The Comics Journal #50
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Comics Journal #50 arrived at a pivotal creative moment for superhero comics: Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men was mid-stride through the lead-up to the Dark Phoenix Saga, and the interview inside captures Claremont articulating — in real time — his philosophy around Phoenix/Jean Grey's powers and the editorial constraints shaping that arc. Equally significant is Paul Levitz's essay 'A Call for Higher Criticism,' which has since been cited in academic comic-studies literature as a foundational argument for evaluating comics by serious aesthetic standards. Taken together, the two pieces make this a milestone issue for understanding both the creative ambitions of late-1970s Marvel and the parallel effort by fans and critics to build a genuine critical discourse around the medium.
A standout issue in the early run of The Comics Journal, #50 (1979) delivers sharp, thoughtful criticism from a rotating cast of writers including Margaret O'Connell, Dwight Decker, and Beppe Sabatini, with insightful takes on More Than Human by Alex Nino and Doug Moench, Marv Wolfman’s Fantastic Four: Doomsday, and Joe Silva’s Holocaust for Hire. Featuring art by Fred Hembeck, Scott Pellegrini, and Jeff MacNelly—whose work also appears in the cover by Dennis Fujitake—this issue blends literary critique with comics culture, offering a rare glimpse into the medium’s evolving critical discourse.
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The Comics Journal was launched in 1976 by Gary Groth and Michael Catron, who transformed a small adzine called The Nostalgia Journal into a magazine of news and pointed criticism; by the time issue #50 appeared in October 1979, the magazine had recently shifted to a monthly schedule with a circulation of roughly 10,000 copies. Issue #50 was assembled while TCJ was still in its early Fantagraphics years, operating with a lean staff, and it drew on freelance critics and industry insiders alike — Levitz was a working DC writer and editor at the time, while the Claremont interview was conducted by Ed Via with Roger Stern contributing commentary. Dennis Fujitake, a frequent TCJ cover artist of the period, supplied the X-Men front cover, and Wendy Pini — then best known as co-creator of Elfquest — contributed the Red Sonja back cover illustration.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Front cover: X-Men illustration by Dennis Fujitake; back cover: Red Sonja illustration by Wendy Pini (co-creator of Elfquest).
- Lead interview: 'Chris Claremont Interview' by Ed Via (p. 48), with additional commentary by Marvel writer/editor Roger Stern — Claremont discusses the Phoenix character and the editorial directive to scale back Jean Grey's cosmic power levels.
- Essay by Paul Levitz (then a DC writer and editor): 'A Call for Higher Criticism' (p. 44), arguing for applying rigorous aesthetic standards to comics — later cited in MIT transmedia studies research and academic comic-studies literature as a precedent-setting piece.
- Essay by Brian Cook: 'The Rise and Fall of Richard Nixon and the Monsters from Marvel' (p. 76) — an analytical piece examining Marvel's monster titles in relation to the Nixon political era.
- News section reported Denny O'Neil's departure from DC Comics to Marvel.
- Cat Yronwode contributed a review of Jack T. Chick's Crusaders religious comics ('Blackhawks for Christ,' p. 30).
- Column by Jeffrey Wasserman: 'Jack Spake: The Life Cycle of Comics' (p. 86) — an essay examining the structural rhythms of comics publishing.
- The issue appeared during the same year Claremont and editor Jim Salicrup were actively developing what would become the Dark Phoenix Saga, giving the Claremont interview significant retrospective documentation value for that storyline's genesis.
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"It Doesn't Blesh" - Dawson reviews Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human the Graphic Story Version by Alex Nino and Doug Moench; Huneryager on the novel Fantastic Four: Doomsday by Marv Wolfman; O'Connell reviews Jeff MacNelly's "The Very First Shoe Book;" ""Trigan Empire": Dazzling but Uninspired" - Decker on The Trigan Empire by Don Lawrence; "The Door to Cell Twenty-Six" - Sabatini on Holocaust for Hire by Joe Silva.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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