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 SPOTLIGHT
ON
THE
FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDER-MAN &
THOR
BACK
TO BACK IN A
SEPTEMBER 1975 MARVEL MULTI-MAGS
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FANTASTIC
FOUR#162
MARVEL
TEAM-UP #37
MIGHTY
THOR #239
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| By
the mid-1970s, Marvel had fully embraced
the marketing concept of selling multiple comic
books packaged in a sealed plastic bag to a
customer base which comic books could hardly
reach otherwise: people shopping at supermarkets
and large grocery stores. It didn't really
matter therefore that buying these three comic
books in a comicpack for 74¢ (rather than from a
newsagent for 75¢) clearly presented no real
bargain - it was the opportunity and convenience
to pick up a few comics at the same time parents
and adults did their general shopping. Neatly
packaged, it almost became an entirely different
class of commodity.
The MARVEL MULTI-MAGS we are
looking at here features three titles from the
September 1975 cover date run (meaning they were
actually on sale in June 1975): Fantastic
Four #162, Marvel Team-Up #37, and Mighty
Thor #239.
There is no general rule
to state what shape/grade the comic books in a MARVEL MULTI-MAGS (or any other comic pack for
that matter) will be in. After all, a lot of
things can go wrong during their 40+ years of
storage.
Some of these potential
mishaps will only affect the plastic bag, others
might not harm the packaging as much as the
contents. As a result, almost any combination is
possible: you can have a polybag displaying lots
of wear but perfect comic books inside (meaning
it was mostly stored in a dark and cool place but
at some time took some external soiling or slight
mechanical abrasion), but you can just as well
have a near pristine polybag holding comic books
showing substantial paper degradation (indicating
the bag was stored well but exposed to light and
excessive warmth for an extended period of time).
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Given its age, the polybag of
this September 1975 MARVEL
MULTI-MAGS is rather clean in comparison
to some packagings of the same period,
with only slight dulling of the plastic
and a few spots of light colour ink
residue (blue and red) from when the
label was turned back onto the bag during
some time of storage (a common defect
found on many comicpack bags which
usually doesn't affect the comic books
inside the bag). There is only
one sign of physical wear - a fairly
small tear an inch or so below the
sealing line of the label.
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However,
this slight wear of the bag did not, fortunately,
harm its contents; the three individual comic
books inside proved to be in excellent overall
condition: pristine covers with perfect gloss and
shine, perfectly flat and tight (without any
spine stress or major creases), sharp edges, and
off-white pages.
No titles had
permanent slots in the MARVEL MULTI-MAGS, but all three titles
contained in this example - Fantastic Four,
Marvel Team-Up and Thor -
featured often and regularly.
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| But even so, given the
sometimes seemingly haphazard way individual issues were
selected for inclusion in MARVEL MULTI-MAGS, there was no guarantee of an uninterrupted
flow of consecutive issues - and therefore a distinct
possibility of missing out on a part of the storyline. On
top of this, the continuity of the Marvel Universe of the
1970s was such that plots and storylines usually evolved
over more than one issue. This didn't exactly make the MULTI-MAGS an ideal way of getting your
Marvel comic book fix. However,
one needs to bear in mind that this was a common fate of
the average comic book reader in the 1970s Bronze Age,
whether his or her comic books came packaged in a plastic
bag or as single issues from a display or spinner rack.
Back in those days, an uninterrupted supply of specific
titles simply was not guaranteed. Not worrying too much
about possible gaps in storylines became something of a
routine - besides, you would usually get a recap of what
had happened so far on the first page.
So all in all it simply was a
part of being a comic book fan in the 1970s - just as the
monthly Bullpen Bulletins (which were the responsibility
of the editor-in-chief) and the in-house advertising
were.
The September 1975 Bullpen Bulletin ("A
frantic, frenetic, fun-filled foray into the
fable-fraught fortress of fandom's favorite
fraternity!") featured a verbose announcement
by Stan Lee in his regular SOAPBOX
column of an upcoming Treasury Edition of the Wizard
of Oz. What Lee failed to mention was that this
somewhat unusual foray into classic children's novel
material (albeit heralded by Lee as "a fairy
tale written for a thinking adult, with all the fantasy,
the drama, the grandeur and the thrills of a thousand
superhero sagas") actually was the first time
ever that Marvel and DC teamed up as publishers -
although more out of sound business sense than anything
else.
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| Frank L. Baum's book featuring Dorothy, the
Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion (first
published in 1910) had been in the public domain since
1956, and since that meant a royalty-free adaptation,
Marvel decided to have a go at it. Stan Lee picked Roy
Thomas for the writing, John Buscema for pencils, and
Tony DeZuniga for inks, but it wasn't long into the
production of Wizard of Oz that Lee became aware
of the fact that DC had come up with the same idea
roughly at the same time - but DC had actually paid MGM
for the rights to adapt the movie. It was clear that two
competing adaptations would provide no publisher with
much of a profit, so Stan Lee met with Carmine Infantino
to see if DC was open to striking a deal. They came to an
agreement to create a single 82-page oversized comic
which would carry the title Marvel and DC Present
MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz. Since Thomas and
Buscema continued their work, it really was a Marvel
production and DC was just taking a piece of the sales
action through their movie rights, but it worked out
financially for both parties involved - and in a way
probably opened the door for the cross-publisher
superhero titles (Faraci, 2020). As for the actual
Bullpen Bulletins, the first of the various
ITEM! bullet points
talked about the non-publication of some previously
announced 50¢ Giant-Size titles.
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Marvel
was precariously overextending itself in
a continued attempt to push the
competition off the newsagent racks by
flooding them with its own product - but,
as readers were told in the typical
Marvel style:
"it
seems that there just weren't enough
of us to go around on all the nifty
new titles we have planned and still
take proper care of our four-bit
blockbusters. But don't despair, True
Believer (...) keep your peepers
peeled in the weeks to come".
The other ITEM! bullet
points were chiefly concerned with new scripting and art
assignments on various titles , and a
special announcement box broke the news
to readers of the passing of Artie Simek (6
January 1916 - 20
February 1975),
letterer supreme:
"He
was one of the cornerstones in
building the mighty world of Marvel
and his efforts cannot be
ignored".
The problem of
Marvel creating a hyperinflation of
titles was mirrored in a full-page
in-house ad promoting subscriptions,
which featured no less than an
astonishing 63 colour titles plus 14
black & white magazines. In
comparison, DC Comics had 38 colour
titles to offer newsagents in mid-1975
(September cover date production run).
Marvel was clearly winning the numbers
game, but it wasn't sustainable and would
continue to cause massive headaches for
its editors over the next two to three
years as issues could not be finished on
time.
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| Also included in all three
comics collected in this MARVEL MULTI-MAGS
was a combined FOOM / Giant-Size Doctor Strange
in-house advert, as well as a 1975 Marvel Comic-Con
merchandising ad. |
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FANTASTIC
FOUR #162
September 1975
(monthly)
On Sale: 24 June 1975
Editor
- Roy Thomas
Cover - Rich Buckler (pencils) & Joe
Sinnott (inks)
"The Shape of Things to
Come!" (18 pages)
Story - Roy
Thomas
Pencils - Rich Buckler
Inks (credited) - Joe Sinnott
Inks (uncredited)* - Dan Adkins (last two
pages)
Lettering - Joe Rosen
Colouring - Phil Rachelson
* uncredited contribution as per
this issue's creative talent information
on comics.org
Synopsis
! SPOILER ALERT !
This story continues from Fantastic
Four #160-161 and takes place in
three parallel worlds: The world of the
Fantastic Four (i.e. the planet Earth we
know), an Alternate Earth
("Earth-A"), and an "Earth
of the 5th Dimension".
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| Arkon, warlord and ruler of the extra-dimensional
world of Polemachus, has started to orchestrate events
causing three different realities to attack each other.
Having previously acquired technology from all three
worlds involved, Arkon has had his agents attack the 5th
Dimension with Earth-A's Andrones; Earth-A is under
attack from beings from other time periods (transported
there by using Dr. Doom's time machine); and lastly, our
Earth is starting to be turned into a frozen wasteland by
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| The events have a special
twist to them as certain parallels to the
Fantastic Four of our world exist on Earth-A
(where Reed Richards is actually the Thing) and
the Human Torch (of our earth) is helping out the
5th Dimension's Android Force.. Mr
Fantastic learns of all this as he is "mind
linked" by the Reed Richards of Earth-A.
Combining their mental strength allows Earth-A
Richards to free himself from Arkon's captivity.
When the Earth-A Richards also learns that the
FF-Thing is also held captive on Earth-A he
breaks out his lookalike, and together the two
Things face a battalion led by Earth-A's version
of General Ross.
To complicate matters further, a portal to
the 5th Dimension opens up with the Human Torch
leading an invasion force into Earth-A's realm.
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| Although seeing two Things is a confusing sight
to Johnny Storm, he understands what is going on after
some explanations and in turn manages to convince the
people of the 5th Dimension to return to their own world
and await a solution to the situation. Meanwhile Arkon's
plan is unravelling, as FF-Richards explains to all
parties involved that the ultimate goal of leading the
three worlds to go to war with one another was to trigger
nuclear strikes on all three worlds. The resulting
combined nuclear holocausts would create sufficient
nuclear energy through a dimensional Nexus to revitalize
Arkon's world. Putting a stop to these plans requires
closing the dimensional rift, but only one person can
enter the realm where the Nexus resides. As the FF-Thing
heads towards the Nexus he finds a lone guardian in his
way. To be continued... This (in spite of its
length actually somewhat compressed) synopsis clearly
shows that there is a lot going on here - and it involves
three different planes of reality, no less. The concept
of "parallel earths" was introduced to comic
books by Gardner
F. Fox in his famous "Flash of Two Worlds"
story (Flash #123)
in September 1961, and DC has made extensive use of its
"multiverse" ever since. Marvel, on the other
hand, rarely explored parallel realities with characters
which are the same yet different (which at face value is
a strange concept anyway), so this foray is something of
an exception. It is probably also no coincidence that Roy
Thomas was at the helm of this storyline, given his known
soft spot for DC's Golden Age history. And Thomas handles
it well - a clear plot leaves little room for confusion,
and just to be on the safe side, he and Rich Buckler even
provide two charts to literally "sketch it out"
for readers.
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As a nice
additional touch, Buckler makes it easy for us to
distinguish which Thing is which, as the
"Earth-A" Thing wears brown pants (in
contrast to Ben Grimm's famous blue ones) and
also sports a torn shirt (which would even make
the visual differentiation possible with later
black and white reprints).
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| At face value, Fantastic Four #162 would
seem to be a less than ideal issue to find in a MARVEL MULTI-MAGS, given that it contains
part 3 of a four-part story arc, but that was the magic
of Marvel Comics in the 1960s and 1970s - you could still
get lucky and enjoy a fast paced and entertaining single
issue without ever seeing any of what went on before or
after. And Fantastic Four #162 is exactly that
kind of comic book. |
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MARVEL
TEAM-UP #37
September
1975
(bi-monthly)
On Sale:
24 June
1975
Editor - Marv
Wolfman
Cover - Ed Hannigan (pencils)
& John Romita (inks)
"Snow
Death!" (18
pages)
Story
- Gerry Conway
Pencils - Sal Buscema
Inks - Vince Colletta
Lettering -
Karen Mantlo
Colouring - Phil Rachelson
Synopsis
!
SPOILER ALERT !
This story
continues from the previous
issue, Marvel Team-Up
#36, in which Spider-Man is
mysteriously teleported by Baron Ludwig Von Shtupf
("you may call me the
Monster Maker") to his
remote castle somewhere in
Europe, where Spidey is held
captive alongside the
Frankenstein Monster and
Man-Wolf. Also in the fold is a
team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives
who are out to foil Von Shtupf's
evil plans.
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| After an all-out clash
between Spider-Man, the Frankenstein Monster and
Man-Wolf, Von Shtupf reveals his plan: breaking
down Spider-Man, the Frankenstein Monster, and Man-Wolf
with a "dissector device" into their base
components in order to combine their individual abilities
and create an army of monsters from this
"essence". But in the end, Spidey and the Monster overwhelm the
mad Baron, and after yet another fight between the
webslinger and the Man-Wolf the latter disappears into
the wild, Spidey and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents take a
helicopter back to civilization, and the Monster walks
off into the remote mountains all alone.
Not a very
original plot idea by any standards,
it is at least in-tune with the
appearance of the Frankenstein Monster and Man-Wolf and
does resemble a B-movie of the genre quite a bit. There is also some humour creeping in when the
S.H.I.E.L.D. agent tells Spider-Man
and the Monster
"This operation will require
stealth. You're too much on the obvious side."
Some of the Baron's rather whacky
contraptions (such as how exactly he teleported everybody
to his castle or just how he plans to combine the three
protagonists by cutting them up with what looks like a
laser) are never even given an attempt of an explanation,
but Gerry Conway just about manages to keep everything
from falling apart. There is also a small dose of Marvel
morals when at the end, as Man-Wolf is taken into
S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Spider-Man talks about how hard it
must be "for somebody to love a monster", not
realizing that the Frankenstein Monster hears what he
says - Spider-Man doesn't realize the damage he's done
until after he and the agents notice that the Monster is
not aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. ship when it lifts off.
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| If the story is somewhat
reminiscent of a B-movie, then the art definitely
is below average - which is rather odd, given
that the artist is Sal Buscema (whose wonderful
pencils could be sampled in the Thor
issue also contained in this very MARVEL
MULTI-MAGS). So what happened? Actually,
the answer points more in the direction of
"who" rather than "what". Vince
"Vinnie" Colletta (1923-1991) is
possibly the most prolific and at the same time
most controversial inker the comic book industry
has ever seen. He could be extremely fast with
his work and was almost any editor's go-to-inker
when a title was running late, and he always
delivered (Bryant Jr., 2010). The downside to
this was the fact that Colletta would at times
cut corners by erasing details in the pencil
artwork and simplifying panels. It helped to meet
deadlines and avoid having to pay hefty printer's
fines, but not all artists were too happy with
it.
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"Vince
wrecked what I did (...) He would eliminate people
from the strip and use silhouettes, everything to cut
corners and make the work easier for himself."
(Joe Sinnott in Ro, 2004)
"When he wanted to he could do very good
work, but he didn't take his time with my
stuff." (Gene Colan in Field, 2005)
Editors and writers often
weren't too impressed either. Stan Lee dropped Colletta
as inker for Tomb of Dracula after he felt that
he had taken too many shortcuts on issue #9 (Field,
2005), and Len Wein famously stated (when asked in an
interview what he enjoyed most about working on Luke
Cage):
"Getting to work with the wonderful
George Tuska, before Vinnie Colletta got his hands on
the pencils and ruined them." (Contino,
2005)
But Marvel Team-Up suffered other, more
systemic problems, too - as a glance at the letters page
clearly shows. While the team-up
formula was a novelty when the title started back in
1971, the stories quickly became highly formulaic with
more misunderstandings between the good guys and
therefore in-fights than one could count (and ultimately
stomach). Readers seemingly also wanted more of a
continuous plot rather than "done in one issue"
stories (two in this case here). It would remain a
problem for Marvel Team-Up, even though the
title racked up a total of 150 issues before bowing out
in early 1985.
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MIGHTY
THOR #239
September
1975
(monthly)
On Sale: 10 June 1975
Editor - Roy
Thomas
Cover - Gil Kane (pencils) &
Dan Adkins(inks)
"Time
Quake!" (18
pages)
Story - Roy
Thomas
Pencils - Sal Buscema
Inks - Joe Sinnott
Lettering - John Costanza
Colouring - Phil Rachelson
Synopsis
!
SPOILER ALERT !
Having
defeated Geirrodur, the rock
troll king, Ulik sets his sights
on the surface world. But Thor
not only defeats both Ulik and
his plans, he also causes the
underground cave to collapse on
the trolls while he and Jane
Foster safely escape to the
surface.
Meanwhile, in
California, Odin (who goes by the
name of Orrin since he can't
recall who he actually is) takes
part in a strike meeting with his
fellow farm workers when a
gigantic pyramid bursts up from
the ground.
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| Transfixed by it, Orrin/Odin ascends its steps
when Osiris, Isis, and Horus appear in an opening doorway
- all of which is witnessed by Jane on TV as Thor has
left to search for Odin. The issue ends with Orrin/Odin
following the three gods of Ancient Egypt into the
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Thor #239 saw Roy Thomas
take over the scripting from Gerry Conway, but
what had been planned as a longer assignment
would be cut very short, as an opening message on
the letters page pointed out.
"In this issue, it was our
original intention to announce that Roy
Thomas planned to pull himself away from the
likes of the Fantastic Four, Conan, and the
new-but-nostalgic Invaders to take up
full-time scripting and editing reins of
THOR. However, by the time the story called
"Time-Quake" was finished, it was
already apparent that the Rascally One was
going to be too busy to continue as a regular
writer on the mag, despite the fact that he's
been waiting years for a crack at writing it.
Several projects have since beckoned."
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| Readers were told that one of these projects was the "swiftly-upcoming
Treasury Edition adaptation of MGM's classic movie
"The Wizard of Oz" (and some sequels, to
boot)". Marvel was clearly down to the wire,
with what seemed like an endless list of projects and not
really enough creative talent to go around and make it
happen. |
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"So, to
make a long story short, Roy has plotted this
issue and the next (...) after that, Lively
Len Wein is slated to take over as regular
scriptor."
But the message didn't
stop there.
"Roy'd like
to thank Our Pal Sal Buscema for stepping in
to pencil this ish and the next when Brother
John got bogged down with a combination of
Conan stories plus an extra-length epic for
the first issue of THOR THE MIGHTY, a brand
new $1 magazine set to debut just a few short
weeks from now."
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| It was quite clear that editors were frantically
shuffling around writers, pencillers and inkers in order
to not fall too far behind on everything. With hindsight,
comic book historians would note that this was a period
when Marvel was beginning to seriously mess up its line
of titles due to an almost impossible production line. |
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And the management board just
kept on calling for more.
"If we even talked about an idea
for a book it immediately had to go onto a
schedule and be out a few months later."
(Roy Thomas in Howe, 2012).
The bottom line would be that more and more
titles would not reach their sales points on
time.
Sal Buscema proved a worthy stand-in for his
older brother and not only provided a dynamic
rendition of a well-paced Roy Thomas story, he
also managed to fit in several iconic scenes,
such as the transformation of Don Blake into Thor
and back again.
This is comic book entertainment at its best -
and looking at these panels and then comparing
them to Marvel Team-Up #37 is also an
indication of the damning effect Vince Coletta's
simplified inking could have in watering down
pencil artwork.
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| No 1970's Marvel comic book
was, of course, without (a lot of) third party
advertising, some of which was "okay" (mostly
if it featured Marvel characters) and some of which was
nothing but a dismal swamp of the cheapest form of
advertising you could find - such as the infamous flea
market ads promising anything and everything. All three
titles included in this September 1975 Multi-Mag carried
exactly the same ads, some of which are illustrated here. |
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Today, MARVEL
MULTI-MAGS are first and
foremost a time capsule; opening
that plastic bag offers a
nostalgic glimpse into what it
was like to be a comic book
reader in the 1970s. And
then as now, the combination of
the three titles in these sealed
polybags could go either way.
Sometimes it's all thrills, and
sometimes there's a lemon (or
two, if you're really unlucky) in
there. |
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This
September 1975 MARVEL
MULTI-MAGS
would,
I am pretty certain, have thrilled my socks off
back in the days. And it still leaves me with a
"wow-feeling" today, although maybe a
little bit less so with regard to Marvel
Team-Up issue. While it isn't really bad, it
is definitely very pedestrian even for a
mid-1970s comic book. The Frankenstein Monster
was a favourite of mine back then, so this combo
with Spider-Man would have been right up my
alley. Today, that spark doesn't fly quite as
easily.
On
the other hand, both the Fantastic Four
and Thor issues are a pure delight even
today. Fast plotting and a storyline with a
purpose combine with artwork that just sucks you
in. It's the most fun you can have reading a
comic book - and in a way it also shows what is
lacking in today's comic books. But that's an
entirely different story for some other day...
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| FURTHER
READING ON THE THOUGHT
BALLOON |
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The Frankenstein
Monster's own title was cancelled
after 18 issues the same month
that Marvel Team-Up #37
hit the newsagent stands; you can
read more about Marvel's Monster
of Frankenstein title here. |
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Back in 2010 I
took a comparative look at two
issues of Fantastic Four separated
by no less than 33 years of real
time: #186 and #580. While a lot
of change has since been wrought
on Marvel's first family
(including cancellation of the
title for a year in 2015), you
can see the differences between a
1977 and 2010 comic book here. |
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY
BRYANT JR. Robert L. (2010) The
Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta,
TwoMorrows Publishing
CONTINO Jennifer
M. (2005) " Englehart, Isabella, Wein & Luke
Cage: An Essential Interview", The Pulse, online at
comicon.com (5 July 2005) [retrieved from
web.archive.org]
FARACI Derek
(2020) "How The Wizard of Oz Brought DC & Marvel
Together For Their First Crossover", online at cbr.com (25 February 2020)
FIELD Tom (2005)
Secrets
in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan,
TwoMorrows Publishing
HOWE Sean (2012) Marvel
Comics: The Untold Story, Harper Collins
RO Ronin [Marc Flores]
(2004) Tales To Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and
the American Comic Book Revolution, Bloosmbury
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More on comic packs / More on Marvel Multi-Mags
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(c) 2021
uploaded
to the web 11 April 2021
minor corrections 19 April 2024
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