John Carter Warlord of Mars 23, Marvel Comics, cover-dated April 1979.
"The Master Assassin of Mars Chapter 8: The Man Who Makes Murder!" by Chris Claremont, with art by Mike Vosburg and Ricardo Villamonte.
What happens when Professor Alan jumps into part 8 of a 12 (!) part storyline? Can he make sense of the story? Is this a "running down corridors" issue? How does Claremont do at channeling the purple prose of Burroughs?
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Link: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
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Next Episode: Star Trek 62 & 63, DC Comics, August & September, 1994.
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Source: Half Price Books
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Off the top of my head, 1943 sees the multi-chapter story arc for the Monster Society of Evil in Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46 and I think for the 70's typically 'Panther's Rage' in Jungle Action #6-18 (1973-1975) is considered an early multi-chapter story.
ReplyDeleteTerrific examples. Thank you!
DeleteAnd of course, Superman 296-299 in the mid-Seventies, Who took the ‘super’ out of ‘Superman’.
DeleteI know I bought a single issue of John Carter, but I can’t for the life of me recognise the cover on the Grand Comic Database. I don’t know what that says, but I remember thinking it was okay for a book without any actual superheroes. I think it had him fighting a four-armed person.
Great discussion and yes the '8 of 12' ness of the story is crazy for the newsstand viewpoint. I never knew if I'd see the second part of a story at my 7-11.
ReplyDeleteAs for others -
From a Supergirl point of view, Action Comics #279-285 is a pretty longform story where Supergirl fights a foe from Kandor, becomes more independent, and ultimately gets revealed to the world, a 'secret emergency weapon' no more. That said, it was the back-up strip and most people were probably buying for the one and done Superman stuff in the front.
For classic stuff -
The Kree Skrull war I think was about 8 issues long.
Maybe the Celestial Madonna story?
Seems like Marvel was more into it tha DC.
As for the art team, I do know Vosburg best for that Starfire book but he also was hand-picked by Chaykin to do the reboot second volume of American Flagg.
But more importantly, Villamonte I do know for drawing one of the best comics ever made, DC's short lived, LSD-infused, testosterone fueled Beowulf series ... one of the best, if not THE best comic ever made.
I wonder if at that point in time, Marvel still had the "we're number two, we try harder" attitude? Or if their audience was indeed 5 to 10 years older than DC's, Maybe the longer form storytelling method was more viable for them? Or at least worth the experimentation?
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