The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was an American black-and-white martial arts comics magazine published by Magazine Management, a Marvel sibling. It ran 33 issues from 1974 to 1977, plus one special edition, during the 1970s martial-arts movie craze.
The magazine was mostly black-and-white, with color on the cover. Each issue featured comics stories with recurring characters, plus film reviews, interviews, and sometimes martial-arts lessons by Frank McLaughlin. Some stories were set in feudal Japan with samurai-like heroes, including a four-part arc called “Sword Quest” drawn by Sanho Kim and Tony DeZuniga. The Sons of the Tiger and White Tiger features ran through most issues until the second-to-last one.
Prices varied: issues 1–14 cost 75 cents; issue 15 was a Super Annual of reprints at $1.25; issues 16–33 and the 1974 Kung Fu Special cost $1.00. Issue 28 (Sept. 1976) was an all-Bruce Lee special, featuring a 35-page biography.
In later years, the world of Deadly Hands continued in new projects, including Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu (2009 one-shot), Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (2011 mini-series), the 2014 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu mini-series, and the 2023 Gang War mini-series. A new five-issue Deadly Hands of K’un-Lun is planned for 2026, featuring Iron Fist characters Lin Lie, Danny Rand, and Pei.
An offshoot, The Deadliest Heroes of Kung Fu, appeared in 1975. It had no comics but reprinted material and instructional content, and was a test run for an all-articles companion to Deadly Hands.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:53 (CET).