Deadly Hands of Kung Fu

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The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
Cover of DHOKF issue #1
Editor	Roy Thomas
Categories	Martial Arts
Frequency	Monthly
First Issue	1974
Final Issue — Date — Number	-1977 - 33
Company	Curtis Magazines
Country	United States
Language
Website	N/A
ISSN	unknown

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu is a Martial Arts comic book magazine published by Curtis Magazines (a short lived imprint of Marvel Comics). There were a total of 33 magazines published plus one "Special Album Edition" before the series was cancelled. This magazine was published in the early 1970's amidst the "Kung Fu" or Chopsocky movie Craze". Everyone one was flocking to Bruce Lee movies everywhere. The "Kung-Fu" television series was being watched by millions. Billy Jack the half-indian, Green Beret martial arts hero was making his appearance. And everyone else was "Shaking their booty" to Carl Douglas's hit "Kung Fu Fighting". Kung-Fu was on everyone's lips and the "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu" was there to capitalize on it. The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu magazine was launched in 1974 and ended 33 issues later in 1977. Some of the recurring "Core" characters in the magazine were:

Shang Chi - Master of Kung Fu
Iron Fist - The living weapon
The Sons of the Tiger - Three men linked by mystical amulets
The White Tiger - Heir to the amulets of "Sons of the Tiger"
Daughters of the Dragon - Colleen Wing and Misty Knight

Each issue had various comic story arcs from the above mentioned characters. Some of the stories would follow through various issues. Others were isolated single stories. Most of the issues had some kind of martial arts movie review from a recently released film. Other issues had interviews with authentic Martial Arts instructors, while others had interviews with movie or television celebrities related to martial arts.

The early issues had a martial arts instructional sections which described some elementary fighting techniques. The magazine was strictly black+white with NO COLOR except for the cover. The cost of the magazine was .75 cents for issues #1-14. Issue #15 was a super annual issue and cost $1.25. Issues #16-33 were $1.00 including the "Special Album Edition".

Towards the end of the series the "Core" characters had all but faded away. Most of the stories involved the Samurai story arc called "Sword Quest". Some attempts were made at utilizing new characters but they didn't hold up very well. The pencil and ink style of the first issues changed to a less idealized form and the overall quality of the stories essentially disappeared. It is no surprise the series was finally laid to rest with issue #33. By 1977 the Chopsocky movie Craze was beginning to loose steam which no doubt contributed to the poor sales of the magazine.

As a historical footnote Curtis Magazines published one magazine issue entitled "The Deadliest Heroes of Kung Fu" which is NOT widely known. The single issue mimicked "The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu" mag's format in almost every way except it did NOT contain any "Comic" story elements. It also had the virtue of not having a single advertisement within its pages, which is rare for such a magazine.