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The Silver and Bronze Age Thread
SolitaireRose
Posts: 1,445
I think with the new board, I can toss out some ideas that were floating around in my brain to see if anyone was interested. One was to have threads for different "Ages" of comics, and since I am a big fan of older books...
I'm currently re-reading my run of Master of Kung Fu, and it's a damn shame that Marvel can't reprint it due to their use of the "Fu Manchu" characters. It started off with Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin digging into the philosophy involved in the martial arts craze...I was also struck by how much the original cast was similar to the Tomb of Dracula cast: Naylon Smith in a wheelchair, just like Quincy Harker, Black Jack Tarr taking the part of Taj Nital and so on.
The book was handed to a VERY new Doug Moench whose early stories were pure formula, but started to shift after about 6 - 12 issues, and Paul Gulacy, whose art improved almost page by page. I'm up to issue #30, but the book MUST have been successful, since there was a black and white magazine as well as a Giant Size run by that time.
I have to admit, I love Marvel's Bronze Age touches, the little text ads on the bottom of the page, the Bullpen Bulletins page and the letters that read like well done message board posts. Marvel wasn't afraid to publish negative letters either, which is pretty amazing looking back on things. There aren't many Super-Hero crossovers, in fact the only crossover so far has been with Man Thing.
Marvel was cooking with gas at this point, and while they were trying other genres, they did run into a formula of every issue having a fight scene, the protagonist questioning themselves and their actions and LOTS of Angst.
Anyone else reading through some older stuff?
I'm currently re-reading my run of Master of Kung Fu, and it's a damn shame that Marvel can't reprint it due to their use of the "Fu Manchu" characters. It started off with Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin digging into the philosophy involved in the martial arts craze...I was also struck by how much the original cast was similar to the Tomb of Dracula cast: Naylon Smith in a wheelchair, just like Quincy Harker, Black Jack Tarr taking the part of Taj Nital and so on.
The book was handed to a VERY new Doug Moench whose early stories were pure formula, but started to shift after about 6 - 12 issues, and Paul Gulacy, whose art improved almost page by page. I'm up to issue #30, but the book MUST have been successful, since there was a black and white magazine as well as a Giant Size run by that time.
I have to admit, I love Marvel's Bronze Age touches, the little text ads on the bottom of the page, the Bullpen Bulletins page and the letters that read like well done message board posts. Marvel wasn't afraid to publish negative letters either, which is pretty amazing looking back on things. There aren't many Super-Hero crossovers, in fact the only crossover so far has been with Man Thing.
Marvel was cooking with gas at this point, and while they were trying other genres, they did run into a formula of every issue having a fight scene, the protagonist questioning themselves and their actions and LOTS of Angst.
Anyone else reading through some older stuff?
Comments
On the DC side I have a fondness for The Warlord.
I haven't read as much from this era as I'd like but I'm slowly working on changing that.
I just pick up the first two volumes of "Marvel Firsts: The 1970's" and really having fun revisiting some of these titles and exploring some I never knew about. It has the origin issues of many of Marvel's more well known characters like The New X-Men, The Invaders, The Inhumans and Man-Thing along with some of Marvel lesser known characters like The Golem or Gabriel, Devil Hunter and Red-Wolf.
Bronze age Marvel as a whole is my favorite stuff. Defenders, Marvel Two-In-One, Power Man, Fantastic Four and of course Spidey. The only DC titles I went after were Warlord, Batman, Action and Superman, although I do have some Superboy/Legion books. My grandparents were always tossing me some Archie books.
Until I'm done, I've been reading FF, Avengers, Hulk, ASM and X-Men, some in Essentials and some Masterworks.
One that seems to get over looked is Killraven. Fun Science Fiction story,plus I am pretty sure teh Essential volume reprints every appearence of Killraven.
Lots of other great silver and bronze books I collect -- DC, Marvel, Archie . . . so many fun books.
The interesting thing to me about this cover is that it was printed on light tan paper, and the white on Cap (and others) is actually printed on the paper, it's not just the color of the paper coming through. They had to use more than just the regular process colors to print this, it looks to me like there is an additional pass through the printer for the white ink.
Does anyone know if there were more covers from this era printed in this way?
I was all about DC at the time. Denny O'Neill, Archie Goodwin, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Dave Cockrum, Mike Grell, Walt Simonson, 100-Page Super-Spectaculars, that was the stuff. Then, once I could find it, the earlier stuff, especially the Shooter Legion & the weird hero books from the checkerboard era like Metamorpho, Metal Men & Inferior Five were the coolest.
I didn't really get into DC until Roy Thomas moved over there, so a lot of their bronze age stuff is still new to me. they had a hell of a lot of series that lasted less than 6 issues that are fun to read...and I have a new appreciation for Jonah Hex after reading the Showcase. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in DC editorial went to a spaghetti western triple bill and came back to the office and told someone "Do a comic like THAT."
And for pure nostalgia, I wish someone would publish an "Essential" type book of Richie Rich stories. That was my bread and better before I started reading Marvel...and in the mid 70's he had close to 20 different series, IIRC.
There was an excitement to Marvel that just went away when Shooter took over. He may have made Marvel more profitable and stable, but they really lost that creative edge when he came in.
On the Marvel side I'm currently reading the first Werewolf by Night Essential and it's a crazy ride. Pure 70's awesome.
I've just read the three part Master of Kung Fu story where Moench changes the series direction (27 - 29, I believe) and it's pretty damn amazing. It reads like a Bond novel with Bruce Lee as the lead, Clive Reston gets a bigger part in the book and makes not-very-subtle allusions to being the son of James Bond and Grand Nephew of Sherlock Holmes and the book goes from Fu Manchu plot of the month to something bigger.
THIS is what the book was like when I started reading it as a kid, and it's fascinating how they just completely change the tone and direction of the book.
There is the Dark Horse Harvey comic classic trades. They reprint Harvey stuff in Black and white. I am pretty sure they are all now outta print. But the Hot Stuff volume is one I go back and read at least once a year.
Thank you TFAW!
And while were at it why, oh WHY can't Marvel do an Essential Nick Fury?!? I can't be the only one who sees that missed opportunity!
I really love the Essential books (I read them with my 6 year old daughter). We are both looking forward to the upcoming Black Panther.