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Post by berkley on Sept 2, 2020 23:20:41 GMT -5
I picked up Cadillacs & Dinosaurs later, too, after coming across some of the art in an article and seeing what I could find. I wasn't as attuned to that stuff, when it was being put out, though you would hear the name. Same with Love and Rockets, though I never saw that in a comic shop to actually flip through one. Until the internet came along (or until I came along to it in the mid-90s) I was completely out of touch with comics news of any kind. Basically, if I saw something on the stands that caught my eye, that's the only way I found out about anything.
Also, they used to keep the independent comics that I was mostly following on a separate set of shelves from the Marvel/DC/superhero stuff and I would usually give the latter only a brief once-over, having lost my taste for their product in general. So I often missed the odd exception that I would have wanted to read - like the Moench/Gulacy Batman, which I didn't read until later in the 90s or early 2000s when I learned about them from online comics sites.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 3, 2020 10:59:55 GMT -5
I was adventure-oriented, when I was in college. I had given up on comics, mostly, in high school, apart from the odd book here or there, like X-Men and Legion of Super Heroes, when Levitz and Giffen were on it (and New Teen Titans). However, just before my senior year of high school, a local bookshop was carrying Direct Market comics and I discovered the early offerings from First Comics and the end of Pacific Comics. I snapped up Jon Sable, as I knew Mike Grell and it was firmly in my wheelhouse. I also picked up the first issue of American Flagg and found it interesting, but wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
When I hit college, I found my first true comic shop, but mostly bought back issues. It wasn't until the summer of 1985 that I picked up some newer titles. When I got back to school, a new store had opened up and they had a pretty good mix of DC, Marvel, First, Eclipse and some others, including things like Deluxe Comics. I picked up things that caught my eye, but, tended to find them in mid-storyline, which made me reluctant to pick up some things, like Miracleman. When I could find the early issues, I would dive in. That was how I got into Scout and the related 4 Winds books. Miracleman waited a while, as back issues were a bit scarcer, on that one. That shop carried Dark Horse's early wares, which is how I found them early in their lifespan. It took a bit of time, after college, to really start exploring the indies beyond those putting out adventure and superhero comics. What really helped was when my local turned me on to CBG, which helped introduce me to a lot of stuff, or at least make me curious enough to seek it out.
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Post by beccabear67 on Sept 3, 2020 13:33:51 GMT -5
'Cadillacs & Dinosaurs' reprints the original Kitchen Sink Xenozoic Tales stories only in color doesn't it? I bought the first two issues of the Kitchen Sink comic but was dropping out of following anything comics then. Later I got a couple of the collected volumes, in b&w, and saw Mark Schultz had gone back and polished his art further from what was in Xenozoic Tales, but now I wonder if it was for these color Epic editions? Hey, I did buy one comic from this time, September 1990... Betty Boop's Big Break one-shot!  I also bought issues of Comic Nora, Animedia and Animag magazines (Japanese imports). |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Sept 3, 2020 14:33:37 GMT -5
Iron Man #261 : I don't remember why this run was titled "Armor Wars II"... As I recall it had the Mandarin, a dragon, and lovely art by John Romita Jr. (who really made that ugly armor work). I think the storyline petered out eventually and the "armor wars II" notice was just dropped at some point without any resolution. John Byrne said Armour Wars II had already been announced and solicited, then Bob Layton departed abruptly and he was asked to write something that could still use the title. The Mandarin / dragon stuff was a separate arc later on. I think a Michelinie and Layton version of Armour Wars II eventually emerged with David Ross on pencils as Iron Man #258.1-4 in 2013. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 3, 2020 22:17:30 GMT -5
'Cadillacs & Dinosaurs' reprints the original Kitchen Sink Xenozoic Tales stories only in color doesn't it? I bought the first two issues of the Kitchen Sink comic but was dropping out of following anything comics then. Later I got a couple of the collected volumes, in b&w, and saw Mark Schultz had gone back and polished his art further from what was in Xenozoic Tales, but now I wonder if it was for these color Epic editions? Hey, I did buy one comic from this time, September 1990... Betty Boop's Big Break one-shot! I also bought issues of Comic Nora, Animedia and Animag magazines (Japanese imports). Yup.   |
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Post by berkley on Sept 4, 2020 1:29:34 GMT -5
'Cadillacs & Dinosaurs' reprints the original Kitchen Sink Xenozoic Tales stories only in color doesn't it? I bought the first two issues of the Kitchen Sink comic but was dropping out of following anything comics then. Later I got a couple of the collected volumes, in b&w, and saw Mark Schultz had gone back and polished his art further from what was in Xenozoic Tales, but now I wonder if it was for these color Epic editions? Hey, I did buy one comic from this time, September 1990... Betty Boop's Big Break one-shot! I also bought issues of Comic Nora, Animedia and Animag magazines (Japanese imports). OK, my memory of my personal history with Cadillacs and Dinosaurs/Xenozoic Tales was totally confused. I don't think I ever knew about this Marvel series of colour reprints until now, and Mike's Newsstand doesn't seem to include the Kitchen Sink Xenozoic Tales series in its monthly galleries, so when I saw C&D #1 I assumed that was the first issue of Schulz's original book - which of course actually started way back in the mid-80s and was called Xenozoic Tales, I remember now that I looked it up after you mentioned it. So fishing out the various books and comics from my shelves and piecing it all together, I picked up the 1st and 2nd collections in 1990 and started buying the Kitchen Sink Xenozoic Tales with #10, also in 1990, as a result of reading those collections.
Kind of scary - I'm used to misremembering things from early childhood in the 60s and even later on into the 70s, but I still think of the 1990s as "recent history", both personally and in general, even though it was 30 years ago!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 1, 2020 12:00:07 GMT -5
October 1990! I'm married! I'm poor! But I'm still reading comics! Must come from having a LCS right between the workplace and our home, I guess.
Adventures of Luther Arkwright #8, in glorious black and white, and one of my most treasured discoveries of that time (for all that it was actually a reprint).
Aliens Vs Predator #3, which was, well, an aliens vs predator comics.
Aliens: Earth war #4. Not as good as the first Dark Horse Aliens series. Sam Kieth's style was too cartoony for the subject, methinks. Aliens might be horrific, but it's more hard SF than gothic horror in its aesthetics.
Cerebus #139: Melmoth was a slow story arc, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Sim's "camera work", so to speak, and the characters he creates and gives a distinct voice to, are amazing.
(Let us not compare the multiple Dave Sim characters, each with their own speech patterns, accents and vocabulary, with Brian Bendis's... who all speak the same way).
Daredevil #287. Apparently I'm still buying this, because I know that cover. As I recall, Matt's had another nervous breakdown, has forgotten he's blind and boxes for a living... while Bullseye is also having a nervous breakdown and thinking he's Daredevil. Ann Nocenti's final arc was a bit of a let-down compared to the brilliance that preceded it.
Dreadstar #63, boldly going where no Dreadstar comic has gone before... it's now basically a humour magazine.
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser #1: a truly excellent book by Epic comics, which we must admit was no Vertigo. Mike Mignola proves that he is a force to be reckoned with in the world of comics, with a totally non-derivative take on two of sword and sorcery's best-known heroes. Howard Chaykin writes, and he gives the book his signature Chaykin flavour... (Chaykin makes everything he touches sound that much more intellectual, that much more mature. Even when he's taking the piss).
Fantastic Four #347, which I bought for the Art Adams artwork (I love Art Adams). Nobody would explain, years later, why the Skrulls abducted Alicia in this issue without realizing she was a Skrull too. Nor would anyone explain, even more years later, why the advanced Skrull detector used by the green aliens in this issue (a detector so efficient it managed to pick up traces of Skrull DNA in the Mole Man's monsters, as I recall) failed to detect all the Skrulls that were apparently impersonating so many heroes at the time. Retcons are already painful enough to manage, I guess, without bothering about details!
Give Me Liberty #3: one of the many good Frank Miller books from that era. The man was reinventing himself on a regular basis, much to this reader's pleasure. (Wish I had jumped aboard early for Sin City, which I didn't).
Hellblazer #36 : I forgot about that one. The latter days of Delano on the title didn't make much of an impression.
Iron Man #236 : Why not? It's not that expensive.
James Bond : Permission to Die #3. I loved Grell's James Bond. He felt like the Timothy Dalton Bond, a take I really enjoyed.
Legends of the Dark Knight #2, with the Gulacy Batman. Can't say I remember much more than that.
Legion of Super-heroes #13, with the 5YL universe still unfolding. More of a sprawling SF novel than a super-hero comic, but I didn't mind one bit!
New Mutants #96. Yes, I bought that one. Should have polybagged and sold it a long time ago. Are there Liefeld fans who are ready to part from their money and still don't have this?
Swamp Thing #102. Unlike Alec Holland, I doubt this comic could come back after Rick Veitch was shown the door.
Terminator #3 : it's a Terminator comic. Little to add. Those Dark Horse franchises tended to do things by the numbers.
X-Men #271: Ooooh, how I loathed Cameron Hodge as a character. And now he has that attribute I absolutely despise in a second-rate character: he can't be killed. Even if you stab him, shoot him, dismember his robot body, melt it in a furnace, throw it into the sun, throw the sun into a black hole and use the cosmic cube to cause the heat death of the universe, Hodge'll still come back. Ugh.
X-Factor #61: part of a crossover, and Jean and Logan explore that (retroactively created) mutual attraction introduced in X-Men Classics. But oh, well, it's Claremont who's retconning his own run, so I guess it's all right.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 1, 2020 15:31:53 GMT -5
October 1990
Aliens Vs. Predator #3
Aliens:Earth War #4
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs #2
Dark Horse Presents #46
Fantastic Four #347
Ghost Rider #8
Incredible Hulk #376
Legends of the Dark Knight #12
New Warriors #6
She-Hulk #22
Silver Surfer #44
Spider-Man #5
Wolverine #34
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 1, 2020 15:37:11 GMT -5
@roquefort Raider
I agree with you on Keith's Aliens work. Though I just didn't realize that, that's why lol. I was just but off by it compared to the amazing Bolton covers.
Now Mignola on the other hand .... is style is perfect for Aliens comics.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 2, 2020 1:01:56 GMT -5
                                   Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite comes to an end (one of my favorite storylines), 3-D batman gives me a headache, while LODK, with Prey, restores my faith in the series, after two storylines that weren't my cup of tea. Classics Illustrated was Gift of the Magi, an old favorite and the story that turned me on to O Henry. It also introduced me to Gary Gianni. Enemy Ace wasn't what I expected, but it was still great. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser was brilliant, with Chaykin, Mignola and Al Williamson. Give Me Liberty continued to be gonzo fun and James Bond finally arrived, one year after issue 2 and a year and a half since the first issue! It wasn't Grell's fault! JLE featured the British JLI embassy caretaker, who was an homage to John Cleese's Basil Fawlty, as the Beefeater, in a fun story. JLA had Guy and Ice swapping spit. I kind of liked their odd little romance. Lobo I bought for Bisley and because of JLI. Logan's Run I bought because of the book, which this adapts; but, Barry Blair's characters all looked the same. Mighty Mouse spoofed Namor #1. I hated the new OHOTMU looseleaf. It was cardstock, which was tougher than the flimsier Who's who, but it was all model sheet artwork and dull as dishwater. At least Who's who had some killer illustrations. Real War Stories was the second issue, from Joyce Babner and it featured some anti-military propaganda, with some real military stories and issues. There is a decent encapsulation of Gen Smedley Butler's career in the Marine Corps, adapted from his War Is A Racket. There was also a piece about training deaths, which was a hot topic after a relatively recent drowning at the Navy dive school. There was some accurate stuff about the VA; but, there was also a deep misunderstanding of the modern all-voluntary military; or at least, a viewpoint that lacked any real experience within the modern military. |
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Post by SJNeal on Oct 2, 2020 16:17:18 GMT -5
This was around the time I'd started to transition from Archie to more superhero books. Now, I own almost everything both DC and Marvel put out in 1990, but at the time 8 (9?) yr old me had a very limited comic budget and only stuck to the big names.
Action Comics #659
Adventures of Superman #473
Flash #45
Green Lantern #7
Superman #50
Wonder Woman #49
Avengers #327
Avengers West Coast #65
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 2, 2020 11:39:44 GMT -5
Bought in November 1990, back when there was a LCS between the lab and home. And back when comics weren't yet too expensive.
Books of Magic #1 : Meet Tim Hunter, bespectacled teen with a pet owl and apprentice wizard! (As a comic-book reader, I always thought that Harry Potter, the darling of book critics who wouldn't be caught dead reading a comic, was just a mix of Tim Hunter and Jed (from Kirby's yellow and red version of Sandman). So let's stop fawning over Potter's originality, please). Books of Magic is a lovely limited series written by a Neil Gaiman already at the top of his game, with a different artist for each of the four issues. Here John Bolton does a superlative job showing us the fall of Satan, the rise of magic in Egypt and Atantis and more besides. It is one of my favourite DC comics of all time.
Cerebus #140 : Slow going, but Sim got me interested in Oscar Wilde, so there's that.
Daredevil #288 : *Still* reading this? DD is back in New York, although once again in the midst of a nrevous breakdown, and there's also Kingpin and Bullseye. I didn't realize that story arc had lasted for so long.
Dreadstar #64 : Final issue (the ending is open-ended), with a parody of Star Trek. I remember finding it hilarious at the time but suspect I would not think so today. It has this comment about TNG: "they may sound boring, but they sure look great". That is heresy, I say! Heresy!
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #2 : Such a beautifully-drawn comic, like all four issues of this mini-series. This Mike Mignola fellow will be famous, one day, I tell ya!
Fantastic Four #348, the world's most commercialest comic magazine. Funny blurb, as the FF are temporarily replaced by Marvel's four best-selling characters, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Wolverine and Spider-man. Lovely artwork by Art Adams. Light-hearted story. I liked it.
The Gift #1 : First Comics was a really interesting company. Its books always struck me as a little more mature than Marvel's and DC's regular lines, with material like Dreadstar (before it went bwah-ha-ha), Starslayer, Jon Sable, Nexus, Badger and Grimjack. Here we have the first part of a crossover, and although it's always fun to get another dose of one's favourite characters, I can't say that it got me to buy the second issue. (Was there even a second issue? Perhaps the crossover occurred in other books... I dunno).
Hulk #377 : I love the occasional super-hero comic in which characters act like adults. This is one, in which Doc Samson does his actual job as a psychiatrist and gets Banner's personalities to finally agree with each other. Also features a reformed Ringmaster, now a therapeutic hypnotist, much more interesting than his silly criminal persona.
Legion of Super-heroes #14 : Matter-Eater Lad was turned into a comic relief character in this series, and it works.
Sandman #21 and #22 : Season of Mists begins. Sandman at his best.
Swamp Thing #103 : I can't recall. Losing Rick Veitch was a disaster the book would not recover from.
Terminator #4 (final issue): They'll be back.
Uncanny X-Men #272 : Some crossover with all the mutant titles. Those used to come on an annual basis, as I recall. As far as I'm concerned, they mostly meant that the regular storyline would be interrupted for a few issues and that we'd lose yet another beloved character. (In this crossover I think Rahne loses her powers for good or something).
Wolverine annual #2 : Alan Davis art, which is a definite plus, but I can't remember much more beyond that.
X-Factor #62 : more of the crossover mentioned above. Probably with Bogdanove art despite a Jim Lee cover. Bogdanove was good on Power Pack, because he knew how to draw actual kids (something that's apparently harder than it seems, judging from how many excellent artists draw children as dwarfs or as small adults). But on X-Factor? Nope, didn't work for me at all.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Nov 2, 2020 12:46:37 GMT -5
November 1990
Avengers #328
Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #13
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs #3
Fantastic Four #348
Ghost Rider #9
Incredible Hulk #377
Robin #1
She-Hulk #23
Silver Surfer #45
Spider-Man #6
Wolverine #35
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Nov 2, 2020 13:29:15 GMT -5
It is so cool that one of these threads has finally caught up to that short burst of time in which I was collecting comics avidly as an adolescent!
Action Comics #660
Adventures of Superman #474
Amazing Spider-Man #343
Batman #458
Detective Comics #624
Fantastic Four #348
Incredible Hulk #377
Legends of the Dark Knight #13
New Mutants #97
New Titans #72
Robin #1
Spider-Man #6
Superman #51
Uncanny X-Men #272
X-Factor #62
Comics I bought then but no longer own:
Daredevil #288
Demon #7
Green Lantern #8
Superboy #12
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #17
Wolverine Annual – Bloodlust #2
Comics I later acquired as an adult:
Ape City #4
Batman Dailies Vol. 1, 1943-1944 TPB
Cerebus #140
Cerebus High Society #21
Cerebus High Society #22
Doctor Fate #23
Dreadstar #64
Excalibur #33
Grimjack #80
Justice League Europe #21
Justice League International Special #2
Justice League Quarterly #1
Planet of the Apes #7
Sandman #21
Sandman #22
Silver Surfer #45
Suicide Squad #48
Wonder Woman #50
Zot #34
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2020 15:05:10 GMT -5
Bought at the time...
Books of Magic #1
Doom Patrol #40
Dreadstar #64
FF #348
Sandman #21 & 22
It was the first semester of my senior year at university and I was right broke, so very selective of what I bought. Of those, I only still have theDreadstar book as a single issue, but I have replaced the Books of Magic, Sandman and Doom Patrol with trades. After I graduated, I went back and picked up a lot of the big 2 titles I liked to follow at the time that I couldn't afford-Avengers, Batman, Superman, X-stuff, etc. but I don't own much of that any more.
What I do currently own among this month's releases includes the following:
AD&D #24
Conan the Barbarian #240
Dr. Fate #23
Dr. Strange Sorcerer Supreme #25
Dragonlance #26
Dreadstar #64 (still)
Fafhed & the Gray Mouser #2
Forgotten Realms #17
Ghost Rider #9
GreenArrow #41
Grimjack #80
Hawkworld #7
Ms. Tree Quarterly #3
Nexus #78 & 79
Savage Sword of Conan #181
Sgt. Rock Special #10
Spelljammer #5
Superman #51
Wonder Woman #50
Zorro #2
and the Batman Dailies '43-'44 volume
plus some few other things in collected editions.
-M
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