Boy that was a rough few weeks… The popular Mike’s Amazing World website — the indispensable repository of historical comic-book information — is finally back in action after a weeks-long layoff. The situation had sent fans of comics history into a bit of a tizzy when it went offline mysteriously in October. It turned out that it was related to the the PHP havoc that tore through the internet last month. The operators of the site have been working since to get the site up and running. For weeks, readers were greeted with an alarming message that read, “Sorry, you have been blocked.” By Friday morning, the site was back to verifying if users were human — before sending them to a screen that read, “Site temporarily offline for maintenance. Check back for updates…” Finally, it was fully restored by Tuesday. Long may it stand. — MORE — RETRO HOT PICKS Index. Click here. — BRONZE AGE BONANZA Index. Click...
The door is open with Star Wars… By ROB KELLY A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (the 1970s) Marvel Comics published treasury editions. While DC was first out of the gate with them, Marvel caught up quickly and, in a lot of ways, surpassed DC’s efforts. While DC basically rotated the same four or five characters to headline their treasuries (Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel/Shazam!, Tarzan, and… Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with Wonder Woman not getting her own treasury until this month), Marvel was a lot more democratic: Lesser-knowns like the Defenders, Howard the Duck, and Shang-Chi all got oversize collections. They also created some truly fantastic supplementary material, when they had an extra page or two to fill. By the 1980s, the treasuries were dying out and Marvel relegated the format to licensed characters like G.I. Joe, the Smurfs, and Annie, the kinds of books more suited to be sold in department stores, aimed at a broader audience, not die-hard comics fans. So while the Marvel treasuries came in with a bang, they went out with a whimper. Other than a brief flirtation with the format in the 2010s, Marvel has resisted bringing the treasuries back, even after DC has seemingly had huge success doing so. 13th Dimension in particular has been beating the drum to get Marvel to change its mind, and I’ve tried my best to put the idea out into the ether on my podcast devoted to the format, TreasuryCast. But with the very welcome news — broken by 13th D — that Marvel is commemorating the 50th anniversary (OMG, am I old) of Star Wars with a treasury-size reprint of Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars #1, it appears that the House of Ideas has finally seen the dollar sign-shaped light. And while us treasury comic fans are very, very grateful, all this means is that we want more, more, more! So in case Marvel needs some ideas, here are 13 MARVEL TREASURY FACSIMILE EDITIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE — RANKED (including some new pubs): — 13. Marvel Treasury Edition #1: Spider-Man (Reprint). Considering the last Spidey movie made, oh, 2 billion dollars, this is the obvious place to start, just like Marvel did back in 1974. — 12. Deadpool. I’m not even a Deadpool fan, but a collection from the...
One of the Bronze Age’s most respected artists turns 66…
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 37 years ago!
INSIDE LOOK: We’ve asked for it. You’ve asked for it. We’re getting it.
