TITLE: Marvel Fanfare vol. 1, issue 8
YEAR:May 1983
COMIC COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Written by Peter Gillis (Story 2) Gil Kane
Penciller: Carmine Infantino (Story 2) Charles Yess
Inker: P. Craig Russell
Letterer: Many Hands (Story 2) Jim Novak
Colorist: Ben Sean (Story 2) Christie Scheele
Editor: Allen Milgrom
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
With issue #8 of “Marvel Fanfare”, Al Milgrom explains to everyone the price increase from $1.25 to $1.50 which was quite expensive back in 1983, compared to a regular 75 cent comic book. While his reasoning was that it was used to pay freelancers as Marvel Comics paid the highest freelance rates at the time and also the comics had no ads and was using the most expensive paper at the time for the comic book release.
But the issue is a Doctor Strange storyline, as James Mandarin was messing with the mystic arts and is swallowed by a shadow. His girlfriend Meredith Stead quickly runs to the home of Stephen Strange and he, Clea and Wong try to help bring James Mandarin back from the main storyline antagonist Slitherer in Shadows (what a name?).
And while you get a Doctor Strange storyline, I feel the main storyline for this issue was “Wolf-Boy”, a storyline by Gil Kane about a group of Wolves who take in a human boy left behind by his parents after a tiger named Shere Khan wants to kill it.
The wolves have taken the boy in under their protection and for the most part, the story is short and features the introduction of Mowgli.
Mowgli would show up decades later in “Deadpool: Killustrated” but there is no doubt that the storyline was influenced by “The Jungle Book”. A solid story for the most part, despite it not being a superhero storyline.