Forty Years ago this Month

[dan bailey]

Wanted, the World's Most Dangerous Villains #4 - There was a dark, edgy feel to some of these golden age reprints that made me a bit uncomfortable as a kid (especially the Kid Eternity story, which involved torture).

Meant to mention that I'm pretty sure I bought this one as well; can't be sure, but from looking through the GCD a few months ago I was able to settle on the Green Lantern story as the likely source of my memories of my initial exposure to Solomon Grundy. That's the reason why #4 is the only ish of Wanted I've picked up till now (#s 5-9 are en route to my house from Lone Star as of yesterday).

(Unless I'm thinking of Super-Team Family #4, in which Grundy takes on the whole JSA, which actually rings more of a bell, even though that seems to be a bit late in the decade as far as vague memory is concerned ... Hmmm. Must dig up my issue & look at it.)

[Polar Bear]

What an amazing month for covers! Three each by Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, and Joe Kubert; two by Jim Steranko; one each by B. Smith, Cardy, Aparo, and Ploog ... I give up, it's a tie.

[Scott Harris]

Comics I own that hit the stands November, 1972:

Avengers #108
Captain America #158
Combat Kelly #5
Defenders #4 (I think I have this somewhere anyway)
Falling in Love #139
Jughead #212
Marvel Spotlight #8
Our Fighting Forces #141
Sub-Mariner #58
Supergirl #2
Superman #260
Tarzan #216
Thor #208
Young Love #102

Comic that means the most to me from this month... honestly, this is a pretty boring month. Maybe OFF #141 by default. Not much going on.

Comic I would most like to own from this month: Brave and the Bold #105 co-starring the I-Ching era Wonder Woman. I also need Wonder Woman #204. Interestingly, though these came out the same month, #204 features Wonder Woman returning to her original costume and powers, which I guess makes B+B #105 the last appearance of the I-Ching Wonder Woman.

Cover of the month: House of Mystery #210

[Slam_Bradley]

Still about 2 1/2 years before I started buying comics.

As usual, I've read most of the stuff that's been reprinted.

I think the only book I actually own an original of though is Wanted #5.

[dan bailey]

And I was still a year or so from returning to buying comics except in the most desultory fashion.

That definitely included picking up Creepy #44, though. And Adventure #416 rings one heckuva bell ... but there's every good chance I'm confusing it with the previous year's Super DC Giant #24, which I know I had because I've still got it, sans cover, &/or DC Special #3, which I'd bought off the spinner rack some 3 1/2 years earlier.

[berk]

I too was still a couple or more years away from getting back into comics. I especially regret missing out on these early issues of The Demon, Man-Thing, Englehart's Avengers run (although I still think it's a shame the art often wasn't up to snuff in that last named).

And of course the Barry Windsor-Smith Conan run, which was nearing its end.

[icctrombone]

Avengers 108 ,FF 131. Both excellent reads.

[Captain Jim]

Comics I specifically remember buying from this month:

Amazing Spider-Man 117
Astonishing Tales 16
Avengers 108
Brave & Bold 105
Captain America 158
Combat Kelly 5
Conan 23
Crazy 1
Daredevil 97
Defenders 4
Demon 5
Detective 431
Doc Savage 3
Fantastic Four 131
Fear 12
Ghosts 11
Gunhawks 3
Hero for Hire 6
House of Mystery 210
House of Secrets 104
Hulk 161
Iron Man 56
Jungle Action 3
Korak 50
Marvel Spotlight 8
Mr. Miracle 12
Phantom Stranger 23
Shanna the She Devil 2
Sub-Mariner 58
Jimmy Olsen 155
Supernatural Thrillers 2
Tarzan 216
Teen Titans 43
Thor 208
Unexpected 143
Vault of Evil 1
Wanted 5
Warlock 4
Weird Mystery 4
Witching Hour 27
Wonder Woman 204

This was my senior year of college, btw. Lots of good books, but one in particular I have a soft-spot for is Gunhawks. There were only a few issues but I really enjoyed them and thought there was unrealized potential here.

[Scott Harris]

December, 1972. Books on sale: http://mikesamazingworld.com/timemac...alpha&site=all

Comics I own from this month:

Avengers #109
Captain America #159
Demon #6
Fantastic Four #132
Frankenstein #2
From Beyond the Unknown #21
G.I. Combat #158
Ghosts #12
House of Mystery #211
Jughead #213
Life with Archie #130
Marvel Premiere #7
Night Nurse #3
Our Army at War #254
Sgt. Fury #108
Star Spangled War Stories #167
Sub-Mariner #59
Lois Lane #129
Tarzan #217
Thor #209
Weird Western #16

Comic this month that means the most to me personally: Avengers #109. Hawkeye quits and goes on a walkabout through a bunch of other titles for awhile. At least he gets back to his real costume after that terrible travesty he was wearing after the Kree-Skrull War.




Cover of the month. This is actually kind of a tough one, as there are some really nice covers this month, especially on the DC horror books. But Cover of the Month and Comic I would Most Like to Own from this month have to both go to Conan #24:

[Slam_Bradley]

Still a ways before I started buying comics. But I own

Doom Patrol 122
Shazam 1
Sword of sorcery 1
Wanted 6
Weird Worlds 4

[MRP]

I was only 3, so a little before I started getting comics to read, but I have acquired some of these over the years...

Hawkeye's departure in Avengers #109 was one of the first back issues I ever got when an elderly neighbor gave me some of the comics she kept for her grandkids when she determined they were too old for funny books. It was dog eared and the cover was detached but present, but man I loved getting to read an old Avengers comics (my Avengers reading started with issue #144 as the first issue I got of the main book and reprints in Marvel Triple Action. Finding a book form nearly 3 years before was a treasure trove for me since I had no idea it was possible to get old comics anywhere.

Currently I have...

Amazing Adventures 17
Captain Marvel 25
Marvel Premiere 7
Sword of Sorcery 1

most of the stash my neighbor gave me at the time seems to have come from around this time as well, from the the next month or two as Hero for Hire 8 and Marvel Premiere 8 were among them, and JLA 103 from the previous month was also part of the stash she gave me.

-M

Looking at the nearby months I recognize Combat Kelly 6 and Gunhawks 2 from those books I got. Ghost Manor 18 form Charlton was among them too but that is from a bit earlier. A little more poking around to find others form that stash show sit included Astonishing Tales 2 and 20, FF 139, X-Men 84 and Marvel Team Up 10. The covers are ingrained in my memory as I read them all so many times.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

Rather than review each one at length, I'll just give stars (five stars being the best). The ones I bought at the time were:

DC 100-Page Super Spectacular DC-14*****
Action Comics 421****
Batman 247***
Detective Comics 432***
The Flash 220***
Justice League of America 104**
Shazam! 1****
Superman 261***

And maybe a few others, but I forget if I got them at the time or later. Of course, there were some comics that I bought later that are real stand outs like Swamp Thing 3, Johnny Thunder 1, Kamandi 3 and Tarzan 217. Not to mention the Marvels that I've only read in reprints like CTB 24, Captain Marvel 25 and TOD 7.

[MWGallaher]

100-Page Super Spectacular DC-14 : This was the best deal of the month. The Golden Age classic Batman vs. the Monk story led a set of unquestionably top-notch reprints.
Adventure Comics #426 : I had not been inclined to pick up the new direction issues of Adventure, but this had the start of a new series ("The Adventurers Club") drawn by Jim Aparo. I also began to take a liking to the Vigilante, partly because of the simplicity of his costume.
Amazing Adventures #17 : I had picked up a few issues of the Beast's run prior to this, and I remember being disappointed by its cancellation, and bummed by the downer framing pages as drawn by Jim Starlin: Hank retreats into the darkness, saying farewell to us, the readers.
Captain Marvel #25 : I was developing a fascination with Marvel's Captain Marvel, although it was still a little beyond my grasp of Marvel continuity.
Challengers of the Unknown #78 : I liked DC's new line of reprint comics, short-lived though it would prove to be. Challengers was a new concept to me, and I didn't really like it that much.
Doom Patrol #122: Doom Patrol, on the other hand, seemed like one of the best comics ever.
Justice League of America #104 : I never missed JLA, but this issue was a letdown.
Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #3 : My first Kamandi. I would buy this on a very irregular basis, but eventually feel compelled to track down the entire Kirby run.
Marvel Team-Up #7 : As a lover of team-up comics, I bought MTU consistently, but I never really liked it. Everything felt inconsequential, especially in comparison with Brave & Bold.
Metal Men #42 : Still loving DC's reprint output, with this one striking me as better than Challengers, but lesser than Doom Patrol.
Shazam #1 : Eagerly awaited after all the hype, I tried to convince myself that I was loving this. I wasn't.
Spoof #4: Sold on the Blacula cover...I had recently seen that movie.
Superman #261 : I picked up Superman comics pretty often. I don't think the femdom cover particularly appealed to me, though.
Swamp Thing #3 : I would never pass up an issue of Swamp Thing.
Sword of Sorcery #1: I came to like these guys when they'd guested in Wonder Woman a few months back. Loved this series.
Wanted, the World's Most Dangerous Villains #6: Of all the defunct Golden Age characters at DC, Starman was one of my favorites.
World's Finest Comics #216: I thought the Super-Sons was a pretty stupid idea, but I bought most of them.
Favorite Comic of the Month: Super-Spec DC-14!
Best Cover of the Month: Creatures on the Loose #22: Steranko!
Comic From this Month That I Would Most Like to Have, but Don't: Johnny Thunder #1

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I'm "happy" to hear that someone else was let down by JLofA 104. It's not that it was really that bad, but I had been reading the Justice League on a regular basis for about a year and a half by then and every issue up to that point had been a winner. This was the first one where it was just okay. I remember that the response in the letter column had long time readers applauding the issue for returning to the Gardner Fox style. I had only read a handful of Fox League adventures at that time, but I didn't think Wein's story in 104 did him credit. Also, I've never been a big fan of inarticulate monster-men as villains.

[benday-dot]

Cover of the month. This is actually kind of a tough one, as there are some really nice covers this month, especially on the DC horror books. But Cover of the Month and Comic I would Most Like to Own from this month have to both go to Conan #24:

Ah, despite being itself "a last", as Barry Smith would go off into the sunset for awhile after this issue, this is a trifecta of firsts for me: the first Conan comic I ever bought, the first comic I ever bought at an LCS (i.e. not from the spinners) for $5.00, and really my first official foray into the Robert E. Howard, having previously only been given over only to desultory drooling of various Lancer paperbacks in the book stores.

Damn, CtB #24, still one of the finest comics ever wrought.