Comic Book Resources

Before I opened up the scans, I was gonna say “Don’t forget Heathcliff and Ewoks and Marvel Age“…and you didn’t! Well done.

I was also going to say “Where’s Dr. Strange? But that book was published bi-monthly and missed the November (on sale in July?) 1985 cover date, so no anniversary cover.

That’s an awful Fantastic Four cover on what should have been the flagship celebration cover, though. I know the Thing was “incognito” through those issues, but hey! face front, true believer!

Finally, didja notice every single one of these titles, with the exception of Uncanny X-Men, has been cancelled (although many were restarted with new #1s). Way to build a legacy, guys.

Not only is that a great drawing of Illyana on the cover of -New Mutants- 45 (the tiny red pentagrams are a nice touch), but the story inside is one of my favorites of that book. It’s a terrific self-contained one issue story about prejudice (of the anti-mutant kind, but you can read other forms into it), with Kitty Pryde guest-starring to deliver a moving ending to the tale. Great stuff. It was included in Marvel’s “Legends: Chris Claremont” (or whatever it was called) trade-paperback.

I dunno, Bully, something that struck me as I was putting them up was how, of the 31 titles listed, only 11 of them had gone past 100, and ONE of them was a licensed property (Conan).

So cancellation was a big thing back then, too.

I had never heard of “Star Comics,” until now, but the 80’s child in me really wants to read “Ewoks” and “Muppet Babies.”

I like how the Care Bears cover says “THEIR STORY CONTINUES…”, like it’s a sequel to freakin’ Dr. Zhivago or something.

I could have sworn there was another licensed comic under the Star imprint which came out that month, like Thundercats or He-Man or something. I only say this because I remember buying it, or at least flipping through it in the drug store. It was the first of these anniversary covers I had seen, and I was hoping that it meant a crossover into the regular Marvel universe. (By that point I had quit reading the licensed comics because I thought they were inferior in quality, plus I just liked Marvel and DC’s super-heroes better than any property derived from toys or cartoons.)

Marvel’s STAR line was also publishing a Droids comic at the same time as the Ewoks book. Is that the one you bought?

I could have sworn there was another licensed comic under the Star imprint which came out that month, like Thundercats or He-Man or something.

Masters of the Universe was always on the list. How could you have missed it? I certainly didn’t just edit it in!

GEEZ!

Marvel’s STAR line was also publishing a Droids comic at the same time as the Ewoks book. Is that the one you bought?

Droids must have been a bi-monthly or something, because they didn’t get an anniversary cover.

Oooh, Ann Nocenti’s first Daredevil story. A historic comic if there ever was one.

I like that Menasor “who farted”? cover.

I will second that the New Mutants issue is excellent.

Brian, do you have a scan of the back of the Marvel Age issue, showing the back of the character’s heads? (And Howard the Duck trying to get out from behind the UPC box?

“I dunno, Bully, something that struck me as I was putting them up was how, of the 31 titles listed, only 11 of them had gone past 100, and ONE of them was a licensed property (Conan). So cancellation was a big thing back then, too. ”

Actually, I count 12 if you include Conan, but that’s a minor nitpick.

More importantly, look at the 11 non-Conan books that are above 100 in the list - all of them are the “core” Marvel titles (i.e. titles started by Stan Lee in the 60s) except for Marvel Tales (a “core” Marvel title reprint book) and Spectacular Spider-man (which started in the 70’s IIRC). The rest of the titles are more spin-offs and licensed titles.

I think that Bully’s point (or at least my point, as influenced by Bully’s observation) is that the “legacy” titles have all been cancelled ONLY to be restarted, not that cancellations didn’t happen back then - you would never have had someone seriously say “let’s restart Avengers from #1 - it’ll boost sales!”

Of course, the reason was it probably WOULDN’T have boosted sales back then - now it clearly does, so much of this falls on the readership and not just on marketers.

Awesome, I love theme cover months. The only other ones I can think of are the DC Headshot and the other DC Full Coverage

And yet no Planet Terry or Alf covers…. those Marvel bastards.

Cyclops does not look happy about being enlisted for an anniversary cover.

Cyclops does not look happy about being enlisted for an anniversary cover.

He was still probably all conflicted about the fact that he had just left his wife and kid for his old girlfriend.

DubipR said …no Planet Terry or Alf covers…. those Marvel bastards

Alf didn’t start until 1988. Planet Terry’s last issue was March 1986, about six months before the celebration. Ditto Top Dog and some of the other first batch of Star Comics’ original non-licensed characters. Droids was indeed bi-monthly like Dr. Strange; issue #4 was cover dated 10/86 and #5 12/86, so they missed the 11/86 month celebration.

And I know he’s the poor man’s Garfield, but that Heathcliff comic was often pretty funny.

Finally, Jer has unpacked what I meant to say about cancellation and restarting much more eloquently than I did. Thank you, Jer!

I have or had or read most of those other than the STAR line–well I do have every issude of Spider-Ham from the STAR days.

I bought at least ten of those at the time. I remember wishing that there had been one with villains on it. I think the Mephisto mini-series was happening at the time, and I’d been hoping for that to be the case. Ah, to be 10 and have such concerns again….

Oooh, Ann Nocenti’s first Daredevil story.

More notable is the cover by Walt Simonson, as this was the only time he did Daredevil. He and Frank Miller were supposed to have done a 2-issue post-”Born Again” storyline around the time, but it never happened, supposedly because FM thought time had moved on with new writers and stories.

Boy, Walt was busy that month with covers; he did DD, Thor and X-Factor, and Barry Windsor-Smith comes in second with FF and New Mutants.

God, I love Marvel Comics from that era. If only I’d taken better care of my comics when I was a kid, I’d still be able to find trillions of them around the house…

I love seeing comics from my childhood. 80s marvel was great. Thanks
I think I might collect all of these
I can’t see the numbers for
Alpha Flight_____
Marvel Tales featuring the Sensational Spider-man____
Ewoks ______________
Mupper Babies_____________

Can anyone help
Yes I will be looking for Muppet Babies back issues at the con this year.
(God, I’m a geek)