Peter B. Gillis Big Comics Readthrough

Ever since Steve Gerber's classic 70's run, The Defenders  have been known as the oddball team of the Marvel U; the gang you hang out with when you don't fit in anywhere else. J.M. DeMatteis played up the supernatural aspect in his lengthy early 80's spell on the title. Towards the end of his run he wrote out the big hitters and turned this 'non-team' into a more conventional outfit. The lineup was anything but conventional though: three of the original X-Men, Defenders stalwarts Valkyrie and Gargoyle, former Avenger and villain Moondragon, and a teenager who turns into a Cloud. Peter Gillis' series for First were attracting attention over at Marvel, in a "why is our guy working for someone else? Let's give him more work" way. Around the end of '83, Gillis heard DeMatteis was leaving after only half a dozen issues of the re-christened New Defenders, so threw his hat in the writing ring. As PBG put it: "I was pleased that they asked me ...

The Black Flame - Starslayer #20-33 (1984-1985) Pencils: Tom Sutton, Don Lomax Inks: Don Lomax "Who is The Black Flame?" , the story arc title of the next chapters, reveals The Flame to be an 18th century German lad named Heinrich Von Ofterdingen, born to well to do parents. Ofterdingen is a town in southern Germany, so I wonder if Gillis chose it at random, or if there was some family connection. Heinrich was taken at a young age by the Nightmare Lord and reshaped into a boogeyman. It's a slight origin, yet weaving it into this middle storyline provides an effective introduction for many no doubt confused Starslayer readers. Archenemy and fellow boogey person Hellequin captures The Black Flame in her giant bosom (hey, it was the 80's) and drags him back to the Nightmare Lord for re-indoctrination. This spell is eventually broken by the Flame's trio of friends, who traverse the twisted nightmare realms to rescue him.  The writing seems a lot sharper on the Starsla...

The Black Flame , according to Peter Gillis, arose from two impulses: he wanted to work again with one of his all time favourite artists, Tom Sutton; and Bruce Patterson suggested creating a Lovecraft inspired series. Gillis pointed out that Lovecraftian heroes tend to not survive for very long. However, his solution to this problem was simple: make the monster the hero. Mars #2-8 (1984) - The Black Flame Pencils: Tom Sutton, Don Lomax Inks & Colours: Bruce Patterson Imagine the realm of nightmares is real (not hard for Doctor Strange fans), where the Nightmare Lord trains and despatches boogeymen to torment children (not hard for, er, Monsters Inc. fans). One of these fear spreading boogeymen, The Black Flame, rebels and escapes to the mortal world to save children and romantics alike from the clutches of their nightmares. The Flame cuts an imposing figure, wielding a lance and riding a black nightmare steed, which can conveniently disguise itself as a motorcycle. This isn't...

Black Panther #1-4 (1988) Pencils: Denys Cowan Inks: Sam De La Rosa You may be wondering why we've skipped half the 80's, but Gillis and Cowan's Black Panther miniseries actually originated back in 1983. Chicago based Peter Gillis was still paying frequent visits to the New York Marvel offices looking for work. Bob Budiansky pointed him in the direction of Denys Cowan, who really wanted to draw the Panther, and was in need of a writer. Gillis made the controversial suggestion of the Panther fighting apartheid. This wasn't entirely without precedence for the character, as Gillis' mentor Don McGregor had tackled thorny racial and political subjects in his Jungle Action run, even pitting T'Challa against the Klan. 3 of the 4 issues of this new miniseries were finished and it was solicited in 1984, even garnering a preview in Marvel Age . However, according to Cowan, Editor in Chief Jim Shooter had concerns about the racial violence intrinsic to the storyline. Gill...

In addition to the regular Warp series, there were 3 standalone specials, plus 4 back up strips. The first 2 backups ( Faceless Ones and Sargon ) had no Peter Gillis involvement, so I'll round up the rest here. Warp Special #1 (1983) Pencils: Howard Chaykin Inks: George Freeman The origin of Warp's most charming character, Prince Chaos , is basically a Superman parody. It still fails to explain why Chaos and Cumulus are related, as they appear to be born in different centuries on different planets to different parents. Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe it's just cosmic reasons. Although I never really got how Sargon and Valaria are meant to be estranged sisters either.  Anyhow, this special features the original heroic Cumulus, rather than his whiny rebirth David. It's the tale of how Chaos and Valaria got together and how Chaos killed the first Cumulus. It's also notable for introducing First's nexus of worlds Cynosure, which became the backdrop for Gr...

How to proceed with Warp then, now the storyline is concluded and the main characters effectively dead? A cunning reset obviously, courtesy of PBG... Warp #10-19 (1984-1985) Pencils: Jerry Bingham, Mike Gustovich Inks: Mike Gustovich #10 reveals seemingly scatterbrained wizard Lugulbanda to be the malefactor behind a never ending cycle of death, conflict and rebirth. Conveniently this is all forgotten by the next issue's fresh start. For the remainder of the series, the 3 leads largely go their separate ways:  Gillis tries to develop warrior without a cause Sargon 's personality beyond kickass babe with a sword, by destroying all she holds dear. He then builds her up again by having her become a general in an interplanetary war. Thankfully she also ditches the gravity defying metal bikini for slightly more practical leathers. This war between alien lizards and apes has little bearing on the main storyline, yet it's somehow more entertaining than the A and B plots. Speaking ...

Mike Gold, a fellow comics industry resident of Chicago, had been approached by Rick Obadiah about adapting cult science fiction 70's play Warp into a comic book. After meetings with DC and Marvel, the pair decided to go it alone and publish the comic themselves. Warp would become the launch title for new company First Comics . Neil Adams had done promotional art for the play, but was busy, so instead Gold coaxed Frank Brunner out of comics retirement to plot and pencil the three part adaptation. He then recruited Peter Gillis to script, whom he'd been friends with since the mid 70's fanzine days.  The height of 70's fashion. On the surface, Stuart Gordon and Bury St. Edmund's Warp is an odd choice for adaptation; a campy, scantily clad, tongue in cheek play inspired by classic comic books. Gillis goes into detail on the problematic tone of the series in Amazing Heroes: "Making it a little straighter was an editorial decision on the part of First Comics. I was...

What if the Hulk Went Berserk? #45 (1984) Pencils: Ron Wilson Inks: Ian Akin, Brian Garvey This issue came about chiefly because Ron Wilson wanted to draw the Hulk smashing stuff up. Thankfully, there's a little more to it than that. The divergence here is that Banner failed to save Rick Jones from exposure to the Gamma bomb. Jones slowly dies from radiation poisoning, while telepathically linked to the Hulk. This trauma drives Hulk into a killing rage, even murdering some of the heroes who try to stop him. This makes for a very dark, rather unpleasant, action heavy story that I haven't really gelled with. What if Uncle Ben Had Lived? #46 (1984) Pencils: Ron Frenz Finishes: Sam De La Rosa On the face of it, May biting the burglar's bullet rather than Ben seems an arbitrary change. Yet as Gillis pointed out, Peter Parker's only surrogate father figure in the early stories was J Jonah Jameson. Gillis paints Ben as a much wilier cookie then his dear departed. Ben finds Pet...

After penning 4 What If issues plus 2 backups, PBG was told by Mark Gruenwald that they wanted to give other writers a chance. The situation changed when old friend Ralph Macchio took over as editor in 1983. He happily bought whatever great ideas Gillis threw at him, which resulted in writing credits on 7 of the final 8 What If issues.  What if Dr. Strange had Never Become Master of the Mystic Arts #40 (1983) Pencils: Butch Guice Inks: Guice / Sam Grainger An alternate spin on Gillis' previous Strange What If, this sees the mantle of sorceror supreme go to Baron Mordo, while Stephen returns to a career in medicine. Mordo pretends to be a reformed character to fool the Ancient One, but he's under the thrall of Nightmare. Eventually the good Doctor is dragged into the fight and the universe rebalances to how it was meant to be. It's interesting to an extent to see Mordo wearing the cape and his blunter approach to classic encounters. A story about Mordo redeeming himself migh...

What If was a unique comic that required an endless supply of ideas and creators, plus an innate knowledge of Marvel history. No surprise then that Peter Gillis, a fount of Marvel knowledge, loved contributing to What If, effectively making the title his own by its final year. In total, he penned a quarter of the original 48 stories (including the special). Later in his Marvel career, Gillis would mostly find himself pigeonholed writing odder C-list characters, but What If was his opportunity to work with A-list heavy hitters and revisit some of his favourite childhood stories. Gillis' first two What Ifs share a common theme: Stephen Strange and Peter Parker both started out as jerks. What if they continued down that path?  What if Dr. Strange Had Been a Disciple of Dormammu? #18 (1979) Pencils: Tom Sutton Inks: Bruce Patterson Doctor Strange was Gillis' favourite comics character, so no surprise he wrote Dr S whenever the opportunity arose. Here the not so good doctor's ha...

Researching this blog can lead down unexpected rabbit holes... Peter Gillis mentioned a few times a "disastrous attempt" to start a company New Media Comics, which got me intrigued. Turns out New Media Distribution set up a publishing wing in 1980, hiring Richard Howell and Carol Kalish as production managers, with Peter Gillis as editorial director, spearheading a line of quarterly comics anthologies. Gillis' role turned out to be short lived, according to the press release in NMP's own fanzine, Comics Feature #12/13 (1981): "New Media Publishing, Inc., has undergone yet another editorial shake-up. As of June 1st, Peter Gillis will leave his post as editorial director of the gestating NMP line of Graphic Magazines, and return to freelancing. His place will be taken by Richard Howell, the production manager of NMP. Gillis' change of status was an amicable agreement between him and NMP publisher Hal Schuster regarding their differing attitudes towards magazi...

Iron Man Annual #5 (1982)  Co-plot: Ralph Macchio Pencils: Jerry Bingham Inks: Dan Green Don McGregor was a big influence and mentor to Peter Gillis in his early Marvel days. This likable, if overly familiar romp, is essentially a straight sequel to McGregor's classic Black Panther run, with Iron Man playing a peripheral role from the outset.  T'Challa is apparently killed and usurped by a revived Killmonger, resulting in a climatic battle for the crown over a precipice. Stop me if you've heard this one before, from the pages of Jungle Action which was later revisited in the first movie. It reads like a nostalgic highlights reel of McGregor's original. Stark gets the B plot, rescuing Rhodey who's tied up next to a bomb like in some old movie serial. Turns out the Mandarin was behind it all, for Iron Man reasons. On the whole it's fun fan fiction, with effective art. Green's inks really bring out the best in Bingham. Iron Man Annual #6 (1983) Pencils: Luke M...

Continuity buddies Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Roger Stern and Peter Gillis were intent on injecting Jack Kirby's dormant Eternals into the mainstream Marvel Universe. The Eternals were too numerous and over powered to play nice with other heroes, so between them they conjured a plan to streamline Kirby's gods over the early 80's, laying the groundwork for Gillis' eventual Eternals miniseries. What If #29-30 (1981) - Untold Tales of The Marvel Universe Pencils: Ron Wilson Inks: Joe Sinnott Gruenwald had begun this occasional back up strip to tweak continuity and wrap up loose ends. Gillis contributed this two part Inhumans story, which not only introduced them to The Eternals, but also tied up a lingering thread... Lee & Kirby's 1967 Inhumans backup strip in Thor concluded with Black Bolt in pursuit of a new home for his people. Gillis wanted to know how that story ended, so he finally got to tell his version here, which boils down to The Inhumans moving th...

Marvel Premiere #54 (1980) Pencils: Gene Day Inks: Tony DeZuniga "The coming of Caleb Hammer. Created and written by Peter Gillis" goes the byline. A 1890 priest turned Pinkerton law enforcer might seem an odd choice for his first published creation, although apparently Westerns (and the lack thereof) were a frequent discussion in the Marvel offices at the time. Contrary to the rootin tootin Cockrum cover, Hammer hated guns, blaming them for the death of his wife and brother. He took outlaws down with his fists, and the occasional well aimed bullet to the shoulder. I'm a sucker for a good old school Western, and this is an enjoyable and impressively constructed one, just lacking Gillis idiosyncrasies he developed over time. The underrated Gene Day does a lovely classic European style job on pencils. A Western at the start of the 80's was a risky prospect, so sadly no surprise that Hammer never received a second outing. He did pop up briefly in 2000's Wild West ...