What was the deal Jack made with Carmine at DC?  Jack has always claimed that he was to set up a West Coast DC Office. Jack interpreted the offer from Carmine Infantino as  he would start new titles and once he had them going turn those over to other talent and Jack would act as the editor over what would be his own line of books for DC. That seems to be what he started with the Forth World books: New Gods, Mr. Miracle and the Forever People. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olson got the ball rolling first and many of the concepts were further developed in the new titles.  Jack understood he was to do for DC what he had done for Marvel. This all sounds logical since Jack Kirby was considered top tier talent in the comics industry at the time. Carmine Infantino memories of the contract were somewhat more conservative. So what’s the truth? Probably somewhere in the middle. Certainly pride would have come into play here for both men. Jack would hear what he wanted to and Carmine, especially after Jack’s books didn’t sale as well  as expected, would certainly not own up to the fact that he might have misjudged what Jack was capable of. In interviews afterward Carmine would say they were trying Jack out on Jimmy Olson  to see if he could turn that title around into a top seller. Jack said Carmine wanted him to take over the main Superman title, but instead Jack asked for the  Superman Family book which was selling the least number of copies to prove he could Marvelize it. So it’s obvious there was dual of egos here. However, it has been said Jack got the most lucrative contract in comics anyone ever had with DC for that time. If true, that by itself adds more credence to Jack’s side of the argument. Why would Carmine give Jack such a deal if big sales were not expected? A big contract certainly would not be the conditions for a “try out” deal. As to the low sales of Jack’s books, that had more to do with the industry wide sales slump that began after 1968 and went on for years, not the quality of Jack’s work at the time. The proof of that is how Jacks’ Fourth World characters have become a cornerstone of the DC Universe.

Conan the Barbarian by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith made it’s debut in 1970. Sword and Sorcery comics were a new fan fave of the early ’70’s.

Meanwhile in spite of slumping sales in 1969 Marvel was moving full speed ahead while tossing overboard a few titles with lower sales figures. Some titles were not canceled but had their publishing frequency cut back to bi-monthly. A few titles did not even make the every other month frequency despite the listed frequency in the indicia. We could not find more than two issues of Captain Marvel which were released in 1970 even though it was suppose to be on a bi-monthly schedule. Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD only made the 1970 scene once and that issue was a reprint. Reprints of monster comics and western comics were big in 1970. An interest in the occult and supernatural was on the rise not only with the reprint books but also with some new stories by the current writers and artists. Bernie Wrightson did a cover for Chamber Of Darkness # 8. We could not find an actual story Wrightson illustrated that year for Marvel. Other highlights of 1970 included the debut of Conan the Barbarian, the return of Wally Wood to illustrate Doctor Doom’s new series in the Astonishing Tales co-starring Ka-zar in a new series as well. Another new book, Amazing Adventures featured the Black Widow and the Inhumans. The latter was written and drawn by Jack Kirby and later by Neal Adams.

The Silver Age Artists Spotlight

John Romita, Sr. 

is best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating the character The Punisher. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.

John Romita, Sr. is best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating the character The Punisher. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.

Romita entered the comics industry in 1949 on the series Famous Funnies. Romita was working at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949, earning $30 a week, when comic-book inker Lester Zakarin, a friend from high school whom he ran into on a subway train, offered him either $17 or $20 a page to pencil a 10-page story for him as uncredited ghost artist. “I thought, this is ridiculous! In two pages I can make more money than I usually make all week! So I ghosted it and then kept on ghosting for him”, Romita recalled.

Romita was drafted into the U.S. Army. Taking the initiative prior to induction, he showed art samples to the base art director on Governors Island in New York Bay, who arranged for him to be stationed there to do layouts for recruitment posters once Romita had completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Romita was promoted to corporal after seven or eight months; now allowed to live off the post, he rented an apartment in Brooklyn.

When not on duty, Romita could leave the base and go into Manhattan. In mid- to late 1951, he recalled in 2002, “I went uptown one day for lunch. I stopped over at Stan Lee’s office in the Empire State Building, where Timely Comics had by now evolved into Atlas Comics, and his secretary came out … and I said, ‘Stan doesn’t know my name but I’ve worked for him for over a year’. I was in uniform! She must’ve told him this GI … wants to do some comics. She said, ‘Stan said here’s a four-page science fiction story’. I penciled it and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then”.

Romita went on to draw a wide variety of horror comics, war comics, romance comics and other genres for Atlas. His most prominent work for the company was the short-lived 1950s revival of Timely’s hit character Captain America, in Young Men #24–28 (Dec. 1953 – July 1954) and Captain America #76–78 (May–Sept. 1954). Romita went on to draw a wide variety of horror comics, war comics, romance comics and other genres for Atlas. His most prominent work for the company was the short-lived 1950s revival of Timely’s hit character Captain America, in Young Men #24–28 (Dec. 1953 – July 1954) and Captain America #76–78 (May–Sept. 1954).

In the mid-1950s, while continuing to freelance for Atlas, Romita did uncredited work for DC Comics before transitioning to work for DC exclusively in 1958. Even before his final original DC story was published, Romita had already returned to freelance for what had now become Marvel Comics. His first work for Marvel was inking Jack Kirby’s cover and Don Heck’s interior pencils on the superhero-team comic The Avengers #23 (Dec. 1965).

John Romita, Sr. made Spider-Man a super-hero phenom along with Stan Lee’s amazing scripts . Romita had graduated from imitating Steve Ditko into a style all his own. His art was a hybrid of Ditko and Kirby on steroids!

Romita directed most of his efforts, however, toward finding advertising storyboard work. He obtained a position at the large ad agency BBDO through his friend Al Normandia, one of the firm’s art directors. “They were going to pay me $250 a week. I’d made just over $200 a week with the romance comics but only by killing myself” with long hours of work. “It had become very hard for me to come up with new ideas. … So I said, ‘If I do any comics … I’ll do inking only. … ” Marvel editor Stan Lee, however, had heard of Romita’s leaving DC, and asked to see him. At “a three-hour lunch”, Romita recalled, Lee promised to match the agency salary if Romita would come work for Marvel, and to give him flexibility to work at home or at the office on any given day at Romita‘s discretion. Though Romita felt he no longer wanted to pencil, in favor of being solely an inker, Lee soon enticed him otherwise:

I had inked an Avengers job for Stan, and I told him I just wanted to ink. I felt like I was burned out as a penciler after eight years of romance work. I didn’t want to pencil any more; in fact, I couldn’t work at home any more — I couldn’t discipline myself to do it. He said, “Okay,” but the first chance he had he shows me this Daredevil story somebody had started and he didn’t like it, and he wanted somebody else to do it. He showed me Dick Ayers’ splash page for a Daredevil and asked me, ‘What would you do with this page?’ I showed him on a tracing paper what I would do, and then he asked me to do a drawing of Daredevil the way I would do it. I did a big drawing of Daredevil … just a big, tracing-paper drawing of Daredevil swinging. And Stan loved it.

John Romita, Sr. caught the dramatic action of Kirby and the offbeat angles of Ditko. Romita also had a knack for drawing the supporting cast in scenes which seemed common for kids in the ’60’s.

Romita began a brief stint on Daredevil beginning with issue #12 (Jan. 1966), initially penciling over Jack Kirby’s dynamic layouts as a means of learning Marvel’s storytelling house style. Sales perked; while the title had a smaller print run than Marvel flagships The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, it briefly had the company’s highest percentage of sales compared to print-run. It also proved to be a stepping-stone for Romita’s signature, years-long penciling run on The Amazing Spider-Man. “What Stan Lee wanted was for me to do a two-part Daredevil story [issues #16–17, May–June 1966] with Spider-Man as a guest star, to see how I handled the character”.

He also designed an all black uniform for Cyclops brother, Havoc, which alternated black an white circular patterns when he utilized his mutant power blasts, a first in comics. Under the supervision of Thomas and Adams the X-Men matured form high school age teenagers to college age students. Roy Thomas, developed the characters personalities and relationships to new levels which had only been hinted at before under Stan Lee’s writing.

Adams also did work on the Inhumans, Avengers and a few stories in Marvels new horror and mystery books. All this he did while also maintaining assignments for  mainly doing covers and pencils on some of the Batman books.

John Romita really came into his own not only on the Amazing Spider-Man but on numerous covers and fill in assignments on titles when needed. Romita gradually became the go to Bullpen Artist as Jack Kirbys presence lessened once he moved his family to Southern California for his daughter Lisas health concerns early in 1969.

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Okay, now let’s take a look at some comics from the Mega Comics Group!…

(DC & Marvel 1970 – Continued from above)

Curt Swan was the artist most associated with Superman during the  Silver Age of Comic Books. Swan produced hundreds of penciled art pages for covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Curt Swan

Shortly after returning from his service in World War 2 to civilian life in 1945 he moved from Minnesota to New Jersey and began working for DC Comics. Apart from a few months of night classes at the Pratt Institute under the G.I. Bill, Swan was an entirely self-taught artist. After a stint on Boy Commandos he began to just pencil pages, leaving the inking to others.

Initially, Swan drew many different features, including “Tommy Tomorrow” and “Gangbusters”, but slowly he began gravitating towards the Superman line of books. His first job pencilling the iconic character was for Superman #51 (March–April 1948). Many comics of the 1940s and 1950s lacked contributor credits, but research shows that Swan began pencilling the Superboy series with its fifth issue in 1949. He drew the first comics meeting of Superman and Batman in Superman #76 (May–June 1952). The two heroes began teaming on a regular basis in World’s Finest Comics #71 (July–Aug. 1954) in a story which was also drawn by Swan. Swan always felt that his breakthrough came when he was assigned the art duties on Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, in 1954.

Swan didn’t take to line editor Mort Weisinger’s controlling style. Swan discussed

Action Comics # 388 by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. Swan was possibly the most prolific artist at DC in the 60’s.

this period in an interview: “I was getting terrible migraine headaches and had these verbal battles with Mort. So it was emotional, physical. It just drained me and I thought I’d better get out of here before I go whacko.” After leaving comics for the advertising world in 1951, Swan soon returned, for National’s higher paychecks. And as biographer Eddy Zeno notes, “The headaches went away after Swan gained Weisinger’s respect by standing up to him.”

Around 1954, Swan unsuccessfully pitched an original comic strip for newspaper syndication. Called Yellow Hair, it was about a blond boy raised by Native Americans. A couple of years later, starting with the episode of June 18, 1956, Swan drew the Superman daily newspaper comic strip, which he continued on until November 12, 1960.

In the view of comics historian Les Daniels, Swan became the definitive artist of Superman in the early 1960s with a “new look” to the character that replaced Wayne Boring’s version. The Composite Superman was co-created by Swan and Edmond Hamilton in World’s Finest Comics #142 (June 1964). Swan and writer Jim Shooter crafted the story “Superman’s Race With the Flash!” in Superman #199 (Aug. 1967) which featured the first race between the Flash and Superman, two characters known for their super-speed powers. Over the years, Swan was a remarkably consistent and prolific artist, often illustrating two or more titles per month. Swan remained as artist of Superman when Julius Schwartz became the editor of the title with issue #233 (Jan. 1971), and writer Denny O’Neil streamlined the Superman mythos, starting with the elimination of Kryptonite. Among Swan’s contributions to the Superman mythos, he and writer Cary Bates co-created the supervillains Terra-Man and the 1970s version of the Toyman as well as the superhero Vartox. Writer Martin Pasko and Swan created the Master Jailer character in Superman #331(January 1979).

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Carmine Infantino comics artist and editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s  Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are the Silver Age version of DC super-speedster the Flash, with writer Robert Kanigher; the stretching Elongated Man, with John Broome, and Christopher Chance, the second iteration of the Human Target, with Len Wein. He was inducted into comics’ Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2000.

Carmine Infantino

During his freshman year of high school, Infantino began working for Harry “A” Chesler, whose studio was one of a handful of comic-book “packagers” who created complete comics for publishers looking to enter the emerging field in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. With Frank Giacoia penciling, Infantino inked the feature “Jack Frost” in USA Comics #3 (cover-dated Jan. 1942), from Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel Comics.

Infantino would eventually work for several publishers during the decade, drawing Human Torch and Angel stories for Timely; Airboy and Heap stories for Hillman Periodicals; working for packager Jack Binder, who supplied Fawcett Comics; briefly at Holyoke Publishing; then landing at DC Comics. Infantino’s first published work for DC was “The Black Canary”, a six-page Johnny Thunder story in Flash Comics #86 (Aug. 1947) that introduced the superheroine the Black Canary. Infantino’s long association with the Flash mythos began with “The Secret City” a story in All-Flash #31 (Oct.-Nov. 1947). He additionally became a regular artist of the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Justice Society of America.

During the 1950s, Infantino freelanced for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s company, Prize Comics, drawing the series Charlie Chan. Back at DC, during a lull in the popularity of superheroes, Infantino drew Westerns, mysteries, science fiction comics.

One of John Buscema’s signature covers on his first Avengers run. The wedding of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne.

In 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz assigned writer Robert Kanigher and artist Infantino to the company’s first attempt at reviving superheroes: an updated version of the Flash that would appear in issue #4 (Oct. 1956) of the try-out series Showcase. Infantino designed the now-classic red uniform with yellow detail (reminiscent of the original Fawcett Captain Marvel), striving to keep the costume as streamlined as possible, and he drew on his design abilities to create a new visual language to depict the Flash’s speed, using both vertical and horizontal motion lines to make the figure a red and yellow blur. The eventual success of the new, science-fiction-oriented Flash heralded the wholesale return of superheroes, and the beginning of what fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comics.

Infantino drew “Flash of Two Worlds,” a landmark  story published in The Flash #123 (Sept. 1961) that introduced Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the multiverse, to DC Comics. Infantino continued to work for Schwartz in his other features and titles, most notably “Adam Strange” in Mystery in Space, succeeding the character’s initial artist, Mike Sekowsky. In 1964, Schwartz was made responsible for reviving the faded Batman titles. Writer John Broome and artist Infantino jettisoned the sillier aspects that had crept into the series (such as Ace the Bathound, and Bat-Mite) and gave the “New Look” Batman and Robin a more detective-oriented direction and sleeker draftsmanship that proved a hit combination.

Other features and characters Infantino drew at DC include “The Space Museum”, and Elongated Man. With Gardner Fox, Infantino co-created the Blockbuster in Detective Comics #345 (Nov. 1965) and Barbara Gordon as a new version of Batgirl in Detective Comics #359 (Jan. 1967). Writer Arnold Drake and Infantino created the supernatural superhero Deadman in Strange Adventures #205 (Oct. 1967). This story included the first known depiction of narcotics in a story approved by the Comics Code Authority.

DC Comics Editorial Director

In late 1966/early 1967, Infantino was tasked by Irwin Donenfeld with designing covers for the entire DC line. Stan Lee learned this and approached Infantino with a $22,000 offer to move to Marvel. Publisher Jack Liebowitz confirmed that DC could not match the offer, but could promote Infantino to the position of art director. Initially reluctant, Infantino accepted what Liebowitz posed as a challenge, and stayed with DC. When DC was sold to Kinney National Company, Infantino was promoted to editorial director. He started by hiring new talent, and promoting artists to editorial positions. He hired Dick Giordano away from Charlton Comics, and made artists Joe Orlando, Joe Kubert and Mike Sekowsky editors. New talents such as artist Neal Adams and writer Denny O’Neil were brought into the company. Several of DC’s older characters were revamped by O’Neil including Wonder Woman;  Batman; Green Lantern and Green Arrow; and Superman.

In 1970, Infantino signed on Marvel Comics’ star artist and storytelling collaborator Jack Kirby to a DC Comics contract. Beginning with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Kirby created his Fourth World saga that wove through that existing title and three new series he created. After the “Fourth World” titles were canceled, Kirby created several other series for DC including OMAC, Kamandi, The Demon, and, together with former partner Joe Simon for one last time, a new incarnation of the Sandman before returning to freelancing for Marvel in 1975.

DC Comics Publisher

Infantino was made DC’s publisher in early 1971, during a time of declining circulation for the company’s comics, and he attempted a number of changes. In an effort to increase revenue, he raised the cover price of DC’s comics from 15 to 25 cents, simultaneously raising the page-count by adding reprints and new backup features.  Marvel met the price increase, then dropped back to 20 cents; DC stayed at 25 cents for about a year, a decision that ultimately proved bad for overall sales.

Infantino and writer Len Wein co-created the “Human Target” feature in Action Comics #419 (December 1972). The character was adapted into a short-lived ABC television series starring Rick Springfield which debuted in July 1992.

After consulting with screenwriter Mario Puzo on the plots of both Superman: The Movie and Superman II, Infantino collaborated with Marvel on the historic company-crossover publication Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. In January 1976, Warner Communications replaced Infantino with magazine publisher Jenette Kahn, a person new to the comics field. Infantino returned to drawing freelance.

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(Source: Wikipedia)

Gil Kane

Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and co-created Iron Fist with Roy Thomas for Marvel Comics. He was involved in such major storylines as that of The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98, which, at the behest of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, bucked the then-prevalent Comics Code Authority to depict drug abuse, and ultimately spurred an update of the Code. Kane additionally pioneered an early graphic novel prototype, His Name Is… Savage, in 1968, and a seminal graphic novel, Blackmark, in 1971.

Gil Kane was born Eli Katz on April 6, 1926, in Latvia to a Jewish family that immigrated to the U.S. in 1929, settling in Brooklyn, New York City. His father was a struggling poultry merchant. Kane attended high school at Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art, but left in his senior year when he saw an opportunity to work at MLJ Comics (later Archie Comics). He recalled in a 1996 interview,

Gil Kane had made his niche at DC on Green Lantern and The Atom. He had some brief flirtations with  Marvel in the late ’60’s doing a few Hulk tales and assisting John Romita on the Amazing Spider-Man. He redesigned the costume for Captain Marvel and became the artist of the title even though it was inconsistent in publication. He would soon become Marvel’s number 1 cover artist for almost the entire decade of the ’70’s.

In 1944 he did his first work for the future Marvel Comics, as one of two inkers on the 28-page “The Spawn of Death” in the wartime kid-gang comic Young Allies #11 (March 1944), and the future DC Comics, as the uncredited ghost artist for Jack Kirby on the Sandman superhero story “Courage a la Carte” in Adventure Comics #91 (May 1944). That same year Kane either was drafted or enlisted in the Army and served in the World War II Pacific theater of operations. After 19 months in the service, he returned to in December 1945. All-American Publications editor Sheldon Mayer hired him in 1947, for a stint that lasted six months. He contributed again to the “Sandman” feature in Adventure Comics and, as penciler Gil Stack and inker Phil Martel, to the “Wildcat” feature in Sensation Comics. Around this time, he said, he “worked with director Garson Kanin when he was involved in TV,” drawing storyboards.

In 1949, Kane began a longtime professional relationship with Julius Schwartz, an editor at National Comics, the future DC Comics. Kane drew stories for several DC series in the 1950s including All-Star Western and The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog.

Gil Kane revitalized the military hero of the Kree into the Protector of Earth. In issue 21 he runs into Rick Jones ol’ green skinned pal: The Incredible Hulk!  Roy Thomas scripted book.

In the late 1950s, freelancing for DC Comics precursor National Comics, Kane illustrated works in what fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, creating character designs for the modern-day version of the 1940s superhero Green Lantern, for which he pencilled most of the first 75 issues of the reimagined character’s comic.

Kane and writer John Broome’s stories for the Green Lantern series included transforming Hal Jordan’s love interest, Carol Ferris, into the Star Sapphire in issue #16.  Black Hand, a character featured prominently in the “Blackest Night” storyline in 2009-2010, debuted in issue #29 (June 1964) by Broome and Kane. The creative team created Guy Gardner in the story “Earth’s Other Green Lantern!” in issue #59 (March 1968).

Kane similarly co-created an updated version of the Atom with writer Gardner Fox. Kane — who by 1960 was living in Jericho, New York, on Long Island — also drew the youthful superhero team the Teen Titans, a revival of Plastic Man, and, in the late 1960s, such short-lived titles as Hawk and Dove and the licensed-character comic Captain Action, based on the action figure. Kane and Marv Wolfman created an origin for Wonder Girl in Teen Titans #22 (July–Aug. 1969) which introduced the character’s new costume.

He briefly freelanced some Hulk stories in Marvel Comics’ Tales to Astonish, first under the pseudonym Scott Edward and then in his own name, defying the practice in which DC artists moonlighting at Marvel used pseudonyms. He and writer/editor Stan Lee introduced the Abomination as an enemy of the Hulk in Tales to Astonish #90 (April 1967). Kane also freelanced in the 1960s for Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a superhero/espionage title, as well as the “Tiger Boy” strip for Harvey Comics. Kane then found a home at Marvel, eventually becoming the regular penciller for The Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding John Romita in the early 1970s, and becoming the company’s preeminent cover artist through that decade. Kane’s first Spider-Man storyline culminated in the death of supporting character George Stacy.

During that run, he and editor-writer Stan Lee produced in 1971 a three-issue story arc in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May–July 1971) that marked the first challenge to the industry’s self-regulating Comics Code Authority since its inception in 1954. The Code forbade mention of drugs, even in a negative context. However, Lee and Kane created an anti-drug storyline conceived at the behest of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and upon not receiving Code Authority approval, Marvel published the issues without the Code seal on their covers. The comics met with such positive reception and high sales that the industry’s self-censorship was undercut, and the Code soon afterward was revamped. Another landmark in Kane’s Spider-Man run was the arc “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” in issues #121-122 (June–July 1973), in which Spider-Man’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy, as well as the long-time villain Green Goblin were killed, an unusual occurrence at the time.

With writer Roy Thomas, Kane helped revise the Marvel Comics version of Captain Marvel, and revamped a preexisting character as Adam Warlock. Kane and Thomas co-created the martial arts superhero Iron Fist, and Morbius the Living Vampire. Kane and writer Gerry Conway transformed John Jameson, an incidental character in The Amazing Spider-Man series, into the Man-Wolf.

Conway, Kane’s collaborator on the death-of-Gwen-Stacy storyline and elsewhere, described Kane in 2009 as

“… a marvelous draftsman and an idiosyncratic storyteller. I quickly learned that working with him Marvel-style (that’s when a writer gives the artist a plot and the artist breaks down the story, panel by panel and page by page) could sometimes result in lopsided storytelling; the first two-thirds of a story would be leisurely paced, and the last third would be hellbent-for-leather as Gil tried to make up for loose storytelling in the first half . So after doing a few stories with him in my usual loosely plotted style, I began giving him tighter plots, indicating where the story had to be by such-and-such a page. He seemed to prefer this, and I’m generally happier with the later stories we did together than the first few.”

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Barry Windsor-Smith got his start imitating Kirby, but soon found his own style. He was known as Barry Smith in those days and was a resident of merry ol’ England. When he moved to the States years later and obtained citizenship he adapted his mothers maiden name as part of his.

Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith (born Barry Smith, 25 May 1949) is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States. He is known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on Wolverine – particularly the original Weapon X story arc.

Windsor-Smith produced his first published work in 1967 and 1968 – single page “Powerhouse Pinups” of Marvel Comics characters for Terrific and Fantastic comics, titles published by Odhams Press that included licensed Marvel Comics reprints for the UK market. Following this, he flew to the U.S. in summer 1968 with fellow artist Steve Parkhouse for meetings at Marvel in New York. “I sent material first, and based solely upon a pleasant return note from Stan Lee’s assistant Linda Fite, my pal and me were at Marvel’s doorstep in the blink of an eye.” Largely due to his Jack Kirbyesque style, Marvel Comics Editor Stan Lee gave him the job of drawing both the cover and story of X-Men No. 53 (cover-dated Feb. 1969), credited to Barry Smith as he was then known.  He drew Marvel’s Daredevil #50–52 (March–May 1969), a Western short story, “Half Breed” (probably the story “Outcast” eventually published in Western Gunfighters No. 4, Feb. 1971), and issue #12 of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (May 1968), both scripted by Parkhouse. Windsor-Smith later called his early art “amateur and klutzy” and a “less than skillful” Kirby imitation, but Stan Lee liked it enough to give him more work.

Barry Smith as he was known then, got his big break illustrating Roy Thomas’ Conana The Barbarian. Sword and Sorcery would become a major genre mainly due to the success of this title. Barry did 21 of the first 24 issues.

Despite this, Roy Thomas assigned him issues No. 66 and No. 67 of The Avengers (July–Aug. 1969) after he had returned to the UK. These stories introduced the fictitious indestructible metal alloy adamantium. He continued to work at a distance for Marvel, providing the art for a number of stories in the horror anthology titles Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness. Thomas, a long-time fan of Robert E. Howard’s 1930 pulp-fiction character Conan the Barbarian, had Windsor-Smith provide art for a sword and sorcery story, “Starr the Slayer”, in Chamber of Darkness No. 4 (April 1970). Soon afterwards, Thomas offered Windsor-Smith the job as penciller for Marvel’s adaptation of Conan, starting with Conan the Barbarian No. 1 (Oct. 1970).[8] In 1971, Windsor-Smith moved to the United States, having been granted a work permit. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Windsor-Smith’s “initial efforts were slightly sketchy, but his technique progressed by leaps and bounds. Within a few months he had achieved a style never seen in comics before.”

During his run on Conan the Barbarian, Windsor-Smith was involved in the writing as well. He and writer Roy Thomas adapted a number of R.E. Howard short stories, the aforementioned “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter”, “Tower of the Elephant”, “Rogues in the House”, and “Red Nails”. As well as the art and story contributions, Windsor-Smith provided the covers for most issues. They worked on original adventures and characters based on R.E. Howard’s characters – most notably the flame-haired warrior-woman, Red Sonja – loosely based on a character from one of Howard’s non-Conan stories, who has now become a major comics character in her own right – in “The Song of Red Sonja” in Conan the Barbarian No. 24 (March 1973), Windsor-Smith’s last issue of the title. By then he had worked on 21 of the first 24 issues of the series, missing only issues No. 17 and No. 18, and No. 22 (which was a reprint of issue #1), and both he and the title had won a number of awards. Windsor-Smith would later say that the reason he missed those issues was because he had quit the series a number of times as he was dissatisfied with the work and how the comics business worked, rather than the deadline problems Marvel quoted. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s work on Conan the Barbarian seventh on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels”.

Windsor-Smith provided the art for a number of other Marvel Comics titles, including the Ka-Zar stories in Astonishing Tales #3–6 (December 1970 – June 1971) and No. 10 (February 1972), three further issues of The Avengers (#98–100, April–June 1972) – about which he would later remember the nightmare of drawing “all those bloody characters that I didn’t give tuppence about”, Iron Man No. 47 (June 1972), and Marvel Premiere #3–4 (July–September 1972), which featured Doctor Strange, both of which were apparently re-scripted by Stan Lee after being drawn to Lee’s original scripts. Windsor-Smith was by now becoming disillusioned with the comics industry and the way in which in his opinion the writers and artists were being exploited: “I needed to be free of constraints and policies that were imposed by the dictates of creating entertainment for children” Shortly thereafter, Windsor-Smith left comics for the first time, leaving only a couple of inventory items in the Marvel Comics vaults, both stories of R.E. Howard characters: Kull in “Exile of Atlantis” (Savage Sword of Conan No. 3, December 1974), and Bran Mak Morn in “Worms of the Earth” (Savage Sword of Conan No. 16, November 1975). Other than ten pages of inking of Jack Kirby pencil work for Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles (1976), a one-off oversize Marvel Treasury Edition, he produced no more comics work until 1983.

At this point he changed his professional surname to Windsor-Smith, adding his mother’s surname to his own, and began to pursue a career in fine art. Granted residential status in the United States in 1974, Windsor-Smith, along with his partner Linda Lessman, set up Gorblimey Press, through which he released a small number of limited-edition prints of fantasy-based subjects that proved popular.

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(Source: Wikipedia)

“Lo, There Shall Be An Ending”

We have plodded through the 1960’s re-examining some of the classic cover art from the Silver and Marvel Age of Comics. We have commented and shared from our collective memories of the period as well as tracking down other’s recollections of that time. It’s been fun but as with all such things there must be an ending. We hope you have enjoyed our decade long stroll down memory lane. There are more artists and writers we would have liked to spotlight which made a major impact on the era but space and time being what it is, we just could not get to all of them. We picked a few of our favorites including some which were often overlooked for their contributions. There were  many more we would have liked to have included spotlight columns on: Wally Wood, George Klein, Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Denny O’neil, Dick Ayers, Sid Shores, Sid Green, Bernie Wrightson, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposita, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Bruno Premiani, Arnold Drake, Gardner Fox, George Tuska, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Marv Wolfman, Joe Kubert and a few others whose names elude us at present. Some of these we have had extensive articles on in past blogs, like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

This is also possibly the last blog post for the Mega Comics Group! Sorry to shock you, but it seems there is not an easy way to break the news, and no good time to make the announcement. So rather than procrastinate any longer this seemed like as good a time as any. We have been at this for a little more than 10 years online and much longer as evidenced by our original comic book work we have produced and shared here dating back to the late 1980’s. We more than accomplished our online goal of turning all those old books into web comics, but our subsequent goal of reprinting all our Legacy Comics has fallen short, we are sorry to say.

Why stop? Well, there is a whole host of reasons depending who you might ask, but the best way to sum it all up is: we have all developed interests in new projects and maintaining the site of our past accomplishments is just too much in developing the new projects. In addition there are some conflicts of interest in what was done in the past and projects we want to pursue. There are also financial considerations as well. In short: It’s hard to move forward while dragging so much baggage, and we don’t mean to imply our past work is bad, it’s just …well… past. We have all enjoyed this site and learned a lot in the process building and maintaining it. It’s been a blast! We love it and it is with great sadness that we are ending it.

How long will the site remain online? We are not sure at this time. As you might guess a web site like this, of this age, accumulates a lot of files, takes up a lot of bandwidth on our server, so archiving it may take a while. We don’t want to delete it all, we may want to be able to access some of it in the future.

What about the printed and pdf comics at IndyPlanet and DriveThru Comics? Those will still be available for a time, possibly until the end of the year. Once the  site is archived the printed books will probably follow suit soon after. BUT hopefully we’ll have something else to offer by that time…

That’s right! This is not the end! It may be the end of this web site but Mark Poe, our resident, friendly, neighborhood, publisher-in-training, has another site and comic title in the development even as we write these fateful lines. He hopes to have the new site going by the first of 2020! Freazie White, Jr. is likewise working on his own projects as is just about everyone who ever helped us on the books on this site. So fear not faithful wayfarers, ’tis not an ending we speak of. Nay! But a new beginning!