Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Black and White Wednesday: "Subscribe, Marvelite!" Said the Subscription Ads
Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Many times has Ol' Groove rapped about the magnificence of Marvel's black-and-white mags 'cause they were truly far-out and worthy of much lavish praise. It seems that the folks at the House of Ideas went out of their way to make every page special--even the ads! Just check out these beautifully illustrated and sometimes hilarious subscription ads from mags like Savage Sword of Conan, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Marvel Preview, Monsters Unleashed, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, and Vampire Tales f'rinstance. We're talkin' art by guys like Robert Kline, Alfredo Alcala, Tim Conrad...like wow! Can you dig 'em?
"Uncle Groove, please tell us about Marvel mags!"
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for me, this line cancelled was gone by the time I was seriously reading comics. I remember them as a young kid in around '77-'80 and thought that they were for "grown ups", as they were in the magazine section next to things like High Times and Rolling Stone.
Besides that, they were too much $$$ for my meager allowance.
Yep. As usual, all the good stuff was gone by the time I was old enough to appreciate it. But at least Ol' (Uncle) Groove has this handy blog to tell us about those great comics. :)
Hey Groovy One!
ReplyDeleteI think I love B & W wednesday the most of all your articles! Man Marvel indeed pulled out all the stops even in just their ads! Love them! Especially the Monsters Unleashed/Crazy ad. Wow! I never realized how many great ads were run for Marvel Preview also! I wonder what ever happened to Marvel doing the Hobbit?
I guess that's why they did Weird World with Mike Ploog & I believe I read John Buscema did it one issue somewhere as well? I loved Marvel's Monster mags, Planet of the Apes, Dadely hands of Kung Fu, Unknown Worlds of SF, SSo Conan, & Marvel Preview. They all end way too soon!
Doe's anyone know whatever happened to Tim Conrad? He drew this beautiful conan ad. As we'll as the covers to the Conan#2, Thor#5 & Dr.Strange#6. Marvel Comics Indexes. Published by G & T Enterprises from 1976-82. I'd love to see you do one or I would on those indexs. I own them all & they all had beautiful covers by the likes of Tim Conrad, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Frank Miller & Ken Steacy to name a few. I attempted to track Tim Conrad down. All I found out was that he once worked out of Chicago I guess in the 70's/80's.
If anyone can put me in touch with him or Ken Steacy. I'd greatly appreciate it. Here's my e-mail address. michaelwzeus@aol.com
For some reason, I think I had heard or read that Tim Conrad was working in a bank, but that would have been many years back. Had both b&w and color work in Epic Illustrated and was in some of the Pacific books. He should be drawing Thor.
ReplyDeleteHi Rob
ReplyDeleteI never heard of that, but sadly I heard from a another pro, Tim had been in a terrible accident years ago. He's still not fully recovered I guess. Just like writer Bill Mantlo was while roller blading in the late 80's or early 90's. Was hit & run & left gor dead on a street. His brother Mike still takes care
of him. I guess Bill is in a home & will never be the same. Sad to think one human being can do such things to another. Even if it was a total accident, then just drive away. Bill wrote Rom: Space Knight & the exiled Hulk story line in the early to mid 80's.