Amazing Spider-Man No. 100 Cover by Romita and Giacoia
It was a time of transition. The Sixties were ending, leaving a very different world than when they'd begun. The Silver Age in comics was giving way to the Bronze. The Seventies would be a decade of experimentation in packaging for new publishers and slow decline for Marvel and DC until they worked out a different model of distribution.
Detective Comics No. 481 Unpublished Cover by Jim Aparo
Books come and books go, and in the latter half of 1978, DC Comics was in the throes of The DC Implosion and nearly half their titles disappeared.
Batman Family No. 20 Cover by Jim Starlin
It was the best Batbook of its era, and it had gotten there with new talent like Marshall Rogers, Mike Golden, Joe Staton and others breathing new life into the Batman family of characters.
Superman Pin-Up TPB Cover by Neal Adams
Neal Adams is recovering from an illness that nearly claimed him, and we're all reminded that those whose work we love won't be around forever. And when Adams can still knock it out of the park, it's a testament to a life spent practising his skills, and that we always look forward to seeing more from him.
Batman No. 313 Cover by José Luis García-López
This is an amazing symbolic cover. On the surface, it's merely a clever division of Two-Face's hideout, but if you extend the idea to the tragedies these antagonists have endured, it's even more interesting.
Ghostly Tales No. 97 Cover by Steve Ditko
When Steve Ditko wasn't at DC or Marvel, he could often be found working for Charlton Comics. This wonderfully-designed cover is from 1972.
Dynamo No. 3 Cover by Wally Wood
Tower Comics was a short-lived American comic book publisher that was an imprint of Tower Books. Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was the forefront super-hero property.
BEM No. 28 Cover by Brian Bolland
BEM – or Bemusing Magazine was a British comics fanzine of the 1970s and 80s, and I've had a scan of this cover in my files for a bit, meaning to do a new colour version.
Hot Box by Jack Kirby
Foxhole was a Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Studio-produced comic from 1954 published originally under the Mainline imprint, with stories told from the soldiers' perspective.
Rex Morgan MD by Bradley and Edgington
Rex Morgan MD is a long-running story strip that is still published today, and is currently written and drawn by Terry Beatty, co-creator of Ms. Tree, Wild Dog and other comic book creations.
Batman No. 340 Cover by Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo became so strongly associated with DC heroes like Aquaman and Batman that we sometimes forget that he was a solid horror artist and in an alternate reality could have spent his career working in DC's anthologies.
Starfleet Navigator Class Starship
Coming out of my work on the revised Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual, it got me thinking about something a little sleeker that your average starship. It would be Starfleet's answer to the Romulan Bird of Prey.
Blade Runner: The Comic Book Adaptation by Williamson & Garzon
Blade Runner came and went during the summer of 1982, neither a hit nor an outright flop. The film would garner its audience and appreciation in the years that followed, aided by the growing home video market. Today it’s regarded as one of science fiction film’s best.
Time Warp No. 4 Cover by Michael Wm Kaluta
As ever, I'm a sucker for a Time Warp cover drawn by Michael Wm Kaluta. How the trumpet player ended up with demons/angels on a rock in space is anyone's guess, but it was certainly headier stuff than your average DC fare of the day.
The Phantom Stranger No. 33 Cover by Jim Aparo
In the early 70s, both DC and Marvel went to a cover format that put solid colour behind the masthead and boxed in the cover art below it. It might have made covers more consistent and easier to lay out, but to my eye it was cramped and did a disservice to the power a good cover could generate to get a potential reader to pick up the comic off the newsstand. It put production convenience and cost control before editorial and artistic decision making. Penny wise and pound foolish is another way to express it.
The Brave & the Bold No. 122 Cover by Jim Aparo
Swamp Thing was a great comic, and the issues done by creators Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson are classic horror tales, but the book's sales waned in other creators' hands. For the remainder of the 1970s, Swampie was relegated to reprints, and guest-star appearances like this one in B&B.
The Brave & the Bold No. 116 Cover by Jim Aparo
Another of Aparo's inset covers for a 100-page The Brave & the Bold. A creepy idol comes to life in a supernatural team-up of Batman and the Spectre.
Valley of the Dinosaurs No. 2 Cover by Fred Himes
1974 was the prehistoric year for Saturday morning TV shows on the three major American networks. NBC debuted the live-action The Land of the Lost which would live the longest at three seasons, ABC had the live-action Korg 70,000 BC which survived one season, and CBS green-lit the animated Valley of the Dinosaurs which also lasted a single season.
Vengeance Squad No. 5 Cover by Pete Morisi
From 1976, Vengeance Squad was a Mission: Impossible-style trio of operatives in crime-fighting adventures. Beginning with issue No. 2, it was drawn by veteran artist Pete Morisi, who by this point in his career was drawing in a highly-stylised and simplified art style.
The Brave & the Bold No. 112 Cover by Jim Aparo
In early 1974, DC Comics decided to turned part of its line into 100-page comics for 60¢ after previously releasing specials and one shots in similar sizes and price points. Accompanying the normal features were reprints from DC's large library of material. It was my generation's introduction to the deep well of Golden and Silver age stories.
Wonder Woman No. 184 Cover by Sekowsky & Giordano
Coming in the middle of the New Wonder Woman run – where Diana lost her powers and resembled Emma Peel more than an Amazon princess – we have this issue where her warrior roots are front and centre.
The Brave & the Bold No. 87 Cover by Sekowsky & Giordano
I've always loved this cover with Batman driving a Formula One car of the era. But it wasn't until I found a scan of the original art that I realised I liked it even more. Behind the trade dress and flat orange background colouring, there was a great European mountain village and the wheel the Speed Racer-style villain had just sheared off the Wayne Special.
Wonder Woman Pin-Up by Neal Adams
I'm less of a fan of the Wonder Woman as warrior than I am of her original conception with bracelets she used to bounce bullets off of, and a Lasso of Truth that forced bad guys to own up to what they'd done. But, her popularity now is due in part to the current conception of her kicking butt while wielding a sword and shield.
Madame Xanadu Pin-Up by Michael Wm Kaluta
Michael Wm Kaluta has been associated with Madame Xanadu from her first appearance in Doorway to Nightmare No. 1 in 1978.
Night Fighter and Sky Giant by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America for Timely Comics (later to become Atlas and finally Marvel Comics), and in the post-war period continued to create comics for their own publishing ventures as well as other publishers.
World's Finest Cover by Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo spent most of his comics career at DC Comics, associated with Batman, Aquaman, Spectre and a plethora of team-ups in The Brave and the Bold. He was a triple threat, pencilling, inking and lettering his stories.
Wonder Woman by Colleen Doran
For the better part of 40 years, Colleen Doran has had a diverse career in comics, encompassing her own epic saga A Distant Soil, assignments from publishers both large and small, and collaborating on graphic novel projects with writers at the top of the field.
DC Special Series No. 26 Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude Cover by Andru & Giordano
One of DC's best tabloid editions was nearly its last. An all-new tale by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru, Romeo Tanghal, Gaspar Saladino and Jerry Serpe, it used the rich mythos of mementoes in Superman's Fortress of Solitude as its backdrop.
Batman by Alex Toth
It's just a sketch. 40 years old and fading. But nothing of its power has diminished. Few people could distill a drawing down to its essence as well as Alex Toth. Running across something like this is always a welcome surprise. Like finding a sapphire on the sidewalk.
Wonder Woman and Donald Trump by Ramona Fradon
Ramona Fradon was one of the few female artists working in professional comics in the late Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages. She had a great run on Aquaman, co-created Metamorpho with Bob Haney, and later did The Super Friends comic. In her 90s, she's still going strong with commissions.
Flash Gordon by Jim Keefe
From 1996 to 2003, Jim Keefe was the writer/artist of the Flash Gordon comic strip, the last in a long line of great cartoonists on one of King Features' most prestigious strips. It's a testament to his work that it remains in circulation on flashgordon.com for today's audience.
Marvel Treasury Edition No. 30 - X-Men Fractures by Dave Cockrum
Rarer than regular tabloids that reprinted popular material were the special editions that contained new material prepared expressly for their oversized pages.
The Mechanoid Associates by Paul Gillon
The world was different in the early 80s. No internet meant limited paths to new information. And for me as a teenager living in a small Canadian town, we were even more isolated from the dynamism of large cities. So when I discovered that Heavy Metal magazine existed on the newsstand, it was my first exposure to European comics and their creators, as well as some of the most progressive North Americans: Jean 'Mœbius' Giraud, Enki Bilal, Caza, Philippe Druillet, Richard Corben, Howard Chaykin and many more.
Marvel Treasury Edition No. 29 by Severin & Tartaglione
If you were reading comics between 1975 and 1980 or so, tabloid-sized comics were a wonderful thing to find on the newsstand. Oversized with cardstock covers, they most often reprinted older material. Seeing some of your favourite stories printed big was an awesome thing to experience.
Time Warp No. 6 Cover by Michael Wm Kaluta
Time Warp lasted five issues in 1979-1980 before DC Comics cancelled it. But it's well-remembered among a certain era of readers for its imaginative sci-fi stories and amazing covers by Kaluta.
Daredevil Poster by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson
It had made Miller a star creator, first joining Daredevil as its penciller and then becoming its writer as well. Aided and abetted by Klaus Janson, the finishing inker and colourist played a larger and larger role over time as Miller's pencils became simplified layouts.
Green Lantern by Marcio Takara
For this colouring and packaging commission, the client wanted this ink-wash drawing turned into a vintage Green Lantern cover.
Claw the Unconquered by Michelinie, Chan, Giffen et al
Claw the Unconquered was a DC Comics title that debuted in 1975. DC wanted to get a piece of the market Marvel had established with adaptations of Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Kull the Conqueror and Solomon Kane. Editor Joe Orlando talked with writers, and after a false start settled on David Michelinie. Claw emerged as a Conan-like character at first, and the art supplied by Ernie Chan – himself a Conan contributor over at Marvel – for the first seven issues of the comic deviated little from that conception.
FOOM No. 9 Cover by Jim Starlin
Here's another cover to FOOM, Marvel's 1970s fan magazine. Jim Starlin was making waves at Marvel as a writer and artist with a strong interest and ability in science fiction and all matters cosmic. He began with Captain Marvel, injecting new life into that character, and by the time of this issue in 1975, he had revived and was revolutionising Adam Warlock.
FOOM No. 14 Cover by John Buscema & Tom Palmer
FOOM was the successor to the MMMS and was the fan service of the MCG. Translated for the less geeky: Friends of Ol' Marvel was the successor to the Merry Marvel Marching Society and was the fan service of the Marvel Comics Group.
The Case for New Comic Book Colouring Directions
This comes up every time we talk about reprints and collected editions:
Should original colour separations be used, or should the colour be updated to take advantage of improved production and reproduction methods?
Salvation Run No. 7 Cover by Neal Adams
I came across the pencils for this 2008 cover by Neal Adams, loving the energy. So this time out we're going to go backward from the published cover to the pencils, and then back up to a new final version with inks and colours by myself.
Star Hunters No. 1 Cover by Rich Buckler and Bob Layton
One of the casualties of the DC Implosion was this science fiction swashbuckler which debuted in DC Super Stars No. 16, and then continued for seven issues of its own magazine between November 1977 and 1978.
Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Cover by Jerome K Moore
It was the last time the original Star Trek crew would be together and they sent the original cast off with a great story helmed by writer/director Nicholas Meyer – the man who'd been behind a lot of great movies: Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Time After Time, The Day After, and two previous Trek films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Robin, the Boy Wonder
Debuting in 1940, Dick "Robin" Grayson changed Batman from a vengeful, lone creature of the night into a parent with a young ward. At the time, comic book publishers added junior versions of the main characters in an effort for kids to have someone to relate to that was closer to their age, not realising the obvious – kids wanted to be the adult hero, not the sidekick.
The New Teen Titans v1 No. 21 Cover by George Pérez
From its launch in 1980, The New Teen Titans was a hit for DC Comics – arguably bringing some Marvel-style storytelling and energy to a team of young characters. And as a popular book, it was prime real estate to introduce new series, especially if it was Titans writer Marv Wolfman's new project. The Night Force was nothing like Titans, but I thought it was good and still have my copies today.
Chronicle Chamber's Phundraiser for the Australian Bushfire Appeal Comic
Created by Lee Falk in 1936, and joined by a succession of artists beginning with Ray Moore, The Phantom comic strip continues to this day. The character has enjoyed a large international following, and new comic books are published in Sweden by Egmont and in Australia by Frew.
Star Trek DC v1 No. 1 Cover by George Pérez
In the US, Star Trek comics began with Gold Key and they spanned 1967–79 with tales based on the original series. With the release of Star Trek – The Motion Picture in '79, Marvel picked up the licence and published from 1980–82.
The Last Action Hero No. 1 Cover by Jerome K Moore
1993 brought the Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy The Last Action Hero to the summer viewing season. Plans were made to have the movie adapted into comic book form at Topps, and Jerome K Moore was attached as the artist.
The Barren Earth by Gary Cohn & Ron Randall
Throughout its run, DC Comics' The Warlord – created by Mike Grell – was the anchor of the publisher's fantasy books. It also meant a number of new fantasy series were carried in its back pages. In No. 63, The Barren Earth debuted and appeared in most issues until No. 88. It continued in a four-issue mini series Conqueror of the Barren Earth.