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Post by Calamas on Feb 22, 2015 14:46:48 GMT -5
Today that same story would be shoehorned into a line-wide four-month crossover--with a half dozen 4-issue miniseries on the side. And every issue would feature a dramatic event with ramifications. Perhaps a major character dying. Or perhaps the resurrection of a character who died in the last crossover event. And the undoing of the last dramatic event with ramifications.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 22, 2015 14:42:53 GMT -5
I vaguely remember the Freedom Train. In comics, Bob Haney did something with this in Brave & Bold, #121 with the Metal Men. I read it as a back issue. He called it The Liberty Train. It appeared, however, well before the bi-centennial banner issue, which was #128.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 22, 2015 13:24:59 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Saturn Girl's pink bathing suit, either. . . . The exact opposite. I loved the look of Saturn Girl’s pink bikini. Unfortunately, it was completely out of character. Dave Cockrum was obviously asked to update the costumes with regard to powers and visuals, not personalities. Or maybe the editor was unaware that she was one of the few Legionnaires with a personality. But I loved that era so much that even Tyroc's look didn't bother me.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 22, 2015 13:06:09 GMT -5
Yeah, a 19-part crossover across 7 titles with as many writers and artists was just never a good idea. The 3 parts in Avengers were all pretty solid, in particular the final issue, which I love to this day. It was an epic 8 issue story shoehorned into just 19 issues. . . . Today that same story would be shoehorned into a line-wide four-month crossover--with a half dozen 4-issue miniseries on the side.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 20, 2015 20:57:20 GMT -5
If write-ins are allowed, I'll suggest "Nights of Wundagore." I agree. I remember there being a lot of fill-ins during this era. I not sure whether David Michelinie had deadline troubles or the gist of the Wundagore story was Mark Gruenwald and Steven Grant’s and they wanted to be the ones to tell it. I suspect the latter. And while I’m a big Michelinie fan, Gruenwald and Grant brought a different tone--a much more appropriate tone--when they got to the heart of the matter.For me, its emotional impact resonated.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 19, 2015 15:37:52 GMT -5
Took me a while as a kid to realize he was wearing a huge horseshoe magnet. ... with gloves. and you know he keeps it on, by using his magnetism to attach it to his nipple piercings. Jokes aside, that was that actual explanation of how the costume “stayed up.” Metallic filaments in the fabric and Cosmic Boy’s natural magnetic aura, which was the first and last time we heard of this byproduct of his power.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 19, 2015 12:07:26 GMT -5
This I consider one of the worst all time costumes, not so much because it was bad, but because it was dull and boring, a considerable greater sin when launching a new title. What might work buried within the numbers of, say, the 60’s Legion of Super-Heroes has absolutely zero pop as the sole focus a cover. Only the superior talent of writer Roger Stern kept this title afloat for 28 issues. (I know it lasted longer than 28 issues but it quickly turned to crap in Stern’s absence.)
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Post by Calamas on Feb 8, 2015 18:33:31 GMT -5
It took me years, in the pre-internet days, to find a copy of that Flash comic (#217) at a reasonable price. The Neal Adams pencils on the Green Lantern back-up story drove it up. How times have changed.
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Post by Calamas on Jan 27, 2015 12:07:55 GMT -5
(Warning: I can't figure out how to remove links. Sorry.) I took them out.
Thanks for cleaning it up. I’d made a mess of it.
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Post by Calamas on Jan 26, 2015 20:33:33 GMT -5
Dupe
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Post by Calamas on Jan 26, 2015 20:30:20 GMT -5
The Rutland Halloween Parade figured in five Marvel issues: Amazing Adventures #16, Avengers #83 and 119, Marvel Feature #2 (the Defenders story you mentioned) and Thor #207. At DC, it popped up in Batman #237, DC Super-Stars #18, and Justice League of America #103 and 145, in addition to the Freedom Fighters issue cited above. Cei-U! I summon the checklist! [Content deleted because, thankfully, it was rendered irrelevant.]I had heard the following story somewhere over the years. These details are from Wikipedia (and since it’s Wikipedia, truth varies): In the fall of 1972, writers Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Len Wein crafted a loose three-part story spanning titles from both companies. Each comic featured Englehart, Conway, and Wein (and Wein's first wife Glynis) interacting with [Tom] Fagan and Marvel or DC villains (and heroes). Beginning in Amazing Adventures #16 (by Englehart with art by Bob Brown and Frank McLaughlin), the Beast hitches a ride from Englehart, who is driving the Weins and Conway to Rutland. The story terminates after Juggernaut attempts to steal Englehart's car. The action continues in Justice League of America #103 (by Wein, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano), with Batman and other JLAers wind up leading the parade while attempting to capture Felix Faust. Faust ultimately steals Englehart's car, but is pulled over by the police. In the third part of the unofficial crossover, Thor #207, (by Conway, John Buscema, and Vince Colletta), the three comics creators (and one wife) again visit Fagan, during which visit Englehart's car is stolen by the unseen and unmentioned DC villain Felix Faust, as shown in JLA #103.
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Post by Calamas on Jan 26, 2015 19:57:55 GMT -5
Pretty much What Slam says, though I'd add the Man with the Getaway Face, the Jugger and the Outfit, and the best part is that unlike a lot of other book series out there you don't really need to read them in any order. Thanks guys. I was just looking up the Parker series on wiki and this Dortmunder novel sounds like it might be fun as well: Jimmy the Kid (1974) by Donald E. Westlake — This novel in Westlake's John Dortmunder series features the gang planning a caper based on a Parker novel they have. Chapters alternate between Parker committing a kidnapping (in the otherwise unavailable novel Child Heist) and the Dortmunder gang screwing it up as they try to imitate Parker. Only a few chapters of Child Heist are featured, and this particular Parker story is not complete on its own.
Upon reflection, except for the end of the last sentence that is the same synopsis that appears on the Parker page of Kevin Burton Smith’s Thrilling Detective website. It’s a site worth checking out if you have any interest in the genre. Its short fiction varies in quality because they are contributed, not purchased, but otherwise it is an excellent reference: ParkerThrilling Detective
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Post by Calamas on Jan 24, 2015 19:36:30 GMT -5
I still have a couple of originals to go but I agree with the consensus: quick, readable, simple fun. My recommendation would be The Black Ice Score. Westlake stumbled into something much more substantial, perhaps accidentally as he wrapped up the tale in typical Parker fashion. Along the way, though, Parker came across some interesting characters in a particularly interesting predicament. It holds up.
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Post by Calamas on Jan 21, 2015 15:51:30 GMT -5
. . . Interestingly, I only discovered a little while back that Cary Bates used to submit cover ideas to comics. At least one of them were used and it was a biggie - Superman 167 featuring the first team-up of Luthor and Brainiac.
From his Comics Feature interview back in 1980:
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Post by Calamas on Jan 18, 2015 0:03:39 GMT -5
Al Schroeder III has a couple of unique distinctions. The first--and most important--is that he met his wife through the letter columns of the Julie Schwartz Superman titles. I remember her signing a couple of letters post-marriage as Barb Schroeder but her maiden name escapes me. Secondly, Schroeder suggested a “concept” that Martin Pasko built a story around--something regarding how the world was fooled into seeing something other than Superman in a pair of glasses when they looked at Clark Kent. Those details also escape me. As is often the case, time and memory. I do remember him posting on rare occasion at CBR.
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