Pizzazz #14
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePizzazz #14 is a small but genuine piece of comics history because it carries the fifth installment of 'The Kingdom of Ice,' part of the serialized Star Wars comic that Marvel embedded in every issue of this short-lived youth magazine. That serialized strip — across all sixteen issues of Pizzazz — represents the first body of wholly original Star Wars storytelling not adapted directly from the films to appear anywhere in print, predating even the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye. The issue also continues Pizzazz's recurring practice of reprinting a Harvey Kurtzman 'Hey Look!' page — one-page humor strips originally created for Marvel's Timely Comics predecessor in the 1940s — giving a new generation of young readers their first exposure to work that directly seeded the creation of MAD Magazine. Together, those two strips make #14 a modest but real crossroads of late-1970s pop culture and comics heritage.
In "Snow Fury!", Odan and Luke face a desperate struggle for survival when the War Sled crashes, leaving them stranded in a brutal blizzard. With the storm closing in and no shelter in sight, their fight for survival takes a chilling turn. Written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Dave Cockrum, with inks by John Tartag, colors by Nel Yomtov, and letters by Denise Wohl, this issue delivers a tense, atmospheric showdown in the frozen wilds.
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Pizzazz was conceived by Marvel's then-new president Jim Galton as a diversification play to compete with Scholastic's Dynamite magazine and other youth-oriented periodicals, fitting into a broader push to expand Marvel's publishing portfolio beyond monthly comics. The magazine ran on newsstands — often racked with 'real' magazines rather than on comic-spinner racks — for exactly sixteen issues from October 1977 through January 1979. By the time issue #14 appeared in November 1978, the magazine was deep into its second and final Star Wars serial, 'The Kingdom of Ice,' which had been handed off from the Goodwin/Simonson/Janson team that launched it to penciler Dave Cockrum and inker John Tartaglione for the later chapters, including this one. The magazine's cancellation would ultimately strand 'The Kingdom of Ice' two chapters short of completion — those orphaned chapters eventually found a home in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published November 1978 by Marvel Comics; 48 full-color pages.
- Contains Part 5 ('Snow Fury!') of the 'Kingdom of Ice' Star Wars serial, written by Archie Goodwin with pencils by Dave Cockrum and inks by John Tartaglione.
- 'The Kingdom of Ice' is the second (and final) original Star Wars story arc to run in Pizzazz, spanning issues #10–16; it was left incomplete when the magazine was canceled after issue #16.
- The Pizzazz Star Wars serials — including 'The Kingdom of Ice' — are historically recognized as the first original Star Wars stories not directly adapted from the films to appear in print, preceding both the original stories in Marvel's main Star Wars series and the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
- Also includes a 'Hey Look!' one-page humor strip by Harvey Kurtzman, originally produced for Marvel's Timely Comics predecessor in the late 1940s — a recurring back-page feature across multiple Pizzazz issues.
- Additional comic content in the issue is by Jon Buller; pop-culture articles include features on Meat Loaf (then being pitched as the future of rock music) and a debate over whether the turkey or eagle should be the national bird.
- The Star Wars content from this issue (Pizzazz #13–14) was later reprinted in black and white in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly #58.
- The full 'Kingdom of Ice' story — including the two chapters never printed in Pizzazz — was ultimately reprinted in color in the Marvel Illustrated Books' Star Wars collection.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Star Wars Weekly #58 (1979), Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space #1 (2013), Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus #3 (2015), Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years #1 (2016), Star Wars: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus #[nn] (2017)
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