Marvel Preview #6

Marvel's black-and-white magazine format gets a genuinely gripping showcase here, as Marvel Preview #6 (1976) delivers the climax of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Ken Barr's cover painting that earns every drop of dread. Two deerstalker-capped figures — Holmes and Watson — stand their ground amid roaring flames, a lantern raised and a revolver drawn, while a monstrous, glowing-eyed hell-hound looms enormous and terrifying above them and a fallen figure lies at their feet. Writer Doug Moench and artist Val Mayerik (inked by both Mayerik and P. Craig Russell) bring Conan Doyle's most celebrated mystery to its fiery conclusion, and that cover question — can the master detective survive it? — is irresistible enough to make you flip the page immediately.