 AVENGERS #28 May 1966 Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia original artists |
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This cover comes with a really silly story. No no no--NOT the one included with the comic book itself. That's a typically solid Stan Lee/Don Heck outing bringing the recently disenfranchised Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne back into the Marvel Universe thick. Only now, while she's still the Wasp, the erstwhile Giant-Man has transformed himself into Goliath. New name, new costume, but sadly, same old results. Try as they might, the folks in the Bullpen could never quite push the size-changing scientist past B-level status. But I always thought this issue was a particularly nice attempt, and had fond memories of it for many, many years. Which sorta leads into the goofy story... |
| I was in college at the time, living off
campus with a couple of friends. Lynn and
I were already together, and she was well
aware of my ...ahem...eccentricities by that
time, so when I saw a reprint of this very
issue in the cheapie bin at my local comics
store, I figured, why not? I hadn't scared
her off yet, so I decided to proceed with
a little, somewhat unorthodox, project. Now,
at this late date, I couldn't possibly tell
you where I got the idea from, but the plan,
in a nutshell, was this: excise said cover
from reprint comic, double-side glue it with
rubber cement to a piece of thin but still
stiff cardboard, whip out the ol' exacto
knife, and carefully--VERY carefully!-- cut
it through, out and around the five gaudily
costumed figures. Once it's separated from
the remainder of the illustration, make a
triangle with a portion of the excess cardboard
and tape it to the back of the now substantially
weighted down drawing. Once properly adjusted,
stand it up, and you have yourself a fine
looking conversation piece!! Or more likely,
one that'll stop the conversation DEAD!?!
(...which, in certain circumstances, can
ALSO be handy!...) That's right, folks, while
toiling away at an institution of higher
learning, I took some valuable time off to
make myself a TOY!?! Hey, you've gotta remember--in
the mid-seventies, decent licensed products
from Marvel were few and far between. You
young 'uns have it easy--back in those days,
you had to make your own. Well, you didn't
HAVE to, but heh, I did. And in the spirit
of full disclosure, I should add that I only
ever created one other in the limited edition
line of Hembeck Produced Marvel Standees
(patent pending)--a real obscure character
known as the Scarecrow (benefiting from some
fine Gil Kane/ Berni Wrightson art) stood
alongside the assembled Avengers on my night
bureau for many a year. Yeah, I still have
'em, but they've been packed away for the
last six years, pretty much since we moved
to our new location. Maybe I'll go fish 'em
outta storage and then set 'em up next to
the computer? Y'know, as inspiration? Nah. That would be silly... |
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