Comic Books, Super-Heroes and Me: **Phase 2 MARVELous Days 1973 -1978

About the same time I started college, I picked up a copy of Dracula Lives #2 at Toler Pharmacy. Dracula Lives was a Black and White anthology of sequential art stories based on Count Dracula. It also had some nonfiction Dracula related material presented also. It was published by Marvel Comics. I didn't know it, but Marvel had been presenting Dracula in comic book form since early 1972 in Tomb of Dracula. This second issue of Dracula Lives presented an origin story for Dracula written by Marv Wolfman and the art was supplied by Neal Adams.

The origin was an excellent plausible explanation for Vlad Tepes introduction to vampirism and the art by Adams was fantastic. I wanted more. I soon discovered Tomb of Dracula also written by Wolfman and illustrated by Gene Colan. The cast of characters in conflict with the count and the stories made for fun reading. There was something about this comic book line that kept you wanting to come back for more. Marvel interjected a soap opera element that would carry over from issue to issue.

My trips to Haag drugstore and Toler subjected me to many other four color treasures on display. My curiosity of what was offered in the super-hero books I'd loved when I was younger got the better of me. Besides, it was chic to read comics if you were a college kid. At least that was what people like Stan Lee were saying. I quickly came to understand the Marvel Comic line treated its readership more like adults. They had also found the way to hook the readership to come back each month. It was the soap opera element.

Chief among the comics I was most interested in was the Spider-Man line. I started with Amazing Spider-Man but I also found Marvel Tales which was a reprint comic of earlier Amazing Spider-Man issues. It took awhile to figure out how the continuity linked but I managed. Marvel soon introduced a new Spider-Man title, Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man. I started picking up Amazing shortly after Gwen Stacy's death, probably around issue 128. I can't recall where I began Marvel Tales but it was in those comics I learned all the necessary history of Spider-man's life including his love for Gwen Stacy, his friendships with Mary Jane and Harry not to mention his battles with Norman Osborn the Green Goblin and the likes of the Kingpin. It was in these stories I was treated to the amazing run Stan Lee and John Romita produced. The ongoing storyline was engaging and the art by Romita is classic. His depiction of Gwen and Mary Jane made it hard for any real life girl to measure up to a Spiderman reader's desires. Marvel Tales helped make since of what was going on in the 2 ongoing titles.

I became reacquainted with most of the other Marvel Super-heroes via Spiderman's exploits in Marvel Team Up, an ongoing series of self contained stories usually involving Spiderman. Soon, I found myself buying Daredevil, Captain America as well as team books like The Avengers and The Fantastic Four.

I can't remember the first issue I bought of Conan The Barbarian by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. I had been interested in Conan since reading some of Robert E Howards works reprinted in paperback. I couldn't stop reading Conan after Roy Thomas introduced Belit into the storyline. I still consider this ongoing saga one of the best extended runs in comic book history.

It could be my first Conan wasn't the comic book but another of Marvel's Black & White Magazines The Savage Sword of Conan. Like Dracula Lives, I was attracted to these productions and bought other Marvel Black and Whites like The Rampaging Hulk and Vampire Tales.

In 1976 the first oversized comic book was introduced- Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man. This "treasury sized" edition was the first cross-over put out between competing companies DC and Marvel. The cover claimed .

"THE GREATEST HERO TEAM-UP OF ALL TIME"

"THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY"

It was written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Ross Andru. Both had worked on each character previously.

A fairly good plot summary can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_vs._the_Amazing_Spider-Man

DC and Marvel would follow up with Batman vs The Incredible Hulk in the same format. The format would soon be used to reprint Golden Age Comics by DC but otherwise didn't catch on.

I found a copy of Jim Steranko's The Steranko History of the Comics vol 1 which detailed comic book origins from the newstrips to the pulp magazines and wonderfully discussed the Golden Age of Comics. The pages were filled with photos of covers from the 30s and 40s. Though I figured it would be impossible to buy golden age comics, the book inspired me to search out older back issues of comics.

(The front and back cover art for Steranko's Book)

It was also during this period comic book shops began to appear. I began frequenting a small shop on West Washington Street. It was there I found a copy of the magazine sized The Spectacular Spiderman which had come out in 1968. It had a wonderful painted cover with color interior pages and the story "The Goblin Lives" became a favorite of mine.

http://www.samruby.com/Series/Magazine/specmag02.htm

I went to my first comic book convention in 1977. It was held in Indianapolis and Stan Lee was the guest. I purchased a copy of Daredevil #2 at the convention. It cost me $10.00 and I had Stan Lee sign it. At another Comic show I splurged. I had become fascinated with Golden Age comics. I found a mint copy of Captain America #50. It cost me $50. I was becoming a proud collector.

The "hot" comic book during the summer of 77 was the first issue of Star Wars. it came out about the same time as the movie and like the movie was a big hit. I never bought a copy and I didn't see the movie until late in its run. All the talk was Star Wars and I felt a little left out.

There were some live action super-heroics displayed on our TV sets during this period. The pilot of "The Hulk" TV series was shown in 1977. Lou Feringo played the Hulk and Bill Bixby played his alter ego, Dr. David (instead of Bruce)Banner. The show was popular and it seemed alot like the old program The Fugitive but this time with the twist that the hunted could turn green and mean. Spider-man got his Live Action show starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/ Spider-man. It would only last 13 episodes. Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter lasted 3 seasons, but I wasn't interested. How could I not have been interested? I don't know.

Judy and I had only been married a year and a half when the year 1978 rolled around. She had been supportive of, though not really interested in, my comic book collecting. I finished doing our taxes for the year and was shocked to find out we owed the government nearly a thousand dollars. We didn't have that much money. I looked at my comic book collection and resigned myself to the need to put them up for sale. I wasn't as devastated as I could have been. A year earlier I had become a Christian, and I was able to be thankful for a way to come up with the money we needed. I also had been spending more time reading doctrinal books and Bible study material reducing the amount of time I had for reading comics. I was disheartened, however.
Again, I swore off buying comics. The sale of my collection destroyed my desire to stay in touch on a monthly basis with the characters I enjoyed so much. I did see the Superman movie that summer, but beyond that it would be nearly be a decade before my interest in Super-heroes would be reignited.