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On Saturday, September 30th, it will be 51 years since The Mighty World Of Marvel #1 went on sale. I've celebrated the event several times on this blog over the years (usually with a repeat of an earlier post), so on this occasion I'll simply show you the front cover - just to remind you (if you were around back then) of what a good job Big John Buscema made of it. As far as I know, it was the first, last, and only time he produced an original cover for a UK weekly, so it's worth owning just for that fact (if it is a fact) alone.
Ah, 51 years ago - how is it possible? It seems nowhere near that long to me, just a few short weeks at the very most. This post, therefore, has a two-fold purpose - to celebrate and remember MWOM #1 - and also my youth, when it seemed immortality was a reality and no mere elusive illusion. So join me in raising a glass to a true comics classic - I wish it were still around today. And if you'd like to record any reminiscences you might have of this great mag, you can share them with your fellow Crivs in the comments section.
(It's okay, Crivs, I spotted and corrected my typo of 31 years [instead of 51] almost immediately, as you'll see if you refresh your browser. No one has commented on it, so maybe I fixed it before anyone noticed it.)
23 comments:
I did notice the error but was too polite to mention. 😁 It did confuse me initially. "31 years" I thought, as I ran out of fingers and toes trying to calculate. I was too young to remember the launch of this title but I've picked a few up along the way. I'm not sure if I've got No. 1, actually, the cover does seem familiar, although it's probably another false memory.
Or maybe you remember seeing it on Crivens, M? I've used it a good number of times on the blog.
Its unreal just how quickly time has passed. I can't believe it was this time last year I noted the 50th anniversary of MWOM on my own blog , so much so I had to check i hadn't gotten the date wrong. I wonder how quickly the next year will pass at this rate.
Probably twice as fast as the last one, McS. That's the way things seem to work as we get older. Unreal (as you said) - and scary.
Big John drew a couple of Captain Britain stories just after the comic changed to fully black & white but I don't think he did any CB covers. That would have been the best opportunity for a John Buscema UK cover I suppose.
Actually, he drew 7 episodes of Captain Britain, C, but I knew he hadn't drawn any covers for the mag (sadly). As you say, it would've been the perfect opportunity for him (and Marvel) to do so if he had.
Kid, did you buy a copy of the Radio Times 100th anniversary edition? I've seen the cover online and there are actually 4 slightly different covers each featuring a different Radio Times masthead from the last 100 years.
I did, yes, but I didn't know about there being four slightly different covers, CJ. One will do for me.
I've had two letters printed in the Radio Times, Kid, (in 1984 and 2014) so I've played a tiny part in the magazine's history over the last century.
I used to buy the Christmas issue every year for years, so I've played a part in its history as well.
Kid, if you're interested Tesco is now selling Christmas cake and mince pies. I've bought a small slab of Christmas cake (or Iced Rich Fruit Cake as Tesco insists on labelling it) which I'll be having tomorrow.
Have you bought any stamps with Charles's head on them? Last week I bought a new book of first-class stamps and I was surprised to see they still feature the Queen's head more than a year after her death. Did you know there was a set of X-Men stamps issued last February? I only discovered this fact last night when I was trying to find out when the Christmas stamps will be issued (November 2nd if you're wondering).
I must confess to being partial to Christmas Fruit Cake (with Marzipan), CJ, so I'll probably be buying one or two before very long - plus some mince pies as well. Sluuuurrrrpppp!!!
Not bought any stamps with Charles' head, no, but I'll be getting some Christmas stamps before too long. I don't send many cards these days (and receive even fewer, if any) so ta for the heads up about the stamps.
A life-changing moment for real in my case as it was the main cause of my spending a lot of cash on comics on a regular basis, at least until the late 90s. I remember sitting on the 16.38 train from Rockferry to Chester (I went to school in Birkenhead), probably on the Monday after the launch date. A schoolfriend called Neil got on with a copy of MWOM #1 and it reawoke all my memories of sporadically reading Marvel comics in the 60s. My eldest brother was given a box of comics in the mid-60s, which contained stuff like early Spidey, Tales to Astonish,Fantastic Four, Flash, JLA amongst others .I think my earliest comic-reading memory is Justice League of America #3 , the one with the rowing boat in space on the cover. All worth a fortune today, thanks to families like mine throwing their copies out. Said brother also got POW! every week. Between POW ! and MWOM, I was reading Smash, Lion, Valiant , The Beano, Whizzer and Chips etc. Also Bunty and Mandy but that's a story for another day if you ever decide to do a post on brothers and sisters NOT letting you read their comics.
MWOM led me to discover fandom and fanzines such as The Owl's Effort, Bemusing, Cerebro, Fantasy Advertiser and many more. I also had a fair number of penfriends. Jim Ivers, Steve McGonagall, Mike Griggs etc , where are you now?
It was a great hobby to have. Not that I am completely divorced from it but nothing like back then.
There's no denying that the early issues of MWOM had a certain magic to them, JP, a taste of which I re-experienced when I dug out one of my three (or is it four?) first issues and had a browse through its pages yesterday. I first experienced the Marvel heroes in Odhams Power comics (Wham!, Smash!, Pow!, Fantastic, and Terrific) and it was great to see these stories again when they appeared in MWOM, SMCW, and The Avengers, etc., in the '70s. Interesting to see that Mike Griggs was one of your penfriends - the artist of The Cloak in Pow! no less.
Here's an idea for you, JP. Write a guest post about Bunty and Mandy, and brothers and sisters not sharing their comics and I'll publish it here on Crivens. Thanks for your interesting comment.
I used to read my sister's Mandy, Judy and Misty comics which were quite entertaining especially Misty in which all the stories had a horror/supernatural theme.
If I recall correctly, CJ, it was Pat Mills, Alan Grant, and John Wagner who wrote most (if not all) the stories for Misty. I used to 'read' my Mother's Littlewoods catalogues, as in the women's underwear pages and the toys pages - when I was a kid and young teen of course, not as an adult. (Though I'd never say never.)
That was a bit of a blast from the past John. I remember those fan names especially Jim Ivers whom I wrote to back in the day as he contributed to my I'll fated short lived fanzine. Others were Ivor Davis who ran \managed the successful Red Hot Comic company in Glasgow for years. Ivor like so many others seems to have disappeared from the comics scene. I think that MWOM was the vehicle that got me into fandom so that's probably the reason I stayed around comics for so long. The rest I think is 90% habit and 10% joy in comics. It is really just the old stuff that I like,these are tqhe comics that bring back those great memoroes.
That was Mike Higgs, not Griggs.
Ha, so it was, JP. I was probably getting confused with the surname of Charles Griggs (or was it Grigg?), who was also a comic artist. Brain fog, alas.
******
Yup, the old comics are the best, McS.
I used to go to a Comic Fair in Birmingham where Phil Clarke had a stall. Phil used to own a shop called Nostalgia and Comics that I went to frequently in the 80s. He's friends with Mike Higgs (they did a book together called 'Nostalgia for Comics') and I bought the first year of Whizzer and Chips from Mike via Phil, his own personal copies. I think Mike was the artist on Space School. I also bought a lot of his 80s Busters although not sure what he drew in those. Charlie Grigg lived about 5 miles away from me and there was a superb retrospective book about him a few years back, well worth a look.
Yes, Mike Higgs drew Space School in W&C, can't recall what he did for Buster. I've got the book Nostalgia And Comics tucked away somewhere, must dig it out for another look when I can remember where it is. I'll keep a look out for that Charles Grigg book too, if it's not too expensive.
Monty, Mike Higgs drew a strip called Thumdercap in Buster
No he didn't, McS - he drew a strip called Thundercap. Thumbercap must've been in some other comic. (Hee hee.)
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