Beloved Comic Books--The Uncanny X-Men

[Nathan Dodge]

The arrival of Summer--at least where I live-- has inspired me to once again read some favorite comics. I just got an Uncanny X-Men Marvel Masterworks in the mail--the Claremont-Byrne run- #111-121-- and the upgrade in color and paper quality will no doubt help me to better enjoy the stories and art! Higher-grade paper and colors and all. Looking through my old, slightly beat-up books, (even though in bags and boards; but hey, I'm a reader first) is like looking through a dirty window with a cataract, so I'm happy to upgrade.

Anyway...

There's quite a bit of nostalgia coming through the X-Men of Claremont/Cockrum/Bryne. These stories were powerful to me when I first read them and coupled with the memories of being a dorky kid also comes back. These stories were important to me and emotionally gripping. No other super-hero books affected me this way. I think part of the reason I stayed away from these was because of the powerful (and perhaps painful) associations I had with these books. They were a comfort and I actually cared about these characters. I'm still stunned by X-Men #137, and always will be, which made Jean Grey's eventual resurrection all the more disheartening.

I haven't read these stories in over twenty-five years. I didn't have many of those books (111-121) and I look forward to catching up with this, my favorite super-hero book of them all.

I also recommend that X-Men fans seek out the two-volume "The X-Men Companion" which has extensive, in-depth interviews with all the creative people behind the comics. Great, great insight and as candid as can be. I had volume two as a kid and only found volume one about twelve years ago. I had those interviews memorized as much as I did the actual stories.

My ego's sated knowing that the Claremont-Byrne tales have endured and been praised as the masterpieces they are, yet they were just good stories when I read them growing up. Thirty days seemed an interminable time to wait to see what would happen to my beloved Jean Grey, but now it's been thirty years since those tales were told so brilliantly.

I've been reading one issue of the Claremont-Byrne run each night before beddy-bye, barely able to keep from rushing through the entire holy hardcover!

One more thing: I love the artistic leeway given to Stan the Man in those 1970s "In-House" ads for Marvel books--Lee's ever-present plaid shirt and ripped physique! Was he really like that then? His words were jacked full of strength, that's for sure!

I intend to throw down my hard-earned dough for some Fantastic Four and Lee-Ditko and Lee-Romita Spider-Man next! I'm revisiting all the legends!


'Nuff said!


P.S. I haven't seen the Wolverine movie, either! (or the third X-Men movie)

So...what are your beloved comic book stories? Feel free to share your memories relating to the time you were reading the books, too!

 

[DutchIndo]

I was into Sgt Rock, The Haunted Tank, Archies, Fantastic Four and Spiderman. 12 cents for a Comic in the late 60s. A Quarter bought me a double dip Ice Cream and a Comic at Sav-on. If I was not in a Comic book mood 5 rolls of "Butter Rum" Live Savers candy. A can of Soda (no CRV) and a Candy Bar was also had for a Quarter. People think I'm lying when I remember full size Snicker Bars for a Nickle !

 

[Don Vito]

Once I started getting a collection going I would take a run of Byrne's F.F. or Stern/Romita Jr. Amazing Spider-Man on a Sunday night and hunker down for a few hours and sllllooooowly flip through the pages. Loved losing myself in those pages.

 

[JennyLou]

I've only recently started reading comic books but some of the ones that I like are Sgt. Rock and Superman and some Star Trek ones.

 

[Geesie]

I used to follow Fantastic Four and The Flash but comic books are one of the things I gave up when I went back to school and had to tighten my budget.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

i have close to 400 batman comic books in my room right now. i am only missing maybe six between issues 400 to present (683?)

otherwise i have close to 800 dc comics.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I was into Sgt Rock, The Haunted Tank, Archies, Fantastic Four and Spiderman. 12 cents for a Comic in the late 60s. A Quarter bought me a double dip Ice Cream and a Comic at Sav-on. If I was not in a Comic book mood 5 rolls of "Butter Rum" Live Savers candy. A can of Soda (no CRV) and a Candy Bar was also had for a Quarter. People think I'm lying when I remember full size Snicker Bars for a Nickle !

I've only recently started reading comic books but some of the ones that I like are Sgt. Rock and Superman and some Star Trek ones.

Sgt. Rock is my single favorite comic books character! I have nearly 200 issues as well as the three vols that DC Archives released. But I liked all of DC's Battle Books: Haunted Tank (aka G.I. Combat); Unknown Soldier, Enemy Ace, etc. I've kept up with the war books over the years, at least the ones from the sixties through early eighties but I guess they stopped publishing them after that.

I love DC's early-eighties run of Star Trek, as well. They did a sequel of to the "Mirror Mirror" episode that was quite good.

I also am fond of Marvel's Star Wars and Indiana Jones comics. When you had to wait three years between *good* Star Wars films, the comic books and strips helped ease the anxiety!

While my friends and I preferred the war and western books (like Jonah Hex) over the super-heroes, but I always had a soft spot for the X-Men back before all the crossovers, alternate covers, dopey new characters, and so forth.

Before the comic store boom of the early eighties, I had to score my comics at 7-11 or the local news stand, "Sonny's", which is where all the gambling men of my grandfather's generation bought their racing forms or whatever it was they wasted their money on!

 

[Doctor Strange]

My long comic book history has broken down into three phases:

1: Little kid - early 60s - I learned to read on Superman comics. (How many 5-year-olds know "invulnerable"?!?) I devoured the main DC books and Classics Illustrated for several years (plus Mad, which I had a subscription to for about a decade). I had a Marvel-maniac friend who evangelized their books; I read a few Fantastic Fours in 1966 (the Inhumans introduction arc) but then gave up comics as other interests took center stage.

2: College and after - early to late 70s - The resident assistant on my dorm floor was a dedicated Marvel fan, with nearly everything published 1968-1973 (including all Marvel's reprints of earlier stuff) in his collection, and he made a practice of lending them to the guys for relaxation reading. (This was, of course, before we had TVs in dorm rooms, much less PCs and the Internet! The hot technology at the time was component stereos and electric typewriters.) Overwhelmed with the sophistication of the stories, cross-book continuity, and the ability to read years' worth of series at a shot, I read and reread them. When the RA, who was a senior, graduated, he gave his collection to me and my roommate (instead of one of the college libraries) with two provisos: that we keep lending them out, and that we keep buying every current Marvel book as long as we could manage it.

Eventually, I stopped buying everything, though I made a point of getting special treasury edition issues and #1s for a while. The last book I bought was Giant-Sized X-Men #1, which introduced the "new" X-Men... who as we all know, went on to levels of mega-success that had always eluded the first version. (I should also point out that by this point I had film prints of many of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, had enjoyed the Chris Reeve film, etc.)

3: Late 80s until now - A younger guy I worked with revived my interest, and loaned me samples of the new wave of graphic novels - V For Vendetta, Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, etc. A few years later, a different friend lent me Marvels and Kingdom Come, and I just had to get my own copies... And the Batman movies - and even more significantly, B:TAS - got me really excited. By then, I was buying coffeetable books and collections when they turned up in the bargain stacks at Barnes & Noble (also packages of remaindered comics at the dollar store, which sometimes had a gem amid the dross), and taking Marvel Masterworks reprints, etc., out of the library. The arrival of the Internet made keeping up with the backstories and recent developments easier - still without being a regular reader. And it goes without saying that I watched Lois & Clark, Smallville (for a while), etc. Then we had the arrival of the Marvel movie age with X-Men a decade ago...

So here I am, in my mid-50s, with a couple of large storage bins of Marvel comics, lots of coffeetable books and graphic novels, and a lifelong love of mythology - both the old Greek, Norse, etc., kind, and the modern kind that finds nearly its purest expressions in comics.

But I am also deeply ambivalent about the endless comics-based movies of our time: as much as I desperately wanted this happen when I was younger, and despite my enjoying a lot of them, I find myself missing the more serious and intelligent fare that used to be the mainstream, before comics-type storytelling became the mainstream. (Thank you, George Lucas, et.al.!) As much as I'm thrilled that the entire entertainment industry now uses Jack Kirby comics as their template, I think something valuable has been lost along the way.

As Stan Lee would say, I sometimes feel "TRAPPED IN A WORLD HE NEVER MADE!"

 

[Nathan Dodge]

But I am also deeply ambivalent about the endless comics-based movies of our time: as much as I desperately wanted this happen when I was younger, and despite my enjoying a lot of them, I find myself missing the more serious and intelligent fare that used to be the mainstream, before comics-type storytelling became the mainstream. (Thank you, George Lucas, et.al.!) As much as I'm thrilled that the entire entertainment industry now uses Jack Kirby comics as their template, I think something valuable has been lost along the way.

As Stan Lee would say, I sometimes feel "TRAPPED IN A WORLD HE NEVER MADE!"

I agree with this sentiment completely. The "rules" of adulthood changed and we did lose those rites and sophistication that your parents (and my grandparents) enjoyed. Having said that, I'm glad that the comics I grew up with--which were vilified and routinely dismissed as "kid stuff" for decades--still have that ability to teach and entertain, and are considered great stories (Phoenix Saga, Miller's Daredevil and Dark Knight). Yet I just couldn't imagine a director like, say, George Cukor, at the helm of the next IRON MAN film!

BTW, I learned the words "ignorant dolt!!!" from Fantastic Four #213 as an eight-year-old back in 1979; I've met many who fit that bill in the thirty years since! (no one here, obviously). Thanks to Terrax the Tamer for the valuable lesson.

 

[DutchIndo]

Mad Magazine ! It's kind of a comic book I guess. What kid in the late 60s early 70s didn't read it. I also bought their little paper backs. I liked the folding back page they always had. Who can forget Alfred E. Neuman ! I have a rubber mask of him I bought 20 years ago. I used the mask to traumitize the nieces and nephews. I read somewhere that Alfred was originally a poster child for some Dentist. Sadly the last Mad Magazine I picked up was too political. Sometimes politics should just be left out of humor.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Sadly the last Mad Magazine I picked up was too political. Sometimes politics should just be left out of humor.

I'd prefer that humor be left out of politics, but they just can't help it!

I was more of a Cracked "Mazagine" reader; I liked that John Severin art.

 

[Charlie Noodles]

I think I've got a few hundred MAD mag's and a dozen of related books, they're pretty much the only comics I ever collected. I used to pick up the odd one here or there; but seeing recent issues is depressing.

I picked up a NON-super special and almost all of it was advertising and articles I had already seen years ago.

I don't think many guys down here collect Marvel + DC comics and such. MUCH easier to find a torrent than find the printed issue.

 

[JennyLou]

The only mad magazines I have are the one with Star Trek themes on the cover.

 

[Mojito]

I was a tremendous X-Men fan when I was younger...started back in about 1986 and collected most of Claremont's first run on the series and some associated titles. I still have boxes and boxes filled with 70s - early 90s comics in their acid-free backing and slips...have recently thought about finally selling them off, fond of them though I am. I adored Phoenix, and have never been happy with how that storyline was trashed with Jean Grey's resurrection (although Claremont fixed some of it a couple of times, I agree with him that she should have stayed dead). I continued collecting into my first job, and used to delight the local comic book store staff by showing up in my political power suit and heels, immacuately made up. There was one employee who was a much sweeter version of "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons, and he was so excited to see me he could hardly articulate what he wanted to say - what came out was a stuttered version of "it's such a pleasure to see a lady in here!" I was a Geek Girl before it was cool, alas.

I wish I still had some of the odder comics of my earlier years - I was a Lincoln fan from about the age of seven, and found some *very* weird comics connected with him. One featured him brought to the future to run in an election decided by computers that could determine the truthful candidate...he uncovered a conspiracy and exposed the evil-doers. Another had the rather nasty afterlife of John Wilkes Booth - pretty much just him being tortured in a variety of ways like reliving the assassination in Lincoln's place, knowing what was to come. And the horror comics I used to read on the bus to Summer Camp...ah, bliss.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

When I was a big comic reader in the early eighties, I akmost never saw a girl in the comic book store I frequented. It's commonplace now. I wonder what brought the girls into the stores, Sailor Moon?

It's funny now, but unfortunately for me, I did have a "Comic Book Guy" and he was a contributing factor in me quitting comics, though it was the drop in quality and rise in price of the books themselves more than anything else, but until I got a car and could drive to a much better comic book store, I had to deal with this guy and his attitude that spoiled a once-great comic store. He eventually did get fired, but it was way too late.

BTW, I'm having a wonderful time exploring these comics once again--wonderful.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

This blog has a fine summary on X-Men #116, an issue I fondly remember and another reminder of how good the Claremont-Byrne team was. Do check it out.

 

[Viola]

When I was a big comic reader in the early eighties, I akmost never saw a girl in the comic book store I frequented. It's commonplace now. I wonder what brought the girls into the stores, Sailor Moon?

I was always more of a fan of the Punisher.

The clerks still act like seeing girls is some sort of shocking phenomena.

Honestly the '90s Batman cartoons probably got me started. And the Justice League cartoon wasn't too shabby either.

And I'm a big Garth Ennis fan, though he writes a lot of gory stuff that would not fly on this board. (But I love Punisher, Hitman, and Preacher.)

I love vintage-themed modern comics, too. Rocketeer, Hellboy, Atomic Robo. My guy got me Atomic Robo and the Action Scientists of Tesladyne for my birthday and I so love it and its pulpy-ness.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I was always more of a fan of the Punisher.

The clerks still act like seeing girls is some sort of shocking phenomena.

Honestly the '90s Batman cartoons probably got me started. And the Justice League cartoon wasn't too shabby either.

And I'm a big Garth Ennis fan, though he writes a lot of gory stuff that would not fly on this board. (But I love Punisher, Hitman, and Preacher.)

I love vintage-themed modern comics, too. Rocketeer, Hellboy, Atomic Robo. My guy got me Atomic Robo and the Action Scientists of Tesladyne for my birthday and I so love it and its pulpy-ness.

You must've come along later, because the Punisher was strictly a guest star in other books when I was collecting. And there was only one X-Men comic! The Wolverine mini-series (by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller) was a BIG deal.

My peak of collecting was 1979-1984. It was interesting to see the X-Men rise to the absurd dominance they enjoy today, but it all began with the Claremont-Byrne run of the book. It ranks second only to Neil Gaiman's Sandman as the greatest run on a comic book series of all time, according to this poll. Never read Sandman, but I'm more of a traditional comics guy anyhoo.

 

[Doctor Strange]

And I was around earlier - I have the Spider-Mans where the Punisher makes his first appearances, and the Hulks with Wolverine's first appearances. Both characters were pretty embryonic at that point, showing little of what was to come.

(You know, I have been meaning to post on this thread, but you're catching me at a really, really bad time, both at work and at home. I promise I will mention some of my favorite late 60s/early 70s Marvel storylines... eventually, when I finally get some time!)

 

[Nathan Dodge]

And I was around earlier - I have the Spider-Mans where the Punisher makes his first appearances, and the Hulks with Wolverine's first appearances. Both characters were pretty embryonic at that point, showing little of what was to come.

(You know, I have been meaning to post on this thread, but you're catching me at a really, really bad time, both at work and at home. I promise I will mention some of my favorite late 60s/early 70s Marvel storylines... eventually, when I finally get some time!)

Post when you're able, Doctor! Your timely posts will no doubt direct me straight to the Lee-Romita Spider-Man and the Thomas-Adams X-Men, to name but two great "Silver Age" runs!

...and if you don't like those, I'm *still* gettin' 'em! I'm spending a lot of dough this summer on hardbound comic collections!

On an unrelated note, the soundtrack to IN HARM'S WAY (Jerry Goldsmith) just came out yesterday...a feast for the ears!