Things got a little strange in Marvel Age #66, the special "Strange" issue with articles on Strange Tales, Doctor Strange, the graphic novel Someplace Strange, and that strange new super-hero, Speedball, all under a pretty cool cover by John Bolton. 

This issue includes an extra-long Mutant Report, with articles on X-Terminators, Excalibur, Cloak and Dagger, and an interview with Ann Nocenti. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the article on Speedball doesn't have any quotes from artist Steve Ditko. 

Marvel Age #66

Price: $0.50 US 

Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)

On sale: May 17, 1988

Cover date: September, 1988

Copyright © 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. 

• Tom DeFalco: Editor in Chief

• Jim Salicrup: Supreme Marvel Zombie

• Dwight Jon Zimmerman: Managing Editor

• Sholly Fisch and Scott Lobdell: Coming Attractions

• Dawn Geiger and Ken Lopez: Designer

• Fred Hembeck: Sage of Marvel Age

• Craig Anderson, Steve Buccellato, Bob Budiansky, Bobbie Chase, Daniel Chichester, Margaret Clark, Don Daley, James DiGiovanna, Daryl Edelman, Sue Flaxman, Archie Goodwin, Mark Gruenwald, Larry Hama, Bob Harras, Glenn Herdling, Sid Jacobson, Terry Kavanagh, Ralph Macchio, Howard Mackie, Dwayne McDuffie, Marc McLaurin, Al Milgrom, A.A. Perry, Carl Potts, Pat Redding, Mike Rockwitz, Marc Siry, Sara Tuchinsky, David Wohl, and Gregory Wright: Consulting Editors

• John Romita: Art Director

• Don Perlin: Managing Art Director

• André Coates, Donald C. Hudson, and Christopher Ivy: The Raiders

• Virginia Romita: Traffic/Production Manager

• Len Kaminsky: Assistant Traffic/Production Manager

• Adam Blaustein: Manufacturing Coordinator

• Brenda Mings: Typesetter

• Jack Abel: Proofreader

• Paul Becton and Gregory Wright: Colorists

• John Bolton: Cover art

• Joe Albelo, Paul Becton, Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Hector Collazo, Harry Eisenstein, Doreen Frederick, Michael Heisler, Brad Joyce, Cindy Kruhm, Ed Magalong, Michael Maier, and Eddie Marcaro: Production

• Barbara Arnstein, Christine Aurilia, Mark Chiarello, Kelly Corvese, Dwight Coye, Tom Fardy, Jesus Gonzalez, Marie Javins, John Lewandowski, Fabian Nicieza, George Roussos, Stu Schwartzberg, Mark Silverman, and Rodney S. Timmons: Friendly Assistance 

• Steve Sheffler: Rights and Permissions Editor

• Carol Kalish: Vice President Direct Sales

• Dale Kanzler: Assistant Direct Sales Manager Administrative

• Lou Bank: Assistant Direct Sales Manager Customer Service

• Steve Saffel: Promotion Manager 

• Irving Forbush: Someone Strange 

Front cover 

• Characters: Doctor Strange, Speedball, Cloak and Dagger and more

 Inside front cover

• Salicrup's Section 

• Marvel Agenda (contents) 

• Masthead 

• Indicia 

Pages 1 - 5

Marvel Coming Attractions

Titles on Sale June 28 

• Daredevil #259
• The Black Panther #4
• Strikeforce: Morituri #22
• Marvel Age Annual #4
• Psi-Force #24
• Tales of G.I. Joe #10
• The 'Nam Magazine #3
• Nick Fury Vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #4
• West Coast Avengers #37
• Wolfpack #3
• Excalibur #1
• G.I. Joe #77
• Web of Spider-Man #43
• The Uncanny X-Men #235
• What The--?! #3

Titles on Sale July 5

• Captain America #346
• Solo Avengers #11
• Strange Tales #19
• Alf #8
• The Amazing Spider-Man #306
• Groo the Wanderer #44
• The New Mutants #68
• Marvel Comics Presents #4
• Saint George #2
• D.P. 7 #24
• Star Comics Magazine #12
• The X-Men Annual #12
• The Savage Sword of Conan #152
• Akira #2
• Spider-Man trade paperback
• Heathcliff #27
• Speedball #1
• Alpha Flight #63

Titles on Sale July 12

• Marvel Tales #216
• Marvel Age Magazine #67
• The Incredible Hulk #348
• Web of Spider-Man Annual #4
• The Flintstone Kids #8
• The Avengers #296
• Conan the Barbarian #211
• G.I. Joe #78
• The Punisher #12
• Silver Surfer #16
• Marvel Fanfare #40
• Justice #24
• X-Terminators #1
• The Uncanny X-Men #236
• Dr. Zero 33

Titles on Sale July 19

• The Fantastic Four #319
• Iron Man #235
• Thor #396
• The Amazing Spider-Man #307
• Marvel Comics Presents #5
• Alf Annual #1
• West Coast Avengers Annual #3
• Conan Saga #17
• The Official Marvel Comics Index to the Avengers #8
• The Silver Surer hardcover
• G.I. Joe European Missions #2
• Classic X-Men #26
• Dragon's Teeth #2
• The Spectacular Spider-Man #143
• The Transformers #45
• X-Factor #33
• Alien Legion #6
• Cloak and Dagger 31
• The 'Nam #23
• G.I. Joe Comics Magazine #12

Page 7

Newswatch 

Item: Stories of G.I. Joe from the British magazine Action Force will be available in the U.S. in the new series G.I. Joe European Missions. 

Item: Dragon's Teeth, another Marvel U.K. project, will be available in the U.S. soon as well. 

Item: Gregory Wright has been promoted to Managing Editor, Special Projects: Sara Tuchinsky and James DiGiovanna have joined staff as assistant editors. 

The Top Ten 

• The Uncanny X-Men #230
• X-Factor 329
• The New Mutants #64
• The Amazing Spider-Man #301
• The Punisher #9
• Silver Surfer #12
• Classic X-Men #22
• Web of Spider-Man #39
• Iron Man #231
• Spectacular Spider-Man #139

Page 8 

Marvel Trivia Quiz

Pages 9 - 13

The Mutant Report 

Article: "X-Terminators Stoke Inferno," by Scott Lobdell

Article: "Excalibur Monthly Series Starts," by Scott Lobdell

Article: "Cloak and Dagger," by Glenn Herdling (continues on page 18) 

Pages 14 - 15

Stan's Soapbox

Willie Lumpkin, by Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo 

Pages 16 - 17

Hembeck's Page in Marvel Age

Pages 18 - 20

The Mutant Report Continued...

Article: "Ann Nocenti - Past, Present, and Future," by Bobbie Chase

Pages 21 - 

Article: "Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme," by Glenn Herdling 

Pages 23 - 24

Epic Spotlight: "Someplace Strange," by Barbara Arnstein

Pages 25 - 27

Article: "Speedball, the Masked Marvel," by Peter Sanderson 

Pages 28 - 30

The Marvel Age 1977 Part II, by Brian Nelson

Pages 31 - 32

Letters column: "Hey Rocky, Watch Me Pull a Letter Out of My Hat!", suggested by John Safin 

Inside back cover

Ad for Wolverine #1

Back cover

Ad for The Evolutionary War 

 

Artist Bill Sienkiewicz lands the first of three Marvel Age covers with this illustration of the New Mutants. This provided fans with an early glimpse of the new art style Sienkiewicz had developed, following his Neal Adams-inspired work on Moon Knight and Fantastic Four. 

In his editorial, Jim Salicrup talks about "collectors' fever," and how it can extend from comics to what could generously be described as tchochkes...he notes that he owns comic character buttons, Pez dispensers, toys, plus ticket stubs, rubber stamps, and more. We all have 'em to one degree or another.

This month's "Marvel Coming Attractions" raised a couple of questions for me, like...why didn't they list each week's titles in alphabetical order? And why weren't there captions on all the art, and not just some of it? I asked the second question because I could not tell what comic this panel came from: 

By process of elimination, I'm guessing this panel came from Captain America #298, but without the issue to refer to I can't be sure. 

Chris Claremont discusses his work on the new Epic Comics miniseries Black Dragon, which reunited him with his Marada the She-Wolf collaborator, artist John Bolton, as well as his legendary work on X-Men, the original Wolverine miniseries, and much more. Readers were treated to this previously unpublished X-Men cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin: 

In "Our Pal Sal," writer Jim Massara interviews legendary artist Sal Buscema, providing information on Buscema's career that most readers probably had never heard, like his long road to breaking into comics, the fact that his first Marvel assignment required him to ink an entire Captain America issue (penciled by John Romita) in three days while he had a day job, or the roles he played in local community theater. 

And in "The New Talent Department," the saga of assistant editor Mark Lerer's quest to become an established writer continues with the plot for the debut story starring his hero, Decathlon. Artist Ron Wilson provided this character design for our hero: 

Marvel Age #16

Price: $0.35 US 

Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)

On sale: April 10, 1984

Cover date: July, 1984

Copyright © 1984 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation. 

• Jim Shooter: Editor in Chief

• Jim Salicrup: Editor and Design Director

• Mark Lerer: Assistant Editor

• Bob Kessel: Designer

• Jim Massara: Coming Attractions

• Dan Crespi: Art/Production Coordinator

• Ron Zalme: Assistant Art/Production Coordinator

• Joe Albelo, Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Morrie Kuramoto, Ken Lopez, John Morelli, 

  and Barry Shapiro: Production

• Brenda Mings: Typesetter

• Paul Becton and George Roussos: Colorists

• Craig Anderson and Lynn Cohen: Friendly Assistance

• Bill Sienkiewicz: Cover 

• Carol Kalish: Direct Sales Representative

• Peter David: Assistant Direct Sales Manager

• Marsha Rosenberg: Sales Manager for Special Events

• Steve Saffel: Assistant Promotions Manager for Direct Sales

• Irving Forbush: Homo Inferior

Front cover 

• Characters: The New Mutants

 Inside front cover

• Ad for Power Pack #1

 

Page 1

• Marvel Agenda (contents) 

• Masthead 

• Indicia 

Editorial: "A Few Minutes with Jimmy Salicrup" by Jim Salicrup

Pages 2 – 5

Marvel Comics Coming Attractions 

Comics on sale June 25

• The Thing #16

• Daredevil #211

• New Mutants #20

• Dazzler #34

• Ka-Zar #34

• Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #6

• Alien Legion #3

• Marvel Team-Up Annual #7 

Comics on sale July 3

• Amazing Spider-Man #257

• Captain America #298

• Thor #348

• Indiana Jones #22

• Savage Sword of Conan #104

• Doctor Strange #67

• U.S. 1 #12

• Power Pack #3

Comics on sale July 10

• Kull the Conqueror #6

• Incredible Hulk #300

• Avengers #248

• Conan the Barbarian #163

• Marvel Tales #168

• X-Men #186

• Rom #59

• Power Man and Iron Fist #110

• G.I. Joe #28

Comics on sale July 17

• Fantastic Four #271

• Marvel Team-Up #146

• Iron Man #187

• Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #95

• The New Defenders #136

• Star Wars #88

• Alpha Flight #15

• What If #47

• Dreadstar #13

Page 6

Newswatch

• Item: Amazing Spider-Man #252, the first issue with the black costume, has sold out just five days after going on sale. 

• Item: There's a Howard the Duck movie in the works, and Steve Gerber will be a creative consultant on it and also write a new HTD series. (Not sure whether Gerber had any input on the movie, but that new series did not happen...at least, not with Gerber writing.)

• Item: A new series called The West Coast Avengers is coming soon.

• Item: Louise Simonson is taking over as writer of Marvel Team-Up with issue #149. (Unfortunately, the series would end with issue #150.) 

• Item: Cloak and Dagger has been adapted into a radio dramatization by a group of junior high students. 

• Item: The Nightcrawler miniseries is still on the way, and it will be worth the wait because it will be written and drawn by founding New X-Men artist Dave Cockrum. 

Pages 7 - 9

Article: "The Starriors Saga," by Dwight Jon Zimmerman

Pages 10 - 15

Article: "Marvel Age Talks to Chris Claremont," by Mark Lerer

Pages 16 - 17

"Fred Hembeck and Marvel Age Present Untrue Tales of the Marvel Bullpen"

Pages 18 - 21

Article: "Our Pal Sal," by Jim Massara

Pages 22 - 25

Article: "The Marvel Age: 1964," by Warren Reece

Pages 26 - 27

The New Talent Department

Page 28

Submission ad for the new talent

Page 29 

Subscription ad

Pages 30 - 32

Letters page: "Marvel Age: Really Very Entertaining Literature And Good Eating!" 

Suggested by and illustrated by Benton Jew

 

The long-running Dreadstar series, one of the most memorable titles from the Epic comics line, is the cover feature on Marvel Age #13, as illustrated by writer/artist Jim Starlin, creator of the series. Dreadstar proved to be popular and long-running, and would go on to be published by Marvel, First, and Malibu, with collected editions from Slave Labor, Dynamite, and Ominous Press. It's all the more impressive considering the series' long runway before it began, with a serialized story that ran in Epic Illustrated, a Marvel Graphic Novel, and the companion graphic novel The Price, published by Eclipse. 

This issue of Marvel Age also features the debut of the long-running series of articles recapping Marvel history, starting in 1961 before the launch of the Fantastic Four, with series like Millie the Model, Kid Colt, and the Rawhide Kid, plus monsters like Goom, son of Googam, and Fin Fang Foom. First written by Warren Reece, the series would have several writers in future installments.

There's also a four-page article on Conan that's a primer on everyone's favorite barbarian hero as he appeared in Conan the Barbarian, Conan the King, and Savage Sword of Conan. (This article ran between the two Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan movies, btw.)

The centerpiece of this issue is a long (eight pages!) article called "How to Color Comics the Marvel Way," that explains the arcane craft of coloring projects in the pre-computer era, with Dr. Martin's Synchromatic Watercolor Dyes, percentage tones, and coding. There's a two-page spread that shows all the available color combinations at the time, when all colorists had to work with were zero, 25, 50, or 100 percentages of red, yellow, and blue -- and that was it! The article also includes the various color schemes suggested for a new version of Red Wolf, and, best of all, short bios of the Marvel colorists with caricatures probably drawn by Ron Zalme. 

Frequent Marvel Age contributor John Byrne pops up with a subscription ad starring Black Bold, Medusa, and Lockjaw playing Santa Claus. Not sure if this ad was exclusive to Marvel Age. 

Also, this is the second issue in a row with no New Talent Department, with no explanation. 

And the back cover highlights the Marada the She-Wolf story then running in Epic Illustrated. Marada was poised to be a breakout character, but after several appearances in Epic written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by John Bolton, there doesn't seem to have been more new material. 

Marvel Age #13

Price: $0.25 US 

Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)

On sale: January 10, 1984

Cover date: April, 1984

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

• Designer: Bob Kessel

• Art/Production Coordinator: Dan Crespi

• Assistant Art/Production Coordinator: Ron Zalme

• Production: Joe Albelo, Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Don Hudson, Morrie Kuramoto, 

    Ken Lopez, John Morelli, and Barry Shapiro

• Typesetters: Brenda Mings and Jay Zilber

• Colorists: Paul Becton and George Roussos

• Friendly Assistance: Lynn Cohen and Craig Anderson

• Cover Artist: Jim Starlin

• Direct Sales Manager: Carol Kalish

• Assistant Direct Sales Managers: Peter David, Steve Saffel, and Marsha Rosenberg

• Cosmic Defender: Irving Forbush 

Front cover 

• Character: Vanth Dreadstar

 Inside front cover

• Subscription ad for Marvel Age

 

Page 1

• Contents

• Masthead 

• Indicia 

Editorial: by Jim Salicrup:

Pages 2 – 5

Marvel Comics Coming Attractions 

Comics on sale March 27:

• The Thing #13

• Daredevil #208

• New Mutants #17

• Dazzler #33

• Conan the King #23

• Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2

• Six from Sirius #4

Comics on sale April 3: 

• Amazing Spider-Man #254

• Captain America #295

• Thor #345

• Indiana Jones #19

• Savage Sword of Conan #101

• Moon Knight #38

• Micronauts #49

• Crystar #8

Comics on sale April 10: 

• Incredible Hulk #297

• Avengers #245

• Conan #160

• Marvel Tales #165

• X-Men #183

• Rom #56

• Power Man and Iron Fist #107

• G.I. Joe #25

• Marvel Age Magazine #16

• Marvel Fanfare #15

• Epic Illustrated #24

Comics on sale April 17: 

• Fantastic Four #268

• Marvel Team-Up #143

• Iron Man #184

• Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #92

• The New Defenders #133

• Star Wars #85

• Alpha Flight #12

• Dreadstar #10

• Beauty and the Beast #3

Page 6

Newswatch 

Item: Louise Jones leaves staff to write full time; Ann Nocenti takes over as editor on her titles. 

Item: Epic Comics line adds new titles for summer 1984, including Crash Ryan, Sisterhood of Steel, Time Spirits, and Void Indigo. 

Page 7

Behind the Lines 

"Big and Green Dept," by Carl Potts

Potts writes about changes in The Incredible Hulk. 

Page 8 

Coming Retractions

• Update on shipping schedules for Dreadstar, which will now ship every six weeks

• Marvel limited series will be printed on Mando paper with a cover price of $0.75 US.

• Both the Kull the Conqueror and Red Sonja miniseries will as bimonthly series.

• The Beauty and the Beast limited series and the Dazzler graphic novel have been delayed.

• Captain America #300, Avengers #250, and Alpha Flight #12 all will be 48 pages with a cover price of $1.00 US.  

Page 8

Marvel's Top Ten, by Jim Salicrup

Best-selling titles cover date April 1983:

1 - New Mutants #2

2 - X-Men #168

3 - Amazing Spider-Man #239

4 - Fantastic Four #253

5 - Avengers #230

6 - Daredevil #193

7 - Marvel Universe Handbook (sic) #4

8 - Conan the Barbarian #145

9 - Peter Parker (sic) #77

10 - Incredible Hulk #282 

Pages 9 - 12

Article: "Marvel Age Looks at Jim Starlin," by Mark Lerer

Pages 13 - 15

Article: "Marvel Age 1961," by Warren Reece

Pages 16 - 19

Article: "Conan the Barbarian," by Bob Sodaro and Mark Lerer

Pages 20 - 27

Article: "How to Color Comics the Marvel Way," by Mark Lerer

Page 28

Ad for Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars

Page 29

Subscription ad for Marvel titles, with new art by John Byrne

Pages 30 - 32

Letters page: "Comments on Da Comics," suggested by Jerome P. Anello 

Inside back cover

Ad for Alpha Flight #12

Back cover

Subscription ad for Epic Illustrated