Marvel Preview 22, 1980 “The Quest of the King”

The recent search for Marvel black and white magazines from the Bronze Age, has brought some interesting books to the forefront on the blog. The cover, being so awesome and naming the creative team was all it took. There’s also a fascination with Arthurian lore for sure, and quite honestly, isn’t everyone a part of that enthralling genre?

An adventure story involving knights, magic, and everything else you can think of is inside this book! Most mags from this era have multiple stories in them, but not here. This one is so strong it runs fifty-five pages long, and each one is a masterpiece by the creative team.

Speaking of the creative team, the familiar names from the ages are front and center. The artwork is off the charts in this book and we have Big John Buscema (pencils), and the inking team of Tom Palmer and John Tartaglione to thank. The story is by Doug Moench (script) and John Buscema as well! Not to be left off the list, is letterer John Costanza, who does a magnificent job on this one (calligraphy).

 

 

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The Demon 6, 1973 “The Howler!”

The Bronze Age was a great time in comic books. After a long stint with Marvel Comics, Jack Kirby decided to take his talents to South Beach…oh, sorry wrong guy. He decided to take his enormous talents (back) to DC Comics, where he could have free reign over the books he was going to create. This allowed the king to really go wild and let his imagination run free. One of the best things he created was the character called, Etrigan the Demon! Many have probably heard of this character, but might not have read any of the short-lived series. It’s definitely worth a look, especially when you see quirky issue like this one, where Etrigan battles a werewolf!

The exploits of Jack “King” Kirby (writer, penciler, editor), are well documented. That doesn’t mean myself and tons of others are ever going to stop slobbering over his greatness though. His imagination unbridled is simply astounding. After decades of creating, the 1970’s brought no slow down for him, and just solidified him even more as one of the true greats (if not the greatest) in the medium of all time. The man who shared some of the spotlight during this era, was Mike Royer (inks). His inks on this book, Kamandi, and others, gave Kirby’s pencils a uniformity and that’s definitely a compliment to his work.

 

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