Kevin's Watch

What do you want?

I've been collecting comic books since I was about 12 years old. I was given, what I thought at the time, a sizable collection by older my brother Ron who got them from a friend of his. It was a fairly even split of Marvel and DC and for some reason I latched on to the Marvel characters right away (especially Iron Man). Today I own a collection of over 3,000 books which features a complete and unbroken run of "Invincible Iron Man" (Tales of Suspense, guest appearances and one shot specials I might be lacking) I wish I could say they were all in mint condition but alas I cannot. I continue to purchase new comics but my enthusiasm for contemporary books has lessened over the years. The harsh, bloody brutality depicted in the most popular titles is unappealing to me so I prefer to search for unread back issues from the 60's 70's and 80's. Marvel Comics rule my mind and my collection but I have a variety of DC, Valiant, Image, Atlas, Gold Key and so on. I would love to have a full run of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Amazing Spiderman and just about every other Marvel character or group. Only disposable income and availability prevents me from realizing my dream.

I grew up writing and drawing my own comics. Gave it up nine years ago. I used to read alot of comics when I was young.

I used to have almost every issue of Spiderman, every issue of Darevevil & Conan, and tons of the other Marvel biggies. But, I sold off some of it to buy my first guitar, and the Spiderman got sold to pay for my first son.
My run of Fantastic Four goes back to the early 100's (about 30 years), and my Hulk goes back about 20 years (issuue 314). I used to have every FF from 50 on, but the old ones got sold to help pay for my house. On everything else, I just pick and choose whatever I want, based on the writer/artist team, not the publisher.

Ur-Vile wrote:I grew up writing and drawing my own comics. Gave it up nine years ago. I used to read alot of comics when I was young.

I'd like to see and read your work, Ur-Vile.
dANdeLION and I both tried writing and drawing comics over 10 years ago. I sometimes look at those old drawings and think about giving it another try. I wish I had more time.

When I look at my old work; I just laugh at the fact that I was able to get that crap published.

dANdeLION wrote:When I look at my old work; I just laugh at the fact that I was able to get that crap published.

Don't be hard on yourself, dAN. Pete Pimple was a masterstroke!

Not my masterstroke, though.

dANdeLION wrote:Not my masterstroke, though.

Well, even so.

Here is an example of what we had done. I wish I had some of dAN's uploaded somewhere. I loved the frame with the laundromat.

www.clearfrontier.freeservers.com/LGSoap4.jpg
www.clearfrontier.freeservers.com/LGSoap1.jpg

I have a collection of over 200 books from the Silver, Bronze, and 80' and into the 90's. The thing that lacks now in comices (sweeping generalization alert!) is a lack of storytelling in the artwork itself. It used to be that a issue waslike a movie story board, it told the tale if somehow the words were taken away. Now, its a series of characters posing and fighting. All style.

I have tons of the fantastic four (complete Byrne run form the mid to late eighties, plus a number of silver age issues), tons of avengers (including #8 I thin kwhich id the intro and death of Wonder man...terrible name). Daredevil...Frank Miller. X-Men (complete byrne run there too. The run from 108 to 137 is perhaps the best run of comics EVER!!!! in the 90's I turned to DC and Valiant as they seemed to have more traditional artists and stories. Barry Windsor Smith is a king. Archer and Armstrong/Dr. Solar and of course Weapon X Wolverine Origin are supreme.

All in all my favorite characters are:

Spidey
Daredevil (terrible movie!)
Silver Surfer
Cyclops
Magneto
Iron Fist

As you can see, I too have a affinity for the tragic.

I also tried to get into the field before my kids were born and had some sucesses which ended when a company refused to hire me because I refused to make the women I was drawing more "dynamic" (bigger breasts).

I have a story all ramped up that I had begun to write in novelization form that was essentially a 20-25 story arc. I'll tell you about it in the coming weeks.

A Gunslinger wrote: All in all my favorite characters are:

Spidey
Daredevil (terrible movie!)
Silver Surfer
Cyclops
Magneto
Iron Fist

As you can see, I too have a affinity for the tragic.

You have an affinity for Bryne, too. I liked him up until about FF # 270, when he started his downward trend to the artistic gutter he currently resides in. His art in X-men, DD, Iron Fist, Rog 2000, Avengers, and the early FF is still some of the best ever, though. I have it all, except for some of the Iron Fist.

hmmm... How old are the Spiderman, X-men, etc comics... I mean the way people have been talking about them... they've been around since the stone age...

dANdeLION wrote:

A Gunslinger wrote: All in all my favorite characters are:

Spidey
Daredevil (terrible movie!)
Silver Surfer
Cyclops
Magneto
Iron Fist

As you can see, I too have a affinity for the tragic.

You have an affinity for Bryne, too. I liked him up until about FF # 270, when he started his downward trend to the artistic gutter he currently resides in. His art in X-men, DD, Iron Fist, Rog 2000, Avengers, and the early FF is still some of the best ever, though. I have it all, except for some of the Iron Fist.

I agree. Byrne is sloppy now.

ROG 2000!!! I love that damn robot!

"I hope it's not invisible or bigger than me..."
*opens closet, attacked by creature*
"Great! It's invisible AND bigger than me"

another classic is when the which casts a spell on him to make him human. Very Bugs-bunny like story.

Darth Revan wrote:hmmm... How old are the Spiderman, X-men, etc comics... I mean the way people have been talking about them... they've been around since the stone age...

I have some 60's spidey, but mostly mine are in the 1970's in the Romita/Kane age. Classic stuff. The value of comics has plummeted thanks to E-bay.

I should have made a section about favorite comic artist. I see by your collection, AG that you might have an affinity toward John Byrne. Byrne has forever been my favorite comic artist. Especially when he was younger. His X-Men run is fantastic. His run in Avengers is my all time favorite Byrne run especially the 3-issue story with Count Nefaria. My all time favorite single Byrne issue is his Marvel Preview #11 Starlord story.

Okay. I see dAN has beaten me to some of this. ROG2000 is killer!
"I ain't no copper. I'm 100% stainless steel."

A Gunslinger wrote:

Darth Revan wrote:hmmm... How old are the Spiderman, X-men, etc comics... I mean the way people have been talking about them... they've been around since the stone age...

I have some 60's spidey, but mostly mine are in the 1970's in the Romita/Kane age. Classic stuff. The value of comics has plummeted thanks to E-bay.

40 years old? Wow!

TOM C wrote:I should have made a section about favorite comic artist. I see by your collection, AG that you might have an affinity toward John Byrne. Byrne has forever been my favorite comic artist. Especially when he was younger. His X-Men run is fantastic. His run in Avengers is my all time favorite Byrne run especially the 3-issue story with Count Nefaria. My all time favorite single Byrne issue is his Marvel Preview #11 Starlord story.

The Count Nefaria story is great as is the Mount Wungadore stuff. I love when Nefaria says (I paraphrase wildly here) "Bring me Thor!" , and Thor shows up and Nef. gets all scared and awed as Mjolnor (sp?) is rushing at him in perspective...I think Thor says something like "Thy hath dared much...".

Do you recall the Korvac war story arc in the avengers like around issue 175 or so? I always felt utterly ripped off that we got neither Perez nor byrne for those issues. I rember reading the final issue of that arc and wondering (as a kid) whether there would be another comic.

Spiderman - 42 years

FF - 43 years

X-Men - 40 years

Man, that's like, more than two times older than me.

A Gunslinger wrote: Do you recall the Korvac war story arc in the avengers like around issue 175 or so? I always felt utterly ripped off that we got neither Perez nor byrne for those issues. I rember reading the final issue of that arc and wondering (as a kid) whether there would be another comic.

That is uncanny. I felt the same way about the artist in the Korvac storyline.
With Nefaria I was thinking. "Oh, now your gonna get it big mouth. Thor has arrived." But then Thor gets clobbered just like everyone else.

Darth Revan wrote:Man, that's like, more than two times older than me.

And ten times as valuable