Lost Marvels #3

History

Larry Hama, already an established Marvel editor on titles including Savage Sword of Conan and G.I. Joe, proposed the 1985 relaunch of Savage Tales as a deliberate pivot away from the sword-and-sorcery themes of the 1971–1975 original, envisioning instead a grounded, EC-influenced action anthology — historically detailed, violent, and tonally closer to Two-Fisted Tales than to fantasy pulp. Hama assembled a roster that bridged generations, pairing veterans like John Severin (whose EC pedigree was direct and literal) and John Buscema with younger talents including a pre-Crow James O'Barr, and the series ran for thirteen months before folding after eight issues in December 1986. The Fantagraphics reprint hardcover, published February 17, 2026 as part of the ongoing Marvel/Fantagraphics Lost Marvels collaboration, includes a new remembrance written by Hama himself, giving the collection an authorial frame that the original magazine never had. Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth has described the broader Lost Marvels mandate as creating 'a carefully curated record' of Marvel's non-superhero output that most readers have either forgotten or never encountered at all.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Lost Marvels #3: Savage Tales of the 1980s was published by Fantagraphics in partnership with Marvel Comics on February 17, 2026, as the third volume in the ongoing Lost Marvels hardcover reprint series.
• The volume collects all eight issues of Savage Tales Vol. 2 (October 1985 – December 1986), edited by Larry Hama — the first complete reprinting of the run since its original publication, nearly forty years later.
• Savage Tales Vol. 1 issue #1 and Vol. 2 issues #1 and #4 contained Doug Murray and Michael Golden's '5th to the 1st' feature — the direct narrative forerunner of their acclaimed color series The 'Nam, which debuted the following year; one unused installment was later published in The 'Nam #8.
• The book reprints a silent, post-apocalyptic short story titled 'G Forces,' written and drawn by James O'Barr — creator of The Crow — making it one of the only known Marvel Comics works O'Barr completed before The Crow's 1989 Caliber debut.
• Artists whose work appears in the volume include John Severin, John Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, Sam Glanzman, Gray Morrow, Wayne Vansant, Val Mayerik, Ron Wagner, Joe Jusko, Mary Wilshire, Arthur Suydam, Ken Steacy, Vincent Waller, and Will Jungkuntz.
• Writers contributing to the original run included Chuck Dixon, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Doug Murray, Robert Kanigher, Don Kraar, and Bill Wray — a cross-generational assembly of adventure and war-comics specialists.
• John Severin is the only artist to appear in every one of the eight original issues, sometimes contributing two stories per issue; his direct EC Comics background made him a natural fit for Hama's editorially stated goal of EC-style anthology storytelling.
• The hardcover is presented in black-and-white interior pages with full-color covers, matching the original magazine format, and includes a new remembrance by original editor Larry Hama.

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