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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2018 21:37:37 GMT -5
I definitely miss the corner character boxes. That's one of the coolest aspect of those comics. It's kind of spice up the book itself and thanks for mentioning it too. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2018 23:20:09 GMT -5
That's the one thing I can do without. Muddied colors, bleeds through the pages making some balloons unreadable on the backside, etc. etc. always made me wish comics were on better paper as a kid. Now they are. -M Personally, I prefer the muted colours and the limited palette that we used to get on newsprint. I think it's "warmer" and allows you to get a sense of the artist's line work much more than modern computer colouring on glossy paper does. I also love, love, LOVE the smell of newsprint comics -- I'm a comic sniffer from way back!  I can't say I ever had any trouble reading balloons because of bleed through on old newsprint comics though. As I have mentioned before, I got Son of Origins when it came out and my reaction was, wow comics look so much better on this type of paper, why don't the comics I buy off the racks look this good. Then inthe 80s when Baxter (and Mando) paper started being used and then the prestige format, my reaction was, why can't all comics be on this type of paper and get rid of that cheap ass ugly looking newsprint stuff... so I never had a real affection for newsprint and always thought it was something that dragged comics down, not something to celebrate about the artform or even something that was integral to the comics experience. -M |
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Post by urrutiap on Sept 17, 2018 1:42:45 GMT -5
The best left corner character boxes on comics were these
Conan the barbarian . best character box was of Conan standing with an axe in his hand and sword too I think
old X Men/Uncanny X Men. best character box portrait was of brown outfit Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Rogue, storm and Dazzler for some issues.
Alpha Flight
Avengers a little bit.
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Post by berkley on Sept 17, 2018 2:12:23 GMT -5
Since several of us here had letters printed back then, I think it's safe to assume most were real. Cei-U! Mine was, anyway! Not only were they real they were sometimes one of the highlights of the issue. |
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Post by badwolf on Sept 17, 2018 10:48:27 GMT -5
The best left corner character boxes on comics were these Conan the barbarian . best character box was of Conan standing with an axe in his hand and sword too I think old X Men/Uncanny X Men. best character box portrait was of brown outfit Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Rogue, storm and Dazzler for some issues. Alpha Flight Avengers a little bit. I liked the frequently changing ones on Byrne's FF. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 17, 2018 12:31:47 GMT -5
Next Issue boxes. This one works only in the days before the internet and I suppose Previews, but not knowing what was going to happen in your favorite title in 28 days with the exception of a two or three sentence blurb could really make the mind race.
Don Martin ads - I think it was for Bonkers gum. I also recall a Spider-Man/Captain Crunch ad from the 80's where the Captain had been kidnapped which made me wonder how this would affect both Spider-Man's stories in his own comics and my ability to find Captain Crunch cereal in the store and since I only bought Batman stuff at the time, it also makes me wonder if Spider-Man was appearing in DC Comics (albeit only in one page ads) at the time. Being young enough that I could appreciate little things like that ("Hey! I got a free Don Martin cartoon just for buying this Batman comic!" "Hey! Captain Crunch has been kidnapped but I just saw him on TV this morning! Good Job Spider-Man!") is something I probably wouldn't think anything about if I still bought new comics today, but I do miss how easy it was to be entertained when you're eight or so years old.
Other ads: Mad-Balls, Those Transformer/Go-Bot watches that could transform/Go-Bot into other things, that cereal box that you could open and read as a comic (though I never saw this on shelves), and video game ads that told a little story - at least one was penciled by Carmine Infantino, I believe.
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Post by urrutiap on Sept 17, 2018 17:40:01 GMT -5
yeah those old weird Gobots watch ads.
That and Lazer Tag ads.
Revell model kits in some comics from 1984 such as Power Pack etc.
also MASK toy ads which I just saw in some of my single back issues of Power Pack
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Post by badwolf on Sept 17, 2018 17:53:59 GMT -5
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Post by comicsandwho on Sept 17, 2018 19:50:22 GMT -5
That's the one thing I can do without. Muddied colors, bleeds through the pages making some balloons unreadable on the backside, etc. etc. always made me wish comics were on better paper as a kid. Now they are. -M New comic smell. Even better than sniffing freshly -mimeographed worksheets at school. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Sept 17, 2018 20:07:57 GMT -5
I don't miss much of anything about the early '80s comics other than the cover prices. If the printing and newsprint had been good quality that would be great, but they hit new lows in paper quality and plastic plates right before the push for better paper and quality of printing (unfortunately often coupled early on with totally inappropriate color that was not done with such bright paper in mind). I have good feelings about the '60s and '70s comics design elements, but in the '80s very little worked for me. I didn't like having Spider-Man's head in the UPC code box of every direct Marvel unless it was one of his comics. I didn't like losing the 'Marvel Comics Group' banner across the top. I liked the checklist that became a regular feature though as of the late 1979 Marvel issues, so maybe that's one thing. DC changed less, but I missed the character features and Bob Rozakis things that had been in the '70s comics, and earlier those half page Henry Boltinoff strips. I loved the Daily Planet and DC Feature Pages, mainly due to Bob Rozakis' column('Q: Is Clark Kent Superman? A: Shut up.'), but Fred Hembeck was my favorite. The 'Profiles' were a bit of a wall of text when I was young, but eventually, in re-reading my comics, I read up on that info, too. Didn't care for the crosswords(you had to send away for the answers; apparently, they did so many pages of those 'extras' each month, that it was totally random regarding which page would end up in which comic), or the 'DC vs. Marvel softball recaps' on the 'Daily Planet Sports Page'(I would rather have read about how the game between Metropolis and Gotham City was delayed by Superman and Batman turning up to stop Luthor and the Joker from stealing all the hot dogs!) As for Marvel, prior to Jim Shooter restarting the Bullpen Bulletins, I never knew who actually wrote all those 'ITEM'S of Marvel fluff. Around 1979, that part of the Bulletins disappeared, and it was just the Stan's Soapbox(in yellow) and checklist(in blue), then it vanished altogether(I want to say it was the summer of 1980, when Marvel increased its prices, to 50 cents, and page count, to 21, a bit under DC's new total). Shooter's version started in late '81, then after a couple of months and some deadline hiccups, it was back for good in '82, with the checklist. Both Shooter's column, and DC's equivalent, 'Meanwhile', by Dick Giordano, could be insightful and entertaining, as well as fun for the 'new comics scoop'. The 'guest columns' in both got tiresome after a while, particularly in DC's case, when they had a 'new column' every week, but it meant three 'fan editorials' and one Giordano column. 'Meanwhile' just went away about 1986, and the 'Bullpen' page regressed as Shooter left and it passed through various hands, and formats. By the '90s, it was a parody of itself. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Sept 17, 2018 20:23:15 GMT -5
Next Issue boxes. This one works only in the days before the internet and I suppose Previews, but not knowing what was going to happen in your favorite title in 28 days with the exception of a two or three sentence blurb could really make the mind race. Don Martin ads - I think it was for Bonkers gum. I also recall a Spider-Man/Captain Crunch ad from the 80's where the Captain had been kidnapped which made me wonder how this would affect both Spider-Man's stories in his own comics and my ability to find Captain Crunch cereal in the store and since I only bought Batman stuff at the time, it also makes me wonder if Spider-Man was appearing in DC Comics (albeit only in one page ads) at the time. Being young enough that I could appreciate little things like that ("Hey! I got a free Don Martin cartoon just for buying this Batman comic!" "Hey! Captain Crunch has been kidnapped but I just saw him on TV this morning! Good Job Spider-Man!") is something I probably wouldn't think anything about if I still bought new comics today, but I do miss how easy it was to be entertained when you're eight or so years old. Other ads: Mad-Balls, Those Transformer/Go-Bot watches that could transform/Go-Bot into other things, that cereal box that you could open and read as a comic (though I never saw this on shelves), and video game ads that told a little story - at least one was penciled by Carmine Infantino, I believe. If you were really lucky, sometimes they'd run the next issue's cover at the end of the letter column(or even instead of it, if they hadn't written it up in time). I can recall in the spring of 1980, DC had ads for Wonder Woman, DC Comics Presents and the 'Untold Legend of the Batman' series,that previewed the next three issues of those comics. The idea that the issue that wouldn't be on sale for another two months must have been finished, since the cover was right here, was intriguing to my six-year-old self! I remember all those comic ads, although something was lost when they dropped stuff like 'Grit', toy soldiers, and Hostess in favor of those candy ads(although seeing Don Martin work in color in a comic book was pretty cool!) I can remember a fishing-rod manufacturer, Garcia, which I'd never heard of before or since, ran ads at Christmastime in the mid-80s, featuring Spider-Man, for no apparent reason other than they were advertising in comics....actually, in DC Comics. Oops! |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on Sept 18, 2018 10:23:32 GMT -5
I miss done-in-one stories.
I miss the old numbering, and the implication that you were taking part in something far larger than yourself because this was the two hundred eighty fifth issue.
I miss the more juvenile feel. Comics could be deep and mature, but there was still a sense of fun in the house ads, letter cols, and even the corner boxes and logos at times. Serious and brooding was a welcome departure from the norm rather than the norm.
I miss cover prices less than a buck. Not for the obvious financial reasons, but rather because you could go to the store with two bucks and some change, feeling like the possibilities were endless. Once comics hit a dollar at the end of the decade, the illusion died, and it was really easy to quantify how much (or how little) you could get. Now that they are $4+, it's just depressing.
I miss tight editorial control. One title often knew what the other was doing, as well as what had been done two years earlier. There was a reward for having stuck around for so long and a sense that what you were reading now would matter later on.
I miss subscriptions.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2018 11:35:16 GMT -5
I miss done-in-one stories. I miss the old numbering, and the implication that you were taking part in something far larger than yourself because this was the two hundred eighty fifth issue. I miss the more juvenile feel. Comics could be deep and mature, but there was still a sense of fun in the house ads, letter cols, and even the corner boxes and logos at times. Serious and brooding was a welcome departure from the norm rather than the norm. I miss cover prices less than a buck. Not for the obvious financial reasons, but rather because you could go to the store with two bucks and some change, feeling like the possibilities were endless. Once comics hit a dollar at the end of the decade, the illusion died, and it was really easy to quantify how much (or how little) you could get. Now that they are $4+, it's just depressing. I miss tight editorial control. One title often knew what the other was doing, as well as what had been done two years earlier. There was a reward for having stuck around for so long and a sense that what you were reading now would matter later on. I miss subscriptions. You got my Support 100% ... |
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Post by urrutiap on Sept 18, 2018 11:38:03 GMT -5
Also back in 1984, mail order ads in comic books the were still doing the muscle beach body mail order ad along with some odd stuff
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Post by comicsandwho on Sept 18, 2018 14:10:00 GMT -5
The 1985 'Ambush Bug' mini-series, which pretended to have a 'storyline', but was just a fun spoof of silver-age comics, had a page goofing on the mail-order ads ('Is It A U-Boat? It's-a Not-a MY Boat!'; 'Comics! THOUSANDS of comics! That's right, THOUSANDS! And they're MINE! ALL MINE! HA HA HA HA....Just thought you'd like to know.')
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