Recently in Marvel Merchandise Category

Last Sunday, I wrote about the amazing Silver Surfer #1 poster from Asgard Press.  Asgard Press also makes the perfect gift for any classic Marvel fan, their Vintage Marvel Comics 2010 Calendar.  I must confess that I was given this as a gift by someone at the company, but that doesn’t sway my recommendation at all.  I had been eyeing this calendar for weeks at Flying Colors Comics (in Concord, CA, my favorite LCS close to home).  Please note that all images shown here and in my previous post are scans taken from other sources than the actual calendar.

The calendar (around $19) features 16 Giant-Sized Marvel covers ready for framing at an 11"x14" size.  Even if you don’t need a calendar or buy this mid-year, it’s a great gift.  Asgard Press has designed this calendar so that you can separate the cover image from the calendar through perforations on the top or bottom, and it’s in perfect condition (no holes from thumb-tacks or nails). 

The inside front cover features Steve Ditko’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man #33—one of the defining moments in Peter Parker’s life, with the hero pinned under a giant piece of machinery.  The Ditko cover isn’t displayed on the back or even on Asgard’s website, and it’s a great bonus print.

Amazing Spider-Man #68, by John Romita Sr., is also included.  The famous cover blurb Crisis on Campus! reflects the anti-war and civil rights protests in 1968.  Marvel Comics were popular among college students, and Stan Lee decided to put Spidey smack dab in the middle of current events.  This cover was previously made into a poster by Marvel a couple of years after it came out.  I had that on my wall as a kid, so I’m glad to get this again.  BTW, the paper used for these reproductions are on good, thick, sturdy paper stock.

Giant-Size Marvel readers who also share my love for The Vision will be pleased by the inclusion of Avengers #57 in the calendar.  Note that the scan above shows this cover with colors that are extremely vibrant (probably taken from a Masterworks collection).  The Asgard Press covers are reproduced in a way that mimics the feeling of the original comic book.  At any rate, I certainly plan on framing up this one in my comic-vault garage.

You can find the Vintage Marvel 2010 calendar on Asgard Press Marvel site, along with their line of Marvel posters.  On my previous Silver Surfer post, you can see the Surfer covers that are also in this calendar.  Nuff said!

Yesterday, I received a very special poster from Asgard Press, featuring this classic cover from 1968 by Big John Buscema.

Silver Surfer #1, the very first solo issue featuring “The Sky-Rider of the Spaceways” (as the masthead would later say) .  For a long time, this was one of my holy grails of comic book collecting.  I remember a friend of mine who saw it at a flea market (at a cheap price), only to have his father pull him away from the scene.  When I did finally buy it in the 1970s, long before trades or collections were available, I reveled in the origin of Norrin Radd and his transformation by Galactus.

If you’ve ever wanted a poster of Silver Surfer #1, you can now obtain it for less the $20 at Asgard Press Vintage Marvel store.  Asgard’s Marvel posters are 20"x28" and printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks.  This is high quality paper—thick and sturdy, it won’t crinkle up at the first touch of your hands.  In addition, the poster is reproduced in a way that mimics the visual of the 1968 comic.  And by that I mean it’s not overly glossy.  Asgard really preserves the vintage (which is what describes all of their products) look of the original cover.  I’m gonna frame this one and get it up on the wall real soon.

You can also get an 11"x14" reproduction of Silver Surfer #4, another John Buscema classic showing the Surfer hurtling down toward the Mighty Thor.  This print—with the same high quality as the aforementioned poster—is just one of 16 prints inside the 2010 Vintage Marvel Comics Calendar.  Asgard Press has designed this calendar in a very clever way that will appeal to all Marvel collectors.  You can display this calendar on the wall for 16 months, hang it on nail or tack.  When the year is over, you can separate the cover image from the calendar through perforations on the top or bottom, and it’s in perfect condition.  It’s still a Giant-Sized Marvel cover, ready for framing.

If you always believed (as Denzel Washington did in the movie Crimson Tide) that Jack Kirby is the one true Surfer artist, the Vintage calendar also has a month with Fantastic Four #50.  Check out Asgard Press site or look for the calendar in your comic book store.  Nuff said!

How big was Planet of the Apes in 1974?  Big enough for these giant-size ads in Marvel’s black and white magazines.

Here’s my favorite: Giant-sized wall-hanging figures with eight movable parts.  Cornelius is featured front and center, with Spider-Man on his side.  The Cornelius figure is actually taken from a Mike Ploog drawing from Terror on the Planet of the Apes—the Alexander character.

Don’t ya just love that guy in the suit and tie staring admiringly at these giant pin-ups?  If a respectable adult likes them, it must be ok for a kid to buy it!

Someone still has these fading figures on a wall somewhere.  I just know it.

If you wanted to declare your Apes devotion in public—you could wear one of these nifty belt buckles—and choose between the Chimpanzee, Orangutan, and Gorilla factions.  Notice something funny here: in this ad, there is a chimpanzee called Alexander as well as Cornelius!  There are also a couple mistakes.  The Cornelius image looks like a Gorilla; General Ursus is spelled Urus.

What I really love about this ad is how it also markets the product to Apes fans living in Texas.  If you don’t want a belt buckle, you can have a western tie!  Just the thing to wear to the rodeo.  Nuff said.

I’ve started ordering again from MMComics, and noticed this nifty new Bowen Designs bust in the new catalog.

Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider, in his Elvis-inspired motorcycle jumpsuit.  I had previously sworn never to order any new statues or busts…but this is my kryptonite.  I’ll have to get it.

Here’s one that I missed from back in June: Simon Garth, Zombie!  Man, this is obscure and for the hardcore geeks like me.  Nuff said.

Google just released comic book themes for iGoogle, and there's several Marvel characters available:  Captain America, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, etc.  I chose the Hulk theme, which you see above.  The cool thing about this feature, is that the banner image rotates whenever you visit your Google page.  The above image was taken from Planet Hulk.  There are two more banners, one with an image from Mike Deodato, another from Dale Keown's classic cover to Hulk #377.  Cool beans.  Nuff said.

I played the hell of Marvel Ultimate Alliance a few years ago.  I completed the game, unlocked all the costumes, and even paid for the extra characters.  Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is coming in fall 2009, and this trailer just sizzles:

This Marvel house ad announced the coming of an actual book—as in to be sold in real bookstores—called Origins of Marvel Comics.  This hit Marvel fans like me right in the gut.  You see, at that time, actual book collections of comics weren’t available in bookstores or anywhere.  Outside of Jules Ffeifer’s Great Comic Book Heroes, or perhaps Steranko’s History of Comics, or reprints of Dick Tracy, Peanuts, and Little Orphan Annie, superheroes were really scarce.  And I know.  I looked for them every week!

Stan Lee would reveal the secrets behind creating the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, etc., and reprint their first appearances with the best printing we had ever seen to that point.  I waited months until this finally appeared in the bookstore.  I think when it did finally come out, Stan appeared on the Today Show, which my Mother took note of.  Yeah, comics were finally legit!  Well, not really, until years later with the Spider-Man and X-Men movies.

The bottom half of this ad features a collectible I wish I still had: the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975.  That one had great illustrations by Romita, Starlin, Ploog, and others.  Anyone have scans of this calendar?  Nuff said

When I was a 12 year old Marvel Maniac, I had a vision of what my young adult life would be.  This vision was formed based on my love for Marvel Comics and what I had read of the Marvel Bullpen and the writers/artists who worked there.  It was something like this;

• I would live in Greenwich Village, in a cool pad near Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.
• I'd have long hair and a beard, just like Serpico, but I'd be much taller than Al Pacino.
• I would hang out with Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin.  We would discuss philosophy, Marvel continuity, and how to attain cosmic consciousness.
• On the weekends, Don McGregor and Steve Gerber would drop by and we would go to the movies.
• Chris Claremont and I would visit Continuity Associates and beg Neal Adams to draw the X-Men again.
• I'd get a frantic call at midnight from Len Wein or Marv Wolfman, who would beg me to take over writing the Defenders when Gerber decided to leave.
• Chicks would dig me because I was wearing one of these hip Marvel Medallions...

Of course, if I was looking for a girlfriend, I'd wear the Conan medallion.  That's more masculine and the aura of Conan's manliness would seep through the metal, perhaps endowing me with a certain musk.  The Spider-Man and Hulk medallions would be worn when I was around my Marvel buddies.  How would any woman be able to resist that 12K Gold Filled Neck Chain and Holder?  I had visions of dancing in Studio 54 with Andrea True's More More More playing in the background, with the glint of the gold metal reflecting off the disco ball. Or perhaps, more appropriately, Hot Chocolate's You Sexy Thing.

I have no idea why I never sent away for these medallions.  I bought the 7-Eleven Slurpee cups, was a charter member of FOOM, and collected all 100 Marvel Value Stamps.  They say just before you die, you think of all the things you regret in life.  Not having these medallions will be one of them for me.  Nuff said.