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Post by Farrar on Aug 11, 2016 12:11:31 GMT -5
Dan, I wish I could accept the accolade, short-lived as it was; but it was actually md62 who'd mentioned his dollar allowance (subsequently superseded by Cei-U's $20). The quoted portions in these comments can be confusing. Anyway, in the interests of disclosure I think I was closer to md62 and you...IIRC my allowance was in the range of 50 cents to a buck for several years. So to satisfy my comic book buying needs back then I often had to depend on the kindness of generous grandparents! I ... uh ... might have made the occasional unauthorized withdrawal from my great-aunt's & mother's purses. Those 80-Page Giants & Sgt. Furys & Hulks & Not Brand Ecchs weren't going to buy themselves. Oh thank you for saying that!!! I thought I was the only one who engaged in such, er, occasional activities. Some days I still feel a bit guilty.  |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 11, 2016 12:47:07 GMT -5
1968, I was 14 years old and probably getting a dollar a week. To supplement that income, I'd take jobs such as putting the Sunday Newspaper Sections together for a store. A good one was hanging out by the supermarket checkout lines and assisting people in carrying their groceries back home. Folks still trusted young kids then, believe it or not, and you'd get a 25 cent tip which meant 2 comics
I recall in 1968 reading all the Marvel books each month and a large majority of DCs. Then I would assign monthly ranks as to my favorites and write them up. Did it for the whole year and was pretty surprised what turned out to be my favorite book of 1968. It was consistently great
SGT FURY
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 13:03:05 GMT -5
1968, I was 14 years old and probably getting a dollar a week. To supplement that income, I'd take jobs such as putting the Sunday Newspaper Sections together for a store. A good one was hanging out by the supermarket checkout lines and assisting people in carrying their groceries back home. Folks still trusted young kids then, believe it or not, and you'd get a 25 cent tip which meant 2 comics I recall in 1968 reading all the Marvel books each month and a large majority of DCs. Then I would assign monthly ranks as to my favorites and write them up. Did it for the whole year and was pretty surprised what turned out to be my favorite book of 1968. It was consistently great SGT FURYGood man. Very good man. And that was pretty much the comic at its high point, anyway. Friedrich had been writing the title for close to a year & had the pacing & characters down; Severin, after 3 issues on solo art duties, had settled in as Ayers' inker. One of the all-time great teams, IMHO. |
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Post by tolworthy on Aug 11, 2016 15:29:40 GMT -5
I ... uh ... might have made the occasional unauthorized withdrawal from my great-aunt's & mother's purses. Those 80-Page Giants & Sgt. Furys & Hulks & Not Brand Ecchs weren't going to buy themselves. Oh thank you for saying that!!! I thought I was the only one who engaged in such, er, occasional activities. So Fredric Wertham was right. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 15:35:32 GMT -5
Well ... not necessarily. I didn't hack anyone up or shove hot pokers into their eyes or play baseball with their entrails.
Farrar, of course, I wouldn't presume to speak for.
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 11, 2016 16:48:37 GMT -5
FYI, Marvel was not the only comics line distributed by Independent News. ACG also was, and was also restricted in the number of titles they could offer. 1968 was a very special year for me. It was the year I started getting an allowance ($20 a month, of which I was expected to save half) and began seriously collecting comics. I was thrilled by the expansion, eagerly snatching up those early issues of Captaion America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Captain Marvel, and Silver Surfer, as well as Fantastic Four, Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and The Avengers. It wasn't until my senior year (1974-75) that I picked up the two issues of Spectacular Spider-Man, not until college that I acquired the '68 issues of Incredible Hulk, Sgt. Fury, and X-Men, and not until recent years that I started collecting Captain Savage, a run I only completed last year. I've never seen an issue of either Groovy or Pussycat. The only DC titles I picked up at the time were those featuring Batman, including Brave & Bold, World's Finest and Justice League. Cei-U! I summon that long-vanished 10-year-old! Did I call Farrar Richie Rich just now? I stand corrected. It took my father ten years to pay off the medical bills from my birth and the many surgeries that followed, ten years during which he and my mom went without their own personal comforts to ensure we kids never went without food, clothing, school supplies, etc. I swear he was more excited about giving us all allowances than we were to get them. Cei-U! I summon the sacrifice! |
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Post by Farrar on Aug 12, 2016 13:59:09 GMT -5
Thanks for starting this thread, Shax. It was obviously a year/time that resonates with a number of us here. Loving the commentary. Your OP is the perfect intro to the matter at hand; but I'd like to mention a couple of minor clarifications if I may. In 1968, Marvel switched distributors from Independent News (which owned and gave preferential treatment to DC, limiting the number of titles Marvel could publish) to Cadence Distribution, and a whirlwind of new titles followed. I don't think I honestly understood until now how many new titles were launched in the span of that one year, so I thought I'd list them all and open it all up for discussion, from the classics that began here, to the obscure failures, and everything in between... Independent News didn't own DC. National Periodical Publications was the parent company, and it owned both Independent News and National Comics aka DC. Marvel didn't switch distributors in 1968. However, as Marvel was now operating from a position of strength, it was able to successfully renegotiate/revise the terms of the contract with Independent News. IN remained Marvel's distributor throughout 1968 (and halfway into 1969). You can still see the Independent News IND insignia in the cover corner boxes in comics produced in 1968, such as the Medusa Marvel Super-Heroes #15 or Captain Savage #10 . In 1969 Marvel switched distributors to Curtis Circulation Company, a subsidiary of Marvel's new corporate owner ( Rob Allen explained some of the business moves during that time). This took effect for the Marvel Comics on sale in July 1969, which now have a cover stamp of "CCC" in the corner box instead of IND. An example of the changeover is Captain America #117 with the IND stamp just beneath the 15 cents; and then Cap #118 with the CCC stamp.   |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Aug 12, 2016 14:12:20 GMT -5
Appreciate the clarification! I did my research before posting, but who would have guessed an Internet source could be unreliable?  |
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Post by tolworthy on Aug 12, 2016 15:30:35 GMT -5
As a minor footnote, it's worth noting that the 1968 explosion happened specifically because Marvel was expecting to switch distributors anyway in 1969.
I don't know if they expected to be bought out in 1969 as well. But given their success (and their higher profile since the cartoons) they must have known it was a possibility.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 12, 2016 15:38:15 GMT -5
I had become a full-time comics reader by late '67 thanks to greater accesss to money and stores courtesy going to high school five towns away, so that new spate of Marvels became my chance for a real jumping-on point. I had always been more of a DC reader, but I knew pretty much what was going on at Marvel and often bought FF, Sgt. Fury and Annuals. Distribution had also been a problem, so the new arrangement helped with that, too.
I bought all the new comics, but after the first few issues, lost interest. I would buy issues occasionally, often based on the artist, like the Trimpe-Severin Hulks set in the Savage Land and the Steranko Caps. Stayed with SHIELD through a couple of the Springer issues, then bailed. Dr. Strange was still tough to find. Loved Not Brand Echh
The rollout interested me not just in those new titles but in others that I had been able to find only sporadically on the newsstands, like Avengers, Rawhide Kid, X-Men, Spider-Man, and Thor.
Sounds silly maybe (These are comic books, after all!), but I found the Marvels more repetitive than DCs. Loved the serialized, continued stories and the more intertwined universe, but -- and perhaps this was because of the soap opera-style sub-plots -- found them constantly retreading the same emotional territory.
I would stay with a title for a few months or even a year, but would drop them.
Also, during the same time, DC was really experimenting. With Marvel, everything was superheroes, even Captain Savage and Rawhide Kid to an extent. Granted, they could publish more titles than MarveI, but DC was really experimenting: Anthro, Bat Lash, Deadman, Sugar and Spike, Secret Six, the Creeper, Spectre, Enemy Ace, etc.
And some of the regular titles were much better than they’d been before: Doom Patrol, Tomahawk, Shooter’s Adventure, and Aquaman, for instance.
I’d have to give the edge at that point to DC artistically, too. They were not as stuck with a house style as they had been, and certainly had more of a variety than Marvel: Kane, Anderson, Kubert, Heath, Adams, and Cardy.
I did love Marvel Superheroes, Marvel Tales, and Collectors’ Item Classics, though!
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Post by Farrar on Aug 15, 2016 17:33:14 GMT -5
...Also, during the same time, DC was really experimenting. With Marvel, everything was superheroes, even Captain Savage and Rawhide Kid to an extent. Granted, they could publish more titles than MarveI, but DC was really experimenting: Anthro, Bat Lash, Deadman, Sugar and Spike, Secret Six, the Creeper, Spectre, Enemy Ace, etc. And some of the regular titles were much better than they’d been before: D oom Patrol, Tomahawk, Shooter’s Adventure, and Aquaman, for instance. I’d have to give the edge at that point to DC artistically, too. They were not as stuck with a house style as they had been, and certainly had more of a variety than Marvel: Kane, Anderson, Kubert, Heath, Adams, and Cardy. ... Re 1968 DC: Glad you mentioned the Secret Six, Hal! It's my all-time favorite DC series. I just loved it, especially how quickly the action unfolded and how the protagonists' personalities shone through without too many hyperbolic, angsty thought bubbles or speeches (as in Marvel). It seemed to me to be the perfect series. Back then I managed to get the first 4 issues, then I couldn't find it anywhere. (I've since read the last 3 issues from that original series.) In 1968 I remained an avid reader of the Legion in Adventure and luckily many stores near me carried it, so I rarely missed an issue. And mid-1968 brought with it the new "mod" (depowered) Wonder Woman. I may be one of the few people who really liked that series. It may help that I'd only read a couple of WW comics previously, and I knew her a bit from my cousins' JLA comics (where she, like the other JLAers at the time, was "interchangeable" with them), so she was essentially a brand new character for me.I loved that gritty almost messy Sekowsky art and WW's globe-trotting adventures (for the first few issues anyway) really captivated me. WW was bi-monthly and occasionally I missed an issue but it was one of my favorites for a while back then. |
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