shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 23, 2014 13:57:15 GMT -5
I was giving this a lot of thought today. I'd imagine, for many of you, your favorite window of time in comicdom would have been when you were young and first collecting, but maybe not. I started collecting in 1989, and I realized today that nearly all of my favorite classic comic material was published between 1974 and 1984. Really.
Think about it. You've got the best years of Claremont's X-Men, Wolfman and Perez's New Teen Titans, Thomas' Avengers (though, admittedly, I've yet to read it), Englehart's Defenders (still need to read those too), Conan, The Batman Family, the Wein/Conway/Moench Batman run and the Pre-Crisis Jason Todd, the rise of the Marvel/Curtis Black and White Mags, the Giant-Sizes, the Treasury Editions, the first generation of independent publishers (Pacific, First, Comico, Eclipse, as well as the the Pinis and Dave Sim), and the absolute best works from my two favorite writers: Doug Moench (Master of Kung Fu, Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight, Planet of the Apes, Batman) and Steve Gerber (Man-Thing, Howard the Duck, Tales of the Zombie).
Really, if I eliminated everything in my comic collection that wasn't from this ten year span, I wouldn't miss much of what I dumped. This is the heart of everything I love about comics.
So what's your window? Can you narrow most of what you love about comics down to a specific span of time?
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 23, 2014 14:32:42 GMT -5
If I had to narrow it down to a single ten year period I think I'd say from 1984-1994. I loved the explosion of new genres onto the scene with books like the ninja turtles, usagi yojimbo, time spirits, Six from Sirius, Aliens, Predators, Sin City, Hellboy, and Fish Police. On top of that there were some pretty spectacular main stream runs as well with people like Paul Levitz, Doug Moench, Norm Breyfogle and Jim Aparo on Batman and Peter David on Hulk and Mark Gruenwald's Captain America.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,412
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Post by shaxper on Aug 23, 2014 14:45:35 GMT -5
Okay, now someone needs to take 1964-1974  Shouldn't be hard, what with the rise of the Marvel Age. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 23, 2014 14:53:53 GMT -5
Ha, I almost picked that time frame, I love Tomb of Dracula, Neal Adams' Batman, and Green Lantern/Green Arrow.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Aug 23, 2014 15:00:23 GMT -5
If I had to narrow it down to a single ten year period I think I'd say from 1984-1994. I loved the explosion of new genres onto the scene with books like the ninja turtles, usagi yojimbo, time spirits, Six from Sirius, Aliens, Predators, Sin City, Hellboy, and Fish Police. On top of that there were some pretty spectacular main stream runs as well with people like Paul Levitz, Doug Moench, Norm Breyfogle and Jim Aparo on Batman and Peter David on Hulk and Mark Gruenwald's Captain America. Without giving it a huge amount of thought, about this time would probably be mine too. I maybe extend it to 95 for Age of Apocalypse which is still my favorite X-Men story. But yeah, being 94 was my start in comics, I have to say it was nice that there was much more than superheroes to read when I got into it. I had been an Aliens and Giger fan before comics, so that was defiantly one of the highlights I found out in comics. |
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2014 15:30:20 GMT -5
If it has to be a ten year gap, I'd probably have to go with 1968-78, from the first year my imagination was captured by classic Marvel characters and series like Doctor Strange, Thor, the FF, the Avengers, Daredevil, etc to around the time a lot of Marvel's most innovative creators, like Steve Gerber, Steve Englehart, Jack Kirby (again), were being driven out of the company, and many of the best series were either being cancelled or beginning to take a sharp downturn in quality.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 23, 2014 15:41:00 GMT -5
Tangently this really has me thinking, when was there a time when there weren't any great books being put out?
I mean tastes vary, and as evidenced here there will be periods we like more than others but so far I see no reason to disagree with the periods put forward. But are there any periods that we can say are truly bad?
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2014 15:55:00 GMT -5
I think some periods were really bad for certain limited fields. For example the 80s and 90s were terrible IMO for mainstream superhero comics, but it was one of the best periods for comics as a whole because of all the great independent stuff that was coming out from people like the Hernandezes, Clowes, etc.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 23, 2014 16:31:32 GMT -5
I would take 1961 to 1970. Mostly for the Marvels. (But also for the end of the Jack Schiff Batman era and the early 1960s Superman. And The Metal Men. (But no Kamandi!)
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2014 16:40:44 GMT -5
Okay, now someone needs to take 1964-1974 Shouldn't be hard, what with the rise of the Marvel Age. I thought about taking that one myself but decided to go with my actual reading experience at the time rather than what I read after the fact. I was only 2 years old at the beginning of 1964, so wasn't reading anything at all. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 23, 2014 16:49:02 GMT -5
I would take 1961 to 1970. Mostly for the Marvels. (But also for the end of the Jack Schiff Batman era and the early 1960s Superman. And The Metal Men. (But no Kamandi!) No Kamandi!? What unspeakable evil is this? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 23, 2014 16:54:54 GMT -5
I would take 1961 to 1970. Mostly for the Marvels. (But also for the end of the Jack Schiff Batman era and the early 1960s Superman. And The Metal Men. (But no Kamandi!) No Kamandi!? What unspeakable evil is this? I know! Sometimes I think Kamandi is the best comic ever made! (I even like the non-Kirby issues!) My favorite single issue: #7! I wrote about it here.
Also: No Shanna the She-Devil #1 to #5! And no Freedom Fighters!
What was I thinking!
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 23, 2014 17:06:15 GMT -5
That's much better.
Not liking Kamandi is like not liking Krypto, I just can't see how one could like comics and not understand how those two concepts are amazing.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,412
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Post by shaxper on Aug 23, 2014 17:18:35 GMT -5
Tangently this really has me thinking, when was there a time when there weren't any great books being put out? I mean tastes vary, and as evidenced here there will be periods we like more than others but so far I see no reason to disagree with the periods put forward. But are there any periods that we can say are truly bad? With a few notable exceptions, I'm not aware of much good coming out of the 2000-2010 period. |
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Post by Action Ace on Aug 23, 2014 17:34:20 GMT -5
I started collecting in 1975. While 1975-1978 will always be home, my favorite era is 1958-1967. Silver Age DC was at its peak and two of my favorite runs from Marvel ever (Spidey and FF) are underway.
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