Merry Marvel Marching Society

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Merry Marvel Marching Society (often referred to by the abbreviation "M.M.M.S.") was a fan club for Marvel Comics started by Marvel editor Stan Lee and/or Marvel publisher Martin Goodman in 1964 or 1965.

Contents

[edit] Membership kit

For the contribution of one dollar to start and a yearly contribution of 75 cents each year afterward, members received a small range of items, including a button, a newsletter and a recording featuring the Marvel staff including Lee, Jack Kirby and others. In Ronin Ro's Tales to Astonish, the following details are given:

"Stan made up cards and had production people Sol Brodsky and Marie Severin help create a pin, eight stickers prominently featuring the heroes, "a nutty new notepad," a minibook, a pencil, a certificate, and a membership card. Stan wanted his bullpen to join him in a special recording he'd include in the $1 membership kit. Most of the bullpen was willing, except for Ditko."[1]

[edit] Societal mores

The ranks of M.M.M.S. membership, all identified by three letter abbreviations (such as Q.N.S. for "Quite 'Nuff Sayer" to F.F.F. for "Fearless Front-Facer") were invented by young comics fan, and Jack Kirby-confidante Mark Evanier.

The society was a great success, with "Fabulous" Flo Steinberg remarking that they "were working seven days a week just opening these envelopes" (containing the subscription fee).[2] Soon, the club offered a range of other money-spinning products, including:

"a six-foot "life-size, full-color Spidey pin-up" made from a striking Ditko Spider-Man drawing, a $1.50 T-shirt with a sinister-looking Ditko-drawn Dr. Strange, a Thing drawing by Jack [Kirby] on "Official Swinging' Stationary," and a Jack-drawn Fantastic Four family portrait T-shirt."[3]

The M.M.M.S. folded in the mid-1970's. A second official Marvel Comics Fan Club, called The Friends of 'Ol Marvel (FOOM), existed from 1973-1976.

[edit] In popular culture

The character of Hiro Nakamura on Heroes is reported to be an M.M.M.S. member in the episode "Don't Look Back".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution, p. 84 (Bloomsbury, 2004)
  2. ^ Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution, p. 84 (Bloomsbury, 2004)
  3. ^ Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution, p. 84 (Bloomsbury, 2004)

[edit] External links

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