Bronze-Age Marvel Annuals-Why pick and choose certain titles?

[METAROG]

I was bagging up some of my Marvels and when I get to the Annuals I usually have to go with bigger bags so two can fit into one with a board. Anyway I noticed that certain lesser known titles have lots of Annuals while others have none or just one. Does anyone know or have a theory why Marvel chose Annuals for a certain title and not others?

When Marvel started issuing Annuals with new content again in 1976 after several years without them titles such as Tarzan and John Carter had three Annuals even though the regular series only ran 28 issues. Eternals ran less than 20 issues yet it got an Annual but Captain Marvel, Nova, Kull, Ghost Rider and Spider-Woman all ran longer and never got one. There are also several long running series such as Dr. Strange, Master of Kung-Fu, Power-Man (later with Iron Fist), and Defenders who only got one annual in their whole run. Any thoughts?

[MWGallaher]

I can imagine an extra push to produce more ERB comics for the foreign market, perhaps as part of the licensing agreement. As for the ongoing Marvel Universe titles, I get the impression that things in those days were a little bit slap-dash, but maybe it was entirely (except for the ERB books) based on sales. That is, if Defenders had a surge in sales one year, they got an Annual, and if sales slipped the next, they didn't?

[METAROG]

That does make some sense except that some of the non ERB titles such as Eternals got an Annual only a few issues before they were cancelled. It could be the process was very informal as you suggested... I just thought that Marvel would put more research and planning into this. Thanks for the input MWG!

[benday-dot]

There are also several long running series such as Dr. Strange, Master of Kung-Fu, Power-Man (later with Iron Fist), and Defenders who only got one annual in their whole run. Any thoughts?

And yet some of those titles got a bonanza of Giant-Size issues... Defenders had 5, and MoKF had 4. Doctor Strange only had 1 on the other hand. The difference between an Annual and a Giant-Size seems a bit academic, though the latter might seem to carry a little punch in its name. Maybe it was thought that some of the lesser known books could benefit from a "Giant-Size!" special rather than a mere annual.

[Shellhead]

Bronze age fans were surprised to see Giant-Size Man Thing.

[InfoBroker]

I'll add an assumption to the Eternals annual. Jack was on contract at the time to produce x-amount of pages per year, this would have been one way to bump the count and meet his quota.

-jb the (doesn't hurt that it is one of my favorite Eternals' stories) ib -