Redartz: Welcome once again, folks, to another assessment of the finest comics offerings of the year. The year 1976, that is- and a mammoth year it was. Treasury Editions, Annuals, beginnings and endings, it had it all. Loads to choose from, and as always my picks are subjective, based upon my own readings and memories. And in this case, the tally is heavily Marvel-tilted. Ah, but the House of Ideas was running in high gear in '76. Let's have a look...
Superman vs. Spider-Man- "The Battle of the Century", by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru and Dick Giordano. How could the initial meeting between the marquee characters of the Big Two not make a best-of list? An oversize edition, fitting the big story. Oh, and Neal Adams and John Romita helped out a bit, too.
Howard the Duck 3- "Four Fingers of Death", by Steve Gerber, John Buscema and Steve Leialoha. One of my favorite HTD tales. Gerber ponificates a bit, but the story is great and so is the art. Brunner and Colan may be better known as Duck artists, but Big John delivers here, as always.
Tomb of Dracula 44- "His Name is Doctor Strange", by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. This nomination could go to either this book or to the conclusion of the story in Dr. Strange 14. But ToD gets the nod, in consideration of the overall high quality of the book...
Avengers 148- "20,000 Leagues Under Justice", by Steve Englehart, George Perez and Sam Grainger. The Avengers was hitting another high point here, and this wild tale with the Justice League (excuse me, Squadron Supreme) is one of the best of a solid run.
Warlock 15- "Just A Series of Events", by Jim Starlin. Starlin wraps up his Warlock series with his typically talented tendencies. And he inks himself, bonus!
X-Men 101- "Like A Phoenix, From the Ashes", by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Frank Chiaramonte. Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy are there to help introduce us all to Phoenix. And her story was just beginning...
Amazing Adventures 39- "Mourning Prey", by Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell. The final issue in McGregor's Killraven epic, and it was a memorable sendoff. And Russell's linework is a beautful thing.
Fantastic Four 176- "Improbable as it May Seem- the Impossible Man is Back in Town", by Roy Thomas, George Perez and Joe Sinnott. A romp of a story, generously filled with humor and many Marvelous guest stars.
Thor Annual 5- "The War of the Gods", by Steve Englehart, John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga. A Cinemascope-sized look at a younger Thor, battling with a younger Hercules. If Cecil B. DeMille did a comic, it would have looked like this.
All-Star Comics 64- "Yesterday Begins Today", by Paul Levitz and Wally Wood. Vandal Savagevs. the JLA, by Paul Levitz. And Wood art on top of that? This book was at the apex of DC's stack in76.
Ten titanic tales, culled from the cream of comics in the Bicentennial Year of the USA. These books all reside very fondly in my memory, but the question remains: do they bring a smile to you as well? Or did you have other favorites that year, and if so, enlighten us all; and share your Best of 1976 list!
11 comments:
Incredible Hulk 207/Defenders 41
The Hulk desperately trying to enlist- an then somehow force- Dr Strange's (and the Defenders') aid-- to have him revive Jarella, who had been killed saving a small child on the sidelines of a stupid skirmish. Strange ultimately cannot bring her back, of course.
Wrecked me.
HB
In July 1976 I discovered Marvel comics for the second time!
First time was the UK weeklies in November '74 and second time was the genuine American comics in July '76. And what a strange experience it was - happening upon comics that were so familiar yet so different!
In my excitement I bought ten comics (10 pence each so 10 for £1).
The only ones I can remember are Conan The Barbarian #62, "Death In The Land Of Dagon" in which Belit has been captured by Amra, Lord of the Lions. At the beginning of the issue Conan fights a wart-hog and he's grappling with the wart-hog on the cover too.
The only other comic I recall from the ten was Daredevil - I don't remember the number but DD teams up with Uri Geller, the famous spoon bender.
Ooo-- and a couple of thoughts regarding the books you've listed, here. . .
While EVERYONE remembers Perez' run on the Avengers during this period, his stint on the FF sometimes seems to be relegated to "Buried Treasure" or "Forgotten Gem" status (well, almost--)--- and art-wise, that pairing of Perez/Sinnott is just about as good as it gets. Some of the storylines through that run were dubious, IIRC, but the art was so strong that it legitimized what was going on, regardless. I distinctly remember wondering if the art on the FF had always been this good, and had I just overlooked it? And found myself becoming a fan of a book that I had never before bought regularly.
To be fair, the art HAD been nearly always that good, regardless of penciler, due to the years-long inking mastery of the eternal Joltin' Joe. As I filled in years and years of back-issues, it quickly became evident that the book always looked "right" regardless of who was penciling. Thanks to that fella.
Killraven/War of the Worlds was a very cool title, but--- could be darned hard to follow sometimes. That last installment was nicely sweet, though.
Also-- are we getting a tingle of remembered aggravation from this era of 17-page stories? And even then with letters pages often dropped? Jim Shooter might've been an angel or a devil, depending on who yer asking, but he will always get a big thank-you from me for reversing the shrinking-content trend, and mandating that 2/3 of a comic book would once again be. . . a comic book (!).
HB
Well, I'd pretty much dropped comics at this point and was only interested in "unusual " titles. So while I know the covers I've not read any. What I was reading was Invaders and Kirby's Captain America as I recall. I guess I must have been in my Picasso phase of life and wanted art that was "challenging" LOL,
HB - Killraven could have been excellent but the stories were choppy and the art miserable for the first several issues. I recall one that Neal Adams allegedly did and it was horrifying. But I still found it compelling for a while.
This was still early in my comics reading career, when I was still haphazardly picking a few things off of the spinner racks based on how much I loved the cover - or if it had Spider-man in it. Since I read them later, I definitely agree with your picks of the X-men, Warlock, Killraven (*so* beautifully drawn by Russell) and Avengers (I actually did at the time have a few of those Serpent Crown issues, although the 7 year-old me had only the vaguest idea of what was going on in them).
I would add to your best-of list three books, two that I had at the time and one that I only read later: Spider-man Annual #10 (vs. the Fly! The first annual I ever had), Captain America's Bicentennial Battles and Marvel Premiere #32, with Howard Chaykin's wonderful Monark Starstalker story.
By the way, using Mike's Newsstand, I see that a lot of the comics I picked up at the time that really stick in my memory featured reprints, like Super Team Family #4 (with old JSA and World's Finest stories), DC Superstars #2 (with Adam Strange and Hawkman stories from the early '60s) and #7 (Aquaman stories, drawn by Cardy, from the late '60s), three DC Treasury editions (one featuring Batman stories, another with the secret origins of super-villains and the one with stories involving Superman and Flash racing), and a Marvel Treasury, the Holiday Grab-bag.
Otherwise, I agree with HB about that Hulk/Defenders story; there were a number of good Defenders stories in 1976, as that was right in the thick of Gerber's run on the title. Another interesting ongoing story at the time was McGregor's Black Panther vs. the Klan saga in Jungle Action. Also, the Claremont and Byrne run on Iron Fist, and Len Wein's tenure as writer on Spider-man were ongoing in 1976 - there's no one story in either I can single out, but both books were really solid and enjoyable. Over at DC, Ragman came and went in 1976 - I always liked that character.
You left off the Spider-Mobile story? What kind of "Best Of" list is this? :)
I was only 4 at the time, so I wasn't buying anything off the racks, but I've read a good number of them since. I can't really quibble with your picks, but maybe I can add a few honourable mentions:
Amazing Spider-Man 157-159 (with Hammerhead's "ghost" haunting Doc Ock) was pretty good.
As you said, Avengers had a solid run at this time; I remember liking #152-153 where Wonder Man was revived by Black Talon.
Master of Kung Fu had a great run around this time ... Moench and Gulacy were at their best. I have a soft spot for MOKF Annual #1 ... the story is pretty thin, but it's all-out action with Shang Chi and Iron Fist pounding thugs galore.
The first half-dozen issues of Warlord are classic; great story and art, both by Grell.
My second year collecting and I was trying just about every title from Marvel and DC.
Especially team books, other that the biggies I also couldn't miss the Invaders, All Star Squadron, Champions.
I agree with most that have been mentioned. Here's some others that stick out;
Thing and The Liberty Legion in Marvel Two-In-One.
Defenders Annual #1 (I must have read that mag dozens of times)
JLA #137 (so many characters, The Marvel Family even)
Then there was the milestone issues;
Superman #300
X-Men #100
When Peter Parker debuted I was determined to collect that series from the beginning. I had an uninterrupted run for the first 35 issues before I was out of comics.
Not sure if anyone is still reading but...
I am really so envious of you guys who started reading ASM after the Death of Gwen Stacey.
You guys were able to enjoy ASM for hundreds of issues I take it.
When Gwen died, I hung on for a few issues, bought the first Punisher appearance but then the Gwen clone saga happened. It was too much for this young boy to handle. And that was that.
I did buy a few issues of the Byrne run. But when I looked at the spinner rack and saw Harry As the Green Goblin, Hobgoblins, Peter was a clone, his parents may have been clones (whatever) it was really painful - seriously - from my perspective.
But, if you did not live through it, and it is just a historical footnote, I can easily see having a totally different perspective.
From Terry in Virginia:
What I definitely remember from 1976:
Avengers #144 (first Hellcat and first George Perez on this title)
X-Men #97 or 98 -- one of the issues with the Sentinals.
The Superman-Spider-Man team-up
The rebooted Green Lantern/Green Arrow with art by Mike Grell
Warlord -- Mike Grell’s own creation starting that year
Aquaman drawn by Jim Aparo in Adventure Comics #441-452 (various writers; all pretty good)
I weaned away from comics in 1976 and 1977, mostly because the quality of writing and art at DC had gotten to be so horribly trite. It seemed like DC made a conscious decision to dumb-down their super-hero titles after some really excellent work in the early 1970s. I don’t think Marvel had that problem, but college (and girls) beckoned my attention as I reached my 18th birthday. I don’t regret missing anything from DC in the late 1970s, but Marvel still had some fire in it’s creative belly. Avengers, FF, and X-Men were all pretty strong (or better) at least into 1980 or beyond. I’ve since filled in a lot of the gaps with back issues, reprints, or trade paperbacks. I mean, wow, The Dark Phoenix Saga, The Korvak Saga, the Jim Starlin Warlock series? What was I thinking to quit comics while Marvel still rocked it??!!
P.S.: I got back into comics about 1983 and have been collecting non-stop since then, although I’ve mostly quit buying new stuff after DC’s “New 52” ruined everything…
Okay, I erred -- Perez started Avengers w/#141. Sorry...
Terry in Virginia
Thanks for commenting, all!
HB- Nice observation about the page count in that era. I agree, Shooter deserves credit for restoring a greater level of story and art. And that Hulk/Defenders tale was a fine one, indeed.
Edo- glad you mentioned the reprint books. They kind of get overlooked in these 'best of' counts, but some were great packages. I recall picking up the DC Special with Green Lantern about that time, and very recently grabbed the DC Special featuring Enemy Ace. Both of those collections were from 1976...
Mike W.- yes, ASM was pretty good then; I considered including the two-part Spidey/NIghtcrawler/Punisher story in the list, but it didn't quite make it.
Terry in Virginia- you added some great stuff to the stack! That Hellcat story was a definite favorite. And I understand your lower regard for some of DC's output at that time; Marvel outpaced DC by a huge margin for this teenage comic buyer.
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