This is the comic that made me stop collecting comics. For all of about 30 seconds.I clearly remember the day I walked into the newsstand a couple of miles from my Grandmother's house.
There on the spinner rack was the latest issue of Iron Man (cover dated August 1969), which I had been looking forward to, since the previous issue ended with a cliffhanger.
I picked up the issue, looked at it, and a surge of outrage swept through me. How could they? I put it back on the spinner, and decided on the spot that I would buy no more comic books.
Don't get me wrong - there was nothing offensive about the story or the art. There, on the cover, was the culprit.
In the upper left corner, to be exact. The price of a comic book, after seven years of holding at 12 cents, had suddenly jumped to a hefty 15 cents. I know, a three-cent jump seems laughable now, when price jumps of a dollar are becoming common - but at the time it seemed almost criminal.
I looked at the other comics on the rack, but I kept coming back to this issue. Finally, I calmed down and realized that 15 cents wasn't so bad, even if it meant I could now only get one comic for a quarter, instead of two.
The comic itself was pretty good, as Iron Man was forced to team up with the Unicorn to fight the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes (who were apparently on loan from the Fantastic Four).
Written by Archie Goodwin, the story is loaded with action and a plot twist or two. It also features terrific art by one of my favorite artists on ol' Shellhead, George Tuska, inked here by the legendary Johnny Craig. Tuska is a vastly underrated artist who was tops at action scenes - you could almost feel those punches! He also was a fine storyteller, and his page designs were spot on.
I have to laugh, remembering the outrage of a 13-year-old. And I've heard stories about other collectors dropping comics when this price jump happened (I seem to remember Mark Evanier telling a similar story on his website).
It was a close call! Luckily for me, my love of comics won out.
Grade: B+
5 comments:
Ha! All 12-cent comic book collectors have similar stories about the ethical dilemnas they
faced when confronted with their
first 15-cent comic book on the stands! Mine was the latest issue
of Mighty Thor. I can still recall
the confusion and anger and sense
of outrage at this unfair turn of
events. And yet we had no organized
fan outlet for our emotions. I just
stood there and faced the comic
rack and seethed inwardly and finally decided...that I had to pick up the latest issue of Thor!
Curses! They had me hooked!
Sam (MarvelFan) Kujava
Sam, it occurs to me I should go back and look at all those issues before and after the jump to 15 cents - I wonder how many of Marvel's titles were continued stories? That would have been clever, a way to nudge us into buying the comic despite the price increase. I might not have picked up that issue of Iron Man otherwise. Ah, who am I kidding? Of course I would.
But without the Internet to warn us about these things ahead of time, we had to endure sticker shock at the store.
Chuck,
I looked 'em up! Both your Iron Man
and my Mighty Thor featured the second parts of two-part stories...
thus contributing to our sense of
cosmic unfairness!
By the by, love your site! Beau Smith recommended you highly...
Sam Kujava
Sam, thanks for the kind words! I owe all my success to Beau! (That's another five bucks you owe me, Smith!)
Looking at the checklist in that issue of Iron Man, it looks like most of the stories that month were continued - of course, it was common at the time for Marvel, so it may just be a coincidence. Or was Stan even more crafty than we thought? Hmmmm...
Another great post, Chuck! I too vividly remember the price increase, and realized how much more money I would need to feed my addiction. What really hurt, though, was that my buddy David and I split our comics purchases and then we'd read each other's books. So I bought Spidey and Thor and a bunch more, and he focused on Fantastic Four, X-Men, and a few others. Well, he was furious about the price increase and actually DID drop comics for good! So I was on my own, and it was years before I started buying FF on my own. So it's been fun to read a lot of what I've missed in recent years.
Pete
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