Thursday 9 March 2017

Marvel Preview #12 (Marvel Magazine/1977)



This issue of Marvel Preview was a one shot highlighting some of the characters from the company's now defunct horror line. Haunt of Horror in its original incarnation had only lasted 6 issues and with the exception of Dracula none went past eleven editions.

The problem was that there were too many titles competing in what was a niche market and combined with delays all the horror titles folded. They are fondly remembered as there is some good material in them. What's more they were far more "edgy" than the colour comics that we were used to.

Lilith, Dracula's daughter appeared in Vampire Tales whilst Dracula himself had his own mag. The editorial suggested that these characters should share a mag but alas it was too late. The horror boom was at an end and only Savage Sword of Conan would survive as a black & white magazine in the long term

The Lilith story, Profits Are Plunging  by Steve Gerber, Bob Brown & Frank Springer combines horror and environmentalism as Dracula's daughter takes on a multi-national corporation to not just save her lover but the seas of Earth itself.

Slinking Through the Psycho-Ward is up next in a one of tale of a cleaner and his woes at work with lunatics abounding around him.

The Eternal Warrior, the third story is the weakest tale in the book featuring Gilgamesh in an entirely predictable tale set in the jungle.

However the best is saved for last as Doug Monech & Sonny Trinidad tell the tale, Picture Of Andrea, with a detective standing in a victim's room alone at 4am in the morning trying to figure out what happened. Was she murdered and more importantly where is the body?

 Oh and there's Dracula to take into account with a twist I didn't see coming.

 

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