Whether you have a child who’s a huge Marvel fan or you’re an adult looking to relive a bit of nostalgia from your youth, the Marvel Classic Sticker Book is a lot of fun. For the first time ever, vintage stickers from Topps Trading Cards and The Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corporation from the 1960’s and 1970’s are reproduced in a sticker book perfect for any Marvel Comics fan. The fun doesn’t stop there, with corner box art, title logos, and character heads from 1963 to 1994 becoming stickers for the first time ever. But wait, there’s more! The book also includes five double-sided pull-out posters with a color side recreating Marvelmania artwork, with the other side giving artists a Comic cover framework to create original artwork within.
The fun starts with stickers of the classic red and white Marvel logo, one large and five small. The first collection of reproduced stickers are from Topps Trading Cards from 1975 and 1976. This includes ninety-six stickers with characters that include The Angel, Black Goliath, Black Widow, Blade, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Conan, Cyclops, Daredevil, Deathlok, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Strange, Dracula, The Falcon, Frankenstein’s Monster, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Goliath, Hawkeye, Hercules, Howard the Duck, Hulk, The Human Torch, IceMan, Invisible Girl, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Ka-Zar, Kid Colt, Killraven, Kull, The Living Mummy, Loki, Luke Cage, Man-Thing, Medusa, Morbius, Mr. Fantastic, Peter Parker, The Punisher, Red Skull, Red Sonja, Sgt. Fury, Shang-Li, Silver Surfer, Son of Satan, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, The Thing, Thor, Tigra, Valkyrie, The Vision, Volstagg, Warlock, The Watcher, and Werewolf. They each feature a comic burst with funny sayings like Howard the Duck’s “I’m going quakers!”
Next are twenty-six stickers from The Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corporation, which also feature speech bubbles like Captain America saying “No, lady, this isn’t your trash can lid!,” referring to his iconic shield. Characters included in this collection are Captain America, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Hulk, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Spider-Man, Thing, Thor, and Submariner. The Topps stickers were shaped around each character, whereas the Philadelphia stickers are all rectangles, meant to look like a frame from a comic book.
Two pages of corner box art stickers celebrate Marvel Comics from 1965 through 1984. There are thirty-three of these in total with a wide range of classic characters, including the X-Men who weren’t as prominent in the older sticker collection. There's one page of title logos with ten stickers celebrating the following comics: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Silver Surfer, The Invincible Iron Man, Daredevil, The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, The Avengers, Doctor Strange, and The X-Men. The last two pages of stickers include forty-two character heads, with some taking up more space than others due to their headgear, like Loki and Hela.
The rest of the book includes the five Marvelmania pull-out posters. Marvelmania was the official Marvel fan club from 1969 to 1971. The original membership kit came with one of the five included posters, a Captain America poster called “Cap Goes Wild.” Eleven additional posters were created, mailed to members at random in the second year. Three of the posters were created by Jack Kirby, one of the rare instances of the legendary artist inking his own work, which includes Fantastic Four, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, and The Mighty Thor. The fifth and final poster included is of The Amazing Spider-Man by John Romita. The backside of each poster features a framework for fans to create their own artwork, two covers (one a Giant-Size branded issue) and three comic page layouts with blank speech bubbles.
Abram’s Marvel Classic Sticker Book may look at first glance like something meant for little kids, but as you now understand, it holds tremendous nostalgic significance for longtime Marvel Comics fans and diehard collectors. It’s a lot of fun to look through these vintage stickers and read their speech bubbles. But perhaps the greatest value of all isn’t the stickers, but the exquisitely printed reproduction Marvelmania posters, which give fans the ability to add classic Marvel artwork to liven up their walls for the low, low price of just $12.99, printed on the cover where you would find the price on a comic.