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Post by paulie on Aug 4, 2014 17:07:44 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. You're correct. I was looking for a phrase better than 're-introduction' (meaning the current Marvel U) but an extra sentence would have been more clear in this case. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Aug 5, 2014 11:01:20 GMT -5
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. You're correct. I was looking for a phrase better than 're-introduction' (meaning the current Marvel U) but an extra sentence would have been more clear in this case. Hopefully no offense was taken. Just the original Guardians are one of my favorite groups so I'll take any chance to talk more about them. |
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 5, 2014 20:43:38 GMT -5
I loved all of the previously mentioned as well as the paperbacks. Pocket Books were my real intro to the Marvel Age and I couldn't put em down. Hulk, FF, Spidey. I'd come across different reprints as a kid in the 70's, but these were collected 6 issues per.    and there were original novels too with painted covers. Good stuff ! |
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Post by berkley on Aug 5, 2014 21:44:41 GMT -5
I read a lot of the early Ditko Spider-Man and the BWS Conan the Barbarian in those pocketbooks. Not an ideal format for comics - the page-flow was all broken up because you could only fit a couple or three panels per page, depending on their size - but very welcome in a time and place where back issues were pretty much non-existent
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 0:02:47 GMT -5
My mom used to hate when she gave me money for the book fair at school an I would come home with those Pocket Books or the Tempo book collections of DC stuff, so she stopped giving me money for book fair  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 0:08:07 GMT -5
After digging up my Marvel Preview and Howard The Duck mags to see if I had anything worth dumping on eBay I realize how much I miss the Bronze Age black and white mag. I wonder how much something like that would have to cost today? I'm not convinced Marvel would even try to make it economical, but I know Heavy Metal was at a fantastic subscription price right up until recently. That was a color mag too. I'd love to see mags come back, even if they were $9 or so.
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Post by paulie on Aug 6, 2014 10:26:19 GMT -5
You're correct. I was looking for a phrase better than 're-introduction' (meaning the current Marvel U) but an extra sentence would have been more clear in this case. Hopefully no offense was taken. Just the original Guardians are one of my favorite groups so I'll take any chance to talk more about them. No worries |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 8, 2014 14:41:58 GMT -5
I had these three plus one with Captain America and the three Spider-Man pocket books. They were great! I'd seen some of the stories in Marvel Treasury Editions and a couple of issues of Marvel Collector's Item Classics that I'd acquired. But most of them were new to me!
I particularly remember being kinda tripped out by FF #2. Hulk #2 (with the Toad-Men!) was another weird experience. (My sig line is from Hulk #2).
And I remember reading those Dr. Strange stories over and over!
And that Dr. Doom appearance in Spidey #5! Such a great story, even if Ditko's Dr. Doom looks like he's about to all apart. I also love the way Ditko draws the Thing. Truly hideous. He looks like he's oozing. It makes me kind of nauseous just thinking about it.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 8, 2014 15:12:36 GMT -5
Yes, there were more. I really loved the 3 Spidey editions, but my favorite, without a doubt, was the Dr Strange. I was 12 and couldn't put it down. Dormammu, Clea, Baron Mordo, the Ancient One, all great stuff with that great Ditko art.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Aug 9, 2014 8:10:39 GMT -5
Two other big marketing experiments of the 1970s: Reaching out into new genres (the resurgence of horror and sci-fi titles, the rise of martial arts titles, etc) and reaching out into new demographics (a ton of new female solo titles, as well as African American solo titles).
I think this is a big part of what made the 1970s such an exciting time for comics: such a variety of content available in such a variety of formats, and most of it written at a level that respected the reader's intelligence.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 10, 2014 20:47:26 GMT -5
Totally agree.
There were still romance comics, horror, westerns, sci-fi.
With the success of some non-superhero titles, including Saga and The Walking Dead, it's nice to see the market supporting more genre blending experimentation now.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2014 23:14:14 GMT -5
I think today has more variety than any time before. The 80's give the modern era a run for it's money, but I think what puts today over the top is the combination of reprint volumes and translated Euro comics, both of which were not nearly as common in the 80's. I still think there was some absolute gold in the 80's, more than today, but at the same time there was also more bad stuff reaching huge publication numbers. Today there's a lot less self publishing and the creator owned publishers are playing it a bit safer. That means a better product on average but I think it also makes it harder for the real gems to reach an audience. More licensed stuff, less Omaha and Love & Rockets. Then again, maybe there's a ton of gems I've missed and am missing because I can't buy modern indy comics in bulk at ten cents a pop like I can 80's comics.
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Post by batusi on Sept 7, 2017 0:08:44 GMT -5
I used to have the spider-Man and FF pocketbooks and read them over and over.
My favorite giant size issues were...
Batman #176-80 page giant with some great stories,including "The Joker's Utility Belt", best Dick Sprang Joker story!
Batman #260-100 pager with the best Joker story of the 1970's "This One'll Kill You Batman". Great art by Irv Novick.
Justice League of America #114-100 pager that reprints the first appearance of the Crime Syndicate. My favorite classic JLA story!
Giant Size FF #1-An awesome Thing versus Hulk story and one of my favorite covers.
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Post by berkley on Sept 7, 2017 0:55:10 GMT -5
I used to have the spider-Man and FF pocketbooks and read them over and over. My favorite giant size issues were... Batman #176-80 page giant with some great stories,including "The Joker's Utility Belt", best Dick Sprang Joker story! Batman #260-100 pager with the best Joker story of the 1970's "This One'll Kill You Batman". Great art by Irv Novick. Justice League of America #114-100 pager that reprints the first appearance of the Crime Syndicate. My favorite classic JLA story! Giant Size FF #1-An awesome Thing versus Hulk story and one of my favorite covers. I believe the pocketbooks - from the late 70s, I think? - were where I was first able to read the Ditko Spider-Man and the BWS Conan runs in their entireties, so I was very glad to have them, though certainly not the ideal reprint format. Actually, come to think of it I'm not sure I had all the BWS Conans, might have been just the first few issues. What else did they reprint in the pocketbook format? I wish I had seen the FF ones, I would have grabbed those for sure. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 7, 2017 5:46:53 GMT -5
There's no such critter as Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1. It was actually titled Giant-Size Super-Stars (for that first issue only).
Cei-U!
I summon the technicality!
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