#010. Epic Illustrated Comics

    Epic Illustrated was a comics-magazine anthology published in the United States by Marvel Comics. The series lasted for 34 issues, from Spring 1980 to February 1986. Similar to the US-licensed graphic-story magazine Heavy Metal, it featured mature content oriented at an older audience than traditional American comic books, as well as offering its writers and artists ownership rights and royalties in place of the industry-standard work for hire contracts. A color comic-book imprint, Epic Comics, was spun off in 1982.

    The magazine was initiated under editor Rick Marschall in 1979 under the title Odyssey, and originally set to launch as an issue of Marvel Super Special, Marvel's early graphic novel line. After Marschall learned of at least seven other magazines titled Odyssey, the project was renamed Epic Illustrated and launched as a standalone series. Marschall was replaced by editor Archie Goodwin in the autumn of 1979, several months before the first issue was published.

    In addition to the work of such established mainstream-comics talents as John Buscema and Jim Starlin, and such independent-press creators as Wendy Pini, Goodwin commissioned stories by many new cartoonists, including Steve Bissette, Jon J. Muth, Rick Veitch and Kent Williams. The anthology featured heroic fiction and genre stories, primarily fantasy and science fiction, but in a broad range of styles.

    Epic Illustrated also included an occasional Marvel Comics protagonist, such as the first issue's Silver Surfer. Because the magazine was not subject to traditional comic books' Comics Code Authority, however, writers and artists were free to create material stories that might be risqué or non-canon.

    Each issue usually featured a main story, a number of regular serials, and anthological shorts.

    

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Source of information: From Wikipedia

DC Countdown To Final Crisis. Week 43. Issue 9

DC Countdown To Final Crisis. Week 43. Issue 9
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Batman. Volume 1. Number 674

Batman # 674
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When I'm The Evil Genius

Nothing will be too easy, too painless:



More of the "When I'm the Evil Genius" posts here.

Number 278

Diyos Ko!

Here's a story from Redondo Komix Magasin #159, from 1967, published in the Philippines. I don't know Tagalog, the language, but it's easy enough to follow. It's told economically in only four pages, and is drawn by the late Vicente Catan Jr., known as Vicatan Jr, one of the top Filipino comic artists.

Number 277

The Spider Sorceress

Here's a little tale of arachnids and sorcery from the Fiction House comic book factory. "Werewolf Hunter" was an ongoing series, and this is a reprint published in Ghost Comics #3, from 1952 when that once robust company was breathing its last.

I get in trouble when I try to identify artists, but the Grand Comics Database has no information, so what if I say Lily Renée? The Comics Journal #279 has an article on Renée, with examples of her art from other episodes of Werewolf Hunter.

There are two Werewolf Hunter stories in this issue of Ghost. This one is credited to Armand Weygand, the other is bylined Armand Broussard. It looks like Fiction House couldn't even keep its pen-names straight. Unless--unlikely as it seems--two guys named Armand actually wrote the stories.

Nawwwwwww….

Adventure #253

The October 1958 issue of Adventure Comics featured a rare team-up of the two major teen stars of DC at the time, Superboy and Robin. Of course, due to the constant timeline problems with Superboy, Robin had to be projected into the past in order to interact with Clark as a peer.

The plot is wildly incompatible with the rest of the Silver Age DC. First, Robin is sent back in time to prevent Superman from getting killed years later. But we know that one of the central tenets of the DC universe is that you cannot go back in time to change history, so presumably this was shortly before DC established that principle. And of course the notion of Lex Luthor being the same age as Superboy/Clark had not been established either, so this scene is not as embarrassing as it would appear only a few years later:

"Young" Luthor looks to be at least 30 in that picture.

That brings up another problem with the whole story. Robin and Superboy appear at a scientific lecture where the marvels of the future are discussed:



That dates the lecture to no later than mid-1945, which means it's taking place 13 years prior to the comic, which means Superman is at that time 13 years older than Superboy. But at this point, Superboy looks to be in his late-teens, which would put Supes at 30, several years older than he's supposed to be at that point in his career.

Still, the story does present some interesting opportunities for DC's Teen Titans of their time to show off:


Among the next set of ads is this terrific and hugely influential house ad.


How much more compactly can you tell Superman's origin than that? It's a perfect little bit of storytelling that introduces the major characters in the Superman family at the time and their relationship to him.

The Green Arrow story is part of the brief (7 issues) run of Jack Kirby on the Emerald Archer. In Prisoners of Dimension Zero, Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves transported to another dimension, of giant aliens. They meet Xeen Arrow, a huge counterpart to GA, who manages to send them back to our own earth:



The Aquaman story is somewhat disappointing; he travels back in time, encounters ancient dinosaurs in a cave, and is constantly attacked by a hungry brontosaurus. Of course, nowadays we know the brontosaurus did not exist, but even back then it was believed to be a vegetarian.



Update: Michael Grabois, who runs the terrific Legion Omnicon, asked in the comments whether the letters column in this issue included any comments on Adventure #247, which of course included the first Legion of Superheroes story. As it happens, Adventure #253 was the first issue that included the Smallville Mailsack, but the letters were mostly general questions/observations about Superboy and the other characters:

1. Why can't Lana Lang learn Superboy's real identity?
2. Where did Aquaman get his name?
3. Having Superboy around the house must be nice for the Kents.
4. Please give Green Arrow his own magazine.
5. Why doesn't Superboy make the Kents rich by squeezing coal into diamonds?

I looked in the next ten issues or so and didn't see a mention of the LSH in the letter columns.