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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 1, 2021 12:23:19 GMT -5
In 1974, Argeninian artist Alberto Breccia, who went thru several styles in his time (he allegedly inspired Jose Gonzales!), did something that-- I swear-- had to be an influence on some of Giffen's later work. Pepe González? No way, I've read most of his work and at no point did he remind me of Breccia, in any of his versions.
Other than that, it's clear a lot of comic artists must've learn something from the master. There wasn't anyone to compare him with, until Toppi came about.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 1, 2021 14:47:31 GMT -5
Howard is more down to earth showing the world as a madcap den of insanity that some choose not to question
Man-Thing focuses more on the "impossible" aspects of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural, or at least that's my impression so far
And Ploog is THE artist for Man-Thing in my opinion
Agreed. The series takes a huge leap with #5. Ploog is amazing, his panel design is more inventive, and the writing & story concepts are much better too. Like I said, I liked how it started in Fear #11-#19 and ended with Man-Thing #1. I was worried that the Steve had given the book all he had (because where do you go after something like Man-Thing #1?) and would just be coasting along on fumes, but I'm glad I was wrong
Man-Thing #9 and #10 are really strong reads too and I'm still processing how insane #12 was
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Post by badwolf on Oct 1, 2021 16:10:10 GMT -5
Agreed. The series takes a huge leap with #5. Ploog is amazing, his panel design is more inventive, and the writing & story concepts are much better too. Like I said, I liked how it started in Fear #11-#19 and ended with Man-Thing #1. I was worried that the Steve had given the book all he had (because where do you go after something like Man-Thing #1?) and would just be coasting along on fumes, but I'm glad I was wrong
Man-Thing #9 and #10 are really strong reads too and I'm still processing how insane #12 was
Good to know, & looking forward to it. I've read up to #8; next in the omni is Giant-Size #1.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 1, 2021 16:33:54 GMT -5
Like I said, I liked how it started in Fear #11-#19 and ended with Man-Thing #1. I was worried that the Steve had given the book all he had (because where do you go after something like Man-Thing #1?) and would just be coasting along on fumes, but I'm glad I was wrong
Man-Thing #9 and #10 are really strong reads too and I'm still processing how insane #12 was
Good to know, & looking forward to it. I've read up to #8; next in the omni is Giant-Size #1. #7 and #8 are great issues. The first two Giant-Size issues are kind of a let down, but interesting in their own ways
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 1, 2021 16:37:13 GMT -5
Pepe González? No way, I've read most of his work and at no point did he remind me of Breccia, in any of his versions. I have never seen any samples of anything that might have been an influence, but then I've seen painfully little Breccia outside of his 6 POE stories-- 5 of which were fully-painted in a style that made Siekiewicz's painted stories look "normal" by comparison.
But I've read this in online articles, so, apparently, somewhere very early in his career, he did some work in a style that had an influence on Gonzalez.
That "Tell-Tale Heart", though, just screamed "Five Years Later" (or something even worse) to me. Giffen spent most of his career switching from ONE really bad imitation of someone else's style to another.
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Post by spoon on Oct 2, 2021 13:45:50 GMT -5
I read Uncanny X-Men #148-153 (all except #153 via Classic X-Men reprints). In #148, we get the first appearance of Caliban plus a mix of guest stars in main story, while the shipwrecked Scott & Lee subplots leads into the Magneto story. The big Magneto story is #149-150. The Storm/White Queen body swamp story is #151-152, and Kitty's Fairy Tale is #153.
I wonder if Cockrum was already struggling with the monthly workload because the White Queen story has James Sherman and Bob McLeod as guest pencillers. Joe Rubenstein's inks are a mixed bag. He melds better with Cockrum (although not always that great), but doesn't seem to mesh with the guest artists. #148 is kind of weird because the match action is Caliban's attempt to kidnap Kitty, but it has a sort of inconclusive end as he escapes but there is some sympathy for him as a misunderstood outcast. It's type of dangling thread one would expect to have quick follow-up, but Caliban doesn't show up again until the Paul Smith run. It's almost a transitional/housekeeping issue for Claremont to handle a lot of small things. He works a guest appearance from Spider-Woman, whose title he was also writing. He also brings over Siryn, introduces her to her dad (Banshee), and then promptly puts the character in moth balls for years. It's also established that Illyana is staying at the X-Mansion after being kidnapped by Arcade instead of being returned to her parents. What's the worst that could happened? Also, Claremont writes out Angel, who leaves after angrily arguing to Prof. X that Wolverine is too dangerous to be on the team.
I don't think #149-150 is as monumental as the creative team intended. We do get a big step toward Claremont's long-term rehabilitation of Magneto, but the execution isn't that great. There is more legitimate peril than I remember, though, in how the X-Men can meet the threat of Magneto when their powers are inhibited by one of Magneto's machines. There's a funny Empire Strikes Back reference from Kitty. And in another example of Claremont drawing from the other comics he's working on, he brings in Carol Danvers after she is depowered in Avengers Annual #10.
The next two-parter shows how the magic of Claremont/Byrne can't be imitated so easily. We've got the Hellfire Club (including the mercenaries Wolvering slashed up, who are now cyborgs), Sentinels, and an attempt to echo Dark Phoenix. On paper that should be a big deal, but it's a little flat. It's funny that because I read this comics out of order in the past, it didn't dawn on me how quickly threads from Byrne's run were picked up again rather than laying dormant. The action sequences with both the HC and the Sentinels aren't as impressive as they deserve. Amanda Sefton is part of the story (as she was in the Arcade/Dr. Doom arc), but she's treated like a cipher. In the post Dark Phoenix Saga period, Claremont is fiddling with Storm's personality a bit, seemingly trying to decrease the proportion of Disney princess and increase the proportion of badass. Unfortunately, there's another attempt to foist Phoenix type elements on her with rage and power almost getting out of control. I'm not a great fan of it, although thinking about it does make the mohawk era Storm seem less abrupt. Cyclops is back with the team after being reunited with them on Magneto's island, but I don't think the dialogue has noted at this point whether he's officially full-time or team leader again. It just sort of happens. Also, this two-parter starts with Kitty's parents deciding to transfer her to Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy. The battle goes on without her parents' knowledge, and the story doesn't explain how her parents are convinced to reverse the transfer.
Kitty's Fairy Tale is a classic, although the otherworldy spin she puts on the X-Men's real life events doesn't have any astounding moments. It's interesting that Kitty wanted to give Scott and Jean a happy ending, even though she hadn't known Jean too well. And it's another example of going back to the Claremont/Byrne well. When you think about, Phoenix is never really too far gone in the year's between the Dark Phoenix Saga and Jean's return. There are periodic callbacks. It seems to me that the idea that Jean was attracted to Wolverine was a retcon that didn't show up until Claremont was annoyed by the launch of X-Factor. The analogue to Wolvering in Kitty's story says, "I had feelin's fer Jeannie, but, an' she fer me," but he's really treated as misguided, unreliable source, and I think this may be the first suggesting Jean was attracted to Logan, more than a year after the death of Phoenix. Illyana also gets a bit more woven into the fabric of the series. We also get a dragon named Lockheed in the story, about a year before an actual dragon Kitty names Lockheed shows up in the series.
One element in early issues I forgot to mention in a prior post: Claremont is inconsistent about the Rasputin patronymic. During Days of Future Past, I believe it's given as something Alexandreyevich. Then Illyana is something based on Natalya (even girls also have patronymics from their father's name). Eventually, they both get a Nicholas-based patronymic.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 2, 2021 16:17:15 GMT -5
Agreed. The series takes a huge leap with #5. Ploog is amazing, his panel design is more inventive, and the writing & story concepts are much better too. Like I said, I liked how it started in Fear #11-#19 and ended with Man-Thing #1. I was worried that the Steve had given the book all he had (because where do you go after something like Man-Thing #1?) and would just be coasting along on fumes, but I'm glad I was wrong
Man-Thing #9 and #10 are really strong reads too and I'm still processing how insane #12 was
I really related to the guy in #12.
I wonder why they did not include Marvel Two-in-One #1 in this omnibus. The Thing refers to it in GSMT #2.
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Post by wickedmountain on Oct 4, 2021 23:13:42 GMT -5
Police Badge #479 issue #5 ( 1955 )
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Post by arfetto on Oct 5, 2021 13:56:29 GMT -5
Today I finished reading the Spider-Man: Clone Saga Omnibus Volume One (reprinting stories from 1994-1995).
I enjoyed it. Having this clone story told through so many titles, it was pretty impressive how it flowed so well even with different creative teams (as far as the volume one omnibus collected issues go). Must have been a lot of work to coordinate on and edit everything to make sure there were not many discrepancies from issue to issue (though I did notice a kind of weird, possible mess-up in one of the Spider-Man Unlimited issues, but it was not a huge deal - and on that note, I feel that the scripting in the Unlimited issues were probably the weakest of the bunch even when the plots of said issues progressed things well enough). After getting to read the stories without missing an issue in this collected form, I ended up really liking the Scarlet Spider character .
And Kaine still looks cool to me.
Nothing was confusing in omnibus form. When I was a kid, I could not collect all the different Spider titles, so it felt more daunting to piece together the story back then. I am glad I finally am able to see the whole picture here, and the picture is pretty exciting for me. Really feels like it is heading towards an "end game" scenario for certain characters at this point in the story. A shame from all I have heard that they do not "(web)stick the landing". But I guess I will find out for myself with omnibus volume two.
Solid art on most of the titles in this collection too.
I do find it kind of amusing that the Clone Saga stuff was going on when the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon started up (and was pretty popular among my age group at the time). Talk about an inopportune time for younger kids to get into Spider comics after watching the cartoon, it would be kind of confusing with all the different clones and so many titles they could not afford haha.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 5, 2021 17:21:13 GMT -5
I've reached the end of Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing. By far the best portion was the psychological stories in the middle (roughly #5-15). The silly sword & sorcery stuff, not so much. Didn't care much for Foolkiller, or Thog which was more mystical mumbo-jumbo. I was disappointed Ploog had such a short run on the art but we did get John Buscema on a few issues and some more unusual guests like Alfredo Alcala and Rico Rival. At this point I would rate it 3.5/5 but I know there's some more good stuff coming up later in the book so I will probably bump it up to 4 by the end.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 6, 2021 7:17:02 GMT -5
I read Avengers #58 - "Even an Android Can Cry" I love this one! I also read Avengers #59. This is a zany one as Jan decides to marry the apparent murderer of her fiancé!
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 6, 2021 7:46:42 GMT -5
Avengers #59 was the first issue of that title I bought with my own money.
Cei-U! I summon the 64th Street Piggly-Wiggly!
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 7, 2021 8:12:12 GMT -5
I've reached the end of Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing. By far the best portion was the psychological stories in the middle (roughly #5-15). The silly sword & sorcery stuff, not so much. Didn't care much for Foolkiller, or Thog which was more mystical mumbo-jumbo. I actually kind of liked Foolkiller? I do think he was made less of maniac when they revealed his origin story
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Post by badwolf on Oct 7, 2021 10:01:36 GMT -5
I've reached the end of Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing. By far the best portion was the psychological stories in the middle (roughly #5-15). The silly sword & sorcery stuff, not so much. Didn't care much for Foolkiller, or Thog which was more mystical mumbo-jumbo. I actually kind of liked Foolkiller? I do think he was made less of maniac when they revealed his origin story I thought he was kind of over the top. Same for the mad viking.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 7, 2021 18:42:29 GMT -5
Invaders #3-#5 and Marvel Premiere #29 Good stuff, not much else to say, though something in Invaders #4 did bother me. It was this I find it weird that there would have been this much push back from readers especially considering that the 70's brought about a lot of new and strange titles for the company
Also enjoyed the introduction of the Liberty Legion, hadn't heard of any of them before with the exception of the Patriot
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