Ghost Rider Epic Collection: To Slay A Demon

Fan-favorite bad guy the Orb returns in a pair of eye-opening throwdowns with Johnny Blaze!

Johnny Blaze rides the highway to hell in another blazing collection of Ghost Rider epics as writer Michael Fleisher wraps up his pivotal run! The Nevada desert turns even hotter when the Orb sets his eye on our hero! Yes, Ghost Rider’s archest of archvillains is back! GR also finds himself sinking fast in a rematch with the Water Wizard. Meanwhile, big-rig trucker Clem Barstow proves he doesn’t play nice on the open road, and the demon Azmodeus makes his chilling debut to menace Johnny Blaze. Plus: It’ll take a team-up with fellow horror hero Werewolf by Night to bring down the sinister Tatterdemalion. And don’t miss the first appearance of Hamilton Slade, a new entrant into the Ghost Rider legacy! Includes key guest-appearances from Marvel Two-In-One and Avengers.

COLLECTING: Ghost Rider (1973) #51-66, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #80, Avengers (1963) #214; material from What If? (1977) #28

Written by Michael Fleisher with Jim Shooter & Tom Defalco

Penciled by Don Perlin & Jack Sparling with Tom Sutton, Ron Wilson, Herb Trimpe, Alan Kupperberg, Luke McDonnell, Bob Hall, Jim Shooter & Carmine Infantino

Michael Fleisher notched an indelible place in comics history in 1974, writing a series of Spectre stories that were some of the most graphically violent tales ever published at the time. During that time, Fleisher also collaborated with Steve Ditko on Shade the Changing Man, an offbeat hero bearing a reality-altering M-Vest.

Jim Shooter entered the comic-book field at age 14 as writer and penciler of the “Legion of Super-Heroes” feature in Adventure Comics. Later moving to Marvel, he wrote Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and other titles. As editor in chief, he tightened Marvel’s publishing schedule; added new titles; nurtured fresh talent; launched the New Universe; and wrote the 12-issue Secret Wars and its sequel, Secret Wars II. Eventually leaving Marvel, Shooter wrote for Valiant, Defiant and Broadway Comics before entering different creative fields at Phobos Entertainment and TGS Inc. Later returning to DC to write Legion of Super-Heroes, he subsequently helped revamp Gold Key heroes at Dark Horse.

A creative stalwart that put his all into his work on long-running series like Ghost Rider and Defenders, Don Perlin plied his talents in virtually every discipline in the comic-book field — penciling, inking, creating new characters and sometimes editing and writing. A student of Burne Hogarth’s, Perlin launched his career in 1951, drawing horror comics for various publishers and also penciling Will Eisner’s The Spirit. After serving in the Army, Perlin returned to comics with Harvey in the late ’50s as well as Charlton in the ’60s. In 1973, he began his long association with Marvel, finishing John Buscema’s art on Thor and inking several titles. He took over Werewolf by Night from Mike Ploog, penciling and inking the book for much of the next two years. He also penciled and inked the supernatural adventures of Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, his name becoming very closely identified with Marvel’s monster biker. In the ’80s, he drew Defenders for a long run before turning his attention to Marvel’s adaptation of Hasbro’s Transformers. His early ’90s work on Valiant’s Solar, Man of the Atom and Bloodshot was extremely popular, after which Perlin went into semiretirement.