TFMSR 029: Marvel Annuals, Part 4: 1968 …

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1968 is the last great year of the Marvel Annuals, in my humble opinion. It was the end of a six-year run of truly great comic books which topped off the summer, made even more special for someone of my particular age. I aged from 7 to 13 years old in the years 1962 (when the Marvel Annuals started) through 1968 and in that time, I became a seasoned comics fan, haunting my hometown newsstands twice a week—if not more—for new comics.

The Marvel Annuals of 1968 were 64 pages each, and for the most part, contained just one long story. A few of them had a special feature, usually yet another humorous story conference drawn in a cartoony fashion, that ranged from three to five pages in length. At least one of the stories in this year’s Annuals is an absolute classic; the rest were mildly enjoyable at best, mediocre at worst. Once again, the Annuals were called “King-Size Specials,” except Millie, which was “Queen-Size.”

1968’s Annual Season started, as usual, with Millie the Model and Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (this happened on such a regular basis, I’m starting to think that Millie and Nick had something going on, if you know what I mean). Both The New MmmMillie the Model Queen-Size Special #7 and Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos King-Size Special #4 were released on June 11. The Fury Special appeared between issues #45 and 46 of the regular title. John Severin had just joined the Howlers as first penciller/inker, then inker with issue #44, and his gritty, detailed inking style certainly added to Dick Ayers’s pencils. This Annual featured one 47-page story, “The Battle of the Bulge,” focusing on the Christmas 1944 campaign that was the Nazi’s last stand in World War II. Written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Dick Ayers and John Severin, the story was book-ended by modern-day pages featuring Fury and some of the Howlers reuniting and reminiscing at a holiday celebration about this last huge battle. There was also a three-page “Gary and Dick Up Front” story, featuring a look at the duo creating a Fury story, ala Marvel’s Not Brand Echh humorous title.

July 8 saw the release of Avengers King-Size Special #2 (between Avengers #56 and 57), featuring a 44-page story, “… And Time, the Rushing River …” by Roy Thomas, Don Heck, Werner Roth, and Vince Colletta, with a stunning two-page pin-up of the current Avengers team by John Buscema, who was the regular title’s penciller. This was one of those “new Avengers meet old Avengers” team-ups, featuring yet another time-spanning villain, The Scarlet Centurion, who may or may not be Doctor Doom, Kang, or Rama-Tut. Buscema also provided the great cover, one of a series by him over the years for Marvel, showcasing dynamic figure work with characters battling each other (see also Fantastic Four #112 and Sub-Mariner #8) drawn simply over a solid black background. Yet another (sigh) “funny” behind-the-scenes five-page story, “Avenjerks Assemble!”, was by Roy Thomas, Buscema, and inker Frank Giacoia.

The Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1 was released a week later, on July 16, 1968, smack-dab between Incredible Hulk #108 and 109. Clocking in at a mammoth 51 pages, this behemoth of a story was written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Marie Severin and Syd Shores, and features the Hulk vs. the Inhumans, only it’s a pretty different cast of Inhumans, except for Black Bolt, Gorgon, and Maximus. Much as I love seeing this much work by Marie Severin in any one place, this is a talky, way-too-long story, highlighted only by Hulk taking on Lockjaw for a page or so, and yelling “HULK ATTACK!!!” and “HULK KILL!!!” on a single page (“You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”). I’m not sure I’d ever seen “Hulk Kill” before or since, but the last new Hulk book I read was probably in the early 2000s. And let’s face it: If Hulk had a dog, it would have to be Lockjaw, so can’t they just get along? This Annual is also famous for its Jim Steranko cover, altered a bit before publication, but still amazing. It may just be the best thing about this issue, along with that pretty spiffy past-up job showcasing all the Hulk artists that had come before, the only special feature in the book (and one that was surgically removed from my copy, unfortunately).

Finally, on August 13, the “Big Two” once again made their annual appearances, with the release of Amazing Spider-Man King-Size Special #5 (between issues #62 and 63) and Fantastic Four King-Size Special #6 (on the same day as FF issue #80). The Spidey Annual featured the long-awaited introduction of Peter Parker’s long-dead parents, revealed in a flashback story to be spies working for the U.S. government, and infiltrating the Red Skull’s criminal organization. It’s a story written by Stan Lee and drawn by Larry Lieber (with inks by Mike Esposito) and featuring “Jazzy Johnny Romita, Chaotic Consultant,” which is ill-informed at worst (the Red Skull was in suspended animation during the timespan of this tale, according to the Captain America feature over in Tales of Suspense), well-meaning at best, to at least give us an idea of who Spidey’s parents were. There’s also six pages of pin-ups and a three-page—you guessed it—humorous story, “Here We Go A-Plotting!”.

The final Marvel Annual of 1968—Fantastic Four King-Size Special #6—is the best, an absolute classic story of the team that launched Marvel Comics seven years earlier. It’s the one were Sue Storm gives birth to her son with Reed Richards. It is, I think, Jack Kirby’s last great FF story, one created during the artist’s period of soul-searching as to what his future in comics was to be. It includes Kirby’s last great FF villain, Annihilus, “The Living Death That Walks,” and the scourge of the Negative Zone, where Reed, Thing, and Human Torch travel to procure the “Cosmic Control Rod” to save Sue’s life during childbirth. It’s 48 pages of pure perfection, with no fewer than seven splash pages, amidst lots of pages with big panels, all gloriously inked by Joe Sinnott. It even includes a two-page Kirby collage. I was never a fan of these “experiments” by King Kirby, but in retrospect I think it’s because the printing technology of the time for comic books just wasn’t there to make these things look as good as they should have. If it was done nowadays, I’m reasonably sure they’d absolutely sing and appear the way Kirby wanted them to. There are no special features in this Annual … just “A spectacular movie-length epic complete in this collectors-item issue!”, a bit of “Way-out wonderment as none but Stan “The Man” Lee and Jack “King” Kirby could create it!” Yes, it truly was the Hyperbolic Age of Stan Lee. In an interesting side-note, I just learned a couple of weeks ago—via Tom Brevoort’s weekly newsletter—that the cover to this Annual was inked by Wally Wood. If you zoom in on Reed’s face, you can see it.

Here’s the breakdown for the 1968 Marvel Annuals:

1968 ANNUALS (“King-Size Special”)	RELEASE DATE	ORDER
Millie the Model Queen-Size Special #7	June 11, 1968	N/A
Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos King-Size Special #4	June 11, 1968	SF #45 & 46
Avengers King-Size Special #2	July 8, 1968	Avengers #56 & 57
Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1	July 16, 1968	Hulk #108 & 109
Amazing Spider-Man King-Size Special #5	Aug. 13, 1968	ASM #62 & 63
Fantastic Four King-Size Special #6	Aug. 13, 1968	Same Day as FF #80

Marvel’s 1968 25-cent books weren’t delegated to just its Annual line. These three titles were all regularly priced at a quarter each.

Marvel was at the end of its onerous relationship with Independent News in 1968, and the Marvel Explosion that divvied up the “split” books—Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish—into individual titles of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Captain America, and Hulk and Sub-Mariner, had already happened. But Marvel was also crazy for 25-cent comics in that year. Not Brand Echh, it’s humor title, grew to a 64-page book with its August 1968 release, #9 and stayed that way until it was cancelled with #13. When the first issue of Silver Surfer debuted on May 16, it too was a 25-center, and Marvel Super-Heroes continued it’s 25-cent run throughout the year as a tryout book with a number of old and new concepts, including Medusa, the Black Knight, the Phantom Eagle, Ka-Zar, Doctor Doom, and something called the “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which looked very little like the Guardians we know today, mainly through their Marvel Cinematic Universe trilogy.

There’s one other Marvel 25-center for 1968, which looks like an Annual, but I suppose really isn’t. It’s Tales of Asgard #1, starring the Mighty Thor, which reprinted ten of the back-up stories from Journey Into Mystery #s 97 through 106, all by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It doesn’t have the “Twice As Many Pages! Twice As Many Thrills!” corner box trade-dress of the other 1968 Annuals, even though it was released during the height of Annual Season, on July 16. I include it on my spinner rack with the other Marvel Annuals, though … just for old time’s sake, and a fond memory of another summer Marvel 25-cent book. And, oh, that Kirby cover. Thor never looked so good.

The Marvel Annuals continued after 1968, but—to me, at least—with diminishing returns. For many years they were just filled with reprints, and when they did return to new stories, they seemed to often—especially from the 1980s on—have some tie-in to some ongoing summer storyline with the regular titles or—later—some Marvel Event. But there are two 1969 Marvel Annuals that merit some examination.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos King-Size Special #5 reprints Sgt. Fury #6 (“The Fangs of the Desert Fox!”) and #7 (The Court-Martial of Sgt. Fury!”), but it sure looks like someone at Marvel may have conceived this as a new Annual. Released on June 17, 1969, between Fury issues #57 and 58, this Annual contains seven pages of special material, including a four-page recap of “Fury’s Friends and Foes,” drawn by Dick Ayers and John Severin, and more than likely written by Gary Friedrich, the regular series writer at the time. There’s also a four-page “Weapons of War” feature, which may or may not be reprint material. I know the guns page is from an early Jack Kirby issue of Sgt. Fury; I’m not sure about the pages that focus on tanks and planes, which appear to be the work of Severin.

Fantastic Four King-Size Special #7, released on August 5, 1969, between FF issues #91 and 92, features the last Kirby cover for the 1960s FF Annuals. It reprints the first story from Fantastic Four #1 featuring the Mole Man, and the two Doctor Doom stories from FF Annual #2. But it’s most notable for including yet another Bullpen photo feature, this time a four-pager featuring just about everyone working for Marvel in 1969. It shows how much the company has grown in the five short years since the original Bullpen photo feature in Marvel Tales Annual #1 back in 1964. And it’s kind of a nice bookend to the whole Marvel Annuals saga.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at some of the most memorable comic books from my 1960s childhood, a summer tradition that I dearly love and miss.

Next time: I’m going to try and re-create my WonderCon 2023 panel presentation (since I failed to record it), featuring the classic story, “When Batman Became Bat-Baby!,” in some form or another. Tune in to see what I come up with, coming September 13th!