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Post by majestic on Apr 7, 2021 13:21:50 GMT -5
Another stack of 70's Archie Comics titles including Little Archie plus some Richie Rich titles. My comic store has a ton of them for sale right now. Nothing beats a stack of old Archie Comics to enjoy on a nice day like today. Reading them on the porch with the dog sleeping at my feet.
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 7, 2021 15:27:53 GMT -5
True. Plus Shooter was probably like 14 at the time! It's actually adorable how lessons from his classes are clearly influencing some of his more recent issues. So true! You can tell that he liked, or at least was paying attention to, his high school science class.
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 7, 2021 15:39:52 GMT -5
I read Iron Man Annual #3. Story by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema pencils, Jack Abel inks. This was a pretty god story. Molecule Man's wand causes some trouble, possessing a girl in Citrusville, FL, meaning that the Man-Thing is going to get involved. Nice to see Tony continuing to put his weapon makers past behind him by investing in solar energy. A few nits, though. Gerber refers to a crocodile (or maybe an alligator, the Everglades does have both) as a lizard. Uh-uh, sorry Steve, but a crocodile is not a lizard. You've got your typical anti-superhero Marvel Universe crowd of jerks here. Another thing. Gerber mentions Tony Stark's "damaged heart" but hadn't Tony Stark had his heart transplant by now? I think so, but I'm no Iron Man expert. Anyway, an enjoyable enough annual, with pretty good art, as well.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Apr 7, 2021 16:10:21 GMT -5
I'm reading Sienkiewicz era New Mutants at the moment. It's a tough read.
I didn't like his art on NM when I was a kid in 1984, and I probably like it even less over 35 years later.
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 7, 2021 16:13:24 GMT -5
I read Superman Family #186-187, mainly because I was interested in the two-part story which teams up earth-1 Superman and earth-2 Superman. I love my earth-1/earth-2 team-ups, and I love Silver and Bronze Age stories with earth-2 characters! Superman Family #186The Jimmy Olsen story was ok. Nothing special, but not bad. The Superman story was pretty cool. earth-2 Superman tries to get to earth-1 to get that Jimmy Olsen to come back with him for an organ transplant (they never say which organ) to save earth-2 Jimmy Olsen's life, but interdimensional hijinks happen, as they will, and some brutish warrior shows up in the JLA satellite and kick's the earth-2 Superman's butt! Earth-2 Superman shows up in time for the cliffhanger ending, vowing payback! The Lois Lane story...well, there's an Idi Amin take-off OK, that's fine. Lois goes there to investigate his shenanigans with Superman as protection. Well, Superman pulls a dick move by flying her there, then just dropping her off in the middle of nowhere in a hostile country while Superman goes to have words with the Idi Amin standin, Ada Baba. Naturally, Lois gets captured and thrown in one of Baba's concentration camps. So far, so good (except for Superman's dickish move) but...Lois finds an African-American Daily Planet reporter in that same concentration camp, and Lois concocts a plot which involves her disguising herself as an African woman (because she happened to have blackface and an afro wig with her) and teaming up with this other reporter to charm and trick Baba. So, Lois wears blackface in this issue!! This is about 6 years after the infamous Lois Lane issue where she used some machine to become black so that she could find out what it's really like to be "black" and of course taught some angry young black man a thing or two about judging a book by its cover. I really can't believe that DC went back to the Lois-as-a-black-woman routine! The Krypto story really didn't work for me, though it's true that, not having read the previous Krypto issues, I wasn't familiar with the characters or situation. Anyway, neither story nor art was particularly good. The Nightwing and Flamebird story was a very typical, generic, boring superhero story. Nothing much to see here. I didn't really like the Supergirl story, either. It's also true here that I'm picking up in the middle of things, and I'd have probably liked it a bit better if I'd read the previous issue, but this still wasn't very good. I didn't like the art, and there were some illogical moves by Supergirl here. The only good thing was the mystery of this energy being, who is it, and why does he hate Supergirl? Superman Family #187J immy Olsen is awesome! This was a fun story. I knew it would be when he took his gingold and his Elastic Lad costume with him. The conclusion to the Superman story, which is why I was reading these two issues in the first place, was a massive letdown. The first part set things up pretty well, but this issue didn't work for me. It makes absolutely NO sense that Superman says the two of them (both earth-1 and earth-2 Supermen) fighting Krogg together would work no better than each them fighting him separately because they're only as strong as their weakest member, and they've already been defeated individually. That is the most ridiculous, stupid reasoning I've ever heard in my life. It's just an excuse to combine them into one giant Superman (which is kinda cool, I'll admit). Earth-1 Superman says the he and earth-2 Superman have the same strength? Really? Is he being modest? I thought earth-1 Superman was stronger. All the more so since earth-2 Superman is clearly past his prime, with all the gray hair. Some comic book science here, of course, but I guess I can roll with it this time. If the two Superman are combined for more than 30 minutes, the explosion could destroy the earth?! Oh brother. How would the professor know this, anyway? Superman apparently willing to kill Krogg here. Surprising for that time. The tired old "let the villain absorbe too much energy" trick was employed here. Sight. Disappointing conclusion. Also, if the Superman explosion (from them being combined for more than 30 minutes) would destroy the earth, why wouldn't the Krogg explosion do the same? It must involve at least as much energy. Doesn't make sense to me. Risky move by Supes to blow up Krogg on earth. Even with the two Supermen combined into one, Krogg was apparently significantly stronger than them!! Wow! He must be the strongest creature in the universe. Also, I didn't understand how was Krogg absorbing the energy from Superman's heat vision, anyway? It's weird that they never mention which organ it is of Jimmy Olsen's that they need, and it's weird that they could make a duplicate of this organ by examining earth-2 Jimmy. The Lois Lane story here was much better than in the previous issue. The first 3 stories of this comic are all tied in together (and also to the Superman story of the previous issue) which I thought was really cool. It's slick the way they did that. Lois is investigating an attack on a fellow reporter. The Krypto story was meh. It was better than the Krypto story in the previous issue, though, and had a somewhat touching ending. The Nightwing and Flamebird story was ok. Nothing special, but better than the one in the previous issue. Nice DC continuity here, with Superman's battle with Bizarro in Superman #306 having ramifications in Kandor. Decent setup for a story, though rather rushed, as these ten page stories often are. It's funny that the Kandor computer tape looks exactly like a regular cassette tape, and the thing it's in looks like a cassette player. Those robots attacking Firebird on p.7-8 crashed into each other? Pretty dumb. Pretty incompetent robots, shooting each other and stuff. The Supergirl story was a bit better than in the previous issue, also. It seemed like Supergirl was doing something pretty stupid to defeat the bad guy, but it wound up being kinda clever, and was set up by the fact that Superman and Supergirl no longer use robot duplicates because the pollution in the earth's atmosphere prevents them from working properly, a fact of which I was unaware. so basically, I liked every story in #187 more than in 186 except for the Superman story, which was the one I had been reading them for. Still, I think I need to read some more Jimmy Olsen comics!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 7, 2021 16:58:26 GMT -5
I'm reading Sienkiewicz era New Mutants at the moment. It's a tough read. I didn't like his art on NM when I was a kid in 1984, and I probably like it even less over 35 years later. His art is the only thing that makes that book worth reading.
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Post by impulse on Apr 7, 2021 17:04:54 GMT -5
Is that when Claremont was writing it?
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Post by Graphic Autist on Apr 7, 2021 17:13:02 GMT -5
Is that when Claremont was writing it? Yes. And his writing isn't helping any. I do like the painted covers Sienkiewicz did for this book, but the interiors just look god-awful to me. As a kid, I just thought he couldn't draw very well. Years later, I saw earlier art from him that looked like traditional Marvel House style, so it's definitely not that he can't draw...I just don't like his stylization. At the same age, I didn't care for Kirby's art either...but as an adult I love it. Taking that into account, I thought perhaps I'd view Sienkiewicz in a new light in my old(er) age. I was wrong.
And yes, I knew plenty here would disagree with me.
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Post by berkley on Apr 7, 2021 17:28:28 GMT -5
Is that when Claremont was writing it? Yes. And his writing isn't helping any. I do like the painted covers Sienkiewicz did for this book, but the interiors just look god-awful to me. As a kid, I just thought he couldn't draw very well. Years later, I saw earlier art from him that looked like traditional Marvel House style, so it's definitely not that he can't draw...I just don't like his stylization. At the same age, I didn't care for Kirby's art either...but as an adult I love it. Taking that into account, I thought perhaps I'd view Sienkiewicz in a new light in my old(er) age. I was wrong.
And yes, I knew plenty here would disagree with me.
I liked Sienkiewicz's first few Moon Knight back-up stories in the Hulk magazine; and I liked his more experimental stuff in the last few issues of the Moon Knight solo series. But in between there, IOW most of the earlier issues of that MK book, I found his art very sketchy and almost unfinished at times, with lots of panels featuring little or no background. It just didn't work for me - to the point where I didn't follow the series, even though Moench was a favourite writer and MK a favourite character.
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Post by impulse on Apr 7, 2021 18:22:21 GMT -5
Yeah, a lot of his writing has aged like milk left in the sun, unfortunately.
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 7, 2021 19:06:34 GMT -5
Is that when Claremont was writing it? Yes. And his writing isn't helping any. I do like the painted covers Sienkiewicz did for this book, but the interiors just look god-awful to me. As a kid, I just thought he couldn't draw very well. Years later, I saw earlier art from him that looked like traditional Marvel House style, so it's definitely not that he can't draw...I just don't like his stylization. At the same age, I didn't care for Kirby's art either...but as an adult I love it. Taking that into account, I thought perhaps I'd view Sienkiewicz in a new light in my old(er) age. I was wrong.
And yes, I knew plenty here would disagree with me.
I agree. I never liked what his art transitioned into when He left Moon Knight.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,409
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Post by shaxper on Apr 7, 2021 21:35:49 GMT -5
I'm reading Sienkiewicz era New Mutants at the moment. It's a tough read. I didn't like his art on NM when I was a kid in 1984, and I probably like it even less over 35 years later. His art is the only thing that makes that book worth reading. I adored this run when I read it in my 20s. Then I went back to do a review thread on it a few years back and couldn't believe how much less I enjoyed it. I stopped right before the Sienkiewicz era (which had been my favorite) because I couldn't bear (get it? Bear??) the idea of not liking it as much a second time around. I may still find the courage to give it another shake one of these days...
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 8, 2021 8:13:15 GMT -5
I'm reading Sienkiewicz era New Mutants at the moment. It's a tough read. I didn't like his art on NM when I was a kid in 1984, and I probably like it even less over 35 years later. I read my New Mutants back issues about 7 years ago. I thought it started off well, but when Sienkiewicz took over (with #18), yeah, it became a very tough read. The next time I decide to read my New Mutants collection, I will stop with #17. I really disliked the Sienkiewicz stuff.
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 8, 2021 8:14:08 GMT -5
Is that when Claremont was writing it? Yes. And his writing isn't helping any. I do like the painted covers Sienkiewicz did for this book, but the interiors just look god-awful to me. As a kid, I just thought he couldn't draw very well. Years later, I saw earlier art from him that looked like traditional Marvel House style, so it's definitely not that he can't draw...I just don't like his stylization. At the same age, I didn't care for Kirby's art either...but as an adult I love it. Taking that into account, I thought perhaps I'd view Sienkiewicz in a new light in my old(er) age. I was wrong.
And yes, I knew plenty here would disagree with me.
I think Claremont's writing changed to suit Sienkiewicz's style and yes, that was another thing I didn't like about it.
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Post by commond on Apr 8, 2021 8:51:23 GMT -5
My only problem with Sienkiewicz's run is that it's too short.
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