Why back issues rule

[VintageMike]

Just seeing this cover makes me smile. Nothing earth shattering just FUN!



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[jemboy2004]

Yes I love that one too. It's one of my favorite old comics from that time. It was fun.

[B-Lister]

I'm in full agreement. Nothing beats a good old Carmine Infantino, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy or Ramona Fradon cover.

[CaptainTrenchcoat]

Too funny. I was just checking out some old DC Comics Presents on ebay this afternoon. I recently bought a number of Brave & the Bold issue by Jim Aparo. Love his Batman work.

[ShadowAvenger]

I always loved DC Comics Presents along with The Brave and the Bold. Perhaps some day an animated series based on the title will be made.

[AJ Collector]

Besides the great cover how about that classic comic book smell when you open the bag...... Brings me back to my early days of collecting, way back!

[B-Lister]

nothing, NOTHING beats the 'smell'.

[kingdom warrior]

nothing, NOTHING beats the 'smell'.

YUP!!!!!!! Nothing says real comics like the smell the bright colors and the fun and adventure of pure escapism of an old comic......

[Bruce Banner]

Damn right.
Love DC Comics Presents. Still have a bunch of them in my long boxes.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Since I've all but given up on modern comics, I rely on my back issues to supply my dosage of daring-do.

I dug out some old dog-eared, coverless comics this week. A bunch of DCCPs were among them. Great stuff. Love the occasional Jose Luis Garcia Lopez art!

Chris

[enyawd72]

This might be one of the most important threads on these forums.

I agree with everything said here, and feel I have to add some more to it. I truly fear the comics industry is quickly coming to an end, and they don't even realize it. NEW readership is way down, so much so that there will not be a new generation of comic readers to replace the old.

IMO, comics take themselves WAAAAY too seriously these days. Multiple crossover story arcs and year long universe-altering sagas have become the norm. There's no good jumping-on point for new readers anymore. The stories themselves rely far too much on trying to be adult and realistic and the fun and fantasy elements of the comics we grew up with is now gone.

I don't think comics will ever get back to the glory days of the 1970's and early 80's, unless the publishers wake up. I miss single issue self-contained stories. The occasional crossover or multi part story is fine, but not EVERY issue! Secondly, they need to cut back on the QUANTITY of titles, and focus on the QUALITY. Back in the day, pretty much every kid read every book. It was totally possible to pick up every single monthly Marvel and/or DC book, bacause both companies only published like 12 titles, and each book was 25-35 cents.

Another problem with books today is the "artistic license" given to those who work on the books. I want to see people who look like people. Not misproportioned, googly eyed freaks. Back in the day, artists were allowed to illustrate in their own style, but still had to follow a style guide, so that a sustained consistent look existed across the board. Costumes and character looks are now changed month-to-month and many times the covers are by a different artist than the interior.

I also feel a lot of the coloring is grossly overdone these days. I've compared some recolored reprint TPB's with their original counterparts, and the originals have MUCH more visual appeal. The colors are fewer, but they're much brighter...they just POP, and the original black and white line art isn't buried by all the shading.

Anyway...end of rant. Just thought I'd share my views

[kryptosmaster]

Hope you don't think I'm nitpicking your comments to death but I see a few inaccuracies with your statements.
I can tell you love comics so as a fellow comics lover please don't take my comments too personally.

I agree with everything said here, and feel I have to add some more to it. I truly fear the comics industry is quickly coming to an end, and they don't even realize it. NEW readership is way down, so much so that there will not be a new generation of comic readers to replace the old.

This has been the consensus for quite some time now. I remember talking about this subject over 10 years ago. They are doing it to themselves and you'd almost think deliberately. They can't be that stupid, can they?

IMO, comics take themselves WAAAAY too seriously these days. Multiple crossover story arcs and year long universe-altering sagas have become the norm. There's no good jumping-on point for new readers anymore. The stories themselves rely far too much on trying to be adult and realistic and the fun and fantasy elements of the comics we grew up with is now gone.

Marvel has almost always been that way and DC fell into the same trap many years ago. I think this went into overdrive in the 90's and got out of control. I thought the whole Blackest Night, Final Crisis, Identity Crisis, 52, etc etc was going to "lighten up" the DCU but so far all I've seen is "let's see how long we can hook these suckers into buying all these mini/maxi series" and still feels the same to me.

I don't think comics will ever get back to the glory days of the 1970's and early 80's, unless the publishers wake up. I miss single issue self-contained stories. The occasional crossover or multi part story is fine, but not EVERY issue! Secondly, they need to cut back on the QUANTITY of titles, and focus on the QUALITY. Back in the day, pretty much every kid read every book. It was totally possible to pick up every single monthly Marvel and/or DC book, bacause both companies only published like 12 titles, and each book was 25-35 cents.

Not even so sure I'd agree with the glory days being the 70's & 80's. That would be more fitting to the 50's & 60's, but I see your point. When compared to today ANYTHING looks like glory days!
Self-contained stories were becoming a rare item even in the 70's and by the early 80's pretty much EVERY title was continued from issue to issue in some respect.
As for your quality vs quantity comment; I agree that there seems to be too many of SOME titles. Do we need ALL those Batman-related titles? The problem is they milk what sells and new stuff gets less and less of a chance because it's too risky to start up a title with an unknown character when they can just give Alfred his own Bat-title and it'll probably sell more.
I totally disagree on your assessment of title prolification and affordability though. There were way more than just 12 titles being published. A quick grab of a Marvel from 1980 showed 29 titles for that month and that doesn't even count the reprint titles or one-shots (Annuals, etc).
A DC from 1977 subscription ad lists 40 titles!
I know I didn't have the money back then to even get 12 titles a month let alone 30-40.
But even at 35-40 cents apiece they were WAY more affordable and had more value than the $3 minimum cost of one comic today.

Another problem with books today is the "artistic license" given to those who work on the books. I want to see people who look like people. Not misproportioned, googly eyed freaks. Back in the day, artists were allowed to illustrate in their own style, but still had to follow a style guide, so that a sustained consistent look existed across the board. Costumes and character looks are now changed month-to-month and many times the covers are by a different artist than the interior.

Well there were plenty of cover artists back in the 70's/80's that didn't do the interiors either but I agree with you on the abundance of sub-par "art" passed off in a lot of today's books.
The lack of someone like a Curt Swan or Dick Dillin who each worked on their respective assignments for decades and became associated with those charcaters/titles does hurt today's comic world.

I also feel a lot of the coloring is grossly overdone these days. I've compared some recolored reprint TPB's with their original counterparts, and the originals have MUCH more visual appeal. The colors are fewer, but they're much brighter...they just POP, and the original black and white line art isn't buried by all the shading.

Unfortunately I think a lot of the blame for that has to go to technology. They came up with all these new printing processes since the 70's to make things look better but they lost a lot of what made comics feel like comics along the way. Sacrificed charm and simplicity for the latest and greatest which also contributes to the increase in cost due to the more expensive paper, etc.

Rich

[enyawd72]

@ Kryptosmaster...

No offense taken...I see some of your points. I wasn't aware of there being that many titles available from Marvel or DC at the time either...I'm looking at an issue from 1978 and it shows 16 Marvel titles available for subscription.

Avengers, Cap, Conan, Dr. Strange, DD, FF, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Iron Man, Marvel Tales, Marvel Team-Up, Ms. Marvel, Peter Parker, Power Man, Spider-man, Thor.

I can't recall what other titles were around at the time except the non-Marvel stuff like Star Wars and BSG

I do still think the 70's were the best though. That's when Marvel had had a few years to develop and really hit it's stride, and DC was getting back to it's roots and away from the campy stuff. The Hulk and Spider-man were on primetime, Superfriends and Filmation Batman on Saturdays, and of course the reason we're all here...MEGOS!!

[Joe90]

I do still think the 70's were the best though. That's when Marvel had had a few years to develop and really hit it's stride, and DC was getting back to it's roots and away from the campy stuff.

DC's campy period actually lasted from the Golden Age through the Silver Age. It's usually blamed on the 1966 Batman series, which is ironic because by the time Adam West's Batman appeared on television, DC was already two years into the change to a more Detective based story line. All the DC comics I have from the 1950's and 1960's (pre-1964) are all campy. Really, the dark "roots" of Batman was only at the very beginning, and within a year the inclusion of Robin changed the tone significantly. The whole Batman mythos has grown up around that lighter tone.

My preference is towards the lighter tone of the Silver Age. The whole switch towards darker subject matter strikes me as the comics trying to be "relevant" (to use an early 1970's buzz word). The first attempt I can remember where comics tried to be cool/relevant was Brother Power. It came across as pathetically corny... Two issues corny...



But I'm not saying the Silver Age was perfect! Some of the Science Fiction elements they used were pretty corny as well: Bat-Mite, Mr Mxyzptlk, Dinosaurs and Robots in WWII...

I guess the whole point of the comic book industry was to sell comics, and the switch in the 1970's and 1980's did boost sales significantly. They had obviously got the mix right back then. Right now they are scrambling again to find that ever elusive "relevant" factor. From my perspective it's coming across more as Brother Power than The Dark Knight.

[B-Lister]

I dig some of the oddball characters from the 60s and 70s....I just bought a huge lot of Metal Men, and Metamorpho books, as well as some old Rip Hunter books......

I'd love to get my mitts on a complete run of all three titles, as well as Brother Power, Creeper, and some of the other estoteric runs of the 60s and 70s, just because I dig the coloring.

I'd also love a full BA run of Batman......

anyway, I'm an editor for a website called CriticalMess and it's a love letter to all things retro and fun. We're primarily DC Comics and DC Toy fans, but everybody's welcome, you're precisely the type of audience we cater to!