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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2015 18:28:11 GMT -5
The best decade is hen you were a kid, I'm sure. Nah, I don't really have the nostalgia gene. It helps that I grew up with my dad's comics, which were mostly '70s books but had a lot of '60s stuff (and some earlier) and could compare that with the '80s books that were currently on the stands. But, really, I think most of my taste in everything was formed between the ages of 18-22. That's when I first started listening to jazz, first read the Ditko Spider-man straight through, first started really getting into visual art. I like some of the same stupid crap now that I did as a kid, but a lot of stuff I liked then is foreign to me now. (Transformers? What was I thinking?!?!) Uh...I can still dig some Transformers (cartoon), Gobots, and allllll of those things from my childhood. My soul was a little boy, but I still managed to be a super girly girl. So, I was into all those things as a child. And I still love them to this day. If I was hanging out with a guy and he had a Castle Grayskull, I'd make him set it up so we could play He-Man. I sure would. My husband has Battlecat and Teela, and they sat on my office desk for as long as I could stand not having the room they took up. I have a bunch of Thundercats toys, too. They're put away, but I have them. I love that stuff. I never will not love that stuff. |
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Post by Action Ace on Nov 9, 2015 19:22:10 GMT -5
Tough call.
The 1970s are home.
The 1960s had the twin towers of Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.
The first half of the 2000s is when I bought more new Marvel than at any other time.
The 1980s is what I've been told by others over the years is the best.
The 1990s had Waid and Busiek and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, does Alan Moore's 1963 count?
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 9, 2015 21:04:53 GMT -5
Uh...I can still dig some Transformers (cartoon), Gobots, and allllll of those things from my childhood. My soul was a little boy, but I still managed to be a super girly girl. Don't let it phase you. I secretly thought Jem was pretty much the coolest thing on TV back in the day. And, in hindsight, She-Ra is a far superior show to He-Man. Quoted for awesomeness. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2015 21:40:29 GMT -5
I had four older brothers. It was quite inevitable that I would adore boy things. Also, Jem ruled my Sunday mornings.  |
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Post by earl on Nov 9, 2015 22:00:30 GMT -5
So what was Marvel comics classic period? While not all pathways worked out, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the Marvel Universe worked pretty well from 62 even into the late 80s. I don't know where you would really say, this was the end of it working. I think at some point in the late 80s or so, the Marvel Universe construct starts to come apart. Obviously popularity has ebbed and flowed and there have been some follow ups, but it seems at some point towards the end of Shooter's reign into the next generation something got lost, am I wrong on this?
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Post by Warmonger on Nov 9, 2015 22:04:55 GMT -5
So what was Marvel comics classic period? While not all pathways worked out, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the Marvel Universe worked pretty well from 62 even into the late 80s. I don't know where you would really say, this was the end of it working. I think at some point in the late 80s or so, the Marvel Universe construct starts to come apart. Obviously popularity has ebbed and flowed and there have been some follow ups, but it seems at some point towards the end of Shooter's reign into the next generation something got lost, am I wrong on this? In terms of overall innovation, the 60's clearly win with Kirby, Lee and Ditko at the helm. But in terms of just overall great writing and artwork, for me it's the 70's in a landslide. Guys like Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Steve Gerber, Chris Claremont, Gene Colan, George Perez, Don Perlin, Doug Moench, Jim Starlin, etc took the concepts introduced by the pioneers of Marvel and improved upon them IMO. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 9, 2015 22:04:32 GMT -5
So what was Marvel comics classic period? While not all pathways worked out, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the Marvel Universe worked pretty well from 62 even into the late 80s. I don't know where you would really say, this was the end of it working. I think at some point in the late 80s or so, the Marvel Universe construct starts to come apart. Obviously popularity has ebbed and flowed and there have been some follow ups, but it seems at some point towards the end of Shooter's reign into the next generation something got lost, am I wrong on this? I see the decline as having occurred in three phases: 1974-1978: Roy Thomas was pretty careful about following in Lee's footsteps and also building Marvel into new territory, but once he stepped down, it was a constant rotation of editors with no over-arching vision for the company until Shooter's arrival. A lot of languishing set in here. 1978-1987: Jim Shooter takes over. He had a LOT of vision but also managed to alienate and drive away a lot of Marvel's core stable. 1987-1994: At least Shooter had vision. Tom Defalco's reign seemed far more devoted to short term sales. I feel like all perspective went out the window during his tenure. |
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Post by benday-dot on Nov 9, 2015 22:45:51 GMT -5
I went for the 60's. That was when Stan, Jack and Steve created the Marvel Universe. Peak Kirby glory! It was as though Jack put on his space suit and went a walking through the cosmos, net in hand, gathering myth and magic.
I first jumped on board in the early 70's, and continue to carry much love for that age of my youth, but the 60's has since taken over. It was the Big Bang. The Pop Explosion of Joy.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 10, 2015 2:56:49 GMT -5
So what was Marvel comics classic period? While not all pathways worked out, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the Marvel Universe worked pretty well from 62 even into the late 80s. I don't know where you would really say, this was the end of it working. I think at some point in the late 80s or so, the Marvel Universe construct starts to come apart. Obviously popularity has ebbed and flowed and there have been some follow ups, but it seems at some point towards the end of Shooter's reign into the next generation something got lost, am I wrong on this? No, I think you're right. I'd say sometime around 1988 or '89 is where it all starts coming unglued, with writers starting to basically disregard what other writers have previously done or are doing with characters. I think I'd lay some of the blame for that with Tom DeFalco. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2015 3:07:54 GMT -5
For me, Marvel started coming apart with Secret Wars in '84, it's when the shared universe and continuity trumped story, and the beginning of the big event cycle that has snowballed since then. There were still a lot of good things going on, but it was the beginning of the end, a harbinger of things to come. Marvel started taking its cues from that instead of from what had made it so good for so long-we see it take root in the later Shooter era and into the DeFalco and Harras eras as well, until it reaches full blossom and decay that has pretty much tainted everything since then. Instead of story driving books and leading to connections, they got it ass backwards and started with the connections and tried to force stories from there. Marketing began to drive direction instead of promoting the good stories they were doing. It all starts with Shooter and his Secret War.
-M
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Post by marvelmaniac on Nov 10, 2015 7:17:49 GMT -5
1960's
That is when it all got started for Marvel and me.
Also, I like my comics to be simple and entertaining with a beginning, a plot and ending all in one book and that is what the early 60's were all about.
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Post by MDG on Nov 10, 2015 9:13:05 GMT -5
Here's my take:
The 60s crew built the sandbox and filled it with sand.
Everybody else played in the sandbox.
Some people built castles. Some pooped in the corner.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Nov 10, 2015 15:13:30 GMT -5
The best decade is hen you were a kid, I'm sure. Nah, I don't really have the nostalgia gene. It helps that I grew up with my dad's comics, which were mostly '70s books but had a lot of '60s stuff (and some earlier) and could compare that with the '80s books that were currently on the stands. But, really, I think most of my taste in everything was formed between the ages of 18-22. That's when I first started listening to jazz, first read the Ditko Spider-man straight through, first started really getting into visual art. Yeah, I also don't buy the theory that the comics that were coming out when you were a kid would be the ones that you would automatically deem your favlourites. Of course, I love a lot of the late '70s and early '80s comics from when I was a kid, like the various Spider-Man titles, Judge Dredd and Star Wars, for example. But even back at that time I was also regularly reading the reprints of the '60s Lee/Ditko stuff in Marvel Tales. I even considered Marvel Tales to be the best of the various Spider-Man titles on the racks in the early-to-mid '80s and didn't even realise that I was reading old reprints at the time! So yeah, I can enjoy Silver and early Bronze Age just as much, if not more so, than the comics that came out when I was a kid. |
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Post by berkley on Nov 10, 2015 18:55:37 GMT -5
Nah, I don't really have the nostalgia gene. It helps that I grew up with my dad's comics, which were mostly '70s books but had a lot of '60s stuff (and some earlier) and could compare that with the '80s books that were currently on the stands. But, really, I think most of my taste in everything was formed between the ages of 18-22. That's when I first started listening to jazz, first read the Ditko Spider-man straight through, first started really getting into visual art. Yeah, I also don't buy the theory that the comics that were coming out when you were a kid would be the ones that you would automatically deem your favlourites. Of course, I love a lot of the late '70s and early '80s comics from when I was a kid, like the various Spider-Man titles, Judge Dredd and Star Wars, for example. But even back at that time I was also regularly reading the reprints of the '60s Lee/Ditko stuff in Marvel Tales. I even considered Marvel Tales to be the best of the various Spider-Man titles on the racks in the early-to-mid '80s and didn't even realise that I was reading old reprints at the time! So yeah, I can enjoy Silver and early Bronze Age just as much, if not more so, than the comics that came out when I was a kid. I think it's often a factor, but it isn't always the overwhelmingly determining factor a lot of people assume it must be. I was reading the Ditko-era Doctor Strange in Strange tales reprints at the same time Englehart & Colan were producing what was then the current Doctor Strange series and loved both of them, different as they were. Kirby's Fourth World, which would rank near the top of my personal all-time greatest comics, I was never able to read in full until my early 20s. Love and Rockets, another personal all-time great, came in my 20s & 30s. And so on. |
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Post by hondobrode on Nov 11, 2015 1:38:00 GMT -5
I'm going to have to go with the 70's.
I respect the heck out of what Stan, Jack, Steve, and the Bullpen did in the 60's. Most of it was great, but, mostly, there's more funky stuff in the 70's that is just pure love.
Until I started to list the titles and really look, I thought it was going to be closer between the 70's and 80's, but, the 70's takes it.
Was there crap ? Yeah, but they were really working their butts off trying to top the original gang and do their own thing as well.
I love the 80's, and definitely there's gold there, like the 60's, but the 70's looking back just stacks up so much craziness while still trying to stay true to Stan as well as build in new directions. The direct market wasn't here yet and the newsstand still sold war, monster, black and white mags, crazy stuff that just might stick like Howard the Duck, Master of Kung Fu, Tomb of Dracula, Star Wars, Conan.
The Big Corporate Powers That Be weren't nearly like today, and everything wasn't bloated either with families of books. The Marvel U was cohesive but could still loop in a crossover here or there and be special without draining your wallet and stories had a beginning, middle and end.
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