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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 7, 2018 19:02:13 GMT -5
Jim Baient's Tarot Witch of the Black Rose has run for 108 issues...  (one of the few work safe covers from the series) -M I remember picking up the first few issues and flipping them for a decent amount a few years later. Nothing but balloon breasts in that book. |
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Post by The Captain on Feb 7, 2018 19:09:40 GMT -5
Silver Surfer ran for 146 issues. Why?
No way. I call foul ! The Surfer series was very entertaining and the cosmic anchor of the MU for the years that it was in operation. I have from 1-124 and most of the other books up until 144. For the first 75 issues it was very good if not great , despite some lackluster artwork from Marshal Rogers to begin the series. You misunderstand me. That was not a sarcastic "why", but rather a serious inquiry as to how did it last for over 12 years. I've never had the slightest interest in any of the cosmic Marvel titles, so I've never read a single issue of this series and no nothing about the stories, art, importance in the larger MU, etc. I probably should have asked "how" rather than "why". |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 7, 2018 19:11:59 GMT -5
Also,that some Gold Key mystery titles like Boris Karloff made it well into the 70s. Unless, of course, Charlton was a mob front for laundering money, which I have heard may have been the case. Charlton owned their own printing presses. They started their comic line in order to keep the presses running when they didn't have anything else to print. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 7, 2018 19:28:43 GMT -5
No way. I call foul ! The Surfer series was very entertaining and the cosmic anchor of the MU for the years that it was in operation. I have from 1-124 and most of the other books up until 144. For the first 75 issues it was very good if not great , despite some lackluster artwork from Marshal Rogers to begin the series. You misunderstand me. That was not a sarcastic "why", but rather a serious inquiry as to how did it last for over 12 years. I've never had the slightest interest in any of the cosmic Marvel titles, so I've never read a single issue of this series and no nothing about the stories, art, importance in the larger MU, etc. I probably should have asked "how" rather than "why". Many of the cosmic pillars were solidified by Steve Englehart in the first 30 issues or so and beginning with # 34, Starlin took over and brought Thanos and the entire Infinity stones into play. Yes, it was a very good series until about #100. Pretty solid work by Ron Marz after Starlin moved onto other series. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 7, 2018 19:28:59 GMT -5
Also,that some Gold Key mystery titles like Boris Karloff made it well into the 70s. Oh yeah, that reminds me of some of those Charlton series, that nobody seems to collect, but somebody somewhere must have been reading. Unless, of course, Charlton was a mob front for laundering money, which I have heard may have been the case. Fightin Army, Fightin' Navy, and Fightin' Marines all lasted until 1984, reaching #172, 176, and 133 respectively. Ghostly Tales made it to issue #169 before it was also cancelled in 1984 along with most of the line. I Love You was still being published in 1980, and made it to #130, years after DC and Marvel had stopped publishing romance books entirely. Dr. Graves was one of a handful of titles they tried to revive in 1986, with #75 being the last published:  I'm not really a Chalrton guy either, but when I see any 1986 Charlton books, I try to pick them up, because they aren't very common. You have to watch the Charlton dates, a little. Several were cancelled, then brought back as reprints, later on; so, you didn't necessarily have continuous publication. The main reason was that their rates were so low that their sales targets didn't need to be as high as DC or Marvel to be a hit. Same with Archie and Harvey, though both of those companies sold a ton of comics, making their family owners very rich. Everybody interviewed in the CBA issues focusing on Charlton denied any mafia ties, or stories. The simple fact was that the comics were a way to keep the presses rolling, in between magazines. They also printed things like cereal boxes. The comics were cheap and they owned their own presses, paper companies, transportation network and distribution; so, their costs were far lower than the other companies, due to economies of scale. It was only when the magazines started faltering and the presses were so out of date that no one wanted to use them that Charlton started having financial issues. They even outlasted bigger name publications, like Life Magazine, which went under in 1972, before being revived 6 years later. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 7, 2018 21:54:15 GMT -5
A lot of the best, most interesting, and most creative titles in comics history only last a few issues before being cancelled. We all have mourned the early demise of titles like New Gods, OMAC, Chase, Omega the Unknown, Brother Power the Geek, and more. But on the flip side... Alf ran for 50 issues!  Barbie got to issue #63!  What are some other series you just can't believe lasted as long as they did? Barbie had two books for a while, huh? Glad she lasted that long - The end of Barbie at Marvel signified that they no longer had any interest in trying to reach girls (a poisition that lasted till, like, 2012.) |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 7, 2018 23:12:44 GMT -5
The ones that surprised me a bit: Bob Hope ran for 109 issues, ending in early 1968. By that time, the kids buying comics had little or no idea who Bob Hope was. Jerry Lewis had 40 issues with Dean and 84 solo, ending in 1971. Tomahawk - 140 issues, from 1950 to 1972. Kid Colt - 229 issues, from 1948 to 1979. All excellent choices here. Agreed about Bob Hope, though when I did have occasion to see it toward the end during the Super-Hip/Monster High School part of the run, I loved it. Hope was more of a bit player at times in those stories, and it was a funny satirical comic. In the case of Tomahawk, his run is even more remarkable, since he first appeared in Star Spangled Comics 69, on sale in April 1947. (He was the cover feature from 96 to 121.) When Tomahawk #1 appeared in 1950, he was still appearing in Star-Spangled and World's Finest. By my count, Tomahawk appeared in 238 comics for 25 years straight. That's close to 450 stories. Not bad for a DC "B-lister." Blackhawk lasted even longer -- 337 issues! -- starting in 1941 (with #9, taking over from Uncle Sam Quarterly) and lasting till 1968 (his first break). That's 235 issues of Blackhawk and 102 of Military/ Modern (1941-1950), where he appeared concurrently, and was cover-featured in all of those issues. And wasn't it nice that Sugar and Spike lasted for 15 years... All info, of course, thanks to Mike's Amazing World, saints be praised! |
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 7, 2018 23:29:02 GMT -5
Before the 80's there was a market for all types of genres of comics. Jerry Lewis lasting as long as it did is only strange in the present superhero dominated market.
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Post by foxley on Feb 8, 2018 2:29:39 GMT -5
Before the 80's there was a market for all types of genres of comics. Jerry Lewis lasting as long as it did is only strange in the present superhero dominated market. Aside from the fact that no one finds Jerry Lewis funny. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 8, 2018 6:26:55 GMT -5
Before the 80's there was a market for all types of genres of comics. Jerry Lewis lasting as long as it did is only strange in the present superhero dominated market. Aside from the fact that no one finds Jerry Lewis funny. SHHHH! The French may be listening! |
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Post by nero9000 on Feb 8, 2018 7:14:51 GMT -5
No way. I call foul ! The Surfer series was very entertaining and the cosmic anchor of the MU for the years that it was in operation. I have from 1-124 and most of the other books up until 144. For the first 75 issues it was very good if not great , despite some lackluster artwork from Marshal Rogers to begin the series. You misunderstand me. That was not a sarcastic "why", but rather a serious inquiry as to how did it last for over 12 years. I've never had the slightest interest in any of the cosmic Marvel titles, so I've never read a single issue of this series and no nothing about the stories, art, importance in the larger MU, etc. I probably should have asked "how" rather than "why". Read it and find out! Great space opera combined with political intrigue during Englehart. Starlin follows to set up the Infinity Gauntlet. The Dynamo City storyline should be read by anyone who's interested in comics, period. Rarely have I felt such sympathy for the main character. Solid stuff by Ron Marz, too, and Ron Lim was one of the best artists from that era. It is surprising the title lasted that long, sure. It miraculously survived past the mid-90s cancellation pandemic. Almost 150 issues probably puts it into Marvel's all-time top 20? |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,591 
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Post by Confessor on Feb 8, 2018 9:03:46 GMT -5
This is gonna sound like heresy to some, but I'm surprised how long the Savage Sword of Conan black & white magazine ran for. That thing was being published from 1974 until 1995 (235 issues!), long after barbarian fantasy had fallen out of vogue.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2018 9:34:06 GMT -5
Before the 80's there was a market for all types of genres of comics. Jerry Lewis lasting as long as it did is only strange in the present superhero dominated market. Aside from the fact that no one finds Jerry Lewis funny. I think I only read one issue of Jerry Lewis. Probably in the dentist's waiting room. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2018 9:35:15 GMT -5
This is gonna sound like heresy to some, but I'm surprised how long the Savage Sword of Conan black & white magazine ran for. That thing was being published from 1974 until 1995 (235 issues!), long after barbarian fantasy had fallen out of vogue. I miss the B & W magazines from the 70's. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 8, 2018 10:10:54 GMT -5
This recent post by Mark Evanier is all about a generally unrecognized but much admired artist named Owen Fitzgerald: www.newsfromme.com/2018/01/31/the-incredible-owen/ He was the Bob Hope artist for about 80 issues, worked on the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comic for another 20, and a bunch of other DC humor books in the 50s and early 60s. His artwork was certainly one big reason these books were as successful as they were. It's a great story, btw! |
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