware that Skull appeared in Marvel Weekly Colin.
ReplyDeletePaul, Skull The Slayer was definitely in Marvel Comic - he even appeared on one of the covers.
ReplyDeleteI believe you Colin I just wasn't aware that Marvel UK published that strip. I bought Marvel Comic (as it carried on my sub from MWOM) bit I rarely read it, sometimes I never even opened it so my memory is vague . Did you like the strip?
ReplyDelete