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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS. Look at their scowls - they look more like villains than heroes, wouldn't you say? |
Hail and welcome, fellow Crivvies. And now, if you're all safely strapped into the comfy chairs of our cosmic time-cube, we're going to return (presuming you were alive then) to the end of 1974, when The Avengers Annual for 1975 first went on sale all across the country. The premier issue of the UK comic had appeared in September of '73, so this was undoubtedly the first Annual tied into its weekly namesake, and I recently obtained a replacement for my long-gone original book from the 'emporium' known as eBay.
I well-remember the Captain America story, which I associate with a shop called W. & R. Holmes where I first saw the book, and from where I presumably bought it back in the day. I recall lingering over the CA pages, and one glance at them now and I'm back in a shop that disappeared sometime in the late '70s, once again a mere teenage schoolboy - though one destined to leave the halls of academia in a few short months and join the working world. So much has changed since then, but everything is reset for a few brief moments when my eyes fall upon that cover and these Captain America pages. Ah, bliss!
I was reminded while re-reading the book that it was where I first learned that William Congreve's adage, oft-misquoted as "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast", should more properly be rendered "...soothe a savage breast". At some point in time, the word had morphed into 'beast' (perhaps to avoid the risk of embarrassing polite society by use of the word 'breast') and it had passed into common parlance, but here, in the book's first reprinted tale, writer Steve Englehart took the opportunity to put things right. I always remembered that, and if ever I heard someone misquote it down through the years (and it happened a few times), I was swift to correct them, pedant that I am.
Anyway, you'll have your own memories of this book and/or the tales presented within, so enjoy reliving them and reconnecting with your long-vanished youth. Is it just me, or were things better and brighter back then, with the present we now inhabit so far-off that we could scarcely imagine it? It seemed like centuries ahead of us at the time, but we somehow arrived here far too quickly, as if we slept through the journey. Not fair, is it?
Feel free to pitch in with any of your own memories surrounding this Annual, should you feel so inclined. (That's if you actually have any, of course.)
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| This page was an education for me |
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| Either Wanda's right leg is too short, or her left one is too long |
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| Not sure why they used this illo twice, but here's the first one |
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| At first I though the background was white and had browned over time, but Cap's costume and shield show it isn't so |
I do not have this annual, but I do indeed have the stories contained within. I am generally a fan of Don Heck, though I see the reason he gets picked on from time to time, but I thought this work on The Avengers, his return after a somewhat unkind removal back when he was doing the first King-Size Avengers Annual and John Buscema stepped in to fill in and never left, at least not for a long long time. Heck's work here has the element which is his best on the superheroes -- energy. There is movement all over the place. Fun!
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I loved his Iron Man and first Avengers run, RJ, but his later stuff had a 'floaty' feel to it, I thought, and wasn't quite as good. I remember reading an interview with him where he blamed his inkers for any faults in his art, but the deficiencies were mainly down to him. Not that I'm saying his later stuff was all bad, I just felt it wasn't as good as his earlier work. However, considering that both Kirby's and Ditko's art declined in later years, it seems to be a common trait in the comicbook world.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd, when I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s, I was an avid reader of comics but apart from Spider-Man and the paper Hulk comic from 79 or so, I stuck with UK comics like Bullet and Warlord and The Crunch. Weirdly, this "looking the other way" to Marvel continues still and I don't understand why, but I'm not at all fussed by all the Marvel films either. Weird, eh?
ReplyDeleteI loved Hecks Avengers run it really was full of excitement and fun. His other Marvel work bar Iron Man ( and some romance strips) was hit or miss for me ( mostly miss) . I did like his work at DC on Teen Titans, Batgirl and the Flash , but his art quality droped considerably a few years into his DC run. Strange he should blame his inkers for any art failings, as you say a lot of the issues on his poorer work was due to himself and imho he was a terrible inker himself.
ReplyDeleteStill for me Heck will always be one of the Marvel greats.
I bought the Marvel stuff AND comics like Crunch, MW, so I had the best of both worlds. I'm surprised you're not impressed by the Marvel movies, 'cos I think most of them are extremely well done. Different horses for different courses I suppose.
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No argument there, McS - he was definitely one of the greats. I only have to look at his Iron Man and early Avengers strips and I'm right back there in the '60s. It's just a shame that quite a few of the greats slipped a bit in their later years, but that's age I suppose.
(Two supposes - I'm being extravagant today.)
My first Marvel UK annual plus 1st time I saw the Vision, Black Panther and X-Men in action. I loved it and naturally still have it in a very well worn condition - the mark of a good annual.
ReplyDeleteMine is a replacement, Crispy - or it was when I got it, but now it's magically transformed into my original - just like all my replacements.
ReplyDeleteSome really nice Don Heck art there. Any idea who the inker Frank Bolle is? It sounds a little like it could be a pen-name (much like Frank Ray on the Cap page, who I think was really Frank Giacoia).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Heck's art when I picked up the Avengers in reprint format (Marvel Triple Action), but there was a drastic decline in his work over the years.....his Avengers work in the 70's was not my favorite (I had the same issue with Bob Brown, whose Batman I loved, but not so much with Avengers). When he took over Justice League of America in the late 70's/early 80's, I almost dropped the title. His work seemed sort of rushed to me. I did notice a difference with some inkers of his pencils, but I don't know what they had to work with, pencil-wise.
ReplyDeleteFrank Bolle was his real name as far as I can ascertain, DS. He worked for a number of publishers, as a penciller as well as an inker. He had a good long life and died at the age of 95 in 2020.
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I know what you mean, G - rushed, and 'floaty', as if his characters weren't always rooted to the ground, but hovering almost in mid-air. At his peak though, he could draw some very stunning-looking women.