Kalel21
01/10/2006, 13:47
A month or so ago, Marvel publishes an Essential Marvel Two-in-One, the comic from the 1970s where Ben Grimm teamed up with other Marvel heroes.
It covers the first 25 issues, except that issue 21 is missing without explanation. This even makes for a continuity gap, since #22 picks up with Ben still dealing with the consequences of the previous issue.
I own a copy of #21. Ben's team up that issue was with Doc Savage, the pulp magazine hero from the 1930s. Marvel, during the 1970s, had the rights to do Doc Savage stories and even published a short-lived comic and black-and-white magazine of his adventures.
But Marvel no longer has the rights to use the character, which apparently means they can't even reprint the old stuff. Thus a gap appears in the flow of the storytelling in the Essential reprints.
When I saw that, I remembered that Doc also appeared in a Giant-sized Spider Man from the same time period. I checked and, sure enough, that issue is missing from the Spider Man Essentials.
Then, this past week, Dark Horse puts out the 9th volume of the TPBs in which they are reprinting the old Marvel Conan series. Dark Horse currently owns the comic book rights to Conan and (I assume) must have worked something out with Marvel to reprint these older stories.
EXCEPT---three consecutive issues are missing from this volume. Why? Because those issues guest-starred an appearance by Red Sonya, a character who yet another company recently required the comic book rights to.
So, despite the fact that Dark Horse reprinted the earlier Red Sonya appearances in the old Conan series, suddenly they can't anymore. What makes this personally annoying for me is that I had never read those particular issues and was looking forward to doing so.
Copyright laws can occasionally be annoying. :angry:
It covers the first 25 issues, except that issue 21 is missing without explanation. This even makes for a continuity gap, since #22 picks up with Ben still dealing with the consequences of the previous issue.
I own a copy of #21. Ben's team up that issue was with Doc Savage, the pulp magazine hero from the 1930s. Marvel, during the 1970s, had the rights to do Doc Savage stories and even published a short-lived comic and black-and-white magazine of his adventures.
But Marvel no longer has the rights to use the character, which apparently means they can't even reprint the old stuff. Thus a gap appears in the flow of the storytelling in the Essential reprints.
When I saw that, I remembered that Doc also appeared in a Giant-sized Spider Man from the same time period. I checked and, sure enough, that issue is missing from the Spider Man Essentials.
Then, this past week, Dark Horse puts out the 9th volume of the TPBs in which they are reprinting the old Marvel Conan series. Dark Horse currently owns the comic book rights to Conan and (I assume) must have worked something out with Marvel to reprint these older stories.
EXCEPT---three consecutive issues are missing from this volume. Why? Because those issues guest-starred an appearance by Red Sonya, a character who yet another company recently required the comic book rights to.
So, despite the fact that Dark Horse reprinted the earlier Red Sonya appearances in the old Conan series, suddenly they can't anymore. What makes this personally annoying for me is that I had never read those particular issues and was looking forward to doing so.
Copyright laws can occasionally be annoying. :angry: