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I well remember the day I bought this KING-SIZE mag sometime in 1972 (or '73) as it was a particularly sunny one. Can no longer recall whether it was a Saturday or a weekday during the school summer holidays, but I believe I purchased it from a local R.S. McCOLL's in the main shopping centre of my home town. From there I made my way along to another newsagent in a neighbouring area, and I remember walking the stretch of road between the two precincts, and the hot sun beating down upon me on the journey.
As for the contents, I'd first read these stories in the pages of TERRIFIC back in 1967, although, at the time, it seemed a far longer period than 5 or 6 years between 'then-and-now'. Poor VINCE COLLETTA is much-maligned in some fan circles nowadays, but his inking over GENE COLAN's pencils on the strip was excellent, and easily the equal of his inks on JACK KIRBY's THOR tales. And add to that a superb SAL BUSCEMA* cover and you've got yet another of my 'favourite comics of the past'.
(* I think I can see a hint of MARIE SEVERIN in there as well. Couldn't swear to it though,)
Incidentally, Gene was originally named in the credits as ADAM AUSTIN, but this was altered for this King-Size re-presentation of these SUB-MARINER tales.
Any momentous memories of this mighty MARVEL-lous mag, frantic ones? Then don't be shy or selfish! Share your rambling reminiscences with the rest of we cavortin' Crivvies in our cataclysmic and sometimes controversial comments section. Go on! (Right after you've ogled the awesome art of course.)
One of my all-time favorite comics. "The Quest" is my favorite Subby story and as you say the artwork by Colan and Colletta (they were a dandy team) is outstanding. I'm a big Colletta booster, especially for his work on Kirby which I feel gets maligned out of all proportion to its suggested weaknesses. Folks are aghast that Colletta might've erased some of Kirby's lines without looking to see if that erasure improved the impact of the image. Sometimes no, but sometimes yes.
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I can think of quite a few instances where, to my mind, Vince's 'erasures' improved Jack's art, Rip, so I'm in total agreement with you on this. I feel that much of his bad rep is down to poor reprints, sourced from proofs where a lot of his fine line work hadn't reproduced too well and had been retouched by inferior hands. When you see the original art, the pages look spectacular.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you there Kid,poor reprints.
ReplyDeleteI agree with me as well, Baab, so it's unanimous. The Thor Artist's Edition shows Vinnie's inks as they were meant to be seen, but I didn't buy it as I have nowhere to store it because of its size (tempting as it is).
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got into Marvel comics as a kid Subby was one of the first characters I remember reading and thought the name and look of the character was really strange. The Sub Mariner 60s/70s comic run is pretty good and you can pick them up (in most cases) cheaply - I especially like Sal Buscemas version of Subby
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I am not a fan of Vince Colletta's inks BUT I do really like his work with Kirby on the Thor strips (it is one of my all time favourite strips story and art wise ) His work here with Colan is pretty nice as well but his work with some others imho was pretty poor (then again I suppose the original pencils could have been poor)
I've got two or three issues of the original '60s run, PM, but I'll probably wait 'til the Epic Collection volume (there's bound to be one) to complete the set. Some of Vinnie's line work has dropped out on these reprint pages, but the most recent Masterworks editions of Subby have superior reproduction. Yeah, Vinnie's inking didn't always seem to suit some pencillers, but when it did, the results were great.
ReplyDeleteBonnie's scritchy scratchy style went with Thor, specially Tales of Asgard. All the fur and hair and wood. With the more polished sci-fi superhero genre, not my taste. His abysmal use of blacks I object to more than his erasure of figures in the background. If you know what I mean. All you have to do compare Sky Masters of the Space force with Wood's masterful use of black to Colletta's chicken scratches on Thor to know what I mean. And yet on the other hand... My favorite Thor stories were all inked by Vinnie.
ReplyDeleteWell, Kirby inked by Wood is a whole different ball game, Phil. You only have to compare the Challengers stories inked by Wally to the ones that weren't to see what an asset he was to Jack's art. Having said that 'though, I liked Vinnie's (Bonnie? Were you typing with the lights out?) inking on Jack's FF.
ReplyDeleteIt's me autocorrect!
DeleteI got this comic in Strathaven,probably '71-'72 and I remembered Subby stories from Terrific , too, although I had read five or six issues of his own mag by then. The conflict with the Seaweed Man ( who turned up in ROM in the 80s) was my favourite part of the story.
ReplyDeleteI think this was only my second U.S. Sub-Mariner comic at this time, Dougie. I bought it mainly out of nostalgia for Terrific, but it was great to see the strips in colour.
ReplyDeleteIt should be renamed auto-incorrect, 'cos it often is.
ReplyDeleteI love that Bill Everett pic, its almost three-dimensional. Great artist. Did you know he was related to the poet William Blake, Kid?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that. But I do know Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, Talented Mr Ripley) wrote comic books for Nedor. Unfortunately they went bust and all their stuff is public domain so I've never read them, no one has reprinted them.
DeleteIf it's ever been mentioned in any biographical pieces about him, DD, then I've probably read it at some stage and lodged it in the back of my mind. However, if so, I'd forgotten it was there until you reminded me - now I must confess that it rings a faint bell.
ReplyDeleteIt may happen yet, Phil, you never know. Public domain, no costs to pay? Bound to occur to someone some day.
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