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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 14, 2016 14:40:18 GMT -5
I recall being under the impression that the Marvel Monster reprints, and all post-code "horror" reprints, were watered-down pap, and that the good stuff was all pre-code.
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Post by MDG on Jul 14, 2016 15:32:03 GMT -5
This was the first Marvel I ever bought, on vacation and no DCs available the hotel gift shop.  I really enjoyed it, but felt gypped that the FF and Dr. Strange stories both ended on cliffhangers. Did enjoy it though, but not enough to buy any Marvels off the stands 'til Millers DD. |
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Post by brutalis on Jul 14, 2016 16:06:47 GMT -5
I recall being under the impression that the Marvel Monster reprints, and all post-code "horror" reprints, were watered-down pap, and that the good stuff was all pre-code. Depends upon your point of view. The Marvel Monster reprints were pure gold if you loved Godzilla, King Kong and the like. While short and sometimes silly it was giant monster and robot heaven for those of us addicted to Kaiju before we knew what the word meant. Where Monsters Dwell, Where Creatures Roam was spectacular in their creativity for 8-10 page short stories. And beyond monsters there were the fantasy and science fiction shorts. True most were done pre-marvel but some truly fun stuff to be found in reprint that many may have never seen or known of until the reprints. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Jul 14, 2016 16:27:18 GMT -5
Having enjoyed the Claremont/Byrne Marvel Team-Up, I attempted to read a bit of the pair's X-Men work in roughly the middle of that run and found them indecipherable (I had zero experience with the new X-Men at the time). Concurrently, Marvel was publishing reprints of the original X-Men books from the beginning in a re-launched Amazing Adventures and I immediately became a fan. They were a great primer for the "X-plosion" of these characters' popularity that was right around the corner.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 16:44:26 GMT -5
Do you think this type of format would sell today? If not why do you think it was so popular (& well liked) back then?
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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 14, 2016 16:49:54 GMT -5
I recall being under the impression that the Marvel Monster reprints, and all post-code "horror" reprints, were watered-down pap, and that the good stuff was all pre-code. Depends upon your point of view. The Marvel Monster reprints were pure gold if you loved Godzilla, King Kong and the like. While short and sometimes silly it was giant monster and robot heaven for those of us addicted to Kaiju before we knew what the word meant. Where Monsters Dwell, Where Creatures Roam was spectacular in their creativity for 8-10 page short stories. And beyond monsters there were the fantasy and science fiction shorts. True most were done pre-marvel but some truly fun stuff to be found in reprint that many may have never seen or known of until the reprints. Yes, my attitude about these stories changed, and I certainly bought the monster-of-the-month reprints. I think what I'm recalling has more to do with the legendary status of pre-code horror stories... in the 70s, nobody had seen them in almost 20 years. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 14, 2016 21:35:50 GMT -5
I enjoyed the reprints when I was a young reader. It was great to have access to those older comics and some of my favourite stories were encountered that way. And even now, I still search for back issues of those reprint books to buy if the originals are too expensive.
My only complaint is when the lower page counts that came along in the 70s led them to cut pages from the original stories in the reprints. That's inexcusable, IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 21:41:44 GMT -5
I enjoyed the reprints when I was a young reader. It was great to have access to those older comics and some of my favourite stories were encountered that way. And even now, I still search for back issues of those reprint books to buy if the originals are too expensive. My only complaint is when the lower page counts that came along in the 70s led them to cut pages from the original stories in the reprints. That's inexcusable, IMO. I remember reading some of the reprints & flipping thru the story because I felt like they skipped a page. At the time I didn't know why. I found out later that this was why the pacing of the story was off. |
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Post by rom on Sept 13, 2016 15:21:26 GMT -5
I only started collecting comics (to a limited extent) in the late '70's, and don't remember any reprint titles other than Marvel Tales - which reprinted older Amazing Spider-man stories. There were probably other reprints around at the time, but it wasn't obvious to me.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 14, 2016 11:02:13 GMT -5
I wasn't a regular comic book reader for very long, maybe 4-5 years...and I'm pretty sure the only comics I owned back then that--to use md62's words in his OP--"consisted of a new story with reprints making up the rest" were these two comics, below. Most of the other giant-sized comics I had back then either contained new material (such as FF Annual #6 and Avengers Annual #2) or were all-reprint (DC 80-and 64-Page Giants, Marvel Collectors' Item Classics, later FF and Avengers Annuals).   I loved that run of Marvel Super-Heroes that featured a "Showcase" issue followed by those reprints from the Golden Age. The only other DC 80-page Giant besides that issue of Adventure above that I remember featuring an original story with the reprints was Batman 208, which featured a great twist ending, btw.  |
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Post by Farrar on Sept 14, 2016 11:09:37 GMT -5
I loved that run of Marvel Super-Heroes that featured a "Showcase" issue followed by those reprints from the Golden Age. The only other DC 80-page Giant besides that issue of Adventure above that I remember featuring an original story with the reprints was Batman 208, which featured a great twist ending, btw. Oh yes! I've read about this Batman issue (and know about the "twist" as revealed in the new material--very touching), but I have never actually owned a copy. I should really see about picking this up. I remember when I saw the house ads for this issue I was somewhat surprised that DC would reprint such recent stories--the Poison Ivy and the Batgirl vs. Catwoman issues were just a few years old and were issues I'd bought off the stands. At the time it seemed that DC usually reprinted much older (to me) stories in their Giants, i.e., stories from before the mid-1960s. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 11:15:45 GMT -5
Depends upon your point of view. The Marvel Monster reprints were pure gold if you loved Godzilla, King Kong and the like. While short and sometimes silly it was giant monster and robot heaven for those of us addicted to Kaiju before we knew what the word meant. Where Monsters Dwell, Where Creatures Roam was spectacular in their creativity for 8-10 page short stories. And beyond monsters there were the fantasy and science fiction shorts. True most were done pre-marvel but some truly fun stuff to be found in reprint that many may have never seen or known of until the reprints. Yes, my attitude about these stories changed, and I certainly bought the monster-of-the-month reprints. I think what I'm recalling has more to do with the legendary status of pre-code horror stories... in the 70s, nobody had seen them in almost 20 years. That was my impression at the time as well, to the point that one of the first letters I ever had printed in a fanzine was largely devoted to decrying the things. This, of course, was one of the vanishingly small times I was ever provably wrong. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 11:19:13 GMT -5
As for the general topic, I of course was & still am a huge devotee of most of the vintage reprint titles -- the 80-Pagers (immediately preceded by the protoypically DC annuals) first & foremost, needless to say, but also the first DC Special series. I was never quite as avid a fan of the Marvel annuals, for the most part, though of course for the first few years they were featuring new material more than old.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 14, 2016 11:41:58 GMT -5
This was the first Marvel I ever bought, on vacation and no DCs available the hotel gift shop. I really enjoyed it, but felt gypped that the FF and Dr. Strange stories both ended on cliffhangers. Did enjoy it though, but not enough to buy any Marvels off the stands 'til Millers DD. That was a real drawback to MCIC in particualr. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 14, 2016 11:52:20 GMT -5
If it weren't for reprints in single issue form I may never have know Groot from Where Monsters Dwell, not knowing it was originally in Tales to Astonish. I also have some Marvel Superheroes (15, that Farrar posted being the first) as well as some Marvel Tales my grandmother gave me. I also might not have know that Fantasy Masterpieces were reprints if the LCS owner hadn't told me specifically about them, to save me money on reading the first Silver Surfer series.
I don't remember, but did older issues like that make any references to being reprints or say where the material originally came from? If I remember right, a lot of reprints in the 90's when I was collecting, like Classic X-Men would make reference to the original material in the little copyright and print date paragraph.
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