Sunday 22 January 2023

The Marvel Annual for 1972/1973. At last, a mystery solved!

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon
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Fleetway Marvel Annual 1972/1973
The autumn of 1972 was a momentous time in the life of any UK comics fan.

One reason for that was the launch of The Mighty World of Marvel, a brand-new periodical which introduced us to the wonders of the House of Ideas.

But the second reason was the arrival of an annual we'd all be getting in our stockings that Christmas.

Granted, if we did find it in our stockings, we'd struggle to get our legs into them, as it was a sizeable beast, cramming a whole multitude of Marvel reprints into its 100-plus pages.

Who'd created those interior tales was no mystery at all. As any fool knew, they were brought to us by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Jack Kirby, Barry Smith and Steve Ditko.

But, in truth, there was one enigma. A mystery that could foil the wit of Sherlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, Father Dowling, Nancy Drew, both Hardy Boys, Velma, Shaggy, Freddie, Daphne, Scrappy and Scooby, all combined.

And that was the question of who painted its fabby cover?

Incredible Hulk #2, Cannon flinging
Clearly, it was based on a panel from The Incredible Hulk #2, in which the green goliath battled the terrifying Toadmen.

However, that picture was by Jack Kirby, and this new one clearly wasn't.

For many a year, I've assumed the artist to be perhaps Mediterranean. This was based entirely on the uniforms of the soldiers, especially their helmets which, to my eagle eyes, didn't have a British or American look to them.

Thus it was that I wondered if the artist was Rafael López Espí, the man who produced a seemingly infinite amount of material for Marvel's reprinted output in Spain. In Britain, his greatest claim to fame was having painted the legendarily magnificent posters one could, for a spell, buy from the back covers of the company's UK mags.

However, it seems I was wrong to suspect that.

For, verily, at last, I seem to have an answer.

Or, at least, the Albion British Comics Database does - by naming the artist as James E McConnell, a man who also contributed covers to the likes of Super Detective Library, Thriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library, Look and Learn, Lion and Ranger, as well as Hurricane annuals.

James E McConnell
According to Wikipedia, McConnell was born in 1903 and died in 1995 and, over the years, painted more than 1000 covers and frontispieces.

As if that wasn't enough, he also contributed artwork to the American Roll of Honour in the American Chapel of St Paul's Cathedral, London.

I can't find any sign of him having done any other super-hero work - or of him ever having worked again for Marvel. So, it seems his presence on that annual's cover was a unique honour for us all indeed and, thus, an event to be treasured.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I saw that on your Twitter, Steve - well done. Even if you didn't also manage to get #Apeslayer trending (better luck next time).

The funny thing is, after commenting before about how a Kirby image - which has the same kind of dynamism as Arsenal beating Man Utd - re-done in that old school DC Thompson/War Picture Library-type style seemed to anticipate later developments in American comics... at a glance I really would have guessed that western pic was by Alex Ross!

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

STEVE - Thank you for that bit of comic history! I find that Hulk cover every bit as thrilling as the STERANKO cover for Incredible HULK King Size Special #1!

Charlie - in the year of the Arsenal

Matthew McKinnon said...

That crimson sky is amazing.

Colin Jones said...

I didn't discover Marvel comics until November 1974 so I was unaware of the Marvel annual and the posters by Rafael Lopez Espi :(

Colin Jones said...

It was a big surprise to discover recently (thanks to Steve Does Comics) that the Marvel annual from 1972 featured a Conan The Barbarian story drawn by Barry Smith. I'd always assumed that 'Savage Sword Of Conan' No.1 dated March 8th 1975 was Conan's first appearance in a UK Marvel publication.

Steve W. said...

Colin, yes, Conan's appearance in that annual always felt anomalous, as the other strips were early 1960s super-hero tales and featured characters who'd already appeared in Mighty World of Marvel.

Matthew, It certainly catches the eye in a way a blue sky wouldn't.

Sean, I have faith that #Apeslayer will start to trend any day now. It can only be a matter of time...

Charlie, you're welcome.

McSCOTTY said...

Wasn't it the case that this "Marvel" annual had technically, nothing to do with the MWOM comic or Marvel UK and only featured Marvel characters?

Sean, I think that cover had the "dynamism" more akin to Darvel beating Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup yesterday, Darvel in tier 6 club with a population of about 4,000 , Aberdeen 7 times Cup winners, Scottish Premier league winners 4 times, European Cup winnerscup champions and European Super Cup winners

Anonymous said...

Paul, when you suggest not specifically Marvel, but featuring Marvel characters, do you mean like Fantastic annual & Pow! annual?

Phillip

McSCOTTY said...

In a way Phillip , except it didn't have UK comic strips ( Frankie Stien, Swots & Blotts, Missing Link etc) along with Marvel characters. It wasn't a Marvel UK annual as such, it was produced and packaged for them by Fleetway and there were 2 Marvel annuals this one and one in 1973 ( with a Spidey cover) .

Anonymous said...

Scottish football, Paul? Not sure that counts really. Unless its Celtic, obviously.

Just kidding. Its always nice to hear about some small team doing well like that.
Perhaps West Ham could pull it off when they play Sp*rs next month...

-sean