Beyond my window, the swiftly swirling snow bestows its sparkling
splendour upon the stark and startling scene outside. Inside, I return to
over forty years ago to relive the heady days of my early teens, which
were themselves a re-experience of an even earlier time in my boyhood.
You see, dear reader, the tales contained within the covers you see here,
I had previously read in the pages of the ODHAMS PRESS publications
known as POWER COMICS, in this specific instance the weekly
periodicals entitled WHAM!, SMASH!, and POW!
Although these stories conjured up recollections from an earlier period
in my life (and all the myriad associations which went with them), I was not
so over-familiar with them to be immune from a new set of memories being
formed within my impressionable mind. As I once explained, that's why I
can look at certain stories from my childhood and teenage years and have
two distinct sets of remembrances connected to the same tales, depending
on whichever particular printing of them I'm perusing at the time.
But enough of such self-indulgent musings, let's look at the goods.
JIM STARLIN delights us with two sensational covers to THE MIGHTY
WORLD OF MARVEL #s 6 & 7, inked, I believe, by JOE SINNOTT. Issue
#7's FANTASTIC FOUR adventure contained only one chapter from the
cosmic quartet's first encounter with DOCTOR DOOM (from FF #5), so we
were presented with a preponderance of pin-ups and puzzle pages to pad
the issue out to the required 40 pages. Not that anyone was complaining,
mind you, as they lent themselves more to the usual contents of a 'typical'
British comic. (Not that MWOM was ever really that, of course.)
Anyway, enjoy these iconic images from more than four decades in the
past. As you immerse yourself in their spell, I return to the window to again
recall the snow from a long-ago but never-forgotten period of my life which,
although behind me, is ever before me. Now beat that for a perplexing
piece of paradoxical philisophical profundity.
Part Four coming soon.
6 comments:
Keep them coming KID!!! Marvel-ous!
Loads more to go, don't worry.
Really enjoying this series. The covers are so nostalgic. Whenever I think of unstable molecules- which is, let's face it, quite often- that's how I picture them.
Unstable molecules aren't dangerous - not once they've had their medication. Just thought you'd like to know. Watch for my SMCW cover gallery series, Dougie - coming in February.
Kid,
MWOM # 8 is likely inked by omeone other than Sinnott, perhaps even Starlin himself. I also wonder if the Spidey by number is by Starlin.
It's great to see all the feature pages that were included in the weeklies. It reminds me of the Giant-Size Marvel's that came out in 1974 that also included many of the same reprints from the original Annuals. I fondly recall when the gallery of villains was featured in Giant-size FF and Spider-Man with additional copy (likely by Roy Thomas) updating fans on a few bits of info.
There was talk ofr continuing the gallery of villians features with new material when the reprints ran out, but that was abandoned and the GS titles only lasted 4-5 issues.
I'm not sure about some of the other GS titles from the '70s, Nick, but the FF one lasted 6 issues. I know 'cos I've got 'em. It's a shame they didn't go on for longer.
I never really looked at MWOM #8 too hard, but it may well be Starlin who inked it himself, as you suggest.
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