{"id":5715,"date":"2011-12-26T10:23:56","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T15:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=5715"},"modified":"2019-11-25T21:04:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T02:04:40","slug":"giant-superhero-holiday-grab-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/12\/26\/giant-superhero-holiday-grab-bag\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> Marvel Comics’ GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG<\/strong><\/em> was an over-sized Whitman sampler of Marvel reprints and is one of my absolute favorite comics and was probably the gateway drug that got me really hooked to comics. After this point, I would throw all of the spare change I could scrape together at the local drug store and newsstand buying all of the characters featured in this special Christmas compilation.<\/p>\n

\"Holiday<\/a>It measured an enormous 10.125 by 13.75 inches which was great because you could really pore over the art, and I did. I don’t think I ever examined comics as closely as when I was 12 years old in the depths of the 1970s. It featured four stories including A Christmas themed Marvel team-up of Spider-Man<\/strong> and the Human Torch<\/strong> by Ross Andru<\/strong>, a fantastic Daredevil<\/strong> story where The Man Without Fear<\/em> nearly kills himself trying to keep Namor<\/strong> from trashing New York by Wally Wood<\/strong>,\u00a0 a wonderfully atmospheric take on It’s A Wonderful Life<\/em> starring The Black Widow<\/strong> lushly illustrated by Gene Colan<\/strong> and the double-length Hulk<\/strong> Versus the Thing<\/strong> storyline which made me understand why Jack Kirby<\/strong> was the King of pacing. Yeah, Marvel was just repackaging old stories, but I loved every molecule of this book. Besides, back issues were impossible to come by in suburban New Jersey. At that time, if they weren’t reprinted, you were never going to see them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[335],"tags":[331,86,9,675,308],"class_list":["post-5715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-331","tag-christmas","tag-comics","tag-fantastic-four","tag-marvel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-1ub","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14674,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/10\/23\/bag-full-of-horrors\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":0},"title":"Bag FULL of HORRORS","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"They're TERRIFYING! SCARY, too! AND they obey your commands! Can you imagine it? I used to drool over ads like this in the comics and would have gladly drained my moon bank of it's contents to have a BAG FULL OF HORRORS, but cooler heads prevailed. My sensibly frugal parents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38143,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/07\/06\/marvel-treasury-editions\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":1},"title":"Marvel Treasury Editions","author":"Joe","date":"July 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"80 glorious over-sized pages of Hulk stories by some of the greatest members of Marvel Comics' legendary bullpen of writers and illustrators. The treasury editions were printed on newsprint like the regular comic books, and they were usually sold at drug stores and supermarkets. This one was published in 1978.","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36699,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/10\/27\/fandom-before-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":2},"title":"Fandom Before the Internet","author":"Joe","date":"October 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is what Red Sonja looked like back before the internet when comics were sold at newsstands and convenience stores, and the only way to see how comics were made was through obscure, mail-order magazines. Such was the case with F.O.O.M. which stood for Friends Of Ol' Marvel. F.O.O.M. was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/M-Rogers-Red-Sonja-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/M-Rogers-Red-Sonja-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/M-Rogers-Red-Sonja-detail.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40807,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/06\/22\/join-the-swinging-world-of-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":3},"title":"Join the swinging world of MUSIC!","author":"Joe","date":"June 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A buddy of mine just picked up a load of Marvel comics from the 1960s and has kindly allowed me to peruse them. The artwork and stories are top-notch, but what I am marveling at, as always, is the advertisements. As expected there are a number of body building courses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Makes-Every-Party-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Makes-Every-Party-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Makes-Every-Party-detail.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9058,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/07\/23\/the-fantastic-four-from-liverpool\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":4},"title":"The Fantastic Four From Liverpool","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The guy on the right is Ringo or possibly Jerry Lewis. The other guys are John, George and Paul or possibly any one of the members of Freddie and the Dreamers. I got the panels above from Marvel's Greatest Comics No. 33 which was a double-sized comic filled with reprint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/ff-beatles-p1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/ff-beatles-p1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/ff-beatles-p1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37973,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/22\/what-i-miss-about-comics-perfectly-legitimate-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":5715,"position":5},"title":"What I Miss About Comics – Perfectly Legitimate Ads","author":"Joe","date":"June 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This along with a number of other classified style advertisements for perfectly legitimate products and services appeared in Marvel Spotlight No. 25 published by Marvel Comics in 1975. It was a comic adaptation of Ray Harryhausen's 1958 fantasy epic The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. My guess is that Marvel was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}