Hi Curt, I have moved to a new home recently and had the same thoughts when I was packing up my comics from that era! Shit, did I bought that? Yes, I did but then I started reading them again and found that they were not all that bad! Aaahhhh memories from youth gone by! LOL
Curt, I totally agree. I stopped buying modern comics in the mid 90's due to the ever-more ridiculous plots (eg Spider-Man clone saga) and later sold them due to the 'messy' and unrealistic artwork. Everything, even the logos, seems unnecessarily flashy. I think the comic world has redeemed itself art-wise this decade, but I still don't own many comics post-1989.
I agree, I have scads of junk stuff-though I've worked a number of shows over the years and cleaned out a bunch.
But I have to say something that many find unbelievable. And I have no shame.
I love all those Rob Liefeld produced books from the early Image. Bloodstrike? Hell yeah! Youngblood? Sure! Supreme (loved this one)... and I still do. They are like the Heavy Metal Parking Lot of the era-produced with an energy that just splashed dozens of new characters everywhere and no studio artist drew an ankle that could support the monstrous torsos on show.
I still buy the Liefeld stuff-even though he is about to totally sin and re do KILLRAVEN! Wow...
But I just have a soft spot for the guys work. Oddly, Watchmen man Alan Moore joined up with Liefeld and produced some amazingly good books (like SUPREME-STORY OF THE YEAR which captured an Eisner)-sad that many readers never saw these books because of the Liefeld association. Check out this article on the Moore run.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_(comics)
Moore tackled a ton of the Liefeld characters in JUDGEMENT DAY and pulled off a pretty nifty trick the way he did it. The "Aftermath" story with Gil Kane doing art was awesome.
Anywho...90 percent crap with some stuff I really love amongst it, and 10 percent good.
But if you sit me in front of a BADROCK comic I'm going to read it ;)
So funny, Curt! I'm currently trying to sort through my collection of thousands of comic books and being an X fan back in the '90s means I also have a ton of those godawful crossover comics.
I have somewhat of an excuse though, since I worked at a comic shop from roughly 1991-97. Whenever my boss couldn't afford to pay me he'd offer me free "new" comics so I was often forced to take home whatever was released that week.
Angela--good point! I would never have guessed you were into that stuff. Have you ever written superhero-related erotica?
Warren--if you managed to sell that stuff, you're luckier than many who assumed they'd be able to at high collector's prices (which was the point of the way they were marketed). I've dabbled around the edges of current comics, but the weirdly convoluted continuities make me feels shut out these days.
Dave--I actually liked Liefield's work on NEW MUTANTS and X-FORCE, but thought he really fell down at Image with his manic overproduction of characters; he basically had a few set types that ripped off Marvel characters, and every character of any type was indistinguishable from the rest. I thought Jim Lee did a little better with WILDCATS and the spinoffs, but, sad to say, like the rest of the Image founders, he seemed to do much stronger work for corporate overlords.
Kimberly--that's hilarious (though I'm sure not getting paid wasn't funny at the time)! Yes, I actually paid for everything. There's nothing like looking at a longbox full of holo-foiled X-garbage and wondering how else the money might have been spent. By the way, awesome abandoned pod-city image you posted recently! I'm reading a book on sixties architecture and design, and it's full of stuff like that, only not abandoned (which puts an interesting twist on it, for sure).
No, I've not written any super hero erotica - yet!
And yes, I love comics. I have my own treasure of long boxes and shelves filled with graphic novels. I don't read as many now, but I still enjoy them when I do!
9 comments:
Hi Curt, I have moved to a new home recently and had the same thoughts when I was packing up my comics from that era! Shit, did I bought that? Yes, I did but then I started reading them again and found that they were not all that bad! Aaahhhh memories from youth gone by! LOL
Lucky I only bought Hulk and Batman stuff back then. ;)
Guilty too, but hey, I think of some of those comics as defining cultural trends - and no one said it was all going to be pretty!
Curt, I totally agree. I stopped buying modern comics in the mid 90's due to the ever-more ridiculous plots (eg Spider-Man clone saga) and later sold them due to the 'messy' and unrealistic artwork. Everything, even the logos, seems unnecessarily flashy. I think the comic world has redeemed itself art-wise this decade, but I still don't own many comics post-1989.
I agree, I have scads of junk stuff-though I've worked a number of shows over the years and cleaned out a bunch.
But I have to say something that many find unbelievable. And I have no shame.
I love all those Rob Liefeld produced books from the early Image. Bloodstrike? Hell yeah! Youngblood? Sure! Supreme (loved this one)... and I still do. They are like the Heavy Metal Parking Lot of the era-produced with an energy that just splashed dozens of new characters everywhere and no studio artist drew an ankle that could support the monstrous torsos on show.
I still buy the Liefeld stuff-even though he is about to totally sin and re do KILLRAVEN! Wow...
But I just have a soft spot for the guys work. Oddly, Watchmen man Alan Moore joined up with Liefeld and produced some amazingly good books (like SUPREME-STORY OF THE YEAR which captured an Eisner)-sad that many readers never saw these books because of the Liefeld association. Check out this article on the Moore run.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_(comics)
Moore tackled a ton of the Liefeld characters in JUDGEMENT DAY and pulled off a pretty nifty trick the way he did it. The "Aftermath" story with Gil Kane doing art was awesome.
Anywho...90 percent crap with some stuff I really love amongst it, and 10 percent good.
But if you sit me in front of a BADROCK comic I'm going to read it ;)
So funny, Curt! I'm currently trying to sort through my collection of thousands of comic books and being an X fan back in the '90s means I also have a ton of those godawful crossover comics.
I have somewhat of an excuse though, since I worked at a comic shop from roughly 1991-97. Whenever my boss couldn't afford to pay me he'd offer me free "new" comics so I was often forced to take home whatever was released that week.
Same here. I had this books on subscription. After some good runs there came years of terrible quality. They made even less sense than a daytime soap.
I am glad I kicked the habit :-)
Mirko--you may be right!
Thwacko--lucky indeed!
Angela--good point! I would never have guessed you were into that stuff. Have you ever written superhero-related erotica?
Warren--if you managed to sell that stuff, you're luckier than many who assumed they'd be able to at high collector's prices (which was the point of the way they were marketed). I've dabbled around the edges of current comics, but the weirdly convoluted continuities make me feels shut out these days.
Dave--I actually liked Liefield's work on NEW MUTANTS and X-FORCE, but thought he really fell down at Image with his manic overproduction of characters; he basically had a few set types that ripped off Marvel characters, and every character of any type was indistinguishable from the rest. I thought Jim Lee did a little better with WILDCATS and the spinoffs, but, sad to say, like the rest of the Image founders, he seemed to do much stronger work for corporate overlords.
Kimberly--that's hilarious (though I'm sure not getting paid wasn't funny at the time)! Yes, I actually paid for everything. There's nothing like looking at a longbox full of holo-foiled X-garbage and wondering how else the money might have been spent. By the way, awesome abandoned pod-city image you posted recently! I'm reading a book on sixties architecture and design, and it's full of stuff like that, only not abandoned (which puts an interesting twist on it, for sure).
Curt,
No, I've not written any super hero erotica - yet!
And yes, I love comics. I have my own treasure of long boxes and shelves filled with graphic novels. I don't read as many now, but I still enjoy them when I do!
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