A DIFFERENT KIND Of COMICS CODE...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

If American comics still operate the same way today as they've always done, the June cover-dated monthly mags will be coming out in March.  That said, there was usually a delay in the United Kingdom, before the advent of specialist comicbook shops speeded things up for the British consumer.  Forty years ago, I'm not quite sure when we'd have had access to mags bearing the month of June on them, but one thing I do know is that the bar-code box made its first comicbook appearance on all mags bearing that date.

Forty years!  I can hardly believe it, mainly because that little box still seems like a relatively recent interloper on the covers of my favourite comics.  Can it really be the case that it's now existed for the majority of my comics-buying life?  Tell me it isn't so.  You'd think that after all this time I'd be used to it, but no - it still leaps out at me like a spot at the end of someone's nose, demanding my undivided attention and preventing me from being able to properly focus on the actual cover art itself.  "Out, damn'd spot!  Out, I say!"

Forty years, eh?  I don't even feel like I'm old enough (most of the time) to have forty years behind me.  Yet for some strange reason, I find myself fervently hoping that I've got at least that length of time ahead of me.  If it passes half as fast as the previous forty, my life will be over before I even know it, a thought that affords me no pleasure.  Anyway, I'll try and be gracious and wish that little bar-code box a Happy 40th Birthday.  And from now on I'll try not to stare.  No point in making it self-conscious.

AMAZING FANTASY #15 - FACTS VERSUS FICTION...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's surprising just how many people still think that SPIDER-MAN was thrown into AMAZING FANTASY #15 because it was the last issue, just so that STAN LEE could get the character out of his system while assuaging MARVEL publisher MARTIN GOODMAN's reservations about the teenage hero by the fact that, hey, it was the mag's last ish, so what did it matter?

As you can see from the above lower cover caption box (and if that's not a contradiction-in-terms, I don't know what is), there was "An important message to you, from the editor - - about the new Amazing!"  And just what exactly was this message?  Read it below.  (Click to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.)

So there you go - AF #15 was never intended to be the last issue.  It was meant to be the first in a new direction for the mag, so clearly the decision to cancel it was made after it had been prepared for (or sent) to the printers, and maybe even after it had gone on sale.  (See the final caption below for further proof.)  When later recounting Spidey's debut, Stan remembered that it had appeared in the final ish of AF, joined two and two together - and came up with five.  Which is not to suggest that he set out to deceive, only that much of his 'reminiscence' belonged more properly to what he believed had most likely happened than what actually did.

Regular readers will be aware that I've covered this subject before, but this time I decided to include the actual pages to show that I ain't just whistlin' Dixie.  So, yeah, AF #15 was the last ish, but that's not why Spider-Man appeared in it.  Excelsior!