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Post by MDG on Apr 14, 2021 10:45:27 GMT -5
I just read the second Marvel Universe by John Byrne omnibus. I used to think there was nothing he did that I didn't at least enjoy but man, Star Brand was awful. Loads of metaphysical nonsense that drags. The only amusing bits were the ones with himself and his Marvel colleagues (at one point he explains to Star Brand that his disguise doesn't really hide his identity.) I'm not sure why it was even in this collection, since the New Universe is explicitly not part of the MU. The book has some great stuff though. Hulk Annual #7 which I read to pieces (well not quite literally) when I was a kid and still love. A bit of Avengers. A Ghost Rider/Daredevil crossover. And the complete series of Marvel: The Lost Generation, which I never read before. Interesting experiment. I would love for some enterprising someone to put together a collection of Byrne's Charlton stuff.. Space 1999, Emergency, Doomsday +1, even Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. A lot of that stuff was pretty good. Well worth a look. Unfortunately, all of those except Doomsday +1 are licensed properties, so hard to reprint, esp in a single collection. Doomsday +1 has been reprinted a couple times, but in half-assed formats. I think I've got this one somewhere.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 14, 2021 10:58:52 GMT -5
I would love for some enterprising someone to put together a collection of Byrne's Charlton stuff.. Space 1999, Emergency, Doomsday +1, even Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. A lot of that stuff was pretty good. Well worth a look. Unfortunately, all of those except Doomsday +1 are licensed properties, so hard to reprint, esp in a single collection. Doomsday +1 has been reprinted a couple times, but in half-assed formats. I think I've got this one somewhere. I used to have the Fantagraphics Doomsday Squad reprints. It wasn't the greatest comic and of course Byrne would get better but I wish I still had them. They had backup stories of other FG series, too.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 15, 2021 3:16:30 GMT -5
Over the last few days, I read Amazing Spider-Man #55 and #56 to finish that great Doctor Octopus four-parter, then I read the next few issues with Spidey’s amnesia, Ka-Zar, a new Spider-Slayer and then the next story arc with the Kingpin!
Not bad. I’m not real keen on the Ka-Zar issues, and the amnesia subplot gets pretty darn silly, but at least I laughed a lot. This is that era where the Kingpin is a supporting character and appears in every third story arc, and these are always fun. In this one, he brain washes Captain Stacy and hires MJ to dance at his club ... and then doesn’t pay her! I wonder if MJ trying to get her paycheck from the Kingpin will be a subplot for a few issues?
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Post by profh0011 on Apr 15, 2021 8:23:59 GMT -5
Following the '67 TV cartoon, my first exposure to Spider-Man in the comics was his 2-panel cameo in FF ANNUAL #3, where a Steve Ditko panel was pasted into an otherwise Jack Kirby story. But my 1st issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was #55-- with half the cover missing. (You know how that goes.) It was MAGNIFICENT. Looking back, I feel EVERY PANEL was pin-up worthy. Damn. Only one problem... it ended on a cliffhanger. By some miracle... the next month... from the same corner store that sold comics (probably illegally), I got ASM #56. Wow. Only one problem. The S********** ended on a cliffhanger!!! Now it gets weird. Totally inexplicably... 8 YEARS later... a COVERLESS copy of ASM #57 turned up IN THAT SAME STORE. I couldn't believe it. I'd seen the Ka-Zar cover as an ad (in fact, that ad was my first exposure to the brain-dead Tarzan wanna-be). Anyway, it was good to finally see what happened next. Especially as, the then-curent run of MARVEL TALES stupidly failed to reprint either ASM #57 or #58. Who the hell knows why. #57 was the first issue where they got DON HECK to step in and pencil over John Romita's layouts. It was "okay", but no longer "amazing". Worse. THE G** D***** thing ended on a cliffhanger!!! GRRRRR. Not too long after (I think), I went to my first NYC convention, armed with just enough money to buy 4 comics. We're talking a very low budget here (I was still in school). One of the 4 I got was ASM #58. Just so I culd read the still-missing episode. It wasn't that good. But at least, Spider-Man got his memory back, and it ended with him on his way home. Now, stupidly... to maintain this pointless, endless "soap-opera" format crapola... in ASM #59, Spider-Man hasn't gotten home yet, and when he does, the cops wanna know why Pete's been missing so long, and he comes up with a lame explanation. Gwen, who's been running hot and cold since her debut, suddenly has it big for Pete. Figures, as he's been hanging around with Mary Jane. Nothing like ALREADY HAVING a girlfriend to get some other troublesome girl interested. OY. Here's the thing. I believe it was the George Olshevsky MARVEL INDEX that pointed out... that because Spider-Man was appearing in several different books here and there, they needed to figure out WHERE to fit the other stories. and there was NO obvious break in the continuity of ASM. EXCEPT, for one little spot. Normally, they figure to fit other stories between issues of a book. But they couldn't do it in this case. So... according to the INDEX, they fit... IN BETWEEN 2 PANELS early in ASM #59. In between when Pete gets home from talking to the cops... and before he goes to see MJ dance at the nightclub. Uh huh. Actually, compared to some books in the 70s (like IRON MAN-- heh), this one's pretty simple. 2 stories... THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1 -- " LO, THIS MONSTER" with JIM MOONEY doing pencils & inks over Romita's story & layouts. This was Mooney's 1st Spidey comic, and what I most note was, he made both Gwen & MJ look MUCH cuter than usual. It bordered on "Archie" style "cute" girls. MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #14 -- "The Reprehensible Riddle Of... The Sorcerer" This was ROSS ANDRU's 1st Marvel work. It'a also apparently the ONLY time Andru WROTE a Spider-Man story, and his editor disliked the results SO much, it was shelved for about 6 months before being published in MSH, the same month they decided (right in the middle of a 2-parter) to give CAPTAIN MAR-VELL his own magazine. Goodman was in a hurry to do that so he could TRADEMARK the magazine name and prevent anyone else from doing a book with that name. (No, really.)
After this, Andru was teamed with ROY THOMAS. Roy liked to write. (heh)
Funny thing about this one. The dialogue-- written 6 months after the book was shelved-- suggests Pete is dating Gwen now. BUT! If you look at THE ART and ignore the editor's dialogue... Pete is dating MARY JANE. No-- kidding. Bits of the first 3 Kingpin stories were all combined and adapted into the 10-minute 3rd-season cartoon, " THE BIG BRAINWASHER". It's the only 60s cartoon to feature MJ. She's blonde, he voice is ALL wrong (I never pictured her with a Brooklyn or Bronx accent), and they made Captain Stacy her UNCLE (plus, he had a moustache, when in his earlier and later appearances, he was clean-shaven). I've often wondered what kind of drugs Ralph Bakshi & Gray Morrow were using when they worked on that show.
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Post by Rob Allen on Apr 15, 2021 13:25:11 GMT -5
I had no idea at the time, but ASM #56 was the last time that John Romita did full pencils (barring the odd occasion here and there). After that, he was doing story, layouts & re-inking faces while Don Heck & Mike Esposito did the pencils & inks (in my view, a TOTAL WASTE of Heck's time and talent) This was an unusual period for Don Heck. He started pencilling Spider-Man from Romita's layouts with the February 1968 issue. A few months later, in May 1968, Heck starts laying out X-Men stories for Werner Roth to pencil. For the next few months he does both. His last Spider-Man pencils over Romita layouts are in the November '68 issue, and his last X-Men layouts with Roth pencils are in April '69. I can't think of another artist who did both at the same time.
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Post by profh0011 on Apr 15, 2021 14:09:06 GMT -5
Thanks for bringing that up! I've seen some of those Heck-Roth X-MENs. I've long felt Roth drew very pretty people, but he seemed more of a romance artist than an action-adventure artist. Don Heck really developed some exciting storytelling during his time on IRON MAN. But too often, the inks were disappointing. Put Heck on layouts & Roth on pencils-- WOW!! "Best of both worlds"! Now if only they got almost anybody other than Vince Colletta to do the inks... Oddly enough... when Don Heck replaced Gene Colan on CAPTAIN MAR-VELL... I thought Heck was a better storyteller, and, designed more convincing spaceships. But his first issue, John Tartaglione took over when Frank Giacoia blew another one of his deadlines, and the inks were AWFUL, clearly revealing the entire book had probably been inked over a weekend. The next issue was much better. BUT... when Tartaglione was replaced by Vince Colletta, it was a HUGE improvement. How often can anybody say a thing like that about Colletta? After a totally-chaotic 5-issue break with art by Dick Ayers, Frank Springer & Tom Sutton, Heck returned in CM #16, inked by SYD SHORES. Dayam!!! That was one of the best-looking issues I'd ever seen from Heck. It made me wish that Heck & Shores had done the series from the beginning. Sadly, they (and Archie Goodwin) were all booted off the book, before their one issue even got to the printers. What followed (despite many fans praising it), I thought was AWFUL, and finally KILLED the series. Incidentally, I feel CM #16 was the 18th chapter of an 18-part "origin story". The art on this issue also reminds me a lot of the work AL MILGROM did on the series years later.
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Post by majestic on Apr 15, 2021 14:53:16 GMT -5
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Space Travelling Heroes HC. Collects GL/GA #90-106. Written by Denny O'Neil. Art by Mike Grell & Alex Saviuk.
90 - Nice reintroduction to the GL/GA team. Their title was on hiatus for 4 yrs. This run by O'Neil looks to be more in GL's world and more science fiction than his previous street level stories in GL/GA #76-89. Although he still tackles social issues they are more subtle. This issue had full pencils & inks by Grell.
91 & 92 - Sinestro and a time travel story. Inks by Grell.
93 - With Black Canary. Aliens kidnap homeless people. Inks by Grell.
94 & 95 - The FBI try to coerce GA into killing the US president by holding BC captive. Inks by Austin, Giordano, Colletta.
96-99 - GL/GA/BC & Katma Tui battle a new villain - the Mocker. Inks by Colletta.
100 - 2 stories. One with GL with Alex Saviuk & Colletta art. Establishes the family connection between the original Air Wave and Hal. Introduces Air Wave II. Hal becomes a trucker. The GA story was supposed to be First Issue Special #14. It was by Elliot S! Maggin, Grell & Colletta. It revisits the idea of Ollie as mayor of Star City.
101 - Hector Hammond, Cults and story by Frank McGinty, Saviuk & Colletta.
102 & 103 - more alien abductions. Art by Saviuk & Colletta.
104-106 - GL's alien starfish dies and mutates into a different form. Sonar comes back to fight GL/GA/BC/Air Wave. 104 & 105 art by Saviuk. 106 by Grell.
The writing is pretty standard 70's fare. Stories last 1-3 issues. Stories were only 17 pagers then. GL is definitely the headliner here with GA & BC in supporting roles. In O'Neil's run with Neal Adams GA was the headliner IMO. O'Neil still has a social message using Ollie's voice but it is less in your face. The art starts off with nice Grell art (with a few quirks in anatomy) but with #95 gets worse with Colletta's inks. By #100 Saviuk provides pencils with Grell filling in on 106, 108-110. Saviuk's art is OK it just lacks the kinetic quality Grell had in his art. And I'm not sure but this may have been Saviuk's first comic book work?
I wish they would have included 107-112. That would have made a perfect collection IMO with the Alan Scott arcs in 108-112.
Overall I like that DC & Marvel are reprinting stories from the past that I no longer own. Revisiting them can be fun.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Apr 15, 2021 16:05:01 GMT -5
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Space Travelling Heroes HC. Collects GL/GA #90-106. Written by Denny O'Neil. Art by Mike Grell & Alex Saviuk. I was very close to buying this when it came out, but passed due to it not being oversized like the Road Travelling Heroes one was. Happy to hear you're enjoying it.
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Post by majestic on Apr 15, 2021 16:30:35 GMT -5
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Space Travelling Heroes HC. Collects GL/GA #90-106. Written by Denny O'Neil. Art by Mike Grell & Alex Saviuk. I was very close to buying this when it came out, but passed due to it not being oversized like the Road Travelling Heroes one was. Happy to hear you're enjoying it. I waited until it was on sale for a steep discount.
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Post by spoon on Apr 15, 2021 22:35:33 GMT -5
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Space Travelling Heroes HC. Collects GL/GA #90-106. Written by Denny O'Neil. Art by Mike Grell & Alex Saviuk.
90 - Nice reintroduction to the GL/GA team. Their title was on hiatus for 4 yrs. This run by O'Neil looks to be more in GL's world and more science fiction than his previous street level stories in GL/GA #76-89. Although he still tackles social issues they are more subtle. This issue had full pencils & inks by Grell.
91 & 92 - Sinestro and a time travel story. Inks by Grell.
93 - With Black Canary. Aliens kidnap homeless people. Inks by Grell.
94 & 95 - The FBI try to coerce GA into killing the US president by holding BC captive. Inks by Austin, Giordano, Colletta.
96-99 - GL/GA/BC & Katma Tui battle a new villain - the Mocker. Inks by Colletta.
100 - 2 stories. One with GL with Alex Saviuk & Colletta art. Establishes the family connection between the original Air Wave and Hal. Introduces Air Wave II. Hal becomes a trucker. The GA story was supposed to be First Issue Special #14. It was by Elliot S! Maggin, Grell & Colletta. It revisits the idea of Ollie as mayor of Star City.
101 - Hector Hammond, Cults and story by Frank McGinty, Saviuk & Colletta.
102 & 103 - more alien abductions. Art by Saviuk & Colletta.
104-106 - GL's alien starfish dies and mutates into a different form. Sonar comes back to fight GL/GA/BC/Air Wave. 104 & 105 art by Saviuk. 106 by Grell.
The writing is pretty standard 70's fare. Stories last 1-3 issues. Stories were only 17 pagers then. GL is definitely the headliner here with GA & BC in supporting roles. In O'Neil's run with Neal Adams GA was the headliner IMO. O'Neil still has a social message using Ollie's voice but it is less in your face. The art starts off with nice Grell art (with a few quirks in anatomy) but with #95 gets worse with Colletta's inks. By #100 Saviuk provides pencils with Grell filling in on 106, 108-110. Saviuk's art is OK it just lacks the kinetic quality Grell had in his art. And I'm not sure but this may have been Saviuk's first comic book work?
I wish they would have included 107-112. That would have made a perfect collection IMO with the Alan Scott arcs in 108-112.
Overall I like that DC & Marvel are reprinting stories from the past that I no longer own. Revisiting them can be fun.
I've been binging Green Lantern since the beginning of the year. Here's my post that roughly corresponds to the issues you just read: classiccomics.org/post/407339/threadI agree that this run is much more focused of GL compared to the O'Neil/Adams run. Back then, Ollie was more often portrayed as the one in the right during their disputes, although GL did get focus as that run progressed. But here, it's much more like shoehorning GA & BC into GL-type stories. The irony is that several Silver Age GL stories had Hal fighting gangsters, but those type of foes, who would better fit Ollie, aren't tried here. And think this was Saviuk's earliest work. I believe I read in a letter page or perhaps someone else that Green Lantern #100 may have been his first full-length story. Talk about diving in the deep end of the pool.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Apr 16, 2021 9:29:29 GMT -5
101 - Hector Hammond, Cults and story by Frank McGinty, Saviuk & Colletta.
This seems to be McGinty's only credit on GCD. Was he a pseudonym?
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Post by majestic on Apr 16, 2021 12:17:07 GMT -5
101 - Hector Hammond, Cults and story by Frank McGinty, Saviuk & Colletta.
This seems to be McGinty's only credit on GCD. Was he a pseudonym? Don't know. My research shows it was a one off inventory story used because O'Neil was sick. On his blog Tom Breevort agrees.
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Post by majestic on Apr 16, 2021 17:49:11 GMT -5
Pulled out my Archie Christmas specials to read tomorrow. I had the urge to read Christmas stuff because I just read a new Sherlock Holmes novel called The Christmas Demon that was a Christmas gift.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 18, 2021 12:23:11 GMT -5
I’m up to #62 in The Amazing Spider-Man and I also read the first issue of the 1968 Spectacular Spider-Man issue. I love the Medusa story! I was never such a huge fan of Medusa until I read Spider-Man #62 and the Marvel Super-Heroes solo story she was in. I had the ASM story in the Superhero Women reprint when I was a kid and I’ve always loved that issue! I sometimes think I should get my own copy if I can find one that’s not too beat up and not too expensive.
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 19, 2021 10:19:11 GMT -5
Amazing Spider-Man #62 is the only comic book my stern, Bible-thumping Uncle Lawrence, my dad's older brother, ever gave me.He'd confiscated it from one of his Sunday school students but couldn't bring himself to throw it away (he was opposed to book-burning and that whole mentality) so I got it. I kept it until I sold my remaining Amazings a couple years back.
Cei-U! I summon the sentimental favorite!
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