Back Issue #105

Deadly Hands Issue, spotlighting Bronze Age Fist-Fighters!

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“Marvel Fanfare Issue!” Behind the scenes of the ‘80s anthology series with AL MILGROM, interviews and art by ARTHUR ADAMS, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, STEVE ENGLEHART, MICHAEL GOLDEN, ROGER McKENZIE, FRANK MILLER, DOUG MOENCH, ANN NOCENTI, GEORGE PÉREZ, MARSHALL ROGERS, PAUL SMITH, KEN STEACY, CHARLES VESS, and more! Cover by SANDY PLUNKETT and GLENN WHITMORE.

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“BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES’ 25th ANNIVERSARY!” Looks back at the influential cartoon series. Plus: episode guide, Harley Quinn history, DC’s Batman Adventures and Animated Universe comic books, and tribute to artist MIKE PAROBECK. Featuring KEVIN ALTIERI, RICK BURCHETT, PAUL DINI, GERARD JONES, MARTIN PASKO, DAN RIBA, TY TEMPLETON, BRUCE TIMM, and others! BRUCE TIMM cover!

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Volume 1, Number 105 July 2018 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Earl Norem (Cover originally produced for Marvel Comics’ Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #29.

Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.)

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS “Sijo” Art Lapham Neal Adams Dave Lemieux Mark Arnold Franck Martini John Byrne (ByrneRobotics) Marvel Comics Marvel Epic Podcast Marc Buxton Chris Claremont Luigi Novi John Ostrander Jim Craig Penrod Pooch Nicola Cuti Daniel DeAngelo Steve Sattler Warren Sattler Jerry Eisenberg Rob Smentek Stuart Fischer Joe Staton Grand Comics Peter Stone Database Robert Greenberger Roy Thomas Steven Thompson Paul Gulacy Mike Voiles Larry Hama (DCindexes.com) Heritage Comics Jay Williams Auctions John Workman Tony Isabella Mike Zeck Willie Ito David Anthony Kraft Michael Kronenberg

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BEYOND CAPES: Master of Kung Fu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Marvel’s answer to a fad became one of its most innovative titles ART GALLERY: Paul Gulacy, Master of Kung Fu Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 These MOKF splashes were transformed into foreign edition covers BACK IN PRINT: Master of Kung Fu Omnibuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 A review of the deluxe reprints of the critically acclaimed series BEYOND CAPES: The World of Yang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Charlton’s martial-arts gang of Warren Sattler, Joe Gill, and Sanho Kim BEYOND CAPES: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Mighty Marvel’s magnificent magazine of martial-arts mayhem and magic FLASHBACK: Iron Fist in the Bronze Age and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 The story of Marvel’s kung-fu superhero and Netflix TV star BACKSTAGE PASS: Hong Kong Phooey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Ito, Eisenberg, and Cuti recall the Number One Super Guy’s cartoon and comic ONE-HIT WONDERS: Hands of the Dragon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Jim Craig discusses his kung-fu title from Atlas Comics BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: The Bronze Tiger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The tortured history of DC Comics’ Ben Turner THE TOY BOX: Mego’s Muhammad Ali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 How the once-disgraced heavyweight champ became an action figure GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Superman vs. Muhammad Ali Artists That Weren’t . . . 64 Before Neal Adams, two other artists were picked to draw this epic crossover FLASHBACK: I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Anyone remember the Champ’s Saturday morning cartoon?

WHAT THE--?!: Count Danté . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Who was the man behind the deadliest ad alive?

INTERVIEW: Neal Adams on Armor and Martial Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The superstar creator discusses Continuity’s high-tech martial artist… and Skateman, too—with lots of Adams’ kung-fu art BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $76 Economy US, $125 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Earl Norem. Iron Fist and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies.

All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2018 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows.

Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

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“You have made me alien, my father, raising me in a lost time, releasing me into a foreign world. I am like the dragon reborn long past his day… a creature nurtured in the world of myth, now forced to dwell in the realm of harsh reality.”

– Shang-Chi to Fu Manchu, Master of Kung Fu #86 (Mar. 1980) Anyone who was there knows that the 1970s were a strange and interesting time. You had disco, punk, the death of Elvis, blaxploitation, the energy crisis, sharks, political scandals, cocaine chic, porno chic, jiggle TV, posters, big-budget sci-fi flicks, dull cartoons, Billy Beer, and—I’m serious—for a while there, pretty much everybody really was kung-fu fighting!

Actor Bruce Lee essentially planted the seed for all this with his introduction of the fighting art of Jeet Kune Do into his portrayal of Kato, sidekick and chauffer to the venerable Green Hornet in that short-lived but well-remembered TV series of 1966–1967. Lee tried to parlay his cult popularity into a TV series of his own developed at Warner Bros. but the studio, citing the unlikelihood of an Asian becoming a genuine star in the US, cast the decidedly non-Asian David Carradine as a half-Chinese monk roaming the 19th-Century American West. The project would eventually surface as a 1972 TV movie followed by the long-running series, Kung Fu. Rumor at the time was that a disappointed and frustrated Lee left the country.

Combining trendy Eastern philosophy with traditional cowboy-show tropes and the gimmick of Chinese martial-arts fighting, Kung Fu’s success made it inevitable that the studio would try to milk it. Around that same time, the movie Billy Jack became a surprise boxoffice hit. It was also about a philosophical, peace-loving man who could kick butt Asian-style.

That was when someone at Warner Bros. decided to go straight to the source and release King Boxer to the American market.

King Boxer was a fairly typical good vs. evil martial-arts movie produced by the massive Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong, which had already been cranking out such fare to great local success for 20 years by that point. Any comparison it had to the Kung Fu TV series, though, was completely incidental.

Retitled Five Fingers of Death, it was heavily hyped as a new type of thrill movie. Rather than laugh at its admittedly silly, bombastic title or its cheap, gory effects or the ridiculously unreal athletics involved, Americans, always eager to discover something fresh and tasty in entertainment, just ate it up… and wanted more.

With a huge industry already in place in Hong Kong making more and more “kung-fu movies,” studios big and small began buying up all sorts of imported “chop-socky” flicks, giving them a quick English dubbing, and saturating inner-city theaters with them.

It turned out that Hong Kong was where Bruce Lee had fled, and that he had quickly become a star of these low-budget genre films throughout the Far East.

With an “all is forgiven” air, Warner Bros. now coaxed him back with the promise of a series of big-budget, major release kung-fu films that would, at long last, move Bruce into the rarefied rank of superstar! But just weeks prior to the release of what was to be his starmaking vehicle, Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee suddenly, tragically, died.

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by S t e v e n

Thompson

Mighty Marvel’s Martial-Arts Master An undated Paul Gulacy recreation of his cover to Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu #51. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU MANCHU

Bruce was long buried by the time the comic-book series Master of Kung Fu came along later that year, and by all logic the novelty of the martial-arts movie craze should have started petering out. Only nobody told that to Shang-Chi. Until the recent Master of Kung Fu Omnibuses, the modern reader had no reason to believe the series had actually been as good as its reputation. After all, Marvel had never even reprinted it and the sporadic, half-hearted attempts at reviving the character of Shang-Chi depicted him as fairly dull and out of place in these more cosmically conscious times. One former creator described the modern version as looking like “a Chinese waiter.”

The reason for the lack of reprints for so long, however, is rooted much deeper than an editorial whim. In fact, the main reason lies with something known for a century or more as… the Yellow Peril! You see, Shang-Chi’s father was one of the original, pre-Marvel, pre-comics supervillains— the one and only Dr. Fu Manchu!

A quick history lesson is in order here. In 1912–1913, using the pen name “Sax Rohmer,” British comedy writer Arthur Henry Ward serialized Sherlock Holmes-type chapters of a new character described in the American press of the day as “a mysterious Oriental whose resourcefulness and courage in the committing of crimes is enough to test the ability of the world’s greatest sleuths.”

Over the course of 13 official novels by Sax Rohmer, spread out over nearly half a century and in print constantly until more recent times, we learn that the villain heads a vast

Enter the Fad (left) Enter the Dragon and (top right) Billy Jack were among the best of the trendsetting kung-fu flicks of the ’70s.

Poster and lobby card courtesy of Heritage. Sax Rohmer’s insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, as seen in print (bottom) and on screen (middle right, with Boris Karloff in the role).

Enter the Dragon and Billy Jack © Warner Bros.

Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

The Mask of Fu Manchu © 1932 MGM.

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organization known as the Si Fan. He is a master of poisons and arcane sciences and a collector of exotic and dangerous animals, and has a femme fatale daughter named Fah Lo Suee. He has a stated goal to conquer the Western World and restore the ancient glory of China.

On the one hand, it’s impossible not to see Rohmer’s writings as racist screeds of the worst sort, exploiting his audience’s anxieties of the Colonialist fears that the influx of supposedly less than human Asians would destroy the European (and later American) way of life—the so-called Yellow Peril.

On the other, though, it’s equally impossible not to see Fu Manchu as an early prototype of the typical comics and movie supervillain. He is James Bond’s Dr. No! He is Iron Man’s Mandarin! He is Nick Fury’s Yellow Claw!

This evil character’s popularity was certainly not lost on early comic books! In fact, it’s Fu Manchu (or someone looking very much like him) who appears on the cover of the very first issue of the comic that would eventually give us Batman—Detective Comics #1 (Mar. 1937). Will Eisner’s Wow! What a Magazine! also featured Fu Manchu, and a newspaper comic-strip adaptation by Leo O’Mealia began in 1931 (and was reprinted as late as the 1980s). The Mask of Dr. Fu Manchu was a 1951 one-shot comic from Avon that featured the first full flowering of the legendary artist Wallace Wood.

Fu Manchu invaded other media as well, with a long-running radio serial, a movie chapter play, and a number of feature films. Warner Oland—a Swedish actor known for playing Asians such as Charlie Chan—was the first of several actors to play the mad doctor onscreen. The one and only Boris Karloff was arguably the best, though, chewing the scenery in 1932’s stylish The Mask of Fu Manchu, featuring Myrna Loy as his scheming daughter.

Ward (Rohmer) died in 1959, and Fu Manchu seemingly died with him as no more books were immediately forthcoming. But then came Christopher Lee. Lee was the new horror king, the modern Karloff. As such, he had recreated several of Boris’ roles in colorful, violent new movies—Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, and now Fu Manchu.

Starting in the mid-’60s, Lee, the tall, mannered Englishman, donned Asian makeup and silk robes to appear as the fiendish doctor in a series of five increasingly cheaply made melodramas. If one can overlook the now-obvious political incorrectness of it all, Lee gave the role a suitable air of gravitas and brutal authority, even though the character often did little more than order torture for victims and lurk off-screen while various actors playing his literary nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, carried the bulk of the action.

IN THE MIGHTY MARVEL MANNER

Fists of Fury Shang-Chi’s first two appearances, in Special Marvel Edition #15 (Dec. 1973) and #16 (Feb. 1974). Cover art by “Gemini” (“Jim and I”)—Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom.

Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

Meanwhile, the nostalgia boom and the popularity of pulp-novel reprints that began with Doc Savage led to the reissues of the Fu Manchu series in paperback. Thus it was that as Marvel Comics looked to expand into more licensed properties after the success of Conan, Roy Thomas pushed for the company to pick up the rights to adapt the Fu Manchu characters to comics for the first time in two decades.

So there we were in mid-1973 with Kung Fu a TV hit, Bruce Lee dead but immensely popular, martial-arts movies in every major city, and the Yellow Peril still at least on the back burner of the public consciousness. Mix in some admitted chemical enhancements on the part of several young, imaginative comic-book creators, and an idea was born!

The plan was originally to do a straight adaptation of the Kung Fu TV series, but since Warner Bros. owned the show—as well as Enter the Dragon and even Billy Jack!—and Warner Bros. was also the owner of rival DC Comics, that simply was not an option at Marvel.

So writer Steve Englehart put his head together with hot “cosmic” artist Jim Starlin and came up with an original philosophical martial-arts hero, Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu! Many years later, on his website, Englehart wrote, “I meditated for a long time on the I Ching to create his name, which means ‘the rising and advancing of a spirit.’ ” Charlton Comics’ Judomaster ran from 1965 to 1967. Harvey’s 1940s–’50s stuntwoman heroine Black Cat also knew judo, and her comics sometimes offered instruction pages.

Similarly, the Shield and the Black Hood offered Judo tips in some MLJ/Archie comics in the 1960s. Jim Shooter’s character, Karate Kid, debuted in DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics in 1966 but had little to do for nearly a decade. By 1973, though, Americans were finding out that there was more to martial arts than just judo and karate.

Oddly enough, Charlton’s Yang, written by the overworked Joe Gill and drawn by Warren Sattler, premiered at almost the exact same time as Shang-Chi. Although a nearly direct rip-off of the Carradine TV series, it was well done and popular and even spawned a sequel title, House of Yang. In less than three years, though, Yang was gone (until his 2015 revival by Charlton-Neo!). [Editor’s note: A Yang history appears elsewhere in this issue.]

Marvel’s then-editor-in-chief Roy Thomas suggested tying the company’s latest hero to Fu Manchu’s world, making him the oblivious son of the would-be world conqueror.

In a 2004 interview with Jon B. Cooke, Steve Englehart said, “I liked the idea of marrying the twin concepts.” He admitted that he was already a Sax Rohmer fan, adding, “Fu Manchu is just a villain. He’s not evil because he’s Chinese. He’s evil and he’s Chinese.”

Jim Starlin, on the other hand, had not read any of the actual Fu Manchu material at that point. Along with inker Al Milgrom, Starlin and Englehart turned out the first Shang-Chi story, which was stuck in a comic called Special Marvel Edition (#15, Dec. 1973). For its prior 14 issues, Special Marvel Edition had consisted of Thor and Sgt. Fury reprints.

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Let’s get one thing out of the way quickly: Yes, Shang-Chi’s dutiful son he obeys his father and kills the old man in skin is colored in the stories as if he suffers from severe bed. As he leaves, he is confronted by Smith, feeble and jaundice, and Fu Manchu looks like a lemon drop with in a wheelchair with a mangled leg, caused, he says, a droopy mustache. While this appears more than a by Fu Manchu! Shang-Chi begins to question everything. little odd and offensive to modern eyes, in the He goes to briefly see his mother (a character who is inexplicably never seen again) and, in the ’70s it was the, unfortunately, standard way of differentiating Asians from Caucaend, discovers his father has lied to him and sians in comics. At one point, well into shielded him from reality for his entire life. the run, a decision was, in fact, made Intricately drawn by Starlin and Milgrom, to stop coloring Asians that way in the as was the following issue’s story, it was book. Unfortunately, it was decided around this time that Starlin decided he not to change Shang himself, since he should probably read some of the origwas by then a recognizable and preinal Fu Manchu stories. He later told Jon sumably trademarkable brand as he B. Cooke, “The Sax Rohmer things are the most racist things you ever wanted to was. Orange he stayed.

That said, the original run of Master of read. They’re terrible!” Since he was Kung Fu was one of the most mature stretching himself a little thin anyway and well-written comic-book series of with his comics work, Starlin decided jim starlin its day. Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones, to leave the series after the third issue. in their 1997 book The Comic Book Beginning with that third issue, Pat Loika.

Heroes, declared the series to be “the in fact, the comic’s title switched from consummation of what Deadman, Manhunter, and every Special Marvel Edition to Master of Kung Fu. In this other would-be adult comic had been striving for.” story, we meet Black Jack Tarr for the first time, a tall, That first story led off with Shang-Chi reaching maturity, balding, muscle-bound former intelligence agent who having been raised and educated in Asia by his father, had moved to the US after retirement. Here, the invalFu Manchu, a man he believed to be the most noble id Nayland Smith has recruited Tarr to help him avenge human alive. Dad tells son to do him a favor and go kill Dr. Petrie’s murder at the hands of Fu Manchu’s evil the aged Dr. Petrie—“Watson” to Nayland Smith’s son. Up until that point, most comic books clearly “Holmes” in the Rohmer books. He tells him that Petrie denoted who the good guys were and who the bad is one of the world’s most despicable men. Although his guys were. This series was about to change all that as philosophical teachings cause him to question it, as a blurred lines were revealed almost from the start.

Startling Starlin Special Marvel Edition #15’s splash page grabbed readers by the throat, then page 2 thrust the reader into pulse-pounding martial-arts action.

Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

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Marvelizing Martial Arts (left) Shang-Chi vs.

Black Jack Tarr on the Jim Starlin/Ernie Chan cover to the nowretitled Master of Kung Fu #17 (Apr. 1974). (right) Shang-Chi sticks a toe into the Man-Thing on the Gil Kane/Tom Palmer cover of issue #19.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

According to legend, about the time the Master of Kung Fu series was revving up, Stan Lee himself, then publisher of Marvel, overheard someone in an elevator talking about how popular kung-fu movies were and insisted that Marvel come up with even more martial-arts stories. One quick by-product of this edict was Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, which hit the stands early in 1974 as part of Marvel’s by then-blossoming black-and-white magazine line.

Although not technically a Shang-Chi title, it just made sense for him to appear in the magazine even though his own comic was just catching on. His original creators—Englehart, Starlin, and Milgrom—are on hand with a 15-page story that serves as a prequel to his first color appearance. Shang-Chi is being tested by his father and having to fight a number of foes for several pages.

It’s really all just an excuse for some exquisite design work and screened shading effects.

The second magazine issue’s cover depicts a rather realistic version of Shang-Chi kicking butt in the middle of Times Square as drawn by Neal Adams, arguably at the

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peak of his long comics career at that time. Inside, Englehart and Milgrom are back for another kickfest, this time drawn by Alan Weiss, an artist known for drawing very expressive faces, which are what’s on view here.

After that—due to the Dreaded Deadline Doom, as explained in an editorial note—the readers got a reprint of the very first color Master of Kung Fu story from just a few months earlier.

THE COMING OF PAUL GULACY

Meanwhile, in the regular title, issue #18 (June 1974) offered up a notably invigorated Smith and a mellower Tarr, who recruit the reluctant Shang for an MI-6 mission.

We are also introduced for the first time to one of the major elements of the series—artist Paul Gulacy.

The Steranko influence in the early Gulacy art was nearly stifling at times, and yet already one could sense the originality underneath. Like Barry Windsor-Smith before him, Gulacy’s development as an illustrator and storyteller would come at a lightning-fast pace.

Master of Kung Fu #19 (Aug. 1974) offers the first awkward attempt to tie the series in with the mainstream Marvel Universe, here via an appearance from the once immensely popular monster character, Man-Thing. Englehart, knowing this would be his final issue, indulges his original wish to do a comic book based on the Kung Fu TV series. Shang meets Lu Sun, a traveler, drawn by Gulacy to look exactly like Kwai Chang Caine as played by David Carradine— except with a mustache!

Gerry Conway—originally slated to be the new regular writer—arrives to start an epic with Gulacy only to be replaced by Doug Moench… but by then Gulacy is gone, replaced with some serviceable work by Ron Wilson and Al Milgrom. In these issues, Shang-Chi slowly begins to get more deeply involved with Smith and Tarr and their “games of deceit and death,” as he will often refer to them.

Enter Gulacy From penciler Paul Gulacy’s first issue—MOKF #18 (June 1974)—it was clear the young artist had a gift for cinematic staging. Original art courtesy of Heritage. While the page is signed by both Gulacy and his longtime collaborator Doug Moench, this issue’s story was written by Steve Englehart. Inks by Al Milgrom. (inset) The issue’s cover,

by Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia.

Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

THE MOENCH/GULACY TEAM IS FORMED

Simultaneous to his regular series and his seemingly unrelated black-and-white episodes, our hero also appeared in Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu. Since the continuity in the main title was very tight, with one issue often leading directly into another, your guess is as good as mine as to when Shang-Chi found the time to have all these separate adventures.

Dated September of 1974, the first Giant-Size issue offers the earliest actual collaboration of the Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy team, as well as a second story

by Doug with P. Craig Russell. The busy Mr. Moench even pens a third story drawn by Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito. While the other two issues are good (and introduce the enjoyable if unlikely Groucho Marx clone Rufus T. Hackstabber), issue #3 (Mar. 1975) offers a full-length story that’s extremely important to the overall saga. The main reasons for this are the introduction of British agent Clive Reston (alluded to as being the grand-nephew of Sherlock Holmes and the son of James Bond!) and the revelation—insisted on by the late author’s estate—that Dr. Petrie had not, in fact, been killed by Shang-Chi back in that intial story, described herein as having been a year earlier.

The real Petrie had instead been held prisoner by Fu Manchu the entire time.

Issue #22 (Nov. 1974) finally gets Moench and Gulacy in the same place at the same time on the main series, but so far it’s business as usual. Over the next few issues, Fu Manchu has a couple more run-ins with his estranged son, and his daughter Fah Lo Suee also appears. Throughout the rest of the run, one never quite knows which side she’ll take when she shows up.

An inevitability was that Marvel would continue to attempt to incorporate the Fu-niverse into the mainstream of the Marvel Universe. Thus did our red-garbed protagonist team up with yet another red-garbed protagonist, Spider-Man (after the usual cliché hero fight), in Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 (Oct. 1974). During his decade-long original run, Shang-Chi would also run into the Thing in 1977 and Spider-Man twice more in 1979, with Dr. Doom appearing in the main title, but for the most part our reluctant hero was allowed to stay in his own self-contained world, and the series was all the better for it.

The roundtable of artists through the 20s gives us Milgrom, Keith Pollard, John Buscema, Klaus Janson, Ed Hannigan, and others, with Gulacy popping in only once.

The Team Supreme (top) The action-packed Ron Wilson/Mike Esposito cover to Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #1 (Sept. 1974) gave the reader no hint that the issue contained the first Shang-Chi tale co-produced by the Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy team. (bottom) Two of Shang-Chi’s Bronze Age team-ups: with the Friendly Neighborhood You-Know-Who in Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 (Oct. 1974, cover by Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr.) and with Bashful Benjy in Marvel Two-in-One #29 (July 1977, cover by Rich Buckler and Frank Giacoia).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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There’s a real tendency to look at some episodes of this period as filler, but that isn’t the case. The writing remains top-notch and Moench deftly molds his protagonist in each appearance, no matter his collaborators, pushing Shang-Chi forward just a little more every time, always rising, advancing.

“THE BEST JAMES BOND MOVIE NEVER MADE”

In comics parlance, the average fan could only say, “What th…?!”

It’s really hard to read this issue without thinking you’ve just read the single most exciting comic-book story of all time. Moench’s pulp sensibilities and deft dialogue combine with Gulacy’s Steranko-like cinematic flair, filtered 100% here through Paul’s natural and rapidly maturing style, to create something the average fan knew was just not the norm for Bronze Age Marvel.

The following month, “A Gulf of Lions” picked up right where we left off, with Dan Adkins joining the team and utilizing his well-known chameleon skills to become the perfect inker for Gulacy. In Comic Book Artist in 2003, Gulacy said, “Adkins was the one who really groomed me toward presenting samples and so forth to give to Marvel.”

As Shang-Chi (looking more like Bruce Lee than ever) faces off with Razor-Fist for page after page, Tarr attempts to rescue

Had it all ended there, Master of Kung Fu would have been remembered as one of Marvel’s many brief but enjoyable 1970s series. But then came issue #29 (June 1975), where Doug and Paul go all out to give the readers the best James Bond movie never made… starring Bruce Lee. Enter the Dragon had been released in the summer of 1973, but neither Doug nor Paul had seen it when they began to work together on the strip. In fact, it would later be revealed in a letters column that they had paul gulacy been on the strip nearly two years before either saw the picture! The Man with the Golden Gun, starring Roger Moore as James Bond, came out at Christmas of 1974. Shang-Chi’s new direction hit the ground running just a few months later with a palpable Bond influence, not just from the new one but also from You Only Live Twice and the venerable Dr. No, all by way of Enter the Dragon, a film they hadn’t even seen!

“It was a continuation of all that fun stuff. We had the spy motif, martial arts, actors, and parody. It was a big stew of all kinds of stuff that made that book,” said Gulacy in Comic Book Artist. In a later podcast interview with Doug Bost and Adam Bernstein, he added, “Being a big Bond fan, especially with the spy motif spin on it, we were like a rocket going to the moon.”

In an interview for this article, Gulacy tells BACK ISSUE that he was “blown away” by Enter the Dragon when he finally did see it. “I recall, as a student attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, a buzz going around about this new movie out of Hong Kong called Five Fingers of Death.

I think it was the first martial-arts action import. That was pretty nuts, but it wasn’t until I saw Bruce in action that it became a game changer. I think I watched Enter the Dragon like, 30 times or more!”

“The Crystal Connection” opens with a heroic movieposter image of Shang-Chi, signaling the cinematic turn the series is about to take. Right there on the page, we also read, preferably in a movie-trailer narrator voice, “Exploding: A blisteringly volatile new direction for Mighty Marvel’s dynamic Master of Kung Fu!” A brief “pre-credits” scene has a particularly spry Nayland Smith, clearly working for MI-6 again, convincing Shang-Chi to help him take down a world-class heroin dealer named Carlton Velcro by taking Shang to a rehab clinic where he sees firsthand the terrible effects of the deadly drug. Tarr and Reston are along as well, with the latter soon heading off to Velcro’s island fortress in disguise. There we meet the flamboyant villain, his private army, his hungry panthers, a number of scantily clad young ladies lounging around, and Razor-Fist, a masked martial artist whose lower arms have both been replaced by deadly blades.

Reston creates a diversion and discovers the drugs they’re out to destroy whilst Chi and Tarr parachute in, but not undetected. Shang goes into action against Velcro’s trained henchmen, defeating them easily until the climactic panel where he meets Razor-Fist.

Bubblebath Encounter Clive Reston introduces Shang-Chi to the bathing Leiko Wu on this jawdropping original art page (courtesy of Heritage) from MOKF #33 (Oct. 1975). By Moench/ Gulacy/Dan Adkins.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

the captured Reston, Petrie lectures Smith, and eventually everyone gets together to discover that Velcro was also stockpiling nuclear weapons!

Ohmigosh! Keep going! Issue #31 (Aug. 1975), “Snowbuster,” begins with our third movie-poster splash before we’re thrust right back into the action. As our protagonists make some heroic strides, Velcro sends his whip-wielding dominatrix girlfriend, Pavane, after them, even as a down-but-far-from-out Razor-Fist returns to the fight as well.

Helicopters, tanks, and a climactic speedboat chase that ends with Shang-Chi using a “Hail Mary” pass all lead up to the fortress, with all its nukes and drugs exploding!

With fans still reeling from the excitement, the following month prove quite a letdown as Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito join Doug for what is called a “broodingly different tale of mystery, intrigue, and martial-arts action.” Only a few panels of the latter show up, actually, as Smith, Shang-Chi, Reston, and Tarr take a cruise. There’s lip service given to them returning from the Velcro adventure, but this reads more like an inventory filler.

It gave us a chance to catch our breath, though, and for Paul and Dan to get a little ahead. The next epic starts immediately in issue #33 (Oct. 1975).

In short order, a gun-barrel-eyed robot wearing a hat attacks Reston, only to be tricked by Shang-Chi into shooting itself. Tarr recognizes it as the style of Mordillo, a secret assassin. As they plan what to do about him, Smith sets Shang-Chi up in a ritzy flat in Chelsea, where we meet the next major player of our series, “Little” Leiko Wu. In true Bond girl fashion, she is—within the bounds of the Comics Code— soaking naked in a tub and simultaneously getting rudy nebres a tan when Shang first sees her.

Described by Reston as one of Smith’s best © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. agents, in the months and years that follow, fans of this series will wonder, then, why she keeps getting captured so often by the bad guys. And why does everyone keep referring to her as “Little” Leiko when she seems a perfectly normal size, even taller than Shang here?

When asked how long she has known Reston, Leiko replies poetically, “Long enough for lovers to exalt and destroy each other.” When asked how long he has known Smith, Shang tells her that he is “unaware of the time’s passage.” It isn’t long before Leiko is kidnapped by Mordillo (See! I told you!) and taken to his… island fortress.

Another wonderful Moench title, “Cyclone at the Center of a Madman’s Crown,” greets us next time, adorning another enticing movie-poster splash. On the trip to the island, Mordillo has either dyed Leiko’s hair red or it’s a colorist’s error. Upon arrival, she nearly escapes before being restrained by a new player—Brynocki, a little boy robot with a Harvey Comics face. If island-dwelling assassin Mordillo can be said to be reminiscent of The Man with the Golden Gun’s Scaramanga, then Brynocki is clearly analogous to that film’s Nick-Nack, the diminutive butler/sidekick played by Hervé Villechaize of Fantasy Island fame.

Arriving on the island, Reston and Shang-Chi are wearing cool skin-tight battle suits. Shang’s red one would have been a nice permanent touch and well in keeping with superhero tradition, but it was not to be.

Evil robot toys are the main distraction keeping our guys away from Leiko, finally discovered in a giant rapidly filling hourglass.

Don’t stop now! “Death-Hand and the Sun of Mordillo” eschews the movie poster, jumping right in with the killer taunting the captured heroes while Leiko is about to drown in sand. Luckily, Black Jack had been held back in reserve and arrives, dressed as one of Mordillo’s Talented Hands on Deadly Hands killer robots, throwing him off-guard so Leiko can be saved. Yay! (top) Among Shang-Chi’s cover appearances on Marvel’s Not wishing to see his plans for an interstellar killing laser fall apart, for help Mordillo turns to his new girlfriend—Pavane. Again. Not to B&W Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: issue #5 (Oct. 1974, cover comment on this girl’s reputation or taste in men but… y’know?

As Pavane distracts the others, the increasingly insane Mordillo

by Bob Larkin) and 13 (June 1975, cover by Luis Dominfaces off with a determined Shang-Chi only to get zapped by his own guez). (bottom) Rudy Nebres’ stark version of the Master lasers, ending with a poignant scene of Brynocki telling his “father’s” skeleton that he’ll fix him all up. of Kung Fu, from DHoKF #16 (Sept. 1975). Script by We also see how close Shang and Leiko have become in a very Moench. Original art courtesy of Heritage. short time, much to the jealous consternation of Clive Reston who also harbors feelings for her.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. 10 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

KUNG FU CAT

Issue #40 (May 1976) begins the biggest epic yet, with literal frames After another two-part interlude (originally intended for the unpublished of film on the splash, just in case any reader hadn’t yet picked up on Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #5) that inevitably seems an intrusion onto the fact that these were paper movies in four colors. In his interview the regular storyline, we get “Cat,” probably the most famous with Jon B. Cooke, though, Gulacy said, “The whole take with storyline of the Master of Kung Fu series. my style looking cinematic with some kind of film backIn this relatively short span of time, we meet ground or whatever was just coincidental. When I got my Juliette and Shen Kuei, both more rounded characters first script from Roy Thomas at Marvel I just started than usually found in comic books. Juliette is a drawing and that’s the way it came out.”

Hong Kong nightclub singer not-so-secretly Amidst the soap-opera plot developments, we also working for Nayland Smith. Shen Kuei is… meet the newest star of this ongoing serial—Marlon Brando. The Streetcar Named Desire-era Brando plays Cat. Until he is a bit cheapened in much later, non-Moench appearances, Shen Kuei is a complex former secret agent James Larner, drowning in the character, originally with ties to the Communist bottle after his true love is killed while on a mission with Chinese intelligence but mainly a free agent. He is, Leiko Wu. By this point, Doug has successfully convertclearly, a villain in the standard dramatic sense, ed this from a series about one man to a series but he is also a man of honor and passions. No with a fully rounded ensemble cast—not just Shangsurprise that his name, like Shang-Chi’s, has a Chi but Smith, Reston, Tarr, Leiko, Petrie, Larner, and doug moench specific meaning. “Shen” is a Chinese term referring Fu Manchu (and Fah Lo Suee) lurking always in the to the positive spirit, while “kuei” similarly reflects shadows. Moench told Cooke he really liked “the the negative sprit. Of two minds. Yin and Yang. Good and bad. freedom to introduce all these supporting characters and do an ongoing That’s Cat. Quickly, Shang-Chi develops a respect for his newfound soap-opera subplot jamboree and create all these wacky villains.” frenemy, and even returns to London with a cat of his own at the Villains didn’t come much wackier than Shockwave, who premiered end of the story. in this story arc and would return from time to time. Shockwave’s electrified karate chops, kicks, and punches are as deadly as a live wire, and one good solid connection would be the end!

Movie Poster Splashes The switch back to Sal Buscema/Mike Esposito art was particularly jarring with issue #41 (June 1976), necessitating a flashback fill-in While Marvel usually opted for action-packed MOKF covers story so Paul could get a bit ahead again. But get ahead he did, and, to lure in superhero readers, Gulacy always delivered the aided by the wild inking of Tom Sutton and later the smooth inks of Jack Abel and the anything-goes style of Pablo Marcos, we get no less goods on his stylish splash pages, like this one from issue #39. than nine straight issues of the Moench/Gulacy team at its peak, TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. climaxing a bit perversely with a gorgeous, atmospheric cover by Paul for issue #51 (Apr. 1977), an issue he did not draw!

FATHER VS. SON

In the grand comic-book (and Bond-film) tradition, Fu Manchu returns with a new plot to remake the world by destroying the Moon, and only his estranged son can stop him… this time with a little help from his friends.

Doug’s memorable titles were at a peak throughout, among them “Clock of Shattered Time,” “A Flash of Purple Sparks,” and “Phantom Sand.” Each cast member gets highlighted in turn, and we actually sacrifice Larner for the greater good. It came out in later letters pages that he had, in fact, been created to be killed off.

In a 2017 Alter Ego interview, Doug told interviewer Richard Arndt, “So we did introduce the character and spent a fair amount of space building him up into a character that readers cared about. He was a drunk, who was trying to get sober, and he had a troubled history with Reston.” He added, “Just when everybody loved this character... I pulled the trigger. I just made sure that his death would be a really big deal. It seemed to work.”

Big Battle Book The treasury-sized Special Collector’s Edition featuring Savage Fists of Kung Fu #1 (1975).

Cover by Kane and Adkins, with Romita alterations.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Jim’s Dandy Kickin’ kung-fu art

by Jim Craig: Shang-Chi vs. Skull Crusher on the Frank Chiaramonte-inked original cover art to MOKF #61 (Feb. 1978) and the splash to the following issue.

Art scans courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Spaceships, reanimated Chinese skeletons, gun battles, double and triple agents on all sides! Talk about games of deceit and death! This epic had it all! Except, sadly, a final chapter with Gulacy’s art.

“At that point,” Paul tells BI, “I notified Marvel that I was leaving the series. I wanted to expand out and enter different avenues of illustration. I moved to the New York area. Eventually, I ended up in advertising. I tried to keep up with comics as much as I could. I was a very busy boy at 25!” Except for a few covers, Paul Gulacy never returned to the series during its original run.

While all this was going on, the black-and-white Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was nearing the end of its run, where Shang-Chi—usually written by Moench— was leading a parallel life that he couldn’t possibly fit into the timeline of the regular book, including a sevenissue face-off against… Fu Manchu!

Rudy Nebres, a talented and prolific artist who quickly stood out among the influx of Filipino cartoonists into the US market at that time, brought a very different look to Shang-Chi in the Doug Moench serial that began in issue #12 and ran through issue #18, interrupted only by more reprints from the color comic in issue #15’s “Annual.”

In Master of Kung Fu issue #29 (Oct. 1976), both Moench and Shang-Chi return for the inevitable battle against Marvel’s other martial-arts hero, Iron Fist, drawn by Nebres. (Iron Fist and Shang-Chi would also team up that year in the one and only Master of Kung Fu Annual, with art by Keith Pollard). Moench and Nebres return

12 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

for one final solo story of the character in the last issue of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, #33 (Feb. 1977).

There was one other black-and-white appearance in the US. That one had been in what was called a “Special Album Edition” of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu in 1974, edited by Tony Isabella and featuring stories of Iron Fist, the Sons of the Tiger, and Shang-Chi, all loosely tied together into one 34-page saga with art by Mike Vosburg, Dick Giordano, Dan Adkins, and others. This—along with a few other Deadly Hands stories—was reprinted in full color in Marvel’s treasurysized Savage Fists of Kung Fu in 1975.

Back in the color comics mainstream, the unenviable task of following Paul Gulacy fell to one Jim Craig.

Craig was a talented Canadian illustrator who had found some popularity in fanzines when he was brought on as a replacement for Gulacy. Unfortunately for Craig, it quickly became apparent that this was like being a perfectly good, talented guitarist but having to follow Jimi Hendrix in concert. Doug’s stories continued to be some of the best in comics, but Jim’s art simply couldn’t stand the comparison and he reportedly also had trouble keeping up with the monthly deadlines. He tried to stick with Gulacy’s storytelling style to give the book continuity, but it wasn’t a good fit with his own art style. Craig would later draw Atlas/Seaboard’s one-shot Shang-Chi knock-off, Hands of the Dragon [see separate article in this issue—ed.].

After that, he went on to a long and successful career doing art for television and animation studios.

THE COMING OF MIKE ZECK

An early fill-in for Craig was by another newcomer, Mike Zeck, paired with old pro Jim Mooney on issue #55 (Aug. 1977).

Zeck was another fanzine find who had been getting published at Charlton for a couple of years by that point and had just started assisting the legendary Wallace Wood on a few projects.

Zeck tells BACK ISSUE, “[Craig] was apparently taking time to do his best work on the material but missing deadlines as a result. That first fill-in issue I penciled was requested because of a missed deadline and I was only given a week to pencil it. I think Jim Mooney was given less time than that to ink it! I doubt that issue garnered much of a positive response. It was the fact that Jim Craig continued to be late with pages and the fact that I kept filling in that led to my being offered the regular penciling chores on the title.”

By issue #67 (Aug. 1978), Mike Zeck became the regular penciler, and once again brought a unique style to the series.

Zeck’s layouts were nothing like Gulacy’s, and yet were smooth and stylish in all-new ways. His characters’ muscles rippled when they moved and exertion made them sweat. In fact, call it a trademark, but they sweat more than just about any characters in comics.

Shen Kuei, Shockwave, and even Brynocki and Mordillo’s island are all revisited by Doug Moench over the next year of issues, each with a fresh slant from Zeck and usually the very clean inks of Bruce D. Patterson. In a 2003 online interview with Alexander Ness, the artist said, “As far as plots, Doug Moench’s plots were the most mike zeck detailed and thick plots that I had seen, or have seen since!” Moench has compared © Luigi Novi / Zeck’s clear interpretation of those plots Wikimedia Commons. to master film director John Ford.

Again noting the cinematic approach to the book— originally intentional or not—a July 1980 Associated Press article on Zeck quoted him as saying, “I think of my artwork in terms of moving a camera. I have to make establishing shots so the readers know where they are.”

Master of Kung Fu #76 (May 1979) introduces the last and most tragic member of our story—artist Gene Day. Another Canadian, Howard Eugene Day had scored with fans in various small press publications such as Orb and Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach.

Known already for his intricate style and his ornate backgrounds, Day first joined forces with Zeck in Master of Kung Fu #76 (May 1979), adding the final piece of the puzzle and making an already-stylish book even more so.

Doug seemed more inspired than he had been in a long time. He set our heroes off on an adventure to end all adventures. Once again, the antagonist was Fu Manchu, but after another wild ride, this time he was ultimately done away with, seemingly for good, in issue #89 (June 1979).

A number of issues follow featuring Shang-Chi and Leiko before the group eventually gets back together under Smith’s new banner, Freelance Restorations. Fed up with all the double-dealing and corruption in the spy business, Nayland sets up a private security and consulting firm based out of his Scottish Estate and employing the book’s regular cast. It’s enough of a change to open up new

Cool Cat Shang-Chi by Mike Zeck, on the covers of (top) Master of Kung Fu #68 (Sept. 1978, featuring Cat) and #79 (Aug. 1979, inked by Gene Day), and (bottom) #86 (Mar. 1980).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

Sinister Silhouettes Shadows dominate this gripping Zeck/Day splash to MOKF #92 (Sept. 1980).

Courtesy of Heritage. (inset) The issue’s cover, by the same art team.

Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

14 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

story opportunities while still keeping the cast intact for EXECUTIVE ORDER their various soap-like intermingling.

But behind the scenes, things were going on that the There’s also still time for one-off tales as good or readers didn’t know about. In the Bronze Age, comic-book better than anything else on the stands in those days, stories shared something with TV series of the day in such as the superb “Carter’s Super Midnight” in issue #96 that by the end of any given episode, the goal was to (Jan. 1981), which introduces Rufus Carter, an African- return the continuing characters to almost exactly where American, one-eyed, full-contact karate and kickyou had met them at the beginning of that episode.

Ideally, there was an illusion of change, yet little boxing champion who just happens to be a ever really changed. retired espionage agent as well.

Based on the number of statues in How could Shang-Chi’s spirit ever evidence (one of Gene Day’s trademarks) rise and advance if the status quo and the fact that the credits no longer ruled the day? Throughout, there were differentiate between the penciling subtle indications that time was passing and the inking, it becomes clear that in something akin to real time, and Gene Day is playing a major part in Shang was showing a continuous the artwork. In fact, in the doublegrowth and maturation. At one point, sized issue #100, a multi-story look remembering something from an early at Fah Lo Suee through the years, the story, he refers to it happening “several years ago.” credits are flipped to read “Gene Day In the beginning, he was alone, and Mike Zeck” for the opening period piece featuring the young Nayland innocent, and naive in an enormous, gene day Smith. By Master of Kung Fu #102 corrupt world he wasn’t expecting.

(July 1981), Gene Day is the sole artist Marvel Wikia.

By the end of the original run, he had on the title. enjoyed friends, enemies, and lovers. He had dealt As with Gulacy before him, it’s a joy to watch with his highly conflicted emotions regarding his father the artist develop so quickly from issue to issue, and he had found a place for himself in the world. In one even credited as co-plotter at one point. It’s clear that, of the longest sustained runs of its day, Moench had like Moench, Day felt proprietary. Master of Kung Fu truly evolved the character that he had come to know was not just a job to him. better than anyone else.

Brand New Day (left) Gene Day on pencils and inks, from issue #100 (May 1981).

Courtesy of Heritage. (right) Gene’s spooky original cover art (from Heritage) for the ghost story appearing in MOKF #120 (Jan. 1983), the artist’s last issue with Doug Moench.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

Thus it was a bit of a shock when Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter went to Doug Moench in late summer of 1982 and asked for a big change, saying the book had been stagnating and was in need of a major revision.

“Definitely not Master of Kung Fu!” said Doug to radio interviewer Chris Barkley just a couple of months later. “In fact, Shooter’s the only one whoever said that. I don’t wanna sound like I’m blowing my own horn, but a lot of people were saying it was the best book coming out.”

According to Doug, “The atmosphere there for me had not been congenial for a long time. The last straw amounted to the editor telling me to kill off all the characters in Master of Kung Fu.” The controversial Shooter reportedly wanted all the long-running supporting cast members killed off including Shang-Chi himself, with a new Master of Kung Fu taking over but being a villain. Shooter also called for major changes in the fan-favorite art on the title. Mainly, he wanted Gene Day to draw like somebody other than Gene Day. “Shooter hated his work so completely that Gene felt like he would have to be Elvis Presley changing into Frank Sinatra or he’d just have to quit if he wanted to stay himself, if you know what I mean,” Moench said.

“Shooter wanted him to change so drastically that he would’ve become a completely different artist—a different person. And he just couldn’t do that. The final straw with Gene was this idea of killing off the characters.

He just said, ‘Aw, jeez, Doug, there’s no way I could do that.’ ” Speaking earlier on that same radio show in October of 1982, Jim Shooter gave his side. “See, Doug was writing Master of Kung Fu and Master of Kung Fu, like every other Marvel book, is doing pretty well.

I mean, sales are going up steadily and anyone else would be real happy to have it, but at Marvel right now everything is doing very well. Master of Kung Fu has been our third-from-the-bottom book for years and I was approached by the editor of Master of Kung Fu, a fellow who works for me

directly, who was unhappy with the way the book was going and felt that they were sort of in a rut, and so I talked to him about it and I said, ‘By all means, if you can come up with some great new direction for it, then go ahead. You shouldn’t feel constrained that there’s any particular rules that you have to be bound by.’ So the editor approached Doug with what I thought was a great opportunity to create new things or make changes or do anything he wanted to try to, you know, to try to make it catch fire.

And, apparently Doug wasn’t thrilled with that concept and I ended up talking with him. The editor gave up trying to convince him and asked me to talk to him, so I talked to him and Doug felt that it was, I guess, just fine the way it was. What I was offering to him was an opportunity to just sort of go wild and create something exciting.”

When informed on the air that Shooter’s version was completely different from his, Moench replied, “Coulda fooled me. I talked to him on the phone and that wasn’t just a rumor I heard.”

Doug Moench resigned from Marvel as a matter of principle in August of 1982. Gene Day opted to stay at the company but was switched from Master of Kung Fu to the Indiana Jones comic. In a little over a month, he was dead.

In those pre-Internet days, word of Day’s shocking death hadn’t yet reached the fans when Chris Barkley asked about him on-air. Shooter informed the interviewer of the artist’s then-recent passing and Moench confirmed it in his segment. Doug said, “Of all the guys working in comics now, I think Gene had the potential to maybe go the farthest and was definitely one whose potential was not realized. He was just really getting on track and starting to take off like a rocket. So young.”

The last Shang-Chi story by Doug Moench and Gene Day is a Scottish ghost story co-starring Rufus Carter in issue #120 (Jan. 1983). In The Comics Journal, the artist was quoted as describing his departure from the title as “the most traumatic day of my life.” By the time his last Shang-Chi story hit the stands, the 31-year-old Day had been dead for nearly two months. Along with his intense smoking habit, one reason often cited is severe overwork.

After some early, not-yet-developed art by Mark Silvestri and David Mazzucchelli, both of whom would go on to bigger and better things, the perfectly credible William Johnson takes over as Shang-Chi’s regular artist. Abetted by future Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s inks, he maintains a level of some quality as the book limps toward its unsurprising cancellation with issue #125 (June 1983).

New writer Alan Zelenetz didn’t stand a chance in comparison with Moench, who once said that while he hadn’t created Shang-Chi, he often felt like he had. Knowing it would be the last issue of the series, Zelenetz, Johnson, and Mignola, along with Alan Kupperberg, at least make a strong effort at giving Shang-Chi a happy ending. After dealing with his own inner demons, Shang retires happily to a fishing village.

The End. Well, except that things never end that way in Marvel comics.

LIFE AFTER CANCELLATION

The cancellation of Master of Kung Fu came with barely a sound in fandom. The Comics Journal #77 (Nov. 1982) simply noted it in passing in its news section, ironically directly facing a lovely full-page eulogy for Gene Day written by his close friend, Cerebus creator Dave Sim. Fantagraphics’ Kim Thompson gives his own full-page tribute to Day elsewhere in that same issue.

Noting that he would never return to Marvel as long as Jim Shooter was in charge, Doug Moench was warmly welcomed at the Distinguished Competition, where he made a name for himself all over again as the best Batman writer of his generation, in this writer’s opinion.

Meanwhile, Jim Shooter was fired from Marvel in 1987. 1988 saw Doug Moench’s return to Master of Kung Fu, albeit abbreviated as a serial in the experimental comics anthology, Marvel Comics Presents. Tom Grindberg provides Adams-esque artwork as we are reintroduced to Shang-Chi, Black Jack (smaller and apparently wearing a hairpiece; it’s like he’s now

Shang-Chi No More The final issue of Master of Kung Fu, #125 (June 1983).

Cover by Ron Wilson and Mike Mignola.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Back in Black (top) Wraparound cover art for Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black #1 and only (Feb. 1990), illo’ed by Gene Day’s brothers, David Day and Dan Day. Courtesy of Heritage. (middle) Marvel Comics Presents #1 (early Sept. 1988, cover by Walter Simonson).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

played by a different actor), and Leiko, all in seven pages. There’s a reminder reference to our hero’s “mad father” being dead, the only logical step since Marvel had had no reason to maintain the rights to use the Fu Manchu character.

Part Two also returns the 007-lite Clive Reston and reveals that Sir Denis had retired and taken up bird watching in Scotland. Shang comments that he has given up his traditional gi and dons what was presumably looked on as another “cool” action suit.

The eight-issue story arc totals a mere 36 pages, less than two full issues of a comic in that period, but it packs in a lot of action and plot development.

Returning to Hong Kong after several years of isolation, Shang-Chi teams once again with Shen Kui—Cat—in order to save Leiko, who has once again been taken hostage. This time’s a little more drastic, though, as Leiko’s hand is severed by her terrorist captor (something not always remembered in subsequent appearances)! In the end, Shang-Chi is poisoned and left with only a short time to live—a year at most.

Two years later, though, Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black was a triple-sized one-shot written again by Doug and illustrated by Gene Day’s brothers, David and Dan Day. Depending on one’s calendar, it’s the final appearance of Shang-Chi in the Bronze Age and fully lives up to the legacy of the original run, curing his poisoning and leaving the future open for new adventures.

After that, many creators again tried vainly to fit Shang into the Marvel Universe. Someone even attempted to retcon the fact that his father was never Fu Manchu at all! Master of Kung Fu #126 was even released in November 2017, as part of the Marvel Legacy initiative. Younger fans could never figure out what all the fuss was about. They eventually got a taste of the magic in a Prestige Format 2002–2003 miniseries reuniting Moench and Gulacy with the old gang. “Man, that was fun!” recalls Paul. “It was like returning to old friends and family.”

Fortunately, in 2016, a deal was apparently made with the Rohmer Estate and the first of four gigantic Master of Kung Fu Omnibus editions bent the shelves, enjoying rave reviews and making new fans, as the spirit of the original Shang-Chi once again, at long last, rose… and advanced!

STEVEN THOMPSON is Booksteve of Booksteve’s Library (http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com) and a dozen other blogs. He has written for Fantagraphics, TwoMorrows, Yoe Books, Bear Manor Media, and Time Capsule Productions.

Return of the Master (bottom) The hard-hitting, not-for-kiddies Marvel Max miniseries, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #1 (Nov. 2002, cover by Gulacy).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

TM

by D

those issues. They were like an alternate or variant cover, done in the Gulacy style. So eye-catching was the art that when foreign editions of MOKF were published, the editors often utilized Gulacy’s splash pages as the covers to those particular issues and on trade-paperback collections. This is hardly surprising if you want to sell comics by showcasing top-quality artwork. Gulacy splash pages were used as covers to editions of MOKF that were published in Canada, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, France, and Denmark. The titles of Master of Kung Fu in those foreign editions translated as follows: Maitre Du Kung Fu in Canada, Kung Fu: Maestro De Artes Marciales in Mexico, Mestre Do Kung Fu in Brazil, and Kung Fu Magasinet in Denmark.

Finding these rare appearances of Paul Gulacy “splash page” covers provides a glimpse of what it would have been like if Gulacy had produced the covers to some of those classic stories on the original MOKF series in the 1970s.

All artwork TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In the 1970s, Master of Kung Fu became one of Marvel Comics’ top-selling titles when it was being produced by the team of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy. At the time, however, the covers for the book were not being drawn by Gulacy, who was doing the interior art, but instead by Gil Kane and a few other artists. There are primarily two reasons for this: 1) Marvel wanted “all-out action” covers on the book, instead of Gulacy’s stylized collage layouts that were reminiscent of James Bond movie posters; and 2) Gulacy reportedly turned in his artwork for the stories just prior to the publishing deadline, and did not have time to do the covers. It was not until after Gulacy left the book in 1977 that he was given the opportunity to produce four amazing covers (MOKF #51, 55, 64, and 67). One of these covers (#55) was used in 2016 as the variant cover for the Master of Kung Fu Omnibus vol. 2 hardcover.

However, Gulacy’s splash pages (or title pages) to his ’70s MOKF stories were truly spectacular and provided his version of the cover to

ave Lemieux

Maitre Du Kung Fu #9 from Canada in 1974 by

Kung Fu: Maestro De Artes Marciales #64 from Mexico in 1976 by

Editions Heritage features as the cover the splash page

MACC Division Historieta features as the cover the splash page from

from MOKF #18 titled “Attack!”

MOKF #34 titled “Cyclone at the Center of a Madman’s Crown!”

18 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Mestre Do Kung Fu #8 from Brazil in 1975 by Bloch features

Interpresse features as the cover the splash page from

as the cover the splash page from MOKF #33 titled

MOKF #30 titled “A Gulf of Lions.”

“Wicked Messenger of Madness.”

Mestre Do Kung Fu #19 from Brazil in 1976 by Bloch features

Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #1 (collection) from Spain in

as the cover the splash page from MOKF #47 titled “Part III

1998 by Forum features as the cover the splash page from

(Leiko Wu): Phantom Sand.”

MOKF #31 titled “Snowbuster.”

All artwork TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Kung-Fu Magasinet #97 from Denmark in 1985 by Forlaget

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

by R o b

Smentek

MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS vol. 1 and 2 Marvel Comics, 2016 696 and 664 pages, respectively $125.00 US each

There’s a terrific moment in GiantSize Master of Kung Fu #2 where the titular character, Shang-Chi, is enjoying his first-ever slice of pizza with the issue’s femme fatale, Sandi.

“How long have you been in New York, Shang-Chi?” she asks.

“I am not aware of the precise passage of time,” he replies.

But for the rest of us, at least those who don’t live a complete Zen existence, we are all-toofully aware of the passage of time.

Especially those of us who had been waiting decades for Marvel to finally reprint its acclaimed Master of Kung Fu series.

“Not gonna happen” has long been the company’s bottom line when it came to reintroducing the classic ’70s–’80s run of ShangChi into comics stores via their trade paperback or Masterworks program. As is well documented, the title’s use of licensed characters from the Sax Rohmer estate— specifically, the comic’s main antagonist, Fu Manchu—created a bit of stumbling block when it came to reprinting the stories. And so, whether it was the estate’s financial demands or Marvel’s frugality preventing Master of Kung Fu from seeing the light of day, comics fans were forced to comb the back-issue bins to find the issues which featured celebrated work from Englehart, Starlin, Moench, Gulacy, Zeck, and the late, great Gene Day. As a diehard fan of collected editions, my patience eventually dissipated waiting for the trade. In recent years, I broke my own rule against buying “floppies” and returned to the long boxes at local comic stores and conventions to seek out those single issues of MoKF. But, wouldn’t you know it, after months and months of comics archeology, I nearly completed a run of the much-admired run from Moench/Gulacy, only for word to come out from the 2015 Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore that Marvel had reached an agreement to publish four Omnibus collections of MoKF. The Omnibus format was something of a bold choice for this series.

Whether it was due to the new licensing agreement or an attempt by Marvel to give the series some prestige is unknown, but for a book with more of a cult following than a fevered fanbase, it’s unusual to make the decision to reprint an entire series prior to testing the waters. Plus, there’s the fact that these large tomes aren’t necessarily the favorite of casual readers: They’re heavy, they’re expensive, and there’s also the reality that not every issue or run might even be worth reprinting. However, in the case of MoKF, these books are a welcome addition to any Bronze Age bookshelf.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Released in June 2016, the first volume of the MoKF Omnibus featured 600+ pages of martial-arts excitement, underneath a cover somewhat inexplicably provided by Terry Dodson (what, Starlin or Gulacy wasn’t available?). The tome includes Shang-Chi’s first appearance in Special Marvel Edition #15, Giant Size MoKF #1–4, issues #17–37, Giant-Size Spider-Man #2, and a backup story from Iron Man Annual ##4, and opens with two essays, from Englehart and Moench, respectively, which chronicle the origins of the series with a great deal of reverence and nostalgia. Both writers look back on Shang-Chi with a lot of fondness and provide insight and anecdotes regarding those heady, anything-goes days at Marvel in the ’70s under the guidance of editor-in-chief Roy Thomas.

While many Bronze Age comic fans are often (rightfully) put off by color reproduction done on the slick paper currently used in collected editions, the Marvel production team has done well with this. While the colors are vivid and bright, unlike the old newsprint, they work for this series… particularly in the later Gulacy issues. His Steranko-meets-Kirby page design leaps off the page and this new coloring, which follows the original guidelines and does not resemble that contemporary computer-done stuff, is beneficial to the art.

In addition to providing a full, chronological, issueby-issue run of the title, Marvel’s Shang-Chi Omnibuses (Omnibi?) offer a trove of goodies. The first volume includes pages of gorgeous Gulacy original art, a short backup story featuring Englehart’s Midnight character, house ads, a FOOM parody drawn by John Byrne, and perhaps best of all, the full letters pages from every issue.

For MoKF, the letters pages are particularly noteworthy given the number of future pros that took the time to write to editorial. Some of those fans include future Eclipse Comics publisher Dean Mullaney, Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, Fantagraphics’ Kim Thompson, and writers Mike Baron, Don McGregor, and J. M. DeMatteis.

Volume 2, which followed its predecessor by a mere three months or so, in addition to maintaining the high production values of the first, contains the best stories in MoKF’s celebrated run

by Moench and Gulacy. One of the advantages of the Omnibus format, particular when the title features substantial runs by a single creative team, is getting to see the collaboration grow.

This is no more true than the Moench/Gulacy stories. When they began on the title, MoKF essentially followed a villain-of-the-month formula, where Shang-Chi would face off against a new martial-arts master with a particular specialty TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. each month. However, as Moench and Gulacy grew as storytellers, their stories became more and more epic and cinematic in scale. With “The Cat” storyline in Omnibus #2 (which, for what it’s worth, follows a truly bizarre Iron Fist/Shang Chi team-up from a Master of Kung Fu Annual), the writer/artist team was on fire. Moench’s scripts were mature, yet fun, and Gulacy’s visual storytelling was unlike anything his peers were doing at the time. Alas, it wasn’t to last. This Omnibus contains the last of the partnership’s Shang-Chi stories (at least until their MAX miniseries in 2002), making way for Moench to collaborate with Jim Craig and Mike Zeck. The majority of Zeck’s run is offered in volume 3, while volume 4 completes Shang-Chi’s original series with art largely from Gene Day. If you’re one of those folks that still aren’t sold on the Omnibus format, think of it like bingewatching Netflix—and with a series that provides a reading experience comparable to what you get from an action movie, the Master of Kung Fu Omnibus series is an ideal purchase.

New Printing Of Back Issue #61 At Magazine Size!

If you missed the sold-out tabloid-size BACK ISSUE #61, it’s now back in print at standard magazine size! BACK ISSUE #61: LONGBOX EDITION features “Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s, and a checklist of reprint treasury editions. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions!

Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 NOW SHIPPING!

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Due to the success of the Kung Fu TV show and the three Bruce Lee movies, Charlton Comics editor George Wildman decided in early 1973 that he wanted Charlton to publish a martial-arts comic. Warren Sattler had been one of Charlton’s regular artists since 1972, with work appearing in Attack, Ghost Manor, Fightin’ Marines, Ghostly Haunts, Haunted, Ghostly Tales, For Lovers Only (which Sattler does not remember doing), The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, and Fightin’ Army. During this time Sattler was never shy about letting Wildman know that he loved Western-themed comics and really wanted a Western comic assignment. Wildman wrote Sattler a letter sometime in early 1973 and asked the artist if he would be interested in drawing a comic book entitled Yang about a Chinese martial-arts character in America on the West Coast in the 1860s. Sattler made some preliminary sketches of his idea for the character—including the character’s familiar outfit, as well as hair atop what would soon become his bald head—and went to the Charlton offices in Derby, Connecticut, for a meeting with Wildman and Yang writer Joe Gill. Gill asked Sattler to remove the character’s hair, but otherwise both the editor and writer loved Sattler’s concept for Yang. Either Wildman or Gill asked for a doublepage spread in the middle of each story. Gill would write each story in two parts, and the second part would begin with a two-page spread, which would become Sattler’s calling card for his work in Yang. Sattler suggested not to open with the splash page but to move it to page two, three, or four, mimicking the movies of the mid-1970s where they opened with the action in progress, then, after an opening scene, the movie title and opening credits would run.

When Wildman or Gill wanted something special in the art, they would call Sattler.

Normally Sattler would open the envelope from his editor and read the enclosed script then draw the story. In the case of Yang, neither Wildman nor Gill told Sattler how to draw anything, with one exception, in Yang #7. Gill usually wrote his stories with five-panel pages in mind. Sattler said he usually would break down Gill’s story into six or seven panels. As the book went along, Sattler made minor changes to the scripts if he felt the caption was too long or if he wanted to add a funny line.

Sattler loved working with Gill. He believed that Gill did his best work on Yang, as the prolific writer, who famously churned out reams of script pages for Charlton’s titles, seemed to put more effort into the character of Yang than he did other characters. One beef the artist had with Charlton was that he had no control over the coloring. Sattler would put coloring notes on the original art, but the colorists ignored his indications.

Many times the colorist on the cover was different than on the interior pages, and characters’ cover and interior colors would often not match (see issue #9 notes).

Before Shang-Chi… …Yang premiered, from Charlton Comics.

Detail from the cover of issue #1 (Nov. 1973). Cover art by Warren Sattler. © the respective copyright holder.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

by J a

y Williams

THE CHARLTON METHOD

Marvel, DC, and Charlton each had a “house” process in the production of the original comic art. In the Charlton method, the writer—usually the omnipresent Joe Gill— would type the story and the editor would mail it to the artist. The artist would usually pencil, ink, and letter each story and mail it back to Charlton.

For Yang covers, Sattler would read the story and decide on a scene from the story to use for the front cover. Sattler would then pencil and ink the cover. While looking at Gill’s page one, Sattler penciled the panel outlines and then penciled in the captions, word balloons, and dialogue.

He would then repeat that for each page of Gill’s story.

He would come back and ink the dialogue but would leave the panel outlines in pencil, as sometimes he would have something bleeding out of a panel. This technique gave him a rough idea in his mind as to what he was going to put into each panel. Sattler’s method was based upon some advice from Milton Caniff of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon fame: “Get the lettering done first, and in whatever space is left design your picture around that.” Sattler would then pencil each page and then come back and ink them all. Once the art was complete, he would usually hand-carry the artwork to the Charlton offices in Derby.

Charlton was known as a comic company that paid much less than DC or Marvel. “My Charlton page rates were $15 for pencils, $15 for inks, and $5 for lettering the interior pages, and $25 for the cover,” Sattler tells BACK ISSUE. “I easily averaged completing two pages a day.”

Yang was one of two projects Sattler simultaneously illustrated for Charlton, alternating between the two.

“Because Billy the Kid and Yang were bimonthly, I was usually working one book or the other, along with some Charlton military comics and work for National Lampoon.”

The comics industry usually follows trends from successful TV shows and movies, and for once, Charlton was the first publisher to capitalize upon a trend when it released Yang #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1973), narrowly beating Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu’s first appearance in Special Marvel Edition #15 (cover-dated Dec. 1973).

[Editor’s note: “Narrowly,” indeed.

According to the research of Mike Voiles at DCindexes.com, Yang #1 was released to newsstands on September 1, 1973, and Special Marvel Edition #15 arrived on September 4, 1973. Given Charlton’s spotty and/or sluggish distribution, chances are, Shang-Chi was on the stands in some areas before Yang… but for the record, Yang technically did premiere first.]

Where did Warren Sattler get his martial-arts ideas for his illustrations? “Oh, they came from my second oldest son, Marc,” Sattler tells BI. “He began taking karate lessons when he was 16. He showed me moves I could use.”

Sattler remembers that Joe Gill asked for a karate move on the front cover of this issue, and that Wildman and Gill were thrilled with the final result, with the yin-yang symbol (Yang’s equivalent of Superman’s “S”) in the background and on Yang’s green jacket. (Sometimes when Sattler drew the yin-yang symbol, the black was on the left, and other times it was on the right. “I never paid attention to white being on one side and black being on the other,” the artist says, adding that editor George Wildman asked him to “watch that in the future.”)

Sattler notes that he had nothing to do with the yellow background on the cover. He also feels that in his mind, in this issue Yang did not look right, but was not sure if anyone else noticed.

In the story, the central characters are Chung Yuan, the father of Chung Hui (Yang); Yang; slave trader Chao Ku, the evil antagonist; and Ku’s daughter (and love/ hate interest for Yang), Yin Li. The basic story depicts Chao Ku having Chung Yuan killed. The deceased’s son, Chung Hui, attempts to avenge is father’s death and is captured and taken to America, where he becomes Yang.

Yang #2 (May 1974)

© the respective copyright holder.

© the respective copyright holder.

Yang #1 (Nov. 1973)

There was a six-month gap between issues #1 and 2, a delay that Sattler does not recall.

The cover features a very curvaceous Yin Li about to stab Yang. When asked about how he learned to draw female characters, Sattler reminded me that he spent ten years drawing teenage girls in the syndicated comic strip The Jackson Twins [working with its creator, Dick Brooks—ed.].

Joe Gill provided very little guidance on what he wanted drawn in his stories, except he would note when a female character was crying. It was Sattler’s idea to create a trademark style by having crying characters turn away, with a tear running down their face, as shown in issue #2 on page 14, last panel.

Sattler contends that his artwork in the second issue is his least favorite.

Then and Now (top) Young Warren Sattler at his drawing board. (bottom) The artist today, standing before examples of the comic strip which inspired his artistry, Terry and the Pirates. Both photos courtesy of Steve Sattler.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

Yang #3 (July 1974)

The story continues with the ongoing conflict between Yang and Chao Ku and his daughter Yin Li, as well as Yang and Yin Li’s love for each other, despite her desire to kill him. This is shown on page 19, panel 4, where Yin Li has a large tear running down her cheek as she says “Now, Yang, it is time for you to die,” and on page 24, panel 3, where a crying Yin Li laments, “Why must it be like this? Yang is the only man I can ever love… but he is too good or I am too evil. We can’t share each other’s lives!”

By this issue, Sattler admits that he was comfortable drawing Yang.

Yang #4 (Sept. 1974)

Joe Gill varies his story format with this issue as he opens with a big barroom fight scene on pages two and three. As a joke, Sattler drew a little sign on the wall lettered it “Pizza”; editor Wildman caught it and removed the word.

On page 18, a Mrs. Brundage sends Yang off (supposedly) to his death at the hands of vigilantes, where Sattler drew her with a telltale tear running down her face (Gill just indicated that she cries, and it was Sattler’s interpretation to have the tear run down her cheek). Pages 22 and 23 feature a great scene where Yang escapes a hangman’s noose.

This is the first issue with a letters page, “Yin-Yang Mail,” which contains missives from three readers and Wildman’s responses.

Yang #5 (Nov. 1974)

When one sees this cover, the question comes to mind: “What is a gorilla–type character doing in this story?” There was an old comic sales tool from the ’50s and early ’60s that said, “Put a gorilla on the cover and it will sell!” [Editor’s note: DC editor Julius Schwartz was the King of the gorilla cover!] So Gill decided to write a twist on that with a Bigfoot/yeti character.

Gill’s knowledge of geography failed him in the opening of this story when he wrote, “Yang sat by a lonely campfire in the foothills of the California Rockies…” The Rockies stop on the east side of Utah, nowhere near California. The mountain range in California is the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Both editor Wildman and artist Sattler missed that goof!

Yang #6 (Feb. 1975)

The page count in this issue is 23 pages, dropping from the earlier issues’ 24. As in previous issues, Part 2 opens with Sattler’s calling card of a two-page spread. The artist describes the creation of these spreads for BACK ISSUE’s readers: “Charlton provided its artists with art paper printed out in the light blue, but I hated their paper and bought my own. I used a special 22” x 17” single page for these double-page spreads.”

The artist drew from his family with a character in this issue. “Note the guy with the handlebar mustache. That is my brother, Albert, who was two years older than me.”

Yang #7 (Apr. 1975)

In early 1975, editor Wildman came up with an idea of painted covers to help Charlton Comics stand out on the newsstand. Sattler comments, “I loved doing the painted covers, and they did not take any longer to do than a drawn cover.”

Looking back, Sattler confesses, “I was terrified with the very first Yang painted cover because I had never done painting without an inked outline, like you were filling in a coloring book.” Sattler began the cover by penciling out the cover image using very heavy watercolor paper, then painting the cover using watercolors. He later received a fan letter saying it was the best cover he had ever seen in a comic book.

“I wish I could have kept those painted covers, but like all other original art it belonged to Charlton,” Sattler says.

For the first time since the cover of Yang #1, writer Gill had described the action, that he wanted the Komodo dragons to have spikes. Sattler told Gill that Komodo dragons did not have spikes, but Gill replied, “I don’t care; put them on.” So with Gill’s insistence Sattler painted on the spikes.

Sattler informed Gill that readers were tiring of the lingering Chao Ku and Yin Li plot, so the writer uses the death of Chao Ku to move the Yang joe gill story forward. Yin Li captures Yang and returns him to her father for execution. Illustration by and © Nick Cuti. Courtesy of Yang escapes, and in an ensuing fight Charlton Spotlight.

One Rifle Down Our hero disarms a conniving cowboy on page 9 of Yang #4 (Sept. 1974). Original Warren Sattler art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © the respective copyright holder.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

What Came Before (top) Gill and Sattler brought readers up to speed with their hero with recaps like this one, from Yang #8 (June 1975). (bottom) Warren Sattler had a Golden Age Terry and the Pirates book cover in mind when creating this cover for Yang #9 (Sept. 1975).

Original cover art courtesy of Heritage. © the respective copyright holder.

throws a saber thru Chao Ku—all the way through the back of the chair in which Chao Ku is sitting. For the benefit of BI’s readers, Sattler points out an effect on page 18, panel 3, where a face is faded, similar to a movie effect where you fade from one scene to the next.

Yang #8 (June 1975)

This issue has a great painted cover of a female in a wolf outfit with a sweeping Batman-esque fur cape and cowl. Sattler’s watercolor drawing with the snow-covered ground makes you feel the cold. On page 10, Sattler uses another movie technique, the dream sequence, again fading from one scene to another. It is amazing how Sattler could draw the same woman who appears genteel in one panel and evil in another panel when they turn on Yang. Sattler says the secret is all in the eyebrows (and maybe the mouth, as noted by this author), which can be found on pages 13–14.

This issue also advertises subscriptions for Sanho Kim’s House of Yang, the Yang spin-off covered later in this article.

Yang #9 (Sept. 1975)

Sattler tells BACK ISSUE, “This cover was inspired by a Terry and the Pirates book” from 1946. “It had a face of Terry on the cover and in the background printed in gray were some of the comic strips.”

The cover art’s background is made up of at least 18 inked panels from previous Yang stories.

Superimposed over that is Yang and female friend Trudi Weiser being fired on by Indian arrows and Yang about to throw a spear.

Sattler reveals that his cover idea turned out to be very difficult and time consuming. He asked Wildman for small prints of any previous pages of Yang, then cut out by hand the Yang and Trudi figures, including the spear with feathers and the three arrows, from the watercolor to paste over the stats of the blackand-white line art. In this author’s opinion, this is the best Yang cover.

Another example of how colorist quality control at Charlton was not so good is found when one compares the color of Trudi Weiser’s hair on the cover (red) as opposed to the interior (blonde). This issue’s lack of colorquality control and ignoring of his color notes especially bothered Sattler.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

Yang #10 (Nov. 1975)

This is a great example of how Warren Sattler read Joe Gill’s story and created the painted cover… but when Sattler got to the interior scene (on page 17) that inspired the cover, he drew it differently.

Sattler shares with BACK ISSUE an interesting story about this issue’s original painted cover artwork. He got a call from a collector in Canada who had purchased the watercolor cover art from somewhere in Texas. As the story goes, Pat Boyette had asked for some of his Charlton artwork back and received a box of all kinds of artwork—including, curiously, Sattler’s original cover art to Yang #10. Somehow the Canadian collector was able to get this piece of original Yang art from that.

Yang #11 (Jan. 1976)

The page count drops to 22 pages with this issue.

Since Yang #2, there had appeared a flashback of how Yang has ended up in the Old West.

With this issue there is no flashback, and Joe Gill wrote a single splash page that Sattler split it into two pages for more action.

On page 16, panel 2, there is a young man in a yellow cap playing a red concertina. That is a self-portrait by Sattler from when was younger.

Sattler also points out a major mistake on his part on pages 18, 19, and 20, in how he drew the men rowing in a boat. Look closely: They are facing the wrong direction.

Kahng Chull’s adventures in the Old West. In the story, Kahng Chull’s father is killed by bandits and he embarks upon a journey of vengeance.

Kim’s production of the 24-page first chapter of “Wrong Country” predated the release of Yang and could have been Charlton’s first ’70s kung-fu adventure, but it could not find a publication home until 1975 when it saw print in the fanzine The Charlton Bullseye #3 [one of the many Bronze Age fanzines recently covered in our centennial issue, BACK ISSUE #100—ed.]. The story closes with a teaser for Part 2 of “Wrong Country.” Sadly, that story was never written or drawn.

Edited by George Wildman and written by the ubiquitous Joe Gill, House of Yang was set in China, while Yang was set almost entirely in the US. Both books start with the story of Chung Yan (the father of Chung Hui/Yang), who fought evil in China but is eventually killed by his enemy Chao Ku. The main character in House of Yang is Sun Yang, Yang’s cousin.

House of Yang #1 (July 1975)

This issue deals with the warlords who rule China with guns provided by Keva-Ku, the daughter of Chao Ku and stepsister of Yin Li. Keva-Ku has taken over Chung Yuan’s estate and is using it as her headquarters for selling opium and weapons. There is a one-page introduction entitled “Welcome to the House of Yang,” which tells the reader about Sanho Kim, his knowledge of both Korean and Chinese history, and his being a martial artist. Kim’s background adds to the realism of his art.

Yang #12 (Mar. 1976)

There is no “Yin-Yang Mail” page in this issue, but instead a two-page text story called “Apache Justice,” with three Yang color panels from previous issues. The absence of a letters page provides us some forewarning that Yang’s days are numbered.

When asked about his awareness of the title’s impending doom, Sattler responds, “I believe when I delivered the finished work for Yang #12 to the Charlton offices, I learned that Yang #13 would be the final issue.”

Yang #13 (May 1976)

The cover price jumps to 30¢ with this, the final issue, a 5¢ price increase. Sattler chuckles, “Hey, why didn’t I get a raise?”

Again, there is no letters page.

This story, “Death Wears White,” was set during a winter snowstorm, which Sattler enjoyed drawing.

In the last panel, Charlton left the door open bring back Yang with Sattler’s black-and-white drawing of Yang and guest-star Chief Ahak walking up a hill. Gill’s closing words were: “On snowshoes with a Tungit Indian to guide him, the man called Yang headed for Alaska and a seaport thinking of the good people he had known and the evil… He thought of Yin Li, so lovely and deadly! And when he thought of her, he thought of the legend of yin and yang and wondered why there had to be evil in the world!”

THE YANG SPIN-OFF (AND A WRONG TURN FOR “WRONG COUNTRY”)

The artist Charlton chose for House of Yang, the spin-off that debuted between Yang #8 and 9, was Sanho Kim, who was born in Korea in 1939 and came to the US in 1966. Kim’s first work for Charlton was the cover of Space Adventures #5 (Jan. 1969). Between then and House of Yang #1 (July 1975), Kim produced covers and interior art for 79 other Charlton issues within 11 different titles, many of which were horror books. Kim’s largest body of work came over a four-and-a-halfyear run on The Cheyenne Kid, from issue #72 (May 1969) thru 98 (Sept.

1973). He also wrote and illustrated the story “Wrong Country,” an epic not unlike Yang (or TV’s Kung Fu), featuring Korean martial artist 26 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Cousin of Yang The first page from the premiere issue of the Yang spin-off, House of Yang. Art by Sanho Kim, story by Joe Gill. © the respective copyright holder.

Master of Martial Artwork Original Sanho Kim cover art from House of Yang #2 (Oct. 1975). Courtesy of Heritage. © the respective copyright holder.

House of Yang #2 (Oct. 1975)

This issue features the invasion of Korea and northern China by the Japanese. Page one, a splash page, summarizes the organization of “societies” that oppose any outside influence in China. The group to which Sun Yang belongs is I-Ho-Ch’uan, translated into English as “The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” also known to the Western world as “The Boxers.” Kim used an effect seen in issue #1 on pages 8 and 11 and again here in issue #2 on page 4, where he draws a single panel but breaks it up into three to five panes similar to what you would see on a Chinese screen. This issue contains the series’ first letters page.

House of Yang #3 (Dec. 1975)

The cover of this issue shows Kim’s intimate knowledge of the Far East, which can be seen in the fan, the umbrella, the attire, and the hair of the female. sanho kim A Japanese trader who hates Sun Yang as much as © 1975 Charlton Comics.

Eva-Ku brings two female ninjas who are, as Joe Gill’s script puts it, “Trained to kill in a thousand ways.”

House of Yang #4 (Feb. 1976)

This issue deals with Sun Yang facing Shah Tabar, the chief of the New Golden Horde of Mongols, and his warrior sister Princess Yiza, who have taken over northern China. Tabar captures towns and forces men to join his army or he will kill their wives and children.

With their men gone, Sun Yang helps feed the women and children and teaches the women the martial arts he has learned. In the three previous issues, Kim drew multi-paneled two-page centerspreads. On pages 13 and 14, Kim draws one large two-page detailed splash reminiscent of the detailed drawings found in Jack Katz’s First Kingdom. There is no letters page in this issue. Sadly, this issue was Kim’s last published new work at Charlton.

House of Yang #5 (Apr. 1976)

With the departure of Sanho Kim, Charlton called upon Yang artist Warren Sattler to illustrate the cover for this issue. The interiors were penciled by Demetrio Sánchez Gómez and inked by Franc Fuentesman, with Joe Gill continuing as writer. Sattler tells BACK ISSUE that he was not able to see the drawings from the story, so he drew the cover’s diving woman in a one-piece swimsuit and later discovered that Gómez drew Eva-Ku in a two-piece swimsuit in the interior. In this story, pearls are as valuable as diamonds. Eva-Ku is trying to find the source of the pearls.

Gómez draws a much more sensual version of Eva-Ku in this issue than Kim had previously.

House of Yang #6 (June 1976)

With Sanho Kim gone, George Wildman contacted Warren Sattler to do the art for this issue. Sattler had not seen the previous five issues of House of Yang and had to do research to draw the feature’s clothing, armor, and so forth.

On the last page (22), someone at Charlton made a couple of art changes. The first is in the fourth panel. The dark, black spot on the floor was supposed to be a red bloodstain with reflections.

Since these comics were approved by the Comics Code Authority, according to Sattler this bloodstain was considered “too gruesome” and someone at Charlton (probably a production artist) chose to color it black like a shadow. The second change can be found in the final panel. Sattler comments, “I wanted the sunset to look like the Japanese military flag with the rising sun being red and white, and I added notes to that end, but the colorist totally ignored those instructions.”

Unlike the last page of the final issue of Yang, Warren Sattler did not draw the image open-ended in hopes of a return for House of Yang.

A huge thanks goes to Warren Sattler, who did two telephone interviews with this writer which were used for much of the source material for this article.

Mr. Sattler is an amazing man. Thanks, Warren.

JAY WILLIAMS is a national sales manager for a healthcare software company with a great love of history (his college major) and comics. Occasionally, his day job affords him the opportunity to visit comic-book shops as he travels all of the USA, as he searches for interesting comics and talks to store owners and managers about the “good old days.”

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

By the time Deadly Hands of Kung Fu premiered as a black-and-white Marvel magazine in 1974, kung-fu fever was already in full swing.

The magazine ran for 33 issues until 1977, including a Special Edition (Summer 1974) and a one-shot Deadliest Heroes of Kung Fu spin-off (Summer 1975). Although both Shang-Chi and Iron Fist would often star in DHoKF and the “Sons of the Tiger/White Tiger” strip appeared in almost every issue, the magazine’s true star was probably real-life martial-arts hero Bruce Lee. Lee was featured on the first issue’s cover as well as well as covers for #3, 7, 14, 17, 26, 28, and Deadliest Heroes.

Only Shang-Chi, whose strip was usually the main feature, appeared on more covers. Many issues included articles about Lee, barely a month passed without some mention of him in the letters page, and #28 was devoted entirely to Lee with a comic adaptation of his life.

KUNG FU GRIP

TM

The kung-fu craze in America is considered to have begun with the 1972 debut of Lee’s first staring role in The Big Boss a.k.a. Fists of Fury. “[It] …had

by D a n i e l D e A n g e l o the kind of impact on us that a truly great comic-book movie does today, liberating in its embrace of fantasy action and over-the-top heroics,” explained writer Gerry Conway in his introduction to Marvel’s gerry conway DHoKF Omnibus vol. 1 (Nov. 2016). “Bruce Lee, on screen, was a superhero, doing impossible things with his body that seemed ripped from the pages of a comic book.

He moved at super-speed, he struck with a force that was superhuman, he practically levitated with every leap. And the visual storytelling of the movie itself was like nothing seen in American films—spectacular stunts coupled with a dramatic intensity that made the average American ‘action’ film seem comatose. We were blown away.” No sooner had Lee burst onto the international scene as the newest screen action hero, he passed away at the age of 32 on July 20, 1973—just a month before the premiere of what most consider his greatest film, Enter the Dragon. Just like such film icons as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, Lee’s death at such a young age (and under what seemed at the time to be somewhat mysterious circumstances) immortalized him to fans forever. “Bruceploitation” had begun, with everyone seemingly looking to cash in on Lee’s popularity in movies (as studios scrambled to find Lee lookalikes to star in imitation kung-fu films), books—and yes, even comics. “Roy [Thomas, Marvel editor-in-chief] wanted to do something in comics that would embrace the Asian martial-arts movie aesthetic,” Conway wrote, “but in 1972, there was just no vehicle to do so.”

However, the genre would receive increased visibility with the popularity of the American TV series Kung Fu (1972–1975), which starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, a half-Chinese/half-American who studied most of his life at a Shaolin temple in China, becoming a priest and master of kung fu. After killing the Emperor’s nephew to avenge one of his masters, Caine had a bounty placed on his head and fled to America, where he traveled through the Old West.

Similar to the previous The Fugitive TV series (and later, The Incredible Hulk TV series), Caine encountered various strangers throughout his journeys and used his skills to help those in trouble. Because kung fu actually teaches one to avoid fighting when possible, the series focused more on philosophy rather than action, as one would expect.

Another reason for this was because Carradine, unlike Bruce Lee, was not actually a martial artist. “It’s all faked, man, the fight scenes,” Carradine said in an interview in DHOKF #2 (June 1974). “They’re choreographed.

Fast and Furious First Issue I mean, I’m a dancer!” Carradine was featured on the covers of #4 and Deadliest Heroes #1 (fighting Lee). Many early issues included Neal Adams’ riveting cover to DHoKF #1 (Apr. 1974). articles about the series until its success began to fade with its For more awesome Adams kung-fu art, see the “Armor and cancellation. With the popularity of martial arts on the rise, Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin created Shang-Chi, who soon graduated the Martial Arts” interview with Neal later in this issue. to his own comic, Master of Kung Fu. The success of that comic eventually led to DHoKF. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. 28 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

KUNG FU HUSTLE

Roy Thomas says, “The creation of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (which some of us joked should’ve really been called Deadly FEET of Kung Fu) was inevitable, since Marvel was then in the process of doing B&W comics about most of the same subject matters it was covering in color comics. Kung fu seemed to lend itself to that approach.” Editor/writer David Anthony Kraft, who worked on DHoKF throughout most of its run, recalls, “It was a great time period when I started, because you had a lot of freedom. Roy, Don McGregor, and I were the three people who oversaw all of the color comics! Over in the B&W department, Tony [Isabella] was editor and Chris Claremont was his assistant.

As a courtesy—because sometimes we would proofread stuff, sometimes we would contribute story ideas or titles—they would list us in the editorial credits, so at the start I may have been listed even though I wasn’t doing very much, but later on it was like musical chairs… we all switched positions, and suddenly I was working on the magazines as an associate editor. Eventually, I worked my way up to where I was actually editing a lot of the books.” In addition to many articles, DAK wrote a regular column called “Fighting Arts Review,” which previewed upcoming kung-fu films and books, from #24–32 (skipping #25).

In his own introduction to the DHoKF Omnibus, editor/writer Tony Isabella wrote, “We wanted [the B&W magazines] to be actual magazines that would combine our comics stories with informative articles on the title’s respective areas of interest. But there was another reason for the union of articles and comics in these magazines. We didn’t have the budget to fill our 68 pages with comics and nothing but. Our budgets allowed for roughly 30–32 pages of new comics stories per issue. This wasn’t a problem for magazines like Dracula Lives! and Monsters Unleashed, because we could go to the Marvel archives and reprint good and even great [horror] stories from the 1950s and 1960s. DHoKF offered its david anthony kraft editors no such opportunity to reprint old comics stories. Marvel had never published martial-arts comics before Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu…” DHoKF definitely accomplished its goal, going beyond just reviews of martial arts-related films, TV shows, and books. It also included interviews with current martial-arts stars, articles about the history of kung fu and the use of weapons, and even reviews of martial-arts tournaments. In addition to kung fu, the magazine covered other martial-arts–related films, such as the Billy Jack kung fu/Western series, James Bond, sword and sorcery, and the Japanese Yakuza (“gangster” films). In addition to regular comicbook creators, Marvel sought out writers who were also considered “experts” in the field: editor/writer John David Warner contributed many articles as well as a recurring column called “Under the Pagoda”; martial-arts instructor Frank McLaughlin (creator of Charlton’s Judomaster) provided a series of illustrated kung-fu lessons; and even Denny O’Neil contributed under the alias “Wan Chang O’Shaugnessy.” Thomas tells BACK ISSUE, “Denny had used the name ‘Sergius O’Shaugnessy’ as a pseudonym at Charlton while he was still doing some writing for Marvel… and he revived that pen name from time to time.

Guess an Asian adaptation of the name made sense, half as a joke, when he wrote for Hands.” Even Marvel’s own “karate kid,” Ralph Macchio, started out writing fan mail to the letters pages of DHoKF. After meeting McGregor at a comics convention, Macchio was hired to assist Warner on the B&W magazines.

Warriors Three

ENTER THE TIGERS

The first issue of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu debuted on newsstands with a cover date of April 1974 with a painted cover of Bruce Lee by famed comics illustrator Neal Adams. “For whatever reason, they felt I had the drawing power to launch these magazines, and I never said no to them when they asked,” Adams said in an interview with Arlen Schumer from Comic

DHoKF’s “Sons of the Tiger” feature appeared in almost every issue and scored these cover spotlights: (top) #1’s back cover, with Dick Giordano art; (bottom left) #6 (Nov. 1974) by Bob Larkin; and (bottom right) #16 (Sept. 1975) by Luis Dominguez.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

Book Artist #3 (Winter 1999). Adams would also provide covers for #2–4, born anew, the tiger’s son.” Lin gives Abe and Bob the two claw amulets, 11–14, and 17. Future issues would include painted covers by various and when the three join hands and recite the incantation, their strength artists, most notably Bob Larkin and Earl Norem. Issue #1 introduced and skill is increased three-fold, enabling them to defeat any normal “The Sons of the Tiger” in a story by Gerry Conway and Dick Giordano, opponent. Lin explains of legends about a conspiracy against mankind which would become the magazine’s only regular feature throughout by a mysterious group called the “Silent Ones” and believes they are its history, appearing in all but six issues. In DHoKF Omnibus vol. 1, responsible for Kee’s death, so the newly dubbed Tiger Sons set out to Conway recalled the creation of the strip: “I was still (and remain) a avenge their former teacher. “I liked the idea of a three-racial group,” product of my white, middle-class American culture. Asian and African Thomas says. “It might appeal to a wide variety of readers, of course.

Americans were ‘exotic’ and strange. I had no real experience with We had hopes it might become an ongoing series, maybe even a color comic, but that didn’t happen.” either culture, and at that time in my life, I probably shouldn’t have written characters who didn’t share my cultural heritage.

Still, we tried to do justice to a genre America was in the TIGERS’ QUEST process of embracing, in good faith if not good taste.

Deadline problems plagued Sons of the Tiger from the Sons of the Tiger is retrograde cultural appropriation, start, as it skipped the second issue. The yin/yang symbols true, but in 1974, it was an honest effort to advance on the Sons’ uniforms were replaced in #3 (Aug. 1974) comic-book storytelling outside the almost-exclusively with tiger’s eyes to avoid confusion with Shang-Chi. white superhero mold. A baby step, if you will, Around this time, the first (and only) Kung Fu Special stumbling and awkward. Yet a step nonetheless.” appeared, featuring Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Sons In the first story, martial-arts student Lin Sun returns of the Tiger in an interconnected story plotted by to the Tiger Dojo to find his teacher, Master Kee, dying.

Isabella. “The Master Plan of Fu Manchu” took place in three parts—each focusing on a different hero by With his last breath, Kee tells Lin to seek out two other former students, Abe Brown (a stereotypical a different creative team, with the Sons of the Tiger bill mantlo “angry young black man” from the ghetto) and Bob chapter by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe. Don Diamond (an egotistical actor, seeking to learn martial Perlin replaced Giordano as artist on #4 (Sept. © Marvel. arts due to its popularity in the cinema, but who 1974), as the Sons learn that the Silent Ones are came to respect kung fu), and gives Lin three jade tiger amulets—a behind a plot to enslave American youths through drugs and Master head and two claws. An inscription reads: “When three are called, Kee was killed because he discovered their plan. Sons of the Tiger and stand as one, as one they’ll fight, their will be done… for each is again skipped #5 (Oct. 1974), replaced with a new story titled “The Casket of Hsien Hang,” by Mary Skrenes and Paul Gulacy, about a martial artist who inherits an ancient mystic casket from his father that Everybody Really contains the spirit of a demon. The Sons first made it onto the cover of #6 (Nov. 1974) by Earl Norem, the feature now written by Jim Was Kung-Fu Dennis [Denny O’Neil] with art by a rookie named George Pérez.

Fighting…

Writer Bill Mantlo joined Pérez as the new regular creative team in #7 (Dec. 1974), bringing some much-needed stability to the strip. “One day, …including (top) Tony Isabella… rushed into John Verpoorten’s office in a panic and cried 007 James Bond that he needed someone to script a Sons of the Tiger story for DHoKF overnight,” Mantlo said in an interview in BEM #24 (July 1979).

(Roger Moore), “[Marvel production guru] John Verpoorten, who delighted in torturing poor Tony, said he didn’t have anyone who could turn in the job by on this dynamite the next day without screwing up their own schedules. Tony, he said, Neal Adams cover would have to do it himself. It was then that I heard myself say, almost involuntarily, ‘Tony, I’ll do it.’ Tony looked at me incredulously. I mean, to DHoKF #12 I was a paste-up man who’d just recently begun coloring Marvel books.

(May 1975).

But Tony had the decency not to laugh, and he gave me the job.

I scripted it overnight, turned it in the next day, and with very few (bottom) Original editorial changes, it was accepted. The rest is history.” Mantlo’s first art by Marshall story introduced Lotus Shinchuko, an Asian female martial artist enslaved by the Silent Ones, who would go on to become an integral part of Rogers for DHoKF’s the team after Lin frees her from their control.

letters page header, featuring White Tiger and Shang-Chi. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. James Bond © Danjaq, L.L.C.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Foot and Fist (left) One of Nick Cardy’s few Marvel covers, this Shang-Chi/Iron Fist sizzler from DHoKF Annual #1 (Summer 1975).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (Mar. 1975) featured Iron Fist in a three-part story originally intended for the first issue of a B&W Iron Fist magazine that was never released. As DAK explains, decisions for new titles often came from the Ninth Floor at Marvel Comics, which was the business floor. “Ninth would… add new titles without forewarning us. During that run of Deadly Hands, when the Marvel magazines were at their apex, they would send down memos from Ninth and just suddenly add stuff.

“One time, they added an Iron Fist B&W magazine, and it was already late before it was put on the schedule.

Tony Isabella did a plot for it and I had to script it over a weekend, and then they canceled it before it came out! It was probably canceled based on looking at other magazine sales and thinking, [Iron Fist] might not do so well as a B&W magazine as opposed to a color comic.”

Mantlo wrapped up the first Sons story arc in #11 (Apr. 1975), as they finally defeat the Silent Ones, who are revealed to be an ancient race that existed before mankind and claim to be responsible for releasing evil on the world. The next three issues would feature solo stories focusing on each of the Tiger Sons. “I was given other titles,” Mantlo told BEM, “but they were mags that were near cancellation anyway and failed even before I could get started. Only my work on Sons of the Tiger had any sense of continuity. … There was more freedom in the B&W books at the time I did [it], primarily because no one cared. George and I pretty much did as we pleased, and George began perfecting some of that wonderful multi-panel experimental storytelling of his, free from editorial oversight or concern.”

In DHoKF #12 (May 1975), editor Archie Goodwin announced a new format for the magazine with six-part serialized stories by the same writer/artist teams to maintain consistency, beginning with Shang-Chi. The first Sons solo story featured Abe Brown and introduced AfricanAmerican private investigator Nathaniel Alexander Byrd, a.k.a. “Blackbyrd,” who would go on to be a recurring supporting character in the strip. Issue #13 (June 1975) focused on Bob Diamond with Lotus, whom Diamond started putting the moves on as soon as she joined the team. One reader complained about this in the letters pages of #14 (July 1975) for its “stereotypical treatment of Lotus, which typifies Asian women as… exotic and submissive while falling in love with a Caucasian hero.”

Mantlo personally replied, “If you can hang on… I think you’ll see a surprising turnabout in those very attitudes you find objectionable.” Lin Sun received the solo treatment this issue as the ghost of his ancestor takes him on a spiritual journey.

DHoKF #15 (Aug. 1975) was entirely reprints, promoted as a “Super Annual Issue.” Around this time, Marvel also decided to attempt an all-article issue, which would be a lot less expensive to produce than

Kung-Fu Team-Up (right) Original art page from the Iron Fist/Sons of the Tiger tale “Fists of Darkness, Fists of Death,” from DHoKF #18 (Nov. 1975). By Bill Mantlo, Pat Broderick, and Terry Austin. From its top-line notation, this may have been intended as an Iron Fist inventory story.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

New MartialArts Stars (left) Future Walker, Texas Ranger star Chuck Norris was featured on DHoKF #20’s (Jan. 1976) cover by Ken Barr. (right) John Warner and Sanho Kim’s “Swordquest” serial began in #25 (June 1976). Cover

by Earl Norem.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

B&W comics, and published a one-shot magazine called Deadliest Heroes of Kung Fu. It apparently did not sell well enough to warrant a second issue. The Sons returned to the cover of #16 (Sept. 1975), courtesy of artist Luis Dominguez, and appeared in the first of a twopart story where Blackbyrd enlists them to investigate charges of guard brutality at a prison. The issue also included a new story called “The Corpse Rider” by John Warner and Sanho Kim, in which a samurai aids a young man against the undead spirit of his wife who has vowed to kill him. In the next issue, Lin finally confesses feelings for Lotus that she claims to have been aware of. After an Iron Fist/Sons of the Tiger team-up by Mantlo and Pat Broderick in #18 (Nov. 1975), the Sons would join forces with Spider-Man and the Human Torch against the Enforcers and the Sandman in Marvel Team-Up #40 (Dec. 1975), by Mantlo and Sal Buscema.

EYE OF THE TIGER

DHoKF #20 (Jan. 1976) featured a Chuck Norris cover by Ken Barr along with an interview with Norris by Jim Whitmore. After fighting Bruce Lee onscreen in The Way of the Dragon (1972), Norris went on to become perhaps an even bigger star in numerous action films. As for the Tiger Sons, they essentially became supporting characters in their own strip, which retained its title, despite the fact that it now starred the White Tiger. Initially, when Hector Ayala became the Tiger, he had no memory of what happened, but that would change as he gained more control over the transformations. In #21 (Feb. 1976), the Tiger battles former Spider-Man foe the Prowler in a story that included the famous splash page by George Pérez of a giant White Tiger stalking over the city streets with his name spelled out in perspective by the buildings. This was Pérez’s response to criticism about his art from editor Marv Wolfman, who ironically would AN ENDING… AND A BEGINNING later partner with Pérez on New Teen Titans for DC. In DHoKF #19 (Dec. 1975), Shang-Chi was replaced by “That page was done specifically to address the flaws a new six-part Iron Fist serial, along with a memorable that Marv saw in my work,” Pérez said in George Pérez, editorial by Goodwin about the danger of aerosol Storyteller by Christopher Lawrence (Dynamic Forces, 2006). “Those suggestions pretty much changed my spray cans threatening the ozone layer (which, as climate change today indicates, not enough people listened style—now I do so much with background, perspective, to), and an article about “The Deadliest Man Alive” and details, and it all goes back to Marv.” Wolfman also Count Danté—head of the infamous Black Dragon told Storyteller, “[George] had proved he had everything Fighting Society that supposedly taught its students he needed. From that point on, he was just going to george pérez keep on getting better.” deadly and potentially crippling fighting techniques— who ironically died shortly before the issue was published Wolfman was not the only editor at Marvel to notice © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. [there’s more of Count Danté’s story elsewhere in Pérez’s rapid improvement, which posed some problems this issue—ed.]. In Sons, Bob’s jealousy of the growing attraction between for DHoKF. “Then someone noticed that George had gotten really good Lotus and Lin leads to a fierce battle between the two, causing Abe and offered him Fantastic Four,” Mantlo told BEM. “So George left, and Lotus to walk out in disgust. Bob and Lin finally make peace and and we began playing musical artists on Sons of the Tiger. Keith Giffen, go their separate ways, with all three Tiger Sons tossing their amulets a favorite artist of mine, came in for [three issues], and we created Jack of power into the trash. The amulets are discovered by one Hector of Hearts (my idea, Keith’s visualization).” Jack is introduced in #22 Ayala, who unknowingly puts on all three at once and is magically (Mar. 1976) and believes the Tiger is responsible for his father’s murder after criminals tried to steal the experimental “zero formula” that gave transformed into a new hero called the White Tiger!

“George [Pérez] of course is… Puerto Rican… and had an intimate Jack his energy-based superpowers. Hector sees a photo in the newspaper knowledge of the gritty city/slum that is the South Bronx,” Mantlo told of the White Tiger wearing the amulets and realizes that he is the BEM. “So I said, ‘Hey, George—let’s do a character that reflects that Tiger! Blackbyrd also notices the similarity between the amulets and grim reality!’ I described the costume as Spidey’s without any details those worn by the Sons of the Tiger. Meanwhile, Abe Brown is forced to (remember, in B&W comics, color is nonexistent), and George went crash land a plane in Africa after the pilots are killed. In #24 (May 1976), home and designed it. The conception was mine, but nobody brings Blackbyrd seeks the Tiger’s help to investigate the murder of Jack’s father. a character to life like George Pérez, so we share the credit of having Meanwhile, Abe awakens in the desert to find himself a prisoner of Arab created the White Tiger.” revolutionaries, who expect him to fight one of his plane’s hijackers called 32 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

“the Mole” to decide which of them will inherit the costume of the “Black Tiger.” Lin and Lotus learn of Abe’s plane crashing and seek to contact Bob, who was making a film in Canada but has disappeared in an avalanche.

SWORD OF THE SAMURAI

Perhaps due to problems finding a new regular artist, Sons of the Tiger was not included in #25 (June 1976).

A new four-part story called “Swordquest” began, written

by John Warner with art by Sanho Kim. Warner explained that the story was “a by-product of my studies of the Orient and my exploration of the martial arts,” and claimed to have asked Archie Goodwin to let him do a samurai series years earlier, but at the time, Goodwin saw the martial arts as being “too esoteric—they’ll never be commercial enough!” In the late 16th Century, a war between Japan and China leads to Japan occupying Korea.

A young Korean boy named Kwang-Che Yu sees his grandfather killed by a Japanese warlord called the Raven, who takes his grandfather’s sacred Firesword but allows young Kwang to live. As an adult, Kwang learns the martial arts and vows to take revenge on the Raven and reclaim his grandfather’s sword, which he would do in the next three chapters (to be drawn by Tony DeZuniga).

Another new story was “Samurai!” by Mantlo and Pat Broderick about a samurai (naturally) who defies his father by marrying an American woman and must rescue her from being sacrificed by his father to a sea serpent.

In #26 (July 1976), Jim Sherman filled in as artist on Sons, as White Tiger agrees to investigate the murder of Jack’s father. Meanwhile, Abe wins his duel with the Mole by catching a bullet fired at him (probably inspired by an article in #19 about a martial artist who accomplished the

same feat), thus winning the right to wear the Black Tiger costume. The White Tiger was spotlighted on the Mike Nasser cover to #27, as Warner explained in his editorial that Sons was being moved to the main feature of the magazine with the Tiger depicted in the cover corner box to avoid confusion with Shang-Chi and Iron Fist’s own titles (since one of them had traditionally appeared in previous corner boxes). Artist Ron Wilson filled in as the Tiger meets a young Hispanic girl nicknamed “Cheeky” playing handball on a wall that has “White Tiger” spray-painted on it (along with the names of various Marvel creators such as “George & Yvie,” “Bill & Karen,” “Archie,” etc.), who is tragically killed in an explosion meant for him.

RE-ENTER THE DRAGON

DHoKF #28 (Sept. 1976) was devoted entirely to Bruce Lee, with a two-part comic-book bio written by Martin Sands, penciled by Joe Staton, and inked by Tony DeZuniga.

Warner explained that Goodwin came up with the idea after readers kept requesting a comic strip about Lee. Sands was a Lee enthusiast and friend of Warner’s, while Staton was chosen because his “combination of… very fluid storytelling and powerful-yet-elastic figures makes him one of the perfect artists for martial-arts action (not to mention some truly dynamic layout and designs).” Staton recalls, “I drew the Bruce Lee biography entirely due to the involvement of Archie, [who] thought I’d be right for this. As for reference, I was in contact with fan Tom Fagan, in Rutland, Vermont, who worked for a publisher, Charles E. Tuttle, who specialized in Asian-themed books. They had done some on martial arts, and Tom sent me a set. One was perfect with sequences of black-belt moves. I still have that book… very useful. Also, the film club at the local campus

Stand Off (left) The White Tiger takes center stage in the Sons of the Tiger feature in DHoKF #20. Script

by Mantlo, pencils

by George Pérez, inks by Jack Abel.

Original art courtesy of Heritage. (right) Original painted cover art by Malcolm McNeill for this winner featuring the perennially popular Bruce Lee, from DHoKF #26 (July 1976). Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

Tiger in Your Tank Two White Tiger cover appearances: (top left) DHoKF #27 (Aug. 1976), by Norem, and (top right) #31 (Dec. 1976), by Larkin. (bottom) Iron Fist and Shang-Chi drop by in this Mantlo-penned White Tiger/ Sons of the Tiger tale in DHoKF #31. Art by the versatile Joe Staton, with Sonny Trinidad inks.

was showing a Bruce Lee film. [It] got me up to speed on how Bruce moved. I really enjoyed working on the project.” In order to cover Lee’s life in only 36 pages, the creative team had to use a combination of text and illustration. The story opens with Bruce Lee being rushed to the hospital as cheering fans exit the theater after seeing Enter the Dragon and flashes back to his past life, leading up to his death.

RUMBLE IN THE BRONX

In #29 (Oct. 1976), Warner’s editorial announced a proposed reunion of the Sons of the Tiger and a new regular artist for the strip, which was intended to be Staton, as Ron Wilson filled in again. In Africa, the Arab TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. revolutionaries now worship Abe Brown as the new Black Tiger, who will lead them against their military enemies. Swordquest finally concluded in #30 (Nov. 1976), and Warner’s editorial discussed future projects such as Daughters of the Dragon, Moon Knight and Iron Fist vs.

Warhawk, and interviews with Chuck Norris and Bob Wall (only the first and last projects would see print). Pérez returned to Sons of the Tiger for this issue, while the next was a 41-page team-up of the White Tiger, Jack of Hearts, Shang-Chi, and Iron Fist by Mantlo and Staton.

White Tiger learns that his estranged brother, Filippo, is behind the organization that killed Jack’s father, and Filippo commits suicide rather than go to jail. DAK’s “Fighting Arts Review” column referred to a current “dry period” in the release of new martial-arts films.

Another article cited the closing of many martial-arts schools, the cancellation of TV’s Kung Fu, and the movies’ fading popularity as proof that “the [martial arts] fad is over.” Both articles would prove to be prophetic regarding the future of the magazine.

DHoKF #32 (Jan. 1977) features Lin Sun on the cover battling new villainess Harmony Killdragon by Malcolm McN. “A curious footnote,” Staton points out, “the only Marvel character I have a creator credit on is Harmony Killdragon… We deliberately based her on the actress Angela Mao, who was in a bunch of Hong Kong kung-fu action movies, so there were lots of photos of her in the newspaper movie ads.” In what would turn out to be the final Sons of the Tiger strip, Bob Diamond’s attorney hires Killdragon to kill Lin and Lotus so he can inherit all of Bob’s money. Blackbyrd shows up with the White Tiger, and Bob turns up alive to put an end to his attorney’s scheme. The Tiger Sons ask the White Tiger to join them in their search for the missing Abe Brown, and he agrees. Sadly, the “Black Tiger” subplot would never be resolved. Chris Claremont and the late Marshall Rogers produced the first of a two-part “Daughters of the Dragon” story starring Iron Fist supporting characters Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. “What I enjoyed the most about Misty and Colleen is that neither of them are superheroes,” Claremont wrote in DHoKF Omnibus vol. 2 (2017). “The things they do, the conflicts they face, the adversaries they overcome… they’re actually not that far removed from our reality. … For me, partly as writer but also as reader, that’s a lot of what makes these characters so much fun, and why I’ve never tired of them.” joe staton

EXIT THE DRAGON

With all the recent discussion about the declining popularity of the martial arts, the (Deadly) handwriting was on the wall, and #33 (Feb. 1977) was the last issue of DHoKF, including the promised interview with Bob Wall, who fought Bruce Lee onscreen in Enter the Tiger, and the conclusion of the Daughters of the Dragon story. In his final editorial, John Warner claimed the magazine was not being canceled due to poor sales. Instead, he blamed it on “our attempt to keep the line restricted to a set number of pages produced per month… a safety valve to insure that we maintain bringing you quality rather than settling for quantity… beyond a certain number of titles, there just aren’t enough people of Marvel’s calibre to produce the material with enough care and exactness. … So we have cut back the line to a manageable size for breaking new ground… or for finding new ground to break.” While the magazine was experiencing problems finding a regular artist, was this really the reason for the cancellation? “[This] may have been wholly or partly true,” Roy Thomas says. “I wasn’t around at the time… but if the mag had been selling well, it would’ve been continued.” Joe Staton, who was supposed to continue drawing 34 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Tiger Teammates Outside of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, the Sons of the Tiger appeared alongside Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #40, while the White Tiger proved a popular guest-star, especially alongside the Web-Slinger, as shown in these examples.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Sons, recalls that DHoKF “never really did very well.” David Anthony Kraft says, “Cancellations came from the Ninth Floor. Who knows what their decisions were based on sometimes? … I’m surprised that DHoKF lasted that long; that’s actually quite a respectable run for a B&W magazine. So probably, sales were falling off and Ninth decided to end it, and I’m guessing John probably tried to put the best face on it.” (John Warner could not be reached for comment.)

RETURN OF THE TIGER

Shang-Chi and Iron Fist would continue in their own color comic titles, but what about the White Tiger? “Though reader interest was massive,” Mantlo told BEM, “no one in editorial at the time cared to see Hector in his own mag. Why? Perhaps they feel the sales potential of the character is poor, perhaps they’re afraid of Marvel’s predominantly white middle class ignoring a Hispanic super hero.” Mantlo added, “I’d like to start a new super group… but I don’t know how likely that is. As I see it, it would feature Jack of Hearts, White Tiger, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and another female, perhaps a new character.” Such a team never came together, but Mantlo was not done with the White Tiger yet. The character appeared next in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #9–10 (Aug.–Sept. 1977) by Mantlo and Sal Buscema, where it was revealed that Hector Ayala chose not to accompany the rest of the Tiger Sons to Africa and decided to transfer to Empire State University, the same college attended by Peter Parker, where he became a recurring supporting character both in and out of costume. In #18 (May 1978), Hector meets African-American student Holly Gillis, who would become his girlfriend. After guest-starring in The Human Fly #8–9 (Apr.–May 1978) by Mantlo and Frank Robbins, Hector is captured by the villain Lightmaster in PPTSS #19–20 (June–July 1978), who mistakenly believes Hector is Spidey and plans to unmask him on public TV. Instead, Hector is publicly revealed to be the White Tiger and the real Spidey shows up to help him defeat Lightmaster. DAK briefly used the Tiger (and Iron Fist) in his “Defenders for a Day” story in Defenders #62–64 (Oct.–Dec. 1978). After the Tiger helps Spider-Man battle Carrion, Hector and Holly are recruited to run a mobile ESU college in the South Bronx in PPTSM #32 (July 1979), effectively writing them out of the series. “WT is popular as a co-star in PPTSM,” Mantlo told BEM, “but I’ll be phasing him out of there to concentrate more on Spidey.

So he will vanish, maybe forever, into Marvel limbo.”

However, the White Tiger did not vanish forever, as Roger Stern began a series of backup stories in PPTSS #49–51 (Dec. 1980–Feb. 1981), in which the Tiger’s family is killed by Gideon Mace, a mad ex-military colonel who has created an army to wipe out costumed heroes. The Tiger’s story was concluded in PPTSS #52 (Mar. 1981), in which he is gunned down

by Mace and avenged by Spider-Man. After recovering, Hector decides to leave New York with Holly, so he can attempt to restart his life.

Hector gives the amulets to Blackbyrd and asks him to return them to the Sons of the Tiger, who would later turn up in Power Man and Iron Fist, where Bob Diamond became a recurring character and started dating Colleen Wing. In PM/IF #74 (Oct. 1981), Iron Fist’s enemy, Master Khan, steals the amulets and reunites them with a jade tiger statue they were removed from. The statue then comes to life and opens a portal that Khan uses to enter Iron Fist’s adopted home of K’un-Lun.

EXIT THE TIGER

The amulets would not be seen again until Daredevil vol. 2 #38–40 (Dec. 2002–Feb. 2003), in which Hector returns as the White Tiger, having regained the amulets with no explanation. Falsely arrested for killing a police officer during a robbery, Hector is defended in court by Matt Murdock. Hector is now married to a Hispanic woman named Soledad, who threatens to divorce him for resuming his crimefighting

career after they mutually agreed he would retire, even though she had nothing to do with Hector’s decision to retire in PPTSS #52. Could Hector have become the Tiger again once before, leading to a breakup with Holly, only to retire a second time when he married Soledad? How did Hector get the amulets back? Alas, we may never know, since Hector is declared guilty and panics, getting shot to death as he attempts to escape.

A second White Tiger, who was actually a female tiger evolved into a human by the High Evolutionary, briefly joined Heroes for Hire before being returned to her natural form. A third White Tiger was an AfricanAmerican police officer named Kevin “Kasper” Cole, who wore a Vibranium costume and became an ally of the Black Panther’s Crew. Hector’s amulets were eventually handed down to his niece, ex-FBI agent Angela del Toro, and later his youngest sister, Ava Ayala, both of whom adopted the White Tiger identity. Ava is probably most well known to fans from the recent Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, in which she was the daughter of Hector, the first White Tiger, who was killed by Kraven the Hunter.

In addition to the current White Tiger, Shang-Chi and Iron Fist continue to be mainstays in the Marvel Universe, while the Sons of the Tiger recently reunited in the 2014 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu miniseries.

Just like Bruce Lee, the legacy of Marvel’s kungfu heroes lives on!

DANIEL DeANGELO is a freelance writer/artist in Florida. After researching this article and learning that, in Mandarin, “kung” means “work” and “fu” means “man”—so that any man skilled at his work could be considered a “kung fu” artist—he now considers himself a freelance “kung fu writer/artist.”

Daniel-San wishes to thank David T. Allen, Gerry Conway, David Anthony Kraft, Joe Staton, and Roy Thomas—kung-fu masters all—for their assistance.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

TM

Today, Iron Fist is a well-established character in the Marvel Universe, part of the New Avengers and even a television star, as one of Netflix’s Defenders. Yet his publishing life has had its ups and downs, with moments of glory, death, return, and publishing hiatuses.

Let’s explore the evolution of the character as seen by many of his creators from 1974 to 2017.

IN THE BEGINNING

As noted earlier in this issue, martial arts became very popular in the early ’70s, and Marvel Comics capitalized on the trend in 1973 with the introduction of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Master of Kung Fu’s early appearances were successful and the House of Ideas wanted to expand its roster of martial-arts stars, with the idea of creating a character that would entirely belong to Marvel since Shang-Chi was linked to the Fu Manchu license. And that led to the creation of Iron Fist.

Roy Thomas and Gil Kane would oversee the creation of this new character.

Thomas explains how he got the idea for Iron Fist: “We already had Master of Kung Fu, which Englehart and Starlin had brought to me, and I to Stan [Lee]. When I saw my first kung-fu movie, which had an ‘iron fist’ ceremony in it, I decided that would be a good name for a more superhero (i.e., Marvel) approach to a kung-fu hero. Stan agreed, and I immediately contacted roy thomas Gil Kane to be the artist.”

The Roy Thomas/Gil Kane team was © Luigi Novi / a classic when it came to character Wikimedia Commons. launches or relaunches in the ’70s: together they rebooted Captain Marvel; created Morbius, the Living Vampire (in Amazing Spider-Man); and introduced Warlock and Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere.

Gil Kane explained why the two worked so much together in the FA fanzine in 1986: “Whenever Roy had a new book coming up he would insist that he and I do it. So, we did the first issue of Iron Fist [Marvel Premiere #15] and many other debut issues, and it was Roy who insisted that I do most of the covers.” (Kane would provide cover pencils for all but one of Marvel Premiere’s Iron Fist issues and for five of the first six covers of the hero’s own title.)

The origin of the character would be inspired by the 1933 book Lost Horizon, written by English writer James Hilton, and the Golden Age comic book Amazing-Man from Centaur Publications. Roy Thomas offers, “Well, Lost Horizon (which I’ve never read—I’ve only seen movie versions) is an indirect inspiration… [as is] Bill Everett’s Amazing-Man #5 (really the first issue), which Gil liked.

Since I had only a vague idea of a Westerner who goes to the East and gains the ‘iron fist,’ [Kane] said he’d like to adapt a lot of elements of Amazing-Man, and that

Kung Fu Superhero The high-kickin’ debut of Iron Fist, in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974).

Cover art by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano, with alterations by John Romita, Sr. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

by F

ranck Martini

sounded good to me. I’d read that comic, and was always, like Gil, a big Bill Everett fan… but I didn’t remember it as well as Gil did. We didn’t look up a copy of the book… we were just going by what Gil remembered, and, of course, just taking the broad outline of that.”

Thomas further explained the creation process in Alter Ego #4 (Spring 2000): “[Amazing-Man #5] contained a Shangri-La clone and a group of enigmatic figures headed by the hooded Great Question. All these elements were incorporated into our joint plot, though we stuck around only for Iron Fist’s origin [in Marvel Premiere #15] then turned the feature and a few basic concepts over to Len Wein, who worked with artist Larry Hama on the second story.”

Lost Horizon provided the concept of a lost city in Tibet—Shangri-La, located in the Kunlun mountains.

In Iron Fist, the lost city is called K’un L’un, so the connection is quite clear. On the other hand, Amazing-Man also gave the inspiration for an orphan kid raised and trained by Tibetan monks.

A STORY TOLD BACKWARDS

Iron Fist would make his first appearance in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974). This tryout title was used by Marvel to introduce characters—such as Warlock in its first two issues, and later Iron Fist and others—or to relaunch characters that no longer had their own publications—like Dr. Strange, in issues #3–14. [Editor’s note: Marvel Premiere was examined in BACK ISSUE #71, the “Tryouts, One-Shots, and One-Hit Wonders” issue.]

Strangely enough, the bulk of Iron Fist’s Bronze Age adventures contains three large storylines. First, from Marvel Premiere #15–22 we have the origin of the character, his revenge story, and how he became more than the killing machine he was trained to be. Second, from Marvel Premiere #23 to Iron Fist #7 we have the search for the abducted Colleen Wing. Third, there was a “villain of the month”–type approach with a Steel Serpent subplot that culminated with Marvel Team-Up #63–64.

When he first appears, Iron Fist is already established: costume, powers… everything is in place. All the elements that will explain who he is and how he became a superhero will be told in flashbacks. Most of the early Marvel Premiere issues will use flashback scenes to give details on Danny Rand and the other members of the cast. His origin is told in the first two issues, where we discover how he joined K’un L’un and how he got trained, passed all the tests and trials, and finally got his powers (the channeling of superhuman energy through his glowing, “iron” fist).

It all starts with a trek in the Himalayan mountains, when young Danny Rand is accompanying his parents, Wendell and Heather Rand, and their best friend and Wendell’s business partner Harold Meachum. They are searching a mysterious city that only appears every ten years: K’un L’un. But the trek will take a turn for the worse—and if Bruce Wayne’s origin is grim, then Danny Rand’s is quite the contender. In the matter of a few minutes, Danny’s father falls to his death, betrayed by Meachum, who gives Wendell the final push. Meachum proposes to rescue Heather and Danny. She refuses and chooses to climb towards K’un L’un. But a pack of wolves attack them and Heather sacrifices herself to allow Danny to run away and reach the lost city, where he will stay for the next ten years. Roy Thomas explains this violent setup: “We didn’t set out to make the comic especially brutal. But kung fu needs a lot of action art of a certain kind, and that’s what Gil gave it.”

Marvel Premiere #16 (July 1974) follows up on Danny’s years in K’un L’un and his departure. Creatively, a new team is in place: writer Len Wein replaces Roy Thomas,

Iron Firsts Thomas and Kane were inspired by the film Lost Horizon and Bill Everett’s origin for the Golden Age hero Amazing-Man in creating Iron Fist. Also shown is a sequence from the character’s origin in Marvel Premiere #15.

Lost Horizon © 1937 Columbia Pictures.

Poster courtesy of Heritage.

Amazing-Man © the current copyright holder.

Iron Fist TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Just for Kicks (left) Gil Kane—as inked by Dick Giordano, in a rare Marvel appearance— from the very first Iron Fist story, written by Roy Thomas and appearing in Marvel Premiere #15. (right) Len Wein scripted IF’s second adventure in MP #16, penciled by Larry Hama, with Giordano anchoring the series as the returning inker.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

and Larry Hama takes over as penciler for his first SMOLDER AND GLOW UNTIL IT published work. Thomas and Kane were familiar with BECOMES LIKE UNTO A THING OF IRON the concept of launching a concept and then leaving it Iron Fist is, first and foremost, an expert in martial arts. in other hands: “I really don’t recall if we both decided But on top of that—and thanks to a fight to a standtogether, or Gil decided he didn’t have time to still with a dragon—he is also able to focus his continue the book, so I decided to leave “chi”—his vital energy—into his fist. That is rather than work with a new artist, or what.

Iron Fist’s trademark superpower. When you But we both left, simply bequeathing look at it today, it looks very much like some ideas for the plot of the second what video games call a “special attack” story to those who followed us. Of (for which you would use with a joypad course, I continued as the series’ editor combo). Whenever he wants to use for some time, and overseer of the this special trick, Danny must calm covers… and Gil penciled some of down, focus, and then attack. those. So we were still guiding Iron Fist In the first story (Marvel Premiere just a bit.” #15), Roy Thomas scripted the following The only element connecting the line to initiate Iron Fist’s amazing ability: first and second issue was surprise “Your hand starts to smolder and inker Dick Giordano, whose work in glow until it becomes like unto a those days was mostly seen only at thing of iron! And you strike!”— gil kane rival DC Comics: “[It was] my choice,” as Danny lands his blow. Roy tells recalls Roy Thomas, “a way to get Portrait by John Severin. us why he came up with such a Dick to do some work for Marvel.” Giordano’s inks sentence: “Hey, if you’re going to have a hero with provided a good fit and a driving visual on the first a fist like iron… well, iron gets to be iron (or it is five issues of the Iron Fist saga. steel?) by glowing, right? No special mantra… but The first two issues establish a storytelling technique it was an origin thing.” that will continue in the book until the arrival of scribe Maybe it wasn’t a mantra, but it stuck for quite a Chris Claremont: most captions are in the second person long time. Subsequent Iron Fist writers Len Wein, and speak to Danny, like the voice of a narrator providing Doug Moench, and Tony Isabella kept it. But Isabella guidance. It was innovative in its approach, but could almost wishes he had not: “Yes, [I used it,] but, sometimes make the captions a bit too forced and heavy. honestly, I was wrong. It’s a silly line that I should

38 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

have ditched. The moment itself is cool and, for Iron Fist, ironic. The line?

It got old real fast.”

It would be up to Chris Claremont to get rid of it in his early issues.

Claremont would also change the use of Iron Fist’s powers and establish that Danny was so drained after a chi channeling that he could only use it once per day. He also defined that his powers could heal him or transmit his energy to others (Iron Fist #2 being the first case), giving him a slightly broader use of his power.

When asked if he gave any guidelines to the new Iron Fist creative teams as Marvel’s editor, Roy Thomas answers, “Only the bits we gave the new team for the second story…. although if they had gone in a direction I didn’t like, as editor I could have reined them in. But I had no strong storyline in mind… at least nothing that wasn’t apparent (the revenge motif, the general kung-fu theme, etc., etc.) in the first story and the elements we bequeathed to the second.”

GETTING REVENGE

Following Len Wein and teaming up with Larry Hama (who had already drawn Marvel Premiere #16) is Doug Moench, who will only stay on the book for three issues, in which Iron Fist gets a sort of revenge on the man who caused the demise of his parents: Harold Meachum.

Moench recalls little of his three issues, but he explained to the Comic Shenanigans podcast the feeling of urgency in the Marvel offices that led to his writing the book in the first place: “Marvel back then was putting out so many titles each month […] and there weren’t so many writers. […] Deadlines were so bad back then that it was all that anybody could do to get someone to write the next issue in time for us not to pay a late fee at the printer.”

It seems that Marvel Premiere #17 (Sept. 1974) may have been one of these rush situations since its plot was quite straightforward, based on Larry Hama’s recollection: “I think the plot for that issue was, ‘Iron Fist enters the Meachum building and between the ground floor and the top floor he bumps into all sorts of traps and on the top floor he confronts Triple Iron.’

That was pretty much the entirety of the plot.”

Moench’s next issue (MP #18, Oct. 1974) features confrontations with both Triple Iron and Harold Meachum, who tells Danny what happened after he left the Rands to their fate—how he lost his legs because of the cold of the Tibetan mountains and how he got back to New York. Meachum is killed at the end of the issue by a new character called the Ninja that will play a larger role in the upcoming issues. Meachum’s daughter arrives after the Ninja’s disappearance and believes larry hama that Iron Fist has killed her father, an element © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. that will stick all along the book’s duration and establish a feud between the new generation of Rands and Meachums.

Finally, in Marvel Premiere #19 (Nov. 1974), Doug Moench introduces two major characters: Professor Lee Wing and his daughter Colleen. Moench takes some time to explain the history of the professor, which has ties with both Danny’s and Harold Meachum’s history. It looks like Moench was really starting to put things in motion with this issue, but he decided to leave a book he never really liked. “When Roy Thomas asked me to take over Master of Kung Fu,” Moench said to Comic Shenanigans, “I said, ‘Well, you just asked me to take over Iron Fist. That’s two martial arts things and that’s one too many.’ […] He said, ‘Well, okay then, which one would you like?’ I said, ‘No offense to you, Roy—I know you created Iron Fist—but I’d rather do Shang-Chi […] because he’s actually Chinese and Iron Fist is just this white guy who has to come in and show all the Asians that he’s better than they are.’ And that sort of bugs me.”

Moench’s final issue also showed that Danny Rand doesn’t understand much of modern life in New York and knows nothing of matters such as telephones, subways, or arcades (which were already there before he went to K’un L’un…).

This image of the stranger is really how other writers like Chris Claremont will see Danny. According to Claremont, “Danny was established as a fish out of water in K’un L’un, but because of his growing and acculturation into the philosophy of K’un L’un, when he returns to New York, he is equally at odds because the world he’s returning to is nothing like the world he inhabited.

So, he’s a fish out of water no matter where you look at it. […] And that’s the reason why Power Man and Iron Fist is such a great team-up—you couldn’t have a more yin-yang association than Danny Rand and Luke Cage.”

Leaping into the Marvel Universe The Tony Isabella-scripted Marvel Premiere #20 (Jan. 1975) cemented Iron Fist’s role within the larger Marvel Universe. Cover by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.

Also shown is an interior panel featuring Iron Fist vs. Batroc, illo’ed by Arvell Jones and Dan Green.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Taking Wing A cover appearance

by Colleen Wing— and dazzling Gil Kane/Tom Palmer art! Original cover art to MP #21 (Mar. 1975), courtesy of Heritage.

Signed by Kane. (below) The cover in its published form.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Matt Fraction, who co-wrote Iron Fist with Ed Brubaker, gave a similar analysis to IGN.com in 2007: “He’s sort of a stranger in two worlds. He has a constant need, not so much to fit in, but to simply live wherever he is, whether he’s serving as the heir of the Iron Fist legacy in K’un L’un, or as a captain of industry in the regular world.

Iron Fist exists in both of those worlds. He’s both K’un L’un’s hero and a hero to the people of Earth at the same time. I think, ultimately, the desire to be who he is, is what keeps him moving forward.” This is a feeling shared by Ed Brubaker, who gave his views in 2007 to Newsarama.com: “I really like that he’s this out-of-place character. He’s in this violent modern crowded city, and yet he grew up in K’un L’un, the Shangri-La of kung fu. This peaceful magical city in the mountains, lost to time and Earth, where he was the star. He was the one to face down the dragon and become the Iron Fist. But once he leaves and goes down the world, no one realizes exactly how special he is, or how important being an Iron Fist is, what the legacy means.”

seeking revenge could at least let Danny, the man behind the mask, step forward. For Isabella, it was meant to be an impactful scene.

“Had I stayed on the title,” Tony tells BACK ISSUE, “Danny Rand would have been as important to future stories as Iron Fist. This was his moment of beginning to become more than the living weapon he was trained to be.”

Another essential character was also introduced by Tony Isabella in issue #21: Misty Knight. If Isabella had stayed on the book, he had plans in mind for Misty since he had a special fondness for her.

After eight Marvel Premiere issues and the establishment of the main cast of the book, the stage was set, but it would be up to another creative team to look after Iron Fist and friends. “It was always my option to remain on the series,” Isabella reveals. “I enjoyed writing it and was excited about going forward.

Especially because, with Misty Knight as both Danny’s partner (not in a sexual sense) and surrogate big sister, I could have ditched those awful second-person captions and written some fun banter between those DISCOVERING THE MAN UNDER two. But I was doing a lot of other stuff for Marvel, THE MASK both as a writer and as an editor. I just couldn’t Tony Isabella provides great feedback on his threeadd the series to my workload. tony isabella “With reluctance, I left the series and suggested issue stint on Marvel Premiere (#20–22), starting with Chris Claremont for the new writer. Chris did the how he got the gig: “I agreed to write three issues with the intent of wrapping up the current storytelling and maybe heavy lifting re Misty Knight, though he took her in a very different bringing some more superhero elements to the series. By this time, direction than I’d planned. That Misty’s still a major force in the Roy knew what I could do and trusted me to do a good job. If we Marvel comic books and now the Marvel Netflix shows delights had any conversations about the series, it was to make sure every me no end.” issue had a good cover scene in it.

“Roy and Stan Lee were my favorites of my Marvel editors, but, for the most part, the other editors usually let me go my own way,” Isabella continues, “either because they trusted me or because they realized I was too stubborn to micro-manage.” Marvel Premiere #20 (Jan. 1975) fits exactly with this idea of being more superhero-oriented, with Batroc the Leaper as the guest-villain (and providing a great scene for the Iron Fist cover). With Batroc, best known as a Captain America villain, Iron Fist Unmasked gets his first real connection with the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Arvell Jones joins Isabella as artist on the book with issue #20.

Isabella’s final The visual tone of the Iron Fist series had always been very actionissue—MP #22— oriented, but with Jones it gets even more cinematic—for instance, with his 16-panel page depicting the fight between Batroc and Iron featured the revelation Fist. We would see similar scenes and setups in the following issues. of the face behind Tony Isabella explains his collaboration with Arvell Jones: “It was my choice to tell Arvell to choreograph these fight scenes. My plots the kung-fu fighter’s would tell him how many panels/pages he had for a fight and mask. Cover by where the fight had to end. Arvell had some martial-arts training and I had none. It made sense to utilize his strengths in these Kane, interior panel battle scenes.”

by Jones and Iron Fist, wrongly accused of being Harold Meachum’s murderer, shows his naiveté by trying to prove his case to Meachum’s daughter Joy, Aubrey Bradford. but gets attacked by Batroc and his brigade (issue #20) and the Death Goddess and the death cult of Kara Kai (Marvel Premiere #21, TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Mar. 1975). Since his first appearance in issue #18, the mysterious Ninja character has popped up every issue to aid Danny or tease him. In issue #21, the Ninja is revealed to have possessed the mind of Professor Wing; when it is necessary, the Ninja takes over and the professor simply disappears. For Isabella, this was “sheer expediency. I looked at the characters I had to work with and then decided the professor was the one I could use to end this story most efficiently.”

Efficiently is the word. In his final issue, Isabella manages to aggregate all the plot elements put in place by previous writers and execute a busy but very satisfying conclusion to what can be viewed as the first major story arc of Iron Fist. Danny takes the best of the Ninja—who was then no longer tied to Professor Wing—in issue #22 (June 1975). We get the Ninja’s backstory; he happens to be an important menace to K’un L’un. And finally, on the last page, Iron Fist removes his mask for the first time since the beginning of the feature. We had seen Rand’s face in flashback scenes, but all we had seen in the present was Iron Fist. The masked vigilante Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

A NEW TAKE WITH CLAREMONT AND BYRNE

Claremont Arrives (left) Chris Claremont’s first Iron Fist issue, Marvel Premiere #23 (Aug. 1975). Cover

by Kane and Bob McLeod. (right) Pat Broderick’s version of IF, from MP #24’s splash.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

he chose a completely different path than his predecessors.

It was the beginning of Chris Claremont’s writing career, And in a way, his take on Iron Fist contains many elements and to get this assignment “I just happened to be in that he would also use on Uncanny X-Men. “The fundathe right place at the right time, I guess,” he told the mentals of the concept had been established and to Marvel Epic Podcast. “I got a six-part Deadly Hands of some extent had been dealt with in earlier issues […], Kung Fu [story] with Iron Fist solo, so I was building a so we had pretty much resolved the uber conflict that fairly extensive catalog of Iron Fist stories that wasn’t started it, Claremont said. “So essentially it was taking mainstream color.” this character that Larry [Hama] or Tony [Isabella] had The six-parter appeared in DHoKF #19– produced and building up from that. We had 24 (Dec. 1975–May 1976), one of Marvel’s Danny and Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, black-and-white magazines whose story is and everything after that was virgin territory.” chronicled elsewhere in this issue. The art in The book went indeed into new these issues by Rudy Nebres is stunning territories with the menaces Warhawk, and nicely serves the action-packed in issue #23, and the Monstroid in issue story of Danny fighting in a demonic #24 (Sept. 1975). The first few pages of issue #23 with Warhawk, a Vietnam dimension for a young woman named Jade. Weird dreams, encounters with veteran named Mitchell Tanner still his mother, and cleverly staged combat believing he is at war and very likely scenes are visible in those issues that suffering from PTSD, shooting people appear to be out of Iron Fist’s main at random in a park, is especially chilling continuity. Iron Fist had previously and even makes one wonder how that been spotlighted in Deadly Hands of story got the Comics Code Authority Kung Fu Special Album Edition (Dec. 1974) seal. The elegant art by Pat Broderick chris claremont in a story by Tony Isabella and John (inked by Bob McLeod on #23 and © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Buscema; then in DHoKF #10 (Mar. 1975) Vince Colletta on #24) nicely complein a main story written by Isabella and David Anthony mented this new departure. Issue #23 also introduces Kraft and drawn by Frank McLaughlin and Rudy Nebres, Lieutenant Rafael Scarfe of the NYPD, who will become plus and an origin retelling by Doug Moench and Don a recurring member of the supporting cast.

Those issues can appear as a warm-up for what’s to Perlin; and finally in DHoKF #15, which reprinted Marvel come, starting with Marvel Premiere #25 (Oct. 1975).

Premiere #16.

But when Chris Claremont took over the regular This issue is essential as it is artist John Byrne’s first issue Iron Fist feature with Marvel Premiere #23 (Aug. 1975), on the character and it features Angar the Screamer

42 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Meanwhile…

Danny Rand managed a few drop-ins with Marvel’s most popular teamsters. (top left) Marvel Team-Up #31 (Mar. 1975, cover by Kane and Frank Giacoia) was written by Gerry Conway, while (top right) Marvel Two-in-One #25 (Mar. 1977, cover by Jack Kirby and Sinnott) was penned by Marv Wolfman.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(previously seen in Daredevil) as the villain, continuing to place Iron Fist deeper within the Marvel Universe.

Also, with #25’s kidnapping of Colleen Wing, Chris Claremont implements his first story arc that will go on until Iron Fist #7. And it is the last issue of Marvel Premiere featuring Iron Fist (Hercules would arrive for a one-shot outing in the next issue). Having gained enough popularity, Iron Fist was spinning off into his own series the very next month.

John Byrne explained how he landed on the book in TwoMorrows’ Modern Masters vol. 7: “Chris Claremont [had] seen my stuff and he liked it. […] And Pat Broderick wasn’t able to meet a deadline. And Chris asked [the Marvel Bullpen’s production ace] John Verpoorten to ask me to do it. Verpoorten called me and said: ‘I’ve got 17 pages, if you can have it to me by this date, you can have the book as a regular assignment.’ […] And I basically said, ‘What do you want me to do for the rest of the month? Because 17 pages, that’s a week’s work.’ ”

FINALLY IN HIS OWN BOOK

With the first issue of the new Iron Fist comic (Nov. 1975), Danny Rand picks up the trail of the abducted Colleen Wing. His first sparring partner is Iron Man, for a duel of iron that also reintroduces Misty Knight and contains the first appearance of Davos, the Steel Serpent, who will become Iron Fist’s biggest threat a few episodes down the road.

Chris Claremont remembered how Byrne grew as an artist along the way: “This was our first mutual big shot.

It was wonderful. With John, you had a talent that is so prodigious and with a concentrated work ethics, he was so relentless—you could watch him grow from issue to issue, if not from beginning to end of an issue! If you look at Iron Fist #1 […] and then cut ahead to #14—his sense of how to stage scenes, how to present characters, how to execute actions… it was great.” Byrne also clearly saw his artistic evolution, posting on his ByrneRobotics blog, “When I got to the end of my run, I still had miles to go, but I was a long way ahead of that punk kid who penciled issue #1!” Byrne expressed fond spot for Claremont’s writing: “One of the early Iron Fist issues made me tear it up when I saw the finished product.

Danny wandering thru his [New York City] brownstone and seeing ghostly images of his past life. I’d drawn it, but the way Chris wrote it, it still got to me.”

Their collaboration started rather typically as Byrne explained during an online chat: “In the beginning, especially my work at Charlton and first three jobs with Chris on Iron Fist, I worked full script. Later, I worked from plots provided by the writer and still later I collaborated with the writer (usually Chris or Roger Stern) to the point that no written plot was necessary.” Claremont saw how Byrne could bring added value to his stories: “Working with him […] is a true collaboration, simply because he can

bring my ideas to life and his ideas will help shape my concept of the characters. So, it’s a win-win situation on both sides of the creative equation.”

From his first issue, Claremont uses flashback sequences. They appear in most issues, often to establish a connection between the past and the current situation but also to give more layers to the character. “The challenge that John Byrne and I faced on Iron Fist was building his character and relationships but at the same time, being a superhero, he is defined by his antagonists, so we needed […] cool and scary villains,” Claremont said. “And that stayed a work in progress for 15 issues.”

He also recalled the difficulties in creating memorable villains: “My favorites are more the heroes than the villains. There was never really for me an Iron Fist villain that grabs your heart as effectively as a Dr. Doom might in the FF.” The importance of flashback scenes can be viewed in issue #2 (Dec. 1975), where Iron Fist uses his powers to heal Professor Wing and relives scenes of his life in K’un L’un. This issue presents new depths to the mysterious city and presents some of its laws like the fact that kung-fu skills are not meant for women. Similarly to

Magazine Appearances Among Iron Fist’s forays onto the black-and-white magazine racks: (bottom left) Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Special Album Edition #1 (1974, cover by Harold Shull) and (bottom right) DHoKF #19 (Dec. 1975, cover by Bob Larkin).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

Iron Warriors (top) Gil Kane’s cover preliminary (courtesy of Heritage) for Iron Fist #1 (Nov. 1975), inked

by Giacoia. The soonto-be white-hot team of Claremont and Byrne provided interiors. (bottom left) A sample of John Byrne’s fight choreography, from Iron Fist #7 (Sept.

1976). Inks by Frank Chiaramonte, who also drew (bottom right) this undated sketch of Danny Rand, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

what we would see in Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men, Iron Fist gives plenty of space to assertive women with strong personalities, purpose, and desires of being the equals of men. The character of Miranda in this issue is one example, but Colleen Wing and Misty Knight will prove all along Claremont’s 15 issues that they are not damsels in distress.

And this will be proven even more with the two great Deadly Hands of Kung Fu issues that showcase the Knight–Wing association (#32–33, Jan.–Feb. 1977), where Misty and Colleen embark upon a frantic, often sexy, non-Comics Code adventure in Hong Kong.

These “Daughters of the Dragon” stories were written by Claremont and drawn by Marshall Rogers.

Rogers explained in the Daughters of the Dragon reprint magazine in 2005, “I was in the offices one day and Chris came over and asked me if I’d be interested in doing a story with him about a couple of women called the Daughters of the Dragon. I said, ‘Of course.’ […] I don’t know what the decision-making was going on. Chris was pitching the job and he wanted me to work with him (for which I will always be grateful).” Claremont and Rogers would return four years later for an encore with the Daughters of the Dragon in Bizarre Adventures #25 (Mar. 1981).

Next, Claremont takes Iron Fist abroad, another common aspect with X-Men. If all previous issues took place in New York, Iron Fist #3 (Feb. 1976) sees Danny

The X-Team Emerges (inset) Interior artist John Byrne finally got a chance to do an Iron Fist cover with issue #8 (Oct. 1976). Inks by Dan Adkins. (top) Issue #10’s splash. Byrne would revisit this layout a few years later for the iconic cover of X-Men #141. (bottom) Misty Knight and Colleen Wing in action, in this signed original art (courtesy of Heritage) by Marshall Rogers for the 2005 Daughters of the Dragon one-shot.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

and Misty travelling to London on the trail of Colleen Wing. He would also travel to the “Jera’d Al-Din” in the country of Halwan—the place where Colleen is held captive.

The trip to London presents the character of Alan Cavanaugh, debuting in issue #5 (June 1976). Cavanaugh is a reformed Irish terrorist who used to be a bomber for the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army) and reformed after one of his explosives killed 12 innocent persons.

Once again, Claremont ventures into current (for the time) and mature themes with this character. Alan will be the first person to identify Iron Fist as a “superhero,” something Danny ironically never had really thought of.

Issue #5 also contains the first mention of Danny Rand being Iron Fist’s secret identity.

In issue #4 (Apr. 1976), John Byrne introduces one of his early signature moves: kinetic multiplefigure shots. “These shots of Iron Fist were born out of the most prosaic source,” Byrne blogged.

“Chris, like many writers, didn’t visualize the scenes as still pictures. On the first few issues, he wrote full scripts, later, very detailed plots (often seven or eight pages of plot for a 17-page story), and invariably he would write scenes that required IF to perform multiple actions in a single shot.” These moments gave great dynamism to action scenes and Byrne would also regularly use them on Marvel Team-Up issues.

Iron Fist travels to Halwan with Misty Knight to save Colleen Wing.

On the plane, he meets Jeryn Hogarth, his father’s lawyer, who will help Danny try and recover his parents’ wealth and continue the path that establishes Danny Rand as a “true” character and not only the guy wearing the yellow-and-green costume.

Iron Fist #6 and 7 (Aug. and Sept. 1976) conclude this first main chapter with the rescue of Colleen Wing and the final fight with her abductor, Master Khan. Issue #7 contains a terrific nine-panel page presenting a fight between one of Khan’s henchmen, Khumbala Bey, and Iron Fist. When asked if he studied martial arts to create fight scenes, Byrne explained: “Back in the days when I was doing Iron Fist, I would get a lot of compliments, via mail or in person at convention appearances, from people who imagined that I was well versed in [kung fu], since what I drew was so ‘accurate.’

I […] had to tell them that I really knew next to nothing about martial arts.

Chris had sent me a book of photos he thought would be helpful, and after flipping thru it a few times to get the ‘feel,’ I set it to one side and simply drew Danny in the most dynamic poses I could. Chris would then pick random terms […] and apply them to what I’d drawn. One of my favorites from this approach was in the battle with Scimitar [IF #5], where Iron Fist punches him thru a wall, leaps after him, grabs his sash, vaults over him, and lands on the other side. Seeing what I’d drawn, Chris wrote something like, ‘The leap is impossible, but you make it anyway.’ Without ever having seen a kung-fu movie, I was anticipating those impossible kicks and leaps that would become a staple of ‘wire fighting’!”

The final scene of this episode shows Master Khan offering Danny access to K’un L’un through a dimensional portal, but Danny chooses his newly found friends and his new life and turns down the offer and defeats Khan. Like Marvel Premiere #22, this issue contains a key moment and decision for Iron Fist that will allow him to move forward and to grow.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

Enter: Sabretooth (right) The feral X-foe sliced his way into the highly collectible Iron Fist #14 (Aug. 1977).

Cover by Dave Cockrum and Al Milgrom. (left) From the Heritage archives, an original art page from that issue by Byrne and Dan Green.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

TOWARD THE CONCLUSION

Joy Meachum’s revenge plot includes framing Danny Starting with issue #8 (Oct. 1976), the daughter of Harold for a murder he did not commit (#8–10), or sending Meachum—Joy, who still believes that Iron Fist killed Boomerang to kill him (#13). Meanwhile, Danny will her father—launches her revenge operation also have a two-part fight against the Wrecking that will encompass the rest of the series and Crew (#11–12), with appearances by Matt Murdock, Scott Summers, and Jean Grey, its conclusion in Marvel Team-Up. Davos, and a team-up with Captain America. a.k.a Steel Serpent, becomes a regular character and from this issue, everything The final issue of the series (#15) features seems to lead to the conclusive fight the X-Men for a classic “heroes meet— between him and Danny. This subplotbrawl ensues” story, but it’s a fun one based storytelling process also resembles and it ties in with the current Uncanny X-Men stories. It is clear that those issues the way Claremont and Byrne will use Mastermind in the Dark Phoenix saga were more generic superhero stories with in Uncanny X-Men, using subtle touches, a clear choice to further integrate Iron Fist into the Marvel Universe, but there regular appearances, and building towards the final fight. were other reasons for all these cameos. john byrne Another subtle change: Claremont Claremont recalled, “Danny had fought slowly phases out the second-person Iron Man in his first issue, so Captain Corey Bond / Wikimedia Commons. captions that had been a distinctive America was a logical extension, and style in the book, a few issues after getting rid of the quite frankly, John does a kick-ass Captain America! […]

“Unto a thing of iron” catchphrase that no longer appears [With] the X-Men, it was to see if John could do it; it was done intentionally because we knew we had to make a when Danny uses his power. change to take the X-Men monthly. We had to see if he could do it and obviously, he did!”

The penultimate issue, Iron Fist #14 (Aug. 1977), is also quite significant because it is the first appearance of Wolverine’s archenemy, Sabretooth. Claremont highlighted the irony of it: “Sabretooth started in Iron Fist, Mystique started in Ms. Marvel, and Rogue started in Avengers Annual #10. The irony is that several of the most notorious X-Men characters actually began their careers in Avengers-oriented books.” It features a fantastic showdown in the snowy Canadian mountains between a blinded Iron Fist and the brutal Sabretooth.

The series was canceled with issue #15 (Sept. 1977), but the Iron Fist story was far from being over. The Steel Serpent subplot was concluded by Claremont and Byrne with a memorable adventure involving Spider-Man,

46 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Swan Song The Claremont/ Byrne team wrapped up dangling Iron Fist/Daughters of the Dragon plots in these two issues of Marvel Team-Up, with Dave Cockrum covers.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Iron Fist, and the Daughters of the Dragon in Marvel Team-Up #63 and 64 (Nov. and Dec. 1977). According to Chris Claremont, “We had this subplot with Misty [being] undercover and we wanted to bring that to an end. At the same time, we had brought a brand-new Iron Fist villain into the scheme of things—who wanted the iron fist from Danny—and Team-Up seemed an altogether logical place to bring it all to a resolution. […] And the fact that John draw both books didn’t hurt either.”

In these two issues, Davos finally confronts Iron Fist and steals his power in MTU #63. But his unwise use of the chi energy-channeling leads Davos to “overload” himself. Danny gets his powers back—aided

by Misty, Colleen, and Spider-Man—and Davos is (seemingly) killed by the power transfer. The overload comes from the fact that Davos used his iron-fist powers without resting himself between two attacks, as Claremont had previously established as necessary—something that Davos failed to do, because he did not have Danny’s skills and control.

The difficulty to contain a superpower is also something Claremont would explore in X-Men with Phoenix, with a different angle but not so different consequences. This Iron Fist conclusion is a terrific chapter to a very successful run and what is today viewed as a classic of Marvel in the ’70s, even if it was not that successful at the time.

HEROES FOR HIRE

The story of Danny Rand would continue alongside Luke Cage, with Iron Fist taking residency in Cage’s title beginning with Power Man #48 (Dec. 1977), the book being renamed Power Man and Iron Fist starting with #50 (Apr. 1978) and continuing with the same name until its cancellation with issue #125 (Sept. 1986). [Editor’s note: While the dual-hero book was indeed branded “Power Man and Iron Fist” beginning with issue #50, technically its title remained Power Man through issue #66. With issue #67 (Feb. 1981) it was officially retitled Power Man and Iron Fist.]

Claremont and Byrne would be there at the beginning of the “new” series: “Neither book was successful,” Claremont remarked. “They were okay, but they weren’t building huge audiences.” Since Marvel editorin-chief Archie Goodwin saw both books’ readerships open to the other character, “he decided: Let’s see what happens when you throw them together! As [Archie] said—quite brilliantly—you have Luke Cage, Danny Rand, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing. You can get issues of conflict out of them walking in, in the morning, to have

IRON FIST COLLECTED EDITIONS The Bronze Age Iron Fist saga has been reprinted several times in different formats: • Marvel Masterworks Iron Fist #1 reprints Marvel Premiere #15–25 and Iron Fist #1–2.

MMIF #2 contains Iron Fist #3–15.

• Essential Iron Fist #1 reprints the above-mentioned material plus Marvel Team-Up #63–64 and Power Man #48–50 in black and white. This is the cheapest and most complete Bronze Age collection.

• Epic Collection Iron Fist is in color and contains all issues presented in the Essential volume minus the three Power Man issues.

• Epic Collection Power Man and Iron Fist #1 reprints issues #48–70.

• Iron Fist-related issues of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu were reprinted in the two DHoKF Omnibus editions (the second containing all the Claremont issues of Iron Fist and Daughters of the Dragon).

• A Daughter of the Dragon one-shot from 2005 reprints the two Deadly Hands issues (#32–33) and Bizarre Adventures #25 (with light retouches of that magazine’s nude scenes).

• The 1990s’ Iron Fist miniseries were collected in the Iron Fist: The Return of K’un L’un trade paperback.

• The Ed Brubaker issues and more recent stories are available in various collected editions.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

BFF (left) Danny Rand moved into Luke Cage’s title in Power Man #48 (Dec. 1977). Cover

by Kane and Sinnott. (right) Two issues later, the heroes shared a logo.

Cover by Cockrum.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

coffee around the breakfast table. You don’t… need villains. You don’t need antagonists; you’ve got ’em right there! And it’s true.”

But for Byrne, who departs after Power Man and Iron Fist #50, the fun was gone. “Power Man and Iron Fist was created primarily so that Chris and I—who were yet to link up for X-Men—could continue as a team,” Byrne remarked on ByrneRobotics. “Unfortunately, when the idea was hatched I was starting to find myself close to the end of my interest in Danny Rand and his doings. I hoped that the infusion of Luke Cage and his cast would reignite my interest, but this did not happen.”

The Power Man and Iron Fist series ran a 75-issue course and was covered in BACK ISSUE #45 (Dec. 2010), this magazine’s “Odd Couples” issue. The series concluded with the death of Iron Fist in issue #125. And dead he remained… for five years.

But it seems that John Byrne was not really done with the character. He brought Iron Fist back from the dead in 1991 in Namor #15–25. Byrne was no fan of his passing: “When I left Iron Fist, I felt that I had said all I had to say with the character,” Byrne blogged.

“But when Marvel let me bring him back in Namor, tidying up the mess that had been made of him in his own book, I felt some genuine nostalgic stirrings. […]

[His death was] a stupid death. He deserved better, so I brought him back. In one of those amazing examples of Marvel serendipity, it turned out to be fairly easy not only to resurrect Danny, but to make it seem like that was the plan all along. […] Bringing Iron Fist back in

48 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Namor was tremendously satisfying for me, personally.

I broke one of my own rules doing it—continuing a story from a canceled book in another title—but I felt Danny merited a much better ending, if one was deemed necessary, than the one he got.”

Iron Fist first seems to return in Namor #15 (June 1991), but it turns out that this is the Super-Skrull (one of Byrne’s favorite villains) posing as him. But with issues #21–24 (Dec. 1991–Mar. 1992), Byrne truly revives Danny Rand, erasing his death and explaining that Danny was held captive by a plant-people race: the H’ylthri.

Byrne even manages to tie in this story with Master Khan, the villain who had kidnapped Colleen Wing back in Marvel Premiere #25.

Namor #23 (Feb. 1992) recalls the early issues of the Iron Fist book as Byrne revives a familiar storytelling technique: “For those who don’t recall,” he blogged, “originally, until Chris got bored with it, Iron Fist had an unusual narrative style. The captions were addressed directly to the lead character—the first one in every issue was usually something along the lines of, ‘You are Iron Fist, and tonight you face your greatest challenge.’ This would give way to things like, ‘He makes his move, but you are faster.’ ‘The air is cold, but you ignore its chill.’

“I was sorry to see it go, and happy to bring it back in Namor.” Byrne also resurrected the classic “like unto a thing of iron” catchphrase on #23’s cover and when Danny uses his power for the first time after months of captivity.

Still Kickin’ (top left) Writer/artist John Byrne resurrected Iron Fist in the pages of his Namor series. Cover to issue #16 (July 1991). In the past two decades, Danny Rand has starred in multiple series including (top right) this 1998 miniseries (cover by Carlos Pacheco and Howard M. Shum), (middle left) the 2007-launched Immortal Iron Fist (variant cover by Gabrielle Dell’Otto), and (middle right) the current (at this writing) Iron Fist #1 (May 2017, cover by Jeff Dekai). (bottom) Finn Jones as Netflix’s Iron Fist.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE MODERN-DAY IRON FIST

Being back from the dead, Iron Fist appeared in various miniseries during the ’90s and early ’00s: a two-parter in 1996 by James Felder and Robert Brown, a rematch between Danny and Davos; an interesting tale in three parts by Dan Jurgens and Butch Guice in 1998; a team-up story in four parts with Wolverine and the Avengers in 2001 with a return to K’un L’un, by Jay Faerber and Jamal Igle; and another miniseries in 2004 by James Mullaney and Kevin Lau. The Iron Fist/Power Man duo also returned in a new Heroes for Hire series by John Ostrander and Pascual Ferry that would last 19 issues between 1997 and 1999.

Writer Ed Brubaker would be the main architect of much of Iron Fist’s recent fame and place in the Marvel Universe, both in publishing and in TV. He brought in Danny Rand to help Daredevil sort out his public-identities problem after the end of the successful Daredevil run by Brian Michael Bendis (DD #82–87, Apr.–Sept. 2006). Immediately after this, Brubaker, aided by Matt Fraction, with gorgeous art by David Aja among others, launched The Immortal Iron Fist series that would bring the character to new heights. It widened the Iron Fist identity, establishing that there have been other persons bearing the name and establishing that there are other cities like K’un L’un, with these cities holding a tournament to select the city that will appear to men. The book was a critical and popular success, but it did not survive long after Brubaker and Fraction’s departure. Brubaker explained to IGN.com that he had done what he wanted to do with the character: “The goal was to show how cool Iron Fist and the whole mythos around him could be. He was a longtime favorite of mine, but he’d never been that popular, and I always thought there was something really special about him, and had all these ideas about there having been Iron Fists throughout K’un L’un’s history. I think we accomplished that pretty well, and laid the groundwork for years and years of stories to come.”

Iron Fist would later join the New Avengers group led by a certain Luke Cage, and has remained a steady B-character since then.

This newfound popularity has permitted the character to appear regularly in solo books (a maxiseries by Kaare Andrews in 2014–2015) or with Luke Cage (the most recent one concluded in April 2017).

At the time of writing, Danny appears in his solo book, by writer Ed Brisson and artist Mike Perkins.

Beginning in 2017 Iron Fist has been seen in two Marvel Studios live-action television series on Netflix: first in Iron Fist, then in The Defenders, in the latter alongside Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Luke Cage, with actor Finn Jones portraying Danny Rand in both. Despite mixed reviews for both series, Netflix has created a strong wave of interest in Iron Fist that Marvel is capitalizing upon.

Some may think that after more than 40 years of existence it was about time for Iron Fist to enjoy this stardom, and they would not be wrong. Danny Rand has been featured in some spectacular reads throughout the years—let’s hope that he will keep on attracting enthusiastic creators and readers alike!

Huge thanks to Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella for taking the time to answer very precise questions on stuff they wrote over 40 years ago! Amazing insights, gentlemen!

Thanks and gratitude to the Marvel Epic Podcast team for allowing me to re-use their Chris Claremont and Larry Hama interviews (visit epicmarvelpodcast.com for great reviews of Marvel’s Epic Collections and for creator interviews). All John Byrne quotes are extracted from the ByrneRobotics forum (www.byrnerobotics. com/forum), except where otherwise noted.

At the age of three FRANCK MARTINI discovered the Spider-Man daily strip in the French TV Guide.

After that, “Nothing would ever be the same again.”

When no one is watching, he is also a mild-mannered internal communications manager with a patient wife and two daughters.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

HONG KONG PHOOEY, THE CARTOON

Courtesy of Mark Arnold.

Most Hanna-Barbera fans and scholars consider the 1957–1969 period as the Golden Age of their shows, but there were a few bright spots later on for Hanna-Barbera. Hong Kong Phooey, which originally ran from September 7, 1974 to December 21, 1974, was one of these.

There were 31 15-minute episodes produced for a 16-episode package.

Unlike most of the shows that Hanna-Barbera was creating at the time—basically variations on the highly successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? theme or sequel series to successes of the past like The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (The Flintstones) or Yogi’s Gang (The Yogi Bear Show)—Hong Kong Phooey was kind of its own thing.

The show was originally to be called Kung Phooey and then Kung Fu Phooey, with animals running around in a human world in a premise loosely based on the primetime live-action series Kung Fu (1972–1975).

Once the format was finalized, the title star’s alter ego, Penrod (Penry) Pooch, worked as a janitor at police headquarters with Sergeant Flint, Rosemary the switchboard operator, and their cat, Spot. When trouble happened, Penry became Hong Kong Phooey (HKP) by running into the vending machine, then jumping into the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet, with Penry getting stuck. Spot would hit the cabinet, and then HKP would emerge out the top drawer, bouncing onto an ironing board and sliding down a chute, then bouncing off a couch and landing in a trash bin outside. HKP would drive the Phooeymobile out of the bin, with Spot already in the car. With just a small Lone Ranger mask and an orange-and-white karate suit, no one knows that HKP and Penry Pooch are one in the same. HKP would often consult his manual, The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu, for assistance.

In the series, Spot acted like a cat, didn’t talk, and mostly walked on all fours, but he would pull HKP out of every jam he was in at the time. He would be the one that would make it all work out and make HKP look like a hero.

Rosemary had a crush on HKP, and Penry was amateur inventor who sometimes broke the fourth wall by winking at or addressing the audience. The Phooeymobile could become anything HKP needed it to do—like a helicopter or a boat. The theme song to the show was very strong, with its catchy “number one super guy” lyric, and sung by Scatman Crothers, the actor/ singer/comedian who also voiced Penry/HKP. Cartoonist and animator Willie Ito was an integral part of the development and execution of Hong Kong willie ito Phooey. “It was during the Bruce Lee craze and H-B was well known for parodies, and jumping on the latest,” Ito tells BACK ISSUE. “We were jamming on new show concepts, playing with character designs, and the natural thing was the kung-fu craze. Terrytoons had a show called Hashimoto Mouse, a Judo character. Not that we imitated the show, it gave us a thought and idea. The idea was run

by Joe Barbera, who gave the green light to develop.

“Rather than have a voice actor do an ‘Ahh sooo!’ [a standard, comical “Oriental” voice characterization of the day which is now considered offensive—ed.], we thought a uniquely unlikely voice might work. One night after work, the three of us on the project went to relax at the Hollywood Bowl, a bowling alley with a cocktail lounge.

Scatman Crothers was entertaining that night. After his set, we invited him to join us at our table. We mentioned the project we were involved in and invited him to audition. We ran the idea by Joe and he liked to see how it’ll work.

Number One Super Guy “Meanwhile, we were having R&R at the Imperial Garden’s restaurant,” From the archives of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com), a Ito continues. “[Actor] Pat Morita was there, so we invited him to join us.

We also offered an audition to him. Come Monday when we expected 1974 publicity cel for Hanna-Barbera’s Hong Kong Phooey. him to come in, he never showed. Few days later we ran into him again.

We asked why he never came in and he had a conflicting audition.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

50 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Enter the Buffoon (left) An early hand-painted cel used circa 1974 as a cover page for the series’ script development, with the show at that time being called “Kung Fooey.” (top right) Willie Ito’s model sheets for our hero. Both courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

“The original title was Kung Fu Phooey. As the show was picked up, we brought in Marty Murphy, a Playboy Magazine cartoonist, to help design some of the characters. I was the supervising layout man overseeing my team of layout men, character designers, and chief bottle washer.

“The background department “I started in full-time on staff in August had grown with many diverse styles.

1961,” Eisenberg recalls. “I had been freeWe tried to give somewhat of a different lancing for a year or two and before that, look since we had so many shows in I was an assistant animator at Warners. production during that period.

I did a half of a year and there was a small “I was doing some freelance work group of us like Iwao Takamoto and myself with Bob Foster, and he commissioned and Willie Ito and three or four other me to do the drawing for a parody for cartoonists. We would work about six months Crazy Magazine.” This parody, called of a year usually around March to either Karate Chop Suey, appeared in a feature September or October developing new parodying the current Saturday morning ideas. Sometimes some of us would jerry eisenberg cartoon lineup in issue #8 (Dec. 1974), come up with an idea and if Joe liked it, TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions. he’d want to pursue it and develop it. published by Marvel Comics.

Ito concludes, “We worked on one series after another Like with The Wacky Races, I designed a bunch of those not knowing how much of a hit one would make from characters because Joe just came down to talk to Iwao and another. Sometimes we are surprised what hits and what me one day and told us he got this idea for a show called fails. Jerry Eisenberg was also integral part of the series.” Wacky Races and they’re just wacky characters in wacky Jerry Eisenberg explains more on how Hong Kong vehicles. I love designing stuff like the wacky vehicles.

“I remember a vehicle I designed called the PhooeyPhooey came to be: “I think that was in the early ’70s.

I can’t remember the year, but I didn’t ask enough mobile. I remember designing several Phooeymobiles. questions from Mr. Barbera as to who wrote that and I wanted it to look a little bit Chinese-y. That’s why I where’d the idea came from. I would say Joe Barbera thought of the Pagoda for the roof. I always like designing was probably having a meeting with his writers and cars—not straight looking, not realistic, but cartoony ones. maybe the idea was thrown out on the table during that “I really don’t know who came up with the seed meeting, [but] it could have come from Joe. concept,” Eisenberg admits. “Iwao and I worked very close

Wacky Racer (inset) Jerry Eisenberg’s early concept art for Hong Kong Phooey’s wheels. (bottom) Cel of the Phooeymobile in action. Both courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

At Charlton Comics (top) The first three issues of Charlton’s Hong Kong Phooey comic book. (bottom) Penry decides to “ShapeUp!” in this title page from a Paul Fung, Jr.-drawn tale in Charlton’s Hong Kong Phooey #4 (Dec. 1975).

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

together and we used to share a cubicle for a long time and did developer work and design work. I think on that one I helped design the girl [Rosemary]. There was a long-legged, cute gal who worked in the office [who helped inspire her]. [Hong Kong Phooey] was kind of a police show. I’ve got the old model sheets somewhere.

Then there was a husky, little sergeant type [Flint]. I designed him with short arms and I thought he had a cute look. As far as the dog [HKP], I think there was a Japanese fellow we worked with in those days— Steve Nakagawa—and I do remember him doing a lot of drawings and trying to design the dog, but he was mainly doing a lot of the poses because he was doing kung fu. I think that was pretty much done by Steve. He’s not with us anymore, unfortunately.

“And there was a cat. That could have been a combination of me and my friend’s ideas. Joe would take something that I would do and he would say, ‘I like what this other guy did.’ I’d do something like a body that he would like or a head and he would put it with this body.

Something that would be a combination—a co-creation or design.

“Casting Scatman Crothers was a brilliant idea. He was a funny man.

Sometimes I would go into Hollywood because the Hanna-Barbera studio was right near Universal Studios. So we’d go into Hollywood and there was a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. It was called the Red Robin or something like that. They’d have this L-shaped counter and sometimes I would be sitting at this counter and over to my right and over to the left there would be Scatman sitting there. I’d go, ‘Hey, Scatman! How’s Hong Kong Phooey?’ He’d get up real quick and start talking like Hong Kong Phooey and the people loved it. He was funny. A lot of fun. It was a great idea casting him. I’m sure other people were tested, but I don’t know who’s idea it was to choose Scatman.

“Joe E. Ross [voice of Sergeant Flint and co-star of Car 54, Where Are You?], he was a funny guy. I’m not remembering him as much.

We’re talking, like, 43 years ago! My memory is a little fuzzy.

“The background styling—the watercolor wash—we did a series that was on before Hong Kong Phooey called Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. We did those with that kind of a look and it was sort of a vignette look where the backgrounds were not painted all the way out to the edges to off camera or something like that. It was a nice look and we liked it for a change. I think who contributed on that, we had another Japanese fellow working with us—a very good artist—and he only used his first name—Takashi.

He’s not with us anymore, so if you want to mention his last name, it was Matsunaga. Willie used to call him mashugana! He was a funny guy. He did wacky things, too. I remember that was his contribution.

I think he kind of started that off.”

nicola cuti

HONG KONG PHOOEY, THE COMIC BOOK

The success of Hanna-Barbera’s Hong Kong Phooey TV show led to a comic book. Ito recalls, “I’m not too sure about the comic-book version. It was licensed out.” Hong Kong Phooey, the comic book, was licensed to Charlton Comics and lasted nine issues, cover-dated from May 1975 to November 1976.

For the comic books, scripts were provided by Bill Crouch, Jr. and Michael J. Pellowski, with artwork by Frank Roberge, Mike Zeck, Paul Fung, Jr., and Jim Hanley, with covers by Fung.

Former Charlton editor Nicola Cuti remembers many of these creators. “William Crouch, Jr.: I met Bill through my friend, Bill Pearson,” Cuti tells BACK ISSUE. “He was a great fan of Wally Wood and published The Wallace Wood Sketchbook, rough preliminary sketches of Woody’s finished work, and Woodwork, a cross-section of Woody’’s art and stories from witzend magazine in 1980.

“Michael Zeck: Mike had sent in some drawings to Charlton Publishing while I was the assistant editor,” Cuti continues. “I liked his work a lot but when I showed them to [editor] George Wildman, George didn’t care for Mike’s art and told me not to send him any scripts to illustrate. However, just before George went on vacation he handed me a stack of scripts and told me to send them to any artists I wanted. So I sent a script to Mike. When the art came back I crossed my fingers and showed the story to George, half expecting to get fired for my arrogance. He liked the art and

52 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Wild, Wild World of Sports (left) H-B’s kung-fu hero makes the cover of Marvel’s Laff-A-Lympics #4 (June 1978). Cover by Mark Evanier, Frank Smith, and Scott Shaw! (middle) HKP was one of the characters featured in DC’s Cartoon Network Presents #20 (Apr. 1999). Cover by Bill Alger. (right) Unbranded cover art to DC’s Scooby-Doo Team-Up #26 (July 2017).

Cover by Scott Jeralds.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

said I could use Mike again and when Joe Gill, George’s head writer, requested Mike to illustrate his scripts, Mike was in as a regular.

Mike traveled to Derby, Connecticut [home base of Charlton], to be near Charlton, and my wife and I put him up at our house until he found a place of his own. Mike eventually began working for other comic-book companies and became a top professional in the field.

“Michael J. Pellowski: Mike sent in some sample stories to Charlton and liked them and suggested to George Wildman that we use him as a writer. George agreed and he wrote several stories for Charlton. I’ve spoken to him on the phone several times but never met him in person.

“Frank Roberge: Frank was an artist for Charlton’s kiddie line.

His work was very slick and professional. I used to write some of the text stories for the Charlton juvenile comics and Frank did several of the illustrations for my stories and liked them well enough to ask me if I would collaborate with him on a children’s book. I was flattered and told him I would be delighted to work with him. Unfortunately, Frank passed away from a heart attack before we were able to do the book. From what I understand, he was found by his wife slumped on his drawing board in the middle of working on a page of comics.

I hope to go the same way when my time comes.

“I never met Jim Hanley or Paul Fung, Jr. and know them only by reputation.”

After Hong Kong Phooey went into television reruns, the character was briefly resurrected as a team member of the Scooby Doobies on Scooby-Doo’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics in 1977. Eisenberg recalls, “Laff-a-Lympics—that’s a cute name, but what I heard back then was that Fred Silverman, who was the executive of ABC, he came around with certain ideas. He had a lot to do with Scooby-Doo. He came up with the name and stuff like that. He wanted to call it ‘The Schmoe-lympics.’ It was to be a bunch of schmoes doing exercises.

They changed it to Laff-a-Lympics, which is probably more PC.” As a result of this exposure, Hong Kong Phooey was among the masses in Marvel Comics’ Laff-a-Lympics comic-book series which ran

13 issues cover-dated from March 1978 to March 1979. Many of its stories were written by Mark Evanier and drawn by artists like Pete Alvarado, Owen Fitzgerald, Roman Arambula, Russ Manning, and Scott Shaw!

HKP’s cameos appear in virtually every issue, at the very least in the filmstrip on the border of each cover. Issue #6 (Sept. 1978) should be noted for featuring a background history on HKP in an article by Mark Evanier entitled “The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera: Cartoon Roots.”

Hong Kong Phooey also appeared in scenes in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera #1 from 1977, written by Mark Evanier and drawn

by Kay Wright and Scott Shaw! On Saturday morning TV, he made another go of it in 1980’s The Godzilla/Hong Kong Phooey Hour.

Since the ’70s, Hong Kong Phooey has gained sort of a cult following and was popular enough to be one of the first Hanna-Barbara complete series releases on DVD in 2006 and reissued in 2017.

This belated success also led to HKP making starring appearances in DC Comics’ Cartoon Network Presents, a 26-issue series that ran from August 1997 to August 1999. He makes a cameo in issue #8 (Mar. 1998) in a Huckleberry Hound story called “War is Huck,” written by Matt Wayne and drawn by Ivan Brunetti. He also stars in a solo story in issue #20 (Apr. 1999), in “A Wok on the Wild Side,” written by Frank Strom and drawn by Gary Fields. The cover for this issue, which also features Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant, was drawn by Bill Alger.

As of this writing, HKP made a recent appearance in DC’s Scooby-Doo Team-Up #26 (July 2017), written by Sholly Fisch and drawn

by Scott Jeralds, and continues to be featured on various merchandise.

MARK ARNOLD is a comic-book and animation historian. He has books out on Harvey Comics, Archie Comics, and Dennis the Menace.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

Looking back, it is very clear that Atlas/Seaboard Comics was not afraid to throw genres against the wall to see what stuck. Martin Goodman and his upstart company’s group of creators published superheroes, Westerns, monsters, war heroes, barbarians, and even comedic teen comics.

Why not add a bit of martial-arts mayhem to the mix? In the early ’70s, it seemed that if Marvel had it, Atlas/Seaboard wanted it, and indeed

by June 1975, the cover date of the one and only issue of The Hands of the Dragon, Marvel had found high-kicking success with Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist. Indeed, if Marvel had a taste, Atlas/Seaboard and Goodman wanted a bite, so Goodman and his neophyte comic-book company dropped The Hands of the Dragon on a comic fandom eager for more hard-hitting martial-arts comic books.

To make sure that The Hands of the Dragon packed a punch, Atlas/Seaboard turned to writer Ed Fedory, artist Jim Craig, and editor Larry Leiber. Fedory did some work for Warren’s Creepy, while the Canadian-born Craig was trying to break into comics with Marvel and not having a great deal of luck. As Craig tells BACK ISSUE, “I tried for months to get into Marvel… coming in on my own, and editorial would say, ‘Okay, Jim what do you want today?’ And I would say, ‘You said you might have some inking for me.’ And they’d say, ‘No, we don’t. Come back in a week.’

“Atlas was a couple of blocks down the street from Marvel. So I went over there… and they go, ‘Are you the guy Marvel sent over?’

I said, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ ” The single issue of The Hands of the Dragon that was published makes it very clear that Craig had a natural talent for drawing realistic and frenetic martial-arts action. The man was such a natural at fluid and graceful martial combat that one would assume that Craig was a huge fun of the martial-arts craze of the era, but that was not really the case.

“When you walked through New York, there were all these Bruce Lee movies and on the radio, ‘[Everybody Was] Kung-Fu Fighting,’ ” Craig recalls. “I was so sick of kung fu. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do. But I knew I could do it.” Craig’s kung-fu ennui didn’t stop him from giving Atlas/Seaboard’s martial-arts almost-sensation his best, and there was still one bit of kung-fu lore that Craig had a fondness for: “I used to love the Kung Fu TV show when I was a kid. Whatever I do, I give it 110%.

I make it my own and make it something I actually care about.”

And Craig’s 110% shows. When a brave explorer into comic-book history cracks open the cover of The Hands of the Dragon #1, he finds a mish-mosh of energetic ideas loosely held together, but still fun and earnest. The comic opens with an old Asian man journeying to China with his twin grandsons strapped to his back. Through exposition, the old man informs the reader that the babies were orphaned in the War and he was bringing them to a monastery in China. Suddenly, because Atlas/ Seaboard sure liked its comic-book tropes, an (presumably) atomic bomb hits, eradiating the old man and the twins. Not many martial-arts sagas begin with the protagonists being bathed in atomic energy à la Hulk or Godzilla, but there you go. Not two panels later, the old man is attacked by a polar bear (this comic moves, you guys, let me tell you).

The old man arrives at the monastery where it is revealed he was a former monk named Teh Chang. Chang gives his former comrades the twins, but sadly, one of the babes was severely burnt in the explosion.

A page later, the twins are grown. The burnt, deformed twin Ling “uses his strength to injure,” while Wu Teh, the twin untouched by fire, “has grown tall and strong like the noble oak.” The twins do battle for the first time as Wu Teh comes to the aid of a fellow acolyte. These pages are where Craig really shines as he renders every kick and blow with a pounding energy that defines the genre. Craig informs BACK ISSUE that he did not find his hard-hitting inspiration from TV or film or even from the competitors’ martial-arts comics, but instead, much closer to home. “I had a neighbor kid who had all these kung-fu magazines… I took the gist of it.”

And the gist and so much was there as evident by that first fight, a conflict that quickly escalated when the repugnant Ling grabs a weapon to kill Wu Teh. Grandfather Teh Chang tries to intervene but is accidently (?) stabbed and killed by Ling. As the old man dies in his arms, Wu Teh swears 54 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

TM

by M a r c

Buxton

Martial Arts from Atlas Artist Jim Craig’s kickin’ cover to the one and only issue of The Hands of the Dragon, #1 (June 1975). © the respective copyright holder.

Men of Marvel, Agents of Atlas (left) From the 1975 CosmicCon in Toronto, (left to right) Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Scott Edelman, and Jim Craig. Jim (seen today in the inset) had just finished Hands of the Dragon #1 at this time. Photo courtesy of Scott Edelman and Jim Craig. (right) Courtesy of the artist, Craig’s first take on the Dragon character.

Note that this staging was used for issue #1’s cover.

Hands of the Dragon © the respective copyright holder.

to walk the Earth looking for Ling in order to exact familial vengeance. Listen: The Hands of the Dragon #1 might be paced like a runaway train, but the character motivations and the heroic origins of the protagonist have a sense of timeless martial-arts classicism that makes the almost-forgotten martial- arts comic not only readable, but enjoyable.

The story shifts to Southern California as Wu Teh arrives in America. In the span of a few Craig panels, it is established Wu Teh receives a degree in journalism while maintaining his disciplined martial-arts training routine. He becomes a television anchorman to garner bits of information that one day might lead Wu Teh to his evil brother. That’s right—Wu Teh, kung-fu newsman! It really is a darn shame The Hands of the Dragon never continued, because that’s gold right there. Then, on page 11, readers are finally introduced to the Dragon’s costume.

According to the artist, all the story elements were crafted by Fedory, but the costume was all Craig: “I designed the costume. And Atlas wasn’t overly fussy—‘Just come up with a costume for this guy.’

They may or may not have said, ‘Make it Shang-Chi–like,’ but I was trying to stick to that kind of mold. I had done some ads for Marvel’s black-and-white [magazine] for Shang-Chi [Deadly Hands of Kung Fu], but that had no influence on what they gave me.”

As for the rest of the first and only issue of The Hands of the Dragon, Wu Teh must rescue the Prime Minister of Japan from one of Ling’s minions— the tattooed Dr. Nhu. The Dragon engages Nhu in some lightning–like Craig martial-arts wonderment before Ling appears and shoots the prime minister. The leader of Japan is rushed to a hospital, where the Dragon is waiting. It is revealed that the medallion Dragon wears around his neck isn’t just a piece of 1970s costume bling—it actually contains the “essence of life,” which Wu Teh uses to restore the prime minister to life. Woof—that’s a lot for one issue! Atlas/Seaboard certainly did not indulge in decompression.

The issue ends with Wu Teh swearing to find his brother and Dr. Nhu as the next-issue blurb promises readers a second The Hands of the Dragon installment entitled “Dragonkill!”

But there was never a second issue, nor was there any more Atlas/ Seaboard. While Craig was drawing that second chapter of comics’ newest martial-arts sensation, the hammer came down on the Atlas era. “I got a phone call to stop work on The Hands of the Dragon #2,” Craig recalls. “I was about eight pages in. My head dropped… I don’t remember what happened in the second issue. I was so disappointed when they called and said, ‘Stop’…”

But a reread of the first issue of Atlas’ martial-arts hero shows that the Dragon could have been more if given time. Craig’s boundless creativity was poured onto every page as Fedory did his level best to make sure that Wu Teh stood out from the kung-fu pack.

Interestingly enough, Craig’s martial-arts journey did not end with The Hands of the Dragon. “I did get into the film industry doing storyboarding,” he says, “and I got to do the second coming of Kung Fu with David Carradine.”

Craig also fondly remembers his editor, the great and often criminally overlooked Larry Lieber. “I love Larry dearly,” he admits. “He spent hours with me. When I went to the city from Jersey, Larry would sit with me… He seemed to dwell more on [Atlas’] The Scorpion.

The Dragon was pretty much up to me. At Atlas, I was appreciated and loved… I got along with Larry Lieber really well. I was really humbled when Larry would talk about me in a blurb. It was a company I felt I could grow and set trends with instead of being at the company that had the established trends. All you need is that one printed job for credibility… and Atlas gave me that.”

And with the action-packed first issue of The Hands of the Dragon on his résumé, Craig indeed had that credibility. And soon Marvel came a’calling. “Once I did the Atlas thing, Roy Thomas called and offered me a What If?” An issue of Master of Kung Fu followed, as the martial-arts lessons the artist learned on The Hands of the Dragon came into play once again.

It remains a shame that the master writers and artists did not get to flesh out the Atlas/Seaboard line of characters. But Craig did as best he could.

“It was a book of potential,” Craig says. “It would have helped to talk to the author, but they just said, ‘Do it.’ Things were there to be developed. I just tried to get the job done and wait for the writer to show me where things were going.”

Things did not go that far, but thankfully, we have one issue of Jim Craig’s masterful artwork on The Hands of the Dragon to keep us dreaming about the awesomeness that could have been.

MARC BUXTON is a proud contributor to websites like Comic Book Resources and Den of Geek US. He is an English teacher, and Marc’s loving wife thinks he owns way too many comic books. Marc has been reading comics since the dawn of time and is still deeply in love with every era of the great medium.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

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by R o b e r t

Greenberger

In the 1970s, Marvel Comics’ management appeared to have its finger on the pulse of its readership, nimbly leaping onto trends. DC Comics, on the other hand, was nicknamed by its own staffers as “DC Misses the Boat Comics,” launching titles in a genre after the fad had peaked.

This was never truer than with the kung-fu craze, with Marvel offering up Shang-Chi and Iron Fist in 1973 and DC countering nearly two years later with Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter and Karate Kid [which we covered in BACK ISSUE #49 and 67, respectively—ed.].

Dragon was from writer/editor Denny O’Neil, adapting his own novel, Dragon’s Fists: Kung-Fu Master Richard Dragon. Under the pseudonym Jim Dennis, O’Neil co-wrote the 1974 Award/Tandem novel with cartoonist Jim Berry (1932–2015). Intended as a series, based on the #1 on its cover, the novel never had sequels although it has received favorable notices through the years. The book introduces readers to Richard Drakunovski, the arrogant son of a US ambassador, who has been thrown out of numerous schools across Europe and Asia.

The thrill-seeker exhausts legal experiences and winds up turning to crime, which is how he was in Hong Kong, attempting to rob O-Sensei in his dojo. The wizened O-Sensei effectively beats Dragon, literally knocking some sense into the younger man.

Drakunovski becomes his student, and over the next seven years trains with the O-Sensei. There he meets another student named Benjamin—no last name provided—but definitely written in the Richard Roundtree/Jim Brown mold. He also falls for the O-Sensei’s daughter, Carolyn Wotami, so all the elements were there for a book series that would be comfortably placed alongside the Destroyer and Executioner series that were in vogue at the time.

BRONZE TIGER’S BRONZE AGE DEBUT

More than a year after Shang-Chi was introduced, DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino ordered a martial-arts series and O’Neil, a DC editor at the time, had just denny o’neil the property. A deal was cut to license the characters and bring them to four-color, with Jim Berry dutifully © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. credited, as the first few issues of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter (RDKFF) loosely adapted the novel.

O’Neil made notable revisions to the premise, making Drakunovski more likable as Richard Dragon and evolving Carolyn Wotami into Carolyn Woosan, ultimately turning her into the more recognizable Lady Shiva.

Benjamin gained a last name—Turner—and the book was off and running.

Unlike other titles of the era, Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter was light in tone and each issue fairly episodic with loose issue-to-issue threads and no connection to the DC Universe. At least at first.

The title had a wide variety of art styles in its early run, with work from Leopoldo Duranona, Dick Giordano, Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss, and even Jack Kirby. Eventually Ric Estrada took over the penciling or laying out the book and it moved nicely, looking great when Wally Wood inked a few issues.

They made a terrific team, better known for their concurrent work on All-Star Comics [as you’ll witness in next issue’s Justice Society of America article—ed.].

Given the book’s title, Richard Dragon was the main character, with Ben Turner serving as best friend, confidant, and sidekick. When Dragon decides to follow Woosan to New York, Turner tags along, and when Barney Ling arrives to recruit Dragon into the secret operation dubbed G.O.O.D., Turner is also included. Both teach at their Manhattan dojo and then globetrot on missions for Ling, who is never trustworthy.

Man of Bronze If anyone is in need of rescue or injured on the job, it’s always Turner.

Cover to Bronze Tiger’s solo outing in Bonus Book #10, During the title’s short run, Turner wound up shot twice.

Since Dragon was falling for Woosan, Turner found himself a third which appeared inside Suicide Squad #21 (Winter 1988). wheel until he met and began dating Jane Lewis. Just as things started Cover art by Peter Krause and Fred Butler. to look up for Turner, in RDKFF #10 (July 1976) he learned of his sister’s death, the fourth death in a line of people who owned a prime logging (inset) The novel where it all began. estate in the Pacific Northwest. As the property’s newest owner, Turner, accompanied by Dragon and Lady Shiva, goes to explore and exposes Bronze Tiger TM & © DC Comics.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

Dynamic Duo Ben Turner, as seen in (top) RDKFF #1 (Apr.–May 1975).

Cover by Dick Giordano and splash page by Leopoldo Duranona. (bottom) Issue #2’s cover by Alan Weiss and Al Milgrom and splash by Jim Starlin, Weiss, and Milgrom.

Stories by Jim Dennis/ Denny O’Neil.

TM & © DC Comics.

a conspiracy planned by lumberjacks, led by Hatchett, who wanted to solely profit from the land. At the adventure’s end, Ben takes in his nephew, a youth also named Ben, now nicknamed “Junior.”

In RDKFF #13 (Jan.–Feb. 1977), O’Neil finally integrates the series into the DC Universe by having the League of Assassins poison Ben for reasons Dragon and Shiva have to discover. As it turns out, the one man in the world to possess the antidote is their former master, the O-Sensei. First, they have to rescue O-Sensei from Dr. Moon, another perennial player in the DCU who was introduced in this series.

The team eventually learns that Barney Ling has been behind many of the horrible things to befall Ben Turner, keeping Dragon on the run, performing missions for him in exchange for Ling’s “help” in figuring out who was behind the attacks on Turner.

Once again, just as things start to go well for Ben, O’Neil pulls the rug out from under him. Deciding he is in love with Jane, Turner seeks out her father, an officer in a highly secure US naval base, which has been under attack by ninjas. Mr. Lewis turns out to be in the employ of Professor Ojo. To mask his culpability, he attacks his own home, accompanied by a mercenary known as the

Axeman. Unfortunately, Jane is murdered by the Axeman before a shocked Ben Turner.

Mad with grief, Turner wants to hunt down Ojo and leads Dragon to the North Pole, where Ojo is hiding inside a stolen nuclear submarine. During the climactic battle in issue #17 (Sept.–Oct. 1977), Turner risks his life to get Lewis and exact revenge while Dragon returns home, believing his best friend is dead.

Dragon is back in America but adrift, much as he was when we first met him. He decides to risk all by entering an illegal martial-arts tournament, where he fights a masked figure known as the Bronze Tiger. They fight, and Dragon recognizes his opponent’s style and comes to learn that Ben is under the mask, alive but brainwashed. (In an unanticipated bit of Suicide Squad foreshadowing, a noncostumed Captain Boomerang makes a cameo in this issue.)

With that, the Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter series was canceled in late 1977 after 18 issues. Later, though, O’Neil was writing Batman stories and came up with one that would prove memorable on a number of levels. First, “The Vengeance Vow” in Detective Comics #485 (Aug.–Sept.

1979) brought about the death of Kathy Kane, the first Batwoman. She was murdered at the hands of the League of Assassins while the Bronze Tiger held Batman in a stalemate.

Seeking vengeance, Batman and the Bronze Tiger fight once again four issues later, and then the Tiger is gone.

Eventually, we learn how the brainwashing happened in the “Whatever Happened To?” feature in DC Comics Presents #39 (Nov. 1981), where writer Mike W. Barr fills us in on how Dragon and Turner’s old foe, Professor Ojo, kidnapped and brainwashed Ben Turner into a killer.

What it does not explain is how he fell under the sway of the Sensei, leader of the League of Assassins.

SUICIDE MISSIONS

It isn’t until Legends #2 in 1986 before the Bronze Tiger resurfaces, seen as a member of Amanda Waller’s newly formed Task Force X. As a member of this “Suicide Squad,” he takes on Brimstone and then is seen as taskmaster Rick Flag’s number two when the team arrives in its own title in 1987. He is shown to be living at Belle Reve prison, working with the Squad in exchange for Waller helping him recover lost memories.

At the time, Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander and I, as editor, were casting about for Squad members. The goal was to take established players who had not been seen or were made available to us by other editors. In the case of the Bronze Tiger, he had the right look, skill set, and tortured background to work towards redemption. When I proposed him, Ostrander wasn’t immediately sold.

“I was familiar with him; at least, I knew his name and a little something about him. As I recall, I found back issues where he appeared and got reasonably caught up,” Ostrander recalls to BACK ISSUE. After Ben Turner was added to the roster, it was artist Luke McDonnell who did away with the character’s tiger mask and went with the yellow face paint.

“I think [Luke] wasn’t keen on drawing that tiger mask all the time,” Ostrander says. “Also, you lose facial expressions, and that’s tough if you want to understand a character. I’m not sure whether we had the totemic power idea at the time; often, these things would just come up and grow spontaneously.”

What was clear from the outset, though, was that Rick Flag was the field commander and the Tiger was his enforcer (a role instead played by Katana in the film version of Suicide Squad, ostensibly to get more female characters in the film). On their first mission against the Jihad, Ben fights and cripples Ravan, who demands Turner honorably put him out of his misery—but the Bronze Tiger refuses, saying he’s done with killing.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Turner does revisit his villainous ways when he masquerades as the villain Wipeout in a plot to take down the racist vigilante William Hell. After a mission in Russia, Waller relieves Flag of command and turns the team over to Turner just before the “The Nightshade Odyssey.” When Ben’s leg is broken, Waller gives the team back to Flag.

Being second in command gave Turner a chance to shine with the action, but Ostrander admits, “I struggled a bit at first. As I wrote him, I came to realize his character a bit better. After Rick ‘died,’ Ben came more into his own, I think.”

As a result, Turner was a presence but not a pivotal player until the book’s second and third years. When Flag was seemingly killed off, Turner assumed command of the team, and that’s where Ostrander and his wife and co-writer Kim Yale found the character’s personality.

“He’s the guy who Amanda wanted as team leader (she was forced to accept Flag, which is why she and he never gelled), a really good fighter, and he had command ability,” Ostrander explains. “At the start, he was extremely balanced and level-headed, and that was something that the Squad needed badly—but as we went on, I realized there would be more going on under his surface. Given his background and his time with the League of Assassins, I could (and should) have used him more.”

Looking back, Ostrander reconsidered the kind of leader Ben Turner was, in light of his training and in comparison with the military approach Flag used. “I think he was a good leader. He didn’t have the tactical experience that Rick had, nor was he adept at leading a squad or team. Flag had military training that aided him.

Ben had a discipline that served him well, but, as Flag did, that could prove difficult to instill in the Squad given its makeup. He didn’t have Flag’s hang-ups or, if he did, he had a better control of them throughout most of the run.”

In issue #11 (Mar. 1988), we introduced Vixen to the group and she became a recurring agent, which eventually led to her brief romance with Ben Turner.

That, in turn, led to a romantic triangle with Flo Crawley. As Ostrander sees it, “There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to have romance in the book, so I looked to include it where I could. At the time, there was a fair amount of black/white relationships in comics, to the point where I felt it was getting to be a cliché. Why not have a black/black relationship? So it started as Ben/Vixen, and then I threw Flo into the mix as a way of developing Flo a bit. It came out organically.”

Ostrander and Yale came to know the Bronze Tiger, and his past was mined for them to better understand him and use it in fresh ways. After all, Turner was filled with rage at the death of his girlfriend before being brainwashed into being a killer. Now he was leading a team where death was a constant companion.

“As we went on, I began to play with some ideas of how his brainwashing could be useful,” Ostrander says. “Did it leave him more vulnerable to that kind of stress, or less because he had mastered it?”

A SOLO TURN FOR TURNER?

All along, the Bronze Tiger was rarely without a companion. First, it was Richard Dragon and then, it was Rick Flag. Then he was on his own, leading a team he couldn’t fully trust. At one point in Suicide Squad year four, he recruited Ravan, a former foe from the Jihad, to join the Squad, and as it turned out, they made a good team. This raises the question of whether or not Ben Turner needs a partner to be at his best.

“I don’t think Ben needed a partner, but he worked well with one,” Ostrander observes. “He and Revan would gravitate naturally to one another; they both had extreme fighting skills, they had been opponents/enemies, and now they were fighting on the same side. They complemented and contrasted well, and, as a writer, you look for characters that bring out different aspects of each other’s personalities. For a while, Boomerang and Deadshot worked well together— until Boomerbutt pissed off Deadshot. Never a good idea.”

When we were asked to produce a second round of Bonus Books, it made perfect sense to spotlight the Bronze Tiger. [Editor’s note: DC’s Bonus Books were a training ground for new talent, who produced short stories inserted into existing DC titles. For more on the Bonus Book program, see Bob’s article in BACK ISSUE #71.] I selected a new writer, Larry Ganem (who has gone on to be a VP at DC), and Peter Krause as artist for the story, which appeared in Suicide Squad #21 (Winter 1988). Krause, of course, has gone on to fame with his work at DC, Marvel, and Thrillbent.

Everything during those first three years of the Squad led to a full exploration of the Bronze Tiger’s origin. Gaps needed filling and John needed a break, so he plotted the origin and gave me a rare chance to write a comic script. The result, in issue #38 (Feb. 1990), proved a useful guide to Ben Turner’s life (although we totally ignored Ben, Jr. the nephew—call him a victim of the Crisis on Infinite Earths).

The revamped origin posits that Turner came from an upper-middle-class black neighborhood in Central City. His first tragic moment came when he was just ten years old and he wound up killing a burglar who was attacking his parents. Ben used a kitchen knife to protect his family, but it also unleashed a heretofore unknown

Who is That Masked Man? (top left) Turner in his tiger mask, on the Rich Buckler/ Jack Abel cover to RDKFF #18 (Nov.–Dec. 1977), the last issue of the series. (top right) Tangling with Batman in Detective Comics #485 (Aug.–Sept. 1979).

Cover by Giordano. (bottom) Suicide Squad leader Rick Flag sends the Bronze Tiger after G. Gordon Godfrey (Glorious Godfrey) on this spectacular original art page by John Byrne and Karl Kesel, from Legends #6 (Apr. 1987). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

Head Games On Howard Chaykin’s cover to (top left) Suicide Squad #1 (May 1987), we see the Bronze Tiger in his tiger headdress. But as issue (top middle) #2’s cover shows, artist Luke McDonnell (inked here by Karl Kesel) humanized the character’s look by ditching the mask.

TM & © DC Comics.

The Beast Within (top right) Turner’s origin was explored in Suicide Squad #38 (Feb. 1990). Cover by Kevin Maguire and Geof Isherwood. (bottom left) A feral Bronze Tiger pose, courtesy of SS #65 (May 1992) cover artists Isherwood and Kesel.

TM & © DC Comics.

rage that he would spend a lifetime trying to control. He studied martial arts to channel his emotions, leading him to Kirigi, who proved to be cruel and useless in helping Turner learn to master his rage. Turner crossed paths with young Bruce Wayne, also studying under the Korean master. Instead, Turner took to the road, which led him to Hong Kong and the O-Sensei, becoming his pupil… before Richard Dragon showed up.

We went on to establish that after working for Ling and G.O.O.D., Dragon and Turner were recruited by King Faraday to work for the Central Bureau of Intelligence. This is where, post-Crisis, they encountered the League of Assassins.

The League, in turn, exacted revenge by killing Turner’s fiancée, Myosh. They kidnapped and brainwashed Turner, riding the rage by pouring it into the Tiger’s helmet. When wearing the Bronze Tiger outfit, Turner was a deadly assassin, but also, in later continuity implants, he passed on the O-Sensei’s training to David Cain’s daughter Cassandra.

The Tiger was involved in Kathy Kane’s death, but depending on the continuity of the moment, she was or was not Batwoman.

At this writing, the theory is that Kathy was infiltrating Batman’s inner circle and faked john ostrander her own death, absolving the Tiger… but Donna Olmstead. no doubt that will change again, Back in my telling, King Faraday learned who the dreaded Bronze Tiger really was and asked Rick Flag and Nightshade to rescue the tortured man and bring him home. Amanda Waller herself personally deprogrammed Turner and recruited him into Task Force X. Whereas Flag followed Waller’s orders more often than not, the Bronze Tiger almost immediately disobeys direct orders when the team journeys to Apokolips to save Lashina, who has fought alongside them since issue #3. On the other hand, Flo Crawley accompanies the team and dies on the mission.

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Bronze Tiger on Screen Ben Turner as seen in animation on (top left) Batman: The Brave and the Bold, in live action (right, Michael Jai White) on Arrow, in the Legoverse (bottom left) in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, and (inset) in video games in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate.

Bronze Tiger TM & © DC Comics.

There was a stretch when Waller is in prison and Sarge Steel mercilessly berates Turner, never believing he could be trusted. Steel goes so far as to give Turner a replica of the Tiger mask to provoke him, but Ben runs away rather than give in to the psychological conditioning. His fragile mind does not handle the fallout well and he leaves the team—and Vixen—for a time, working as a janissary in the East.

When “the Wall” is released, she sets about to rebuild the team and finds Turner having given in to his rage. He returns to the team and there provokes Ravan into fighting him, clearly seeking a physical punishment for his previous actions. This begins his path to healing, which culminates in the series’ final arc. The team tries to free a small island nation, ruled by a cruel immortal. There happens to be a forest known for causing hallucinations, where the Tiger fights himself. As Turner exits the forest, the experience has seemingly restored his sense of balance, and he emerges whole.

LIFE AFTER SUICIDE SQUAD

After Suicide Squad was canceled after 66 glorious issues, John Ostrander and the Bronze Tiger parted ways. Looking back, John says, “I was beginning to wonder if we really knew Ben; if I really knew Ben. I don’t think we explored everything there that could have been explored. Maybe get a bit more into his League of Assassin experiences and what that meant, and were here still any traces in him of that? We just ran out of time.”

Not long after, writer Christopher Priest borrowed the Tiger for a mission, partnering him with Green Arrow and Gypsy in Justice League Task Force #22–24 in 1995. Here, he romances Gypsy and becomes her mentor, although this thread is never revisited.

During DC’s “One Year Later” period of 2006, we learn that Ben Turner has opened a Tiger Dojo in Detroit. It is in this storyline we get the Cassandra Cain implant. It’s clear Ben has retired from being the Bronze Tiger, but Waller turns up and recruits him to serve in the “World War III” storyline of 2007.

Once back in action, he is sent by Checkmate to rescue his former leader, Rick Flag, trapped in a Quraci prison. At this point, he’s back in the full tiger mask, something he wears now to prove it has no more hold over him, according to Checkmate #6 co-writer Nunzio DeFilippis.

The Tiger has remained a fixture in the DC Universe ever since, including Blackest Night: Suicide Squad #67, which reunites him with Flag and Count Vertigo. There he bests Catman in a contest to see who is the better martial artist. By this point, it has been established

that the Tiger is adept at aikido, karate, kung fu, hapkido, jeet kune, jiu-jitsu, judo, and savate. Chuck Dixon later established that the Bronze Tiger was one of DC’s top five martial artists.

It’s interesting to note that Denny O’Neil never revisited the Bronze Tiger. When he wrote his classic The Question series, Richard Dragon turned up, but not Ben Turner.

Interestingly, away from the core continuity, the Bronze Tiger has been depicted as either a hero or a villain, never the conflicted, complex character as defined by Ostrander and Yale. His first extracurricular appearance was in The Batman Adventures #7 (Dec. 2003), working with Black Spider, Deadshot, Firefly, and a few other supervillains as part of Black Mask’s gang.

His animated arrival was seen in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode “Return of the Fearsome Fangs!” (Season One, Episode 11), voiced by Gary Anthony Sturgis. Here he is the best student of sensei Wong Fei and helps Batman contend with the Terrible Trio before remaining a small village’s protector.

The Bronze Tiger made his live-action debut on the CW’s Arrow, sporting two sets of gauntlets with three claws. He’s a villain in the second season episode “Identity,” working with China White and the Chinese Triad.

The character returns in “Tremors,” breaking out of prison and being hired to steal the earthquake device out of the Merlyn Mansion. After being captured by Arrow and Speedy, he’s recruited by Amanda Waller and is next seen in the aptly titled episode “Suicide Squad.” In this third outing, he appears to be John Diggle’s bodyguard and fakes getting shot by Deadshot in order to help Diggle gain Ghoulem Qadir’s trust. Turner’s Arrow portrayer is one-time movie Spawn, actor Michael Jai White.

The Bronze Tiger has even made the leap from comics to video games, as seen in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (voiced once more by Sturgis).

When he turned up in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, he was voiced by Ike Amadi.

From humble prose beginnings, Ben Turner has found himself on a remarkable journey, a winding path that has repeatedly tested him.

He has endured and worked his way in the hearts of readers, remaining a fixture in DC’s Rebirth universe.

ROBERT GREENBERGER has worked at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, among other places. Currently, he teaches, writes, and edits, still hoping to be given a power ring to protect Space Sector 2814.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

It’s 1976, and Muhammad Ali, once a despised outcast in American society, has been exonerated by the US Supreme Court, recaptured the heavyweight title in a stunning upset of George Foreman, and is about to be immortalized as an action figure alongside comic-book icons Superman, Batman, and Captain America.

Ali’s road to redemption was long and treacherous.

In 1964, the former Olympic Gold Medal boxer stunned the world when he defeated the seemingly invincible Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight boxing title. The day after the fight, Cassius Clay renounced his “slave name” and announced he had joined the Nation of Islam. His name was now Cassius X (later changed to Muhammad Ali).

In the eyes of much of the press and the majority of the American public, Ali went from being a charismatic, entertaining, and boastful young man (he was 22 years old) to becoming a danger to society. At a time when the heavyweight champion of the world carried considerable clout and influence, he became the most feared and hated sports figure in America. Ali continued to speak out boldly against racism and for segregation of the races, something that Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad preached about. From 1964 to 1967, Ali’s lock on the heavyweight title seemed impenetrable.

His skills, speed, and artistry in the ring had never been seen in the heavyweight division. No fighter came close to beating him or even threatening his reign.

When Ali was classified 1-A by the draft board and called up to enter the Vietnam War in 1967, he refused induction.

His famous quote, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” became a rallying cry for the anti-Vietnam War movement. Because of his religion, Ali claimed he was a conscientious objector; his request was turned down by the draft board. Sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000 for draft evasion, Ali had to surrender his passport, was stripped of his heavyweight title, and his boxing license was revoked. Ali endured a three-and-a-half year exile from boxing, robbing him of his peak years as a fighter. During that time, he spoke regularly at college campuses throughout the country. He became a unifying voice for both the civil rights and anti-war movements.

In October 1970, thanks to the influence of Georgia’s African-American senator Leroy Johnson, along with the economic influence of black businesses in Atlanta, and the fact that Georgia did not have a state athletic commission, Ali was able to procure a Georgia state boxing license.

In the racially progressive city of Atlanta, Ali fought and defeated heavyweight contender Jerry Quarry. This set a precedent for other states to grant Ali a boxing license.

New York followed Georgia and opened the door for the fight everyone in the world wanted to see—Muhammad Ali vs. heavyweight champion Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, the mecca of boxing. Meanwhile, some of the greatest legal minds were working pro bono to get Ali’s draft evasion indictment overturned. They fought the indictment all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ali’s much-touted bout with Joe Frazier took place on March 8, 1971. Dubbed “The Fight of the Century,” it was the first and only time two undefeated heavyweight champions met in the ring. Still regarded as one of the greatest sports spectacles ever, the bout lived up to the hype and Frazier won a hard-fought unanimous decision. Three months after the fight with Frazier, the Supreme Court overturned Ali’s conviction.

by M i c h a e l

Kronenberg

World’s Greatest Real-Life Hero “The Champ,” Mego’s Muhammad Ali action figure, in the package. © 1976 Herbert Muhammad Enterprises, Inc.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

“Here are your ringside tickets to my fight with Superman, Mr. President”

Thus began Ali’s climb back to redemption and acceptance by the general public. By 1973, the Nation of Islam had softened its separatist rhetoric and hard-liner Elijah Muhammad had acquiesced much of his power to his son Herbert Muhammad (who was also Ali’s manager). Ali spoke less about politics and concentrated more on regaining the heavyweight title. He was unrelenting in his boasting and showmanship, trying to secure a match with then-heavyweight titlist George Foreman, a powerful, intimidating 25-year-old (seven years younger than Ali), who was thought to be unbeatable. The fight was set for October 1974 in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Africa. Not only was Ali an 8–1 underdog, but also many, including those in Ali’s own camp, feared for his life in the ring with Foreman. Once again, Ali shocked the world, knocking out Foreman in the eighth round. At this point, Ali’s popularity skyrocketed.

He was named Sports Illustrated’s “Man of the Year,” was invited to the White House as a special guest to meet President Gerald Ford, and arguably became “the most recognized person in the world.”

Ali took advantage of his reclaimed boxing title, defending it often and becoming a pitchman and using his popularity for many charitable and civil rights causes. Enter Mego Toys, a toy company founded in 1954. Mego’s fortunes changed when they secured the rights to create a line of action figures and toys for DC and Marvel Comics, followed soon after by the rights to TV and movie franchises such as Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and The Wizard of Oz. It only made sense that Mego would widen their appeal to sports figures, starting with Joe Namath and then adding Muhammad Ali in 1976. Mego’s plan was to roll out an entire line of Muhammad Ali toys, including action figures (depicting Ali and opponents), a boxing ring for the figures to fight in, and training equipment. Outside of action figures, Mego also planned to release a blow-up Ali bop-punching bag, child-size Ali boxing gloves, and even an Ali board game titled Muhammad Ali K.O.!

Game. What made the Ali action figure unique from Mego’s DC and Marvel counterparts was that a hand-trigger device could be attached to the nine-inch figure’s back so he could throw punches with both hands.

The one Ali opponent Mego released resembled Ali’s rival Ken Norton (the two fought a memorable trilogy 1973–1976); that figure was available both separately and with Ali in the boxing ring set. Together, both figures in the ring resembled a large-scale version of Rock ’Em, Sock ’Em Robots.

Initial sales of Mego’s Ali line of toys were strong. Ali (along with his colorful and shady promoter Don King) publically endorsed them when they were introduced in New York City, and the event was covered heavily

by Ebony Magazine. However, the toys eventually lingered on shelves, and sales dwindled badly. The Ali board game was scrapped, as were the opponent figures, which included “Manila Mauler,” which resembled Ali’s greatest rival Joe Frazier (their 1975 fight in Manila is considered by many

(bottom) Ali was on good footing with the US government in September 1977 when he greeted President Jimmy Carter at this White House gala celebrating the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty. (top) The front and back of the box to Mego’s Muhammad Ali’s Boxing Ring playset.

Toy photos in this article are courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

Toy © 1976 Herbert Muhammad Enterprises, Inc. Photo courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

the greatest heavyweight fight ever). According to the website Mego Museum, Mego’s Executive VP of Marketing Neal Kublan said the failure of the Ali line was due to the economic recession in 1976, but particularly due to the white toy-buying public. Even though Ali had seemingly been redeemed and hailed as a hero, in 1976, white parents were reluctant to buy an action figure of an outspoken African-American sports hero for their children. While Kublan didn’t have much praise for the people in Ali’s business entourage, he did say, “[Ali] was one of the most terrific and fascinating persons I ever [met]; he was on time, professional, a gentlemen.” While Ali was still an active fighter, he was most visible outside the ring in DC’s Superman vs. Muhammad Ali of 1978 (see article following), D-Con insecticide commercials, starring as himself in the “semi”-biographical movie The Greatest (1977), and as a Saturday morning cartoon star (NBC’s I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, also covered in this issue).

Ali lost his title in the ring to Leon Spinks in 1978, only to regain it for an unprecedented third time in a rematch with Spinks. Ali retired after that fight, only to make an ill-advised return to boxing against heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in 1980, which Ali lost via K.O. in the tenth round. Ali’s fame and status as a man of goodwill grew exponentially during his time away from the ring. In 1984, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which sadly silenced his memorable and loquacious voice. By the time of his death in 2016, he was considered not only the most popular boxer in history, but also the most popular and important athletic figure this country has ever produced.

Rising to legendary status, Muhammad Ali stands along with heroic icons like Superman, Batman, and Captain America.

MICHAEL KRONENBERG is an artist/graphic designer for the Film Noir Foundation, ClassicFlix, Marvel Comics, TwoMorrows, and is the creator/designer of the boxing magazine RINGSIDE SEAT.

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

TM TM

In retrospect, it’s not surprising that it took the greatest American athlete of all time—known for his super-showmanship as much his boxing skill—to inspire the first true “event” comic book.

By the time Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (officially, All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-56) was released in January 1978, event comics had been around for years, from annual JLA/JSA team-ups to the crowd-pleasing DC/Marvel crossover Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Yet, special projects of that type were preaching to a choir of comics fans. In those pre-Internet/pre-Big Bang Theory days, the public at large took little or no notice of what transpired in the world of “funnybooks.”

But when the heavyweight champ gloved up to fight the Metropolis Marvel, the media took a ringside seat.

Is it any wonder? Ali was on a resurgence of popularity, Superman was about to become the star of a multimilliondollar motion picture, and the tabloid-sized comic book boasted the dynamic illustrations of sizzling-hot superstar Neal Adams, who co-plotted/co-wrote the book with Denny O’Neil. Adams’ artwork, inked by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin, was stupendous, each and every page of it—and you’re likely punch-drunk if you disagree.

Topping it off was Adams’ celebrity-laced, iconic wraparound cover, depicting everyone from President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter to Liberace to the Jacksons to Lucille Ball to Batman to Al Milgrom, a cover Neal himself has since revisited upon occasion, most recently (as of this writing) for DC Comics’ Harley’s Little Black Book #5 (Feb. 2017). Even those who found Superman vs. Muhammad Ali’s premise far-fetched were kayoed by its wizardry.

Many fans regard it to be the most dazzling jewel in the championship belt of projects comprising Adams’ career.

We won’t go behind the scenes of this spectacular comic book since we covered it at length back in BACK ISSUE #61 (which was recently reprinted). Instead, in this “Deadly Hands” issue, let’s don our Specs of Speculation and peer into not one but two possible alternative versions of this epic crossover.

It’s no secret that when DC’s then-publisher Carmine Infantino approved the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali project back in 1975 (which you’ll hear from Carmine’s perspective in a 1975 television interview we’ll be transcribing for BI #109), Joe Kubert was selected as artist. Kubert, of course, had been producing DC’s Tarzan for a few years and was known for his editorial and cover work on DC’s war books.

An undisputed master of comic art, Kubert’s drawing style was fluid, gritty, and vigorous… but so idiosyncratic that it occasionally evoked a negative reaction.

Artist/lettered John Workman, who was working in DC’s production department back in ’75, tells BACK ISSUE, “I’ve always loved Joe’s work, but [artist and then-Workman roommate] Bob Smith and I found out that there was a real dislike of Kubert’s work among certain comics fans.

The first evidence of that was when Bob and I were guests at a symposium on comics at what became Western Washington University, along with Broom Hilda artist Russell Meyers. With the exception of Meyers, me, Bob, and art instructor (and really brilliant artist) Urso, everyone at the symposium really hated what Kubert was doing with Tarzan. Sounds really unbelievable, I know.” (For the record, ye ed regards Kubert’s Tarzan as the absolute best comic-book interpretation of the character.) Kubert produced a wraparound cover for Superman vs.

by M

ichael Eury STOP THIS FIGHT! YOU’VE GOT THE WRONG ARTIST!

Stings Like a Bee As hard as it may be to believe, Neal Adams wasn’t the first choice to draw what is now one of the superstar artist’s signature projects, 1978’s Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. (Additional Superman figure from Lois Lane #76.)

Superman TM & © DC Comics. Muhammad Ali TM & © Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC.

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The Original Artist (top) While Joe Kubert was rejected from the project, Neal Adams patterned its cover layout after Kubert’s. (middle) Jack C. Harris gets his copy of Superman vs. Ali signed by the Champ, observed by DC’s Al Milgrom (left) and Sol Harrison (center).

Photo courtesy of Jack C. Harris. (bottom) Event ephemera.

joe kubert

Superman and Kubert photo TM & © DC Comics. Muhammad Ali TM & © Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC.

Muhammad Ali, previewed for DC fans in Amazing World of DC Comics #10 (Jan. 1976) and shown above. It’s an edgy portrait that suggests that had Kubert actually drawn the book, readers would have witnessed a guttural, down-and-dirty brawl.

As Neal Adams revealed in BI #61 and in other interviews, Muhammad Ali’s representation disliked Kubert’s “sketchy” style and objected to him as the project’s artist. John Workman tells BI, “Knowing this, [DC’s president] Sol Harrison and Jenette Kahn [who had since replaced Infantino as publisher] showed them samples of every artist that they might be able to get to work on the book. Ali’s people looked over all the samples and decided that they liked Kurt Schaffenberger’s stuff.”

Kurt Schaffenberger? With Neal Adams’ Superman vs. Muhammad Ali art indelibly etched into our psyches, it’s hard to imagine the project drawn by anyone else, especially someone like Schaffenberger, whose wholesome, pristine art was not unlike something you’d find in a coloring book. Certainly, Schaffenberger was one of DC’s best draftsmen. A veteran of the Golden Age, in the mid-’70s he had returned to his beloved (original) Captain Marvel in the pages of Shazam! and to his Silver Age feature Supergirl (who now wore hot pants!) in the pages of Superman Family, a title which also featured his cover art. Schaffenberger’s art was always simplistic but beautiful, as polished as Kubert’s was raw. If the Ali camp wanted a non-Kubert for Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, they had found it with Schaffenberger.

Jenette Kahn, however, had other ideas. “Jenette was promoting Neal Adams as the possible artist,” says John Workman, and “managed to talk them into using Neal.” One suspects they never looked back once they saw Adams’ photorealistic illustrations.

But still, you’ve gotta wonder… what if Kahn had acquiesced to the Ali request? Could Kurt Schaffenberger have delivered the knock-down, drag-out “fight of the century” that Neal Adams did?

Of course, we’ll never know for sure, but our closing art, excerpted from Schaffenberger’s cover to Shazam! #29 (May–June 1977), proves that Kurt could deliver rough-and-tumble when needed!

TM & © DC Comics.

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Boxing legend Muhammad Ali scored another milestone when he participated in a Saturday morning cartoon that premiered in the fall of 1977—I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali. The show’s premise featured Ali portrayed as an adventurous figure, accompanied by kids who often got into trouble and were eventually saved by Ali, or where Ali and the kids investigated what appeared to be a crime or problem until they pinpointed the bad guy and brought him to justice. The show was a combination of light comedy and adventure, with story titles such as “The Great Alligator,” “Ali’s African Adventure,” “Volcano Island,” and “The Werewolf of Devil’s Creek.” The heroic Ali would embark upon these exploits with his niece and nephew, Nicky and Damon, and his public-relations agent, Frank Bannister. The adventures that Ali and company faced were basically low-key and believable.

Through innocence and determination, the group would solve whatever mysteries confronted them and emerge as victorious. As was the case with Saturday morning cartoons of the 1970s, there was little physical contact or violence in I Am the Greatest. The show relied more on meaningful personal relationships and honesty, and morality plays about coming to the aid of those in need, rather than all-out hard-fisted action.

Muhammad Ali himself supplied his voice for this series as well as appearing live at the conclusion of the episodes, where he would wrap up the plot, not unlike the live-action sequences starring Bill Cosby that appeared in the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids cartoon. While most of the show’s voices were recorded in Hollywood, Ali’s lines were recorded separately from Philadelphia.

I Am the Greatest was created

by Fred Calvert, Kimie Calvert, and John Paxton, with Fred Calvert serving as executive producer. Prior to this show, Fred Calvert was behind another Saturday morning television show, Emergency Plus Four, which ran from September 8, 1973 to September 4, 1976; it was based upon the live-action TV series Emergency!

Farmhouse Films produced I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, which premiered on September 10, 1977 on NBC and ran for 13 episodes, the last original episode airing on December 3, 1977; these episodes reran throughout the show’s sole season.

Joining Ali in the voice cast were Frank Bannister, playing himself; Patrice Carmichael as Nicky, Ali’s niece; and Casey Carmichael as Damon, Ali’s nephew.

While I Am the Greatest was not a huge success and canceled after only one season, in recent times it has found a new audience on the El Rey Network.

STUART FISCHER is the author of the book The Hanna-Barbera Story: The Life and Times of TV’s Greatest Animation Studio (2011).

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by S t u a r t

Fischer

Tune In to the Fun Machine Kid-friendly ad for NBC’s Saturday morning lineup for the fall of 1977, including I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali. © the respective copyright holders. I Am the Greatest © 1977 Farmhouse Films, Inc.

There are a few things I’ve always had a passion for: music, comic books, and martial arts. The latter two have often become entwined over the years, going as far back as the Judo Joe comic, which ran for three issues back in 1953. Two decades later, I was collecting every conceivable superhero comic book that hit the spinner racks, but my closest affinity was always geared toward the heroes without superpowers. Batman and the Blue Beetle were great, but they both had the big bucks to buy all those cool gadgets. Ka-Zar and Tarzan were okay, if you didn’t mind running around with a dishtowel wrapped around your nether regions.

Of all the heroes who paraded about without the advantage of laser-beam eyes, bodies made out of Silly Putty, or the ability to read minds, the martial artists fascinated me most of all. Heroes like Iron Fist, Karate Kid (the Legion guy, not Ralph Macchio!), Judomaster, and my personal favorite, Walter Simonson’s iteration of Manhunter (Thanks, again, Walt!) simply trained hard in their particular discipline. I mean, anyone could learn how to do that stuff, right? One didn’t need to be bitten by a radioactive spider or meet a creepy old wizard in an abandoned train tunnel in order to do the things heroes like Shang-Chi could do.

So you can probably imagine my level of amazement when I turned by ‘ S ijo’ Art Lapham to the very last page of Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #6 and saw a full-page ad telling me the world’s deadliest fighting secrets could be mine! For just five dollars, I could receive a book about something called Dim Mak, the “Death Touch,” by the Supreme Grand Master of the Black Dragon Fighting Society, Count Danté! I wasn’t entirely sure what any of that meant at the time, but it sure sounded pretty damn cool.

Well, back in those ancient days, five bucks could buy 20 comic books, so I decided to pass on the teachings of the “Deadliest Man Alive” for a while. My curiosity would have to take a back seat to my desire to keep up with the Marvel and DC monthlies. Besides, Alan, my best friend at the time, had already started teaching me the basic kicks, blocks, and strikes that he was learning from a local instructor by the name of William (Bill) Aguiar.

Even better, it wasn’t costing me a dime. Over the years, as my martial-arts training continued, I had heard stories about the infamous Count, most of which seemed to spill from the pages of an old pulp magazine. I was told of death matches, open challenges, and even crazy street-corner shootouts.

It all seemed pretty bizarre, but how much of these outlandish stories were truthful? How much of these tales were urban legend? We may never know the true equator dividing fact and fiction, but we can examine what has been conveyed and choose to believe what we will.

Like most characters appearing in the comic books, the Deadliest Man Alive, otherwise known as Count Danté, had a secret identity. He was really hair stylist John Keehan, a native of Beverly, Illinois. Born on February 2nd, 1939, the young Keehan would spend much of his time boxing at a local gym before entering the Marine Corps Reserves after high school. It is said that he later joined the Merchant Marines, which landed him eventually in China, where he would learn from various master instructors. Some believe even this much is suspect, given the predilection for secrecy and closed-door policies in place at the time held by most instructors, who zealously guarded their knowledge from Westerners.

What is known for sure is that the man who would later be known as Count Danté did, in fact, train under Sensei Robert Trias, and was the co-founder and Mid-West Director of the United States Karate count danté Association (U.S.K.A.). He eventually became the first (and youngest) fifth degree black belt in the history of that particular organization. Mr. Keehan would later fly from Chicago to California, where he trained for weeks at a time under the tutelage of Senior Grandmaster Ed Parker, Father of American Kenpo and instructor Deadly Hands—for Five Bucks to such stars as Jeff Speakman (The Perfect Weapon), Nick Adams (TV’s This ad appeared in Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu The Rebel), and some rock-and-roll guy named Elvis Presley, just to name a few. By the early ’60s, because the U.S.K.A.’s reluctance to magazine and no doubt drove some moms up the wall. teach minorities in their facilities, Keehan decided to put together the World Karate Federation, the first fully racially integrated martial-arts © Black Dragon Fighting Society.

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Count Me In! This eye-catcher was a popular ad in many Bronze Age color comic books, forever emasculating the old Charles Atlas “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac” campaign. © Black Dragon Fighting Society.

organization. Later, he would join with other instructors who also felt that martial arts should be shared with whoever wanted to learn and created the Black Dragon Fighting Society. There was an earlier organization by the same name, which has a plethora of legends attached to it, usually identifying the group as an international organized crime syndicate steeped in murder, drugs, and social upheaval. Links between the two groups have been a point of debate for decades, but a definitive conclusion has never been drawn.

Even though Keehan was known throughout the martial-arts community as a dynamic kata (forms) practitioner, he put on a series of MMA tournaments pitting fighters from different disciplines against each other, decades before any American became familiar with the surname “Gracie.”

In 1967, as an act of mockery and rebellion, Keehan legally changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Danté, in opposition of the arrogance prevalent in the martial-arts community at the time in its view against teaching non-Asians. As time went on, Danté strayed from traditional teachings and created his own martial art, simply known as the Dan-Te System. The Deadliest Man Alive was counting alleged gang members as students, and was at one point even charged with attempted arson (I suppose the local constabulary didn’t take to the idea of Danté taping dynamite caps to a rival dojo), resulting in him being shunned by most other instructors.

All this didn’t go over too well with traditionalists, culminating in a “dojo war” in 1970 in which Danté and a group of his students battled the members of the Green Cobra Hall, ending with the death of one of Danté’s friends, an instructor by the name of Jim Koncevic. On May 25th, 1975, Count Danté died in his sleep, due to complications from a bleeding ulcer. Other more exotic stories involve him being executed by a practitioner of his highly advertised “Death Touch.” He did bequeath his Dan-Te system, as well as the BDFS, to one of his students, a Fall River native by the name of Bill Aguiar—yes, the very same local instructor who had taught my BFF all those years ago. Small world, huh?

So now that you know who Count Danté was, more or less, what about this crazy advertisement jumping out of the pages of both comic books and martial-arts magazines? First of all, what the heck is Dim Mak, anyway? If you want a literal translation, it means “touching the body’s caves.” This essentially means the ability to somehow manipulate your opponent’s Chi (life force) to injure or kill by activating a pressure point, or series of pressure points, on the person’s body. I know from my own personal training that of the numerous pressure points along the human form, 108 of them (a constantly reoccurring number in Chinese martial arts), can be utilized for self-defense applications. Allegedly, of these 108, there are a few dozen that can kill your opponent with minimum effort, but after decades of training, I myself have never been privy to these dark, secret kill strikes. That’s not to say these pressure–point attacks don’t work at all. I’ve seen and administered pressure–point knockouts and there’s a series of them in Raven Kenpo Ju-Jitsu, of which I’m the recognized founder. I’ve even used them to immobilize assaultive inmates at the prison I work at. However, the idea of killing someone with a finger poke is ripe fruit for adventure novels in need of a supervillain.

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The Black Dragon Fighting Society certainly has a ring of mystery to it.

Again, there have been two organizations that have flown under this banner, so let’s take a look at both. Depending on whom you talk to, this secret group of individuals either never really existed or was a ruthless gang of rightwing Japanese nationalists responsible for everything from highprofile assassinations to destroying Buddhist temples in China. Like most so-called secret societies of the past, the truth behind the original BDFS is shrouded in the mists of hearsay, rumor, and creative storytelling.

This group allegedly later started the infamous “Kumite,” a series of death matches for any brave souls willing to pit their combative expertise against unknown rivals in mortal combat. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen the movie Bloodsport.

This is where both societies seem to merge, at least in the narratives of certain people.

These death matches supposedly continue over decades (some say they still go on to this day!) and the version that Danté started is just a continuation of the original society.

Martial artist Frank Dux, whom the film is about, is listed as a member on the official BDFS website. Whatever the truth of the past may be, we can at least be sure that the current group is alive and kicking, so to speak, and at one time offered a book on its super-ultra-secret fighting techniques in the back of comic books. This much-desired tome, according to the ad, would reveal to us the deadliest (an adjective they seemingly loved to throw around) techniques from a number of such diverse martial arts such as Tai Chi Ch’uan, Kempo, Pa-Kua, and others too difficult to pronounce. Also in the book are instructions on how to break bricks and boards and no less than 77 “poison hand” techniques designed to cripple and maim your unsuspecting opponent. All this, for only five bucks! This was certainly more valuable than X-ray specs or the floating air car that you could have (and in my case, did, but that’s the topic of a whole different article) sent away for at that time.

As great a value as this seemed, the generous Count Danté also offered up (with the purchase of his book, of course), a free membership into the Black Dragon Fighting Society, complete with a membership card featuring, well, a black dragon on it. And let us not forget the best perk of all to this unforgettable solicitation; a whopping $10,000 guarantee was to be mine (or yours) if a book could be found with deadlier techniques than their own. Not entirely sure what that could constitute, really. I mean, is there a technique that can make my opponent more dead than another technique? Hey, I’m sure Danté and his lawyers had it all figured out.

In defense of all this talk of deadliest this and deadliest that, the coupon in which you would send your hard-earned five spot—plus 50 cents shipping, naturally—included a declaration that the buyer pledged on his honor that he or she would only use this dark and forbidden knowledge in self-defense, avoiding the possibility of anyone dying from a Dim Mak technique over a schoolyard argument concerning which superhero was the strongest. Looking back at all the crazy ads that have appeared over the years in our four-color favorites, which included chances to own atomic subs, platoons of infantry soldiers, life-sized Frankenstein cut-outs, and potato guns, one must admit that the legendary Illinois hair dresser certainly gave us the deadliest ad alive.

“SIJO” ART LAPHAM is a lifelong martial-arts practitioner and instructor, musician, artist, comic-book collector, and author of the recently published horror novel Sapienthropy. He also holds a job and occasionally finds time to sleep.

“I was a drawing painter who could paint kung fu.

You were pretty much stuck with me.”

– Neal Adams

by P

eter Stone

In 1987, posters appeared in the subway tunnels of New York City featuring a figure clothed entirely in bright, silver, interlocking metal. He wore a bright red helmet and his word balloon said, “For you to live, I must die… but Armor will not die!” The red logo across the top read simply, “Armor,” and above that read the words, “Coming Soon from Continuity.”

Commuters who saw it probably assumed it was an upcoming movie since it gave no indication that it was a comic book. It was Neal Adams’ intention to assume Armor would be a movie. However, to hardcore comic-book fans, Armor had appeared in comic stores through the direct-sales market two years earlier.

In 1987, Neal had just signed a contract for newsstand distribution with Kable News, and the Armor poster was an attempt to drum up excitement for the first issue of the new series.

In 1987, Neal Adams’ Continuity Comics re-released the first issue of the martial-arts/kung-fu/alien-warrior/ superhero epic called Armor through the massive newsstand venues of Kable News. It had the sense of a high-tech martial-arts movie, a space epic in the vein of Star Wars, and a bunch of superhero angst and combat.

A victim of an alien slave-trader, Armor’s real name was Jack Keaton, a teenage Canadian kid who had the potential to become a “Ten.” “A tenth-level Black Belt in any martial art is as far as you can go. You don’t go to 11,” states Neal Adams about Armor.

“Armor is martial-arts oriented. He is martial-arts oriented, and when you say he’s a ten, the martial artists… they get that. ‘Oh, you don’t mess with him ’cause he’ll just take you out.’ He is a super-weaponized ninja whose body armor is basically weapons.”

Armor’s body armor contains practically any weapon the modern neal adams ninja might need. Examples run © Luigi Novi / from throwing stars, nunchucks, a Wikimedia Commons. three-section staff, a bo staff, a spear to a bow (with arrows tucked neatly into his boots), a vast variety of blades which includes a sword that unfolds to its full length with the snap of the wrist, and even throwing claws which snap closed on an opponent’s body part. Armor, claims his creator, is a master of all of them. Armor is a modern-day ninja trained in alien combat disciplines with the arrogance of a teenager and the brilliance of a master tactician.

“We assume that if you have two arms and two legs, martial arts is intergalactic,” says Adams about the creation of Armor. The first eight issues were designed to be an epic, extended origin leading to last and eighth issue showcasing the final battle between Armor and Rage, the intergalactic slaver who kidnapped and trained Armor with the express purpose of selling him to the

Sci-fi Kung Fu A print of Neal Adams’ stunning cover art from Armor vol. 1 #1 (Sept. 1985).

All artwork accompanying this article is courtesy of Neal Adams and Peter Stone.

TM & © Neal Adams.

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Continuity Kung Fu Neal’s covers to Armor #3 (Feb. 1987) and 4 (July 1988, inked by Rudy Nebres).

TM & © Neal Adams.

highest bidder. Adams says, “Rage’s training is brutal, and through two ‘combat tests’ Armor’s hand is cut off and one of his eyes is cut out. It’s so cool!” However, Armor finally revolted successfully against Rage, freed all the other slaves, and confronted his “sensei” for a battle to the death.

Armor, since his first appearance, has become one of Continuity’s most popular characters. He, along with his brother Silver Streak and his sister Scarlet Streak, became a mainstay of any conversation concerning a resurgence of Continuity Comics. The two major Continuity crossovers, “Deathwatch 2000” and “The Rise of Magic,” both featured Armor as a lynchpin to the conclusion of both series. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #94 for a history of Continuity Comics.]

The Armor comic series also featured a vast array of talented artists who contributed their pencil work, inking, and coloring to the character. A young Tom Grindberg penciled the first four issues of the origin tale, Bart Sears gave a dynamic look the hero in issue #5, Trevor Von Eeden brought his very unique style to issue #6,

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and Brian Apthorp provided his simplistic, yet infinitely readable, storytelling to issue #7. The glue that held the Armor series together was the amazing inking of the legendary Filipino Rudy Nebres. His masterful brushwork brought life to the aliens Armor encountered… especially the horrible ones.

The eighth chapter and final battle between Armor and Rage [intended for Armor #8] had to be curtailed because Neal was busy keeping Continuity Associates moving forward through advertising work, comps, 3-D animation, amusement-park designs, animatics, and even toy designs. “When we represent Armor again, we’re going to do that last fight between Rage and Armor,” Adams claims. “And it’s going to be mostly martial arts.

For those people interested in martial arts, that’s exactly what you’re going to see. We just played with it a little bit… we alluded to it. We showed different species on different planets… many that Armor fought and learned their combat techniques from.” When asked who would draw a new Armor comic, Adams laughs and says, “Well, I can’t think of anyone better suited than me.

That’s not me being egotistical. It’s just… well, it’s just true. Can you think of anyone who could do it better?

If you can, I’ll use him,” Adams chuckles. Continuity’s original Armor series ran 13 issues, dated September 1985 through April 1992.

After the epic space opera, Armor returned [for a six-issue run in 1993—ed.], and his adventures were drawn by the likes of Frank Springer, the very talented Sal Velluto, the brilliant Ernesto Infante, and another three issues by Brian Apthorp. “Ernesto was… an artist who was smarter than all of us,” Adams tells BACK ISSUE. “I don’t know where he came from, but inking him was like being shown that everything you do is wrong.

And Brian Apthorp was so talented and he drew Armor thin and about the right age. You have to remember, Armor is a teenager, not a 35-year-old man. But I loved everything we did.”

One of the highlights of the character’s run was the covers. Neal Adams handled most of the covers, the most iconic perhaps being the first. Armor vol. 1 #1 (Sept. 1985) represented one of the first creator-owned comic characters Neal Adams introduced to the industry, even though Adams’ Ms. Mystic had been published

by Pacific Comics previously, and the imprint of Continuity Comics had produced Echo of Futurepast, an anthology series with European strips and reprints of American stories that Neal had bought for publication in his own magazines. In Echo, Bernie Wrightson and Bruce Jones produced Freakshow; Arthur Suydam wrote and painted “Mudwogs,” which had appeared in Heavy Metal previously; Neal Adams redrew and wrote what would eventually be called “Transylvania”; and Larry Hama and Michael Golden created and drew “Bucky O’Hare,” a funny-animal strip that went on to be licensed as an animated series and toy line.

Bucky established a relationship between Neal and Michael Golden, who drew an issue of Toyboy and provided eight covers for Armor. (Two remain unpublished.) Golden’s covers brought a fresh dynamic to Armor. The very first cover [vol. 2 #1, Apr. 1993] was a wraparound image of Armor on the deck of a meticulously rendered aircraft carrier, fighting a new team of villains named “the Hellbenders.” A laser-diecut cover of intricate flames, a wraparound Tyvec (the same material FedEx uses for their envelopes) cover, and five “Rise of Magic” covers remain highlights of Armor’s covers.

Armor also appeared as a member of The Revengers, issues #2 through 6, where his adventures were drawn

by Neal Adams and Larry Stroman. During Continuity Comics’ crossovers “Deathwatch 2000” and “The Rise of Magic,” Armor darted back and forth through his own title, Megalith, Samuree, and The Hybrids.

With the possible exception of Megalith, Armor remains one of the pillars of the Continuity Universe of characters.

When asked whether he specifically looked for artists that drew like him, Neal vehemently denies that. “Michael Golden doesn’t draw anything like me.

Larry Stroman? Nothing like me. Mark Beachum, not at all. Trevor Von Eeden came more from an Alex Toth school of drawing. Ernesto Infante came from a completely different side of the planet and was many times smarter than me. I would tweak faces and figures to maintain Armor looking like Armor, and the page would come out great.”

However, when asked where Armor came from, Neal says his son Jason was a big contributor. Jason was training in “stage martial arts,” or movie martial arts.

“Most people don’t know this,” Adams reveals, “but there are two kinds of martial arts. There are martial arts for the screen and real martial arts. Real martial arts are slower and not as dramatic. Martial arts for the screen are way over the top.

“A short jab in real martial arts can destroy your sternum. You rarely see a jab to the sternum in a movie, but that can be a really powerful punch.

Raging Battle Our hero in mortal combat with Rage, from Armor #6 (Apr. 1989). By Neal Adams, Trevor Von Eeden, and Rudy Nebres.

TM & © Neal Adams.

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Master of Kung Fu and the Real Master of the Martial Arts (opposite page) An amazing Adams print of his cover painting for Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2, featuring Shang-Chi. (this page) Bruce Lee was an honorary member of the Bronze Age Marvel Universe—at least in the pages of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine. Prints of Adams cover art for DHOKF #14 (top) and 17 (bottom).

Art © Neal Adams. Master of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fu Manchu © Sax Rohmer Estate.

For example, Steven Segal was tremendously good at the foot sweep, where you grab a guy’s face and you sweep his feet, but unfortunately the guy disappears from the screen almost immediately. So unless there’s a wide shot, you don’t even see it. A foot sweep like that, putting a guy to the ground hard, can put a guy out cold.

That’s real martial arts.

“Segal brought into film the idea that movie martial arts was stupid,” Adams continues. “People are constantly hitting each other and nobody is getting hurt. In real martial arts, most of these blows will hurt you. A good kung-fu guy will put you out in one shot.

And that’s not good for film or comics. So even when I did those painted covers [for Marvel], I was very cognizant of that. That’s why that Billy Jack cover [Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #11] was a creative move that is not only effective but also works filmically. Somebody telling you he’s going to put his foot in your face, and how is he going to do that because his foot is on the ground, and then he does it. And you go down and out.”

Neal continues about the origins of his martial-arts experiences: “I was part of that generation that appreciated martial arts. I was the right age, it was the right time, and I absorbed that stuff.

As it turns out, as a young artist, I was friends with the first guy to license and to bring Asian martial-arts pictures to the US. His name was Seraphim Karalexis. He discovered, for a minimum amount of money, he could license kung-fu movies and ninja movies. Not like Seven Samurai, but a lot of very good action movies. He would show them on 42nd Street in those seedy theaters that were there at the time and he would get me to do movie posters for them.”

When asked the time period he was painting these posters, Neal had to think about it. “I guess… it was probably around the time I had left DC Comics and gone off to form Continuity with Dick Giordano. I did The Mystery of Chess Boxing, Eagle’s Shadow, and a bunch of movies posters. Then, Marvel decided to do a series of blackand-white magazines because Timely—not Marvel—Timely [a Marvel forerunner] used to do men’s magazines with black-and-white illustrations and color covers in that size and that format that they did for [Deadly Hands of] Kung Fu and [Savage Sword of] Conan and horror and Crazy and [Unknown Worlds of] Science Fiction and all those kind of magazines. So they needed someone to paint the covers.

“Who could do that? The old illustrators from the men’s magazines would bring models into their studios and pose them and then paint them. But what models in New York could do kung fu? What painters could adapt to doing kung fu? They were used to doing naked Nazi women women with swastikas on their breasts,” Adams laughs.

“You couldn’t go to them and ask them to paint, say, Billy Jack giving a face kick. So, since I could paint, I had done movie posters, and I knew something about martial arts, I could do them and make them believable.”

Adams continues, “Because the kung-fu covers were successful, I did Conan, because who could come anywhere close to Frazetta at the time. I did monster covers and science-fiction covers. I was a drawing painter and, well, no one else could do that. I was the logical guy. Maybe some guys could draw kung fu, but then they couldn’t paint it. They were pretty much stuck with me. I mean, [John] Buscema did a few covers that were very nicely done, but his talents were better used inside the magazine where he really shined.

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As Seen on TV (opposite page) Another Adams winner: movie action hero Billy Jack, originally produced for the cover of Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #11. (above) Neal’s print of his portrait of Kung Fu’s David Carradine.

He originally produced this art for (inset) the cover of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #4.

Art © Neal Adams. Billy Jack © Warner Bros. Kung Fu © Warner Bros.

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

“I’m especially proud of the Bruce Lee posters, one especially… the brownish one… where I really feel I nailed the likeness and his hands are so perfect. No one could do that subtlety.”

Finally, when asked if he’s excited about working on Armor, Neal replies, “Absolutely. I want to kick ass. I want to do the greatest fight scene ever. I was so focused on making money for other people to draw my comics that I rarely got a chance to truly explore them myself. With Armor, it’s the culmination of years of study and hundreds of movies and knowledge of anatomy and fight scenes, all brought together into the best fight in comics ever. I can do all these little things that no one knows or has seen before. I can promise no right crosses because these two guys, Armor and Rage, really want to kill each other and they can.

One mistake and you die. That’s what my martial arts is all about.”

PETER STONE is a writer and editor for Continuity and the author of the novel Shattered Krystal.

One issue of Skateman was published, cover-dated November 1983, through Pacific Comics. The trademark, screenplay, and story of Skateman (www.skateman.com) are held by its creator and original writer, John Ballard, despite the incorrect indicia indicating that Neal Adams created the character. In other words, “I was a hired gun,” says Adams about the project. “It is by no means ‘Neal Adams’ Skateman.’ ” John Ballard eventually went on to create three novels, a DVD about the evolution of skating, merchandise with the Skateman logo on it, and even replacement wheels for roller skates. Ballard continues to actively promote his Skateman character for a movie. The critical reviews of the Skateman comic are brutal and the character has been closely associated with Neal Adams’ worst entry in comics. The best thing written about Skateman is that it was “unfortunate.”

Neal Adams on Skateman: “I don’t think Skateman is unfortunate at all. In fact, I think it’s one of the funnier things people criticize in comics. Most of that comic book was not drawn by me, oddly enough. It was drawn

by Jim Sherman, a guy who worked in our studio at the time. A nice-looking guy and a decent artist whose style was a little bit like mine. And he did a great job. He got to do more than I did, so it was kind of a Neal Adams/Jim Sherman job.

“The Skateman project was for a client named John Ballard, who wanted to present Skateman as a movie project. He wanted to do a realistic hero in the vein of… that punk kid Johnny Romita, Jr. drew… the one who gets beat up all the time? Kick-Ass! Right, Kick-Ass. People don’t laugh at Kick-Ass… but they do… [and] Skateman was kind of like that.

“It was a screenplay by Ballard, which I believe is still out there… and Continuity was hired to adapt it. So we did. I adapted the screenplay, oversaw layouts, did some inking, drew the cover. But it was a commercial job like Emergency! or The Six Million Dollar Man. “And the really funny thing was that it sold in the neighborhood of 80,000 copies. People may laugh at it—and they do all the time—but somehow they have copies and I sign them. All the time! If you’re going to laugh at an 80,000-copy sale, I think you’re making a big mistake. I got paid more for that than I did a normal comic book. I’m just saying, you walk the edge and you take your shot. I just laugh at people who don’t take their shot. If you’re afraid of being laughed at because you take your shot… well, that’s a pretty big mistake.

“It is John Ballard’s creation and I truly wish him the best of luck. However, I would totally see one, two, or three Skateman movies.”

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

Skateman TM & © John Ballard.

NEAL ADAMS ON SKATEMAN

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE * Concord, NC 28025

Find BACK ISSUE on

ADAMS/ALI REMATCH

As briefly mentioned in this issue’s “Greatest Stories Never Told” article, Neal Adams joined forces with co-writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti for a Superman vs. Muhammad Ali homage in DC Comics’ Harley’s Little Black Book #5 (Feb. 2017), supplanting Harley Quinn for the Greatest.

Here’s your ringside seat for a comparison of the two comics’ covers:

Déjà vu, baby! Here’s an interior page from HLBB #5 and the original it parrots: 76 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Superman and Harley Quinn TM & © DC Comics. Muhammad Ali TM & © Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC.

© 1986 Ruby-Spears Productions

There’s a Bronze Age comic featuring a fist-fighter that we wanted to include in this issue, but space worked against us: from Marvel’s Star Comics line, Chuck Norris, based upon the 1986 Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos five-episode animated series from Ruby-Spears Productions. Marvel’s Chuck Norris ran for four issues, the first three by the Jo Duffy/Steve Ditko team and the last by Howard Mackie and Alex Saviuk. As a respectful bow to the martial artist also known as Walker: Texas Ranger, until we can do an article on the series we’re sharing the cover of the first issue of his Star Comics title, with cover art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty.

.

MISSING IN ACTION

Nowhere in BI #99’s articles on DC’s Harley Quinn was it mentioned that Agatha Christie first created a detective character named Harley Quin who appeared in 1930’s The Mysterious Mister Quin. Of course, there was also a long-running foe of the Golden Age Green Lantern, the Harlequin, who appeared far prior to Ms. Quinn.

You would think someone at DC would have been aware of these earlier uses.

Mention was made, in BI #100, of the “Junior Woodchucks” who worked on DC’s prozine The Amazing World of DC Comics. Credit should also go to Carl Barks, who first used the “Woodchucks” name for a Boy Scout– like organization that Donald Duck’s nephews belonged to.

BI #100 makes brief mention of a DC project titled “Sextet.” Years ago I provided Comic Book Artist with a copy of Joe Kubert’s cover for this project, which seems to be the only evidence of it extant.

Happy first hundred!

– Mike W. Barr Mike, old chum, thank you for sharing that information. And more about Sextet appears later in this column.

AWESOME ANNIVERSARY

This issue [#100] was flat-out awesome.

– Paul Gulacy

Roger Stern used such a name for a Daily Planet reporter years later in Adventures of Superman #454. I asked Roger about that, and he responded: ROGER STERN: Yes, I was Franklin W. Maynard. I first used that name in college radio, as my “newsman persona.” I later adopted it as a pseudonym during my fanzine days, whenever it looked as though I was writing too much of an issue. (The W. in Franklin W. Maynard, by the way, stands for “Winthrop.”)

And I used it again for that Amazing World of DC Comics feature, when I helped out Carl Gafford with a deadline. At the time, I was on staff at Marvel, and management would have not have been pleased to have my name on a DC published fanzine.

I wonder... how many other writers worked on Amazing World of DC Comics, Charlton Bullseye, and FOOM? Seems to me that there must be more, but no one immediately comes to mind.

Thanks again for a terrific issue and for letting me be part of the BI team all these years.

– John Wells John, thanks for this wonderful trivia! Some of it I knew, but a few pieces are news to me.

Re Ninja the Invisible and Sextet: Sounds like we have two subjects for future “Greatest Stories Never Told” articles.

Mike Barr’s letter above led me to ask Comic Book Artist (and now, Comic Book Creator) editor Jon B. Cooke about Sextet. Mention of the series was made in both CBA #7 and CBA Special Edition #1.

So, as a teaser for that eventual GSNT, presented below is Joe Kubert’s cover art to Sextet #1, provided to us by the kind assistance of Mr. Cook and Mr. Barr.

Thanks, Paul… and we appreciate your participation in this issue!

AMAZING WORLD OF TRIVIA

I’m in the process of reading the wonderful BI #100 and thought I’d dash off a few bits of trivia to add to your Amazing World of DC Comics history.

The Green Arrow/Black Canary story intended for 1st Issue Special (mentioned in AWODCC #7) was eventually published… in 1977’s Green Lantern #100.

AWODCC #9’s famed Legion issue is so rare because the entire print run sold out in three weeks! By chance, my parents ordered several issues of the zine for me as a 1975 Christmas gift and they managed to do so within that three-week window. I always considered myself lucky to have snagged a copy.

Ninja the Invisible (mentioned in AWODCC #10) was the creation of Gerry Conway. According to Murray Boltinoff in a 1980s G.I. Combat letters column, the shelved first issue had been completely illustrated and guest-starred Batman.

Sextet (mentioned in AWODCC #11) was a Robert Kanigher creation that would have featured six female adventurers. A pilot issue was drawn by the Redondo Studios. Kanigher wrote about Sextet in an issue of Robin Snyder’s The Comics, and a page of art was included. I’m certain at least one full issue was completed.

The unpublished Grell story in AWODCC #12 was eventually run in color in 1978’s Weird War Tales #67, on sale in June 1978.

The three fan-created Legion applicants in AWODCC #14 were eventually folded into the actual comic book—with revisions— in Legion of Super-Heroes #272.

The JLA Reader was an expanded reprint of a fanzine co-written

by Mark Gruenwald and David Lofvers earlier in the 1970s. I actually own a copy!

There was at least one item commissioned for AWODCC that was later used elsewhere. Mike W. Barr had commissioned a two-page spread by Fred Hembeck for use in a Flash-themed issue. Mike pulled it out of mothballs a few years later for The Flash #300, with a few dialogue revisions reflecting the comic book’s tricentennial.

Finally, the mention of “Franklin W. Maynard” (co-writer of an article in AWODCC Special Edition #1) caused me to recall that

TM & © DC Comics.

© Agatha Christie Limited.

THE OTHER “HARLEY QUIN”

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

WANTED: A LITTLE PIZZAZZ

I don’t know if this was supposed to happen, but BI #99 and 100 were at my store at the same time. I assume #99 was delayed or some such. Just thought I’d mention it.

I enjoyed the interview with Bob Overstreet. The Price Guide is one of those things that you think was around forever, yet someone had to come up with the idea initially.

The cool thing about the Comics Buyer’s Guide article was Talented contributors like you are a big part of our success, the photo of Alan Light. I had seen footage of another Alan Jerry. Thanks!

Light, the rock critic for Rolling Stone, and assumed he was the same guy. I miss that newspaper. Didn’t like it when it became THE ELUSIVE EURYMAN Just wanted to say… GREAT 100th issue! You knocked it out of the a monthly magazine.

FOOM: I knew of its existence via the ads in the Marvel comics park! In particular, Bob Greenberger, please accept my kudos in regard to your interview with the elusive Euryman. Seriously, you went but was never interested in getting a copy.

Comicmobile: You don’t know how many times I looked for that beyond the X’s and O’s, and gave us a Rolling Stone-magazine-inthe-’70s-worthy interview. The personal revelations, the behind-the- van in my neighborhood in the Bronx, never realizing that it was scenes glimpses, and the just-deep-enough recap of the first hundred bound for the suburbs.

Amazing World of DC Comics: Now this I did get copies of. meshed perfectly. Just to be clear... I liked it.

– DeMotte Case, via Facebook Loved this magazine. I’m a few issues from having the whole run.

Shame it didn’t run longer. I also have the Special Edition produced Bob Greenberger thanks you, DeMotte, and I do, too. It was a lot of for the ’76 convention because…

Super DC Con ’76: …I was there! I asked my mother if we fun talking to Bob again—and yes, he’s to be commended for his could go to it, and she took me and my sister. We got there in research and insightful questions. the afternoon and we didn’t stay long, but I did get four LETTERCOLUS INTERRUPTUS comics for 25¢ each, saw the George Reeves costume, the We interrupt this letters column for an unabashed plug—but we think Ideal toys from the ’60s in a display, and the tail end of one of the color episodes of The Adventures of Suyou’ll approve.

Also appearing from TwoMorrows this perman being shown on a projector screen. month is a brand-new, quarterly magazine I didn’t know that legends like Joe Shuster from the editorial desktop of the Elusive Your and Bob Kane were there. I was aware of Friendly Neighborhood Euryman: RetroFan! who they were at the age of eight and Remember when we didn’t shoulder the probably would’ve been nervous as hell if I had seen them there. I think I may have burden of responsibility? When our biggest financial dilemma was whether to spend a seen the guy dressed as the Spectre picquarter on two comic books or one giant? tured in the article.

When G.I. Joe and My Little Pony were our Charlton Bullseye: Wasn’t there an issue constant companions? When Saturday mornthat featured The Six Million Dollar Man on ing television was our domain and ours alone? a cover drawn by Dick Giordano? I saw an When our tattoos came from bubble gum ad for it in Charlton Comics at the packs, when our Slurpees came in superhero time but never saw it in real life. Was it published? cups, and when our TV heroes actually taught us to be nice to each other?

Great interview of you by Robert Those were the happy days of the ’60s, Greenberger. Will we ever see BI #61 reprinted? ’70s, and ’80s—our childhood—and that is I missed it during my unemployed days and the era of RetroFan. And the magazine’s when copies of it surface on eBay they go for far above my pay grade. domain is the world of pop culture: sci-fi, superheroes, monsters, cartoons, toys, comThanks for printing Dan St. John’s ic books, movies, sitcoms, collectibles, all that rebuttal to Bill Black’s assertions in BI #94.

And finally, why no article on Marvel’s fun stuff from the past.

Pizzazz?

RetroFan will feature four regular columns © Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing.

Characters © their respective copyright holders.

– Delmo (The Saint) Walters, Jr. by a fantastic foursome of award-winning columnists: MARTIN PASKO’s Pesky Perspective, ANDY MANGELS’ Retro Saturday Morning, ERNEST FARINO’s Retro Fantasmagoria, BACK ISSUE #61 was recently reprinted in April 2018, but in and The Oddball World of SCOTT SHAW! Other departments include the magazine (not treasury) size, “Super Collector,” which takes you behind the scenes of some of called the “Longbox Edition” for our favorite hoarders’ collections of cool stuff; “Retro Travel,” fans who wanted a compatiblevisiting a geographic blast from the past; and a “RetroFad” sized copy to file with their other flashback. Plus I’ll contributing celebrity interviews and other BACK ISSUEs. features, as will special guest writers.

As the Charlton house ad on this RetroFan #1 features interviews with TV’s Incredible Hulk, page shows, there was a Six Million LOU FERRIGNO, and BETTY “Thelma Lou” LYNN, the oldest surviving Dollar Man cover announced for an cast member of The Andy Griffith Show; The Phantom in Hollywood; issue of Charlton Bullseye that Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon; How I Met the Wolf Man (LON went unpublished. Too bad. That’s CHANEY, JR.); a visit to ANDY GRIFFITH’s hometown, Mount Airy, one dynamite Giordano cover!

Re Pizzazz: There was no room North Carolina; a look at ultra-rare original Andy Griffith Show collectibles; the Oddball Comic Zody the Mod Rob; and a “RetroFad” for additional material in BI #100 shout-out to Mr. Microphone.

(Andy Mangels was writing a You can order the magazine at twomorrows.com or through history of Amazing Heroes for the your local comic shop—plus it’ll be available in finer bookstores’ issue, too, which I’ve rescheduled newsstands! for a future edition). We’ll get Don’t miss RetroFan—where what’s old is cool again! around to it.

78 • BACK ISSUE • Deadly Hands Issue

Studios.

I got BACK ISSUE #100 today, and thanks and CONGRATS to you for making that milestone! One hundred printed issues of anything is a fantastic achievement in this era of Kindle, audio books, Nooks, online editions, etc. And your mag has done well!

– Jerry Boyd

Six Million Dollar Man © Universal

MEGA MILESTONE

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc..

KEEPING THE INNER KID ALIVE

I’m loving issue #100 of the mag. I’m 51 and remember fondly all those old fanzines! I had purchased a lot of CBGs in the late ’80s and early ’90s when it was still a huge newspaper, and LOVED all of the info.

I ended up subscribing nine issues before it ended. I was heartbroken to get notice of that! I’m happy that I had a Happy Birthday letter to Stan Lee in one of the last issues. I have a late ’70s issue of The Comic Reader and always loved that mag. Amazing Heroes was usually really thick and I loved getting that one, too. The Comics Journal was probably my favorite. It was so massive. I have a few old issues before they became books. I have dreams that I stumble into an old-fashioned newsstand and they have issues of Comics Journal and I buy them all. I loved FOOM. In the early ’80s I got a bunch of issues at cons. With the Internet, info is so easy to find. I’m glad my comic-book heydays were in a time I had to wait for comic zines to come in the mail because I valued the info a lot more! Seeing a tiny black-and-white image of a Daredevil book that was coming out in three months was a HUGE THRILL! Anyway, I love reading your mag because I am old enough now to appreciate the hows and whys of those old books/creators.

It’s fascinating. I rarely buy comic books these days. They’re too expensive and story arcs are incredibly long and they seem purposely dragged out.

I remember the days of one- or three-issue story arcs. I feel bad for doing it, but when I get an itch for superhero action I buy a used graphic novel with an entire story arc. I still like to browse the shelves of my comic shop, but the days of walking away with ten new books for three to five bucks are long gone. The quality of new books is amazing, but I cannot afford and have no space or interest in accumulating more comic books. BACK ISSUE and Alter Ego keep the kid-like fascination with comic books alive in me. I read every word in every issue and love both mags. BI is really well done and very thorough. I wish there were some tidbits about the demise of CBG, but I was not totally surprised it ended. I love print, but the Internet is taking over and print isn’t as appreciated as much as it once was.

I buy Previews a few times a year to see the new stuff coming out, but I would love if there were a print comicbook fanzine (with current stuff) out there. I haven’t found one yet.

– Chris Francz Chris, FYI, in November 2017 Marvel published a FOOM #1 one-shot (left) giveaway to promote its Marvel Legacy project.

WARM, FUZZY FANZINE FEELINGS

Congratulations on reaching your centennial issue!

Anniversary issues were always a special occasion in the Silver and Bronze days, so I had high expectations for BI. You did not disappoint. As soon as I saw that amazing cover, I knew I was in for a treat.

I enjoyed the articles on the beginnings of fandom; they brought back a lot of great memories, particularly the Comics Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom. Back in the ’70s I saw an ad for the Buyer’s Guide in a comic book. I was confused, because the Buyer’s Guide was already being delivered to our house every week, and all it had were ads for garage sales and used cars. I asked my mom if the Buyer’s Guide ever had any comics for sale in it, and I got the “Are you crazy?” look.

Finally I figured out that it was two unrelated publications with similar names. I took a chance on a subscription and the Comics Buyer’s Guide opened up a whole new world for me.

Justice Society of America and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Part of that new world was the fanzines advertised in it. I remembered seeing those intriguing names: The Comic Reader, RBCC, Alter Ego, and the most baffling of them all, Squa Tront. Slowly I learned a back history of comics that I wasn’t aware of until then. Through the ads and the articles, I learned of EC Comics and the Golden Age. And I learned that there were other comics fans like me besides the names I saw in the letters columns.

In the CBG Don and Maggie Thompson years, I called on my questionable skills as a cartoonist and drew a couple of comics-related panel gags. They were awful pun sight gags… a spider building a web on a small tree adorned with the letters “AM,” with the caption explanation “Am-Bush Bug.” A couple of weeks later I was astonished to get a personal letter from Don Thompson encouraging my work, and a check for the two gags I sent (at the going rate of two dollars each!). He opened the floodgates, and I spent many happy years coming up with comicoriented cartoons for CBG. Don bought most of what I sent, and I was seeing my work in print and building a cartooning résumé.

I never had the chance to thank Don for that break before he passed away; that’s a heads-up for all of you out there. If someone in the industry has made you happy with their work, please tell them now.

The FOOM and AWODCC articles were so much fun that I had to go and dig out what issues I had to re-read them. BACK ISSUE tends to make me do that a lot.

“Prince Street News” never fails to entertain, but Karl Heitmueller topped himself with this one. How cool to see the bits and pieces of covers and be able to identify them! And his commentary always mimics my thoughts exactly, except that he puts them into cohesive sentences.

Finally, the interview with Michael Eury. Now, who is this guy again? Just kidding. BACK ISSUE is a true labor of love, and it is consistently jam-packed with informative articles; I have never read an issue that let me down. So thank you, Mr. Eury, for the terrific magazine and all that you do to maintain its high standards.

Your work is appreciated. Here’s to the second hundred issues!

Incidentally, have you considered an issue dedicated to anniversary issues of the Bronze and Silver Ages?

– Michal Jacot Michal, what a great letter!

There are few Golden and Silver Age creators left and we’ve lost more Bronze Age creators than any of us would like to admit, so your advice to thank those you encounter is very wise. (This also applies to parents, mentors, and teachers, by the way.)

Back in our tenth anniversary issue, BI #69, we looked at Bronze Age anniversary issues. The Silver Age ones would be the purview of Roy Thomas in our big sister mag, Alter Ego. Next issue: “Golden Age in Bronze,” with the ’70s Justice Society revival! Two Pro2Pro interviews: All-Star Squadron’s ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and ARVELL JONES (with a bonus RICK HOBERG interview), and The Spectre’s JOHN OSTRANDER and TOM MANDRAKE. A new department debuts: Robert Menzies’ “UnKnown Marvel,” featuring Marvel UK rarities, this issue unveiling BOB LAYTON’s first work for the House of Ideas. Plus: Liberty Legion, Air Wave, Jonni Thunder a.k.a. Thunderbolt, Crimson Avenger, and the Spectre revival of ’87! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, GENE COLAN, GERRY CONWAY, KEITH GIFFEN, DICK GIORDANO, PAUL LEVITZ, GRAY MORROW, DOUG MOENCH, BOB ROZAKIS, DANN THOMAS, WALLY WOOD, and many more, with a JSA cover by JOE STATON. Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Deadly Hands Issue • BACK ISSUE • 79

NEW FOR 2018!

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: CENTENNIAL EDITION

This final, fully-updated, definitive edition clocks in at DOUBLE the length of the 2008 “Gold Edition”, in a new 256-page LTD. EDITION HARDCOVER (only 1000 copies) listing every release up to Jack’s 100th birthday! Detailed listings of all of Kirby’s published work, reprints, magazines, books, foreign editions, newspaper strips, fine art and collages, fanzines, essays, interviews, portfolios, posters, radio and TV appearances, and even Jack’s unpublished work!

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This first-of-its-kind examination of the creators of the Marvel Universe looks back at their own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and television interviews, to paint a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s relationship—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed.

Also here are recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more Marvel Bullpen stalwarts who worked with both Kirby and Lee. Rounding out this book is a study of the duo’s careers after they parted ways as collaborators, including Kirby’s difficulties at Marvel Comics in the 1970s, his last hurrah with Lee on the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, and his exhausting battle to get back his original art—and creator credit—from Marvel. STUF’ SAID gives both men their say, compares their recollections, and tackles the question, “Who really created the Marvel Comics Universe?”.

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COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION

AN ORAL HISTORY OF DC COMICS CIRCA 1978

Things looked bleak for comic books throughout the 1970s because of plummeting sell-through rates. With each passing year, the newsstand became less and less interested in selling comic books. The industry seemed locked in a death spiral, but the Powers That Be at DC Comics had an idea to reverse their fortunes.

In 1978, they implemented a bold initiative: Provide readers with more story pages by increasing the pricepoint of a regular comic book to make it comparable to other magazines sold on newsstands. Billed as “THE DC EXPLOSION,” this expansion saw the introduction of numerous creative new titles. But mere weeks after its launch, DC’s parent company pulled the plug, demanding a drastic decrease in the number of comic books they published, and leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. The series of massive cutbacks and cancellations quickly became known as “THE DC IMPLOSION.” TwoMorrows Publishing marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the most notorious events in comics with an exhaustive oral history from the creators and executives involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and AL MILGROM, among many others), as well as detailed analysis and commentary by other top professionals, who were “just fans” in 1978 (MARK WAID, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, TOM BREVOORT, and more)—examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever! By KEITH DALLAS and JOHN WELLS. (136-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 • (Digital Edition) $10.95 • SHIPS SUMMER 2018!

ISBN: 978-1-60549-085-4

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1990s

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: THE 1990s is a year-by-year account of the comic book industry during the Bill Clinton years. This full-color hardcover documents the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends from that decade. Written by KEITH DALLAS and JASON SACKS. (288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $44.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.95 • SHIPS FALL 2018!

ISBN: 978-1-60549-084-7

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

THE 1990s was the decade when Marvel Comics sold 8.1 million copies of an issue of the X-MEN, saw its superstar creators form their own company, cloned SPIDER-MAN, and went bankrupt. The 1990s was when SUPERMAN died, BATMAN had his back broken, and the runaway success of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to DC Comics’ VERTIGO line of adult comic books. It was the decade of gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers. But most of all, the 1990s was the decade when companies like IMAGE, VALIANT and MALIBU published million-selling comic books before the industry experienced a shocking and rapid collapse.

RETROFAN #1

RETROFAN #2

ALTER EGO #153

ALTER EGO #154

ALTER EGO #155

THE CRAZY, COOL CUTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and new interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

Remembering Fabulous FLO STEINBERG, Stan Lee’s gal Friday during the Marvel Age of Comics—with anecdotes and essays by pros and friends who knew and loved her! Rare Marvel art, Flo’s successor ROBIN GREEN interviewed by RICHARD ARNDT about her time at Marvel, and Robin’s 1971 article on Marvel for ROLLING STONE magazine! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

ALLEN BELLMAN (1940s Timely artist) interviewed by DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, with art by SHORES, BURGOS, BRODSKY, SEKOWSKY, EVERETT, & JAFFEE. Plus Marvel’s ’70s heroines: LINDA FITE & PATY COCKRUM on The Cat, CAROLE SEULING on Shanna the She-Devil, & ROY THOMAS on Night Nurse—with art by SEVERIN, FRADON, ANDRU, and more! With FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Golden Age artist/writer/editor NORMAN MAURER remembered by his wife JOAN, recalling BIRO’s Crime Does Not Pay, Boy Comics, Daredevil, St. John’s 3-D & THREE STOOGES comics with KUBERT, his THREE STOOGES movies (MOE was his father-inlaw!), and work for Marvel, DC, and others!

Plus LARRY IVIE’s 1959 plans for a JUSTICE SOCIETY revival, JOHN BROOME, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

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BACK ISSUE #61: LONGBOX EDITION

BACK ISSUE #106

BACK ISSUE #107

BACK ISSUE #108

BACK ISSUE #109

STANDARD-SIZE REPRINT OF SOLD-OUT #61! Covers every all-new ’70s tabloid, with checklist of reprint treasuries. Superman vs.

Spider-Man, The Bible, Cap’s Bicentennial Battles, Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest SuperHeroes editions! With ADAMS, GARCIALOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. ALEX ROSS cover!

GOLDEN AGE IN BRONZE! ’70s Justice Society revival with two Pro2Pro interviews: All-Star Squadron’s ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and ARVELL JONES (with a bonus RICK HOBERG interview), and The Spectre’s JOHN OSTRANDER and TOM MANDRAKE. Plus: Liberty Legion, Air Wave, Jonni Thunder, Crimson Avenger, and the Spectre revival of ’87! WOOD, COLAN, CONWAY, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, & more!

ARCHIE COMICS IN THE BRONZE AGE! STAN GOLDBERG and GEORGE GLADIR interviews, Archie knock-offs, Archie on TV, histories of Sabrina, That Wilkin Boy, Cheryl Blossom, and Red Circle Comics. With JACK ABEL, JON D’AGOSTINO, DAN DeCARLO, FRANK DOYLE, GRAY MORROW, DAN PARENT, HENRY SCARPELLI, ALEX SEGURA, LOU SCHEIMER, ALEX TOTH, and more!

DAN DeCARLO cover.

BRONZE AGE AQUAMAN! Team-ups and merchandise, post-Crisis Aquaman, Aqualad: From Titan to Tempest, Black Manta history, DAVID and MAROTO’s Atlantis Chronicles, the original unseen Aquaman #57, and the unproduced Aquaman animated movie. With APARO, CALAFIORE, MARTIN EGELAND, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CRAIG HAMILTON, JURGENS, SWAN, and more. ERIC SHANOWER cover!

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE 40th ANNIVERSARY! CARY BATES’ plans for unfilmed Superman V, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN’s Superman novels, 1975 CARMINE INFANTINO interview about the movie, plus interviews: JACK O’HALLORAN (Non), AARON SMOLINSKI (baby Clark), JEFF EAST (young Clark), DIANE SHERRY CASE (teenage Lana Lang), and Superman Movie Contest winner ED FINNERAN. Chris Reeve Superman cover by GARY FRANK!

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TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

BRICKJOURNAL #53

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #17 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #18

DRAW #35

VIDEO GAME ISSUE! Get ready as LEGO designers TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

The legacy and influence of WALLACE WOOD, with a comprehensive essay about Woody’s career, extended interview with Wood assistant RALPH REESE (artist for Marvel’s horror comics, National Lampoon, and underground), a long chat with cover artist HILARY BARTA (Marvel inker, Plastic Man and America’s Best artist with ALAN MOORE), plus our usual columns, features, and the humor of HEMBECK!

Career-spanning discussion with STEVE “THE DUDE” RUDE, as he shares his reallife psychological struggles, the challenges of freelance subsistence, and his creative aspirations. Also: The jungle art of NEAL ADAMS, MARY FLEENER on her forthcoming graphic novel Billie the Bee and her comix career, RICH BUCKLER interview Part Three, Golden Age artist FRANK BORTH, HEMBECK and more!

Fantasy/sci-fi illustrator DONATO GIANCOLA (Game of Thrones) demos his artistic process, GEORGE PRATT (Enemy Ace: War Idyll, Batman: Harvest Breed) discusses his work as comic book artist, illustrator, fine artist, and teacher, Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS, JERRY ORDWAY’S regular column, and MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp.” Mature Readers Only.

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