Friday, June 3, 2016
The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Marvel Annuals in the Summer of 76
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! The Summer of 76! The summer of the U.S Bi-centennial! T'was an extremely far-out summer for Young (ready-to-become-Teen) Groove! One of the things that made it extra special was the return of Marvel's Annuals. The Giant-Size line of 1974-75 was gone, but the annuals were back with a vengeance! As with the Giant-Size mags, we got a brand-new 34 page epic with each annual, some standing on their own (like Spidey's), others crossing over into their own regular titles (like Avengers), and some, still, crossing over from regular title to annual to another annual (like F.F./Marvel Two-In-One). Whoo! That extra yard-work change sure came in handy! How many of these Marvel-ous masterpieces did you manage to snag?
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Wow! That was a GREAT summer for comics. I managed to grab all but two of these (the MTU and Spider-Man annuals) and I still remember all of them. Some fantastic stories in these.....the Thor, FF/Marvel Two In One, Avengers, and Daredevil issues were my favorites.
ReplyDeleteSome great memories Groove, any chance you can run that Conan story?
ReplyDeleteOh that Dr Strange Annual cover is the WORST - clueless to the great P Craig Russell work inside.
ReplyDeleteAnd the tragedy (and comedy) of it is that Russell drew a beautiful cover that was rejected because Marv Wolfman wanted Clea (who was not in the story) to be on the cover.
DeleteI have to disagree. The cover was by the late, great Dave Cockrum. And anything by Dave was a work of art.
DeleteNo disrespect to Dave C, but that cover had no business going on that comic.
DeleteIt's like buying a carton of chocolate milk and opening it up to find it filled with a fine merlot.
I got ten of 'em!
ReplyDeleteThat oughtta qualify me for some kinda award..."'70's Marvel Maniac" or some other title of distinction.
That Hulk annual is a favorite of mine, where he clobbers a bunch of the early Sixties Marvel monsters. Goom never knew what hit him.
M.P.
One thing these covers prove is what a great inker Joe Sinnott was for Jack Kirby. The non Sinnott covers leave in all the weaknesses Kirby was experiencing at the time. But the FF and Thor Annuals were fixed by the miracle of Joe's brush and glisten with beauty.
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