A TALE WHICH MIGHT NOT ASTONISH YOU, BUT I THINK IT'S INTERESTING...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

See the above cover of TALES To ASTONISH #89?  Good - now forget about it for a moment and cop a gander at its predecessor below, TTA #88.  My original copy of this comic was bought sometime back in the '60s.  I no longer recall with any certainty whether I acquired it before or after I'd read the SUB-MARINER tale when it was reprinted in TERRIFIC, but I suspect it was before.  If so, it would have been one of those rare occasions when an American MARVEL mag was available in Britain not too long after it was published.

I know I read the follow-up to Subby's adventure in Terrific, and I'd have read it again when it was reprinted in one of the Marvel UK weeklies in the mid-'70s, but I never had the original issue.  I've got a reprint of it in one of my HULK MASTERWORKS volumes, but I've always hankered after owning the original US ish so that it could join my replacement copy of TTA #88, which I obtained more years ago than I'm capable of remembering.

Well, now I've got it!  The above comic arrived today, and it'll soon be keeping company with its companion in my filing cabinet.  Another quest completed, wherein I secured the subsequent issue of a comic I first bought around 50 years ago - wow!  And, if memory serves, I believe I also own TTA #87 (which I likewise originally had back in the '60s, and replaced many, many years ago), so that's 3 in a row for me.

Yes, trivial I know, but to me, it's a significant accomplishment!  Any memories relating to either of these mighty mags?  Feel free to share them in the comments section.  And remember the cry - Make Mine Marvel!

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