As we begin the countdown to the big day, I thought I would look out some of my favourite 1970's comics which contained a Christmas story, or at least a tale that occurred in winter (basically anything with snow!). First up is "...And to all a Good Night" from Amazing Adventures #5 (1970) by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Bill Everett. I didn't actually pick this comic up until around 1976 a year in which the UK experienced an unusually hot summer, so the winter theme of this tale may have been lost on me, but the stunning art and the Black Widow made up for that.
In 1970 when Marvel decided to launch a couple of anthology titles the Black Widow was chosen to get her own series. John Romita who was initially going to draw the feature, designed her new costume (gone were the spectacles and frumpy clothes etc) bringing her into the 1970's. As it turned out John Buscema drew the first few issues before Gene Colan took over the art chores.
In 1976 my knowledge of the Black Widow was limited to her occasional appearances in the pages of the Avengers (UK weekly) and in the Iron Man tales that were reprinted in "Spider-Man Comics Weekly". Most of these tales were drawn by Don Heck so it came as a pleasant surprise to 16-year-old me to see Gene Colan's wonderfully sexy art on Natasha showing her in the shower naked (although covered up by a strategically placed towel).
In this story a young man is about to kill himself when Ivan, the Black Widows chauffeur saves his life. It turns out the young man is mixed up with a dangerous gang led by the Astrologer who want him dead. Ivan gives the teen the Black Widows card telling him that she can help him. In the end the young man sacrifices himself to save Natasha. A rather dark tale for 1970.
To wrap up a wonderful issue was the lead "Inhumans" strip in Amazing Adventure illustrated by the great Neal Adams. Below is the cover to this excellent comic.
Next up, Spider-Man at Christmas, but not the Spidey of the comic books!
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Both Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales (Dr. Doom and Ka-zar) were faves of mine. All these characters demanded solo series. The Widow's adventures were great, and she was the sexiest thing in comics at the time aside from Vampirella. The Colan-Everett team was fantastic, as I loved Everett's inks wherever they showed up.
ReplyDeleteAmazing Adventures at this time is certainly one of my all time favourites titles especially the pre Killraven/War of the World issues ( which I also enjoyed) . Everett was a great inker for Colan , it's just a pity they weren't the art team for longer with Don Heck taking over from #6.
ReplyDeleteThe splash page with Black Bolt is a bit 'off', layout-wise, and Adams' attempt at BB in a Kirby pose is a poor reflection of how JK would've drawn (and drew) the same pose. The Widow pages are nice though.
DeleteI loved the Adams Inhumans strip but I agree the splash page as good as it is, is a bit off scale
ReplyDeleteYou've motivated me to take my Amazing Adventures out of the long-box and read this comic. I only recently collected a small run of reading copies of them for the Adams-drawn Inhumans, and didn't bother to read the Black Widow stories....obviously a major mistake on my part, as I was a fan both of Gene Colan and Black Widow from his work on Daredevil.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great run of comics Ian but Gene the Dean only drew issues 3,4 and 5 the others were John Buscema (#1&2) and Don Heck issue 6 ,7 and 8
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