Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu Ad - Marvel

When you've got his much butt-kicking on a cover--drawn by Neal Adams, no less--you really need to give it more space in an ad than it had here, don't you think?

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #14 - Marvel

In occasion of this week being the release date for the Bill Mantlo tribute book, Mantlo: A Life in Comics(read all about it--and buy a copy--here), I went seaching for a magazine I had in my collection with a story by Bill. Luckily I had this issue of Marvel's The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.

After the nice cover by Neal Adams(that's pretty much redundant), is the Shang-Chi story, "Thief in Golden Shadows" by Doug Moench and Rudy Nebres. This is part of a continued story, so it picks up with Shang-Chi in search for the Golden Dragon, an ancient artifact with mystical powers.

But of course its in the hands of a bad guy named The Shadow Thief, who leads Shang-Chi through a series of death-traps(borrowed from Doc Savage villians, no doubt), including the classic damsel-in-distress bit, as well as some metal spikes and poisonous snakes thrown in for good measure.

Moench was great at fun tales like this, and he had the seeming ability to crank them out by the metric ton, which must have come in handy at Marvel big time, as they were rapidly expanding their line to increase market share.

Anyway, Shang-Chi gets ahold of the dragon, but it turns out not to be what he expected, and the tale ends with him staring down the barrel of a gun!

Next there's article on Bruce Lee(there's a shock!) written by someone named Wan Chang O'Shaugnessy, who, you know, just might be a pseudonym. Then there's an article on the martial art Jeet Kune-Do, who I believe appears in the Cantina scene in Star Wars.

Rounding out the issue is the Sons of the Tiger tale, "The Valley of Ancestors" by the aforementioned Mr.Mantlo, George Perez, and Dan Adkins. It's about one of the sons, named Lin Sun, who faces an array of enemies, all to test his mental and physical training. Lin Sun passes the test, and comes out on the other side, which turns out to be Reality, and the whole battlefield test took place in Sun's mind!

It's a fun tale, very of its time, told with style by newcomer Perez. Mantlo, like Moench, was someone Marvel could count on to deliver a solid tale, told in the Mighty Marvel Manner. His work and life are worthy of re-examination, so like I mentioned above, you can go here and buy a copy of the tribute book. I got one, so should you!

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #4 - Marvel

After talking about Cobb, I'm still in a macho mood, magazine-wise (I, myself, not being so at all), so I thought I'd talk about The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, Marvel's sort-of companion magazine to their popular Master of Kung-Fu color comic. What's more macho than that?

Not being a kung-fu movie fan, I appreciate this magazine more from a comic-art perspective--I mean, how could you not buy a magazine that has a cover like this?

After an editorial by the always-entertaining Tony "The Tiger" Isabella, is "Circle of Serpent's Blood", by the always-prolific Doug Moench, with art by Mike Vosburg and Al Milgrom, starring Shang-Chi, the aforementioned Master of Kung-Fu! Shang-Chi is pursued by the agents of his nemesis, Fu Manchu, including a giant killer ape. That's all you need to know.

After the letters page(s), and an article about the movie Enter the Dragon, is an "introspective evaluation" (it was the 70's) on the Kung-Fu TV show with some nice spot illustrations credited to Frank McLaughlin. I say credited to because, while some of the pieces are undoubtedly by McLaughlin (who is a martial artist in real life), there are pieces like this:

...I dunno, this looks awfully Neal Adams to me.

After that is an ad for a black-and-white Iron Fist magazine, one of many ads that appeared in Marvel b/w mags at the time. Unfortunately, for reasons I know not, Iron Fist never saw the light of day (my hunch is the kung-fu craze was dying down and Marvel just didn't think another magazine would fly).

Next is The Sons of the Tiger starring in "Night of the Death-Dream!" by Gerry Conway, Don Perlin, ande Dan Adkins. The Sons attempt to apprehend a bad guy named Lo Chin as he arrives at an airport (not every villain can afford a secret HQ inside a volcano), but it doesn't go as planned and there's a lot of kicking. A lot.

It all wraps up with an ad for the next issue (one of my favorite little extras in these b/w magazines), where it promises an article called "Kung-Fu vs. Karate--Which is Better?" See you in sixty!