The two names fans most wanted to hear from in 1983 -- Stan Lee and Jim Shooter -- are featured in a lengthy interview in Marvel Age #8, under a cover illustrated by Ron Zalme. This is one of those covers that doesn't promote anything in particular other than Marvel itself, but that didn't make it any less appealing. (Love that magenta shirt and yellow/black pants combo!) 

This cover also features the first appearance of Irving Forbush, the Marvel Age mascot who would go on to symbolize the spirit of fun the magazine stood for. 

The 11-page interview covers what Stan was up to at the time -- developing movie projects, mostly -- and how Jim got started in comics and made his way to Marvel. Along the way, they discuss two stories I'd heard about for years but never saw in print: How Iron Man got his nose (Stan saw a very flat looking Iron Man mask and said "Doesn't he have a nose?"), and why Stan hates green on covers (he doesn't, but the one time he said something seems to have had a big impact). 

As for those movies...here's the list:

    • An original super-hero project created by Shooter and George Romero

    • A Human Torch movie from Columbia pictures

    • A live action X-Men movie from Nelvana 

    • A Dazzler movie

    • A Spider-Man movie produced by Roger Corman

    • A Black Widow movie -- probably not this one

    • A Daredevil movie

    • A Captain America...Broadway show

Also in this issue, Marvel Age explains why The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe was expanding by two issues (answer: because you demanded it!), and an article explaining who the Golden Age characters that appear in the then-current reprint of the Avengers Kree/Skrull War epic were, with what appears to be a new piece of art by John Byrne and Jack Abel. 

Paul Smith and John Romita Jr., then rising star artists, are also profiled this issue. And the New Talent Department spotlights future G.I. Joe artist Rod Whigham, who Marvel editor Bob Budiansky had met at a comic book convention. 

More Conan comedy courtesy of Paul Smith

Marvel Age #8

Price: $0.25 US 

Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)

On sale: August 9, 1983

Cover date: November 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: Joe Albelo, Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Ken Lopez, Morrie Kuramoto, John 

  Morelli, and Barry Shapiro

• Typesetters: Nancy Dodaro and Carl Gafford

• Colorist: George Roussos

• Friendly Assistance: Lynn Cohen and Margaret Clark

• Cover: Ron Zalme 

• Direct Sales Manager: Carol Kalish

• Assistant Direct Sales Managers: Peter David and Lea Sapp

• Corner Symbol: Irving Forbush

Front cover 

• Characters: Stan Lee, Jim Shooter and friends 

 Inside front cover

• Ad for The New Defenders

 

Page 1

• Contents

• Masthead 

• Indicia 

Editorial: "Get Well, Stan" (Stan Lee had recently undergone minor surgery) 

Pages 2 – 5

• Marvel Comics Coming Attactions 

Red Sonja art by Howard Chaykin -- not sure what it's from

Comics on sale October 25, 1983 

    • The Thing #8

    • Daredevil #203

    • New Mutants #12

    • Ka-Zar #30

    • Red Sonja #4

    • The Falcon #4

    • Kull the Conqueror #4

    • Hercules #1

    • Conan Annual #8

    • The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #13

Comics on sale November 1, 1983

    • Amazing Spider-Man #249

    • Captain America #290

    • Thor #340

    • The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #134

    • Savage Sword of Conan #96

    • Doctor Strange #63

    • U.S. 1 #8

    • X-Men/Micronauts #2

    • Illyana and Storm #3

Comics on sale November 8, 1983

    • Incredible Hulk #292

    • Avengers #240

    • Conan #155

    • Marvel Tales #160

    • X-Men #178

    • Rom #51

    • Power Man and Iron Fist #102

    • G.I. Joe #20

    • Marvel Age Magazine #11

    • The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #14 

Comics on sale November 15, 1983

    • Fantastic Four #263

    • Marvel Team-Up #138

    • Iron Man #179

    • Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #87

    • Defenders #128

    • Star Wars #80

    • Alpha Flight #7

    • Coyote #5

    • What If #43

    • Jack of Hearts #2

Page 5

    Last Minute Additions...

        • Tales of Asgard #1, on sale October 25

        • Marvel Fanfare Special Edition #1, on sale November 1 (doesn't look like this published) 

        • The Super Boxers Graphic Novel #9 (sic), on sale November 8

        • Micronauts Special Edition #3, on sale November 15

        • Captain America Special Edition #1, on sale November 15

Page 6

    Newswatch

    Items on:

    • Jack of Hearts miniseries with art by George Freeman

    • Marvel Team-Up Thrillers trade paperback 

Pages 7 - 8

    Behind the Lines

    • "Short story" by Larry Hama about the Abomination 

    • Al Milgrom on the job of an editor

    • "In Your Future," by Carl Potts, about Alien Legin

Pages 9 - 19

    Article: "The Marvel Age Magazine Interview: Stan Lee and Jim Shooter"

Not sure why this was stuck in the middle of the Stan Lee and Jim Shooter interview, but it's probably the best cover of the month, hands down... 

Pages 20 - 21

    Article: "The Marvel Universe Expanded," by Mark Lerer 

    Covers three extra issues of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

Pages 22 - 24

    Article: "Golden Age Greats, Revisited," by Warren Reece

    Covers Golden Age heroes

Pages 25 - 27

    Article: "A Tale of Two Artists," by Robert Sodaro and Mark Lerer 

    Article on artists Paul Smith and John Romita Jr. 

Pages 28 - 30

    The New Talent Department

    Spotlight on artist Rod Whigham

Pages 31 - 32

    Letters: "Mark Duncan's Page" (because a guy named Mark Duncan wrote in and said, "Why not call it 'Mark Duncan's Page'?" Why not indeed.) 

Inside back cover

    Ad for the Cloak and Dagger miniseries

Back cover

    Ad for King Conan #20

MARVEL AGE #2

 

Legendary artist John Byrne makes his Marvel Age debut with this cover featuring Alpha Flight, a team I used to call "Awful Flight," ha ha ha. (They were fine...I was young.) Byrne would go on to become M.A.'s most prolific cover artist, contributing a total of nine covers to the series' 140 issue run. This issue's cover is oddly similar to the cover to Alpha Flight #1 -- yellow sky, red logo, naturalistic setting. 

In this issue assistant editor Peter David hands the design chores over to Lea Sapp, who gives the layouts a cleaner, more open look. Also new in the credits: colorist Stan Goldberg (who I thought by this time was full-time cartooning for Archie Comics) and frequent future M.A. contributor Rick Parker. Rick is credited as a letterer here -- his cartooning days still lay ahead, as they say. 

Marvel Age #2

Price: $0.25 US 

Pages: 20 (16 interior plus four covers)

On sale: May 1983 

Copyright © 1983 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation. 

• Editor: Carol Kalish 

• Assistant Editor: Peter David 

• Designer: Lea Sapp

• Production: Danny Crespi and Ron Zalme 

• Colorists: Stan Goldberg, Paul Becton and George Roussos 

• Letterer: Rick Parker 

• Logo designer: John Morelli 

• Photographer: Eliot R. Brown 

• Guiding light: Jim Shooter

Front cover 

• Pencils/inks: John Byrne

• Characters: Alpha Flight

 Inside front cover 

• Triptych ad for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (drawing by Ron Zalme), Spider-Woman and Iron Man

Page 1 

• Contents

• Masthead 

• Indicia 

Pages 2 – 4

• Marvel Comics Coming Attactions (no writing credits) 

Comics on sale April 26, 1983 - May 17 1983

    Summaries of: 

        The Thing #2

        Daredevil #197

        The New Mutants #6

        Incredible Hulk Annual #12

        The Amazing Spider-Man #243

        Captain America #284

        Thor #334

        Indiana Jones #8

        U.S. 1 #4

        Dr. Strange #60 (sic)

        Incredible Hulk #286

        Avengers #234

        Conan #149

        Marvel Tales #154

        Rom #45

        G.I. Joe #14

        The Uncanny X-Men #172

        Power Man/Iron Fist #96 

        Marvel Team-Up #132

        Iron Man #173

        Star Wars #74

        Fantastic Four #257

        Defenders #122

        Peter Parker #81 (sic)

        The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #8

        Alpha Flight #1

        What If #40

        Coyote #2

        Savage Sword of Conan #90

        Return of the Jedi -- Marvel Super Special #26

        Blip #5 (for those who don't recall this one, it was a comic-sized magazine about video games that ran seven issues)

        Marvel Age #5

 Page 4 

• Marvel Comic Retractions

        Corrections on previous listings on:

        Indiana Jones #7

        Star Wars #73

        Moon Knight #32

        New Mutants #5

• One-third page ad for retailers to be listed in the Marvel Comics Super Mart 

Page 5

• Art feature: "The Space Slammers"  

    Couple of paragraphs on the graphic novel Star Slammers by Walter Simonson with art from a 1974 convention souvenir book appearance of the team under their earlier name, the Space Slammers. 

Page 6

• News Watch

    Items on:

    • A one-scene crossover between Daredevil #96 and Iron Man #171 (both stories have scenes set at parties, so writer Denny O'Neil made it the same party)

    • Don't worry, everyone -- Bill Sienkiewicz hasn't left Marvel. He's drawing covers for The Dazzler. 

    • The logo to Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #78 is not chopped up in any way --  apparently several recent issues had messed around with the logo in various ways

    • Marvel will be adapting the upcoming James Bond movie Octopussy, it is reported with absolutely no snickering. 

    • The difficulties of super-heroes changing their names while being listed under their old names in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe are examined.

    • The Mysterions, listed in Marvel Age #1 as a new series coming soon, will not be coming soon. The toy company that owns the property has gone out of business. (Dish that dirt, Marvel Age!) 

   • Lea Sapp moves into a new role as Carol Kalish's assistant. She was formerly an administrative assistant to Jim Shooter

   • Bob Budiansky joins staff as an editor

Pages 7 – 10

• Article: “Alpha Flight” by Patrick O'Neill

        Interview with John Byrne about the new series with art from the first issue. 

Page 11-13

• Behind the Lines

    Items on:

       • Ralph Macchio on New York City as depicted in comics by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. 

        • Larry Hama on the end of Crazy Magazine 

        • Dennis O'Neil on Bizarre Adventures

        • Jim Shooter on new talent submissions

        • Louise Jones and Danny Fingeroth on new artists including Paul Smith, Ron Frenz (both former animators in Canada), and Armando Gil

        • Archie Goodwin and Jo Duffy on Bernie Wrightson's illustrated Frankenstein. 

        • Mark Gruenwald on the end of Spider-Woman

        • Tom DeFalco on Amazing Spider-Man 

Pages 13 – 16 

• Article: “Life Among the Barbarians" by Neil Patterson

    Covers Conan tie-in titles Red Sonja and Kull the Conqueror, which are confusingly described as "bi-monthly titles published four times a year." 

Inside back cover 

• Ad for U.S. 1

Back cover 

• Ad for Kull the Conqueror II