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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 19, 2020 20:31:07 GMT -5
Personal and subjective it'll always be, it does make you wonder what "rule" there should be, though. British comic Eagle ran from 1950 to 1969 (I'm not sure how many issues). Thirteen years after it ended, it relaunched in 1982 - and ran for 505 issues until 1994. What if the publishers, IPC, had decided to continue the numbering based on the original? Would that have been silly after a 13-year-gap? The Eagle, during its original run, wasn't numbered like U.S. comics. The numbering was reset to #1 each year, with the volume changing. So, an issue from 1954 might be numbered Volume 5, Issue 32 or something. The American comic, Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, did that as well, in the 50s and 60s. It was put out by a catholic publisher, to be distributed to catholic schools.. They did it like magazines, with a volume and issue number, then restarted the issue number with the new year and volume.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 19, 2020 20:33:20 GMT -5
It was fairly standard practice to continue the numbering of a series that began at a different company. DC did it with Blackhawk and GI Combat, which they got from Quality Comics,... Don't forget Heart Throbs. Who could forget Heart Throbs, with such characters as............................ .............................um............................. ...........oh, wait..........no, that's not it.......................... Okay, I never looked at a single romance comic, growing up. I knew they picked up a romance title; but couldn't remember which title it was.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 19, 2020 20:35:48 GMT -5
It was always the same story.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 20, 2020 13:42:18 GMT -5
You could say that about a large swath of comics, in any genre.
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Post by nerdygirl905 on Jan 20, 2020 14:09:02 GMT -5
The girl always ends up with a guy, no matter what, unless it was an ongoing. Then she never got her “True love”s. Everyone was the right one, but they either had girlfriends or died.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 20, 2020 14:18:03 GMT -5
I guess In a broad sense all stories start at A and end at B. It’s the journey in between that makes it interesting.
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Post by Farrar on Jan 20, 2020 16:32:10 GMT -5
Right, DC took over Heart Throbs from Quality...and also Young Romance and Young Love from Crestwood (S&K).
Whenever I'd already bought my monthly regulars (about 8 a month, DC and Marvel superhero comics), I'd then pick up some romance comics to scratch my comics itch. In particular I gravitated towards the ones that had serials such as Hearth Throbs ("3 Girls") and Secret Hearts ("Reach For Happiness"). There were several artists whose work I loved though I didn't know most of their names back then. At times I also probably picked up some Charlton romance comics (from the corner bodega, the only place in my neighborhood that carried Charltons); I remember thinking these looked so different from the slick Marvels and DCs I normally read.
Awhile back I bought the Young Love Showcase volume, which includes the serial "The Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N." All that great Romita Sr. art and anguished soap opera (which I love)! It was an ongoing series so poor Mary never got her man.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 20, 2020 16:35:41 GMT -5
Missed all the sword and sorcery talk, but I have a related question, though more one of opinion than of fact: why didn't Claw or any of the other REH-style sword and sorcery comics (as opposed to Warlord which I assume is more of an ERB-style thing) ever catch on? Was it just that Marvel had actual REH characters and not imitations, or was it the personnel working on the books, or the concepts, or a combination of many things? I would suggest that a lot of the success certain S&S books enjoyed might have to do with sexual tension. “Will they? Won’t they?” Action and adventure are fine, but if readers wonder whether the boy and the girl will end up together, and actually care about it, they will have a deeper emotional investment. Conan (who of course had the added bonus of name recognition) tended to have a succession of girlfriends, but they were actual characters... Zephra, Melissandra, Amytis, Jenna, Red Sonja, Bêlit... Each had a distinct personality, and made for great soap opera material. Travis Morgan and Tara’s star-crossed romance was even more poignant, echoing the great days of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Arak and Valda also had an intriguing and rocky relationship, and I would argue that their finally getting it on killed the tension between them, and removed a lot of spice from the comic. Now Claw, Stalker, Ironjaw, Swords of Sorcery, Thongor and Stalker were all about plot, with no serious relationship issues. Such titles can work, of course, but they’ll need something more than a monster of the month business plan. So true. Conan was always great with a fighting female partner like Valeria, Belit, or Red Sonja than when burdened with a stereotypical clinging slave-girl type like Jenna. As for the lack of success by the Conan knock-offs, once his book became so popular, there was the usual wave of imitations, and beyond the realm of Howard heroes like Kull and Solomon Kane, who themselves only enjoyed a fraction at best of Conan's success, the rest tended to be faint imitations of Conan. (I'm looking at you, Claw and Ironjaw.) Conan did the barbarian S and S thing really well, and there wasn't a whole lot of room to do much differently in that genre. And, Conan had the benefit of a great start courtesy of Thomas and Barry Smith, and them a long run by Thomas and John Buscema. That kind of consistency really pays off in a regular title. Most of the others either had less than equivalent talent and/or a series of writers and artists.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 20, 2020 17:20:52 GMT -5
I would suggest that a lot of the success certain S&S books enjoyed might have to do with sexual tension. “Will they? Won’t they?” Action and adventure are fine, but if readers wonder whether the boy and the girl will end up together, and actually care about it, they will have a deeper emotional investment. Conan (who of course had the added bonus of name recognition) tended to have a succession of girlfriends, but they were actual characters... Zephra, Melissandra, Amytis, Jenna, Red Sonja, Bêlit... Each had a distinct personality, and made for great soap opera material. Travis Morgan and Tara’s star-crossed romance was even more poignant, echoing the great days of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Arak and Valda also had an intriguing and rocky relationship, and I would argue that their finally getting it on killed the tension between them, and removed a lot of spice from the comic. Now Claw, Stalker, Ironjaw, Swords of Sorcery, Thongor and Stalker were all about plot, with no serious relationship issues. Such titles can work, of course, but they’ll need something more than a monster of the month business plan. As for the lack of success by the Conan knock-offs, once his book became so popular, there was the usual wave of imitations, and beyond the realm of Howard heroes like Kull and Solomon Kane, who themselves only enjoyed a fraction at best of Conan's success, the rest tended to be faint imitations of Conan. (I'm looking at you, Claw and Ironjaw.) Conan did the barbarian S and S thing really well, and there wasn't a whole lot of room to do much differently in that genre. True! I think the creators of Claw realized it soon enough, and that’s when then decided to turn him into a Moorcock hero instead of a Conan clone. As for Ironjaw... Had he been a Wisigoth, his name would have been Generic.
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Post by berkley on Jan 20, 2020 17:32:08 GMT -5
Missed all the sword and sorcery talk, but I have a related question, though more one of opinion than of fact: why didn't Claw or any of the other REH-style sword and sorcery comics (as opposed to Warlord which I assume is more of an ERB-style thing) ever catch on? Was it just that Marvel had actual REH characters and not imitations, or was it the personnel working on the books, or the concepts, or a combination of many things? I would suggest that a lot of the success certain S&S books enjoyed might have to do with sexual tension. “Will they? Won’t they?” Action and adventure are fine, but if readers wonder whether the boy and the girl will end up together, and actually care about it, they will have a deeper emotional investment. Conan (who of course had the added bonus of name recognition) tended to have a succession of girlfriends, but they were actual characters... Zephra, Melissandra, Amytis, Jenna, Red Sonja, Bêlit... Each had a distinct personality, and made for great soap opera material. Travis Morgan and Tara’s star-crossed romance was even more poignant, echoing the great days of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Arak and Valda also had an intriguing and rocky relationship, and I would argue that their finally getting it on killed the tension between them, and removed a lot of spice from the comic. Now Claw, Stalker, Ironjaw, Swords of Sorcery, Thongor and Stalker were all about plot, with no serious relationship issues. Such titles can work, of course, but they’ll need something more than a monster of the month business plan. Maybe you're on to something there - could this be one reason that Kull never took off in popularity ?
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 20, 2020 23:46:24 GMT -5
I don't remember ever 'seeing' romance comics. They must've been there but I was looking for animals or Shazam, Plop or Supergirl... except I had one Charlton Haunted Love, but that was more a mystery/horror, at least the one I had was. I did see British comics with girls' names as titles that probably had some romance. My Mom had the Harlequin romance and nurse paperbacks around and I would read them sometimes, and also some gothic type ones from other publishers. I think by the time I was 12 circa 1979 the romance comics had pretty much ceased to exist.
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Post by foxley on Jan 21, 2020 1:32:31 GMT -5
Stalker was something a bit different, with Stalker having the driving goal to get his soul back. And no romance issues, because he was incapable of feeling love (due to him not having a soul). Perhaps the reason it didn't catch on was because Ditko's art isn't particularly well suited to sword & sorcery.
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Post by MDG on Jan 21, 2020 9:17:09 GMT -5
Stalker was something a bit different, with Stalker having the driving goal to get his soul back. And no romance issues, because he was incapable of feeling love (due to him not having a soul). Perhaps the reason it didn't catch on was because Ditko's art isn't particularly well suited to sword & sorcery.
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Post by MWGallaher on Jan 21, 2020 10:40:11 GMT -5
Someone, and it might as well be me, ought to point out that DC also continued Quality's Robin Hood Tales as of #7, lasting eight more issues. It occurs to me that if DC had continued Plastic Man, which--although presumably much weakened in sales by the end--was still one of the few super-heroes to hang on through the mid-1950's, and if it had been a decent seller (it probably could have outsold Robin Hood Tales if DC published new material instead of the mostly reprint content of the late Quality issues), Marvel's Fantastic Four might have had a very different Mr. Fantastic. Would they have risked duplicating Plas's stretching powers if rival DC were actively publishing it?
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,407
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Post by shaxper on Jan 21, 2020 10:50:39 GMT -5
.. except I had one Charlton Haunted Love, but that was more a mystery/horror, at least the one I had was. Never heard of this before. I need to check it out!
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