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Batman in the Copper Age
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137 posts in this topic

Also, I'd recommend delving back into the Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan/Len Wein/Don Newton/Gerry Conway volumes. Again, there's no complete way to read this era straight through without having the floppies or going digital, but there were some good stories covered in these volumes and it's a decent-enough survey of the early-80's fare.

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11 hours ago, Avi said:

Nice list! Love that 457 variant thread.

Is there a list of Batman issues with mark jewelers inserts? Noticed a couple of issues had them wondering how common or rare that was.

All issues of Batman from issue 243 thru 396 should have Mark Jewelers insert except giant issues (e.g., 254-262 and 300) and 353 and 387.   I have almost all of them in hand except a few.

p.s. 353 only contains the Masters of the Universe insert and 387 only contains the Mask Insert.   For some reason, they decided not to do a Mark Jewelers insert on top of those issues.  

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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1 hour ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Yeah, I think he has the link saved from a now-defunct site that had a very comprehensive list of all Bat-variants. Here's the link to MCS's MJ Bat category, so this should be pretty complete.

The MyComicShop listing of Batman Mark Jewelers just assumes that every issue from 244 thru 396 has the insert... that is not the case.   Plus they start at issue 243.

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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12 minutes ago, Brandon Shepherd said:

I can’t stop! :insane:

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I recall reading these stories as they were made at that time.  I enjoyed the stories.   If I recall correctly, soap operas and dramatic long-running series were very popular on TV at the time  I felt like the stories in Batman and Detective were similar in that they were a long-running soap opera of sorts.   

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28 minutes ago, Cpt Kirk said:

I recall reading these stories as they were made at that time.  I enjoyed the stories.   If I recall correctly, soap operas and dramatic long-running series were very popular on TV at the time  I felt like the stories in Batman and Detective were similar in that they were a long-running soap opera of sorts.   

So far I’d say your soap opera comparison is correct. I’m getting closer to Robin’s death, I’m also getting to see the conflicted side of Robin, one who questions his mentor and favors a more swift form of justice. 

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Re-reading these Bat books these along with the Superman books from the Man of Steel revamp has put me into a tangled web of DC company wide crossovers; Legends, Millennium and Invasion. Then there is Crisis on Infinite Earths, an epic I have not read for several years. I had the Crisis TPB but parted with it, a decision I know regret. 

I re-read Legends recently after reading the Superman and Batman cross over chapters, not bad. I’m on Millennium now, so far it’s so so. Eventually I’ll get to Invasion as I move along with my Bat and Superman books. #nolife :jokealert:

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Edited by Brandon Shepherd
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These 80s DC company-wide crossovers were not bad. Invasion #1 is notable for having 80 pages of gorgeous McFarlane art (though how he managed to work on that AND ASM being bi-monthly, I don't know.)

One thing...reading the books in the TPB is fine, but....there's a lot to be said about reading the original comics themselves. Of particular note is Denny O'Neil's "From The Den", which gave a lot of insight into how Denny saw the comics world at the time. Plus, the letter's pages are often fun. It gives the reader a better context of the DC world at the time.

 

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5 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

These 80s DC company-wide crossovers were not bad. Invasion #1 is notable for having 80 pages of gorgeous McFarlane art (though how he managed to work on that AND ASM being bi-monthly, I don't know.)

One thing...reading the books in the TPB is fine, but....there's a lot to be said about reading the original comics themselves. Of particular note is Denny O'Neil's "From The Den", which gave a lot of insight into how Denny saw the comics world at the time. Plus, the letter's pages are often fun. It gives the reader a better context of the DC world at the time.

 

You’re right, the letter pages are fun. The ads can be fun too, giving the material historical context. Sometimes little extras are left out of the TPBs such as bonus short stories like “Metropolis 900 Miles”, printed in Superman (Vol 2) #9 that was left out of the Man of Steel reprints.

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16 minutes ago, Brandon Shepherd said:

You’re right, the letter pages are fun. The ads can be fun too, giving the material historical context. Sometimes little extras are left out of the TPBs such as bonus short stories like “Metropolis 900 Miles”, printed in Superman (Vol 2) #9 that was left out of the Man of Steel reprints.

I would imagine a lot of the bonus books from 1980-1988 aren't reprinted, either. 

Detective_Comics_595.jpg

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@RockMyAmadeus Is it just me or does the paper quality go downhill around 1988? I’ve noticed in my DC and Marvel back issues, or what Hardback and TPB collectors call floppies, the thin pages with a lot of bleeding and faint coloring. This seems to be the case until 1993. I’ve also noticed several books from 1984 that have bone white pages that are of better quality, and I’m not talking about baxter paper.

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4 hours ago, Brandon Shepherd said:

@RockMyAmadeus Is it just me or does the paper quality go downhill around 1988? I’ve noticed in my DC and Marvel back issues, or what Hardback and TPB collectors call floppies, the thin pages with a lot of bleeding and faint coloring. This seems to be the case until 1993. I’ve also noticed several books from 1984 that have bone white pages that are of better quality, and I’m not talking about baxter paper.

Yes. We're starting to see significant yellowing on books from 1988-up, while 1982-1987 books are in better shape. Compare a Batman #428 with a Batman #360. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a great example: most copies are still very white, because the paper was of much higher quality. But you get into the late 80s, and you're starting to see interior pages taking a beating. Compare the interior quality of an ASM #316, for example, to a #275. Night and day.

The same thing's happening with covers. The garbage stock that the publishers used starting in 1992 is starting to rapidly deteriorate. Pull out a copy of Wonder Woman #72, and odds are, it's going to show tanning, unless it was stored in Reynold Jay's freezer.

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