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Topic: "Marvel Comics, The Untold Story" (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Neil Brauer
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Posted: 06 October 2012 at 9:19pm | IP Logged | 1  

Galactus opens up a can of whoop a**. check.

........................

The build up to the showdown between Galactus and the Sphinx had me jazzed for sure!  All the different elements you mentioned made this a very exciting read for me back then. 

Part of what is lost with trades is the wait between issues is gone, and I remember the anticipation on this arc well.  Whether it was the pacing or the cliffhangers, this one pulled me in and I loved it.  The art, which goes without saying, was superb--Byrne and Sinnott--WOW!

I'm sure JB is right.  I probably would be disappointed if I read it today, but at 8, it tripped my trigger.
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Mike Norris
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Posted: 06 October 2012 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | 2  
I tried a lot of titles in the 70s but most were dropped after a few issues.  As mentioned Cap, the Avengers, the Defenders and Howard the Duck were the ones I stuck with. I tried out a few of the horror books like Tomb of Dracula and Monster of Frankenstein, but I not really a horror fan. Stuck the Captain Marvel series for a while and the Inhumans for a few issues. never read Doctor Strange, Master of Kung Fu or Iron Fist back then ( or ever actually). 
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Eric Smearman
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Posted: 06 October 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | 3  
I'm primarily a DC guy but I enjoyed AMAZING SPIDER-MAN,
FANTASTIC FOUR, INCREDIBLE HULK, DEFENDERS, MARVEL
TEAM-UP and AVENGERS with the occasional MARVEL 2-IN-ONE,
CAPTAIN AMERICA and INVADERS thrown in. I rarely, if ever, saw
the Starlin stuff and I'm not sure I would have understood it then if I
did.

Edited by Eric Smearman on 06 October 2012 at 11:56pm
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Robert Bradley
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Posted: 06 October 2012 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | 4  
When I started reading comics in 1974-75 I was a regular reader of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, THE AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, CAPTAIN MARVEL, THE CHAMPIONS, DAREDEVIL, THE DEFENDERS, DOCTOR STRANGE, FANTASTIC FOUR, INCREDIBLE HULK, THE INHUMANS, THE INVADERS, MARVEL PREMIERE/IRON FIST, IRON MAN, MARVEL TEAM-UP, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, POWER MAN, SKULL THE SLAYER, STRANGE TALES/WARLOCK, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP, THOR and X-MEN and several of the reprint titles such as THE HUMAN TORCH, MARVEL TALES, MARVEL TREASURY EDITION, MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION and MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS.

I was hit and miss for AMAZING ADVENTURES (Killraven), ASTONISHING TALES (Deathlok), GHOST RIDER, JUNGLE ACTION (Black Panther), MAN-THING, MARVEL SPOTLIGHT (Son of Satan), MASTER OF KUNG FU (Shang-Chi), TOMB OF DRACULA and WEREWOLF BY NIGHT.  Of course later on I became a huge fan of the Black Panther, Shang-Chi and Dracula stories.

The only titles I didn't read at that time were CONAN THE BARBARIAN, CREATURES ON THE LOOSE (Man-Wolf), THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, KA-ZAR, SGT FURY, SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS (the Living Mummy), the western and romance titles and the horror and war reprint titles.

It was a really fun time to buy comics in that you had so many choices (super-heroes, horror, western, war, romance, martial arts, etc.) and so many of the early stories were being reprinted regularly.  I especially liked the Giant-Size issues where you got a new story plus a reprint and the Marvel Treasury Editions.  I read many of the classic Lee/Romita Spider-Man, Thomas/J.Buscema Avengers and Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four stories that way.

Nowadays I just don't see how any regular kid could afford to follow that many comics every month.
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Jason Czeskleba
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 12:46am | IP Logged | 5  
 John Byrne wrote:
Marvel was publishing something like 40 titles. Impressive as is your list, it kinda dims against that bulk. Not for nothing did Starlin, in WARLOCK, coin the phrase "diamonds in the garbage".


The same could be said of Marvel in the 80s, I'd say.   

The telling thing about Robert's list of the very best of 70s Marvel is that with a few exceptions (like Englehart's Captain America and Avengers) every title on it features either second-tier b-list characters, licensed characters, public domain characters, or newer fad-based characters (like Man-Thing or Master of Kung Fu).  For the most part, the really innovative ideas and best stories in the 70s were not happening in books featuring Marvel's flagship superhero characters.  I do think Gerry Conway's Spider-Man and Len Wein's Hulk runs were very good, but a lot of the stuff in the flagship superhero books seemed to be kind of coasting on the framework set up by Lee, Kirby, et al.
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Kip Lewis
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 6:02am | IP Logged | 6  
Now I want to reread the FF Sphinx storyline.

And Avengers' Count Neferia trilogy. (Issue 2 which started me
reading/collecting.) And might as well reread whole 70s line.

And Skrull the Slayer.

All this talk is bringing back memories. (Sadly i might not get to it for a
while.)
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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 6:09am | IP Logged | 7  
… fad-based characters (like Man-Thing…

••

To be historically accurate, the Man-Thing wasn't born out of a fad. Unlike Marvel's Frankenstein monster, or Living Mummy, or Morbius (in SPIDER-MAN), or WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, etc, which were born out of the monster/horror craze of the Seventies, the Man-Thing owes his genesis in large part to Steranko's HISTORY OF COMICS. That highly recommended work reminded us of the Heap, the "swamp monster" of the Forties (himself inspired by Theodore Sturgeon's short story "It"*). This gave birth, almost simultaneously, to the Man-Thing and the Swamp Thing.

______

* Adapted in Marvel's SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS -- sort of "closing the circle".

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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | 8  

Interesting Podcast interview with Sean Howe, author of UNTOLD STORY:

http://comicsbeat.com/marvel-comics-the-untold-story-invades -grantland/

 

Reviews of the book have been very good, so far. It's said to be well-researched, with pretty much everything in it corroborated by quotes from Howe's many Marvel interviewees.
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William T. Byrd
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 9  
I started collecting in the 80's, but there were a ton of those 70's titles that ended up in the 25 cent boxes at the bookstore I went to all the time. Getting 4 comics for a dollar instead of 2 for $1.20 was pretty attractive to 10 year old me. I learned a lot about the Marvel Universe reading those old titles... especially the Bullpen page and the letters columns.

Going back and reading some of those titles now.... sometimes cringe inducing but still a lot of fun.
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Robert Bradley
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 10  
These are the titles featuring characters who got their own titles for the first time in the early 1970's.  It's interesting to see some of the trend - the first half of the 70's was heavy on horror, diversity and established characters getting their own title for the first time; the second half was heavy on licensed properties and new characters.

After looking at this list I have to admit yes, there was some pretty bad stuff that they tried, and if you blinked you probably missed the books featuring Red Wolf, Bloodstone, Black Goliath and the Cat (among others).

And if I had to name a couple of titles that I tried to like but could never garner much interest in, I would go with OMEGA THE UNKNOWN, LOGAN'S RUN and SPIDER-WOMAN.

Aug 1970 - Black Widow (in AMAZING ADVENTURES
Aug 1970 - Ka-Zar (in ASTONISHING TALES)
Aug 1970 - Doctor Doom (in ASTONISHING TALES)
Oct 1970 - CONAN THE BARBARIAN
Mar 1971 - Gullivar Jones (in CREATURES ON THE LOOSE)
Jun 1971 - KULL THE CONQUEROR
Dec 1971 - the Defenders (in MARVEL FEATURE)
Feb 1972 - WEREWOLF BY NIGHT
Mar 1972 - the Beast (in AMAZING ADVENTURES)
Apr 1972 - Warlock (in MARVEL PREMIERE)
Apr 1972 - Dracula (in TOMB OF DRACULA)
May 1972 - RED WOLF
Jun 1972 - Luke Cage (in HERO FOR HIRE)
Jun 1972 - COMBAT KELLY AND THE DEADLY DOZEN
Jun 1972 - OUTLAW KID
Aug 1972 - Ghost Rider (in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT)
Oct 1972 - THE GUNHAWKS
Oct 1972 - DOC SAVAGE
Oct 1972 - the Man-Thing (in ADVENTURE INTO FEAR)
Nov 1972 - NIGHT NURSE
Nov 1972 - THE CAT
Dec 1972 - SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL
Jan 1973 - THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN
Feb 1973 - CRAZY!
Mar 1973 - Thongor (in CREATURES ON THE LOOSE)
May 1973 - Killraven (in AMAZING ADVENTURES)
May 1973 - The Living Mummy (in SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS)
Sep 1973 - Brother Voodoo (in STRANGE TALES)
Sep 1973 - the Thing (in MARVEL FEATURE)
Sep 1973 - the Black Panther (in JUNGLE ACTION)
Oct 1973 - Son of Satan (in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT)
Dec 1973 - Shang-Chi (in SPECIAL EDITION MARVEL)
Dec 1971 - It, the Living Colossus (in ASTONISHING TALES)
Feb 1974 - Morbius (in ADVENTURE INTO FEAR)
May 1974 - Iron Fist (in MARVEL PREMIERE)
Jun 1974 - the Golem (in STRANGE TALES)
Jul 1974 - the Man-Wolf (in CREATURES ON THE LOOSE)
Aug 1974 - Deathlok (in ASTONISHING TALES)
Oct 1974 - John Kowalski (in WAR IS HELL)
Dec 1974 - AARGH!
May 1975 - Howard the Duck (in GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING)
Jun 1975 - the Invaders (in GIANT-SIZE INVADERS)
Jul 1975 - the new X-Men (in GIANT-SIZE X-MEN)
Aug 1975 - SKULL THE SLAYER
Oct 1975 - Modred the Mystic (in MARVEL CHILLERS)
Oct 1975 - THE CHAMPIONS
Oct 1975 - Ulysses Bloodstone (in MARVEL PRESENTS)
Oct 1975 - ADVENTURES ON THE PLANET OF THE APES
Nov 1975 - Red Sonja (in MARVEL FEATURE)
Oct 1975 - BLACK GOLIATH
Feb 1976 - the Guardians of the Galaxy (in MARVEL PRESENTS)
Feb 1976 - Tigra (in MARVEL CHILLERS)
Mar 1976 - OMEGA THE UNKNOWN
Jul 1976 - THE ETERNALS
Sep 1976 - NOVA
Dec 1976 - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Jan 1977 - MS. MARVEL
Jan 1977 - LOGAN'S RUN
Feb 1977 - WHAT IF?
Apr 1977 - the 3-D Man (in MARVEL PREMIERE)
Jun 1977 - JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS
Jun 1977 - TARZAN
Jul 1977 - STAR WARS
Aug 1977 - GODZILLA
Sep 1977 - THE HUMAN FLY
Feb 1978 - THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS
Apr 1978 - SPIDER-WOMAN
Apr 1978 - DEVIL DINOSAUR
Apr 1978 - MACHINE MAN
Jan 1979 - MICRONAUTS
Feb 1979 - SHOGUN WARRIORS
Mar 1979 - BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Dec 1979 - ROM
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David Plunkert
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | 11  
Of course whatever their quality relative to each other...the worst comic on that list was probably still worth the 25-35 cent admission price.

When I was ten the choice was a candy bar or a comic. These days the candy bar folks have probably done the best at keeping their quality in line with their price.
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Robert Bradley
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Posted: 07 October 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | 12  
Marvel's love affair with licensed properties introduced me to Star Wars and John Carter, and went well with my enjoyment of the Doc Savage paperbacks reprinting the old pulp stories.

Somme of the others that I learned to enjoy later one when I found them as back issues were MASTER OF KUNG FU, ROM and MICRONAUTS.  It's to bad we haven't been able to enjoy them as reprints (if we can have a Godzilla collection, can't we get it done somehow?).
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