My brother was a huge X-men fan as a little boy, and I know he already plans to see the new movie (and loves the 1st one) which gave me an idea for his birthday: maybe I could replace a couple of his old toys. I’ve found a replacement the Collosus figure that broke 10 years ago, but I’m stumped on the other thing I want to buy him if I can find it. At some point no later than 1995 he had a comic book company’s “swimsuit issue” which we both thought was pretty funny. I can’t remember for sure if the X-men were in it - which makes narrowing down the comic company hard- although I think I might remember a picture of someone blue and furry in swim-trunks, so they might well have been. It was a magazine the size of Sports Illustrated -rather than comic book sized- and had glossy full color pictures of the comic guys and gals in their swimsuits. They were from several different comics…Does this ring any bells with anyone?
It was Marvel’s “Year in Review” magazine from sometime in the early 90s, most likely 91 or 92. I used to own a copy.
Yeah, Marvel comics has put out a few of these. The original Marvel Illustrated: Swimsuit Issue came out in 1991. Then it looks like they started publishiing a yearly Marvel Swimsuit Issue in 1999, but I think the first one is probably the one you want. X-Men is published by Marvel.
Dr. Rieux, I have that Year in REview special, too. IIRC, the swimsuit article was originally a joke, a “behind the scenes peek at the X-Men photoshoot,” but response to the pictures was so overwhelmingly positive (like the barely clad Jean Grey under a waterfall), that they came out with a “swimsuit issue” to meet audience demand.
Thanks a lot! It seems to be this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2169970910&category=77 93’ issue, since the “monster island” theme seems really familiar, and this one came out around the time he was the most into comics. I appreciate the help 
Fantagraphics put out several swimsuit issues of Amazing Heroes.
I think Image did something of the sort during the glut, athough I can’t recall when.
Antarctic Press put out Swimsuit Editions of several of their titles, including Ninja High School. Still do, in fact. Last year, Gold Digger had 2 Swimsuit Editions, with all or most of the art drawn by fans.
Man, I remember that first Swimsuit Issue. I still get shivers thinking of some of those pics…(mmm…Psylocke…)
bouv, you really need to get out more.
IIRC, Image put out a couple of these things. Originally (and actually still), Image was a loose conglomeration of several folks, each of which headed his own studio. I remember Jim Lee’s studio put one of these out; I seem to remember that Liefeld’s studio did as well.
–Cliffy
Damnit, Bosda, you beat me to it. I just saw my NHS Swimsuit Issue the other day when I was moving some boxes to storage.
The guys that did Gen13 also had a swimsuit issue, IIRC.