Even An Android Can Yawn

The few issues of his Avengers run I've read have been godawful. Nice art, though. I like his brief X-run though, thanks due in large part, again, to the art. And SENTINELS! Dude liked his Tolkein - I assumed, after learning about but never having read Lord of the Rings, that Sauron was some bird-looking evil thing and not, in fact, a big flaming eyeball.

Also, god help us, SECRET DEFENDERS.

Despite that, I will stand by his late 80s / early 90s Dr. Strange run (due in no small part, again, of course, to the art).

I thought most of his Avengers run was very good, as was much of the rest of his work back then. I'm not sure he ever produced a great comic, but he was a solid, good quality writer. He was ruined by his obsession with nostalgic continuity, writing I think a two-issue story to explain dumb little errors in a single Wonder Woman comic from the late '40s when he was doing All-Star Squadron. That was an extraordinarily dull comic, only kept going for a while, I believe, by some wonderfully exciting Joe Kubert covers, convincing readers like me that the insides couldn't be as boring this time as in the previous issues. We were wrong every time. Another point in his favour is that he consults one of my very oldest and best friends at times, for expert knowledge of old comics.

I gotta say I found the Kree-Skrull War heavy going. Just didn't flow.

Some of the early issues of Conan still stand up, esp. 'Red Nails', tho' they suffer from typical Thomas over-writing, a trait that grew more pronounced with time - apart from anything else, All Star Squadron is surely one of the most copy-heavy comic bks ever. I'm not sure Roy should ever have been his own editor...

As well from the Avengers (tho' NOT the dreary Kree-Skrull war!) and X-Men, I'm quite fond of some mid-70s Fantastic Fours that Roy wrote, illustrated by Perez and J. Buscema - issue 166 (i think) has one of the all-time great Hulk stories

I think those George Perez FFs are being collected soon!

I've just been reading Essential Hulk Vol 3, and I wld like to put in a gd word for the issues by Thomas/Trimpe (plus superb John Severin inks on some issues) - lots of action, different villains + guest-stars, nice balance between the cosmic & the mundane, altogether fast-moving stuff. There seemed to be a short period where Thomas was willing to try a few 'experimental' storytelling techniques, a well thought-out extension of Stan Lee's 'modernism'