Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Halloween Horror THRILLING ADVENTURE STORIES "Temple of the Spider"

Many ASIAN martial arts Stories also involve the supernatural...

...such as this half-century old tale written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated (pencilling and inking) by Walt Simonson.










The short-lived (1974-75) Atlas/Seaboard line of comics and b/w magazines produced a lot of forgettable crap.
But, thanks to page rates that equalled Marvel & DC's, it also lured top talent who wanted a little more creative freedom, including established pros like Wally Wood, Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Russ Heath, Howard Nostrand, Ernie Colon, and Archie Goodwin!
Plus talented youngsters like Howard Chaykin, Larry Hama, Bernie Wrightson, Pat Broderick, and Walt Simonson!
The b/w magazine this story appeared in,
 Thrilling Adventure Stories, was a multi-genre anthology, offering a smorgasbord of very good strips!
Sadly, Atlas/Seaboard fell apart due to poor sales which led to even worse editorial choices.
Note: there weren't any local comic shops back then, and comics were entirely-depenedent on newsstand/candy store sales and mail-subscriptions.
If you didn't "click" with the audience fast, you were history!
And Atlas disappeared within two years.
No book got past #4!
This particular tale was produced around the time Goodwin and Simonson created their ward-winning Manhunter strip for DC, updating the Golden Age character to the 1970s!
That strip featured a lot of superbly-visualized and choreographed armed and unarmed martial arts, with a heavy emphasis on Asian disciplines!

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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Halloween Horror DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU "Corpse Rider"

Many stories involving martial arts also involve the supernatural...

...as shown in this unusual one-shot feature from Marvel's Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #16 (1975)!
Mahwah artist Sanho Kim had been making a rep for himself at Charlton with both supernatural and romance tales (and in a couple of cases) stories combining both, like THIS!
He came over to Marvel to do martial arts-related stories, and sadly, despite his experience, couldn't find work there in any other genre.

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Volume 1
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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU / SAVAGE FISTS OF KUNG FU "Master Plan of Fu Manchu" Prologue

In 1974, Marvel did something they excelled at...a crossover...
...this time, involving their newest batch of heroes, kung fu experts Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Sons of the Tiger in a Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Special one-shot b/w magazine, illustrated by a plethora of veterans and up-and-comers!
It was so successful that Marvel took the unprecedented step of reprinting the story within a year of publication, this time in color and in the prestigious oversized Treasury Edition format!
Starting Wednesday, you'll see the never-reprinted color version of that story!
Don't Miss It!
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(which includes the b/w version of this story, but not the color version!)

Friday, August 7, 2020

MARVEL's Kung-Fu Fighter, Richard Dragon?

...the character was initially-presented to comics fans via the Marvel magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #6 (1974)!

A year later, DC would debut Richard Dragon in his own title.
Considering the lead time required to produce a comic, much less one starring a totally-new character, was the book in preparation when the article appeared?
Was it offered to Marvel first, or did O'Neil, who was working steadily for DC, offer it to Marvel's competitor as a counterpoint to Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist?
We'll never know...
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Pop Culture Martial Arts
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Sunday, July 5, 2020

Please Enter the Dojo...

...for we have a vast amount of knowledge to impart to you, beginning with...
...this time-lost, never-reprinted tale by a long-forgotten publisher!
Then, the first chapter of a never-reprinted series...
...that introduced a number of characters to both the DC comics and movie-tv universes!
Then, we look at time-lost tales from Marvel which haven't been seen since the mid-1970s...
...when they appeared in both black-and-white...
...and color!
Bookmark Us and Follow Along the Path to Enlightenment!