Thursday, April 15, 2021


"Twice as many pages! Only 25¢!"

That's what is says on the cover of Marvel Age #7, the first issue will a full 32 pages inside. Despite the new expansion, this issue is chock full of content, starting with the Micronauts (this time joined by the X-Men) and artist Butch Guice making their second cover appearance. 

As promised, this issue kicks off the very popular "New Talent" feature, per EIC Jim Shooter's wishes. For fans looking back now, this inaugural article doesn't disappoint, as one of the young artists in question is none other than future superstar Tim Sale, who inks a page pencilled by John Buscema as his sample! 




"Coming Attractions" for this month makes a brief mention of the now-legendary "Assistant Editors Month," but doesn't come near capturing the insanity of that event. And in "Newswatch," we get another Rom redesign by Walter Simonson, this time of Starshine, as well as some playful fun with the logo for Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man


Art/Production Supervisor Danny Crespi has his "Employee Performance Record" revealed in an article by Jim Shooter--and Shooter himself is spotlighted in a page inspired by The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. 

Artist Bob Camp updates the "Map of the Marvel Bullpen" previously seen on the cover of FOOM #16 back in 1976, while the letters page features header art and a letter by future storyboard artist Benton Jew, as well as a gag drawing by Mike Carlin. 


Marvel Age #7

Price: $0.25 US 
Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)
On sale: October 1983 
Copyright © 1983 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation. 

• Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
• Editor and Design Director: Jim Salicrup
• Editorial Assistant: Mark Lerer
• Art/Production Coordinator: Danny Crespi
• Assistant Art/Production Coordinator: Ron Zalme
• Production: Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Stu Schwarzberg, Joe Albelo, John Morelli, 
  and Barry Shapiro
• Typesetter: Nancy Dodaro
• Colorists: Paul Becton and George Roussos
• Logo: John Morelli
• Friendly Assistance: Lynn Cohen and Margaret Clark
• Cover: Butch Guice and Bob Wiacek (cover credits now listed in the masthead!) 
• Direct Sales Manager: Carol Kalish
• Assistant Direct Sales Managers: Peter David and Lea Sapp

Front cover 
• Characters: X-Men and Micronauts

 Inside front cover
• Ad for Indiana Jones
 
Page 1
• Contents
• Masthead 
• Indicia 

Column: "The Stars of Tomorrow" 

Pages 2 – 5
• Marvel Comics Coming Attactions (no writing credits) 
Comics on sale September 27, 1983 
    • The Thing #7
    • Daredevil #202
    • New Mutants #11
    • Dazzler #30
    • King Conan #20
    • Return of the Jedi #4
    • The Falcon #3
    • Moon Knight Special Edition #3
    • Machine Man #1
    • Marvel Fumettis #1 (published as the Marvel Fumetti Book #1) 
    • Avengers Annual #12
    • X-Men Annual #7
Comics on sale October 4, 1983
    • Amazing Spider-Man #248
    • Captain America #289
    • Thor #339
    • Indiana Jones #13
    • Savage Sword of Conan #95
    • Moon Knight #35
    • Micronauts #56
    • Crystar #5
    • X-Men/Micronauts #1
    • S.H.I.E.L.D. #2
Comics on sale October 7, 1983
    • Epic Illustrated #21
Comics on sale October 11, 1983
    • Incredible Hulk #291
    • Avengers #239
    • Conan #154
    • Marvel Tales #159 
    • X-Men #177
    • Rom #59
    • Power Man and Iron Fist #101
    • G.I. Joe #19
    • Cloak and Dagger #4
    • Sub-Mariner #1
    • Blip #10 (seriously, did these issues ever get printed?) 
    • Marvel Age Magazine #10 
Comics on sale October 18, 1983
    • Fantastic Four #262
    • Marvel Team-Up #137
    • Marvel Fanfare #12
    • Iron Man #178
    • Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #86
    • Defenders #127
    • Star Wars #79
    • Alpha Flight #6
    • Dreadstar #7
    • Mantis #1 (Doesn't look like this miniseries by Denny O'Neil and Val Mayerik ever published) 

Page 5
    Note to retailers to get their stores listed in the Marvel Comics Super Mart. 

Page 6
Newswatch -- mostly making the point that so much stuff is going on it's impossible to keep up. 
    Items mention: 
    • Shadowmasters
    • Alien Legion
    • The Doctor Strange graphic novel (not sure this published)
    • Magneto limited series (I don't think this published -- certainly not under this name) 
    • Fantastic Four
    • Longshot
    • Marvel Team-Up Annual
    • Sub-Mariner limited series
    • Howard the Duck limited series (this didn't publish either)
    • Machine Man limited series
    • S.H.I.E.L.D. limited series
    • Thing graphic novel
    • Futurians graphic novel
    • Soldier of Void (This might have been a working title for Void Indigo) 
    • Kitty Pryde and Wolverine limited series
    • A comic by Bob Bolling (that would have been Wally the Wizard)

Pages 6 - 7
Behind the Lines
   Job review of Art/Production Supervisor Danny Crespi by Jim Shooter

Page 7
More Heroes Behind the Scenes Dept. 
    Profile of Assistant Editor Ann Nocenti by Carl Potts

Page 8 
Article: "Machine Man Returns!" by Mark Lerer

Pages 9 - 12
Article: "An Annual Tradition," by Robert Simpson and Mark Lerer

Pages 13 - 14
Article: "Creating a New Limited Series: The Falcon" by Jim Oswley

Page 15
"The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Volume One" -- spotlight on Jim Shooter 

Pages 16 - 18
"A Map of the Marvel Bullpen," art by Bob Camp -- with a key to who's who

Pages 18 - 19
Article: "A Special Preview of Marvel Tails," by Jim Salicrup

Pages 20 - 22
Article: "Mutants and Micronauts" by Sandy Hausler

Pages 23 - 24
Article: "Dazzler: The Graphic Novel" by Sandy Hausler and Mark Lerer

Page 25
Article: "The Creation of the Dazzler" by Sandy Hausler and Mark Lerer 

Pages 26 - 29
Article: "The New Talent Department"
Intro by Jim Salicrup
Critiques of artwork by:
    • Tim Sale (yes, that Tim Sale!)
    • John Torrisi

Page 30
"Marvel Wants You!" -- guidelines for submitting artwork to Marvel, with art by Terry Austin

Pages 31 - 32 
Letters page: "Marvel Mail Baggage," with illustrations by Benton Jew and Mike Carlin

Inside back cover
Ad for Daredevil #200

Back cover
Ad for The Defenders

2 comments:

  1. I Wanna see the illos by Mike and Benton!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Benton's is the Hulk with the mailbag above. I'll try scanning Mike's again -- it did not scan well earlier.

    ReplyDelete

  Three hundred issues of the Man without Fear, and Marvel Age jumps in with a big retrospective including interviews with Ann Nocenti, Lee ...