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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
The year? I can no longer recall with any certainty - probably 1968 or '69. A girl in my class by the name of Lynne Speed took a fancy to a little notebook my father had given me and swapped me the above comic for it. We swapped back a few days later when guilt at so callously parting with the book began to nag at my conscience. However, I've told that story before and it's not the point of this post.
I only had the comic for a few days at most. I'd already read the tale in an issue of FANTASTIC, but that comic hadn't used the cover art, and there was just something about that great JACK KIRBY illo that grabbed me. I've just re-acquired the comic tonight, and it strikes me that, even if I live for another 30 or 40 years and keep the comic for that length of time, it won't seem anywhere near as long as the few days I temporarily had that first copy back in the '60s.
It's not as though I even need it, as I have the original ish of TALES Of SUSPENSE which the story came from, plus numerous reprints. Yet I saw it in an auction and it called out to me, and memories of my old playground and school, demolished a few years back, were resurrected in the recesses of my mind. So I bid on it and won, and soon it will join all the other clones of my childhood comics and toys, and I'll feel reunited with my past - even if only for a short time.
Just think though; as I said, when I've owned this comic for a week or two, that'll be a longer period of time than I had it the first time, which is something I find amazing. I often look at replacement items I've owned for many, many years longer than I ever had the originals, and wonder where the time went. It's ironic that this IRON MAN adventure involves time travel, because just looking at it takes me back in time over 50 years.
Anyway, here's hoping I've got at least another 50 years ahead of me. That would be nice, however unlikely the prospect may be.
******
Incidentally, that Cleopatra gets around! As well as meeting Iron Man, she also met DOCTOR STRANGE. Bit of a MARVEL 'groupie' if you ask me. (And I'm surprised that ALAN CLASS didn't spot the misspelling of 'Pharaoh' and correct it. Tsk, tsk!)
10 comments:
Seeing that Kirby front cover reminds me of the POW and other British reprints of Marvel that I bought out of curiosity when an art student back in the 60's. I thought all the Marvel characters, Spiderman, Thor, Hulk, and especially Iron Man particularly childish. Possibly more by the writting than the drawings. Steve Ditko's Spiderman was fascinating to look at.
Looking at this cover it's interesting to compare to the movie versions in recent years. I find the Iron Man movies to be fun and the Toby McGuire Spiderman was excellent. But how many times is the Spiderman story going to be remade as a movie? The latest versions are not as charming as the first, is the movie franchise going to be as repetitious as Marvel reissuing the original artwork every few years to capture the 'new' ten year old comic readers?
It's odd that you feel the writing was childish, T47, because, at the time, the Marvel stories were regarded as being a bit more mature than their DC equivalents. (As mature as any stories about long-underwear characters can be of course.) Ditko's Spidey was certainly visually fascinating, but I suspect it would have been a dry, humourless read if it hadn't been for Stan Lee's scripting.
As far as reissuing the original stories every few years, it's probably only repetitious to those who have already seen them several times over, but the new 10 year olds probably don't regard them that way. Speaking for myself, I love seeing the classic tales being reissued every so often, and I usually end up buying them. I must be a Marvel junkie.
I know how you feel Kid; I have been re-buying some old books on Horror Films that were published in the 70s and used to be in my possession back then. Can't think for the life of me how I became parted from them (house moves can be chaotic events and I guess for whatever reason not all of your possessions make it from A to B). There have been many superior publications on these classic films published in the intervening years but like you say these things provide a link to your past and even though the copy than comes to you via eBay is not the actual one you bought you forget that fact after a while as you thumb through the book and become temporarily transported back to the time when you had a copy.
More than 20 years ago, PC, I re-acquired a Tommy Gunn action figure (by Pedigree), and when I opened the box, there was the very plastic pal I'd had as a child. The actual one to my mind - except that he wasn't. But didn't he look like him, right down to the laces in his close-fitting boots? (Unlike the over-sized, laceless boots of Palitoy's Action Man.) There was absolutely no difference that I could discern or remember, so to me, it was like being reuntited with the actual toy I'd once owned. (It was really my brother's, but he soon grew tired of it and it became mine within a year or so.)
It's the same with comics. That's something that semi-regular reader CJ can't understand, much to my surprise. To him, it wouldn't be the item he had as a kid, so he doesn't replace anything he once had on the grounds that it's merely a substitute, not the real thing. Even if it was made at the same time in the same place and is a bona fide contemporary of the actual comic or toy he had, to him it's an impostor and therefore of no interest to him. YOU know, of course, that there's a magical, mystical, mysterious process that occurs (even if only in the mind) which transforms the replacement object into the very one we once owned, but CJ can't or won't subscribe to that notion.
I can't help but feel a bit sorry for him (in a non-patronising way), because he's denying himself the enjoyment of being reunited with the 'warm familiarity' of the presence of dearly loved things from our youth. It's good to know that there are people like yourself who have the same view of these things as I do.
..."semi-regular reader" - Kid, I'll have you know I'm a REGULAR reader!!
And I can still feel the 'warm familiarity' of things long gone but fondly remembered by looking for them on the internet - such as the "Mysteries Of The Unknown" book we recently discussed. Google Images featured pages from the book and I felt all warm and fuzzy looking at them :)
Well, semi-regular commenter then. I see your point about seeing images on the Internet, CJ, but nothing beats having an actual physical object. In fact, it's seeing an image of something on the Internet that usually prompts me to track it down and acquire it. Trust me, the latter is far more satisfying than the former.
As I'm sure you know, Kid, the cover on this Alan Class reprint is from the *original* Jack Kirby drawing that had Cleo looking a little alarmed at being grabbed by the slightly scary-looking Iron Man. Just before Tales of Suspense 44 was published, Stan had the artwork revised slightly by unknown hands to show Cleo looking delighted - which doesn't make a great deal of sense, until you read the story and realise Iron Man is saving her. Somehow, Alan Class was sent a stat of the unaltered version.
Yes indeed, APP, and I'm sure you'll subconsciously remember the post I did some time back, discussing these changes. Not only was Cleopatra's mouth changed, but the blurb saying 'See Iron Man face-to-face, etc.,' was changed to 'See Iron Man dare to rescue...blah, blah, blah'. It comes as no surprise that Alan Class was sent a stat of the unaltered version, because Marvel themselves used it for most of their reprints of the tale up until relatively recently (10 years or so). They did the same thing with the cover of FF #1 as well.
Superb, Creepy Worlds, I loved that comic Kid. I have a couple in the attic I think. One has a man mountain on the cover, maybe the Judomaster too. I will have to check. Great memories for me Kid Thanks. Youre blogging well again!
There are a few posts about Alan Class comics on the blog, W. Just type his name into the search box. Still don't have the time to devote to blogging that I used to, alas, but when I get a spare moment, I try to rustle something up.
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