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Post by tingramretro on Jul 7, 2019 15:02:11 GMT -5
I loved Colin's abrasive take on the character. It was fresh and new, and very funny at times (plus, I'd always found Davison a bit bland). I wanted to love the Colin Baker doctor, I thought he was great casting for the part originally, but something really went wrong for me (and lots of others leading to suspension/cancellation) and I found it to be pretty much as badwolf found it. I couldn't stand Peri anyway. I think there was a chemistry between Colin and Nicola that was real that showed through a bit on-screen after awhile but at the start I wondered why they would have had anything to do with the other, they seemed to bicker and fight so much. Even the horrid costume could've worked. I think Colin could've stayed and JNT should've been replaced, and said a few times he wanted to be, but at the time I understood nobody else wanted the gig. Peri and Mel; two of the worst and most shrill companions, more whinging Peri than screamy Mel, though Mel's daft look alongside Colin's was overkill factor ten.  Also agree first Sylvester McCoy was pretty campy and dumbed-down, at least fun to see O'Mara sending up Mel, and the Tetraps were potentially interesting. JNT had some kind of thing against using older experienced writers much but it's what the show desperately needed a lot of the time. I think he believed older and more experienced writers might undermine his authority and the direction he wanted to take the show in. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 7, 2019 5:32:30 GMT -5
I don't find any of Colin's era "cringey". I think it's wonderful. I loved it at the time, and I still do! The only part of classic Who that I genuinely couldn't stand was Sylvester McCoy's first story. I found the Doctor obnoxious and Peri supremely annoying in the stories I've re-watched more recently. Plus there's silly stuff like "The tree can't hurt you!"
Syl had a rough start but by I think his second or third season he started having some really good stuff. Remembrance of the Daleks, Ghost Light, Survival are among my all-time favorites.
Well, we're definitely in agreement on Sylv. His third season was one of my favourites in the entire classic series. But I loved Colin's abrasive take on the character. It was fresh and new, and very funny at times (plus, I'd always found Davison a bit bland). |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 5, 2019 13:56:26 GMT -5
Cringey!!!?  Yeah, but I don't blame Colin, I blame JNT. I don't find any of Colin's era "cringey". I think it's wonderful. I loved it at the time, and I still do! The only part of classic Who that I genuinely couldn't stand was Sylvester McCoy's first story. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 5, 2019 7:06:35 GMT -5
That's pretty good. Even though a lot of that era is pretty cringey now, I'd love to see all the extra features. I've got the Tom Baker season 1 set. Cringey!!!? |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 5, 2019 5:08:17 GMT -5
I was just reminded of this one, from 20 years ago...       Really sounded great on paper: bob Layton and Dick Giordano doing the Charlton Action heroes, as a group. Who better, than a couple of Charlton stalwarts; one the man who oversaw the greatness of the originals, the other one of the young talents that emerged from later Charlton. And it was.....okay? It brings everyone together; but, the story just doesn't seem to rise to the potential. There is a mystery, whose resolution is..............interesting? I don't know; I had really high expectations and was rather blase with the first issue and never really rose much above that. DC had already screwed the pooch with Peter Cannon, which reverted back to Pete Morisi, and Captain Atom had already been damaged by the Armageddon 2001 mini, when they changed the villain. Also, his redesign wasn't that awesome. Question was moved back into Ditko territory, after Denny O'Neil took him into more interesting territory. Beetle was fine, didn't care for Nightshade (who DC never handled particularly well, though she added a bit to early Suicide Squad) or Peacemaker (who got an armor redesign; but, wasn't that hot in the original form, other than Pat Boyette art). At least we finally got Judomaster and Tiger, of a sort, after DC had pretty much ignored them, since they bought the characters. DC was originally going to do a CAH anthology, Comics Cavalcade Weekly, with the Action Heroes, then pulled the plug...  Instead, Blue Beetle got a series, soon followed by Captain Atom and the Question. Nightshade got put in Suicide Squad, Sarge Steel became a government rep to superheroes, Peacemaker got a mini and an appearance in The Vigilante, and Peter Cannon, eventually, got a short-lived series (well after it was supposed to appear). Judomaster was supposed to get a Secret Origins tale, but it was yanked and had a story prepared for CCW, which never saw the light of day. He got an appearance in the DC Challenge, as did Son of Vulcan, and History of the DC Universe. Beetle, Captain Atom and the Question (all Ditko creations) had a decent run at 80s and early 90s DC, then fell on harder times. Not much has drastically improved since, with DC moving away from the originals to new versions. Well, both the Ted Kord Blue Beetle and the original Question now seem to be back... |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 5, 2019 5:03:36 GMT -5
Are you talking about Giant Size and forward. Because the early book, at least until Steranko and Adams got there, were pretty weak. I mean Kirby inked by Reinman or Werner Roth, Ugh! But Claremont, Cockrum and Byrne, hell yes!
Sorry, don't agree. I loved the original X-Men stories, and the Adams issues are among the best material Marvel ever published. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 2, 2019 4:14:55 GMT -5
Rampage debuted in 1977, reprinting The Defenders and Nova:  This was the 34th and final issue:  Of the weekly run, yes. Fortunately, it was relaunched as Rampage Monthly a few weeks later. And improved dramatically as a result! |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 2, 2019 2:23:54 GMT -5
Charley's War is indeed awesome. I am on the second volume. Johnny Red is also one I like. I liked Johnny Red fine as a kid, but I don't particularly feel it holds up all that well to adult eyes. Though it's still fun and the aircraft and dog fights are spectacular. Charley's War, on the other hand, seems better reading it as an adult than it did as a kid. Honestly, I think a lot of what Pat Mills was doing with the series went over my head as a child. I think it probably went over most of our heads back then. It is an incredible piece of work, very powerful. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 2, 2019 2:22:42 GMT -5
And the single best thing about it were the covers, the first by Dave Gibbons, and all the rest by Carlos Ezquerra. GCD credits Fury #2's cover to Eric Bradbury. Really? I've never heard that before. Doesn't look like his usual stuff. I'll have to do some checking. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jul 1, 2019 7:29:10 GMT -5
Perhaps wishing to compete with the various UK war titles published by the likes of IPC, Marvel UK published Fury, which reprinted Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders. It lasted 25 issues.   And the single best thing about it were the covers, the first by Dave Gibbons, and all the rest by Carlos Ezquerra. Aside from that, it was a rare misstep by Marvel UK, attempting to lure in the readers of the traditional war comics such as Victor, Warlord and Battle without really understanding what made them popular. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jun 28, 2019 2:09:40 GMT -5
Actually, Marvel UK started using glossy paper for the reprint weeklies in late 1981, starting with Spider-Man TV Comic. On the covers, you mean? Not the interior pages surely? In the late '70s, Star Wars Weekly and Super-Spider-Man definitely had glossy covers, but newsprint interiors. Even as late as 1985 (which was roughly when I stopped buying it) Return of the Jedi Weekly still had glossy covers and newsprint interiors. The weird zip-tone shading was a Marvel UK innovation, and Dr strange was the regular back-up feature in the Avengers weekly for quite a while. If memory serves it used to be described in Marvel UK mags as "tones". In Star Wars Weekly it was credited to Howard Bender. Covers and centre pages. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jun 27, 2019 6:38:50 GMT -5
In late 1973, Marvel UK launched The Avengers:  In Quebec many Marvel comics were translated and published by Éditions Héritage, in black and white but with the same format as in the United States... except for the Avengers. That one title had a noticeably larger size than the other titles, had Dr. Strange as a back-up feature, and the B&W art was enhanced with zip tones. I suspect that it may have been reproduced from the British version instead of the American one. Was the book a bit larger in the U.K.? This was almost certainly the case. The weird zip-tone shading was a Marvel UK innovation, and Dr strange was the regular back-up feature in the Avengers weekly for quite a while. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jun 27, 2019 6:36:20 GMT -5
Sorry, when I said glossier, I was thinking of late 80s. My mistake. The late 80s DC reprints were glossier (and an early 90s reprint even had a card cover). Actually, Marvel UK started using glossy paper for the reprint weeklies in late 1981, starting with Spider-Man TV Comic. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jun 27, 2019 6:32:15 GMT -5
I would suspect that those specific instances were the license holder selling reprint rights to Marvel UK, rather than DC. usually, the license holder owns the material outright, which is why Dark Horse could reprint the Marvel Star wars and Conan (and others). I even have a Star Wars t-shirt with a Marvel Comics cover, with the Marvel logo removed.. Methinks there's a whole topic that could be done about licensing "anomalies". Could be fun! One of my personal favourite stories is the brief, embarrassing saga f the Portman Publications horror titles. Portman were a British publisher who in the late 70's made a deal with Marvel allowing them to reprint material from Marvel's early 70's black & white magazines in two new titles, Castle of Horror and Tales of Terror, including the adventures of Blade, Morbius and the Zombie. Unfortunately, Marvel's licensing people in the States had completely overlooked the fact that they already had an entire British division of their own, and Marvel UK were furious when they found this other company based in Croydon competing directly with them, reprinting material they themselves were already looking to reprint, with the full permision of the New York office. The arrangement was swiftly curtailed. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jun 26, 2019 12:18:28 GMT -5
Ah, thank you. I did have that Super Powers Annual (lost to time) - and wondered why Marvel UK published it. In an anomaly that could have rocked the space-time continuum, Marvel UK also published, in the early 90s, a Star Trek: The Next Generation title that reprinted the TNG comics that DC were publishing in the US! There is no current licensee for DC in the UK thanks to Titan's woeful handling of the licence: Concern Over Titan’s UK Reprints Of DC Comics TitlesThat was such a shame. It seems to have derailed Titan's comics line completely. Sad. |
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