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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 05 October 2012 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | 1
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The 70's are my "Golden Age" so I'm being subjective.•• Out of simple curiosity, when was the last time you reread some of those stories?
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Neil Brauer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 February 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 714
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| Posted: 05 October 2012 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | 2
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Most of them, a very long time JB. I have such fond memories of these stories, I think maybe deep down, I'm afraid reading them again would be underwhelming, so your point is well taken. One of my favorite FF arcs from that era was the "Sphinx" storyline, which you did the art on. It had me running to the mailbox every month. I have reread parts here and there but not the entire run. I use it as an example because you know the arc. Would you say it holds up? Or am I looking at it with rose colored glasses.
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4834
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| Posted: 05 October 2012 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | 3
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Sure, there were a lot of titles that weren't particularly good, and a few of the comics that I read in the mid-70's are pretty average or even somewhat forgettable (Black Goliath, Champions, Ghost Rider, Inhumans, Marvel Chillers, Marvel Team-Up, Power Man, Skull the Slayer, Super-Villain Team-Up), but there were also titles in the 1960's that you could say the same about (the Human Torch stories in Strange Tales, Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish, the Tales of the Watcher, Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders, even headliners like Iron Man, Captain America and Daredevil).
The biggest problem with the comics of the 70's was that they were churning out so many titles that many of them were bound to be bad. (and I say that understanding that somebody somewhere loved even titles like Night Nurse - after all, I enjoyed Black Goliath, the Champions and Skull the Slayer, I just have no urge to revisit them 35 years later).
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 05 October 2012 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | 4
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In December, 1966 Marvel published 14 titles, in December, 1976 they published 42 when you include black and white magazines. 42!!
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 10:50am | IP Logged | 5
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That 42 titles stayed pretty steady for a long time. I looked and during
the 90's they were publishing more, but at one point they only had 35
titles in the Marvel Universe. By the end of the 90's it was something
like 50 titles. Now there's been over 90 titles. That's not total
publishing, that's just the Marvel Universe titles. 90 titles at $3.99 a
piece. Well, that's about $360 a month to read the entire Marvel
Universe.
Marvel talks about the numbers being fine but I don't see how. Even if
they were theoretically sell the same number of issues as they were
10 years ago, just spread out over more titles, it's still costing them.
If you sell 3,500,000 issues a month, and that number comes from 90
titles, they're NOT making the same amount of money as they would
sell the same number of issues with 45 titles. The printing of issues is
small compared to the set up fee that comes with each new title. With
45 more set ups a month, they have to be making less money.
Why not drop the number of titles drastically? If you drop the number
of titles to 25, you've now made it possible for a person to buy the
entire Marvel Universe for a hundred dollars a month. Plus they'd say
the cost of 65 set up fees. Heck, they may find they could drop the
price by a buck per issue. That would allow them to run 8 different
mini series a month and still keep the avid reader under a hundred
dollars.
The question becomes " Would dropping 65 titles cost Marvel
readership?" my gut tells me "NO". People have a certain amount of
dollars to spend. If many of them are already buying $100 worth of
Marvel product, I think they still will if you market the idea to them.
Now, they can get the entire line. For those that only get a few Marvel
titles, and they are ones getting cut; you have to believe they will try
another title. Plus with 65 titles being dropped you figure you can
separate out the best talent. Hopefully making those 25 books better.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11264
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | 6
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The current Marvel and DC plan seems to be `If you throw enough s***`
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16464
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | 7
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Robert Bradley wrote:
| ...In December, 1966 Marvel published 14 titles... |
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Important to keep in mind, though, that Marvel couldn't publish more titles than that before 1968 due to the distribution agreement they had at the time. As soon as that deal ended, and Marvel got a new distributor, there was a whole new line of comics from the publisher.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | 8
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As far as 70s Marvel goes, I think the top titles were THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, THE DEFENDERS and CAPTAIN MAR-VELL. I enjoyed the Spider-Man tales as some lesser known villains, like Moses Magnum, featured in some great stories, THE DEFENDERS was always a favourite book of mine and CAPTAIN MAR-VELL had an epic quality about, some of the stories rivalling sci-fi films. I also liked some of the Nick Fury stories from that era.
Edit - I should mention that a lot of US Marvel titles didn't seem to arrive over here during that era, so I can't comment on what didn't hit the shelves.
Edited by Robbie Parry on 06 October 2012 at 1:44pm
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132620
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | 9
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One of my favorite FF arcs from that era was the "Sphinx" storyline, which you did the art on. It had me running to the mailbox every month. I have reread parts here and there but not the entire run. I use it as an example because you know the arc. Would you say it holds up? Or am I looking at it with rose colored glasses.•• To be brutally honest, I don't think it "held up" at the time. That story broke what would one day become a top rule, for me: Never use another title to finish a story you were doing in a book that got canceled! There is, after all, probably a REASON it got canceled!!
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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2006
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | 10
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Important to keep in mind, though, that Marvel couldn't publish more titles than that before 1968 due to the distribution agreement they had at the time. As soon as that deal ended, and Marvel got a new distributor, there was a whole new line of comics from the publisher.
I think most people here realize the distribution limitations that National forced on them for most of the 60's, it's just that being limited to so few titles was probably a good thing for them creatively.
Well, that and having Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Heck and Ayers on hand when they got their facelift in 1961.
Edited by Robert Bradley on 06 October 2012 at 5:57pm
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Leigh DJ Hunt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 February 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1570
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | 11
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I'd not heard of this book before but it sounds like something I have been craving for years. Ordered!
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David Plunkert
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 July 2012
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| Posted: 06 October 2012 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | 12
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I loved the Sphinx storyline.FF in space. check. New herald for Galactus. check. Robot with exposed brain. check. Cool subplot with the FF aging. check Galactus opens up a can of whoop a**. check. New status quo between Galactus and Earth. check. Sinnott inking Byrne. check.
Worked for me. The only part that seemed strange was the "New Champions." Not only was the corpse not yet cold on the old group but why would anyone think this group was better gathering than the first? That said... funky though they were... the group provided a neat contrast to the FF.
I don't think its as good as most of the stories in JBs solo run of the title but its a storyline I remember with much affection. I can think of it and feel like a kid again.
Edited by David Plunkert on 06 October 2012 at 6:40pm
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