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Posted: |
May 28, 2009 - 5:03 PM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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The arrival of Summer--at least where I live-- has inspired me to once again read some favorite comics. I just got an Uncanny X-Men Marvel Masterworks in the mail today (the Claremont-Byrne run- #111-121) and the upgrade in color and paper quality will no doubt help me to better enjoy the stories and art! Higher-grade paper and colors and all. Looking through my old, slightly beat-up books, (even though in bags and boards; but hey, I'm a reader first) is like looking through a dirty window with a cataract, so I'm happy to upgrade.
Anyway...
There's quite a bit of nostalgia coming through the X-Men of Claremont/Cockrum/Bryne. These stories were powerful to me when I first read them and coupled with the memories of being a dorky kid also comes back. These stories were important to me and emotionally gripping. No other super-hero books affected me this way. I think part of the reason I stayed away from these was because of the powerful (and perhaps painful) associations I had with these books. They were a comfort and I actually cared about these characters. I'm still stunned by X-Men #137, and always will be, which made Jean Grey's eventual resurrection all the more disheartening.
I haven't read these stories in over twenty-five years. I didn't have many of those books (111-121) and I look forward to catching up with this, my favorite super-hero book of them all.
I also recommend that X-Men fans seek out the two-volume "The X-Men Companion" which has extensive, in-depth interviews with all the creative people behind the comics. Great, great insight and as candid as can be. I had volume two as a kid and only found volume one about twelve years ago. I had those interviews memorized as much as I did the actual stories.
P.S. No, I haven't seen the Wolverine movie, either!
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I read the STRANGE AND STRANGER book on Steve Ditko a few months ago (I got it as a Christmas present). Ditko is certainly an odd duck...he sticks by his personal philosophy with a rare fanaticism.
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Jim, our suspicion amounting to an outright certainty is you may be in for a right pleasant surprise revisiting those earlier (and still-seminal) Claremont-Byrne masterpieces. It was a helluva run (which neither ever again equaled separately or in creative collaboration with anyone else) – and we share how powerful an impact the original Jean Grey/Phoenix storyline had.
Indeed, aside from Frank Miller’s equally astounding tragic spin vis-a-vis
one’s hard put to come up with many other exemplary examples of a story-line with such organic life it had the thunderbolt intensity – and ultimate inevitability – of a greek tragedy.
As for Stan and Jack, Lee ( ),
Kirby biographer and expert Mark Evanier has never been shy about spotlighting The King’s human flaws, nor have they been glossed over, ignored or whitewashed.
The pity is that, ala Shatner, it’s always been a crying shame Smiley’s amazing talent has never been enuff to satisfy his insatiable ego (say whatever you wanna about either Kirby or Ditko, they never had to extol themselves at the expense of others’ equally invaluable contributions).
In the end, the personality piccadillos are ultimately irrevelant; it’s the wonder of their WORK that’ll stand the test of time which, in matters of creativity, is pretty much all we can hope, look forward to
and be grandly grateful for …
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Some Additional Relief from the Bullpen () So Yer Not Carryin’ This Load All Alone Department:
We doth categorically concur with your admiring assessment of Mr. Byrne’s celebrated run, Jim,
(which, by da bye, we regard as the SECOND Best on The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine after Stan and Jack’s epochal inaugural 101 originals).
Appreciative Addendum Department Two:
Incidentally, we regard his handling of Sue Storm’s Invisible Woman (she’s ne’er been a wisp of a “girl”) as even surpassing ol' Smiley; the final black-bordered sequence when she loses her baby is our choice for Mr. Byrne’s most moving and magnificent conclusion.
As for beaming back for the first of those fabled Namor-Sue Storm-Reed Richards-FF thrillers, we well remember waiting with baited breath for the monthly arrivals of these seminal issues:
[ Each and every one of these dynamic covers by the Michelangelo of Manga, King Kirby
As for THE FABULOUS FOIST und GRANDADDY OF ALL MARVEL BATTLES, This Is It:
Definitely To Be Marvel-ously Continued, Facing Back AND Front, Faithful One …
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