Saturday 7 May 2016

THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL ANNIVERSARY ISSUES...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL ran for 397 issues, but not all of them bore the same name.  The comic's title changed to MARVEL COMIC with #330, then became a monthly mag called MARVEL SUPERHEROES from #353 until its final ish, #397.  In that time, as far as I'm aware, there were only three anniversary issues - at least in its weekly incarnation.  Anyway, thought you slightly older Criv-ites might like to see them again and be reminded of your youth, so here they are for your perusal.

However, although MWOM was my favourite comic at the time, looking at it now, it's painfully clear how slapdash a lot of the issues were.  Missing Zipatone, hastily cobbled-together feature and splash pages, poor printing, etc.  And yet, although the 'production values' were often less than they should've been, it was still a great periodical and I have very fond memories of it.

C'mon, let's revisit yesteryear - together.


















23 comments:

Terence said...

Nice stuff, especially Gene Colan DD in black and white, I have some of his DD work but in colour, good to see.

Unknown said...

MWOM was my all time favourite comic bar non probably as it came out when I was at the right age for it (about 12 years old) and was fed up with the traditional UK comics. I bought every issue in all its formats up until the very first 10 or so Pannini issues (I now pick that up on occasion and its still a great comic). The first year of the original series (the paper cover issues) in particular were exceptionally good comics and very well edited (apart from the over use of grey tone at times ) and the lack of colour was not an issue then (although the odd spot colour and full colour pages were great to see).

The story "Decent into the time storm" and the next issue were great stories and were the first US Hulk issues I bought (and the top 2 on my "wants" list) - I got lost with MWOMs progress after "Marvel Superheroes" they had an all colour MWOM magazine format title for a while which I bought but cant recall where it came in the titles timeline.

Kid said...

Gene Colan's work is always good to see, eh, T? He was a master of atmosphere.

******

Off the top of my head, PM, the full-colour monthly MWOM came out around May 1983 and lasted for 17 issues, I think. (The covers and on the blog somewhere.) I loved the early '70s issues of MWOM, the first 30-odd in particular, but after just over a year, the page count dropped to 32, and the full colour pages had been dropped long before that. I'm really glad that the name is still around on a comic today - it provides a nice link to the past.

John Pitt said...

How about a history of TMWOM gallery, Kid? Including the first ish's of every merger into the comic, Marvel Comic, Marvel Super-Heroes, the Holiday Special, Vol.2, and all the panini volumes? It would make a nice cover gallery too!

Kid said...

I think I've posted every issue of MWOM that I own, JP, as well as Marvel Comic and Marvel Superheroes. (At least, I started to with the latter - I might still have a few more to show.) I'll probably get around to doing the Panini issues eventually.

Kid said...

Terence, the Daredevil splash page isn't actually by Gene Colan - only the small panel within it is by Gene. New splash pages were used to bridge the gap between stories when they were split over two issues. (Although sometimes the original cover art to a story was also adapted for that purpose.)

Anonymous said...

MWOM ended at #329 dated January 17th 1979 - Marvel Comic and Marvel Superheroes were NOT MWOM !!!!!!!! Just because they continued the MWOM numbering didn't make it the same comic.

Kid said...

True story, CJ: Back in the early '80s I changed my name to Percy Hinkle Pinkerbottom. Was I a different person? Of course not, I was the same person under a different name. Same goes for MWOM - same comic, different name. Marathon is now called Snickers - different chocolate bar? No, same one, different name. That's logic, that is.

Anonymous said...

Kid, in what way was Marvel Comic the same as MWOM ? It was totally different and so was Marvel Superheroes which wasn't even a weekly and didn't even feature the Hulk.

Terence said...

Who did that splash page then Kid? They did a good job, his face and the body movement lines look just like GC in the colour issues I have.

Kid said...

It was the same comic in that its primary name was still 'Marvel' and the numbering continued. Just because the style and contents changed doesn't necessarily mean that it was a different comic. Even while it was still called MWOM, the contents often changed. And Marvel Comic featured the Hulk - at least in the first three issues. It also continued Daredevil from MWOM. So all it really did was abbreviate the name and add more strips - comics change and add strips all the time. As for Marvel Superheroes, true, it didn't feature the Hulk, but it still featured superheroes from 'the mighty world of Marvel', so it continued the spirit of its first incarnation. As for being monthly, when IPC comics changed from weekly to fortnightly frequency, they were still the same comics, not unconnected versions of the old ones.

******

Don't know who did the splash page, T, but it looks nothing like Colan's style to me. It's always possible that the artist used a Colan panel for reference, but I don't think anyone could ever mistake it for a Colan drawing.

Mark Carter said...

Does anyone remember an early story where the Hulk first went into space? All I can remember about it now is that the bad guy eventually got sucked out of his space craft and his corpse was seen floating away into space. I'm sure I'm not imagining it!!

Kid said...

The Hulk was "Banished To Outer-Space!" in MWOM #5 (originally from Hulk #3), MC, but there's not a scene like the one you describe. Could you be mentally combining it with a later FF tale where Dr. Doom is carried off into space on an asteroid?

Mark Carter said...

I'm pretty sure I'm not confusing it with the Dr. Doom one, Kid, 'cos I do remember that. I suppose it's possible, though, that I'm confusing it with something else entirely!!

Mark Carter said...

Thinking about it, it might not have been the very first time the Hulk went into space, but I do remember it being fairly early on in the MWOM run, though.
Or do I?

Mark Carter said...

I remember that the Hulk was left all alone on the spaceship / station after the bad guy died, but he obviously got back to earth somehow.
Cheers for looking. It's no big deal, but the image of that guy's limp body floating away into space has bugged me for nigh on forty years.

Kid said...

I think it might be Hulk #103, MC - The Space Parasite! It appeared in MWOM #51. Type 'The Mighty World Of Yesterday' into the Blogger search box in the top left-hand corner of my home page for a look at the cover. I don't think the Hulk went into space 'though - the Parasite transported to his spaceship and it exploded, if I remember correctly.

Mark Carter said...

Doesn't ring any bells, Kid. I fear I may have hallucinated the whole thing!!

Kid said...

I've actually got the original U.S. issue as well (I first read the tale in Fantastic in the '60s) and there's a scene where the Space Parasite is lying on a piece of wreckage after his ship has exploded, just drifting off into space.

Mark Carter said...

Could be the one, then. Thanks for looking, mate.

Kid said...

Nae bother at all.

karl said...

Great stuff, brings back lots of childhood memories for me, thanks Kid.

Kid said...

Glad you enjoyed them and thanks for commenting.



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