Most were written by Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee and/or Larry Lieber, and generally penciled by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, or Don Heck, though occasionally by Paul Reinman or Joe Sinnott.

The story in issue #19 (Dec. 1973) introduced Howard the Duck, a cynical, cigar-smoking, anthropomorphic waterfowl — a parody of cartoon animals — intended as a throwaway character.

That plan changed when the duck quickly proved popular, becoming one of Marvel's biggest 1970s characters and a pop-culture phenomenon that would later also get a solo series, as well as a notoriously poorly received[citation needed] feature film produced by George Lucas.

Morbius the Living Vampire, introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971), became the starring feature with Adventure into Fear #20 (Feb. 1974) and continued through the rest of the run, ending at #31.

Its round robin of artists included Gil Kane, P. Craig Russell, Frank Robbins, George Evans and Don Heck.