™ 1 82658 00388 3 ROCKET RACCOON and STAR-LORD, Before the Guardians TOM DeFALCO, KEITH GIFFEN, ROB LIEFELD, AL MILGROM, ROGER STERN, JIM VALENTINO & more! $9.95 April 2020 April Featuring interviews with a galaxy of comic stars including No.119 ISSUE! THE GALAXY GUARDIANS OF Guardians of the Galaxy and Rocket Raccoon TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Rights All Inc. Characters, Marvel © & TM Raccoon Rocket and Galaxy the of Guardians THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE! TM Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK EISNER ISSUE magazine celebrates comic AWARD WINNER!! books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of com- BACK ISSUE #105 BACK ISSUE #107 BACK ISSUE #108 DEADLY HANDS ISSUE! Histories of Iron Fist, ARCHIE COMICS IN THE BRONZE AGE! BRONZE AGE AQUAMAN! 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With CHRIS CLAREMONT, STEVE ENGLEHART, FRANK DOYLE, GRAY MORROW, DAN APARO, CALAFIORE, MARTIN EGELAND, PAUL GULACY, LARRY HAMA, DOUG PARENT, HENRY SCARPELLI, ALEX SEGURA, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, ROBERT LOREN Go to www.twomorrows.com for MOENCH, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, & LOU SCHEIMER, ALEX TOTH, and more! FLEMING, CRAIG HAMILTON, JURGENS, other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, others. Classic EARL NOREM cover! DAN DeCARLO cover. SWAN, and more. ERIC SHANOWER cover! with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 (Digital Edition) $4.99 (Digital Edition) $4.99 BACK ISSUE #110 BACK ISSUE #111 BACK ISSUE #112 BACK ISSUE #113 BACK ISSUE #114 MAKE MINE MARVEL! ENGLEHART’s “lost” ALTERNATE REALITIES! Cover-featuring the NUCLEAR ISSUE! Firestorm, Dr. Manhattan, BATMAN MOVIE 30th ANNIVERSARY! 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Plus: What If?, villain histories of Radioactive Man and SAM HAMM interviewed, a chat with BILLY retrospective of artist BILLY GRAHAM, a NOCENTI Daredevil Pro2Pro interview, Bronze Age DC Imaginary Stories, Elseworlds, Microwave Man, Radioactive Man and DEE WILLIAMS (who was almost Two-Face), TONY ISABELLA interview, Black Lightning, British Bronze Age Marvel fandom, Pizzazz Marvel 2099, and PETER DAVID and Fallout Boy, and the one-shot Holo-Man! plus DENNY O’NEIL and JERRY ORDWAY’s Black Panther in the UK, Black Goliath, the Magazine, Speedball, Marvel Comics GEORGE PÉREZ’s senses-shattering Hulk: With PAT BRODERICK, GERRY CONWAY, Batman movie adaptation, MINDY NEWELL’s Teen Titans’ Mal and Bumblebee, DON Presents, and backstage at Marvel Comicon Future Imperfect. Featuring TOM DeFALCO, JOE GIELLA, TOM GRINDBERG, RAFAEL Catwoman, GRANT MORRISON and DAVE McGREGOR and PAUL GULACY’s Sabre, ’75 and ’76! With DeFALCO, EDELMAN, CHUCK DIXON, PETER B. 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MONSTERS! Monsters SUPERHERO STAND-INS! John Stewart as GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD! ALEX 919-449-0344 STARLIN’s Dreadstar and Company, and the in Metropolis, Batman and the Horror Genre, Green Lantern, James Rhodes as Iron Man, ROSS’ unrealized Fantastic Four reboot, E-mail: dystopian lawman Judge Dredd. Also: Nova, DOUG MOENCH and KELLEY JONES’ Beta Ray Bill as Thor, Captain America sub- DC: The Lost 1970s, FRANK THORNE’s GERRY CONWAY & MIKE VOSBURG’s Batman: Vampire, Marvel Scream-Up, stitute U.S. Agent, new Batman Azrael, and unpublished Red Sonja, Fury Force, VON [email protected] Starman, PAUL LEVITZ & STEVE DITKO’s Dracula and Godzilla vs. Marvel, DC/Dark Superman’s Hollywood proxy Gregory Reed! EEDEN’s Batman, GRELL’s Batman/Jon Sable, Order at Starman, WALTER SIMONSON’s Justice Horse Hero/Monster crossovers, and a Baron Featuring NEAL ADAMS, CARY BATES, CLAREMONT and SIM’s X-Men/Cerebus, twomorrows.com Peace (from the pages of Thor), and GREG Blood villain history. With CLAREMONT, DAVE GIBBONS, RON MARZ, DAVID SWAN and HANNIGAN’s Skull and Bones, POTTER & GENE COLAN’s Jemm, Son of CONWAY, DIXON, GIBBONS, GRELL, MICHELINIE, DENNIS O’NEIL, WALTER AUGUSTYN and PAROBECK’s Target, PAUL Saturn! With a Dreadstar and Company GULACY, JURGENS, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, SIMONSON, ROY THOMAS, and more, KUPPERBERG’s Impact reboot, abandoned cover by STARLIN and ALAN WEISS! and a cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN. under a cover by SIMONSON. Swamp Thing storylines, & more! ROSS cover. (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 (Digital Edition) $4.99 (Digital Edition) $4.99 (Digital Edition) $4.99 Volume 1, Number 119 April 2020 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond! John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Jim Valentino and TM Chris Ivy (commissioned illustration from the collection of William Colosimo) COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Paul Anderson Marvel Comics Spencer Beck Paul Mason Sallie Bent Stuart McKenny Michael Browning Chris McQuinlan Sal Buscema Mike Mignola Jamie Buttery Allen Milgrom Jarrod Buttery Doug Moench Chris Claremont Fabian Nicieza Sadie Colosimo Luigi Novi William Colosimo Tom Palmer, Jr. Alan Davis Tom Palmer, Sr. Tom DeFalco George Pérez Steve Englehart Rose Rummel-Eury INTERVIEWS: Guardians of the Galaxy: The Bronze Age . 2 Agnes Garbowska Alex Saviuk Milgrom, Stern, Skrenes, and Wiacek, all unguarded Keith Giffen Andy Schmidt Al Gordon Mary Skrenes BEYOND CAPES: A Star-Lord is Born. 17 Grand Comics Evelyn Stein Star-Lord’s history, pre-Guardians, with insights from creators Database Eric Stephenson Timothy Green II Roger Stern PRINCE STREET NEWS . 28 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. John Trumbull Heritage Comics Aaron Valentino “Extreme Costume Conundrums,” a cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Auctions Diane Valentino Joe Jusko Jim Valentino INTERVIEWS: Guardians of the Galaxy: The Copper Age . 30 John Lewandowski Bob Wiacek Valentino (and family), DeFalco, Liefeld, Nicieza, and friends discuss the 1990s GOTG series Rob Liefeld Chance Wolf Francis Manapul David Yardin FLASHBACK: Rocket Raccoon . 61 Michael Mantlo How a throwaway character became a superstar and Bill Mantlo’s legacy Don’t STEAL our ART GALLERY: Rocket Raccoon . 70 Digital Editions! A private collection of Rocket sketches is private no more! C’mon citizen, INTERVIEWS: Guardians of the Galaxy: The Modern Age . 72 DO THE RIGHT Editor Andy Schmidt and writer Keith Giffen discuss the Guardians’ makeover THING! A Mom & Pop publisher BACK TALK . 78 like us needs Reader reactions on issues #113 and 114 every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, www.twomorrows.com Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, or through our Apple and Google Apps! c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: [email protected]. Eight-issue subscriptions: $89 Economy US, $135 International, $36 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Jim Valentino and Chris Ivy. Guardians of the Galaxy and Rocket Raccoon TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2020 Michael Eury producing great publications like this one! and TwoMorrows except Prince Street News, © 2020 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Guardians of the Galaxy Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1 by William Colosimo The Guardians of the Galaxy first debuted in issue #18 of a tryout book called Marvel Super-Heroes, dated January 1969. The team went without a second appearance until writer Steve Gerber decided to utilize them, and from 1974–1975 the Guardians made several guest appearances in Marvel Two-in- One and The Defenders before being launched into the lead feature in Marvel Presents.