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Post by tingramretro on Aug 8, 2015 8:30:55 GMT -5
Just read Giant Size Iron Man #1 from 1975, which contains a number of Silver Age reprints. The lead strip, in which Iron Man meets the Angel, is utterly bonkers; Iron Man tries to warn Angel that he's about to fly into the path of an above ground nuclear test (being conducted in a populated area right next to one of Tony Starks factories!!) but Angel is caught in the blast. Somewhat improbably, however, rather than, say, dying or breaking out in weeping sores while vomiting uncontrollably, Angel simply suffers an abrupt change in character, leading Stark-who has never met the man before-to muse "It's as I feared, the explosion changed his personality...made him cruel, merciless..." Unless this is some very specific form of radiation of which I was previously unaware, this seems like something of an unlikely logical leap for the golden Avenger to make, and I also have difficulty believing in the story's resolution, in which I.M endangers his own life, trusting that this will snap Angel back to normal (which it does). The winged mutant then simply leaves, with no mention of such trivialities as decontamination or potential radiation poisoning. Science in the Marvel Universe-what can you do?
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 8, 2015 11:44:28 GMT -5
Just read Giant Size Iron Man #1 from 1975, which contains a number of Silver Age reprints. The lead strip, in which Iron Man meets the Angel, is utterly bonkers; Iron Man tries to warn Angel that he's about to fly into the path of an above ground nuclear test (being conducted in a populated area right next to one of Tony Starks factories!!) but Angel is caught in the blast. Somewhat improbably, however, rather than, say, dying or breaking out in weeping sores while vomiting uncontrollably, Angel simply suffers an abrupt change in character, leading Stark-who has never met the man before-to muse "It's as I feared, the explosion changed his personality...made him cruel, merciless..." Unless this is some very specific form of radiation of which I was previously unaware, this seems like something of an unlikely logical leap for the golden Avenger to make, and I also have difficulty believing in the story's resolution, in which I.M endangers his own life, trusting that this will snap Angel back to normal (which it does). The winged mutant then simply leaves, with no mention of such trivialities as decontamination or potential radiation poisoning. Science in the Marvel Universe-what can you do? That brings back memories! I bought a copy of this when it was brand-new off a spinner rack! The stories in Giant-Size Iron Man #1 were among the first Silver Age stories that I ever read.
Doesn't it also have the first Hawkeye story as well as the story from TOS #58 where the Chameleon disguises himself as Captain America and gets Shellhead and Cap to fight each other?
The originals were still reasonably priced back then, and within a few years I had copies of the original comics. I think I paid $3 for Tales of Suspense #58 in VG condition. It was cool to have the originals because of the crazy "Tales of the Watcher" backups!
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Post by tingramretro on Aug 8, 2015 13:32:27 GMT -5
Just read Giant Size Iron Man #1 from 1975, which contains a number of Silver Age reprints. The lead strip, in which Iron Man meets the Angel, is utterly bonkers; Iron Man tries to warn Angel that he's about to fly into the path of an above ground nuclear test (being conducted in a populated area right next to one of Tony Starks factories!!) but Angel is caught in the blast. Somewhat improbably, however, rather than, say, dying or breaking out in weeping sores while vomiting uncontrollably, Angel simply suffers an abrupt change in character, leading Stark-who has never met the man before-to muse "It's as I feared, the explosion changed his personality...made him cruel, merciless..." Unless this is some very specific form of radiation of which I was previously unaware, this seems like something of an unlikely logical leap for the golden Avenger to make, and I also have difficulty believing in the story's resolution, in which I.M endangers his own life, trusting that this will snap Angel back to normal (which it does). The winged mutant then simply leaves, with no mention of such trivialities as decontamination or potential radiation poisoning. Science in the Marvel Universe-what can you do? That brings back memories! I bought a copy of this when it was brand-new off a spinner rack! The stories in Giant-Size Iron Man #1 were among the first Silver Age stories that I ever read.
Doesn't it also have the first Hawkeye story as well as the story from TOS #58 where the Chameleon disguises himself as Captain America and gets Shellhead and Cap to fight each other?
The originals were still reasonably priced back then, and within a few years I had copies of the original comics. I think I paid $3 for Tales of Suspense #58 in VG condition. It was cool to have the originals because of the crazy "Tales of the Watcher" backups!
It does indeed, and both those stories are wonderful. I have a handful of issues of Tales of Suspense, but I don't think I'd ever realized Tales of the Watcher appeared in that book. Here in the UK, we got them years later, as back-up stories in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 8, 2015 13:51:48 GMT -5
That brings back memories! I bought a copy of this when it was brand-new off a spinner rack! The stories in Giant-Size Iron Man #1 were among the first Silver Age stories that I ever read.
Doesn't it also have the first Hawkeye story as well as the story from TOS #58 where the Chameleon disguises himself as Captain America and gets Shellhead and Cap to fight each other?
The originals were still reasonably priced back then, and within a few years I had copies of the original comics. I think I paid $3 for Tales of Suspense #58 in VG condition. It was cool to have the originals because of the crazy "Tales of the Watcher" backups!
It does indeed, and both those stories are wonderful. I have a handful of issues of Tales of Suspense, but I don't think I'd ever realized Tales of the Watcher appeared in that book. Here in the UK, we got them years later, as back-up stories in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly. "Tales of the Watcher" was in Tales of Suspense #49 to #58 (I think it was #58). They were pretty cool, five pages long, with primitive art by, I think, Larry Lieber. (I liked the art, I found it charming even if it was primitive.) The origin of the Watcher was in one issue. (Actually, I think it was a two-parter!)
Some of the stories were expanded and redrawn by Gene Colan in the early issues of the Silver Surfer series in the late 1960s.
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Post by tingramretro on Aug 8, 2015 14:54:33 GMT -5
It does indeed, and both those stories are wonderful. I have a handful of issues of Tales of Suspense, but I don't think I'd ever realized Tales of the Watcher appeared in that book. Here in the UK, we got them years later, as back-up stories in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly. "Tales of the Watcher" was in Tales of Suspense #49 to #58 (I think it was #58). They were pretty cool, five pages long, with primitive art by, I think, Larry Lieber. (I liked the art, I found it charming even if it was primitive.) The origin of the Watcher was in one issue. (Actually, I think it was a two-parter!)
Some of the stories were expanded and redrawn by Gene Colan in the early issues of the Silver Surfer series in the late 1960s.
Oh, I remember the stories quite well-I just didn't remember that they originally saw print in that particular title, though looking at my Excel spreadsheet, it appears that I actually have four issues of TOS in which they appear (#51, #52, #54 and #55)! I'll have to look them out...
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Post by Phil Maurice on Aug 8, 2015 15:38:39 GMT -5
I'll keep enjoying the run (Simon & Kirby's Vision strip starts in an issue or two, which will help). I enjoyed the few Golden Age Vision tales I've read. The strip owes a debt to The Shadow, with the protagonist appearing and disappearing in a cloud of smoke, unhindered by walls and doors, spouting fortune-cookie aphorisms about truth and justice, and polishing chins with his fist. The artwork is solid S&K of the period. To the surprise of no one at all Kurt, your scholarship is spot-on regarding Everett's Sub-Mariner and those glorious Schomburg covers. I look forward to more of your reviews of early Marvel Mystery.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 8, 2015 20:24:29 GMT -5
Read the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly's reprints of John Stanley's Melvin Monster, which I believe is issues 1-3. The stories were cute. And clearly keyed in to the Addams Family, Munsters, Lil Monsters craze of the time. They aren't fabulous, but cute and charming.
The package itself is a bit disappointing. I really would have liked a little info about Stanley and the project historically. And the original covers to the books were nowhere to be seen.
I'll pick up the other two if I find them cheap. But the priority on them has definitely dropped.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,070
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Post by Confessor on Aug 9, 2015 18:26:21 GMT -5
Another strip that's caught my fancy is Electro, whose star is a brightly colored super-robot. I suspect the art by Steve Dahlman is spectacular but, alas, I'm working from the Marvel Masterworks reprints, which feature even more egregiously awful "art reproduction" (i.e., hacked-out, mindless, talentless tracings of the original books) than their Archive Edition counterparts from DC. I've not read any of the original Electro strips, but I'm familiar with the Robot and his controller Professor Philo Zog from J. Micheal Strazynski's The Twelve mini-series from 2008. Did you ever read that? I thought it was great and can highly recommend it. I'm puzzled by your talk of "egregiously awful 'art reproduction'" in the Marvel Masterworks (and DC Archives). I only have a few Masterworks (Dr. Strange, Avengers, Spidey etc) and I've always thought that the art reproduction was fine. Could you elaborate on what it is you dislike about these two lines of reprints? I'd also be interested in what you think of other reprints like, say, those in Marvel Tales in the '70s and '80s or the more recent black & white reprints in the Essentials/Showcase TPBs.
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 9, 2015 22:48:22 GMT -5
Another strip that's caught my fancy is Electro, whose star is a brightly colored super-robot. I suspect the art by Steve Dahlman is spectacular but, alas, I'm working from the Marvel Masterworks reprints, which feature even more egregiously awful "art reproduction" (i.e., hacked-out, mindless, talentless tracings of the original books) than their Archive Edition counterparts from DC. I've not read any of the original Electro strips, but I'm familiar with the Robot and his controller Professor Philo Zog from J. Micheal Strazynski's The Twelve mini-series from 2008. Did you ever read that? I thought it was great and can highly recommend it. I'm puzzled by your talk of "egregiously awful 'art reproduction'" in the Marvel Masterworks (and DC Archives). I only have a few Masterworks (Dr. Strange, Avengers, Spidey etc) and I've always thought that the art reproduction was fine. Could you elaborate on what it is you dislike about these two lines of reprints? I'd also be interested in what you think of other reprints like, say, those in Marvel Tales in the '70s and '80s or the more recent black & white reprints in the Essentials/Showcase TPBs. I'm only talking about those Archives and Masterworks reprinting Golden Age material, for which printers proofs and original art are largely non-existant. In both cases, instead of taking a photo or scan from the original comics and cleaning them up digitally, the publishers hired people to essential trace the art. Unfortunately, whether it was a question of time, technology or budget, these tracers left out tons of detailed linework (Colletted 'em, you might say) and made no attempt to capture the nuances of the artists' individual styles. The final results are about as satisfying and professional looking as a 9-year-old experimenting with a toy lightbox. Cei-U! I summon the grumblegripe!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2015 2:19:33 GMT -5
I've started back up on Lone Wolf & Cub, still on the third omnibus. I'm starting to catch up on my TPB and HC backlog
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,070
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Post by Confessor on Aug 10, 2015 6:55:31 GMT -5
I've not read any of the original Electro strips, but I'm familiar with the Robot and his controller Professor Philo Zog from J. Micheal Strazynski's The Twelve mini-series from 2008. Did you ever read that? I thought it was great and can highly recommend it. I'm puzzled by your talk of "egregiously awful 'art reproduction'" in the Marvel Masterworks (and DC Archives). I only have a few Masterworks (Dr. Strange, Avengers, Spidey etc) and I've always thought that the art reproduction was fine. Could you elaborate on what it is you dislike about these two lines of reprints? I'd also be interested in what you think of other reprints like, say, those in Marvel Tales in the '70s and '80s or the more recent black & white reprints in the Essentials/Showcase TPBs. I'm only talking about those Archives and Masterworks reprinting Golden Age material, for which printers proofs and original art are largely non-existant. In both cases, instead of taking a photo or scan from the original comics and cleaning them up digitally, the publishers hired people to essential trace the art. Unfortunately, whether it was a question of time, technology or budget, these tracers left out tons of detailed linework (Colletted 'em, you might say) and made no attempt to capture the nuances of the artists' individual styles. The final results are about as satisfying and professional looking as a 9-year-old experimenting with a toy lightbox. Cei-U! I summon the grumblegripe! Ah, I see. I confess that I had no idea that this was how those old Golden Age issues were reproduced for reprinting, but to me that does sound wholly unacceptable and, frankly, a bit nuts, considering that these books are squarely aimed at the comic connoisseur and/or historian. I make no secret of my dislike of most Golden Age comics, based in part on the crudeness of the artwork, but thinking about it now, it strikes me that maybe 80% of my exposure to Golden Age comics has come via modern reprints. Perhaps it's this very "Colletering" of the artwork that you mention that turns me off of them so much? Hmmmm...
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 10, 2015 15:54:01 GMT -5
I've started back up on Lone Wolf & Cub, still on the third omnibus. I'm starting to catch up on my TPB and HC backlog Any good? I've been picking up the omniboo as they've been released, but haven't actually started on vol 1 yet. The stack is now starting to look rather daunting
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2015 16:28:27 GMT -5
I read a good chunk of the series when Dark Horse was putting out the digest sized trades and it is phenomenal. I need to finish it at some point, but I need to get the rest of the series first.
-M
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Post by Spike-X on Aug 10, 2015 17:05:37 GMT -5
Lone Wolf And Cub is a phenomenal series. I have all 28 digest-sized volumes.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2015 20:17:13 GMT -5
I've started back up on Lone Wolf & Cub, still on the third omnibus. I'm starting to catch up on my TPB and HC backlog Any good? I've been picking up the omniboo as they've been released, but haven't actually started on vol 1 yet. The stack is now starting to look rather daunting It's pretty good. It's a slow drama and the plot doesn't seem linear, but that appeals to me. Also I'm a fan of samurai and this series has been known to be particularly well researched. I don't read much manga but I do plan on eventually finishing this series. I've had better luck enjoying the more popular 70's and 80's manga than anything more current.
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