Rather than another Retro Review this week, I thought I might start a new column that will alternate with my Retro Review column and I’ve decided to call it Fabulous Finds! Though the column name isn’t set in stone, so if you’ve got a better name for this column, please let me know in the comments section below!
For this inaugural column, I’ve dug into my basement archives and pulled out the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975! It was the first of a seven year run of Marvel calendars, 1975 through 1981, though it was actually published in 1974. Here’s the fabulous cover:
The calendar cover features, as you can see from the scan above, a nice John Romita (Senior) cover featuring Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Conan, The Thing, The Torch, Mister Fantastic and Dracula! The calendar sold for $ 3.95 in various stores of the day. Each month features a different Marvel character or characters. January features Spider-Man, with another nice John Romita (Senior) drawn artwork. Here it is:
Each month of the calendar features information about the character, such as Spider-Man’s words of wisdom; “With great power there must also come great responsibility” for January. Also on the appropriate day of the month a Marvel bullpenner’s birthday is listed. Such as John Romita’s birthday being on January 24th. Here’s what the open calendar looks like for January:
Some of the artist’s doing artwork besides John Romita Senior are Frank Brunner (February), John Buscema (April), Barry Smith (May), Jack Kirby (September) and Mike Ploog (October). Here are a couple of those months for you to see:
I think this first Marvel calendar rates high on the cool scale and was quick to pick it up back in late 1974 – early 1975! You can still find one occasionally on eBay. There it will set you back somewhere between $ 25.00, the cheapest I’ve seen it to as high as $ 60.00. The good news is that Back to the Past has one up for auction in their planned September 15th auction. I believe it’s in the Saturday evening auction. So if you’re interested plan 0n being there, or you can also bid on-line via Proxy Bid.
For those that care, or at least wondering, Stan “the Man” Lee‘s birthday is December 28th and Roy “The Boy” Thomas‘ is November 22nd! The calendar itself was mentioned for sale in Stan Lee’s Soapbox in Fantastic Four # 151, and other comics cover dated; October 1974, as well as, again in Fantastic Four # 153, and other December 1974 cover dated Marvel Comics!
One final cool factoid about the 1975 Marvel Calendar, it actually appeared in a Marvel comic book! What’s that? You’d want to know where it showed up? Well, okay, since I’m in a good mood, I’ll tell you. Pull out your copy of Fantastic Four # 165, cover dated December 1975, and take a close look at the panel showing Reed Richards pointing to a calendar. Yep, he’s using the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975! Here’s that panel, in case you don’t own that comic:
And even cooler is that he’s pointing to the Fantastic Four month of June. This comic book was written by Roy Thomas and is drawn by George Perez! I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty darn cool, or at least pretty darn geeky! Your choice. Anyway, that’s it for this first Fabulous Finds column. Please leave a comment and let me know if you think this would be column you’d enjoy seeing on a regular basis! Peace! – greg
So who does the art & inks on that FF June page?!?! I think it might be J.Buscema? Or Frank Giacoia? And I asked Joe Sinnot, and he didnt quite remember that piece as being his inks….(well, he’s like 90.)
but any clue?
Justin, I can not be sure, but I would guess that the June Fantastic Four art for the 1975 Marvel Calendar is done by Rich Buckler. He was the primary cover artist for the FF book during this time frame, so he would have been a logical choice. Joe Sinnott was also the primary inker on those great FFs, as well, so he could very well have done the inks for this piece. But again, I’m guessing. The inking looks a little “heavy” for Joe, but could well be him. Sorry, I do not have a definitive answer for you.