Comic Book Talk

We dont have a Comic Book thread?! Not a Comic Book Movie thread, but one about Comic Books themselves.


I used to collect Comics. Had a vast collection with many first appearances, total runs of a series ( Had every issue of Thor including Journey Into Mystery except for 50 issues), and many independents.


Had to quit collecting because real life expenses came first, and sold them all for same reason. Marvel Comics actually killed the comic book collecting Camelot which existed with many small comic book shops forced to go out of business when Marvel started distributing for themselves.


Favorite character was Thor (Stan Lee/Jack Kirby, and Walt Simonson runs especially), and Doctor Doom (who Darth Vader was inspired after). Many others I enjoyed too but those guys stood out. Can't count how many frenzied arguments I got into saying how Thor could whoop Hulk or Superman lol!


I dont regret it. Good times

Same here about collecting & expenses.
What's a regular comic cost nowadays anyway?
I started collecting them in 1975 when they cost 25 cents.

But there were other issues to do with my ceasing to collect (and Marvel was really the leader in this, although DC did their share as well)... right before I stopped buying it seemed like everything in each of the big companies revolved around an "event" that spanned almost the entire catalog of their titles. Almost every issue of every title was a "tie-in" to the event. In order to follow the event, you had to buy far more books than you normally would. And as soon as one event ended, a new one began.

Back in the 80's, these events were special because they were few and far between (Marvel's Contest of Champions was nice - an early 3-issue mini-series with no tie ins. DC's epic Crisis On Infinite Earths set the tone with its own tie-ins, but at least it was still a rare & special event in 1985).

Then we had the 90's with the collecting / speculators craze (where virtually every issue was touted as a "COLLECTOR'S ITEM!" or "FIRST ISSUE!" ... and actually renumbering titles so they'd start over with #1's... and all the gold-foil, raised & variant covers & such.)

The entire industry seemed focused on the money and convincing collectors that everything they bought would someday be worth the same as rare Golden Age comics are today - meanwhile they were printing far more copies; which would render virtually all of them from this era almost worthless.

The cross-company events & tie-ins just kept increasing and by the mid-2000's it seemed like comics were nothing BUT these continual events - which were just really continual money-grabs.

As all these money-making gimmicks increased, the quality of the storytelling & artwork decreased.

@Captain Steel Yeah I remember that.period, and they went to bagged comics too so if you wanted to keep one for collection purposes you had to buy 2 just to read it, and don't forget those "priceless" foil covers.

Now I think they're at least $5 an issue, and any continuity throughout their said universes is thrown out the window. Glad we got to them when they had some soul. Some sense of freshness.

Frank Millers Daredevil, Claremont & Byrnes X-Men, Todd McFarlanes Spider-Man, those were some epic runs. By the end I stopped following certain artists and concentrated on the good writers. Cheaper to keep up with and more enjoyable.

In recent years I've been buying the Marvel Epic Collections (full color reprints in a soft-cover format) and catching up on a lot of the Silver & Bronze Age books I missed as a kid.

DC seemed to be doing similar publications several years back - full color on cheap paper, almost making them feel like an old comic - but for some unknown reason seemed to have discontinued that series just after it started. I wanted to collect The Justice League of America from the beginning in this series, but by the time they reached the Bronze Age, they stopped producing the books.

The other day we were talking about Mad magazine here on this site (the subject was broached by @Citizen Rules).

Looking back, it occurred to me how much Mad had in common with the MoFo.

Mad magazine was essentially a movie magazine - sure, it spoofed TV shows and lots of other stuff (including its own running gag comic strips like "Spy vs. Spy") but virtually every issue (at least the ones I saw when I was young) featured a spoof of whatever the big movie happened to be that month.

And the movie feature was usually the largest / longest one in the magazine (and was often featured on the covers).

It was also where the best art came into play as some of the greatest caricature artists of all time were employed to produce the movie homages. The likenesses of the caricatures were so good, that the illustrations served as a who's who in Hollywood for those of us not yet old enough to recognize major stars.

(Even though they were spoofs, I learned a lot about what were the current big movies from Mad magazine. I think my first introduction to The Godfather was via Mad - since I was too young to see the movie at the time.)

Now you see, MAD Magazine would be something worth collecting. Id have to think itd be a very expensive endeavor, and even harder finding issues in pristine condition. I loved MAD magazine. So very un-woke lol

It was also the little things about it too, like the mini cartoons theyd doodle in between panels. You cant find the equivalent to that today anywhere.

https://www.madcoversite.com/price.html

i collect marvel comics :d

Has anyone ever noticed the similarities between the casts of Spider-Man and Archie?

I never followed Archie, so only have a passing knowledge of the comic's characters (but with a little help from the Internet)...

So, if Peter Parker is Archie, then its obvious that...

• Gwen Stacey = Betty Cooper
• Mary Jane Watson = Veronica Lodge
• Harry Osborne = Jughead Jones / Reggie Mantle (this one's dependent on whether Harry is in his bestfriend mode with Peter or acting as his rival by becoming another Green Goblin)
• Flash Thompson = Moose Mason
• Aunt May Parker = Miss Geraldine Grundy (the two are practically twins)
• J. Johan Jameson = Mr. Waldo Weatherbee? (Not much correlation there!)
• The Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) = Sabrina (Spellman) the Teenage Witch (both are platinum blonds with powers that effect reality!)