In the late ’70s and into the ’80s, Marvel Comics made a substantial amount of comic books that were based on licensed characters that they did not create. And as time passed and deals expired, they were no longer able to reprint the work. You’ll notice this in collections like “Marvel Essentials” where the team up with The Thing and Doc Savage in Marvel Two In One is omitted. And though Dark Horse owns the Conan publishing rights now, and can reprint the original Marvels, they can’t bring back the swell What If? issues featuring Conan fighting Captain America in modern times.

Another fun series in limbo is the well done ROM The Space Knight. Originally a comic to cash in on a short lived pricey action figure, it lasted 75 issues and had some crossover appearances by The X-Men, Power Man and Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, and The Sub-Mariner. Marvel won’t reprint them and those particular issues are off limits to anyone else.

Probably one of the coolest series that this affects is Marvel’s excellent Micronauts saga that was written by Bill Mantlo and featured gorgeous Michael Golden art and covers. In particular was the 7th issue which featured the little dudes fighting The Man-Thing, which is still one of my favorite comic book covers of all time.

What a kick to run into comic book creator Mark Todd at the 2009 Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco and see that he did this alternate version of the cover.

Fortunately, most of the comics mentioned in this article are fairly easy to come by. Back issues from this period aren’t particularly rare, and you can often fine entire runs of a series for not much above the original cover price if you aren’t a freak about condition and just want good reading copies.