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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 29, 2014 19:28:29 GMT -5
There's no indication on the cover the comic contains any other story other than Logan's Run. That's just it...no indication, it just appears, and seems to upstage the main content, at least from a reader perspective. After reading your basic Marvel and DC comic as a kid, seeing a nurse get axed in the back from a maniac was...well comics would never be the same again  Im not sure I get the nurse reference if it relates to the mentioned comic Ms Jezebel but I will attest to the Thanos story stealing the spotlight as I have yet not read Logan's Run portion. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 19:32:17 GMT -5
Im not sure I get the nurse reference if it relates to the mentioned comic Ms Jezebel but I will attest to the Thanos story stealing the spotlight as I have yet not read Logan's Run portion. The murdered nurse was in the MK story I read...sorry if it seemed confusing... |
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 29, 2014 19:32:58 GMT -5
Hunter Rose had his own short lived Comico series in the very beginning. But Matt Wagner revived him as a backup in Mage, and that's when Grendel took off. Was it Mage Defined or Discovred? I have both and haven't read them in a long time. Though one of those was a reprint ? I'll have to look when I get home. I also seem to remember having a random Comico Grendel book now that w you mention it. The first volume is now known as Mage: The Hero Discovered, the late '90s/early '00s Image series is called Mage: The Hero Defined, and the final volume, if it ever gets published, will be Mage: The Hero Denied. The first series had the Grendel backups that were eventually collected as Devil by the Deed. (Matt has disowned the earlier Grendel work, but he did allow it to be republished as Grendel Archives because he realized those issues were selling for ridiculous prices and felt that if someone wanted those issues so badly, they should be at a more affordable price. He also did a very funny commentary on those early stories where he points out how terrible he was at drawing hands.)
Matt recently said that he'll be starting with Mage III soon, but we've been hearing that for years.
Matt also provided the Devil's Quest stories that lead into Batman/Grendel II as backups in Grendel Tales. Some really great art and interesting storytelling experiments in those backups. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 29, 2014 19:35:25 GMT -5
The earliest Grimjack stories were originally backups in Starslayer. I actually feel that material was stronger than most of the first year of the ongoing comic.
Nexus always had great backups, too. Especially the Judah stories.
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Post by Earth 2 Flash on Sept 29, 2014 19:39:37 GMT -5
I concur with Ish Kabbible that the Manhunter back-ups in Detective Comics were really good.
My other favorite back-up series was the Huntress 2nd feature in Wonder Woman. Admittedly, these back-ups were almost always mentioned on the cover, but this was the series that made Helena Wayne my all-time favorite super-heroine.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 29, 2014 19:40:26 GMT -5
Was it Mage Defined or Discovred? I have both and haven't read them in a long time. Though one of those was a reprint ? I'll have to look when I get home. I also seem to remember having a random Comico Grendel book now that w you mention it. The first volume is now known as Mage: The Hero Discovered, the late '90s/early '00s Image series is called Mage: The Hero Defined, and the final volume, if it ever gets published, will be Mage: The Hero Denied. The first series had the Grendel backups that were eventually collected as Devil by the Deed. (Matt has disowned the earlier Grendel work, but he did allow it to be republished as Grendel Archives because he realized those issues were selling for ridiculous prices and felt that if someone wanted those issues so badly, they should be at a more affordable price. He also did a very funny commentary on those early stories where he points out how terrible he was at drawing hands.)
Matt recently said that he'll be starting with Mage III soon, but we've been hearing that for years.
Matt also provided the Devil's Quest stories that lead into Batman/Grendel II as backups in Grendel Tales. Some really great art and interesting storytelling experiments in those backups. Okay I have both those series. I guess a don't remember there being Grendel stories in that series. My memory seems to fade more and more everyday. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 19:45:54 GMT -5
The first volume is now known as Mage: The Hero Discovered, the late '90s/early '00s Image series is called Mage: The Hero Defined, and the final volume, if it ever gets published, will be Mage: The Hero Denied. The first series had the Grendel backups that were eventually collected as Devil by the Deed. (Matt has disowned the earlier Grendel work, but he did allow it to be republished as Grendel Archives because he realized those issues were selling for ridiculous prices and felt that if someone wanted those issues so badly, they should be at a more affordable price. He also did a very funny commentary on those early stories where he points out how terrible he was at drawing hands.) Devil by the Deed is definitely a far superior work, but I enjoy reading the original stories as well; they shed a little more light on the events of Devil by the Deed, and there are a few striking moments as well. For example, I really liked Hunter and Argent on that rooftop, just...talking. Certainly, I'd recommend the casual viewer begin with Devil by the Deed and then work back to the original stories just to satiate their hunger for more Hunter Rose. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 20:45:56 GMT -5
I don't know how hidden it was since it was noted on the cover, but Don Simpson's Megaton Man had a backup strip called Border Worlds that I fell in love with. It eventually got it's own series, but never concluded.
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Post by DubipR on Sept 29, 2014 21:17:17 GMT -5
I like the back up stories in All-Star Western & Weird Wesrern Tales; El Diablo by Kanigher, Bat Lash by Aragones & Cardy, and others...
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Post by berkley on Sept 29, 2014 21:41:26 GMT -5
I remember the Moon Knight back-up in the Hulk magazine very well. recently re-read it and it holds up very well, IMO.
Tales of Asgard would have to be up there among my favourite back-ups. I don't think it was mentioned on the cover, or at least not every single one.
Some of the nicest moments in Kirby's FW epic were found in Tales of the New Gods back-ups. Can't recall if they appeared on the covers or not.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Sept 29, 2014 21:49:42 GMT -5
Gru's Captain America series often had interesting back up stories spotlighting unusual characters, including villains and some really, really minor supporting characters.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 22:21:06 GMT -5
Those Moon Knight stories are coming out in a collected Epic Edition from Marvel this week. While they didn't announce it, most of the Marvel black and white mags featured back ups and multiple stories beyond the lead feature. I first discovered Bloodstone via the back-ups in Rampaging Hulk, and he has become a favorite Z-list Marvel character of mine. Savage Sword had lots of Kull and Solomon Kane type back ups through its run. However, my favorite unannounced back up story/character of all time appeared in this issue....  the first Dr. Strange story.... -M |
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Post by tolworthy on Sept 30, 2014 0:08:18 GMT -5
The Badtime Bedtime Books   They weren't in every issue, and at the time I wished they were. I later learned that the publishers knew perfectly well that this was the main draw for the comic. But only one man (Leo Baxendale) could write and draw them. Others tried, but they lacked his talent. He was not very fast, and half way through the series he left mainstream comics for good. This was my first exposure to the men behind the curtain. The smooth corporate face of "comics" actually depends on a small number of irreplaceable people working long hours under tight deadlines. If a backup strip never made it to the big time it might not be because the editors were stupid. Maybe only a few of those pages ever existed and no more could be made. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Sept 30, 2014 8:05:13 GMT -5
There were a ton of excellent backup strips in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly (later monthly, later still Return of the Jedi Weekly). In the late '70s, the mag had the likes of the Micronauts, Warlock and Star-Lord as back up strips, along with a fair few "Tales of the Watcher", in which old Atlas era sci-fi tales were reprinted with a new framing device featuring Utau introducing the tale you were about to read. As the 1980s dawned, the UK Star Wars comic featured more licensed properties, like The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones and Crystar (which sucked), along with some excellent to mediocre movie adaptations like Blade Runner, Krull, For Your Eyes Only and Time Bandits. Among my favourite backups found in U.S. comics, I'd say the Steve Ditko backups in the Charlton E-Man comic were strange but great, and the Atom and Airwave backups in early '80s issues of Action Comics were very enjoyable too. I like the back up stories in All-Star Western & Weird Wesrern Tales; El Diablo by Kanigher, Bat Lash by Aragones & Cardy, and others... To each his own and all that, but despite being a big Jonah Hex/Weird Western Tales fan, these back ups just bore me rigid. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 30, 2014 9:40:00 GMT -5
The first volume is now known as Mage: The Hero Discovered, the late '90s/early '00s Image series is called Mage: The Hero Defined, and the final volume, if it ever gets published, will be Mage: The Hero Denied. The first series had the Grendel backups that were eventually collected as Devil by the Deed. (Matt has disowned the earlier Grendel work, but he did allow it to be republished as Grendel Archives because he realized those issues were selling for ridiculous prices and felt that if someone wanted those issues so badly, they should be at a more affordable price. He also did a very funny commentary on those early stories where he points out how terrible he was at drawing hands.) Devil by the Deed is definitely a far superior work, but I enjoy reading the original stories as well; they shed a little more light on the events of Devil by the Deed, and there are a few striking moments as well. For example, I really liked Hunter and Argent on that rooftop, just...talking. Certainly, I'd recommend the casual viewer begin with Devil by the Deed and then work back to the original stories just to satiate their hunger for more Hunter Rose. Oh, I don't think those original Grendel stories are bad at all. It's Matt Wagner himself who rags on them. He didn't want to republish them, but then he saw the prices they were going for and decided that somebody must want them, which is why he permitted the reprint issues and the collection for Grendel's 20th anniversary. He didn't allow them in the first Grendel omnibus, though.
And his commentary on them is absolutely hilarious.
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