Worlds Unknown No. 8 Cover by Kane & Colletta

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is one of my favourite films from childhood. Big adventure, cool Ray Harryhausen characters, Caroline Munro looking sexy (as she always did), Tom Baker as a fantastic evil sorcerer and John Phillip Law as a bright and adventurous Sinbad who looked like he was having fun.

Alas, Marvel’s comic book adaptation – which ran in the last two issues of Worlds Unknown – was shoehorned into the Marvel mould and Sinbad comes across a lot angrier and aggressive. The interior art by George Tuska and Vince Colletta was nothing to write home about either. Which is too bad because there’s usually a lot to admire about Tuska’s layouts.

For No. 8, Gil Kane and Colletta did the cover art. Kane’s layout does its usual job of being engaging, and Colletta did a credible job of inking it. Unfortunately, between the cover being turned in and what got published someone felt they really needed to amp up the peril and so we have John Romita Sr adding extra figures, another serpent and a whole lot of motion lines. In addition, the colour scheme is quite dark. This was a fun film. The comics weren’t.

So, having a scan of the unaltered art I chose to be more faithful to the look and feel of the film, and I was also able to find a copy of the movie’s logo.

New colour and packaging by me.

As published.

Original art scan from Heritage Auctions.

Missing bits drawn in and art made production ready.

New colour version.

Re-created and new trade dress added.