Not Brand Echh
Not Brand Echh | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Ongoing series |
Genre | |
Publication date | August 1967 – May 1969 |
No. of issues | 13; 14th issue in 2017 |
Main character(s) | Forbush Man |
Not Brand Echh is a
Its mascot, Forbush Man, introduced in the first issue, was a superhero wannabe with no superpowers and a costume of red long johns emblazoned with the letter "F" and a cooking pot, with eye-holes, covering his never-revealed head. His secret identity was eventually revealed in issue #5 (Dec. 1967) as Irving Forbush, Marvel's fictitious office gofer.
Publication history
Marvel Comics' superhero-satire comic book Not Brand Echh ran an initial 13 issues (
The series title was a play on an advertising convention of the time, in which a competitor's product was not referred to by name, but simply as "Brand X"; DC was sometimes playfully called "Brand Echh" in Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" and letters pages, hence this comic was "Not Brand Echh". The title of the comic in its postal indicia was Brand Echh for its first four issues, and afterward Not Brand Echh, the trademarked cover title from the start.[1]
Typical stories and name transpositions included Ironed Man (
In broader topical references,
Radio and TV personality Paul Gambaccini said that he coined the term "Brand Echh" in his letter published in The Amazing Spider-Man #7 (Dec. 1963).[4]
Similar Marvel publications
Marvel published a humor comic called Spoof that ran from 1970 to 1973. In 1988, Marvel published What The--?!, a four-issue miniseries (Aug.–Nov. 1988), followed by an additional 22 issues continuing the numbering (July 1989 – Sept. 1993).[5] One story, for instance, featured "Superbman vs. The Fantastical Four"[6] — the same name as in Not Brand Echh for a parodistic Fantastic Four. Not Brand Echh mascot Forbush Man made a cover-featured return appearance in issue #8 (July 1990).[7] Two one-shots, Wha...Huh? in 2005,[8] and Marvel: Now What?! in 2013[9] revisited the concept.
The
Characters inspired by those in Not Brand Echh made an appearance in Marvel's Nextwave series.
Reprints
Several stories were reprinted in the three-issue Marvel comic Crazy! (Feb.–June 1973), not to be confused with Marvel's black-and-white magazine Crazy Magazine.
In the UK, the comic was published in a tabloid-like black-and-white format in the early 1980s and renamed Marvel Madhouse.[10]
In 2022, NFT app VeVe reissued 10,000 copies of issue #1 with five variant covers.[11]
Collected editions
Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|
Marvel Masterworks: Not Brand Echh | Not Brand Echh #1-13 and material from Daredevil Annual #1, Fantastic Four Annual #5, Sgt. Fury Annual #4, Avengers Annual #2, The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 | June 2015 | 978-0785190707 |
Not Brand Echh: The Complete Collection | Not Brand Echh #1-14 and material from Daredevil Annual #1, Fantastic Four Annual #5, Sgt. Fury Annual #4, Avengers Annual #2, The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, 5 | June 2019 | 978-1302918828 |
References
- ^ a b c Not Brand Echh at the Grand Comics Database.
- ComicBookResources.com. November 10, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ISBN 978-1605490557.
- ISBN 9780786457625.
- ^ What The--?! at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ What The--?! #2 at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ What The--?! #2 at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Wha...Huh? #1 at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Marvel: Now What?! #1 at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Marvel Madhouse at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Collectibles, VeVe Digital (2022-03-31). "Marvel Digital Comics — Not Brand Echh #1". VeVe. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
External links
- Not Brand Echh at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on August 26, 2015.
- Not Brand Echh Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
- Not Brand Echh at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)