Marvel Black and white mags.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

More for Horror week. Recently a couple people posted some stuff from the Marvel Black and white magazine ( Marvel experimented with more adult themed books in the 70's). Here are some covers.







We got Fangs mutha-fukahs !!



That top is held up by pure evil...



This was a really cool sexy UFO story that I can only assume was the basis for that Eternals relaunch from a few years ago.




Speaking of horror,check out the sexual tension in this ad. That guy is ready jump the poor woman for a big nasty time.

Comments

[dimesfornickels.wordpress.com (from insanejournal.com)]

Now THIS is comics, yessir!

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Yessss. Marvel's seventies horror comics are some of the best stuff they've ever put out. Some of my favourite fiction experiences everrr.

SEVENTIES BLADE
I can't even explain how much I enjoy seventies Blade and now-Blade being the same guy.

The Essential reprint phonebook volumes are SO WORTH GETTING, by the way. Of any Horror title. And the adverts in the original 70s singles are hi-larious.

They don't include colour versions of original covers, though. These are so good.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Totally agree , Marvel could put out a "coffee table" book of just the covers alone with good printing.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

O yeah, would buy.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

I love seventies Blade, especially his christmas-colored vampire hunting outfit.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Yeah the green and orange color scheme is just SO much camp.

[zippthorn.insanejournal.com]

I was about to argue about pure evil holding up that top . . . but then again, if it weren't being held up, we would see her boobies, so. DAMN YOU PURE EVIL!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

It's the two forces working against each other holding the top up. Bwah-ha-ha...

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

It's really a logical outfit: while you're busy staring, you don't see the fangs coming.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Okay, these are completely awesome.

And oh, my on the sexual tension. Oh, my.

What's the deal with Curtis? Did they publish Marvel for a while or just a preview series?

I just read about Lilith and her story sounds really, really fun. I'd read all of these stories! Blade looks awesome, too. I need to look into the reprints.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Around issue 18 this book went direct and the title was changed to "Bizarre adventures". I wanted to post the cleavage/story in the Lilith book but my scanner went all wonky.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

I hate it when that happens.

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

I think "Curtis" was just an imprint, sort of like "Vertigo" for DC...they wanted some separation between the more adult b&w mags and the regular color comics.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Ah! Interesting. Thanks!

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

And named it after the distributor. Back then, Marvel was only starting to move out from under the thumb of the DC/National Periodical Publications-owned distribution system, which had limited them to a certain number of books they could release per month--a reason why you see so much "doubling-up" in characters in Marvel books back then. Once they were free of that was when you saw them start to adopt the "swamping the racks" strategy that you've seen ever since. This was their attempt to compete with Warren and Skywald(amazing how many horror comic magazines you used to see on grocery store racks). And in my view, in some ways outdid them.

One thing that's interesting about Marvel back then is that they were out to compete with EVERYone. There's also their later attempt to compete with CREEM, TEEN BEAT and MAD simultaneously, PIZZAZZ, which, among other things, was the first thing I ever heard about "punk" in, and in fact featured the first national appearance of a number of PUNK Magazine's contributors, like John Holmstrum and Ken Weiner(I loved his cultural maps of the US)

And I really like these covers, particularly the ones involving vampires. Ah, Lilith. You over Vampirella any day. But you did miss two of the very best:


And her Atlas ripoff:


Both covers you'd never see now, and both scorch your eyeballs. It's a lost art, those.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Gettin' the red X on the second image. Please god tell me you have interiors for that Satana story ????

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I do not, sadly(the image isn't mine, I found it on the web, but I did own this and made a pretty penny off it when I sold it). As for the image, here:

the second issue has a far inferior cover. This one? That cover's the only reason anyone ever bought it; I've seen inside, I know. ;)

There's part of a great article series about Atlas here, which mentions it briefly:
http://ape-law.com/GAF/labels/publisher:%20Atlas%20Comics.html

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Huh. That's very interesting--thanks!

And what a cover!

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

And often those were done by the last great true "pulp" cover artist(who's still alive and even on Facebook), Earl Norem. Another of his:


What I remember, and perhaps this is a codependent love of mine since the point of such covers is, after all to trick you into buying it, is that covers like this all by themselves almost outdid whatever could be inside. I like this picture far, far better than I ever could the movie.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Agreed on the covers of comics and pulps 99.9% of the time outdoing what was inside.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I wonder if bringing back this style might help sales. Covers just seem so generic anymore, they're like stock poses of Spider-Man or Superman that don't lure you in with a promise of a wild story inside.

[strannik01.insanejournal.com]

What's the deal with Curtis? Did they publish Marvel for a while or just a preview series?

They were the magazine publishing imprint of Cadence Industries, who owned Marvel Comics at the time.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Okay, thanks!

[sinisterlink.insanejournal.com]

That outfit Lilith is wearing totally makes me think of Molotov Cocktease.

I also love Blade's outfit. It just looks like the last outfit you'd ever want to wear when you go out to hunt vampires at night.

Futurama

[eljackal.insanejournal.com]

The bit that reads "Man-Gods from beyond the Stars", sounds in my head like the guy in Futurama that says "Welcome to the woooorld of Tomorrow."
Also, the man-god looks a little like Nite Owl. Only not so chubby. And Nite Owl rarely does the Hitler salute (except at parties when he's had a few too many shots).
Also, is it wrong that read the whole advert and chuckled at the line, "I thought the organ course was excellent." Damn I'm immature.

[khamelea.insanejournal.com]

Dracula! Zombies! Gilgamesh?!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

He was an Avenger at one point.

I love the 70s Marvel Magazines!

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

I have a stack's worth of Savage Sword of Conan. They some of my absolute favorites.

And I'm sorry but I can't think of Blade (Especially 70s Blade) without thinking of Jefferson Twilight, Blacula Hunter.

And in that last ad, that guy is totally revving off her playing. He's going for it! The pic caught him in the act of putting the book down.

Re: I love the 70s Marvel Magazines!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

I think your supposed to. That's what the character is based on.

Re: I love the 70s Marvel Magazines!

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

And now I have to watch that movie, and picture Blade.

Re: I love the 70s Marvel Magazines!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

That's from the Venture brothers.

[his_spiffyness.insanejournal.com]

Now I really want to do a blaxploitation fan film featuring 70's Blade.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

An interesting period in comics. MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS would be Marvel cashing in on the huge international success of Von Daniken's CHARIOTS OF THE GODS. Von Daniken has been thoroughly debunked of course and he admitted in interviews that he made things up for a better story, but his books topped the best-seller lists for years.

Kirby's riff on this was THE ETERNALS, yet another series that would be worked much better being left out of the interconnected universe.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Yeah. Marvel , Made hime do the Hulk cross-over. I meant that Eternals book revamp from a few years ago with "the apple" that raised intellegence. The Eternals used it to made the apes into hot girls to fuck.