What age of comics has the best stories? 2 2

[Dr. Balls]

On 7/22/2022 at 8:41 AM, InsomniacComics said:

I've heard good things about Web Of Spiderman in the Bronze Age. What's your guy's opinion on that series?

Through the fog of memory, I recall that the early part of it being quite good through the eyes of a 11/12 year old. And I liked my comics gritty at that age, not campy.

[Von Cichlid]

On 7/22/2022 at 10:50 AM, rexinnih said:

The Claremont X-Men was my introduction to comics and started it all for me. Combined with some really great Silver Age stories, I'll go with two ages for my answer.

Those same stories started it all for me around 88-89, but I was exposed through Classic X-Men.  (I used to spend hours each night trying to recreate those Art Adams covers.)  I wish I could see the sales data for Classic X-Men compared with the original run, as I suspect that that was the case for many people in my age bracket who didn't grow up in a town with an LCS and had to rely on newsstands.  I was very fortunate to be introduced to the medium at that time.  It was like having the best of 70's and the late 80's all at the exact same time. 

[Qalyar]

Pre-code is hard to beat for horror.

Copper is probably the best for random main-title superhero books; as in, pick a random issue of a random major title in Copper and it's probably at least readable. Plus the highlight stories are industry defining, so that's always a good thing.

Modern has been mostly terrible for main-title books (yeah, sure, with some exceptions), but has had a lot of phenomenal mini- and maxi-series, especially (but not exclusively) by publishers outside the Big Two and a Half.

[kav]

On 7/22/2022 at 12:51 AM, KirbyTown said:

some good art to be sure-especially the covers, but the stories had no depth.  They could not compare with say spider man 50 or GL 76.

[KirbyTown]

Many people are into superhero stories, and that's fine, but that's hardly the entirety of comic book writing work. There is brilliant storytelling on all manner of subjects and across all time periods. I'd argue that if you're limiting your reading to superheroes then you're missing out on some of the best storytelling out there.

[KirbyTown]

On 7/22/2022 at 1:49 PM, kav said:

but the stories had no depth

That's a pretty broad statement! Also, I was replying to a mention of goldies being boring, not doing lit-crit on True Crime #2 😁

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 4:47 PM, Black_Adam said:

I would guess the 'best years for comic stories' question probably has the same answer as the best years for cartoons - the ones you grew up with. 

First cartoon I recall, aged 3, was The Impossibles.

I also recall being quite mesmerised by characters that could turn into stretching coils or flow like water.  That sense of wonder clearly started my lifelong fascination with comic books. About a year later my parents gave me a British reprint of a Fantastic Four comic, and the obsession only escalated from then on, especially 1973 onwards when I had easier access to more FF in our Mighty World of Marvel comic, along with the other members of the company’s Silver Age pantheon.

A very nostalgic series, but not close to being my favourite.  (That would be the 90s Batman Animated.) Its influence can’t be doubted, though.

 

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:57 PM, KirbyTown said:

Many people are into superhero stories, and that's fine, but that's hardly the entirety of comic book writing work. There is brilliant storytelling on all manner of subjects and across all time periods. I'd argue that if you're limiting your reading to superheroes then you're missing out on some of the best storytelling out there.

Recently purchased The Complete Terry Moore digital bundle, everything from the start of Strangers in Paradise. A fan of Love and Rockets, especially Xaime’s work, from the very beginning. Chris Ware’s a genius.  Easy to find standout examples.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:57 PM, KirbyTown said:

Many people are into superhero stories, and that's fine, but that's hardly the entirety of comic book writing work. There is brilliant storytelling on all manner of subjects and across all time periods. I'd argue that if you're limiting your reading to superheroes then you're missing out on some of the best storytelling out there.

I’ve always preferred diversification to repetition, stagnation, boredom and disillusionment.

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:49 PM, kav said:

some good art to be sure-especially the covers, but the stories had no depth. 

Eisner’s Spirit stories, though short, are quite brilliant, especially the post-War Sections.

EC’s stories, likewise, were short, often gory, disturbing, political, making social commentary, but could pack a lot in despite their brevity, and were prolifically capable of that.  Hardly vacuous.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

Sorry if I’m posting too much in this thread, but I’ve been killing time on the phone waiting for someone to come round to unblock a drain at the back of the house.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:41 PM, InsomniacComics said:

I've heard good things about Web Of Spiderman in the Bronze Age. What's your guy's opinion on that series?

I don’t recall it being much different to the other Spidey titles. Nothing that exceptional. 

[mysterymachine]

I'm a lover of Bronze age and early copper. Probably because it was what I grew up reading.

Highlights were mostly the same as other posts like the Claremont Byrne run of X-men, but I also enjoyed the Perez Avengers run, the Bob Layton Iron man run, The Roger Stern and Romita's Spiderman run, and there were even DC titles with great storylines like The New Teen Titans Perez run, which I really enjoyed.

It was arguably the best DC title written at the time. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Keith Giffen's Legion of SH and of course the Batman/Detective connecting stories were also fun reads. I'm so lucky to still have all those books after all these years.   

Edited July 22, 2022 by mysterymachine

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 6:34 AM, Nick Furious said:

I think that Chris Claremont with X-men (1979?) has to be recognized as being at the forefront of a new era in mainstream comics.  Before that, most comic books that were written even for adults were aimed at our less mature side.  There were some exceptions of course, but I think many mainstream large distribution books picked up on his more mature storytelling and we saw it really grow throughout the 80's.  

Claremont remains one of my all-time favourite comic book writers, along with John Byrne.  I’m pretty much immune to his tendency to be somewhat verbose and purple in style, and, by modern standards, could’ve perhaps delegated some of his descriptors to the artist for greater economy, and that younger readers might, overall, find his work a bit cold, dry and angst-ridden as well.  For me, those caveats are quite irrelevant.

When I first started collecting, 1977 onwards, the first continuous run that I looked forward to, month after month, with a sequence of brilliantly written-and-drawn stories. The X-Men have always been one of my favourites, even during the fallow years preceding this classic writer-artist team, but so exciting to witness the standard being raised so high and for so long by them.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[piper]

Hot take: the Modern Age has some awesome storytelling.  The quality of the writing todayis excellent and the diverse genres and target audiences are broadly covered.  There is something for everyone.

 

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 9:17 PM, SweetTooth said:

ECs aren't Golden Age 

It’s a bit like late Bronze Age and early Copper Age getting merged together. Over in Golden Age, many will often merge late Golden Age and early 50s Atom Age publications together.

However, to solve the finger-wagging, maybe we could agree on pre-Code instead?  That then covers both my ECs and the Wertham-bothering splash page and panel shown earlier.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[KirbyTown]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:21 PM, piper said:

Hot take

Searing take! 🥳

[Beastfeast]

On 7/22/2022 at 4:26 PM, SweetTooth said:

... Kav is right 

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/22/2022 at 9:21 PM, piper said:

Hot take: the Modern Age has some awesome storytelling.  The quality of the writing todayis excellent and the diverse genres and target audiences are broadly covered.  There is something for everyone.

 

You’re a lot like me, having an appreciation across all the comic book Ages. You can see that in your posts in the collected edition thread.
 

Variety.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[KirbyTown]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:23 PM, Ken Aldred said:

It’s a bit like late Bronze Age and early Copper Age getting merged together. Over in Golden Age, many will often merge late Golden Age and early 50s Atom Age publications together.

However, to solve the finger-wagging, maybe we could agree on pre-Code instead?  That then covers both my ECs and the Wertham-bothering splash page and panel shown earlier.

On 7/22/2022 at 3:26 PM, SweetTooth said:

I will not lump my ECs in with the vapid output of the Golden Age. Kav is right 

I've never believed that they defy categorization, but that they ARE a category. They don't belong anywhere which is exactly where they belong. All hail...Educational...Comics!