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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
The first Annual to spring from weekly comic The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL was simply titled MARVEL, and was issued in 1972 (for '73). The next three books in the series were likewise so christened, following the pattern established by the first one. It seems the initial choice of name for the weekly had been The WONDERFUL WORLD Of MARVEL, but this was eventually changed to 'Mighty' - though a feature in the Annual for '73 used the original description. I suppose the final moniker was still in a state of indecision when the first book was being prepared, hence it plumping for the simple, single sobriquet to avoid confusing readers.
With the 1977 Annual (released in '76), its parentage was finally acknowledged, leaving potential buyers in no doubt as to the book's affiliation to the weekly periodical. What took them so long? For no other reason than that it's good to see them, here are the covers to the first three books to bear the name of the comic they sprang from. My own view is that the comics and books were both Mighty and Wonderful, but that would've made the logo too long.
Do you remember what your first Marvel Annual was? Leave a comment and share your reminiscence with the rest of us.
21 comments:
I got a feeling my first annual was the Sooty annual. It had a character called Calico Joe, who didn't feature in Harry Corbett's act.
Neither was it a Marvel Annual, DSE - try again.
I think that's the closest I can get, unless you count those US soft covers.
Okay, well assume that Sooty is a secret agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and therefore a Marvel character.
It must have been Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3 (1966) for me. The only other other Marvel Annuals I remember having in the sixties were Avengers Annual (or "King-Size Special") #1 and Daredevil Annual #1, both of which came out about a year later. Of course, I've never owned a copy of MWOM.
That's got potential Kid:-
'What's that Sooty?'
'...'
'The Baron's holding the Invisible Girl hostage?'.
[Sooty nods]
-: Of course there would havta be some alterations to get round the property issues. You know, like Marvel Daleks are called, Incinerators. How about Smutty the bear?
Ah, TC - no hardbacked British Annuals or MWOM weeklies? The deprivation you've endured. I've got a reprint (Marvel Tales and Masterworks) of Spidey Annual #3 - and the actual issues of the other two you mention. On to eBay with you - quick!
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Smutty or Smudge would work for me. We're on to a winner, DSE.
I was a huge Marvel fan from late'74 onwards but strangely I hardly ever bought any Marvel annuals - the annuals I'd usually get for Christmas were things like the Beano, Dr. Who and Space: 1999. Perhaps I was getting plenty of Marvel with the weeklies and wanted something different when it came to annuals. The only Marvel annual I can definitely remember owning was Spider-Man Annual 1979 which I bought for myself and it wasn't a Christmas present. Of course many of the Marvel annuals covers are instantly recognisable as they were advertised in the weeklies.
Avengers 1975 - First time I read a strip with the Vision in. It left me wanting more.
And many of those covers weren't exactly the finest examples of Marvel art, were they, CJ? In fact, without the colour, they'd probably be regarded as being of the same standard as some of The Titans centre-spread pin-ups. I bought them anyway.
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And did you get more, Chris? Do tell.
It was a long wait before I saw the Vision again. Times wre hard and my comic list was cut back to the Beano and Topper. After we moved in 1976 much of my Marvel reading was restored and pick of the bunch was the Avengers.
A happy ending then. Good. It's a shame that the Avengers weekly suffered from such poor printing quality, but I still have fond memories of it. It was almost a replacement for Odhams' Terrific, what with The Avengers and Doctor Strange in it.
Kid, there was a MWOM cover with Daredevil on his own - Frank Miller's first published DD work. It was being offered on CAF for thousands - so at least one of the covers had a pedigree.
It was the Annual for 1979, Chris. I think I'll add it to the post. It was well-enough drawn, but hardly dynamic.
My first Marvel annual was , I think , Christmas '67 or 8, a black one and I was disappointed when I got it, as it was all text stories.
Not really the way to 'experience' Marvel, eh, JP?
I assume the 1979 MWOM annual was the final one as the MWOM weekly ended in January 1979 (exactly a month before my 13th birthday). It seems a bit odd not having the Hulk on a MWOM annual as he was the cover star on the weekly. Talking of annuals I'm currently reading Hulk Volume 2 which I downloaded to my tablet - it contains Hulk #5-10 (the modern comic) and the latest annual.
The 1980 Annual was called Marvel Superheroes, I believe (I'm sure I've got it), after the renamed monthly version of MWOM.
Occasionally the weekly MWOM left the Hulk off the cover - and they should have done it more often as some of the Hulk covers looked rushed. A bit of FF would have been good.
If I recall correctly, Chris, MWOM started featuring two Hulk tales per issue from #33. I suspect that the Hulk TV show was in the early stages of development (and probably took longer than anticipated) and Marvel wanted to capitalise on the interest. That's why we got so many Hulk covers, I think. As you say, some FF ones would've been good.
I should point out that, in the comments above, Crispynev refers to a cover by Frank Miller for MWOM, which was reputed to be the Annual for '79. (I assume he meant an Annual and not a weekly as it was Annuals under discussion.) I've since learned that it wasn't by Frank Miller, but rather Bob Budiansky, Tony DeZuniga, and Pablo Marcos, as credited in the book itself.
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