MARVELMANIA Magazine #1

MARVELMANIA was the house fanzine of the company of the same name, an outfit which had been licensed the rights to produce Marvel-related merchandise and specialty items to be sold directly to the readership. MARVELMANIA took the place of the earlier MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY as the official fan club of Marvel, though it didn’t last as long. And the reason for that is that the operator of MARVELMANIA, Don Wallace, was a bit of a hustler, who wound up not fulfilling orders and not playing employees in an attempt to get rich quick. For its first four issues, MARVELMANIA Magazine was put together under the editorship of Mark Evanier, who’d go on to have a diverse career in comics, animation and television. Steve Sherman, who along with Evanier went on to become an assistant to Jack Kirby, functioned as the magazine’s Assistant Editor.

The magazine gives a nice sense of the era, and of what Marvel fans of the time were most concerned about. It’s also a bit rough around the edges, which only adds to its charm. Weird features such as the ad above for the line of posters that Marvelmania was selling were common throughout the run.

This page features a rare response from letterer Sam Rosen, answering a question about what pen tips he uses.

Here, Mark Evanier makes the announcement to the readership that Jack Kirby has left Marvel. For many, this was likely the first time they heard any news about the King departing, as his final books would still have been a few months away from seeing print.

I kind of wonder how much of this write-up of Don Wallace is true, and how much is fanciful self-mythologizing.

We’ll show more of MARVELMANIA Magazine #1 in the future.