|
Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2017 16:20:00 GMT -5
Avengers and a nice cover Lee & Kirby FF Hulk without the Comics Code Authority Captain Comet and the evil counterparts of the JLA Mr Atom and the Shazamobile ! too weird - Spidey + Kang + the White House
|
|
|
Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2017 16:30:10 GMT -5
first non-adaptation issue nice cover too These DC cover gimmicks - two Supermen merging into a Super giant ? The rest of the Superman family is stunned as well by this great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez cover unknown how I ever got this Earth-2 Flash and what's going on with Lady Liberty
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 2, 2017 8:41:47 GMT -5
Here's what I remember buying in October 1977: All-Star Comics #70 I kept up with this, being a big JSA fan, but I never was comfortable with Joe Staton as the artist. Brave and the Bold #139 Jim Aparo did an excellent job with guest-star Hawkman. I'd have loved seeing him handle Katar Hol solo some time. Champions #17 The profiteering hero team's last stand! I bought them all. DC Super-Stars #18 I missed both the Phantom Stranger and Deadman, who teamed up here in a very unexpected feature, under a promising Jim Aparo cover. The only thing I really remember about this dull tale was artist Romeo Tanghal casually breaking the conventions by showing the Stranger's eyes. Defenders #55 Not the best era, with unappealing Infantino art and the very boring Red Guardian, but I was a dedicated Defenders fan. Eternals #19 This was the only one of Kirby's "return to Marvel" series I bought faithfully, and here it came to its end. Nearing the end of an era, truly, as Kirby would soon be leaving comics for a few years. Freedom Fighters #12 My love for Golden Age team revivals kept me buying, but man, this was the most awkward assembly of super-heroes ever. Godzilla #6 This entire run works as a maxiseries, following Godzilla's trail across the US. I was loving every issue, especially when regular artist Herb Trimpe was on board. Green Lantern/Green Arrow #100 The fact that this was a special "anniversary" issue probably appealed to me, since, although I liked the characters, I wasn't regularly picking this up any more. Seeing a new "legacy" hero, probably one of Bronze Age DC's earliest, in the new Air Wave, was another attraction. Howard the Duck #20 I loved the idea of Howard, but I was getting tired of it. I never warmed to Gene Colan on this series. Human Fly #5 I can't fully remember why I stuck with this series all the way through. I wasn't a big fan of Frank Robbins, who drew this issue, or Lee Elias, who drew others. It must have bee the "real life" superhero angle. Justice League of America #150 Englehart continued to do some of the best JLA stories I'd ever seen, and I had been interested in this issue's villain, The Key (or "Key Man", as Sears called him), since seeing a toy figure in the Sears catalog over a decade earlier: Man, did I want that toy set when I was little! Didn't get it, though. This bizarre selection of "villains with weird names" fascinated me, and I guess I assumed they were all major characters, "...even Koltar and Joker." A little digging reveals that "Koltar" was "Kaltor", an Aquaman villain who had exactly one appearance in issue 20. He's the two-headed monster below. Of course, we all know Brainstorm from JLA #32, The Key, and Mouseman from his Wonder Woman appearances. Besides the Joker, the set also included Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt, who was a villain in JLA #38, the intriguing "Crisis on Earth-A!". Looks like there was also a robot. Marvel Two-in-One #35 I liked the Thing, but I only bought this for the wrap-up to Marvel's Skull the Slayer, which was a cancelled series I had enjoyed a lot. Just how many cancelled comic features did MTIO provide resolutions for, anyway? A quick count: Golem, Scarecrow, Deathlok, Modred the Mystic, Skull, Machine Man, Living Mummy... Rampaging Hulk #6 This was one of my favorite comics of the time. I couldn't understand why everybody didn't love this retcon masterpiece. Secret Society of Super-Villains #12 Another book I stuck with, even though it was never what I thought it could be. Tomb of Dracula #62 The most dependably good comic of the era. I love Colan's work here, but not on Howard. It looks like my purchasing was waning as I continued my senior year of high school. I had much less interest in the top tier superhero books, with only B&B, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and JLA really qualifying. Comic of the Month: Rampaging Hulk #6, with the early Hulk taking on Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Cover of the Month: Superman Family #187 has an especially appealing J.L. Garcia-Lopez cover, but Kirby's Black Panther #7 is a close runner up, with a really powerful composition focused on T'Challa's leaping figure. Comic I'd Most Like to Have: If I had to pick one of this month's books to add to my collection now, I'd choose Doorway to Nightmare #1. I don't know why I didn't buy it at the time, but I guess I didn't find DC's mystery comics very scary.
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Oct 2, 2017 9:08:32 GMT -5
October of 77 a freshman in high school and lots of convenience store shopping and I was learning that all stores are not the same when it came to what they carried. Never knowing the rhyme or reasoning at the time for why some stores had more Marvel and others more DC and why some seemed to always carry the last few months and never newer issues. All i knew was that there wasn't much variety of publishers to be found for my few nickels and dimes. Marvel was knocking it out of the ballpark for me at this time with so much great and fun goodness.
Avengers 167 Batman 295 Capt Marvel 54 Champions 17 Daredevil 150 Defenders 55 Eternals 19 FF 190 Godzilla 6 Hulk 219 Invaders 24 Iron Man 106 John Carter 8 Justice League 150 MTU 65 MTIO 35 MOKJ 60 Ms Marvel 13 Nova 17 Star Wars 7 Superboy and LOSH 235 Thor 267
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Oct 3, 2017 4:53:12 GMT -5
Avengers #167 - first issue of the Korvac Saga. As I remember (possibly with complete inaccuracy) it started well, with Shooter not giving too much away at first. And of course the Perez art of that era made anything he drew worth reading.
Black Panther #7 - Back to Wakanda, a interesting turn for what had been a series of globe-trotting adventures up to then.
Champions #17 - don't remember anything about this one, but I see from Mike,s it was the last of the series
Conan Annual #3 - can't recall the stories, but I remember the cover to this one and liking the Buscema/Chan version of Kull, my favourite REH character at the time.
Conan the Barbarian #82 - my memories of the Chaykin run on CtB are hopelessly confused. Until recently I would have sworn that he drew just the one 2-issue story about the Greek city-state where Conan fought the giant Ptolemy. But it seems he drew several more issues around the same time, including this one.
Daredevil #150 - I must have been a more loyal DD reader than I remember because looking back I stayed with the series pretty steadily through the very uneven pre-Miller years. I thought Paladin was a pretty good character but didn't like Infantino's art.
Defenders #55 - I liked the DA Kraft Defnders, but I see from Mike's that Infantino drew this issue so that was probably a turn-off.
Eternals #19 - last issue of a series already fatally compromised by editorial interference. Still pretty good after #13 but nothing to what it could and should have been.
Howard the Duck #20 - I remember still feeling a bit lost as to what was going on with the series due to having missed several issues previously. I disagree with MW Gallagher's feeling that Colan wasn't as good on HtD as on ToD, but Klaus Janson was never the right inker for him. The earlier HtD issues inked by Steve Leialoha were as good as it gets.
Marvel Team-Up #65 - the Claremont/Byrne combo was very reliable during these years. I liked Captain Britain too, so this was a highlight, in fan terms.
Master of Kung Fu #60 - the MoKF series was best left out of the MU superheroisms but if you have to connect the two this wasn't a bad way to do it.
Rampaging Hulk #6 - I was quite a regular with the Hulk Mag. I always liked Marvel's black & white mags - the extra features, the back-up stories, and as I recall, the magazine was better than the Hulk comic at the time.
Savage Sword of Conan #25 Savage Sword of Conan #26 - the Giordano artwork in #25 was really nice but so clean and sharp I think it might have worked better in colour. The Starlin cover for #26 is interesting - I like it but not as much as I usually liked his artwork from the 70s. Could this have been one of the earliest signs of his change in style?
Tomb of Dracula #62 - looking at the cover gallery, this was around the transition from the long story about Dracula's Satanic Church and the power struggle with Lupeski to what would turn out to be the last big story of the series. The character on the cover (no spoilers!) played a similar role to the one played by the Silver Surfer a few issues earlier. It worked better this was, with a specific character intrinsic to the series and the story, rather than bringing in an existing one from the MU. Interesting that he still looked kind of superheroish or science-fiction-ish.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 3, 2017 10:08:23 GMT -5
Not this month that I had or read at the time it came out. The Daredevil one was a great swashbuckling introduction to Paladin, who I always thought had tremendous potential; but, was never used particularly well, at all. Looking at Superboy and the Legion, I am reminded of something that used to bug me. I started reading the Legion during Grell's run, so I was used to his rendition of Cosmic Boy's costume. I always thought it was odd and that there was something not quite right about it. It was only later that I realized that it was, basically, a corset. I later saw the previous Cockrum tweaking of the original costume and finally realized that Grell just jettisoned the pink cloth and let pink skin take its place. Cosmic Boy, 30th Century fetishist!
|
|
zilch
Full Member
Posts: 244
|
Post by zilch on Oct 4, 2017 23:38:44 GMT -5
Subscriptions: Avengers #167 (another great cover!!!) Champions #17 (RIP... smells like fill-in...) Defenders #55 Invaders #24
Off-the-Rack/Shelf: All-Star Comics #70 !!! Green Lantern/Green Arrow #100 (great anniversary issue and a Golden Age link AND a new hero!!) Howard the Duck #20 Iron Man #106 Justice League of America #150 (another great anniversary issue!) Kamandi #52 Marvel Team-Up #65 (Byrne intros us Yankees to Cap'n Britain!!) Marvel Triple Action #39 Marvel Two-In-One #35 (trying to tie up the Skull the Slayer storyline) Rampaging Hulk #6 Secret Society of Super-Villains #12
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Nov 1, 2017 15:16:19 GMT -5
Not a single blessed comic. I must have been flat broke and none of my friends or relatives had anything from that month. There were several Iread and acquired later, though: Hell of a month to miss out on, until much later. Let's see.... Superman & Wonder Woman square of; both were hot on tv and soon to be at the box office. It's set in WW2 (always good for superheroes); and, it has Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez (Praise Be His Name)!!!!!! Avengers #168 is still early Korvac Saga, with George Perez, and the supreme a-hole, Henry Gyrich. Man, was there ever a bigger Richard in comics than that guy? He made J Jonah seem lovable! Also, this is when the Saga was good, building intrigue and action, before it went on too long and the rails came off, leading to a less than satisfying ending (in great part due to GP not being there). Detective #475 is the seminal "The Laughing Fish," arguably the greatest Joker story ever told (and included in the book). Engelhart & Rogers were not only cooking with gas, it was hydrogen!!! Green Lantern is Mike Grell, drawing so-so stories. Grell's run looked great and ran the gamut of great stories and just "okay" ones. Usually, Green Arrow was the more interesting character of the pair, and this run helped cement Grell's link to the character, before he took him to greater heights. Invaders #25 kind of marks the end of my interest in the book and where I thought it was great reading. After this, the stories seem to drop off in interesting elements. Both Roy and Frank Robbins were soon to leave the book and the loss was great. Man from Atlantis was a favorite tv show. It had a great pilot and pretty good follow-up movies. However, when it went to series, it got bogged down and the mystery and intrigue took a back seat to formulaic plots. Victor Buono would turn up a few times to liven things up; but the other episodes never matched. The comic was your typically bland translation. They adapted the pilot, then moved on; but, you could tell no one was that enthused with the project. It wasn't Star Wars. I, originally, bought only issue #3, though I picked up the first two years later, in college, for about $.40 each. Marvel Team-Up is the great Claremont/Byrne teaming of Spidey and Captain Britain, against Arcade! Mister Miracle #22 has, by far, the best cover of the revival, from Marshall Rogers and a damn good story inside. It was Engelhart's last issue, as Steve Gerber takes over in the next issue, and tweaks the character, moving him back to Earth into more ov a showbiz parody, rather than the more messianic take that Engelhart had been doing. I also, later, had Return of the New Gods #16; but, "meh"... (see my 4th Worlds review thread). Star wars #8 is part of Roy Thomas' Magnificent Seven pastiche/parody, complete with Jaxur the green rabbit. No one ever seems to mind the porcupine, though, or the Don-Wan Keehotay, Sergius XX Arrogantus, or any of the other silliness. Just the rabbit. Personally, I liked the rabbit. He was still better than Jar-Jar (and, let's be fair, Anakin). Teen Titans #53 sees the official end of the Titans, for a while. It had been cancelled and then revived before; but, this was the end for it. For now. By the time New Teen Titans came around, in 1980, everyone (except Robin) was more or less out of the hero business. Warlord #11 is a recap of First Issue Special #8, for those who missed out on it (seeing as Warlord was growing into one of DC's bestsellers). World's Finest #249 continues the Dollar Comic version, which I enjoyed more when Captain Marvel came onboard, with Don Newton art. This does have Trevor Von Eden Green Arrow there. X-Men #109, of course, is the classic introduction of Weapon Alpha, aka Vindicator, aka Guardian, aka Jamie Hudson, as well as Alpha Flight (in the context that he is the first member we meet, rather than the team debut). It also features Byrne's rather unique illustration of Wolverine carrying his mask like it is a helmet, rather than it being a hood/cowl that is attached to his shirt.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 15:38:59 GMT -5
Ob sale in November 1977I got the following off the racks... Avengers 168-this was the only book I was managing to buy regularly and I still missed a few issues (like next month's 169, but it was a fill-in) Iron Man #107-this started my 12 issue subscription through the magazine drive at school Marvel Two-In-One #36 the wrap of the Skull the Slayer saga Spidey Super Stories #31 and that glorious Star Wars riff Star Wars #8 and Jaxxon the rabbit -M
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Nov 2, 2017 8:10:25 GMT -5
November 1977 and it is a great time to be a teen reading comics in high school as a freshman. Plenty of local convenience stores to search out and buy from. Action 480 Amazing Spiderman 177 Avengers 168 Batman 296 Capt America 218 Defenders 56 Detective 475 FF 191 Ghost Rider 28 Godzilla 7 Human Fly 6 invaders 25Iron Man 107 John Carter 9 Justice League 151 Man from Atlantis 1 Marvel Preview 2 MTU 66 MTIO 36 MOKF 61 Mister Miracle 22 Ms Marvel 14 Shade the Changing Man 5 Showcase 97 Peter Parker 15 Star Hunters 3 Star Wars 8 Superboy and LOSH 236 Thor 268 Warlord 11 What If 7 X-Men 109
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 2, 2017 9:02:06 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Nov 2, 2017 9:36:36 GMT -5
In November, 1977, I bought these:
DC Comics:
Aquaman #60 : I wasn’t happy about Jim Aparo leaving this title for Don Newton to pencil. While I did respect Newton’s considerable talent, his work was a little too pretty and posed for my tastes. I remember really liking this run of stories, though. I wish I’d picked up the collection from a few years ago.
Challengers of the Unknown #85: I kept up with this one much more for co-stars Deadman and Swamp Thing, in whom I was much more invested and interested.
DC Special Series #8: Featuring a deluxe installment of the Brave & the Bold, teaming Batman, Deadman, and Sgt. Rock. With two of the most popular B&B co-stars in a story by series regular writer Bob Haney, this should have been great, but it didn’t seem very special with the lackluster pencils of Ric Estrada.
Detective Comics #475: “The Laughing Fish”. Inarguably one of the best Joker stories ever. I remember really loving artist Marshall Rogers’ work, even though it was very stiff and unconvincingly posed. It was certainly effective, though.
Metal Men #56: I stuck with this from the revival as a reprint series to this final issue, even though I never much appreciated Joe Staton’s cartoony take.
Mister Miracle #22: I caught the last half of Kirby’s run, and it was one of my favorites. This run by the same team that was delivering great stuff in Detective was very satisfying.
New Gods #16: But this wasn’t. I hadn’t picked up more than one or two issues of Kirby’s run, and although I kept buying this continuation, I never liked it. I think Gerry Conway was the first writer I learned to be leery of. Evidently I stopped buying JLA this month, which happens to be the month Conway took over scripting from Englehart.
Shade, the Changing Man #5: Ditko was delivering a wild ride here, and I was loving every weird issue.
Showcase #97: Staton, again, but I felt compelled to buy a new solo series featuring an Earth-2 character. Almost any of the Golden Agers—Dr. Midnite, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific—would have been preferable to me, though.
Star Hunters #3: I wasn’t expecting to like this but I did.
Teen Titans #53: I loved the Titans, but I didn’t like the stream of lesser artistic talents that handled this revival. This issue had Juan Ortiz doing a flashback to the untold origin of the team.
Marvel Comics:
Defenders #56: I was completely faithful to this series, from my first issue (#4) to the end of the run. David Anthony Kraft kept the book unpredictable, although this issue, with the end of a short stint by Carmine Infantino on art, doesn’t trigger any strong memories, from a look at the cover. I see it had Lunatik, a character that seemed to be trying a little too hard at absurdity.
Godzilla #7: This is one of my favorite Marvel series of the era, its 24 issues forming a satisfying epic chronicling the King of the Monsters’ trip across America, from Seattle to New York. Doug Moench did some really creative work here, managing to craft stories that went far beyond the expected limitations of the subject.
Howard the Duck #21: I never particularly appreciated Gene Colan on this series, but I appreciated him much more when Carmine Infantino stepped in to handle the art this time around. I was getting tired of the book, though, and the Sinister Soofi was way too goofy. Yawn.
Human Fly #6: Why did I keep buying this? I don’t really know, but I did.
Marvel Premiere #40: I wasn’t familiar with the Torpedo, a second string costumed hero who had appeared in a few issues of Daredevil, but I liked the name, and I thought the costume was pretty cool. Art was by Bob Brown, who had drawn some of the first comics I bought, and so I retained a fondness for his rather pedestrian pencils. The Torpedo sank, though. Hey, I’d have probably bought an ongoing if it had made it….
What If #7: What if someone else had been bitten by the radioactive spider? More of the usual fun and fascinating alternate realities, this time in more of an anthology format, although the stories of Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, et. al. gaining spider powers were all handled by the same team of Don Glut and Rick Hoberg.
X-Men #109: This continued to be on fire with Claremont, Byrne, and Austin. It was unmissable.
|
|
|
Post by hondobrode on Nov 3, 2017 18:07:10 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by hondobrode on Nov 3, 2017 18:30:22 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by hondobrode on Nov 3, 2017 18:42:18 GMT -5
|
|