Martinex1: Today let's Chew the Fat about something I am sure is near and dear to many of our hearts...Marvel Comics during the Bronze Age! What do you miss about the publisher during that era? What do you miss most about comics at the time? We correspond nearly daily about the wonderful years in the 1970s and 1980s when life seemed more carefree and we opine about comic books during those days, but can we succinctly say what was so special about the creativity and spectacle of Marvel during that time?
Here are some categories to get your thoughts racing! But you tell us what was so special about Marvel!
Was it the crazy covers with word balloons and plenty of bombast?
Was it thought balloons?
Was it the letter pages and bullpen bulletins?
Was it the corner box or the price?
Was it the comics coming out at the time?
Was it that the whole genre was more accessible and more mainstream?
Was it Stan Lee and his unbridled energetic enthusiasm?
Was it Jack "King" Kirby and not only his return but his ongoing influence?
Was it the Bullpen and their crazy antics and feeling of fun?
What made Marvel so great? You tell us! From your vantage point...what attracted you?
12 comments:
Marti I think you touched on every possibility! As I sit here contemplating the flip side to this is "What was D.C. missing?" Somehow with Marvel as a kid I felt like I was part of Marvel, right there in the middle of it all. With D.C. I always felt like I was distant, on the outside looking in.
As I contemplate a bit more, I started reading Marvel around 9 years old around 1970 but had a lot of exposure to earlier issues. So Marvel was really only about 4- 5 years old... It felt new and I felt like I was at ground zero. DC was humping its legacy of the last 30 years. I really don't know if a kid who started reading in the 80s or 90s felt that "newness" or both seemed the same by then?
Marti, Charlie - well stated. The sense of belonging, of being part of a club is what made me love Marvel back in the 70s. But let me be specific - for a long time I would have simply stated - the characters. But, honestly, looking back - I think I miss the Bullpen Bulletins, Stan's Soapbox, and the letter pages. The interaction on newsprint. Which is why many of us are on blogs (here), Twitter, Facebook, etc - trying to recapture the magic.
Answer: All of the above.
All of the points you mentioned in the article are what made Marvel comics FUN! And in the end that's really the whole point.
But mostly what I miss about Marvel (and comics in general) are the plot driven stories, and dynamic and colorful art.
Nowadays the stories are more angst ridden, character driven soap operas, and the art is mostly bland with dark, muted colors. The covers are usually boring and generic, and don't compel me to pick up the book to see what's inside.
Superhero comics were always meant to be hopeful, escapist fun, story driven adventures. They did not exist to promote the writer's political agendas, or mock themselves, or deconstruct their own heroes and teach us all a lesson about the human condition (or whatever). They were mostly simple "hero vs. villain" stories, and that was always good enough for me.
So for me, the Bronze-Age was the pinnacle of the genre and the medium. The dark, angst ridden, soap operas of today are not the way that superhero comics are really supposed to be. They just don't seem to "get it" anymore.
All of the above, plus the Bronze Age of comics featured the best collection of writers and artists of all time.
During the 70s-early 80s, Marvel gave us stories from new talents like Gerry Conway,Steve Englehart, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Doug Moench, Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor, Len Wein and artists including George Perez, John Byrne, Klaus Janson, Rich Buckler, Frank Brunner, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, Paul Gulacy, Keith Pollard, Mike Grell P. Craig Russell, Terry Austin, Michael Golden, Walter Simonson, Mike Zeck, Howard Chaykin and others.
Simultaneously, Silver Agers kept providing solid-to-great comics during the Bronze Age: Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Ross Andru, John Buscema, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, Gil Kane, etc.
"Yes" to all the attributes stated in this post and the sense of fun for kids expressed by the comments.
It baffled me how Marvel in the 2000s seemed to publish covers that were exclusively generic pin-ups of the title characters with no sense whatsoever of what the story was about. With issues 3, 4, even 5 bucks a pop, there was no motivation for impulse-buying at all. Contrast that with Bronze Age covers with melodramatic word balloons and captions, bursting with colourful characters you'd find within.
As a kid I liked publications like Marvel Fun n' Games and the Mighty Marvel Fun Books, which were pleasant diversions, and pretty good marketing too. I was more likely to want to grab a comic featuring some obscure hero if that hero had just guided me through a maze or a word-find!
A big part of Shooter's Marvel was the stuff that didn't take itself too seriously. Things like "The Fantastic Four Roast" and the "Marvel No-Prize Book" were a ton of fun, and nicely blew off steam from the more earth-shattering goings-on with the likes of Phoenix or Elektra thrilling us in the "serious" books.
And a quick shout-out to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Another great way to stir up a kid's sense of investment in the stories (how many of us got a tiny thrill when the Handbook would show comic book panels that we recognized from our own purchases?), and drummed up interest in checking out other series we weren't collecting. I got Sabretooth's first appearance in Iron Fist for $1.75 because he looked cool in Marvel Universe, years before his association with Wolverine put that appearance way out of my price range. Thanks, Handbook!!
-david p.
Yes, all of the above. I agree with J.A. that the quality of writing and art in the Bronze age was unparalleled. But there were the personal touches, the letters pages, the bullpen bulletins, the house ads. Even the notorious Marvel Value Stamps; each Marvel comic seemed designed from cover to cover with appealing content. Content aimed at those of us fortunate enough, in-the-know enough, to pick up on everything. We were part of the gang, we were in on the joke, we were hip to the references. It was a perfect blending of the times, the comics and our ages.
Oh, and to depart momentarily from today's topic (sorry Marti)- saw Incredibles 2 yesterday. EXCELLENT movie, one of the all-time best sequels ever. And it may be heresy, but much as I absolutely love the Marvel cinematic offerings, the combo of Incredibles 1 and 2 stands as my favorite Superhero films ever.
I think that what I miss most about Marvel at that time is that despite it being a shared "universe" it still seemed like such a small place where all the characters recognized themselves as kindred spirits. Today, even as crossover events have proliferated, they seem to have devolved from opportunities of showing friendship and solidarity (team-ups, two-in-ones) to displays of characters fracturing and segregating from one another (Civil War, the Illuminati).
The other characteristics are facets of marketing, distribution and branding, which changed as the business did, and I feel less emotional attachment to those aspect when I think on it.
I also miss the one-and-done story. It's not that authors and creators can't do it. They can and do when they choose or are allowed to. It's that I don't feel they are encouraged or rewarded for doing so. The idea of the one-and-done as a vehicle for jumping on a book has been replaced by constant renumbering, and the proliferation of first-issues.
So... yeah. That's kind it, I guess. Great question.
And I just have to express my profound thanks at showing that Checklist Page with the Introduction of Hero for Hire Luke Cage! That was my sweet spot for reading and collecting... summer of 72!
Thanks all for commenting.
A few of you (in your comments about the supreme talent and the one-in-done and the balance of fun and drama) made me think that editorial leadership was a key part of the Bronze Age. I think the balance there and the care for the characters kept a consistency while also supporting innovation within those boundaries.
Red- my family also really liked Incredibles 2. It was a fun movie.
And on a related topic, wasn't Steve Englehart a little too liberal with the exclamation points?
From which issue is the third picture with Captain America?
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