Redartz: Hello again everyone! Once again, we present a couple of questions for your consideration. Nothing too weighty today, we'll keep it easy.
Question 1. Many characters in comics, over the years, have been featured in more than one title at a time. Supeman appears in Action Comics, and his own named title (and of course there was DC Comics Presents, and World's Finest, but we're dealing with non-'team up' books). Batman has Batman (obviously), and Detective. Spider-man had Amazing, Spectacular, Web of, Friendly Neighborhood, and several others (Marvel kind of mined the web-slinger heavily, eh?). Flash and Wonder Woman also appeared in Adventure while headlining their own titles. The X-Men had several, filling the shelves in the 90's. You may have more examples. Anyway, the question: which secondary title (that is, not named specifically for the starring character) had the best run?
2.
2. Less explanation needed for this one: what is your favorite card game?
To get it rolling, here's my answers:
1. Detective Comics. A tough call, as Spectacular Spider-man has a lot going for it too. Yet the great range of art and story in Detective nails it for me. The Adams issues, Jim Aparo, the Englehart/Rogers run. Some nice early 00's stories by Paul Dini. Just off the top of my mind...
2. Euchre. I think it may be the official card game in the state of Indiana. It is simple to learn, quick to play, and best of all: it doesn't require huge amounts of concentration, so you can actually carry on some conversation while playing. The biggest challenge for me is remembering which suit is trump. My wife will give me 'that look' if I trump her ace...
Ok, group. Your turn; pick a title and then deal yourselves in!
14 comments:
1. I really do not even have an opinion on this one
2. 500 Rummy...played for hours with my grandmother in the 1970s and it has a lot of ebb and flow to it.
Yoyo
Question 1 - I know it is outside the time-remit here but my vote goes to Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis and Bagley captured much of the essence of the early ASM issues and added layers and characters intelligently and patiently.
Sure it was an 'alternate' Spidey-verse but suspension of disbelief can go a long way when the stories are this good.
Actually, there is a Bronze Age connection to USM. Mark Bagley was a winner from the Official Marvel Try-Out Book in 1983 :)
In terms of secondary comics, I'll go for, "Savage Sword of Conan," especially whenever it gave us the insanely beautiful combination of John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala, not to mention those stunning covers by Boris Vallejo.
In terms of card games, I'll go for Pontoon/Blackjack because it's one of the few card games I can remember the rules for. It is a source of regret to me that I used to know the rules for a number of card games, like Newmarket, Bridge, Rummy and Old Maid and can no longer recall how to play any of them. Oh well, at least I can still remember how to play Snap.
Ahoy!
If not too far astray of the question, I would consider Apraro’s Specter run in Adventure preferable to the Specter’s own (short-lived ) comic in the 60s. The Adventure ones were “to the point.” Bad guy does something wrong and Specter dismembers, disembowels, melts bad guy. Lovely.
(If I’m not mistaken doesn’t Steve Does Comics use one of those Aparo Specter covers for his “blog image” at his blog?)
Spent many hours playing rummy, gin rummy, and Michigan rummy with my grandparents, parents, siblings, our kids…. Funny we used to play so many card games. Now it’s the occasional game of Michigan Rummy at Holidays.
I’m convinced if civilization spent more time playing bridge and pinochle it would help our minds stay sharper into old age.
1. I have to go with "Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man". Even though it was pretty much always considered the red-headed stepchild to "Amazing Spider-Man", it was still pretty good book, and it gave us twice the Spidey every month. Also, I believe it was the first #1 issue I ever bought new right off the spinner rack. So it holds a special place in my heart for that.
2. Gotta go with poker. All different kinds, draw, stud, Texas hold-em. It's actually a really fun game when you have at least 4 or more people to play. I actually came in second at a local Texas hold-em tournament a few years ago. It was low stakes and I think I won about $50.00 (the winner got a $100) but it was mostly just for fun anyway.
1) I've discussed this before, but I loved the initial concept of MTU as a running team-up mag, but with it's own couple of characters in the background to establish it's own identity away from ASM. I saw this in the first dozen or so issues with Willy the longshoreman, but he kinda went his own way and it became a routine team-up mag.
Other notables for me are 'Worlds Finest' issues in the late Silver era with Adams doing some fantastic covers. As also mentioned previously, if you want some outstanding Adams covers for WF or Superboy, they're typically far less expensive to collect than the main titles. I've been collecting Superboy issues (both Action Comics and his own Silver Age title..) now for the last year, gorgeous Adams and Swan cover work with vibrant colors.
2)Hey, here I thought I was the only guy to play 500-Card Rummy..?!? I played it with my Mom for decades growing up, taught the young niece and nephew as well. Playing cards with my Mom was always fun. I play Rummy now with the missus often, but typically not for points. I never quite learned Poker, but I'll always play Rummy.
Like William, I was in on the Peter Parker book from #1. I enjoyed it, but agree -- it seemed to be always second to ASM in terms of the villains, etc. It was many years later that it had a major "lasting" event when the resolution of the Harry Osborn saga ended within Spectacular Spider-Man.
I cooled on West Coast Avengers almost immediately. The art was not palatable to me, and the stories were not among Englehart's best (or second- or third-best for that matter). To me, that book was filled with B and C-list Avengers; certainly not all of the characters, but many.
As to cards, the only card-related games we play are Uno, Sequence, and 7-Up. Pretty tame...
Doug
Hmmm, well technically Superman and Batman would be the secondary titles, since Action and Detective came out first :)
But to answer the questions:
1) I haven't read a ton of Superman stuff, but one thing I've noticed in the reviews I've been doing for my blog is that Superman (at least in 1977) seemed to use more "classic" villains and more sub-plots, where Action had a more "Silver Age" feel to it.
I liked Englehart's run on Detective, but it was pretty short. My favourite Batman runs were in the early 80s when Conway (and later Doug Moench) wrote both titles and kept a tight continuity going.
I liked Spectacular Spidey as much as (or sometimes more than) Amazing; those years when it was written by Mantlo, then Stern, then Mantlo again were really good. Web had a rocky start, but I liked the late 80s era when Conway was writing Web and Spectacular ... again, some tight continuity between storylines.
2) I'm with Doug on Uno, though I haven't played in years. As a kid I played Rummy, Skat, and stuff like that. I like a good game of Cribbage too, but it's hard to find people to play with.
Colin B- good mention of "Ultimate", haven't read many but liked what I have read. Had some pretty interesting variations on the original Spiderman theme, but still felt true to the character.
Steve Does Comics- Savage Sword really did showcase some fine artwork, and Buscema really shined in black-and-white. Not that he didn't shine otherwise...
Charlie- Adventure Comics gave some extra exposure to quite a few worthy characters. I agree with your sentiments about the Spectre. Those were some wild tales.
William- your Poker tournament story is impressive! Particularly to someone who can't play Poker to save his life...
Charlie and david_b- Rummy is a great game; many family evenings spent playing it. Some friends of my wife and I taught us an interesting variation they call "funky rummy". Perhaps another post about card games is called for here!
Mike W- gold credits to you for the historical accuracy on Action and Detective. You're quite right, of course. And actually, Amazing Spider-Man could face the same status, as he debuted in Amazing Fantasy...
and yes, the Mantlo/Stern Spectacular was quite good. Often better, imho, than Amazing at the time.
Late to the party but USM and PPTSSM were very enjoyable.
As far as cards, growing up we played Hearts, Rook, Pit, Uno, Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Corners, Rummy, War and so many more. Loved Gin. Like others though I cannot remember how to play most games anymore and would need a serious refresher (maybe not for War). Friends used to have a poker night but it's been probably five years since we played. My dad used to love solitaire and would play at our kitchen table while we did homework. He used to bring home decks of cards from the airlines every time he flew; do they even give decks of cards anymore?
I don't think I had a special favorite. I kind of liked them all.
The more burning question for me was (and maybe still is ,-) ): How on earth did those heroes, appearing not only in their one magazines, but also in the Team-Ups, ever have time, to do their regular job in their secret identies? Clark as a reporter, and even anchorman for a TV station, Barry as a police scientist. Sure, most of the adventures took place within a day or a few, but still....
Yeah i know, it's only a comic book. ;-)
1. Detective Comics. To me, it always felt like the real thing, not an also-ran.
2. Five card draw Poker. Everything else is too complicated for me.
It's ironic if Detective and Action Comics are now considered secondary titles, since they came first. Batman and Superman debuted in those, and later became popular enough to spin off into their own self-titled comics. (In fact, a lot of Golden and Silver Age heroes began in anthologies: Green Lantern, Flash, Thor, Iron Man, even Spider-Man.)
As for how the heroes could do their civilian jobs as well as solo adventures and team-ups, it was probably easier for DC heroes than Marvel's, since their stories were usually done-in-one, and spanned a period of a few days. That's in the 1960's, though. In the Bronze Age, DC was emulating Marvel, with long story arcs and serials, and logical cross-continuity became impossible to maintain.
TC- thanks for commenting! You have a very good point about the number of prominent characters who originated in anthologies. Probably more did so than actually debuted in their own titles. Might make an interesting topic to research...
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