Mysterious JLA issue and early painted Marvel art

[dkwitt]

I have two questions.



1. Like Alan Moore, but probably 10 years after him, I used to find my first American comic books whilst on holiday in England (same seaside town, Yarmouth). One book that I looked through in the shop but never bought was I think an issue of Justice League of America. All I can remember is a panel of Aquaman, in his gold scaly uniform, standing with his head in the crook of his elbow, saying "THIS IS THE BLACKEST DAY OF MY LIFE". I remember it struck me because every word was in bold, and I couldn't work out how to read it to myself!

This was in the early / mid 1970s.



2. It is normal in England for new comics to give away free gifts as an incentive. One especially rubbish one was a tiny plastic model of Concorde which I think was mounted on a Fantastic Four comic. One that I have never seen reference to since then was a collection of stickers (I guess, I can't remember) which absolutely amazed me at the time as they were PAINTED. I can remember one of Daredevil quite vividly. I've never seen them since and don't know which other characters were included. I would love to see images of these once again.

This was in the early / mid 1970s.

[Tom-El]

This should get you started on your JLA search...

http://www.comics.org/series/1449/

Tom

[dkwitt]

Thanks Tom.
Found it! JLA #90, June 1971.
So that's one 40-year-old mystery solved.
Just those Marvel painted stickers or whatever they were now ...

[dkwitt]

Mystery solved!
They were a free gift with Avengers #1 (Marvel UK), and were subsequently offered for sale as posters.
I won't post a link to another site, but the "Steve Does Comics" blog entry for 3rd December 2011 entitled "Marvel's heroes. On the wall. Off the wall." has a scan of the original advert.
According to a comment on the blog they were painted by a Spanish artist named López Espí (you have GOT to search Google Images - incredible, incredible stuff!).
If you haven't seen them I recommend you take a look, they still look fantastic 40 years on. I can see how they blew my mind in 1972.

90p in 1972 was ten weeks' pocket money which explains why I never got them!