Marvel Preview #16

Marvel's black-and-white magazine format gets a genuinely chilling showcase here, as this 1978 installment of Marvel Preview puts Hodiah Twist and Lilith, Queen of the Undead, front and center in a tale titled "The Hero-Killer Principle!" The cover — rendered by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer — pulls you right into a shadowy urban night: a terrified woman clutching a pearl necklace recoils from a monstrous clawed hand lunging toward her, while two trench-coated figures move ominously through a rain-slicked city street behind her. With Don McGregor writing, Gene Colan on interior art, and the promise of "Murder Rides the Rails" atmospheric dread, this oversized issue offers a satisfying blend of pulp horror and detective menace.