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Post by berkley on Mar 14, 2024 16:35:19 GMT -5
I have an idea for a series about Medusa set in the 1960s. She escapes from the Great Refuge because she doesn’t want to marry Maximus the Mad. And then she has adventures in Europe as the series explores Silver Age Marvel characters who are associated with Europe. Like Count Nefaria and the Maggia. And all those Russian characters who ended up in the Iron Man series, like the Black Widow and the Crimson Dynamo. Getting away from established Marvel characters, It might also be neat to have a story arc set in Rome with Medusa getting involved with the Italian film industry and meeting a character based on Fellini and having a short film career in Europe. And eventually, she ends up living in a cave on a Greek island where she’s discovered by the Wizard and recruited for the Frightful Four. Michael Allred would be the best artist for this.
I like this scenario, though I'd like to see the other Inhumans brought in somehow or other. Also, I suspect that Fellini would have loved the idea of being a Marvel character - although probably more the 1960s-Marvel.
edit: Ideally, Medusa would be drawn in the statuesque way Kirby did in her first appearances, as that was the kind of shape Fellini liked.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 14, 2024 17:10:43 GMT -5
I think alot of the re-numbering is how our culture has changed... my kids are horrified at the thought of not watching a show from the beginning.. they would never casually check out a random episode of something, as many did back in the day of cable televison. That concept applies to comics as well... if you can't start 'from the beginning' most people under 40 won't even think about trying it out. Hence, as many starting points as possible. Perhaps that's why they can get away with recycling stories, alot of the current market doesn't know better, like the old 'readers age out in 6 years' or whatever it was that DC in the Silver Age thought. The way people watch TV and the landscape of television has completely changed from our day. My two younger sons grew up with TV that, by and large, had season-long storylines. Somewhat less true in comedies and animation...but not entirely so. My middle son has ZERO interest in any any TV from before about 1999 (when the Sopranos debuted). Completely episodic television leaves him completely cold. My youngest is a bit more open, he loves Columbo, but mostly it's the same. At this point you don't even have to worry about the age-out in six years. When you have characters that have been continuously published for 60, 70, 80 years, you can have an age out of thirty years and still nobody but the most active nerds are going to notice you're reusing plots from decades ago. |
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Post by Chris on Mar 14, 2024 17:39:50 GMT -5
...fewer newsstands carrying comics, because the retailer profit was much smaller, compared to adult magazines (not skin mags, but those bought by adults) Hey, man, I only picked up U.S. News & World Report in the 70's for the foreign policy analyses. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 14, 2024 17:57:23 GMT -5
I always wanted to see Spider-man have a baby and face real-life young parent problems, the way the teenage Spidey faced ordinary teenager problems (and college-age Spidey faced college-age ones). Somehow, with retcons and mephistophelic deals, we were deprived of that.
In the chill of night
Not a nappy in sight
Pete had quite a fright
But web diapers are all right!
I can imagine Peter rocking the baby to sleep while hanging from the ceiling.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 14, 2024 18:09:57 GMT -5
I have an idea for a series about Medusa set in the 1960s. She escapes from the Great Refuge because she doesn’t want to marry Maximus the Mad. And then she has adventures in Europe as the series explores Silver Age Marvel characters who are associated with Europe. Like Count Nefaria and the Maggia. And all those Russian characters who ended up in the Iron Man series, like the Black Widow and the Crimson Dynamo. Getting away from established Marvel characters, It might also be neat to have a story arc set in Rome with Medusa getting involved with the Italian film industry and meeting a character based on Fellini and having a short film career in Europe. And eventually, she ends up living in a cave on a Greek island where she’s discovered by the Wizard and recruited for the Frightful Four. Michael Allred would be the best artist for this.
I like this scenario, though I'd like to see the other Inhumans brought in somehow or other. Also, I suspect that Fellini would have loved the idea of being a Marvel character - although probably more the 1960s-Marvel.
edit: Ideally, Medusa would be drawn in the statuesque way Kirby did in her first appearances, as that was the kind of shape Fellini liked.
This is the first time that I ever noticed that Medusa living on the beach in the flashback in (I think) Fantastic Four #36 is not that dissimilar to the situation of Seraghina in 8 1/2. |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 14, 2024 18:34:59 GMT -5
I always wanted to see Spider-man have a baby and face real-life young parent problems, the way the teenage Spidey faced ordinary teenager problems (and college-age Spidey faced college-age ones). Somehow, with retcons and mephistophelic deals, we were deprived of that. In the chill of night Not a nappy in sight Pete had quite a fright But web diapers are all right! I can imagine Peter rocking the baby to sleep while hanging from the ceiling. That's pretty close to the premise of the current Ultimate Spider-Man series that recently launched with sell outs and multiple printings. Not exactly, but it is Pete gaining spider-powers when he was an adult family man. Haven't read it, but it was selling out all over the place. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 14, 2024 23:09:59 GMT -5
I always wanted to see Spider-man have a baby and face real-life young parent problems, the way the teenage Spidey faced ordinary teenager problems (and college-age Spidey faced college-age ones). Somehow, with retcons and mephistophelic deals, we were deprived of that. In the chill of night Not a nappy in sight Pete had quite a fright But web diapers are all right! I can imagine Peter rocking the baby to sleep while hanging from the ceiling. They did a bit of that in Spider-Girl... she had a younger brother that was very small. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 14, 2024 23:11:14 GMT -5
I always wanted to see Spider-man have a baby and face real-life young parent problems, the way the teenage Spidey faced ordinary teenager problems (and college-age Spidey faced college-age ones). Somehow, with retcons and mephistophelic deals, we were deprived of that. In the chill of night Not a nappy in sight Pete had quite a fright But web diapers are all right! I can imagine Peter rocking the baby to sleep while hanging from the ceiling. Tell me you never saw the film version... “Spider-Baby.” thefridacinema.org/film-criticism/revisiting-1967s-spider-baby-its-origins-and-the-web-of-its-many-players/Below is young Gwennie May Parker learning to be a web mistress. With Lon Chaney, Jr. as Uncle Ben.  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 14, 2024 23:16:15 GMT -5
I always wanted to see Spider-man have a baby and face real-life young parent problems, the way the teenage Spidey faced ordinary teenager problems (and college-age Spidey faced college-age ones). Somehow, with retcons and mephistophelic deals, we were deprived of that. In the chill of night Not a nappy in sight Pete had quite a fright But web diapers are all right! I can imagine Peter rocking the baby to sleep while hanging from the ceiling. Tell me you never saw the film version... “Spider-Baby.” thefridacinema.org/film-criticism/revisiting-1967s-spider-baby-its-origins-and-the-web-of-its-many-players/Below is young Gwennie May Parker learning to be a web mistress. With Lon Chaney, Jr. as Uncle Ben. I’ve seen this movie a bunch of times. One time I went to a special showing at the Nuart Theatre in Westwood and it was pandemonium! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 14, 2024 23:19:22 GMT -5
Jill Banner in Dragnet
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Post by berkley on Mar 14, 2024 23:50:02 GMT -5
I like this scenario, though I'd like to see the other Inhumans brought in somehow or other. Also, I suspect that Fellini would have loved the idea of being a Marvel character - although probably more the 1960s-Marvel.
edit: Ideally, Medusa would be drawn in the statuesque way Kirby did in her first appearances, as that was the kind of shape Fellini liked.
This is the first time that I ever noticed that Medusa living on the beach in the flashback in (I think) Fantastic Four #36 is not that dissimilar to the situation of Seraghina in 8 1/2.
I can't remember FF#36 off the top of my head but I just saw 8 1/2 a few months ago and thus Seraghina was definitely one of the Fellini actresses/characters I had in mind, along with Anita Ekberg and the circus woman who appears briefly near the end of La Strada, just to take a couple examples that immediately spring to mind. But of course, as film fans know, Fellini's films are full of women of this physical type and he's on record as being a Marvel Comics fan when the Lee-Kirby era was in full swing in the mid to late '60s. |
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Post by tonebone on Apr 8, 2024 13:34:22 GMT -5
The topic of constant restarting the numbering of comics series....
I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with mimicking TV, capturing a new generation, etc.
History has shown that every time a #1 launches, there is a bump in sales, which diminishes with each subsequent issue. By issue 6 or so, the sales are back to where they were before the renumbering, so it's time to start over.
That's it. If marketing has ever excelled at anything, it's copying the trends of the past and applying them to the now, until the trend is driven into the ground.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 8, 2024 13:57:45 GMT -5
The topic of constant restarting the numbering of comics series.... I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with mimicking TV, capturing a new generation, etc. History has shown that every time a #1 launches, there is a bump in sales, which diminishes with each subsequent issue. By issue 6 or so, the sales are back to where they were before the renumbering, so it's time to start over. That's it. If marketing has ever excelled at anything, it's copying the trends of the past and applying them to the now, until the trend is driven into the ground. It's a direct response/reaction to the buying habits of fans. Since fans buy more copies of an issue marked #1 than they do of a book numbered #231, and since comic publishers are in the business to make money, they cater tot he buying habits of their customers just like any other business. Fans started buying #1 issues and made a big deal about "first issues" (even when they really weren't) long before publishers started exploiting that through marketing. Fans have no one to blame for the proliferation of #1 other than their own buying habits and a naïve lack of understanding that comics are a business and will act accordingly. The same applies to cross-over events and variant covers. If fans hadn't made a big deal out of such and bought things based on trade dress rather than story content to begin with, publishers and marketers would never had made such a big deal out of them. But every business is going to respond to their customers actual buying habits to maximize revenue. Any business that doesn't, doesn't stay in business long. Creating comics may be an art form, but publishing comics is about selling them, not making them and is a business. A lot of fans can't seem to distinguish between the two and get confused because some publishers act as creation studios as well, but they only do so so they have product to sell. They are a business first and foremost and a creative studio only in service of that. Individual creators may have other motivations, but for profit publishers do not. If you want industry practices to change, you need to work to change customer buying habits as a whole. And anecdotal "I'm a comic buyer and I don't buy more of first issues so that's a false resumption" is nonsense because as an individual customer you are statistically irrelevant and hard data from actual sales charts show that comic customers do indeed buy more of first issues (and events and buy variant covers) in significantly larger numbers than they do other run of the mill issues. Comic fans are more responsive to covers and trade dress than they are to actual content between the covers and have historically been so, which is why publishers focused so much on what was on the cover and spend more on cover artists than they do interior artists. Covers sold books. Trade dress sold books. What was on the pages in between, maybe sold some books some of the time, but meh, maybe not. That's the reality backed up by hard sales data from decades of business records despite what fans want to say in zines back n the day or on the internet now. Fan's wallets will always talk louder than than fan statements to the contrary, and as long as fans continue to open those wallets and buy #1s in significantly higher numbers (and retailers who do the ordering are definitely part of this as well, but they too have to respond to actual buying habits of their customers), there will continue to be more #1s despite how much fans say they don't want them. Their actions speak louder than any words or posts that say otherwise. Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve. -M |
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Post by driver1980 on Apr 8, 2024 13:58:29 GMT -5
The topic of constant restarting the numbering of comics series.... I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with mimicking TV, capturing a new generation, etc. History has shown that every time a #1 launches, there is a bump in sales, which diminishes with each subsequent issue. By issue 6 or so, the sales are back to where they were before the renumbering, so it's time to start over. That's it. If marketing has ever excelled at anything, it's copying the trends of the past and applying them to the now, until the trend is driven into the ground. I detest it. It makes finding issues to buy hard (does Marvel want my money?). I’ll reach the end of a Daredevil run, and then I’ve got to do research to find out which is the next number 1. Same with Darth Vader. Or any comic. I once mentioned here something about how my LCS had ordered the wrong Aquaman volume (they’d ordered a Rebirth one rather than New 52). Easy mistake. But I’m sure a store could easily order a volume of The Walking Dead. If a customer says he got as far as the 102nd issue, then a quick tap of the computer will reveal that he needs to read the collected edition that starts with the 103rd issue, so a quick Google reveals that is Vol. 18, which collects #103-108. Easy! Some might argue that a long-running arc such as TWD is different from runs such as Charles Soules’ DD, but publishers want to eat their cake and then still have it too. Well, good luck to someone who wants to find the correct ‘first issue’ of Deadpool given there have been so many. I promise that, and I can only speak for myself, it’s not laziness. It’s just about simplicity and making good use of my time. If I knew the last issue of The Walking Dead that I read is #36, then a quick glance at Wikipedia, which takes about 10 seconds, lets me know that I’d need to pick up Vol. 7, which collects issues #37-42. But I have little desire to spend much time on Google finding out where I need to pick up with Darth Vader. I have read comments from people saying high numbers puts people off. It didn’t put me off. Batman was well north of 300 issues when I first started to become interested in it. On a final, self-absorbed note, I don’t think I’m getting the comics that my personal buying habits deserve.  |
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Post by tonebone on Apr 8, 2024 14:14:27 GMT -5
The topic of constant restarting the numbering of comics series.... I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with mimicking TV, capturing a new generation, etc. History has shown that every time a #1 launches, there is a bump in sales, which diminishes with each subsequent issue. By issue 6 or so, the sales are back to where they were before the renumbering, so it's time to start over. That's it. If marketing has ever excelled at anything, it's copying the trends of the past and applying them to the now, until the trend is driven into the ground. I detest it. It makes finding issues to buy hard (does Marvel want my money?). I’ll reach the end of a Daredevil run, and then I’ve got to do research to find out which is the next number 1. Same with Darth Vader. Or any comic. I once mentioned here something about how my LCS had ordered the wrong Aquaman volume (they’d ordered a Rebirth one rather than New 52). Easy mistake. But I’m sure a store could easily order a volume of The Walking Dead. If a customer says he got as far as the 102nd issue, then a quick tap of the computer will reveal that he needs to read the collected edition that starts with the 103rd issue, so a quick Google reveals that is Vol. 18, which collects #103-108. Easy! Some might argue that a long-running arc such as TWD is different from runs such as Charles Soules’ DD, but publishers want to eat their cake and then still have it too. Well, good luck to someone who wants to find the correct ‘first issue’ of Deadpool given there have been so many. I promise that, and I can only speak for myself, it’s not laziness. It’s just about simplicity and making good use of my time. If I knew the last issue of The Walking Dead that I read is #36, then a quick glance at Wikipedia, which takes about 10 seconds, lets me know that I’d need to pick up Vol. 7, which collects issues #37-42. But I have little desire to spend much time on Google finding out where I need to pick up with Darth Vader. I have read comments from people saying high numbers puts people off. It didn’t put me off. Batman was well north of 300 issues when I first started to become interested in it. On a final, self-absorbed note, I don’t think I’m getting the comics that my personal buying habits deserve. Yep. Quit buying altogether. I only buy collected volumes, and only if I can tell AT A GLANCE what issues I am buying. If I go to buy a trade and it's Batman, from 2016, and it contains issues lower than 100... nope. I don't carry a slide rule with me to figure that stuff out. Your Walking Dead anecdote is spot-on. They obviously are not hindered by high numbers, and definitely DO want my money. |
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