.jpg) |
| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
The time: A dark and drizzly Saturday late afternoon/early-evening in 1973. The place: The Norfolk Restaurant in the main shopping centre of my home town. I'd just purchased the KING-SIZE SPECIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (among others), and borrowed the first edition of The PENGUIN BOOK Of COMICS from my local library. As I sat across from one of my pals, each of us nursing a cup of Coke, I perused the contents of my recent acquisitions on the table in front of me.
I don't know for how long I owned that Cap comic, but back in the early or mid-'80s, I obtained a replacement for it, which I've had ever since. Around 12 to 14 years ago (several months to a year or so apart) I happened to acquire Cap Annuals #3 & 4, leaving only #2 to fill the space in the first four issues.
.jpg)
Curiously, MARVEL never seemed to be consistent in naming their bumper extravaganzas; sometimes they were called 'Specials', other times 'Annuals'. (And to confuse readers further, THOR not only had a series of King-Size 'Specials/Annuals' devoted to him, but also a run of four SPECIAL MARVEL EDITIONS.) Some King-Size mags began as 'Specials', then morphed into 'Annuals', and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that it likewise happened in reverse.
Today, I finally got my grubby mitts on the second issue of the title, thereby completing my quartet of Cap's Special editions. As you can see, the cover has what looks like the spine on view, as if the comic hasn't been bound properly, but the issue is actually a normal stapled comic (with 52 pages), as opposed to the glued and thick-stapled format of #1, 3 & 4. It was likely intended to be a thicker Special at the time of preparation, before the decision was made to cut the page count, and perhaps there was no time to amend the cover before it was sent to the printers.
.jpg)
So, it may have taken me 40 years to obtain the next comic in sequence after the one I first bought back in '73, but I got there in the end. And here's something else to consider - back in the early '90s, my local library had a book sale, from which I purchased the actual, self-same copy of The Penguin Book of Comics I'd first borrowed on that rainy Saturday evening so very long ago.
If you have any personal reminiscences associated with the comic covers on display, feel free to share them in the comments section. With any luck, I can then delude myself into believing that I'm not the only soppy sentimentalist and nutty nostalgist who haunts the bloggersphere. Any takers? Step right up!
.jpg)
UPDATE: Originally, I owned issues #1, 3, 4 & 6, so when I acquired #2 I was very well pleased. However, a nagging voice then assailed my ears - "Why not get #5 and have the first six Specials/Annuals?" Well, sure sounded like a good idea to me, so I promptly tracked down a copy and added it to my collection. (For a magazine which was meant to be published yearly, it's interesting to note that only five issues were released over a ten year period.)
So, here's issues #5 & 6 to round of the first half dozen Cap 'Special Annuals'. Don't ever say I'm not good to you.
.jpg)
And here's the cover of Kirby's 1976 BICENTENNIAL BATTLES Treasury Edition for good measure.
.jpg)
The only one of these I had was #2. IIRC, it was bought off the spinner rack at the local grocery store on a Saturday shopping trip with my mother. I don't remember why I bought this one instead of something else; I was not a big Marvel fan, and I had already seen the stories reprinted in it. I saw the "Sleeper" three-parter when it was adapted for the Marvel Super-heroes TV cartoon, and I had read the Not Brand Ecch issue with the spoof of Avengers #4. Maybe there wasn't anything else any good on sale that month at that store. And I never understood Marvel's policy re: labeling their 72-page special editions. I don't know if there were any across-the-board rules. Maybe the "Annuals" were all-new, and the "King-Size Specials" were originally reprints. But if so, that policy changed. The first Avengers King-Size Special (1967) was all-new, and Amazing Spider-Man King-Size Special #3 had a new lead story with reprints as back-ups. DC's 1960's "Annuals" and "80-page Giants" were all-reprint, afair. By 1966-67, DC seemed to have dropped the term "annual" and were calling them all "Eighty-Page Giants." Then, by the early 1980's, they were publishing Annuals with all-new stories. But then, by 1980, DC and Marvel were becoming more and more similar in content as well as format. -TC
ReplyDeleteI didn't have any Cap annuals, but I wish I'd read the one which explained all (?) the different Cap's ( I only knew of Steve Rogers!) BUT, your mention of comics not being bound properly stirred a memory - during the 80's I used to compare all copies of every title I bought and choose the one that had the most perfectly positioned cover (took ages!!) Am I the only one to take. comic collecting to these lengths or are/were there others like me out there?
ReplyDeleteThere was probably some reason behind it, TC, but I've never quite figured out what it was. Incidentally, the page count of the Marvel Specials changed from 72 pages (including covers) to 68 pages (including covers) at some point.
ReplyDelete******
JP, I still do that very thing today, so you're certainly not the only one. The Annual you're thinking of is #6, which I've got, but I don't have #5 - another one for me to track down.
iirc, Captain America #153-156 and What If #4 also tried to sort out the various Captains America. Silver Age Marvel canon was that Cap had been frozen in suspended animation from 1945 until the Avengers found him in 1964. But that contradicted his original series, which ran from 1941 until 1949, and was revived briefly in 1953. So the retcon explained that the postwar Cap and Bucky were impostors. My guess is that Stan either forgot about Cap's post-WWII career, or he assumed that the readers in 1964 were too young to know the difference. There seemed to be an assumption that the readership turned over completely every seven years. That may also be the reason for other inconsistencies, like DC's different versions of Superman and Batman's "first meeting." -TC
ReplyDeleteKid,
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the first two Cap specials in a while, although I had both of them when they first came out. I distinctly remember the third Annual, since it was a new Kirby story which was fun. The full page splash of the alien vampire reminded me of Nosferatu. The ending is one of the few times Kirby references past characters, such as the Kree and Skrulls, although its possible that someone at Marvel rewrote those lines to maintain continuity. The 4th Annual with Magneto was pretty odd, but it was nice to see Kirby drawing the character one more time.
Originally Marvel used the word Annual, but by the mid-1960's they became specials (and, as you noted, switched back to Annuals). I wonder if this was not a directive by publisher Martin Goodman, who might have thought kids didn't know what an Annual was?
I got my copy of the first Cap King-Size Special in Stonehouse as a small boy. I imagine we might have been visting my granny but it wouldn't have been long before she passed away.
ReplyDeleteI bought both of the Kirby annuals at comic marts in Glasgow. The Magneto story is pretty wacky and the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are bargain-basement.It was also my most recent purchase of the pair- I think in the SECC around 2000.
The Black Hole story is much better with its ominous "Watch the Stars" epilogue. Obviously it inhabits its own Marvel Universe- one less populous with Kree superheroes, for instance.
Funnily enough, Dougie, I think I got #4 around 1999 and #3 in 2000. (Or was it the other way around? I'll have to check.) Both from the late Pete Root's place in FP, if I remember correctly. They are kinda weird and, as you say, Magneto's new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are damp squibs.
ReplyDeleteNick - possibly, but it may also have been because they could release 'Specials' whenever they liked, without having to wait a year between issues - even 'though they seemed to be yearly in most cases. Guess we'll never know. One for Barry to research perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI thought I had replied to your comment, TC, but re-reading this post over a year later, I can't see it. I think you're entirely correct in your assumption. As the '50s Captain America run hadn't been particularly successful, it was simply ignored. When Marvel later reprinted one or two of these stories, it was the readers' response to them that led Marvel to come up with a way to retroactively include them in what was then current continuity.
ReplyDeleteDoh!I've done it again, haven't I? - You've already told me about Annual #6 four years ago!
ReplyDeleteHey, did you ever get that elusive #5,?
You'll have to turn in your 'Sherlock Holmes Observational Detective Badge', JP. Number 5 is in full view in the post.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I didn't know if it was yours or a temporary image? #5 was the only one out of the 6 that I used to own.
DeleteAnyway, I've read a couple of articles about #6 and I really MUST seek it out now!
Ah, but if you'd been paying attention, JP, you'd have seen the update above the very cover image of #5 saying that I now had it. In fact, your above comment shows that you missed it again. Hand in your badge right away.
ReplyDeleteGot me! Bang to rights!
DeleteCan I plead poor eyesight in my defence?
Okay, we'll let you off on this occasion, JP, but next time we'll have to deal with you very seriously. (30 years.)
ReplyDelete