1980 - The Incredible Hulk Utility Belt by Remco!

The Incredible Hulk utility belt featured:

• gamma radiation detector
• wrist gauntlets
• Hulk voice modulator

And here's the ad for it:

And the Hulk wasn't alone... there was a Spider-Man and Cap version as well.

1979 - The Amazing Spider-Man Web-Spinning Action Game

I had this game as a kid and loved trapping the bad guys in Spidey's web!

Here's the TV ad for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnJR02dGmOM

1980 - Anatomy of a cover - Spider-Woman #32

By Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. (http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7013&lotNo=94070)

1984 - Anatomy of a cover - Alpha Flight #13

(http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=563733&GSub=88198)

1984 - Anatomy of a cover - Marvel Team-Up #141

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=808156&Aux=22599&From=gallery&GSub=127179&GCat=4753&UCat=0

Artist Spotlight - Stephane Roux

http://stephaneroux.deviantart.com/gallery/

Here's but a sample of his lovely work, highlighting the 1980s of course...

1984 - Star Wars #86

Star Wars #86
“The Alderaan Factor”
August 1984
Writer: Randy Stradley
Penciler: Bob McLeod
Inker: Tom Palmer

A long, long time ago in a decade known as the 1980s, fans didn’t easily have the option to rewatch their beloved Star Wars trilogy over and over again. It was a big deal to watch a bootleg copy of Empire Strikes Back on Beta (if you don’t know what Beta is, don’t ask). The action figures were the primary means to re-enact your favourite movie scenes and there was the Marvel Comics’ Star Wars series.

I can’t exactly recall why I never picked up the Star Wars comic book, but it might have had something to do with so many other great comics on the shelf in 1984. Reading through some of these issues, the first thing that struck me was how many great creators worked on this book. The creative teams on licensed books tend to be weak because of the expensive licensing fees, but this book enjoyed work by Walt Simonson, Al Williamson, Howard Chaykin, Tom Palmer, and Ron Frenz.

The name Randy Stradley might seem familiar to some of you. While Star Wars #86 was his first and last issue on a Marvel Comics’ Star Wars comic, he eventually moved over to Dark Horse Comics and became their Star Wars brand editor when they won the comic book rights in the early 1990s.

From his introduction to Star Wars Trade Paperback Volume #6:

“The characters in the Star Wars films are well-defined, but fairly one-dimensional. They perfectly fulfill the dramatic tasks required of them by the story in the films, but they don’t exactly exhibit subtleties of character that cry out for further exploration. I knew that if I wanted my story to pack any emotional punch whatsoever, I’d have to play off of something that was already established as mattering to the characters.”

And that’s exactly what he did with “The Alderaan Factor”. Star Wars #86 was a stand-alone issue that focused on Princess Leia. She found herself stranded on a hostile planet and her only ally was a Stormtrooper who was tasked with taking her prisoner. However, Stradley took the helmet off this particular Stormtrooper and gave him a human face. Not only was he person, but he was actually from Leia’s homeworld, Alderaan, which was destroyed in Star Wars: A New Hope. Both characters symbolically represented the factions that were battling for control of their galaxy. They each argued for their own side and the Stormtrooper, who actually never got named, presented a convincing argument in the favour of the Empire.

Tom Palmer’s inking style can only be described as embellishment. His finished art and lavish inks completed the overall artistic effort. His inks created the mood and added to the overall panel flow.

On Bob McLeod’s Facebook page, you’ll find several examples of this issue’s art, highlighting the “before” pencils and the “after” inks. To be fair to Bob McLeod, the inker, Tom Palmer actually requested that Bob only provide the breakdowns rather than the full pencils. Here's a fine example:

1984 - Moon Knight #35

From Bob McLeod's Facebook page:
1984 Moonknight #35 pages 31-32. Written by Tony Isabella, lettered by Michael Higgins.
I was experimenting with a brush-pen on the airplane/helicopter. I don't remember the brand. It did kind of a nice dry brush effect. On page 32, I drew my parents sitting next to Kurt in panel 2, with my wife Lucy behind them. That's Tony Isabella in panel 4.

1987 - Alpha Flight promo art by McFarlane

By Todd McFarlane and Al Milgrom.

(http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=490854&GSub=82086)

1985 - Anatomy of a cover - Avengers #258

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=857039&GSub=5978 

1984-85 - Alpha Flight unused house ad

(http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=582401&GSub=90930)

Are you ready for the new Aurora?

Look for her in Alpha Flight

1979 - Hulk by Walt Simonson

From the Hulk Magazine in 1979:

1978 - Anatomy of a cover - Star Wars #13

By John Byrne and Terry Austin:

(http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=84717)

And here's an commissioned cover by Ernie Chan 

(http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=41954)

1984 - Alpha Flight #16 unpublished cover

(http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=807979&GSub=90930)

Here's the original art for the issue #16:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=90772&GSub=5668

1983 - Anatomy of a cover - Amazing Spider-Man #243

(http://romitaman.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=8140&ArtistId=946&Details=0&From=Room)

1983 - preliminary cover for Peter Parker #81

The final cover was drawn by Al Milgrom, but that preliminary cover (grabbed from an issue of Marvel Age) looks like it might have been sketched by Ed Hannigan, or perhaps it is Al Milgrom...

1984 - From The Private Journals of Charles Xavier

Pulled from New Mutants #21-26:

Avengers Universe by John Byrne

From Jim Warden's gallery at ComicArtFans.com (http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=748671&GSub=63580). Wow.

1981 - Captain America #255 - Original Art

Here's seven lovely pencilled pages of John Byrne's retelling of Captain America's origin from Cap #225.
(http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2Fsection%2Easp%3Fid%3D1398%26x%3D6%26y%3D1%26pg%3D5&id=907431)