So says Rob Kelly, author of a book I would like to read called Hey Kids, Comics!: True Life Tales from the Spinner Rack.
Archive for the 'Comic Books' Category
Madonna Kissing Dr. Strange #45, Circa 1981
Published April 30, 2014 '80s Music , Comic Books , Make Mine Marvel Leave a CommentPhotos from the San Diego Comic-Con, 1973
Published April 16, 2014 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Comic Book Stores , Comic Books , Conventions (Cons)/Trade Shows , Frank Frazetta 2 Comments
I went to the San Diego Comic-Con once, in 2008 or 2009. Never again. It no longer caters to the intelligent, discerning patrons you see above.
I’m intrigued by the Orange County Nostalgic Society seen in the second photo. That’s Neal Adams in the last photo.
The pictures are from Comic-Convention Memories, an amazing love letter to the early cons and the people who got them started. It’s run by Mike Towry, one of the founding members of the SDCC.
Richard Alf at the Opening of Comic Kingdom, 1975
Published April 16, 2014 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Comic Book Stores , Comic Books , Conventions (Cons)/Trade Shows , Frank Frazetta , Jack "King" Kirby 4 Comments
Photo: Mike Towry
Richard Alf, at age 17, co-founded (with Shel Dorf, Mike Towry, and Ken Kreuger), chaired, financed and organized the first San Diego Comic-Con in 1970.
Above: Alf at the opening of his comic book store, Comic Kingdom, in 1975—a great year for comics. Those are Frazetta posters on the wall. One of Alf’s notable achievements was expanding Comic-Con to include the fantasy and sci-fi genres (Ray Bradbury appeared and spoke in 1970).
Below: Alf (in glasses) with Jack Kirby and fans in 1969. Shel Dorf is second from right.
I’ll post some early Comic-Con photos later today.
Photo: Mike Towry
(Photos via Inc.com and comic-con.org)
Matchbox’s Adventure 2000: Raider Command (K-2001, 1977)
Published March 18, 2014 2000 AD , Adventure 2000 , Comic Books , Matchbox 9 Comments
Raider Command (K-2001), the signature vehicle of Adventure 2000, was used in a famous early Judge Dredd story for 2000 AD called The Cursed Earth. Dredd and his unit must travel across the radioactive desert of the former U.S. to deliver an antidote to Mega-City Two, and they need a kick-ass super-tank to do it in.
In the story, inspired by Roger Zelazny’s Damnation Alley (1967) and its boring 1977 film adaptation, the “Land Raider” and the “Killdozer”combine to form a “modular fighting unit” that crushes the irradiated “muties” and scares off a T. rex named Satanus. (Interesting note: After finding and extracting his DNA, scientists cloned Satanus for the opening of a Dinosaur National Park, an original concept that was ripped off by Michael Crichton for a 1990 novel I don’t need to name.)
I don’t know how the cross-promotion came about, but Adventure 2000 was being developed in and has a copyright date of 1976, and the Dredd story ran in 2000 AD from May to October, 1978. There were ads for Adventure 2000 in 2000 AD, but I haven’t been able to track any down yet.
(2000 AD images via the 2000 AD Tumblr and Dredd Alert)
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Coloring and Activity Book (1984) (Part One)
Published March 10, 2014 Coloring/Activity Books , Make Mine Marvel , Marvel Books (Imprint) , Secret Wars (Marvel) 6 Comments
Secret Wars was Marvel’s first big crossover event. Mattel wanted to produce a Marvel toy line, but only under the condition that the toys be attached to a major event in the Marvel Universe. Secret Wars was the event. The story was meager—basically a grander version of 1982’s Contest of Champions, Marvel’s first limited series—but writer-editor Jim Shooter and especially penciler Mike Zeck managed to make it something special.
The Coloring and Activity Book has nothing to do with the comic, but it does feature many of Mattel’s cheaply made, uninspired toys. You’ll see the big ticket item, the Tower of Doom, above.
I talked about the Marvel Books imprint and artist Carlos Garzon here. I’ve covered Jim Mooney’s work a couple of times: The Amazing Spider-Man: A Book of Colors and Days of the Week, and the AD&D Characters Coloring Book.
The Amazing Spider-Man Web Spinning Action Game (1979)
Published March 6, 2014 Board Games/Tabletop Games , Comic Books , Commercials , Make Mine Marvel Leave a Comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5dq5e5U16U
They couldn’t come up with a better pose for Spidey? The villain molds look great.
The Amazing Spider-Man live-action pilot premiered in 1977, and the series resumed in 1978. The witty web-slinger, Marvel’s most relatable and engaging (in my opinion) hero, was everywhere.
Amazing Fantasy #15 Caught on Tape, 1962
Published March 6, 2014 Comic Books , Make Mine Marvel Leave a Comment
That’s Burgess Meredith and Lou Gilbert being upstaged by a comic book in an episode of Naked City. Amazing Fantasy #15 marks the first appearance of Spider-Man, of course. Nice grab by Brecht Bug.
Oh, and here’s a photo of a kid opening The Amazing Spider-Man #1 for his birthday.
The Dallas Cowboys and Spider-Man: Danger in Dallas and The Uncanny X-Men at the State Fair of Texas (1983)
Published February 28, 2014 Comic Books , Make Mine Marvel 1 Comment
Plot and layouts by Marie Severin, words by David Anthony Kraft, pencils by Kerry Gammil, inks by Mike Esposito, and colors by Stan Goldberg. You can read some pages at Blog into Mystery.
The Dallas Times Herald partnered with Marvel several times in the early ’80s. Here’s another comic from the same year.
Cover by John Romita, Plot by Jim Salicrup, words by David Kraft, pencils by Kerry Gammil and Alan Kupperberg, inks by Chic Stone, and colors by Marie Severin. See more here.
Kid Reading Comic Book, 1948
Published February 28, 2014 Comic Books , Kids Reading Comics 1 Comment
Hot Wheels Scene Machines (1979)
Published February 25, 2014 Comic Books , Hot Wheels , Make Mine Marvel 6 Comments
I’d completely forgotten about these. I had the cleverly named Space Van (on the package it was called Space Vehicle). You looked through a viewer in the back of the van and saw what was going on inside—the Hulk, for instance, was smashing stuff. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a cool illusion, a momentary voyeuristic satisfaction. It’s not like we’d ever find out what was going on inside the real vans the older kids inhabited.
The scene on the card is what you saw inside the van. Here’s the Space Vehicle card and actual viewer image, the latter via Hobby Talk. (Click link for more viewer images.)
The Scene Machines were released in ’79 and continued to be produced until at least ’81. You can see some later models (Thor and the Human Torch included) at Plaid Stallions.
(Images via Hot Wheels Wikia, eBay, and Hobby Talk Forums)
2 Warps to Neptune 