MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Wanna Play on the Bridge?

Marvel Team-Up was the FIRST regular spin-off series for Spider-man (Spectacular Spider-man Magazine preceded it for two issues) and featured Spidey in all but 10 of its 150 issues and 1 of its 7 Annuals.

Somewhere out there, someone has all 150 issues collected, but amazingly enough all SEVEN Annuals as well. I can picture the first one in my head (Spidey and the X-Men) but for the life of me can't remember the other 6.

On the cover here we have Gil Kane heavily embellished (inked) by John Romita, so that... well so that it looks more like a Romita drawing than a Gil Kane drawing, which is what I prefer. I appreciate Kane's work in my older age, but Romita is, to ME, the greatest, most underrated artist of his era.

And it gives us, really, an amazing type of cover, that both artists are known for, and here working together they've created an almost 3-D like look at these two characters. 

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - cover art by Gil Kane with inks by John Romita)

Don Perlin isn't someone who I was much of a fan of throughout my young comic book reading days, or even later on, but... looking at some of his work now, especially when he has a strong inker, he has some really quality work out there!

HERE, he's essentially Ross Andru's inker and maybe finisher to some degree, but I can tell these truly are Andru's layouts (I grew up on his ASM), and Perlin's inks/finishes give Andru's work a really smooth appeal. I like this a lot.

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

Now, strangely enough, despite taking place (in real-time) two months after Gwen's death and a month after the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn's death (both remembered in thought here by Peter/Spidey), he isn't freaked out by the Werewolf, at the start of the story, falling to his 'demise' off the side of the Golden Gate Bridge!

(For those that don't know, the love of Peter's life, long-time girlfriend Gwen Stacy was knocked off the George Washington Bridge in New York by the Green Goblin. Spidey used his web to catch her, but the jolt snapped her neck, killing her instantly.)

Hmm... maybe that's why he doesn't shoot his web and try and save the Werewolf here?

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

Ok, so I'll chalk it up to 'its not the same bridge', and he's in a different city (San Francisco on assignment).

As you may or may not know, I'm easily amused by comic book characters (or actors/actresses) getting boinked on the head, and here, later in the story, Wolvie (who survived the fall), lunges at Spidey, Spidey leaps out of the way, and Wolvie knocks himself out by crashing headfirst into the side of some poor guys parked sedan. They've should've put that scene in one of the movies!

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

MTU has some lame villains though, and this one, Moondork, uh, I mean Moondark is a perfect example. As goofy as he is, he'd appear at least 4 other times after this though...

Did you know that whenever Spidey WASN'T one of the Team-Up heroes in the book (18, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 97, 104, 105, and Annual 3), it coincided with the release of one of his Giant Size Issues?

Well, it's not true. I fact-checked it and SOME of those issues did:
MTU #23 (Human Torch/Iceman) vs Giant-Sized Spider-Man #1
MTU #26 (Human Torch/Thor) vs Giant-Sized Spider-Man #2

MTU #29 (Human Torch/Iron Man) vs Giant-Sized Spider-Man #3

MTU #32 (Human Torch/Son of Satan) vs Giant-Sized Spider-Man #4 and

MTU #35 (Human Torch/Dr. Strange) vs Giant-Sized Spider-Man #5

Ah well. When MTU ended (#150) it was replaced by Web of Spider-man.

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

Why I didn't send away for this as a 12-year-old, I don't know. I sent away for the Legion of Super-Heroes issue of Amazing World of DC Comics and I was MUCH more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy. 

It looks pretty cool...

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973)

They must've been really impressed with this cover or lacking story to give it a full-page spread. I mean... it's for Doc Savage... issue #3.

You want real Doc Savage from non-Golden Age Pulp, I'd go with the Curtis Magazine Series.

It IS a sweet Gil Kane cover here though...

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

Now at the end of the story, Spidey finishes off Moondark by letting him fall to his death from a BRIDGE! For the 2nd time this happens in THIS comic, just two months after Spidey sees Gwen fall to her death from a BRIDGE.

His attitude about it is pretty breezy, and... yeah, there was no general knowledge of PTSD at that time, but... sheesh. Talk about a weird lack of editorial!

(MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 - Cover Dated August 1973 - on Newsstands May 29th, 1973 - art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin)

TIPPY TEEN #1 - This Looks Familar!

Wally Wood had a long and storied career in comics, and there's plenty to go into, but of note today was his and Publisher Harry Shorten's Tower Comics. Shorten had worked as a writer and Editor at MLJ (Archie Comics) in it's early days and Wood had worked for nearly everyone.

Tower Comics is primarily remembered for it's Thunder Agents by Wally Wood, but the LONGEST RUNNING comic they published was Tippy Teen, an obvious Archie Comics influenced Teen Humor book.

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, cover art by Samm Schwartz)

Shorten brought in Samm Schwartz from Archie Comics to Edit and oversee the book, so naturally, Schwartz got work for Archie artists Harry Lucey, Dan DeCarlo, and Bob White.

Harry Lucey did the first story and... that looks a LOT like Archie, Betty and Veronica (with hair colors the same, but styles switched) and blonde-haired guy (Animal) as a cross between Moose and Jughead. From what I've read, these characters were designed (homaged) by Schwartz.

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Harry Lucey)

And the innuendo was there from the beginning...

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Harry Lucey)

As well as Harry Lucey's famous female poses. If the stories were true, and Lucey would turn his art in with the female characters not wearing any clothes, uh... the inkers certainly got an eyefull!

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Harry Lucey)

The second story was done by Dan DeCarlo. 1965 was DeCarlo coming into his prime. And this... this looks like a variation of Betty and Veronica with all of the small detailed touches of 1965 home life. 

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Dan DeCarlo)

There are moments when you just do a double-take and think... dd they take this STRAIGHT out of an Archie comic? Hey... I love DeCarlo's work (and Harry Lucey and Samm Schwartz), so I love this issue. So it's ok!

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Dan DeCarlo)

I like how they brought back some sexual innuendo too. Not much, but you didn't see anything like THIS in Archie anymore. The art was by longtime journeyman Bill Williams and fits in pretty well. GCD seems to think Samm Schwartz inked him here, but it can be hard to say.

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Bill Williams)

The problem with doing an Archie rip-off... eh homage, is that they've already done almost every storyline you can think of already and ripped THEMSELVES off repeating stuff numerous times. Here, Harry Lucey rips George Frese off with story he drew in Ginger #1 from 1952. Who'd ever remember, right?

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Harry Lucey)

Some of the panels are straight up lifts, and even though Lucey does spice it up a bit and make minor changes - when you read them back to back, it's very clear... still, back in 1965 very few people would've even noticed.

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Harry Lucey)

Lots of Pin-ups to take up space...

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by ....)

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by ....)

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by ....)

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Samm Schwartz)

And... the Beatles-esqe storyline (which I always loved) in which Tippy actually gets to play with the band. 

This series isn't loved by many, but I'm one who still appreciates it... especially this first issue with Lucey and DeCarlo. 

(TIPPY TEEN #1 cover-dated November 1965, on newsstands September 1st, 1965, art by Bill Williams)

AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 - It's All in a Name!

I was a pretty well-read 10-year-old kid, and I think comics may have had an opposite effect on me than it does most people. MOST collectors learned to read from comics. They didn't teach me to read, they made me lazy to read. Who needs books when you have pictures to spell it all out?

I didn't STOP reading books of course, but when movies like War of the Worlds (1953) was shown on regular TV, how could I not be glued to the screen? Back in the early '70s, that was pretty believable special effects. We didn't have much to compare it to.

And that's what probably attracted me to this Amazing Adventures #18 - maybe one of the earliest comic books I remember having. 

(AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973, with cover art by John Romita with inks by Frank Giacoia)

But how is a comic book going to compare to a movie?
It didn't of course. For one thing, it was a story BASED upon concepts from the novel/movie, something I found annoying. And the art...

 Looking back at it now, there ARE moments when his art does look very Neal Adams like (as it SHOULD since he's Neal Adams drawing it), but in particular, the colors look terrible to me and even when it's not they seem to clash in their drab tones. I'm not at all familiar with Petra Goldberg, who is no relation to Stan Goldberg, but this is an early job of hers coloring. She'd do more, a LOT more over the years, but looking at Fantastic Four #142 which I just recently reviewed, everything looks fine there...

 (AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973, with art by Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin)

Who knows? Maybe they were going for a darker tone, but here on the splash, a few pages in, the colors just seem to clutter with the lettering and... ah, what the hell do I know? Between the art, which looks phoned in by Adams and finished by a young Howard Chaykin on one of his earliest assignments, and the ugly colors... I mean, this story just SCREAMS to be in a Black and White Curtis Magazine.

NOW, reading it, I kinda like the story. It's not bad. Killraven, in his ridiculous outfit, tracks down his nemesis, the Keeper and impales him. But as he's dying he tells Killraven of how things got to be how they are, in this post-apocalyptic world.

 (AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973, with art by Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin)

So according to him, the events in War of the Worlds happened in 1901, but then the aliens came back in 2001, better prepared for the bacteria that killed them the first time. They took over the earth and the earthlings tried using an advanced virus to kill them, but it ended up wiping out most of humanity! 

The Keeper, a traitor to humanity for the aliens, killed Killraven's mom, who was trying to be free, but they kept Killraven as a boy, to train as a warrior, he escaped, and now he's seeing the messed-up world for the first time. That's why Killraven kills him - to get revenge, and keeping him as a slave.

Another thing about this comic is... and I said it should be in a Black and White Curtis Magazine, is when they try and deal with mature subjects, like below. It comes off heavy-handed and the art is just not up to par for what you'd expect in a Marvel Comic.  Of course, by this point in the comic, a younger, much less experienced Howard Chaykin was doing the art...

I didn't know that THEN. I just knew I didn't think much of it at the time. 

 (AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973, with art by Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin)

Not to knock Chaykin, who'd go on to be an exceptional artist and storyteller, but here, you can certainly see when Neal Adams WASN'T drawing and Chaykin was. I didn't like it as a kid, I'm more accepting of it as an adult (it's not HORRIBLE), and I certainly like the story better than I remember as a kid.

Now I just have to get through a couple of more issues of it to see if I should read it all...

 (AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973, with art by Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin)

If you're curious as to how they all came up with this, well... Roy Thomas will tell you why:

 (AMAZING ADVENTURES #18 cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20, 1973)