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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
See the somewhat disappointing and uninspiring cover at the foot of this post? That's what SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY had become through a process of evolution by the time its final issue hit newsagents' counters in December of 1985. Oh how the mighty had fallen. Another Spidey title emerged at the beginning of 1986, called SPIDER-MAN & ZOIDS, and although it was numbered 'Volume 2' to sort of connect it to the previous lineage, the almost three month gap between them distinguished it as a separate title.
However, it was a good long run. Two months short of 13 years is a success for any comic, even if it limped a bit for the final few furlongs. When the title had first appeared back in February of 1973, I had been but a mere schoolboy - now I was preparing to start my career as a freelancer in the whacky world of comics, which, before very long, would include MARVEL as one of the companies to which I contributed.
Anyway, enjoy your quick trip back in time to an earlier era. Spidey's still with us, but his weekly comic is long-gone, alas!
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| All this savage barbarism for only 50p - wow! |
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| It had come to this! Spidey consigned to the corner of his own cover |
I bought pretty much every weekly Spidey UK comic uptill about issue 250 and although for me the Spider-Man strip itself had gone downhill long before that there were other good strips especially in the landscape-format but alas all things come to an end and the comic had to endure some pretty awful changes in direction and covers - still the "Complete Spider-Man" mag that would follow soon was (imho) very good and harked back to the old days (almost)
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised if I had every issue after a certain point (can't recall when that would be 'though), but I kept dipping in and out right up 'til the end, McS. I bought the monthly comic 'The Exploits of Spider-Man', but that was mainly for the posters and Ditko reprints. I believe I also bought 'The Complete...', but I can't remember much about it, even 'though I should have a bunch of them somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned if a comic changes its' name it becomes a new comic and should be restarted at No.1 so SMCW ended at No.157 and all the other versions that followed are different comics (and wasn't 666 a weird number to end on anyway ?). What's interesting here for me is the ad for the Conan Treasury Edition - the previous Spidey covers post had an ad for the '74 Thor Treasury Edition and I bought both those TE's on the same day in August 1977 while on holiday. Are you finally satisfied with the blog name, Kid, or will there be another one tomorrow ?
ReplyDeleteAh, but it's not quite as simple as that, CJ. After all, with SMCW, the name Spider-Man was still in the title, there were stories continued from the previous issue, there was an unbroken weekly run right up until the last issue, and the indicia (and cover) kept the numbering. When TV Century 21 became just TV21 (and I'm not talking about it's new direction, the name change took place before that), was it a new comic? When Valiant became Valiant & Smash!, was it a new comic and should it have been renumbered? Marvel's Journey into Mystery was changed to The Mighty Thor, but kept the same numbering, so there's a tradition of comics changing their title but continuing with the same numbering. As for ending on #666, I suspect that was merely coincidence and had no particular significance to it being the last issue.
ReplyDeleteAs for the name - dunno.