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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 3, 2019 16:22:00 GMT -5
Mighty World of Marvel morphed into Marvel Comic with its 330th issue (1979):  I hated it when Dez Skinn took over as editor and reduced the page count from 36 to 24 for the same price and abandoned use of glossy covers, while pretending this was an improvement. They decided to shrink down the artwork, but instead of reverting to the beloved landscape format with two pages side by side, they mashed up up the artwork horribly and tried to arrange often non-congruent panels together. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2019 16:32:25 GMT -5
I have about two of those. And I agree. And it does look inferior. I'm not the biggest landscape fan, but it's paradise compared to those non-congruent panels.
Did Dez Skinn say why he made the changes? Definitely feels inferior. Can't imagine buying a bundle of those on eBay.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 3, 2019 16:54:15 GMT -5
Did Dez Skinn say why he made the changes? He talks about it on his website. He says sales had been dropping and he wanted to reduce costs and make the comics look more like popular British titles from other publishers. His memory seems to be failing him a bit, as he says the comics featured seven stories in 28 pages, when I'm pretty sure it was six in 24. link |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2019 17:40:25 GMT -5
Thanks for the link.
I don't know why an editor would want to imitate what other publishers are doing. Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but I consider it demeaning if I'm honest.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 3, 2019 17:41:24 GMT -5
Those toy premiums have me jealous. i would have loved stuff like that, as a kid. Closest we got were the stupid gimmicks of the 90s, aimed at speculators, rather than a little something extra for the kids. The premise is still the same, sell more copies; but, it seems more innocent in your version than what we got, in the 90s. The UK stuff seems more like the prize in a cereal box that some stupid pogs or a chromium cover (or, Kirby help us, 12 variant covers).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2019 18:05:29 GMT -5
You're right. It was something innocent, just something to entertain you for a while like a little wind-up car.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2019 7:15:08 GMT -5
Let's look at 1981. First up, a Captain America title which also featured Iron Man, Dazzler, and The Defenders:  Marvel Action:  Marvel Super Adventure:  Those look like fun titles with an interesting mix of strips. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 4, 2019 16:15:57 GMT -5
Let's look at 1981. First up, a Captain America title which also featured Iron Man, Dazzler, and The Defenders: I used to like the way the sequence of reprints tended to be maintained when heroes hopped around from title to title, but here Cap seems to have jumped forward about a hundred issues from Friedrich/Romita to Stern/Byrne/Rubinstein, and Iron Man has jumped from maybe around #60 to the Michelinie/JRJR/Layton era. Both good runs, but too recent and I'd already read them. I don't think Steve Englehart's classic run on Cap was ever reprinted in the UK. The Defenders was entering its dullest phase, and Dazzler was always rubbish. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2019 16:39:44 GMT -5
The only The Defenders stuff I've read is the early stuff via "Essential Marvel" volumes. So I'm ignorant of later stuff.
What did you think was dull about the later phase?
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 4, 2019 17:12:03 GMT -5
The only The Defenders stuff I've read is the early stuff via "Essential Marvel" volumes. So I'm ignorant of later stuff. What did you think was dull about the later phase? I'm a big fan of Englehart and Gerber's Defenders runs, and also enjoyed the good parts of David Kraft's inconsistent run. Ed Hannigan's stories after that was a bit of a drag, with interminable stuff involving Tunnelworld or the Mandrill. Herb Trimpe seemed to be phoning in the artwork, not helped by pedestrian inking. Don Perlin's stuff was a little better when inked by Joe Sinnott, but looked rougher than a badger's arse when inked by Tex Blaisdell or Pablo Marcos. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 4, 2019 17:31:27 GMT -5
Marvel Action: I think that cover was Alan Davis's first professional work. I hated it at the time. I think this was drawn before he realised art should be drawn at a larger size than it is published at. Thor Doc and the Thing look okay, but the Torch looks off, and Reed and Sue's arm positions don't work for me - it looks like the rubbery left arm could be hers. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 4, 2019 17:56:43 GMT -5
Marvel Super Adventure: For some reason they chose to give up on reprinting fresh DD stories, which had maybe reached the end of Marv Wolfman's run and rebooted to around #50, which had already been reprinted in Mighty World of Marvel. I'm not sure if they ever reprinted the excellent Shooter/Kane/Janson issues that laid the foundations later built on by Frank Miller. I enjoyed Jack Kirby's initial Black Panther storyline featuring King Solomon's Frog, but couldn't get into his later stuff. I think Alan Davis drew a cover for this that was rejected because T'Challa looked as if he was sitting on the toilet.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2019 3:55:31 GMT -5
Now we're at 1982. The Daredevils, which ran for 11 issues, featured Daredevil, Spidey and Captain Britain:  The FF and the Hulk got new comics:   Moving away from superheroes, I simply must share this:  |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,222 
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Post by Confessor on Jul 5, 2019 5:47:44 GMT -5
How come you're not covering the various name and format changes to the Star Wars comic? Star Wars Weekly became The Empire Strikes Back Weekly in 1980 and then The Empire Strikes Back Monthly later that same year. There was a further name change to Star Wars Monthly in 1982, before it became Return of the Jedi Weekly in 1983. Moving away from superheroes, I simply must share this: Great cover! I'm assuming that this reprinted issues of the Marvel Star Trek comic, yes? That cover is clearly trying to tie the comic in with the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but Marvel never actually did a comic adaptation of that movie. They did Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and when the franchise moved to DC, they did comic adaptations of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and all the subsequent "Shatner and crew" films. Which meant that ST II as the only film featuring the original cast that didn't get a comic book adaptation. That is until 2009, when IDW Comics finally filled the gap and published a 3-issue adaptation of it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2019 7:31:14 GMT -5
How come you're not covering the various name and format changes to the Star Wars comic? Well, it is a potted history.  Truth be told, I was thinking Star Wars might one day get its own topic. I've lost a lot of cover images for the various name/format changes, but I thought they could be covered in a bit more depth later on (unless a topic already exists). And, yes, that ST Winter Special has nothing to do with TWOK. It simply reprints issues of the Marvel title. |
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