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.

FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST PART FIVE - MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #1...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #1 was precisely what it claimed to be on the cover.  Talk about living up to its name?  Reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR #2, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3, ANT-MAN from TALES To ASTONISH #36 and TALES Of ASGARD from JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #97 - what more could anyone want in a comic?

I recall buying this mag back around 1967 or '68.  I hadn't read any of the stories before (must've missed the FF tale when it was reprinted in WHAM!, and the Spidey story in POW!) so it was all new to me.  I was intrigued by the fact that the group didn't wear costumes, and one Spider-Man panel seemed to possess a distinct 3D quality to it.  (As it certainly did when it was included as part of a VIEWMASTER set in the '70s.)

I managed to get my hands on quite a few issues of MCIC after that - and I still remember each and every one of them.  I've since re-acquired most of the first 30-odd issues (the title changed to MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS with #23), and I often derive great pleasure from poring over them and reliving the time I first obtained these classic comics so many years ago.

Interestingly, when MARVEL first issued their reprint collection mags (like MARVEL TALES, etc.), the original printing of each story was unobtrusively listed along the bottom of the splash page.  It wasn't too long, however, before this information was placed in a larger 'arrow-blurb' which obscured part of the artwork.  Because of this, they sometimes had to shrink and chop the page around to avoid covering too much of it.  Why not just print the info smaller then, as they had done originally? Perhaps they were obliged by law (or motivated by conscience) to make it clear that the mag contained no new material, although I would've thought the title fulfilled that requirement more than adequately.

Regardless, Marvel Collectors' Item Classics was a superb comic mag, so - for those who weren't around at the time, or who simply want to refresh their memory - here's a super-quick taste of the first issue.

      

And, in case you were wondering, below is the picture which struck me as having an almost 3D quality about it when I first saw it around 45 years ago.  I now cringe in abject shame at the memory of cutting out the Spidey figure from my original copy. Bleedin' little vandal.