The Legacy of Comic Books

Well, a lot has changed in my life.

On a personal level, I have faced a great deal of upheaval in my life. I'm sure this happens to everyone eventually.

I have enjoyed collecting for most of my life. If you read anything I wrote, you already know that. In that time, family has passed on, friends faded away, and significant others departed for greener pastures. I remain.

And the books remain, too...

Not just comic books. Pulps and novels too. Paper and Hardback. I have read more than I own, in almost every genre. Even Manga.

Along the way of my life's journey, Comics Books became huge in the movie and television business. This left some people, those without a sense of wonder or imagination, wondering what the allure was for the public. If they don't get it, they likely never will.

My feelings about it are pretty simple: we need heroic tales to give up hope and courage to face life. We need escapism from the slavery of working. We need to evolve into our best selves, and comic books generate ideas.

 Comic Books did all these things for me growing up.
 And they still do.

How long will comic books last?

Forever.

 Just like any other form of art, Sequential Art is eternal. Putting pictures with words started in caveman days.

Oh, publishing will always be struggling. The fortunes of that profession changes with every generation. Digital media will ensure that comics live forever. There will always be  a store somewhere that sells comic books.And some people will always want to collect comic books.

Books are tangible.

They have value to the reader or collector, whether they are valuable in a monetary sense or not...

I am humbled by this lightning in my soul that comic books created...

Finding that jumping on point in collecting comics.....so many choices!

Okay, I am the first to admit, its hard to choose a point to jump onto an established comic book. I collect mostly bronze and silver age books, so I am naturally biased; the point being I will not promote a book I  have not read, and I have read a lot more comics than I currently own. So I am gonna stick to what I know is good.

Avengers 16 : a great silver age turning point for the book and the characters as its the first time the group brought in new characters to fill its ranks. In this case, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch. The angle? A group of upstart heroes led by Captain America and a radical change in the power structure. The original Avengers team was over powered, both with and without the Hulk, so now any one of their old villains could pose a greater threat.

Fantastic Four 44 : With the addition of Joe Sinnott's inking Jack Kirby, the book sustains a new, polished look starting with this issue, the introduction of the Inhumans. The issues that follow are incredible, as the art is crisp and storylines great. Following the Inhumans is the added attraction of the first Galactus-Silver Surfer saga, and the introduction of The Black Panther.

Spider-man 39 : The new artistry of John Romita ushers in a new, more streamlined look to Spidey, taking the book in different, if not better, direction from the Steve Ditko era.
This issue also begins the long awaited reveal of The Green Goblin as the father of Peter Parker's friend, Harry Osborn.

Thor 130: The beginning of a truly cosmic saga for the thunder god. It introduces the Colonizers of Rigel , followed by Ego, the Living Planet, and The High Evolutionary. The art is by Jack Kirby, this time inked by Vince Colletta, in a bold, mythic style.

There are more jumping on points to catalog, but I will stop here today, and follow up with more posts later.

Please STOP slabbing the REPRINTS!

Its a weakness of Marvel during the late 1970s that the Dreaded Deadline Doom caused so many interruptions in the publishing of their regular books. 

These books always came with an apology from the writer or editor on the letters page. This is one of those issues where a reprint story had to be hastily pushed out to get the book out on schedule. The reprints were usually more welcome than the badly crafted fill in stories that someone thought was a better alternative. So whats a reprint worth? 
In fair condition, about a buck. In near mint? About 5 or 6 bucks, but because its a reprint, but usually you can pick it for a lot less if you look around. Don't believe the inflated hype about what the guide says its worth; the guide was and is, a tool for comic book dealers and speculators to inflate the price of a comic book. 

Some reprints have a framework story of a page or two while presenting a reprint somehow revelant to the current storyline, such as the case with Avengers 150. 
there is a partial reprint of Avengers 16, the first time the roster changed for the book. Fantastic Four 154 is another such example, reprinting an old Strange Tales story, with a framework added.

If you really want or need this issue, find a medium grade that looks good, buy it, read it, bag it, and forget it. Its a reprint, so try to get a good price. 
And for God's sake, do not slab a reprint book, even if its a part of a comic's regular run! Save the slabbing cost for something that is rare!

Please consider that Marvel already had several reprint titles that churned out some great reading matter during the 1970s, so slabbing a reprint should only happen to the 1960s run of Marvel Tales and Marvel Collector's Item Classics. The reprints of the 1970s were generally thinner than these books and, were and are, not particularly rare.

The Original DEFENDERS : Strange Days and Stranger Nights

The Defenders were a bronze age book created by Roy Thomas for Marvel Comics that featured Dr. Strange, The Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Submariner. As a superhero team, The early Defenders were pure power, second to none.

They  were designed to be the ultimate team of non-grouped super beings. As opposed to the Avengers, The Defenders were a loose knit group of people who handled some major threats from some of most powerful and insidious villains ever dreamed up at Marvel....

Their existance was a secret at first, and covert for the most part, as Dr. Strange could make you forget the Defender's existance as easily as he could make you forget where you parked your car at the local mall. This was not the de-powered Dr.Strange from recent years. 

This was the original Sorcerer Supreme.

The Defenders fought a now-legendary cross-over battle with the Avengers, wherein the real baddies were revealed as Dormammu and Loki. It was an epic storyline, well worth the time reading and collecting, in both original form or reprint volume.

The Defenders book would frequently lose members, as the individual characters would often drift in and out of the book, depending on the storyline. This meant the addition of Valkyrie and Nighthawk to the regular book, as Submariner and the Surfer popped in as needed. 

This instability lead to a core roster, at least for a long time, of Dr.Strange, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, and The Hulk; but guest-stars had a habit of becoming Defenders, and often showed up in later stories. It was a chaotic, wonderful time to be a fan.

The original series hit its stride during the Steve Gerber run on the book. Steve, the Man-Thing scribe and Howard The Duck creator, brought in a touch of controversy and quirkiness that set The Defenders apart from every other team book published at the time.

Considering that the original run of the Defenders is only about 152 issues, plus the three Marvel Feature appearance , 5 Annuals, a Giant-Size comic, and a story in the Howard The Duck Treasury Edition, means that the Defenders is an attainable, collectible series to enjoy.

   The Defenders is an enjoyable read. After cancellation, I discovered that there were a legion of Defenders fans out there that still loved the old book. I count myself lucky to be among those legion of fans who discovered the joys of this book the first time around.

So, in the end, The Defenders were lightning in a bottle; a non-team that ended up being re-organized into a team, which killed the entire concept. The so-called New Defenders , starting with issue 125, is readable, but is the closeout era in the book's history. I really do not think that younger writers really ever got the concept of the group. The Defenders is not about decorum and having a head quarters or voting in a new members; the book was about a bunch of folks who banded together with a purpose, and who could hang out with each other, when not beating the daylights out of evil doers. The Defenders were not the Avengers, the F.F., or even the Champions.

The Defenders were unique. They were friends.

ROCKING WITH THE AVENGERS IN THE 1970s

This is the first Avengers book I read. Turns out, its a good one.....

Written by Steve Englehart, this issue with the slam-bang cover was a great introduction to these myriad Iron Man villains, and big vacuum pull into the second Kang war at the end of the story. Turns out,  Kang is probably the best Avenger's bad guy. He does not just cause a skirmish or a fight, he goes to a war over multiple issues every
time he comes around.

Issue 130 is a good jumping on point for the Avengers, but not a great one. There are so many good Avengers storylines after Englehart took over around issue 100. This is including three Kang Wars, a Thanos story, a multi-issue crossover with The Defenders, a couple of major weddings, a trip to counter earth, a new origin for The Vision, the return of Captain America, and the addition of several new Avengers.

 Issues 101 through 151 would be ideal to collect from this period, if you want to get the most out of this run. The art is done by several hands, but artists during this period include Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, and George Perez, among others.

One of the coolest things about Avengers 130 is that the Dave Cockrum cover is a kind of homage to a Mike Seikowsky JLA cover done in the 1960s.