Ghost Rider Epic Collection: Deathrace

Michael Fleisher notched an indelible place in comics history in 1974, writing a series of Spectre stories that were some of the most graphically violent tales ever published at the time. During that time, Fleisher also collaborated with Steve Ditko on Shade the Changing Man, an offbeat hero bearing a reality-altering M-Vest. He also enjoyed a long run on Ghost Rider with artist Don Perlin.

Jim Starlin introduced not only Thanos but also Shang-Chi and many other memorable characters. After seemingly killing both Adam Warlock and Thanos in one of Marvel’s earlier multi-title cosmic arcs — for which he won two Eagle Awards — Starlin wrote Marvel’s first graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel. Returning to Marvel to write Silver Surfer, he resurrected Adam Warlock and Thanos, both of whom figured prominently in a veritable franchise of miniseries he wrote and/or penciled: Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, Infinity Abyss and more, plus the Warlock and the Infinity Watch and Thanos monthlies. Starlin continued to chart the saga of the Mad Titan in a recent series of original graphic novels.

A creative stalwart that put his all into his work on long-running series like Ghost Rider and Defenders, Don Perlin plied his talents in virtually every discipline in the comic-book field — penciling, inking, creating new characters and sometimes editing and writing. A student of Burne Hogarth’s, Perlin launched his career in 1951, drawing horror comics for various publishers and also penciling Will Eisner’s The Spirit. After serving in the Army, Perlin returned to comics with Harvey in the late ’50s as well as Charlton in the ’60s. In 1973, he began his long association with Marvel, finishing John Buscema’s art on Thor and inking several titles. He took over Werewolf by Night from Mike Ploog, penciling and inking the book for much of the next two years. He also penciled and inked the supernatural adventures of Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, his name becoming very closely identified with Marvel’s monster biker. In the ’80s, he drew Defenders for a long run before turning his attention to Marvel’s adaptation of Hasbro’s Transformers. His early ’90s work on Valiant’s Solar, Man of the Atom and Bloodshot was extremely popular, after which Perlin went into semiretirement.

Following Golden Age work at Marvel predecessor Timely Comics — as well as at Fawcett, Hillman and others — Carmine Infantino (d. 2013) made history at DC Comics, helping usher in the industry’s Silver Age with the reintroduction of the Flash, within whose title he cocreated the Elongated Man and several members of the hero’s famed Rogues’ Gallery. His 1961 story “Flash of Two Worlds,” which literally reshaped the DC Universe by introducing the Earth-1/Earth-2 concept, won Infantino two of his eventual 12 Alley Awards. After serving as DC’s art director and publisher, Infantino returned to penciling on several titles; for Marvel, he provided notable runs on Nova, Spider-Woman and Star Wars, along with brief stints on Daredevil, Ghost Rider and Iron Man. He also drew Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, the historic first Marvel/DC crossover.

During the 1970s, Pat Broderick depicted cosmic sagas on literally multiple levels as artist on Captain Marvel and Micronauts. At DC, he penciled Captain Atom, Firestorm and Green Lantern, among others; on Batman, he co-created Tim Drake, the third and current Robin. Returning to Marvel in stints on Alpha Flight and Doom 2099, he also worked for the short-lived Future Comics and revisited Micronauts in a newly licensed variant at Devil’s Due Publishing.