Mood: caffeinated
Topic: Comic Book History
TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3881 - I was asked if I had ever been mentioned in a Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page. Like being named as one of the M.M.M.S. members. Well... I don't remember being named in one, although I was on a letters page at least once. The Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page actually started off as a 'Letters Page' in the Fantastic Four comic book. What was really cool about the letters / Bullpen Bulletins page was that it was all done in a fun style! The pages were in a format that the reader felt that they were part of a special club, which actually was started later. The first letters page that I remember was in Fantastic Four #3. Which consisted of just one page of letters. But a few months later the 'Letter Page' was expanded to two pages. Then there was a yellow colored box that contained 'Special Announcements', and that was followed by a 'Mighty Marvel Checklist', also colored in yellow. The club I was thinking of was the M.M.M.S. - Merry Marvel Marching Society, that I blogged about most recently at this blog post. That usually took a full or half page of the comic book. Plus there were pages for Marvel merchandise... What happened next was these were all combined into a 'Marvel Bullpen Bulletins' page, as seen at the top right of this blog post. I believe the first one was printed cover dated December of 1965. The one at the top is from Fantastic Four #45, that was cover dated December of 1965. From there, the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page evolved. It continued for many years and added some additional features, such as Stan's Soapbox in June of 1967. (Photo of Stan Lee in 1968 at the top left of this blog post.) Stan, although he was older, came across as a 'hip' kind of guy, instead of the stodgy older guys over at National / DC Comics. He was 'Stan' while they were 'Dear Editor' during this time period. Irving Forbush also became widely known because of this page. And he went on to star in 'Not Brand Echh' comics! I enjoyed seeing what was coming out soon, in the Mighty Marvel Checklist. Quite often a special section of the Bullpen Bulletins page would show a visual of the comic book title, such as for Conan the Barbarian in comics with the cover date of September 1970. The Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page met its demise in 2001. It is a shame that such a page was let go... But blogs, websites, and social media sites have kind of taken over what the page once did. I for one kind of miss it... And look fondly back on it in my memories. ~ Michael
NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics: My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,881 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link! Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button! And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!! Note: My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...! If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com! Web Page Note: This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that! The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. Note: Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners. Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to: Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013 Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there. Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page! --------------- In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related. You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also! As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'! |