Hail True Believers!
And welcome to the wondrous world of wild writings, the motherlode of Marvel masterpiece musings, the site of second-rate Stan Lee soundbites!
Yes, you have stumbled upon my blog about 80s Marvel Comics!
A little background.
My Mum tells a story of when I was just a boy, picking up a comic book from the local newsagent. She was wary of the bright colours and lurid art style, and questioned the shopkeeper (who was from somewhere near Newcastle, but for the purposes of this story, you can totally picture him as Stan Lee, making an unlikely cameo. If that makes you happy. And if doesn't, you may be in the wrong place.)
She asked him if this publication was likely to adversely affect my development, would it warp my young mind and lead me on the early steps to a life of misadventure, drug abuse, crime and sexual deviancy?
The kindly gent behind the shop counter pointed to the corner box of the title and told her that if it said Marvel, it would be absolutely fine. The die was cast, and I ran home clutching the first of a great many Mighty Marvel Masterworks! (I don't actually know what the title was. Possibly an issue of Avengers or Thor.)
Wind forward a few years and I was hooked. What misadventure, drug abuse, crimes and sexual deviancy I involved myself in, the comics played little to no part.
The joy of comics in those days was similar to collecting records. There were no reprints, no on demand downloads, not even black market CD Roms with illicit scans. If you wanted to read an old comic, you had to hunt it down and find it. This was not easy.
Liverpool was served with several comic book stores. My favourite, by far, was Ogre Books, which was located roughly half way between my home and the city centre. I would get a bus into town, get off half way and enter this wonderful world, filled with longboxes of back issues. It was here I stumbled across seventies Captain Marvel comics, old Uncanny X-Men and oddities like Speedball and Nova. This was in the late 1980s, most of the decade's best stories had already been told, and the "Hot Creator" boom was in full bloom. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, these guys were rock stars. A couple of them could draw, too.
As the 90s came along, I got more interested in the UK scene. Ogre Books closed. I started reading 2000ad. Marvel seemed to be getting more lurid, more grim. There was less of the whimsy, less of the fun, and a lot less of the imagination. Everyone had really big guns and too many pockets. The "hot" artists had all gone off to form Image. I was not impressed with much of that studio's early output.
I have revisited Marvel from time to time. Tried to keep abreast of the big events. Picked up collections in libraries. Comics written today are in many cases excellent. They are articulate and diverse, exploring politics and deep themes. They eschew thought bubbles, and keep the dialogue to a crisp minimum. The art is detailed and serious. They are, forgive me, a bit boring.
There are exceptions, and in the course of writing this blog I hope to find more of the contemporary gems, but I find I much prefer reading older comics to new ones now.
And so here we are. I have the Marvel Unlimited app installed on my phone and a library of thousands of titles to choose from. So I'm going to read the 80s.
Or at least 1980. There are 2,510 comics on Unlimited from the 1980s, which is a lot to take on. And let's face it, not everything the House of Ideas turned out in that decade was necessarily wonderful.
So here's how this works:
I am looking at comics with a cover date from January to December 1980.
I will read at least one # of every title published that year and available on Unlimited.
If and when I get to December, I will make a decision what to do next. I might go straight into 1981, I might jump back to 1970. I might not get that far.
Questions, thoughts, comments?
Pop em below, and I'll try to get through them.
No gaters. Life's too short for that nonsense.
Excelsior!
And welcome to the wondrous world of wild writings, the motherlode of Marvel masterpiece musings, the site of second-rate Stan Lee soundbites!
Yes, you have stumbled upon my blog about 80s Marvel Comics!
A little background.
My Mum tells a story of when I was just a boy, picking up a comic book from the local newsagent. She was wary of the bright colours and lurid art style, and questioned the shopkeeper (who was from somewhere near Newcastle, but for the purposes of this story, you can totally picture him as Stan Lee, making an unlikely cameo. If that makes you happy. And if doesn't, you may be in the wrong place.)
She asked him if this publication was likely to adversely affect my development, would it warp my young mind and lead me on the early steps to a life of misadventure, drug abuse, crime and sexual deviancy?
The kindly gent behind the shop counter pointed to the corner box of the title and told her that if it said Marvel, it would be absolutely fine. The die was cast, and I ran home clutching the first of a great many Mighty Marvel Masterworks! (I don't actually know what the title was. Possibly an issue of Avengers or Thor.)
Wind forward a few years and I was hooked. What misadventure, drug abuse, crimes and sexual deviancy I involved myself in, the comics played little to no part.
The joy of comics in those days was similar to collecting records. There were no reprints, no on demand downloads, not even black market CD Roms with illicit scans. If you wanted to read an old comic, you had to hunt it down and find it. This was not easy.
Liverpool was served with several comic book stores. My favourite, by far, was Ogre Books, which was located roughly half way between my home and the city centre. I would get a bus into town, get off half way and enter this wonderful world, filled with longboxes of back issues. It was here I stumbled across seventies Captain Marvel comics, old Uncanny X-Men and oddities like Speedball and Nova. This was in the late 1980s, most of the decade's best stories had already been told, and the "Hot Creator" boom was in full bloom. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, these guys were rock stars. A couple of them could draw, too.
As the 90s came along, I got more interested in the UK scene. Ogre Books closed. I started reading 2000ad. Marvel seemed to be getting more lurid, more grim. There was less of the whimsy, less of the fun, and a lot less of the imagination. Everyone had really big guns and too many pockets. The "hot" artists had all gone off to form Image. I was not impressed with much of that studio's early output.
I have revisited Marvel from time to time. Tried to keep abreast of the big events. Picked up collections in libraries. Comics written today are in many cases excellent. They are articulate and diverse, exploring politics and deep themes. They eschew thought bubbles, and keep the dialogue to a crisp minimum. The art is detailed and serious. They are, forgive me, a bit boring.
There are exceptions, and in the course of writing this blog I hope to find more of the contemporary gems, but I find I much prefer reading older comics to new ones now.
And so here we are. I have the Marvel Unlimited app installed on my phone and a library of thousands of titles to choose from. So I'm going to read the 80s.
Or at least 1980. There are 2,510 comics on Unlimited from the 1980s, which is a lot to take on. And let's face it, not everything the House of Ideas turned out in that decade was necessarily wonderful.
So here's how this works:
I am looking at comics with a cover date from January to December 1980.
I will read at least one # of every title published that year and available on Unlimited.
If and when I get to December, I will make a decision what to do next. I might go straight into 1981, I might jump back to 1970. I might not get that far.
Questions, thoughts, comments?
Pop em below, and I'll try to get through them.
No gaters. Life's too short for that nonsense.
Excelsior!
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