Marvel Comics blabbery

As a kid, I was always fascinated with Marvel comics from the UK whenever some neighborhood kids got their hands on one (usually Action Force, IIRC). Those larger comics with the different paper stock felt like alien artifacts. Even later, non-tabloid stuff like Knights of Pendragon looked so much different from what I was used to (which was largely due to what I think might've been a completely different color process than what was standard in most US Marvel books at the time).

I have mixed feelings on Kieron Gillen's recent Iron Man run, but using a couple Marvel UK characters (Death's Head and Dark Angel) was kind of entertaining

Stevie, I hope you won't mind if I make things a little clearer, still

The small, colour Marvel comics were always technically 'imports', in that they were printed and published in America. When Marvel comics were first imported to the UK, they would have a cents price on them and over that t UK price stamp, normally bearing a T&P insignia, which stood for the British distributors Thorpe and Porter Lrd. The comics were brought over to this country by sea mail.

At some point in the early 1970s, Marvel in America began to print a certain amount of their color comics with a UK pence price, rather than a cents price. This was done at the end of the printing process, a simple matter of swapping a printing plate, but it meant that UK pence copies traditionally have had shittier printing, more colour mis-alignment etc, which may have contributed to your impression that these comics were somehow 'leftovers'. They are generally deemed less collectible than the 'real' cents comics. But they were American Marvels, printed and published in the US and imported here.

Not every American Marvel title was officially distributed in the UK (these comics are known in British collector circles as 'ND' - not distributed - comics.) When the British Marvel titles kicked off in the 1970s, reprinting the American comics in larger size, black and white (or two colour) weekly editions, lots of the series featured in these UK Marvel titles - Spider-Man, Hulk, Avengers etc - were removed from UK distribution, so as not to distract from the UK sales, or confuse readers with stories from vastly different time periods. The only way for a UK reader to acquire these ND comics would be to subscribe, visit America, order them via a mail order dealer either at home or in America, or buy them from one a dedicated comic book store, like Dark They Were and Golden Eyed in London. Distribution of the Marvel Comics with British prices was always extremely patchy, but there's no evidence that any particular titles were 'dumped' on the UK market.

Again, at some point in the 1980s, Marvel began to print only one version of their American colour comics, with both an American and British (and Canadian) price on the front. These titles would be imported in large quantities by air to UK comic shops, typically going on sale just a couple of days after they went on sale in America. Or you could wait a month or so and buy pretty much every Marvel or DC as a slightly cheaper (cover) price, sea-freighted and officially distributed to newsagents and even comic shops.

Looking at a gallery of Groo covers, it seems that the first one with a joint US/UK price was issue 16, cover dated June 1986:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/groo-the-wanderer/16-1.jpg

Thanks for that, Ward. I could read ultra-granular comics minutia like that all day long.

Seconded. And I'm pretty sure I had that Groo!

Really interesting! I just finished the Sean Howe so am definitely in minutia mode. Follow-up question: when did DC/Marvel stuff start disappearing from UK newsagents? I stopped buying (for the first time) round Death of Superman time - I think they were still on the shelves then.

Just noticed by a friend on Twitter and reposted to Facebook:

"Disney owns marvel.
Marvel owns Thor.
Thor is the son of a king.
Thor is now female.
Thor is now a Disney princess."

it goes all the way to the top mannnnnnnn

Good idea I guess then

Marvel Unlimited is doing a month for $0.99 during Comic-Con, I'll get in on this
http://marvel.com/mu

No ALL-NEW DOOP available, what a waste.

If only for the sake of people that might read the title and have no context for it whatsoever, I love that there's a comic called All-New Doop.

I'll probably eventually get on the Marvel Unlimited train, but not until it gets a helluva lot closer to actually being Unlimited. For the time being, I'm content to stupidly spend all of my money in the futile attempt of getting physical copies of everything I want.

reminds me, I need to catch up on All-New Doop, I'm a bit behind

Read some older Dark Wolverine issues. Man, it's infuriating - so many crossovers, every issue continues directly into another series, and there's no way to just go to the correct book without hunting it down. Netflix this ain't.

I haven't used the service at all, but if Marvel's oft-nonsensical methodology with respect to physical collections is any kind of a barometer, I can only imagine that reading the more recent hyperinterconnected stuff is a total nightmare.

How is the new Nightcrawler run from Chris Claremont?

I would love to give him the benefit of the doubt given that he is 90% of the reason why I read comic books today but, after the 90s, I'll be damned if I'm ever reading another new Claremont book.

The new Nightcrawler is readable. It's not good by any means, but compared to DC, readable counts as a win.

what, you don't like reading captions with paragraphs of exposition and character description draped over soap operas? xp

djp otm

I thought Claremont came across quite menschy in the Howe book so I'll give him a shot

I haven't read comics for years, Marvel or otherwise, but I came across the Howe book at the library and have been blowing through it over the past few days. I just finished the Shooter years- which were the years I in which I discovered Marvel comics. Boy he did not come across well. I was cringing imagining working for him as depicted in his later tenure.

Dreaded Deadline Doom notwithstanding, I loved the auteur years between Stan and Shooter as E-I-C. Shooter's ascension = the day the music died.

It's certainly seeming that way to me. The Gerber/Englehart/Starlin stuff sounds great - I've not seen much of it other than the odd issue or reference here or there. I'm thinking of getting a Marvel Unlimited subscription in the hopes that some of that material is represented.

I really dug the Howe book too! So many pros are pissed about it.

I haven't read these yet, but I thought I'd pass them on, two-part Shooter defense:
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/01/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-one-the-best-job-he-can/
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/10/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-two-romper-room-on-crystal-meth-installment-1/

omg lolz @ that Ghost Rider + Jesus storyline, never heard of that before

no kidding! if your main gripe about Jim Shooter is that he didn't want to publish your story where Jesus helps Ghost Rider, then you really have no ammo whatsoever, really

Those Shooter defense articles have been linked to here before - they're still mostly bullshit. Creators had other, bigger gripes abt Shooter than that he wouldn't publish their Jesus/Ghost Rider story (but i mean, why not - this is a company that published Son of Satan, after all.)

I love the Sean Howe bk, gobbled it up, but I think there are other histories of Marvel and American comics still to be told - it's not, by any means, definitive.

yeah idk if Shooter was in the right there (it's conceivable) I just find the whole prospect v v 70s and v v funny

If I were to do a radio-button poll of Marvel 70s "auteur" series, what should I include?

Starlin's Warlock
Moench/Gulacy Master of Kung Fu
McGregor/Graham Black Panther
McGregor/Russell Killraven
Wolfman/Colan Dracula
Wolfman/Perlin Werewolf by Night
Rich Buckler Deathlok
Steve Gerber, Howard the Duck
Gerber, Man-Thing

What else would fit in there? Any of the superhero titles?

surely claremont's xmen, no?

Gerber's Defenders is the only obvious omission. Maybe Starlin's Captain Marvel. Claremont might be outside the purview of that particular endeavor.

xpost

Is Wolfman's Werewolf by Night run really thought of as 'auteur' comics? Moreso than the Gerry Conway issues, or the Doug Moench issues?

Would also include

Englehart/Brunner/Colan's Doctor Strange
Englehart/Starlin's Captain Marvel
Gerber's Defenders
Gerber/Skrenes' Omega the Unknown
McGregor's Power Man

the Claremont/Cockrum issues of X-Men are sort've the Marvel Comics equivalent of Jaws - recognisably the work of 70s auteurs, but also a harbinger of a new, less personally expressive/more commercially-minded way of creating comics

well put

Is Wolfman's Werewolf by Night run really thought of as 'auteur' comics? Moreso than the Gerry Conway issues, or the Doug Moench issues?

My error on that one -- I meant to type Moench instead of Wolfman. The only issues I ever read were Moench/Perlin.

xp, yes, that's a great description of the X-Men revival

Isn't Englehart's run on Cap A supposed to be pretty distinctive? I still need to order that essentials volume...

it's gd solid superhero comics w/ the odd bit of political 'relevance', but also slightly more 'straight'/mainstream than most of the titles william nominated (see also englehart's avengers) - i think in part that's because it was drawn by sal buscema (and often inked by vince colletta), so the storytelling and general look isn't so 'out' as say w/starlin (tho' sal b inked by klaus janson on gerber's defenders is a v. pleasing combo imho). the few issues of cap that gerber wrote later on are more bizarre than the englehart stuff (but then you could say the same abt kirby's seventies cap run)

All of his 70s Marvel work was pretty distinctive, but yeah, I would argue the Cap and Avengers runs could belong in this theoretical poll. Also, Don McGregor's wiki page says "He and artist P. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known interracial kiss, between the "Killraven" characters M'Shulla and Carmilla Frost, in Amazing Adventures #31 (July 1975)." But I just checked, and Gabe Jones' and Peggy Carter's kiss in Cap was a month earlier. (#186, June '75)

xp

What would be a good corresponding radio-button list of 80s "auteurs selling out in style" blockbuster stories - Kraven's Last Hunt, Ground Zero (in Hulk), that sort of thing?

I've often thought how great it would be to have a Mad Men-style period drama set within the offices of a Marvel-esque publisher. Names changed obviously, but using real events as inspiration. The history of the industry being what it is, there are so many potential story avenues it could go down.

Great idea. There was a great episode of Deep Space 9 where all the principals were staffers at a 1950s SF Pulp mag...

Didn't Will Eisner or somebody do a barely-fictionalized book about working in the Harry 'A' Chesler shop? An account of 65-77 Marvel from the POVs of Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, John Verpoorten and (especially) Marie Severin would be cool.

Kavalier and Klay's strongest parts are basically this.

Eisner's book is The Dreamer (all I can remember about it was that George Tuska was called 'Gar Tooth' in it!)

There's also this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aOwTPlkDAmM/T5a3YlkQFQI/AAAAAAAAQlQ/WTaYH4Z8X7o/s1600/What-If-v1-11_00fc.jpg

Wholly tangentially, I was reminded recently after pulling my copy out of storage that The Maximortal is basically the bloated, pustulant ancestor of Kavalier & Klay. Now that is an adaptation I'd pay good money to see.

xpost thanking u for new dn

http://namtab.com/phantomstranger/doompatrol53.gif

lol @ "original bullpen" with lantern-jawed, hair-headed Stan

I'm glad we have this thread -- I didn't want to throw a digression into the interesting discussion on the other thread. Just wanted to say that two issues in, Brian Wood's Moon Knight is just as awesome as Warren Ellis' was.

I mean, it's a cliche that they're both a bit prolix. But I don't really see that - I think they're some of comics better sentence writers, i.e. wordy but easy to read. So often, reading comics feels like wading through sludge, and I don't get that with them.

I think it's relative. Compared to Alan Moore or some later writers, maybe they read as corny. But compared to the writing in most of the mainstream comics at the time they were on another level. Definitely soapy and wordy, but they helped bring more nuanced emotions into superhero books.

Well Nocenti is really a post-Claremont writer - she’s at the very tail end of the ‘overwriting’ era, a Shooter writer (whereas Claremont is very much a Roy Thomas writer).

Steve Gerber a million times better than either of them, of course.