Redartz: Welcome, everyone! Ready to review, relive, or rediscover a few fine comics? As we've done before, this discussion will center on the year's best comics (as chosen, unscientifically, by yours truly). And of course, my selections aren't graven in stone- you may well have a better list; by all means give us your choices and your reasons.
And now, let's look backwards at the year 1974 (cover dated Apr. 1974 - Mar. 1975), and see some excellent examples of comic art and story. In no special order:
Captain Marvel 32- "Thanos the Insane God" by Jim Starlin with Gary Friedrich, art by Starlin and Dan Green. The Avengers, Mar-Vell, Thanos, Drax and the rest, by Starlin. And what a cover.
Man-Thing 10- "Nobody Dies Forever" by Steve Gerber, Mike Ploog and Frank Chiaramonte. A great character study by Gerber, loaded with emotion.
Dr. Strange 1- "Through an Orb Darkly" by Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner and Dick Giordano. A truly beautiful, intricate start to a great story arc (and a great series).
Detective Comics 443- "Gotterdamerung" by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson. A classic, with two manhunters. Think I'd skip DC completely?
Captain America 175- "Before the Dawn" by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Vince Colletta. The epic conclusion to the "Secret Empire" story, with a gut punch ending.
Adventure Comics 435- "The Man Who Stalked the Spectre" by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo. This was grim and gritty years before Frank Miller and Alan Moore.
Giant-Size Avengers 2- "A Blast From the Past" by Steve Englehart and Dave Cockrum. Kang, the Celestial Madonna, Rama-Tut, and one of the best Avengers stories EVER.
Plop 9- A shout out to the whole issue, Sergio Aragones in particular. Twisted humor hearkening back to E.C; and an incredible Basil Wolverton cover.
Savage Sword of Conan 1- "Red Sonja" by Roy Thomas, Esteban Maroto, Neal Adams and Ernie Chan. A fine Sonja solo story, with stunningly beautiful artwork. Every page could be a fine art print.
Strange Tales 178- "Who is Adam Warlock" by Jim Starlin. Jim kicks the Golden One's story into high gear, introduces the Magus, and dazzles the eyes as well as the brain.
Well, there you have it. Some obvious choices, some you may well take issue with. At any rate, it was a good year for Steve Englehart!
So have at it, what's your 'best of' list for '74?
14 comments:
November 16th 1974 is the day I discovered Marvel and the comic was Planet Of The Apes (UK) #5 so for me the most important comic story of 1974 was the adaptation of the first apes film, by Doug Moench & George Tuska :)
Just read that Warlcok Magus story a couple of weeks ago!
Beautiful!
-david p.
1974 was my OPUS YEAR for collecting Marvel (and a little DC..). I grew to really like Englehart's Swordsman/Mantis storyline.., so I hated when he was killed off.
In other news, the FF had the Reed-Sue breakup still going on.., FOOM was still going strong, Starlin's Mar-Vell was going full throttle, so I thought this was an incredible year for not only Englehart and Starlin but especially Steve Gerber.
With his cosmic DD/BW storyline (with Mar-Vell guest-starring), Defenders writing, and of course Man-Thing starting up (with some subtle cameos for a future star, Howard the Duck). Just off the failed Shanna series, Gerber really started weaving himself into several titles, bringing back his storylines introduced in earlier books (like the Mandrill/Nekra from the Shanna book, etc..).
It was a spectacular year for Marvel.
Yes, just to echo david_b, those were all great, solid story lines (which I'm still trying to collect!). And looking back at it, the horror lines at Marvel were really chugging away, too, with Werewolf by Night, Supernatural Thrillers with the Living Mummy and, of course, Gene Colan on Tomb of Dracula. Ghost Rider was revving up as well.
But my personal fav from that year is still Astonishing Tales #25, the first appearance of Deathlok.
Dark Knight, meet the Cold Knight.
A grim, ghostly and great '74!
This was before my time, but I've read pretty much everything you posted at some point or another later. Damn, 1974 saw the release of some really outstanding stories.
I'm finding it hard to actually rank them; the Manhunter saga by Goodwin and Simonson and Starlin's Warlock saga are among my very favorite comics stories, while Starlin's Capt. Marvel Thanos story ranks pretty high up there as well, and so does Englehart's Celestial Madonna. Meanwhile, the story that concludes in Man-Thing #10 (which I call the 'Dawg story') is my single favorite Man-Thing story and among the best Gerber's ever written. The Silver Dagger story that kicked off Dr. Strange is also quite good, and Fleischer and Aparo's Spectre was just bonkers (in a good way). I'll take a pass on this one...
Hard to improve on your picks, but a couple others come to mind: Amazing Spider-Man 134-135 (with Tarantula and Punisher) and 136-137 (with Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin); and Superboy & the Legion 203 (where Invisible kid is killed by Validus).
Got to go with "Weird " Adventure Tales. 45 years later I still recall the thrill of such a well-drawn Spectre by Aparo. Probably synergy for me coming off Kaluta's Shadow a bit earlier.
My favorite at the time was the Manhunter finale from Detective Comics. I had really gotten into the Manhunter saga and i remember being stunned over the last few pages. I've reread that several times and it still holds up well.
I also really dug the whole Spectre series in Adventure. It would be hard to pick a favorite. I picked up the collection several years ago and still enjoyed it. My kids couldn't believe that they published that in the 70's. I guess I couldn't either at the time.
Just missed most of these. I started reading in early '75. But I had an older neighbor boy who gave me a bunch of earlier issues. So my choices are limited.
Spider-Man 141-142 I'm a sucker for any Mysterio story.
Astonishing Tales #26 -Although I missed the first appearance, this comic left an impression on me. And wow what a cover!
Action Comics- #445 I haven't read it in decades but it sure had an impact on the younger me. Lots of emotion.
And thanks for all the suggested stories. The Bronze Age just keeps on giving!
I liked Warlock and Captain Marvel of this era. Also the Defenders were good at this time.
I have to say -despite me not liking Wolverine today - I found his debut issue in the Hulk to be fun back in 1974, though I was honestly more intrigued by Wendigo.
Colin J- Marvel's "Planet of the Apes" was another highlight of '74. One of the first books I bought, as well.
david_b- yes, it was a stellar year for the 'house of ideas'. One of the best years ever. So much good writing and art, so many new formats, it was a wonderful time to be discovering comics!
Edo- I couldn't rank those stories, either (that's why I dont' number 'em). And I thought of you when including that great Man-Thing story...
Mike W. and Killraven- good choices, both of you! ASM 136 juuuuust missed my original list. And yes, that Mysterio tale was a good one. Old 'dome head' always offers a good read.
Let me add some Charlton flavor to the conversation. 1974 was an important year as the company rebooted a bit as George Wildman took the reins in editorial. Though they debuted the previous year, 74 saw key issues of E-Man, Yang, Midnight Tales and Wildman's delightful Popeye. There was a wave coming as the little Derby company was getting set to have one of its brightest periods in the year to come.
Rip Off
Hey All, been away for a bit. Ah, 1974. It was the year I was introduced to comics. That summer before kindergarten my grandmother got my brother and I some glorious comics! I was instantly hooked. Later that year my comic obsession was sealed with Astonishing Tales 26. Deathlok was the combination of two of my favorites, zombies and robots! The $.20-.25 era is by far my favorite. The covers are amazing and I feel its when stories became more real, gritty. Plus the music was sooo good then.
Hi, all:
I totally agree with the choices you posted -- in fact, I had almost all of those issues when they came out.
It was definitely a great year for Marvel. Englehart, Starlin, Brunner, Buckler all at the peak of their careers.
The only things I might add would be Don McGregor's Jungle Action (Black Panther), Gerry Conway's Fantastic Four run (especially the Rich Buckler issues), and echoing some others here, Astonishing Tales (Buckler's Deathlok). Oh, and Starlin's 3 issues of Master of Kung Fu and the regular monthly Conan were also winners.
Good choices for DC as well -- Detective with Simonson's Manhunter (and the Batman stories during that time were still really great, too). And Adventure Comics' The Spectre was also strong. There wasn't much else happening at DC, but Wrightson was still on Swamp Thing. And in spite of unimpressive scripts, Superboy and the Legion had Dave Cockrum followed by Mike Grell.
Sadly, DC had seen better years-- some really innovative stuff between 1970 and 1973. But most of what they were publishing by 1974 was really awful. DC would have better days ahead, but not until New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Great topic. I really think Marvel hit a peak around this time. And some of the titles continued to be pretty strong throughout the decade, especially the Avengers.
That's my 2 cents on it anyway...
Terry in Virginia
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