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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 15:45:08 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I completely understand that not everyone was into Crystar. One of the problems may have been the inconsistent art. In fact, issue #1 - while having an amazing painted cover - had somewhat lackluster interior art.
It's been years since I read these issues, but I think the artist(s) varied for the rest of the short-lived series as well.
That being said, later issues had cover art by the incomparable Michael Golden. And, Golden is among my top five favorite comic artists - despite the fact that he's done very little work over the years, and has all-but disappeared from the comics scene since the '80's.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 15:31:44 GMT -5
Great thread - I just discovered this.
These scans from the Savage Tales b&w mag. are amazing. Have these mag's ever been reprinted anywhere? I know DH has reprinted the SSOC mags., but am not sure above Savage Tales. Thanks in advance for any info. on this! The Conan stories (not the other material) from Savage Tales are reprinted in the first phonebook collection of Savage Sword from Dark Horse. The Femizons story from Savage Tales #1 (reprinted in #3 too I think) was collected in the Fireside book The Superhero Women. Other than that, not sure on reprints. -M
Great to know - Thanks for the response. As it turns out, I have that first SSOC Trade from DH, but it's been years since I read this - so, I had forgotten about these ST reprints. What throws me off somewhat re: the DH phone-book trades is that the covers aren't printed in color, so they don't stand out to me that much.
In any case, it would be nice if Savage Tales were reprinted in it's entirety, not just the Conan stories. Those b&w Marvel mags. from the '70's were incredible - and in many cases, superior to many of the color comics that were coming out at the same time.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 12:47:26 GMT -5
I think they would look great given today's production standards. Looking at the list, I believe I only had Crystar and Moltar. I think what appealed to me about Crystar at the time (I would have only been six) was the fact that it was a translucent figure. Those were rare at the time and this was probably my first one in terms of action figures. The green crystal Warbow (the character with the eye-patch) is probably the best-looking figure in the line, but I don't think I ever had this.
Yes, the concept was great re: an action figure line, but the execution was just O.K. in most cases. Again, I have no doubt that if Crystar were re-done today & if it were done properly, the figures would look superb.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 12:32:18 GMT -5
Amazing thread. I've been a big POTA movie & comic/magazine fan since the early '80's.
Re: the POTA b&w magazine, I remember seeing a lot of these '70's back issues at a local comic store circa 1982. I bought a pile of them, and really enjoyed the artwork/storylines of both the film adaptations & the original stories. The ones with excellent Mike Ploog artwork especially stood out.
And, in the cases of the Escape - Conquest film adaptations, I actually preferred Marvel's versions over the film's themselves!
In recent years, I've collected some of the BOOM! POTA series that came out from 2011-on. Those were fairly good, and the early issues of the regular POTA series (set in the original film universe) had amazing artwork.
I'm also a huge fan of the new films, Rise of the POTA & Dawn of the POTA (I like these better than the originals). And, I wish BOOM! had done more comic series in the "universe" of these new films; they did one series, though I haven't gotten around to reading this yet (I own the Trade).
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 11:51:09 GMT -5
Sounds great - Thanks for doing this. I didn't read The Joker series when it was originally out, but DC did reprint the series in a thin Trade several years ago. I have considered getting this, but since I had 0 familiarity with the series haven't yet. So, your review will be interesting.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 11:42:58 GMT -5
Coincidentally enough, several of the characters (including Crystar, Moltar and Warbow) resurfaced during Marvel's most recent Secret Wars event, and later in the Weirdworld spin-off series a few months ago.
Wasn't aware of this - very interesting. This just shows that Marvel hasn't forgotten the characters; and, it further reinforces that Crystar & co. are definitely part of the MU.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 11:13:39 GMT -5
I never read the comics, but I do remember loving the toys when they originally came out.
I had some of the Crystar toys back in the day, and remember enjoying them. Have no idea where these are now, however:
www.action-figures.ca/crystar.htm
I would definitely be onboard if Marvel were to produce a new line of Crystar figures, using the more advanced sculpting techniques these days - I'm sure Crystar figures would look fantastic if re-done.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 10:36:03 GMT -5
The '90's were an interesting decade for me when it came to comic collecting. I had first stopped collecting comics cold turkey in late '87, in my late teens.
Flash-forward to early 1992, a friend told me about a brand new comic series called Star Wars: Dark Empire - being a huge SW fan, I then went out & promptly bought issue #1, and since I was then going back into the comic stores on a regular basis, I ended up being more exposed to comics & started collecting some other titles, notably:
Most of DH's later Star Wars comics, especially the Classic Star Wars series (reprinting the old newspaper strips), as well as Tales of the Jedi, etc.
Grendel: War Child (1992 - 1993): I had been a fan of Comico's Grendel series in the late '80's, so it was great to re-enter the Grendel universe through the amazing series.
I did not have a lot of interest in Marvel's '90's comics. I though the re-vamps of X-men & Spider-man were nothing more than cash-grabs, especially given all of the stupid variant covers, i.e. foil, hologram, etc. It was too much to keep track of, so I got none of these.
I had some interest in DC's Death & Life of Superman, as well as the Batman: Knightfall storyline(s). However, at the time I couldn't afford to buy all of the individual floppies - so, I just ended up reading the truncated novels (Death & Life of Superman; Knighfall) - which didn't have as much detail as the individual comics - but, gave the reader an overview of the respective stories.
I did also read a lot of the DC Vertigo Trades that were coming out at the time, i.e. Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Preacher, Black Orchid, etc. Great stuff! It was also nice that I didn't have to buy these, but would read them at Border's Books.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 9:45:09 GMT -5
I'm indulging in some early '80's nostalgia, and remembered the interesting Marvel fantasy comic from the early '80's, The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior. This only ran for 11 issues, but was very well-done. It involved a fantasy world in which two brothers were at war with each other - in the beginning both were human, but at some point one brother and his followers got turned into living crystal beings, and the other brother and his followers were turned into beings made of lava/magma. Fairly juvenile-sounding, I know, but it was cool at the time. Though I don't have any of these comics anymore, I remember that the first issue had a beautiful painted cover. At least one of the following issues included a cover by Michael Golden, as well. And, these Crystar characters seemed to be part of the Marvel Universe, since they interacted with Marvel characters in later issues (Dr. Strange, Nightcrawler, Alpha Flight). Not sure why the comic only lasted 11 issues - I'm not sure if this was a limited series, or was just cancelled due to poor sales. I also can't remember if this was a direct market-only comic. This series also involved a cool toy tie-in from Remco - the toys actually came out before the comic. This was typical of the time period, i.e. there would be a lot of cross-media tie-ins to promote a toy line. However, what was unusual in this case was that Marvel did own the property - so, they owned the rights to both the toys & the comic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_CrystarHere's a cover gallery: marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Saga_of_Crystar,_Crystal_Warrior_Vol_1 To my knowledge, this series has never been reprinted in it's entirety. It would be nice to see a thin Trade reprinting all 11 issues at some point.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 9:15:08 GMT -5
Great thread - I just discovered this.
These scans from the Savage Tales b&w mag. are amazing. Have these mag's ever been reprinted anywhere? I know DH has reprinted the SSOC mags., but am not sure above Savage Tales. Thanks in advance for any info. on this!
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Post by rom on Sept 10, 2016 22:53:20 GMT -5
Excellent thread. I have recently started reading the great DC George Perez Wonder Woman Omnibus that came out in Summer 2015; excellent art & story. I had missed this back in the '80's since I wasn't a huge WW fan, but now that I'm reading this I'm really enjoying the series. As he did with Robin in New Teen Titans, GP took a character that had been around for decades & gotten somewhat stale, and breathed new life into them - great stuff here.
This also went along with John Byrne's Superman & Frank Miller's Batman: Year One series from the '80's; these, along with GP's WW, were re-inventing these iconic characters.
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Post by rom on Sept 10, 2016 22:32:49 GMT -5
IMHO the Wein/Wrightson 1970's Swamp Thing run is iconic & classic; it's probably one of my favorite horror comic storylines, though ST may be considered more of a super-hero. It helps that I'm a huge fan of most '70's comics, especially horror (and horror related) series.
I strongly prefer this to the later & more popular Moore/Bissette/Totleben ST series, which to me seemed a lot more metaphysical & psychological (if that makes sense) in tone. In fact, I tried to collect these later '80's ST comics & couldn't get into them; I bought 1-2 issues early on, before giving up on the series.
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Post by rom on Sept 10, 2016 22:10:56 GMT -5
Hey guys - now that Halloween is coming up, I thought it was a good time to ask this. Anyway, here is my question: Roughly 35-ish years ago (either in the very late '70's or early '80's), I read a creepy, disturbing story in an anthology horror comic - from what I can remember, the plot of the story was as follows - please note it's many years since I read this, so the details are somewhat hazy: A guy was driving alone late at night in the middle of nowhere. He stopped at an almost-deserted diner to get some coffee and possibly something to eat. As time went on, he noticed some strange things going on in the diner (though I can't remember what they were), and he eventually asked the diner's proprietor about them. The diner's proprietor (a creepy older guy), smiled in a sinister way and said something like, "Don't you know where you are?!". The last panel(s) were of the diner floating in space/limbo (I think). The implication was that the guy was dead?! and that the diner was supposed to be purgatory/hell - at least that's what I remember thinking at the time. I don't remember which comic book this was in - it could have been in a DC or maybe even a Charlton anthology horror comic - I do remember that these types of horror comics were quite popular at this time, i.e. D.C.'s House of Secrets, etc. I don't think it was a Marvel comic (they didn't have many horror anthology comics by the late '70's/early '80's). This was definitely a color comic book, not a b&w comic or b&w magazine. Also, note that this was not the only story in this comic - there were at least 2-3 other stories, but I can't remember what they were - that's the only one that stands out. Anyway, if anyone out there knows which comic I'm talking about here, please post this here - I would like to track it down so I can read it again. Also, if it's been reprinted anywhere please post this as well - lastly, a link to the comic itself would be much appreciated, also. Thanks in advance for any info. on this! rom The Science Fiction aspect of the story made me think it could be in an issue of Time Warp. I checked my collection and no luck. The GCD said that when TW was cancelled some of the left over stories were used in The Unexpected. The GCD entries for those 4 Unexpected issues had story synopsis and none matched your story. Thanks for the info. However, this story was definitely not sci-fi in any way; it was in a horror comic. Again, I think the end was supposed to imply the diner was in hell/limbo, not outer space. Also, I could be mis-remembering some details here - after all, it's been 35+ years since I read this comic.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 18:54:33 GMT -5
hmm. . my first thought is "Weird Mystery Tales" just a guess. Thanks for the quick response. I will do some research regarding this.
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Post by rom on Sept 9, 2016 18:09:13 GMT -5
Hey guys - now that Halloween is coming up, I thought it was a good time to ask this. Anyway, here is my question: Roughly 35-ish years ago (either in the very late '70's or early '80's), I read a creepy, disturbing story in an anthology horror comic - from what I can remember, the plot of the story was as follows - please note it's many years since I read this, so the details are somewhat hazy:
A guy was driving alone late at night in the middle of nowhere. He stopped at an almost-deserted diner to get some coffee and possibly something to eat. As time went on, he noticed some strange things going on in the diner (though I can't remember what they were), and he eventually asked the diner's proprietor about them. The diner's proprietor (a creepy older guy), smiled in a sinister way and said something like, "Don't you know where you are?!". The last panel(s) were of the diner floating in space/limbo (I think). The implication was that the guy was dead?! and that the diner was supposed to be purgatory/hell - at least that's what I remember thinking at the time.
I don't remember which comic book this was in - it could have been in a DC or maybe even a Charlton anthology horror comic - I do remember that these types of horror comics were quite popular at this time, i.e. D.C.'s House of Secrets, etc. I don't think it was a Marvel comic (they didn't have many horror anthology comics by the late '70's/early '80's).
This was definitely a color comic book, not a b&w comic or b&w magazine.
Also, note that this was not the only story in this comic - there were at least 2-3 other stories, but I can't remember what they were - that's the only one that stands out.
Anyway, if anyone out there knows which comic I'm talking about here, please post this here - I would like to track it down so I can read it again. Also, if it's been reprinted anywhere please post this as well - lastly, a link to the comic itself would be much appreciated, also. Thanks in advance for any info. on this!
rom
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