Astonishing Tales, No.2, Featuring Ka-Zar and Dr. Doom

Written by - Roy Thomas

Art by - Wally Wood

Letters by - Jean Izzo

Editor - Stan Lee

Published in October 1970 by Marvel Comics comes 'Astonishing Tales' which, initially, featured to stories per issue at 10 pages a story. Featured in Astonishing Tales #2 is 'Ka-Zar' the jungle lord, and 'Dr. Doom' the master of menace. The Ka-Zar story is written by Roy Thomas with art by legend Jack Kirby. However, it is the Dr. Doom story I am most interested in, which is again written by Roy Thomas but this time the art is supplied by Golden Age master Wally Wood.

Wallace Allan Wood started drawing comics from an early age and claimed that following a dream in which he found a pencil that could draw anything, he knew early on what his future held for him. Wally Wood is probably best known for his work during the 1950's that he did for EC comics, particularly his work on Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (science fiction comics that he himself convinced EC publisher William Gaines to produce). Between 1957 and 1967, Wood also created a host of cover images for great science-fiction writers such as; Isaac Asimov, Jack Vance, Jack Finney and Philip K Dick.

Throughout the silver and bronze age, Wood created art for many different publishers including; Marvel, DC, Warren, Avon, Charlton, Fox, Gold Key, King and Atlas. It was during this period that Wally Wood pencilled and inked issues #5-8 and inked #9-11 of Marvel's 'Daredevil', which established Matt Murdoch's distinctive red costume.

Continuing from the previous issue, Prince Rudolfo (leader of Latervia) has escaped from his cell, Dr. Doom confronts him and reveals that he knows he's isn't the real Prince but a robot clone; a Doombot then destroys the robot. In a cave, the real Prince Rudolfo plots to overthrow Dr. Doom and take back his kingdom with the help of an alien creature known as the Faceless One...

Invincible Iron Man, No. 80

Written by - Mike Friedrich

Pencils by - Chic Stone

Inks by - Vince Colletta

Colours by - George Roussos
Cover Art - Jack Kirby & Al Milgrom


It's been a while since my last blog entry but I'm back again to write about comics I've been reading; today's is 'The Invincible Iron Man' no. 80 from 1975. The beautiful cover art is by Jack Kirby in which he presents Iron Man filling the width of the cover elbow-to-elbow, giving Iron Man a sense of strength and weight; locked into the middle of the page almost having to carry the weight of his name upon his back.

The story is entitled 'Mission into Madness' and on the opening page at the top it states "The dreaded deadline doom has broken up our storyline far more than it should, but we're back on track now, and we're gonna see our story on to its smashing climax! Onward!" I couldn't find any extra information about this, but I guess it suggests that the book was late on its release due to missing tight deadlines for whatever reason.

The first few pages are a recap on previous issues in which it explains how Iron Man has done battle with foes such as the Yellow Claw (who was secretly an explosive automaton), the Death Squad and Modok. The start of this story finds Iron Man chasing Firebrand and the Black Lama through inter-dimensional space. They arrive in Black Lama's home dimension and are attacked by castle guards. I fight ensues and then Iron Man and Firebrand are taken to a secret hiding place by Princess Susan and her father King Jerald (the Black Lama) who goes on to explain how he isn't a bad guy but temporarily insane. Iron Man doesn't believe him and so Firebrand attacks and escapes. Iron Man defeats some Nulatron robots, catches up with the Black Lama and agrees to help him suppress the revolt, but the longer he has to stay in this dimension, the more insane he will become.

Not Brand Echh

'Not Brand Echh' was published by Marvel from 1967 to 1969; the issue I'm presenting is number 7 from April 1968. The credits are as follows:

'Not Brand Echh' is a satirical comic that not only satirises itself, but also other comic publishers of the time. There are two stories in this issue; the first is 'The Origin of The Fantastical Four' (featuring the characters; Weed Witchards - Mr Fantastical, Bim Grimm - The Thung, Shrew Storm - The Inevitable Girl and Sonny Storm - The Human Scorch), and the second is 'The Origin of Stuporman!' (which takes some none-too-subtle digs at DC).

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

Originally published  in 1978 was the book every young wannabe comic book creator was waiting for - How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Then 10 years later in 1988, Stan (the man) Lee and artist John Buscema released a video which entailed them working through the contents of the book with visual examples drawn by John Buscema himself. The only problem with the programme really is the majority of the drawings are from the book already, and so John Buscema is basically just tracing over them. However, there are a couple of chapters on the video that show him drawing from scratch and they can be found below. The first is from the chapter on how to draw heads, I particularly like the part on drawing the female head (it's much harder, you know!). The second part is the section on how to 'ink' (embedding is disabled for this video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H05IHhlS_o&feature=related

Epic Illustrated #3 - P Craig Russell

Another artist, fast becoming one of my favourites, is P. Craig Russell. The following strip appears in 'Epic Illiustrated' (3rd issue, Fall 1980, Marvel); the title of the strip is 'A Tale of Elric of Melniboné - The Dreaming City Part One'.

I will be presenting more work by P Craig Russell in the near future, this is just a taster, enjoy!

Marvel Super Special: Blade Runner & Jim Steranko

Based on one of my all time favourite films, this comic was printed in September 1982 under the 'Marvel Super Special' banner. This series was primarily for television and film adaptions, however there were some Marvel licensed character issues also. This particular issue is volume 1, number 22. 

The first thing I'd like to mention about this comic is the cover art, this was done by the one and only Jim Steranko. At the end of the story the cover is reprinted without any of the text, clutter and the large obtrusive barcode. Jim Steranko is perhaps considered by many to have been at his peak during the 1960's on the work he did for 'Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D', however, I find that his work during the 70's was, in my opinion, superior. Steranko was an innovator of the medium, which was an annoyance to some of his peers. His style blended influences of surrealism, op art and graphic design; quite often producing images that could be described as 'psychedelic'. Let me state that perhaps my definition of psychedelia and psychedelics differs from that of mass culture (hippies, LSD etc..) and also of the dictionary. My definition is related more towards a combination of styles and elements that, when blended, create something of a new reality; something fractured  and distorted. Ron Goulart, in his 'Comix: A History of Comic Books in America', wrote, 

"[E]ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening. ... With each passing issue Steranko's efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photo-collages of drawings [that] ignored panel boundaries and instead worked together on planes of depth. The first pages ... became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period"

Here is an interview with Jim Steranko for your perusal: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=477

The difficulty of producing a comic like this one is in the writing; reducing a film with a runtime of 117 mins down to just 45 pages is quite a task. Huge chunks of dialogue have had to be removed but I think the story still flows fairly well. The rendering and colouring is great; the images below are a few of my favourites from the issue. Enjoy.