Marvel pin-up pages revisited

The Great Playground Debate that raged over which comic book company was “better” – Marvel vs. DC – sometimes ended in a tie, but one advantage the Marvel faction always had was Marvel’s full-page pin-ups, published randomly and always an unexpected surprise when you turned the page to discover one. 

Marvel began publishing these little extras early on with a Thing pin-up page in Fantastic Four #2 in 1962. They kept at it until around 1966 when their appearances grew increasingly intermittent. Today, nearly all the Marvel pin-up pages have been collected into a single book, Marvel Masterwork Pin-Ups, published in 2019. And as someone who (very carefully) removed the pin-up pages and taped them up to my bedroom wall, it’s a wonder having them together and intact in one place. Many have an undeniable charm, some today seem slightly surreal.

The pin-up illustrations are mostly action poses, often with somewhat 

goofy and random inscriptions “written” by the characters. We find Sue Storm, in Fantastic Four #10, signing with someone’s idea of feminine handwriting, “Love and Kisses to my wonderful fans – Sue.” One of the weirder pin-ups has Cyclops, shooting something beyond the borders of the page with an optic blast above a “Sincerely Yours, Scott Summers.” (Cyclops’ real name). 

Sub-Mariner poses among artifacts he’s dredged up from the seas including a prehistoric fish, mounted on a wall like a prize trout. The handy nearby caption reads, “Fossil fish of species thought to be extinct for millions of years – vanquished by Sub-Mariner in uncharted deeps (sic).” Why exactly Namor, self-proclaimed protector of the oceans, would be “vanquishing” a prehistoric fish rather than protecting it is anybody’s guess. 

Although not strictly pin-ups, the book also features the rogue’s gallery pages from the first two Fantastic Four and Spider-Man annuals, one-pagers featuring FF and Spidey villains, drawn by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The text for the Hate Monger noting his death at the end of Fantastic Four #21 is pure Stan Lee: “There’s enough nutty hatred rampant today without anyone else trying to make a career of it.” The page for Sandman surely sent nine-year-old me to the dictionary to look up “habitual” and “incorrigible.”

Possibly as a way of introducing them to new readers are the pages dedicated to non-super-powered supporting characters: Foggy and Karen from Daredevil, Alicia Masters (with a very neatly written, “My sincerest affection to you all”). 

The book closes with a series of pin-ups that fall outside the range of the Silver Age. Barry Smith’s Medusa pin-up from 1969 has the ornate look and feel of a concurrent Fillmore West concert poster. The book ends its twenty-year journey with John Byrne’s homage with a series of Fantastic Four pin-ups from 1983 and ‘84. 

I doubt if any comic book companies continue the pin-up tradition today, although modern comic book covers, most of which feel more like pieces of illustrative art or movie posters, and featuring varying styles, exist as pin-ups on their own. I’m sure nobody is tearing the covers off the books and taping them on a bedroom wall, however.