MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Before the MASTERWORKS and OMNIBUS volumes,

there was - MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS!  68

pages of great superhero strips for only 1/6- - (or 25c if you lived

in the States), they were a handy way of catching up on the earliest

adventures of SPIDER-MAN, The FANTASTIC FOUR, IRON

MAN, Dr. STRANGE, ANT-MAN and The HULK.  (Even

The WATCHER was there to 'watch' over proceedings.)

The line-up varied over the first few issues, before settling

down to a regular cast of heroes, and these issues are now highly

collectable in their own right.  I had quite a few of them in my youth

and have very fond memories of them.  Although I'd read many of

the stories in British weekly periodicals like WHAM!, SMASH!,

POW!, FANTASTIC and TERRIFIC, this was the first time

I got to see them in full-colour, and I liked what I saw.

It was in the pages of  MCIC that I learned that the baddie I

knew as The APEMASTER was actually The RED GHOST,

and that MADAME NATASIA's name was spelt NATASHA in

her original American appearances.  For a short time, in my ignor-

ance, I considered the U.K. reprints to be 'the real thing' and the

U.S. originals as mere counterfeits, but I soon wised up and

learned to appreciate both incarnations of these strips.

Anyway, in celebration of these great comics of yesteryear,

here's a cover gallery of the first dozen issues.  If you remember

them with the same fondness as I do, then feel free to share your

reminiscences of these mags in the comments section.  Don't be

selfish by keeping all those warm memories to yourself.

Looks like the price went up with this issue - still a bargain 'though

Posted in: Cartoons