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Post by guttersnipe on Apr 19, 2021 8:06:19 GMT -8
The Phalanx Covenant story arc feels a little too similar to the Borg in Star Trek (hivemind alien race trying to assimilate humanity) I'm glad these stories remain in circulation; Oh, absolutely, but at the time I didn't know that (I don't think I'd experienced anything Trek until I was nearly thirty). Plus I think the freedom of artwork allows it to appear more insidious (read: cancerous) than actors having props glued to their heads. Just to bring up 2000 AD again, some of their original prints (often really beautiful hand-painted stuff) were sometimes used as literal doormats when office space became an issue
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 19, 2021 11:16:30 GMT -8
I am vaguely familiar with 2000 AD, if only because of the number of issues they've published (over 2,000 and counting), and for apparently debuting Judge Dredd. On the whole, my familiarity with UK comics is pretty limited. (I've seen a lot of Doctor Who and James Bond and Steed/Peel Avengers comics, but I think they originate with American publishers.) I did find some Modesty Blaise collections at my local library a few years back; those were a lot of fun, and certainly pushed more buttons than the American comics of their era. To bring this full circle - I'm curious if you read Marvel's Excalibur series (focused on a sort of British X-Men team) back in the day. I believe it was chiefly created to give Marvel more of an audience across the pond, but it's actually one of my favorite Marvel books simply because of how utterly bonkers it was in its early days. (As noted with covers like this, this, and this.)
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Post by guttersnipe on Apr 19, 2021 14:26:41 GMT -8
I actually have a bit of a funny bugbear about text on comic covers (I prefer it when it's a bit more abstract like a movie poster and providing its own context), but that's a nice use of meta-humour there.
And no, I haven't actually read any Excalibur as it was difficult enough following just X-Men over here. Basically, obtaining genuine imports was a real pain in the arse unless you're London-based or trotting to conventions all the time, so the more popular Marvel titles were usually grouped three-at-a-time in collections so you could still follow a story branching across several publications. Some tertiary stories would invariably fall by the wayside, but hey, it was an outlet.
2000 AD is indeed the home of Judge Dredd, though its flagship character is actually somewhat anomalous given its American source and setting, and to that end its crossover appeal with Batman, Aliens, etc. A lot of its other stories steered way-clear of the superhero/actioner mould, and most of my favourites were always quite esoteric, low-key, grim or surreal. I suppose that puts it more in-line with its Belgian and French counterparts.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 19, 2021 16:46:30 GMT -8
I actually have a bit of a funny bugbear about text on comic covers (I prefer it when it's a bit more abstract like a movie poster and providing its own context) I remember when DC started printing the Showcase Presents volumes (which collect comics from the '60s and '70s, a period when dialogue-heavy covers were much more common). Originally, the exterior cover of each volume was a computer-colored image of one of the issue covers within, with the dialogue removed. After a while, they started to include the speech balloons from the original image on the front cover, in order to provide more context. Sadly, this ended up ruining the "painterly" effect of many of the glossy cover image. Compare these two Justice League covers for an example.
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Post by guttersnipe on Apr 20, 2021 6:38:27 GMT -8
I'm actually pretty cool with that second one, if only because their summoning by a literal Uncle Sam is so gleefully silly.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 20, 2021 16:05:19 GMT -8
For context, Uncle Sam was actually made into a comic book superhero in the 1940s, by a publisher called Quality Comics. Quality was one of the many publishers that tried getting into the business of comics during the Golden Age era of WWII (they created such also-ran heroes as Phantom Lady, Black Condor, and Doll Man), but following the end of the war, superhero sales plummeted and the publisher faded away.
Eventually, DC bought the rights to these heroes and incorporated them into a crossover story (from which that cover image is derived) so the rights wouldn't lapse. The story - "Crisis on Earth-X!" - proved quite popular (even if the Quality heroes never caught on), and decades later it was even adapted into an Arrow-Flash-Supergirl-Legends of Tomorrow crossover on the CW.
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Post by guttersnipe on Apr 21, 2021 2:11:27 GMT -8
Wow, OK. And by the looks of it, he even precedes Captain America's arrival.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 21, 2021 8:11:57 GMT -8
Yeah, they're both byproducts of the Superman effect. Supes was so hugely popular when he debuted that every other comic publisher needed to have their own version as a flagship character - a strong, all-American he-man. The only ones who came close to reaching Superman in popularity were Captain America and Captain Marvel (later rechristened Shazam, after DC bought the rights).
It's fascinating to me how hundreds of comic book superheroes were created during the early '40s, and yet over 90% of them have been forgotten today (while the lucky survivors have gone on to make billions at the box office).
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Apr 29, 2021 14:21:19 GMT -8
Yeah, they're both byproducts of the Superman effect. Supes was so hugely popular when he debuted that every other comic publisher needed to have their own version as a flagship character - a strong, all-American he-man. The only ones who came close to reaching Superman in popularity were Captain America and Captain Marvel (later rechristened Shazam, after DC bought the rights). It's fascinating to me how hundreds of comic book superheroes were created during the early '40s, and yet over 90% of them have been forgotten today (while the lucky survivors have gone on to make billions at the box office). So the "make me a Superman" line in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was not, in fact, an exaggeration? (Please tell me you've read this book, Jer.)
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2021 20:05:14 GMT -8
I'm sort of familiar with the book, but no, I haven't read it. Sounds like I should rectify that situation.
Incidentally, I watched Hollywoodland for the first time this week. Solid film with great performances. And it really does a good job of capturing the raw excitement that the character of Superman inspired in the hearts of kids (and a few adults) in the postwar boom. Understandable why most of the early imitations flopped; none of them had the spark of energy that ignited the original Siegel and Schuster creation, and most were just created by The Suits to check a requisite comic-book box.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 23, 2021 20:33:51 GMT -8
I'm glad these stories remain in circulation; there have also been new reprints of the complete "Age of Apocalypse" saga, which I plan on getting to next. Update: I have now started the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse saga, with the goal of reading from start to finish. The paperback collections are pretty thorough, though it took some time for me to figure out the order. (One volume is devoted entirely to spinoff issues.) As Guttersnipe mentioned on another thread a while ago, this series is comparable to Buffy's "The Wish" - an alternative universe in which a change of one major event sends the world and our characters spiraling into chaos. I tend to be resistant to alternate-reality tales, due to their inherent lack of impact on continuity at large (a reservation I've long had with Marvel's "What If?" comics and now with the new TV series), but shows like Buffy, Star Trek, and Community have all shown their potential as interesting experimental changes of pace. The key difference is that "The Wish" is a single episode of television, while "Age of Apocalypse" spans over 40 issues of comic book stories. (The saga consists of eight series with four installments each, plus myriad spinoffs and crossovers and special issues.) It's vast and sprawling and certainly ambitious, but that ambition is severely curbed every time you remember the series doesn't play any larger role in the X-Men saga. A part of me can't help but appreciate how unapologetically '90s the series is, both aesthetically (the post-apocalyptic character designs suggest heavy punk influence) and commercially (crossovers and special "event" issues were bread-and-butter for the comic book industry for a good long while, until the market bubble burst circa '96). It's interesting as a piece of Marvel history, but I don't see it as a story that will stick with me much beyond the final issue.
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