Marvel Comics blabbery

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.

I jumped off of Moon Knight after Ellis but it's still on my pull list. It's a little sad putting that issue back on the shelf instead of removing it from the list but part of me perversely enjoys actively rejecting Wood based off of the Fowler allegations.

On a different note, everything Al Ewing has touched to date has ruled.

do you guys all buy new issues off the racks? Or off digital racks?
I am solely limiting my marvel intake to the unlimited app so i dunno how far behind all of you i am.

I'm a rack man.

(Repost to the out of context thread in 5, 4, 3...)

otm about Al Ewing, Loki and Mighty Avengers are pretty much awesome every time

I was a voracious floppy hog (yet another out of context gift) until about three years ago when I stopped cold turkey. I'm slowly filling in gaps now but I mostly don't know anything that's happened from Fear Itself to present day.

dan/lunch: i quit buying floppies about five years ago when i bought my ninth bookshelf solely for comics... do you bag/board/box? Why do you guys still buy physical capes and tights books? they take about two minutes to read and a year to form a complete storyline that, nine times out of ten, is worth nowhere near that amount of effort and collected editions are cheaper and more manageable. What's the appeal for you?

I box my stuff out of necessity but I'm generally not precious enough about it to bag it (lotsa beat up comics). Back when I did buy floppies regularly, it was honestly in large part because of the addictive ritual of going to the shop every Wednesday. But also because it was easier to keep on top of the stuff I read than buying it after the fact would've been (especially given Marvel's horrendous reprint policy). Nowadays, I generally buy older stuff in trades, with the exception of anything crossover-y (I can't stand jumping all over the place within a trade/between multiple trades when I'm trying to read what's ostensibly a single story).

Also, while I find good value in digital (it's lovely to have hundreds of comics at the ready when I'm on the train), I vastly prefer to read physical copies of comics/books/etc. E-readers were much more favorable to my ADD when they were single-purpose devices.

The new Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier is pure ilx-fodder. Trippy water-color imagery that takes place on the planets Syro, Exai and Mer-z-bow and involves aliens Ventolin and Rossz Csillag. The story, though, is a bit meh, and most of it is imcomprehensible. But I can't help but think it's cool that Marvel publishes this kind of thing. Hope it succeeds.

i do miss the ritual of comic book stores. sometimes i'll walk into one and kill an hour walking up and down the aisles but i generally leave with either a graphic novel i've long wanted or nothing.
ipad comic reading does just fine for me honestly; any issues i have with lack of haptics pales in comparison to portability, accessibility and space issues.

I have longboxes in basement storage and I like having physical, tangible objects

i'd like having basement storage!

Yeah, I wish I had more storage space. We have a lockup in the storage room of our building which doesn't have space for much but even so I'm sure it's been a relationship saver.

by the same token though, there's something to be said for being able to find anything you own in under ten minutes because it's on a shelf in front of you.
for me, boxes ultimately made it easy for me to lose or forget ownership or have any reason to curb my buying habits. Once I dumped about eight long boxes and bookshelved everything that i wanted to keep, I found i got a lot more choosy about where i wanted to buy... and it was often less about disposable income and more about what I could justify wanting to keep
that said, I now have a very specific sort of library that multiple moves over the past five years has left spread out all over the place and no close and nearby comic buddies to share it with. this is why people have children, isn't it?

I, uh, have a parrot and an eyepatch for current superhero stuff. And four longboxes, mostly 60s/70s Marvels and 80s indie floppies.

that said, I now have a very specific sort of library that multiple moves over the past five years has left spread out all over the place and no close and nearby comic buddies to share it with. this is why people have children, isn't it?

Feeling you. I also still have some stuff in a storage unit and in a shed at my mom's house. The thought of it all being in one place vividly illustrates the need for some hardcore paring down (or, perhaps, the selling of furniture). And, yeah, except for a few choice things my girlfriend's interested in, no one reads this shit but me, although I'd happily share the wealth.

children are the worst man

I generally haven't bought floppies in years - not worth the time/space/effort - and with rare exceptions all I buy now are trades or graphic novels. I still have like 1 1/2 longboxes full of stuff I bought when I was younger and don't want to part with.

now, my daughter otoh - I buy her floppies of stuff she wants pretty regularly, maybe a couple a month. soon she will need a longbox of her own lol

a father's proudest moment

reading comics w kids is awesome I highly recommend it btw

right now all her comics are jammed into the coffee table

I buy floppies occasionally but half of them have coffee stains on them and once I am done with them I throw them in the recycling bin

I only buy my kid trades. We don't really have the room for individual issues. Actually, at the moment, about two years into our mutual comic store trips period, we're even pushing our limit on trades. I'll have to rearrange the bookshelves soon.

I only buy trades/GNs now in physical form. Ran out of space for floppies years ago, and have found that the art genuinely seems to look better on an ipad's backlit screen.

Really looking forward to my daughter being old enough for comics. Got some Moomin and other stuff already for when she can read.

Straight scans of actual 60s and 70s marvel floppies look SO GOOD on a lit hd tablet screen.

Ah - I need directing to some better ones then! I had to delete my Gerber Defenders scans, they were kind of unreadable.

there are definitely bad scans out there. most of the ones I've gotten from torrents have been pretty careful-looking. Haven't read my old defenders files yet-- I was most of the way through the gerber run in Marvel Essentials but I'm gonna start it over in color cbz.

for whatever reason, black and white comics don't seem right on a screen for me, even a really nice screen...

Our Marvel All-Ages series are now changing names, but the stories remain the same! Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man is now known as Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Web Warriors. That's not all! Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble will now be called Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble Season 2.

Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Beach Boys BBQ Blowout Bash Blast

in other news, squirrel girl

heh Ryan North gettin' work!

Our Marvel All-Ages series are now changing names, but the stories remain the same! Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man is now known as Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Web Warriors. That's not all! Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble will now be called Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble Season 2.

what the everloving fuck with these guys
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, October 6, 2014 1:36 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm so glad I got out of comics, this is insanity atop insanity

TBF, these are just marginal, 'based on the animated series!' comics, and the stupid titles are probably just edicts from some low-level Disney marketing exec. Not really reflective of the main line.