''Marvel Presents'' was an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

series published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. Twelve issues were published from October 1975 to August 1977.

Publication history

Bloodstone

''Marvel Presents'' began publication with an October 1975

cover date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

. The first two issues featured

Ulysses Bloodstone Ulysses Bloodstone is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an immortal monster-hunter. Ulysses Bloodstone appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe / Disney+ television special ''Werewolf by ...

, a character created by

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine (character), Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel sup ...

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade (character), Blade, and DC Comi ...

, and

John Warner John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Republican Party, Republican United Stat ...

for the ''Where Monsters Dwell'' series."Of Helixes and Hexes," written by John Warner, published in the "Reader's Space" section of ''Marvel Presents'' #2 (December 1975). Mike Vosburg was the artist assigned to the first installment, and then Pat Boyette was to draw the rest of the series. ''Where Monsters Dwell'' was cancelled and "Bloodstone" was moved to ''Marvel Presents''. The first two chapters were finished and were printed in issue #1. Due to the publishing delays, Boyette was unavailable for the second issue, which was drawn by Sonny Trinidad instead.

Guardians of the Galaxy

''Marvel Presents'' is notable for giving the original

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Comic book teams 1969 team The 1969 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), Guardians of the Galaxy were the origi ...

their first regular series, from issues #3-12, by

Steve Gerber Stephen Ross Gerber (; September 20, 1947 – February 10, 2008) was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include '' Man-Thing'', ''Omega the Unknown,'' ''Marvel Spotlight ...

and

Al Milgrom Allen L. Milgrom (born March 6, 1950) is an American comic book artist (penciller and inker), writer, and editor, primarily for Marvel Comics. He is known for his 10-year run as editor of '' Marvel Fanfare''; his long involvement as writer, penci ...

Roger Stern Roger Stern (born September 17, 1950) is an American comic book author and novelist. Biography Early career In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine ''CPL'' (''Contemporary Pictorial Literature''), one of the first platfo ...

replaced Gerber as writer with issue #10. Issue #7 (Nov. 1976) depicted an obvious sex act in a Comics Code-approved comic book, between

Vance Astro Vance Astro, born Vance Astrovik and going by the code name Major Victory, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as being from the Earth-691 timeline of the Marvel Univers ...

and Nikki. It presumably made it past the Code because Nikki was outside her physical body and Vance was in the mind of the Topographical Man, a humanoid heavenly body. The series was cancelled with issue #12 (August 1977) due to low sales.

The issues

Collected editions

* ''Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Vol. 3'' includes ''Marvel Presents'' #1 and #3, 380 pages, June 2012, * ''Guardians of the Galaxy: The Power of Starhawk'' includes ''Marvel Presents'' #3–12, 192 pages, July 2009, * ''Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers'' includes ''Marvel Presents'' #3–12, 368 pages, January 2013,

References

External links

*
''Marvel Presents''
at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators * 1975 comics debuts 1977 comics endings Comics anthologies Comics by Roger Stern Comics by Steve Gerber Defunct American comics Marvel Comics titles Post-apocalyptic comics Science fiction comics {{Marvel-title-stub