Blood Thirsty Thursday
We will be closed on Thanksgiving, Thursday November 28th.
Further Holiday Hour Changes
These are the rest of the changes to hours due to the happy holidays.
Wednesday, December 6th – Open at 10:00am – due to the shipment that day. Thanks Diamond.
Tuesday, December 24th – Open at 10:00am
Wednesday, December 25th – Closed all day to honor the X-Men
Tuesday, December 31st – Open at 8:00am
Wednesday, January 1st – Closed all day to honor… The all new X-Men
Reasons for the changes: Diamond and publishers have decided that on sale dates for the weeks of the 25th and 1st will be the Tuesdays rather than the Wednesdays. Now, that said, the shipment in on Tuesday the 24th will be very small. Approximately, seven books – give or take. The next week, the 31st’s shipment, should be pretty decent sized. Yes, if you were wondering, I have complained about “skip” weeks. I hate them.
Special Sale this coming Weekend
We will have a special sale this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Want to know what it is? Ah, that would be telling. Come in and find out or pay attention to the Twitter or Facebook for more.
However, do me this favor. Don’t go shop on Thanksgiving. Tell the big box stores to #$%@ off! If no one goes, they won’t do this crap. Stepping down from my soap box.
Drink and Draw
Our next D&D will be December 12th at Good Sons on Beaver at 8:00. Our last was very well attended and though only Dave and Crater would entertain any talk of Baseball’s MVP votes, I think it was a good time had by all.
Remember, that you do not have to be an artist or have an undying love of comics to attend. All are welcome.
Animal Lifeline Needs Drive
For several years now Cup o’ K has been doing a needs drive for Animal Lifeline every Holiday season. It is our small way in giving back to them for all the work they do.
It is easy to help. The drive is for simple needs that are cheap and easily picked up at your grocery store. Then just bring it along when you stop in next time and drop it off. I’ll deliver at the end of December.
Here is what the shelter has for a general list:
GENERAL SUPPLIES:
Liquid Laundry Soap
Dish Soap
Bleach
Clorox Anywhere Spray Cleaner
Tall Kitchen Garbage Bags
Lawn and Leaf Garbage Bags
Paper Towels
Toilet Paper
Kleenex Tissues
Endust Spray
Bottle brushes
Copy Machine Paper
Postage Stamps
Invitation Envelopes
CAT SUPPLIES:
Cat toys of all kinds – laser pointers
Catnip
Scoopable Cat Litter
Good Mews or Yesterdays News Cat Litter
Fancy Feast canned cat and kitten food – for the finicky eaters
DOG SUPPLIES:
Milk Bones brand dog biscuits-small
All kinds of Toys for puppies to extra large dogs
Peanut Butter – creamy
Small and Medium Flat Buckle Collars and Leashes
Last year we surprisingly topped my wildest expectations. It will take a lot to do so again, however, every little bit helps.
I have one customer already in the spirit as he is donating art to encourage your participation. Kyle Benning, the same Kyle who writes up the Retro Reviews, has done up a bunch of art cards and is donating them to those who bring in donations. I’ll have more on that next week.
Until then, you can bring in donations whenever you would like. I’ll have a box out front and if it is too big, we’ll put them in back.
In advance, let me thank you. I am a very big animal lover that would do and tries to do whatever I can for animals. I’m really not that keen on people, but animals make me go a great big softy. This is my way to try and help just a little bit more.
News from the Internets
Found a couple great articles this last week that you will want to see.
The first one is the continued ban of Sex Criminals by the horrible and wretched fascists at Apple. With issue three they have again not allowed it for purchase and have now retroactively taken issue one, which had been available off of sale as well. “But Bill, why do you care?” I don’t really, but it makes Apple look stupid and I plan on harping on it as long as they are so stupid.
No, actually, I do care. I care that a giant corporation censors. I care that they are so scared of sex, nudity and a misplaced sex toy, but have no care as to whatever violent video, game or news program incites others to do and be wrong. Apple sucks and censors suck.
You know what doesn’t suck, Sex Criminals. This is still the one of the best books on the market. You can expect to see it on my year end list, for sure. Others who don’t suck are those at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Read the full article they have about the ban.
Video games don’t cause your kids to kill
Before we get done with the good people at the CBLDF it is wise to take a look at the article about how violent video games have little effect on children’s behavior. Yep, a study of some 11,000 kids shows it doesn’t really cause behavior disorders and only excessive TV (over three hours) can even start to show behavior problems. Darn it Congress, I guess you’ll need a new scapegoat after the next shooting. Try parenting.
The Walking Dead is dumb
Next on my hit parade around the inter-webs is a stop at everyone’s (well, not just everyone’s) favorite TV show the Walking Dead. Now, I haven’t watched it since the second season and didn’t like that one. Really, I haven’t really liked the show since the first episode… I wonder if there is a correlation between Frank Darabont not being on the show and its quality.
Well, the director has something to say about his former associates on the show and it is pretty pointed. He calls them sociopaths – “There’s a deep commitment and emotional investment that happens when you create something that is very near and dear to you, and when that is torn asunder by sociopaths who don’t give a shit about your feelings or the feelings of your cast and crew because they have their own reasons to screw everybody, that doesn’t feel good.” This comes from a Variety article due out on November 26th and was while he was being asked about his new show on FX called Mob City. Here is a link to the first article.
Do you wonder… well… who he might be referring to and if it might be a certain writer in comics?
Kyle’s Retro Review – Marvel Reprint Series
This week my Retro Review isn’t as much of a review of a particular series but more of the ramblings of a madman about Marvel Reprints prior to the TPB age of comics. I touched on this briefly in my “Bring on the Bad Guys,” Retro Review about 2 months ago, and I’m going to take a little more of an in depth look at it this week.
It’s hard to believe in today’s current publishing style, where every story is ‘written for the trade,’ and each issue represents a small piece of a 4-6 issue story, but back in the Silver and Bronze Ages, comics were comics and for the most part, each time you picked up a single issue of a comic, you got a complete story. This story had a concise beginning, middle and end… and it took you longer than 5 minutes to read. Every once in a while you’d have 2 or 3 part stories, such as the 2 issue introduction of the Inhumans in Fantastic Four #46 & 47 or the Galactus trilogy that ran all the way through Fantastic Four #48-50.
At this time in American History, comic shops for the most part didn’t exist, so the primary distribution of comics was done on newsstands and on the spinner rack in the corner pharmacy. This resulted in inconsistent stocking and availability, often times with monthly books only appearing every couple of months; publishers had to have complete stories in every issue. If they had written 6 part stories, only 2 or 3 of the issues may have appeared in the same area, making it impossible for readers to follow them.
It’s no secret that in the early to mid-60’s Marvel absolutely exploded, with many of the characters that are now raking in millions at the box office making their first appearances in comics during this time period. So, in an era with no trade paperbacks, no collected editions, how do you get these early stories of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man stories into the hands of their readers who are 5-10 years late to the party?
With whole ongoing series dedicated to reprints, that’s how! And so this week I’m going to take a brief look at some of those great reprint series that Marvel put out from the late 60’s to early 70’s to help readers get their hands on the origin stories and early issues of their favorite heroes, so that they can jump on at issue #215 and have a decent idea of who the characters were and what they were all about. Crazy idea right? Publish a long ongoing series and reprint some old origin stories so they’re readily available and allow the reader’s to catch up… it seems like a far out concept nowadays, but when Marvel and DC think that we readers are so dumb that we can’t follow a series unless it’s re-launched every 12-18 months, maybe it isn’t.
This weekend was my birthday and so I chose to spend my day relaxing and reading comics. I grabbed a handful of old Marvel comics, sat down, and started reading some classics. I sunk my teeth into some early issues of the Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four, Captain America, Hulk, Sgt. Fury, and the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. “Wow,” you must be thinking, “that must be a couple hundred dollars’ worth of comics!” Nope, try issues I’ve picked up over the past years for 50 cents to the occasional dollar, all courtesy of the underappreciated reprint series that Marvel cranked out during the late 60’s to mid-70’s. While Marvel’s intentions were to hook young readers who were already reading the current issues of their great series, who knew that 25-45 years later that they’d still be peaking interest in these series and hooking older readers and getting them to drop money on trade collections now due to scoring these issues on the cheap decades later.
The first issue I picked up was issue #4 of “Marvel Collector’s Item Classic.” This series ran for 22 issues and usually reprinted multiple stories each issue. Issue #4 reprint Fantastic Four #7, the Doctor Strange story from Strange Tales #111, one of the Hulk stories from Hulk vol. 1 #4 and the Iron Man story from Tales of Suspense #41. There you have it, four complete classic stories, from some of Marvel’s most popular characters of the time (and still today) all in one book for a whopping 25 cents.
I didn’t need to know what happened in the previous issue, or the issue afterwards, each story was a complete telling of a great Marvel character, wrapped up in 23 pages or less. Marvel Collector’s Item Classic started in 1966 and ran for 22 issues into 1969, before it was renamed to Marvel’s Greatest Comics with issue #23 and became solely a classic Fantastic Four reprint series through its conclusion with issue #96 in 1981.
This wasn’t the only series that reprinted Fantastic Four stories, arguably Marvel’s most popular comic series throughout the 60’s to mid-70’s. They also had their stories reprinted in a few other formats. Another series that reprint early Fantastic Four issues was the series Marvel Triple Action. This series debuted in 1972, with issue #1 reprinting Fantastic Four #55. Issues #2-4 reprinted Fantastic Four issues #58-60. With issue #5, Marvel Triple Action became a series dedicated to reprinting the Avenger’s series, starting with Avenger’s #10 and continuing from there. Marvel Triple Action ran until 1979 when the series was cancelled after 47 issues. The series remained an Avenger’s only reprint title, with the exception of issue #45, which reprinted X-Men #45, which happened to feature the Avengers.
MTA wasn’t the only series that reprinted past Avenger’s tales either; there was also the similarly named Marvel Super Action series, which started off as a Captain America reprint series in 1977. It reprinted Captain America #100-102 in issues #1-3, reprinted Marvel Boy #1 in issue #4, and then returned to Captain America reprints with issues #5-13 dedicated to reprinting Captain America #103-111. The series lasted 37 issues until 1981, reprinting issues of Avengers starting with Avengers #55 in Marvel Super Action #14 and continuing from there.
Another reprint series was Fantasy Masterpieces vol. 1, which debuted as a tie-in to the Marvel Super Heroes cartoon program, which were very basic cartoons that were essentially motion comics of popular Marvel comics like Thor, Fantastic Four, and Captain America. Issue #1 of the series featured reprints of Daredevil #1 and Avengers #2, as well as some Golden Age comic stories. This format would be expanded to include a combination of Silver Age reprints of fan favorite Marvel characters and Golden Age reprints of All Winners Squad (The Invaders staring android Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America) as well as including an all-new original story. It was renamed Marvel Super-Heroes with issue #12 of this series, which also happened to feature the debut of the Marvel Captain Marvel or Mar-Vell character (this character is what has caused classic Whiz Comics turned DC Comics character Captain Marvel to be referred to as Shazam). With issue #21, the series became solely a reprint series, and lasted until 1982 with 105 issues.
Before Captain America and Iron Man had their own solo series, they both starred in Tales of Suspense in the early to mid-60’s. Iron Man made his comics debut in the Marvel anthology series, Tales of Suspense #39 in 1963. From that point on, Tales of Suspense would feature an Iron Man story and with issue #58 Captain America also began to have a regular feature in the book as well. These stories would later be reprinted in the 1973 Reprint Marvel Double Feature. This issue ran for 21 issues, featuring Captain America and Iron Man stories from Tales of Suspense, with issue #19 featuring Iron Man #1 and the Captain America story from Tales of Suspense #95. In the last 2 issues of the reprint series, Iron Man was replaced by Tales of Suspense stories that featured both Cap and the Black Panther (Tales of Suspense #96-99, with the book being renamed Captain America with issue #100). Ironically, this reprint series served as a mix and match type series, instead of having a single issue reprint both the Captain America and Iron Man stories from the same issue of Tales of Suspense, it would pull a Cap story from one issue and an Iron Man story from another. It was definitely a puzzling format choice, but it’s still a great way to read these classic stories. This wouldn’t be the only puzzling reprint choice made by Marvel.
Fantasy Masterpieces vol. 2 made its debut in in 1979, lasting 14 issues, and reprinting early issues of the Silver Surfer series and the Adam Warlock stories from Tales of Suspense and Strange Tales. However they didn’t reprint the whole stories, they cut panels and pages from the story, an odd practice that unfortunately would last through the 90’s, resulting in incomplete collected editions of great story arcs that still today have never received a complete, proper collected edition (I’m looking at you DC! Release a @#$% complete Superman Exile collection already!!!).
In 1974 and 1975 Marvel had a series of “Giant-Size Specials” which reprinted past stories from the Silver Age and early Bronze Age as well as featured a new story or two. These Giant Size specials were 68 pages, including ads and covered a wide-range of Marvel comics, from horror titles like Dracula, Werewolf By Night, and Man-Thing to Kung-Fu with all of their popular superheroes in between. Most of these series were only 2 or 3 issues, with a few lasting a bit longer – such as Dracula getting 5 Giant-Size issues and Fantastic Four having 6 Giant Size specials spinning out of Giant Size Super-Stars #1.
This is just scratching the surface of the Marvel reprint series they released, allowing their readers to track down and get their hands on these great silver age issues in an era where collected editions and trade paperbacks were all but non-existent. There are many more series and specials which collected old material and sometimes contained other new stories as well.
Standard comic size reprints weren’t the only way to get some of these old classics stories. Marvel would eventually follow DC’s lead and start releasing large “Treasury Editions,” which unlike the DC counterparts that usually featured all new stories, most of Marvel’s early Treasury Editions featured solely reprint material in a large oversized giant page collected edition. My favorite of these in my collection would be Marvel Treasury Edition #2, “The Fabulous Fantastic Four,” which reprinted Fantastic Four #6, 11, and 48-50. Marvel also had its “Pocket Books,” series which reprinted classic stories in a small digest size format. This would be a popular reprint method employed by Marvel and used for reprints of many of their series at some point in the 80’s. I have a few of these Marvel Transformers Digest reprints of the very early issues. This digest size reprint method has been abandoned by most publishers nowadays, except for the Archie Double Digests which are still readily available in grocery store checkout lines as well as a few comic shops.
While these series served as a great way for readers to collect the issues in the 70’s, it is hard to track down whole runs of these reprint series today. As I pointed out above, these reprint series picked and chose random issues from each series they were reprinting, so they don’t offer a complete view of each series. Luckily, we don’t have that problem today as there are multiple ways to collect all of these great Silver Age stories and early issues in their entirety.
First there is the Marvel Essentials line, which are black & white reprints of well…the essential Marvel issues. You can grab almost every single Marvel series in very affordable black and white phone book size editions. Who can resist $15-$20 for a collection of over 250 pages of classic Marvel stories? Marvel has also begun to select Epic runs and print them in giant size soft cover reprints, but in full color for double the price (or more) than the essentials. For those of you that want full color, high end reprints, give the Marvel Masterworks Hardcover Collection a look and of course there will always be the Omnibus volumes. Marvel Masterworks run about $70 a collection and the Omnibus’s are $125 or more.
There are a lot of opportunities to get your hands on these stories, and for the most part all of them still hold up today. There’s a reason the 60’s are referred to as “The Marvel Age,” as their stories were clearly the dominant Superheroes of this time period. Give these series a look, and maybe slap a few Essential volumes on your Christmas list this year.