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Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 27, 2019 17:27:36 GMT -5
A little later in the 1970s All-Star Comics series, the cleavage window disappeared. He chest was decorated with white cloth, blank, no window, no logo. It looks great! I wish they had gone with that. It was a great look for PG. Heck, I think Wood was still the artist. In a later letters page Wood is credited with the costume changes. It is odd she was this 'empowered' young woman but has a peek-a-boo window on her boobs! Marvel's feminist character from around that time, Ms. Marvel, started out with a costume that exposed her navel and was altered to cover it up after the first eight issues. Does anyone know if there's any truth in the urban legend that Wood drew PG's breasts slightly larger with each issue, just to see if the editor would notice?
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 27, 2019 17:41:10 GMT -5
Buckler inked by Klaus Janson is great but then he got caught up in creating Deathlok the next month, so Gene Colan did one issue and added some needed weight to things that characters having names like Mint Julep (and blue-green skin) could undermine otherwise... Mint Julep's name was quite sensible compared with some of the characters in #26, whose names were anagrams of breakfast cereals.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 27, 2019 17:49:00 GMT -5
Buckler inked by Klaus Janson is great but then he got caught up in creating Deathlok the next month, so Gene Colan did one issue and added some needed weight to things that characters having names like Mint Julep (and blue-green skin) could undermine otherwise... Mint Julep's name was quite sensible compared with some of the characters in #26, whose names were anagrams of breakfast cereals. Oh yeah, I remember the baddie named with an anagram of Grape Nuts.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 27, 2019 18:42:30 GMT -5
In a later letters page Wood is credited with the costume changes. It is odd she was this 'empowered' young woman but has a peek-a-boo window on her boobs! Marvel's feminist character from around that time, Ms. Marvel, started out with a costume that exposed her navel and was altered to cover it up after the first eight issues. Does anyone know if there's any truth in the urban legend that Wood drew PG's breasts slightly larger with each issue, just to see if the editor would notice? I've read a couple of Internet commentaries about the Power Girl urban legend, and a quick search turned up this one, which I remember reading years ago! Power Girl: You Be the Judge
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Post by rberman on Jan 29, 2019 22:18:51 GMT -5
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 30, 2019 0:15:23 GMT -5
I got up to Tales of Suspense #44 a few days ago and I've been wanting to say a few words about the early Iron Man stories before going on because #45 is where the Iron Man starts to get good! (Or maybe "starts to get a little better" would be a more appropriate way to put it.) Yeah, these are almost irredeemably silly. I like #41 and #42 quite a bit. #41 has the prototype Dr. Strange, who is a pretty generic mad scientist who wants to take over the world and he has a pretty daughter named Carla. I love the Kirby/Ayers art! When I first got this issue, I was still in my teens and I thought it was pretty terrible! And it IS pretty terrible! But one day, it struck me that Dr. Strange looks a lot like Jay Robinson, who played Dr. Shrinker on Saturday mornings (Was it the Kroft Super Show?) and that turned the corner for me. The first Dr. Strange has grown on me over the years, and when I read it, I think of Jay Robinson in the role, and that makes it work for me. I also get a kick out of the sheer audacity of how generic this character is! From his thick slanted eyebrow to his scientific genius to his medieval castle headquarters to his grandiose scheme to conquer the world, he brazenly inflicts himself on the hero (and the reader!) despite his lack of distinguishing characteristics or originality of any kind! And then there's #42, which is also very silly, but not as silly as #41. With the Red Barbarian! And the Actor! And Cold War intrigue! I dig the Don Heck art! I have always liked this one, from the time I paid $10 for it about 1978 up to today. But it's oh so silly! Especially the ending, where the Red Barbarian kills the Actor because he thinks the Actor is tricking him, just as the Actor is about to tell him Iron Man's secret identity! #43 and #44 (despite the great Don Heck art!) are really not very good at all! #43 is about people living underground who are planning to take over the surface world and #44 is about Iron Man going back in time to save Cleopatra from the Mad Pharaoh. I was reading them slowly and trying to make them work in my head but it just made my eyes hurt.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 0:22:43 GMT -5
I picked up this 1980 compendium yesterday at my local gaming store, which also has some old comics. Its 1980 sale price was $7.95, but I got it for $5 because "it's not worth anything." Since I didn't own any of these stories (including the origin of Martian Manhunter), it's certainly worth a good bit more than $5 to me, whatever its condition on the collector's market. I'm tempted to review these stories, but it will be months before I clear my current backlog of intended writing... maybe later this year... You got a great deal on that. I haven't seen one in the wild priced at less than $40 and the hc version is usually even more. It's a fun collection of stories too. Lonestar is buying low grade copies at more than what you paid for it. -M
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 30, 2019 4:30:29 GMT -5
Agree with mrp, rberman, that's a fantastic deal on that book. I'm a bit envious.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 30, 2019 14:18:53 GMT -5
I should've kept mine, I miss that more than the similar Captain America one, or even Origins Of Marvel Comics.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 14:27:35 GMT -5
From 1978, this is the first issue of Supes' team-up title, which ran until 1986. "Chase to the End of Time!" (I love the old titles) sees Superman and Flash caught between two warring races who have the means to destroy Earth. One race, the Zelkot, manipulate the Flash to help them in order to save Earth; the other race, the Volkir, manipulate Superman to help them for their own ends. There literally is a chase to the end of time as Supes and Flash butt heads and try to salvage something from such a threat. There's a link to Krypton's history, too, which was very cleverly done. Would this story be stretched out to six issues, with a lot of exposition, in 2019? I guess so. This is dense and wordy, but I don't mean that pejoratively. It is edge-of-the-seat stuff which really showcases both the Flash and Superman's abilities when it comes to moving fast and travelling through time. I miss the Silver Age Superman (I say that as a fan of Byrne's Superman) who could travel through time as routinely as I drive a taxi. Lots of great art representing the various eras. Reverse-Flash makes an appearance. And it's quite bleak. It does appear hopeless. Superman and Flash are very powerful and it's not easy to come up with threats to challenge one of them, let alone both of them. This issue succeeds in doing that. The script was by Martin Pasko, pencils by José Luis García-López. A great start to DC Comics Presents. Oh, and the story continues in issue 2:
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 7, 2019 14:17:26 GMT -5
I read Tales of Suspense #45 and #46 over the last few days. I wouldn't say this is where the Iron Man series starts to get good but it starts to get better. I love the Don Heck art! Jack Frost is just another cold-themed villain who would come back in the late 1970s as Blizzard. The Crimson Dynamo is a much more important character, but his first story leaves a lot to be desired. The real highlight is the introduction of "Happy" Hogan and Pepper Potts! They have always been among my favorite supporting characters. Pepper starts out as a freckle-faced little pixie and Don Heck draws Happy like seven miles of bad road. Pepper says he looks like Lugosi. Their office banter in the first issue cracks me up! Happy follows her around and declared his love for her, and Pepper responds with lots of mean comments. (Was anybody surprised when they eventually got married?)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 18:31:29 GMT -5
Classic Comic Christmas --- I just received this book --- Space Ghost, The Sorceress of Cyba-3 and it was truly a great Space Ghost Adventure and it was well-written, exciting, full of drama, and really highlights Space Ghost and this should had made into a full-length cartoon ... who ever got this book for me ... and I read it 3-4 times already and I really enjoyed reading it. It was a great gift from a member here that got it for me and I'm a big fan of Space Ghost and his impressive Power Bands Action. Thanks for letting me have this book and I'll read this book over and over again.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2019 23:21:22 GMT -5
Classic Comic Christmas --- I just received this book --- Space Ghost, The Sorceress of Cyba-3 and it was truly a great Space Ghost Adventure and it was well-written, exciting, full of drama, and really highlights Space Ghost and this should had made into a full-length cartoon ... who ever got this book for me ... and I read it 3-4 times already and I really enjoyed reading it. It was a great gift from a member here that got it for me and I'm a big fan of Space Ghost and his impressive Power Bands Action. Thanks for letting me have this book and I'll read this book over and over again. Space Ghost is awesome! It's a bit before my time to have seen it as a child. (I was born in 1964 and I WISH my mother had plopped my two-year-old ass in front of the TV for Space Ghost.) I watched it a lot in the 1990s when I had a job where I got off work late and didn't get home until 2 or 3 am and I would watch TV for an hour or so before going to bed, and one of the channels (might have been TNT or TBS or maybe the Cartoon Network) showed stuff like Jonny Quest, Space Ghost and The Herculoids. Space Ghost is so trippy! What is going on in that universe? My own theory is that Jan and Jayce are a breeding couple and Blip is their baby and Space Ghost is a former breeder who is now past his breeding stage and has morphed into a protector. I love Dino Boy too!
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2019 23:42:18 GMT -5
I read Tales of Suspense #47 last night. This is more like it! They've got 18 pages, and they make great use of them to set up the villain, explain his origin, make him a threat to Iron Man, show Tony Stark about to give up in the face of a guy who melts things and then persevere when the odds are against him against the unspeakable power of a guy who melts things. Also, more banter between Happy and Pepper! I think this is the issue that has the bit where Pepper is bemoaning her freckle-faced, plain Jane look because Stark will never notice her because of all the glamour girls, and Happy says "What about me, Pep? I don't like beautiful girls! I like YOU!" Oh, Happy. It's still pretty silly, but at least we've moved past Mad Pharaohs and Jack Frost and "Eeeek! The Commies!" (Though there's more of the latter to come!) The art's great! It's Steve Ditko inked by Don Heck. I was thinking "This basically just looks like Don Heck." But I read it pretty slowly and spent more time examining the art and looking at the poses and the staging and the anatomy, and I started seeing Ditko everywhere! This pose is soo Ditko! Look at Horgan's face! And that hand, especially the knuckles! Totally Ditko! The Melter's secret identity - Bruno Horgan - looks like a Ditko stock character from his pre-super-hero horror/sci-fi/thriller stories. Many of the poses are very Ditko, especially the hands and fingers. I've always liked this issue, but it's been close to 20 years since I read it, and I'm sure I never looked at this so closely to see the Ditko influence. The Iron Man series is getting better by leaps and bounds!
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 10, 2019 11:30:36 GMT -5
And so I'm up to Tales of Suspense #48. I don't like this one very much. Yeah, it's the first appearance of the red and gold armor, but it's otherwise a pretty dreary issue. The art is ... interesting. Steve Ditko penciled three consecutive issues - #47, #48 and #49 - and had a different inker each time. The Don Heck inking in #47 is really cool and I also like the Paul Reinman inks in #49. The least successful inker over Ditko is Dick Ayers in #48. I don't know what happened. Ayers is awesome inking Kirby in so many issues of the Fantastic Four, but Ayers inking Ditko in TOS #48 is very disappointing. Everybody looks like they're melting. (Maybe Ayers should have inked the Melter in #47.) I don't like the villain either. There's a reason Mr. Doll never became the next Dr. Doom or Loki. Or even the next Eel or Porcupine. He's awful. That stupid hat! And with his magic doll that give him the power to control people, he's way too much like the Puppet-Master. But a lot more creepy! The Puppet-Master uses to dolls to make his victims do things like let all the inmates out of prison or attack the Sub-Mariner or turn against the rest of the FF. But Mr. Doll - he doesn't make you do things … he does things to you! He uses his power to coerce his victims through inflicting pain. It's a bit disturbing when you think about it. Even the subpar art gets this across with some sequences that have always made me feel a little uneasy. So Mr. Doll is not just terrible, he's super creepy! It's a weird issue. I don't even remember what Happy and Pepper were up to. The usual bananashenanigans.
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