While "researching" a recent Nexus Graphica, I had reason to look through my collection of Comics Of Unusual Size. This set of the big and small and odd of comicdom offers many gems. Deciding that I really should share some of these largely forgotten and sometime rare pieces, I’m taking you through a tour of the more interesting selections.
Click on images for full sized versions.
Here Comes… Daredevil (Lancer Books, 1967)
Art uncredited but most likely John Romita
Continuing my tour through some of the more mainstream selections. Throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties, Marvel produced several mass market (or pocket-sized) paperbacks reprinting several of their titles. The first of these collections were published by Lancer, 1966-67. The books included two Fantastic Four volumes and one each of Spider-man, Thor, Hulk, and Daredevil. The black & white pages were roughly 1/3 the size of a standard comic and had to be read sideways.
Interiors to Here Comes… Daredevil (Lancer Books, 1967)
Script by Stan Lee Art by John Romita
Conan, Volume One (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978) and Conan, Volume Two (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978)
Art by Barry Smith
Then in 1977, Pocket began their ten volume reprints of Marvel favorites: Three Spider-Man, one Captain America, two Doctor Strange, one Fantastic Four, two Hulk, and one Spider-Woman. All but the Spider-Woman were in full color. Grosset & Dunlap’s Tempo Star six volume full-color reprints of Conan the Barbarian appeared in 1978-79. Both lines chopped up the pages to make them fit on the pocket-sized pages. The color printing for the Conan volumes were particularly well done.
Conan, Volume Three (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978) and Conan, Volume Four (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978)
Art by Barry Smith
Interiors to Conan, Volume Two (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978)
Script by Roy Thomas Art by Barry Smith and Sal Buscema
from the "The Tower of the Elephant" by Robert E. Howard
In eighties Marvel began producing their own line of black & white mass market paperback titles under the banner of Marvel Illustrated Books. This series included the usual culprits of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Hulk and Captain America with the Avengers and the newly-popular X-Men thrown in. Much like the Pocket and Tempo books, these volumes chopped up the pages to accommodate the mass market size.
Stan Lee Presents The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Daredevil (Marvel Comics Group, November 1982 Art by Bob Larkin)
Stan Lee Presents The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of The X-Men (Marvel Comics Group, March 1982 Art by Dave Cockrum)
Interiors to Stan Lee Presents The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Daredevil (Marvel Comics Group, November 1982)
Script by Stan Lee Art by Wally Wood
Much like the DC digests, these books introduced me to several influential bits of comic book history including the legendary Giant-Size X-Men #1 and the incomparable Wally Wood.
Interiors to Stan Lee Presents The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of The X-Men (Marvel Comics Group, March 1982)
Script by Len Wein Art by Dave Cockrum