MARVEL MONSTERS: MONSTERS UNLEASHED! NO. 1 (PART 1)

MONSTERS UNLEASHED!
Vol. 1 No. 1
July 1973
Publisher: Stan Lee, Marvel Comics Group
Editor: Roy Thomas
Cover: Gray Morrow
Pages: 76

Hot on the heels of DRACULA LIVES! came the next title (after the digest magazine of fiction, HAUNT OF HORROR) in Marvel's line of black and white monster magazines, MONSTERS UNLEASHED! Another combination of stories and text articles, it continued to use monster movie stills that preceded each strip with an introduction via the use of dialogue balloons.

Aimed at grabbing some of the audience that had been loyal to the Warren comic magazines, Marvel's titles also offered top notch writers and artists, albeit with a different approach with the addition of articles about monsters and monster movies.

This, the first issue, however, despite some fine illustration by Pablo Marcos, Gene Colan and Ralph Reese, is considered a weak entry into the Marvel Monster canon, with comparatively lackluster text and reprinted material, as well as two of the set pieces of the issue that were actually Sword & Sorcery stories.

Nevertheless, Marvel was determined to have their share of the monster market that was again burgeoning in pop culture consciousness, and there would be much more to come from Stan Lee's famous House of Ideas.

 CONTENTS:

The Man Who Cried Werewolf! (Gerry Conway/Pablo Marcos) from the story ‘The Man Who Cried Wolf!’ by Robert Bloch

Ghosties And Ghoulies And Things That Go Bump In The Brain… (Roy Thomas)

The Thing In The Freezer (Marv Wolfman/Syd Shores)

Vampire Tale (Stan Lee/Doug Wildey) reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #16, June 1954

Solomon Kane: Skulls In The Stars (Roy Thomas/Ralph Reese) from the story by Robert E. Howard

Portrait Of The Werewolf As A Young Man: The Odyssey Of Larry Talbot (Tony Isabella)

One Foot In The Grave (Stan Lee/Tony DiPreta) reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #1, June 1952

The Fake! (Stan Lee/Artist unknown) Unknown reprint

World Of Warlocks! ([Gardner Fox & Roy Thomas/Gene Colan)