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In 1972, the Defenders appeared in Marvel Feature #1, with this dynamic cover by Neal Adams.

It’s a great cover.  Each hero has a dynamic pose.  And you are not sure if these guys are here to save the world or destroy it!

In a recent Doctor Strange Barry Smith article, I came across a Marvel Milestones reprint that also had this version of Neal Adams’ cover, sans logo and with new coloring.

The colorist went for more muted tones here, rather than the bright colors on the original.  Doc’s left hand is obscured by the glow of the spell he is casting.  This cover was probably used on an Essentials reprint.  It’s an interesting experiment—but I can’t help think the original version is still superior.

The Defenders are one of my favorite super-hero teams of all time.  I can’t understand why modern Marvel can’t get the formula of Doc Strange + Hulk (smash) + Sub-Mariner to work.  Nuff Said!

Comic fans usually revere writers and artists and inkers (despite Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy).  The most overlooked creators are often the letterers, especially the ones from the golden/silver/bronze ages.  My favorite letterer whose style I could easily identify as a kid was Artie Simek.

Letters were painstakingly hand-drawn in those days.  I am sure if you asked a non-fan, they thought a machine put the letters in the comics.  Artie Simek spent his entire professional life perfecting this craft at Marvel and DC Comics.

Artie Simek became exclusive to Marvel during their 1960s rebirth.  Many of the early Fantastic Four comics were lettered by Artie.  Why do I like his lettering style so much?  Number one, the letters are big, clear, and extremely easy to read.  There’s a style to his letters that gets specially accented in the captions and credits.  I love the way he drew those bold characters.

On this Defenders splash page, you can see that Artie designed Giant-Sized logos for the title of the story, slanted against the tornado.  There’s a TS Eliot quote that Steve Englehart threw in there, giving Artie an opportunity to do some fancy calligraphy.

Nutty little details, like the “Y” peeking out of the top rim of the panel, just tickle me.  Simek probably lettered all of Marvel’s major titles during the 1960s and 1970s: Fantastic Four, Avengers, Defenders, X-Men, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, I also liked Sam Rosen, John Costanza, Tom Orzechowski, Gaspar Saladino and Todd Klein.

I always looked forward to seeing the name “Artie Simek” in the credits.  Giving letterers a credit was unheard of before Stan Lee started doing it in Marvel Comics.  Way to go Stan—and way to go, Artie!  Nuff Said!

Link:  Artie Simek Wikipedia page.

Nearly a year ago, I blogged about one of my favorite comics of all time, Giant-Size Defenders #1.  Today another fan, Juan Ortiz, wrote in to tell me an interesting story about this comic:

When I was just a kid, I sent a letter to Marvel asking them to print giant-size comics, just like DC had been doing. Having been a Defenders fan back then, I suggested a giant-sized issue. For which I received a No-prize for. I also think my name was printed on the Defenders pin-up in this issue. Although I can't confirm it, since they spelled Juan with a T. It reads Tuan. But back then, my lettering was not the best. So it may have read as Tuan to them. Juan

Here you can see the double-page pin-up by Sal Buscema of my favorite non-team of all time.  The three big guns--Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange--are front and center, with Valykrie and Silver Surfer flanking the sides.  Look at the blurb on the lower right hand corner.

See you in our 25 cent Titan-fest, Tuan!  I find this story entirely plausible--since a J can look like a T in certain circumstances.  Or it may not have been your lettering, Juan--it could have been the Marvel staffers were high on ink fumes!  I remember originally seeing this blurb when it was first published, and wondering who the heck Tuan was.  Thirty plus years later, the mystery is solved! 

Thanks for writing T--er, Juan!  I hope you kept your No-Prize letter, I never got one.  Nuff said.

George Olshevsky was able to corral a number of great artists* to provide the covers for his Marvel Comics Index series in the 1970s.  Neal Adams drew this nifty cover to issue #3, which featured the Avengers, Defenders, and Captain Marvel.

On this cover, my favorite Avenger, the Vision, is featured front and center.  The Scarlet Witch is providing cover over him and Captain Marvel is taking care of the rear guard.  All three characters were featured prominently in the classic Kree-Skrull war arc that Adams illustrated in the Avengers.  The only Defenders representative is Valkyrie hacking away on the right.  Adams really did a great job with all these characters.

*Editor's Note:  Check out Steranko's Cover to the Marvel Comics Index, Nuff said!

Why did I like the Defenders so much?  Because you never knew what to expect with each story arc.  The writers—Thomas, Englehart, Wein, and Gerber—all broke with conventional formulas in their own ways. Giant Size Defenders #2 did so when the team had to enlist a horror character—the Son of Satan—to rescue the Hulk from Hell!

This story featured Klaus Janson’s beautiful inks over Gil Kane’s pencils.  I am going to go out on a limb here and say this was the first Kane-Janson pairing.  Glynis Wein did a superb job on the colors as well.  The Hulk goes on a city wide rampage before getting tricked into Hell by a little girl.

This appearance by Daimon Hellstrom setup a long association with the Defenders.  He joined the team again for the Sons of the Serpent storyline in issue #22-24 and later joined as a full time member.  It’s nice to have Satan’s spawn in your back pocket.  Nuff said.

I started reading Doctor Strange in 1970, first in reprints contained in Marvel Tales, then later in Marvel Premiere.  Always one of my favorite characters, but when I unearthed Dr. Strange #177 (volume 1, circa 1968), I was astonished to see that the good Doctor once wore a mask:

Not only did Doc have an earthly mask (which gave an other-worldly Spectre or Phantom Stranger type of appearance with white eye-slits), there were other improvements.  Whereas Doc’s original costume was more Eastern, with billowing robes and a sash, the new costume had removed those elements.  Now he had a streamlined costume, skintight, with new boots and flared gloves.

This cover by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer became an instant classic.  Marvel even made a poster out of it, which I managed to find and put on my wall.

Roy Thomas, who wrote the series at that point, came up with a convenient excuse for the costume change:

The villain Asmodeus had assumed Strange’s identity on Earth, and had trapped Doc and Clea in another dimension.  In order to escape, Doc needed to transform…

As this dynamic splash page proudly displays!  The real reason for the costume change was the downward sales spiral on Doctor Strange.  He’s never been a strong seller within his own title.   The costume lasted from Doctor Strange 177 to 183.  When the Doctor popped up a year or so later in the Defenders and Marvel Premiere, he reverted back to his original Ditko designed outfit.

There have been two attempts to bring back this costume.

The first was the 2002 mini-series The Order, which featured the Defenders reuniting to conquer the world (under the mind-control of Yandroth).  The story wasn’t the greatest, but it featured great covers by Carlos Pacheco.  Doc really becomes the focal point of this cover in The Order #5.

The next costume revival will occur just one month from now—in Hulk #10, on sale in late February 2009.  Hulk once again teams up with his former Defenders to battle Red Hulk and his team of Offenders (Baron Mordo, Tiger Shark, and Terrax), courtesy of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.  I can’t wait for this story arc.  I think I heard on Word Balloon that Loeb is pulling the Defenders out of different time periods.  Notice that McGuinness has made one slight alteration—he kept the Ditko curves on the top part of the cape, instead of the Colan designed spikes.

Despite the failure of the Doc’s superhero-look to ignite sales in the late 60s, I think Marvel should reconsider using this costume for the modern era.  I think there are two big barriers to Doctor Strange’s popularity.  One is the fact that he looks like a middle-aged man.  The second is that he saves the world in baggy pajamas.  Just as Thor and Iron Fist needed a little revising to make them more attractive to modern readers, I think the same can be said for Doc.  Nuff said.

Every once in a while, I get obsessed with a crazy idea.  Sometimes, it is related to work and that is a good thing, as I will knock myself out trying to write some C# code that makes everything work better.

And sometimes, it is something related to comics.  Like, I have to have a mouse-pad with my favorite Giant-Size cover of all time, Giant-Size Defenders #1:

I'm so happy with this, a little collectible that only I have.  How did I make it?  I tried a number of websites in vain.  Zazzle rejected my content because they were copyrighted images.  Finally I just decided to go to Fedex.com's Photo Services site and create my own.  Just upload the scan of the cover and you are done.  I don't believe it is illegal as I am not selling this to anyone else.

Since you save on postage if you get two mouse-pads at the same time, I also had my favorite King-Size Conan Annual #1 made:

Obsession complete, my mind can go back to something resembling work.  Nuff said.

Here’s one of the house ads promoting the first Giant-Size book featuring the Defenders…

Except they promoted it as “Giant Size Super-Teams featuring the Defenders!”  What marketing genius came up with that title?  Fortunately, it was changed to Giant-Size Defenders by the time it was published.  No wonder these books didn’t last long, we could never find them!  Nuff said.