Cracking open the F.O.O.M Files (Friends Of Ol' Marvel, of course) again, here's some pages from the 21st issue, published in Spring 1978, which perfectly captures the post-STAR WARS "Star Age" boom: a starship full of Marvel SF comics.
Many of these will be familiar to British readers of STAR WARS WEEKLY and FUTURE TENSE as many of the strips were convenient page-fillers, especially for SWW which was always desperate for new space adventure material to compensate for a lack of SW material. Indeed, I wonder if the US Bullpen was commissioning copious amounts of this stuff with one eye on feeding the British weekly as well as capitalising on the boom in the States.
STAR-LORD and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY both feature… I doubt anyone at Marvel dreamed they would be the subject of a mega-grossing movie more than 35 years later.
Marvel's commitment to all things SF actually grew, albeit through licensed properties, with the addition of the likes of ROM, THE MICRONAUTS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and STAR TREK to the monthly roster.
I'm not sure of the identity of the cover artist (I don't think Marvel used this piece anywhere else… which is a shame), the piece is credited only to The New York Tribe.
The final page posted was a regular feature devoted to the activities of the British Bullpen. At some point, in the near future, I'll start posting those as - occasionally - they give a fascinating insight into what-might-have-been.
This was the penultimate F.O.O.M outing.
That magnificent cover was used as a b/w centre spread poster in an early issue of Star Wars Weekly, with Han Solo's leg included.
ReplyDeleteArtist--that's Tony DeZuniga inks, but not sure on the pencils. Could be Howard Bender perhaps?
Brilliant! Thanks for the additional information.
Delete