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Post by berkley on Aug 2, 2017 0:00:28 GMT -5
This is one of the Men of Mystery issues I have... this is the Sheena trade... there is a second volume of this, but I don't have that one. This is the best of Spirit volume, looks lit came out around the time of the movie... and here's the Femme Fatales volume... -M What's your take on that best of Sheena book? I'm always a bit leery of someone else choosing what they consider the Best of something - individual tastes will always vary. How many pages is it, BTW? I see there is what seems to be a 2 volume complete set and the Best of is also 2 volumes, so how much can they have left out, I wonder? I almost thought I had one or both of those DC Spirit books but I don't see them around here anywhere. I must be half-remembering thinking about buying them and forgetting that I didn't follow through. I really had my heart set on certain volumes of those Archives but the only one I ever managed to pick up was vol. 22. I think it was around vols. 15, 16, 17 or thereabouts that I wanted to start.
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Post by berkley on Aug 2, 2017 0:16:27 GMT -5
Similar adventure strips from the same time period that are well worth a look (though they may not be much easier to find) would include Frank Robbins' Johnny Hazard and Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby. From slightly earlier (though contemperaneous with parts of Terry) would be Noel Sickles' Scorchy Smith, which had a reprint volume done by IDW. I definitely plan to read Johnny Hazard sometime but thought it might be a bit too similar to Steve Canyon to read the two of them at the same time. But I like the look of it enough that it's tempting. Whenever I hear the name Scorchy Smith I always picture one of those sexy female heroines or femme fatales of the 40s strips, but I gather this was still another (male) pilot hero? Again, my impulse would be to go for just one of them first, probably Caniff's Canyon. I have a collection of the Raymond/Hammett Rip Kirby that I read years ago. Pretty good, but nothing like as special as you'd have hoped from those two talents. I'll try it again one of these days, but my recollection is that Hammett seemed to be more or less phoning it in. Raymond's artwork is always great to look at, but the detective/spy genre didn't allow him the opportunities to display his strengths the way Flash Gordon did. One thing I find I have to watch out for in trying to get a handle on how I like the artwork is that the same artist could develop quite noticeably over just a few years sometimes. For example, some of the earlier Sheena strips look almost amateurish compared to a few years later. I think Scorchy might be a bit like that too, unless I got a misleading impression from the limited number of online samples I looked at. In contrast, Caniff's stuff looks really strong right from the earlier Terry strips.
What about Tarqué Mills's Miss Fury ? I like the premise but from the online samples I've seen the artwork is a bit pedestrian, to my taste. For the most part that is - because every now and then I'll come across an image that makes me wonder if I'm misjudging it.
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Post by MDG on Aug 2, 2017 6:36:00 GMT -5
I have a collection of the Raymond/Hammett Rip Kirby that I read years ago. Pretty good, but nothing like as special as you'd have hoped from those two talents. I'll try it again one of these days, but my recollection is that Hammett seemed to be more or less phoning it in. Raymond's artwork is always great to look at, but the detective/spy genre didn't allow him the opportunities to display his strengths the way Flash Gordon did. Secret Ageny X-9 is Raymond with Hammett writing. Rip Kirby is all Raymond (and later, John Prentice).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2017 9:28:09 GMT -5
This is one of the Men of Mystery issues I have... this is the Sheena trade... there is a second volume of this, but I don't have that one. This is the best of Spirit volume, looks lit came out around the time of the movie... and here's the Femme Fatales volume... -M What's your take on that best of Sheena book? I'm always a bit leery of someone else choosing what they consider the Best of something - individual tastes will always vary. How many pages is it, BTW? I see there is what seems to be a 2 volume complete set and the Best of is also 2 volumes, so how much can they have left out, I wonder? I almost thought I had one or both of those DC Spirit books but I don't see them around here anywhere. I must be half-remembering thinking about buying them and forgetting that I didn't follow through. I really had my heart set on certain volumes of those Archives but the only one I ever managed to pick up was vol. 22. I think it was around vols. 15, 16, 17 or thereabouts that I wanted to start. There's a lot of Sheena material from the Golden Age, 2 volumes wouldn't even dent the surface. She had a feature in Jumbo Comics for a long time, and eventually got her own title as well, so there is a large volume of Sheena stories out there form that period. Be careful, Devil's Due was doing new Sheena strips at the same time they were putting out the reprint volumes, so I am not sure hte Complete 2 volume set is classic material, it may be their new stuff. As for best of collections, I like them an an introduction to a character or feature I may not be as familiar with. A way to sample something before deciding if I want to dive in. I may not always agree they are the best once I am familiar with the larger oeuvre, but it's a good starting point to find out. If I like whatI see there, I am more comfortable wading into it to find more. If after reading it I don't like it, or I feel it was good but I had my fill, then I don't waste time and money seeking out more. -M
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Post by MDG on Aug 2, 2017 11:26:25 GMT -5
There's a lot of Sheena material from the Golden Age, 2 volumes wouldn't even dent the surface. She had a feature in Jumbo Comics for a long time, and eventually got her own title as well, so there is a large volume of Sheena stories out there form that period. Always thought it was interesting that, even though her series ended in 54 or so, she was popular enough to get a TV show in '55, and was still enough of a "name" for a movie in the 80s (and apparently another TV show in this century).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 4, 2017 13:15:21 GMT -5
I just saw that some one-page gags in Binky #72 were signed by Sam Simeon. Sam Simeon was obviously the Ape in Angel & the Ape. Anybody know if this is a gag or what?
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Post by Rob Allen on Aug 4, 2017 14:09:09 GMT -5
I just saw that some one-page gags in Binky #72 were signed by Sam Simeon. Sam Simeon was obviously the Ape in Angel & the Ape. Anybody know if this is a gag or what? Pretty sure it was a joke for those "in the know". I've reported this issue to the GCD Error squad.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,627
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Post by Confessor on Aug 4, 2017 19:34:46 GMT -5
Sam Simeon was obviously the Ape in Angel & the Ape. Man, Angel and the Ape was such a fun little series. Not that I've read them all, but the ones I have are great.
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Post by lunarape on Aug 4, 2017 20:48:45 GMT -5
First time poster, I love this site and thought this would be the best place to ask for some recommendations. Not sure if what I'm looking for exists though.
I grew up in the 70's as a Marvel Zombie, but as I've aged, Silver Age DC has become my favorite era to read. Back when all the heroes were pals and went on double dates in their civilian identities. All problems could be overcome with SCIENCE! Goofy, bizarre plots.
I've got a Marvel Unlimited account and I'm wondering if there are any series, runs, writers, etc. that possibly have any of that Silver Age DC vibe. Do all Marvel comics basically follow the Stan Lee formula of soap opera melodrama and bickering heroes, which I don't want? Classic or modern. Favorite semi-modern writer is Grant Morrison because he often lets his fondness for Silver Age DC shine through. Haven't tried his Marvel stuff. Read tons of 70s Marvel through the years, but it all seems like warmed over Stan Lee. Maybe I've missed some obscure stuff though, that doesn't follow the "heroes with problems" Marvel formula.
I don't know, just thought I'd ask, any thoughts are welcome. What Marvel books available on Unlimited are the most DC-ish?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 4, 2017 21:07:40 GMT -5
I just read the last trade to Dynamo 5... good series, but it ended on several cliffhangers... any of that stuff ever get picked up in the other Image books? Comic Vine doesn't list any appearances after the 2010 special, but I know it's not always 100%.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 4, 2017 22:41:35 GMT -5
I'm wondering if there are any series, runs, writers, etc. that possibly have any of that Silver Age DC vibe. Do all Marvel comics basically follow the Stan Lee formula of soap opera melodrama and bickering heroes, which I don't want? Classic or modern. First of all, welcome aboard! YMMV, but I think the Ant-Man run in Tales to Astonish might be a little more DC-ish. I'm no expert, b/c I couldn't find much Silver Age Marvel on the stands when I was a kid, especially in the early 60s, but he had quite the gallery of goofy villains, which was standard for a bunch of DC heroes. Plus he rode ants and talked to them, like an entomological version of Aquaman or Hawkman, and he had a gigantic helmet (more Darth Helmet than Adam Strange, but still...), and like the Atom, he shrank, which made some of the artwork fun ot look at because of the unique perspective a two-inch-tall guy has on the world.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 4, 2017 23:37:54 GMT -5
Do all Marvel comics basically follow the Stan Lee formula of soap opera melodrama and bickering heroes, which I don't want? Classic or modern. In addition to Ant-Man, the early Thor stories in Journey into Mystery are very much Superman knock-offs. There's just a smidge of soap opera, but it's far more of the Superman/Lois Lane variety than what you would see later in Marvel or even contemporaneously in the Fantastic Four.
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Post by berkley on Aug 5, 2017 2:15:04 GMT -5
I'm looking for recommendations again and I figure this is the thread to do it in. This time it's the 1940s: I'm reading some hard-boiled and science fiction from that decade off and on so it occurred to me that this would be a good time to read some comics from the same era. I already have the Tintin series going but I'd like to add a few other things. One obvious choice would be The Spirit, a comic that a lot of fans think entered its peak period just after WWII, which happens to be just where I am with the other things I mentioned, but my back-issue reprint collection is still pretty spotty and the Archive volumes are both hard to come by and expensive. Still, I might read a few of the things I do have. I was also considering trying something by Milton Caniff: I believe he left Terry and the Pirates in the 40s sometime and started another series, Steve Canyon. Any opinions on Canyon or on Caniff in general? Any other suggestions? Nothing leapt out at me during a quick glance at wiki. European BD and American new-strips seem to be the two sources that I'm drawn to for this era in comics but that could be just because I don't know much about what was going on in comic books at the time. Most people prefer Terry to Steve Canyon. I think both are very strong. Terry gets better as it goes along, as Caniff develops his style and borrows from studio-mate Noel Sickles. Canyon starts with Caniff at probably the peak of his powers. The storylines probably aren't as interesting as late Terry, but the art is incredible. My personal favorite Caniff is probably Male Call. Any thoughts on which Male Call collection to go for? I see there's a Kitchen Sink one from the 80s and a somewhat more expensive but newer one from Hermes Press, a publisher i'm not familiar with. Not sure if their newer edition is worth the extra dollars.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 5, 2017 4:24:04 GMT -5
First time poster, I love this site and thought this would be the best place to ask for some recommendations. Not sure if what I'm looking for exists though. I grew up in the 70's as a Marvel Zombie, but as I've aged, Silver Age DC has become my favorite era to read. Back when all the heroes were pals and went on double dates in their civilian identities. All problems could be overcome with SCIENCE! Goofy, bizarre plots. I've got a Marvel Unlimited account and I'm wondering if there are any series, runs, writers, etc. that possibly have any of that Silver Age DC vibe. Do all Marvel comics basically follow the Stan Lee formula of soap opera melodrama and bickering heroes, which I don't want? Classic or modern. Favorite semi-modern writer is Grant Morrison because he often lets his fondness for Silver Age DC shine through. Haven't tried his Marvel stuff. Read tons of 70s Marvel through the years, but it all seems like warmed over Stan Lee. Maybe I've missed some obscure stuff though, that doesn't follow the "heroes with problems" Marvel formula. I don't know, just thought I'd ask, any thoughts are welcome. What Marvel books available on Unlimited are the most DC-ish? Welcome to the forum, lunarape ! I would read the first 10 issues of Titles like Avengers, FF maybe Thor. They have aspects of the DC goofiness that you might want.
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Post by lunarape on Aug 5, 2017 8:35:58 GMT -5
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I do have the 1st Avengers Masterwork, but it's been a long, long time since I read it. Never really dipped into early Ant-Man or Thor, I will check them out. I like the covers that Prince Hal posted, especially TTA 39.
As far as post 1985 comics, I've realized that most of my favorite stuff is calling back to or commenting on earlier eras. My favorite comic of all time might be Animal Man #25 by Morrison, where Buddy visits Limbo where all the DC characters who are too silly for modern audiences are trapped. The dripping nostalgia, I love that comic! Mark Waid's anti grimdark polemic, Kingdom Come. The DeFalco-Frenz Thor run which is pure Lee-Kirby homage. Morrison's JLA, wide-screen, fun, straight-ahead super-heroics with some wacky science thrown in.
Would love to hear any recommendations in that vein. More modern stuff that has an unabashed nostalgia for earlier comics. Heroic heroes and not much concern for "realism". Warren Ellis sometimes has a cool, somewhat zany science vibe going on, but his characters can be too cynical for my taste. Haven't read a lot to judge, though. Tried to like Hickman, but realized eventually that he really wasn't writing super-hero comics. A lot of the current Marvel writers don't seem to give any thought to "genre expectations", but I do because I'm an old fuddy-duddy. Any current rough equivalents to John Broome or Edmond Hamilton, my two favorites? Probably not, but thought I'd ask. Thanks!
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