Forty Years ago this Month

[Judomaster]

A brief perusal of the Mike's news stand tells me I own:

Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #1
Combat Kelly #3
Conan #19
Ripley's Believe it or Not #35

Still a few years before I started buying new books, so these are back issue purchases.

Were I at the new stand today, and could only buy one of these books simply based on the cover alone, it would be a toss up between the awesome cover of Batman #244 or Our Fighting Forces #139

[Polar Bear]

Nothing much to say other than the normal Marvel/DC superhero stuff, except:

1) I'm sure I owned that issue of Ripley's Believe It or Not! at some point.

2) I didn't know Scamp ever had his own title! Nearly all Scamp issues had a majority of their stories drawn by Al Hubbard. As a result, I now have 28 more comics on my want list!! (Hubbard's Scamp stories are good for my soul.)

3) There's absolutely no way of knowing which Archies, Richie Riches, and other titles I owned back then. I only know I own none now. A few of the covers look a little familiar, but that's as much as I'm willing to commit to.

[dan bailey]

N
There's absolutely no way of knowing which Archies, Richie Riches, and other titles I owned back then. I only know I own none now. A few of the covers look a little familiar, but that's as much as I'm willing to commit to.

Same here. I owned at least as many Archie & Harvey titles as I did superhero & mystery titles, probably, & for that matter I've still got probably 100+ tattered old copies from back then ... but the covers & in many cases the first pages are long gone.

[Slam_Bradley]

3) There's absolutely no way of knowing which Archies, Richie Riches, and other titles I owned back then. I only know I own none now. A few of the covers look a little familiar, but that's as much as I'm willing to commit to.

My older siblings bought the occasional funnybook before I started buying for myself. They tended to be Archie or funny animal books. I read most of them over the years (they were kept in a big box in a closet/library. But I'll be darned if I can remember what issues any of them were. I do remember an issue of Gunhawks. And I remember my oldest brother having some issues of CarToons. But for the most part the books are vague memories.

[MWGallaher]

Forty years ago, I bought:
BRAVE & BOLD 103: I had gotten hooked by the previous 2 issues, but Bob Brown was no Jim Aparo. I didn't know who the Metal Men were.
FEAR 10: I loved Man-Thing almost as much as Swamp Thing. This is one of those comics, as is the B&B 103, for which I can remember where I bought it (both were in very unusual places for me to be shopping for comics).
JLA 101: Now this was what I bought comics for! The first JLA/JSA team-up I got to enjoy, and the 7 Soldiers came along with it! I was especially taken with Vigilante and Sandman.
PHANTOM STRANGER 21: I learned very quickly that I loved the work of Jim Aparo. This one really wowed me.
SUPERBOY 190: For some reason, this was one of the first series that I picked up regularly. And this issue didn't even have any monsters in it, but I bought it anyway.
TEEN TITANS 41: TT was continuing to ape the mystery comics with their cover designs, and that suckered me in almost every time.
WONDER WOMAN 202: I'd been impressed with the previous issue or two, and I really loved this Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stuff.
Comic of the Month and Cover of the Month: Phantom Stranger 21: still one of my all-time favorite covers, which I've written about before.
Comic I wish I had now: I've gotten several of these as back issues over the past 40 years, but I'd kind of like to have Wyatt Earp #30. I almost never bought western comics, and I love 'em now.

[JKCarrier]

There's absolutely no way of knowing which Archies, Richie Riches, and other titles I owned back then.

Ha, same here. My brother was a fan of Archie and Richie Rich, and I would read his books, but they all kind of blur together. The stuff I know I owned:

Superboy #190
Teen Titans #41
Wanted #2

[zilch]

Amazing Spider-Man #113 (JR gets good!)
Avengers #104
Captain America #154
Daredevil #92 (digging the (to me) weird Colan art)
Defenders #2 (more Sal Buscema Hulk n Subby!!)
Doc Savage #1
FF #127
Hero For Hire #3
Justice League of America #101
Marvel Spotlight #6
Our Fighting Forces #139*
Sub-Mariner #54
Warlock #2
X-Men #78 (Werner Roth holds his own artwize with everybody else this month!)

* Brother's subscription, still liked it tho!

Another killer month!!!

[Scott Harris]

Comics I own that came out in July, 1972:

Adventure #423
Avengers #104
Captain America #154
Combat Kelly #3
Falling in Love #136
Journey Into Mystery #1
Marvel Spotlight #6
Our Fighting Forces #139
Phantom Stranger #21
Sgt. Fury #103
Lois Lane #126
Thor #204
Wonder Woman #202

Comics I used to own from this month but no longer do:

Iron man #51

Looking over this month I have to say I think I have missed the most interesting comics the month had to offer. There are several ones on here that i don't have which I would like to own, while the ones I do own are just okay. Nothing spectacular.

Cover of the month is a close one, because Conan #19 is great with some really unexpected coloring. But really, you have to go with bare-chested batman, right?




Comic of the month that means to the most to me is probably Captain America #154, classic story co-starring the Avengers:




Comic I would most like to own that I don't currently own. This is a tough one. Batman #244, Conan #19, Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #1, Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #7. But I have to pick Gunhawks #1:

[Rob Allen]

This was when I was easing out of my Marvel Zombie phase. I bought all the Marvels this month except the reprint books, war books and westerns, although I did get Gunhawks #1. From DC I bought the Kirby Mr. Miracle and the Burroughs books, including the Tarzan Digest. It was a few more months before I added the DC superheroes and the Warren, Charlton and Skywald horror books.

[Judomaster]

Due to the enjoyment I get out of reading these "this month in history" threads, and my never-ending search for new ways to focus my comic book spending, I've decided to use Mike's newsstand info to make a monthly purchase of "new' comics. What i plan to do is to buy between 5-10 comics from the newsstand of 40 years past. I'll post my purchases here and offer a few thoughts on the books. I won't be buying anything I already own, and will make my choices based largely on the allure of the cover. I'm going to try to diversify the purchases so that I am not just buying from one genre or publisher. On occasion, I will also be constrained by the cost of books from the month in question.

If no one minds, I'll post my short reviews of my "new" book purchases from 40 years past here in this thread.

I've placed an online order for my August selections already...

[prince hal]

Cool idea, Judomaster!

I just hope Bobby Sherman 6 is on your pull list.

[Judomaster]

Cool idea, Judomaster!

I just hope Bobby Sherman 6 is on your pull list.

It certainly made my short list!

[prince hal]

Be still, my beating heart!

[Kan-Man]

This is right at the beginning of my collecting days (I'm 44) and it's a little hard to tell which issues were purchased off the spinner racks and which ones I acquired later. Also, my older brother and I combined our collections when we first starting reading comics so I don't know which ones were mine or which ones were his.

Having said that, the ones I know for sure I owned...

Batman 244 (I believe I've listed this as my favorite comic and favorite cover in our Xmas countdowns)

B&B 103

Detective 427

JLA 101 (another all-time favorite)

Superman 256

Tarzan 212

The titles I might have owned...

Gunhawks, Brothers of the Spear and Jungle Action.

And I'll echo the sentiments of those who can't remember their Archies from their Sad Sacks. I had (and still have) a bunch of them, but they all blend together in my memory.

[berk]

I read a lot of Hot Stuff and Caspar and things like that as well but it would have been a few years earlier. I don't remember buying them - they just seemed to be around all the time in the neighbourhood.

The Archie comics too - though I never really liked them much - that whole Archie world always felt a little alien to me.