Marvel Stamps

Well, as promised long ago, Marvel has released their commemorative superhero stamps. Same deal as the D.C. stamps last year - classic characters by the artists who made them famous. Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Frank Miller..., you know, REAL artists. Not like those yo-yos who have work hanging in the Louvre.

Funny thing about this collection is that, even here in my small town (we're talking less than 500 people) these things sold like gangbusters. The local Postmaster indicated much higher than normal sales, even taking into account other commemorative sheets, like the Star Wars collection. It's enough to make me think one of two things is true: 1) My town has lots of closet comics fans, or 2) Many of them read them during their childhood and are buying out of nostalgia. I figure the later is most likely, as the median age here comes in just under 40.

Another funny thing. Well, more annoying, actually. The USPS released the Marvel collection with a beautiful 3-D diorama, which I begged the Postmaster to chuck my way when the promotion was over. That turned out to be a no-go, due to Marvel's desire to hold on to all promotional material. "Something to do with copyright," he said. Now, I'm not one to automatically assign shallow and childish motives to large companies (wink, wink), but what the heck would be the harm if collectors got 'hold of the promotional material? Worst comes to worst, it ends up on Ebay, which...., is probably what would have happened had I gotten it.

Ah, well. At least I got the stamps. And a Star Wars sheet for my seven-year-old nephew. Life is good.