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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 4, 2021 7:10:22 GMT -5
I voted 90s. Vertigo’s output alone is reason enough.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Aug 4, 2021 10:22:43 GMT -5
Been thinking about this poll for a while and I don't think I can definitively put it down to one decade. Obviously, late 70s and early 80s comics have a big nostalgia draw for me, being that that was when I was a kid reading them. But I also love 60s and early-to-mid 70s comics a whole lot too.
I'm not really a fan of U.S. comics from the 30s, 40s and 50s, as a rule of thumb, but if you look across the Atlantic to Britain and Europe there's some great stuff like Tintin, Blake & Mortimer, and Dan Dare from that period.
The 90s, while often maligned (and with some justification), actually produced some of my favourite comics (Astro City, LoEG, Marvels, From Hell, Sandman etc). The 2000s too produced some really enjoyable stuff (I largely abandoned new comics in the 2010s).
So yeah, between the 60s and 2000s, I can't really pick a decade as being definitively my favourite.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2021 10:29:17 GMT -5
So yeah, between the 60s and 2000s, I can't really pick a decade as being definitively my favourite. I hear you, I finally voted for one but immediately started rethinking it. I've decided to leave my answer alone, but honestly the wind might be blowing differently for me on any given day. Totally agree the 90's produced some great stuff, it may have been a particularly uneven decade in some ways, but the high points were terrific.
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Post by SJNeal on Aug 4, 2021 19:55:43 GMT -5
As far as general pop culture and entertainment is concerned, the 1980's will always be my #1 - and even though the comics of the latter half of the decade are my jam, I gotta vote for the 1990's.
I started on superhero comics in late '90/early '91 after a few years of being an Archie enthusiast, so that era is where my fandom was cemented.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 4, 2021 20:47:12 GMT -5
REally hard to pick, but I went with the 90s, mostly for the diversity. I feel like on a different day I could put the 80s, 70s or 60s though.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 4, 2021 21:56:17 GMT -5
Gotta go with the 1960s, partly because those were the years of my childhood but mostly because so many iconic books, characters and creators were on the newsstands. Just a list of the publishers active in that decade sets me to salivating: DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Archie, Harvey, Tower, Warren, King, Charlton, Dell, not to mention Last Gasp and the other underground outfits. The comics of later decades are often better written and better drawn but nothing triggers my nostalgia gene like the stuff from the Swinging Sixties. Cei-U! Groovy, man! When this is done, it'd be interesting to correlate decade selection w/ birth dates. I didn't have time to follow up on this when I replied earlier, but indeed we did something like this a while back.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2021 9:31:37 GMT -5
When this is done, it'd be interesting to correlate decade selection w/ birth dates. I didn't have time to follow up on this when I replied earlier, but indeed we did something like this a while back. This is really interesting, both the chart and the comments. The 80's was a low outlier then as well, and surprised some and generated interesting dialogue. I wonder how much the delineation of the decades impacts this as well, since 1970-1979 versus 1980-1989 is one thing, but if we were dividing by midpoints instead, would say 1975-1984 or 1976-1985 have a better showing? As a Bronze Age baby myself, it's all about the second half of the 70's and the first half of the 80's. But if I had to pick between those two halves, the 70's part wins and influences my "overall decade" pick like in this survey.
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Post by tonebone on Aug 5, 2021 10:03:43 GMT -5
I was born in 68 and now have a great appreciation for 70's and early 80's Marvel. But my absolute favorite era would have to be DC from 81-86. I consider this period at DC to be one of the most creative and diverse output of any company since the 1940s. I also love the huge variety from the early 80's independents... PC, First, Eclipse, Comico, etc. Also, this period is peak Cerebus, Elfquest, and the fanzines CBG, Comics Reader, Comics Interview, Comics Scene, Comics Journal, and others. I started college in 86, and quickly dropped comics altogether due to a lack of time and money, and discovery of girls. I didn't pick them back up until about 93 or so.
So, not just based on Marvel or DC, but because of comics as a whole, I would have to say 80's forever!
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Post by Rob Allen on Aug 5, 2021 11:12:55 GMT -5
I'm one of the elders here - born in 1956 and started reading comics in September 1963, two months before JFK was shot. The decade of 1965-75 is when I was most deeply into comics, so I'm torn between the 60s and the 70s in the poll.
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Post by badwolf on Aug 5, 2021 14:56:41 GMT -5
The first comics I remember reading were dated 1975. I was 5 years old, so obviously for a while I had to just depend on what people would get me once in a while. But I loved everything. In 1980 I was able to get my first subscriptions and really start "collecting." So it's kind of a crossover for me. I have to say that having been older and more aware in the 80s, it's now the 70s that I look back on with more interest, as there is still a lot for me to uncover. Does that make it my favorite?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2021 15:02:45 GMT -5
I have to say that having been older and more aware in the 80s, it's now the 70s that I look back on with more interest, as there is still a lot for me to uncover. Does that make it my favorite? That's kind of how the question had me at a pause as well, but with the 60's and 70's in my case. "Favorite" is such a deceptively simple term! Thanks everyone as well for their thoughts on what I'm sure is in some ways quite a recycled topic at this point, I've really enjoyed all the different perspectives and reference points folks are coming from.
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Post by brutalis on Aug 5, 2021 16:05:40 GMT -5
As much as I like comics from "other" decades It seems no matter what I keep going back to my formative years in the 70's. Those comics I can pick up and read time and time again where much of anything else I am more hesitant to actually read over again. It doesn't matter that a story or series may have been read a dozen times (or more!) over the years by me I can still enjoy those oldies but goodies of my youth.
It's like flipping through the channels for stopping on a show or movie and once more letting yourself get lost with enjoying. A piece of it is fond remembrance and yet it also comes down to liking or even reading with new eyes/insights or awareness. I can always find "new" things I may have missed, overlooked or not understood in the past as I read through for the millionth time. That original experience influences and provides such a strong pull for me. 1970's comics, music, novels, television and movies are so much "better" in the sense of emotions or feelings they evoke from me.
Not saying there aren't great things in any decade but the 70's are "MY TIME".
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 10, 2021 12:11:36 GMT -5
As much as I like comics from "other" decades It seems no matter what I keep going back to my formative years in the 70's. Those comics I can pick up and read time and time again where much of anything else I am more hesitant to actually read over again. It doesn't matter that a story or series may have been read a dozen times (or more!) over the years by me I can still enjoy those oldies but goodies of my youth. It's like flipping through the channels for stopping on a show or movie and once more letting yourself get lost with enjoying. A piece of it is fond remembrance and yet it also comes down to liking or even reading with new eyes/insights or awareness. I can always find "new" things I may have missed, overlooked or not understood in the past as I read through for the millionth time. That original experience influences and provides such a strong pull for me. 1970's comics, music, novels, television and movies are so much "better" in the sense of emotions or feelings they evoke from me. Not saying there aren't great things in any decade but the 70's are "MY TIME". "MY TIME" is actually mid-70's through mid-80's, but I voted for 70's here. Tough call for me between those two decades, though.
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Post by String on Aug 10, 2021 14:51:20 GMT -5
By default, it would be the 80s for me, it was the decade that I really started reading/collecting comics, it was the decade that made me into a lifelong Marvel fan, it was also the decade that fortunately, introduced me to the concept of indie publishers and while my ability to purchase from said publishers was limited, I liked the expansion and freedom of creativity that I was able to buy.
However, I voted for the 70s. Thanks in no small part from contributions and opinions of those here at CCF, I've been going back and catching up on the Bronze Age, an age of which, while I was born within, I was too young to appreciate and acknowledge. But man, there are some great comics and stories found there, a sense of excitement and growth, experimentation, yes, some failures too along the way but it's great holding these issues and reading of the wonders contained therein.
Plus, don't underestimate the power of house ads for I am a huge sucker for them. For example, I'd been reading a Bronze Age DC issue and what's that, a house ad for what book? That looks like a cool cover and exciting captions! Next thing I know, I'm off to find out about that issue and/or particular run. It's a great treasure hunt of sorts.
Although I will give some love and shout out to an overlooked decade so far for my honorable mention would be 2000s, specifically for DC. I fell out of reading/collecting comics during the 90s for the most part except for a random title here or there. However, when I decided to come back, which was in the early 2000s, that's when I jumped all-in with DC. Besides, after seeing and reading Bendis at Marvel (which I hated), yeah, let's catch up with and read of the Distinguished Competition.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 10, 2021 21:33:34 GMT -5
I went with the 80s, for several reasons. Not for Marvel, certainly, though there are a few titles in that era I thought were still good. DC was really, really good, across so many titles, plus taking chances and developing new talent. Meanwhile, the independents were a rich field for what you couldn't get at DC and Marvel, particularly if you wanted more than just superheroes or superheroes with a greater maturity. To me, that is when the artform started living up to its promise, after stagnation and actual retreat. So much potential was being realized.
By the 90s, the wheels were coming off many things and the 70s had its own upheaval. 70s Marvel holds much for me but only certain pockets of DC, for brief periods of time, held much interest.
I you look at my entries for 30 and 40 Years Ago, you can see my interest is it at s peak from the late 70s to the early 90s. The 80s are the central feature to that.
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