The Bullpen Blunderbus: July 1980

One of the easiest ways to jump in a makeshift comic-related time machine is by grabbing an old comic and looking at the Comic Book Checklist to get an idea of what was being published years ago. In this case I pulled out Captain America #247, the first Stern/Byrne issue (more on that some other time), cover-dated July 1980 (which makes the actual date either March or April), and took a peek at the Bullpen Bulletins of that month. It’s neat, the things you find out about Marvel’s publication history in these lists, without needing the help of Peter Sanderson, one-time Marvel librarian and historian (who wrote some really cool stuff in books like Marvel Age and Marvel Vision, some of which I hope to recount in the following weeks, months, perhaps even years). Here are some of my findings:

There were 41 Marvel comics and magazines in total on the stands that month. Only 9 of these formed the core Marvel Universe: Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Captain America, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and X-Men. You could buy those titles for less than 4 dollars in total! And only one X-book, whoo! (Which was in the midst of the Dark Phoenix Saga, by the way, while 4 or 5 of the others all had fill-ins or inventory stories that month...)

10 of them were what I think of as the fringe titles and/or spin-offs: Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up added to people’s Spider-Man fix; Dazzler joined She-Hulk and Spider-Woman as heroines with their own ongoings (notice how She-Hulk and Spider-Woman are back in the spotlight at Marvel in the present); the Thing’s team-up book, Marvel Two-In-One, was still going strong (note how the Thing is getting his own ongoing series once more very soon now); Defenders could feature just about anybody because of its non-team status, odd as that may sound (Defenders is also back on the stands in the form of a mini-series by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire, which is more than enough reason for me to be buying it); Ghost Rider and Man-Thing were for the leftover fans of the spooky (Garth Ennis is bringing Ghost Rider back into style at the moment—anyone else sensing a trend here? House of ideas indeed...); and Marvel Spotlight was a try-out book.

No less than 7 different Marvel titles on the market were reprint series featuring the various classic characters and teams from my so-called core MU. There was also one title, Spidey Super Stories, that showcased “easy-to-read tales”, presumably for a younger crowd. I think it’s amazing that so many reprint titles could sustain themselves back then. But then, it was so much easier to keep track of the MU in general that the reprints held a bigger appeal to the kids, I think.

Marvel also had its share of license comics: Star Trek and Star Wars were published alongside Battlestar Galactica, and of course Bill Mantlo wrote the hell out of Rom and Micronauts, or so I’ve heard. I’ve never been all that interested in the stuff that didn't really originate in the MU itself, so I never properly read these. I may end up doing so one day if I find the back issues for cheap though, especially the Rom ones since I believe Sal Buscema penciled a lot of them.

Then there were the last few genre comics (non-superhero, that is, naturally): Tomb of Dracula, Conan as well as Savage Sword of Conan, Master of Kung Fu, and Shogun Warriors. Since Tomb of Dracula has been extensively Essentialized in the past few years, and since they are somehow able to put out an Essential Godzilla soon, I’m hoping for some Essential Conan and Essential MoKF...

Lastly, there was Crazy magazine, all about the “madcap comedy” by a bevy of Marvel staffers, and also Marvel Fun And Games, full of supposed “brain twisters”. Kinda curious what those were like, to be honest...

And oh, there was the Hulk magazine, later declared out of continuity—which in this month featured the first appearance of Dominic Fortune! You might ask “who?” and I can’t blame you, heh—as well as a Marvel Treasury book reprinting a Hulk story with Modok and the Harpy and none other than the fabulous Bi-Beast! I love the Bi-Beast, and not (just) because of this double-headed android’s name. What’s piquing my interest even more though is an announced team-up between Hercules and none other than Wolverine. Seriously, I have to find this now just to see how on earth you pair up those two!

To end: this was definitely John Byrne month, as he penciled X-Men 135, Cap 247 and FF 220 (which he also wrote). I may not like the man, but I sure like his old comic book stories, and he sure did a lot of them... One wonders if he knew, back then in early 1980, that he was participating in some seminal comic book work. I have to track down that FF issue since it's from before he started his proper run as writer/artist, and it's about aliens invading Canada. Sounds like a potential hoot to me! :)