AMAZING ADVENTURES 1
cover by Jack Kirby & John Romita and JOHN ROMITA
Natasha is bored, and wants action. Her cleaning lady mentions her son borrowed money from "bad men" and she fears for him, so Natasha has Ivan, her chauffer, take her uptown to a bad neighborhood, where she has a run-in with the loan sharks who are in the act of kidnapping the young man and giving his mother 12 hours to come up with the money-- or else. She clobbers the loan sharks, the cops wonder what her angle is, a photographer snaps some pics, and she begins to think she should have come up with a mask for her new costume.
Wanting to expand (and at this point, maybe, to replace some books that were getting cancelled from low sales), "ye editor" decided to revive the "split book" format to showcase some characters in their own series. AA had The Inhumans-- a long-awaited feature-- by Jack Kirby, with The Black Widow as the "back-up". I'm missing most of these-- but I do have this story, a follow-up to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #86, as a reprint in-- of all places-- GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #4.
This is pretty bad. The art is by John Buscema & John Verpoorten, and it feels like Buscema is just going thru the motions. Gary Friedrich, while not wildly incoherent, only seems to be mimicking the same half-baked not-thought-out sort of thing "ye editor" has been doing far too much at this point. Natasha says she wants "action", but there is no explanation or hint as to why she quit The Avengers, or walked out on Hawkeye (now Goliath). She doesn't seem to have any real motivation for taking on crime. Even Captain Mar-Vell seemed more filled with a desire to help people. Here it's more like, "I'm bored; think I'll go fight crime."
People who complain about the Giant-Man & Wasp or Human Torch series a few years earlier should check this out. Those other 2 would look pretty good by comparison!
(7-19-2008)
"BEWARE THE INHUMANS"
ASTONISHING TALES 1
cover by Marie Severin & Bill Everett
"UNTO YOU IS BORN THE DOOMSMAN"
This marks the long-awaited (well, by some) debut of Dr. Doom in his own series! Watching the latest moon landing, he teleports a sphere to the Moon's surface, which is found by "Neil" and "Buzz". Back on Earth, it turns out to be a communications device, as Doom wanted to lord it over The President about his technical superiority and how one day, all in his country and the world will bow to Doom's will!! (Nice way to win friends...) In Latveria, an underground rebellion is brewing, fronted by Prince Rudolpho, whose father Doom kicked off the throne. He wants it back, and part of his scheme involves a girl named Ramona who is the exact image of Doom's missing ex-love Valeria. Inside the castle, she manages to damage Doom's robot controls, and the rebels storm the castle. This happens just as Doom is putting the finishing touches on a new robot-- The Doomsman-- which will somehow have his own brain patterns as part of its make-up. Damaging part of the castle as it activates, The Doomsman oddly runs off instead of coming to Doom's aid. But alone, Doom manages to flatten the rebels, and Rudolpho & Ramona wind up his prisoners. Maybe just as well, as Rudolpho seems ALMOST as bad as Doom!
WOW!!! All this in 10 pages flat-- when it's enough story to pack 20! ASTONISHING TALES is the other half of the 2 alternating "split books", this one spotlighting Ka-Zar by Jack Kirby, and for the back-up, Dr. Doom-- by WALLY WOOD! Every page, every panel GLEAMS with crisp perfection, and I suspect Wood probably put more care, thought & detail into this project than the other 3 "split book" features combined! Roy Thomas supplied the dialogue (not sure if he contributed to the plot), and while uncredited in the books, I have read that the pages were actually pencilled by Wood assistant Larry Hama. As with the TOS stories, I have this reprinted in THE MARVEL COMICS ART OF WALLY WOOD (1982), on the "glossy" paper stock. Between that and the LARGER size, I just bet this looks WAY better than the original printing-- a real rarity when it comes to anything from Marvel.
Oh-- almost forgot. Remember how bad some of the "split" covers of the mid-60's were, before "ye editor" figured ONE big image was better than 2 smaller ones? Well, the split covers returned with the new split books. And they're AWFUL. EVERY one of them that I've seen! Yep, the 60's are crashing to an end...
(7-19-2008)
WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS 1
cover by Dick Ayers & Joe Sinnott
After 19 issues, the book ended, but the numbering continued as an anthology, WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS.
For the purposes of this thread right now (and because I haven't had a chance to grab & clean up the earlier covers), I'm going to post the early-70's anthology. It started out as a mix of NEW material with some reprints, but like so much of the "product" Martin Goodman shovelled out in ever-increasing amounts to clog the newsstands, it quickly became ALL-reprint, except for new covers.
Among the features in the early issues was a revival of the 1967 Carter Slade version of "Ghost Rider", by Dick Ayers & Gary Friedrich.
Also included were "Gunhawk", "Tales Of Fort Rango", and "The Renegades".
(3-22-2014)
According to the GCD (which I have to go by, as I don't have a single issue of this series), it appears "GUNHAWK" was intended as the "star" or "anchor" of this new WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS anthology. But check out the chaos going on right from the start in "THE COMING OF GUNHAWK":
"Indexer notes: Splash page of story is drawn by Herb Trimpe and lettered by Morrie Kuramoto. Werner Roth's splash was apparently rejected, and was likely discovered in inventory and used as a pin-up in Kid Colt # 227, Dec 1978. Although it's attributed to Al Hartley, it looks to be the work of Werner Roth, and is even inked by Sal Buscema, who inked the story in this issue. Info per Nick Caputo, February, 2013. Part 1 of 2. Story concludes in Western Gunfighters #2."
The credits list Jerry Siegel as writer, Werner Roth & Sal Buscema as artists (w/ Herb Trimpe as noted above).
After this is a 5-pager, "The Outlaw", by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, & the "editor", reprinted from TWO-GUN KID #55 (Aug'60). Is this any way to start a new anthology title? Shoving a random reprint in right after the very 1st lead story? This is EXACTLY how Marvel handled their B&W horror magazines a couple years later, using out-of-date material NOBODY wanted to see from the 1950's as "filler" to make it look like you were getting more for your money when you were really being ripped off.
"TALES OF FORT RANGO" is a new 10-pager by Gary Friedrich & Syd Shores.
However, this is followed by a 2nd 5-page reprint, "There's A Shoot-Out Comin'!", by Sol Brodslky & the "editor", from RAWHIDE KID #33 (Apr'63).
"CALL THEM... RENEGADES" is the 3rd NEW 10-page feature, this one from Roy Thomas, Mike Friedrich (does ANYBODY know if Gary & Mike are related or not?) and with art by TOM SUTTON. See below.
Finally, all the way in the back, the Carter Slade "Ghost Rider" returns for new abuse in "RETURN OF THE TARANTULA", from DICK AYERS, Gary Friedrich & Tom Sutton. 8 episodes of this guy, and this one villain has already appeared 3 times. Sheesh.
"CALL THEM RENEGADES"
Story by Roy Thomas / Dialogue by Mike Friedrich / Art by TOM SUTTON
Pages 38-39
(3-23-2014)
(Continued in September 1970)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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