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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 16, 2018 13:30:50 GMT -5
I'm teaching my pint-size niece to read, not just phonic games...she's the proud owner of some of these, although I can't help but nose through them myself...
I have an old coverless copy of Spider Super Stories that I read to my 6 year old son. I think he liked it well enough, but so far Superman is the only superhero he's shown much interest in.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 16, 2018 15:02:10 GMT -5
Earlier this month I read another of Frank Robbins's Johnny Hazard stories. I tell ya, this is way more fun than I ever thought it would be when I started, and the more I read it the more I enjoy it. I never really liked adventure news-strip comics when I was a kid - it was always the gag or humour strips that I was drawn to, like Johnny Hartman's The Wizard of Id and BC, and of course the greatest of all, Charles Schulz's Peanuts. But reading these collections now, they come across as a series of really good Hollywood B-movies: exciting scenarios, exotic locales, and, especially, likeable characters and snappy dialogue. Johnny Hazard is a great strip. I didn't like adventure strips as a kid either. But I think one of the reasons is that even by the early to mid-70s the newspapers had shrunk the strips to the point that you weren't getting much out of even a Sunday strip and the dailies were so small that they couldn't begin to tell a story. The heyday of the adventure strips though...that was seriously fun stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2018 11:50:37 GMT -5
The following Marvel Masterworks read in the past 2 weeks.
The Champions: Vol. 1 Golden Age Captain America: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
I'll be reading Volume 3 to Volume 6 in the next 10 days or so. My friend just acquired this set at a cheap price and he craved these stories and I'm too. I loved Golden Age Stories.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 9, 2018 11:37:54 GMT -5
Batman: Mad Love & Other StoriesThis is the first time I've ever Mad Love, or any of the stories contained herein, and I really liked them. I've read stuff by Paul Dini before, but this is also the first time I've read a hard-copy comic with Timm's art (I have, of course, seen lots of his stuff posted online). Based on this, I can see why Harley Quinn became so popular. It's a pretty good idea: a sort of female version of the Joker, who's in love with him, but who is still distinct in her own right, and almost as menacing, but in a somewhat different way. This book also includes the stories from Batman Adventures Annuals 1 and 2 which I also really enjoyed. The lead story in the former, in which the stories are framed by Batman and Alfred discussing the attempts by some members of his rogues' gallery to reform, and ultimately fail, is particularly good - all the more so since the different sections are drawn by different artists, including a Harley Quinn penciled by Dan DeCarlo (!) with Bruce Timm on inks. All in all, I'm really happy with this book - with over 200 pages of fun and wonderfully drawn stories it's a really nice package, especially if, like me, you can find a discounted copy somewhere online.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 9, 2018 13:41:36 GMT -5
Recently read this one-off about Thor's pals The Warriors Three with the BF (I acted out the parts as best I could, being set in NYC I got to do all the fun accents from there along with the cod Shakespearean Viking spiels) and we had a lot of fun with it! Most fun I've had with a single comic in awhile. "Fandral The Dashing, Hogun The Grim and Volstagg The Voluminous" help a young couple out of their predicaments with the help of a cab driver and a wino! Marvel Spotlight #30 (October 1976, same cover date as X-Men #101)
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 9, 2018 13:53:49 GMT -5
Earlier this month I read another of Frank Robbins's Johnny Hazard stories. I tell ya, this is way more fun than I ever thought it would be when I started, and the more I read it the more I enjoy it. I had some old Canadian reprint comics of Johnny Hazard once that came with a lot and it was a really enjoyable. I rate Milton Caniff's Terry & the Pirates as the godfather of these sorts of adventure strips, but there was also Roy Crane's Captain Easy and Caniff's stint on Dickie Dare though the adventure character Captain Easy was second billing to a comic relief type character Wash Tubbs. The same lot of comics had a couple Alley Oops which were much better reading collected up than an isolated single daily strip would have you think, and also a Canadian Robin Hood I wish I had kept now (didn't appreciate our Canadian comic book heritage enough back then). The Rocketeer was a a revival of the '30s adventure character, and there was Crash Ryan at Epic and Xenozoic (Cadillacs & Dinosaurs) at Kitchen Sink. I guess Warlord at DC was a bit in that mold as well. It seems mostly the old model adventurers have to be set in the past or future to work out well though.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2018 15:13:31 GMT -5
The following Marvel Masterworks read in the past week.
Golden Age Captain America: Volume 3 to Volume 6
Spider-Woman: Vol. 1
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 9, 2018 21:09:26 GMT -5
Recently read this one-off about Thor's pals The Warriors Three with the BF (I acted out the parts as best I could, being set in NYC I got to do all the fun accents from there along with the cod Shakespearean Viking spiels) and we had a lot of fun with it! Most fun I've had with a single comic in awhile. "Fandral The Dashing, Hogun The Grim and Volstagg The Voluminous" help a young couple out of their predicaments with the help of a cab driver and a wino! Marvel Spotlight #30 (October 1976, same cover date as X-Men #101) One of my favorite '70s comics, featuring a winning combination of snappy Len Wein dialogue, great Buscema-Sinnott art, and three of my favorite characters. It's no coincidence that the first art samples I ever submitted to Marvel were for a Volstagg solo story inspired in part by this issue.
Cei-U! I summon the Lion of Asgard, forsooth!
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Post by berkley on Nov 10, 2018 0:34:42 GMT -5
Earlier this month I read another of Frank Robbins's Johnny Hazard stories. I tell ya, this is way more fun than I ever thought it would be when I started, and the more I read it the more I enjoy it. I had some old Canadian reprint comics of Johnny Hazard once that came with a lot and it was a really enjoyable. I rate Milton Caniff's Terry & the Pirates as the godfather of these sorts of adventure strips, but there was also Roy Crane's Captain Easy and Caniff's stint on Dickie Dare though the adventure character Captain Easy was second billing to a comic relief type character Wash Tubbs. The same lot of comics had a couple Alley Oops which were much better reading collected up than an isolated single daily strip would have you think, and also a Canadian Robin Hood I wish I had kept now (didn't appreciate our Canadian comic book heritage enough back then). The Rocketeer was a a revival of the '30s adventure character, and there was Crash Ryan at Epic and Xenozoic (Cadillacs & Dinosaurs) at Kitchen Sink. I guess Warlord at DC was a bit in that mold as well. It seems mostly the old model adventurers have to be set in the past or future to work out well though. I remember reading Captain Easy and Terry & the Pirates in the papers as a kid in the late 60s to early 70s but they never really grabbed me at the time - I just read them because I would habitually read pretty much the entire comics page every day in our local paper. I do plan to try them both in collected form at some point because as you say, these continuing adventure strips seem to work much better in that format.
But next up for me in this vein, once I finish the 3rd Johnny Hazzard book I started recently, will be one of Caniff's later creations, Steve Canyon, which started around the same time, in the late 1940s - conicidentally another airplane-pilot character, just like Hazzard.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 10, 2018 8:45:30 GMT -5
Lately my curiosity about, and general ignorance of, manga has me treading into that world. I decided to start with something I'm somewhat familiar with, so I've been reading the first 16 volumes (currently on 12) of Akira Toriyama's Dragonball. I originally became a fan of Toriyama's because of his design work on the video game Chrono Trigger, so getting into his sequential work has been a treat. I'm struck by how funny the series, how great a storyteller Toriyama is and how the pacing and quickness (in terms of how long it takes to read each installment) mirrors modern mainstream American comics. After Dragonball I'll start Dragonball Z and I think I'll FINALLY read Akira* (the Epic version released by Marvel in the 80's and 90's).
*I've seen the anime, but its been years. I've learned that there's far more to the story before and after the events shown in the anime if you read the manga.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 10, 2018 14:18:32 GMT -5
I remember reading Captain Easy and Terry & the Pirates in the papers as a kid in the late 60s to early 70s but they never really grabbed me at the time - I just read them because I would habitually read pretty much the entire comics page every day in our local paper. I do plan to try them both in collected form at some point because as you say, these continuing adventure strips seem to work much better in that format.
But next up for me in this vein, once I finish the 3rd Johnny Hazzard book I started recently, will be one of Caniff's later creations, Steve Canyon, which started around the same time, in the late 1940s - conicidentally another airplane-pilot character, just like Hazzard. Terry was taken over by George Wunder later and I never cared for that version. I'm not sure what became of Captain Easy post Roy Crane but I had one of those Standard or similar company '40s reprint comics of the title and remember nothing about it compared to the Hazard and Alley Oops. I think there was a Tillie The Toiler I also seem to remember nothing about. I lucked into a dusty cardboard box of someone's old comic books, all with the covers still on (whereas as a kid that was very rare state for one of mine), mostly all Canadian reprints circa 1948-50 (one 1947 Alley Oop was the original U.S. though). The best thing in them to a collector would've been the Canadian Disney Dells Ducks with Barks art including Luck Of The North. It was a great time capsule find and I feel I should try to remember everything about it out of guilt for splitting it all up. Roy Crane went on to create an aviator strip after Captain Easy too... Buz Sawyer. Must've been some kind of trend. I never got into Steve Canyon or Buz except to admire the art in a single strip I might see in old newspapers I had some access to, but then without running across Nostalgia Press/Nemo Bookshelf collections or something similar I couldn't.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 10, 2018 14:28:01 GMT -5
Lately my curiosity about, and general ignorance of, manga has me treading into that world. I decided to start with something I'm somewhat familiar with, so I've been reading the first 16 volumes (currently on 12) of Akira Toriyama's Dragonball. I originally became a fan of Toriyama's because of his design work on the video game Chrono Trigger, so getting into his sequential work has been a treat. I'm struck by how funny the series, how great a storyteller Toriyama is and how the pacing and quickness (in terms of how long it takes to read each installment) mirrors modern mainstream American comics. After Dragonball I'll start Dragonball Z and I think I'll FINALLY read Akira* (the Epic version released by Marvel in the 80's and 90's). *I've seen the anime, but its been years. I've learned that there's far more to the story before and after the events shown in the anime if you read the manga. I used to have subscriptions to some Japanese comics, it helped me to learn the language better, and Dragon Ball was a fixture in one of the weeklies. It had a lot of visual humor and was one of the easier more enjoyable reads (alongside something about Gymnasts). Toriyama had done Dr. Slump before that which was also quite popular. Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday were the big titles (with a wide variety and something for everyone), and Margaret was the top weekly for girls (all soap type series and historicals). I'm pretty sure there was a Nintendo Dragon Ball video game circa 1986-87, they showed screen images of in the weekly Jump and even had little pull-out booklets about these games some times. I'd never heard of them outside the Japanese comics at the time. Yes, a lot of iconic Toriyama design characters in many games. I'm sure he was a huge influence there.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 11, 2018 8:56:59 GMT -5
Lately my curiosity about, and general ignorance of, manga has me treading into that world. I decided to start with something I'm somewhat familiar with, so I've been reading the first 16 volumes (currently on 12) of Akira Toriyama's Dragonball. I originally became a fan of Toriyama's because of his design work on the video game Chrono Trigger, so getting into his sequential work has been a treat. I'm struck by how funny the series, how great a storyteller Toriyama is and how the pacing and quickness (in terms of how long it takes to read each installment) mirrors modern mainstream American comics. After Dragonball I'll start Dragonball Z and I think I'll FINALLY read Akira* (the Epic version released by Marvel in the 80's and 90's). *I've seen the anime, but its been years. I've learned that there's far more to the story before and after the events shown in the anime if you read the manga. I used to have subscriptions to some Japanese comics, it helped me to learn the language better, and Dragon Ball was a fixture in one of the weeklies. It had a lot of visual humor and was one of the easier more enjoyable reads (alongside something about Gymnasts). Toriyama had done Dr. Slump before that which was also quite popular. Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday were the big titles (with a wide variety and something for everyone), and Margaret was the top weekly for girls (all soap type series and historicals). I'm pretty sure there was a Nintendo Dragon Ball video game circa 1986-87, they showed screen images of in the weekly Jump and even had little pull-out booklets about these games some times. I'd never heard of them outside the Japanese comics at the time. Yes, a lot of iconic Toriyama design characters in many games. I'm sure he was a huge influence there. His work on Chrono Trigger is something I've loved since I first played it in 1995 (I just replayed it a few weeks ago and it more than holds up. Easily one of my Top 5 games of all-time.). As much as I like the world of Dragon Ball, I've always wished he'd do a Chrono Trigger manga, if only a limited series...
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 11, 2018 15:59:05 GMT -5
Recently read this one-off about Thor's pals The Warriors Three with the BF (I acted out the parts as best I could, being set in NYC I got to do all the fun accents from there along with the cod Shakespearean Viking spiels) and we had a lot of fun with it! Most fun I've had with a single comic in awhile. "Fandral The Dashing, Hogun The Grim and Volstagg The Voluminous" help a young couple out of their predicaments with the help of a cab driver and a wino! Marvel Spotlight #30 (October 1976, same cover date as X-Men #101) I got this when it first came out and I remember it very well! Fond memories of this one! When I was reading a Thor Epic Collection last year, I was imaging the voices for all the characters. I wasn't reading out loud, but I was going over the dialogue slowly in my mind and thinking of the voices for each character. I was using James Mason for Hogun and William Powell for Fandral and Alan Hale for Volstagg. And just for the record, Patrick Warburton for Thor.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 11, 2018 20:00:28 GMT -5
Recently read this one-off about Thor's pals The Warriors Three with the BF (I acted out the parts as best I could, being set in NYC I got to do all the fun accents from there along with the cod Shakespearean Viking spiels) and we had a lot of fun with it! Most fun I've had with a single comic in awhile. "Fandral The Dashing, Hogun The Grim and Volstagg The Voluminous" help a young couple out of their predicaments with the help of a cab driver and a wino! Marvel Spotlight #30 (October 1976, same cover date as X-Men #101) I got this when it first came out and I remember it very well! Fond memories of this one! When I was reading a Thor Epic Collection last year, I was imaging the voices for all the characters. I wasn't reading out loud, but I was going over the dialogue slowly in my mind and thinking of the voices for each character. I was using James Mason for Hogun and William Powell for Fandral and Alan Hale for Volstagg. And just for the record, Patrick Warburton for Thor. I did a search and found an old post for the voices I was using. I hadn't quite got to the Warriors Three, and I have Patrick Warburton as Hercules! And I was thinking of using Chris Pratt as Thor. I also mention using Judy Greer as Tana Nile of the Colonizers, and I would really like to see THAT actually happen.
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