The Rampaging Hulk #4 - Marvel

Aug. 1977 - "The Other Side of Night!"

The Rampaging Hulk is one of my favorite b/w magazines; I discovered it as a kid and its stories were always fun and exciting, usually drawn by top-flight artists.

That standard is met again in this issue, featuring a story by Jim Starlin and John Warner, drawn by the unusual combo of Starlin and Alex Nino!

You wouldn't think that's a pairing that would mesh well, but they do. Here are just a couple of exceptional pages from the story:

Since this story has a more sci-fi-ish setting (The Hulk is transported across space by the Ming the Merciless-like baddie known as Chen K'an), Nino's finishes give the story that kind of other-worldly feel, which works perfectly. Plus, the story itself is just a lot of fun.

Following this, there's a "Gallery of Villains", featuring Handbook of the Marvel Universe-esque fact pages on various Hulk villains, like The Gargoyle, The Toad Men, and The Ringmaster.

The regular back-up feature at the time was Bloodstone, again written by Warner and featuring art by Val Mayerik and Sonny Trinidad :

I've never quite gotten that into the Bloodstone strip, and the fact that this installment runs almost twenty pages left me a tad disappointed--I want more Rampaging Hulk, dammit!

At the end of the book, there's this fun, old-school ad for the next issue featuring a real donnybrook between the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner:

The use of some old Kirby poses is a nice touch, since this series featured Hulk stories set early in his "career", back when the King was drawing the book.

Bloodstone aside (which truly isn't a bad strip, just a little dull, to me at least), this is another solid installment of the series, topped off by a fine cover by Starlin.