Friday, June 5, 2015
Making a Splash: Marvel Comics 40 Years Ago This Month
June 1975 was a tough month for Young Groove. It seemed my family had moved to the only place on earth that didn't sell comicbooks...anywhere. Well, anywhere we could find. Thank goodness for those weekend trips to visit my dad's family where comics could be found in a half-dozen places. I dunno what happened, but by July my new hometown had two places to by comics, and the next town over had three. Had all of my running around trying to find someone who sold comics inspired those places to put in spinner racks? Ol' Groove'd like to think so--but knows better. Anywho, below you'll find a selection of sensational splashes representing Marvel's color comic output (not counting reprints) for the start of the Summer of 75. How many of these did you have--and how far did ya have to travel to get 'em?
Added a few I'd accidentally left out, Groove-ophiles! Did'ja miss 'em?
I didn't have go very far to find my comics. Kansas City was very comics friendly in the 70s. I would walk home from high school and stop in my favorite comic/sci-fi store. After scooping up my latest Marvel fix (I was definitely a Marvel Zombie in the Groovy Age) I would go home and savor my new buys. Great memories!
ReplyDeleteMy hometown had eight stores in walking distance that sold comics. Both our supermarkets sold them also. Baseball cards also. Does any store besides comics shops or bookstores carry them anymore?
ReplyDeleteI was six the summer of '75. I had the Spider-Man issue because I very much remember thinking "How's he gonna get outta that with those chains!?" I was always more DC, however, but I just marvel (no pun intended; oh, well, yeah) how varied the titles were back then.
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog, BTW.
Our versions of these comics used to present two or even three different series in one book (e.g., Killraven appeared in "Fantastici Quattro", Ka-Zar was in "Conan il Barbaro", etc.).
ReplyDeleteEvery decent newsstand had this comics in '75, I was mostly into Thor, Conan and F.F. I have a soft spot for the Avengers - Defenders' war, but don't want to read it again. Might ruin everything.
Those were the days.
It is amazing how varied Marvel's art was, compared to DC which seemed to"look the same" with the exception of Aparo and when Robbins and Kirby worked there. Anyone know why Marvel put Robbins on Captain America? I mean, he kinda, sorta, created a nostalgic look for the WWII Invaders but the 1975 Cap? Also, does anyone else initially get a notion of Don Heck when they see George Tuska's work? There seems to be something similar.
ReplyDeleteWow. I had NONE of these. (And even after my years of collecting, later, I only ever added that Spider-Man ish to my collection.) I had picked up the occasional issue of the Killraven series, and I owned a few Spider-Man issues (and, somehow, the Giant-Sized Avengers that dealt with the Celestial Madonna), but the only things I bought with any consistency in 1975 were a few DC comics. But only a few months later, I'd start my transition and never look back. At the time, I only ever bought comics at the card/gift shop in Newtown, Pa., my hometown. You had to go through the main store to the back room; there stood the spinner rack, between walls holding magazines and paperback books. (I'd occasionally get a science fiction paperback there, drawn by the awesome cover art of the era.)
ReplyDeleteOh-oh. The Celestial Madonna. This makes me think about Lo Spadaccino (the Swordsman). I really liked that Errol Flynn guy. But she was a Vietnamese, right? And Krees were involved...
DeleteBy the way, The Jackal-Spidey story was coupled with the Devil-Copperhead run...
Swiping off some dust from memories, cool!
Well Groove you really reminded me that growing up in my small town in Texas of Fredericksburg was not exactly a place where they sold a lot of comics. I think I wound up trading comics with friends more and my Mom gave me a few comics that she had from the 60's.
ReplyDeleteThere is a store in my home town called Dooleys that sold comics from when I was a kid that I remember. And the city council of Fredericksburg wants to keep all the old buildings intact the way they looked back in the day. So to this day when you walk in it really is like taking a step back in time the store looks exactly the same from when I grew up in the 70's. There's no vintage toys anymore or comics, bummer of course I would love to walk up and buy a comic from the 70's for 25 or 30 cents off a spinner rack, but of course that will never happen.
As for the comics above I don't think I had a single one of these unfortunately. I have a lot of them now in my collection and June happens to be my birthday month so old Shane is turning 45 this year. Oh well what can you do.
Shane G.
Through the eyes of a young child in the 70s... "How come the Toad in the Avengers does not look like the Toads in the Hulk?" (Lord knows how confused I was trying to map the TV Batman onto the Batman comic. How come the Butler is bald and on TV he has white hair and a moustache? Why don't we see Police Chief O'Hare in the comic? How come I do not see any DC comics with Green Hornet... and on and on.)
ReplyDeleteI see now that I had one of the few comics you left out: Marvel Team-Up! Spidey and Man-Wolf!
ReplyDeleteUnlike most people I really liked that Frank Robbins Captain America series.
ReplyDeleteAs did I. I felt like it added a unique take on Cap, especially following Sal Buscema's more conventional approach. Unfortunately my fellow Marvelites didn't feel the same.
DeleteWhat an amazing time to be a young comic-book reader I've read most of these and still own about a third of my original purchases. Worse for the wear some of them but i collect for nostalgia not $$$.
ReplyDelete