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Post by commond on Nov 3, 2023 5:53:38 GMT -5
January 1988
Fall of the Mutants was the big storyline for this month. I could be wrong, but in my mind this was the storyline that cemented the annual X-books crossover. The Mutant Massacre was a surprise success and the impetus for trying it again, but Fall of the Mutants felt like a bigger deal to me, perhaps because the fallout from the crossover was still having an impact on the X-Men when I began reading comics. Interestingly, the titles don't intertwine. The world ends up thinking the X-Men are dead, which come to think of it, may have been another 25th anniversary style shake up. I was never a big fan of Angel's transformation into Archangel, but I guess it was an effort at a grim and gritty badass 80s look.
Speaking of transformations, this was the month where The Thing mutated and became even rockier looking while Ms. Marvel became She-Thing, looking much like the original looking lumpy Thing In Fantastic Four #1.
John Romita Jr. began his run on Daredevil this month, which would go on to be one of my favorite books during the first year or so that I read comics. Al Williamson deserves a ton of credit for his inking job on this book as he allowed JRJR to flourish.
The only real curiosity was a bi-weekly six issue limited series called Spellbound, which was written by Louise Simonson and Carl Potts and penciled by Terry Shoemaker, doing his best Walt Simonson impersonation. Nothing really became of this character, but it's interesting to see what projects were greenlit at the time. This was apparently a Denny O'Neal baby until he was fired.
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Post by badwolf on Nov 3, 2023 10:31:04 GMT -5
I read some of Gru's run on Cap; I loved the Serpent Society and also casually followed the Scourge thread. Gru aims a bit younger than deMatteis, so I don't think I'd be interested in revisiting it.
This was getting close to the end of X-Men for me, after having a nearly complete run since the Dark Phoenix saga. (Hated the Archangel development!)
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Post by commond on Nov 3, 2023 17:07:36 GMT -5
February 1988
Marvel Age is asking me whether I'm ready for the "new" New Universe. I don't know, am I?
It seems a bit soon to be revamping the entire line. D.P. 7 was the only book that had its original creators still working on it. The rest of the titles received new creative teams, and Star Brand was positioned as the flagship book after luring John Byrne back. I've read that these books did okay sales-wise and that the line was cancelled because Marvel wanted the talent working on other books, but who knows. I'm sure there's some decent stuff among the New Universe line, it's simply hard to get invested in comics that get cancelled.
The direct market sales leaders for DeFalco's first month in charge:
1. Uncanny X-Men Annual #11
2. Uncanny X-Men #223
3. The Punisher #4
4. X-Factor #22
5. Silver Surfer #5
6. The Amazing Spider-Man #294
7. The 'Nam #12
8. G.I. Joe #65
9. New Mutants #57
10. Web of Spider-Man #32
Assuming that this list is accurate, it's fascinating how well Punisher is doing with those vague Mike Baron stories. I guess it's a kick over from how successful the limited series was. Silver Surfer doing well surprised me. The 'Nam seems to have been well received. It will be interesting to see how long that continues for after Golden's departure.
The curiosity from this month would have be Epic allowing Pat Mills to continue to proclaim his absolute loathing for superheroes in the pages of Marshal Law. The book that caught my eye is Alien Legion, another book like Strikeforce: Morituri that I really ought to give a chance, and now I have a reason to.
Given that I discovered comics on the newsstands, Marvel still has a real newsstand feel for me at this time, and I can still see the comics spread out on the racks and shelves. It was a wonderful time for me regardless of how good the stories were. Most of the curiosities I'm encountering is direct market only stuff. I wouldn't discover a comic book store until '89 so I didn't see much of those books as a kid. DC's output is killing Marvel at this point, and I wonder if a lot of the changes to the status quo on the main books is an effort to keep up with DC's post-Crisis changes.
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Post by badwolf on Nov 3, 2023 18:22:02 GMT -5
Of those, I bought X=Men Annual #11, UXM #223, X-Factor #22, Silver Surfer #5, and NM #57.
I did not like X-Factor or Silver Surfer and can't explain why I kept buying them.
As far as New Universe went, I followed FP7 and Nightmask. For a little while anyway. I've read Byrne's Star Brand in an omnibus...and even he couldn't salvage that. Probably my least favorite Byrne (and of only a few of his works that I didn't like).
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Post by commond on Nov 4, 2023 5:22:24 GMT -5
March 1988
Marvel Age is hyping up Excalibur. I enjoyed Excalibur when I became a reader, but it was impossible for me to collect it as it was too expensive.
Todd McFarlane's run on Amazing Spider-Man begins with issue #298. Little did Marvel know the impact this would have on the entire industry. Just think, if McFarlane had stayed on Hulk it may have changed the history of comics as we know it. Whatever you think of McFarlane, his character designs for the Hulk and Spider-Man were striking compared to the Marvel house style. I wouldn't call them revolutionary as artists such as Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz and Walt Simonson had been fairly idiosyncratic in their approach to comic book art, but they were still cool character designs as far as I'm concerned, and this was an era where guys like McFarlane were still being reeled in by an editor, writer and inker. I didn't hate his Amazing Spider-Man run -- far from it, in fact -- but it was impossible to afford it unless you bought it off the stands at the time.
Alf starts this month since apparently Marvel has its finger in every pie. I'm 99% sure I read some of those since I loved the Alf show.
There aren't any real curiosities this month except for the fact that Jim Shooter and Denny O'Neal are involved in the Marvel Graphic Novel and the Epic offering for the month, which I suppose gives you an idea how long it takes for some projects to reach the publication stage.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 4, 2023 11:08:56 GMT -5
March 1988Marvel Age is hyping up Excalibur. I enjoyed Excalibur when I became a reader, but it was impossible for me to collect it as it was too expensive. Todd McFarlane's run on Amazing Spider-Man begins with issue #298. Little did Marvel know the impact this would have on the entire industry. Just think, if McFarlane had stayed on Hulk it may have changed the history of comics as we know it. Whatever you think of McFarlane, his character designs for the Hulk and Spider-Man were striking compared to the Marvel house style. I wouldn't call them revolutionary as artists such as Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz and Walt Simonson had been fairly idiosyncratic in their approach to comic book art, but they were still cool character designs as far as I'm concerned, and this was an era where guys like McFarlane were still being reeled in by an editor, writer and inker. I didn't hate his Amazing Spider-Man run -- far from it, in fact -- but it was impossible to afford it unless you bought it off the stands at the time. Alf starts this month since apparently Marvel has its finger in every pie. I'm 99% sure I read some of those since I loved the Alf show. There aren't any real curiosities this month except for the fact that Jim Shooter and Denny O'Neal are involved in the Marvel Graphic Novel and the Epic offering for the month, which I suppose gives you an idea how long it takes for some projects to reach the publication stage. Except Todd's version of Spidey was basically taken from a Michael Golden rendering, though he enlarged the eyes on the mask. The webbing he fully credited; but, he also adopted Golden's rendering of a more extreme body pose, but then went nuts with it. Had Michael Golden been a faster and more prolific artist, he might have been the revolutionary one. Todd definitely took Golden's foundation and made it his own; but, the question becomes, had he not had that inspiration, would he have gone the same route? Certainly, his work would still have that cartoony look, as he had that at DC, especially in rendering Helix, in Infinity, Inc. Personally, where I thought Todd excelled was in his graphic design, rather than character design or, most certainly, storytelling. He created interesting pages, even as they had F-all to do with the story. He was a designer, first and foremost. I also think it is why he tends to stand out more from the rest of the Image guys and why they succeeded, in terms of grabbing attention, when they launched. Without McFarlane, there was no Image. Alf was a decent comic. Mighty Mouse, from this time frame, is also surprisingly good (following on the Bakshi cartoon). I think part of the reason they were good was that, aside from any demands from the license holder, they were left to their own devices by the EIC. |
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Post by commond on Nov 4, 2023 16:52:08 GMT -5
I suspect Todd was also influenced by Art Adams' work on Web of Spider-Man Annual #2 which also borrows from Golden. Todd admitted in a 1990 interview that the spaghetti webbing idea came from a black and white portfolio from 1982. However, Todd took things much further than Adams or Golden. He was honest about the fact that he wasn't as good as Adams, but that he was able to get books out monthly. From all accounts, Todd was hugely driven to become a big name, superstar artist, and it's fascinating to watch how that develops over the course of ASM #298-300. Would he have been as successful without Golden and Adams to crib from? Maybe. His work on Hulk had pathed the way for his Spider-Man run and he was already doing fairly radical looking stuff on that book. His mindset seemed to be that if he stood out, people would take notice.
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Post by commond on Nov 4, 2023 17:24:00 GMT -5
April 1988
Excalibur arrives with a special edition that would have almost assuredly been on my pull list had I been collecting comics at the time.
Also notable is the beginning of the Shadowline imprint, which was Marvel's attempt at creating a line of adult superhero books. It's not hard to guess where they got the inspiration for that from. As with most Marvel side projects, it didn't last. Doctor Zero was probably the best of the bunch and featured Denys Cowan art with Bill Sienkiewicz on inks.
Epic also released Iron Man: Crash, the first ever computer generated comic book. It's a relic from the past, as you can imagine.
I forgot to mention the Ann Nocenti/John Bolton graphic novel, Someplace Strange, which I've heard is fairly weird. Nocenti could get plenty weird at times and would have been an excellent fit at Vertigo, IMO, but call me partially intrigued.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Nov 5, 2023 8:52:27 GMT -5
Epic also released Iron Man: Crash, the first ever computer generated comic book. It's a relic from the past, as you can imagine. Mike Saenz had already done a computer generated comic, Shatter, for First Comics in 1985. I forgot to mention the Ann Nocenti/John Bolton graphic novel, Someplace Strange, which I've heard is fairly weird. Nocenti could get plenty weird at times and would have been an excellent fit at Vertigo, IMO, but call me partially intrigued. Nocenti wrote a Kid Eternity series for Vertigo. |
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Post by commond on Nov 5, 2023 9:02:07 GMT -5
Shatter was colored using traditional comic book methods. His Iron Man graphic novel was colored on the computer. Splitting hairs perhaps.
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 5, 2023 9:03:58 GMT -5
I suspect Todd was also influenced by Art Adams' work on Web of Spider-Man Annual #2 which also borrows from Golden. Todd admitted in a 1990 interview that the spaghetti webbing idea came from a black and white portfolio from 1982. However, Todd took things much further than Adams or Golden. He was honest about the fact that he wasn't as good as Adams, but that he was able to get books out monthly. From all accounts, Todd was hugely driven to become a big name, superstar artist, and it's fascinating to watch how that develops over the course of ASM #298-300. Would he have been as successful without Golden and Adams to crib from? Maybe. His work on Hulk had pathed the way for his Spider-Man run and he was already doing fairly radical looking stuff on that book. His mindset seemed to be that if he stood out, people would take notice. I understand that many of the Image guys were influenced by Art Adams. |
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Post by commond on Nov 5, 2023 9:08:57 GMT -5
I suspect Todd was also influenced by Art Adams' work on Web of Spider-Man Annual #2 which also borrows from Golden. Todd admitted in a 1990 interview that the spaghetti webbing idea came from a black and white portfolio from 1982. However, Todd took things much further than Adams or Golden. He was honest about the fact that he wasn't as good as Adams, but that he was able to get books out monthly. From all accounts, Todd was hugely driven to become a big name, superstar artist, and it's fascinating to watch how that develops over the course of ASM #298-300. Would he have been as successful without Golden and Adams to crib from? Maybe. His work on Hulk had pathed the way for his Spider-Man run and he was already doing fairly radical looking stuff on that book. His mindset seemed to be that if he stood out, people would take notice. I understand that many of the Image guys were influenced by Art Adams. They were, but at the same time they didn't want to be guys who did annuals. They wanted to take a smidging of the energy he brought to a book and put their names out there on a monthly basis. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 5, 2023 9:15:15 GMT -5
I understand that many of the Image guys were influenced by Art Adams. They were, but at the same time they didn't want to be guys who did annuals. They wanted to take a smidging of the energy he brought to a book and put their names out there on a monthly basis. I agree. I salute the artists that put out monthly work. Art Adams and Steranko drew nice pictures but they didn't last long in the trenches. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 5, 2023 9:42:00 GMT -5
I started a monthly pull in 1993, and then bought alot of recentish back issues, so I have a fair number of comics from this time.. I thought it went for longer to be honest. Defalco was the first editor whos name I knew (followed closely by Joey Cavalieri).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 5, 2023 9:44:24 GMT -5
I suspect I don’t have a single book from this era.
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