Riding the Retro Metro: Saturday July 14, 1984!

Redartz:  Come one, come all; it's time again for a quick quest back to the Bronze Age, courtesy of the Retro Metro!  On the docket today is that epochal year 1984, a true high point in 80's pop culture. In the news, everyone's talking about the US presidential campaign, specifically Democrat Walter Mondale's choice of Geraldine Ferraro as his Vice-Presidential running mate: the first woman on a major party ticket. And there's the Los Angeles Olympic Games, opening despite the boycott by the Soviets. 

There's big news on the music front, as well. The number one song on the US Billboard Chart:  Prince, "When Doves Cry"

The genius from Minnesota gives us this gem from the soundtrack to his current film "Purple Rain". The whole album is incredible, and this cut is one of the best.

Rounding out the top five: 
2.  Bruce Springsteen, "Dancing in the Dark"
3.  The Pointer Sisters, "Jump (For My Love)"
4.  Billy Idol, "Eyes Without a Face"
5.  Duran Duran, "The Reflex"

This is one of those rare occasions when the top five all score high on my personal favorite list. Springsteen's hit is danceable, and infectiously melodic. Billy Idol's "Eyes" is a moody,masterpiece. And Duran Duran score another very catchy hit. 

Some other current hits of note:  Laura Branagan, "Self Control"; just a great song. Ray Parker Jr., "Ghostbusters"; impossible to get out of your head; the theme (obviously) to the current smash hit summer blockbuster film . Eddy Grant, "Romancing the Stone", another excellent movie song; from the man who took us to "Electric Avenue". Thompson Twins, "Doctor! Doctor!"- perfect pop from a fine new group (containing no twins, incidentally).

Tops in the UK:  Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "Two Tribes"

Great song and a cool video; and speaking of video, thanks to MTV and the various video music programs for exposing such acts to those of us in the US starving for the latest sounds from 'across the pond'. And one of these days I might just be seen wearing one of those "Frankie Say" t-shirts.



Ah, before we forget: being Saturday, there may be some benefit to checking out the Saturday morning cartoon highlights:   


Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Bill Melendez brings Charles Shultz' characters to Saturday mornings. It's one of the highlights, well worth a look. 
 



Dungeons and Dragons, based upon the immensely popular role playing game. Our D&D group enjoys catching this show. 

Bugs Bunny, Smurfs, Thundarr the Barbarian, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man- all veteran shows by now, but still worth watching. Especially Bugs; you can never go wrong with Warner Bros. cartoons!














As far as prime time is concerned, for tonight's televised offerings, let's check out the TV Guide...

US Television Schedule: 

William Shatner

ABC:  T.J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island

 These days I'm usually busy on Saturday nights. I've missed seeing William Shatner as T.J. Hooker , but I still catch Fantasy Island from time to time. Tattoo never gets old...

CBS:  Whiz Kids, Airwolf, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer


NBC:  Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, Mama's Family, People are Funny, The Rousters

 




 NBC relies pretty obviously on it's comedy schedule on Saturday nights. I do have to give a nod to "Mama's Family": Vicki Lawrence is a hoot. Loved that whole shtick since it originated on the incomparable "Carol Burnett Show". A fine comic cast, as well...



 





BBC1:  The Saturday Film: Rio Bravo, Dynasty, Bird of Prey

BBC2:  Primal, Countdown to the Moon, Mick Burke Award 1984, Saturday Review, Cricket: Third Test, Newsnight International: Iran


You know, Saturdays are a perfect time to hit the comic shop (if you're fortunate enough to have one nearby) or the newsstand . Therefore, let's see what's new on the spinner racks:

There's still plenty of excellent reading in comics today! John Byrne continues his epic run on the Fantastic Four, and his Alpha Flight displays some of his finest writing (the terrific artwork needs no explanation). Walt Simonson's Thor is quickly becoming the subject of much attention. Beta Ray Bill is a new character with loads of potential..

There are a couple big anniversary issues out this month, Hulk 300 and Superman 400 (one of those spectaculars with a veritable "Who's Who" of creators involved; buy it for the pinups if for no other reason). 

Then there's "Secret Wars"; Marvel's big company wide project from Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. Some love it, some hate it; I find it fairly entertaining. 

Away from the Big Two, the indies have loads to offer. Bill Messner-Loebs' "Journey" is one of the most unique, most engaging epics in comics. And "Love and Rockets", by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, is truly wonderful. Graphically beautiful; not really for kids but perfect for a college art student!
So perfect, in fact, I'm off to read an issue. Thus, we say goodbye to 1984, and return to whenever/wherever we find ourselves now. Hope we triggered a few fond memories; if so, be sure to share!

Panel Discussion: Serving Up A Different View!

Martinex1: One of the great things about growing up a collector in the Bronze Age is that through reprints we could experience the greatness of the Silver Age of comics.  On spinner racks, along with the "new stuff" were Marvel titles like Marvel's Greatest Comics, Marvel Tales, Marvel Triple Action, later to be called Marvel Super Action, and many others.  At a young age, I was often confused by the continuity of the stories until I started to understand the editor's note on the splash page, "Originally printed in..."   But I digress, because today and in posts to come I am going to explore some of the differences in the reprints.

To get us started on our reprint journey, let's look at some variant covers. Reprints had a tendency to use re-positioned art, mirror images, different colors and other techniques to distinguish from the originals.  And I will explore a myriad of those more subtle variances in a future post because today I will mainly focus on entirely new covers for old stories (although I cannot resist throwing in some of the former examples as well).

Let's start with Avengers #54 reprinted in the final issue of Marvel Triple Action #47.  The original cover pencilled by John Buscema is a classic with the Masters of Evil center stage.  The reprint by Steve Ditko reverses the action and gives us an entirely different view.  While I prefer the original, I enjoy looking at the two side-by-side and comparing the details.  The villains for instance are not reversed in the same order as the original, while the heroes would indeed maintain their opposite view sequence.  I am not certain why a new cover was created, but I am glad it was.

Jumping overseas to the Marvel UK, alternative covers were often created because the original stories were reformatted to weekly comics.   The gap issues often used variant covers that fit the story.  Check out the below UK comic reprinting a section of Avengers #71 with the classic introduction of the Invaders. 

And if that variant on the original Sal Buscema masterpiece is not enough, take a gander at the slight changes in the matching UK issue and the corresponding Marvel Super Action issue as well.

How many changes can you see?  It is like one of those childhood "what is different challenges."  If they look the same to you, check out things like the coloring, the position of the Eiffel Tower, the topiary in front of the tower, the position of Captain America's legs, the distance between Black Panther and the Sub-Mariner, the angles of the characters, the fireballs, etc. Why were such things changed, reshaped, or redrawn?  I have no idea but I find it fascinating.

Staying with the UK output, I thought you might like to see some of the intermittent covers for their version of Secret Wars.  They of course had many additional issues because of the shorter chapter breaks; but here are some covers that some of us may not have had the opportunity to view.

 And last but not least, Redartz just yesterday discussed anniversary covers and I expressed my admiration for the George Perez cover to Avengers #200 despite the horrendous story.  Well here is the reprint as it was handled overseas.  It is kind of odd and seems to be missing something (ha), but I like the background color. 

I hope you have enjoyed this initial post on cover reprint variations; more to come in the future.  Cheers!