Okay, its rare nuff that I pour honey all over anything, so I'll just leave out the heaping pile of sugar that this book deserves, and get straight to the "why".



Remember those great comics with Marvel's own Dick Clark, Ben Grimm? The guy just EVERYONE wants to be seen with? Ben appears in all kindsa books, plus had a few series' of his own, with all the guest stars, and some great and not-so-great villains that made it, simply GREAT!
Dan Slott, with some terrific art by Andrea (I'm not a chick) Divito and superb colouring by Laura (I am a chick) Villari has given rise to a new tradition in comics, albeit one that has been done before. He isn't seeking to invent the wheel, just reinvent it so it rolls as smoothely and wunnerfully as the old one! Why monkey with success, right?
The craft is verah good, with some clever arrangements, good panel-to-panel storytelling and SOLID plotting. The issues close with timing, and build as they progress. The first arc had a *GASP* beginning, a middle and an ending! It developed characters and introduced characters to people who didn't know them, and managed to squeze in quite a bit of fun and story along the way. Plus a few good jokes!
The ghost of a (tall) prior editor in chief seems to loom over Slott's notebook. All of the elements are there for old-time geezers like myself who only get some of the jokes on the second pass, but guess what? It wuz good enough to read three or four times! It passes tha "DADDIO" test! So, even I managed to get the good jokes I missed the first coupla times. Divito even drew in another "Devito" at the celebrity bash!
It also does a little prospecting, this book, building upon Marvel lore, such as this criticaly acclaimed book from days of yore:


I mean, if Slott can make "Bird-nose" and Frank Schlichting interesting, the well-timed use of Matt Murcock, Tony Stark and Cauldron: the Scalding Man seem cool, adding Ben Grimm to the mix puts it over the top! Did I mention the hot babes?
Look for this cover in yer laff-books store, in the near future:



And there's also this little editing error from Marvel.com: Also… Something’s not right on the surface of the Moon, a certain something that can only mean more problems for the idol of millions!
It says its for issue #3, but there's nothing about that in the book. Don't forget Reed's cryptic vissive from issue one also, about "...a little experiment that should help rectify matters..."


[T'anks fer da images, Marvel.com and Milehighcomics.com!]

Daddio hits it out of the park! Well said. This book is becoming a favourite of mine fer sure. You convey exactly what I like about the book, albeit more clearly and eloquenty. When you gush, you gush appropriately!

BUY THIS BOOK Y'ALL!

I am enjoying his work a lot too. Really enjoyed the coloring of The Thing in #2.

I flipped through #1, but picked up #2, and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the rest of Slott's run. Gotta hunt down #1 though!

So nice to see there's still some good comics at Marvel. Now if someone could clone Slott and Kirkman and put them to work on the other comics…

'Xactly. And I meant to cite Mister Hearn's endorsement from the Diddy thread, but fergot!
Also, Linda ordered me to leave out spoilers, so its "Newbie-fresh"!

I will offer this cover from #5 and then #6 which I think has made its rounds 'round here.



Looks serious, but DANG does the Thing clean up nice in dat suit!



Divito also did the chores on last year's Stormbreaker, the Saga of Beta Ray Bill [plug].

Someone asked me about Matt Murdock and Alicia Masters and if they'd met before. I thought Matt was at the opening of Alicia's show in Marvel Two In One #60, with the impossible Man, but alas, I was wrong. And there was an FF Annual (#13?) where the Mole Man was kidnapping society's unwanted, and undesirable, which, of course, included the blind, and Alicia was featured VERY prominently, and Matt Murdock narrowly missed getting nabbed, but they didn't MEET.
They did meet at the FF's 20th Anniversary Roast, albeit BARELY.
If anyone has a real Alicia-Matt encounter, lemme know.

BUMP because I reread the first two issues. It feels good to be excited about a comic book.

Okay, its like the inverse Diddy: I keep adding junk that I like, and heap praise upon it until Linda gets so sick of the thread, she finally BEGS me to stop.



This is a very cute play, and a MUST fer "lifers" like me. Old illustrations and stories of characters even Kevin Bennet fergot about! The pages are coloured to look like all our old comics from the late sixties, just to add to the flavah. The Sal Buscema cover is almost worth it by itself! Just BUY IT!!

THE STORY: Here it is, True Believers! You knew we'd do it sooner or later! From the Venerable Vaults of Marveldom, it's the Mighty Marvel Handbook -- 1960s style! Just what is the 1960s Handbook, you ask? Imagine a Handbook written at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31, 1969. The profiles within cover everything published by the hallowed House of Ideas up until that point. So if it's from a comic that has a December 1969 cover date or earlier, you'll find it in this magnificent mag! From the Acrobat to Zota -- with the Avengers, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, the Sub-Mariner, Thor and the X-Men as they were in the 1960s, as well as ’60s-era characters such as Factor Three, the Beasts of Berlin, Chili, the Infant Terrible, Mogul of the Mystic Mountain, the Painter of 1000 Perils, the Living Brain, Patsy Walker, the Blackie Drago Vulture, the Ringo Kid and more!
64 PGS./RATED T+ …$4.99

Suddenly Marble remembers us old guys!

What is it with the Ant-Man size images in this thread? What is this, Darren? Shrinkage? Miniaturage?

This looks like the gumball machine teeny-books Marvel sold in the '60s:

Now this is just a really great idea. 8)

Darren doesn't Dew big pictures

Bill

That does look like a lot of fun. When does it come out?

(And yeah, there are indeed a couple of characters there that I don't recall! )

It's out this week! My only gripe about it is the lack of major villains. No Doc Doom, Galactus, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Red Skull, Kang, Dormammu, Baron Mordo, Loki, Juggernaut, Kingpin, etc.....

Also, big guest stars like the Watcher and The Inhumans (sorry Bob) are left out as well.

Still, it's a fun book. It's nice to see some of the "little" guys get some play.

Not to mention the new cover by "Our Pal" Sal Buscema. Hopefully we'll see more books like this come out if this one sells well.

Yep! Its out this week, doesn't feature a lot of the "heavies" like Doc Ock or Doctor Doom, or KANG, all of whom were clearly present; I assume this is because they will all have their own major entries in the OHOTMU.
And, Robert, or DONTCHU READ TOO GOOD?

(Psst! Linda, the tiny covers are from Marvel.com; their oversized ones are unlinkable, but I wanted the folks to be able to find theimages' "home" if'n they were clever ducks!)

Why would anybody prefer to read about Doctor Doom instead of the Beasts of Berlin??

Seriously. I mean, my first ever custom HeroClix character was the Fabulous Frog-Man. Obscure characters have more fun! (Well, until Scourge saunters their way, anyways...)

"GUSTICE IS GERVED!!"

Gometimes I just scan and giss a few things, so I guess I gon't gead to good.

Robert K. Live from Austin

I musta missed the implied insult the first time 'round.

Anyway, more "Old School" Marvelage that I musta been asleep fer:



Daughters of the Dragon One Shot from Marvel, featuring Chris Claremont and marshall Rogers' run on the series from the old black and white line of Marvel magazines. AND a spankin' new cover from Rogers!



This one has a great new story (with some relevance--gasp!) featuring Miss America, the Torch, cap and Namor. It also reprints issues 1 and 2 of the original series, and some Golden Age greats.