Marvel Comics blabbery

^Those are issues are roughly #164 to #175 - I'd forgotten, there's also a really fantastic Puppet Master-Luke Cage story in #170. Caveat: all 70s Marvels have much higher word counts than the Marvel comics of today, and Roy Thomas was one of the biggest gasbags.

I enjoyed Simonson's FF run - dinosaurs, robot Stalin in a mech suit

Noted. I started reading essentials collection from number one, and ... yeah, they were pretty sloggy. I’m trying to get a sense of the important stories / relationships, and also trying to have fun figuring out exactly why they’re gone from the canon now.

The reveal of the Hate-Monger's identity (either at the end of the first or the beginning of the second Essential volume) was where I was like, yeah, okay, yes, totally on board now.

I love the issue where Dr. Doom steals the Baxter building. I'd love to see a Bruce Timm version of F4 cartoon of that issue.

I can't tell if this story is badly written or I'm too tired to follow it properly, but either way, oy: https://www.thedailybeast.com/picked-apart-by-vultures-the-last-days-of-stan-lee

there is some ridiculous amazon/comixology sale right now with digital tpbs priced at a buck
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=15280919011

recs?

Whoa! Thanks for this. I picked up 5 things (including the complete “Vision” series), then got tired of scrolling thru the pages (and figure I’ve got enough to last me a while!)

there are a few masterworks ones in there, although some have the bad recoloring problem. but this might be the first time I've seen them really throw in a lot of Atlas-era stuff

Vision for sure

I obviously bought the Atlas collection with GOOM on the cover, because... GOOM

I grabbed the complete Vision - for 69p, it seemed wrong not to, plus all those nine-panel-pages are perfect for phone reading.

Nothing else really inspired me but I picked up a couple of Epic Collections because they're so BIG - the Nocenti/Daredevil collection, and one from the unloved late period of PAD's Hulk run. I realised I miss reading weird, B grade, journeyman superhero comics - which was most of my comics reading when I was a kid.

Nocenti DD and David Hulk are both golden. Good choices. Nocenti remains one of the weirdest voices to ever grace mainstream comics imo.

I went on a nostalgia run - New Defenders, Longshot, Wolverine/Nick Fury Scorpio Connection, Excalibur's Cross-Time Caper - and picked up the Nick Fury Marvel Masterworks (coloring be damned).

Is that Black Bolt thing good?

It's okay but I didn't love it. Fine for a dollar though.

"I'd buy that for a dollar!" (sorry)

apropos of nothing here's a giant list of Marvel crossovers/'events'

A pair of old polls on that very subject:

The Greatest Marvel Universe Event!
The Greatest Marvel Universe Event (X-Edition)!

pic.twitter.com/k2TD5D1mNP

— Al Ewing Writes Comics And Tells You About Them (@Al_Ewing) March 28, 2018

Amadeus Cho already on the chopping block, huh

I haven't kept up, is he still on Planet Hulk 2.0?

I'm reading the "Vision" collection, but not really digging it... I think its particular brand of literary pretension is not my preferred brand of literary pretension (or something).

On another note, I just read TALES TO ASTONISH #44 – first appearance of The Wasp – it’s pretty fantastic (both Kirby’s art and the scripting).

Psersevere till the end, it’s only short and very worth it, honest

OK, will do!

There are like a half dozen collections of Fantastic Four material solicited for July, and all of the True Believer one-off reprints are also FF-related. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that portends. My money is on a surprise summer theatrical release of the Corman film.

They already announced their bring back the Fantastic Four comic. Nothing more than that.

They’re, fucking autocorrect

so they're starting at #1 instead of adding up all the issues and using the current Human Torch/Thing to patch their way up to a landmark issue? lame

Oh that reminds me: Marvel recently announced that, while they're clearly going all-in on renumbering their books every couple of years, their covers will soon feature both the issue number for whatever reboot they're currently on as well as the actual number of the issue you'd be holding in an alternate universe where Daredevil had just been allowed to run uninterruptedly for several decades. Hopefully this will help eliminate some of the completely avoidable confusion which I'm sure keeps new readers at a distance (no word yet on whether forthcoming collections are going to be subject to a similarly-sensible initiative).

Who is the intended audience for a number reboot, collectors or new readers? And has anyone measured the long-term effect of long-term short-termism?

Numbers tend to get goosed, then quickly sink to below the level they were previously at.

or below, depending on the title. it's often... below

below or below, either way

Don't sales occasionally dip, as well? And while it's a rare occurrence, we should probably note that they also decline from time to time.

Also I wasn't here but https://alewing.tumblr.com/

This is making me Highly Anticipatory of his upcoming Hulk comic.

strange...

I’ve lost touch with AE’s work since Mighty Avengers and Loki ended, but his current weekly run on Avengers with Mark Waid (!) is a lot of fun

Man, I think that weekly Avengers thing is hot fucking garbage. To each their own.

Ha, I've only read the first two, but liked them enough. Here goes nothin'

It gets more Waid-ish as it goes on

Sometimes that's good! Sometimes... it isn't

One of the digital TPBs I bought in that recent .99 sale is "Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol. 2: Masks (Hawkeye (2016-))" [complete titling for y'all], which collects issues #7-12 of the current series. It's outstanding! Kelly Thompson's scripting and Leonardo Romero's artwork are totally on point. I've been casually following the series (I love the character), and it's been good-not-great until now; but everything comes together in the main story arc in this collection. Highly recommended.

(A few points docked for a groaner misrepresentation of L.A. geography... the Hollywood sign is NOT a short jog up a hill from the Sunset Strip!)

Haven't read it yet, but it's one the handful of Marvel titles nominated for an Eisner and which have already, to a number, been cancelled. Akira Yoshida's Cebulski's tenure as EiC is off to a pretty great start.

I'm gonna double down on AVENGERS NO SURRENDER MAYBE THERE'S A COLON SOMEWHERE. I read the whole thing over two super-lazy weekend brunches and thought it was terrific. It's very DC for a Marvel comic - it reminded me of Grant Morrison's JLA run: big cosmic baddies, heroes in costume at all times, lots of character bits using superpowers to solve specific problems, action-heavy but without grimdark violence, the focus on second-tier heroes... etc. Good, disposable fun. Anything that involves Waid comes with a pre-packed amount of squareness, obviously, but it didn't tip the balance here.

Also Al's new villain was a mind controlling octopus called MENTACLE.

and which have already, to a number, been cancelled.

:(

There was a letterer who worked for Marvel mostly in the mid-70s, Denise Wohl. I liked her work, thought it was distinctive — tall ascenders, slightly thicker line. I googled her the other day and got a bunch of results about an NYC socialite who sold her co-op apartment in 2015 for $15M+. According to Sean Howe, they're the same person. I'd love to know her story and the route from Marvel letterer to wealthy socialite, or how the 2 paths ran concurrently.

Wohl has sold the co-op apartment where she lived for 25 years with her husband, real estate titan Larry Wohl, before the two's reported split.

hmm!

http://observer.com/2007/11/wohl-goes-woowoo-socialite-denise-mother-of-arden-shills-spiritual-comic-book/

Denise Wohl, mother of headband-wearing alterna-socialite Arden, has started a new comic book company, Intrinsic Comics, hiring James Shooter, the former editor in chief of Marvel Comics, where she used to work as a letterer, to help realize her vision.

I vaguely remember hearing about that, but...

1. Work at Marvel
2. Meet and marry real estate guy in NYC
3. Start comics company
4. ??