‘Marvel Classic Black Light Collectible Poster Portfolio’ (review)

Written by Roy Thomas
Art by Various
Published by Abrams Books

How in the world does one explain the concept of black light posters to today’s generation in any kind of way that makes sense?

Heck, they never even made that much sense to me but man, they were cool with their Day-Glo colors that seared psychedelic imagery into your eyes under the purple light of the right bulbs!

The ‘70s were a different time, they say, and, before disco, they were an amazing time when every day brought new treasures.

In my case, many of those treasures were found at a staid old bookstore in downtown Cincinnati. The clerks, mostly older men, all wore suits and ties but in the basement, they had what amounted to a head shop. Hmm…how to explain the concept of head shops to today’s generation?

Let’s just say it was kind of a hippie bookstore. It was down in that basement where I discovered underground comix, fanzines, incense, album rock, and books on the history of comics…oh, and also black light posters, of all different subjects, shapes, and sizes. In 1971, that included the Marvel Comics Third Eye black light posters.

I can’t recall how much they cost but I know I only ever bought one—the Doctor Strange one with Dan Adkins channeling Steve Ditko to the extreme. I had to buy a black light bulb as well. Sometimes I’d unscrew the regular bulb in my bedroom lamp and screw in the black light bulb and just trip out on that poster—no drugs necessary!

I’d stare at the others a lot whenever I went back to the store but never bought any of them. My Doctor Strange didn’t last very long either. Over the years, these posters became both trivia questions and highly collectible memorabilia for Marvel fans.

Now’s your chance to own a dozen of these lost remnants of a different time as Abrams Comic Arts and Marvel have come out with Marvel Classic Black Light Posters, a book/portfolio re-creating the original posters using modern high-tech printing techniques.

Even back in the day I questioned the seeming randomness of some of the images chosen by Third Eye but chalked it up to possible psychedelics in use at their offices. About eight of these are amazing choices. The others including a Hulk story page and a not particularly well-drawn Sub-Mariner and Spider-Man panel just make me shake my head.

The best ones here are—in my opinion— my old Doctor Strange (I’m prejudiced), another great Doctor Strange page by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, Kirby’s stunningly beautiful Silver Surfer page from FF # 76 and his Medusa pin-up from FF Annual # 5.

Of course, the question is why some of these lesser images were chosen for the Abrams project in the first place, rather than some of the better-known ones of the remaining dozen 1971 black light posters from Third Eye including Gene Colan’s Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) cover and Jack Kirby’s Black Bolt pin-up?

I no longer have a black light bulb so I can’t even test the full effect but I’m guessing most who end up buying this book, with its list price of $125.00, won’t have one, either. Unfortunately, that means you’re spending an awful lot of money for just 12 really cool, colorful, classy-looking pages and a little bit of background from the estimable Roy Thomas.

I don’t know how in the world to explain that kind of pricing to today’s generation, either…and they wouldn’t even have the nostalgia factor my generation would. So, unless you’re one of those hippies who sold out to the establishment and made a ton of money on dot com stocks in the ‘90s, I’d skip this one.