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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 10, 2020 15:55:07 GMT -5
The only comics I might have seen are these...   I have no idea of what issues I saw of Super Goof; but, I had two or three of them, I know. Issue 14 I'm fairly positive I had. I also encountered an issue of Space Family Robinson at some point, in the early 70s. It was cancelled with this issue, but that cover is one I always felt looked familiar. I think it was a little more likely I saw it during its revival, in 1973. I can't recall story specifics, other than I always recalled Space Station 1 and the shuttle craft. And Dan Spiegle's art. |
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Post by berkley on Aug 10, 2020 16:57:00 GMT -5
Avengers #81 - this was one of the great eras of the series, great art by Buscema and Palmer
Avengers Annual #4 - always liked reading these reprints of the older stories
Daredevil #69 - my favourite Avenger guest-starring in Daredevil, another favourite, was a great bonus. In hindsight, it really didn't make sense to have the King of Wakanda working as a school-teacher in the USA, but of course I wasn't thinking about things like that back then.
Fantastic Four #104 - I liked these early-post-Kirby issues, though looking back there isnn't really anything special about them, just solid Marvel superhero comics of the era. Still, I remember them fondly.
Incredible Hulk #133 - I remember this issue and really most Hulk comics of the time for the Trimpe/Severin artwork.
Incredible Hulk Annual #3 - this reprint issue, OTOH, made a huge impression on me for both the artwork and the story. The earlier, more primitive, brutal Hulk stood in strange contrast to the later, more reader-friendly version. And though the artwork wasn't as pleasing to the eye as Trimpe/Severin, so many images from this comic burnt themselves into my brain, for some reason, from the armies, soldiers, androids, etc fighting the Hulk to the Leader attaining his goal at the end.
Sub-Mariner #31 - I always liked Triton of the Inhumans, and this was probably my first sight of Stingray, who, as everyone knows, has one of the best costumes in superhero comics.
Thor #181 - Can't recall much about this issue apart from the Neal Adams art, though I wasn<t noticing creators< names back then. Thor always fascinated me with its weird mix of superhero/SF plus myth/magic.
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Post by Farrar on Aug 21, 2020 15:15:34 GMT -5
August 1970Marvel: just these two 
Avengers #81: well, at the time I loved this issue. As I mentioned, i figured Wanda had been brought back to the team so some romance would be added and here my suspicions were validated: it was obvious she was going to be paired with the Vision. I'd never particularly cared for him before, but now I took notice, since it was apparent he was going to figure into a storyline with Wanda, and this meant more airtime for Wanda who had long been one of my favorite Marvel characters. And as much as I admired certain artists--J. Buscema, Swan, Schaffenberger, Gil Kane--for me back then comics were all about the characters. Avengers #81, along with the recent Brave and Bold #91 and Green Lantern #78, represented a more "adult" attitude than other superhero comics I'd read. Anyway, I remember i read and re-read this issue over and over again. I couldn't wait to see what would develop between Wanda and Vision! Fantastic Four #104: a perfunctory issue. I still didn't like the Romita art (seems he did layouts, for Verpooten's finishes)--whatever, the art seemed very basic, almost crude, to me. I guess both artists were feeling the heat, having to replace Kirby-Sinnott at short notice, certainly not an enviable task for anyone. And Stan's dialogue for Namor, Magneto and the FF just seemed off and rushed. As I'd also been reading Namor's own series (though I'd missed a few recent issues) I was struck by how little the character here resembled the character in his own series. In hindsight I get that Stan was busy with his new responsibilities and was becoming increasingly hands-off the actual stories back then, but boy--it showed. A very disappointing issue.
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Post by Farrar on Aug 21, 2020 16:14:05 GMT -5
DCs were becoming hit or miss for me. None of the candy stores in my neighborhood seemed to carry them on a regular basis. So for that month, this seems to be the new DC I managed to pick up off the stands:  Lois Lane #105: The main Lois story was unmemorable; I still disliked the Novick art, I wanted Schaffenberger!The appeal of this issue was the introduction of a new character, the Thorn. The Thorn appeared in the main LL story as kickstart to her own new back-up feature in the book, story by Robert Kanigher and art by the fabled Andru-Esposito team. I'd always loved their art on Wonder Woman and Metal Men (and I enjoyed a lot of Kanigher's stories for those series too), so this was a series I planned on following. Alas, it was not to be: the next LL issue I managed to find would't be until almost a year later, #112! **** But here's the kicker. A few years ago I was looking at the many online resources that reprinted Silver Age comic book letters, and I started reading some LL columns, including a slew of letters about #105 praising the Thorn to the high heavens as being the greatest thing from DC since sliced bread, including one letter in which the letter writer said that they had sworn off DC because its comics were too "childish" and accordingly, the letter writer had recently thrown away all their DC comics.... but inasmuch as the letter writer had really enjoyed the Thorn, they were now returning to the DC fold. Well to paraphrase Kamala Harris  , that little letter writer was me. Now, I never saw the letter when it was printed--as mentioned my next LL issue wasn't until #112-- and I have no recollection of writing that letter or that I had thrown out all my DCs (except, as noted in the letter, for Adventure #397 and Wonder Woman #190, both of which I had acquired in July 1970). Yes, my mother was forever nagging me to get rid of my "stupid comics", but I can hardly believe that at that time I would have discarded my DCs including my cherished Legion Adventure Comics--I had so many great back issues at the time!--but there it is, in black and white  . I hope my letter was just a case of me exaggerating events in an attempt to make my letter more dramatic in DC's eyes!
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 1, 2020 9:17:19 GMT -5
SEPTEMBER 1970Aquaman #54Off-beat story for Aquaman, though not unexpected in the Giordano-Skeates run. Maybe the cover’s an attempt to get the horror fans to pick up an issue. Inside, we see the usual great Aparo art taking Aquaman through various vignettes that look like classic movie genres: a film noir; a haunted house; and an Old West showdown. It’s all taking place in his mind, courtesy a villain named Thanatos (!). More pushing the underwater envelope by Steve Skeates and superb art by Aparo.  Batman #226The Ten-Eyed Man makes his first appearance. I don’t recall being too impressed. Don’t think I was alone, as he only showed up once more (in Batman 231) and in Man-Bat 2 five years later.  Captain America #132Picked it up to finish the Bucky Barnes two-parter.  Conan the Barbarian #2Smith’s art is already improving, and thought the story leans more toward s-f than fantasy and sword-and-sorcery at times, it is already head and brawny shoulders above almost everything else on the stands. The letters pages is loaded with celebrity paeans to the first issue: Maggie and Don Thompson; Glenn Lord; Harlan Ellison; Dick Lupoff; and August Derleth. But the best is yet to come!  Flash #201Bought this for the Earth-Two Flash story drawn by Murphy Anderson. Had to represent for Earth-Two! As for the title Flash, well, making super-heroes relevant really only goes so far. The Flash trying to get woke, Bob Kanigher, 70’s style was a tough sell.  Justice League of America #84Kanigher strikes again, importing The 100, his villains from last month’s Rose and the Thorn story, where they would remain for the next three years, into a ridiculous mad scientist story during which Kanigher gives Black Canary telepathic abilities she’d never realized she had. You get the feeling that the powers that be liked Black Canary – especially her Frederick’s of Hollywood outfit -- but couldn’t quite figure out how she could fit in with the varsity unless they kept loading on previously unknown powers. And, as usual, the JLA is down for the count on the cover, which just for fun, highlights an enlightened depiction of indigenous peoples, aka “primitive savages.”  Justice League of America #85Love them reprints. Nice Anderson cover, too.  Our Army at War #225As usual, if you liked this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you would like. I did, and I did.  Strange Adventures #227The 64-pagers were still able to pack in a lot of solid reading for a quarter. Seven stories, including an Adam Strange adventure.  (Son of) Tomahawk #131A hidden gem, as DC tries to keep this long-running title alive by aging Tomahawk, giving him a Native American wife and two sons, one of whom looks like Elvis. Kubert on the cover, Thorne on Tomahawk and son, and reprints from Grandenetti and Frazetta!  Never saw it on the stands: Detective Comics #405… Very weird that I missed this one. Wish I had seen it on the stands: Hot Wheels 5. What a fine Toth cover! But is there any other kind? (I think that’s a Cord barreling at the reader.) 
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Post by berkley on Sept 2, 2020 16:11:45 GMT -5
Astonishing Tales #3
Astonishing is right, with outstanding artwork by Barry (Windsor) Smith on Ka-Zar and Wally Wood on Doctor Doom.
Conan the Barbarian #2
My first Conan comic - and my last until a few years later, as I was on the verge of getting out of comics . Still, not sure how I missed the next few issues of this series, because this made a very big impression on me, not only Smith's art, though it wasn't what it would shortly become (in fact, frommemory, his work on the Ka-Zar story in Astonighing Tales this month was more like himself than this, so I wonder if this had actually been drawn earlier); anyway, not only the art but also the grim storyline with its tragic ending.
Fantastic Four #105
I continued to enjoy these early post-Kirby FF issues.
X-Men #67
It's funny, I never particularly liked the original X-Men, yet they often had some really good stories in their series - the Stranger, Ka-Zar, and this one. I remember the Juggernaut seemed like a very dangerous enemy, though again, I never really liked the character design or even the one-note concept of "cannot be stopped!". But it certaily heightened the dramatic tension in this one story, at least for an 8-year old reader.
It's possible that I also read this month's Spider-Man #91 and that Hot Wheels #5 Prince Hal mentioned above, but I couldn't swear to it. I know I was reading both series sporadically (like everything) at the time and the covers do look familiar, though that could be from seeing them online in the years since. Maybe if I looked at the interiors it might come back to me.
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Post by Farrar on Sept 8, 2020 15:58:56 GMT -5
September 1970DC: None. Nada. Zero. 0 That's right, no new DCs for me this month. In the past few years I have read a lot of what was on sale back then thanks to trades, collections, buying old comics, etc., but evidently I didn't pick up any new DCs in Sept. 1970. As I may have mentioned, the candy stores in my neighborhood seemed to be carrying fewer and fewer DCs with each passing month. Marvel: thank the gods the candy store three blocks north was still stocking my Marvels!  Avengers #82: Oh man was I disappointed in this issue, because there was no follow up or any mention to what had transpired last issue between Wanda and Vision. Instead it was business as usual, and whereas last issue Wanda. Vision and Clint were the stars (along with Red Wolf), this month the other Avengers were spotlighted (remember back in #80 the team had "split up" due to its members wanting to fight for differing causes). Oh and Daredevil guest-starred (as you can see by the cover). Dull story IMO; not even the Buscema-Palmer art could get me interested. Fantastic Four #105: Crystal leaves the team (and FF comic) again. What the--  ? She'd just left in #95, came back in #99, and now she was leaving again?? I've since read it was because some writers wanted her in the Inhumans feature that was running in Amazing Adventures, but heck, she didn't show up there--or anywhere at Marvel--for about a year. Anyway, using this tired old subplot about Johnny and Crystal being "forced" to separate yet again raised some eyebrows among fans, in later lettercols some readers questioned why Johnny couldn't just go live with her in Attilan, or why he couldn't just visit her whenever they wanted to get together. And I'm sorry but the Romita-Verpooten art was just too basic for my taste. It was a hard pill to swallow after the Kirby-Sinnott days.
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Post by Farrar on Sept 8, 2020 16:40:15 GMT -5
The Marvel bonus for me that month was Sub-Mariner #32. Unlike the FF and Avengers comics, which the neighborhood candy store carried on a regular basis, the same could not be said for the Sub-Mariner series that I'd recently gotten hooked on. I bought a lot of Subby back issues (with all that great J. Buscema, Colan and M. Severin art) at the collectibles store, but I always had a hard time finding new issues on the stands. But apparently I did manage to get this one that month!  I say "apparently" because the cover and story (a very sad story, you'd think I'd have remembered it but I didn't) didn't seem at all familiar to me, so I figured this was one I hadn't owned back in the day. However when I took a closer look recently, I realized I must have had this issue! As I may have mentioned, I loved to copy from comics back then. I remember for a project for an art class, we were pasting painted sand on big wooden canvases, and first we had to sketch a scene on the wood (and then glue the sand into our drawing). I did a sketch of a mermaid with her hand extended to a merman. She was on the left side of my canvas, the merman was towards the top right, and he was reaching down to take her hand. In school I liked to draw and I often used comic book art as a model for my sketching. For years I thought I must have copied an image from a Superman or Aquaman comic, Lori Lemaris or Mera and Aquaman or characters like that. Since my canvas sketch was quite large, I also figured I must have copied the poses from a comic book cover. But I never came across anything that fit the bill. Well, recently when looking through Subby #32 again all of a sudden it clicked--here it was!  One panel from a five-panel page (Sal Buscema). Oh, I reversed the sexes in my sketch, but this was definitely the pose I used! As mentioned I switched things around, and added a lot of long Mera-like hair to the mermaid, but the inspiration/genesis was this panel. I remember the teacher was really annoyed when I mentioned to her I had copied the pose from a comic book   |
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 8, 2020 17:44:38 GMT -5
Farrar, you should have told your teacher that you took the pose from the same place as Sal... the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. 😉
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Post by Farrar on Sept 8, 2020 19:09:20 GMT -5
^^^ Ha! Yes of course--that goes without saying (well, almost  , since you just said it. But since I didn't realize it at the time, I didn't include that in my little remembrance. Buuuut now you're making me think that's likely why my teacher asked me about it. She didn't go on to explain or illuminate the discussion, however; she just expressed her displeasure). And it's funny, but when I came across this cover (below) as an adult, I thought, huh, that's kinds sorta like the mermaid I drew. But I know for sure I never saw this much older comic until a few years ago.  |
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Post by berkley on Sept 8, 2020 19:28:46 GMT -5
September 1970DC: None. Nada. Zero. 0 That's right, no new DCs for me this month. In the past few years I have read a lot of what was on sale back then thanks to trades, collections, buying old comics, etc., but evidently I didn't pick up any new DCs in Sept. 1970. As I may have mentioned, the candy stores in my neighborhood seemed to be carrying fewer and fewer DCs with each passing month. Marvel: thank the gods the candy store three blocks north was still stocking my Marvels! Avengers #82: Oh man was I disappointed in this issue, because there was no follow up or any mention to what had transpired last issue between Wanda and Vision. Instead it was business as usual, and whereas last issue Wanda. Vision and Clint were the stars (along with Red Wolf), this month the other Avengers were spotlighted (remember back in #79 the team had "split up" due to wanting to fight for differing causes). Oh and Daredevil guest-starred (as you can see by the cover). Dull story IMO; not even the Buscema-Palmer art could get me interested. Fantastic Four #105: Crystal leaves the team (and FF comic) again. What the-- ? She'd just left in #95, came back in #99, and now she was leaving again?? I've since read it was because some writers wanted her in the Inhumans feature that was running in Amazing Adventures, but heck, she didn't show up there--or anywhere at Marvel--for about a year. Anyway, using this tired old subplot about Johnny and Crystal being "forced" to separate yet again raised some eyebrows among fans, in later lettercols some readers questioned why Johnny couldn't just go live with her in Attilan, or why he couldn't just visit her whenever they wanted to get together. And I'm sorry but the Romita-Verpooten art was just too basic for my taste. It was a hard pill to swallow after the Kirby-Sinnott days. I missed this month's Avengers but I remember liking the FF a lot at this time, in spite of the change in artwork. But yes, as I shall never tire of saying, in retrospect this separation of Crystal from the FF family ended up being disastrous for the character, eventually leading to the nonsensical marriage to Quicksilver and her characterisation as a flighty, unreliable man-chaser - a complete 180 from her established persona. If ever something needed to be ret-conned this was it but I've never seen a Marvel writer even so much as mention it, one of many reasons I find them underwhelming as a group, unfair as that may be. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 2, 2020 9:45:21 GMT -5
October 1970Batman 227  The celebrated cover paying homage to Detective 31: part super-hero, part Gothic. In the story Batman rescues Alfred’s niece Daphne (in her second and final appearance) who’s playing Jane Eyre to two young children in a spooky mansion from a devil-worshipping warlock who makes Mr. Rochester look like John Ritter. Brave and the Bold 93
 One of the best B and B team-ups, in which Batman teams up with, of all things, a house. It’s a perfect way to plug the nascent horror phase and push B and B on the casual reader. Neal Adams’ art was never better. Challengers of the Unknown 77
 Kirby reprint. Better than where the book had been headed in its final new issues. Detective 406
Batman vs. Dr. Darrk, another in a line of attempts at a potential new Bat-villain. But Darrk (does he speak with a burr?) never shows up again. GL/GA 81
 A population explosion, courtesy Mother Juna and her clone machine on the planet Maltus. (Nice one, Denny… it got this high school senior to look it up in the encyclopedia!) More relevance with more superb Adams art. Justice League of America #86
 Man, had this become just a habit-buy for me. More helpless JLA (though it looks more like a World's Finest cover), more concern about pollution, and Mike Friedrich, whose letters were usually fun to read, brings none of that style to his first JLA story. About as subtle as a George Wallace rally. This one’s about a billionaire named Theo Zappa (!) trying to blackmail two planets by hoarding all of Earth’s plankton. Yes, hoarding all the plankton in the seven seas. All. The. Plankton. Mike’s heart was always in the right place. I just wish his writing (on JLA, anyway) had been, too. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134
 Kirby’s going nuts now! Darkseid shows up; the immense Mountain of Judgment rumbles on; the Newsboy Legion flies around in their reconfigured Pogo Plane, the Whiz Wagon (no cheap jokes from me); the Hairies ain’t so scary, because despite their Manson Family fashion sense, they were actually super-scientific types; and Superman remains a reliable source of Super-dickery as he tells Jimmy that he’s known all along about the Habitat, the Hairies’ top secret haven in the Wild Area. That’s one issue of Kirby, two years’ worth of issues for anyone else. Castle of Frankenstein 15
 This used to pop up sporadically on the newsstands, much like Larry Ivie’s Monsters and Heroes, but they were probably the first magazines I’d ever seen devoted to comics, movies, fantasy, sword and sorcery, etc. They made me think that there was something more to comics, that they weren’t just for kids (despite what spinner racks proclaimed); that there were other people who knew and loved all the dumb stuff I did, like sword and sorcery and old movies and comic strips; and that somehow they were actually able to write about it and publish it. It was becoming easier to find information, affirmation and legitimacy! (And this Virgil Finlay pin-up from the first page hung inside my locker throughout my senior year.) 
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Post by Farrar on Oct 24, 2020 15:43:56 GMT -5
October 1970 I was still buying a lot of back issues, more so than new comics. I was a habitué of the collectibles store on my block. DC--nothing this month off the newsstands. Marvel--thank goodness the candy store a few blocks north was still carrying my two regular comics, the FF and the Avengers. Too bad I didn't pick up or find Marvel's Greatest Comics #30, however. That month's MGC contained reprints of FF #37--a back issue I already had--and FF #38, which I didn't have. In fact I only got around to finally reading #38, a Frightful Four story, a few years ago thanks to the FF Essential volume.  Fantastic Four #106: I still hadn't warmed to Romita Sr.'s FF, even with Joe Sinnott inking (Verpooten had inked the previous Romita issues). But this issue seemed more like the old Lee-Kirby-Sinnott FF I was used to, starting with the cover, which reminded me of FF #71. I love multi-panel/multi-scene covers. And the story had a pace similar to the older Lee-Kirby ones, that is, one plot ended and then another subplot that had been on deck then stepped up to the plate. I loved it when stories led into one another; this sort of story pacing was a staple of the 1966-1968 FF comic. One of the chief appeals of the FF from when I was reading it was that its issues seemed to read like chapters in a long ongoing novel. Even when the stories weren't officially "continued" stories, there was often a seamless bleeding into the next story. When I have more time I'll get to Avengers #83. EDIT/UPDATE: eh, guess I waited too long to update this, it's now DECEMBER! At any rate Avengers #83 was not one of the series' better stories. The plot was akin to earlier, simplistic Legion "girls against boys" stories, that is the women rebelled only because they were brainwashed/under someone's spell. SMH Btw the Legion stories were from 1964 (Adventure #326) and 1968 (Adventure #368). The pluses were that Wanda, my favorite Marvel character, had a big role in the story; and it was good to see Medusa and the Black Widow (I'd missed the most recent issues of Amazing Adventures. I did wonder why there was no in-story acknowledgement that BW and Clint were meeting up again, though (aa did someone else in a later lettercol).
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 24, 2020 16:46:36 GMT -5
October 1970 I was still buying a lot of back issues, more so than new comics. I was a habitué of the collectibles store on my block. DC--nothing this month off the newsstands. Marvel--thank goodness the candy store a few blocks north was still carrying my two regular comics, the FF and the Avengers. Too bad I didn't pick up or find Marvel's Greatest Comics #30, however. That month's MGC contained reprints of FF #37--a back issue I already had--and FF #38, which I didn't have. In fact I only got around to finally reading #38, a Frightful Four story, a few years ago thanks to the FF Essential volume. Fantastic Four #106: I still hadn't warmed to Romita Sr.'s FF, even with Joe Sinnott inking (Verpooten had inked the previous Romita issues). But this issue seemed more like the old Lee-Kirby-Sinnott FF I was used to, starting with the cover, which reminded me of FF #71. I love multi-panel/multi-scene covers. And the story had a pace similar to the older Lee-Kirby ones, that is, one plot ended and then another subplot that had been on deck then stepped up to the plate. I loved it when stories led into one another; this sort of story pacing was a staple of the 1966-1968 FF comic. One of the chief appeals of the FF from when I was reading it was that its issues seemed to read like chapters in a long ongoing novel. Even when the stories weren't officially "continued" stories, there was often a seamless bleeding into the next story. When I have more time I'll get to Avengers #83. Fascinating period for both titles. I--in no surprise-- loved Romita on FF; he brought such an energetic, dynamic look to the FF's dramas. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 24, 2020 19:48:53 GMT -5
remember specifically reading:
Amazing Adventures #4
Kirby drawing the Inhumans and Colan drawing the Black Widow!
Avengers #83
Valkyrie - still one of the great costume designs, IMO, though as I grew older I came to dislike the concept behind her origin story, nd would much orefer to see the character written strightforwardly as a Norse goddess.
Fantastic Four #106
I was still loving the series at this time, but I suspect that at 8 or 9 years of age I would have felt much the same no matter who the creators were as long as they stuck to the established Lee/Kirby formula.
possibly read but not certain:
Amazing Spider-Man #92
Incredible Hulk #135
Sub-Mariner #33
Thor #183
would have to read these again to say for sure;
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, that little letter writer was me. Now, I never saw the letter when it was printed--as mentioned my next LL issue wasn't until #112-- and I have no recollection of writing that letter or that I had thrown out all my DCs (except, as noted in the letter, for Adventure #397 and Wonder Woman #190, both of which I had acquired in July 1970). Yes, my mother was forever nagging me to get rid of my "stupid comics", but I can hardly believe that at that time I would have discarded my DCs including my cherished Legion Adventure Comics--I had so many great back issues at the time!--but there it is, in black and white 
. I hope my letter was just a case of me exaggerating events in an attempt to make my letter more dramatic in DC's eyes! 
? She'd just left in #95, came back in #99, and now she was leaving again?? I've since read it was because some writers wanted her in the Inhumans feature that was running in Amazing Adventures, but heck, she didn't show up there--or anywhere at Marvel--for about a year. Anyway, using this tired old subplot about Johnny and Crystal being "forced" to separate yet again raised some eyebrows among fans, in later lettercols some readers questioned why Johnny couldn't just go live with her in Attilan, or why he couldn't just visit her whenever they wanted to get together. And I'm sorry but the Romita-Verpooten art was just too basic for my taste. It was a hard pill to swallow after the Kirby-Sinnott days. 
One panel from a five-panel page (Sal Buscema). Oh, I reversed the sexes in my sketch, but this was definitely the pose I used! As mentioned I switched things around, and added a lot of long Mera-like hair to the mermaid, but the inspiration/genesis was this panel. I remember the teacher was really annoyed when I mentioned to her I had copied the pose from a comic book 
, since you just said it. But since I didn't realize it at the time, I didn't include that in my little remembrance. Buuuut now you're making me think that's likely why my teacher asked me about it. She didn't go on to explain or illuminate the discussion, however; she just expressed her displeasure). 