During the mid-1970s, DC Comics published an “atmospheric interpretation” of the character by writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Michael Kaluta in a 12-issue series (Nov. 1973 – Sept. 1975). Kaluta drew issues 1–4 and 6 and was followed by Frank Robbins and then E. R. Cruz. Attempting to be faithful to both the pulp-magazine and radio-drama character, the series guest-starred fellow pulp fiction hero the Avenger in issue #11.
Supergirl starred in her first solo eponymous monthly series beginning in 1972 until October 1974, when her monthly title merged with Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen to produce a new title: then-highest DC selling series called The Superman Family, where she eventually became the steady lead story. Linda worked as a student advisor at New Athens Experimental School, before leaving for New York to follow a career in acting with daytime soap Secret Hearts.
The Batman Family ran twenty issues from September-October 1975 to October-November 1978 and featured solo and team-up stories starring Batgirl and Robin. The lead story in the first issue teaming Batgirl and Robin was originally intended for publication in an issue of 1st Issue Special. The series additionally featured reprints of Golden Age and Silver Age stories. Many issues of Batman Family featured Batman supporting characters such as Alfred Pennyworth, Vicki Vale, the Elongated Man, the Huntress, and Ace the Bat-Hound. Writer Bob Rozakis introduced the Duela Dent character in issue #6 (July–August 1976) and revived the original Batwoman in issue #10 (March–April 1977). The series began featuring only new material as of issue #11 (May-June 1977) and Man-Bat began appearing as a regular feature. Batman Family converted to the Dollar Comics format with issue #17 (April–May 1978).
Kong the Untamed is a comic book series published by DC Comics that ran for five issues. It was created in 1975 by writer Jack Oleck and artist Alfredo Alcala. The title character, Kong, is an intelligent caveman who is a direct descendant of Anthro, another DC Comics caveman character.
As of #425 (December 1972), Adventure Comics theme changed from superhero adventure to fantasy/supernatural adventure. That issue debuted one new feature along with three non-series stories, the pirate saga “Captain Fear”. The next edition added a semi-anthology series, “The Adventurers’ Club”. Soon, editor Joe Orlando was trying out horror-tinged costumed heroes, first Black Orchid, then the Spectre. Before long, though, conventional superheroes returned to the book, beginning behind the Spectre, first a three-issue run of Aquaman (issues #435–437, an early assignment for Mike Grell) and then a newly drawn 1940s Seven Soldiers of Victory script (issues #438–443). Aquaman was promoted to lead (issues #441-452), and backing him up were three-part story arcs featuring the Creeper (#445–447), the Martian Manhunter (#449–451), bracketed by issue-length Aquaman leads. He was awarded his own title and Superboy (#453-458) took over Adventure with Aqualad (#453–455) and Eclipso (#457–458) backups. Following this was a run as a Dollar Comic format giant-sized book (issues #459-466), including such features as the resolution of the Return of the New Gods (cancelled in July–August 1978), “Deadman“, and “Justice Society of America“.
Sword of Sorcery was an American sword-and-sorcery comics anthology featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, heroes and rogues created by Fritz Leiber. Published bi-monthly by DC Comics, it ran for five issues in 1973, with a cover price of 20¢. The title was written by Denny O’Neil and featured art by Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, and Jim Starlin.
In June 2012, the series returned with a revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld by writer Christy Marx and artist Aaron Lopresti. The title included a backup feature starring Beowulf written by Tony Bedard and drawn by Jesus Saiz.
OMAC (Buddy Blank) was created in 1974 by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics. The character was created towards the end of Kirby’s contract with the publisher, following the cancellation of his New Gods series and was reportedly developed strictly due to Kirby needing to fill his contractual quota of 15 pages a week. As envisioned by Kirby, OMAC is essentially Captain America set in the future, an idea Kirby had toyed with some years earlier while at Marvel Comics, but had never realized.
Set in the near future (“The World That’s Coming”), OMAC is a corporate nobody named Buddy Blank who is changed via a “computer-hormonal operation done by remote control” by an A.I. satellite called Brother Eye into the super-powered One-Man Army Corps (OMAC).
Created and designed by Jack Kirby, The New Gods first appeared in February 1971 in New Gods #1.
Kirby’s production assistant of the time, Mark Evanier, remarked that: “Folks forget but the New Gods saga was intended to be a limited series … There was no intention that these characters would go on forever. After Jack’s books started getting good sales figures, DC demanded that we keep them going and use guest stars like Deadman, which we were very much against doing. So Kirby had this novel he was forever stuck in the middle of – he could never get to the last chapter. … You can spot the issues where Jack kind of gave up trying to advance the story of Darkseid and Orion and was marking time. If those books had been intended from the start to run indefinitely, they would have been done very differently.”
New Gods #1 marks the first appearance of Orion, Highfather, and Metron, among others.
The Demon was created by Jack Kirby. The titular character, named Etrigan, is a demon from Hell who, despite his violent tendencies, usually finds himself allied to the forces of good, mainly because of the alliance between the heroic characters of the DC Universe and Jason Blood, a human to whom Etrigan is bound.
Jack Kirby created the Demon in 1972 when his Fourth World titles were cancelled. According to Mark Evanier, Kirby had no interest in horror comics, but created Etrigan in response to a demand from DC for a horror character. Kirby was annoyed that the first issue sold so well that DC required him to remain on it and abandon the Fourth World titles before he was done with them. Etrigan was inspired by a comic strip of Prince Valiant in which the titular character dressed as a demon. Kirby gave his creation the same appearance as Valiant’s mask.
After an appearance in Showcase #80 (February 1969), he received another series beginning May–June 1969 that lasted until February–March 1976. The Showcase appearance and the first three issues of Phantom Stranger consisted of reprints from both the 1950s title and the “Dr. 13: Ghost-Breaker” feature from the last nine issues of Star Spangled Comics at the same time, with new, brief framing sequences. These had Dr. Thirteen, certain that the Phantom Stranger was an impostor, determined to expose him.
Beginning with issue #4 (November-December 1969), the series began featuring all-new material, with stories produced by Robert Kanigher, Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Tony DeZuniga and others. In these stories, while the Stranger’s past remained a mystery, the writers added a semi-regular cast of characters for him. A demonic sorceress named Tala would become his archenemy; an alchemist/sorcerer named Tannarak was first an enemy and would later assist him against the Dark Circle; and a blind psychic named Cassandra Craft would assist him. Doctor Thirteen, dropped along with the reprints, was given a back-up series here as of #12 (March-April 1971) which morphed into “The Spawn of Frankenstein” in #23 (January-February 1973).
The second volume originally ended with the forty-first issue in November 1975, cover dated March 1976. In January 2010, a forty-second issue was added to the second series during the Blackest Night event, effectively a one-shot.
