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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2023 13:54:40 GMT -5
Did you ever have a comic book/series, or even a creator, that you initially really disliked, only to later not only reverse your opinion, but they ended up being a huge favorite?
Prince Valiant was one for me, my initial exposure was in the Sunday comics in the newspaper and I thought it was SO boring and would skip over every time. Too many years later, I started to collect a lot of adventure strips from the early days and I took another look at Prince Valiant. Was I blind as a kid?! The gorgeous art, it's totally epic, I can read it for days now.
I'm also actually pretty embarrassed to say when I first saw the cover to Sword of the Atom #1, I didn't think it looked very good (no idea what I was thinking!). Glad I got over that fast, the original mini is one of my all-time favorite titles from the 80's.
It was like that for me getting into Masters of the Universe toys back in the day as well, I first saw them and thought they were SO goofy, nothing like the cool Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures I was into.
It played out like this:
-Wow, those are hideous, who came up with this rubbish?
-Back for another look, what a train wreck!
-I mean, I guess some people like this sort of thing, but I don't get it.
-Some of the designs are kind of ok I guess, but I still think it's dumb overall.
-You know, it would be funny if I picked up one just as a joke.
-It's silly, but I'll probably grab a couple more haha.
-I MUST have them all! I'm a MOTU megafan and proud of it!!
Ok, so my toy analogies aside, back on comics, do you have any big favorites (single comic or series/run, GN, creator, etc.) that started off on the wrong foot with you?
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Post by Duragizer on Nov 25, 2023 14:53:11 GMT -5
While "dislike" would be going too far, I was pretty indifferent to the Tales of the Jedi comics when I first read them. I found the art mostly crude, and I didn't like that almost none of the Sith characters looked like Vader or Maul with red lightsabers. My opinion changed as I grew older, especially as the prequels and their impact on the Expanded Universe began to rankle.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 25, 2023 15:08:48 GMT -5
I absolutely hated Corto Maltese when I first read it in Pif Gadget in the early '70s. The art looked stiff and under-rendered, the backgrounds had no fine details and the main character did not strike me as particularly heroic. I was much more into Blueberry or Rahan at that age.
Just a few years later, Corto Maltese moved to Tintin, this time in colour. It's not the colour that made me like the art better, but I started enjoying the dialogs and the tone of the series (I had yet to hear the term "magic realism"). The simplicity of the art didn't bother me any more.
Give it a few years and I came back to the character and other works by Hugo Pratt... and it was as if scales had fallen off my eyes. The man wad a bloody genius, and Corto Maltese was an extraordinary series. His terse and clever dialogs are amazing, and if his art can be called "simplistic", it's only in the sense that he can draw three or four lines and they magically transform into a WWI German ship in the Pacific at twilight, with the sound of quiet waves and the cry of seagulls resonating in one's ears. It's pure alchemy, man!
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Post by Rags on Nov 25, 2023 15:47:08 GMT -5
Deadpool, simply because Rob Liefeld has his imprint all over it.
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Post by rberman on Nov 25, 2023 18:28:09 GMT -5
As a kid I only liked color superhero comics. Now I appreciate how black and white titles often had much more detail, which I enjoy. Also, superheroes are fine, but I wish the American market had more successful non-superhero titles. In both senses of "more" -- more titles having more success. Though these days, I really just hope for any title having more success.
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 25, 2023 19:19:53 GMT -5
Deadpool, simply because Rob Liefeld has his imprint all over it.
The word you’re searching for is “ creator”. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 25, 2023 19:24:09 GMT -5
I remember thinking Curt Swan was a bland artist when I was young. He suffered in my eyes because I was comparing him to the dynamic storytelling of Kirby and Buscema. Years later I began to see the solid storytelling and the amazing way he drew Superman. He is THE Superman and Legion artist.
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Post by Rags on Nov 25, 2023 19:53:44 GMT -5
The word you’re searching for is “ creator”.
Well he did create the most anatomically disproportionate renderings of all time in the process.....I'll give him that.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2023 20:00:26 GMT -5
I remember thinking Curt Swan was a bland artist when I was young. He suffered in my eyes because I was comparing him to the dynamic storytelling of Kirby and Buscema. Years later I began to see the solid storytelling and the amazing way he drew Superman. He is THE Superman and Legion artist. I love Swan's art so much. He's absolutely my definitive Superman artist as well (with Wayne Boring coming in at a very strong second). His 60's Legion work shares a special place with Cockrum and Grell 70's Legion for me, but yeah, a fantastic artist who I don't think is always fully appreciated. I recommend this book (still available at normal retail per checking Amazon just now) if you want to see just how good his draftsmanship could be, plus a nice read on his career.  |
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Post by kirby101 on Nov 25, 2023 21:18:53 GMT -5
I've told it before. Don Heck. I once hated but now appreciate.
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Post by Duragizer on Nov 25, 2023 21:52:02 GMT -5
I didn't care for Swan initially, either. Mainly 'cause I was a '90s kid, and comic art predating the '70s looked primitive/bland to me. He'll never be a beloved artist, but I can appreciate his talent now.
And speaking of older artists I initially didn't care for, there's Kirby. REALLY thought his art looked like blocky crap when I was young. Now he's in my top 10. Go figure.
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Post by tartanphantom on Nov 25, 2023 22:13:20 GMT -5
I remember being very "meh" about the original run of Micronauts until around issue #9 or 10. Not sure what changed, maybe by that time the "toy association factor" had worn off, or maybe the story had fleshed out more, but I remained a fan of the title even through the second series.
Unfortunately, I didn't give the same consideration to Saga of Swamp-Thing, and gave up on it after issue 13... little did I know the turn it would take less than a year later... Oh well.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,561 
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Post by Confessor on Nov 25, 2023 23:38:35 GMT -5
The one that immediately jumps to mind for me is Charley's War. I used to see the strip in issues of Battle Picture Weekly, but I used to skip over it because I was far more into the daring exploits of the likes of Johnny Red, Major Easy and The Rat Pack. Charley's War just seemed soooo dull to me as a kid.
Of course, I've done a complete 180 degree turn on that. I think that it was probably a little too intelligently written for pre-teen me; you need to be a bit older and a bit more worldly to really appreciate it. Not only is Charley's War the best thing to have ever appeared in Battle Picture Weekly, but as far as I'm concerned it's also the best war comic ever. Ever.
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Post by berkley on Nov 26, 2023 1:39:19 GMT -5
I didn't dislike Love and Rockets the first time I saw it - I was curious enough that I kept coming back to it and looking at it in the comic store, even buying one or two things like the Mechanix collection and a individual issue (L&R #12) - but it wasn't until I read a couple longer collections that it suddenly clicked with me and became one of my all-time favourites.
I compare to reading a few excerpts or maybe a short story or two from a famous author and not really getting why they're so famous; or maybe seeing a few clips from an acclaimed film-maker and not seeing where the acclaim comes from. The Hernandezes' style(s) and their fictional world(s) are so unique, in spite of all the influences they acknowledge, the series really needs to be immersed in for a substantial time to do it justice. Anyway, while the starting point was more a kind of puzzled interest than anything more negative, I ended up rating it so very high that the transition or shift in opinion was still quite drastic.
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Post by driver1980 on Nov 26, 2023 6:49:46 GMT -5
The one that immediately jumps to mind for me is Charley's War. I used to see the strip in issues of Battle Picture Weekly, but I used to skip over it because I was far more into the daring exploits of the likes of Johnny Red, Major Easy and The Rat Pack. Charley's War just seemed soooo dull to me as a kid. Of course, I've done a complete 180 degree turn on that. I think that it was probably a little too intelligently written for pre-teen me; you need to be a bit older and a bit more worldly to really appreciate it. Not only is Charley's War the best thing to have ever appeared in Battle Picture Weekly, but as far as I'm concerned it's also the best war comic ever. Ever. Ditto. Same here. (Is there a complete Johnny Red volume? I hope so) Same for me with detective shows. As a kid, the likes of Columbo and Kojak didn’t appeal. I wanted car chases, shoot-outs, rooftop jumps, etc. Now I own both of them on DVD. I guess you can only appreciate some things when older. |
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