Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Second Smash Issue: "The Sirens of 7th Avenue!" by Conway, Chaykin, and Chiarmonte
Greetings, Groove-ophiles! It's the second day of the New Year, so it's time for yet another Groove City tradition: celebrating the second smash ish of a fave Groovy Age comic! "Waitaminnit, Groove," you say, "no wonder you don't teach math anymore! That's Amazing Adventure #19 you're dishin' out--not ish #2!" Well, I know that, Irving, but it is the second smash issue featuring Marvel's War of the Worlds/Killraven! (You can read all about the series and the first story in ish 18 right here, by the way.) "Sirens of Seventh Avenue!" is kind of a confusing title since the "Sirens" don't last for three whole pages, but this second WotW/Killraven adventure does introduce two very important members of KR's cast of characters: M'Shulla and Hawk (who looks and acts very different in his debut). It also gives us a first look at what a Martian really looks like (blecch!) and gives us plenty of action and wild Howard Chaykin style costumes! From April 1973, under a Herb Trimpe/ Mike Esposito cover--can you hear 'em? It's those blamed Sirens...
Frank McLaughlin's inks really help a young Chaykin here, giving the work a solidity it desperately needs. I think I always thought that cover was by Bob Brown, but I'll defer to you on that.
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Rip, I'm just going by what the GCD says about the cover--it looks pretty much like there are several hands in the art to me. I don't see much Trimpe (except maybe in the sirens), I see Romita (but I could be wrong), and I agree that Killraven has a Brown vibe. It's one of those extraordinarily generic Marvel style covers--excellent layout, though.
DeleteBy the time this issue came out, i was beginning to get a little picky about my comic book purchases...money from a paper round only went so far!
ReplyDeleteAnd I will confess that it was this issue and the one before it, that contained my first exposure to the work of Howard Chaykin....as well as the last for many years, right up to the publication of American Flagg. So put off were my young sensibilities (well, he _was_ finishing a book begun by Neal Adams) that I actively avoided his work ("Oh no, it's that guy who did the War Of The Worlds") for the longest time. And of course, after seeing the Flagg books, went looking for all the previous work he'd done.
I admit, I shied away from most early Chaykin stuff, too, though I loved his work when inked by Joe Sinnott (those Tales of Atlantis stories in the back of Sub-Mariner). Monark Starstalker won me over, and I've been a Chaykin fan ever since.
DeleteHadn't he already done Sword of Sorcery by the time this came out? I thought they looked great.
DeleteIs this the same series that Marvel put ape heads on the Martians to use in the UK version of Planet of the Apes?
ReplyDeleteYep. Ape-Slayer! http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-complete-apeslayer-part-1.html
DeleteI have the complete American run of POTA (my fave Marvel mag ever) that was the first time i had seen Apeslayer, that must have confused the Brits to no end.
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