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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Continuing our series of Pocket Book cover galleries, we now turn our attention to MARVEL's famous first family and gasp in awe at the 14 amazing covers laid before our startled eyes. And, when I finally manage to extract the digit and track down a few missing issues, there'll be another 14 FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR covers for you to appreciate in the hopefully not-too-distant future.
In the meantime, you'll have to settle for the images in this post, but fret not. Before you know it, you'll have the complete set to whisk your minds back to the early '80s, when you were much younger and friskier than you are now. Okay, got your cup of Horlicks in hand? Then let's go!
Update: Click here for Part Two.
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16 comments:
Yeah, I had most of these. Complete stories from the greatest FF era and great covers - where could you go wrong ? I think it was the first time I'd read most of these - I started reading the FF in MWOM in about January '76 and I think my first FF story was the FF and Wyatt Wingfoot vs. Toomazooma. I seem to recall that "This Man, This Monster" had been in a Treasury Edition though. Good news,Kid - I've finally read the "goggle-eyed goon" post. I typed in the title of the post mentioned by John Pitt and it appeared so thanks, John !! But, Kid - how did you stand for being done out of your Treasury Edition in the drawing competition ? As someone who was prepared to face down his teachers I'd have thought you'd have demanded justice from Marvel UK. And belated congratulations on your £1 prize - that was a lot then, I remember going on a school trip and being told we could only bring 50p maximum !
I GOT justice from Marvel U.K., CJ -by later WORKING for them! That was surely punishment enough for their (or the post office's) sin? I was buying all the Treasury Editions at that time anyway, so there was no real point in chasing it up. (Especially as it would've got mangled in the post.)
I'd forgotten about that pound - I must dig it out of my wallet and spend it some day.
Kid, if you had all the Treasury Editions am I right that "This Man, This Monster" was in one of them ?
Yup, it definitely was. The 2nd FF Treasury, I think. They're still up in the loft, so I can't check which one at the moment.
Loved these pocket books. I always hoped that they'd do an Avengers one but it never happened.
I had most of them too and looking forward to seeing all those covers again!
Col, you're welcome, mate!
An Avengers one would've been great, Chris. I'm not sure why they didn't.
******
I'm about three short, JP - and there's no sign of them on eBay at a reasonable price. I might have to run with what I've got and add the absent ones later.
Kid, do you remember the other kind of pocket books that came out in the late '70s - they were the same size and thickness as a novel and featured colour reprints of early Marvel stories. I had the FF and Dr. Strange - that one reprinted the early Steve Ditko 'Strange Tales' stories which I'd never read before. I bought the Dr. Strange pocket book in December '78 and the FF one in the same year I think. Did you have any of them ?
Yup, I do, CJ - I've got three or four of them somewhere. I didn't like the way the separated the tiers on the page 'though - too much blank space.
Now those I DON'T remember. I'd love to see the covers!
Although I did have a Hulk (1-6) paperback in the 60's.
Put that bowl away, JP. They're in a box up in my loft and I don't have a clue which one. The Hulk book from the late '70s also contained 1-6, in colour, but each tier was separated by a wider gutter than a normal comics page (to spread them over the dimensions of the paperback format).
The cover of the Dr. Strange pocket book had the same picture as had been on an earlier Dr. Strange Treasury Edition. I don't remember the wider gutter (did it really matter ?) but I loved the Lee/Ditko stories. I remember they didn't print the original 'Strange Tales' covers which didn't matter as they all featured the Torch and the Thing anyway. At this same time I also bought the Conan Treasury edition featuring 'Iron Shadows In The Moon' which I'd missed when it was in 'Savage Sword' No.1 a year earlier. And I also bought Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' trilogy mainly for the amazing paintings of spaceships on the box - I still haven't read the Foundation Trilogy 37 years later. I think now that those paintings were by an artist called Chris Foss.
It mattered from an archival point of view (to me anyway), but not for just reading early tales, I suppose. The covers were also extended to fill the page, although not in the Doc Strange book as, like you said, that one didn't have them. Yes, the cover illo to that book was the same as the earlier Treasury Edition. As for those Asimov books, at least you know you've got something to read if you're ever desperate, eh, CJ?
Unfortunately not, Kid, as the trilogy disappeared sometime in the '80s. In about 2003 I bought 'Foundation' (just that one, not the whole trilogy) as a paperback but again I didn't read it (!!) and again I didn't keep it. I've looked on Google Play Books to buy the trilogy in e-book form but they don't have it (but they DO have it in German !!) - or they didn't have it when I last looked. I feel like it's becoming an obligation to finally read the Foundation trilogy before I shuffle off this mortal coil.
Just hang on for a bit, CJ - they'll eventually be made into movies, then you won't have to read them.
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