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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
As a little taste of what's in store, here's a teaser for an upcoming cover gallery I'm planning. I no longer have every issue of MARVEL SUPERHEROES, but I have enough to get a few posts out of them. Take a look at The WONDERFUL WORLD Of MARVEL feature by DEZ SKINN somewhere below. The cover to MWOM #1 appears to have been reproduced from an actual published comic (as does the centrespread), but, interestingly, it bears the legend Reg TM and (c) Marvel Comics Group 1972, whereas the copies I have all say Reg TM and (c) 1972 Magazine Management London Ltd. So was the one available to Dez for his article a 'dummy', or one from an early try-out printing which was changed at some stage before the finished comic was published?
Another one of life's little mysteries to puzzle and perplex us. Anyone know the answer?
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11 comments:
So we've been treated to the "Fantastic" and "super DC" of the I
80's. Now, to complete the set we have the "Terrific" of the decade. And with a line-up like that, it truly was!
Great to see these again too.I didn't have them all, but once I started I collected them till the eventual merger of all the Marvel UK monthlies into SSOC.
I'd better not run through them all too fast, or else what'll I do when I eventually run out of comics? Won't be for a while yet, right enough.
I can remember the exact date that I bought this magazine - Monday September 3rd 1979. I know because it was the final day of the school Summer holidays and the next day was the start of my third year in comprehensive school :( What really bugs me is the numbering - when MWOM ended in January '79 (at No.329) they just continued with the same numbering for the ghastly Marvel Comic and then for Marvel Superheroes when they were obviously three completely different entities. Ironically these days they restart comics at No.1 for no reason whatsoever !! If you look for the MWOM covers on Comic Vine they rightly stop at # 329.
I have to confess, Col, that rather than look at them as three completely different entities, I regard them as three different incarnations of the same entity. That's mainly because I like to think of MWOM lasting lomger than it did - in spirit at least, if not in the same form, so to speak. I think the reason they restart comics at #1 these days is because first issues tend to attract an increased audience because they provide a handy jumping on point for new readers.
That's probably true but I wonder why that never occurred to them in the '70s ? The first issue of Super Spider-Man & The Superheroes was so radically different from SMCW and should have been reset at #1. As for MWOM - it's a bit strange that the Dez Skinn relaunch made such a big deal about the weeklies looking so different from before and yet they kept the same numbering. I thought Marvel Comic and Spider-Man Comic were dire and definitely not a continuation of what had been before.
I suppose, back then, readers were regarded as merely readers and not the obsessed collectors that they seem to be today, so 35 years later, things are pitched differently. You've also got to remember that it's a whole different editorial team (and publisher) nowadays, so naturally they have their own way of doing things. It makes sense to keep the old numbering in order to keep the existing regular readers, but a makeover and facelift are designed to attract attention and hopefully generate new readers. So, Col, I can see why they'd keep the old numbering when a comic changes its name, but start from a new volume and #1 when a comic keeps its old name but needs a bit of a push.
Marvel Superheroes was a return to form after the dire Marvel Comic. That cover is one of my favourites from the Marvel UK era and if I ever get my act together I'll scan it and have it printed on a T-shirt.
Now there's an idea. There are loads of covers that would make great T-shirts - MWOM #1 for example. The sky's the limit.
Google away and you'll find that a "stressed" MWOM 1 t-shirt is available right now - from Forbidden Planet if I recall.
Thanks, Chris - took a look. Although it's good to see a British comic being included, I'm not too keen on the 'stressed' look. I'd prefer a perfect and pristine reproduction.
Me too Gordon, so I've passed on it too.
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