Halloween countdown - Classic Comic Book Pages - Adams and Morrow Man-Thing

The story of how Savage Tales #1 (1971) and Astonishing Tales #12 (June 1972) are linked together is a strange one. Savage Tales #1 was Marvels second attempt at entering the black and white magazine market and would star Conan, Ka-zar, and feature other then new concepts including Man-Thing who would appear in an 11 page tale written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Gray Morrow. However, Martin Goodman Marvels publisher , was not keen on entering the non-code comic magazine market and cancelled the second issue but not before a second Man-Thing tale had been prepared by Len Wein and Neal Adams a tale that would eventually be prised into the pages of a Ka-Zar story over one year later. Regardless of the eventual reasons both tales were stunningly illustrated by two of the genres artistic giants .

The above strip was republished in Monsters Unleashed #3 ( illo at header and below) and in the first issue of The Book of the Dead in 1994.

As noted above Wein and Adams had produced a second 7 page Man-Thing tale for the aborted second issue of Savage Tales. Not wishing to waste work produced by arguably two of comics tops creators the strip was passed to John Romita to tidy up and add yellow tones, before adding it into a Ka-Zar tale.

Below the cover to Astonishing Tales issue 12.

Below the magazine where it all started the excellent Savage Tales issue 1 ( as you can see my copy is badly marked)

Conan the Movie by Neal Adams?

Here's an interesting piece of Conan art from the legendary Neal Adams that was published in Savage Sword of Conan #60. A few years before the release of the first Conan movie ( 1982) Adams was approached to provide some storyboard ideas for the proposed film. Sadly these never came to fruition due to the original producer losing the rights to Conan, other fustrations with Holywood followed which resulted in Adams losing interest in the project. As an exercise he provided a set of unofficial ( and unused) storyboard ideas on the opening sequence for what would become the Conan the Barbarian movie

Below the introduction to Neals storyboard idea by Mike W Barr.

Below the cover to SSOC #60 ( art by Earl Norem).

Top Tens - James Sherman

James Sherman burst onto the comic book scene in the mid 1970's but left comics a few years later to work in advertising. During his time in comics Sherman was probably best remembered for his run on the Legion of Superheroes where he took over the art chores from Mike Grell starting from #225 until #242 ( with a few breaks in between). My favourite of his LSH run was on the excellent "Earth War Saga" ( #240 - #242) with writer Paul Levitz who he fell out with and left the title with issue 242 before returning for a final issue (#262)in 1980 when Gerry Conway became the writer. Although Sherman worked for other publishers including Marvel, his work on the Legion will always be the highlight of his tenure in the medium.

Sherman was not always paired with inkers that complimented his art. For #229 he was teamed up with Jack Abel who really was not the best inker for his style .

Another of my favourite Jim Sherman Legion of Superheroes comics was #231 ( cover below by Mike Grell) which contained some of his best splash art.

As noted above Sherman also worked for other companies including Marvel where he drew several one off issues of various titles. Below is the splash page to Silver Surfer #39 ( vol 3).

Sherman was also picked up by Red Circle Comics (Archie) where he drew the first issue of the Fly under a stunning Steranko cover.

And finally, as I need to add another illo to make it a "Top 10" is the splash page from Super-Team Family #9. Sadly Sherman was teamed up with Jack Abel for his Challengers run.

Milestones: The last Jack Kirby Fantastic Four comic

Fantastic Four #102 (September 1970) was a comic book that I picked up around 1987 in the back issue section of the now long gone Glasgow comic store Futureshock. My hope was that the book contained John Romita Seniors art but as it turned out I missed that by one issue and this issue only featured his art on the cover. On the plus side this issue featured the final collaboration of the legendary team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Marvels flagship title before Kirby left to join DC comics.

A lot has been written about Jack Kirby's decision to leave Marvel by commentators with more insight and knowledge than I have. However, having read many of the Lee/Kirby stories (in weekly instalments via Marvel UK titles ) it was clear to me that the series was struggling with the Lee/ Kirby team running out of steam and ideas. Certainly to my eyes Kirby seemed to be holding back on his art and ideas that were always his trademark. Despite this, issue 102 is a good comic it just didn't have the feeling that this was the end of comics greatest ever artistic team.

Below, Stans Soapbox focuses on Jack Kirby leaving Marvel but makes no mention of the fact that he is leaving to join the Distinctive Competition.

Below , the issue I meant to buy, Fantastic Four # 103 featuring John Romita Seniors first Fantastic Four art ( image from Marvel Fandom) . By issue 107 John Buscema would take over the art chores and the FF would go from strength to strength.

Favourite comics: Dr Strange #178 - Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Roy Thomas

I first read the above Dr Strange tale in the UK Avengers weekly comic (issues 74-76) and was blown away by Colan and Palmers artwork which at the time was going from strength to strength. So when I saw an original US copy for sale at around 9 US dollars (£8 UK) during a recent holiday, I had to pick it up. The strip in colour is even better than the UK black and white version.

Future postings and replies to any comments may be limited due to personal family issues.

Silver Surfer #1 ( Facsimile) - Stan Lee and John Buscema

Ever since I picked up my first Silver Surfer comic (issue 12) as a 10 year old in 1970 I have been a massive fan of the broody Sentinel of the Spaceways. So you can imagine my excitment to find out that Marvel will be publishing facsimile editions of the first 7 issues of his original series by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Today (Wednesday) I picked up the first issue (originally published in 1968) and I have to say that I was surprised to find out that it was such a thick book of around 50 pages of silvery fun. Although I have read these Surfer tales in various UK reprints its good to see these stories in full colour and in their original format.

In addition to the main 38 page Silver Surfer tale is a very nice 13 page Gene Colan\Stan Lee Watcher story which I seem to recall reading in a Marvel UK weekly many years ago.