Wednesday 30 December 2015

MARVEL'S THE SUPER-HEROES COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART SEVEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Only 15 issues to go until we reach the finish line of this particular race, faithful ones, so that equates as three more instalments in The SUPER-HEROES cover & image gallery.  The mag was probably past its best by this point, as The CAT was a bit of a second-rater and GIANT-MAN was hardly in The SILVER SURFER's league, but I stuck with it right to the end.  From my perspective, with The X-MEN and ol' High Pockets, the comic was a comforting amalgam of FANTASTIC and TERRIFIC, two of my favourite weeklies from the '60s, and that was more than good enough for me.

At one point, MARVEL U.K. actually considered reprinting Fantastic's The MISSING LINK/JOHNNY FUTURE strip, seemingly thinking that they owned the copyright to it.  That would've been brilliant to see again, and made the periodical even more like an ODHAMS 'POWER COMIC', but, sadly, it just didn't happen.  Nearly 50 years later, nostalgic readers are still waiting for a deluxe re-presentation of the late LUIS BERMEJO's awesomely illustrated artistic tour-de-force.  Maybe one day.  (Update: It happened in 2020.)

Anyway, enjoy this brief look back into yesteryear - and don't dare miss the remaining issues in upcoming posts.  Excelsior.


This page and the next were produced specially for British readers to bring them up to
speed on the history of
GIANT MAN & The WASP and became pages 3 & 4 of the tale




Look at that first ad - surely the worst drawn & lettered one in existence



















4 comments:

Nick Caputo said...

Unknown Ant-Man/Giant-Man art! A real treat (who SAYS I don't learn anything new on your blog?) Arvell Jones pencils, perhaps?

Kid said...

Could well be, Nick, but it's been years since I saw any signed Arvell Jones art, so I'm not as familiar with his style as I once was. Maybe Jason will pop up and let us know.

Jason S said...

Just saw this, but better late than never! Those 2 sequential pages were drawn by Steve Stiles, some of his earliest British Marvel work (he went on to draw over 120 splash pages/pinups for them). This is the only published example of UK-specific sequential work produced by the British Department (aside from Captain Britain, of course) between 1973-1978.

Kid said...

Thanks for the info, JS. Steve Stiles sounds vaguely familiar, but it's not a name I can readily identify. Feel free to add any further info on any of the posts whenever you like.



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