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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 20:22:01 GMT -5
It's that time again, time to enter the way back machine set for comics on sale in February 1968I only have one comic that went on sale this month in my collection (I am still not in the world as of yet so couldn't buy any as they came out)... Tarzan #175 from Gold Key  though there were a lot of books in my Silver Age collection that I sold off before I moved to Ohio from this month (Doc 169, Iron Man 1-2, Subby 1, Avengers 51, Cap 101-102, StrageTales 168, FF 74, GL 60, Hulk 103, Nick Fury 1) and Superman 205 was in my collection until my most recent purge. -M |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 4, 2018 13:22:13 GMT -5
The biggest haul thus far in one month for me... 31 12-centers and four 25-centers. (The "damage?" $4.72!) MARVELSpider-Man 60 Avengers 51 Cap 101 Cap 102 Captain Marvel 1 Daredevil 39 Doctor Strange 169 Hulk 103 Iron Man 1 Iron Man 2 MCIC 15 MSH 14 MT 14 SHIELD 1 Sgt. Fury 53, Sgt. Fury 54 Sub-Mariner 1 Sub-Mariner 2 X-Men 43 DCAction 362 Adventure 367 Atom 36 Blackhawk 240 B and B 77 Detective 374 Flash 178 (Annual) GL 60 Hawkman 25 Metal Men 31 Secret Six 1 SSWS (Enemy Ace) 138 Strange Adventures 211 Superboy 146 Superman 205 Tales of the Unexpected 106 Wow, what a month! Helped a bit because it was a leap year, ergo a five-Thursday month, and Marvel shipped two issues of several titles in that one month. The beginning of my immersion into Marvel. Finally they were all over the stands and finally I could snatch up all those great reprint titles. Looking back, the issues that I particularly remember enjoying then -- and have remained favorites:     |
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Post by berkley on Feb 5, 2018 2:14:41 GMT -5
Captain America #101
OR
Captain America #102
I know I read one of these issues of the Sleeper story but can't say which one for sure. I think probably #102 because my vague recollection is that I missed the beginning of the story. I'm sure I'd recognise it if I could read it again but I don't have a copy with me at the moment. The covers aren't helping my memory, I think because I've looked at too many online cover galleries over the years, so they both seem familiar.
Sub-Mariner #2
Thor #151
These two I'm less certain of. The covers make me think that I read them at the time but I don't have a copy of S-M #2 to see if the interior jogs my memory and I just glanced at Thor #151 and I'm still not sure. So it could be that I just remember seeing the covers on the stands at the time.
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Post by brutalis on Feb 5, 2018 7:51:58 GMT -5
3 for me: bought in later years as at this point I be a wee lad of 6 years. Avengers 51, Captain Marvel 1, Fantastic Four 74.
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Post by Farrar on Feb 9, 2018 16:39:25 GMT -5
I was still buying comics piecemeal, that is, one at a time, depending on whether I had extra change (usually left over from lunch money) and/or was visiting my grandparents (who were generous with their quarters, which meant I could buy candy plus a comic). Anyway, the pickings were lean for me this month. Bought off the racks in February 1968:
Marvel
Fantastic Four #74: Have to be honest, I didn't much care for Galactus and the Surfer at the time, so this issue was a big yawn for me. The FF didn't even appear on the cover (except in the corner box of course). Marvel Collectors' Item Classics #15: Since I was an FF fan, I followed MCIC chiefly for the FF reprints. As you can see by the cover, this one reprinted #21, the famous Hate Monger story. It was interesting to see the differences between the Roussos-inked Kirby FF art in #21--9 panels per page, less defined character faces, muddy colors, etc.-- vs. the much slicker then-current Kirby-Sinnott art in #74. I'm sure back then I didn't realize how much an inker contributed to the finished look, so I chalked up the difference in the art to Kirby improving his craft over the years. X-Men #43: I was surprised when Wanda and Pietro--my favorite Avengers who had not shown up at all in my last Avengers issue (#50), much to my disappointment -- popped up here! Since at the time I was not familiar with their past Brotherhood days, or that they had started out in the X-Men comic, this was a revelation for me. But while I was very glad to see them, they just seemed so unheroic here, especially Wanda. |
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Post by Farrar on Feb 9, 2018 16:58:13 GMT -5
DCMy family and I didn't watch Mission Impossible or any spy/undercover shows like that; and I wasn't yet reading Agatha Christie mysteries (that would start later). So why did I pick up Secret Six #1 back in those halycon days? It may be that I just wanted to get in at the ground floor with a first issue. I also had a strong fondness for comic books featuring teams. And it could also have been due to the fact that I really liked the idea of protagonists who were non-super powered and who didn't dress in impractical costumes. I could relate to SS's very human lead characters far more easily than I could relate to characters from other planets, or mutants, or Amazons. Anyway, SS quickly became my favorite DC series! 
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 9, 2018 17:09:30 GMT -5
DCMy family and I didn't watch Mission Impossible or any spy/undercover shows like that; and I wasn't yet reading Agatha Christie mysteries (that would start later). So why did I pick up Secret Six #1 back in those halycon days? It may be that I just wanted to get in at the ground floor with a first issue. I also had a strong fondness for comic books featuring teams. And it could also have been due to the fact that I really liked the idea of protagonists who were non-super powered and who didn't dress in impractical costumes. I could relate to SS's very human lead characters far more easily than I could relate to characters from other planets, or mutants, or Amazons. Anyway, SS quickly became my favorite DC series! And how could you not love that cover? So clever and compelling. Secret Six #1 was a leading indicator of how innovative DC was allowing itself to be, at least in the Giordano editiorial offices. The proto-Implosion at DC that ended SS, Creeper, Anthro, Bat Lash, Hawk and the Dove and ended the new Metal Men, Spectre and a couple of other titles happened way too soon. They were some of the most interesting, promising titles in DC's line-up. |
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Post by brutalis on Feb 9, 2018 17:17:19 GMT -5
I was still buying comics piecemeal, that is, one at a time, depending on whether I had extra change (usually left over from lunch money) and/or was visiting my grandparents (who were generous with their quarters, which meant I could buy candy plus a comic). Anyway, the pickings were lean for me this month. Bought off the racks in February 1968:
Marvel
Your pickings may have been lean at the time but they carry much weight and value for your pennies today! I would gladly have bought all 3 in the day if possible. There is so much here in the 50 years ago thread I have reprints or TPB's of but if I were old enough with the coin of the realm to spending then fresh off the spinner there is sooo much more I would spend on! |
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Post by Farrar on Feb 16, 2018 11:47:01 GMT -5
Your pickings may have been lean at the time but they carry much weight and value for your pennies today! I would gladly have bought all 3 in the day if possible. There is so much here in the 50 years ago thread I have reprints or TPB's of but if I were old enough with the coin of the realm to spending then fresh off the spinner there is sooo much more I would spend on! I was lucky to find even these 3 comics! It's just like you have written about in your excellent "Remember When" thread: I have very strong memories of exactly which neighborhood store I bought each of these 3 comics from. It was so hit and miss for me back then, since none of my local candy stores--there were 4 or 5 of them--seemed to carry a lot of superhero comics. Instead, the candy stores in my neighborhood stocked plenty of Casper and Wendy and Spooky (all which I'd enjoyed just a few years earlier) and tons of Archie comics. A lot of times I would end up buying an Archie because I couldn't find any of the Marvels or DCs I liked. About a year later, I started buying back issues at a collectibles store that was right on my block. For the next couple of years I spent more of my quarters on back issues than on current comics, and I amassed pretty large collections of FF, Avengers, MCICs, Adventure, JLA, Sub-Mariner, Teen Titans, WW, Lois Lane and other series. |
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Post by brutalis on Feb 16, 2018 13:37:48 GMT -5
Your pickings may have been lean at the time but they carry much weight and value for your pennies today! I would gladly have bought all 3 in the day if possible. There is so much here in the 50 years ago thread I have reprints or TPB's of but if I were old enough with the coin of the realm to spending then fresh off the spinner there is sooo much more I would spend on! I was lucky to find even these 3 comics! It's just like you have written about in your excellent "Remember When" thread: I have very strong memories of exactly which neighborhood store I bought each of these 3 comics from. It was so hit and miss for me back then, since none of my local candy stores--there were 4 or 5 of them--seemed to carry a lot of superhero comics. Instead, the candy stores in my neighborhood stocked plenty of Casper and Wendy and Spooky (all which I'd enjoyed just a few years earlier) and tons of Archie comics. A lot of times I would end up buying an Archie because I couldn't find any of the Marvels or DCs I liked. About a year later, I started buying back issues at a collectibles store that was right on my block. For the next couple of years I spent more of my quarters on back issues than on current comics, and I amassed pretty large collections of FF, Avengers, MCICs, Adventure, JLA, Sub-Mariner, Teen Titans, WW, Lois Lane and other series. In those long ago days of distribution rights it was nigh impossible for collecting anything on a steady month to month basis. The vagaries of what went where to this day eludes me. The 2 Korean markets by my home must have had different distributors because one would have back issues on the shelf collecting dust from 5-6 months before with an occasional shipment of new comics once or twice a month. While the other only blocks away had a spinner rack that each week you could find new comics but sometimes only 1 issue of a series while another would have 6-7 issues?!? Then there would be the weeks where only 1 or 2 issues shipped. Other times you might find monthly 2-3 months of a series in row on the rack only to end up missing 2-6 of the next issues. Talk about having it rough. As Farrar said you had to quickly learn which were the best stores to hit and when in the month to shop them to find your favorites. |
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Post by Farrar on Mar 5, 2018 16:33:40 GMT -5
On sale in March 1968
Marvel: these 2 were the only Marvels I bought in March '68. 
Fantastic Four #75: As I mentioned last time, I was not that interested in this Galactus/Silver Surfer story (this was part 2 of what would be turn out to be a 4-issue story, #74-77). For me the most intriguing thing about this issue was the cover; I loved those oh-so-worried FF faces. X-Men #44: As I've also mentioned, I liked Marvel's team books largely because I liked to see interactions between a lot of characters. So you can imagine what I thought about this issue, which essentially focused on ONE X-Man (Angel) vs. a revived Red Raven. Yeah, I hated it. The only saving grace was that Wanda and Pietro made an appearance. I was glad to see them here, but they seemed so bland, so generic (Roy was still the plotter, but maybe W & P's characterizations seemed off to me because Gary Friedrich, new to the X-Men, did the dialogue?). At any rate I was getting more and more worried that W & P weren't going to return to the Avengers (I'd last seen them in that book months earlier in Avengers #49).  X-Men in captivity while Angel dukes it out with Red Raven was the lead story but I should mention that at the time the X-Men comic was also featuring back-up stories for the team members; in #44 they were in the midst of Iceman's origin, how he joined the team, blah blah blah. This meant the lead story was shorter, about 15 pages long; shorter than what was in the FF or Avengers books, both of which had 20 page stories. Much later on I'd pick up some old Thors and I did enjoy the Tales of Asgard back-ups and the Inhuman back-ups so I devloped an appreciation for Marvel back-up features; but here, in the X-Men comic at the time, the back-up stories just struck me as filler. I was not impressed! 
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Post by Farrar on Mar 5, 2018 17:23:58 GMT -5
Off the racks in March 1968 DC Superboy #147: Of course I bought this Giant comic-- it featured my beloved Legion! This Giant included lots of Legion reprints from the Hamilton-John Forte era and those were interesting but the real bonus for me was the first story, which was not a reprint but a new story (by E. Nelson Bridwell, with Pete Costanza art) about the founding of the Legion. I especially loved that the story included a panel of Ayla Ranzz wishing her brother Garth good luck in his search for their lost brother Mekt. The Ranzz siblings have always been my favorite Legionnaires. I do remember thinking at the time that the faces along the side of the cover looked like statues and really off to me; they seemed strange. (Much later on I realized the faces were "enhanced" by Neal Adams. I'm a Swan lover, his faces did not need that much alteration!) Adventure #368: Amusing cover, by Mr. Adams and I was glad to see Light Lass again (and she didn't take any sh*t in the story either). A lot of Legion for me in one month and I wasn't complaining! Lois Lane #83: Cover by--well, you see for yourself  To illustrate just how hit or miss distribution in my neighborhood was in those days, my last Lois issue had been many months earlier in August, issue #78. So it had been awhile and I was shocked, shocked with this issue. No more Kurt Schaffenberger...  ...now there was Irv Novick. Sheesh, see what happens when you miss a few issues. I know at the time DC was overhauling its books and trying to become more realistic/relevant/Marvel-like yadda yadda yadda...but boy did I hate Novick's Lois art back then.  Also, although I'd missed several LL issues I gathered from #83's letter column that the Lois Lane book was headed in a new, more realistic direction: evidently Superman had declared his love for Lois back in #80-81, effectively rendering Lana--a favorite character of mine--superfluous. I was not a happy camper. |
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Post by berkley on Mar 5, 2018 17:58:16 GMT -5
March 1968Beware the Creeper #1
Wonder Woman #176
I've re-read each of these comics in the last few years, in both cases for the first time since they came out, and found that I remembered them quite well considering how long it's been. Not so surprising for the Creeper, because whatever you think of the story, Ditko's artwork elevates it to something special; but WW #176 really isn't a very good comic, yet it stuck in my mind all these years, presumably because I read it at such an impressionable age. I remember seeing that Action Comics cover on the stands - the one with the leprosy or whatever on Superman's hands - but don't think I ever read the comic itself. And I'm sure the deservedly famous cover of House of Mystery #174 would have caught my eye if I'd seen it at the time but I've seen it so often since online that I'm no longer sure when I first noticed it - might it also have been used in DC house ads for some time? Spectre #4 and Plastic Man #10 look familiar too but once again, no idea if I saw it for the first time on the stands when it came out or somewhere else over the years since. That great Spectre cover I've definitely seen online many times.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2018 1:26:50 GMT -5
The only actual issue (not stories collected in trades) I now own from this month is Tomahawk #116...  with a Neal Adams cover. I bought it at a show after is was an entry into one of the cover contests and caught my eye. It was framed up and in my comic room until I started the house reset last year, and currently it is framed an in a storage tote until I get the room upstairs finished. -M |
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Post by brutalis on Mar 6, 2018 8:16:40 GMT -5
As usual bought many years later in the late 70's to complete my collections:
Avengers 52: Pirate Grim Reaper in classic green and purple villain. Whats not to like?
Captain Marvel 2: spaceman versus alien with powers of the FF? I am there sir!
FF 75: Galactic hunger served up by the silver waiter....
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