Rampaging Hulk

Infobox comic book title
title=The Rampaging Hulk
The Hulk!


caption=The cover to "Rampaging Hulk" #1 (Jan. 1977), art by Ken Barr.
schedule=Bi-monthly
ongoing=n
publisher=Curtis Magazines (Marvel Comics)
date=Jan. 1977-June 1981
issues=27
Superhero=y
main_char_team=The Hulk
writers=
artists=
pencillers=
inkers=
letterers=
colorists=
editors=
subcat=Marvel Comics
sort=Rampaging Hulk

"The Rampaging Hulk" was a black-and-white magazine published by Curtis Magazines (an imprint of Marvel Comics) from 1977-1978. With issue #10, it changed its format to color, and title to "The Hulk!", and ran another 17 issues before it folded in 1981. It was a rare attempt by Marvel to mix their superhero characters with the "mature readers" black-and-white magazine format.

With the change to color and the title to "The Hulk!", the magazine became Marvel's attempt to cash in on the popularity of "The Incredible Hulk" TV series, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, both of whom were prominently featured and interviewed [Anonymous, "Bill Bixby Tells What It's Like to Play TV's Bruce Banner," "The Hulk" #10, August 1978, Marvel Comics, pp.45-49.] [Anonymous, "Green Muscles," "The Hulk" #12, December 1978, Marvel Comics, pp.29-32.] over the course of the magazine's run, as was executive producer Kenneth Johnson [Swires, Steven, "This Man Tell Hulk What to Do!," "The Hulk" #20, 1980, Marvel Comics, pp.38-42.] .

As the magazine was in a larger format than regular comics, the artists could "stretch out" a bit more. The first black and white issues enabled many of the artists, particularly Walter Simonson and Keith Pollard, to use that medium to its fullest. Fact|date=August 2008

Publication History

"The Rampaging Hulk" ran for 9 issues from January 1977 to June 1978. With issue #10, the bi-monthly magazine changed its title to "The Hulk!" and became a full-color book utilizing "Marvelcolor."

The magazine featured fully painted covers by such artists as Ken Barr, Earl Norem, and Joe Jusko. One cover in particular, painted by Norem, is one of the most iconic promotional/poster images of the Hulk: a darkly-lit close-up of his face, gritting his teeth with his knuckles raised, done for "The Hulk!" #17.

Artists such as Walter Simonson, John Buscema, Howard Chaykin, John Romita, Sr., John Romita, Jr. (doing some of his first professional work), Keith Pollard, Jim Starlin, Joe Jusko, Bill Sienkiewicz, Val Mayerik, Herb Trimpe, Roger Stern, Brent Anderson, and Gene Colan provided interior artwork; while writers such as Starlin, Doug Moench, Denny O'Neill, Archie Goodwin, and others took on the scripting chores. Indeed, Moench and Sienkiewicz's first Moon Knight run started as a backup feature in the middle issues of the magazine.

Through its run the magazine published backup features starring Bloodstone (issues #1-6, #8) Man-Thing (issue #7) and Shanna the She-Devil (issue #9). Moon Knight was featured in issues #11-15, #17-18, and #20, featuring some of Bill Sienkiewicz' early work, when his style was similar to that of Neal Adams.

With issue #24, the title returned to black-and-white (though it published the last Dominic Fortune backup story in full color). The magazine was retired with issue #27.

An Essential Marvel volume of "Rampaging Hulk" collects "Rampaging Hulk" #1-9, "The Hulk!" #10-15, and "The Incredible Hulk" #269.

Editorial direction

Editorially, the stories in "The Rampaging Hulk" were stated to be set between the end of his original, short-lived solo title and the beginning of his feature in "Tales to Astonish". [Warner, John, "The Rampaging Editorial," "The Rampaging Hulk", #1, January 1977, pp. 40-41.] However, a problem was pointed out by fans in the letter columns. Despite back-dating the events, the stories depicted the Hulk "per se" contemporaneously, speaking in his "Hulk smash!" pidgin English, changing to and from Bruce Banner based on his emotions, and wearing tattered purple trousers; whereas in the claimed time frame he spoke fluent if gangsterish English, transformed via a gamma ray machine, and wore neat purple trunks.

Although "Rampaging Hulk" / "The Hulk!" was intended to feature stand-alone stories, some characters (such as the extra-terrestrial Bereet) crossed over into the regular "Hulk" title. In fact, she appeared in issue #269 (March 1982) of the regular series to explain away the "Rampaging" series as fictions she created for the entertainment of her homeworld's residents. [Mantlo, Bill and Sal Buscema, "Enter: The Hulk-Hunters!," "The Incredible Hulk" #269, Marvel Comics, March 1982.] Other Marvel mainstays also appeared, with the X-Men making an appearance in issue #2, and the Avengers in issue #9, including Iron Man, who also turned up in the backup feature, Bloodstone.

Notes

References

* [http://www.comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=11179 "The Rampaging Hulk" at the Comic Book Database]
* [http://www.comicbookdb.com/title.php?ID=13392 "The Hulk!" at the Comic Book Database]

External links

* [http://www.comic-covers.com/Marvel/Magazines/Hulk/index.html "Rampaging Hulk" / "The Hulk!" cover gallery]