''Marvel Collectors' Item Classics'' was an American

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

in the mid- to late-1960s that marked the first reprinting of many of the earliest Marvel stories. Primarily focused on the

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...

Iron Man Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appearan ...

Doctor Strange Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as ...

, and the

Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...

, it ran 22 issues before changing its name and page-count, becoming ''Marvel's Greatest Comics''.

Publication history

One of several 68-page, 25-cent "giant-size" comic books that supplemented publishers' regular 36-page, 12-cent lines, ''Marvel Collectors' Item Classics'' premiered as an

annual publication Annual publications, more often simply called annuals, are periodical publications appearing regularly once per year."Annuals", in '' Encyclopedia of library and information science'' (1968), vol. 1, pp. 434–447. Although exact definitions may v ...

in 1965. That first issue, dated February 1965 in its postal indicia though not on the cover, reprinted '' The Fantastic Four'' #2 (Jan. 1962) and ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...

'' #3 (July 1963), as well as the

Ant-Man Ant-Man is the name of several superheroes appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, his first appearance was in '' Tales to Astonish'' #27 (January 1962) as Dr. Henry ...

story from ''

Tales to Astonish ''Tales to Astonish'' is the name of two American comic book series, and a One-shot (comics), one-shot comic, all published by Marvel Comics. The primary title bearing that name was published from January 1959 to March 1968. It began as a scie ...

'' #36, and the first "Tales of

Asgard In Nordic mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: ''Ásgarðr''; "Garden of the Æsir") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in several Old Norse sagas and mythological texts, including the Eddas, however it has also been suggested to be refe ...

" featurette, from ''

Journey into Mystery ''Journey into Mystery'' is an American comic book series initially published by Atlas Comics, then by its successor, Marvel Comics. Initially a horror comics anthology, it changed to giant-monster and science fiction stories in the late 1950s ...

'' #97 (Oct. 1963). It was a sister publication of what was then the annual, giant-size reprint comic '' Marvel Tales''. ''MCIC'', as it was often abbreviated in Marvel Comics text pages, became a bimonthly series beginning with issue #2 (April 1966), which reprinted ''The Fantastic Four'' #3 (March 1962), ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #4 (Sept. 1963), and the Ant-Man story from ''Tales to Astonish'' #37 (Nov. 1962). Dropping Spider-Man the following issue — with that superhero's stories going on to anchor ''Marvel Tales'' — the comic began reprinting what would be its regular line-up: ''The Fantastic Four'', ''

The Incredible Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of '' The Incredible Hulk'' (May 1962). In his comic book ...

'',

stories from ''

Tales of Suspense ''Tales of Suspense'' is the name of an American comic book anthology series, and two one-shot comics, all published by Marvel Comics. The first, which ran from 1959 to 1968, began as a science-fiction anthology that served as a showcase for s ...

'', and

stories from ''

Strange Tales ''Strange Tales'' is a Marvel Comics comics anthology, anthology series. The title was revived in different forms on multiple occasions. Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (feature), Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. made their d ...

''. Six issues included short semi-

anthological In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

"Tales of the Watcher"

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

stories hosted by and sometimes featuring Uatu the Watcher. The reprints were generally in serial order, with occasional skips; missing, for instance, are ''The Fantastic Four'' #5-6, already reprinted in ''Fantastic Four Annual'' #2-3 (1964–1965); #11, already partly reprinted in ''Annual'' #3; #12, never reprinted at the time; #19, reprinted in heavily edited form in the 1967 promotional one-shot '' America's Best TV Comics''; and #25-26, reprinted in ''Fantastic Four Annual'' #4 (1966). The covers of issues #1-11 each reprinted two to four covers of the comics reprinted inside. Issues of ''The Incredible Hulk'' were not reprinted in full, but generally as chapters spread across two to three issues apiece.

''Marvel's Greatest Comics''

With issue #23 (Oct. 1969), the series changed its title and reduced its page-count to 52, exchanging its

stories for shorter "Tales of the Watcher" vignettes. They and such incidentals as pin-ups were replaced by

Captain America Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in '' Captain America Comics'' #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely C ...

stories from ''

'' in #25-28. Afterward, the comic reprinted two Fantastic Four stories each issue, usually with a

Human Torch The Human Torch (Jonathan Lowell Spencer "Johnny" Storm) is a fictional superhero character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. He is writer Stan Lee's and ar ...

and

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

feature from ''Strange Tales'', before becoming a standard 36-page comic with #35 (June 1972), reprinting Fantastic Four stories, at the then-regular price of 20 cents. The series ran through #96 (Jan. 1981), reprinting a truncated, 23-page version of the 34-page ''Fantastic Four'' #116.

References

External links

* {{comicbookdb, type=title, id= 7487, title=''Marvel Collectors' Item Classics''
''Marvel Collectors' Item Classics''
at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

from the original (requires scrolldown) June 28, 2011.

at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

from the original November 19, 2011. 1965 comics debuts 1981 comics endings Comics anthologies Marvel Comics titles