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!
7 comments:
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...
Selling off your comic collection? Are you insane?
;-)
Keep me up to date with any bargains, Nick...
The paper does not hold up. It yellowed faster than the standard comic size for some reason.
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 :-(
I loved those treasury editions, but keeping them from getting dog-eared and frayed was almost impossible.
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.
@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?
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