Welcome to my Comical-Wednesday-on-a-Thursday post! Lots of reasons this one's a day late, mainly a snowstorm that made the libraries close early Wednesday and open late Thursday... but it's only a freakin' blog, so no crime's being committed by my falling behind.
Anyway...
I don't know about you, fellow babies, but I'm really enjoying this series!
My previous Comical Wednesday post, "They Might Be Giants," dealt with the year 1963. The last comic book scan shown was the cover of Giant Superman Annual #8, which was released at the very end of that year.
And by the way, fellow babies, I'd like to point out that I am not attempting to list all of the annuals or giant-sized comics that I read back in my younger days! I'm only talking about the ones that made the greatest impressions on my li'l self back in the period from 1963-1968 or so.
One annual I recall enjoying immensely was the one-and-only Giant Superboy Annual, from back in the good old days when Superboy stories told "the adventures of Superman when he was a boy," as opposed to whatever the hell DC Comics is doing with the character nowadays.
It's kind of strange for me to note that, although I was (and still am) a fan of Batman, there aren't many issues of Giant Batman Annual or any other Batman "giants" that made a huge impression on me. As I explained last time, I was only starting to realize back then that all these stories that were being thrown at me were reprints, and not all current tales.
One annual that did catch my fancy was Giant Batman Annual #7, which reprinted the very first appearances of the original Batgirl, and a character I absolutely loved as a child, a pixieish little guy who called himself Bat-Mite. There were other assorted nutty stories in this annual, too.
You see, by the time I started reading the Batman titles (Batman, Detective Comics, and World's Finest) in the early 1960s, Batman's world had come a long, long way from the moody, down-to-earth detective stories of the late 1930s and early 1940s, and had gotten rather silly. In addition to Batman and Robin, the stories featured Batwoman, Batgirl, Bat-Mite, and (I swear) Ace, the Bat-Hound! (Ace, you see, was a German Shepherd who wore a mask to protect his secret identity!) Batman's adventures also included time-travel stories, stories where aliens appeared on Earth, or conversely, stories where Batman and Robin visited other planets...! This was the craziness that was the status quo when I was learning to read, but most of this nonsense was scuttled by the so-called "New Look" in 1964, and rightfully so.
The back cover of Giant Batman Annual #7 featured the so-called "Batman Family."
Interestingly enough, this "portrait" of the 1950s-1960s Batman Family resurfaced in the ultra-moody and realistic Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988.
Shortly after Giant Batman Annual #7 came a big surprise. After being advertised as the Giant Superman Annual #9 (shown at the top of this post), the comic actually hit the stands as 80 Page Giant #1, which only "featured" Superman. (You can even tell that the 80 Page Giant logo was pasted over the previous form of DC's "Giant [Whatever]" logo!)
This began a brand new monthly series called 80 Page Giant, which, over time, featured Superman, Jimmy Olsen ("Superman's Pal"), Lois Lane ("Superman's Girl Friend") The Flash, Superboy, Batman, and many other stars. The first fifteen issues kept their own independent numbering. After that, the numbers were "shared" with individual issue numbers of various titles! (For instance, 80 Page Giant #G-16 was also Justice League of America #39, 80 Page Giant #G-17 was also Batman #176, etc.!)
In my "$1.56" post, I told how I was given a stack of Marvel Comics during early 1964, a collection which turned me on to a lot of titles I'd neither seen nor heard of before. That summer, Marvel released the second issue of Fantastic Four Annual. The entire issue featured stories concerning Doctor Doom, who was Darth Vader before Darth Vader was Darth Vader!
FF Annual #2 contained an all-new, expanded origin for Dr. Doom, a reprint of his first appearance from FF #5, and a terrific story called "The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!" Another of my all-time favorite annuals!
The summer of 1964 also saw the very first Amazing Spider-Man Annual! In this issue, Spidey fought "The Sinister Six," half a dozen of his deadliest foes, teamed up against him. Each battle Spider-Man fought with these nemeses included a spectacular single-panel shot drawn by the inimitable Steve Ditko. I've reproduced all six of these mind-blowing full-pagers below!
As a bonus feature, writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko supplied this three-page bit of craziness.
And yet another of -- Yeah, you guessed it! -- my all-time favorite annuals was the first Marvel Tales Annual! This one featured an incredible array of Marvel "firsts."
- The first appearance and origin of the Amazing Spider-Man!
- The first appearance and origin of the Incredible Hulk!
- The first appearance of the original Ant-Man in costume, plus a brief reprint of when he first became Giant-Man!
- The first appearance of the Mighty Thor!
- Pages from the very first story of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!
- The first appearance and origin of Iron Man, plus a short sequence from the issue where he replaced his bulky gold iron suit with a more streamlined red and gold outfit!
And if all that wasn't enough -- although it would have been for me -- Marvel Tales Annual #1 also contained two pages of photos featuring the biggest names in the Marvel stable!
Of course, DC was still churning out their 80 Page Giant series. Issue #4, dated October, 1964, featured more early stories of The Flash.
To Be Continued, natch!
In our next installment, we take a look at the "giants" of... 1965! (But you probably saw that one coming, huh?)
And thanks for your time!
