Not Brand Echh - Marvel comic

 

Not Brand Echh was Marvel's parody/satirical comic series that ran for 13 issues in the late 60's. I, of course, gathered them up when they first came out, although I believe that at least some of the copies that I currently have (I believe that I have the entire series, in shambolic shape, unfortunately) were re-bought in the 80's, when such things were fairly easily possible.

In the 60's, you couldn't talk derogatorily about your competitors while using their name, hence the idea of saying "Brand X', which led Marvel to cheekily use Brand Echh, and since this series was not the competitor, these were Not Brand Echh!

Anything was fair game here - plenty of their own stories were parodied, often using the original stories' artists (Gene Colan and Marie Severin were especially good at this), as well as some DC and other comic publishers, along with movies (often cast with Marvel characters in place of the original actors) and even some music parodies, such as Sgt. Pepper's and Cheap Thrills with Marvelized characters and song lyrics!

The stories still hold up as goofy fun, although there is some slightly cringey, un-PC racial humor (a little surprising about that, considering how forward thinking Marvel was in general). And, of course, Forbush Man, Marvel's mascot, became a "real" superhero in this series. Naturally, the comics are more relatable if you're familiar with the original, then-current, stories, but I'm sure that any comic geek would still dig these.