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Post by tingramretro on Nov 26, 2016 4:30:52 GMT -5
I have absoutely no idea what this even means. Was I missing something? If you've looked at any JR JR Uncanny X-Men comics recently, these images might look familiar...  Karl Lagerfeld  Donna Karan  More Donna Karan  Betty Jackson  Emanuel Ungaro  Valentino (is that Linda Evangilista?) Menswear as womenswear. Shoulderpads. Asymmetry Volume. Volume. Volume. Suspenders. Kimonos. Patterns that look like brigadine armor worn by samurai. Often androgynous. Occasionally punk. At times very queer. Ah. Yes, vaguely. I wouldn't really have noticed. Clothes and image were never a priority for me. I spent much of the eighties in jeans and an old biker jacket (which I still own but can no longer zip up). I was momentarily confused by your reference to suspenders, incidentally, as in Britain, those are called braces; suspenders are what women use to hold their stockings up. |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 26, 2016 4:24:20 GMT -5
I have absoutely no idea what this even means. Was I missing something? J.R. Jr was paying a lot of attention to current fashions and was very much a fan of the 1980's nightlife. He loved bars and clubs and such and seemed to be quite aware of what was in and what wasn't. The way he dressed characters often reflected then-modern trends, which gave the X-Men a certain contemporary avant-garde look the likes of which Stan Lee, in the sixties, could only have dreamed. Yes, that sometimes meant mullets... but hey, mullets were cool at a certain point! Ah. What was or wasn't currently fashionable and whether or not his art reflected it would have gone totally unnoticed by me. I have never had any interest in such things. I just knew I didn't like his art much. I don't think I've ever really been a fan of Romita Jr, though I'm much more aware of disliking his stuff nowadays whereas then, I basically just ignored it. I don't know what it is that grates on me about his style, but whatever it is has become more pronounced over the years. |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 25, 2016 19:26:59 GMT -5
Nope! Me, too. At the start of the 80s I was reading and loving the series every month and totally agree that it is an all-time classic. That run up to #137 alone.... Wow. However... My favourite run by far is the 210-281 run that came out 1986-1991. I like the team members much, much better. Liked the art much, much better and was blown away by the storylines. That, to me, is the real high-point golden era of the series. So... you're not alone. I loved the addition of Dazzler, Longshot, Havok and Psylocke to the team myself. Even though many people don't like what Claremont did to Dazzler. I still love her. The X-men were pretty much dead to me after Claremont left. I tried to like them after he was gone but hated pretty much everything that I read until Whedon came along. I don't give a damn what he did to Dazzler, but I and every Captai Britain fan I know hated what he did to Betsy Braddock (including, from my POV, inexplicably saddling her with the name Psylocke). |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 25, 2016 19:23:19 GMT -5
JR JR's art is more in sync with comtemporary fashion at that time, which was already androgynous and influenced by queer culture. I just love it. I have absoutely no idea what this even means. Was I missing something? |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 25, 2016 4:03:18 GMT -5
Claremont was famous in the '80s for treating female characters like actual, grown-up people. And bless him for it! His X-ladies and the supporting cast were a welcome relief from the stereotypical damsel in distress or bewitching temptress stereotypes. It was one of the great things about reading the X-Men back then, and seeing how comics were far ahead of TV. On TV shows like A-Team or Airwolf the female characters were underwritten and underused. Sure, you had dramas like Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere but it always frustrated/disappointed me that action shows couldn't do what Claremont was doing with ease. Well, I think Marvel might have objected if they'd used Storm, Rogue and Moira MacTaggart on Airwolf. It's a thought, though... |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 23, 2016 20:46:38 GMT -5
As the actress said to the bishop...  What has Brian Bolland got to do with it? (not an entry!)  |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 23, 2016 10:46:51 GMT -5
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 14:04:56 GMT -5
Wait, so the villain is a country vicar-turned-smuggler? We know all about your English country villages, in America, with you witch burnings and your giant Wicker Man sacrifices. Makes our out of the way, flea bag motels (with a taxidermy theme) seem rather quaint.  You stay out of our quaint country villages, boy! We don't like strangers 'round 'ere... |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 12:52:55 GMT -5
The issue of Mad Dog with Alan Moore's Captain Airstrip-One story
Damn, I've never even seen that! Crisis, though, was actually pretty mainstream at the time. |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 12:31:57 GMT -5
I like being a curmudgeon, it suits me. I'm not really that friendly.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 11:09:25 GMT -5
tingramretro You are so lucky to have these wonderful covers over at England - I just loved all these covers that you posted so vivid, colorful, and fantastic artwork done by Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida. I really like the art on these early issues, too. Just because you mentioned it, here are a couple of images that might not have otherwise made it into this thread. First up, the cover to the one and only Captain Britain Annual, published in late 1977. It's a hardcover reprint of the first seven issues of the series (up to the defeat of Hurricane).  And this is a back cover pin-up from the first Captain Britain Summer Special, which I believe may be the only work ever done for a British comic by the King himself.  |
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 6:59:12 GMT -5
Captain Britain #11 (Dec '76)Script: Gary Friedrich Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida "Burn, Witch, Burn!"  After ten issues of manfully struggling against the odds, Chris Claremont has departed, leaving his new baby to stand on his two red booted feet and make his way in the world, with the able assistance of new writer Gary Friedrich. The first and most obvious result of this is that Brian Braddock, who'd previously been fond of melodramatic dialogue full of exclamation marks, is now talking like Hank McCoy in the early issues of X-Men, for some reason: when Jamie Braddock expresses his surprise at learning that Brian is Captain Britain, his grim faced brother replies "I share your incredulity, but none the less, it's true! Preturnatural forces and a capricious fate have somehow conspired to effect the impossible!" Who talks like that? He then declares "let's speak no more of this" before inexplicably wandering off into a forest for several hours to reflect on his changed circumstances. Leaping through the trees like a spandex clad Tarzan for no readily apparent reason, he muses on "the way to end the identity crisis I've been suffering" (which we haven't actually heard aabout until now, but never mind) and rather worryingly wonders "I can't simply kill off old Brian--or can I?" (well no, you can't-because that would be bloody stupid. Friedrich, what have you been smoking? And have you actually read any of the previous issues of this book?) Luckily, before the Captain can head any further down this strange road, he's distracted by the sudden appearance of an angry mob of shotgun toting loons dressed like French peasants from an old Hammer movie, pursuing two unarmed people, a man and a girl, who for some reason they believe to be witches! Of course, this sort of thing happened all the time in Devon in 1976...anyway, the Captain steps in and fights them, but finds himself inexplicably tiring as his foes seem to grow stronger. The culprit, of course, is Dr. Synne, who is "lurking sinistery behind the scenes" and feeding his "mental essence" into the minds of the villagers, determined that this will be the last time CB disrupts his "master plan" ( What plan?) Shot by the mob, the Captain survives because he is "protected by a supernatural power", but loses consciousness. Reawakening, he learns from the guy he had been trying to rescue that his girlfriend has been taken by the mob. Tracking them down to a nearby village (which looks as though it hasn't changed since the Middle Ages) they find the girl tied to a stake, about to be burned by the torch wielding villagers... I've been a little disparaging about Chris Claremont's take on Britain in this thread in the past, haven't I? I didn't know when I was well off...
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 5:30:42 GMT -5
Regarding the Outsiders, Doc Scary's team did indeed eventually resurface, in a brief cameo in Superman #692 in 2009. Codename: Assassin appears in the same issue.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 3:49:09 GMT -5
Hoosier X
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 22, 2016 3:40:20 GMT -5
Captain Britain #10 (Dec '76)Script: Chris Claremont Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida "Dagger of the Mind"  Things are going from bad to worse for our orphaned aristocrat, as he and brother Jamie are forced to spend several pages trying to avoid being decapitated by the hypnosis maddened sister Betsy and her battleaxe. Eventually, Brian finally realizes that he's going to have to stop worrying about his secret identity and change into Captain Britain, after which "a simple nerve pinch" puts her out like a light (is Brian also half Vulcan? At this stage, anything seems possible). Leaving Jamie-who is now aware of his secret, of course-to look after Betsy, CB then takes off after the fleeing Dr. Synne, but he escapes. Brian and Jamie then take Betsy to a handily nearby clinic for "diseases of the mind" where she's strapped into what seems to be a high tech hairdryer while Jamie astutely observes that Brian has "changed inside as well as out". Jamie agrees to keep Brian's secret, but future discussion is forestalled by the arrival of Ramsey, the Director of the appropriately named Mordor clinic, who basically tells them to bugger off and leave Betsy with him, before revealing himself to us as...the servant of Dr. Synne! Betsy, we are told, is being prepared for "extensive brainwashing", and will then be Synne's to command... Well, what do you expect if you check your little sister into a clinic called "Mordor"?
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