kimik Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 12:25 PM, thehumantorch said: Certainly the Kirby era was the best and the BA books following Kirby were actually wonderful and underappreciated and there were some great characters introduced and many great covers. Byrne's run was fun to read and there were other high moments in the run. I finally quit buying the run after 25 years of picking it up off the stands or in my pull list because in my opinion it had become unreadable. Too many family members and hangers on and incomprehensible storylines. For the purpose of this argument, I'd suggest that FF started losing popularity late in the kirby run, let's call it issue #75. Spider-man had become dominate and I just don't think many people were talking about FF anymore and new cool titles were on the horizon. I thought that ASM had surpassed FF a bit earlier based on circulation numbers I saw posted here a long time ago, but by the mid to late 60s ASM was definitely the dominant Marvel property. FWIW, at the same time that was happening the top selling books were Disney, and the Superman and Batman circulation numbers dwarfed any Marvel title. ttfitz and Larryw7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Balls Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 9:06 AM, D2 said: X-Men in the 90s, outside of their reboot, ACTUALLY was saved by The Age of Apocalypse. I remember that feeling - X-Men were really languishing at the time. I can't specifically recall what the issue was - but I do remember the AoA was a huge shot in the arm (and I bought every issue). D2 and The humble Watcher lurking 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 2:34 PM, kimik said: I thought that ASM had surpassed FF a bit earlier based on circulation numbers I saw posted here a long time ago, but by the mid to late 60s ASM was definitely the dominant Marvel property. Yes, Spidey was slightly ahead of the FF by the mid-60s. On 1/10/2023 at 2:34 PM, kimik said: FWIW, at the same time that was happening the top selling books were Disney, and the Superman and Batman circulation numbers dwarfed any Marvel title. You're a bit confused. Superman was king, Archie was up there, but Disney was way down from their 1950s peak (when they were actually at the top) and Batman was only very briefly at the top (coinciding with the Adam West show) before falling to around the same level as the top Marvels. PopKulture 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowGradeBronze Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 Is three pages of thread in under 8 hours some kind of a record? (Only surpassed by acetate gate.) BlowUpTheMoon and D2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimik Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 (edited) On 1/10/2023 at 2:13 PM, Lazyboy said: Yes, Spidey was slightly ahead of the FF by the mid-60s. You're a bit confused. Superman was king, Archie was up there, but Disney was way down from their 1950s peak (when they were actually at the top) and Batman was only very briefly at the top (coinciding with the Adam West show) before falling to around the same level as the top Marvels. I though that what I saw had DIS titles still at the top monthly thanks to worldwide sales, with Superman a close second until 1966-68 durigh the Batman show, but all three were selling 2x or so of he top Marvel titles. Edited January 10, 2023 by kimik Larryw7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Balls Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 2:23 PM, LowGradeBronze said: Is three pages of thread in under 8 hours some kind of a record? (Only surpassed by acetate gate.) Perhaps a new record. Years ago there were enough people here to keep a thread on bag and board preferences going into 3 pages the first couple of hours. But, that's ok - things change! LowGradeBronze 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowGradeBronze Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 9:29 PM, Dr. Balls said: Perhaps a new record. Years ago there were enough people here to keep a thread on bag and board preferences going into 3 pages the first couple of hours. But, that's ok - things change! Yeah, people mature, they calm down..... Dr. Balls 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 3:23 PM, LowGradeBronze said: Is three pages of thread in under 8 hours some kind of a record? (Only surpassed by acetate gate.) For this calendar year? Maybe. I guess that 2021 join date checks out. Anyone who has actually been here for a long time would have said three hundred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D2 Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 4:23 PM, LowGradeBronze said: Is three pages of thread in under 8 hours some kind of a record? (Only surpassed by acetate gate.) People be pissed about dissing their beloved Marvel Fam! Gotta defend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimik Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 (edited) Once @Greggy was banned from using emoticons for pages upon pages of responses the time to get a new discussion past two pages grew exponentially longer. Edited January 10, 2023 by kimik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConcreteMob181 Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 3:25 PM, Cat said: Mark Waid had a really good run too. The Pacheco run was okay. Umm.... Second this. Waid is top 4 runs for me (Lee/Kirby, Byrne and Hickman being the other 3). Waid’s Doom and Galactus stories stand out but the whole run was pretty excellent. ttfitz, steveinthecity, KirbyJack and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumantorch Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 1:34 PM, kimik said: I thought that ASM had surpassed FF a bit earlier based on circulation numbers I saw posted here a long time ago, but by the mid to late 60s ASM was definitely the dominant Marvel property. FWIW, at the same time that was happening the top selling books were Disney, and the Superman and Batman circulation numbers dwarfed any Marvel title. Yes, I'd imagine Spider-man surpassed FF somewhere in the mid 60s. The idea of a skinny kid with all of Parker's issues growing up becoming a super hero would resonate with the typical comic reader. Spider-man is pretty close to a perfect character and it shows in his popularity and longevity. Not to take away from the FF because they're still #1 with me. kimik and KirbyJack 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizards2 Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 2:05 PM, kimik said: Once @Greggy was banned from using emoticons for pages upon pages of responses the time to get a new discussion past two pages grew exponentially longer. Off Panel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 3:29 PM, kimik said: I though that what I saw had DIS titles still at the top monthly thanks to worldwide sales, with Superman a close second until 1966-68 durigh the Batman show, but all three were selling 2x or so of he top Marvel titles. Yeah, the top Marvel titles were well below the top titles, but so were the Disney titles. The Disney corporation may or may not have been doing well with their global licensing, but that didn't help sales of Gold Key's American-licensed Disney comics. At the height of Batmania, ASM and FF were obviously not close to (the title) Batman's numbers, but they were fairly competitive with Batman's second title, Detective Comics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 When did the Fantastic Four lose popularity? With Whom??? The humble Watcher lurking 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Readcomix Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 6:34 PM, divad said: When did the Fantastic Four lose popularity? With Whom??? Give that man a Harrumph!!!! divad 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kripsys99 Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 9:50 AM, Ken Aldred said: Similar to Superman. A character that can now seem a little old school as well. At least his portrayal in film has been better than the FF’s. As a diehard Superman fan, I could never understand how the old school Marvel collectors could tell me that Superman wasn't cool enough for newer collectors in one breath, while talking up their old FF issues in the next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
universal soldier Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 I've been hot and cold with the FF over the years but I'm certainly partial to the Kirby era all the way up through the end of the Byrne run. For me, my OO collection ran from the mid 160's to the 220s and was my favorite era for purely nostalgia purposes. Post Byrne up through the 90's, with a few exceptions sucked balz to be honest. Much the same can be said about a lot of the X-men and Spider-man books from this time frame. One run that I really enjoyed was the Ultimate books from the mid 2000's, fresh take on all the characters that had some great writting and art IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaylam Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 (edited) To me back in the 60's, the FF was much like the Jonny Quest cartoons. The concept fit the times and resonated with the world stage at that time. We actually hadn't been to the moon yet and JFK presented that as the challenge of the decade and the FF fit or fell right into that sentiment of the times. Once a lot of those challenges had been met, the framing of the FF that had been their bread-and-butter kind of fell by the wayside. Obviously by the interest and comments of this thread, a lot of us really care and appreciate the impact and importance of the FF in the genesis of Marvel, but the truth is that ship has sailed and the best and uniqueness of the FF is locked in the time they were conceived. Marvel used them to launch and bring attention to other concepts and characters that eventually outgrew the FF, but no one has been really able to make them fly again like they did in the beginning. Edited January 11, 2023 by Jaylam lizards2, The humble Watcher lurking and Gonzimodo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domo Arigato Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 On 1/10/2023 at 4:05 PM, kimik said: Once@greggy was banned from using emoticons for pages upon pages of responses the time to get a new discussion past two pages grew exponentially longer. He was actually banned from the entire forum once, because of something that another forum member did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
