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Post by chadwilliam on Nov 8, 2020 20:29:20 GMT -5
About a year ago I picked up about half a dozen issues of the Adventures of the Fly series and was surprised to find that by the time Fantastic Four #1 was released, Archie already had a well polished superhero comic on its hands. I suppose it would have been spurred on by the superhero revival going on over at DC and didn't exactly happen spontaneously, but nevertheless, at the same time that Stan Lee was hedging his bets by not putting The Fantastic Four in costumes, dipping his toe in the water with Spider-Man by trying him out in a Sci-Fi title, not sure what to do with The Hulk, here was a character who already developed his own Rogues Gallery, back story, and even a female partner who was regarded as his equal and about as far removed as you could get from the Lois Lane and Sue Storm of that era.
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Post by MDG on Nov 9, 2020 9:22:51 GMT -5
... at the same time that Stan Lee was hedging his bets by not putting The Fantastic Four in costumes, dipping his toe in the water with Spider-Man by trying him out in a Sci-Fi title, not sure what to do with The Hulk, here was a character who already developed his own Rogues Gallery, back story, and even a female partner who was regarded as his equal and about as far removed as you could get from the Lois Lane and Sue Storm of that era. Archie had the luxury of a bigger organization at the time, and didn't have Marvel's imposed limit of titles. Probably better distribution as well. But whenever Archie tried to revive superheroes, their heart never seemed to be in it.
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Post by chadwilliam on Nov 9, 2020 13:47:01 GMT -5
... at the same time that Stan Lee was hedging his bets by not putting The Fantastic Four in costumes, dipping his toe in the water with Spider-Man by trying him out in a Sci-Fi title, not sure what to do with The Hulk, here was a character who already developed his own Rogues Gallery, back story, and even a female partner who was regarded as his equal and about as far removed as you could get from the Lois Lane and Sue Storm of that era. Archie had the luxury of a bigger organization at the time, and didn't have Marvel's imposed limit of titles. Probably better distribution as well. But whenever Archie tried to revive superheroes, their heart never seemed to be in it.
From what I've read of The Mighty Crusaders, it seemed as if Archie was just trying to guess what it was that fans were digging with other superhero publishers and copying that, but with this title at least, there does come across a confidence in their presentation. The stories are well written but there's none of that pleading "YOU MUST BUY THIS MAGAZINE!", "NEVER BEFORE HAVE YOU SEEN..." salesmanship at play.
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Post by chadwilliam on Nov 10, 2020 12:51:16 GMT -5
Really not looking to hog this thread, but... As a kid who read both Mad and Cracked during the 1980's, I never saw a back issue of the latter which dated any further back than the 1970's. Unlike Mad, early issues were never reprinted, it wasn't a significant enough part of pop culture to be referenced outside of its own little world, and despite being on its 200th something issue when I was reading it suggesting it had been around a while, I just couldn't imagine what an issue of Cracked would have looked like circa 1958. On the other hand, I'm also surprised that the magazine was still being published as recently as 2007. Seems odd that it managed to last so long with such a low profile.
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Post by MDG on Nov 10, 2020 14:27:51 GMT -5
Really not looking to hog this thread, but... As a kid who read both Mad and Cracked during the 1980's, I never saw a back issue of the latter which dated any further back than the 1970's. Unlike Mad, early issues were never reprinted, it wasn't a significant enough part of pop culture to be referenced outside of its own little world, and despite being on its 200th something issue when I was reading it suggesting it had been around a while, I just couldn't imagine what an issue of Cracked would have looked like circa 1958. On the other hand, I'm also surprised that the magazine was still being published as recently as 2007. Seems odd that it managed to last so long with such a low profile. Just like MAD comics, there were tons of MAD magazine wannabees in the late 50s-early 60s, though Cracked and Sick are the only two that lasted into the 70s. When I see early issues for sale, they usually command high prices. This book has a pretty good history and lots of article reprints. Many familiar names pop up in it. I signed on to Kickstarter a while back for two collections of early Cracked reprints, one for John Severin and one for Jack Davis. (I think Davis is the only artist who did covers for Mad, Cracked, and Sick. I used to see Cracked on newsstands as often as MAD well into the 80s, and while they weren't systematically reprinted like MAD, there were lots of "specials" reprinting articles, usually monster themed. John Severin seemed to be in most issues. In the 80s, Cracked editor Mort Todd lured Don Martin away from Mad and had some early work by Dan Clowes. It lives on as a website.
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Post by jason on Nov 10, 2020 20:26:33 GMT -5
I loved both Mad and Cracked as a kid in the 80s. As for older material, there were plenty of reprints of the older material, and they did reprint the first issue as part of some "anniversary special" in 1993 IIRC. On a side note, it seemed that Cracked aimed more for a younger audience, especially in the mid-late 80s when it became mostly pop-culture/celebrity parodies, which were somewhat less biting than Mad's take on those. Still enjoyable though.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2020 3:41:42 GMT -5
Many point to Conan the Barbarian #1 published by Marvel in 1970 as one of the signposts of the start of the Bronze Age, often citing how different Conan's brand of heroism was to the Silver Age concept of a hero, but Marvel's Conan was not the first comics book, and his debut in comics predates any of the Silver Age Marvel heroes, it just wasn't published in the US. In the late 50s, a Conan comic called La Reina de la Costa Negro (Queen of the Black Coast) was published in Mexico-here's a look at the cover of #2 from 1958... and another cover showing Belit (#8) so Conan's publication history in comics is far longer than most people realize. Granted Belit was the protagonist of the comics and (a blonde) Conan was her sidekick in this comic, but it's still Conan in comics more than a decade before his Marvel debut ushering in the Bronze Age. -M ps I've never seen an issue of this in the wild, though I have seen sellers offering photocopies of issues on ebay. I am tempted to splurge on one of the photocopies just to see what one is like. I've been asking dealers at cons about this book for almost 10 years now, and I've yet to find a dealer who had heard of it, let alone might have a line on a copy. pps here's a blog about those comics if anyone wants more details ppps looking on ebay I see there are three copies of issues available from sellers in Mexico-the least expensive copy is $449, the other two go for $859.99- a little rich for my blood. Photocopies of issues are listed at $15 a pop, still pricey for what it is.
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Post by dbutler69 on Nov 22, 2020 10:33:10 GMT -5
I was thinking of "Atlantis Attacks" and "The Evolutionary War", those events that crossed over into a whole bunch of Marvel Annuals. I read them back in the day, and I was surprised in looking it up the other day that they happened in 1988 and 1989. I thought the had happened 2-3 years earlier, for some reason.
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Post by coke & comics on Nov 27, 2020 12:24:49 GMT -5
Many years back, when I sat down to read through Spider-Man comics from the beginning (got through over 25 years and 800 or so comics), I was pretty shocked to learn how the timeline of Spider-Man's breaking up with Black Cat and getting married to Mary Jane went. I'd been looking forward to seeing how Pete and MJ got together and was quite disappointed. March 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #289 | Peter and Felicia seem to be a happy couple. She even just sewed him new costumes. |
| Amazing Spider-Man #290 | Peter Proposed to MJ | April 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #128 | Tension in the Peter/Felicia relationship | May 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #129 | Pete and Felicia break up | June 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #292 | MJ accepts Peter's proposal |
| Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21 | Peter and MJ are married. What? |
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Post by coke & comics on Nov 27, 2020 12:36:05 GMT -5
My recent Marvel Universe reading taught me a lot of serendipitous dates.
Spider-Man, Ant-Man and Thor all debuted on the very same day.
As did Sgt. Fury and the Wasp.
And the X-Men and the Avengers.
The first two Marvel Universe crossovers happened the same day: Hulk showed up in Fantastic Four #12 the same day the FF showed up in Amazing Spider-Man #1. Also happens to be the day Iron Man was introduced.
Captain America returned the same day the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was introduced, including Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. One week later, we met Black Widow.
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Post by MWGallaher on Nov 27, 2020 22:31:02 GMT -5
When Kid Colt Outlaw was cancelled with issue 229 in April 1979, it was the longest-running title that Marvel was publishing, having been on the stands without interruption for over 30 years! There were a couple of books with higher issue numbers, Captain America and Hulk, which had taken over the numbering of precursors Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, but they had only surpassed Colt one year earlier, thanks to more time spent in a monthly publication schedule, rather than bi-monthly. I certainly hadn't noticed that the unassuming then-all-reprint title was the venerable senior of Marvel's line!
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Post by spoon on Nov 28, 2020 10:11:53 GMT -5
Many years back, when I sat down to read through Spider-Man comics from the beginning (got through over 25 years and 800 or so comics), I was pretty shocked to learn how the timeline of Spider-Man's breaking up with Black Cat and getting married to Mary Jane went. I'd been looking forward to seeing how Pete and MJ got together and was quite disappointed. March 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #289 | Peter and Felicia seem to be a happy couple. She even just sewed him new costumes. |
| Amazing Spider-Man #290 | Peter Proposed to MJ | April 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #128 | Tension in the Peter/Felicia relationship | May 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #129 | Pete and Felicia break up | June 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #292 | MJ accepts Peter's proposal |
| Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21 | Peter and MJ are married. What? |
I love this example. Sometimes, we read about a story in retrospect (or remember it from how slowly time seems to pass when we're kids) and imagine it a meticulously planned slow burn. In reality, it may be rushed. Wasn't this a case where the Peter and MJ were getting married in the comic strip, and comic book plotline was changed to maintain consistency? This is reminiscent of a situation from my original post, where Iceman and Angle quit the X-Men to explore life one month, and join the Champions the next month.
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Post by tonebone on Dec 4, 2020 9:30:30 GMT -5
Really not looking to hog this thread, but... As a kid who read both Mad and Cracked during the 1980's, I never saw a back issue of the latter which dated any further back than the 1970's. Unlike Mad, early issues were never reprinted, it wasn't a significant enough part of pop culture to be referenced outside of its own little world, and despite being on its 200th something issue when I was reading it suggesting it had been around a while, I just couldn't imagine what an issue of Cracked would have looked like circa 1958. On the other hand, I'm also surprised that the magazine was still being published as recently as 2007. Seems odd that it managed to last so long with such a low profile. Just like MAD comics, there were tons of MAD magazine wannabees in the late 50s-early 60s, though Cracked and Sick are the only two that lasted into the 70s. When I see early issues for sale, they usually command high prices. This book has a pretty good history and lots of article reprints. Many familiar names pop up in it. I signed on to Kickstarter a while back for two collections of early Cracked reprints, one for John Severin and one for Jack Davis. (I think Davis is the only artist who did covers for Mad, Cracked, and Sick. I used to see Cracked on newsstands as often as MAD well into the 80s, and while they weren't systematically reprinted like MAD, there were lots of "specials" reprinting articles, usually monster themed. John Severin seemed to be in most issues. In the 80s, Cracked editor Mort Todd lured Don Martin away from Mad and had some early work by Dan Clowes. It lives on as a website. The Cracked website is Cracked in name only. Literally, the website founders bought the name from the magazine's trademark holder. The demise of Cracked is a sad one. It still existed as a company in 2007, but had been mortally wounded by low sales, a lack of strong direction, and the 9/11 anthrax attacks/scares. Anthrax was sent to the Washington, D.C. building the company operated from in 2001, and everything in the building was deemed contaminated, including the negatives, photostats, and original art for Cracked's entire output from 1958-2000. Everything had to be destroyed. None of it exists, now, aside from issues owned by collectors, and any scans they may have made.
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 5, 2020 12:01:22 GMT -5
Many years back, when I sat down to read through Spider-Man comics from the beginning (got through over 25 years and 800 or so comics), I was pretty shocked to learn how the timeline of Spider-Man's breaking up with Black Cat and getting married to Mary Jane went. I'd been looking forward to seeing how Pete and MJ got together and was quite disappointed. March 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #289 | Peter and Felicia seem to be a happy couple. She even just sewed him new costumes. |
| Amazing Spider-Man #290 | Peter Proposed to MJ | April 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #128 | Tension in the Peter/Felicia relationship | May 1987 | Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #129 | Pete and Felicia break up | June 1987 | Amazing Spider-Man #292 | MJ accepts Peter's proposal |
| Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21 | Peter and MJ are married. What? |
I love this example. Sometimes, we read about a story in retrospect (or remember it from how slowly time seems to pass when we're kids) and imagine it a meticulously planned slow burn. In reality, it may be rushed. Wasn't this a case where the Peter and MJ were getting married in the comic strip, and comic book plotline was changed to maintain consistency? This is reminiscent of a situation from my original post, where Iceman and Angle quit the X-Men to explore life one month, and join the Champions the next month. I think that's exactly right, Spoon. Pete and MJ had been together a long time in the strip, so the strip was going to marry them. And then they were going to have a live wedding to tie in with the strip, and marketing wanted the comics to match, even though Peter was dating an entirely different girl in the comics!
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Post by foxley on Dec 5, 2020 19:42:43 GMT -5
And then Joe Quesada declared that marriage makes superheroes 'boring', but couldn't have Peter and MJ divorce because that would send the wrong message to kids. So instead Spidey made a deal with Mephisto to eradicate his entire marriage.
So remember, kids: in the Marvel Universe, divorce is wrong, but making deals with infernal entities who want to enslave the souls of all humanity is not only acceptable, but it's a course of action endorsed by your favourite superheroes.
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