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| Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA. Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Just over 38 years ago, on September 30th, 1972, The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1 (cover-dated October 7th) burst onto newsagents' counters all over Britain. I hadn't seen the STAN LEE-voiced TV ad (although I did later), so it came as a surprise when I spotted the comic on a wall-rack outside a newsagent's along from Glasgow's famous BARROWLAND market (aka The BARRAS), where I and my parents were heading on that particular Saturday morning.
I couldn't talk my folks into buying it for me on the way in, but I'd managed to wear them down into submission by the time we made our way out an hour or so later. We were soon ensconced in the cosy confines of a comfy cafe, and it was with great joy that I pored through its contents over a glass of cola and reacquainted myself with the pals I'd first met in the pulsating pages of ODHAMS' POWER COMICS, way back in what even then seemed like the dim and distant days of the '60s. Suddenly, life was exciting again.
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| Art by JACK KIRBY |
DEZ SKINN once revealed that Stan had told him the comic's original title was going to be The WONDERFUL World of Marvel (after the Disney TV show of almost the same name), but thankfully 'twas not to be. Besides, MIGHTY and MARVEL go so well together it seems the obvious choice, so I'm amazed that any other name was even considered.
40 pages, some in full-colour (the rest with green 'spot' colour), for only 5p - containing the origins of The INCREDIBLE HULK, The (FABULOUS) FANTASTIC FOUR and The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - plus a Hulk iron-on transfer (below) - Wow! I wish they still produced comics like that today!
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| Art by JACK KIRBY |
Well, in a sense - they do! I still buy MWOM today, although it's now published monthly, has 76 full-colour pages and costs £2.95. The Mighty World of Marvel - I hope it's still around in another 38 years. In fact, I hope I'm still around also.
My first issue of Mighty World of Marvel was issue #4 and even now I can remember how exciting it seemed. Somehow the fact that that issue's villains, the Toad Men and the Chameleon, weren't exactly top drawer completely bypassed me.
ReplyDeleteAh, but wasn't the Kirby/Ditko art on that Hulk story something else? The first 30 or so issues of MWOM had a great "feel" to them, but it started to decline with the inclusion of two Hulk stories per issue from #33, I thought.
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by the British weeklies, being from the states. I probably first saw them in the mid-1970s, purchasing a few at conventions. I believe I bought a few of The Super-Heroes, one with a Kirby Silver Surfer cover (from FF); and a Keith Pollard cover featuribf the Cat, Ant-Man and others. I even found a pen pal in Britan who I traded some US comics for British, including some Captain Britan's.
ReplyDeleteWhile our experieces are quite different, me reading Marvel comic s in the mid-1960s in the USA (Brooklyn, New York,to be specifuc) discovering the early word of Marvel in reprints from Marvel Collector's Item Classics and Marvel Tales, we both discovered a far away, fascinating world to travel in.
Thanks for the interesting comment, Nick. The Kirby-covered issue of THE SUPER-HEROES you remember was actually the very first issue from October '75. I've got a complete set (50 issues), which I'll no doubt get around to featuring on this blog one day.
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