When DC acquired the rights to Captain Marvel, they launched a comic SHAZAM! with a big push. The advertisements for the book had Superman introducing Billy Batson and explaining for all of us that all Billy had to do was say the magic word "Shazam!" and he'd turn into "the Original Captain Marvel."I bought all the issues of SHAZAM! for a couple of years.
When I was browsing the periodicals in the Dillons grocery stores in Lawrence, KS waay back in the summer of 1973, I saw a SHAZAM Treasury Edition. It was HUGE. Bigger than my head! I had to have it.
I was exactly the right age when those big Treasury Comics came out. These were oversized (10 1/2" x 13 3/4") perfect bound comics that were printed by DC and Marvel, and I wanted all of them.
And now there's a whole site devoted to the treasury editions of DC and Marvel.
I still have a good number of these treasury editions around, but I haven't looked at them for years. The fun thing about most of them is that they are reprints, usually by great artists, blown up at or near the actual size of the art. To me, this was catnip, baby!
So, take a peek around Rob Kelly's great site. And then check eBay for some of these affordably priced treasuries.
Big h/t to Sandbox.
Thanks for the heads up on this site, Mike. I was exactly the right age when these came out too. Sadly, I was a bit of a Marvel snob, so while I had (probably still have up in my mom's attic) about the first twenty Marvel Treasury Editions, I had none of the DC ones. :(
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, when it comes to comics, bigger is ALWAYS better, and these books were perfect. My favorites were the Conan issues with Barry Smith's wonderful artwork as big as possible. Great stuff!
Good article
ReplyDeleteTodd D.
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