Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Black and White Wednesday: "Less Than Human" by Moench, Sienkiewicz, and McLeod

Say hey, Groove-ophiles! Star-Lord was probably the most popular of Marvel's "made for black and white" characters. His debut in Marvel Preview #4, by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, was one of the most unique and dark super-hero origins of the Groovy Age. His next appearance in ish 11 is one of the single best comics, black and white or color, of all time, with Chris Claremont, John Byrn, and Terry Austin introducing us to Star-Lord's sidekick "Ship" and taking the character to a whole new level of science fiction and adventure. His next two appearances in MP #'s 14-15, still written by Claremont but with art by Carmine Infantino and Bob Wiacek, were forays into the closest thing to "hard science fiction" Marvel produced since the days of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. With MP #18 (Spring 1979) "More Than Human" we got yet another take on Star-Lord by a new creative team: Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Bob McLeod. This was a Star-Lord at another crossroads, facing another life-altering event. Moench's story, while not as expansive as Claremont's classic in issue 11, was pretty awesome, and the art by Sienkiewicz and McLeod was sheer heaven. We knew Bill could rock the dark world of Moon Knight, but now we learned he could "go cosmic". This is classic Groovy Age Marvel, baby. Take your time and savor this one!
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5 comments:

  1. Four Color PromisesApril 20, 2011 at 6:25 PM

    Wow, i love the bottom panel on page 7. Star-Lord flying into the city. Nice art...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike MikulovskyApril 20, 2011 at 7:37 PM

    Groovy! Funny I remember back then their was a epidemic of heroes whose names started with the word star! StarHawk, Star Fox, Star Slayer,Star Boy, Star Lord,etc. I'm sure there was like 10 other ones.

    Keep e'm coming Groovster! As you know my favorite blog is B & W wednesday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 21, 2011 at 8:54 PM

    Wow, I never knew about a Sienkiewicz-drawn Star-Lord story! It's great to find "new" things by my favorite creators, even after all these years. I immediately ordered this issue after reading! :D

    Thanks for the blog, I read it daily, though this is the first time I've chimed in. You're one of my favorite sites!

    Your pal in Milwaukee,
    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 22, 2014 at 9:58 PM

    wow! first 'Good Lord' and now this little jewel! everytime i check in on this blog its like finding an old treasure! awesome stuff, just awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownAugust 21, 2015 at 5:28 AM

    Some very Neal Adamish art by Sienkiewicz/McLeod for this installment of Star-Lord.

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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