By Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Bill Everett, Don Heck, Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, Mick Anglo Studios & various (World Distributors, Ltd.)
No ISBN ASIN: B001G8UJME
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
When Stan Lee rejuvenated the US comic-book industry in the early 1960s, his biggest advantage wasn’t the small but superb talent pool available, but rather a canny sense of marketing and promotion. DC, Dell/Gold Key and Charlton all had limited overseas licenses (usually in dedicated black-and-white anthologies like the much beloved Alan Class Comics such as Suspense) but Lee – or his business managers – went further, sanctioning Marvel’s revolutionary early efforts in regular British weeklies like Pow!, Wham!, Smash! and even the venerable Eagle. There were two wholly Marvel-ised papers, Fantastic! & Terrific! which ran from 1967 to 1968. These featured a plethora of key Marvel properties, and, appearing every seven days, soon exhausted the back catalogue of the company.
After years being a guest in other publications Marvel finally secured their own UK Annuals through World Distributors’ publishing arm and packaged courtesy of jobbing comics content outfit Mick Anglo Studios. This sparkling collection is one of the very best. Completely absent are the text pieces, quizzes and game pages that filled out British Christmas books, replaced with cover-to-cover superhero action mimicking the emergent House of Ideas at the very peak of their creative powers. It even includes a few almost Golden Age classics. Moreover it’s in full colour throughout – almost unheard of at the time.
A closer look by Marvel scholars would ascertain that all of the strips published here were actually taken from the wonderful 25¢ giants (Marvel Tales, Marvel Collector’s Item Classics and Marvel Superheroes) released during the preceding year, perfectly portioned out to fit into a book intended for a primarily new and young audience.
Behind the delightful painted cover the enchantment commences with a John Romita drawn Captain America tale from 1954, as the Sentinel of Liberty & Bucky lay waste to a scurvy gang of Red Chinese dope smugglers in ‘Cargo of Death’, followed by a spectacular Thor saga from Lee, Jack Kirby & Chic Stone as the Thunder God tackled ‘The Cobra and Mr. Hyde’, complete with cameo from the mighty Avengers.
The first of two Hulk shorts comes next, another Commie-busting classic with sci-fi overtones. Lee, Kirby & Dick Ayers’s ‘The Gladiator from Outer Space’ is a terrific all-action mini-blockbuster, perfectly complimented by Lee & Steve Ditko’s sinister crime shocker wherein Spider-Man is trapped between ‘The Goblin and the Gangsters!’
Unsung genius Bill Everett provided a brace of sublime Sub-Mariner tales, both from the fabulous 1950s. The secret origin saga ‘Wings on his Feet’ is the first and undeniable best of these, his magical line-work wonderfully enhanced by a bold colour palette and the crisp white paper stock of this comfortingly sturdy tome.
He’s followed by a masterful clash of titans as ‘Iron Man Faces Hawkeye the Marksman’ (Lee & Don Heck) before ‘The Hulk Triumphant’ (concluding chapter of the very first appearance wherein the Green Goliath ends the menace of Soviet mutation The Gargoyle)/ The book then closes with another enthralling Everett Sub-Mariner epic as the Prince of Atlantis defeats mad scientists and monsters ‘On a Mission of Vengeance!’
These oft-reprinted tales have never looked better than on the 96 reassuringly stout pages here: bold heroes and dastardly villains running riot and forever changing the sensibilities of a staid nation’s unsuspecting children. Magic, utterly Marvellous Magic!
© 1969 Perfect Film & Chemical Corporation, Marvel Comics Group. All rights reserved.
Today is pretty auspicious for births! In 1893 Robert Ripley (Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) was whelped, as was Red Ryder co-creator Stephen Slesinger in 1907, whilst Tarzan maestro and educational powerhouse Burne Hogarth showed up in 1911. Two years after that, Elliot Caplin (The Heart of Juliet Jones & Abbie an’ Slats) joined the party, whilst in 1920 Letterer Joe Rosen who lettered all the other Marvel classic stories was born.
Season’s Greetings, Boys, Girls and especially those Still Thinking About It!