STAN LEE INTERVIEW: FOOM COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART EIGHT...

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See?  Patience is indeed a virtue.  Just when you wondered when the next instalment of our FOOM COVER & IMAGE GALLERY was going to make its appearance, up it pops.  This time around it's an interview with Smilin' STAN LEE (you'd be smiling too, if you had his dosh) and, while some parts may be out of date, Stan's interviews are always worth reading just to see what he's forgotten this time (only kiddin', Stan).  Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking - as if Stan Lee would be reading your blog, Robson.

Anyway, without any further preamble from li'l ol' me, here's what Stan was saying back in 1977.  (Remember - to enlarge, click on image, then click again for optimum size.)

PART FIVE Of 'ON The SCENE' - THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA...

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Just when you thought I'd forgotten, I confound your low expectations of me by presenting Part Five of our (very) occasional series, On The SCENE Presents SUPER HEROES.  This was a 1966 U.S. mag with articles (reprinted from other sources by the same publisher) about various silver-screen serials and movies of popular comicbook 'long underwear' characters.  This time around it's the ol' shield-slinger, CAPTAIN AMERICA himself - except he never had a shield in his 1944 live-action outing.  However, let's not get ahead of ourselves - you can read the full scoop in its proper order below.

See you in Part Six - whenever that might be!

The TITANICALLY TALENTED TEAM-UP Of KIRBY & AYERS...

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No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - NAMOR really is wearing red trunks in the above page from The FANTASTIC FOUR #6.  That's the colour he wore when he was revived in FF #4 back in the early 1960s.  He'd obviously turned them in for a green pair by the time issue #9 was published, and (until recent softcover MASTERWORKS and OMNIBUS editions) most subsequent reprintings of his first two appearances recoloured his trunks green. 

However, that's not what this post is about.  I wanted to show just how good an inker the recently deceased DICK AYERS was by showcasing a couple of pages of JACK KIRBY art he'd worked on.  Originally, JOE SINNOTT had started to ink FF #6, but for some reason couldn't continue after a few panels and the job was passed to Dick (though the Sinnott panels were left in).

Anyway, look at panel 5 in the above page - it looks as good as a WALLY WOOD inked panel, which means that it's very good indeed.  Kirby was firing on all cylinders at this time in his career, and Dick was right alongside him.  Brilliant page - I love it.

The page below comes from The AVENGERS #8, a story I first read when it was reprinted in a British weekly periodical called TERRIFIC back in 1967.  Aside from the memories it conjures up of my childhood, it's as fine an example of '60s storytelling and comicbook artistry that you're ever likely to see.

Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers - not only a class act, but a difficult one to follow, I'm sure you'll agree!

2000 A.D. TV AD FROM 1977...

Now here's a blast from the past - 2000 A.D.'s very first

television advert.  Just think - only another three years or so

and the comic will be 40 years old.  Wow!  Hands up who's

still got the first issue?  "Me, sir, me, sir, me, sir!"

OMEGA The UNKNOWN - WHO KNEW...?

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OMEGA The UNKNOWN it was called, which was an apt title considering that nobody seemed to know what in blazes it was all about.  There was certainly a nod to elements of FAWCETT's/DC's CAPTAIN MARVEL in the mix, but the mag failed to capture my interest and I bailed out not too far into the run.  I should have held on because it lasted only ten issues before being cancelled due to poor sales, so it seems I wasn't the only one to jump from a plummeting 'plane.  (Not that I had much choice come to think of it, seeing as how the title disappeared from UK shops after issue #5.)

However, it was good to see veteran artist JIM MOONEY as the main man on a regular monthly mag again - even if it was only for a short time.  This superhero saga sings of the '70s to me in a way that's hard to explain, but if you were around back in the day and bought the comic, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.  If not, you'll just have to take my word for it and settle for the pulsating piccies presented in this palpitating post.  Ain't you lucky?!

If I ever manage to track down the remaining five issues, you can expect part two to finish things up.  If not, then you're on your own, Charlie.

Click for Part Two.  And click here for related Omega post.

  

LEE & KIRBY'S FINAL FLING - The SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL...

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It was the last-ever collaboration between STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY for MARVEL COMICS, and was published in 1978 - the year Jack's Marvel contract ended and he entered the TV animation industry, drawing storyboards for cartoons and pitching various concepts for new shows.  He'd been back at the company he helped build for only three years, but was not a happy chappie and was eager to move on.  First though, he had to fulfil his contractual obligations before he could wipe the dust of Marvel from his feet forever. 

Isolated from its FANTASTIC FOUR context, the SILVER SURFER graphic novel is a not entirely successful 're-imagining' of GALACTUS' first visitation to Earth with the intention of devouring the planet's energy in order to sustain his existence.  It's clear that Kirby is following his original premise of the Surfer as a created being with no history before Galactus brought him forth, but Lee superimposes his own vision of the character (NORRIN RADD, SHALLA BAL, ZENN-LA, etc.,) onto the story by means of his expository dialogue and captions.  It actually comes across more as a self-contained, illustrated idea for a movie treatment than a 'canonical' fragment of the wider Mighty Marvel tapestry.

As great as MIKE ROYER had been in faithfully reproducing Kirby's pencils in some of his other Marvel mags of the period, it was refreshing to see JOE SINNOTT assume his rightful place as inker on Jack's Surfer pages for what would be the final time.  However, something still doesn't seem quite right in many places throughout the book.  True, there are occasional welcome reminders of past glories, but Jack's figure-work had deteriorated beyond the point of even Sinnott being able to completely disguise, despite his potency with a pen and a brush.

However, it's certainly a noble effort, and not quite as bereft of worthiness as I've perhaps made it sound.  Diehard Kirby fans are sure to love it, as are fans of Lee's mastery of the written word.  It's not quite up there with the original 'Galactus Trilogy', but as the last outing of the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, it deserves to be on every true Marvel fan's bookshelf.  Seek out a copy on eBay now!  In the meantime, enjoy this brief glimpse of some of the contents below.

Below is Jack's original cover idea, on which EARL NOREM's

1978 published version was based.  Which one do you prefer?

CONSIDER YOURSELF A CHAMPION? THEN WHY NOT ENTER OUR CONTEST?

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Right, now that I've got your attention by means of a cunning subterfuge, what can I tell you about MARVEL SUPER HERO CONTEST Of CHAMPIONS?  Not much as it happens, 'cos I don't recall reading them in the 30-plus years that I've owned them - which means that I probably didn't.  I plan to get around to doing so one of these days though.

All you really need to know is that it was an excuse to get all the Marvel heroes together in order to part you from your cash.  If you've got these issues then it obviously worked.  I think I bought them as back-numbers in the early 1980s, and there was a gap between me getting #1 and 2 & 3, if I remember rightly.  I understand that it was the relative success of this title that lead to the later SECRET WARS comics, so if those two MATTEL toy tie-in series didn't ring your bell, you have Contest to blame for it.

Looking at the three splash pages on offer here, the story looks pretty underwhelming.  At least, they hardly fire me up with enthusiasm to get stuck into them, but let's hope I'm wrong in my first impressions and that they're a cracking good read.  Anybody know for sure?

I'll give you my verdict when I've read them.

The RAWHIDE KID - A REAL STRAIGHT-SHOOTER...

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It wasn't until I was typing out the folder name for these scans that it struck me just how gay the name RAWHIDE KID sounds these days.  In fact, I believe the character was 'outed' a few years ago when, for whatever reason, writer RON ZIMMERMAN decided to retroactively reverse the Kid's sexual orientation.  I never read that series - didn't even see it, in fact - but, to me, the Rawhide Kid is, and always will be, as straight as they come.  In fact, he's so macho and manly, he drinks his milk from a dirty glass.

Anyway, there seems to have been a pulsatin' plethora of cowboy characters called 'Kid' in MARVEL comicbooks way back when.  As well as The Rawhide Kid, there was The TWO-GUN KID, The APACHE KID, The RINGO KID, The WESTERN KID, and KID COLT, OUTLAW.  May well be more for all I know.  The blamed West was over-run with dang kids - where were all the adults fer cryin' out loud?  Makin' kids, I guess.  (Well, a man can't  spend all his time with his horse  - it ain't natcheral!)

Surely HERB TRIMPE's finest inker was JOHN SEVERIN.  Just look at that splash page below.  GERRY TALAOC, who inked the next couple of issues, did a great job (with DAN BULANADI on #4) - but, for me, Severin is the main man when it comes to inking Trimpe's pencils.  Herb's artwork, great as it was, always looked even better for having been 'kissed' by the pen or brush of the inordinately talented Mr S, who was also a magnificent penciller in his own right.  I've yet to see a page of art that wasn't enhanced by his inks.  Who could ever forget his excellent work on KULL The CONQUEROR with his sister MARIE back in the '70s?

However, it's the Old West we're interested in today.  So saddle on up and sashay on down to the ol' saloon - where men were men and women were wild - and kids were well-past their bedtime.

WITCH'S VISIONS - COVER & SPLASH PAGE GALLERY...

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If the old memory isn't playing tricks on me, I bought the first ish of this mag quite a few years before I acquired the other three in the series.  However, before then, I'd read reprints of them in the second incarnation of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL in 1983 - not too long after the original U.S. mini-series, in fact.  It's strange to see the covers of #2 & 3 in their original form because, naturally, I associate them more with MWOM, which is where I first saw them. However, that's neither here nor there as far as you're concerned.  Your main interest is surely in refreshing your own recollections of when you first experienced these comics, back in the faded, half-forgotten realms of 'long ago and far away'.

So - happy reminiscing!

Page 1 was a rather unspectacular affair (and not even a splash page)
so here's page 2 instead, which better fits the description