Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Bring On the Back-ups: "Unto You Is Born...The Doomsman!" by Thomas and Wood

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we setting the Wayback Machine for May 1970 and the dramatic debut of the very first Dr. Doom solo series (have there been more, or is Ol' Groove just always alarmingly alliterative?). When Marvel decided to bring back their split-format comics in 1970, we got Astonishing Tales with Ka-Zar and Dr. Doom and Amazing Adventures with The Inhumans and The Black Widow. Both mags were top notch, filled to the brim with Marvel-ous action from the hands of Mighty Marvel's best writers and artists (Lee, Kirby, Thomas, Friedrich, Conway, Wood, Buscema, Smith, Adams, Colan, Trimpe, and many more). Li'l Groove was just finishing first grade when AT and AA started coming out, but I snatched 'em up. I recognized Kirby from the FF, but I was blurry on Wally Wood, though I'd seen his (usually unsigned) artistry in a couple of issues of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents I owned at the time. I LOVED Dr. Doom, though. Back then, he was the king of the bad guys to moi....Anywho, here's Victor Von Doom In "Unto You Is Born...The Doomsman!" by Roy Thomas and Wally Wood from Astonishing Tales #1. Dig it!!










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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 13, 2014 at 10:02 AM

    Apparently, Wally Wood had a few assistants at this time (Wayne Howard? Nicola Cuti? Ralph Reese?) and the Marvel bullpen knew this and were not happy about it. They reasoned that if they were paying for Wally Wood, they should be getting Wally Wood, not Wally Wood's assistants. Assistants or not, it looks like mostly Wood art to me.

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  2. Brian BarnesMay 13, 2014 at 3:31 PM

    Even quick and possibly assisted Marvel Wood is worth seeing!

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  3. AnonymousMay 13, 2014 at 6:22 PM

    This is probably the best Wood story for Marvel in the '70s that I've EVER seen, and it all looks like Woody himself, not assistants. And no Frazetta swipes either! Lastly, it's an entertaining read to boot---if Wood drew the followup then I'd be interested to see what becomes of the Doomsman. And that's the name of the game in comics---to hook your audience. Bravo!

    Chris A.

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  4. RussMay 13, 2014 at 8:38 PM

    Chris, check out Wood's Sword and Sorcery tales in Tower of Shadows 5-8 from the same time period.

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  5. AnonymousMay 14, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    Thanks, I used to own those many years ago, and they're good---this one still has the best results, panel for panel, for Woody at '70s Marvel. Fine job!

    Chris A.

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  6. AnonymousMay 20, 2014 at 3:50 PM

    I would add, though, that Woody's best '70s comics work was for Warren. "Killer Hawk" was one of several which demonstrate a greater sensitivity of linework and drawing in this era:

    http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2011/06/black-and-white-wednesday-killer-hawk.html

    Regards,

    Chris A.

    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!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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