Marvel Comics blabbery

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.

really? I run hot and cold on BW in that I was really into a lot of his work for years until I decided a lot of it falls kind of emotionally flat.

bit sad that Hawkeye and Superior Foes Of Spiderman are both ending in an issue or two - two of the best Marvel runs of the moment...

I just looked at his wiki page and realized that he's the guy who'd been accused of sexual harassment by Tess Fowler last year, a story I didn't follow beyond the headlines. I don't think I'd read anything by him before, but I like these two MK issues. Seamless transition from Ellis, not a jarring "MY WAY NOW!" reboot.