Ghost Rider #63
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGhost Rider #63 (December 1981) holds a durable place in the series' history as the first appearance of the Quentin Carnival, the travelling circus setting that would become Johnny Blaze's primary home and backdrop for the remainder of the original 1973–1983 run. Along with it, the issue introduces a cluster of recurring supporting players — Ralph Quentin, Red Fowler, Corky Franklin, and photojournalist Cynthia Randolph — who collectively gave Blaze a civilian social world he had largely lacked, deepening the human side of his story at a critical late-series juncture. The issue also features the return of the Orb, one of Ghost Rider's most visually distinctive rogues, upgraded here with new Madame Menace–supplied weaponry that escalates the threat level of the rematch. As the opening chapter of what Marvel later repackaged in its Masterworks line, it marks the transition point from Michael Fleisher's tenure toward the creative overhaul that J.M. DeMatteis and Bob Budiansky would deliver in the series' final act.
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The issue was written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by penciller Luke McDonnell with inks by Sal Trapani, colors by Rob Carosella, and letters by Joe Rosen — the same tight production unit Marvel relied on for the book's early-1980s output. The editorial credit is disputed across sources (see Flagged), but the issue shipped with a December 1981 cover date as a standard 22-page, direct/newsstand release. A UK edition with a 20p cover price was published simultaneously, identical in content to the US version. The issue lands at the very start of what Marvel's Masterworks Vol. 6 retrospectively frames as the series' transitional stretch, collecting #63–72, signalling that editors recognized this point as a meaningful creative pivot.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Quentin Carnival, Ralph Quentin, Red Fowler, Corky Franklin, and photojournalist Cynthia Randolph — all of whom become recurring supporting cast members through the rest of the series.
- Story title is 'If the Eyes Destroy Me!' — written by Michael Fleisher, pencilled by Luke McDonnell, inked by Sal Trapani.
- Cover art is by Bob Budiansky and Bob Wiacek, even though Budiansky did not draw the interior story.
- Features the return of the Orb (Drake Shannon), who debuted in Marvel Team-Up #15 (November 1973, created by Len Wein and Ross Andru); here he acquires a new, more powerful laser-helmet and heat-seeking eye-missiles from Madame Menace (Sunset Bain) to use against Ghost Rider.
- The issue also features Madame Menace (Sunset Bain) in a supporting villain role as the arms supplier to the Orb.
- Johnny Blaze's powers are explicitly shown to be growing harder to control — an early narrative signal of the escalating Zarathos conflict that would climax in issue #81.
- The issue was reprinted in Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 3 (black-and-white) and is collected in Marvel Masterworks: Ghost Rider Vol. 6 (2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955427).
- A UK newsstand edition with a 20p cover price was published concurrently with the US edition.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Le Motard Fantôme #8 (1984), Essential Ghost Rider #3 (2009), Marvel Masterworks: Ghost Rider #6 (2024), Marvel Collection #2
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