Friday 2 September 2011

FF Fridays: Marvel Treasury Editions


When I was a kid I used to love the over-sized Marvel Treasury Editions - they were a wonderful showcase for some classic ( and some not-so-classic ) reprints from Marvel's past. Of course, the biggest draw was that they presented all that groovy Bronze and Silver Age artwork in a super-sized "deluxe limited edition".....

OK, they were still printed on standard 1970's comic book paper
( ie bog roll ) but it was great to see such large-scale super hero goodness ( and barbarian badness in the Conan Treasuries! ) in an affordable format. The FF Treasuries reprinted such all-time classic tales as the Galactus Trilogy ( but an edited version... ), "Captives Of The Deadly Duo" ( FF #6 ), "The Master Plan Of Doctor Doom" ( FF #23 ) and "This Man, This Monster" ( FF #51 and this blog ) .....


These are the only two FF Treasuries I bought ( or my parents bought for me ) back in the day. There was a third volume, but I'm not sure if they were being published in the UK by that point.
I certainly never saw any Treasuries after #16 ( the Defenders issue ).

For further info on that cool, gone-but-not-forgotten format, check out Treasury Comics: The Blog - it's Fantastic!
at

7 comments:

  1. That Baldy Fella4 September 2011 at 13:18

    I've got Treasury Number 12 - the Howard The Duck one. At least I have until I finish selling off the rest of my comics collection...

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  2. Simon B 4 September 2011 at 19:54

    Selling off your comic collection? Are you insane?
    ;-)
    Keep me up to date with any bargains, Nick...

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  3. Don Hudson4 September 2011 at 23:29

    The paper does not hold up. It yellowed faster than the standard comic size for some reason.

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  4. Simon B 6 September 2011 at 22:30

    Hi Don! Thanks for commenting.

    There always seemed to be talk about paper shortages in the letter columns of comics back in the '70s. I don't know how accurate that was, or how much it was just an excuse to do things on the cheap :-(

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  5. M. D. Jackson7 September 2011 at 14:39

    I loved those treasury editions, but keeping them from getting dog-eared and frayed was almost impossible.

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  6. david_b7 September 2011 at 16:17

    I just started collecting 'em.. ONLY had the red Spiderman one and Shazam one as a kid.

    I couldn't stop droolin' when I first saw that Spidey one.

    I still collect a few Bronze and Silver comics here and there, but I actually get 'giddy' (being a 48yr old..) when I get one of these big jobbers in the mail.

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  7. Simon B 7 September 2011 at 20:22

    @Mike
    That is the main problem with those old treasuries... same for the Jack Kirby Collector and Barry Windsor-Smith's Storyteller: it's a great format for presenting large-scale artwork but a nightmare to store.

    @david_b
    Hi David! Thanks for commenting. I never got that Spidey treasury, but always wanted it :-(
    I still have quite a few treasuries - subject for another post?

    ReplyDelete