Mini Marvels.

Ice

Teh Sexy Monkey Queen
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Simply put: I want more.

These one-page comics that are used as back-ups are hilarious and I love them so.

There's the one that was used in one of the Spider-Man family one-shots where Iceman and Firestar were in it as a Spider-Man & his Amazing Friends story (and they ended up leaving him for Hawkeye!)

Then there are the recent ones where Human Torch is trying to join other teams (last story was with the Avengers). In the latest X-Men: First Class issue (#5) Torch tried to join the X-Men. I believe the Torch/Avengers one was in the XFC one-shot special.


Anyways, I gotta have more of these stories. They should have their own monthly with short stories in them (like the Franklin ones, but those are one-shots).

Here's one that I found online:

MiniMA04.jpg


Mini Marvels have been previously used for ads for like Milehigh Comics and what not, but even then they were still funny.
 
These are great. They're even better than Fred Hembeck's stuff for Marvel Age from back in the 80s-90s.

I bought both the one-shots of these that came out... I can't remember the titles to both, but one of them was Spidey & The Mini-Marvels. They have this great story where Wolvie goes to buy milk for his cereal and lots of hijinks ensue on his way to get the milk.

It's great. I like the Peanuts sensibility, and I don't generally compare everything to Peanuts just because they make them kiddie sized... it really owes a great debt to Charles Schulz, and I bet Giarusso wouldn't deny that.
 
Yeah, I saw the cover for that online when I was looking for an image. It's really cool.
It's kind of sad that Marvel can get real money out of me with a Mini-Marvel book a few years ago, but can't get any money from me now with their 'serious' titles.
 
If you haven't already, you should check out Chris Giarusso's official website. He has all the old Bullpen Bits strips and the story from one of the specials available to read in Flash format, as well as a mini-bibliography of the Mini Marvels.

As for newer stuff, Marvel usually pairs it with the new Power Pack.

The Torch thing that's been showing up is actually a 5-page story which was printed in full in the back of Fantastic Four and Power Pack #4.

And this week's Iron Man and Power Pack #1 has a new 4-page story which is pretty funny and spoofs the Iron Spider costume.

It's a shame the digests don't reprint these backups.

I hope they collect them into a one-shot or digest of their own someday. There's certainly enough new strips by now to fill at least a 48-pager.
 
If you haven't already, you should check out Chris Giarusso's official website. He has all the old Bullpen Bits strips and the story from one of the specials available to read in Flash format, as well as a mini-bibliography of the Mini Marvels.

As for newer stuff, Marvel usually pairs it with the new Power Pack.

The Torch thing that's been showing up is actually a 5-page story which was printed in full in the back of Fantastic Four and Power Pack #4.

And this week's Iron Man and Power Pack #1 has a new 4-page story which is pretty funny and spoofs the Iron Spider costume.

It's a shame the digests don't reprint these backups.

I hope they collect them into a one-shot or digest of their own someday. There's certainly enough new strips by now to fill at least a 48-pager.

Sweet, thanks!
 
Chris Giarruso on Mini Marvels


If some of your fondest comics included Fred Hembeck's parodies in Fantastic Four Roast, Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe and Petey, The Adventures of Peter Parker Before He Came Spider-Man or even Sunday funnies strips in general, then Chris G. (short for Giarrusso) and Marvel Comics have something that's just as fun-filled an endeavor for you: Mini Marvels.

The characters in Mini Marvels are basically 'lil versions of your favorite Marvel super-heroes. Spidey and gang started out in the Bullpen Bits[/b[ cartoon strips in the Bullpen Bulletins page for Marvel back in the late 1990s before starring in their own one-shot entitled Giant Size Mini Marvels featuring Spidey in 2002 and Spidey and the Mini Marvels[/b] a year later.

Fans can now look forward to a more frequent dose of these cute caricatures in the pages of some of the Marvel Adventures and Marvel's all ages books.



ChrisG_3.jpg
 
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