Are you a Hulk expert? A huge fan of John Romita Sr.? Think you know Marvel comics from the silver/bronze age? If so, I am throwing down the gauntlet to see who can identify the artwork below. Was this a Hulk annual? A joint venture comic with a local department store? Something else? The first person to correctly identify the page will get a cool bit of swag from the gamma vault (and will gain my utmost admiration for their Hulk/Marvel/Romita knowledge). Also included is a picture from the Knickerbocker Wash’N Play Spongeboat toy from the same (apparent) era.
Thoughts/questions/comments – post below!
UPDATE 7/1/2016: Mystery solved. New article posted with the answers. Click here for full story
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an INCREDIBLE HULK fan web site 
wasnt this part of the newspapswer comic stip series that Stan and John did back in the late 70’s early 80’s? ran from October 30 1978 to September 4 1982 in the
Albuquerque tribune?
Aurora Comic that came with Hulk plastic model…
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Is it from the unpublished Hulk annual from the early 80s?… The one drawn by Larry Lieber and inked by several inkers? I’ve only seen a few pages online, but this has a similar look.
Are comments going thru? I posted an answer from my phone and it’s not showing up. I think the page is from the unpublished Hulk Annual from the early 80s – drawn by Larry Lieber and inked my several inkers.
So… Where IS it from? The art says “Annual” at the top, but it’s not from any Hulk annual that was published. It’s not from the UK, unless it is from an annual not included in the UK Hulk reprint book from a couple of years ago.
Sorry for the delayed response. There have been a lot of responses from a variety of places (forums/FB/email/site) but nothing definitive yet. Here’s what I have heard so far – I plan to do more digging to see if I can find a definitive answer. Keep the comments/questions coming. Thanks!
Ideas about who did the art:
Romita sr inks over Alan kuppenberg pencils
Severin and Romita
Larry Leiber
Trimpe pencils, Romita inks.
Ideas for where it may have been published:
Promotional give-away publications done for newspapers (Dallas Herald, Columbus Dispatch, Denver Post, etc.), Aim toothpaste, etc.
Newspaper comic strip
UK publication
A repeated response has been that it may have been done for a Marvel annual that was never published. If so, this would be Larry Lieber pencils but not clear about the inks. As the story goes – quoted from another site “I believe this page is from an unpublished story penciled by Larry Lieber that was slated to appear in Hulk Annual #12. Jack Abel was supposed to be the inker, but he was hospitalized. A bunch of other artists including Jim Starlin, Joe Rubinstein, Terry Austin, (apparently JR), and others stepped in to finish the job for Jack, calling themselves the Abel Brigade. But for whatever reason it didn’t get finished on time. There a a number of pages from this story floating around with inks by different inkers. I used to own the splash and about half a dozen pages from this story.”
It would make sense that it looks unfinished (see where the word balloons were changed and the pencils not erased). Not a definite answer but a plausible possibility. I replied to see what more I can dig up.
Thanks for all the input, the quest continues.
I sent the description from krisdpaul to Joe Rubinstein along with the image above. He wrote back that the story is true and he believes that this is one of the pages. He said if I could send a higher resolution image, he could probably tell us more.
alxjhnsn AT alumni dot rice dot edu if you want to send me something.
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Mystery solved – new article posted! Thanks to all who chipped in to help!