Beloved Comic Books--The Uncanny X-Men

[feltfan]

(Stealing a minute to respond!)

Those Spider-Man and X-Men comics are certainly great, but the stuff I most enjoyed during my mid-70s Marvel days were Jim Starlin's tripped-out Captain Marvel and Warlock runs, the amazing Barry Smith Conans, and the Englehart/Brunner Doctor Strange (though my favorite DS of the period was the one-shot that preceded that run in Marvel Premiere with script by Lee and art by Barry Smith... Smith's style was just perfect for Doctor Strange).

And I loved John Buscema's continuing work (with Lee, then Thomas, scripts) on Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and Thor. Kirby was a tough act to follow, but Buscema, like Romita, was a real pro whose comics always looked great and told the story effectively.

I can't argue with his list (except perhaps John Buscema), but would
add Kaluta's run on The Shadow and Simonson and Goodwin's Manhunter.

 

[Dr Doran]

I also thought X-Men of the Clairmont/Byrne/Orzechowski (don't forget the letterer!) run was the best super-hero comic. The young romance between Kitty and Colossus tore me. I did hate the repetitive storyline wherein a mutant is found on the mutant sensor, the X-Men fly out in the Blackbird SR-71 to intercept it as it destroys a neighborhood, and then the mutant escapes. Those were bad. The funeral of Jean Grey was great and sad.

I never cared for Superman: too much power, not enough of a dark side. Too clean cut.

I liked Fantastic Four, but I always thought they didn't delve into the characters very well. X-Men in contrast had somber narratorial voiceovers by the likes of Scott Summers that allowed you to get into the characters' heads. Very effective.

I remember Kamandi: Last Boy on Earth by Jack Kirby very well, and also his OMAC: One Man Army Corps with its "Brother Eye" which was a satellite that beamed information to OMAC if I remember right (it has been 30 years, so there is no guarantee!)

I do recall Manhunter with his cool sword.

Does anyone remember Hobgoblin? I think that was his name. He lived in a junkyard, I think. Short-lived; wore rags. Or maybe he was Ragman? "The Tattered Taterdemalion" was his moniker.

My favorite comic of all time was a horror comic put out by Pacific Comics that had a hideous story called "Jennifer" about a heavily deformed girl with a stunning body. She kills a man's child and wife and then sleeps with him. It was truly frightening. It later was made into an excellent 1-hour movie by Dario Argento in the "Masters of Horror" series.

 

[Corto]

I've been reading comics for so long and I have so many memories attached with many of them...

The best story about comics is that during college I worked as an intern for Marvel. They gave to every intern and editor all the comics published every week by Marvel and DC. When I moved out of my apartment years later, I gave away 8 garbage bags full of comics...

My all-time favorite comics were the 1970's DC War Comics- Sgt. Rock, The Unknown Soldier, The Losers, Enemy Ace and The Haunted Tank. On the Marvel side I loved Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos and GI Joe. Somewhere I have photocopies of the original GI Joe concept drawings by Herb Trimpe. (Snake Eyes had a face originally...)

When I matured a bit, I got into Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt -which you as vintage clothing lovers, should appreciate- and the 1950's Korean War-era comic artists like Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Wally Wood, Russ Heath, Alex Toth...I could go on forever...

Recently Marvel and DC have dusted off the old titles- Sgt. Fury, The Unknown Soldier, The Haunted Tank- but they lack the bite and the punch they had when I was a kid...What can you do.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I also thought X-Men of the Claremont/Byrne/Orzechowski (don't forget the letterer!) run was the best super-hero comic. The young romance between Kitty and Colossus tore me. I did hate the repetitive storyline wherein a mutant is found on the mutant sensor, the X-Men fly out in the Blackbird SR-71 to intercept it as it destroys a neighborhood, and then the mutant escapes. Those were bad. The funeral of Jean Grey was great and sad.

I never cared for Superman: too much power, not enough of a dark side. Too clean cut.

I liked Fantastic Four, but I always thought they didn't delve into the characters very well. X-Men in contrast had somber narratorial voiceovers by the likes of Scott Summers that allowed you to get into the characters' heads. Very effective.

I think what made the X-Men popular initially was that emotional aspect. I'm reading some Avengers books and they don't come anywhere near the intensity or depth of UXM. The X-Men was a special book during that time, before all the people who loved Wolverine's claws came to the book because of either the cartoon or the movies; I was long gone before both!

Superman, for having been the first super-hero, certainly had a crappy rogies gallery, didn't he? But such was his popularity that there were Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen comics, too!

I've been reading comics for so long and I have so many memories attached with many of them...

...My all-time favorite comics were the 1970's DC War Comics- Sgt. Rock, The Unknown Soldier, The Losers, Enemy Ace and The Haunted Tank. On the Marvel side I loved Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos and GI Joe. Somewhere I have photocopies of the original GI Joe concept drawings by Herb Trimpe. (Snake Eyes had a face originally...)

So true about the memories aspect. There are several books where I can remember the when/where/who aspect of the purchase!

Count me as another DC "Battle Books" reader! I was never big on Sgt. Fury; his men had "adventures", whereas Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. had Hell. I hope that the DC Archives collections continue with their Sgt. Rock series, as it's been four years since Vol. 3--and that's out of print!

I have hundreds of 1970s-era Battle Books and since they're unlikely to be collected in hardback, I guess I'll be holding on to those for quite some time...not that I'd ever sell them!

 

[Dr Doran]

Unknown Soldier

I do recall a superb issue of Unknown Soldier (for the uninitiated, he was a WW2 soldier who had lost his face, and so wore masks all the time: thus he was able to impersonate different people and do clandestine work: pretty cool) called something like "8,000 to 1" in which to save 8,000 people he had to shoot one (very beautiful, of course) young woman. It was great. I wonder where that is now?

The first X-Men I read was "Days of Future Past," a brilliant alternate future thing in which Wolverine and Kitty were older and almost all the mutants were in hiding or dead. Then there was a very fine graphic novel called "God Saves, Man Kills" which related to that, and was inspiration for the first movie -- particularly the senator (who, in the film, is forcibly changed to a jellyfish by Magneto).

 

[feltfan]

My favorite comic of all time was a horror comic put out by Pacific Comics that had a hideous story called "Jennifer" about a heavily deformed girl with a stunning body. She kills a man's child and wife and then sleeps with him. It was truly frightening. It later was made into an excellent 1-hour movie by Dario Argento in the "Masters of Horror" series.

Drawn by Berni Wrightson, and published by Warren, in Creepy:

 

[Dr Doran]

Feltfan , do you own it? Did you find it online? Where? Please!

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I do recall a superb issue of Unknown Soldier (for the uninitiated, he was a WW2 soldier who had lost his face, and so wore masks all the time: thus he was able to impersonate different people and do clandestine work: pretty cool) called something like "8,000 to 1" in which to save 8,000 people he had to shoot one (very beautiful, of course) young woman. It was great. I wonder where that is now?

It was an issue of Star-Spangled War Stories (#183) and yes, it is a masterpiece. It was republished in the 1979 trade paperback AMERICA AT WAR, which is where I first read it.

 

[Dr Doran]

Nathan, where did you find this cover? Online? Where?
This comic is so good that if the whole thing is posted online, you should put up a link for everyone to read.

 

[Dr Doran]

Drawn by Berni Wrightson, and published by Warren, in Creepy:

The thing that was brilliant and horrifying about this comic is visible in this very page, the last panel: note the beauty of the girl's physical form as visible through the thin dress. Throughout the comic (and the filmed version) the attractiveness of her form is emphasized. This contrasts with the complete horror of her face. The viewer is (deeply) aroused by her body but (deeply) repelled by her face, producing a horrible and uncomfortable feeling. Very, very effective.

 

[feltfan]

Feltfan , do you own it? Did you find it online? Where? Please!

I do own a copy.

But I found that page doing a quick Google Images search.
Wrightson did a lot of other good work, too. Of course most
famously on Swamp Thing.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Nathan, where did you find this cover? Online? Where?
This comic is so good that if the whole thing is posted online, you should put up a link for everyone to read.

Comic Vine is my preferred resource for comic book covers. The information for each issue varies, but it works like Wikipedia in that people can contribute pertinent information about each issue. I don't know where online the entire book is, but the Star-Spangled War Stories comic is most likely available at the usual online comic retailers. I have all but three issues of the Unknown Soldier, the Soldier's showdown with Rommel two-parter being part of that.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

UNCANNY X-MEN #117, "PSI-WAR"

This has long been a favorite of mine, when Professor Xavier was young and travelling the world. He encountered his first malevolent mutant, the sinister Amahl Farouk. The two have a battle of minds in an astral projection sort of way. The story is reminscent of a novel by Peter Saxon, THE KILLING BONE. Brilliant artwork by John Byrne (though that's Dave Cockrum's cover art, baby!) and a tale that has improved through these many years.

 

[carebear]

Doran,

Ragman (thought I was the only one who knew him, I had the whole initial run) is part of DC's Gotham continuity now, played a part in Battle for the Cowl concerning the death of Batman.

I grew up in the '80s and hit all the high points. X-Men, Avengers, Secret Wars, Punisher... all the biggies from DC and Marvel.

Personal faves were Green Arrow-Longbow Hunters which took him in a more realistic direction, Grendel by Matt Wagner, Badger by Mike Baron (better throw Grell's Jon Sable in there as well), all of Neil Gaiman's Sandman/Vertigo output (and Vertigo in general), of course the graphic novels like Batman Year One and Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and "V" for Vendetta. Liked the Question and Vigilante before they went 'big".

The Tick, Groo, Elementals, Cerebus...

Wow, we had(have) a good comic shop in this town.

Fortunately girls waited to interfere with my love of comics until later in life.

 

[carebear]

Just realized all my "Eighties high points" were Marvel except for the independents,

Marvel really had the better characterization at the time. X-Men talked about racism, Tony Stark was a drunk, the Avengers brought in Tigra...

I'm not necessarily in favor of the "dark" trend that hit comics in the '90s but other than Batman DC held no appeal at all. Too sunny.

Vertigo, Mike Grell and Alan Moore really brought DC back, at least to me.

 

[Dr Doran]

Wow, carebear, I didn't know you were still on the Lounge. Nice to see you here again.

I found my old "Jon Sable, Freelance" and "Warlord" by Mike Grell in the boxes of comics my parents had in their basement. Those were decent. But, after all these years (and all these literature classes) not great.

"Watchmen" by Alan Moore is still completely brilliant, and it still stands up after studying and teaching literature and history for years at U.C. Berkeley.

 

[Dr Doran]

I still have some "Groo the Wanderer." My older brother liked Cerebus. I remember it fairly well. What is that artist/writer doing these days?

 

[carebear]

I still have some "Groo the Wanderer." My older brother liked Cerebus. I remember it fairly well. What is that artist/writer doing these days?

Good question.

Hit the old google.

http://www.sergioaragones.com/

Looks like he's still working.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Fantastic Four #166 (Jan 1976)

This is the first comic book I ever remember owning. I must've been about four years old, so perhaps it was purchased at a used bin or given to me by my older cousin not too long after its publication, perhaps mid-1976 which would've made me five.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Got Vol. 1 of The Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures which reprints Marvel Comics' 1980s book The Fyrther Adventures of Indiana Jones. As a kid during the early '80s, Marvel's Indy series was a most-welcome set of tales between Indiana Jones films, These are solid, fun adventure stories with the spirit of the first film running throughout. The book ran for 34 issues. I have most of them, but these reprints are reproduced in vibrant color. Marion, Sallah, and even Captain Katanga appear in these comics. Back from a time when there was just one Indy film: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Favorite stories: #4-5 with Indy in London eluding--you know it's coming---Nazis as he tries to prevent them from obtaining a crystal cylinder found out Stonehenge.