It was tough trying to find back issues of Marvel comic books in a little town like Savannah, Georgia in the mid 1960s. There were no comic book stores, no comic conventions and very few of my friends had any comic books to buy or trade for. There were a few mail order dealers like Robert Bell who ran advertisements in Marvel comics for their price lists and I used those a lot. But I was always looking for new ways to find those elusive back issues of the Marvel comics that were published before I started collecting in 1965. Why not ask Marvel if they had any back issues? None of Marvel’s ads in their comics said they did but I figured it was risking a .5 stamp on to find out. So I mailed off a letter and didn’t give it much more thought after that. Probably just a wild goose chase anyway.

And then several days later this letter came in the mail. It had a return address of “Marvel Comics Group”! I had a few of those postcards that Marvel sent you in response to fan letters you sent in but I had never received an actual official looking envelope before. Believe me, for an 11 year old kid to get a letter from magnificent Marvel Comics way off in New York City was a very big deal indeed.

 I tore open the envelope in a frenzy to see what was inside. There was a one page mimeographed list of the back issues Marvel did not have for sale. Somebody even put a handwritten note “Sorry not to many early ones, Lewis.” The letter was from December 1965 and sadly, almost all the old comics before then were not available. I looked over the list carefully and noticed that Amazing Spider-Man #29 was still available. I only had Spidey #31 up with a few scattered earlier ones so #29 was a lucky find. The Daredevil #10, #11 and #12 and X-Men #13 and #14, Marvel Tales Annual #2 and Fantastic Four Annual #2 were all still available and I didn’t have any of those so I marked them on the list to order as shown in the photo at right. The grand total came to only $1.90. I don’t remember now why I put the x marks are on the left side of the page.

I can’t remember now why I only received the two Daredevil and one Spider-Man issues shown below. I’m pretty sure I mailed in the entire $1.90 so I imagine by the time my order actually arrived the other issues were already sold. I don’t remember getting a refund but I guess I probably did. Marvel wouldn’t cheat their loyal fans. I’m sure when I bought the comics I didn’t get later from Robert Bell or others that I had to pay more than the .20 and .35 each that Marvel was asking in 1965.

Anyway, at least I did get three comics that today would be considered File Copies since they were never circulated through the usual distribution channels. I’ve never heard any stories of Marvel maintaining a large number of File Copies like some other comic companies did so I suppose they’re pretty rare. There have been some large warehouse finds of back issue Marvels but those came from a distributor’s warehouse, not straight from Marvel. Does anybody know when Marvel started and stopped selling back issues? Does anybody out there in comic book collecting land have a letter like mine? If so, please let us see it.