 |
| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Looking back at these 40 year-old issues of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL today, I have conflicting emotions about them. On the one hand, it's comforting to immerse myself in the familiar - although, on the other, I can't help but be appalled by the quality of the reproduction and wonder why the title managed to last for as long as it did.
True, when the comic first started, it had pages of spot-colour and full-colour which added something extra to to the mix and gave it a certain magic; however, before it was even a year old, the colour (apart from on the covers) had been replaced by a muddy grey Zipatone (or Letratone as we Britishers know it) and the classic artwork of early Marvel masterpieces was seriously compromised by the less than clear reproduction.
However, it's good to gaze wistfully through that window into the past and relive memories of my early teenage days. Each image has its own association, still burned into my brain even after all those many years, and just one glance returns me to a moment in time that I sometimes wish I'd never had to leave. I'm sure it's the same for you if you're around my age and had these comics back in the early '70s. Hopefully you're at least half as pleased to see them again as I am.
 |
| Nope, I dunno why The Hulk has blue teeth. It was printed that way - honest! |
Those MWOMs represent my first exposure to both the debut stories of Avengers and X-Men- since I hadn't read either in the Power Comics days.
ReplyDelete(SPOILER!!! For me, the Avengers "began" with the Swordsman and the return of Pym as Goliath- so you can imagine my excitement at seeing an Avengers villain of that period in the coda to the Thor movie!)
I can still "see" that first cover in a newsagent's or general store somewhere like Glenluce, nr Stranraer.
BTW, would you happen to have a cd of the first Spidey Rockomic? There are downloads on Amazon but I don't have the tech.
Dougie, about 20 years ago, I bought the LP of that Spidey record. On the back, it said that it was also available on CD, but when I tried to order it in various record shops, I was told it had never been released on CD, despite what it said on the record cover. I still don't know if that's true to this day.
ReplyDeleteI'll tape the record onto CD for you when I get a moment, but it won't be right away, if that's okay with you.
In that last poster with Hercules and the Hulk,would that be Bill Everett and Jack Kirby pasted together?
ReplyDeleteIts a nice job if it is.
Is the spiderman album you mention,'the reflections of a super hero' or something?
The one I have is on c.d. and the cover is Peter standing in his room looking in a mirror at spidey,or vice versa.
The cover to No.48 is a real step up isn't it. Avengers weekly No.1 launched on the back of these appearances although I wasn't aware of them as my first Marvel comic was that very No.1.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about how they chose which strips for each comic. Wouldn't we all like the job of being told to map out the Marvel weeklies for the next six months.
Baab, no it's a Kirby-pencilled, Everett-inked pin-up.
ReplyDeleteI think that's another album - can't remember which came first. The one I've got has a pic of Spidey on the cover and a sort of comic strip inside where Spidey teams-up with Doc Strange.
******
Chris, I've got that Avengers #1 - a cover-pic should be on the blog somewhere. I'd imagine they chose which stories to publish from which were their top-sellers in the States, but obviously they had to be flexible to a certain degree to accommodate out-of-sequence stories. You're right 'though - it would be a great job, if a difficult one at times.
Back then, before I was old enough to go up to Glasgow by myself (or even into Paisley), I had to make do with the American comics I could get in local newsagents. Unfortunately, while almost all the top DC titles were available on a regular basis, I could only get a hold of the odd Marvel one here-and-there, so it was a whole new world opening up to get these every Friday, even though the quality was poor.
ReplyDeleteI had to wait for Saturday for them, GB - they didn't go on sale until then in my neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to wait; I really appreciate the gesture.
ReplyDeleteHey Blabby! I remember an ad in the British weeklies - when they all got glossy covers- stating that US monthlies would be more regularly availble, altho' I didn't find that to be the case until the autumn of '75. I assume they didn't want to hurt the weeklies' market share.
Dougie, that sounds about right. From early-75 onwards, I was able to get the colour and B/W Conan comics on a regular basis, starting with CTB#41. However, it still meant that I had to wait for the weekly British issues to catch up with the monthly US ones, as they didn't make the earlier issues available. Unfortunately it meant that I first read a lot of the classic stories - like Buscema's Avengers, Kirby's FF, Ditko's Spiderman - in the B/W reprints, so a lot of the impact was lost, especially in the artwork.
ReplyDeleteKid,
ReplyDeleteMWOM #'s 46 and 47 covers are likely pencilled by Dick Ayers and inked by Mike Esposito. Ayers drew a few covers for Marvel UK early on.
I notice that on #48, Iron Man is a Kirby 'cut & paste' and Namor is, I think, from an Invaders cover.
ReplyDeleteYep, the Iron-Man looks like it may be from an early Avengers; Subbie may be by Neal Adams, from Marvel Feature # 1.
ReplyDelete