Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Incredible Hulk Pocket Book #2 - 1979

sg...and we're back!

A while back, Digest Fan(nope, still haven't thought of anything better) Chris Franklin asked if I would be covering any of the DC or Marvels that were later repurposed into paperback books --both companies did an extensive number of them, and they were pretty much digest-sized, and...

I initally said no, since there were a lot of them and I felt like I had to draw the line somewhere. But as the weeks wore on, I heard this Hulk Pocket Book cry out to me from my bookshelf, asking "Why not Hulk get talked about on puny comic blog? Why you hate Hulk? Should Hulk smash stupid computer?"

I couldn't refute that logic, so here we go...

I bought this at a book sale at my elementary school when I was in fourth or fifth grade; looking back its sort of amazing they sold comics at all--maybe the "Pocket Books" logo gave it an aura of respectabillity that a normal comic book wouldn't have.

This one-hundred fifty-page + book reprints a series of Hulk adventures from Tales To Astonish and boy are they fun! I remember reading these(in class!) and literally hanging on every word, wondering where the story was going next.

Stories include:
"The Missile and the Monster" by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and John Tartaglione
"The Birth of the Hulk-Killer!" by Lee, Buscema, and Mick Demeo
"The Humanoid and the Hero!" by
Lee, Buscema, and Mick Demeo
"Boomerang and the Brute!" by Lee and Gil Kane(I loved Kane's brutish take on the green goliath!)
"Then, There Shall Come A Stranger!" by Lee and Kane
"The Abomination!"
by Lee and Kane
"Whosover Harms the Hulk!"
by Lee and Kane
"Turning Point" by Lee, Marie Severin, and Frank Giacoia
"He Who Strikes The Silver Surfer!" by Lee, Severin, and Giacoia
"To The Beckoning Stars!" by Lee, Severin, and Herb Trimpe
"A World He Never Made!" by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"What Have I Created?"
by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"The Legions of the Living Lightning"
by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"The Puppet and the Power!"
by Lee, Severin, and Trimpe
"When The Monster Wakes!" by Lee, Severin, and Tartaglione

...it ends with the Hulk buried in rubble. Is this the end of the Hulk??*


*No, but at that age it seemed like it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I loved these pocket books! I remember I had a few DC ones - Legion and JLA spring immediately to mind. But the Marvel ones were easier to find and I bought all of them I could afford.

The three Spider-man volumes were my first exposure to the Lee / Ditko Spidey. I remember reading those books and finally understanding ol' Webhead's appeal!