The Six Million Dollar Man (magazine)

The Neal Adams cover to the second issue

You may be looking for one of the other comic publications listed at The Six Million Dollar Man (comics)

The Six Million Dollar Man was a magazine released by Charlton Comics. It ran for seven issues between July 1976 and November 1977. It was a mixture of comic adventures and behind-the-scenes articles about the production of the television show.

It was aimed at a slightly older audience than The Six Million Dollar Man comic book, and thus Steve was portrayed in a somewhat grittier light, akin to his depiction in Cyborg.

Format

The publication was of the standard American magazine format. It had a glossy cover like a magazine, but standard newsprint interior like a comic book of the era. Issues had around 60 pages, including the covers. Unlike the comic book of the same name, the interiors were entirely monochromatic. Each issue featured several stories of varying lengths, along with photographic features related to the TV series, including biographical features on Lee Majors and Richard Anderson; at least one photographic feature included Lindsay Wagner, although the character of Jaime Sommers did not otherwise appear in any of the issues. Charlton Comics published several of its licensed titles in both magazine and comic book format. Besides Six Million Dollar Man, similar magazine/comic counterparts existed for Space: 1999 and Emergency!, all launched and, ultimately, cancelled, around the same time.

The storylines of the magazine series tended to be somewhat darker and more violent than those presented in the comic book. For example, Issue #4 features a story entitled "School for Assassins" which squares Austin off in violent combat against trained killers. In another issue, Austin apparently throws Oscar Goldman off a building, though this is revealed to be a ruse. The first issue contained two stories that appeared more closely cut from Caidin's mould than Glen Larson's. In "An Eye for Details", Austin undergoes plastic surgery in order to impersonate a Soviet agent. Parachuting near the man's home, Austin is shown delivering a brutal karate chop to the man's neck with his bionic hand, presumably killing him, and he proceeds to spend the night with the man's wife in order to maintain his cover. Another story in the issue, "Escape from Shark Island", culminates in a vicious attack on Austin by a pack of dogs and Austin is shown killing the animals (the story also includes a rare glimpse of Austin's bionic leg radio transmitter, a device never used in the TV series).

Price

Issues cost $1 and the magazine was commonly available across North America.

Creative team

Like the comic book, George Wildman was the sole editor of this publication as well. This tended to ensure that the two publications shared some of the same creative staff. It also seems to have allowed the two publications to clearly aim towards different markets. While some of the art from this magazine was later used to illustrate text stories in the comic book, in general the two publications created their own unique work.

While names associated with the comic book — like writers Joe Gill and Nicola Cuti and artists Jack Sparling and Neal Adams — did contribute to the magazine, they were not quite so dominant on this publication as they were on the comics. A great deal of the writing chores were taken here by Mike Pellowski, and a surprising amount of the interior art was farmed out to a sub-contractor, Continuity Associates. This makes it difficult to place an individual's name on most of the art seen in the magazine. However, CA was headed by Neal Adams, implying that he was the book's de facto art director.

External link

• Grand Comics Database cover gallery (omits Issue 7) - includes issue detail