Marvel Presents

Marvel Presents was an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. Twelve issues were published from October 1975 to August 1977.

Marvel Presents
Marvel Presents #3 (Feb. 1976). Art by Al Milgrom and John Romita Sr.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	October 1975–August 1977
No. of issues	12
Main character(s)	Guardians of the Galaxy
Creative team
Written by	List Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, Roger Stern, John Warner
Penciller(s)	List Pat Boyette, Howard Chaykin, Al Milgrom, Sonny Trinidad, Mike Vosburg
Inker(s)	List Terry Austin, Pablo Marcos, Bob McLeod, Bob Wiacek
Editor(s)	Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman

Publication history

Bloodstone

Marvel Presents began publication with an October 1975 cover date.^[1] The first two issues featured Ulysses Bloodstone, a character created by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and John Warner for the Where Monsters Dwell series.^[2] 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 their first regular series, from issues #3-12, by Steve Gerber and Al Milgrom.^[3] Roger Stern replaced Gerber as writer with issue #10.^[4] Issue #7 (Nov. 1976) depicted an obvious sex act in a Comics Code-approved comic book, between Vance Astro and Nikki.^[5] 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.^[4]

The issues

Issue	Date	Title	Writer	Pencils	Notes
#1	October 1975	Dweller From the Depths!	John Warner	Mike Vosburg Pat Boyette	First appearance of Ulysses Bloodstone
#2	December 1975	Hellfire Helix Hex!		Sonny Trinidad
#3	February 1976	Just Another Planet Story!	Steve Gerber	Al Milgrom	Contains a text story on the history of Earth-691
#4	April 1976	Into the Maw of Madness!			Contains a text story on the history of Earth-691; first appearance of Nikki
#5	June 1976	Planet of the Absurd!		Al Milgrom Howard Chaykin
#6	August 1976	The Topographical Man		Al Milgrom
#7	November 1976	Embrace the Void!
#8	December 1976	Once Upon a Time... the Silver Surfer!	Roger Stern		Contains a flashback reprinted from Silver Surfer #2 (October 1968)
#9	February 1977	Breaking Up is Death to Do!	Steve Gerber Mary Skrenes
#10	April 1977	Death-Bird Rising!	Roger Stern
#11	June 1977	At War With Arcturus!
#12	August 1977	The Shipyard of Deep Space!

Collected editions

• Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Vol. 3 includes Marvel Presents #1 and #3, 380 pages, June 2012, ISBN 978-0785163824
• Guardians of the Galaxy: The Power of Starhawk includes Marvel Presents #3–12, 192 pages, July 2009, ISBN 978-0785137887
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers includes Marvel Presents #3–12, 368 pages, January 2013, ISBN 978-0785166870