Marvel Preview

Marvel Preview is a black-and-white comics magazine published by Magazine Management for 14 issues and the affiliated Marvel Comics Group for 10 issues.[1] The final issue additionally carried the imprint Marvel Magazines Group.

Marvel Preview
Cover of Marvel Preview #1 (February 1975).
Art by Neal Adams
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
ScheduleQuarterly
FormatMagazine
GenreAdventure
Science fiction
Sword and sorcery
Superhero
Publication date1975–Winter 1980 (as Marvel Preview)
March 1981–February 1983 (as Bizarre Adventures)
No. of issues34 (#1–24 as Marvel Preview #25–34 as Bizarre Adventures)
Creative team
Written by
Penciller(s)
Inker(s)
Colorist(s)

Publication history

An umbrella title that showcased a different heroic-adventure, science-fiction, or sword-and-sorcery character in virtually every issue. The title introduced the Marvel Comics characters Dominic Fortune in issue #2, Star-Lord in #4,[2] and Rocket Raccoon in #7.[3] The vigilante character the Punisher, introduced as an antagonist in the comic book The Amazing Spider-Man, had his first solo story in issue #2.

The magazine had scheduling difficulties, with various "Next Issue" announcements proving unreliable. Issue #2 promised an adventure of the Marvel superhero Thor in #3, but a Blade story appeared, with the Thor story unseen until #10. As well, two different issues, #20 and 24, are dated "Winter 1980." Issue #20 was to have included photographs from a Japanese Spider-Man television program, but instead featured Howard Chaykin's Dominic Fortune.[4] In addition, Robert A. Heinlein's lawyers threatened legal action over the cover of Marvel Preview #11, which featured a blurb that described the Star-Lord content as "a novel-length science fiction spectacular in the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein," leading to the issue being pulled and reprinted.[5]

With #25 (March 1981), the title was changed to Bizarre Adventures, which published an additional 10 issues before ending publication.[6] To offset the dark tone of most of the stories, editor Denny O'Neil had writer Steve Skeates produce a humor feature called Bucky Bizarre to close out each issue.[7] A story originally prepared for Marvel's Logan's Run comic book series was published in Bizarre Adventures #28 (Oct. 1981).[8] The final issue, #34, was a standard-sized color comic book, cover-blurbed "Special Hate the Holidays Issue", with anthological Christmas-related stories, including one starring Howard the Duck.

Issues

Issue (cover date) Feature Notes
#1 (1975) "Man-Gods From Beyond the Stars"
#2 (1975) "The Punisher" back-up: Dominic Fortune (debut)
#3 (September 1975) "Blade the Vampire-Slayer" originally was going to be in the never-released Vampire Tales #12
#4 (January 1976) "Star-Lord" (debut) back-up: The Sword in the Star with Prince Wayfinder
#5 (April 1976) "Sherlock Holmes" adaptation of the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles part 1
#6 (Spring 1976) "Sherlock Holmes" The Hound of the Baskervilles part 2
#7 (Summer 1976) "Satana" back-up: The Sword in the Star with Prince Wayfinder, featuring the debut of Rocket Raccoon
#8 (Fall 1976) "The Legion of Monsters" Morbius the Living Vampire, Blade, and Anubis
#9 (Winter 1976) "Man-God" (Hugo Danner) Part 1 of an unfinished adaptation of the novel Gladiator by Philip Wylie
#10 (Winter 1977) "Thor" back-up: Hercules
#11 (Summer 1977) "Star-Lord"
#12 (Fall 1977) "The Haunt of Horror" Lilith and Dracula
#13 (Winter 1978) "The UFO Connection"
#14 (Spring 1978) "Star-Lord"
#15 (Summer 1978) "Star-Lord"
#16 (Fall 1978) "Masters of Terror" Lilith
#17 (Winter 1979) "Blackmark"
#18 (Spring 1979) "Star-Lord"
#19 (Summer 1979) "Kull the Destroyer" back-up: Solomon Kane
#20 (Winter 1980) "Bizarre Adventures" reprints, including Dominic Fortune
#21 (Spring 1980) "Moon Knight" back-up: the Shroud
#22 (Summer 1980) "Merlin"
#23 (Fall 1980) "Bizarre Adventures 2"
#24 (Winter 1980) "Paradox"

Bizarre Adventures

Issue (cover date) Feature Notes
#25 (March 1981) "Lethal Ladies" The Black Widow; Lady Daemon (debut); the Daughters of the Dragon
#26 (May 1981) "Kull the Barbarian" King Kull; "Demon in a Silvered Glass"—story by Doug Moench, art by John Bolton
#27 (July 1981) "Secret Lives of the X-Men" Phoenix; the Iceman; Nightcrawler
#28 (October 1981) "...These Are the Unlikely Heroes" Elektra; the Shadow Hunter (debut); the Huntsman;[8] Triton; and Bucky Bizarre (debut)
#29 (December 1981) "Stephen King's 'The Lawnmower Man'" Adaptation of the Stephen King short story "The Lawnmower Man"; and stories starring Greenberg the Vampire (debut)[9] and Bucky Bizarre
#30 (February 1982) "Paradox" back ups: Silhouette; Bucky Bizarre
#31 (April 1982) "A Hard Look at Violence" Dr. Deth with Kip and Muffy (debut); the Hangman I (Harlan Krueger; final appearance); Bucky Bizarre
#32 (August 1982) "Thor and Other Gods" backups: the Aquarian; Bucky Bizarre
#33 (December 1982) "The Tomb of Dracula"; "Haunt of Horror"; "Tales of the Zombie"; "Vault of Evil" Dracula; Varnae (debut); the Zombie
#34 (February 1983) "Special Hate the Holidays Issue" Christmas-themed anthology issue, including the Son of Santa (debut and final appearance), Howard the Duck, Dr. Deth with Kip and Muffy (final appearance) and Bucky Bizarre (final appearance)

Collected editions

  • Essential Punisher Vol. 1 includes the Punisher story from Marvel Preview #2, 568 pages, March 2004, ISBN 978-0785123750
  • Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now includes Dominic Fortune story from Marvel Preview #2, 184 pages, February 2010, ISBN 978-0785140429
  • Blade: Black & White includes Blade the Vampire Slayer stories from Marvel Preview #3 and 6, 144 pages, December 2004, ISBN 978-0785114697
  • Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy includes Star-Lord stories from Marvel Preview #4, 11, 14-15, and 18, 424 pages, July 2014, ISBN 978-0785154495
  • Essential Marvel Horror Vol. 1 includes Satana story from Marvel Preview #7, 648 pages, October 2006, ISBN 978-0785121961
  • Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant includes Rocket Raccoon story from Marvel Preview #7, 120 pages, August 2011, ISBN 978-0785155270
  • Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1 includes the Moon Knight story from Marvel Preview #21, 560 pages, February 2006, ISBN 978-0785120926
  • Black Widow: Web of Intrigue includes the Black Widow story from Bizarre Adventures #25, 176 pages, April 2010, ISBN 978-0785144748
  • Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus Vol. 2 includes the Daughters of the Dragon story from Bizarre Adventures #25, 1,000 pages, June 2017, ISBN 978-1302901349
  • The Savage Sword of Kull Vol. 1 includes King Kull story from Bizarre Adventures #26, 448 pages, November 2010, ISBN 978-1595825933
  • X-Men: Iceman includes the Iceman story from Bizarre Adventures #27, 120 pages, August 2012, ISBN 978-0785162759
  • X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga includes Phoenix story from Bizarre Adventures #27, 200 pages, April 2012, ISBN 978-0785164210
  • Elektra by Frank Miller Omnibus includes Elektra story from Bizarre Adventures #28, 384 pages, November 2008, ISBN 978-0785127772

References

  1. Marvel Preview at the Grand Comics Database
  2. Englehart, Steve (n.d.). "Star-Lord". SteveEnglehart.com. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
  3. Collins, Sean (July 29, 2014). "The Rise of Guardians of the Galaxy's Rocket Raccoon". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 22, 2014. An alien transformed by cruel experiments into a warrior with a wicked sense of humor, his first appearance lasted a handful of pages in the black-and-white science-fantasy story 'The Sword in the Star' in Marvel Preview #7.
  4. Saffel, Steve (2007). "Amazing Friends and Secret Wars The 1980s". Spider-Man the Icon: The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon. London, United Kingdom: Titan Books. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-84576-324-4. Since Marvel Preview was printed on cheap newsprint, it's possible that [Marvel's editorial staff] decided the photos would look terrible when screened and printed.
  5. Cronin, Brian (February 12, 2009). "Comic Book Legends Revealed #194". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2013. Heinlein’s lawyers contacted Marvel and a new printing was done and the text was removed. In fact, relatively few copies of Marvel Preview #11 exist with the original text.
  6. Bizarre Adventures at the Grand Comics Database
  7. Schwirian, John (June 2009). "The Unique Voice and Vision of Steve Skeates, part 3". Back Issue!. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing (#34): 81–87.
  8. Cronin, Brian (January 31, 2014). "Comic Book Legends Revealed #456". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 7, 2018. Marvel has always been unwilling to just let unused stories go to waste...so a Logan’s Run back-up that was likely going to run through Logan’s Run #9 and #10 by Archie Goodwin and Michael Golden instead became a brand-new story in Bizarre Adventures #28!
  9. DeFalco, Tom; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "1980s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 202. ISBN 978-0756641238. Writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Steve Leialoha explored a new take on the vampire myth with Greenberg.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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