Hulk (Magazine) #25 page 38

I'm back with some more Hulk art -- although this isn't from the Peter David era that I usually collect. This page appealed to me due to the cool Hulk transformation at the top by the great Gene Colan along with some nice ink wash by John Tartaglione (aka Tartag).

Marvel experimented with magazines in the 70's to 80's, and while Savage Sword of Conan was really the only long term success, Hulk lasted for 27 issues between 1977 and 1981. The first nine issues were called The Rampaging Hulk and featured untold tales of our favorite green giant. Starting with #10, the series was renamed as simply Hulk (or The Hulk!) and tried to capitalize on the success of the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV show. It featured more down to Earth stories with a de-powered Hulk travelling around, going up against non super-powered threats. As it turns out, that makes for a pretty boring comic (apart from some cool art), so it's amazing the series lasted as long as it did.

In this story, Hulk is captured by a greedy circus owner, hoping to use him to attract patrons. Obviously that doesn't work out too well in the end. The story is written by Lora Byrne, who wrote for a few Marvel magazines and then was never heard from again. I'd be curious if anyone had more info about her career.

Even though the page says #26 at the top, it's actually from issue #25.