Marvel Treasury Ads

Below, courtesy Treasury Hunter Jim Wedaa come pics of these super-cool Star Wars Treasury Edition display boxes! I had no idea these even existed; Jim explains:

"They were actually the shipping boxes which in turn folded out to become 'dumps' for placement in bookstores. These boxes are not folded together as I want to keep them pristine.

The boxes were made by Whitman and have their logo prominently displayed. As far as I know there were just two types of dumps (both seen here.)

They were packed with either 25 copies of #1, 25 copies of #2 or 25 copies of both #1 and #2. These two boxes each contain 13 #1s and 13 #2s."

I absolutely love these boxes--the graphics are beautiful and exciting; what kid could've not wanted to get these books when sold like this?

Just when I think I've found everything there is to find concerning the treasuries, some wonderful, er, treasure like this pops up. Much like the DC Comics Treasury display box, I really want to get ahold of a set for myself someday...

Thanks so much Jim!

I found a mention of the Flintstones Christmas Party treasury in the July 1975 issue of Kull and the Barbarians. It's unusual for two reasons--one, Marvel did very little promotion for these HB tie-in books. Second, was that it was in a Bullpen Bulletins (not "Bulletens") column in one of Marvel's black and white magazines, which were always aimed at older readers than the normal color line anyway.

Next is from the Bullpen Bulletins page in Marvel's October 1975 issues. Titled "The King is Back! 'Nuff Said!", Stan's Soapbox relayed the exciting news of "King" Kirby returning to Marvel, and what he'd be working on.

You can find the Parkes Run name on some treasuries, too, like Marvel's Empire Strikes Back adaptation. They specialized in coloring books but like Whitman, had their own imprint for a few licensed titles.

Anyway, thanks to Brian for the cool scan!

I love the little inset picture of the two kids reading the comic together. Ever try and read something along with someone else? Really annoying.

Courtesy of #1 Treasury Hunter Rogerio Baldino, come several super-cool ads for Marvel treasuries from the pages of Marvel Tales and some other titles.

I love the ad for the Superman vs. Spider-Man book. Usually, of course, you could depend on Marvel for sky-high hype to promote even their weakest material ("The greatest comic you've ever seen---'Rom the Spaceknight'!!"). And here they are, promoting probably the highest-profile comic of the time, with the relatively-low-key "This Says It All!!" tagline. The other ads underscore one of my pet theories about comics--it looks awesome when you have a bunch of covers put together. It just looks so exciting.

Interesting note: the background color cover for Marvel Treasury #9 Giant Superhero Team-Up in the ad is a bright magenta, yet the cover ended up being a dark blue (ok, maybe not that interesting).

Further down, the B/W ad is from issue #5 of Marvel's great, briefly-running magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. At the time, Marvel was also publishing magazines like Dracula Lives, Monsters Unleashed, Haunt of Horror--all great, fun stuff. Two more interesting treasury-related tidbits were in that issue as well.

One was a subscription ad, where Marvel was offering a deal where if you subscribed to six titles, you got a seventh free. You could actually subscribe to Marvel Treasury Edition (!), but there was a note that said: "Sorry, pilgrims, but your free seventh sub cannot be Marvel Treasury Edition." Damn!

The other was in the letters page, where a reader asked if they were possibly going to produce a full-color UW annual. Marvel's response was: