Epic Illustrated #4

Marvel's ambitious adult fantasy and science-fiction magazine arrives in Winter 1980 with a cover by Mike Kaluta that commands immediate attention — a muscular warrior battles a massive coiling serpent amid crumbling ruins, while a dark-haired woman watches from the shadows above, the whole scene rendered in Kaluta's richly detailed, almost painterly style. Inside, the magazine promises contributions from literary heavyweights Robert E. Howard, Harlan Ellison, and Michael Moorcock alongside comics work, including a chapter of James P. Starlin's "Metamorphosis Odyssey." For readers hungry for fantasy and sci-fi that pushed beyond the newsstand norms of 1980, Epic Illustrated #4 delivered exactly the kind of ambitious, mature storytelling its title promised.