Crass Merchandising and Wish Fulfillment - by Number 6 posted by mattclark72

[Hibou]

Great post!

 

I completely forgot about PrestoMagix and actually had that Hulk one... a few times!

 

Reading your posts bring back so many similar memories it's almost uncanny...

 

Yes, I too thought the Abomination was akin to the Creature form the Black Lagoon but on steroids!

 

About 13 years ago I was able to meet Lou Ferrigno at a convention and got his autograph as well... he was very cordial and polite! And Mego Hulk... I can't tell you how many I went through but I couldn't understand why they made him (and The Thing) so much shorter.

 

I'm looking forward to the continuation!

[Number 6]

"Bring On The Abomination!" Part 2

 

In the late 80's when I was a teenager in high school, I began making monthly treks to Sierra Comics in Clovis, CA, about a 30 minute drive from where I lived, to pick up the comics on my pull list. But I was always drawn to the older books hanging on the wall and thus began collecting older back issues as well as new comics. This is when my thoughts turned back to my favorite Hulk story - the Abomination origin story from Bring On The Bad Guys.

 

The problem, however, was that my comic investigatory powers were weak at this point. I just assumed that this story was taken from the Incredible Hulk title. So I scoured the listings in the Overstreet but couldn't find a notation for the first appearance of the Abomination. Bi-Beast? Check. Harpy? Check. Zzzzzax? Yup, even him. But no Abomination. This puzzled me as I just figured that the Abomination was surely more popular than all these other villains. I resigned myself to the notion that the Abomination's origin was hidden away in some random issue of the Incredible Hulk and I'd just have to stumble across it by chance. If only I had made use of the "See also -" feature in the Overstreet listing....

 

Ironically, I think Stan Lee mentions that the story is from Tales to Astonish in his introduction to the Abomination story in Bring On. He may have even stated the issue number. But as many times as I checked this book out from the library as a kid, I never actually read any of Lee's introductory remarks. I guess I just didn't have much of an appreciation for Stan's huckster hyperbole. As a kid, it was just a wall of text to skip past in order to get to the good stuff.

 

....

 

When I came back to the hobby in 1999/2000 my interest in older back issues was rekindled by eBay. Fresh off my success of acquiring a copy of Batman #251, I began thinking of other older issues I would want for my collection. Once again, the Abomination sprang to mind. I actually searched the library catalog and found that Bring On The Bad Guys was still in circulation. I requested it and this time actually read Stan's introductions to the stories. This is when I discovered that the Abomination story actually came from Tales to Astonish, not Incredible Hulk. A quick check in my Overstreet told me it was issues #90 and #91 that I was looking for. Armed with that info, I was determined to finally make this story a part of my collection.

 

At this time I also started using the ads in Overstreet to purchase books through mail order. One of the first websites I first visited as a result was Four Color Comics. They had a copy of #91 in VF, VF++ and VF/NM. VF++ was a new one on me, I had never heard of that grade. But according to the introductory articles in Overstreet, for post-1965 books, it had to be better than VF in order to be considered "high grade". I thought I'd save myself a little money and buy the VF++ copy (this was before Four Color had pictures of all their books on their site)

 

The book was absolutely beautiful! Collecting new comics in the late 80's and early 90's, it had been impressed upon me that everything had to be Near Mint. I was amazed at how nice a VF copy could look. But then the condition perfectionist reared it's ugly head: if this is how nice a VF++ looks, I wonder what the VF/NM copy is like? I ordered that copy and sure enough, it was slightly better. I sold the VF++ copy to the local comic shop, submitted the VF/NM copy to CGC and it came back a 9.2!

 

Like so much of my collection, this book had to be sold off around 2007. But when things settled down in my life, I once again thought how nice it would be to have an attractive copy of this issue. But by this point, CGC 9.2 copies were going for a bit more than I wanted to pay, so I settled for this issue that I won on ComicLink:

 

 

....

 

Getting a comparable of issue #90 was a bit more of a challenge.

 

Back when I purchased my first copy of #91, Four Color Comics only had a Fine copy of #90. I wanted something better than that. However, my positive experience with Four Color spoiled me: I assumed that every dealer who was an Overstreet Adviser graded just as strictly. I was in for a rude awakening.

 

After a couple of bumpy experiences with a couple of other dealers, I checked the website of a Colorado-based-dealer-who-shall-not-be-named who had run back issue ads in comics ever since I could remember. Surely this is someone I could trust. Lo and behold, they were advertising a copy of #90 in Near Mint condition. It was more than what I had spent on #91, but at least it would be in similar condition so I placed the order.

 

What I received was a huge disappointment. At best, it was a Fine/Very Fine copy. No major damage, but just a lot of edge wear, particularly on the spine. I was so disgusted with this purchase and so disillusioned with the accumulation of negative experiences with Overstreet Adviser dealers, I didn't even bother to contact this Colorado dealer about a return, I just didn't feel like arguing with another "expert" about grading. I had a friend of mine sell it on eBay for a huge loss.

 

It actually wan't until just a couple of years ago that I finally acquired an acceptable copy. First, I purchased a raw Very Fine/Near Mint copy from Harley Yee. It was a nice copy and I think the grade was accurate, it just didn't have a comparable appearance to the CGC 9.0 copy of #91 I have. So I sold this raw copy and purchased this CGC 9.0 copy off of eBay:

 

 

 

(Note: I'm starting to have a bit of a change of religion on slabbing. While these books have been cracked out, I think I may have these and some of my nicer books re-certified)

 

....

 

Since I love the Abomination, I've expanded my collection beyond this story to include these issues as well:

 

Incredible Hulk #159: While his is featured prominently, I don't consider this to be one the best Abomination covers. Herb Trimpe isn't my favorite artist and the poses of both the Hulk and Abomination are a bit stiff. But I love Gamma Base in the background, it always reminds me of the Presto Magix set I had as a kid. This is a nice copy, I'd say about VF/NM, but I think someday I'll upgrade it.

 

 

Incredible Hulk #288: The Abomination actually appears in the story that runs from issue #287 to #289 but this is the only issue of the arc that the Abomination appears on the cover. I have high grade copies of all three issues. As an aside: as a kid I thought finding issue #267 with the Abomination on the cover was a huge score. Turns out, in the hundred issues between 200 and 300, the Abomination is only on the cover twice - this issue and #267.

 

Power Records PR-11: I never owned this one as a kid, but I remember seeing it advertised on the inside cover of the Power Record comics that I did have. I always wanted this one, someday I'll acquire a high grade copy of Incredible Hulk #171.

 

You would have thought I learned my lesson dealing with the Colorado-dealer-who-shall-not-be-named, but I rolled the dice and bought this from them on eBay. Unlike most of their listings, this had an actual picture of the book and was an auction instead of a Buy-It-Now. It was listed as sealed Near Mint. While I don't think it's quite that nice - it has some typical spider vein creasing on the spine, some wear to the corner tips on the back cover and some splits in the plastic - it's still a pretty nice copy. At least it's unclipped, which is a real challenge for these issues.

 

 

Incredible Hulk Colorforms: When my mom's uncle came out to visit from Milwaukee, Wisconsin he wanted to buy me a present. My granny (his sister) told him I loved Colorforms, they were one of my favorite childhood toys. And the Incredible Hulk was my favorite T.V. show at the time. So he bought me this set.

 

A couple of years ago, Hakes was selling a number of brand spanking new Colorforms sets and I decided to break my rule about buying toys to bid on this set. It just happens to include my favorite Hulk villain.

 

 

 

....

 

Like most people, I was disappointed with the Ang Lee Hulk movie. So I was pleased to hear they were doing a reboot and ecstatic to find out that the Abomination was going to be in the film! Needless to say, it was a huge let down to see how the filmmakers chose to depict the Abomination.

 

I understand that when comic characters make the transition to film there's usually adjustments and compromises that have to be made. But when you're talking about a completely CGI character I'm not sure why that would be the case. Maybe they thought they couldn't present a plausible pseudo-scientific explanation as to why he would look like a reptile (though that wasn't a problem for the Red Skull). Maybe they thought it wouldn't be visually interesting to have two green colored monsters fighting each other. I don't know.

 

While I thought the film overall was decent - I especially liked all the nods to the T.V. show - the look of the Abomination is always going to be a sore point for me. On the bright side, the Hulk was one of the most popular characters in the Avengers movie, Mark Ruffalo seemed to be channeling Bill Bixby, and the Hulk looked exactly how I always imagined him as a kid. So who knows? Maybe some day Marvel Studios will decide to bring on the real Abomination.

[Number 6]

"Bring On The Abomination!" PostScript

 

I forgot one very important piece of my Abomination collection.

 

I suppose it's debatable how much Stan Lee contributed to the creation of the Abomination. It could have been as simple as saying "Gimme a gama-powered monster for the Hulk to fight!" Who knows. But at the end of the day, he is the credited writer for the story in Tales to Astonish #90-91 so he had something to do with it.

 

While I always skipped past Stan's Soap Box as a kid, every Marvel comic was 'presented by Stan Lee', his image appeared in subscription ads, and he did the narration for the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon. While some might question Stan's creative contribution, I don't think there's any denying that he infused the Marvel line with his personality. As such, I wanted to have one book signed by Stan and I knew right away this would be the one.

 

I regret not being able to have Gil Kane's signature on the book. When I first read the Abomination story as a kid, I didn't care much for his art - his Hulk looked quite a bit different then the depictions of the character on all the 70's merchandise, which is what I was used to. But as I got older, I grew to appreciate his style. He became one of my favorite artists. And he probably had the most to do with the look of the Abomination, which is what drew me to the character.

 

This was my first foray into CGC Signature Series and I think I was a bit too restrictive with the window bag. Had I known then of Stan's preference for fat sharpies and how big he usually signs his name, I wouldn't have tried so hard to confine him to the small area of white.

 

[Number 6]

"They Came From The Inner Sinner-Rack! Or Was It The Inner Pre-Pack?"

 

In the late 70's I remember my granny taking me and my brother to a Selma variety store called Roscoe's (this is the store front as it appears to day under new ownership):

 

 

This store was like a much smaller, independently owned version of Wal-mart. When we proceeded to the back of the store where to toy isles were, I was confronted with an end-cap display that featured to toy lines that were new to me: Shogun Warriors and Micronauts.

 

This event really stands out to me because along with the Battle of the Planets cartoon, this was probably me earliest exposure to Japanese toy and animation culture. And I thought it was pretty cool!

 

On this visit to Roscoe's my brother got the 5" Dragun action figure and I selected what would be the first of many toys from this line, the Micronauts Photon Sled. (picture taken from my copy of John Bonavita's book Mego Action Figure Toys, Revised and Expanded 3rd Edition with Values):

 

 

The difference between mine and the one above is that mine included a blue Time Traveler figure. While not my favorite Micronaut toy, I distinctly remember this one because when we returned to my granny's home, she had to assemble the sled and put the stickers on it for me. After playing with it for a few minutes, I began taking the sled apart. My granny became angry and wanted to know why I was taking it apart when she had just finished putting it together. I actually had to grab the packaging out of the trash and show her that it as an "interchangeable" toy, that it was meant to be reassembled in different ways.

 

While I owned a number of Micronauts toys, there were at least four more that I remember getting out of a discount bin at Roscoe's: Force Commander, Baron Karza, Oberon, and Andromeda. (again, pictures from Bonavita's book, these are foreign issues of these figures):

 

 

......

 

As I mentioned at the outset of this journal, many of my childhood comic purchases were influenced by the toys that I had. No surprise then that one of my earliest comic books was Micronauts #12. I've been working on a high-grade 9.6-9.8 run of Micronauts but I have yet to aquire a high-grade copy of #12. I remember as a kid rereading that issue over and over and one of the things I distinctly remember about that issue is the final page cliffhanger: (picture from my reading copy):

 

 

Since I hadn't read any of the previous issue and the character doesn't appear anywhere else in the story, I had no idea who Bug was, let alone why he was falling through space or why it mattered what happened to him. But I always had a soft spot for green skinned aliens/monsters so I was curious as to fate of the character. Lo and behold, one day walking up to the spinner rack at Kingsburg Super Market, a grocery store when I purchased most of my comics as a kid, I spotted this: (picture of my reading copy):

 

 

At the time I couldn't remember the issue number of that first Micronauts comic, but based just on the cover alone, I was fairly sure that this was the next issue that would continue that story, and I was very excited. It may not seem like a big deal now, but since we lived in between Selma and Kingsburg, my mom would alternate between grocery stores in both towns, and would pick which store based on what she was closest to at the time or what was currently on sale. Some of those stores had comics and some didn't. This made getting consecutive issues are real challenge because if she picked a non-comic grocery store or went to a comic-carrying store at the end of the month, I was going to be out of luck. So finding this next issue felt like a real coupe.

 

And as I flipped through the issue I became almost completely convinced that it was the next issue that would continue the story from #12. Why do I say "almost"? Because even though at the time I wasn't dialed in to the monthly distribution schedule of comics, it seemed like it had been a really long time since my purchase of #12, longer that it should have been.

 

This is one of the instances where pinning down specifics to these childhood memories gets difficult because I don't remember a lot of details, just how I felt at the time.

 

The cover date for #12 is December 1979, so that means it was probably on the stands around late September or October. My birthday is in October so I would have been about 6 or 7 at the time. And that's about right because I remember sitting in the family van while my dad was doing work in the almond orchards after the almond harvest, and the weather was still warm, so it would be about that time of year.

 

Issue #13 would have been on the stands about late October or November. But I have no specific memory that would give me a clue as to whether or not that was about the right time of year or not. I also have no idea how old I was, I just remember feeling significantly older than when I purchased the #12.

 

The next issue of Micronauts that I would purchase off the stands was #27, cover dated March 1981, so probably on the stands about late January or February, so I was about 8 years old at the time. But I can't remember if I purchased the #13 before or after #27. If it was after than if would definitely explain the feeling of extended time between #12 and #13, but if it was before, would a few months to year and half be enough to give me that sense of "too long"? And having only just turned 8 a couple of months previous, would I be old enough to get such a strong impression?

 

When we first moved to the Kingsburg/Selma area, Kingsburg Super Market was located on 1330 California Street; but at some point during the next couple of years - I don't know exactly when - they moved to 1355 Marion Street. Both the #13 and #27 were bought at the Marion St. location, but I have no recollection of where I got the #12. So even if I knew when the store moved it still wouldn't help me pinpoint a time frame.

 

But there is a possible explanation for why I felt there had been such a long time between the my acquiring the #12 and #13. As excited as I was to find the #13 I hesitated on getting it. Why? Because even though I was at a spinner rack at a grocery store, it didn't look like the newsstand copy pictured above; the issue number was in a horizontal diamond and there was a strike mark through the UPC code.

 

Somehow a direct market copy had made it on to the spinner rack. Of course, I didn't know that's what it was at the time. At the time I had heard something about there being reprints of the Star Wars comics and something about a diamond logo. I don't know how I was aware of that; none of my friends at school were hard-core comic collectors and I wouldn't own an Overstreet until I was about 15 (and I know I wasn't that old at the time).

 

I him-hawed about whether I should get it or not and finally did brake down and buy it because I really wanted to have that next issue. But for the longest time I thought I had a reprint and it wasn't until I started going to Sierra Comics in Fresno that I finally had it explained to me exactly what it was.

 

But even with that explanation, I still wondered for the longest time: How did that direct market copy end up on a grocery store spinner rack?

 

I suppose the easiest answer is that the publisher or distributor made a mistake and slipped a direct market copy in with the newsstand editions. But would that account for the time lag I felt when seeing it on the stand?

 

A purchase I made last year gave me what I feel is a possible clue to both the direct market copy being on a newsstand and the time lag. (from my collection)

 

 

 

This pre-pack includes Micronauts #13, Star Wars #30 and Captain America #241. Both the Captain America and Micronauts are cover dated 1/80 but the Star Wars carries a cover date of 12/79. And as you can see, all of them are direct market copies.

 

I'm not really clear on how Whitman distributed their pre-packs to stores, especially a small-town grocery store like Kingsburg Super Market. At other grocery stores - like Town and Country in Kingsburg (which didn't have a comic rack) and Safeway in Selma - when I found a Whitman pre-pack it would be in the toy isle (along with the coloring books and puzzles that Whitman distributed) not in the magazine isle on the opposite end of the store. That makes me suspect that smaller stores could just choose a small, random assortment of Whitman products for their toy isle and a pre-pack or two would get thrown in. And since the majority of items were to be stocked in the toy isle, the pre-packs got displayed there too, even though in some cases - like Safeway- they had comics in their magazine isle.

 

But the interesting thing about Kingsburg Super Market is that I seemed to have a vague memory of buying Whitman pre-packs of Black Hole #1-3, Condorman #1-3 and Flash Gordon #31-33 there and getting them off the spinner rack, not in the toy isle.

 

Also, a few years ago I remember reading an article in Comic Book Marketplace called the "Whitman Mystery". I seem to remember that article making the comment that Whitman pre-pack distribution became very erratic during the early 80's.

 

Now the issue in question is cover dated 1/80, that's pretty early in the 80's. But is it possible that due to Whitman's scatter-shot approach to distributing their pre-packs in the 80's that the above pre-pack made it on to the newsstand much later than it's original distribution date? And is it possible that this particular grocery store, unlike all the others, stocked this pre-pack on the comic spinner rack instead of the toy isle? And that some kid ripped the pre-pack open to buy (or steal) one of the other issues that they wanted, and thus the loose direct market copy of Micronauts #13 ended up on the newsstand?

 

I don't know, guess I'll never know for sure. It's possible that there's some other explanation that I'm not aware of. And since I was so young and my memories are so spotty, maybe I've got the whole thing mixed up in my mind.

 

.......

 

I was very happy to make the following purchase last month. I know I paid way to much for it, but it get's me closer to completing my high-grade run. And with memories I have of this book - whether real or imagined - it means a lot to finally have a copy in my collection:

 

 

Now to just get a high-grade copy of #12....

 

[Number 6]

If Roddenberry and Kubrick Had A Love Child...

 

 

This summer, I reached one of my collecting goals: to complete a small run of issues based on one of my favorite 70's T.V. shows

 

 

When I was growing up, television series that were produced in the U.K. always seemed to have a different tone that made them stand out from their U.S. counterparts. They always struck me as a bit..I don't know...darker, I guess, and that always intrigued me.

 

I know that this series tends to be dismissed as Star Trek knock-off with bad acting, dated costumes, and boring stories. However, I find that there enough significant differences between Space: 1999 and Star Trek that the show can stand on it's own. I actually enjoy the 70's attire since I was born in 1972. Admittedly, the stories do have a slower pace than what audiences are accustomed to with today's T.V. shows. But I think the story pacing is typical of time period. While I can sympathize - I must admit I find childhood favorites like Six Million Dollar Man and Incredible Hulk a bit tedious to sit through now - I personally find that Space: 1999 is one of the few 70's T.V. shows that I can still enjoy as an adult.

 

I think there's a lot to recommend the show. The special effects and the design of the show was handled by Brian Johnson, who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a result, the two properties look like they could be related. I really like the clean, stark white interiors punctuated with muted colored light panels. Many of the sets like Main Mission and Koenig's office are designed so the camera can move through them in a very cinematic way. (The design of the show and episode content changed quite a bit for the 2nd season. There's some elements of the 2nd season that are kitschy-kool, but I feel the 1st season is superior.)

 

It's easy to ridicule the hard science of the moon flying through space like a ship and the over-use of oscilloscopes as "futuristic' hardware , but I really appreciate that most of the 1st season episodes tried to be thought-provoking science fiction as opposed to shoot 'em up fisticuffs. (Again, IMO, the story quality dips more towards the later in season 2)

 

Martin Landau's Commander Koenig is and interesting contrast to Captain Kirk. Rather than the strapping hero who clearly enjoys command, Koeing is mid-level management, reluctantly placed in command by superiors who think he'll be a yes-man, and ultimately is forced into a leadership role by circumstances. That being said, while Landau and Bain are ment to be the stars of the show, I never found them as interesting as Kirk and Spock. The character that was most enjoyable to me was Barry Morse as Professor Bergman. His character would typically bring all the cold intellect of science - like Spock's character on Star Trek - but instead Bergman brings both a warm personality and an openness to the mystical, things that go beyond science.

 

.......

 

As I much as I liked the show as a kid, I only had one piece of Space: 1999 merchandise growing up - the Colorforms Adventure Set: (picture from eBay auction item #131607528927)

 

 

While this is a cool set - I like that the helmets have a cut-out on the visor portion so you can place it over the character's head - I remember this as being one of the more dull Colorforms sets when I was a kid. Unlike the Star Trek set, there's no aliens creatures or ships, so what exactly are the Eagles, Keonig and Russell supposed to be shooting their stunners at?

 

(Interesting: only now does it occur to me that I could have taken aliens and robots from other Colorforms sets I had and used them to spice this one up a bit. Yet, as a kid I rigidly adhered to using only pieces that came each set; it never occurred to mix them up. What does that say about my tendency toward literal-mindedness...)

 

Nevertheless, this is a set I would very much like to add to my collection. When I purchased my Hulk Colorforms set from a Hake's eBay auction a couple of years ago, they had a number of Colorform sets up for sale including a couple copies of this one. I didn't pursue one at the time as I didn't want to send too much of my collecting dollars on toys. Now that I see how rarely minty sets come up for sale, I regret I didn't take the opportunity to buy one. (Ironically, while searching for reference photos for this post I stumbled upon the above completed eBay auction which sold for about half of what the Hake's sets went for a couple years ago...and had just ended a couple of days before I found it.)

 

....

 

It may sound strange, but one of the pieces of Space: 1999 merchandise that I was really attracted to as kid - and still am- but never actually owned was the King Seeley Thermos Co. lunchbox (photo from eBay item #191698389423):

 

 

This side of the box always fascinated me because of the alien. A giant green, tentacled monster with a white light for an eye certainly is in holding with the design aesthetic of the show, but I always assumed that it was created for the box artwork and didn't actually appear in the show. It wasn't until A&E released the series on DVD that I was able to watch all the episodes, including this one:

 

 

This episode comes towards the end of Season 1. It was around this time that head of ITC, Lew Grade, made a deal with an Italian studio. As a result, the last few episodes of the season started featuring Italian guest actors. This episode cast Gianni Garko as Tony Cellini:

 

 

This is an interesting episode because the narrative is different than most, unfolding in a series of graduated flashbacks. Cellini is a discredited deep-space probe astronaut. As it would happen, Moon Base Alpha is moving into an area of space in which Cellini had a horrific experience years earlier. To me, this is a cool concept: several abandoned ghost space ships being held in place as if by an invisible spider's web:

 

 

When the Alpha crew enter Cellini's derelict probe ship, a parasitic alien suddenly materializes, spitting slime and using hypnosis to ensnare it's victims. Once they're captured and throttled by it's tentacles, they're quickly consumed and the creature spits out a smoking cadaver:

 

 

 

Of course, the special effects are a bit cheesy by today's standards, but I think the whole scenario is still a bit freaky. It's definitely more hard-core than anything that was ever done on Star Trek. Dragon's Domain is one of my favorite episodes as it epitomizes what I like about the show.

 

....

 

Even though I grew up with the show, it wouldn't be until the early 2000's - about the time I started buying the show on DVD - that I discovered that there was actually a comic book series.

 

 

To be continued....