In 1974, Gulacy began work on the character with which he became most associated, the philosophical martial artist and secret agent Shang-Chi, in the comic "Master of Kung Fu" (cover-billed as "The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu") #18 (June 1974), inked by Al Milgrom. That initial story and one the next issue were written by Steve Englehart, but issue #20 (Sept. 1974), co-written by Gerry Conway and Doug Moench, and the same month's "Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu" #1, written by Moench, marked the beginning of a Moench–Gulacy collaboration on the increasingly complex, cinematic feature about the son of longtime pulp fiction supervillain Fu Manchu, who teams with British intelligence to bring down his father's labyrinthine plans for global domination. With some exceptions, the writer–penciler team would continue through a serialized arc to issue #50 (March 1977), culminating with the apparent death of Fu Manchu. Comics historian Les Daniels observed that, "Ingenious writing by Doug Moench and energetic art by Paul Gulacy brought "Master of Kung Fu" new life." In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Moench and Gulacy's work on "Master of Kung-Fu" sixth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".