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Amidst all the changes that life inevitably brings, such as favourite shops disappearing, old schools and churches being demolished, once familiar haunts changing beyond recognition, and, of course, friends and family falling victims to time, it's nice to have one seemingly-eternal constant to remind you of the past and how things once used to be.
Such a 'constant' in my life is The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, which I was buying in 1972 and am still buying in 2015 - over 42 years later. Of course, I'm stretching things by calling it constant, as there've been periods over those years when it's been absent from the newsagents' shelves, but the thing that matters is that it's here now, like an old soldier that just refuses to die, or fade away.
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I bought the latest issue yesterday (Saturday, the day I used to buy it many moons back, although then it was a weekly as opposed to a monthly periodical), and it's extremely comforting to me in my dotage to see that familiar name and masthead adorning a comic mag which I'm still reading and collecting today just as I did back when I was a mere teenager.
To me, the best thing in the comic is DAREDEVIL; I don't often read the other two strips, but DD is worth the price of the comic by itself, especially as it's contained within covers bearing the name of MWOM. I'd love MARVEL to do a special issue, containing strips featuring the weekly title's original line-up of The HULK, SPIDER-MAN and The FANTASTIC FOUR, just to fully capture the mood of the mag from the early 1970s. They could still have Daredevil in it as well, of course, as he joined the line-up with issue #20 back in early '73.
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So many things have vanished from my life - just as, I'm sure, they have from yours - so it's good to be able to rekindle warm memories of yesteryear by immersing myself in a Marvellous Marvel Mag that was around when I was still a schoolkid - especially as the school itself now no longer exists.
So, if you're in the same boat as myself, why not pick up a copy of the latest MWOM from your local WHS today? And even if you're a fresh, new, young thing who's never heard of the mag before, why not give it a try? Take it from me - the chances are you'll love it!
"Make Mine (The Mighty World of) Marvel!"
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I would LOVE Panini to start all over from the beginning again with a series of about 6 monthly books aimed at us old-timers! Wouldn't it be great to start collecting them all over again?
ReplyDeleteOnly this time, do it RIGHT!
Panini are probably doing the comics the way they should've been done back in the '70s - with two exceptions: the first being that they focus more on 'modern' stories (which is understandable as the older ones don't seem to appeal to teenage readers today); and they're monthly as opposed to weekly (which again is understandable, given the page count). However, as you say, JP, it would be good to see more early stories featured in mags devoted exclusively to them. Would they sell enough copies to be viable 'though? I thought their FF mag was great, but it bit the dust before it could reprint all the Lee/Kirby tales.
ReplyDeleteHasn't 'FF Adventures' been their only failure, these Panini Marvels enjoy a success that '70s Marvel UK could only dream of but I suppose it helps that most of the opposition has disappeared. That's a great cover too - Dracula Lives started calling itself 'DL featuring The Legion of Monsters' from around No.60 which seemed like a pointless name change to me at the time. If the Panini MWOM didn't keep restarting at No.1 it would be about No. Three Hundred-and-something by now !
ReplyDeleteIt would be too great a gamble on Panini's part to do it. There aren't enough of us old-timers who'd like to collect them all again to make it viable for them. As for the young market - well, if I were young now I definitely WOULD be interested in the Marvel silver age origins, but the problem would be that I wouldn't be able to afford both the newer and the older stories, as a youngster, so I'd pass on the older stories.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say, "...do it RIGHT!" I am referring to the order the stories were reprinted. Yes, Panini books are perfect, even better than US current Marvel comics, but if I were releasing a series of books, firstly, I wouldn't have put most of my major pulls all in one comic, like TMWOM. I would have spread them out amongst 3 , like the Power comics, with, say, a couple more titles, with the X-Men and Avengers as major pulls, with all the rest of the silver age superheroes spread out evenly as support strips, with Thor, Iron Man, Cap & DD each in a separate mag. ( Heck, I'd even put CB in the fifth!) And for back-up strips - Subby, Nick Fury, Ant/Giant man, Dr. Strange and the Human Torch ( & Thing). Don't put all your best eggs in one basket, you see.
That's what I would call doing it right. Would these be great comic books, or what?
I can't think of any others, CJ, but I'm not sure. It did last for a couple of years or so, but it should've been more of a hit than it was. What's the world coming to when Marvel's premier title fails to sell? It's been cancelled in the States as well.
ReplyDelete******
I think the idea of putting the top three strips in MWOM back in the '70s, JP, was because Marvel were clearly testing the water with only one title and wanted it to be as big a draw as possible. Then, as with SMCW, they could release a mag at a time and move characters from one title to another, depending on which was popular enough to sustain a mag of their own.
O.K. Indulge me, boring I know, but with a bit of fine tweaking, here are my 6 "perfect" Panini imaginary comic books, which start from the silver age beginning:-
DeleteBOOK #1 Spidey
Thor
Ant/Giant man (followed by Capt Marvel)
#2 FF
Cap
Subby
#3 Hulk
Iron Man
Sgt. Fury
#4 X-Men
Capt Brit
Dr. Strange
#5 Avengers
DD
Nick Fury
#6 Conan
Amazing Adventures vol 2
Human Torch(& Thing)
(followed by SS)
Right, I've got it out of my system now! Phew!
I no longer pick up the Panini MWOM but only because I have been picking up the US Marvel Samnee/Waid Daredevil for a few years now an its the only strip in recent MWOM I have any interest in ( I pick up Panini's Avengers now -mostly just to have a newsagent book to read.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally early versions of Panini's MWOM ( Vol 2 I think) and Spider Man and Avengers etc, their Complete FF magazine contained older 60s/70s/80s strips like Dr Strange, Ant Man, Avengers Skrull Kree wars, Romita's Spidey etc they looked great as well in that format.
Whenever any of the Panini mags reprint early tales, I usually buy them, McScotty, But I don't remember the Dr. Strange early stories being reprinted in any Panini mags. I must've blinked. (You mean FF Adventures, I think - not Complete FF.) Yes, the Panini mags are great in style, but I'm not into most of the modern stories. Too many panels of talking heads, in my opinion.)
ReplyDeleteYeah Doctor Strange appeared in at least a few issues of Panini's MWOM (Vol 3 issues 26-27 are ones I have handy) - those issues of MWOM were great as they had DD (Miller/ Jansen) , Dr Strange (Ditko) and some of my favourite Hulk stories from the Trimpe period. Oooops your right sorry it is "FF Adventures" (a great wee comiC mag) "Complete" was the UK weekly I think.
ReplyDeleteI'll have seen them then ('though I don't recall) 'cos I've got every Panini MWOM. Are you talking Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange? Incidentally, McScotty, ta for becoming a member of my other blog - now how about joining this one? (Hint.)
ReplyDeleteThat gives me an idea for a post, JP.
ReplyDeleteYeah its the Lee/Ditko Dr Strange -and hint taken .
ReplyDeleteGood man, McScotty. Nicola and Rachel say that they're warming to you now that you're a member of my blogs. See the perks that come from being a Criv-ite and a... er...Melancholy Muser.
ReplyDelete