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The Terry Austin Portfolio
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I've mentioned before what an odd series "Marvel Fanfare" was - it was meant to be a prestigious anthology of high quality work, printed on high quality paper, but with a few exceptions it turned into a place to scoop up inventory stories and other odds and ends, then sell them at a higher price via the direct market.
This issue even trumpets this fact, with an introductory page by editor Al Milgrom informing the reader that he originally intended two other stories to appear as back-up to the main one, but was unable to get them in time so ended up filling the empty pages with "portfolios". This is at least honest, but does seem a bit risky, especially as the letters page later on features readers complaining about exactly this!
The main draw for this issue is a Roger Stern and (especially) Frank Miller Captain America story. Miller was becoming a fan favourite around this time, and the front and back covers show versions of Captain America very much in the Miller style that everybody was going crazy for.
The story itself, however, looks like a throwback to his earlier work as a jobbing penciller, and the inks by Joe Rubinstein give it an old-fashioned shiny gloss that still looks good, but is probably not what readers came for.
After that the first of the two portfolios is by Kevin Nowlan which is... er... a series of pictures of women either without many clothes on OR wearing costumes that are basically body paint. It's drawn in a vaguely scratchy Barry windsor-Smith-y style that seems to think it's being Tasteful, but opinions may vary on whether this is the case. The second portfolio is by Terry Austin, which is where Doctor Doom comes in.
I'm not sure why Doctor Doom is standing *outside* his embassy, but maybe he's lost the keys and that's why he looks so grumpy? Either way, it's a perfectly functional image of Doom looking the way Doom generally looks at this point, which is followed by some more perfectly functional images of other superheroes, before we get to that Letters Page which, to its credit, does feature some less than complimentary letters!
As reported previously, I really liked that Barry Windsor-Smith story!
And that's the lot for this one - next time we're back for more thrills with "Secret Wars"! Whoo!
link to information about this issue
posted 10/3/2021 by Mark Hibbett
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