The CRAZIEST Comics Ever Published!

[carson]

Scott's column this week features a comic with a weird choice of reprints. I doubt if anyone bought CYnthia DOyle the first time around, so why bring her back?

So what other reprint chocies have made you scratch your head over the years? For me, it was repritns of the original Marvelman comics in Miracleman. Not only were they bacly out of date, Marvelman was basically unknown in North AMerica when he was originally published, and wasn't that popular back in England either.

[RobAllen]

Over on the CBR Classics board we've been discussing why Marvel started a giant-size Ka-Zar reprint book at the same time as the new Ka-Zar series in Astonishing Tales.

[Mike_Kuypers]

My first exposure to Marvel comics was Marvel Tales and Marvel Collector Item Classics. At the that time the stories being reprinted were 3-4 years old. I didn't get it. DC reprints went back 10-20 years. Of course I didn't realize Marvel, as we know it now, started in 1961.

Even so, it still seems a bit odd. Imagine being a new Marvel reader today picking up reprints going all the way back to 2004. (With trades I guess you can. It's a strange world we live in, my friend!)
_________________
Mike Kuypers

"Not to know what happened before you were born is to forever remain a child." -- Cicero

[Sijo]

As I have mentioned before, the first DCcomics I read -spanish translations made by a mexican company called Editorial Novaro- featured more than one story per issue, mostly due to the fact their comics were longer than the average American comic of the time, and the extra room was often filled up with old DC reprints from titles like House of Mystery, Mystery in Space or Strange Sports Stories. The really odd thing is that there seemed to be no logic to the combinations they published. I remember being particularly scared by a Batman comic who contained both an Atom short story and a horror story that scared me so much (it was about a man who murdered his wife only to be killed by the Boogieman he feared as a kid) that I cut it off the comic and threw the pages away! (I was like 9 at the time.) :p

[mwgallaher]

Dell's 1971 reprinting of their mid-60's Dracula series seemed odd, but I suppose now that they were doing it to preserve their trademark on "Dracula" since Marvel had just started "Tomb of Dracula".
Then there's DC's odd burst of early 70's reprint titles of defunct series like Trigger Twins, Inferior 5, Boy Commandos, Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown, Metal Men, Legion of Super-Heroes. It's like they looked at Marvel's heavy servings of reprint titles and figured maybe they were missing out on easy money. Apparently not, since none of these titles were worth publishing for more than 4 issues.

[Scott Shaw!]

DC's SHOWCASE is a source of Oddball reprints..."Dr. No", "I-- Spy!", "Binky", "Top Gun" and "Phantom Stranger" were all strange choices for a book that was supposedly dedicated to showcasing NEW concepts. Oddest of all was "The Way-Out World Of Windy And Willy", a retooled reprint of the final issue of THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS, covered here a while ago.

And speaking of retooling, how about all those 1950s and 1960s DC romance comics that were reprinted in the 1970s with re-drawn details to make 'em look current? New slang, sideburns and bell bottoms aside, I don't think they were fooling anyone that they were merely using old material. I'm all for recycling but SHEESH!

Aloha,

Scott!
_________________
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." -- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

[Charlie_Ryan]

And another weird DC reprint book was the bait-and-switch treasury edition Superman Salutes The Bicentennial which cover featured the great old Jack Burnley drawing of Superman with an eagle perched on his shoulder, but inside had nothing but old Tomahawk stories.
_________________
Your imaginary friend,
Charlie Ryan