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My Second X-Men Comic.  Uncanny X-Men #168 was the second X-Men comic that I ever bought.  Don't worry, I'm not going to write that X-Men #169 was the third X-Men comic that I bought and so on and so forth.  This one is just significant to me because I was hooked by issue #167 and definitely thrilled to find #168 on the spinner rack at my local Store 24 shortly thereafter.  23 years later, with Uncanny X-Men approaching issue #500, I haven't missed an issue.  My interest in many other comic titles has come and gone and come again over that period of time, but X-Men has always been a constant.  Admittedly, there are times that I considered dropping the title since it has been through some pretty dark periods with certain creative and editorial teams over the years, but I love the characters and their universe, so I've slogged through the bad times and always enjoyed the good.

The Story.  This issue was essentially a breather after the galaxy-hopping 6-issue Brood Saga that culminated with issue #167.  After this wild and woolly saga, the X-Men definitely needed some downtime.  Wolverine heads off to Canada, ostensibly on vacation, although it turns out to be a hell of an adventure as detailed in the groundbreaking Wolverine Limited Series.  Cyclops and Nightcrawler head off to see their girlfriends while Professor Xavier, Lilandra, Colossus, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Illyana remain at the Xavier Mansion.  With many of the principal characters otherwise occupied, the main story told in this issue is Kitty Pryde's attempt to get herself reinstated to the X-Men after being unfairly demoted to the ranks of the New Mutants at the end of X-Men #167.  It's a story somewhat reminiscent of X-Men #143, in which Kitty fights a N'Grai demon while left alone in the mansion.  However, unlike that issue which seemed to underscore her sidekick status as a lucky amateur, this issue demonstrates her growth and development both as a person and a superhero and solidifies her status as a full-fledged member of the X-Men. 

Kitty Pryde.  For me, this issue was all about Kitty Pryde.  After being unfairly demoted to the ranks of the New Mutants at the end of X-Men #167, she spends all of this issue trying get herself reinstated to the X-Men.  It's a hard fought effort waged on multiple fronts as she tries to prove herself to Professor Xavier.  While Kitty's logic, passion, cooperation and flattery was initially wasted on Xavier, she easily won my admiration and I'm sure that of legions of other fans.  She was smart, pretty, spirited, older - well, relatively older since I was 11 and she was 13, she had super powers, a pet dragon and could totally kick ass.  She was unattainable and I was completely ensorceled by her.  In short, all the makings of a perfect crush.  From that issue forward, Kitty was one of my favorite things about the X-Men.  I suppose that she continued to serve the sidekick role to some extent, since she was the youngest member of the team and provided a character that young readers could relate to, but she was also an established character in her own right.  Moreover, the juxtaposition of her innocence, vulnerability and optimism against the increasingly dark and dangerous world in which the X-Men lived was a great dynamic.  I'm glad that she's found her way back to the X-Men recently in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, which is a thoroughly enjoyable title that brings back a lot of the joy of reading the Chris Claremont/Paul Smith X-Men that I first read as a kid.

X-Men: Friends & Family.  As I've written about in previous entries, one of the things I've enjoyed most in comics over the years is the interpersonal relationships.  Dynamic action, amazing fantasy, shocking surprises, incredible art, etc. are all good, but it's the characters themselves and their interactions with one another that I really enjoy as part of the equation.  There's something about these characters living actual lives under these extraordinary circumstances that really intrigued me as a kid and continues to draw me to comics today.  I think that Spider-Man has always been the purest example of how important the interpersonal and other out-of-costume activities are to the success of a comic character.  It's no secret that fans were drawn in by the fact that the Peter Parker lived in the real world: Having to deal with money problems, the poor health of his Aunt May, a tyrannical boss at work, and trying to win the affections of Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy, while also being able to soar above it all and solve his other problems with his fists as the Amazing Spider-Man.  It's in this vein that the out-of-costume activities of the X-Men as a family and as friends provide a compelling balance to their heroic activities.  For me, the best scenes in this comic aren't with Kitty battling the Sidrian Hunters, but Wolverine and Nightcrawler debating whether Kitty should be on the team, Cyclops heading to the Caribbean to see his girlfriend Lee Forrester, Nightcrawler surprising his girlfriend Amanda Sefton, and the budding romance between Kitty and Colossus.  The X-Men truly seemed like a family back in those days and I think that some of the X-Men titles today could benefit from a better balance between all-out action and character and relationship development.

Multi-Layered Plot lines.  True to form, Chris Claremont takes advantage of the downtime in this story to set the stage for multiple plot lines that would play out from here.  Of course, I already noted that Wolverine heads north to Canada for a great saga that had already been told in the Wolverine limited series.  Remarkably, Wolverine is actually gone for the next three issues, returning to the X-Men in issue #172 when the team meets him in Japan for his wedding after the end of the Wolverine limited series.  It's hard to imagine Marvel's editors allowing Wolverine to be away from an X-title for three consecutive issues these days, but it was done to maintain continuity at that time and made for a very effective story.  Claremont also lays the ground work for the forthcoming introduction of the Morlocks, the return of Mastermind and the supposed rebirth of Phoenix.  While I enjoy having multiple X-titles to read every month these days, there certainly was something great about having a single writer stuffing all his best ideas into one monthly title back in those days with only the occasional limited series.  The amount of detail and multi-layered complexity in Claremont's X-Men stories were amazing and definitely stand the test of time.  The poor condition of some of the original comics I bought back in the 80s that have been read probably a hundred times are a testament to that. 

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 09:00 PM | Permalink

My First Spider-Man.  Amazing Spider-Man #237 was the first Spider-Man comic I bought after being bitten by the comic collecting bug in the Fall of 1982.  I was already familiar with Spider-Man  - after all, who wasn't? - from various comics that I'd seen over the years.  From earlier in my youth, I vaguely remember an Amazing Spider-Man story "Crisis On Campus" with the Kingpin and a Marvel Team-Up story that somehow involved Hercules towing the island of Manhattan back into place with a large chain.  I had also seen the 60s Spider-Man cartoon, which had been re-run on TV all throughout the 70s.  But, most recently I had come to know and love the Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends cartoon.  The Spider-Friends, as they were known in back in the day, was a fun cartoon that did a great job of showcasing a broad array of heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe.  It was a great primer for a future comic collector!  I fondly remember watching that cartoon in the Fall of 1981 back-to-back with Thundarr The Barbarian...but, once again, I digress.

High & Mighty!  This issue is a prime example of what people mean when they refer to a story as being "offbeat."  The cover bills this comic as the Triumphant Return of the Original Stilt-Man and all but promises pulse-pounding action.  I should note that this issue does have a very kinetically-charged cover courtesy of Ed Hannigan and Joe Rubenstein.  The energy of the cover is particularly powerful because of the fact that the Stilt-Man's gun blast is ripping through the Spider-Man logo and other Marvel indicia.  It's a very cool cover, which is probably why I bought the comic.  What follows, though, is a relatively tame issue that recaps the underwhelming back story of the original - who knew there was a second? - Stilt-Man and recounts the tale of his scheme to regain his former status as a respected and feared super villain.  I suppose that the title is technically correct, since the Stiltman sort of ends up beating Spider-Man, but it's definitely an offbeat story.

The Funny Stuff.  There are a number of moments in this issue that are enjoyable and fun for the reader....whether they were intended or not.  The juxtaposition of this amazing cover with the splash page of Wilbur Day looking petulant and scrawny in his t-shirt and blue pants is classic!  It's clear that writer Roger Stern wasn't thinking about the future resale value of penciler Bob Hall's original art when he plotted that scene.  Intended or not, it's an amusing splash page.  Another little gem on the opening page is the cover of Science Illustrated magazine with the title "How Doc Ock Does It."  I've always enjoyed self-referential humor and other in-jokes and this is no exception.  The other thing that I particularly enjoyed as I re-read this issue recently was the flashback of Stilt-Man fighting Thor.  It would truly be hard to imagine a more one-sided contest than a guy on hydraulic stilts vs. the Asgardian God of Thunder...."Thou hast sorely tempted the wrath of the Odinson, stilted buffoon! Prepare to suffer the wrath of mine mighty Uru hammer!"...and that would be it.  I definitely need to go out and buy Thor #269 to see how that "fight" went down.

The Good Stuff.  Despite my sarcastic take on it, I did enjoy this issue.  I know that Spider-Man can't battle to the death with Dr. Octopus in every issue, so this was a perfectly good filler issue while John Romita, Jr. took a month off to get geared up for the introduction of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man #238.  B-list comic characters - both heroes and villains - were always interesting to me as a kid because it gave me hope that it was actually possible to grow up to be a superhero.  Admittedly, that probably wasn't a realistic vocational aspiration, but I figured if all it took to go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man was some hydraulic legs, springs or slippery shoes, then maybe there was hope for me to become a superhero some day.  Of course, that was in the day when I thought being a superhero actually looked relatively fun; before Daredevil's "Born Again" saga or the X-Men's "Mutant Massacre", but that's a topic for another day.  Another thing I enjoyed about this comic was the ending.  It definitely left me with a good feeling about Spider-Man that his selfless and principled sacrifice to save his enemy from certain death was rewarded and reciprocated by the villain.

What Would Come.  Although Amazing Spider-Man #237 was a placeholder issue of sorts, it was the first Spider-Man comic I ever bought and has therefore been idealized in my mind.  Reading it today, it doesn't necessarily stand the test of time as a great comic, but it's still better than a lot of the scholck that I buy every Wednesday.  It's good because it's old and significant to me...am I showing my age?  Aside from that, it was good enough to get me to buy Amazing Spider-Man #238, which may have already been on the stands at the time, but took me a a while to find.  Ok, I may have bought issue #238 for the Lakeside Tattooz, but it certainly helped that I had enjoyed issue #237.  The introduction of the Hobgoblin, which was previewed in the letters page of issue #237, is a story that is certainly great enough to warrant its own entry in due course, so I won't discuss it now.  But, I continued to enjoy Amazing Spider-Man and then Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man and other titles for years to come and I'll look forward to writing about some of my favorite issues in my blog.

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Six Weeks Late.  Enough time had elapsed since I went to the New York Comic-Con that I wondered whether it was worthwhile to write anything about it at this point.  But, after thinking about my blog and remembering that I'm basically writing about comics that I bought 20+ years ago, I decided that I really shouldn't let the passage of a few weeks stand in the way of writing about the convention.  New York Comic-Con was the first comic convention that I had been to in a number of years.  My most recent comic convention before that was a Big Apple Con at Madison Square Garden, but the quality of that show was enough to put me off comic conventions for a while.  Notwithstanding that experience, I'd been wanting in vain to attend San Diego Comic-Con for a long time, so I thought that a big-budget event with a brand name backer and strong sponsorship like New York Comic-Con with would be worth trying.

I bought my ticket online a couple of weeks before the convention for opening night on Friday, March 24th, so I had a print out with my receipt and a registration bar code that I brought to the show with me.  After hiking all the way from Grand Central Station to the Javits Center in the bitter cold, I was a bit dispirited to see the size of the line that had formed outside the building.  It basically looked like the line for the first showing on opening day for a Star Wars movie.  When I found out that the line was only for those people waiting to buy tickets, my concern faded and I went right inside and picked up my badge in the short line for those people that had pre-registered.  Given the wait that I had mentally prepared myself for, I felt some combination of good fortune and smug satisfaction to have made it into the convention so easily.

All things considered, I had a great experience at the New York Comic-Con.  I think Reed Exhibitions did a fine job of setting up the Javits Center for the convention and making sure that the show had great sponsors, exhibitors, artists, writers and other featured guests, and all the other things you need to make a show like this one successful.  The event had a great energy level among everyone there and people were definitely having a good time.  I was particularly impressed with the turnout of comic and original art dealers as well as the strong showing of artists and other comic creators.  I should note that I only attended the convention on Friday night and had the benefit of pre-registering, so my experience wasn't colored by the crowds, delays and lockouts that many people complained about on Saturday and Sunday.  I suspect that next year the hosts will be better prepared with respect to space and crowd control for the onslaught of fans.

Meeting David Mack.  My first stop at the convention was Artist Alley to see which comic artists and other creators were in attendance.  There was definitely a good showing for a Friday evening, but I didn't see any of my favorites during my first pass.  After walking around the convention floor for a while, I found a booth for David Mack, whose work I first discovered during his Daredevil run and later enjoyed on all the covers to Alias.  I initially went through the same "process of discovery" with David Mack's art in Daredevil that I had with Bill Sienkiewicz's art when I first picked up New Mutants #18 in 1984.  "Wow, this is striking, but what the hell is going on here?"  It was a difficult transition from Sal Buscema's traditional comic book pencils to Bill Sienkiewicz's art - especially for a 12 year-old - but I loved it once I figured it out.  Seinkiewicz's work on the New Mutants is one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, but I'll save that topic for another entry.

David Mack is a remarkably versatile artist who can credibly produce anything from traditional comic book art to cubism and seemingly everything in between.  I don't know how to describe David's core style other than to say that he combines painted figures and backgrounds with mixed media such as photographs, acetates, ribbon, etc. in order to create a finished product that is both beautiful and compelling.  His storytelling is rich in substance, complex in detail and subtlety, and immensely satisfying to read and understand as it plays out.  In addition to his own unique style, Mack's Daredevil run showcased his ability to flawlessly emulate the style of artists like Joe Quesada in order to show shifts in time or perspective in the context of his stories.  His art is certainly great in its published form and it's really amazing to see the original paintings as I've found with the Alias covers and all the other great art that he had at the convention.

David Mack's original art is hard to find insofar as he doesn't list a specific inventory on his web site and it is rare to find collectors or dealers listing it on Ebay or other auction sites.  I purchased one of his Daredevil pages from another collector a couple of years ago but hadn't had any luck beyond that.  So, needless to say, I was excited to find that his booth had a great selection of his art from Daredevil, Alias and Kabuki, including a number of Alias covers.  I ended up buying two of the Alias covers that he had at the convention, although I didn't have enough cash on me, so we ended up consummating the transaction the week after the show.  Along with the Alias covers, he was kind enough to send me some of his Kabuki issues, which I'm now starting to enjoy.  I have to say that in addition to being incredibly talented, Mack was very responsive and a pleasure to deal with overall.

Meeting David Banks.  My other great meeting at the convention was with David Banks, who is a liaison for the Omaha, NE-based Capitol Bindery, which binds comic books into bound volumes for fans like myself.  The bindery is an old-line family-owned shop that primarily binds volumes of legal documents, corporate papers, etc. like many binderies around the country.  Through his relationship with the bindery's owners, David started having Capitol Bindery create bound volumes of comic books a number of years back and has had most of his collection bound into hard cover books at this point.  David was willing to share his experience and started helping other collectors get their comics bound by Capitol Bindery a few years ago.  I saw samples of his books on his web site and started with a single volume including the full run of John Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years.  Three years later, I am now approaching 150 volumes which probably represent a total of more than 3,500 comics.

I had the pleasure of meeting David Banks at the New York Comic-Con.  After corresponding via email and shipping comics back and forth for the past couple of years, it was great to finally meet the man responsible for my binding addiction. I really enjoyed walking around the con with him, checking out the various booths and meeting the different dealers and professionals. It was interesting to me to see how many of the people we met said "Oh, you're David Banks." He definitely has brand name recognition and it was remarkable how many of the dealers and pros that we met had sent or were planning on sending binding projects his way. He's a real fan with a true love of comics. That really shows in the hard work that he does for his fellow collectors and the painstaking attention to detail on every project.

My First Convention.  This blog entry wouldn't be complete without some nostalgic reference to my personal Golden Age of Comics.  My first convention was one of the Creation Conventions in 1983 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston.  Oddly enough, the thing that stands out most in my mind about that convention is the fact that my mom brought me to it.  I had been looking forward to the convention for months and was supposed to take the train into the city early in the day, but my friend Spike and I got bamboozled into raking the leaves in our next door neighbor's entire yard (1/2 an acre or so) for $10 apiece.  I'm sure that $10 sounded like a lot of money at the time - hell, that was 17 comics back in the day - but the two of us ended up working all day to get the job done.  That wasn't even close to the minimum wage of $3.35/hour at the time! %&#% neighbor....  In fact, if we hadn't figured out that we could dump the leaves at one end of the yard over a fence into the neighbor's woods, then it probably would have taken a day and a half to finish.  We'll chalk that experience up as a good life lesson.

So, my mom felt badly that I was going to miss the convention and drove me into the city for the last hour or so of the event.  Needless to say, that was a very cool thing for my mom to do.  She actually was very supportive of my interest in comics and drove me all over the Boston area to places like The Outer Limits, Newbury Comics, New England Comics, Million Year Picnic, etc. in connection with her various errands over the years.  I don't remember too much about the Creation Convention other than that I was really excited to see all those comics, toys and other cool stuff in one place.  I bought a sketch of Magneto from some semi-professional artist and a black and white Adam West Batman photo from the 60s series, both of which hung on my bedroom wall for years after that. 

I went to a number of other Creation Conventions over the years while I was in grade school.  At that time, the big draw of conventions for me was the huge selection of back issues.  It was hard to find full runs at any particular comic retailer in those days.  Another big draw was simply the opportunity to be at an event celebrating the comic hobby and filled with fellow collectors and other enthusiasts.  While the internet has changed the utility of conventions for me as it relates to finding things like back issues, original art, etc., I still like the idea of an event celebrating my hobby and providing the opportunity to interact with comic creators and other fans.  I look forward to many New York Comic-Cons to come.

*I should note that I didn't actually bring a camera to the New York Comic-Con, so I found the pictures of the Comic-Con crowd and David Mack and Mandy Amano on the web thanks to the miracles of Google.  I also couldn't find the ad for the first Creation Convention that I attended, so I scanned another one just so I'd have an image.  Worst graphics sourcing in a blog ever!  On the topic of great photos that I found on the web, I can't believe that I missed seeing this guy at the convention!

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Adventure Continues.  New Mutants #2 was among the batch of comics that I found on the spinner rack during my second trip to buy comics at my local Store 24.  My appetite for comics in general and the New Mutants and the X-Men in particular had been whetted by Uncanny X-Men #167, so I was excited to find both New Mutants #2 and Uncanny X-Men #168 - among other gems - on my next trip to the store.  It hadn’t been a full month since my last purchase, so I imagine that issue Uncanny X-Men #167 must have been sitting on the rack for a while when I came across it.  Uncanny X-Men #168 is a great issue that I’ll cover in another entry.  For this entry, I’ll focus on the New Mutants.

The Story.  The story in New Mutants #2 actually takes place before the events in Uncanny X-Men #167, so I’m certain that it took me a little while to figure out how this issue tied to the issue I had just read.  The story starts out with Dani Moonstar (Psyche) in a Danger Room session gone awry, revealing the presence of the evil Brood Queen and foreshadowing the storyline that would culminate with the showdown between the two X-Teams and the Brood Queen-infested Prof. Xavier.  As an 11-year old, I probably thought to myself, “Wait, didn’t the X-Men take care of the Brood Queen already?  Is there another one hiding in the X-Mansion?  What the hell is going on here?”  But, I figured it all out in due course.

While Psyche is fighting for her life in the Danger Room, the rest of the team is at the Salem Center Mall catching a showing of the movie E.T.  They meet a group of kids from the local high school and are having a good time until Federal Agents, working for Henry Peter Gyrich under the auspices of Project Wide-Awake, show up and take them into custody.  The kids are rescued by Air Force Intelligence Agent Michael Rossi and the X-Men’s dance instructor Stevie Hunter just as a fleet of rogue Sentinels, deployed by duplicitous industrialist and Hellfire Club Black King Sebastian Shaw, show up and attack the team.  A great battle ensues in which the New Mutants destroy the Sentinels and much of the Salem Center Mall in the process.  It’s a fun story, ending in victory for the young heroes and setting the stage for action, intrigue and conflict in future issues. 

Kids Being Kids.  I have always liked the social, interpersonal and romantic aspects of comic book plots as much as the pulse-pounding, senses-shattering action promised on the cover of nearly every issue.  Those aspects of the stories clearly do the most in terms of character development and are instrumental in endearing the heroes to the reader.  Some of my favorite and most memorable scenes from comics are the X-Men’s team baseball games, Storm and Cyclops fixing dinner after playing racket ball sans rackets, Wolverine and Nightcrawler drinking beer and playing “tag,” Bobby Drake's 18th birthday at the Coffee A Go-Go, and, of course, the New Mutants hanging out at the mall, having a slumber party, sneaking out, etc.

As a kid, I thought it was very cool to see these young superheroes out at a mall that happened to look a lot like my mall – and probably a lot of other people’s malls as well.  I could relate to seeing E.T., eating ice cream, meeting new people, making friends, battling giant robots…..ok, check that last one.  In any case, seeing these young heroes in age-appropriate activities in the "real world" resonated with me, made me feel that I could relate to the characters, and helped make the jump to the surreal superhero adventures that much more credible and compelling.  The “kids being kids” dynamic essentially disappeared when the Rob Liefeld took over the New Mutants and turned the team into X-Force, but it was fun while it lasted.

Project Wide-Awake.  New Mutants #2 was my first introduction to the “feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect” concept.  Up until this point, my limited knowledge of the X-Men had me thinking that they were international and intergalactic superstars.  In fact, most of the comics that I had seen in the past showcased superheroes that were widely loved by the general public.  So I was both perplexed and intrigued by the notion of this government conspiracy against the X-Men intertwined with involvement by members of the villainous Hellfire Club.  This storyline would play out on a variety of levels over the coming years and I would eventually learn all about Project Wide-Awake, Henry Peter Gyrich, Sebastian Shaw, and the Hellfire Club as the saga continued and as I started to discover the X-Men back issues.

The Sentinels.  As agents of Project Wide-Awake and as cool creations in their own right, the Sentinels left quite an impression on me.  I had no previous exposure to giant robots, although I soon would in cartoons such as Voltron, Transformers and some of the dubbed Japanese Mecha cartoons that they ran on Boston’s Channel 25 back in the 80s.  But I digress…Yes, I love the Sentinels.  It’s hard to say exactly why, but they are my all-time favorite X-Villains.  I suppose it’s some combination of their great design, fighting prowess and the fact that fighting giant robots makes for a great opportunity to showcase teamwork and superpowered combat in big, bold scenes.  On a slightly more cerebral level, I think a fight against the Sentinels is really a fight against the embodiment of intolerance and oppression, which certainly gets the reader invested in the story and rooting for the good guys.

Bob McLeod’s Art.  I read recently that Bob McLeod is known today as a fine penciler and a better inker.  I’m not an art critic, but I’m inclined to give him high marks on both counts.  Admittedly, it’s hard for me to be objective because of my nostalgic fondness for the New Mutants, but I loved Bob McLeod’s art in the New Mutants when I was a kid and I love it today.  Clean lines, expressive faces, distinctive characterization, rich detail, great action…..what’s not to like?

Since I started collecting original comic art a few years ago, I’ve focused on trying to find pages from comics that I read and loved as a kid.  So, although my love for Paul Smith’s work on the X-Men goes unrequited, I’ve been very fortunate to find a few Bob McLeod New Mutants pages and to have the man himself do a few commissions for me.  Aside from being a great artist, I have to say that Bob McLeod is a consummate professional and a pleasure to deal with.  I recommend taking a look at the commission galleries on his web site www.bobmcleod.com.  The site showcases commissions that he’s done of a wide variety of characters, including an amazing color commission of the New Mutants battling a Sentinel.  All of this reminds me that I have to remember to ask Bob why the Sentinels were blue and gray in New Mutants #2 instead of their traditional pink and purple….

Bob McLeod was kind enough to do a cover recreation of New Mutants #2 for me in December of 2004.  It was my first original comic art commission and is a treasured part of my collection.

 

Bob McLeod did this pencil and ink sketch of the original New Mutants team on the interior cover and splash page of a volume containing issues 1-25 that I had bound by Capitol Bindery.

 

 

 

I bought these two original art pages from New Mutants #2 from Bob McLeod after finding them listed on his web site.

 

 

 

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My First Comic Purchase.  Uncanny X-Men #167 will always symbolize for me what is great about the Marvel Universe in general and the X-Men in particular.  It was the first comic I actually bought with my own money - if allowance really counts as one's own money - and is largely responsible for what has turned into a lifelong love of comics.  By way of background, I moved to West Newton, MA in the Fall of 1982 just before starting the Fifth Grade and was (re)introduced to comics by a kid named Spike, my best friend in my new neighborhood.  After reading his small collection of comics again and again, I found my way to the spinner rack at the local Store 24 ready to buy some comics of my own.

A Whole New World.  I don't have any specific recollection of what was else was on the rack that fateful day, but I know that I was very pleased to find an issue of the Uncanny X-Men.  I had just recently read issue #162 in which the X-Men were stranded on an alien world fighting the evil Brood, and Wolverine #4, in which Wolverine faced off against Shingen Yashida in final battle to reclaim his honor and win the hand of Shingen's daughter Mariko.  To put things in context, it's probably worth noting that at that point in my life I had never seen the movie Alien, never heard of ninjas, and certainly never seen a hero kill a villain in a bloody sword vs. adamantium claw battle.  This was pretty intense stuff in the mind and imagination of an 11 year old.

Only 60 Cents!  So I paid my 60 cents - maybe it was a whole dollar including a pack of Hubba Bubba - and rode my bike home to read my new comic.  I won't pretend to recall exactly what I thought about the comic when I first read it, but I certainly know that it made an indelible impression on me.  Looking at the condition of that book today, it's clear that it's been read at least a hundred times.  In retrospect, issue #167 was really the perfect first book as a (re)introduction both to the X-Men and the broader Marvel Universe.

Great Storytelling.  The combination of Chris Claremont's writing and Paul Smith's art is pure genius.  It's fair to say that Claremont did a better job writing the X-Men than anyone that came before him and anyone who has come after him, perhaps including himself.  Claremont's talent is evidenced by his ability to write a convincing interstellar alien vs. super-hero epic and then bring it back to earth for a conclusion that combines great action with compelling interpersonal dynamics while setting the stage for key events that would take place both in the X-Men and elsewhere in the Marvel Universe.  I can't say enough good things about Paul Smith's art.  It takes a talented artist to transform Claremont's intensely complex writing into a good and comprehensible comic and Smith was certainly up to the task.  Notwithstanding my love for John Byrne's work, Smith stands out as my favorite X-Men penciler of all time.

The Story Itself.  The fight between the X-Men and the New Mutants* is fun.  It's essentially high school junior varsity against seasoned professionals with the outcome never really in doubt.  The fight inspires awe in the capabilities of the X-Men and endears the characters of both teams to the reader.  When the Brood Queen that has possessed Prof. Xavier emerges, both teams unite against the common foe.  Claremont does his trademark great job of scripting a fight sequence that communicates the key aspects of each team member's character while they do battle.  The story transitions from a fight to a rescue mission without missing a beat as they all beam up to the Starjammer to save Prof. Xavier.  The balance of the story is a whirlwind of interpersonal vignettes, guest appearances, and further character and plot development culminating with a more-or-less happy ending.  I came away from this comic fascinated with these characters and their universe and with a deep desire to read more about them.

The New Mutants.  I love that the story begins with an introduction to the New Mutants.  At that age, I thought it was very cool see a bunch of kids not much older than me going to a boarding school for gifted (super-powered) youngsters.  The concept of a such a school is one that resonated deeply with me then and has clearly done so with others over time; most notably evidenced by the remarkable success of the Harry Potter stories set at Hoggwarts Academy.  "Wow, wouldn't it be great to have powers and go to boarding school with these cool and beautiful people and have great adventures and be away from my oppressive parents!"  Escapism looms large with this theme.  I bought New Mutants #2 off the rack shortly after this issue and was hooked.

Closure On The Brood Saga.  Having read only issue #162, I was acutely aware of the X-Men's conflict with the Brood but in the dark as to most of the details.  That issue is largely a Wolverine solo story with lots of flashbacks and hallucinations that set my mind spinning.  I was very pleased to have the conclusion to the Brood saga since several of my early comics experiences had left me with cliffhanger endings to which I never had closure.**  The fact that Marvel's comics were really an ongoing saga greatly appealed to me as opposed to the "done in one" stories in many of the other comics that I'd read as a kid.  This fact whetted my appetite to buy the next issue and to go in search of back issues so that I could fill in the blanks.  As a reader and collector of comics, I am to this day both a completist and a bear for continuity.

Lots of Guest Appearances. - Guest appearances and crossovers have always been a hallmark of Marvel Comics and Uncanny X-Men #167 delivers on this theme in spades.  In addition to the New Mutants, this comic features appearances by Binary (formerly Ms. Marvel), Lilandra, the Star Jammers, Gladiator, and the Fantastic Four.  What's great about these appearances is that they were core to the X-Men storyline and also set the stage for critical events that would take place elsewhere in the Marvel Universe.  In particular, this issue sets the stage for the Trial of Reed Richards which unfolds in subsequent issues of the Fantastic Four. 

Real Continuity.  In sharp contrast to the gratuitous guest appearances and frayed continuity in the Marvel Universe today, continuity was more or less sacrosanct in the 80s.  The Marvel editors of that era held continuity in high regard and held their writers and artists to high standards accordingly.  As a reader, I liked that guest appearances and inter-title storylines were actually relevant within the context of continuity.  I certainly bought a lot of different books because of crossovers since I felt that they were actually relevant to the ongoing story of the core titles I bought regularly.  By contrast, I bought a copy of Thing #2 at the comic store last week and found a guest appearance by a business-as-usual Matthew Murdock doing his lawyerly thing.  No, he wasn't in court or in jail or on the run. No, he hadn't had his life ruined for the nth time by the forces of evil as he has in his own title Daredevil and elsewhere in the Bendis corner of the Marvel Universe.  Unfortunately, this incongruous and entirely forgettable guest appearance is all too common in comics today.  One more reason why the 80s is my Golden Age of Comics.

*No, unfortunately I don't own that double-page set from Uncanny X-Men #167 or any other Paul Smith X-Men art for that matter.  I wish I did.  Most of Paul Smith's X-Men art seems to be in the hands of a guy by the name of Gary Land in Michigan.  Check out his web site http://www.comicart-ltd.com if you want to see more.

** As a follow up to my last blog entry, I should note that I actually went out last week and bought Marvel Masterworks Vol. 53 (Fantastic Four Nos. 82-93) and finally read the conclusion of "A House There Was."   Not surprisingly, the Fantastic Four give the Mole Man a good thrashing and send him back to Subterranea with his tail between his legs.  That whole Masterworks is great from start to finish.  In my brother's words, Kirby was truly hitting the peak of his powers during that era.

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Although I didn't start buying comics until I was 11, I have fond - but somewhat vague - comic memories going back as far as I can remember.  There was always a pile of well-read comics in a chest at our family summer house on Cape Cod.  I can recall happily flipping through comics such as Archie, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, The Phantom, Tarzan, Batman, Fantastic Four and Master of Kung Fu.  I never really thought about where they came from or where they went.  They were just there every summer.  Most of the comics had been so thoroughly read by my cousins that they were typically wrinkled and coverless.

To this day, I'm thrilled when I buy a back issue and realize it's a comic that I read 25 or 30 years ago that I didn't recognize because it didn't have cover when I first saw it as a kid.

I don't have many specific memories of those comics, mostly general impressions of the idyllic and carefree life of Archie and his friends in Riverdale, the mystery and adventure of the jungle in Tarzan and The Phantom, the danger of Gotham City and dark righteousness of Batman, and the strange, violent and exciting world of Shang Shi.  As I've bought various back issues over the past 20+ years, I've actually found that the appeal of many of those comics has not stood the test of time for me.  Not surprising given that some of those comics were written specifically to captivate the minds and imaginations of young children.  However, some of them still make for great reading today and are treasured pieces of my comic collection.

My brother Bill, who's six years older than me, was certainly a significant influence when it came to comics.  I emailed him the other day, trying to figure out why two particular Fantastic Four stories -  A House There Was and The Power & The Pride - are still so indelibly etched in my brain.  He replied back and he told me that he used to read aloud to me from the Fantastic Four reprints that appeared in Marvel's Greatest Comics in the 70s.  Best brother ever, no?  He and his friends also had comics like Captain America, X-Men, Silver Surfer, Suberboy & The Legion of Superheroes and so many others.  From that era, I most clearly recall those two Fantastic Four stories as well as Captain America's Bicentennial Battles and X-Men #113 - all comics with great characterization, plots and art that have clearly stood the test of time.

My family moved to West Newton, MA in the Fall of 1982, shortly before the school year started in September.  I remember pulling into our new house for the first time and seeing a kid my age and his mom standing in our driveway.  It turned out that he was going to be in my grade at the school I was attending that Fall and that his mom thought it would be nice to introduce themselves.  Good call and good timing on her part as it turned out!  Spike - yes, that's actually his nickname - and I became fast friends and spent all our free time together as kids tend to.

Now I was 11 years old, I had an allowance, a bicycle and a co-conspirator.  It was time to get serious about comics.

Spike had three comics at his house that he must've bought during the Summer of 1982.  I remember picking up Fantastic Four #247 and thinking that the FF were still fighting Dr. Doom, just like the last time I'd read the title.  Much more interesting than the FF were Uncanny X-Men #162 and Wolverine #4.  Last time I had seen the X-Men, they had just escaped Magneto's volcano base, so it was nice to see these familiar characters in a whole new adventure.  Wolverine #4 was a whole different can of worms.  I was fascinated.  Picking up the last issue of the limited series, I was trying to figure out what had happened in the earlier issues of the series and how this all related to the X-Men being on some alien planet at the same time.

In any case, I was hooked.  The characters, the stories and the art in these comics set in me a desire to figure out what had happened before and what was going to happen next.  In some respect, I imagine that I'd always wanted closure or at least a better understanding of the continuity of the storylines of the comics I'd read in the past.  But, I either didn't care enough or was powerless to do anything about it.  I was just a kid.  Hey, after 5 years I still didn't have closure on what happened to the Fantastic Four after the Mole Man burst in and blinded them at the end of A House There Was!  But now I was 11 years old, I had an allowance, a bicycle and a co-conspirator.  It was time to get serious about comics.

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 04:15 PM | Permalink

I’m pretty sure that the world doesn’t need yet another comic-related blog, but blogs – if nothing else – are quintessential exercises in self indulgence.  A blogger's call to arms seems to be  “I have something to say and I’m going to say it whether anyone wants to listen or not.”  Of course, that irreverence is one of the things that make so many blogs great.  In any case, I love reading many other peoples' blogs and have been inspired to start my own.  Based on my “research,” here are a few of the elements that seem to be necessary to be a comic book blogger (and an assessment of my qualifications):

1.       A large comics collection (Check)
2.       A genuine love for all things comic (Check)
3.       A genuine appreciation for the absurdities of many things comic (Check) 
4.       A comic store inventory to pimp (Nope, not here) 
5.       The chops to convincingly use the word “pimp” as a verb (Unlikely, but I’ll try)
6.       A seemingly remarkable amount of free time (No, I’ll cut back on my sleep) 
7.       Mediocre grammar and punctuation skills despite going to college (Check)
8.       Well-honed sarcasm and a biting wit (er….I guess we’ll see)

So what am I going to blog about?  I’m going to write about the best and worst comics that I’ve read, with a particular focus on what I consider to be my personal Golden Age of comics: Yes, the 80s.  I really started reading and eventually collecting comics in 1982 with Chris Claremont and Paul Smith’s X-Men, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, John Romita’s Spider Man and lots of other goodies.  Those were really great days for comics and I’m looking forward to sharing my recollections and thoughts about them and also evaluating how the stack up today as compared to what I thought about them 20+ years ago. 

Here are scans of a few of my first comics that I'll be discussing in future posts.  I'll probably start with a brief history of my early exposure to comics and what led me to the fateful day that I bought Uncanny X-Men #167 off the spinner rack at the Store 24 in West Newton, MA that has led to a lifelong addiction to er...love of comics.

Posted by 1407graymalkin at 04:36 PM | Permalink