Bring on the Back Ups: Tales of the New Gods - Frank Miller

To many comic book fans Jack Kirby's New Gods series (February 1971 – October 1972) was the peak of his many artistic endeavours and is considered to be one of the most important comic book series of all time. However, from the few issues I managed to pick up at the time these stories really didn’t interest me, perhaps as an 10-11 year old its deeper concepts went over my head (I wasn’t the smartest kid) or maybe it was because I was just more interested in “traditional” superhero type comics. Rip Jaggers blog has just completed an excellent series of articles on Kirby’s classic series that are worth reading (if you haven’t already). For myself, my first real interest in the New Gods characters came many years later when Walt Simonson took on the adventures of Kirby’s brooding New Gods protagonist Orion in an excellent series that ran for 25 issues between 2000 and 2002. As good as the main story was (and it was ) there were several interesting back-up strips that appeared under the title “Tales of the New Gods” (a series that began in John Byrne's “Jack Kirby's Fourth World” comic in 1997-1998). Below is one of my favourites formthe Orion comic by Frank Miller:

Below the cover to "Orion" issue 3 where this tale is taken from.

Marvelmania: Posters - Part 2 -Kirby, Trimpe, Romita, Steranko, Purcell

Of all the Marvelmania adverts perhaps the most iconic were the ads for their Superhero posters. These were large 2ft x 3ft posters featuring some of Marvels top characters of the time that were released in two sets. My personal favourite, set B (advert above) featured three classic Jack Kirby posters of the FF, Silver Surfer, and Thor along with the rather strange addition of a Black Knight poster which was credited to artist Howard Purcell.

The Black Knight poster seemed to be a strange addition to this set as the character wasn't particularly popular (and was totally unknown to myself) at the time. However, I do remember thinking it was an excellent poster. Howard Purcell is not an artist I am aware of but his style looks a bit like John Buscema to me.

Set A (advert above) was also pretty impressive and featured the art of Kirby, Sternanko,Romita and Herb Trimpe.

The Hulk poster was pencilled by Kirby and redrawn by (then current) Hulk artist Herb Trimpe.

John Romita's Spider-Man poster was also based on a Kirby original (see below - coloured version of Kirbys original pencils from "The Kirby Collector" magazine) .

Dr Doom by Kirby. At this time Dr Doom had his own strip in Astonsihing Tales and was of course arguably Marvels main bad guy, so a poster was a good choice. This is one of my all time favourite Kirby pieces of comic art.

Set A was rounded of by the above Steranko Captain Americ poster - another belter.

Above: Kirbys origial Spider-Man poster.

Marvelmania: Comic book artists - Part 1 .

As a child in the late 1960’s early 1970’s I was always fascinated by the house ads that appeared in Marvel comics that seemed to offer an endless supply of merchandise featuring various Marvel characters. Of particular interest to myself were the posters of the artists that actually drew theses strips shown beavering away at their drawing boards some with representation of their characters interacting with them. Up until that point it never really occurred to me that there was a talented adult artist behind all these wonderful comics. I would spend hours looking at the miniature reproductions of some of these posters as they appeared in these half page ads, trying to get a better view of what the artist actually looked like.

The above ad appeared in various Marvel comics from around 1970 (this ad is taken from Daredevil #73) featuring 6 black and white artists self-portraits with biographies on the back for Gene Colan, John Romita, Herb Trimpe, John Buscema, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko. However, from memory (but I could be wrong) I seem to recall an earlier ad that originally featured a Marie Severin poster that looks to have been replaced by Jim Steranko’s. Perhaps this was added as Steranko was the hot new talented at this time.

Herb Trimpe's poster was always my favourite . A fully coloured version of this poster was used as the cover to TwoMorrows book on Herbs work.

Gene Colan

John Romita. Like most of these posters this one has been repurposed several times as a poster, pin up page and/or the cover to comic art magazine.

John Buscema.

Jack Kirby - This version of the Marvelmania poster is taken from the cover of the "Jack Kirby Collector".

Jim Steranko's rather stilted offering.

Marie Severin. I seem to recall that the above art was originally used in an earlier advert for these postersin place of Jim Steranko's poster.

As noted above Jim Steranko seemed to be the hot property at this time and he produced 4 excellent posters specifically for Marvelmania.

The above poster of the Hulk was later used as the cover to FOOM issue 2. Below Spider-Man by Steranko.

I had always thought that Marvelmania was the official Marvel fan club that replaced the “Merry Marvel Marching Society” fan club, but it was actually a separate company set up by Don Wallace who licensed the use of the characters . Marvelmania operated from 1969 until 1971 and produced a plethora of merchandise including the Marvelmania fanzine, posters, superhero figurines, plastic pillows and LPs. Unfortunately the company folded in 1971 with debts and Wallace allegedly running off with any remaining cash before his creditors could catch up with him.

Favourite Covers : "I quit!"

One of the most iconic storylines in superhero comic books is when the hero decides to quit his or her role as a crime fighter. These issues were usually portrayed in an overly dramatic way on the cover with the hero walking away their head either bowed in despair or making an angry gesture and declaring that they have had enough and that they were no longer going to be anyones “whipping boy”. Of course the hero rarely “quit” for longer than a single issue before returning to active duty, but as a teenager I loved these overly dramatic tales and the "I quit" storylines did produce some excellent covers with the above issue of Spiderman #50 being arguably the most iconic of the entire genre. Below are a few of my favourite “I quit” type covers.

Sadly I do not own the above issue of the "Amazing Spider-Man" issues 50 (cover from Marvel Wiki) but I do have issue 44 of the UK "Spider-Man Comics Weekly" (above) from December 1973, which featured this story. The above SMCW cover is a slightly reformatted version of John Romita's original.

Teen Titans #14 - March 1968 - Cover by Nick Cardy

Justice League of America #109 - February 1974 - Cover by Nick Cardy. It was Hawkman that "quit" the JLA.

Iron-Man #21 ~ January 1970 - Cover by George Tuska & Mike Esposito

Avengers #109 -March 1973 - Cover by John and Sal Buscema

Captain America #176 - August 1974 -Cover by John Romita

X-Men #138 - October 1980 - Cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin

The Flash #264 - August 1978- Cover by Joe Staton and Fank Giacoia

The New Teen Titans #39 - February 1984 - Cover by George Perez. Cover from DC Wiki - I don't have this issue but it's such an iconic "I quit" type cover I had to use it.

Superman #201 - November 1967 - Cover by Curt Swan & George Klien

Fantastic Four #191 - November 1978 - Cover by George Perez & Joe Sinnott. A

G.I. Combat #168 - January 1974 - Cover by Neal Adams