The Magazines of the
Marvel Age
You
are traveling through another dimension and it’s mostly black and white. After
a brief experiment in 1971 with Savage Tales and the Spectacular Spider-Man-Man (published ion 1968),
Marvel returned to the Magazine format in 1973. But it only lasted a few years.
In
my book, The New Essential Marvel Age Companion: 1961-1977, I list and present,
in detail, the contents of EVERY issue the Marvel Magazines from this period,
just as I do for all the Marvel comics at this time. I also have links to other comics and magazines
when a story calls for it.
Often, when people create blogs and even a few books on this subject
they LEAVE OUT the adventure scripts, such as Doc Savage, Kull, Savage Sword of
Conan, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Rampaging Hulk, Comix Book, Crazy and Planet of
the Apes among others.
You
may certainly use the following as a checklist of this era and here, as you
scroll down, you will find three lists:
1. A List of all the Magazines published in this
era.
2. A List of the SERIES that were
published. That is a list of all the characters
and their appearances in magazines NOT named after them.
3. With the aid of Nick Caputo, A
list of each of the individual issues of the magazines that features their
cover artist AND the street date of their publication.
 |
| Dracula Lives! #5 |
The Magazines of the Black and White Era, 1973- 1977
 |
| Monsters Unleashed |
In
looking back I ask the question… Why did this not succeed? I did not predict failure for these comics,
but in looking back I wanted to see why they failed.
Stan Lee: I’ll tell you a
secret... anytime a book is canceled... no matter what reason people give
you... it is because it didn’t sell that well. Stan Lee, CBM, July 1998
There
is no question that the goal was to emulate the success of the EC comics of the
1950s. Tales of the Crypt, The Haunt of
Horror, and Mad were big successes until the comic book censors put them out of
business. Warren Publications, with Creepy,
Eerie, and even Blazing Combat tried to capture EC’s style and attitude. Yet,
at this time, Marvel had published similar comics, Tower of Shadows, Chamber of
Chills, Supernatural Thrillers with little success. (The aforementioned
though were strongly hampered by the
censorship of the Comic’s Code.)
By bringing The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men, Master
of Kung Fu, Frankenstein, Werewolf to a world without the Comics Code, a
separate, second continuity arose. Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Jack Kirby had
constructed a Marvel Universe and now it is being contradicted. This Magazine
Universe belonged others, including Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Tony Isabella.
Many, but not all, of the Dracula’s magazines story lines (which took place in
the past) were incorporated into the original comic book Marvel Universe,
especially the ones that lead up to Dracula’s death.
Few
of the Rampaging Hulk’s plot lines crossed over from his original comics,
instead the stories “retconned” the Hulk’s beginnings, especially with the
“new” Avengers. In fact, almost a decade later, in The Incredible Hulk #269, we discover that these adventures never even took place. Bereet had made a movie about the Hulk and that was the story that appeared in Rampaging Hulk. Marvel could not even be consistent with their inconsistencies.
These magazines seemed to give a second chance to series that had failed in the comics, such as Gullivar Jones and Frankenstein. Often, however, they were just burning off inventory pages that were drawn for cancelled comics. There were also attempts to begin new series for familiar characters too.
These magazines seemed to give a second chance to series that had failed in the comics, such as Gullivar Jones and Frankenstein. Often, however, they were just burning off inventory pages that were drawn for cancelled comics. There were also attempts to begin new series for familiar characters too.
In 1971, Goodman quickly abandoned Savage Tales after it's first issue. Previously he had quickly cancelled the Spectacular Spider-Man, which lasted two issues, in 1968. (The second issue was in color and was approved by the Comics Code.) Goodman
apparently was convinced that the black and white end of publishing was
“schlock.” Roy Thomas wrote in, Alter Ego #81 (Oct. 2008): There were several things that led to Savage Tales being cancelled
after that first issue. [Marvel’s publisher] Martin Goodman had never really
wanted to do a non-Code comic, probably because he didn’t want any trouble with
the (Comics Code Authority) over it. Nor did he really want to get into
magazine-format comics; and Stan really did. So Goodman looked for an excuse to
cancel it. I also heard we weren’t able to sell the mag in Canada (10% of the
print run.) With Goodman gone, in 1973, Marvel jumped back into the black
and white publishing world.
Even
with Goodman gone, Marvel used his familiar formula from the 1940s and 1950s to
increase sales and dominate at the newsstands. That is, Goodman would see a
popular genre and flood the stands with many titles, often not caring, it
seemed, about quality. Yet, by flooding the newsstand the magazines lost their uniqueness. Was Dracula Lives that much different than Vampire Tales? or Monsters Unleashed?
In its beginning, the Marvel Age did have wonderful, anthology stories each issue of Amazing Adventures, Tales of Suspense, and Strange Tales among others. I looked forward to new characters created each month by Ditko, Kirby, Heck among others. Here, there was no consistency in artists, so the stories seemed random and no with no consistency.
In its beginning, the Marvel Age did have wonderful, anthology stories each issue of Amazing Adventures, Tales of Suspense, and Strange Tales among others. I looked forward to new characters created each month by Ditko, Kirby, Heck among others. Here, there was no consistency in artists, so the stories seemed random and no with no consistency.
Most
of these titles died an early death. Perhaps because Marvel’s printing process
produced an inferior product than its competitors. The artwork was often blurred and the line
work was not sharp and the paper was not high quality. The magazines started
out, generally eighty pages in length, but quickly shrunk to sixty-four with
the price increasing from 75 cents to $1. These comics were getting expensive.
Marvel also released the "pulp" type digest title, The Haunt of Horror. It lasted just two issues.
However, using text features and reprints, mostly from the Atlas era, readers most often got only half a book filled with new illustrated stories. Marvel also flooded the market with too many titles too quickly to maintain quality and see what worked well. Also, many of the titles had publication dates that were erratic, with many months passing between issues.
 |
| Text features from Dracula Lives #3 and #5 |
Marvel also released the "pulp" type digest title, The Haunt of Horror. It lasted just two issues.
However, using text features and reprints, mostly from the Atlas era, readers most often got only half a book filled with new illustrated stories. Marvel also flooded the market with too many titles too quickly to maintain quality and see what worked well. Also, many of the titles had publication dates that were erratic, with many months passing between issues.
Remembering
the past, Marvel did not call them “horror” comics but “Monster” magazines. The
stories contained more sex, some nudity, and a lot more violence. Marvel had
the most success with Crazy magazine (humor) and the Savage Sword of Conan
which lasted for 20 years. Marvel briefly published a sort of underground
magazine called Comix Book.
 |
| Crazy#1 Table of Contents and Kung Fooey from issue #12 |
 |
| Marvel had attempted a Mad-capped magazine in the 1950s. Snafu only lasted three issues. |
 |
| Marvel had a humor comic in the 1950s also named Crazy. |
Marvel
had set its sights on the Warren, Skywald and other black and white, magazine
sized publications. But unlike Warren and Skywald, Marvel had a complete color
comic line-up. So the stories presented in their black and white magazine
format should have been more mature and uniquely created for this medium.
Instead we got many traditional comic book stories and reprints, originally
prepared or printed for one of their comics but now in a more expensive black
and white publication. I was hopeful that these magazines would give Marvel
freedom from the comic’s code censorship and the ability to run longer stories.
The creative staff were mostly the same people who were writing the comics, yet
they often seemed not to find consistent footing here. I had also hoped that there
would be limited series, storylines with a beginning, a middle and an end.
Comic book characters, in their own comics, would NEVER have a series that
ended.
 |
| Hell-Rider from Skywald |
I don’t mean to imply that all the stories
and magazines were poor. There was often a lot of fun here. The Rampaging Hulk,
seemed to have picked up his continuity from 1963, but they changed his
personality, making him far “angry” than he was back then. When the Hulk TV showed
aired, beginning, with issue #10, The Hulk stopped “rampaging” and gained
color.
There were also many fine Conan stories including a different version of the great Conan story, “Tower of the Elephant!” From The Savage Sword of Conan! #24 which originally appeared in Conan #4.
There were also many fine Conan stories including a different version of the great Conan story, “Tower of the Elephant!” From The Savage Sword of Conan! #24 which originally appeared in Conan #4.
Some
of these magazines originally did not identify themselves as “Marvels” on their
covers. They were labelled “Curtis” which was Marvel’s distributor. Very soon
the logo “Marvel Monster Group” appeared on the horror comics but not
necessarily on the adventure ones, such as Savage Sword of Conan which
eventually did put “Marvel” on the cover logo. (The Comics Code, which did not approve these magazines,
however, did let these magazines be advertised in the regular comics. Allowing
no approved comics to be advertised was a major change in the code’s position.)
Second string characters such as Bloodstone and Solomon Kane appear and the anthology fillers, with no continuing characters, are back.
 |
| Savage Sword of Conan #18 |
Tony Isabella: If I had to speculate— I was not involved in
the decisions to drop those titles—I would guess that Marvel decided to keep
the B&W titles which were doing well at the time (Savage Sword, Crazy,
Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, Planet Of The Apes) and turn its magazine efforts towards
new things like Epic, Howard The Duck, The Rampaging Hulk, Marvel Preview/Bizarre
Adventures, and even The Tomb of Dracula. Savage Sword and Crazy were the most
successful, but most of the others had longer runs than the horror titles which
launched the magazine line.
Roy Thomas:
We,
of course, go for a little more illustrative look in the art
for one thing. There are minor restrictions; we go a little further with nudity
and sexual innuendo—but not very much—and with violence; but again, not very
much. But there is more bloodletting, like the beginning of the latest story,
“The Haunters of Castle Crimson” in SAVAGE SWORD #12, because it’s the sacking
of an entire town. There were whole pages that would never have gotten into a
color comic. When we … reprinted the Jim Starlin story
from SAVAGE TALES #5 into the color CONAN (issue 64), we had to cut out a sex
sequence that was rather mild, but it was suggestive. It’s a percentage really.
We could go much further in the black and white than we do, but we don’t want
to have any kinds of problems with any possible markets turning down the
black-and whites, with the result that ours are much milder than Jim Warren’s.
That’s a conscious choice on our part.”
Steve Englehart:
“When I first went to work at Marvel, they
had already published the b&w version of Roy and Barry’s “Frost Giant’s
Daughter,” (Savage Tales #1) which had a nearly naked protagonist in a non-Code
book. They now wanted to reprint it in the color comic and sent it to the Code
and it so happened that one of the first peeks behind the scenes I ever got was
the letter back from the Code. It detailed, panel by panel, just exactly how
much of her breasts were allowed to be seen. As I recall, the percentage of the
tops of the breasts were debatable, but you could never show the undersides. I
thought “How anal retentive-plus prudish-is this?” But my few forays into B
& W work later never dealt much with breasts, so I never ran up against
that, or anything else, really. My feeling was always “People are smarter than they’re given credit for,” and in Marvel’s time, that was always true. We knew we were
writing for all ages, including college kids and including little kids, so we
kept everything within some boundary we felt was right. We rarely got
complaints about going too far and I don’t remember ever being persuaded that
we had. We could entertain both ends of the spectrum without upsetting either.
The Magazine Covers and Arrival Dates
Arrival Dates are really the arrival "weeks" because deliveries were not universally done on the same day.
Comix Book
#1 Skip Williamson
#2 Bill
Griffith, Dennis Kitchen
#3 Justin
Green/Trina Robbins/K. Deitch
#4 Leslie
Cabarga
#5 John
Pound
 |
| From the first issue of Comix Book |
Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu
#1 Neal
Adams 1/29/74
#2 Neal
Adams 4/3/74
#3 Neal
Adams 6/4/74
#4 Neal
Adams 8/6/74
#5 Bob
Larkin 9/3/74
#6 Earl
Norem 10/1/74
#7 Earl
Norem 11/5/74
#8 Bob
Larkin 12/3/74
#9 Earl
Norem 1/14/75
#10 Harold
Shull 2/20/75
#11 Neal
Adams 3/4/75
#12 Neal
Adams 3/20/75
#13 Luis
Dominguez 5/13/75
#14 Neal
Adams 6/10/75
#15 Nick
Cardy 7/8/75
#16 Luis
Dominguez 8/12/75
#17 Neal
Adams 9/9/75
#18 Nick
Cardy 10/7/75
#19 Bob
Larkin 11/4/75
#20 Ken
Barr 12/2/75
#21 Bob
Larkin 1/13/76
#22 Ken
Barr 2/10/76
#23 Ken
Barr 3/9/76
#24 Bob
Larkin 4/13/76
#25 Earl
Norem 5/11/76
#26 Malcolm
McN 6/15/76
#27 Earl
Norem 7/20/76
#28 Ed
Barr 8/17/76
#29 Earl
Norem 9/21/76
#30 Earl
Norem 10/19/76
#31 Bob
Larkin 11/16/76
#32 Rudy
Nebres 12/21/76
#33 Rudy
Nebres 01/25/7
Special #1 Harold Shull 7/2/74
Heroes #1 Earl Norem
 |
| Deadly Hands issue #14 |
Doc Savage
#1 Roger
Kastel 6/3/75
#2 Ken
Barr 9/2/75
#3 Ken
Barr 12/2/75
#4 Ken
Barr 3/2/76
#5 Ken
Barr 6/1/76
#6 Ken
Barr 9/14/76
#7 Ken
Barr 12/14/76
#8 Ken
Barr 3/15/77
 |
| Doc Savage from his first color comic and then magazine appearance |
Dracula Lives!
#1 Boris
Vallejo 1/2/73
#2 Jordi
Penalva 4/3/73
#3 Neal
Adams 6/26/73
#4 Earl
Norem 9/18/73
#5 Luis
Dominguez 12/18/73
#6 Luis
Dominguez 3/5/74
#7 Luis
Dominguez 5/7/74
#8 Luis
Dominguez 7/2/74
#9 Luis
Dominguez 9/3/74
#10 Luis
Dominguez 11/5/74
#11 Steve
Fabian 1/7/75
#12 Ken
Bald 3/4/75
#13 Earl
Norem 5/6/75
Annual #1 Gray Morrow 7/1/75
 |
| Dracula Lives #2 |
Haunt of Horror
#1 Grey
Morrow 3/19/74
#2 Kelly
Frea 5/21/74
#3 Jose
Antonio Domingo 7/16/74
#4 Bob
Larkin 9/17/74
#5 Dick
Giordiano 11/19/74
Kull and the Barbarians
#1 Michael
Whelan 3/18/75
#2 Michael
Whelan 4/1/75
#3 Michael
Whelan 6/1/75
Legion of Monsters
#1 Neal
Adams 6/1/75
Marvel Movie Premiere
#1 Nick
Cardy 6/1/75
Marvel Preview
#1 Gray
Morrow 1/1/75
#2 Gray
Morrow 4/29/75
#3 Gray
Morrow 6/1/75
#4 Gray
Morrow 10/1/75
#5 Ken
Barr 1/1/76
#6 Ken
Barr 4/6/76
#7 Bob
Larkin 7/6/76
#8 Ken
Barr 10/5/76
#9 Earl
Norem 1/11/77
#10 Ken
Barr 4/12/77
#11 Ken
Barr 7/12/77
#12 Earl
Norem 11/1/77
#13 Jim
Starlin 1/10/78
#14 Jim
Starlin 4/18/78
#15 Joe
Justo 07/25/7
 |
| Rocky Raccoon appears in Marvel Preview #7 |
Marvel Comics Super-Special
#1 Alan
Weiss & Gray Morrow 6/14/77
#2 Earl
Norem 12/15/77
#9 John
Buscema 1/9/79
Marvel Super-action
#1 Bob
Larkin
Monsters Unleashed
#1 Gray
Morrow 5/22/73
#2 Boris
Vallejo 8/14/73
#3 Neal
Adams 10/9/73
#4 Frank
Brunner? 12/4/73
#5 Bob
Larkin 2/5/74
#6 Boris
Vallejo 4/9/74
#7 Earl
Norem 6/11/74
#8 Earl
Norem 8/13/74
#9 Earl
Norem 10/8/74
#10 Jose
Antonio Domingo 12/10/74
#11 Frank
Brunner 2/11/75
Annual Ken Bald 05/06/7
Planet of the Apes
#1 Bob
Larkin 6/25/74
#2 Bob
Larkin 8/27/74
#3 Bob
Larkin 10/22/74
#4 Bob
Larkin 11/26/74
#5 Bob
Larkin 12/24/74
#6 Bob
Larkin 1/21/75
#7 Bob
Larkin 2/18/75
#8 Earl
Norem 3/18/75
#9 Greg
Theakston 4/15/75
#10 Bob
Larkin 5/13/75
#11 Gray
Morrow 6/10/75
#12 Ken
Barr 7/8/75
#13 Bob
Larkin 8/5/75
#14 Malcolm
McN. 9/2/75
#15 Bob
Larkin 9/30/75
#16 Ken
Barr 11/4/75
#17 Bob
Larkin 12/2/75
#18 Ken
Barr 12/4/75
#19 Bob
Larkin 2/3/76
#20 Malcolm
McN. 3/2/76
#21 Earl
Norem 4/6/76
#22 Earl
Norem 5/4/76
#23 Malcolm
McN. 6/8/76
#24 Bob
Larkin 7/13/76
#25 Ken
Barr 8/17/76
#26 Malcolm
McN. 9/14/76
#27 Malcolm
McN. 10/12/76
#28 Earl
Norem 11/9/76
#29 Malcolm
McN. 12/14/7
 |
| From issue #1, Planet of the Apes |
 |
| Planet of the Apes #15 |
 |
| Marvel reprinted the series in color in Adventures on thew Planet of the Apes |
Rampaging Hulk
#1 Ken
Barr 12/02/76
#2 Ken
Barr 1/25/77
#3 Earl
Norem 4/0577
#4 Jim
Starlin 6/07/77
#5 Jim
Starlin 8/2/77
#6 Ken
Barr 10/11/77
#7 Jim
Starlin 12/02/77
#8 Ken
Barr 1/31/78
#9 Earl
Norem 3/21/78
Savage Sword of Conan
#1 Boris
Vallejo 6/18/74
#2 Neal
Adams 8/20/74
#3 Michael
William Kaluta 10/15/74
#4 Boris
Vallejo 12/17/74
#5 Boris
Vallejo 2/18/75
#6 Frank
Magsino, Alex Nino 4/15/75
#7 Boris
Vallejo 6/17/75
#8 Frank
Brunner, Bob Larkin 8/19/75
#9 Boris
Vallejo 10/14/75
#10 Boris
Vallejo 12/12/75
#11 Ken
Barr 2/3/76
#12 Boris
Vallejo 4/6/76
#13 Richard
Hescox 6/8/76
#14 Earl
Norem 7/6/76
#15 Boris
Vallejo 8/3/76
#16 Earl
Norem 10/12/76
#17 Ernie
Chan 12/14/76
#18 Dan
Adkins 2/8/77
#19 Kenneth
Morris 4/12/77
#20 Earl
Norem 5/10/77
#21 Earl
Norem 6/14/77
#22 Val
Mayerik 7/12/77
#23 Earl
Norem 8/9/77
#24 Earl
Norem 9/6/77
#25 Brian
Moore 10/11/77
#26 Jim
Starlin 11/15/77
#27 Bob
Larkin 1/10/78
#28 Earl
Norem 2/14/78
#29 Ernie
Chan 3/7/78
#30 Frank
Brunner 4/4/78
Annual #1 9/1/75
 |
| Savage Sword #1 |
Savage Tales
#1 John
Buscema 2/1/71
#2 John
Buscema 6/26/73
#3 Pablo
Marcos, John Romita 10/23/73
#4 Neal
Adams 3/26/74
#5 Neal
Adams 5/28/74
#6 Neal
Adams 7/23/74
#7 Boris
Vallejo 9/24/74
#8 Steve
Fabian 11/26/74
#9 Michael
William Kaluta 1/28/75
#10 Boris
Vallejo 3/25/75
#11 Mike
Whelan 5/27/75
Annual #1 7/22/75
 |
| Savage Tales #1 |
Tales of the Zombie
#1 Boris
Vallejo
#2 Boris
Vallejo 4/3/73
#3 Boris
Vallejo 6/5/73
#4 Boris
Vallejo 9/4/73
#5 Earl
Norem 10/30/73
#6 Earl
Norem 3/12/74
#7 Earl
Norem 5/14/74
#8 Earl
Norem 7/9/74
#9 Earl
Norem 9/10/74
#10 Earl
Norem 11/12/74
 |
| Unknown Worlds #3 |
4/1/75
Unknown Worlds
#1 Kelly
Freas & John Romita 10/1/74
#2 Michael
Kaluta 12/1/74
#3 Michael
Whelan 2/24/75
#4 Frank
Brunner 4/1/75
#5 Sebastia
Bodia 6/1/75
#6 Frank
Brunner 08/01/7
Annual #1 10/1/75
Vampire Tales
#1 Esteban
Maroto 5/29/73
#2 Jose
Antonio Domingo 8/28/73
#3 Luis
Dominguez/ 11/27/73
#4 Boris
Vallejo 1/29/74
#5 Esteban
Maroto 4/2/74
#6 Boris
Vallejo 6/4/74
#7 Jose
Antonio Domingo 8/6/74
#8 Jose
Antonio Domingo 10/1/74
#9 Jose
Antonio Domingo 12/3/74
#10 Richard
Hescox 2/4/75
#11 Richard
Hescox 4/1/75
Annual #1 Bob Larkin 06/03/7
Marvel would go underground and create Comix Books, an underground comic
published by the most popular comic book company. It sounds like a
contradiction and it was. It also didn’t sell well and exists now as a
curiosity. Marvel published three of the five issues with Stan Lee in the
Masterhead along with editor Denis Kitchen. The last two issues were published
by Kitchen Sink Press.
It is interesting to point out:
• The issues did show nudity, but nothing
gross. These were almost above ground Underground comics, borrowing more from
the early years of Mad Magazine than anything else. Often these were reprints
from other Underground Comics.
• Maus: A 3 page piece by Art
Spiegelman, was reprinted from a 1972 underground, Funny Aminals, (sic) from
Apex Novelties. It was to be a preview for his major work, the two volume, Maus, which won a
Pulitzer Prize.
• Instead of being published by the Marvel
Comics Group it was published by Magazine Management the group that owned
Marvel
• Stan
Lee was the publisher, (apparently) but never took that title. He was called
Instigator, at least for the first three issues.
• In it’s final issue, Mr. Kitchen, in a
letter to readers, discusses the difficult a main stream company had with
publishing an underground comic. He mentions copyright issues which means that
Marvel wanted to own the strips while underground artists always owned their
strips. Marvel had to give up that right for the last two issues to be published.
“I
Killed a Zombie!” By Tony
Isabella
July
1953. Writer and editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett kill a man and turn
him into a zombie for a memorable story in Menace #5. The undead creature
rebels against his zombie master when ordered to kidnap his own daughter. It
should be noted this was a kinder, gentler zombie than the brain eating,
intestine-chomping monsters who have captivated fans in recent years.
1973. Writer and editor Roy Thomas remembers
the story and recasts its unnamed “hero” as ruthless businessman Simon Garth
for the black-and-white Tales of the Zombie magazine.
The original is reprinted the first issue, sandwiched between new Garth stories
written by Steve Gerber.
Late 1974. Editor Tony Isabella—that would
be me — is told that Tales of the Zombie #8 will be the final issue of the
title, victim of a general slump in Marvel’s horror-magazine sales. Thinking
the character wouldn’t be of much use in Marvel’s color comics, I went to
publisher Lee for permission to “kill” the Zombie in that final issue. Stan
thought it was a great idea. With Gerber having moved on to other assignments
and since it was my idea to give the Garth series a definite ending, I assigned
this finale to myself and Assistant Editor Chris Claremont. I plotted the story
and wrote full scripts for its first and third chapters. Claremont wrote the
middle chapter, the one that had to cover the most ground. It was my way of
recognizing his budding, but clearly immense, talent. That’s my story and I’m sticking
to it. Shortly thereafter, I decided to leave my staff position at Marvel and go freelance. Among the last
editorial duties I performed were editing Claremont’s script, having him edit
my scripts and sending the scripts to the Philippines to be drawn by the
amazing artists of that island nation. Once the finished art arrived at the
Marvel offices, it would be
up to Don McGregor and David Anthony Kraft to see my final issue through
production. As I handed over my editorial crown, I had no inkling I would soon
have to kill Simon Garth again.
Imagine my surprise, weeks later, when
incoming editor Don McGregor called me wondering where the final chapter of the
three-part story was. He’d received the art for the other parts from the
Philippines, but there was no record of their getting the script for or drawing
the end chapter. Worse, with the deadline for the issue mere days away, I
couldn’t find my copy of the script.
With Don’s blessing, I called in a crew of
weekend warriors to come to the Marvel
offices and finish that final chapter. I rewrote my script, handing
‘the pages to artists Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos as I finished them. My memory
is uncertain, but my crew included Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Alan
Kupperberg and Duffy Vohland. I’m pretty sure Joe Rosen lettered the first and
last pages. I can’t recall exactly how many hours we worked, but, come Monday
morning, we’d killed the Zombie for the second time.
Imagine my
surprise when Tales of the Zombie was then un-canceled and it was decided that
Simon Garth should be un-canceled, as well. Gerry Conway wrote “The Partial
Resurrection of Simon Garth, but the art for that 30-page story never made it
to the Marvel offices in
time for the next and, ironically, last issue of the magazine.
Simon would stay dead... for at least a little longer.
© Tony Isabella
