Redartz: Good day, comics fans! Today we are discussing the 'leftovers' of the comics world: the reprint books. For as long as comic books have been around, there have been reprints. Indeed, among the very first comics was "Famous Funnies", which reprinted newspaper comic strips in comic book form. So our hobby owes much to these re-tellings.
Of course, they haven't gotten as much respect as 'first run' titles. Listings in price guides and online are always lower for reprints. And such books tend to be found languishing in those "quarter boxes" and "dollar bins", collecting bends from being rifled over and past. I am guilty of this disrespect, as well: as a young collector, I avoided reprint books like the plague; only first printings for this fanboy. However, that viewpoint changed over the years. As original printings of many silver and bronze age books are now prohibitively expensive, and earlier books just plain scarce, reprints are a wise alternative. And today's editions are truly deluxe: I love those Omnibus editions...
Anyway, for years the earlier tales of our favorite characters have been available from the publishers as reprints. Dell, DC and Gold Key often included reprinted tales in current comics alongside the new stories. And DC would publish periodic "80 page giants" which were all reprint. Then, still later, were the 100-page Spectaculars; with Golden age as well as Silver age stories.
Marvel jumped on the reprint wagon early: "Marvel Tales", originally an annual, was reprinting the first stories of Spider-Man, Thor and others just a few short years after they originally appeared (Marvel Tales, and it's sister "Marvel Collector's Item Classics" were very cool books featuring several stories in each issue, until the page count dropped in the early 70's). And over subsequent years, Marvel added many more reprint titles. One big negative, I must note, was the practice of shaving several pages of story from the original in order to fit the lower page count in Bronze age books. That was part of the reason I formerly avoided such books.
So...let's have a look at some of these reprint books, and see what they offered...
And let me offer a big "Thank You" to my pal Marti for his cover contributions and the accompanying comments!
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| Sometimes classics had modern cover re-imaginings! |
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| Sometimes originals (1972) were reprinted in prime comics just a few years later (1975)! |
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| Once in a while much older tales popped in: classic Silver Age and even some Golden Age stories! |
This one actually specialized in Golden age; while also containing some fun horror/monster stories from the 50's and early 60's...
While the second volume gave us the Silver Surfer...
I always had a fondness for the covers, such as the Marvel Tales below, which depicted several covers from the original stories...
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| Sometimes art was changed slightly or mirror images were created for the covers! |
This is an example of a cover which, I feel, was improved by the changes for the reprint issue...
And here are three DC reprint comics with some Silver Age stories. The DC Special saluting Carmine Infantino was one of my earliest comics purchases (when I had no idea who he was)...
What did you think of all those reprints? Tell us your 'marvel tales' regarding all your 'collector's item classics'...
28 comments:
Great topic! I was a big fan of Marvel Tales. When I was very young, I didn't understand the concept of reprints, so I just thought of Marvel Tales as a "Spider-Man" comic. In the days before TPBs and Masterworks, series like "Tales" and Marvel Triple Action were the only way you could read classic stories without spending a lot of money on the original comic.
The other great thing was that often I would read a reprinted story and then 2 months later it would be referenced in the (then) current issues. For instance, Marvel Tales would reprint a Green Goblin story, a month later the story would be mentioned in an Amazing Spider-Man story that featured Hobgoblin.
I was a great fan of Marvel Tales, especially back in '73 when I was starvin' for anything Captain America, FF or Spidey-related. I like some of the early Bronze Steranko covers for the MGC reprints, and I certain agree on how some of the reprint covers outdoing the originals.
Case in point....? Marvel Tales 44. A far more dynamic and iconic cover than it's original cover on ASM 61.
But what finally started me buying the old floppies was my purchase of ASM 121 a few years back. It had an entire page of classic tension and angst leading up to Gwen's death that I missed with the Tales issue. Learned my lesson. :)
I could write volumes on the roll reprints played for me.
First, Marvel was mostly reprinting earlier Marvel like ASM and FF. D.C. Was mostly reprinting Golden Age. I understood Marvel reprints chronologically but couldn't quite put DC's in context since I was a young boy. Did D.C. Ever regularly reprint their Silver Age stuff during the Silver Age like Marvel?
Hi! Second, it wasn't until Steranko's History of Comics hit the bookstores (remember those???) that the Golden Age and thus DC's and Marvel (Fantasy Masterpieces) reprints finally "made sense" to me.
Charlie brings up a great point. I too was confused by the DC Golden Age stuff. I guess that eventually evolved into an Earth 2 but taken out of context it was strange. I only ran a bit into that disconnect on the Marvel side when I read a Golden Age Vision reprint in Marvel Super Heroes; I didn't understand what was going on at all with that ultra violent Vizh. I also really miss the Marvel asterisked editorial captions that would direct the reader as to when something occurred. It made everything much more connected with simple statements like "*Last Issue" or "*Back In Avengers 72". Flashbacks were used a lot too - which helped. I loved reading previous issues or reprints and stumbling across the full story of something that was referenced elsewhere. It really seemed a mainstay in Marvel to find a few panels or page in each book that referenced some other event.
Just an collecting update, just grabbed ASM 64 and 107 off eBay last night, since I had the Vulture story for many years in Marvel Tales. I'm looking forward to what I missed in the original issue sans the early 70s advertisements.
Also been back to grabbing 12/15cent Superboy issues with the awesome Neal Adams covers. Been into a vintage Superboy kick of late.
It's hard to decide at times which company (DC or Marvel) had the best approach to 'classic tales'.., 100 Page Spectaculars and later Batman/Superman Family issues or reprint titles?
Both had wonderful charm and great covers.
Yep, reprint books were a big part of the Bronze Age experience. In fact, as I've mentioned before, my very first Spidey comic was in fact an issue of Marvel Tales (#59). Like Redartz, as I became a more "sophisticated" comics reader, I started to look down a bit on reprint titles, but that didn't stop me from reading them, since they were an easy and cheap way to bone up on the history of my favorite characters - and I was really loving the Silver Surfer and Sub-mariner reprints in the revived Fantasy Masterpieces and Tales to Astonish, with all of that classic art by Big John.
As to the question of which company's approach to reprints I preferred, it's hard to say. By the time I was heavily reading comics, i.e., the late '70s, DC was mainly reprinting stories in their digest books, which I absolutely loved, and devoured. I think the approach DC editorial took, mainly reprinting "best of" stories featuring its main characters, made sense, since they had such an immense back-catalog of stories to choose from, and I think if they had gone down the route of just doing month-to-month reprints of, say, Superman and Batman stories, especially from the 1950s or 1960s, it would have made for monotonous reading.
Martin I remember that Vizion story from Timely being reprinted! And I agree that Marvel's references to past issues really made me feel like I was "in the know!" So cool!
Love this topic and have very fond memories of reprints, specifically Marvels in the early to mid 70s.
Like J.A., at first I thought reprints were just another comic. Somewhere along the way I realized they were "old" stories. That realization actually enhanced my enjoyment of the then-current books. Marvel Tales (Spidey), Triple Action (Avengers), Greatest Comics (FF), Double Feature (TOS - Cap and IM), Superheroes (TTA - Hulk and Subby), Spectacular (Thor) were, for a time, as important to me as the first run books. They brought the whole Marvel universe together for me.
Then, in the late 70s I had a friend in high school tell me I was wasting my money on the reprint books. Looking back on it now, I wish that was one time I hadn't listened to him. Oh well, c'est la vie.
However, I was never crazy about reprints that were randomly brought about by the Dreaded Deadline Doom. Falls in the category of poor planning on someone else's part...
Tom
Charlie Horse 47- as for DC Silver Age reprints, it seems they did some here and there (for example, in those DC Special issues above. The Infantino issue reprints several 60's stories, including Flash, Batman and Detective Chimp(!). Their 80 page giants apparently had both Silver and earlier, I have a Superman giant with the "Death of Supeman" (not the 90's version) reprinted. In the Bronze age, DC went to digests as Edo noted, also using the Treasury edition format.
Edo- great point about DC and the scattershot approach they took to reprints. As you said, with so much material to cover, it only makes sense to cherry pick and not worry about consecutive issue publishing.
Tom- we had the same early reaction to reprint books. When I first started reading comics, Spider-Man was my fave, and Romita was doing the art. I picked up Marvel Tales, which at the time was reprinting Ditko stories. I thought, "What in the world is this?" It was only later that I came to love Ditko art, and to realize that the stories were set earlier.
My favourite US reprint mags were always the DC 100 pagers. Thanks to Marvel UK, I had an in-depth knowledge of Marvel's history but the 100 pagers were virtually the only place where I could learn about DC's history. On top of that, they had a hundred pages. If a hundred pages of super-hero action didn't grab me, nothing would.
I should also give a mention to DC's Secret Origins which also filled me in on DC history, even if I'd never heard of half the characters whose origins they were reprinting.
Marvel Tales was a thing for me, as were the Pocket Books (esp. Doctor Strange)
But my main exposure to reprints was through Marvel UK black and white comics. These remain the distilled essence of childhood for many. Yes, they were a primer on the rich history of the MU, but the little extras were fun too. Competitions, fan art pages, UK letters pages etc.
And being both weekly and cheaper than the imported comics, they not only chewed up content but filled a hole between often random shipments of American originals.
Earlier 60s reprints - 'Fantastic Comics' etc - included occasional artistic retouches to change American cultural references. Which can be fun to ID.
I have a whole bunch of these UK prints and they (almost) give me as much pleasure as the originals.
I started collecting in the summer of '76, just before Jeanette Kahn became publisher of DC. It was at about that time that DC stopped doing regular re-prints. Reading about that new policy, and the letters from fans decrying reprints, helped to make this formative collector a reprint-rejector! However, I did pick up the Marvel Tales issues that re-printed the "Harry on drugs" issues and the death of Gwen issues, because those stories were constantly being referred to in the regular Spidey stories and the letter columns. (Letter columns were invaluable in shaping my tastes and filling in history!) I did enjoy things like the Spider-Man pocket books and the DC digests. I remember when in the early 80's Marvel Tales went back to the Ditko stories. My friend Gary was buying them, and we could compare them to the stories in the pocket book. For instance, originally Peter Parker and his friends would talk about seeing movies with Peter Sellars, or Tony Curtis. Other names were used in the reprints. Tom Sellack maybe?
Many years later, I found the delight in picking up a bunch of Triple Actions or Marvel Greatest in the back issue boxes for short money!
Loved reprints! Could read stuff that was otherwise unavailable.
DC- JSA and Superman from the 1940s. Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Deadman, Batman by Neal Adams--these had the glossy 1980s paper with vibrant colors, and no ads. Manhunter by Simonson, Ironwulf by Chaykin, Swamp Thing by Wrightson.
Marvel- X-Men and Kree-Skrull war by Neal Adams, Dr. Strange by Brunner, Moon Knight from the Hulk mag, Conan by Smith, Warlock and Captain Marvel by Starlin.
In the last 10 years most of my collection has become reprints. There's a half price sale on Omnibuses (Omnibi?) at my local shop now, so I picked up Kirby FF and Kane Green Lantern. May have to go back and get some more! I love the CRIME Omnibus by Simon and Kirby, as that stuff from the '40s would be virtually impossible to find.
Like J.A. and Tom, I got confused by Marvel Tales when I was young; I couldn't figure out why Gwen Stacy only showed up there, never in Amazing or Spectacular! Once I realized what a reprint was, I loved the idea of getting those old stories really cheap. Same goes for Classic X-Men.
For DC, I was a big fan of the DC Special/Blue Ribbon Digests; lots of classic stories, including some great Batman, Superman, and Legion stuff.
I am going to swim upstream on this topic, which I am sort of surprised at my loneliness against this current. As a child (read that again), I absolutely hated reprints. As Tom said, the in-continuity "oops, here, have a reprint" drove me crazy. But the books like Marvel Tales, Marvel Triple Action, etc. were definitely looked down upon. An impressionable lad, my one-year-older friend told me "you don't want that -- it's a reprint. It won't be worth anything." Of course, if you could have seen the condition of the "new" comics I was collecting at the time, they weren't worth anything anyway. I think he'd been poisoned by an older brother. Anyway, I will seriously write my disdain off to that sage advice I received. Sheesh, we were 7 and 8 years old. What in the world did we know? Answer - nothing.
Because, were I to do it all over again I would totally jump on those opportunities to own Silver Age Marvel stories (DC, not so much... Legion or Batman, yes). What a boon to fans to keep that material alive.
You all know that these days the only things I buy and enjoy are reprints. Older, wiser. But as a kid -- don't even wave that under my nose.
Doug
Hiya,
Well, for me, the big reprint books were my introduction to the Marvelverse. The cost of a standard size comic book was twelve cents an issue and the reprints had three stories, maybe more, each. I always thought that I was getting more bang for my quarter. And the number of actual new books that reached the magazine stand where I lived, a jewelry store actually, was strangely limited but the reprints seemed to get there on a regular basis.
Besides, it was Lee and Ditko, Lee and Kirby and Lee and everybody else. Of course I reveled in these books.
Now I can see why reprints became a contentious subject later on; badly edited to fit the seventeen page limit and usually appearing to fill the place of a missed deadline from the regular creative crew. That I fully understand and I usually left those on the racks.
By the by, to any English readers of this blog, there was a very brief time when Marvel was using some of the stories produced by English talent for the English market as filler for some of the reprints. It was an interesting experience to see a
different take on the Marvel characters, usually Bruce Banner running into a Hammer Horror monster as he criss crossed the lonely countryside. Sometimes cultural reference got a bit confused, especially when one writer had both alligators and moors in a New England setting.
Still fun though.
Seeya
pfgavigan
Hey Gang,
This was puzzling me all day and now that I'm home from work...
Is the mother of all reprints Captain America 155 and 156. They reprinted a few pages of CA from the 1950s fighting the Red Skull. Then the real / original / pre-clone CA and Falcon had to beat down the 1950s Cap and Bucky b/c they had outlived their usefulness as "commie busters." In a way this is profound in that they tinkered with the origin to give us two caps, eventually two Buckies. Needless to say that my young mind just could not get it's head around two caps and one bucky co-existing. Steranko's History could not bail me out!
Hiya,
Hey Charlie Horse 47
Steranko's History of the Comics never got out of the Forties, as I recall, so the Fifties revival under the Atlas logo wouldn't have been covered. However, Roy Thomas's Alter Ego did an excellent study of the failed attempt and even identified the previous uncredited artwork to the very young and learning John Romita Sr.
https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/alter_ego__35
The above link might help a bit and the included information on Al Jaffee's tenure on the far more successful Paty Walker titles is a definite eye opener.
Enjoy
pfgavigan
Thanks PF! I'll check it out! You are right about Steranko. He intended 7 volumes but stopped after 2, basically covering pulps through demise of 1940s super heroes. Those massive splash pages:Kirby's of Cap and Bucky fighting Nazis and Everett's Submariner vs Torch are easily two of the most beautiful pieces of comic art I've ever laid eyes on!
The reprint series were my entry into Marveldom. The first Marvel comics I ever had were several Giant-Sized issues......Marvel Triple Action #1, Marvel Tales, which featured Spidey and the Vulture and Spidey vs the Chameleon, maybe one with Spidey and Kraven the Hunter, and I think a Thor issue with Ego The Living Planet. I loved those, but I had trouble getting into the new Marvels at the time because I always came in during the middle of an arc of some kind. Later on, I got into the FF with Marvel's Greatest Comics, Cap and Shellhead in Marvel Double Feature, the Avengers with Marvel Triple Action, Thor with Marvel Spectacular, and Spidey with Marvel Tales. Even after I got into the new developments with each, I still bought the reprint titles.
I started out with DC and I had several of the 80 pagers. When I started reading comics regularly, DC was doing their 25 cent Bigger & Better/48 Pages/52 Pages run and they were great sources of the company's history. I hit the 100 Page era just right and I got as many of those as I could find. I just loved the Golden Age stories in those issues. I really wished that I had been around when Marvel was running those Golden Age stories in the late 60's because my Golden Age Timely history is pretty limited.
When I worked out the Marvel Tales and World's Greatest Comics reprints were cutting several pages of primo Ditko and Kirby art, I started mail-ordering the original 60s comics.
I remember how outrageous it was having to pay around $1.50 each for them just 10 years or so after they'd come out @12/15 cents.
I should add, the most pivotal 'reprint' book for me was the 'Origins of Marvel Comics'. That's when I finally got a handle on the histories of my fave books and characters.
Oh, and who else dug those huge Marvel Treasury editions?!
Glenn- the Treasury Editions were a great, unique feature of the Bronze Age.Wish they still were published today. Those big books will very likely be the subject of discussion here one of these days...
A slightly different version of the reprint: I remember in some of the 100 page editions of Flash they presented stories of the golden age Flash with the original script but with new artwork. DC said at the time that the original artwork wasn't of a high enough standard for the modern comic reader.
Redartz, that'd be a great topic on here. I'm one of those dumbos who sold all my comics when I 'grew up' in the '80s and regretted it ever since. I've since re-collected most of the Marvel Treasuries, though, I really made of point of doing that : )
Allen, that'd be interesting to compare the original art with the 'superior modern' art!
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