Forty Years ago this Month

[T GUy]

See you soon in June!

And here we are, already!

97 books out that month and I own 15 of 'em.

Adventure Comics
All-Star Western
Amazing Adventures
Avengers
Batman
Brave and the Bold
Detective
Forever People
Marvel Spotlight (Nov. issue)
New Gods
Our Army at War
Star-Spangled War Stories
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane
World's Finest Comics
Young Romance

I have one in Essentials/Showcase collections:

Captain America

Another twelve are on my wants list:

Binky
Falling in Love
G. I. Combat
Girls' Love Stories
Heart Throbs
Mad About Millie Annual
Millie the Model Annual
Sugar and Spike
Swing With Scooter
Unexpected*
The Witching Hour*
Sub-Mariner

*Subject to contents


Cover of the month: Star-Spangled War Stories
Issue of the month: New Gods

Honourable mentions:

Cover: All-Star Western, Young Romance
Issue: Forever People


And lastly, a new feature:

Puzzle of the month: Marvel Spotlight

[The Darknight Detective]

There were some good comics that came out that month. Sadly, this is the only one that I bought at the time: Lancelot Link, Super Chimp #1.



What can I say? I was a little kid at the time, and I liked that tv show.

No need to apologize, Shellhead. I loved that show myself. Never understood how they taught him how to speak, though.

[The Darknight Detective]

And least we not forget, my personal favorite afterschool show, the Banana Splits.

I'm old enough to remember that show when it was originally on Saturday mornings on NBC. Fleegle ruled!

[TAG]

On sale July, 1971…

While all the covers look vaguely familiar this month, I’ll go with this one..


Kree-Skrull War part 4 story by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema
Most likely bought this one at a convention.


Although I don’t own it, Teen Titans #35, once again, gets my nod as the favorite.

[prince hal]

Go to Mike's unbelievably cool site:

http://www.dcindexes.com/newsstand/r...r=1971&month=7

Then count down five rows and look at the second cover from the left.

This was comic book nirvana that summer.

[edhopper]

Only book I was buying



But in a few months I would start buying most of the Marvel line.

[LEADER DESSLOK]

WOW! This GRAND COMIC BOOK DATABASE is SENSATIONAL!!! With it, I was able to finally track down THE FIRST COMIC BOOK I EVER OWNED! It was



PORKY PIG (and BUGS BUNNY) #45!

I remember I was in the second grade, suffering from a bout of the Mumps (a couple of months after recovering from The Measles!) and I was feeling miserable. I had this stupid bandage wrapped around my head and I was confined to my room. My Grandmother visited me and she brought me a small bag of what I thought were flimsy little coloring books. I looked for some crayons and tore the bag open. I was introduced to a world I was somewhat familiar with because of the "funny papers" but here were little books devoted to a single character--AND you sometimes got more than one story!

"Coloring books are kidstuff," I thought. From then on I copied from the comics (using a white lined paper notebook and a Bic 4-Color Pen) and eventually, I started coming up with my own stuff. (My Grandmother told me to make up my own stories so I wouldn't get sued! Some of these present day 'superstars" could have learned a LOT from my "nanna"!)

There were other comics in the bag but I remember this one the most vividly because it was on "top" and faced the reader, plus, I was familiar with the characters from television! I highly recommend this GCDb and I want to extend my gratitude to its makers, for helping me solve a mystery that's bugged me for a little under 40 years!

[dan bailey]

Go to Mike's unbelievably cool site:

http://www.dcindexes.com/newsstand/r...r=1971&month=7

Then count down five rows and look at the second cover from the left.

This was comic book nirvana that summer.

Huh. I didn't even know there was a comic called The Super Adventures of prince hal.

Live & learn.

[Scott Harris]

This was a really good month. My pick for which comic means the most to me also has to be Avengers #92. But there are several great comics and covers from this month. Beyond the aforementioned DC Super Spectacular #6, Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #101 are also personal picks ( 6-armed Spidey FTW!). Marvel Feature #1 introduces the Defenders to the world. And most importantly, despite my official pick, how can anyone go against this epic classic:




Kirby Says: DON'T ASK! JUST BUY IT!

Sold!

[dan bailey]

Whereas, of course, it's no wonder that grumpy little 11-year-old me had pretty much stopped buying anything for a couple or 3 years. Even that young, I thought crap like that Jimmy Olsen reeked of Kirby being too idiotic for words, & as noted a few months back, 6-armed Spider-Man marked a profound shark-jumping in my eyes. I hadn't looked at the series in at least a year, but a friend had those 6-arm issues, & when I looked at his copies I was appalled.

In both instances, to me those examples smacked of DC's & Marvel's obviously thinking, "It doesn't matter what sort of absurd garbage we run up the flagpole -- those drooling little idiots are sure to salute it!" (The fact that people are still saluting it 4 decades later is a bit ... unsettling.)

Mind you, I was 11. It's hardly surprising I'm such an acid-tongued (or, for the purposes of the internet, -fingered) curmudgeon at 51.

[Scott Harris]

Jack Kirby. Don Rickles. Jimmy Olsen. I just don't understand how anyone could view this combination as anything but genius.

On a related note, I'm curious about the two magazine sized DC issues on the list for this month, In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World. I've never heard of these but after some quick googling I see they were both all-Kirby magazines that never saw a second issue. Has anyone read these? I'm very curious about these, as Kirby hadn't really done much outside the superhero genre for a long time and these seem so out of left field compared to his other work from the time period.

[T GUy]

110 funnybooks on sale this month! if you ignore Archie and Harvey...

The stats:

I have 19:

Astonishing Tales
Avengers
Batman
Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love
Date With Debbi
DC 100-page Super-Spectacular No. 6
Detective
Ghosts
House of Mystery
In the Days of the Mob
Marvel Feature
Mr Miracle
Our Army at War
Spirit World
Lois Lane
Jimmy Olsen
Tomahawk
Wonder Woman
World's Finest

I have three in reprint form:

Cap 142 (Essential Vol 3)
Phantom Stranger (Showcase presents)
DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular No.5 (facsimile/reprint, circa... 2001?)

13 on the wants list:

Adventure
Amazing Spider-Man
Chilli Annual
Girls' Romances
Haunted
Millie the Model
Our Fighting Forces
Sub-Mariner
Teen Titans
Unexpected
Weird War Tales
Young Love
Young Romance



Cover of the Month: Our Army at War

Honourable Mention: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love


Issue of the Month: Jimmy Olsen

[T GUy]

Oh, and is it just me, or are there a lot of first issues there?

Marvel Feature
Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love
In the Days of the Mob
Spirit World
Haunted
Chilli Annual

...just off the top of my head.

[dan bailey]

Jack Kirby. Don Rickles. Jimmy Olsen. I just don't understand how anyone could view this combination as anything but genius.

There's a very thin line, sometimes, between genius & abject stupidity is about all I can say. One guess as to which side I think this one comes down on.

On a related note, I'm curious about the two magazine sized DC issues on the list for this month, In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World. I've never heard of these but after some quick googling I see they were both all-Kirby magazines that never saw a second issue. Has anyone read these? I'm very curious about these, as Kirby hadn't really done much outside the superhero genre for a long time and these seem so out of left field compared to his other work from the time period.

I think I vaguely remember seeing one or both on the 'stands at the time. I acquired a decent copy (with middle-of-the-issue poster included, as is often note the case, I gather) of Spirit World for cheap off eBay a few years ago but have had no such luck with desultory searches for Mob. I believe a 3rd one was slated to come out called "Famous Divorces" or some such, & maybe even a 4th one with some sort of black-focused theme, but of course those never materialized.

Pity. I would've liked these loads better than what I saw then & see now as his post-'69 superhero silliness. The aborting of the B&W projects might have been the first instance of DC's crushing the King's spirit, as it were.

(Even though I obviously don't have any use for the Fourth World stuff, etc., I like to think I have no less respect for Kirby as a creative force, paradoxical as that no doubt seems. So what if he couldn't, IMHO, write for crap? Ted Williams probably couldn't have pitched for crap, either, but he was still one of the greatest baseball players ever. The difference, as I've alluded to in so many words before, is that Red Sox management almost certainly would never have been brainless enough to let the Splendid Splinter take a regular turn on the mound if he'd been misguided enough to decide he wanted to. Would that DC leadership had had the guts to tell the King he needed a strong editor.)

[TAG]

WOW! This GRAND COMIC BOOK DATABASE is SENSATIONAL!!! With it, I was able to finally track down THE FIRST COMIC BOOK I EVER OWNED! It was PORKY PIG (and BUGS BUNNY) #45.

Although the GCD is a great reference site, it doesn’t allow comic covers to be copied onto other sites. We can’t see your cover to PORKY PIG (and BUGS BUNNY) #45.
Use the following site for covers: www.comic-covers.com

I remember I was in the second grade, suffering from a bout of the Mumps (a couple of months after recovering from The Measles!) and I was feeling miserable. I had this stupid bandage wrapped around my head and I was confined to my room. My Grandmother visited me and she brought me a small bag of what I thought were flimsy little coloring books. I looked for some crayons and tore the bag open. I was introduced to a world I was somewhat familiar with because of the "funny papers" but here were little books devoted to a single character--AND you sometimes got more than one story!

Appreciate the story. It’s great to hear other people's trips down memory lane.

Jack Kirby. Don Rickles. Jimmy Olsen. I just don't understand how anyone could view this combination as anything but genius. .

Hey, you can never go wrong with Don Rickles….you hockey puck!

110 funnybooks on sale this month! if you ignore Archie and Harvey...
The stats:
I have 19:
Astonishing Tales
Avengers
Batman
Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love
Date With Debbi
DC 100-page Super-Spectacular No. 6
Detective
Ghosts
House of Mystery
In the Days of the Mob
Marvel Feature
Mr Miracle
Our Army at War
Spirit World
Lois Lane
Jimmy Olsen
Tomahawk
Wonder Woman
World's Finest

I have three in reprint form:

Cap 142 (Essential Vol 3)
Phantom Stranger (Showcase presents)
DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular No.5 (facsimile/reprint, circa... 2001?)

13 on the wants list:

Adventure
Amazing Spider-Man
Chilli Annual
Girls' Romances
Haunted
Millie the Model
Our Fighting Forces
Sub-Mariner
Teen Titans
Unexpected
Weird War Tales
Young Love
Young Romance
Cover of the Month: Our Army at War
Honourable Mention: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love
Issue of the Month: Jimmy Olsen

And once again more diversity in the selection than you’ll find today.