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More proof, if any were needed, that I continue to buy things I've already got (in some form or other) and which I don't really need; namely, the Facsimile Edition of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1. I've already got the True Believers presentation, and perhaps another couple of reprints of the tale elsewhere, but this latest incarnation contains the original ads and text pages which perfectly capture the mood of the period.
Take the ad for Maurice Horn's Encyclopaedia Of Comics (at the foot of this post) for example. I bought this book (and still have it) from Debenhams in Southsea in 1981. It cost a mere fiver, surely the bargain of the century (any century as Marvel would say), and despite printing a picture of Jor-El to accompany an entry about Hawkman, is an excellent book. Large and thick, some people would say it complements me perfectly, though I'll ignore them (and myself for repeating it) and say it's a very worthy addition to anyone's personal library.
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Just looking at that ad, I'm back in Debenhams (now closed) in Southsea once again, which is exactly how I feel whenever I look at the book itself. Hell, it's worth buying the facsimile for that ad alone, even though I already own various original comics from the '70s that carry the same ad. So I've been on a journey 41 years into the past, self-indulgent of me as it is, but time travel (hark, is that the Dr. Who theme music I hear?) always gives me a thrill.
Anyway, the main point of this post is to alert you to this facsimile of PPTSSM #1 and urge you to buy a copy if you haven't already. Job done. However, should you now decide you want the book as well, then I've done you a double-favour, so give eBay a try.
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I've got the Marvel Comics app which shows all the new releases every week so I already knew about this facsimile edition - I'd have mentioned it to you if I knew you were interested, Kid.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I usually check every so often to see which ones are coming up anyway, CJ, and then pre-order them. (Even though it's a system I don't fully approve of.)
ReplyDeleteI'm letting this one slip by. I am going to get my mitts on the Spidey annual facsimile that's due out. It should be a honey. Ditko was rarely better.
ReplyDeleteI hope they do the 2nd Annual as well, RJ, as I think that was even better that the 1st. "The Wondrous World/s Of Dr. Strange!" is a belter of a tale, and I have several reprintings of it, as well as the original. Comics seldom got any better back then and Stan and Steve created a true classic with that one.
ReplyDeleteI still have my copy of Maurice Horn's Encyclopedia of Comics as well, Kid, very possibly bought from Debenham's in Southsea around the same time you did. (Unless I bought it from Robert Fludd in Palmerston Rd, I cannot think where else in Pompey I could have acquired a copy). So perhaps our paths almost crossed 40 years ago!
ReplyDeleteThat era seemed to produce quite a few hardback and trade-paperback sized tomes on comics - I'm thinking the Les Daniels book, and the Penguin Book of Comics by George Perry, amongst others. I loved getting those books, as I thought they lent an air of respectability or legitimacy to my comic-collecting passions.
The first version of the Penguin Book Of Comics came out in the '60s, with a revised version in 1971. I believe the 2nd one was reprinted around the mid-'70s, which is when I got mine - from Grant's bookshop in Glasgow I think. I never saw any book by Les Daniels, unless you're talking about the Marvel one he did, of which I have a copy personally signed by Stan Lee. In fact, I have around 7 books inscribed by him. Lucky me, eh?
ReplyDeleteI never really cared about my hobby being perceived as respectable or legitimate by others, it already was to me and that was enough. My, wasn't I a rebel? And yes, just think - you could have been standing behind or in front of me as I paid for my Encyclopaedia, with neither of us aware of it. It's at least not improbable that you could have walked down one street in Southsea as I walked up the opposite one - staggers the imagination, eh?
The Les Daniels’ book I was thinking of was “COMIX - A History of Comic Books in America”. I think I was bought the large trade paperback size version for a birthday or Christmas present around 1972. It featured Underground Comix quite heavily , I seem to recall. Like you Kid, my copy of the Penguin Book of Comics was mid-seventies vintage, probably late 1976.
DeleteFor some reason in my mind this is a comic from 1980 and not 1976. I remember buying this at the time but found it a bit bland, but I think that may have been because I was starting to lose interest in Spider-Man by 1976 . Like Rip I'll give this a miss but I am looking forward to the first Spider-Man annual which is core Spidey.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you bought it as a back issue in 1980, McS, or someone gave you it? I'm looking forward to the Annual facsilile myself - just a shame it's got a folded, stapled spine instead of the square-bound original.
ReplyDeleteI'd read that Les Daniels had written an earlier book than the Marvel one, but never actually saw or read it. I might keep an eye out for an inexpensive copy. Yeah, around the mid-'70s was when the 2nd printing of the 2nd edition came out. I don't think there was any difference between the two, except for a paragraph at the beginning of the book saying it was a reissue of the second edition. I've got a couple of copies each of the 1st and 2nd editions, but not the '75/'76 reissue of the 2nd (if that's clear). I've also got the late '80s printing of the 2nd edition, which has an introduction explaining why the cover was different to the first edition and why the DC illustrations were omitted. If you type Penguin Book Of Comics into my blog's search box, you should see a post explaining what happened.
ReplyDeleteThat encyclopedia! Still have it also. The parts I found most interesting were the foreign comics . And discontinued strips and I had never heard of.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's quite an informative book, PS. I'm glad I bought it 41-odd years ago.
ReplyDeleteI read Daniels' book COMIX long ago, but I don't think I ever gave it a re-read. Back in the sixties some underground artists were floating the neologism "comix" to apply only to the more venturesome undergrounds, in contrast to overground "comics." I seem to remember Daniels using "comix" for everything in the medium, but obviously that expression didn't catch on the way, say, "speculative fiction" did in the SF community. I also seem to remember that Daniels showed a partiality to the undergrounds and didn't have anything very impressive to say about commercial comics. Daniels was no competition in my mind for Jim Steranko's HISTORY OF COMICS, which I read to pieces.
ReplyDeleteI've got Steranko's two 'volumes' of History Of Comics. GP. I think they could do with being reprinted with the text being spread over more pages for easier reading, as the original pages are a bit type-heavy. Marvel had a go at using 'Comix' in the FF's tagline 'The world's Greatest Comix Magazine' for a while, but it eventually became 'Comics' again.
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