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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
In just over a week it'll be 52 years since the very first issue of SMCW went on sale. If you were around back then and are anything like me, you'll probably find that hard to grasp as it only seems like a few years ago at the most. Looking at the above cover reminds me of family and friends who are now gone, as well as places that either no longer exist or have changed beyond recognition. However, while perusing this mag, for a few seconds at least, everything is at it was, and in the back of my mind, still is. Long may it be so, eh, Crivvies? Feel free to comment.
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February 10th 1973 was the day SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY #1 went on sale (and the secret of FOOM was revealed to the waiting world). After sharing the first 19 issues of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, the web-spinner was awarded his own mag, backed up by The MIGHTY THOR, with ol' Shell-head, The INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, joining them in issue #50.
A week this coming Monday, is the 52nd anniversary of this collectors' item classic, so I thought I'd treat you to a selection of covers and images from SM's very first pulsating periodical in the U.K. He'd previously appeared in POW! back in the '60s and then TV21 at the start of the '70s, but this was the first British weekly that presented full, uncut adventures in a publication with him as the title star.
So feast your eyes on the pics that follow, and indulge yourself in warm recollections of when you first laid eyes on them 52 years ago. (And dig that dynamic JIM STARLIN illo on the back page. Terrific stuff, eh?) Okay, ready for your trip back in time?
Then let's go!
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| It was exactly one day short of six years since this story had appeared in FANTASTIC #1. Nowadays, six years seems like only a fart in the wind to me, but back then it felt like half a lifetime away. In fact, considering I'd not long turned 14 when SMCW #1 appeared, it practically was. |
And below is the paper bag mask given away with this first issue. Were any readers happy with this free gift I wonder?
(This is a slightly revised post of one first published on Tuesday, February 5th 2013.)
2 comments:
I still remember picking up my first issue of SMCW in my then local newsagents, it doesn't seem like 52 years ago, more like 25 or 30 tops. 52 years prior to 1973 was 1921, I wonder if any of today's 13 year olds ( the age I was when I bought SMCW #1) reading this blog think that 1973 is as long ago to them now as 1921 is to me ( looking back ) now?
I remember my father talking about the war when I was a kid, which had ended only 13 years before I was born and 23 years when I was 10, and it seemed like pre-history to me. To him it would've seemed even less time away than SMCW #1 seemed to us when it was around 5 years old. I'd better stop - I'm depressing myself.
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