Garystar

Who sells a £15k comic and can’t be bothered to turn down a corner fold?

Doctor Strange’s non appearance on cover may have been because Stan lacked confidence in the first story. Here he describes the story as a filler so perhaps Kirby had already done the cover before it was decided to include the strip in #110. Extract of letter from Stan Lee to Jerry Bails printed in Comic Reader #16 February 1963 and reprinted in “Steve Ditko in his own words”

The record was available as part of the second Merry Marvel Marching Society membership kit (circa 1967 - 1969). The stationery kit was available by mail order from ads in Marvel comics (circa 1965 - 1967).

The flip side is indeed blank;

My friend has a YouTube channel where he posts pop collectables. His main focus is paperback books but he also features other collectables - Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who, Simpsons etc. This week he has a video of my small comic room, I’ve posted stills many pages back in this thread but thought someone may be interested to see the video; https://youtu.be/px1RDYUk218

Shouldn’t that be labelled Our Love Story #2?

On a sad note just read that James Bama, the artist on some of the Aurora monster kit boxes died a couple of days ago.

Although I never joined at the time I have subsequently collected WAM memorabilia; IMO a poor relation to previous Marvel fan club memorabilia and certainly a million miles away from Marvelmania International.

I’ve looked for one for sale but never found one, however can find references and images online. The set is also referenced in “Hot Wheels Accessories The Ultimate Guide” book so all looks genuine. https://hotwheels.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_America_Stunt_Set

Got this one as well, only because I’m a big fan of the late great James Garner and The Rockford Files; Not sure where the Hot Bird comes in, Rockford drove a Firebird.

One of my favourite pieces in my Marvel collection; There is also a Captain America Hot Wheels stunt set but in 10+ years of looking I’ve never seen one for sale (I am in UK which limits my buying market).

I remember writing to Rob with the original source of some romance and Monster strips back in the days of Comics International when he was first putting the book together - so I’ve been eagerly awaiting it since day 1.

I believe this is exactly what Rob Kirby’s “From Cents To Pence” intends to do - if it ever gets published; https://a-distant-beacon.blogspot.com/?m=1

There’s a UK variant on page three of this thread. @Get Marwood & Ihas done lots of research on these font variations again see page 3.

Here’s mine, been stuck in a cupboard for around 6 years since I bought it trying to figure out how I can display it. The image Albert showed had the sleeves cut off. To bring it round to UK comics, if you got a letter published in Smash comic you could have been lucky enough to receive the Hulk sweatshirt;

But they didn’t get it right did they? Surely it should either be Superboy Comics #6 - it’s actual title or Superboy #1 - the title it reprints?

Yes. The silver set was only available from Marvelmania International by mail. As they used the same moulds which showed 1967 there can be some confusion but silver was not for sale in stores and was not available until 1970.

It’s the most expensive book I ever bought - I’ve spent many hundreds £/$ on memorabilia I was previously blissfully unaware existed.

The ad is from Marvelmania which didn’t start until 1969. If you sent off for the two sets you got the silver figures pictured in my post. They are cast from the 1967 moulds so are identical and still dated 1967 even tough they were released in 1970.

That would be correct, none were issued by MMMS, all were sold in department stores bar the silver set which was sold by Marvelmania International via mail order, as the add shown in @Forbush-Manpost. perhaps the set you bought was grey rather than silver? They are quite similar, grey issued 1967, silver in 1970.

Living in UK I have no first hand knowledge of buying these contemporary but being a fan of Marvel memorabilia I have read quite a bit on these figures; The first set, which is quite rare and expensive, was grey. This was followed in 1967 by the more common sets in blue, green, orange and red. In 1970 Marvelmania re-issued them in silver. A brown set is also known to exist, extremely rare but origins unsure - theory it was a test run. There are also numerous knock- offs, Mexico accounting for most, a darker red set being the most common. My silver Marvelmania set (unfortunately not undamaged);

Jack Kirby walked into Marvel Offices right after Joe Maneely’s death - I don’t think it’s documented whether Stan invited him or he saw an opportunity. If Joe hadn’t died Jack probably wouldn’t have joined Marvel and there probably wouldn’t have been a Fantastic Four or Spider-Man.

Similar to Spider-Man and Thor ones advertised in Marvel comics; Sub-mariner inflatable pillow produced by Massachusetts Art in 1968;

Was Toby’s a chain of shops? We had a Tobys book shop in Gloucester in 70s and 80s which sold new and second hand comics. Perhaps coincidence that this has been stamped Tobys or perhaps it passed through the shop in Gloucester?

Yes I have this book. It’s mostly a compilation of articles and sketches from early/mid 1960s fanzines relating to/by Ditko so whilst most is available elsewhere the task of getting the source material would be long and expensive. Worth the price? Not a substantial read for the money but invaluable for any Ditko fan (which I would guess a lot of us on these boards are) as like me there is probably very little you’ve ever seen or read elsewhere and interesting to read how Ditko was received by contemporary comic fans.