Copyrighted as simply
Zombie and commonly known by its trademarked cover title,
Tales of the Zombie, the magazine ran 10 issues
cover dated 1973 - March 1975. With sister titles including
Dracula Lives!,
Monsters Unleashed! and
Vampire Tales, it was published by
Marvel Comics' parent company,
Magazine Management, and related corporations, under the brand emblem Marvel Monster Group. To star in the new title, Marvel's then-editor-in-chief
Roy Thomas plucked
Simon Garth, a character from a standalone 1950s horror tale created by
Stan Lee and
Bill Everett, introduced in Marvel predecessor
Atlas Comics'
Menace #5 (July 1953). This was a story published prior to the comics industry's self-censorship
Comics Code Authority which, among other strictures, forbade zombies. This seven-page story was reprinted in
Tales of the Zombie #1 (with the art slightly altered to give Simon Garth shoulder-length rather than short hair) as the continuation of a new, 12-page prequel story co-scripted by Thomas and
Steve Gerber and drawn by
John Buscema and
Tom Palmer. Following the premiere, all the Zombie stories were by Gerber and artist
Pablo Marcos (one of these in collaboration with writer
Doug Moench and artist
Alfredo Alcala). The original series' finale, set at Garth's daughter's wedding in issue #9, was a three-chapter story written by
Tony Isabella (chapter 2 with co-scripter
Chris Claremont), drawn by
pencilers Virgilio Redondo, Yong Montano, and
Ron Wilson, respectively, and
inker by Alcala (chapters 1-2) and Marcos (chapter 3). Simon Garth was laid to peaceful rest in
Tales of the Zombie #9; the following, final issue contained a
Brother Voodoo story and three anthological tales (Brother Voodoo also appeared in a back-up feature in issue #6).
Collections All 10 issues of
Tales of the Zombie and the
Super Annual were collected in an
Essential Marvel edition in 2006. ==References==