the interest of fans of adventure comics or of E.R. Burroughs' work. However, when Ernie Colon took over the series, things started to look funny. Ernie is one of my favorite artists, but his art is difficult to ink properly; the John Carter issue he inked himself looks beautiful, but the ones inked by Frank Springer look are disappointing and not something to draw in new readers. That is not Frank's fault: his style just didn't mesh well with Ernie's. By the time Mike Vosburg and Ricardo Villamonte took over, returning to a more "classical" comic-book look, the mag was in its death throes.

It's too bad, too, because I believe that Marvel's was the definitive version of John Carter in comic-book form. I prefer it to John Colemansounding harsh, but the very first issue of Star Wars featured very slapdash artwork, not worthy of Marvel. Heck, it wasn't even worthy of Charlton or Gold Key. (Okay, maybe that was harsh.)

Confirming, I guess, what Jim says, that Marvel was not exactly hot on this property the get-go. Only when the first issue started selling (and selling... and selling) did Marvel realize they had a winner on their hands and start pouring more effort in their finished product.

The first issue of Star Wars features Chaykin inking himself, and I think the artwork is the best he did on the title. Maybe you just don't like Chaykin's style but it's fairly typical of his work at the time... I wouldn't describe it as "slapdash" at all. Later Chaykin