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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 31, 2017 16:40:08 GMT -5
I hope you cut that splash page out of your extra copy!  No, sadly, my then-only copy. I thought I was outgrowing them. Then, I discovered things like Jon Sable and some of the other early 80s offerings and knew that I was there to stay. I had to hunt down replacements. You do stupid things when you are a teenager. Too true. |
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Post by Trevor on Jan 31, 2017 17:47:25 GMT -5
I have one cutting up comics story, and while I sort of regret the fact that I lost most of ~12 issues in the process, it's actually perhaps my fondest comic book memory. My first true love in comic collecting was the old DC book Plop. From that, I branched out into their horror line. My favorite stories in those titles (House of Mystery, Unexpected, Ghosts, etc) were the humor stories and one-page gags. The highlight was finding House of Mystery #202 with the story that inspired the creation of Plop. At some point when I was 9 or so, I cut out all the humor strips and made my own comic. It's still my favorite comic to this day. (I've since replaced all those cut-up horro books, most likely.)
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Post by brianf on Feb 1, 2017 5:40:02 GMT -5
 Micronauts #29 Writer - Bill Mantlo Penciler - Pat Broderick Inker - Danny Bulanadi Colourist - D. R. Martin Editor - Louise Jones Cover Art - Pat Broderick Synopsis : The comic opens with the Micronauts holding a funeral for their fallen comrades. We see the striking image of flag draped coffins of fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents next to the smaller coffins & military presence of the microverse forces. Unable to remember the names of Miroverse fallen, Nick Fury gives a silly yet stirring speech wrapping up the last issue. The Micronauts are still conflicted about Dagon and his questionable actions, and Acroyear states that his use of the Worldmind actually killed his home planet, angering Cilicia greatly. Commander Rann is in a coma, and with the help of Doc Samson the Micronauts get inserted in the commanders brain. Nightmare (the Dr Strange villain) is stopping Rann from waking up, so we see some miniature dreamtime conflict, and Dagons real motives gets reveled. By the end of the issue we get clues to where the Enigma Force has gone, the Commander has awoken, the the team heads back to the Microverse. Comments : Over all a solid wrap up issue that lays a fair share of clues for future story lines. The art continues to be enjoyable & Mantlo is obviously having a good time with the tales he is telling. Solid comic book time to be had here for sure.    |
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Post by brutalis on Feb 1, 2017 8:03:49 GMT -5
There are two things which helped make this storyline with SHIELD truly memorable for me. The first was the art by Pat Broderick: he went in full throttle with some amazingly memorable art and made a supreme effort in using perspective and positioning to properly show the diminutive size of the "Nauts while here on Earth and having human characters standing tall or kneeling or picking up the "Nauts in order to properly talk and interact with them. That he took this into consideration during his run on the series shows he was doing more than just a job, he cared enough about the series and work to invest his time for making sure he brought something special to the job.
The second memorable thing was Bill Mantlo not settling for using just big name Marvel heroes or villains in the series to grab a momentary audience. Mentallo and Fixer were not A-List grabs. His use of Nightmare within Commander Rann's mind battling Bug, Acroyear and Marionette shows how the Microverse connects with our own. Having Doc Samson being a doctor 1st and not using him as a powerhouse. That Hydra was used showing their war with SHIELD. All of this was great fun and showed Mantlo at his best writing.
Micronauts was a giant larger than life space fantasy ala Star Wars interacting with the Marvel Universe and it worked. During my high school years i haunted the Circle K's and 7-11's all around the neighborhoods in searching out and waiting for each new issue to arrive. Much more fun than homework and home chores!
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 1, 2017 22:30:17 GMT -5
Good stuff, though I never enjoyed the Nightmare stuff. I'm not a fan of mixing sci-fi and the supernatural, though Karza and the Enigma Force aways tread in both areas. I agree with Brutalis about Broderick's art, and they way he blended the scales of the characters. That was always a strong selling point for the Micronauts. At its best, the series was always a mixture of Richard Matheson and George Lucas.
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Post by brianf on Mar 26, 2017 22:54:16 GMT -5
 Micronauts #30 Writer - Bill Mantlo Penciler - Pat Broderick Inker - Danny Bulanadi Letterer - Shelly Leferman Editor - Louise Jones Cover Art - Pat Broderick Synopsis : Back in the Microverse our heroes track the clues planted in Commander Ranns head, the search for 3 keys needed to find the missing Enigma Force begins. Things happen! A mysterious monolith found in India. Subconscious signposts are decoded. Lengthy expositional conversations are speech bubbled. Nanotron, a robot assigned a female gender, is introduced so Microtron has someone to fixate over. Along with Acroyer leaving the team, Planetquakes are a precursor of the great distress to come. The remaining team heads to Oceania and is attacked by a giant fish. Meanwhile, Acroyer returns to the now dead Spartak and accepts the judgement of his people, the brand of Traitor. In the rest of the issue we get a fair amount of "Jonah and The Whale", aquatic civilizations that don't communicate, Microverse history, & Merman threats. Oh, and a Dr Strange cameo too! Comments : As time dragged on while I didn't follow up on my review pledge, I would spy the cover of #30 sitting next to my computer and find myself smiling at the old school Marvel corner box & top cover "Marvel Comics Group" banner. I pleasantly think of easily finding Marvels while scanning 7-11 spinner racks on road trips with my parents as a kid. While no means a bad comic, after the conclusion of last issues Karza fight Mantlo is back to universe building and methodical muliti-issue story plotting. So this comic being just one chapter in a longer narrative shows its seams as the bigger story gets sewn together.  |
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Post by rom on Apr 11, 2017 13:30:33 GMT -5
WOW - the art in these later Micronauts issues is amazing! Thanks for the scans. Pat Broderick's pencils are stellar here. I'm only really familiar with the earlier Mike Golden issues, which were obviously classic & iconic. However, if they ever reprint the series I would like to see all of the issues from the series & later mini-series reprinted. Excellent stuff here.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 11, 2017 13:43:15 GMT -5
WOW - the art in these later Micronauts issues is amazing! Thanks for the scans. Pat Broderick's pencils are stellar here. I'm only really familiar with the earlier Mike Golden issues, which were obviously classic & iconic. However, if they ever reprint the series I would like to see all of the issues from the series & later mini-series reprinted. Excellent stuff here. Broderick was coming into his own on these, as well as his stint on Captain Marvel, at the end of the comic's run and the continuation of the Thanos legacy storyline, in Marvel Spotlight (the 1979 revival), with ISAAC. |
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Post by brutalis on Apr 12, 2017 13:24:20 GMT -5
For more Broderick goodness look to his later DC work on Firestorm and Captain Atom and a brief run with Batman in Detective comics and Swamp Thing. He also did some mini-series with DC like Lords of the Ultrarealm and COPS (based on the toy) and there is also his run on Doom 2099 from Marvel. His art is a standout of the 80's for me. Where ever Broderick's art popped up i was always glad to see it!
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Post by brianf on May 19, 2017 3:34:09 GMT -5
 Micronauts #31 Writer - Bill Mantlo Penciler - Pat Broderick Inker - Danny Bulanadi Letterer - Joe Rosen Colors - Bob Sharen Editor - Louise Jones Cover Art - Frank Miller Synopsis : We open seeing Dr Strange meditating on the monolith found in India. Using the Eye of Agamotto Strange observes Microverse history.... Meanwhile Bug unhappily rides a fish. Splashing around in SeaZone The Micronauts continue their hunt for the Three Keys & we get fish battles, Mer-Humans, sibling rivalry and city destruction. To save the day the Merman uses his Key & turns everyone into fish to save them from drowning. Commander Rann smooth talks the fishy friend to give up the key so the Micronauts can continue their quest as not-fish. Comments : Hey, Frank Miller did the cover! So Mantlo works some of his earlier (unfinished) Marvel stories into the Micornauts history. There's a lot to unpack and since I can't seem to find time to do a write up that does the story justice I'm just gonna keep things short. This link has more info - Sword In The Star
Fun Fact - The Sword in the Star / Prince Wayfinder first appeared in Marvel Preview #4 (1976) & #7, also #4 the 1st appearance of Star Lord (not in the same story) & Rocket Racoon first appearance is #7.   |
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Post by Trevor on Jan 8, 2018 10:47:35 GMT -5
Vaguely thinking about adding an issue or four as I read through Micronauts again this year, but don’t want to put up any lesser entries if you still plan on posting more Brian.
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Post by brianf on Jan 27, 2018 23:03:12 GMT -5
Vaguely thinking about adding an issue or four as I read through Micronauts again this year, but don’t want to put up any lesser entries if you still plan on posting more Brian. I keep meaning to get back to this but life keeps getting in my way. So while I do plan on doing more please feel free to add anything you'd like to. There's room for all! |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2018 14:59:01 GMT -5
Micronauts and Pat Broderick make the news. Glad to see Broderick get the spotlight (and a plug for Brian Heiler of Pod Stallions and the MegoMuseum) but some mention of Michael Golden should have been made if you are talking Micronauts comics. -M
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Post by rberman on Apr 6, 2018 15:05:27 GMT -5
Micronauts and Pat Broderick make the news. Glad to see Broderick get the spotlight (and a plug for Brian Heiler of Pod Stallions and the MegoMuseum) but some mention of Michael Golden should have been made if you are talking Micronauts comics. The article says that at the time, Micronauts was Marvel's #2 selling comic book. What was #1? Star Wars (on which Micronauts was based)? X-Men? Conan? |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 6, 2018 23:30:11 GMT -5
Micronauts and Pat Broderick make the news. Glad to see Broderick get the spotlight (and a plug for Brian Heiler of Pod Stallions and the MegoMuseum) but some mention of Michael Golden should have been made if you are talking Micronauts comics. The article says that at the time, Micronauts was Marvel's #2 selling comic book. What was #1? Star Wars (on which Micronauts was based)? X-Men? Conan? Star Wars was number one at least until the Empire adaptation, as a whole. Other comics might momentarily sell more; but, it had the highest consistent sales. A lot of it had to do with the fact it was one of the few places to feed your Star Wars jones, until Empire came out. It also helped that Archie Goodwin was writing some brilliant stuff, both there and in the newspaper strip. If only Lucas had consulted him about developing the movie stories, especially the prequels and sequels. Might have gotten something other than a rehash of the same plots. Man, how I would love to see Valance on the screen. |
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