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TTA Masterworks

Started by OldGuy,

8 posts in this topic

Guest

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I have just a couple of those early TTA's and you are correct the stories do blow. Looking forward to reading the Hulk stuff.

 

I think you were trying top say that the stories were more indicative of the age, and the cultural norms of the times, and lack certain qualities of sophistication when compared to todays offerings.

 

Thinking about it, lets see. Comic collecting/readership peaked in America/worldwide in the 1950's when Mickey and Donald were selling at 5 million an issue, every issue. We had EC with the what could easily be described as the most consistant collection of the best artists and writers ever. Carl Barks was Four Coloring with regularity, and all topped off with no code.

Then the code came along and everything went and imploded for nearly everyone. Then post codification, Stan Lee stepped up to plate in the early sixties and we've been striving to regain the ground ever since with him as a driving force behind a lot of the silver age magic.

So early TTA's with the watered down story lines and light drama offerings fit right into the overall times in which they were written. They are a piece of history that all modern offerings stem from.

So yes the early stories 'do blow' but thats all neatly within a historical context of the times in which they were written.

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rodan57

rodan57

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Those early issues, though for the most part plotted by Lee, were written by Larry Lieber. Lieber was workman-like. He got the job done.

 

The introduction of the Wasp in #44 (great cover) and Kirby/Heck art strikes me as an early classic (pre-marvel monster, cold-war, soap-opera love story). Those last few Ant-Man stories by H. E. Huntley are a bit wordy but read for the most part as 'Marvel' stories to me.

 

I think the book takes on a full Marvel feel when Lee and Kirby work together to create Giant-Man in #49 and continues through to #51.

 

Though it's personal taste, I see the Ayers tenure (excepting Heck in #54) to be a period of decline. Even over Kirby's outlines, I find Ayers pencil line to be uncertain and inks somewhat unrefined and rushed. I could see buyers of the period picking up each issue for the great Kirby covers with their striking early-Marvel colour palette --hoping for a great story in an uneven run.

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shadroch

shadroch

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sorry,but sometimes stories suck,just because they suck.

forget historical context,forget the dawn of a new universe,forget chaos theory. early Ant-Man stories suck,because no one gave him any personality and had him meeting lame villians.

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sorry,but sometimes stories suck,just because they suck.

forget historical context,forget the dawn of a new universe,forget chaos theory. early Ant-Man stories suck,because no one gave him any personality and had him meeting lame villians.

 

Ya you got me there. I had several issues in the 30's and 40's, but the likes of freakin 'Erasure Man', and the Spinnig Top, did basically suck severely.

You still have to remortgage the house for a run of high grade copies of the early books. But those books in the 50's with the 'Top' were tragic. And why I don't even have reader's of those books.

 

But stubbornly I'm still a fan, but just from #59 up these days.

And arguably the run did spawn one of the most successful run's of today. Only tales of Suspence has a better record with Cap, and Iron man still going strong. Strange Tales gave us the mnost classic 'seventies' cover's ever with Steranko's Nick Fury's. And Gene Colan did something pretty speacial with Doctor Strange. But they faded in the shadow of the Hulk, and Cap.

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