As a little kid back in the 1970's I became an obsessed comic book collector & one of my very most favorite things in the entire world were "Treasury Comics". They were put out by both DC Comics & Marvel ( I was more of a "DC Guy" ). If you have never seen or experienced these beautiful books then your life is completely sad, ha! Treasury Comics were basically reprints of classic stories but sold in a giant-size format. I mean, these babies were HUGE! It was almost like reading a newspaper, ha! I totally loved them & still have about 15 or 20 of them stored away in the very very back of my closet, in protective plastic bags of course.
Which, gets me to the reason for this post. The other day, while trolling on eBay, I came across a guy selling the Original Comic Book Art for the Cover to the 1975 BATMAN Treasury Comics Limited-Collectors-Edition #C37. The Artist back then was Jim Aparo!! I have always been a HUGE Aparo Fan & totally love his artwork. Now, as you can imagine, this baby is out of my price range, but I would kill to have it, ha! To own an actual piece of your childhood history like that, is what gives Collectors a reason to live. Oh well, I guess I can just drool over the photo posted up above ( Please click on it for a larger, more beautiful, picture ). The later photos show the actual product ( front & back ) and also a few advertisements that showed-up in comic books back in the day. By the way, if your a big fan of treasurys, or just wanna learn more, then please let me suggest TREASURYCOMICS.COM, it's a great reference site!
When I was a very young teen DC Comics used to publish these HUGE comic books called Treasury Comics. They were a very large format & I used to totally love them. One of my favorites was called "Muhammad Ali VS Superman". The entire story & artwork was done by Neal Adams so you know it had some amazing art! It was a really great story too. The basic premise was that the leader of an alien race wanted to know who would win if Ali & Superman fought in a boxing match. The alien leader had them both abducted & taken to a planet with a red sun. Because of the "red sun" aspect, Superman didn't have any super-powers at all so then it would be an "equal fight". The story also dealt with a lot of real-life issues like race, tolerance, justice, equality, etc...it was just really really great! In fact, it's now a beloved classic! Well, this post is mainly about the "parody covers" in other magazines. The 1st one is an issue of ESPN Magazine ( art done by Neal Adams ) showing Muhammad Ali boxing Michael Jordan surrounded by the top 100 athletes of the millennium. The 2nd one ( artist unknown by me ) is Homer Simpson VS Bugs Bunny, totally hilarious! OK, I know this post is not really that much "Batman-Related" but Neal Adams was one of the very best artists to ever draw the Dark Knight Caped Crusader so that counts, right?
Do you remember the HUGE over-sized comic books published by both Marvel & DC Comics called TREASURY COMICS? In the mid-1970's, when I was a little kid & seriously into comic books, I used to really love these & still do! ( I wish they would bring them back ). A friend of mine, named Rob, has a website totally devoted to these special books & it's an amazing site. In fact, I stole these pictures from there, ha ha! This issue was devoted to Batman & called LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION #C51 & came out in 1977. Basically it reprinted the Ra's Al Ghul storyline that took place in Batman #232, 242-244. The story & art was done by Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Irv Novick, & Denny O'Neil. This story was a classic. As sort of a side note: DC Comics recently gave a cash award to Neal Adams for creating the Ra's Al Ghul character because he was used in the new Batman film BATMAN BEGINS. Also, shown here, is the original DC Comics advertisement that was featured in a lot of the comic books at that time. Sometime, if you get the chance, you should check out this site, it's way cool!
http://www.treasurycomics.com
