Mysterio - the original, Quentin Beck, really did kill himself. He’s still dead. The Mysterio who’s appeared since is Danny Berkhart, who filled in for Beck in the 1970s.
Kingpin - I think he’s back in the picture, after his son, Richard Fisk (aka the Rose) tried to have him killed. Vanessa Fisk killed Richard.
Rhino - in the second part of “Flowers”, he ended up getting too smart, and had the doctor reverse the operation. He’s still around, having people pay him to run into stuff. Look for the second part if you can - it was a really great story.
Venom - he’s been MIA for a while, after a brief, disasterous stint in the Sinister Six. Marvel’s putting out a new Venom series this year, so he’s coming back.
The War Machine and Fury MAX series were out of continuity - Elseworlds, if you prefer. The events within had, and will have, no effect on the MU proper.
Mysterio-Irritant, where did you get that info? Not that I don’t believe you, I just haven’t seen that before. I hope that’s what it is. Kevin Smith (new kid on the block) wrote a great Mysterio ending and the next month John Byrne (old crotchety bastard who, lord knows, can do no wrong :rolleyes:) has him back in Spider-Man dancing around pretty as you please. I remember Mystie saying something like “ooooooh you never know what’s up with me…I’m a ghost…I’m a demon…boooo!” Granted, I (like every other Spidey writer since Byrne) have forgotten almost everything about that attrocious period of Spidey non-history so if it was explained there, I’m probably forgetting it.
Kingpin- Check out the Daredevil dotcomics on www.marvel.com for the 4 part arc of Kingpin’s most recent demise
Venom- There is a preview of the new series also on marvel.com dotcomics. Haven’t looked at it yet myself, but if it’s anything like the last series, I’ll be skipping it.
[David Spade]
I read the Fury TPB. It was pretty good. Grim and gritty with lots of gratuitous language and violence.
But I liked it better when it was called The Punisher (or Preacher or any other Ennis book.)
[/David Spade]
That is a wonderful description of comic readers. I applaud your ability to generalize freely and without any consideration to things like facts. The “who look like they couldn’t get a date” line was very reminicing of the great scribe Bill Jemas, excellent work.
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The market is super heroes. That’s a fact. What people buy are books about super heroes doing fantastical things. Very few comics outside that range have EVER done well. EC stuff in the 50’s, Conan in the 70’s, but rarely have series featuring anything other than heroes in tights made a noticible mark on the comics industry. Heores aren’t choking the industry, they are the industry.
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As opposed to when they were desired by mass audiances when? They’ve always appealed to a select market. Like Golf or Collecter Plates, they’re not going to appeal to every one, ever. And they shouldn’t aspire to.
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Longer stories appeal to the average reader. You think lighter, shorter stories with no consideration for continuity will bring a younger, more willing to spend their audiance? Are you willing to wager millions of dollars on that? Do you think Marvel is?
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They appeal to a niche market. They aways have, and always will. To expect them to be as big as TV, movies or videogames in the entertainment industry is idle dreaming.
This attitude, of which I’ve seen much of in the online comic fan communities, is not rational thinking. Comic books can’t be “fixed” by trying to sell to the “cool crowd” or to kids or to middle aged middle class women. They can be helped by not propogating the “fat, teenage, pimply, geek-boy” that is not the average comic book reader. It’s that stereotype that stops people who do read the books from admiting that they do.
Man, this idea that the people who spend the money that support the industry are what’s wrong with it. It’s a biased an unreasonable attitude that does more harm than good. Everyone keeps saying the industry is drowning, it’s been said for years. It’s still going on strong, Marvel stock is at 10$ a share compared to the 1.50$ it was at 3 years ago.
Comic based movies like “Spider-Man”, “X-Men”, “Blade”, “Daredevil” and the forthcoming “X2”, “League of Extrodinary Gentlemen” “Bulletproof Monk” and “Hulk”, as well as the tv series like “Smallville” are showing that the industry-choking concept of fantasy super-heroes are not only appealing, but a major attraction in the entertainment industry.
Now, Asylum, this response may sound a little harsh, but I’m not personally attacking you. I’ve just heard these ideas bandied around the net for so long, and I don’t agree with them. Really don’t agree with them, and I don’t think they’re very helpful.
Superman was the best selling super-hero comic in the '40s and '50s but Disney (via Dell Comics) outsold Superman by something like 7 to 1. We’re talking print runs of like a million copies per issue (allegedly)
Archie, Little Lulu, DC’s Humor titles (Fox and Crow, the deeply missed Sugar and Spike (where’s the Archive edition, dammit DC?!) ) all sold extremely well. Western titles (Marvel had several), War titles, Romance/Girl-Stuff books, the list goes on and on. It wasn’t until the mid '60s that the super-hero become dominant.
Spoken like someone who really knows the history of the form. :rolleyes: As Fenris said, superheroes became dominant only in the 60’s, largely because Stan Lee was writing a whole bunch of fantastic superhero comics. And the 70’s, despite your claims to the contrary, had huge business done in the horror genre. But that’s not the point – superhero comics do not generally appeal to anyone but the couple of hundred thousand people already reading them. If we want the genre to continue, it has to cultivate new audiences, and most audiences aren’t that interested in seeing musclebound goons in colored underwear beat up on each other. But people (read: adults) are interested in the themes and ideas covered in independent comics – adventure, cop stories, espionage, romantic comedy, etc. They just don’t know that such things exist in comics form because, until very recently, you had to be a regular comics reader to even find them. (It’s loosening somewhat, now that the major book chains are creating graphic novels sections.)
The very argument you make disproves your point. You say only a small segment cares about comics. That’s because you incorrectly think that comics = superheroes. Only a small segment cares about superheroes, but anybody can read a comic. As long as the medium and the genre are conflated (especially in the eyes of the fans! Oy!) then no one who is apathetic to superheroes will pick up any of the comics (like Whiteout, Three Days in Europe, 30 Days of Night) that aren’t superheroes and which they might enjoy.
And I’d add that even into the early 80’s, the super-hero, while rising to a dominant position, was not overpowering. I have a DC Christmas Special comic from 1981 which contains 5 stories - one each featuring Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Jonah Hex, Sgt. Rock, and the collected DC horror comic hosts. In five stories, four different genres represented - and I suppose the Legion could arguably be said to represent sci-fi as much as it’s ever been represented since the genre’s heydey ended in the late 60’s.
The massive shift of power to the super-hero side was noticeable (in DC, at least) by the time of the Crisis on Infinite Earths a mere four years later. The Monitor summons fifteen characters…all of the super-hero type…and they are the primary players in the first act of the story, with representatives of the other genres appearing together with them in a clearly subordinate role.
What caused it? I’d guess the emergence of the comic book direct market. The big two began experimenting with direct-market comics…BUT ONLY WITH SUPER-HERO TITLES. This sent the super-hero fans to the comic shops to buy not only the direct-market books, but also books they once bought on the newsstand. Since the super-hero fans were a large portion of the newsstand comics sales, comics started showing a loss at the newsstand, and only the comics that could survive in the direct market - by now dominated by super-hero fans - continued to be published.
Between 1938 and 1948, the superhero comic books were the top sellers.
Captain Marvel Adventures and Whiz Comics sold over a million copies an issue during WW II. Superman was right behind Fawcett’s Marvel clan in sales for his eponymous title as well as Action Comics and World’s Finest.
The superhero made the comic book popular and prolific from the point that comic books stopped being reprints of newspaper strips to newly created material.
On a much lighter note-- what was the deal with Dr. Strange- I take it that it designed was a horror book/superhero book. Man was that one bizarre comic.
Was it just a bad Lovecraft ripoff, or was it well regarded?
Archie Comics have always been a top seller. Not a superhero publisher. (Ok, ok, they DID publish some superhero stuff, but let’s not go there.)
Dr. Strange was invented by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in the early 60s’. I don’t recall their exact mentality in creating the character, but I recall something about them wanting a “weird” mystic element in the Marvel Universe.
Strange is one of those characters who is well-loved but rarely done well. I think there’s been three Dr. Strange ongoing series in history, as well as his involvement in the three Defenders series and however many mini-series or specials. Both Dr. Strange and Defenders titles are inevitably cancelled (and hey, come to think of it, so are Namor and Silver Surfer books. Looks like Hulk is the only defender who can hold his own on the market).
elf6c: I regard some of the early Ditko-Lee Dr. Strange’s as some of the finest Marvels of the early 1960’s.
Specifically, I am thinking of issues 130-141 of Strange Tales, where Dormammu furnishes Baron Mordo with incredible power; Strange then barely survives several battles with Mordo and his evil spirits, all while the Ancient One lies in a coma from Mordo’s initial sneak attack, occassionally muttering the word “Eternity,” Strange travels to a couple of other dimensions; finally enters the Ancient One’s mind to learn the secret of Eternity; Strange then meets Eternity; Dormammu and Mordo find the Ancient One; Strange outclasses a more powerful Mordo in a dule, forcing the Dread One to take a personal hand; and Strange then wins the title of Sorceror Supreme by beating Dormammu in a non-magical duel. Awesome stuff that is an inspiration to me as a Dungeon Master even to this day.
I think the Frank Brunner Dr. Strange’s also won some critical acclaim.
To the Marvel experts: Did Steve Englehardt write the issues where Strange battles the Silver Dagger?
Mockingbird: You may be correct that the Big Red Cheese and Superman were the top sellers of the 1940’s and 1950’s, but other genres were very big in the comics market, especially horror, romance, crime and western comics. It doesn’t all have to be “long underwear” boys and girls.
Archie Comics(Formerly MLJ) has published quite a few superheroes over the years. The Fly, Jaguar, and The Shield are a few of the heroes who have had their own title either directly under the Archie logo, or under a hybrid logo.
Byrne? Nah, he didn’t write Spidey recently. You must be thinking of someone else, because this “Chapter One” I keep hearing about didn’t happen. It just didn’t happen, okay?
Has anyone here ever had a comic graded by CGA? What’s the process and how much does it cost? I’m looking to sell at least half of my collectiong and I['m willing to do it in grab bag form of like 6-7 mags/bag for about 2-3 bucks each just to blow them out the door, but I’ve got plenty I’d hate to give that treatment since I know they are worth much more.
So two “questions” I guess:
What are your thoughts/experiences on CGA
What’s the best way to sell buches of comics? Ebay seems hit or miss since I don’t want to go through and grade all my comics (professionally or not)
Unless you’ve got a Southeby’s-quality lot, eBay is probably your best bet. I think things go higher in small chuncks of a handful of issues each – people are rarely willing to pay a lot for single issues (except very important ones) because the $3-$5 shipping raises the final price too much, and large lots of 20 or more typically go for rather small amounts per issue.
You could also try going to a con and seeing if anyone’s interested – but only bring your best comics; no one’s buying chaff.
As an individual seller bringing product to dealers, a con is not a good place to go. From experience working at dealer’s tables, I have seen that one will generally get a much lower price than if one went to their store.
The chaff generally does move, because there are may who are looking for one odd issue, or a bunch of issues at a cheap price.
