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Post by hondobrode on Sept 30, 2017 19:56:30 GMT -5
In my recent cull of books, none of the various versions of the Marvel handbooks survived the culling, but I did keep the Who's Who issues for now. Mostly because the artwork in them was top notch, not just something whipped up quickly by whomever was available in the production room (Brodsky's Ban or Romita's Raiders whichever it was at the time these were made). I know one of the dudes from the old Avengers Mailing List that Crimebuster and I were a part of way back when was a major contributor to the research and writing team that produced the All New Marvel Handbook circa 2006 and the series of one-shots tied to it (the Avengers Roll Call, FF Special, Mystic Arcana Handbook, Book of the Dead-Marvel Vampires, etc.), but nothing he ever said regarding the book gave me any interest or enthusiasm for it. For me the difference was that when I read Who's Who I felt like I was reading a piece of history with readable prose that was presented in narrative fashion, but when I read the Marvel Handbook, I felt like I was reading recycled material from the TSR Marvel Game, which I had and had already read, along with the second rate art I got in the game from game illustrators not sequential comic book artists. If I wanted the same sense of history in narrative form for Marvel that I got from Who's Who, I had to go read something like Marvel Saga. What I preferred to either of them though were things like the Fantaco Chronicles and the Indexes...     which not only gave me more info and a sense of history, but provided me with an insight into specific issues I wanted to track down and read. -M I still have all of these and love em all |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 20:57:21 GMT -5
I got this book three years ago and I consider it an excellent book done by DC Comics. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 21:04:05 GMT -5
I got this book three years ago and I consider it an excellent book done by DC Comics. Except it wasn't done by DC, it was published by the ICG, or Independent Comics Group, but was actually Eclipse (iirc). -M |
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Post by MDG on Sept 30, 2017 21:16:18 GMT -5
The attraction of DC's Who's Who for me was the artwork. Dave Gibbons did some great retro-styled pieces, and there were always pleasant surprises, from Dave Stevens to Bernard Sachs, to Michael T. Gilbert. As well as artwork by IIRC Marv Wolfman and Len Wein.
I don't think I ever did more than skim the text.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 21:31:31 GMT -5
The attraction of DC's Who's Who for me was the artwork. Dave Gibbons did some great retro-styled pieces, and there were always pleasant surprises, from Dave Stevens to Bernard Sachs, to Michael T. Gilbert. As well as artwork by IIRC Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. I don't think I ever did more than skim the text. Who's Who came out when I was first really getting into DC, I started picking up the later issues that came out towards the end of Crisis and heading towards Legends, and went back and grabbed earlier issues as back issues when I had the cash. For me, they were my catching up on DC and learning the ropes because 90% of the books I got as a kid were Marvel and my main exposure to DC stuff had been TV and Viewmaster reels. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 22:13:40 GMT -5
@mrp ... I misspoke too soon. Sorry.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 1, 2017 6:48:19 GMT -5
Glad to see there is still a lot of love for both of these series. In the Handbooks defense, in terms of the art, I did notice that they started to let the artists get a bit more dynamic with the character poses by the end of the Deluxe Edition run and even more so with the updates. It still never reached the level of some of the absolutely gorgeous Joe Kubert, George Perez and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez Who's Who art.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 1, 2017 7:03:52 GMT -5
Does anyone happen to own the somewhat obscure Marvel Conan handbook? I remember browsing through it years ago in back issue bins and was struck by the gorgeous cover and the fact that the entries were done in more of Who's Who style. Actually, characters don't even get physical stats and its all flavor and history.   |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,218 
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Post by Confessor on Oct 1, 2017 7:28:42 GMT -5
I was fascinated by both series at the time, but I never bought a copy of either. Money was tight back then (a paper boy's wage only stretches so far) and I would always rather spend my cash on an actual comic, rather than a handbook.
EDIT: Also, I had the Marvel Super-Heroes RPG and various attendant handbooks, which seemed to provide much the same information as the OHOTMU.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 1, 2017 7:36:48 GMT -5
Your mention of your wages at the time takes me back to the 80's. One dollar for a comic was about right. I never felt like comics were really expensive until when they went up past 2 dollars. I guess my dollar went much further back then and money was flowing. I can't get myself to pay 4 bucks for one comic these days.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 1, 2017 7:39:36 GMT -5
I was fascinated by both series at the time, but I never bought a copy of either. Money was tight back then (a paper boy's wage only stretches so far) and I would always rather spend my cash on an actual comic, rather than a handbook. EDIT: Also, I had the Marvel Super-Heroes RPG and various attendant handbooks, which seemed to provide much the same information as the OHOTMU. The Gamer's Handbook's copied the histories section directly from the Official Handbooks. |
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Post by james on Oct 1, 2017 8:20:08 GMT -5
Perez's covers blew away the Marvel's covers. I think some but not all were done by Byrne.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,218
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Post by Confessor on Oct 1, 2017 8:35:15 GMT -5
Your mention of your wages at the time takes me back to the 80's. One dollar for a comic was about right. I never felt like comics were really expensive until when they went up past 2 dollars. I guess my dollar went much further back then and money was flowing. I can't get myself to pay 4 bucks for one comic these days. Well, back in the early '80s, a Marvel or DC comic book cost me 25p over here (climbing to 35p by the the middle of the decade). In the early '80s, I was surviving on pocket money, which I think was about £1.50 a week, so I could afford to buy a comic or maybe two a week and still have money left over for sweets or pop. By the time I got my first job as a paper boy in 1986, I was earning a whopping £7.50 (ooooh....), so buying Marvels or DCs at 35p or 40p a pop was very manageable and my comic intake rose considerably as a result. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 9:32:48 GMT -5
Does anyone happen to own the somewhat obscure Marvel Conan handbook? I remember browsing through it years ago in back issue bins and was struck by the gorgeous cover and the fact that the entries were done in more of Who's Who style. Actually, characters don't even get physical stats and its all flavor and history. This was released twice, with different covers each time. I have both. This was the other cover...  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 9:39:16 GMT -5
I was fascinated by both series at the time, but I never bought a copy of either. Money was tight back then (a paper boy's wage only stretches so far) and I would always rather spend my cash on an actual comic, rather than a handbook. EDIT: Also, I had the Marvel Super-Heroes RPG and various attendant handbooks, which seemed to provide much the same information as the OHOTMU. The Gamer's Handbook's copied the histories section directly from the Official Handbooks. The game came out before the Handbook was fully released, so some of the entries for characters later in the alphabet would have had to "reprint" material that hadn't been published in the handbook yet. The Handbooks started with a cover date of Jan 83 the game was released early '84, and knowing how long it takes for game material to be produced, it was in progress at the time the Handbooks were starting publication (the first rumblings of it were hinted at in places like Dragon mag when I bought my first issues of it in '82), so if they used the same material, that was coordinated between Marvel and TSR and there is some question as to who was producing the text. -M |
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