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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS. Art by John Buscema |
I trust you won't mind me resurrecting a post from a few years ago - but (with a little revision) it was perfect for the purpose of celebrating the debut of MWOM back in 1972. And, to be honest, I simply couldn't think of saying it any better than I did the first time around. I wish I could relive those Autumnal days from so long ago when I was a mere thirteen year old boy, but, in a way, I can. Whenever I look at those pulse-pounding pages in the very first issue of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, I'm once more back in the heady days of the sensational '70s.
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44 years ago, on September 30th, 1972, The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1 (cover dated October 7th) burst onto newsagents' counters all over Britain. I hadn't seen the STAN LEE-voiced TV ad (though I did later), so it came as a surprise when I spotted the comic on a wall-rack outside a newsagent's along from Glasgow's famous BARROWLAND market (aka The BARRAS), where I and my parents were heading on that particular Saturday morning.
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| Art by Jack Kirby |
I couldn't talk my folks into buying it for me on the way in, but I'd managed to wear them down into submission by the time we made our way out an hour or so later. We were soon ensconced in the cosy confines of a comfy cafe, and it was with great joy that I pored through its contents over a glass of cola and reacquainted myself with the pals I'd first met in the pulsating pages of ODHAMS' POWER COMICS, way back in what even then seemed like the dim and distant days of the '60s. Suddenly, life was exciting again.
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| Art by Jack Kirby |
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| Art by Jack Kirby |
DEZ SKINN once revealed that Stan had told him the comic's original title was going to be The WONDERFUL World of Marvel (after the Disney TV show of almost the same name), but thankfully 'twas not to be. Besides, MIGHTY and MARVEL go so well together it seems the obvious choice, so I'm amazed that any other name was even considered.
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| Art by Jack Kirby |
40 pages, some in full- colour (the rest with green 'spot' colour), for only 5p - containing the origins of The INCREDIBLE HULK, The (FABULOUS) FANTASTIC FOUR and The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - plus a Hulk iron-on transfer (below) - Wow! I wish they still produced comics like that today!
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| Art by Jack Kirby |
Well, in a sense - they do! I still buy MWOM today, though it's now published monthly, has 76 full-colour pages and costs £3.99. The Mighty World of Marvel - I hope it's still around in another 44 years. In fact, I hope I'm still around also.
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| Art by Steve Ditko |
Incidentally, you may be interested to know that, despite a later issue's claims to the contrary in response to a reader's enquiry, page seven was edited out of SPIDER-MAN's origin. The opening caption of page eight was amended to cover this, and so unobtrusively was it done that the story's flow remained largely unaffected by the cut.
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| Art by Steve Ditko |
The latest issue of Comic Heroes magazine has an interesting article about the history of Marvel UK and mentions how the early weeklies had some colour pages and had 40 pages rather than 36 (as you do here). But by the time I discovered Marvel in November '74 the weeklies had adopted the familiar 36 pages all in black & white with glossy covers. I really regret missing those first two years of Marvel UK. Until the internet came along I assumed that MWOM #1 had been the debut of the Marvel characters in the UK as I'd never heard of Terrific and those other comics. I first read the origin of the Fantastic Four in The Complete FF #1.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to see if I can remember to pick up a copy of Comic Heroes while it's still on sale, CJ. I'd read it was out on Rob Kirby's blog (I think), but then forgot until you reminded me. The early issues of MWOM and SMCW (moreso the former) had something about them that was absent in the later issues. It wasn't just the colour ('though that certainly helped), it was the fact that it was the debut tales of the Marvel heroes. (I first read the FF's origin in Smash!) It's a shame you didn't know about them, because you missed Marvel U.K. at its best.
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