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Holy smokes! Can it be that the feature which reinvented civilisation and opened up a brand new zeitgeist for the gestaltisation of Homo Sapienosity has reached its 100th edition!?!
Yes it can.
And just what will it do to mark such a landmark event?
Absolutely nothing.
It'll be exactly the same as it's always been.
Which is that the first person to comment gets to decide the topic for debate. And then we all, with any luck, join in.
Therefore, hesitate ye not, as we prepare for the long, cold gruelling march towards the inevitable 200th edition that must surely arrive at some point.
Posts
35 comments:
What do you think of 'anniversary' comics? You know, #100s, 25th year specials, that kind of thing. Maybe even annuals, #1s, crossovers, or whatever too while you're at it.
Which ones do you like, and which are disappointing?
How's that for an appropriate Speak Your Brain topic this time round...
-sean
Greetings all! I'm not sure what kind of topic would be sufficiently impressive for such a notable occasion as this 100th. edition, and my upcoming suggestion surely is not. Nevertheless, here it is:
All of us started reading comics at some point, and for some reason; and we obviously enjoyed them enough to keep at it for some time. Now then, was there any particular comic or storyline you read which transformed you from the kid who just read a comic occasionally and promptly discarded it, to the one who actively follows and collects those comics? In short, what comic took you to the next level? What took you from a kid with a comic, to a comics-loving kid?
To start you off, here's my tale. I'd been reading comics here and there for several years, several kinds from various publishers. Harvey, DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Archie, Charlton- but didn't pay much attention to them other than as momentary entertainment; and when those books disappeared (when my Mom got into a cleaning binge and threw them out) I didn't even notice. This all changed when a pal in middle school told me about his comic collecting and made me take a more serious look at the books I'd been so casually reading. One of his recommendations was "Man-Thing", then by Steve Gerber and Mike Ploog. Upon reading that first story ("Night of the Laughing Dead" in MT #5-6) I was amazed at how much impact a comic story could have, and how personal the writing could be. It went way beyond Lois Lane pursuing Superman, or even Peter Parker and his perennial difficulties. Gerber hooked me, and I specifically sought out books he wrote. Therefore, while I''d enjoyed many comics very much, it was Gerber's two-parter that really made me see comics as something more than just diversion.
Okay, I yield the floor...
Sean, your topic is quite fitting for this day's discussions! Many of those anniversary books were quite memorable. My favorite of them all was Justice League of America #200; with that fabulous wrap around cover by George Perez. A great story with loads of characters and excellent art including Perez, Brian Bolland, Gil Kane and Joe Kubert. All in all, that book tops the list for me.
There have been many other fine examples. The story in Amazing Spider-Man #400 was very good, a tale telling the story of (what was at the time) Aunt May's death. Very touching, sensitive story; that was shamefully retconned out not long after. Still remains a great story.
Least favorite anniversary book: Avengers #200. Much has been written about that story, and I won't go into it here. Will just say that the best thing about that issue was the cover...
Sean and Red, thanks for the topics.
When it comes to "anniversary" issues, I can't say that many ever struck me as being hugely noteworthy.
The ones that were were Mighty World of Marvel #100 because it was the first Marvel UK book to reach such a landmark and was composed entirely of Hulk tales, which made it stand out from the book's normal format.
The other was X-Men #100, which was primarily because it introduced me to the New X-Men and had art by Dave Cockrum who was already a favourite of mine, thanks to his work on the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Red, the comic that turned me into a collector was issue #9 of Marvel UK's Avengers weekly. That's because it was the first issue of that book I ever owned, and the fact it had a glossy cover - as opposed to the other UK books' matt covers - made it seem special. Therefore, I decided to keep it, rather than throw it away. And that made me decide to keep all my comics from that point on.
Sean -
The only anniversary issue I can really remember is Superman 400, which must have cost an arm and a leg to put together.
I can't say I was ever generally that bothered. 2000AD used to do them every year, but I don't remember them being all that good.
Redartz -
I try to keep this succinct, but you know me...
I started out on Action comic when I was very young, then graduated to 2000AD when that came along. To be honest, it was just a comic I liked quite casually until Summer1982 when Time Out magazine did a cover story on UK comics [a Bolland Dredd cover].
This coincided with a visit to London and the 2000AD annuals signing. From that point on I was a UK comics obsessive.
The article also mentioned Warrior, which I'd picked up once but not bought. As soon as I got that, I was a Marvelman obsessive. That was the story that really turned my head. Thence, an Alan Moore obsessive. And generally keen on all the 70s / early 80s 2000AD / UK Marvel folk.
I got into US comics after that - more gradually, less obsessively, though Miller & Sienkiewicz were big favourites from Moon Knight and DD onwards. I'm afraid Alan Moore's Swamp Thing was the first US comic I found unmissable - I was quite late to the party with US comics generally.
I'm struggling a bit with these topics. Two anniversaries that immediately spring to mind are DD # 100 ( the Rolling Stone issue, in which the art nose-dived ), & MWOM # 300 ( a weak issue, heading towards the abyss.)
I was totally committed to Marvel, right from my very first issues. In fact, my first issues were strongest, in some respects.
This reads like a contrarian's answer, but isn't!
Phillip
The “Speak Your Brain” Centennial! Momentous occasion indeed!
As far as Special Anniversary issues that were truly “special”, yes, I think SUPERMAN 400 is the one that immediately comes to mind — mostly because of Steranko’s “Exile at the Edge of Eternity”.
And as for Redartz’ question: in my case, it wasn’t a single issue that converted me from a Casual Comics Buyer into a Dedicated Collector — it was three. Acquiring DAREDEVIL 97, CONAN THE BARBARIAN 25 and HERO FOR HIRE 8 all on the same day was my Game-Changer. Prior to that day, just like Red says, whenever I’d buy a comic, they always had a way of vanishing on cleaning day. That time, I made sure that didn’t happen. I don’t know where I hid those three issues so Mom couldn’t disappear them but it must have worked, because I still have them.
b.t.
A couple of anniversary issues popped into my head immediately; Fantastic Four #200 Reed and Dr. Doom mano y mano and surprisingly Marvel Tales #100, not for the reprint Spider-Man story but for a tiny back up Hawkeye/ Two -Gun Kid story. Just one of those stories that stuck with me over the decades.
Red's question? I was a convert from my first comic. They nailed a sweet spot at age 9.
Charlie started reading comics about 2 years before Marvel's big guns hit their anniversary issues.
Amazing Spidey 100, 101, 102 - Superb! GK nose shots galore!
Avengers 100 - Superb! Though the story was a bit over this 11 year old's head. BWS art!
DD 100 - Big let down.
FF 100 was weird, IIRC, like Kirby didn't even finish some of the panels. The Reed and Sue wedding issue.
Sgt Fury 100 - I think a Howler got killed in this, being set in the present. Very cool story and art.
Thor 200 -Very, very cool!
And of course, Charlie being a golden age geek was all about JLA-JSA 100 with the 7 Seven Soldiers of Victory!
I did enjoy those anniversary issues. Subsequent ones like the 200s, 300s, etc. not so much at all. I think I felt Action 500 was a bit of an over-hyped bust as well as 1000.
Red - I was simply hooked on superhero comics from the get go. Something about the art. Clearly something was innate in me.
I do remember a few issues which blew my young brain when I saw them advertised in full-page in-house ads such that, as soon as I was old enough, I bought them from Richard Alf's who advertised in Marvel comics.
And those few issues were Hulk Annual #1 (#2?) with the Steranko cover and Avengers Kind Size #2 with the Buscema "Old vs. New Avengers" cover. To this day, i still tingle when I see those covers but the insides don't do much for me. The sizzle way out dead the steak as we might say.
Steve- that glossy cover really had an impact! Amazing what the effects of simple presentation can be.
Matthew- regarding that 2000AD annual signing- was that like a regular book signing, albeit writer/artist doing the signing? It's a big kick meeting the pro's in person; I still have a signed sketch from my first comic con (Walt Simonson).
b.t.- three pretty fine books to start that collection with, especially Conan!
Charlie- oh yeah, definitely loved those old house ads. Along with the Bullpen page; another opportunity to be tantalized away from your allowance funds.
Sean- Matthew and b.t. mentioned Superman 400; another fine anniversary. Somehow forgot about that one...
Phillip and Killraven- many thanks for your comments as well!
Redartz -
Yeah, the 2000AD signing was a regular thing for a while 40+ years ago. They used to publish hardcover annuals that were originally cash-grabs filled with 2nd rate material and reprints of dated, obscure old strips.
But gradually they got better and better, filled with more and more original material, and definitely worth having on your Christmas list.
By 1981-1982 there was the thriving UK comics creators scene going on in London, so artists and writers would do a big annuals signing at Forbidden Planet in September. Queues around the block.
I got my 2000AD and Dredd annuals signed by Bolland, Moore, O’Neill, Ian Gibson, etc that year.
Charlie-
I'm a big fan of the JSA too.
Who ain't? but when I was a kid it was a matter of some confusion for me. It took me a while to dope out the whole Earth 1 and Earth 2 situation.
M.P.
MP- me too loved the annual JLA JSA hook up and also JSA golden age reprintings! Something to look forward to, ya know?
CH
For me the anniversary issue that immediately sprang to mind was Conan The Barbarian #100 originally from 1979 but I acquired it via mail order a year or so later. The cover of CTB #100 shows a distraught Conan holding a lifeless Belit in his arms accompanied by the blurb "Death On The Black Coast". At that point I'd never read any of REH's Conan stories and I didn't know Belit was destined to die so the cover of CTB #100 was a massive spoiler!!! Another famous 100th issue was Amazing Spider-Man #100 when Spidey gets six arms but I read that story in Marvel UK's Spider-Man Comics Weekly in 1975 so I didn't know it had been a big anniversary story originally.
To answer Red's question - my first comics were DC Thompson publications like The Beezer and The Topper which I liked very much but it was the discovery of Marvel UK in November 1974 that turned me into a serious comics fan who collected comics rather than disposing of them once read. My first ever Marvel comic was Planet Of The Apes (UK) No.5 and I was already a huge fan of the POTA TV series so discovering a POTA comic too was awesome!
COLIN, et al. Would DC Thomson be the typical “gateway” comic enroute to Marvel / Superheroes for the UK?
I have to guess that for folks our age, in the US, that newspaper strips especially Sunday newspapers which were huge behemoths were our gateway. RED? BT? MP, KILLDUMPSTER (still there amigo?) what saybye?
If we count the double-sized issues from November 1971(Marvels 10th anniversary,as Stan told us in that months Bullpen Bulletin page!) I think there are a few of them that hold up as 4 Star belters! Avengers 93,Neal Adams finest hour?FF 116 Dr. Doom leading the FF with John Buscema on fire?Amazing Spiderman 102 Gil Kane,The Lizard,Morbius,6 armed Spiderman....absolutely brilliant!Thor 193 fighting the Silver Surfer( not as good as Silver Surfer 4 but then has any comic been!!!)Granted some of the other double sized issues were not in this league......Ironman 43,Daredevil 81,Captain America 143,Hulk 145,Submariner 43...but what they all had was fantastic art;Tuska,Colan,Buscema brothers,Trimpe all at the top of their game.I was 9 years old and comics were never better,in my opinion of course!
Matthew- thanks for the details on your signing! Very cool to have all those signatures in your book.
Charlie- interesting observation about the influence of newspaper stripes. At least in my case, you are correct: I was reading the Sunday strips years prior to my first actual comic book. Especially liked "Peanuts", "Blondie ", "Donald Duck ", "Mandrake the Magician" and "The Phantom ". In the case of "Peanuts ", our local paper didn't carry the strip (surely a grievous sin), so I got the paperback collections-so in that sense they were my first 'comic books'.
Annuals always had the promise of being “Special” but very often weren’t. Some that I thought actually delivered the “Special-ness”:
FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 11 / TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL — Roy Thomas’ clever WW2-based Time Travel two-parter
AVENGERS ANNUAL 7 / TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL 2 — an even better two-parter by Jim Starlin
AVENGERS ANNUAL 10 — with spectacular Mike Golden art
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL 14 — Spidey/Dr. Strange team-up with super-fun art by Frank Miller and Tom Palmer
CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL 3 — newly-returned to Marvel, Kirby clearly having a blast writing and drawing Cap’s encounter with a scary Space Vampire
DR. STRANGE ANNUAL 1 — Craig Russell’s Art Nouveau - inspired classic
In fact, I loved a lot of the Marvel Annuals from that 1976-1978 period. Many were just highly competent superhero slugfests (IRON MAN ANNUAL 3 and 4, HULK ANNUAL 7), some were enlivened by off-beat gimmicks (HULK ANNUAL 5 or INVADERS ANNUAL 1) some weren’t actually very good at all (POWER-MAN ANNUAL 1, MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL 1) but I looked forward to them every year. They were like a little Summer Treat.
b.t.
CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL 2 was the first Annual I ever owned — several years before I became a Dedicated Collector. At that time, my weekly allowance was a mere 25c so that means I spent every penny of it on that single comic (instead of 15c for a standard comic with a dime left over for candy). Was it worth it? Well, it was an all-reprint issue but still pretty great, reprinting the first Red Skull Sleeper stories from TALES OF SUSPENSE 72-74. Plus a weird, fun, goofy short from NOT BRAND ECCH by Thomas and Colan. I didn’t regret the purchase :)
b.t.
WOW! And I do mean WOW!
RED - I totally overlooked the paperbacks We would buy at the annual school book sale when I was in grade school. Every year, my brother and I would each get at least one, perhaps two of the PEANUTS paperbacks. (When I became more mature (?) it wad ANDY CAPP paperbacks - the UK’s favorite lay-about!
But for sure, they were part of that trifecta: newspaper, comic strips, comic books, and peanuts paper bags lol.
BT - Lori, I cannot believe I forgot about that CAP # 2 annual. I really wasn’t that heavily into annuals unless they struck a chord with me. I didn’t buy them religiously every summer. But that Captain America annual! Wow!
And I did read FF King Size #9 to death in 1971 “LO THERE SHALL BE AN ENDING!” Still have that battered friend of mine in the long box!
Lori = Lordy
Jeez, how could I forget…
BATMAN ANNUAL 8: Stunning art by Trevor Von Eeden (with great color by Lynn Varley)
BATMAN ANNUAL 11: Excellent Clayface story by Alan Moore and George Freeman
OUTSIDERS ANNUAL 1 : I have zero recollection of what the story was about, I just remember digging the art by Kevin Nowlan
G.I. JOE YEARBOOK 2 : kind of a “Big Nothing” story-wise, just an excuse to have Mike Golden go nuts drawing page after page of wild cartoony mayhem
Lastly, thinking some more about “All Reprint” Annuals / Specials…
DC SPECIAL 12 : 5 Viking Prince stories by Kubert and 2 Robin Hood stories by Russ Heath. Wow!
DC SPECIAL 15 : Five Golden Age Plastic Man stories by Jack Cole. My first exposure to Cole’s work, and it knocked my socks off.
b.t.
JLA issue 100 was the anniversary comic that always springs to mind. The comics that made me want to collect rather than just read them, were Captain America issues 139 to 143 the Lee, Freidrich and John Romita Snr issues.
My earliest US comics were those 1960s Mighty Comics, Fly Man, Crusaders etc and UK childrens comics the Dandy Beano Buster etc.
Charlie, I often wonder what comics I'd have read if Marvel UK had never existed. I suppose DC Thompson comics were a gateway to Marvel for ME but most British kids ignored Marvel and preferred our home-grown comics like Warlord, Roy Of The Rovers and 2000AD (and girls had their own comics of course).
Charlie, I stopped reading the DC Thompson weeklies when I was 8 but I continued buying the annuals for several more years.
Colin - I think the DC Thomson Annuals are about as close to perfect as comics can get. They have it all! Adventure, humor, mirth, madness, silly, serious… and somehow, regardless of one’s age, it all seems age appropriate.
Colin there were of course some UK DC reprint comics and Alan Class released reprints of US comics as well so you may have picked them up.
Charlie - DC Thomson's UK rival was IPC comics. Whizzer & Chips, Shiver & Shake, Buster & Monster Fun, etc (comics & hardback annuals.) Incidentally, the aforementioned pairings were all separate comics that merged!
Phillip
Redartz, I've read comics for as long as I can remember... the one that got me into the American imports - which were obviously different from the local weeklies - was probably Justice League #100.
It was the greatest gathering of superstars ever recorded! Thats probably why I remember it vividly, even though I read some Superman and Batman comics before it...
However, it was Captain Marvel #29 - the one where Mar-Vell gets cosmic awareness from Eon - that got me really obsessive about the things. That was one far out comic (man), which also made me a more demanding reader.
Matthew - DC definitely put a bit of effort into Superman #400, like they did with a number of anniversary comics they did around that time, most with the same 'Anniversary' logo above the title. Justice League #200, Brave & the Bold #200 - Dave Gibbons first full length US work I think? - Batman #400, whichever number of Action Comics was the 50th anniversary reboot of Lex Luther and Brainiac, and of course the best of the lot, Swamp Thing #50.
I think they did that kind of thing better than Marvel. I can't say I cared much for the double size Thor #300, and I'm really disliked FF #200 (no offence Killraven - just an opinion, I'm not knocking yours).
And don't get me started on Avengers #200.
I think maybe Marvel were better at the non-anniversary double-size one off - X-Men #137, and #186, Daredevil #181, that kind of thing.
-sean
*like they did with a number of anniversary comics around that time
Sorry that got a bit garbled there.
Actually, thinking about Superman #400 reminds me that I also read Superman #300 back in the day, the one where baby Kal-El comes to Earth in the (then) present - the mid 70s - and becomes Supes in the incredibly futuristic world of 2001.
Not quite the same sense of occasion as #400 but as with Justice League #100 DC, did that kind of thing better than Marvel then, if FF #100 or X-Men #100 are anything to go by (I can see why you like the latter if it was your first encounter with the all-new, all-different team, Steve, but the meeting with the 'old X-Men' is a bit of a cheat).
Having now dissed FF #s 100 and 200, I suppose its only fair to mention the twentieth anniversary #236, 'Terror in a Tiny Town'. That was quite a good one.
-sean
Did UK comics like DC Thomson, etc celebrate anniversaries? They were published weekly (?) so they must have wracked up issues in the hundreds, maybe even a thousand if published weekly for about 20 years. And given Dandy Beano Oor Wullie etx started around WW2…
Charlie (?), Other than 2000 AD, I don't remember British comics celebrating anniversaries. I suspect they may have more inclination to do so nowadays, as their readership is possibly older and more likely to be nostalgic.
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