Marvel Super-heroes Re-enactment
Table of Malcontents is a Marvel Secret Wars re-enactment. This really made me laugh, since it spoofs a series that came out in the early 80’s, right when I was in my long underwear comics collecting craze. This seris, and one before it whose name I can’t remember, which featured international super-heros (the non-American ones were all made up and lame, except the Black Panther), kicked off the cross-over idea for Mavel and the industry in general.
Pretty soon they realized they could make lots of moola by making kids buy issues of titles they wouldn’t have otherwise. Sheer genius. I stopped collecting comics seriously the day I took some of mine to a show with a buddy of mine. Aside from getting lowball ridiculous offers from parents of kids, and then getting worse offers from dealers, I heard a comix dealer tell a story that has stuck with me to this day.
Basically, reading the trade rags, this guy knew a major new villian was introduced to mess up Batman severely, causing his 1st appearance issue to sky-rocket in value. So, the dealer put up a sign trading all these gullible 8-12 year olds their 1st appearance for crap comics, and then a few months later sold them back those 1st appearances for tons of cash. Why not take them out in an alley and beat them up for their money? It’s about as nice. Anyway, that started me on reading things like Pogo, Krazy Kat, and graphic novels like the Watchmen, the work of Paul Pope and Fallout, a comic history of the creation of the atomic bomb.
