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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
It was 1973 or '74. I was in Blackpool on holiday with my parents (both years), and was astonished to find that brand-new, pristine issues of late '60s MARVEL comics (as well as some DC) were readily available (in some shops) straight from the spinner-racks for the decimal equivalent of their original U.K. prices. I purchased a few FANTASTIC FOUR issues by LEE & KIRBY (which we'll look at another time), but, amazingly, I was also able to pick up five issues of The SILVER SURFER's mag, as fresh as the day they were printed, for a mere 25p (5p each).
So, what accounts for these classic comics still being on sale so many years after they were first published? (Remember, when you're 14 or 15, three or four years is a sizeable stretch of your young life.) Well, darned if I know to be honest, but I'm glad they were. The issues on view here are replacement ones I obtained around 13-odd years later, but one look at these covers and I'm a young lad on holiday in Blackpool again, back in the sizzlin' '70s. Thing is, these were amongst the best Surfer stories published (in my humble opinion), so I was really lucky to get them.
So savour the sight of these sensational Silver Surfer covers in all their magnificent marvellousness. And if you have any nostalgic reminiscences of your own associated with these issues, you're more than welcome to share them with all your fellow Criv-ites in our crackin' comments section. Well - what're you waiting for? Get typing, or I'll start thinking I'm the only person who reads this blamed blog. (And my delusions to the contrary are important to me.)
And now - the splash pages...
I also bought these issues on their first run 'back in the day', not later reprints and recall the two comic shops where they were purchased. Both establishments now long gone. Although when I re-read them these days it is usually the Masterworks volume coming down off the shelf rather than the original comics emerging from the archive box. The Masterworks edition is the paperback version which I feel was more in keeping with the reproduction and paper stock than the glossy hardbacks. I have volume one but it's the Barnes & Noble edition which has some weird colouring and the paperback version of SS volume 1 is insanely expensive these days! (what is it with the prices people are putting on ebay items lately?) Anyway, back to the past; a real trip down memory lane to see these covers and pages again.
ReplyDeleteThe original two Silver Surfer hardback volumes of Masterworks weren't exactly archival in nature, PC, although the Omnibus volume and later softcover Masterworks were pretty much spot on. From the sound of it, the Barnes & Noble edition might be using the same proofs as the early hardback Masterworks, so not so good. Roll on the Epic edition of the Lee/Buscema issue.
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