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Post by paulie on Jul 31, 2014 9:06:57 GMT -5
Steering the conversation away from the reprinted material... The Marvel Giant-Size line featured some of the best stories of the era. Giant Size Avengers 2-4 are exceptional. Giant Size Conan had the the Gil Kane 'Hour of the Dragon' adaptation. Giant Size Defenders introduced Korvac and re-introduced the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Master of Kung Fu Giant Size 2 and 3 were probably the first time readers got to see Paul Gulacy's art in full-flower. And of course those mutant people had a turn out as well I think.
Sadly, for whatever reason, probably the dreaded deadline doom and the EIC musical chairs going on during 1975 condemned most the mags to reprint books; the trade paperbacks of their day.
I have to imagine a lot of kids were overjoyed to be able to read an early issue of FF or in the case of DC's 100 page giant's a golden age Green Lantern tale as supplementary material.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 14:08:18 GMT -5
Paulie: Sadly, for whatever reason, probably the dreaded deadline doom and the EIC musical chairs going on during 1975 condemned most the mags to reprint books; the trade paperbacks of their day.
I have to imagine a lot of kids were overjoyed to be able to read an early issue of FF or in the case of DC's 100 page giant's a golden age Green Lantern tale as supplementary material.
Me: Reprint books like Marvel Triple Action or DC's Super Team Family were the trades of that time!
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Post by paulie on Jul 31, 2014 14:23:39 GMT -5
Paulie: Sadly, for whatever reason, probably the dreaded deadline doom and the EIC musical chairs going on during 1975 condemned most the mags to reprint books; the trade paperbacks of their day.
I have to imagine a lot of kids were overjoyed to be able to read an early issue of FF or in the case of DC's 100 page giant's a golden age Green Lantern tale as supplementary material.Me: Reprint books like Marvel Triple Action or DC's Super Team Family were the trades of that time! Exactly! Even as an adult I like seeing those reprints in Newsprint. I typically can't afford copies before 1966 in NM condition so getting, say, a Giant Size FF with early issues is still a boon. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2014 15:59:33 GMT -5
I like the random reprints you get in some of the DC books. I would never have read The Silent Knight, Rip Hunter, Alias the Spider, The Viking Prince, Eclipso, The Secret Six and a bunch of others if they hadn't been collected in Brave and the Bold or Detective or World's Finest.
I have the first appearance of The Creeper in an issue of Detective. I saw my first Golden Age Spectre (he fights Zor! I love Zor) in Superman #252 (which I bought in the 1990s). I love that unpublished Wildcat story (he fights the Huntress) that showed up in the 1970s.
Not to mention that REALLY obscure stuff like Lady Danger (that showed up in the back of Lois Lane) and Sierra Smith.
(Lady Danger is actually pretty awesome.)
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2014 16:08:15 GMT -5
Back when I was reading a dozen Marvels every month and maybe one DC (I collected The Secret Society of Super-Villains and never missed an issue after #2), I did pick up Super-Team Family to read the Golden Age story about the JSA fighting Solomon Grundy, which is still one of my favorite comic book stories.
And I also got Super-Heroes Battle Super Gorillas, the one with Grodd running for governor and gorilla-aliens turning Wonder Woman into a gorilla.
As for Marvel, I didn't collect until mid-1975 so I missed out on the Giant-Size boom, but I loved coming across those comics at used bookstores. I had several of the Avengers giant-sizes, and I remember thinking the reprint of Avengers #2 was one of the greatest stories ever. And FF #19, that was pretty cool as well.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 31, 2014 16:31:57 GMT -5
As for Marvel, I didn't collect until mid-1975 so I missed out on the Giant-Size boom, but I loved coming across those comics at used bookstores. I had several of the Avengers giant-sizes, and I remember thinking the reprint of Avengers #2 was one of the greatest stories ever. And FF #19, that was pretty cool as well. You and I started buying comics at pretty much the same time then. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2014 17:16:57 GMT -5
My first comic book was Jungle Action #17, cover date September 1975, so probably on sale in June or July. I started picking up Daredevil the next month (#126) and within a few more months I was getting Hulk, Spider-Man, FF, Iron Man, Avengers and a few others.
I remember getting Marvel Super-Heroes #54 very early on and being awed by the Marie Severin art.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 17:52:45 GMT -5
What's your opinion of reprints that just add a few extra pages inside the story? Like the classic X-men of a few years ago, or Byrne's FF annual 1? Fun and good? Heresy? Did many people buy them? Some of them were a bit of a rip-off in my opinion. One that comes to mind is this.  Great cover. And if you read this before the original (Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2, 1968) you might have really liked it. But it cheats you several pages from the original. This has me hesitant when it comes to collecting Marvel Annuals from the 70s. |
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Post by Action Ace on Jul 31, 2014 19:14:30 GMT -5
My first comic book was Jungle Action #17, cover date September 1975, so probably on sale in June or July. I started picking up Daredevil the next month (#126) and within a few more months I was getting Hulk, Spider-Man, FF, Iron Man, Avengers and a few others. I remember getting Marvel Super-Heroes #54 very early on and being awed by the Marie Severin art. My first one was JLA #118 in February of 1975. I missed out by two months!  Thankfully for us, the Giant Treasury Editions were on the way. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2014 19:23:17 GMT -5
My first comic book was Jungle Action #17, cover date September 1975, so probably on sale in June or July. I started picking up Daredevil the next month (#126) and within a few more months I was getting Hulk, Spider-Man, FF, Iron Man, Avengers and a few others. I remember getting Marvel Super-Heroes #54 very early on and being awed by the Marie Severin art. My first one was JLA #118 in February of 1975. I missed out by two months! Thankfully for us, the Giant Treasury Editions were on the way. Hoo-ray, Treasury Editions! I think my great love for Ditko comes from the Treasury Edition that reprints Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, Spidey #6 (The Lizard!) and Spidey #35 (The Molten Man). I remember getting this at a supermarket. I also remember Treasury Edition #11, with Fantastic Four #4, #23, #51 and #94.
I ordered some of the others from one of those coupons. I probably chopped up Marvel Tales or Marvel's Greatest Comics for the coupon. I was always careful to carve up a reprint when I wanted to get a coupon.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 31, 2014 20:03:20 GMT -5
My first comic purchased with my own money was Detective #454 which was on sale in Sept. of '75.
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Post by benday-dot on Jul 31, 2014 20:03:54 GMT -5
Steering the conversation away from the reprinted material... The Marvel Giant-Size line featured some of the best stories of the era. Giant Size Avengers 2-4 are exceptional. Giant Size Conan had the the Gil Kane 'Hour of the Dragon' adaptation. Giant Size Defenders introduced Korvac and re-introduced the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Master of Kung Fu Giant Size 2 and 3 were probably the first time readers got to see Paul Gulacy's art in full-flower. And of course those mutant people had a turn out as well I think.
Sadly, for whatever reason, probably the dreaded deadline doom and the EIC musical chairs going on during 1975 condemned most the mags to reprint books; the trade paperbacks of their day.
I have to imagine a lot of kids were overjoyed to be able to read an early issue of FF or in the case of DC's 100 page giant's a golden age Green Lantern tale as supplementary material.
I'm glad you brought this point up. It was certainly not the case that the Marvel Giant Size (or even the DC 100 Page Spectaculars) were all reprint material. You mentioned all my favourites as well... Conan, Defenders, and MoKF. Giant-Size Chillers was another of the more obscure releases that sported original material for awhile. Those were some great comics. Of course the early model could not or simply did not hold, and reprints took hold, but even those sometimes provided affordable avenues into golden age stories. I still recall how sweet it was to first behold Bill Everett's 50's work on the Sub-mariner, reprised as it was the pages of Giant Sized Defenders. |
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Post by dupersuper on Jul 31, 2014 21:03:05 GMT -5
In the 70's DC experimented with many different formats: 100 page Super Spectaculars (20 page new story w/ rest being reprints), Giant Sized (new story + reprint), Dollar Comics (all new material - 64 pages w/ no ads). Marvel stuck w/ the 32 page model w/ extra sized Annuals & Special Giant Sized issues. Marvel was dominating in sales except retailers loved DC's 100 pagers & their Dollar Comics. So Marvel was making the move to increase the # of their Giant Sized issues. About this time story pages dropped from 24/issue to an all time low of 17 per 32 page book. Then the DC Implosion happened. Over 2 dozen DC titles were canceled & 40% of staff was cut. DC revamped & came back stronger. Their story pages jumped from 17 to 25/issue. Their sales went up despite their books being slightly more expensive than Marvel's. Marvel had no choice to react & followed suit. I enjoyed the old DC Digests as a kid. I still have several...       |
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Post by dupersuper on Jul 31, 2014 21:06:19 GMT -5
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Post by DE Sinclair on Aug 4, 2014 15:48:30 GMT -5
Steering the conversation away from the reprinted material... The Marvel Giant-Size line featured some of the best stories of the era. Giant Size Avengers 2-4 are exceptional. Giant Size Conan had the the Gil Kane 'Hour of the Dragon' adaptation. Giant Size Defenders introduced Korvac and re-introduced the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Master of Kung Fu Giant Size 2 and 3 were probably the first time readers got to see Paul Gulacy's art in full-flower. And of course those mutant people had a turn out as well I think.
Sadly, for whatever reason, probably the dreaded deadline doom and the EIC musical chairs going on during 1975 condemned most the mags to reprint books; the trade paperbacks of their day.
I have to imagine a lot of kids were overjoyed to be able to read an early issue of FF or in the case of DC's 100 page giant's a golden age Green Lantern tale as supplementary material.
One minor quibble: the Guardians of the Galaxy's 1st appearance after their debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan 69) was in Marvel Two-In-One 4 & 5 (July & Sept 74), set in the 31st century. Giant-Size Defenders #5 (July 75) had them going back to the 20th century and continuing into the regular Defenders series. All good stories and worth looking for. |
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Thankfully for us, the Giant Treasury Editions were on the way.
