The Largest Comic Book Ever!

I have always enjoyed the massiveness of oversized comic books. Do you remember all the Limited Collector's Editions from DC and all the Treasury Editions from Marvel back in the 1970s? The above Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer edition that was released in October of 1972 was the first of all those tabloid comics (and served as my introduction to the wonderful world of Rube Grossman artwork), and then many dozens of other Limited Collector's Editions and Treasury Editions followed.

Although tabloid-sized comics are magnificently oversized, there was an even larger comic book than them! Pre-dating the above Rudolph by five years was 1967's Wham-O Giant Comics #1.

Each page of Wham-O Giant Comics is the size of the TWO facing pages of a tabloid size comic so I'm ready to go out on a mathematical limb and say that Wham-O Giant Comics is TWICE the size  of a tabloid comic; each page of the Wham-O is the size of FOUR regular comic pages put together. The Grand Comics Database proclaims it to be "The biggest-sized comic ever published in terms of surface area." These 52 monstrous pages are area-equivalent to 208 regular-sized comic book pages. Huge! Have I convinced you yet?

This is the same Wham-O company that originated and still makes frisbees and hula hoops by the way. The company still exists but no longer publishes comics. The Batman TV show boom of the 1960s made producing comics attractive to many new publishers, including Wham-O. Giant Comics was intended to be an ongoing series but only this one issue made it into print.

But what an issue of great artwork it is! Wally Wood is one of the best comics artists ever of course, plus there is work by Ernie Colon and Marvin Stein and Henry Boltinoff, as well as the last-published work of the Golden Age master Lou Fine. This comic is a very impressive package.

And now here are two hayfamzone bonuses for you:

Look over here to watch a one-minute commercial for Wham-O Giant Comics #1 that aired on televisions across the nation back in 1967

and

over at this website you can view a full-screen image of each page of the huge comic!