tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post4386469923464220205..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining Uncanny X-Men #157Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-50945157903336294752018-12-13T10:02:33.194-06:002018-12-13T10:02:33.194-06:00I think I remember reading somewhere that "Ar...I think I remember reading somewhere that "Araki" is a title, not one person. So the later ones would be this one's successor.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-35288577207811886232012-06-18T12:47:47.356-05:002012-06-18T12:47:47.356-05:00@Blam: ...meaning that Classic X-Men is happily ne...@Blam: <i>...meaning that Classic X-Men is happily nestled behind X-Men and before Uncanny X-Men. </i><br /><br />Ultimately, I have my stuff organized way you describe it, with <i>West Coast Avengers</i> following <i>Avengers</i>, etc. <br /><br />There's just still that anal-retentive part of me that feels like that's wrong, though... :)Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-3524087131429742352012-06-18T00:04:45.725-05:002012-06-18T00:04:45.725-05:00Me: How dominating is the series? Wolverine takes ...<br>Me: <i>How dominating is the series? Wolverine takes both Favorite Lead Character and Favorite Supporting Character.</i><br /><br />Teebore: <i>Indeed. You'd think that wouldn't be possible, but I suppose it could be for separate issues, one in which Wolverine is more in the lead and another where he's just part of the ensemble.</i><br /><br />Really, I figured that it was due to write-in voting, but you'd think that there would be rules preventing such a dual win.<br /><br />Teebore: <i>at this point in the reprint schedule, I think the title had been officially changed to </i>X-Men Classic<i>, a change which gave my anal-retentive younger self fits when trying to alphabetize his collection.</i><br /><br />Although I stopped getting the title a couple of years in, probably because as nice as the covers and backups were I no longer needed the series to fill in gaps in my run of the original issues, I do recall the title change and being frustrated with it on general principle. Not only did it not make as much sense to me — there was already an <i>X-Men Classic</i> (or maybe <i>Classics</i>) miniseries reprinting the Thomas/Adams issues. <i>That</i> said, I began filing my collection by character/feature name some time after college, so that <i>Adventures of Superman</i> follows <i>Superman</i>, <i>West Coast Avengers</i> more-or-less immediately follows <i>Avengers</i> rather than being an alphabet away (but precedes the issues of <i>Avengers West Coast</i> that follow from it due to title change, for the sake of sanity) and so forth, meaning that <i>Classic X-Men</i> is happily nestled behind <i>X-Men</i> and before <i>Uncanny X-Men</i>.Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-7728398254710778472012-06-11T12:09:31.740-05:002012-06-11T12:09:31.740-05:00@Dobson: Great blog, just discovered this while lo...@Dobson: <i>Great blog, just discovered this while looking for reviews on Kitty's Fairy Tale theater. </i><br /><br />Thanks!<br /><br /><i>Maybe it's like an actual bomb in that it needed to hit earth's core or something like that before it reached critical mass, so by intercepting it early, it wasn't nearly at full power. </i><br /><br />That's a pretty decent No Prize explanation!Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-74635201893214722692012-06-11T12:07:06.831-05:002012-06-11T12:07:06.831-05:00@Mortsleam: Two best uses of text on comic book co...@Mortsleam: <i>Two best uses of text on comic book covers, courtesy Mssrs. Claremont and Davis</i><br /><br />Ha! I've always loved that cover from #55. <i>Excalibur</i> definitely had a sense of whimsy about it that turned me off as a kid but I've grown to appreciate as I've gotten older. <br /><br />@Blam: <i>...the young (read: um, much less embosomed) Kitty Pryde and not Jean Grey.</i><br /><br />And give the fact that all superhero women are usually rendered exceptionally...endowed and the title's own history of putting Kitty in a bikini whenever possible around this time, it's nice that Cockrum made the effort to draw it that way. <br /><br /><i>How dominating is the series? Wolverine takes both Favorite Lead Character and Favorite Supporting Character.</i><br /><br />Indeed. You'd think that wouldn't be possible, but I suppose it could be for separate issues, one in which Wolverine is more in the lead and another where he's just part of the ensemble. <br /><br /><i>I'm surprised the untold story of that surgery wasn't told in a Classic X-Men backup or something. "Days of Sutures Past"?</i><br /><br />Ha! You're clearly joking, but it's worth pointing out the <i>Classic X-Men</i> backups had stopped at this point (I think the "Dark Phoenix" finale was the last one). In fact, at this point in the reprint schedule, I think the title had been officially changed to <i>X-Men Classic</i>, a change which gave my anal-retentive younger self fits when trying to alphabetize his collection. <br /><br /><i>You didn't even mention that Kitty exclaimed "Eat your heart out, Doug Henning!" — possibly because you don't remember Doug Henning, but he was a thing once upon a time. 8^)</i><br /><br />I wouldn't say I <i>remember</i> him, but I am familiar with him. Though not enough for the reference to catch my attention, clearly. <br /><br /><i>These last few issues have been fun and satisfying in terms of good ol' comic-book adventure storytelling, though.</i><br /><br />I too enjoyed these issues more than I recall I did when first reading them. <br /><br /><i>Am I forgetting something (that happened or that is to come) or have they kinda glossed over the fact that the other X-Men are probably now aware both that Corsair is Cyclops' dad and Cyclops knows it. </i><br /><br />If you are, I'm forgetting it too. Now that you mention it, Claremont does seem to miss a huge opportunity to develop Professor X and Cyclops' relationship in the wake of Corsair returning to Cyclops life. I want to say that maybe Xavier has a thought or line of dialogue about it during the Paul Smith run, but I could be totally wrong. <br /><br /><i>Of course Claremont is attending a conference called Goddess Rising with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Erica Jong</i><br /><br />My thought exactly.Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-82705359279926726912012-06-08T10:37:36.270-05:002012-06-08T10:37:36.270-05:00Great blog, just discovered this while looking for...Great blog, just discovered this while looking for reviews on Kitty's Fairy Tale theater. I doubt most people felt too cheated over this issue's cover, since it seems clear in hindsight that it's meant to be Kitty and not a really ana looking Jean Grey. <br /><br />As for how the Starjammers intercepted it? Maybe it's like an actual bomb in that it needed to hit earth's core or something like that before it reached critical mass, so by intercepting it early, it wasn't nearly at full power.Dobsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08884152078310514684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83154124708438975062012-06-07T23:00:47.434-05:002012-06-07T23:00:47.434-05:00I call cosmic bandersnatch Starjammers' shield...<br><i>I call cosmic bandersnatch Starjammers' shields can withstand a beam that has "the force of a gigaton H-bomb"?</i><br /><br />Okay, I'd like to explain that this started out as a rhetorical question, I decided to turn it into a declarative statement and couldn't think of the word "shenanigans" but didn't want to resort to the scatological counterpart often used, opted in a moment of poetry for "cosmic bandersnatch", yet totally forgot to add the word "on" or to change the question mark to a period.<br /><br />'Twas brillig<br />And Mam'selle Hepzibah<br />Did gyre and gimble towards Ch'od...<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-68047606670097293092012-06-07T22:55:48.784-05:002012-06-07T22:55:48.784-05:00I'm feeling a little dumb now that I pointed o...<br>I'm feeling a little dumb now that I pointed out last week that Kitty was futzing around with the costume computer on purpose while admitting that I wasn't sure if anything ultimately came of it.<br /><br />Had I only looked at, or just <i>remembered</i>, the cover of this issue at the time I would've recalled that, well, yeah, it's going somewhere. And it's actually a pretty memorable cover, with Cockrum doing a nice job rendering a scary parlor-trick Phoenix who's obviously, in retrospect when you know what's up, the young (read: um, much less embosomed) Kitty Pryde and not Jean Grey.<br /><br /><i>It's perhaps a less egregious recall of the story here, considering the Shi'ar's involvement in both.</i><br /><br />I actually think it's a nifty idea both in-story, for Kitty and Kurt to plan, and for Claremont to use.<br /><br /><i>This issue posts the results of Britain's Eagle Awards, which </i>X-Men<i> swept.</i><br /><br />How dominating is the series? Wolverine takes both Favorite Lead Character and Favorite Supporting Character.<br /><br /><i>For some reason, Sikorsky selects Storm to assist him with Colossus' surgery.</i><br /><br />'Cuz she's a skirt an' he needs him a nurse. I'm surprised the untold story of that surgery wasn't told in a <i>Classic X-Men</i> backup or something. "Days of Sutures Past"?<br /><br /><i>I Love the 80s</i><br /><br />You didn't even mention that Kitty exclaimed "Eat your heart out, Doug Henning!" — possibly because you don't remember Doug Henning, but he was a thing once upon a time. 8^)<br /><br /><i>The captain of the Shi'ar Dreadnought is named K'rk,</i><br /><br />I proclaim this a bridge (no <i>Enterprise</i> pun intended) too far. Homages are cool unless and until they really take you out of the story.<br /><br /><i>In the end, the final issue of this part of the story falls in line with what's been said about it all along: not groundbreaking stuff, but a welcome return to solid, fun, well-constructed super-heroics, and a fantastic showcase for Dave Cockrum. </i><br /><br />Well said. I must admit that I'm enjoying the Cockrum art less this go-'round than I remembered — not that I <i>dis</i>like it, just that it's mostly serviceable, more uneven than I recall (albeit in a different way than the early issues of his first run were uneven), and not as crisp as I recall (which may be due to me choosing to remember the parts inked by Josef Rubenstein than those inked by Bob Wiacek, a perfectly fine artist in his own right, and others). These last few issues have been fun and satisfying in terms of good ol' comic-book adventure storytelling, though.<br /><br />Other thoughts...<br /><br />I love that Hepzibah's spacesuit has a big armored covering for her tail.<br /><br />Am I forgetting something (that happened or that is to come) or have they kinda glossed over the fact that the other X-Men are probably now aware both that Corsair is Cyclops' dad and Cyclops knows it. Xavier in particular, I'd think, would have at least some attempted words of care for Scott, who's been in some ways like a son to him, and perhaps some conflicted emotions that you'd think Claremont would want to play up.<br /><br />I call cosmic bandersnatch Starjammers' shields can withstand a beam that has "the force of a gigaton H-bomb"?<br /><br />That was a pretty neat letter on Nightcrawler's teleportation ability.<br /><br />Of <i>course</i> Claremont is attending a conference called Goddess Rising with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Erica Jong (per a box on the letters page).<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-19675041346367859792012-06-07T20:30:03.110-05:002012-06-07T20:30:03.110-05:00Two best uses of text on comic book covers, courte...Two best uses of text on comic book covers, courtesy Mssrs. Claremont and Davis:<br /><br />http://images.wikia.com/marveldatabase/images/0/0c/Excalibur_Vol_1_4.jpg<br /><br />http://gothamcitycomicsstore.com/index.php/excaliber/excalibur-55-nm-2.html<br /><br />--mortsleamAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-41480453007448045552012-06-07T16:38:34.204-05:002012-06-07T16:38:34.204-05:00@Matt: Anyway, that's my (completely speculati...@Matt: <i>Anyway, that's my (completely speculative) guess on the rise and fall and rise and fall of cover copy at Marvel Comics. </i><br /><br />Wow, that's a pretty impressive survey. Thanks for looking into that. I think your reasoning throughout is pretty sound, too. <br /><br /><i>...I like the Bob Harras approach (as informed by Stan Lee and the EiC's of the 70's) best -- lots of big, bold, overly melodramatic blurbs on every cover! </i><br /><br />I obviously like the cover blurbs and dialogue bubbles as well, but the thing I feel most strongly about is the generic art covers. With text or no, I want my covers to be a glimpse, whether accurate or misleading, to the events inside the comic. <br /><br />I should be able to look at a cover of a comic I've already read and go, "oh, that's the one where...". The occasional pin-up or team-up shot is fine, you can look at just about any title's run during the 00s and have no way to tell apart issues aside from their numbers, which is just sad.Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-47271255069420928532012-06-07T12:07:22.824-05:002012-06-07T12:07:22.824-05:00"Or did they do that and still not credit the..."<b>Or did they do that and still not credit the assistant editors?</b>"<br /><br />They probably did it for Assistant Editor's Month, but I'm fairly positive it didn't become a regular thing until the Harras years. I even remember reading a little item about it, maybe on the Bullpen page or in Wizard or something, where they announced that they would start crediting Assitant Editors as of that month's issues. Perhaps some editors may have credited their assistants before then, but it wasn't a line-wide standard until around the mid- to late-90's.<br /><br />"<b>Yeah, I don't even think we're that far removed from that time with this issue. Looking ahead, the next issue to feature text on the cover is #171, and the next one to feature dialogue is #190.</b>"<br /><br />I just went ahead and scanned a bunch of covers, and I see kind of a trend. For the rest of the Jim Shooter era, text, either in captions or word balloons, is mostly absent from all covers. There are occasional exceptions, but not all that many. Around the time Tom DeFalco becomes EiC (during "Fall of the Mutants"), basic blurbs begin to become more common. When Bob Harras takes over as editor (roughly around #250), the blurbs become more melodramatic than before. By the time Claremont is gone, the Scott Lobdell period features blurbs on practically every cover. This isn't exactly surprising to me, as I associate Bob Harras's tenure as Editor in Chief (in a good way) with huge, melodramatic captions in the chaotic Comicraft custom on all covers, line-wide.<br /><br />However, just for comparison's sake, I went and looked at a ton of <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> covers, too... all throughout the Shooter, DeFalco, and Harras eras, cover blurbs are a regular feature. So here's my take on the situation:<br /><br />Knowing how much control Chris Claremont had when he was at the helm of the X-Men franchise, he probably had a lot of say in cover design. Jim Shooter has talked on his blog about how involved Roy Thomas and Len Wein were with their books' covers, so it's easy to assume Claremont could have that power also, if he wanted. And -- despite his reputation for being overly wordy -- Claremont probably just liked strong, visually striking covers with as little copy as possible on them, unless he felt it was absolutely necessary.<br /><br />Enter Bob Harras, around issue #250... an editor with (for better or worse) as strong a creative vision as Claremont. And Harras obviously liked cover captions. While editing Claremont, I can imagine some fighting between the two of them over cover blurbs. Sometimes Claremont won, sometimes Harras did. Hence the sporadic, but still more than before, cover copy in the latter part of Claremont's run.<br /><br />By the time Scott Lobdell comes on, Harras is firmly entrenched as the editor and creative force behind the X-Men. And he's not going to fight some kid who <i>he</i> hired over cover copy, so he adds it on his own. Thus, the increase in cover copy under Lobdell. And when Harras takes over the big chair as EiC a few years later, he applies his cover design philosophy to the entire Marvel line.<br /><br />Then Joe Quesada, an artist, takes over as EiC. Naturally, coming from an artistic background, he hates when his drawings are covered up with unnecessary copy, so under his regime, it disappears pretty much entirely, except for story arc titles.<br /><br />Anyway, that's my (completely speculative) guess on the rise and fall and rise and fall of cover copy at Marvel Comics. It may surprise no one to hear this, but I like the Bob Harras approach (as informed by Stan Lee and the EiC's of the 70's) best -- lots of big, bold, overly melodramatic blurbs on every cover!Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-82270055372183951242012-06-06T16:31:30.369-05:002012-06-06T16:31:30.369-05:00It was only later, when reading "Operation Ga...<i>It was only later, when reading "Operation Galactic Storm" for the first time in trade format that I learned Araki had appeared there as well!</i><br /><br />Yeah, if Morrison was covering up a continuity error with the "6" appellation, it was definitely someone else's error. I'm also pretty sure Araki showed up in Brubaker's Shi'ar story - it'd be surprising if he didn't, considering that whole story was like Shi'ar old home week. <br /><br /><i>Wow, seriously? I knew she was absent for some time, but I had no idea it was that long!</i><br /><br />Yeah, me neither. After the beginning of the second part of the Brood saga, she gets mentioned a few times and pops up in the <i>Spotlight on the Starjammers</i> issues (as well as a <i>Rom</i> annual), but otherwise, we won't see her again until #274. Crazy, I know. <br /><br /><i>I don't think Marvel initiated the policy of crediting assistant editors until the Bob Harras regime.</i><br /><br />Didn't they start getting credited around the time Marvel was making a thing out of "Assistant Editor's Month", when all the editors were at the San Diego con, so ostensibly whacky things could happen in the books while the bosses were away? Or did they do that and still not credit the assistant editors? <br /><br /><i>I'm all for everyone getting their due, but why not limit all the extraneous credits to the title/recap page, which most comics have now, and leave the actual in-story credits for just the creative people?</i><br /><br />I'm not opposed to the business side of things getting credit where due, but if it's in the indicia, that counts as a credit, and I feel like the creator credits should stand out from the business side of things. It's not to say that that business side of things didn't do anything, but it feels like the creative team's involvement in any given issue is more...personal? Individualized? Something like that. <br /><br /><i>Sadly, those disappeared long ago, even before Quesada came into the picture.</i><br /><br />Yeah, I don't even think we're that far removed from that time with this issue. Looking ahead, the next issue to feature text on the cover is #171, and the next one to feature dialogue is #190. <br /><br />At least we've still got a decent amount of time in which the covers represent (for the most part) the story inside instead of just being a non-specific pin-up or team shot every month...<br /> <br /><i>It kind of miffs me that you only see balloons on covers now if a title is explicitly trying to be retro, and then only in a cheesy sort of "Can you believe comics used to look like this?" way.</i><br /><br />Me too, though I've always had the impression whatever disdain there is towards dialogue on covers comes from the publishing/business end and not the creators themselves.<br /><br /><i>Maybe by this time everyone new covers were BS...but how pissed would be if you actually believe what was on the cover of this issue?</i><br /><br />"Oh man, Dark Phoenix is back! Awesome...wait, that's it?!?"<br /><br />I'm not sure how saavy readers were back then, in terms of falling for that kind of stuff. Probably depends on their age. I mean, I was a pretty stupid/trusting kid when it came to stuff like this and I remember being disappointed when the insides of a comic failed to live up to the cover.Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-63191584279919295352012-06-06T15:51:46.691-05:002012-06-06T15:51:46.691-05:00Maybe by this time everyone new covers were BS...b...Maybe by this time everyone new covers were BS...but how pissed would be if you actually believe what was on the cover of this issue?Dr. Bitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13568570859981368717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49836465079826190072012-06-06T15:32:17.194-05:002012-06-06T15:32:17.194-05:00I would agree with your assessment that this story...I would agree with your assessment that this story could've been an issue shorter. As much as I like this first segment of the Brood saga more than the second, it is a little padded in places.<br /><br />"<b>Chancellor Araki dies this issue, though he'll pop up again in Avengers #363 and then in New X-Men #133, in which he calls himself Araki 6, suggesting his consciousness may be getting transferred into cloned bodies.</b>"<br /><br />I remember reading that <i>New X-Men</i> issue and thinking it was just another instance of the Jemas/Quesada loose (some might say careless) approach to continuity, with the Araki 6 reference added to cover up the blunder after someone noticed he was supposed to be dead. It was only later, when reading "Operation Galactic Storm" for the first time in trade format that I learned Araki had appeared there as well! I think post-Morrison, he also showed up in Brubaker's "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire", didn't he?<br /><br />"<b>Deathbird ... won't appear in the book again until after Jim Lee comes aboard.</b>"<br /><br />Wow, seriously? I knew she was absent for some time, but I had no idea it was that long!<br /><br />"<b>Though not yet credited on the title page, the letters page lists Danny Fingeroth as the assistant editor of the book.</b>"<br /><br />I doubt he was ever credited on the title page... I don't think Marvel initiated the policy of crediting assistant editors until the Bob Harras regime. Though it may have been even later than that, under Quesada.<br /><br />This brings me to a tangent: I miss when comic book credits were simply Writer, Penciler, Inker, Letterer, Colorist, Editor. Adding Assistant Editor was fine, too. But Bill Jemas decided the President should have a credit, which was ludicrous since his name was in the indicia. Dan Buckley kept the practice alive by giving himself a Publisher credit (also in the indicia). Nowadays we have weird things like Producer and Executive Producer, plus Associate Editors and Managing Editors and so many names stuffed in the credit box that it just looks silly.<br /><br />I'm all for everyone getting their due, but why not limit all the extraneous credits to the title/recap page, which most comics have now, and leave the actual in-story credits for just the creative people? It would look a lot cleaner.<br /><br />"<b>For some reason, Sikorsky selects Storm to assist him with Colossus' surgery.</b>"<br /><br />Maybe he's heard stories of her nimble hands?<br /><br />"<b>Those speech bubbles on the cover look positively quaint these days...</b>"<br /><br />Sadly, those disappeared long ago, even before Quesada came into the picture. I remember a cover with some speech balloons from the Scott Lobdell/Joe Madureira era (when the X-Men were in space fighting the Phalanx), and when I first saw it, it seemed unexpectedly old-fashioned to me even then.<br /><br />It kind of miffs me that you only see balloons on covers now if a title is explicitly trying to be retro, and then only in a cheesy sort of "Can you believe comics used to look like this?" way.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.com