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Post by Farrar on Aug 5, 2019 19:55:08 GMT -5
^^^ Prince Hal How well I remember seeing those Kubert and World's Finest covers in the house ads. And after all these years those particular covers still give me a thrill. I loved Swan's covers, especially the Giant covers where he would do several several scenes, usually including an outlandish scene or two (as here). No one drew such preposterous scenarios, and made them believable, better than Swan did IMO. And as for the Cardy BatLash (a cover that I wasn't familiar with until seeing it in your post), wow! Such masterful facial and figure work...I want this comic! AUGUST 1969... FF Annual 7 (Reprinted Reed and Sue’s wedding, plus pictures of the Bullpen!) Actually FF Annual #7 contained reprints of the stories from FF#1 (FF origin story) and FF Annual #2 (Dr. Doom's origin, plus the FF vs. Doom). I remember being so disappointed that summer  , because the 1969 Marvel Annuals contained reprints and not original material as had been the case in previous years. Oh well, I enjoyed the Bullpen pics in this FF Annual, though; it was great to finally see the faces behind the comics I loved so much. Fwiw Reed and Sue's wedding (from 1965's Annual #3) wouldn't be reprinted until a couple of years later in FF Annual #9, on sale in the summer of 1971...and then the wedding story was reprinted again, in FF Annual #10, on sale the summer of 1973. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 5, 2019 21:49:56 GMT -5
^^^ Prince Hal How well I remember seeing those Kubert and World's Finest covers in the house ads. And after all these years those particular covers still give me a thrill. I loved Swan's covers, especially the Giant covers where he would do several several scenes, usually including an outlandish scene or two (as here). No one drew such preposterous scenarios, and made them believable, better than Swan did IMO. And as for the Cardy BatLash (a cover that I wasn't familiar with until seeing it in your post), wow! Such masterful facial and figure work...I want this comic! AUGUST 1969... FF Annual 7 (Reprinted Reed and Sue’s wedding, plus pictures of the Bullpen!) Actually FF Annual #7 contained reprints of the stories from FF#1 (FF origin story) and FF Annual #2 (Dr. Doom's origin, plus the FF vs. Doom). I remember being so disappointed that summer , because the 1969 Marvel Annuals contained reprints and not original material as had been the case in previous years. Oh well, I enjoyed the Bullpen pics in this FF Annual, though; it was great to finally see the faces behind the comics I loved so much. Fwiw Reed and Sue's wedding (from 1965's Annual #3) wouldn't be reprinted until a couple of years later in FF Annual #9, on sale in the summer of 1971...and then the wedding story was reprinted again, in FF Annual #10, on sale the summer of 1973. Haste makes waste. :/ I looked only at a thumbnail of that cover, thought it was that '73 annual, which I also bought when it came out, and posted unwisely. I did buy it, and I guess from a distance, so to speak, it looked like that later issue. I shall make the change. Thanks for saving me from further embarrassment, Farrar!  |
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Post by Farrar on Aug 8, 2019 18:02:25 GMT -5
On sale in August 1969My Marvels: That summer we spent a week or so with our grandmother at her beachfront condo. Sand, sun, sea...but for me the highlight was buying comics! There was a great stationery store in her neighborhood that carried comics, so I begged Granny to take us kids to said store and there they were--my Big Three monthly Marvel must-haves! You have to understand--it was such a treat for me to be able to pick up all three at one time, since normally I was scrambling to find these comics at my neighborhood stores and so I usually bought them piecemeal. So that August was special for me, thanks to my always-generous Granny.  Avengers #69: Look, I know Kang is important and all that but as a young reader back then I had very little interest in him. The Avengers book was focusing on action and I have to admit I really disliked the lack of interpersonal relationships in this series. However, I know I must have been collecting back issues by this point because I knew who Ravonna was and what had happened to her (back in Avengers #24). Nice, accessible art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger, so at least it "looked" like an Avengers comic to my young eyes.
Fantastic Four #92: Yechh, yet another story in the then seemingly interminable Ben-on-Skrullworld arc. The other FFers showed up on a couple of pages but otherwise it was all big panels and Ben on that gangster world. Even as a kid I could tell the Stan-Jack honeymoon was over and that Kirby was phoning it in. Now of course I know about Kirby's dissatisfaction and what was going on at the time. But back then there was no access to all that, and I was just a kid reading each monthly issue as it came out.To me the art and story seemed rushed; I felt there was such a difference art-wise and dialogue-wise than in my initial meeting with the FF two years earlier (#68). The FF was on a downward trend IMO. In some subsequent lettercols, readers wrote that the Skrull arc here was based on some Star Trek episodes (the original series, a show I admit I never watched. Some of my friends loved it). Anyway, I'm sure many here already know this, but the main episodes in question are "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "A Piece of the Action" (evidently these 2 episodes were first shown, consecutively, in early 1968). IIRC Marvel even mentioned the Star Trek connection, along with the recent Prisoner-influenced FF arc (#84-87) in a Bullpen Bulletin column. And in the lettercols some fans lauded the Star Trek/Prisoner influence/inspiration, while others felt it was an inappropriate shortcut taken by Marvel. X-Men #61: if I was bored by the Avengers and FF comics, once again the X-Men made up for it. Now THIS was a comic, with superlative art and a fast-moving, layered story with a sympathetic antagonist (Lykos/Sauron). And unlike what Roy Thomas was doing over in the all-action Avengers book, in his X-Men there was some interpersonal stuff going on here, with Lorna was developing feelings for Alex. There'd been little or no romance in the book since I'd been reading it (from #40, by which time Scott and Jean were basically established as a solid couple--in other words, dull) so I was glad to see a new romantic angle was being stirred up. Also at some point that August I picked up these two Marvel reprint mags: 
Fantastic Four Annual #7: As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I was very disappointed to discover that the 1969 Marvel Annuals contained reprints, first with Avengers Annual #3 last month and now this. In the past the Marvel Annuals with their new material represented a welcome summer event for me; now they were just reprint mags (and Marvel already had plenty of those, what with Marvel's Greatest Comics, Marvel Tales, and so on). The reprints here were from FF #1 and also from the the Dr. Doom-centric FF Annual #2. Feh. I wasn't too interested; I'd already seen these stories depicted in the FF Saturday cartoons. And the art from #1 looked so crude to me! Well, at least the Dr. Doom stuff had the Kirby-Stone team; I always liked Stone's distinctive inking.
Marvel Super-Heroes #23: The X-Men reprint I'd been waiting for, namely X-Men #4: the debut of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (when they were members of Magneto's Brotherhood)! I'd really missed Wanda and Pietro--they'd left the Avengers a year earlier--so I was very happy to see them here and to get a better sense of their background.
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Post by Farrar on Aug 10, 2019 12:45:27 GMT -5
^^^ ...enjoyed the Bullpen pics in this FF Annual, though; it was great to finally see the faces behind the comics I loved so much. A bit earlier in this thread Prince Hal and I mentioned the Bullpen photos that appeared in 1969's FF King-Size Special/Annual #7. I loved seeing the faces behind Mighty Marvel (there had been photos previously back in 1964's Marvel Tales Annual #1 too, but that was before my time). I'd seen caricatures here and there so I had an idea of what some of the creators looked like, but I must admit to being very surprised when I first saw Neal Adams in the FF Annual. Since my main exposure to Adams back then was his 1969 X-Men work, I'd imagined him as looking like his some of his male characters such as Larry Trask...  ...or Karl Lykos or Scott Summers...  ...in other words, I pictured him as having a lean, somewhat craggy face, with an intense or somber expression. And even his name, "Neal"--an anagram of "lean"--conjured up such images for me too. So when I first saw his pic in the FF Annual, I was like "Hold on, that smiling guy with the chubby cheeks is Neal Adams?! But he draws such dark, tortured, gnarly characters!"  In hindsight, in this pic he looks like a prototype for Commander Riker  (who of course wouldn't be created until a couple of decades later) |
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Post by brutalis on Aug 13, 2019 8:32:21 GMT -5
August 1969 and the back issues collecting continues:
Avengers 69
Captain Marvel 18
FF 92
FF annual 7
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Post by Farrar on Aug 14, 2019 22:18:07 GMT -5
August 1969:
My DCs, off the racks and via the mail! Action #381: I bought this for the Legion back-up feature. What a silly story, featuring Shrinking Violet and Matter-Eater Lad going on date. I mean, I get that the then-nearly-18-year-old writer, one Mr. Shooter, was trying to humanize the Legion; but geez, the fact that in the 30th century girls still cried when they were without a date and boys were expected to foot the bill and pay for the date, etc., was very 1950s. The ostensible year was 2969; couldn't Shooter have been just a wee bit more imaginative or progressive when it came to social customs and gender roles? A real turn-off of a story. That said, it was pretty apparent back then--even without the benefit of all the resources we have now for research and background info--that Shooter was including elements from his own life, at least when it came to M-E Lad's family situation (M-E Lad's parents depended on their teen son's paycheck). It was sobering, touching, but still...this was the Legion, dammit. If I wanted nonstop soap opera I'd read a romance comic (which I did--see below), where it was done more effectively and less stereotypically, at least during this time (late '60s). As usual, pretty Mortimer-Abel art; Vi, M-E Lad and Duplicate Boy never looked better.
Adventure #385: Part of my subscription. Two unmemorable Supergirl stories, one illustrated by Schaffenberger, the other one the by Mortimer-Abel. IIRC readers wrote in asking why there hadn't been many full-length stories since Supergirl moved to Adventure; with these shorter stories, she may as well have stayed put in the back-up slot in Action. Editorial responded that the stories were dictated by talent availability and deadlines; for example, sometimes an artist only had time to do 9 pages. Sounds plausible; but not a great answer to those fans who'd expected Supergirl to really make an impact given the expanded number of pages she had now in Adventure. Detective #392: I bought this for the Batgirl back-up feature. As always, fabulous Gil Kane-Murphy Anderson art. This story introduced a supporting character, Jason Bard. Meh. I never cared for the character but I was glad Batgirl was getting a supporting cast. Bard was presented as being a less than 100% perfect physical specimen (he had a trick knee due to an injury he'd received in Vietnam--check off points for relevancy); and in this story, at least, he was a kind of albatross around Barbara's neck. She couldn't wait to get rid of him so she could spring into action as Batgirl. I was annoyed to see that the majority of the story focused on Jason helping Barbara figure out a crime and that the costumed Batgirl only appeared in a scant few panels. This was part one of a two-part story, so more to come. Bonus! As I have mentioned, whenever I visited relatives or for some reason had obtained some extra spending money, I'd inevitably head for a candy store. If I'd already bought my regular comics for that month, then I turned to Archies and DC romance comics. In particular I liked DC's Heart Throbs comic because it contained an ongoing feature called "3 Girls"; I always loved serialized stories. (Later on I would become a rabid fan of the daily newspaper serialized comic strips.) Anyway, during this time, I noticed that the gender roles in the DC romance comics were often not so rigid/traditional, especially as compared with what I was seeing in the mainstream superhero comics I followed. And I loved the art in the romance books (not that I knew those artists' names back then). Now I don't recall details for most of the Archie or romance stories I read back then, with one exception: there was a memorable story in a romance comic that involved pills and a suicide attempt, plus the characters' names were the same as a couple of my relatives. Flash-forward to the early aughts, when I became interested in comic book history, and with all the resources and tools now available I was able to track down the story I'd remembered throughout all those years: it was in Girls' Love Stories #146. Gotta love that dramatic Tuska-Colletta cover.
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Post by berkley on Aug 16, 2019 22:11:08 GMT -5
August 1969Flash Gordon #16 I remember the artwork in this one this having a bit of a Dr. Strange vibe to the "Mystic Realm" mentioned on the cover. I liked it and wish I had read more of the series at the time but this one's the only issue I recall ever seeing. I have managed to track down a few of the back issues but haven't read them yet. Ripley's Believe It or Not #16Recall almost nothing about this comic other than the cover.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Sept 2, 2019 23:21:48 GMT -5
Comics I own from September 1969
Batman #216
Detective Comics #393
Silver Surfer #10
Teen Titans #24
Thunder Agents #20
X-Men #62
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 3, 2019 14:23:02 GMT -5
September 1969    Aquaman 48 Batman 216 Detective 393 JLA 75 JLA 76 (Annual) Showcase 86 (Firehair) Strange Adventures 221 Teen Titans 24 Tomahawk 125 WF 189 "Grand" total: $1.65 A light month, as I was becoming more discriminating about what I liked reading. (I also still had to worry about hiding my stash of funny books or suffer for it.) However, by this time, I had given up on Marvel, with occasional exceptions, and wouldn’t follow another Marvel title faithfully until Conan arrived in the summer of 1970. I was starting to become more interested in music and was spending some of my shekels (as Stan described them) on records, though I was also haunting my local library for them as well. And, just as I liked all kinds of comics, I liked all kinds of music, too. Speaking of our wonderful town library, it was also there that I discovered Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes and Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (!) I also was becoming fascinated with the history of comic strips, as well, thanks in large part to Stephen Becker’s Comic Art in America, a book that I also took out dozens of times from the same library, and which I still treasure. On my “playlist” that fall:    
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Post by brutalis on Sept 4, 2019 8:36:36 GMT -5
The September 69 collecting continuation done in the 80's:
Avengers 70
Captain Marvel 19
FF 93
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Sept 4, 2019 9:06:17 GMT -5
Still my favorite Zeppelin album of all time. IV is overrated. I truly wish I had the attention span to listen to good music while reading. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 4, 2019 16:39:46 GMT -5
Haven't done this a while. Let's see:
Comics I Bought Off the Stands: Captain America #120, Captain Marvel #19, Daredevil #58, Fantastic Four #93, Incredible Hulk #122, Iron Man #20, Sgt. Fury #72, Sub-Mariner #20, Thor #170. All these books are still in my collection except the FF and Hulk, which I sold last year.
Comics I Bought as Back Issues But No Longer Have: Amazing Spider-Man #79, Flash #192, Silver Surfer #10, Wonder Woman #185, X-Men #62.
Comics I Bought as Back Issues and Still Have: Aquaman #48, Avengers #70, Batman #216, Captain Savage #17, Chamber of Darkness #2, Detective #393, Justice League of America #75 and #76, World's Finest #189.
Comics I Have Electronic Copies of: Action #282, Adventure #386, Billy the Kid #75, Binky's Buddies #6, Boris Karloff #78, Cheyenne Kid #75, Chili #8, Date with Debbi #6, Flash Gordon #17, House of Mystery #83, Jerry Lewis #115, Lois Lane #97, Mad About Millie #6, Meet Angel #7, Millie the Model #177, Our Army at War #212, Our Fighting Forces #122, Our Love Story #2, Outlaws of the West #78, Phantom Stranger #4, Rawhide Kid #73, Showcase #86, Star Trek #6, Superman #221, Teen Titans #24, THUNDER Agents #20, Tomahawk #125, Twilight Zone #31, plus all the books listed in the three previous categories.
Cei-U!
I summon the sumptuous September smorgasbord!
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Post by Farrar on Sept 5, 2019 15:50:39 GMT -5
September 1969... On my “playlist” that fall: ... ... Yeah, we had this Dylan album -- bought some years later, though. "Positively 4th Street" has got to be my favorite 1960s song ever. In 1969 I was picking up 45s at Woolworth's. In my collection at that time: things like "Chewy Chewy" and "Goody Goody Gumdrops" |
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Post by Farrar on Sept 9, 2019 16:41:51 GMT -5
September 1969My Marvels that month, off the stands  Avengers #70: Yes, it's the JLA doppelgangers so that was kind of fun; but to tell the truth I wasn't really that interested in this particular Avengers run that showcased the Big Three. I wanted to see people like Wanda, Pietro and Natasha (they'd been in the Avengers book at the time I'd started reading it). Oh well. The Sal Buscema/Sam Grainger art was a pretty good approximation of my beloved John Buscema/George Klein art, so there was that at least. Fantastic Four #93: The last installment of the Thing-on-the-Skrull-gangster-world arc. Yawn. The Frank Giacoia inking was somewhat of a shock; it wasn't exactly awful, but after all those Sinnott issues? Giacoia's less slick inks just made the art look sloppy and unfinished...IMHO of course! X-Men #62: I'm sure there are people who are fascinated by Ka-Zar. I'm not one of them. So this issue was meh for me, despite the edgy Adams-Palmer art. Plus, my favorite X characters, namely Lorna and Alex, didn't accompany the O5 on their latest adventure. What had been the point of adding those two to the regular cast a few issues earlier if they weren't going to participate?!  Marvel's Greatest Comics #24: This comic was the best of my September Marvels. As I have mentioned, I bought this series for the FF reprints; this issue contained a reprint of FF #32 in which Sue and Johnny's father is killed. It was a very moving story (still is). And I just loved Chic Stone's inking! During this time I was also buying a ton of back issues, but I didn't have a lot from the Kirby-Stone FF run, just #34 and #36-37; so I really appreciated these reprints in MGC.
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Post by Farrar on Sept 21, 2019 11:12:14 GMT -5
No Legion this month; evidently I could no longer find Action Comics on the neighborhood stands, so last month's Action #381, would turn out to be the last time I'd read any Legion story...until I returned to comics about 10 or so years ago and bought a bunch of DC Archives. Anyway, here are my DCs from September 1969 off the stands and via subscription:  Adventure #386: Part of my subscription. Two unmemorable Supergirl stories, but some nice interior art by Schaffenberger and Mortimer/Abel.
Detective #393: As I have mentioned I was buying Detective for the back-up Batgirl series (though I would read the lead Batman feature too of course). Barbara was one of my favorite characters and this series had phenomenal Gil Kane/Murphy Anderson art. Kane's camera angles were so striking, for example this one with Jason Bard in the foreground:  Wonder Woman #185: I really liked this issue since the story since it took place in a city setting, which was something I could relate to. Also it seemed that the series was getting a couple of more supporting characters (Cathy and Tony), which was a plus in my eyes. All in all, a pretty lean DC month for me; it was getting tougher to buy new issues (the aforementioned Action is a prime example). It was okay, though; I was also buying a lot of back issues from the collectibles store on my block. |
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AUGUST 1969...
, because the 1969 Marvel Annuals contained reprints and not original material as had been the case in previous years. Oh well, I enjoyed the Bullpen pics in this FF Annual, though; it was great to finally see the faces behind the comics I loved so much.
(who of course wouldn't be created until a couple of decades later)
