PART SIX OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST - MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Regular readers may remember me mentioning (in a previous post) MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6 as one of the comics I re-read while off ill from school on the day of my 11th birthday, along with The MIGHTY THOR #158 and WHIZZER & CHIPS #5, so cometh now the time to talk about it in a little more detail. 

I have many different memories associated with each tale in this particular mag, which, in retrospect, I'd likely owned for longer than previously imagined.  Seems to me I'd bought it only a few weeks before, but it's entirely possible that I'd had it for months.  One benefit of cover-dated weekly comics is that, years later, one can pinpoint one's associated memories with utmost precision.  For example, on September 30th, 1972, I bought The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1.  I remember it was a Saturday and I recall the circumstances, but - if not for the date on the cover (October 7th), which was the week after it went on sale as per British tradition - I may later have been able to recollect the year, but probably not the month and day.

With American comics it's different, as they usually arrived on U.K. shores months (or even years) after they were published, so it's often more difficult to accurately ascertain their precise time of purchase.  As already noted, if we associate a particular moment in our past with a British comic, there's a date on the cover to mark the spot, as it were.  With a U.S. mag, the opposite is true - some other means of being able to recall exactly when it was acquired is needed.  For example, the only reason I remember that my brother bought SUPERBOY #146 and X-MEN #45 for me on December 15th, 1968 is because it was his birthday, not because of the dates on the covers.  In short, we use U.K. comics to date memories from around the time of purchase, whereas with U.S. ones, we usually have to rely on associated events (if we remember them) to determine when they came into our possession.

       

Now, if I was far smarter than I am, I would've been able to convey the above info in about three sentences instead of three paragraphs - but I'm not, so you'll have to live with it.  Anyway, when I look at MCIC #6, I associate a certain pic of SUSAN STORM with me sitting at a particular desk in one corner of my primary school classroom, and a picture of The HULK with me sitting at another desk in the opposite corner.  How can such a paradox be?  I either had the comics (or selected cut-out piccies) for far longer than I remember, or because of the following reason.

                                                                                                      

I often bought the same comic twice, weeks or months (perhaps even a year or so) apart.  Having cut out pictures from one particular ish, I'd later regret it and buy another copy if I saw it.  (I should explain to foreign readers that, as U.S. comics came to this country as ballast in ships and were stored in warehouses, batches of the same issues often turned up years apart.  That's why, for example, I was still able to buy a pristine copy of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #158 from a newsagent's in Blackpool in 1973 that I'd first purchased in my home town back in 1968 or '69.)

However, I don't suppose any of that is relevant to anyone but myself, but I'm trying to place these stories in the context of the time so hopefully you'll forgive my self-indulgence.  One page in particular that I associate with the day of my birthday is the one where The THING drags PRINCE NAMOR The SUB-MARINER from the ocean.  In fact, a page or two which followed it are also ensconced in my memory banks, but the one below is probably the most dynamic so I'll share it with you here.  JACK KIRBY at the very top of his game, no doubt about it.

Well, I could go on and on, but it wouldn't be fair to subject you to any more of what some may regard as my tedious reminiscences about my uneventful past.  I only hope that, in relating my memories of this particular comic, it may kick-start your own.  If so, feel free to relive and share them in the comments section - that's what it's there for.