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Weird Menace: The 1930s rise of the Shudder Pulps followed by the rise of the forces that ended them and transformed horror on the newsstand.
Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: bronze age, Man-Wolf, marvel, morbius, spider-man
Morbius, Man-Wolf & Spider-Man in Giant-Size Super-Heroes 1 at Auction
Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 featuring Spider-Man also features not one but two Marvel spins on classic horror monsters. 1974 was peak Marvel horror overall, and that year alone included the likes of Chamber of Chills, Creatures on the Loose, Crypt of Shadows, Dead of Night, Dracula Lives, Fear, Frankenstein, Man-Thing, Haunt of Horror, Monsters on the Prowl, Monsters Unleashed Supernatural Thillers, Tales of the Zombie,Tomb of Darkness, Tomb of Dracula, Uncanny Tales, Vault of Evil, Werewolf by Night, and others. It's no surprise that even the Spider-man franchise was getting in on the horror boom with now-impending Sony film headliner Morbius and now rumored Sony film star Man-Wolf. Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 has Spider-Man plus both of these Marvel horror icons, and there's a beautiful high-grade copy of Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (Marvel, 1974) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages up for auction in the 2022 March 27-28 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122213 from Heritage Auctions.
1974 was also the year that Marvel's Giant-Size titles were launched, and were apparently an initial success, as a Roy Thomas editorial in this issue explains that the initial idea to rotate features through one Giant-Size Super-Stars title had changed to split that concept into three quarterly Giant-Size titles. But the Giant-Size line would be expanded well beyond even that in the subsequent months. Notably, in this same editorial Thomas also announced a separate 100-page "Super-Giant" line at a 60 cent price point which never came to pass. It would seem they settled on expanding the Giant-Size titles from 48 to 64 pages and bumping the price point up from 35 cents to 50 cents in the process. Giant-Size Super-Heroes would continue as Giant-Size Spider-Man with issue #2.
As has been the case throughout much of modern American comic book history, vintage era square-bounds tend to be difficult to get in grade. There are 61 entries for this one at CGC 9.6 at present, only 18 higher, and there's a beautiful high-grade copy of Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (Marvel, 1974) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages up for auction in the 2022 March 27-28 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122213 from Heritage Auctions.
Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (Marvel, 1974) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages. Spider-Man battles Man-Wolf and Morbius the Living Vampire. Cover by John Romita Sr. Art by Gil Kane. Backup feature and pin-ups by Steve Ditko, both reprinted from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. Overstreet 2021 NM- 9.2 value = $150. CGC census 3/22: 61 in 9.6, 18 higher.
View the certification for CGC Certification ID 3803157004 and purchase grader's notes if available.
Affiliates of Bleeding Cool buy from and/or consign to Heritage Auctions.
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