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Here's one I pre-ordered back in May, and it popped through my door today - which rather amazed me as I don't have a letterbox. Ho-ho, relax, of course I do, just joshing - about the letterbox, that is. X-MEN #1 facsimile edition is something that I don't really need as I have the original issue, plus the TRUE BELIEVERS reprint, but I just can't resist these little beauties.
However, I have a few bones to pick with this one. For a start, I wish they'd left the COMICS CODE box on the cover, as they have with the other mags in this series. (And for some reason, the indicia is in the wrong place inside.) Also, one of the ads is reproduced at too large a size, resulting in it almost bleeding off one side of the page, and another ad is slightly different from the original. That's it below - see if you can spot the two main differences. (I won't mention the missing 'em dash' in another ad as that's perhaps being a tad too pernickety.)
Another thing is that I miss the 'continued after next page' lines at the bottom of the pages preceding any ads, and I wish that MARVEL would print the interiors on matte paper instead of glossy stock. Those minor observations aside, however, it's an issue worth having, as it's as close as you're ever likely to get to owning this classic comic. Unless, of course, you already have it, or you win a substantial amount of moolah on the Lottery.
Anyway, below is the facsimile alongside the original. If you don't have the 1963 ish, buy the 2019 one and just make-believe.
Update: It seems that Marvel have taken shortcuts with this issue. I checked my 1991 MARVEL MILESTONE EDITION of the comic, and the re-created ad used therein has been utilised for the facsimile edition. I hope they don't continue in this vein with future releases, as some of the reconstructed ad pages in the Milestone mags were poor imitations of the originals.
Here's a little detail about X-Men #1 that's always slightly puzzled me: Professor X implies that his mutant powers came about due to his parents working on the first nuclear bombs. Now, the comic came out in 1963, so even if we say that his parents worked on the Manhattan Project from its very early days in 1939, that means he is, at most, 23 or 24 years old in X-Men #1!
ReplyDeleteThe Prof looks like he's meant to be considerably older, so maybe this is another example of Lee and Kirby not quite being on the same page about the character.
He was a soldier in the Korean War, DS, which means he had to be between 18-26 back in 1950-'53, so I'd guess that his age was around late 20s to early/mid-'30s in 1963. The Manhattan Project started in 1939 and was disbanded in 1947. That means Charles would be around 10-12 when his parents were involved in the 'Project'. So we're left to assume that America was working on atomic bombs long before the 'official' dates.
ReplyDeleteOf course, nowadays (if Prof X is still alive in the MU), he wouldn't be old enough to have fought in the Korean War. When it comes to continuity in comics, readers need to have flexible minds.