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Showing posts from July, 2006

More Newtons: The Hulk

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Before we start Scott Rowland has made an interesting observation about the X-Men titles. Scott says, "The Newton X-Men 5 reprinting issues 9 and 11, but omitting 10 may mean that they were working with the materials prepared for Marvel X-Men Annual 1, which did the same. (X-Men 10, the first appearance of Ka-Zar, was reprinted in Ka-Zar volume 1, number 1)." It's an interesting theory and certainly a sound one. It could also be that working on the same principal Marvel never sent the stats/material over to Newton for X-Men 10, however we may never know the definitive answer. It's great to theorize though, so by all means throw those ideas up. Now to today's entry: The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk was one of the first wave of Newtons, along with The Amazing Spider-Man, Planet Of The Apes, The Avengers and Dracula. Titles such as The Fantastic Four followed very soon after and can still be considered to be part of that first wave, but the Hulk was there from the s

More Newtons: Pricing

One of the main questions I get asked, especially since I started documenting the Newton range, is where can they be bought from and how much do back issues sell for. First up, where can they be bought from? Clearly the answer is dealers, but it's not that simple. A lot of dealers, especially in Australia, don't take the Newton line all that seriously and as such they'll throw the titles into dollar boxes or worse. One dealer I spoke to here in Adelaide told me how he just throws out any Newtons that come into the store. And that was after I told him that I'd happily buy any Newtons he came across, and that he could name his own price. His reply, "Yeah, but you'd be the only one buying them." Again I reiterated that he could name his own price, only to be told that it'd be a waste of time keeping comics for one person only - no competition I guess, thus no-one to play me off against. His loss, not mine, as I go elsewhere. Most comic shops in Australia

More Newtons: The Avengers

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The Avengers were one of the first titles in the Newton range, along with The Amazing Spider-Man , the Fantastic Four , Conan , the Hulk , Dracula and Planet Of The Apes . At the same time titles such as Iron Man and Thor were announced, but didn't appear until well down the track. The Avengers ran for fifteen issues and spawned one Annual that I know of. Luckily it's one title that I have all the issues (and annual) for this index will be as complete as possible. THE AVENGERS #1 Published June 1975 Contents: The Coming Of The Avengers by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers (The Avengers #1) The Origin Of Dr. Strange by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #115) Dr. Strange: Master of Black Magic by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #110) Technically this should be considered as part of the second wave of Newton Comics, but as it was advertised and planned to be launched with the debut titles, it can be looked upon as being part of the first wave. Unusually

More Newtons: Iron Man

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This post won't offer up any real new information, but it does consolidate the two issues of Iron Man into their own section. IRON MAN #1. Published January 1976. Contents: My Friend, My Foe, My Freak by Archie Goodwin & Johnny Craig (Iron Man #1) From The Void Of Space Comes The Super Skrull by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Vince Colletta (Captain Marvel #2) The poster was of The Incredible Hulk. The Thomas/Colan Skrull story also appeared in the previously mentioned Newton Four-In-One . A good example of the recycling process. Iron Man was another short lived title. I can only locate details for two issues - I'd love to discover more but sadly they just don't appear on anyone's radar. IRON MAN #2. Published March 1976. Contents: Unconquered Is The Unicorn by Archie Goodwin & Johnny Craig (Iron Man #4) From The Void Of Space Comes The Super Skrull by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Vince Colletta (Captain Marvel #2) I'd all but given up on ever seeing this is

More Newtons: 'Gentle' John Corneille Speaks

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When Newton started to publish the Marvel Comics in the 1975 they decided that they needed a public face. In the same way that Marvel had 'Smilin' Stan Lee, who would promote the line via the media and also through the comics themselves, Newton needed someone who was accessible, young and hopefully in touch with comics. To that end they advertised for a comic book enthusiast to come on board and edit the Newton Comic line. The person they chose was a nineteen year old engineering student named John Corneille. John was a long time comic book collector and even help found the Australian Comic Collector fanzine (if anyone has copies then talk to me now!) as well as running conventions along the way. John was also branded with a name that still makes him squirm when he hears it - 'Gentle' John. Gentle John's Mailbag showcased letters from Australian readers, some of whom were discovering the Silver-Age Marvels for the first time, along with some who weren't fooled.

More Newtons: Questions & Answers

First up, a couple of comments/questions from Steven Bove . Steven writes; "As staffs continue to change at the major comic companies here in the USA a little more history fades. The film negatives and stats continue to be mishandled and in some cases they just vanish. At the company I worked for (in the 80s) there was this incredible comic cover from the 70s that was going to be used in a deluxe edition book. I went through great pains to locate this cover as it was filed under the wrong title. An editor and I made stats from the negative and gave to the appropriate people for safekeeping. 20 years later I saw a reprint of this comic in a shop and the cover was completely redrawn! They had lost even the safety copies! "Another question is what is the market for comics like now in Australia? I guess Marvel and DC comics are available to you? Was there a Newton equivalent to DC? Love those Surfer books!" The comic book scene here in Australia is fairly healthy. We're

More Newtons: Art Discussion

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One of the mysteries surrounding the Newton Comic range involves the cover art used on a lot of the books. For the most part the covers were merely recoloured to make them more vibrant (mainly primary colours, with deep blue being a favourite) but every so often an all new cover would be made up to promote a book that hadn't been issued in the USA. Case in point: Giant Man/Dr Strange . There'd been no Giant Man comic book in the USA from Marvel, so when Newton realised that it was sitting on a pile of stories involving Giant Man the idea was hatched to issue a book featuring the character. Thus the book was born. (For further details on this book click this link .) As with the Origins book, a totally new, and unique cover was made. However instead of getting local artists into make a cover, Newton decided to lift images from the stories inside and make a montage cover. That's all well and good, but once people started to see this cover comments came thick and fast. I though

More Newtons: The Silver Surfer

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Today we look at The Silver Surfer, one of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby's most enduring creations. Before we do there's yet another question to answer. Nick Caputo asks, "I'm interested in the quality of the printed books, as you've mentioned they look very good and were printed from stats. Since they are in English, Marvel would be able to use these for reprints. Do you know if anyone at Marvel who has been producing the recent reprint collections knows of these comics? It may be the best quality for them to reprint early Marvel material." The answer is, simply, yes. I had dialogue with Marvel editor Tom Brevoort about the Marvel Essentials line earlier this year . We talked about the quality of the Essentials books and his response to me was that a lot of the raw material doesn't exist for use anymore, hence some stories in the Essentials books are near unreadable. I mentioned the existence of the Newtons, and that the paper quality of a lot of the books

More Newtons: The Fantastic Four

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The longest running titles in the Newton fold were The Amazing Spider-Man (17 issues), The Avengers (15 issues), Conan The Barbarian (12 issues), Dracula (14 issues), The Incredible Hulk (15 issues) and The Planet Of The Apes (17 issues and a handful of specials). The Fantastic Four was yet another title that lasted for more than a year, running for 15 issues and an annual, and also appeared in a number of one-shot specials. The Fantastic Four #1. Published June 1975. Contents: The Fantastic Four by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby (Fantastic Four #1) The Fantastic Four Meet The Skrulls by Lee & Kirby (Fantastic Four #2) The first story in this issue only covered the origin of the Fantastic Four - the Mole Man section (which was the continuation of the issues for the USA version) was omitted. As with all the FF issues, the stories in this issue were shot directly from the original stats. Printed on better quality paper than other Australian issues, the reproduction was clear and as a go

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