The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #31

Against a stark black background, Bob Larkin's painted cover for this December 1976 issue of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu delivers a striking tableau: a massive blue-skinned villain dominates the foreground, trident in hand, while Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, and the White Tiger surge into battle around him in dynamic, kinetic poses. The bold tagline "Night of Dark Death!" sets a suitably dramatic tone for what promises to be a martial-arts showdown packed with Marvel's finest hand-to-hand combatants. At a dollar cover price, this oversized magazine format gave readers a generous canvas for the kind of action-packed storytelling Bill Mantlo and Joe Staton were bringing to the martial arts genre in 1976.