Marvel Tales Gallery - PartThree!

In 1982 Marvel Tales editor Tom DeFalco began running Spider-Man stories from the very beginning featuring the earliest adventures by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The original work was reprinted with some alterations to timely pop culture references. 

That's the first batch. More tomorrow. 

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Marvel Tales Gallery - Part Two!

Beginning with the eleventh issue Marvel Tales began to more greatly feature Spider-Man as the lead in this robust reprint package which also featured the Human Torch, Thor and the Wasp. This was my first look at Steve Ditko's Spider-Man and I was most impressed. Below are more covers in this epic run. 

Most of the covers for Marvel Tales were revised versions of Ditko's originals, but the last three in this run were by Marie Severin who had become something of a cover machine for Marvel at this time. 

This issue featuring a Johnny Romita cover also has Ditko's next to last Spidey tale. 

Spider-Man's sixth annual reprinted his first one featuring the Sinister Six. This is nifty Romita cover. 

The seventh annual featured one of Spider-Man's earliest stories where he battles the Chameleon and the last Ditko issue in which he fights a guy named Joe. 

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More reprints tomorrow. 

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Marvel Tales Gallery - Part One!

I am a second-generation Marvel fanboy. That means I wasn't there when the Fab 4, Spidey, and the rest of the assembled Marvel heroes first arrived. I jumped at the end of the split books. Steve Ditko had already left Marvel by the time I got there, and "King" Kirby was to leave in a few years as well. So, I soaked up that early Marvel magic in the reprint magazines such as Marvel Tales, Marvel Collectors' Item Classic, and the sundry annuals that began to become a key part of the summer. Here is a gallery of Spider-Man's earliest reprints. The first story was reprinted in the first 1964 annual edition of Marvel Tales. 

More Spidey tales appeared in the back of Ditko's last bow with the character in an annual when he teamed up with Dr. Strange, Ditko's other co-creation. 

1965 saw another annual with the debut of the aforementioned Marvel Collectors' Item Classics. 

In 1966 the second annual edition of MCIC saw print with more Spider-Man among many other things. 

With its third issue Marvel Tales became a bi-monthly offering with Spider-Man as the lead with Thor, Ant-Man and the Human Torch helping out. The early volumes of the series offered up rather complicated covers which featured thumbnail images of the original comics. Below are the other issues with this type of cover. 

Marvel Tales would adopt a new cover style with its eleventh issue. That's due up tomorrow. 

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