What Were YOU Reading in 1983?

 

Forty years ago in August of 1983, we had these items of trivia occupying our minds and media:

• 12-year-old Samantha Druce becomes the youngest female to swim the English Channel (21 miles), at 15 hours, 27 minutes (and locks it in for good--the minimum age for solo attempts to swim the Channel is now 16 years)
• John Sain of South Bend, IN builds a 3.91-meter house of cards (hopefully avoiding drafts)
• San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego
• La Cage aux Folles opens at the Palace Theater, NYC and runs for 1761 performances, winning 6 Tony Awards
• Revival of the Jerry Herman musical Mame starring Angela Lansbury closes in NYC after 41 performances
• Albums released: Billy Joel, "An Innocent Man"; Elvis Costello, "Punch The Clock"; Jackson Browne, "Lawyers In Love"; Heart, "Passionworks"; Cheap Trick, "Next Position Please"; Bette Midler, "No Frills"; Rick James, "Cold Blooded"
• Rock singer David Crosby is concurrently sentenced to 5 years in Texas state prison for possession of cocaine and 3 years for illegal possession of a loaded handgun (i.e., the 5-year sentence controls) (I believe he ended up serving nine months--there are conflicting accounts as to when he was released)
• Nuclear tests are carried out by the U.S. (Aug. 3 and Aug. 27), France (Aug. 4) and the USSR (Aug. 18)
• Marriages: Paul Simon (41) and Carrie Fisher (26) (divorced the next year); Film director Philippe de Broca (50) weds actress Margot Kidder (34)
• Birthdays: Chris Hemsworth (39); Andrew Garfield (39); Mila Kunis (you guessed it, 39)
• Top Five Songs in the U.S.: (1) "Every Breath You Take" (The Police); (2) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (Eurythmics); (3) "She Works Hard For The Money" (Donna Summer); (4) "Maniac" (Michael Sembello) (no relation to this guy); (5) "Is There Something I Should Know" (Duran Duran)
• Deaths: lyracist Ira Gershwin (86); actress Carolyn Jones (53); actor Simon Oakland (61)
• Cost of Living: Avg rent, $335/mo.; Gallon of gas $.96; Ford Mustang $6,572; Avg. income/year, $21,070; Price of a comic book: $.60

And speaking of your hard-earned 60¢...
The Marvel checklist of books published during August of 1983. What were you reading around this time?

Killraven, Warrior Of The Worlds! (Featuring: the Martians!)

 

The "War Of The Worlds" feature in Amazing Adventures began in the title's eighteenth issue in May of 1973 and was published bimonthly for the entirety of its run, finally having its plug pulled near the end of 1976 after twenty-two issues--nineteen of which were scripted by writer Don McGregor, who worked with a number of artists before pairing with Craig Russell and putting their joint stamp on the book and the principal character of Killraven.

With Killraven and his band of Freemen leading the charge against the invaders and their human and once-human collaborators, it became clear almost immediately how the series was being crafted to appeal to its readers. For instance, when the guns of Killraven and his compatriot, M'Shulla, are depleted of energy (simultaneously, mind you), both men shift to a more daring approach and reach for swords and other such weapons (scooped up in a convenient museum they find themselves in) that must be wielded with a strong arm, and never look back--tools and methods reminiscent of their days in the gladiatorial pens of their youth. "Sword vs. Science Gone Mad!" declares one cover caption on its second issue (and repeated almost word for word nine issues later). It was also at that point I began seeing the Earth's Martian conquerors being pushed to the background, with the bulk of Killraven's vengeance spent on those who were imprisoning and/or experimenting on human survivors located in this complex or that.

As a result, the Martians become collectively relegated to the two-dimensional role of evil conquerors--known to feed off of humans while enjoying the spoils of conquest as they rule in tyranny. It's a rather black-and-white view of this invasion, and the invaders, that even McGregor seems to be on board with, judging by the opening page of his initial issue:

There is only a single issue in the series where McGregor and Russell would explore the Martians (or two of them, at least) in greater depth (more on that shortly); but in an effort to briefly shift the focus back to the beings who started this "war" (though at this stage it could more accurately be referred to as an "occupation"), let's collate what limited scenes are available in regard to their direct involvement, while taking a look as well at those chosen few who are unswerving loyalists to their demands.

Marvel's Classic Corner Boxes: Mighty Thor Vol. I, Incredible Hulk Vol. II

 

Marvel corner boxes seem to be a thing of the past, but at the PPC we're reaching back and reassembling them in all their glory. Having already run down the collection of corner boxes featuring the Fantastic Four, we now pivot to the God of Thunder, Thor, as well as the rampaging behemoth men call the Hulk, two characters who have gone head to head in previous meetings and who now face off again in a contest where they can't possibly injure one another. (We hope!)

Since a coin toss would probably have proven fatal for yours truly, depending on which side it landed, it seems fair to start our showdown with the character whose comic premiered first--but even though that would be the Hulk (by three months, but a win's a win), his six-issue first volume had no corner boxes to display. It wouldn't be until 1964, when the character was brought back in Tales To Astonish as a companion feature to Giant-Man, that the Hulk began appearing in corner boxes; the Journey Into Mystery book, however, where Thor first appears, displayed its first box of the Thunder God in 1963.

None of which I explained to our two heavy hitters, since they seemed a bit impatient to get this ball rolling. I just assigned the honor of going first to the oldest one present, which was Thor by a landslide.

Yet Thor's corner boxes in his initial appearances didn't exactly knock it out of the park for him--in fact, I'd made a comment at one time which likened Thor's image here to some kid's yearbook photo.

As we see, the grinning face shot was changed to a more serious, godlike portrayal, which would still be put to use well into the run of Thor's own title.

As for the Hulk, his boxes in TTA weren't exactly sensational, either, though things improved just before the book was discontinued. (Yet it bears mentioning he had more staying power than Giant-Man, who had enjoyed first billing in the book, so he must have been doing something right).

Just Call "Him"... Paragon!

 

After the failure of the group that would later be named the Enclave to create a perfect, powerful human specimen to aid in their goal of world conquest, it stood to reason that these men would make another such attempt--assuming they survived the retribution delivered by the one named Him, who viewed them as evil and acted accordingly. Survive it, they did--and make it, they did, once they brought in a specialist to help make sure that this new creation didn't turn on them like the last. But what they didn't count on was that one very angry johnny-come-lately would turn out to be their specialist's backup!

It's the 1977 Incredible Hulk Annual, where a new form of life has again emerged within the sinister complex known as the Beehive. And, once again, we're left to ask: Is it friend, or foe?

(It's probably not feeling too friendly after being attacked by everybody.)

 

Lo... The Leader!

 OR:  "Holy Crud!"


Given the longevity of the mentally mutated menace known as the Leader, and the fact that he's arguably become a staple of Marvel villainy, it's fair to wonder why the man has seldom been allowed to spread his wings beyond the confines of Incredible Hulk and initiate plans against other characters and super-groups. The R&D projects of Tony Stark or Reed Richards, for instance, would surely make for tempting targets; infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. would gain him access to any number of intelligence agencies and government resources; a takeover attempt of A.I.M. would not only yield a treasure trove of advanced weaponry and scientific research but could also set up a *ahem* head-to-head (and mind-to-mind) conflict with M.O.D.O.K. (so many acronyms!); and how about vying with the Wizard for control of the Frightful Four?

The point being that the Leader need not stay where he has for the most part, which has mainly been to bedevil the command of Gen. "Thunderbolt" Ross and/or pursue a vendetta against the Hulk and Bruce Banner. And in that respect, the Leader is with us almost from the start, helping to inaugurate the Hulk in the character's second crack at a series of his own--or more accurately, a feature of his own, while sharing one half of the Tales To Astonish title with Giant-Man in separate stories. At first, the Leader is handled by artist Steve Ditko in much the same way as was the Green Goblin--a villain whose identity is kept under wraps for the time being, while conducting his affairs behind the scenes as the, well, leader of a spy ring with designs on effectively taking over the U.S. government.

The Chameleon, of course, is a natural operative for the Leader's network of spies--though he, too, fails in dealing with the Hulk. It's then that, unlike the slow reveal of Norman Osborn as the Goblin, Ditko and writer Stan Lee decide to pull back the curtain on the Leader without delay, at the point when he appears to be forsaking the spy business in favor of going all in with his powerful creation known as the Humanoid.

It's only when he sees the Hulk go up against the Humanoid, however, that the Leader decides to focus his efforts on learning more about the powerful brute, whom he considers to be a potentially dangerous enemy and suspects was created in the same way as himself--by exposure to gamma rays.

Whatever our impressions of the Leader thus far, it becomes apparent that his character has acted as a virtual shot in the arm to stories involving the Hulk, who had not yet been developed beyond the status of a raging behemoth who suddenly appears to attack the threat du jour and whose activities cast suspicion on Bruce Banner. Up until now, the so-far bland supporting characters of these stories have been Gen. Ross, who has orders to continue working with the brilliant Banner as he develops weapons-based technology for the government... Maj. Glenn Talbot, a security officer who believes the worst of Banner; Rick Jones, who's left Captain America and the Avengers to return and protect Banner as best he can... and Betty Ross, Banner's love interest (as well as Talbot's); but as the Leader's profile is raised, and his interests are shifted to getting his hands on whatever Banner happens to be working on, as well as becoming more obsessed with the Hulk as a possibly ally, he begins to receive prominent exposure on issue covers.

Yet for all that, it takes awhile for any characters in the stories to become aware of either the existence or even the name of the Leader--which, granted, is secrecy that any spy aspires to, though in this case that secrecy vanishes for no apparent reason. The moment comes when the Leader sets his eye on Banner's new Absorbatron, a device developed as a defense against nuclear attack and capable of absorbing the force of a nuclear explosion. (Perhaps an improvement on his earlier Project 34, a device which only went as far as shielding an entire city from enemy rockets or missiles through use of electromagnetic waves.) The Leader is successful in capturing the device, but as a bonus he also manages to capture the Hulk in the process--though it's Bruce Banner who awakens in the Leader's base and realizes who's nabbed him, despite neither himself nor the Hulk ever having knowledge of or exposure to anyone named "the Leader."

Ditto for Gen. Ross and Maj. Talbot, who are frantic to recover the Absorbatron but are convinced that it's Banner (in league with the Hulk) who has made off with it, no doubt to deliver to a foreign government. Yet as they close in on the Leader's hidden base, they're unaware that the Hulk has since escaped captivity and dealt with the Leader (and with the Absorbatron)--and so when they arrive, they only find the Hulk, who has been severely weakened by one of the Leader's weapons and succumbs to a soldier's gunfire (presumably while on the verge of changing back to Banner). In a subsequent search, however, Talbot and his men only find the fatally wounded Bruce Banner.

And as the mop-operation continued, we're left to assume that Banner's little S.O.S. made mention of the Leader--because now the villain's name is fully out in the open and being dropped by the troops, as if they've been aware they've been dealing with him all along.

Elsewhere, the Leader has attempted to mend fences with those who were expecting delivery of the Absorbatron, by promising them something of potentially greater value--a more powerful, monstrous Humanoid who would be subject to their control. But it becomes clear that the Leader instead means to sever ties with those he has been working with, and use his creation to seize power for himself. (And at a tidy profit, at that--one billion dollars in 1965 was nothing to sneeze at.)

But the Leader has underestimated the Army's arsenal, as Ross orders the deployment of their "Sunday punch" super-missile against the approaching Humanoid which renders it inoperative on impact. The unexpected development that results from the crisis, however, is that the Hulk agrees to serve the Leader, who has learned of the Watcher's "Ultimate Machine" and enlists the Hulk's aid in retrieving it--but his intention to assimilate the Machine's wealth of universal knowledge backfires, to deadly effect.

Posthumously, however, we discover sometime later that the Leader has been officially named via narrative as the Hulk's arch-villain when the police contact the Pentagon upon discovering his Humanoid creation in storage, which Ross rashly resolves to send against the Hulk--something the Humanoid, for its part, is totally on board with, except for the part about being under Ross's control.

Thus would begin a long association between Ross's command and the Leader, for better or worse (usually worse).

But... wouldn't we need a living Leader for that?

Say no more.

Scintillating Selfies From Seasons Past!

While there are a number of self-portraits of comics artists, it seems a lost art when the artist would surround his image with those comics characters he or she was best known for. The first time I became aware of such portraits was when Marvelmania--Marvel's licensing arm in California which absorbed the old M.M.M.S. and sold fans a variety of memorabilia in the early '70s--grouped together a number of such portraits and advertised them for sale in books published circa 1971:

In those early days of my Marvel Comics acclimation, I was thrilled to see portfolios of those artists whose work I was just getting to know. (Jack Kirby, of course, had departed Marvel by that time, but I was starting to devour reprint titles featuring his art.) I remember being a little disappointed by John Buscema's offering, which featured only a sampling of his work from a single title, Silver Surfer:

Yet there later appeared an offering from him that showed what might have been in a more comprehensive rendering, while other outlets have adapted his pose to create their own portrait of the artist and the many characters which benefited from his style.

Buscema's brother, Sal, who also has a rich portfolio of work at Marvel, was a little more difficult to track down in this respect, but one such drawing turned up:

Though given the sheer number of characters Buscema has brought his style to, the artist himself might have been a bit lost in the crowd if they had been included.  What we see here is quite satisfactory--and Buscema's positioning of himself is an interesting choice in comparison with other such portraits.

I would have expected a similar throng of characters in a George Perez portrait, but the drawings which turned up were surprisingly reserved.

There are no Daredevil images in Wally Wood's selfie, but perhaps a takeaway panel from one of his stories explains why (though the breadth of Wood's work with other subject matter would be more extensive than the pigeon-hole he establishes for himself here).

Several of Gil Kane's offerings focused on his work at DC, though at least one of them included some of his renderings of Marvel characters:

Finally, the portraits of John Romita and Herb Trimpe round out this assortment nicely.

(If you can identify the character posed in front of the Glob in Trimpe's portrait, there's a free Trimpe-rendered Incredible Hulk comic in it for you! (Well, more like my sincere thanks, instead!)


I was surprised at the dearth of such character-based portraits for Rich Buckler, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Barry Smith, Bill Everett, George Tuska, Don Heck, and other notables, all of whom had a hand in building Marvel into the brand it became. If you're curious to see other self-portraits not featured here, do check out the PPC's prior posts on the subject, where you'll find those of Jack Kirby, Marie Severin, et al.

BONUS!

Renditions of the ideal Marvel Bullpen, as conceived by Marie Severin and Bob Camp.

"Your Serve... er, Move, Daredevil!"

Having put together a special series on symbolic splash pages featured in Marvel's major team books as well as in Amazing Spider-Man, the PPC now moves briefly to highlighting some noteworthy efforts made in a random sampling of other titles from over the years which came to mind, some of which may ring a bell for you.

Leading us off are a number of pages from Daredevil, which I lingered on for some time considering their diversity in both style and artists and spanned a range of years from 1964 to 1971. (Perhaps even longer, but DD is monopolizing this subject as it is!) Bill Everett Jack Kirby is who we have to thank for paving the way for us (correction courtesy of Dave Plunkert--thanks, Dave!):

Joe Orlando, whose work began appearing in the industry in 1949, would follow up on the title with the next three issues (though you'll find much of his work for Marvel appearing in titles published in the mid- to late-'50s, in categories ranging from westerns, romance, war stories, sci-fi and mystery). His final work was published in 1997, a year before his death at 71.

Wally Wood, whose work Stan Lee made efforts to spotlight, makes his own SSP contribution (working off artist Bob Powell's layout) in a story from 1965 which he also scripted:

Ross Andru and Herb Trimpe unintentionally provide dueling SSPs featuring Ant-Man, with Andru providing more variety in terms of what awaits us within the story:

While John Romita and Gene Colan line up their versions of face-offs between DD and Spider-Man.  Writer Gerry Conway's "sports fan" caption turns out to be appropriate, since Mr. Colan seems to have Spidey trying to capture DD with a tennis court net.

(Maybe that second title should start off with "...And So Re-enters"?)

The mask and form of Daredevil lend themselves nicely to the SSP format, as Colan demonstrates in his other efforts with the character.

Over in Amazing Adventures, where the Black Widow is splitting the mag with the Inhumans, John Buscema appeals to the action lover with imagery suggesting that the Widow's new series is the one to watch--while Colan takes a more intriguing approach.

Later in that same title, Craig Russell is well-suited to the characters and concepts we'll find in stories adapted from H.G. Wells' War Of The Worlds.

While Colan, Gil Kane, and Jim Starlin show us what they bring to the table for Captain Marvel, old and new...

...as well as for Warlock (with Steve Leialoha working off of Starlin's layout).

Dr. Strange is also well-represented, both solo and as part of the Defenders. Here we see work by Andru, Colan, Barry Smith, and Sal Buscema.

Howard Purcell, whose work for Marvel was limited to backup stories featuring the Watcher and two Nick Fury stories in Strange Tales, turns in this splendid SSP for the Black Knight's appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes.

Finally, Andru takes us out with the opening page to Marvel Team-Up #1, which features the rare display of Spider-Man in battle while poised on his own spider's web.

(Frankly these two don't seem very interested in fighting the Sandman.)

COMING UP:

One more SSP for the road... to Transylvania, that is.