Ricky Jackson

Ok, so I've been reading old comics like crazy for about 9 months now. Recently finished/paused some longer runs so I thought I'd give my thoughts on favorites, underrated/overrated, creators, etc over this time. Favourite reads (no particular order) Starlin's Captain Marvel and Warlock: I dunno, I just really like Starlin's art. These two runs aren't perfect but I found them a quick and easy read. Especially liked Captain Marvel. Plus, Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel was great Englehart's Avengers: Had been wanting to read this run (105-150, with plot credits for 151-52, plus four Giant Size issues) for many years, and it did not disappoint. It peaks with the end of the Mantis saga and the wedding of Vision and Scarlet Witch in Giant Size #4 imo. It runs out of a bit of steam for the last 12 or so issues, but George Perez does take over the art chores, so that's a major plus considering it was musical chairs before him Englehart's Dr.Strange 1973-1975: Started this in 2018 and finally finished it last March before my reading explosion. Great stuff, especially with Frank Brunner on art Defenders 1971-1976: Originally I was just going to read Gerber's run (20-41) but decided to start from the very beginning (Marvel Feature #1), and I'm glad I did. Through Thomas, Englehart, Wein and Gerber you get a bunch of fun characters, wacky stories and solid Sal Buschema art. Always put a smile on my face. Maybe my ultimate covid comic comfort food Tomb of Dracula 1972-1974: I've been taking it slow with this series but I've enjoyed almost everything so far (though #24). A few missteps, and writer musical chairs early on, but once Wolfman finds his stride (with the great Gene Colon on art from #1) this is really good. Great cast of characters, with Dracula himself an all-time great New Frontier: Started to dip into comics from approximately 2000-2010 in a bid to catch up on stuff I missed.(will do 2011-? later this year) This is a great series, and a love letter to 50s-60s DC Unstable Molecules: This came out around 2003 and is basically an indie-style take on the Fantastic Four. Highly recommended FF Grand Design/Spider-Man: Life Story: Put these two series together as they are similar throwback/fresh takes on old concepts books. Also among the newest comics I've read (2019). Grand Design, by new fave Tom Scioli, supposes that the story of the FF from 1961 to about 1986 or so was planned out from start to finish from day one, while Life Story attempts to tell the history of Spider Man as if everything progressed in real time, with Peter in his 70s by 2019. Really fun stuff for a longtime fan of both FF and Spidey like myself. X Men: Grand Design by Ed Piskor is also good Astro City, vol 12: I'm a longtime Astro City fan and plan to get around to everything I've missed, which is basically the last 6-7 volumes. Kindle Unlimited had everything for free as part of a sub and I was going to sign up at a discount and read them that way. Unfortunately, all Astro City stuff has been pulled from Kindle and Comixology for some reason. Volume 12 was the only one I got around to on Comixology. Great stuff in this one, mostly a tale about longtime on again, off again lovers Quarrel and Crackerjack dealing with getting too old for crime fighting Jack Kirby bio by Tom Scioli: This came out last summer and I highly recommend it for Kirby fans. Really detailed graphic story of the King's life done by an artist who loves his work (see also FF: Grand Design) Enjoyable but inconsistent/missing something Thomas/Adams' X Men: Mostly just skimmed though this for the art by Neal Adams, which was pretty top notch, done just before he became huge with Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman. Considering what came before for the X Men in the 60s, this was definitely the peak of the title before being doomed to 5 years as a reprint mag, even with Thomas' dialogue not exactly aging well Gerber's Man Thing 1972-1974: One of my main missions of the last year was to finally read Gerber's 70s output, which was relatively difficult to accomplish 20 years ago during my last fandom peak. Man Thing was up and down, as the years have dulled the satire a bit. When it hits (such as with the Superman spoof, Wundarr) it's great, but a lot of the run is pretty average. Mike Ploog's art during the second half is awesome, though Kirby's Jimmy Olsen and the Demon: Another mission was to go through the 70s Kirby I haven't read (basically everything besides New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle). Olsen was fun, especially at the start of the run. I thought the Demon was pretty good most of the time, but also kinda petered out at the end. Going to go back to the 50s for my next Kirby fix, with Challengers of the Unknown. Then, I think, either Kamandi or the Eternals Englehart's Captain America: This run (153-186) started off great with the return of the 50s Cap and Bucky, now deranged due to taking the Super Soldier serum without being exposed to the supplemental "Vita rays", which prevent eventual insanity. After that the book kinda meanders until the big Secret Empire saga, which was hit and miss imo. A disillusioned Cap subsequently quitting, hitting the road, and becoming Nomad, with the Falcon picking up the slack in NYC, and a succession of ill-prepared replacement Cap's running around, is a better story. The less said about end of the run, featuring an extremely ill-conceived retcon of the Falcon's origin, the better Panther's Rage by McGregor: Great art throughout (Jungle Action 6-18), but McGregor's purple prose almost killed me by the end Ditko's Shade the Changing Man: Maybe Ditko's last hurrah? Definitely a fun, offbeat science fiction story, with a Dr. Strange vibe to the art (the covers are particularly great). Just as things were kicking into another gear, the book was canceled as part of the infamous DC Implosion of 1978 Grell's Longbow Hunters: This was pretty good. Great art. I probably would've been more into it if I was more of a Green Arrow fan Hickman's Fantastic Four: I've really liked a lot of this long run (2009-2012), especially the whole Council of Reeds concept and the "death" of Johnny Storm arc. The fact you get actual character development, not to mention evolution of the FF concept itself, is refreshing for a mag in its 50th year. However, the resolution (and a lot of the journey) of two years of storyline was more than a bit bloated, especially when it splits into two titles with #600. Loved the touching look into the future story in #605. Still not done this, so I may bump it into my favorites by the end Swamp Thing 2011: Huge old time Swamp Thing fan, so I gave this a go after hearing praise for it on the Comics Canon podcast. Just read the first 7 issues. Good but not great. Need to read the next arc eventually Daredevil: Yellow: Plan on finishing all the Loeb and Sale "colour" mini series'. I had only read, and loved, Spider Man: Blue before. This was ok. Frank Miller had covered a lot of this ground already, so it didn't feel as "new" to me. I guess if I had read this when it first came out, when Karen Page's death was still a recent development, I would've enjoyed this more. I also haven't read much of 1960s DD outside of the original 11 issues, so I dont have an attachment to her as a character. Going to try Hulk: Gray next Nothing special/skimmed Kirby's New Gods coda: I really liked "Even Gods Must Die", the 1984 sequel to New Gods that was included in the baxter reprints of the original series. Very much an Empire Strikes Back feel, with Orion being left for dead at the end after finally confronting Darkseid. Hunger Dogs, the graphic novel finale, left me kinda cold. It felt like a totally different story than what had come before in many ways. The way Kirby illustrated Darkseid being left alone and pathetic was great, though Prez: This was another one I had wanted to read back in the day just because the premise sounded so wacky. This was...definitely wacky, much like most of Joe Simon's 70s output. This was like the comic book equivalent of watching Alice's Restuarant or something, an artifact of an era where you really needed to be there to fully appreciate it, maybe Gerber's Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel Presents 3-9): I think I need a break from Gerber. This was not without its charms. The characters are mostly likable. I especially liked Martinex, who always strives to be good and do the right thing, and Vance Astro, who is having a really, really hard time coping with being a thousand year old man who will turn to dust if he takes off his costume. Plus you get the crazy metaphorical cosmic sex scene between Vance and Nikki in issue 7! World's Greatest Comic Magazine: This came out to coincide with the FFs 40th anniversary in 2001. The concept is "what if Stan and Jack ended their run on FF with an epic storyline that put a bow on the first 102 issues?" This was mostly fun, but a little hollow. A bunch of different artists do their best Kirby impression, Dr. Doom becomes godlike, but in the end 12 issues was a bit much for me (and as you can tell, I was on a bit of an FF kick last year) The Order: I saw this mentioned as something recommended from Marvel from the last 20 years. It's a Defenders story by Kurt Busiek, and after finishing Gerber's run I thought I'd check it out. It's good but not terribly memorable or anything. Defenders mega fans will probably really like it Strange Tales (2009-10): I just skimmed through these issues, which was an anthology series of indie talent doing mostly comical takes on Marvel characters. Some really funny stuff (Banner having to turn into the Hulk in order to open a jar of pickles was my fave), some really esoteric stuff, and some really weird stuff all together by some really talented creators. Six giant sized issues was a bit too much for a limited concept, though Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive: I've always been a Tracy fan going back to the late 80s and Blackthorne reprints. This had Mike Allred involvement, and he's one of my faves. That said, this didnt do it for me. The art just seemed...wrong. I guess my main complaint is this just didnt feel like the Dick Tracy I know and love, so it was hard for me to get into (and I'm not just a Gould fan, I've also enjoyed Collins/Fletcher and Staton/Curtis over the years) Early-70s Ghost Rider: Ploog's art is wonderful, but the story didnt hook me to survive past his time on the book Not Brand Echh: Another one I just skimmed though (dear God, there is more text than a 19th century novel), pretty much entirely for the artists. Love Marie Severin, and it's great seeing Colon doing humour Fun Spidey/Torch 2005: Saw this recommended and decided to check it out. Fun, easy read. Plan on checking out Slott's She Hulk eventually Marvel Two in One 1-7: These are so much fun. I plan on resuming this eventually and also going through Marvel Team Up (only read the first 4 issues so far) Not Good America vs the Justice Society: I'm a HUGE Earth 2 fan. I remember trying to find these issues many years ago, before it was reprinted, with no luck. Turns it it wasn't worth the wait. Talk about your 19th century novels, Jesus Christ, Roy! Also, the convoluted plot really doesn't make sense. Desperately needed Jerry Ordway on art, but not sure if even he could've saved this. Big letdown

After the 77-78 feud with Graham, Dusty did MSG shots for several years. In 1981 he did a few TV appearances leading up to a big MSG match with Killer Khan, during the period when Khan had put Andre on the shelf with a broken ankle in storyline. Other than that it was strictly special attraction appearances, which ended after Vince Jr left the NWA in August 83

Also, great stuff Loss. I've been following along on Twitter already. Keep it up

I'm biased because I used to be part of a podcast about the Backlund-era, and while the match quality for MSG, Philly, etc, undercards could be extremely poor at times, matches with the JTTS crew on regular TV were often pretty damn good. Even the midcard vs midcard matches on TV could be much better than matches between the same talent on a house show. I think there was definitely something to the idea that undercard wrestlers on house shows were often careful not to upstage the main event, but on TV they let loose a bit more

Zayn was a really great babyface in NXT circa 2013-15, but I agree. I loved the Generico gimmick. The tag with him and Steen, really. That was the only time I've ever been into ROH

December 1, 1990 Superstars, during the Snuka match obviously. The audio is on this ep of Greetings from Allentown https://open.spotify.com/episode/43nsQ1hbKarwPdRFxZQPwv?si=rPY1eEOwSWCbAUm_DAN6Cw&utm_source=copy-link

Hell, Vince and Piper even *wink, wink* joke about Snuka possibly murdering his girlfriend on a late 1990 Superstars. Wish I could provide more info off the top of my head. It was talked about on an old Greetings From Allentown pod

Maybe this thread can be changed to "state of fandom in 2021" or something. As for me, outside of hanging out here and a few other things (a podcast here, an occasional get together with Johnny and friends for Mystery Titans there) I've been been on a total break from wrestling since last May or June. I just needed it I think, and the pandemic era has made it easy not to care about new stuff. I'm ok, comic books are keeping me sane. Glad others are still finding joy in the squared circle

It made sense because his whole heel turn came about because he was bitter over being screwed out of the title, by Shawn at Mania 12, and Sid and Taker on Raw a few weeks before. (Austin too, of course) And originally Bret was to face Sid at the next PPV iirc. It also got him over as a whiney, entitled asshole heel, to Americans at least

Was it really that bad back in the day? Sure, JVK vs jdw was a blood feud, and a few posters were banned for being dicks, but compared to a lot of places PWO was usually pretty tame. I guess it depended on how serious one got into debates over wrestlers and matches

He had it all and then he got that damn tattoo

When I see "twinkletoes" I only think about it being Fred Flintstone's bowling nickname

My hole starting a new boom period

Try goodhelmet, I guess?

That's a cool bit of historical info. Thanks for sharing

Oh you Americans and your competitive marketplaces, with tons of subscription perks. (bitter Canadian here who once used a VPN to circumvent crappy near monopolistic Canadian cable systems, with their stupid streaming rules and other bullshit barriers)

I've seen a lot of praise for the magazine version of Planet of the Apes. I had a few issues when I was a kid because I was a big fan of the movies. Plan on reading the run eventually. The confusion with Savage Tales is probably because it was canceled after one issue but Stan brought it back after he became publisher over a year later. Red Nails is really good. I finally got a copy of the 80s color reprint last year

Ha, this should be fun. Gotta be more L's than W's, even with that 10-year or so stretch of epics (some of which were really bloated and dont hold up)

Nah, that's just some old made up newz. Backlund was a pro about the switch, although privately crushed it was finally over. As soon as Hogan signed around mid-Dec 83 the decision was made to drop the strap to Backlund's next MSG challenger (Sheik) in order to get it to Hogan asap

That's an interesting one. I read Backlund's autobiography but I cant remember if he outright stated he did that or not. Superstar Graham definitely claimed Backlund was paranoid and iirc it stemmed from a match where he got Backlund to agree to a screwy finish where Graham was briefly declared the winner and new champ, or something like that. Nearfalls in general back in the day were far, far, far (infinitely) less common than today though, so claims that Backlund refused to give anyone more than a one-count may be exaggerated. Years back I watched a ton of Backlund matches and specifically remember him kicking out at one from a big, finishing type move from Sika and thinking "really, just one?", but then again, it was only Sika. That was in 1980, and later in the year he let Killer Khan get an almost 2.9 on him during a match at MSG, so he wasn't a total selfish ass lol

They had run Tito vs Hammer I think 6 times at MSG prior to Mania, including a lumberjack match only a few weeks before. It was the right call to go with the fresh match here, even if it turned out to be a dud

It was "resolved" about 5 issues after Gerber's run ended. Then years later it was brought back when DeMatteis was the writer but I've haven't read those issues

I love Astro City but something about the Dark Age didnt grab me like other arcs and stories in the run. I seem to remember that in real time it took quite a while for all the issues to come out, like several years, and I didnt finish it until much later, when it was all collected in trades. May have to re-read someday. Gerber can be hit and miss. I really liked a lot of Howard the Duck when I tried reading the whole run back in the day but eventually tapped out about halfway through. Man Thing was similarly inconsistent. I really enjoyed his Defenders run, although at the end, the Headmen saga went on a bit too long and the climax wasn't great. Going to read his Guardians of the Galaxy next and then finally Omega

Shit, I'm not sure if I knew about that and had forgotten or not. Horrible

Re: Captain Marvel reprints. Was listening to a comics history podcast the other day, a retrospective of 80s Secret Origins from DC, already 5-6 years old, and one of the hosts (seemed very historically knowledgeable) offhandedly mentioned that the lack of Captain Marvel reprints is due to the racism depicted in some of the 40s issues. I've read some of the old issues but not a lot. I dont remember anything glaring like some comics from the time. Anyone have thoughts on this?