You mean the things the used to pad page counts when stories came up short, deadlines bit them in the butt, or when they did annuals and giant size issues and didn't have enough content to fill them?

I love art and all, and I'd probably buy a book of pin ups for what it is, but if I am buying an issue for story, I'd rather have actual story pages, either new or reprint, used for those pages.

Besides, all we get for covers now are pin up pages, so what's to miss?

-M

Depends on the context. One or two pages in an annual or giant size is one thing; something like Marvel Fanfare, where it was whole portfolios because they split the story across issues or didn't have content worthy of the format (or long enough) is quite another. I preferred them when they serve a purpose, like in the Daredevil annual, where it introduced you to his brownstone, the billy club and such or where you got an intro to the characters you might not know. Howard Chaykin used them to great effect in American Flagg to fill in information about the world, so you could understand what the heck was going on.

I can't say I miss them, since I don't read any Marvel comics these days, but I didn't mind them when I was a small kid reading the earlier Marvel comics. In the 1970s they would have been out of place - the stories were already cut down to 17 pages!

I like when they capture the personality of the subject and aren't a generic shot or pose.

I recently got the Taschen XLarge Spider-Man book. The pinups at the end of Annual #1 were great to see blown up. I particularly liked The Vulture and Sandman.





Of course in that annual Ditko also gave each of the Sinister Sic their own splash page, which were all fantastic.

You’re all acting like old men. Those pages are great, true believers.