Recently in Giant-Size Marvels Category

Here is the original black and white artwork for Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (1976) by Gil Kane (inked by either Romita or Sinnott or both).  You can see the paste-up logos over the artwork.  I did another post a year ago that featured Kane's sketch layout for this Giant Superhero Holiday Grab Bag.  Nuff said!

In 1974 Marvel introduced us to something a heck of lot larger than good old Giant-Size comics: Marvel Treasury Sized Editions. 10” x 13” suckers that were so big, they fell over on the newsstand.  And while they mostly contained reprints, Marvel put in a few special features in the early editions.

100 Pages of Spider-Man were wrapped around a John Romita (Sr) cover featuring the web-slinger in a classic pose.  I say thee nay—classic is too weak a word. It’s archetypal!  How could a kid not want to buy this comic if they were a Spidey fan?  If I were Disney, I’d take this image and slap it on mugs, T-shirts, and all kinds of merchandise.

The inside front cover featured an editorial by Stan the Man—can you dig his mad mod haircut and full beard?  Crazy, man.

There was also a double page mockup of the Daily Bugle, with Marie Severin providing the “photographs”.

The second page of the Bugle shows the Bullpen hard at work and also announces Ross Andru joining Gerry Conway on Amazing.

The table of contents page featured a gallery of headshots by Romita, comprised of Spider-Man’s friends and foes.

The back cover was another Romita headshot, accompanied by the possibly the most famous quote from any comic book.

I was thrilled to get this in 1974, and I still get one when I pull out my beat up copy.  The Treasury Editions that followed in the first year were pretty good as well—most notably the Fantastic Four (with the Galactus Trilogy) and Conan (with Barry Smith’s Red Nails) editions.  Nuff said!

Nearly a year ago, I blogged about one of my favorite comics of all time, Giant-Size Defenders #1.  Today another fan, Juan Ortiz, wrote in to tell me an interesting story about this comic:

When I was just a kid, I sent a letter to Marvel asking them to print giant-size comics, just like DC had been doing. Having been a Defenders fan back then, I suggested a giant-sized issue. For which I received a No-prize for. I also think my name was printed on the Defenders pin-up in this issue. Although I can't confirm it, since they spelled Juan with a T. It reads Tuan. But back then, my lettering was not the best. So it may have read as Tuan to them. Juan

Here you can see the double-page pin-up by Sal Buscema of my favorite non-team of all time.  The three big guns--Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange--are front and center, with Valykrie and Silver Surfer flanking the sides.  Look at the blurb on the lower right hand corner.

See you in our 25 cent Titan-fest, Tuan!  I find this story entirely plausible--since a J can look like a T in certain circumstances.  Or it may not have been your lettering, Juan--it could have been the Marvel staffers were high on ink fumes!  I remember originally seeing this blurb when it was first published, and wondering who the heck Tuan was.  Thirty plus years later, the mystery is solved! 

Thanks for writing T--er, Juan!  I hope you kept your No-Prize letter, I never got one.  Nuff said.

The Marvel Bullpen Bulletins had whipped me up into a frenzy in anticipation of the Avengers new larger than 20 cent title back in 1974.  At first they were going to co-star in a rotating wheel title called Giant-Size Super-Teams (along with the Defenders and Fantastic Four).  A month or so later, the BB announced they were going to be in a title called Avengers Super Giant.  But when it finally arrived it was, like everything else, GIANT-SIZED!

The cover by John Romita Sr. is certainly dynamic, despite the sidebars, word balloons, and logos.  You’ve got the big three—Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man—plus the central characters of the Avengers—the Vision and Scarlet Witch—in the background.

In an issue of FOOM, we got an inside look at the making of this cover.  John Romita (1st and final one) and Rich Bucker (last two concept ones) did these sketches of three possible covers.  Notice that two of them have the Super-Giant title.  From what I gather, Romita took some of Buckler’s sketch (#2) and made Thor even more centrally prominent to draw the reader’s attention.  Of course, the FOOM proofreaders took a break the day this page went to press…spelling GIANT as GAINT.

I don’t have a scan of the original Romita black and white art to Giant-Size Avengers #1.  If you do, please send it to me and I will add it here!

The story in Giant-Size Avengers #1 was by Roy Thomas, who brought back some of the Golden Age characters, most notably, the Whizzer.  The art was by Rich Buckler, who drew the Avengers in epic Kirby-esque proportions.  Most of them look fantastic, except for Mantis, who looks like a sumo wrestler instead of a svelte Kung Fu expert.  While it was an interesting story, I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t tie in directly with the main Avengers book.  For that event, we’d have to wait until issue #2, when regular writer Steve Englehart took over.  Nuff said.

There are many classic Marvel comics covers that are iconic.  Amazing Fantasy #15, Fantastic Four #1, and Hulk #1 are in that treasured line-up.  When it comes to the X-Men, while the first issue by Jack Kirby in 1963 has a place in history, it is the cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum that remains supreme.

It is hard to imagine the impact of Giant-Size X-Men #1 for a fan of Marvel's mutants.  The last new X-Men was published in X-Men #66 in 1970, although the X-Men title continued publication with reprints of the Stan Lee and Roy Thomas stories.  Through those reprints, a new generation of Marvel readers became fans of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast, Iceman, and the Angel.  From 1970-1975, the X-Men made a few guest appearances--most notably in Marvel Team-Up #4, Avengers #110-111, and the Beast's series in Amazing Adventures #11-17. 

I snatched up my copy of GS X-Men #1 the instant I saw it.  If the X-Men weren't enough, I knew that Dave Cockrum was the artist.  He had already knocked me out with the superb job he did on Giant-Size Avengers #2, and the art in GS X-Men #1 was even better.  With Len Wein as the writer, I immediately recognized Wolverine on the cover from his debut appearance in the Hulk.  All of the other mutants were incredibly new and mysterious.  I couldn't figure out why Cyclops was just behind Wolverine--in the new team--and also in the faded background with the old X-Men.

The cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1 features a classic Gil Kane motif of having the heroes running toward the reader, exploding out of the comic book page.  Kane's cover to Giant-Size Defenders #1 is almost identical.  Gil Kane's pencil layout for this cover is shown above.  Looking at this, you can see Cockrum kept the essence of Kane's figures, but adding his own take on the characters.  Kane drew Colossus with pupils and Cockrum executed it with white eyes--the way he's drawn in the comic. 

Cockrum's costume design for Storm, Colossus, Thunderbird, and Nightcrawler were visually stunning.  It's interesting that on this famous splash page, Cockrum is showcasing his original creations front and center--with the pre-existing Banshee, Sunfire,and Wolverine hanging in the background.

This comic has one other special place in Marvel history--it's the first all-new series that was introduced within the Giant-Size Marvel line.  The other titles (like Giant-Size Avengers, Defenders, etc) were extensions of a well established monthly series.  This revival was designed for the Giant-Size format, the story in issue 1 is 35 pages.  The next chapters in X-Men #94-95 were clearly designed for Giant-Size X-Men #2, and split into two when it was decided to resume new stories in the X-Men title.

Giant-Size X-Men #1 was the best 50 cents I ever spent in the 1970s--probably the best two-bits ever in my entire life!  Wein and Cockrum concocted a near-perfect story that introduced us to a new generation of mutants, but they acknowledged the team that came before and treated them with respect.  Sadly, I sold my copy of this comics when I was 20 and needed money for something frivolous.  Haven't we all thrown away precious comics like this for a song?  Nuff said.

Gil Kane excelled at drawing sword-fighting characters in high fantasy settings.  He published a creator-owned graphic novel titled Blackmark in 1974 and turned DC's hero Ray Palmer into a sword wielding character in Sword of the Atom.  Kane seemed like a natural fit for Marvel's version of Conan, and he worked well with Roy Thomas in Conan the Barbarian #17-18.  When it came time to launch the quarterly Giant-Size Conan series, Thomas tapped Kane as the penciller.

Giant-Size Conan #1 was 50 pages of glorious entertainment.  The lead story was a 25-page chapter (The Hour of the Dragon) from the novel Conan the Conqueror; the backup story was a reprint of an early Barry Smith issue; Thomas wrote a couple of text pieces and included another Hyborian Age map as well.  Set during the later years of Conan's life, he's conquered the kingdom of Aquilonia and seemingly ready to settle down.  His enemies have only plans, as you can see by the cover, where Conan is attacked by an invading army.  The plan was to adapt this novel over the first six issues, but Giant-Size Conan #4 was the last full color chapter.  The story was concluded in Savage Sword of Conan #8 and #10.

Kane was inked by Tom Sutton on the first three issues.  It's interesting how well Kane worked with a variety of inkers--Sutton brought his own art style but kept the essence of Kane's work intact.

While Giant-Size Conan faded away, Kane continued to draw covers for the regular Conan the Barbarian color comic.  Conan #30 might have been the second comic I bought featuring the barbarian, after I became enamored with King-Size Conan Annual #1.  Kane is inked by Ernie Chan on this cover.  Conan's stance on a slanted hill, swinging his sword, is a dynamic pose.  The giant bat drawn on a separate color plate and the girl he's saving are pretty cool, too.

Conan #48 is another eerie scene featuring the character attacking an army while the specter of Death looks upon him.  All three of these covers feature Conan fighting on battlefields, loaded with details on the armor, horses, soldiers, etc.  Perhaps I am reading more into it to assume that Kane was a bit more excited to draw Conan than regular super-hero characters?  I think I've read that before in numerous interviews.  Nuff said.

Back in the spring of 1974, after a winter of Marvel’s indecision of naming it’s giant-size books (SuperStars, Chillers, SuperTeams, etc), they finally announced Giant-Size Spider-Man #1.  This was going to be a super-sized version of Marvel Team-Up, with guest stars so big that the regular title couldn’t handle them!  And who would be the very first bombastic guest star?

Yes, Dracula.  Tomb of Dracula was selling very well for Marvel at the time.  I just couldn’t imagine how Peter Parker would deal with a supernatural creature like Dracula.  Waiting for this title to finally appear seemed like an eternity, but after weeks of stalking out various stores, I finally found it one weekend.  I think John Romita drew an excellent cover with Spidey ina classic pose…

All in all, the story was a big letdown.  Dracula and Peter Parker wind up on the same cruise ship, with different agendas.  While Dracula walks around killing people, Parker is looking for a serum to save Aunt May.  They only appear together in one panel:

Gerry Conway tried his best, but I suspect they just didn’t want to have Drac facing off against a costumed Spider-Man.  I enjoyed the reprinted story of an early Human Torch team-up much more than this one.

In later issues, fans would ask for another monster-sized team-up with Simon Garth, the Zombie.  Alas, Marvel could not accommodate them—the Comics Code Authority prevented any appearances of “the walking dead” at that time.  Nuff said.

Giant-Size Superstars was re-titled Giant-Size Fantastic Four with issue #2, as this Marvel ad heralded to all fandom, it was now available in a Giant-Size 50 cent edition!

I always thought this cover premise was a bit of a letdown.  Yes, we like seeing the Thing and the FF fighting cosmic or world-ending menaces like Galactus.  Gangsters in the roarin’ twenties?  Not so much.  Maybe the editor who came up with this idea had loved the Star Trek episode, “A Piece of the Action”, where Kirk and Spock encounter a world full of Mafia types.  Nuff said.