A fan named Dave Ballard wrote and alerted me to this ultra-cool website, Hunter’s Planet of the Apes archives.  A while back I had published two posts, one about Marvel’s POTA movie-themed covers and the other one featuring Marvel’s POTA characters.  Apparently, the cover scans (with the POTA logo and cover copy removed) were retouched by Dave for this site.

Hunter’s site has a fascinating page on Doug Moench's unpublished Apes stories.  Apparently the POTA magazine was cancelled abruptly when the licensing fees were going to be increased.  Moench had plans for a new series featuring a time-travelling character who would visit different eras and different worlds in the universe of the Apes.  Visit this page on Hunter’s site for more details, including some of the actual unpublished scripts.  Nuff said.

One of my favorite Marvel magazines of all time was Savage Tales #2, featuring Barry Smith's Red Nails adaption.  I blogged about that giant-size wonder earlier this year.  Apparently Red Nails made Savage Tales a hit, and editor Roy Thomas commissioned Neal Adams to do three covers that would spin the magazine in a different direction.

Savage Tales #3 (1974) features Conan going berserk, about to behead another barbarian before he can defile that babe in the metal bikini.  I think it's terrific; Adams always excelled at portraying characters losing themselves in rage.  A painting like this could sell a comic, regardless of the content inside (which happened to be quite good in this case).  Adams also did a series of paintings for a line of Tarzan paperbacks, which again, were quite irresistible.

The baton was passed from Conan to Ka-Zar in Savage Tales #4 (1974).  If one barbarian magazine was successful, why not two?  (If one Deadpool book is successful, if one Wolverine book is successful, if one X-Men book...you get the idea.)  This was Conan's last appearance in Savage Tales before Roy Thomas spun him off in his own super-giant magazine, Savage Sword of Conan.  It would be up to Ka-Zar and Zabu to carry ST forward.  Zabu looks very intimidating here, doesn't he?

This cover always made me think that a time travelling team-up between Conan and Ka-Zar would have been a nifty idea.

Ka-Zar took cover the masthead in Savage Tales #5 (1974), with another rip-roaring cover.  Within this painting, Adams captured all the elements that should make Ka-Zar a fantastic series.  He's surrounded by prehistoric creatures, about to get his chest ripped to shreds, with Zabu the Sabretooth Tiger as his backup.  And the requisite modern babe in the foreground waiting to be rescued.  Shanna the She-Devil and SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse (who later became Mockingbird) joined Ka-Zar in subsequent issues.

Notice also that the figures of Ka-Zar and Zabu from issue #4 were used on the corner masthead.  Nuff said.

My family moved around a lot when I was a kid; we lived in several places in California, Alaska, and in 1974, my parents moved our family to Corpus Christi, Texas.  It was a real culture shock for me to move into what they call The Bible Belt. 

I went from having lots of friends at my old home to having none.  I had to adjust to life at Hamlin Middle School, where a strange concoction of Rednecks (aka the White kids), Mexican-Americans, and African-Americans attempted to get through to high school.  Compared to the Norman Rockwell-esque school I had attended in Anchorage, I was faced with kids who seemed like adults.  They were selling drugs between classes and talking about wild parties the night before.  Violence seemed to be ready to erupt at any minute—the Rednecks eyed the black kids with steam pouring out of their nostrils as they walked near each other.  I belonged to no group. I felt like I existed in the Phantom Zone. 

I was lucky to have one thing in my life remain constant: comic books.  And in those days (before specialty stores), my senses were poised to detect comics wherever I could find them.  I was like Kraven the Hunter wherever I went.  I had scoped out three places that I could reach on my bike: a drugstore, a supermarket, and a 7-Eleven.  All three received comics each week, although only the 7-Eleven specialized in monster magazines from Marvel and Warren.  One day at the supermarket, I found Howard the Duck #1 on the lower rack of the magazine stand.  I had to reach between a lady’s legs to grab it.  I had no idea about the speculation fever on this comic, it was just special to me because Howard had first appeared in Man-Thing.  Howard’s tag-line, Trapped In A World He Never Made, seemed like my life at the time.

All of this was happening when I was thirteen years old.  I hadn’t really known anyone else my age who was as fanatical about comics as I was.  I certainly didn’t know of any adults who read comics (outside of the comics professionals in New York City). 

One day, I read an article in the newspaper about a special store in Corpus Christi that only sold comic books!  I asked my Mom to drive me over there. I don't recall the exact location, but it was in an older suburban area, probably a house that was converted into a store. Inside were dozens of boxes of back-issue comic books. We met the owner, a Mexican-American man who was also a Judge in Corpus Christi. Judge Margarito Garza.

This was a historic occasion!  For the first time, I met an adult who was also a comic book collector!  Not only that, he was a well respected person in the community.  My enthusiasm burst out of my mouth, a constant stream of chatter about this or that character.  My Mom seemed both amused by the Judge and impressed by the store.  We talked with him about the recent Wonder Woman TV movie starring Lynda Carter.  I’m paraphrasing from 30 year old memories, but he said:  One thing about that movie didn’t work for me.  Wonder Woman is walking down the street in that outfit, and every guy just walks right by her.  If any woman dressed like that and walked by, I would definitely take a look!

His store seemed like paradise.  The Judge didn’t sell new comics, only back issues, but he had all the ones I lusted after.  All 18 issues of Silver Surfer were in the back issue bins, along with the Kree-Skrull War issues of Avengers, and all kinds of King-Size Annuals I had wanted to buy.  The walls were adorned with posters, including some reproductions of famous comic book covers the Judge had drawn himself. The one he did for SHIELD #1 looked so interesting that it led me to Jim Steranko's work.

My money didn’t go very far in Judge Garza’s store.  I made several return trips.  Since either the Judge or his patient wife were there running things, my Mom felt safe with having me visit there.  One day I found them preparing a stack of comics for another customer, and saw an item that looked interesting.  It was a fanzine called the Comic Reader.  I had never seen a fanzine before.  It was a mystery to me how you could even buy one!  But it was fantastic, with a neat cover and loaded with news on upcoming comics.

I think my Mom was worried about how much time I spent with comics.  She probably remembered the newspaper articles from the 50s about Wertham and Seduction of the Innocent.  The Judge did me a great favor by explaining to my Mom that comics were good for kids.  Contrary to popular belief, comics had good moral values; they kept young people out of trouble.  (Which was true in those days.)  There it was—comics had been stamped with a seal of approval for my Mom—by the ultimate authority figure.

We left Corpus Christi in 1976 to return to California.  I was relieved to get out.  My parents even seemed very relieved to leave that world behind.  I didn’t really miss anything about that area—except for the Judge and his wonderful store.

Note: This is an adaption of an article I originally wrote in 2006.

A reader named Corando Gallegos left a comment on my original post with their memories:

…the Judge's name was Judge Margarito Garza. Even though I grew up in Alice (a town about an hour west of Corpus Christi), my mom would come to Corpus once a month and leave us at this haven of comic books. It was located down McArdle and Airline and was there for the longest time. Unfortunately, after the Judge died awhile back the store was sold and closed and is not there anymore. My brother and I would spend all day there reading and looking for the right combination of issues we wanted. Even worse, I moved away for awhile and did not realize what had happened to this place until much later.  The Judge himself was the biggest comic fan I knew and while he was strict with his customers he was fair and his store had it all!  Now fortunately, there are a few places again in Corpus to buy comics but nothing like this one where you hang out lose yourself in the world of superheroes and science fiction.

Visit Judge Margarito Garza’s Wikipedia page to learn more about him and his superhero creation, Relampago! 

Thank you to his friends and son Lawrence who wrote me a few years ago.  Nuff said!

In 1974 Marvel introduced us to something a heck of lot larger than good old Giant-Size comics: Marvel Treasury Sized Editions. 10” x 13” suckers that were so big, they fell over on the newsstand.  And while they mostly contained reprints, Marvel put in a few special features in the early editions.

100 Pages of Spider-Man were wrapped around a John Romita (Sr) cover featuring the web-slinger in a classic pose.  I say thee nay—classic is too weak a word. It’s archetypal!  How could a kid not want to buy this comic if they were a Spidey fan?  If I were Disney, I’d take this image and slap it on mugs, T-shirts, and all kinds of merchandise.

The inside front cover featured an editorial by Stan the Man—can you dig his mad mod haircut and full beard?  Crazy, man.

There was also a double page mockup of the Daily Bugle, with Marie Severin providing the “photographs”.

The second page of the Bugle shows the Bullpen hard at work and also announces Ross Andru joining Gerry Conway on Amazing.

The table of contents page featured a gallery of headshots by Romita, comprised of Spider-Man’s friends and foes.

The back cover was another Romita headshot, accompanied by the possibly the most famous quote from any comic book.

I was thrilled to get this in 1974, and I still get one when I pull out my beat up copy.  The Treasury Editions that followed in the first year were pretty good as well—most notably the Fantastic Four (with the Galactus Trilogy) and Conan (with Barry Smith’s Red Nails) editions.  Nuff said!

I’ve been collecting scans of Marvel house ads for some time and just ran across this collection of ads for Tales of the Zombie magazine.  The ad above, for the first issue of the magazine, shows the original Bill Everett drawing of the character from a short story published before Marvel became the House of Ideas.  You gotta love the blurbs:  No Grave Can Hold Him!  The Zombie Cometh!

The ad for the second issue started featuring the art of regular artist Pablo Marcos. 

The color ads for TOTZ could appear in Marvel Comics, but Zombies themselves could not appear in any comics-code approved book.  Fans seemed to crave a team-up between the Zombie and Spider-Man.  We didn’t get that, nor any team-ups with any other horror characters. 

This ad is for my favorite issue of TOTZ—featuring the Steve Gerber story where Simon Garth gains his life back for one day, A Day in the Life of a Dead Man.

I hope you do not feel like a zombie on Monday, dear readers!  Nuff said.

The Thing pinup by John Byrne, featured in the Fantastic Four Special Edition that I yakked up two weeks ago.  Byrne portrayed Ben Grimm as he appeared in the early issues of the FF, somewhat lumpy in places, rather than his modern rocky design.  Nuff said!

Nearly a year ago, I blogged about one of my favorite comics of all time, Giant-Size Defenders #1.  Today another fan, Juan Ortiz, wrote in to tell me an interesting story about this comic:

When I was just a kid, I sent a letter to Marvel asking them to print giant-size comics, just like DC had been doing. Having been a Defenders fan back then, I suggested a giant-sized issue. For which I received a No-prize for. I also think my name was printed on the Defenders pin-up in this issue. Although I can't confirm it, since they spelled Juan with a T. It reads Tuan. But back then, my lettering was not the best. So it may have read as Tuan to them. Juan

Here you can see the double-page pin-up by Sal Buscema of my favorite non-team of all time.  The three big guns--Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange--are front and center, with Valykrie and Silver Surfer flanking the sides.  Look at the blurb on the lower right hand corner.

See you in our 25 cent Titan-fest, Tuan!  I find this story entirely plausible--since a J can look like a T in certain circumstances.  Or it may not have been your lettering, Juan--it could have been the Marvel staffers were high on ink fumes!  I remember originally seeing this blurb when it was first published, and wondering who the heck Tuan was.  Thirty plus years later, the mystery is solved! 

Thanks for writing T--er, Juan!  I hope you kept your No-Prize letter, I never got one.  Nuff said.

The Marvel Monster mags had some great illustrations on the inside front covers and contents pages.

This one by Pablo Marcos was featured in Vampire Tales 6, 1974.  I thought it was an outstanding visual of Morbius (the Living Vampire) meeting Lilith (Daughter of Dracula).  Marcos always had a great take on the horror characters—and his ink and grey wash tones were perfect for the black and white magazines.  There’s the violence on the left—with Morbius about to chow down on the woman—and Lilith’s bold sexuality on the right stopping him.  Alas, this was another case where the illustration did not fit the story inside—the two characters did not meet at all.

The cover to this issue also featured Lilith, a painting by Boris Vallejo.  Marvel probably intended Lilith to become the co-feature in Vampire Tales, giving the magazine two strong characters (along with Morbius) to attract readers. 

But Marvel’s decisions were often haphazard—was this due to the round robin of editors or illegal substances in the Marvel offices?  Lilith is a vampire, she belongs in Vampire Tales!  No wait, Lilith is Drac’s daughter, let’s put her back in Vampire Tales!  Oh no, we have a Lilith inventory story by Steve Gerber that was never published.  Dracula Lives is cancelled.  What to do?  Put in Marvel Preview #12 and call it the Haunt of Horror!

I suppose all these stories are collected in some Essentials trade, right?  Nuff said!