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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 9:15 am 
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Ancient Alien Theorist

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There's doesn't seem to be a dedicated thread to this, so I guess I'll have to start one.

If you’re looking for a massive compendium of Golden Age comics on the cheap, let me recommend the Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics. I bought this based on Jason Czeskleba's recommendation on another board and for the price, it didn't disappoint. The print quality is pretty fuzzy, it's surprising to see something with the Smithsonian's name on t that has such a low-grade of line "crispness," but it's all still readable. For the amount of content, it's a true bargain for under $10. (Ignore the Prime price, there's used sellers offering it at prices as low as $3.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874742285/?tag=imwan-20

The main feature for superhero fans is the reprinting of "Captain Marvel Versus the Plot Against the Universe," which Jason C. and many others consider the best Captain Marvel story of all time. (As I imagine any serious superhero fan has already read Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27.)

It works well as a compilation of the best of American comics prior to the Comics Code, the only glaring omission is something by the team of Simon and Kirby. The first appearance of Captain America springs to mine, though I also notice they didn't really have a lot of war comics stuff in there, so including Boy Commandos probably could have killed two birds with one stone. That said, I already have several Simon & Kirby hardbacks, so no loss on my end.

Here's a sampling if you're interested:

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:46 am 
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Mr. IMWANKO

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Grew up on that book of my Dad's. Everyone should have a copy.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:51 am 
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Mr. IMWANKO

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Wow. That came out in 1982? I was already 19. Dad had a lot of these types of comic collections,
but it really surprises me how I thought I was much younger when I read it.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:54 am 
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That looks awesome.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:26 am 
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Ancient Alien Theorist

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Beachy wrote:
Wow. That came out in 1982? I was already 19. Dad had a lot of these types of comic collections,
but it really surprises me how I thought I was much younger when I read it.

Maybe you're getting it mixed up with Jules Ffeifer's book? It's very similar.


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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 12:09 pm 
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Yeah, I have that book. It has a great Spirit story in it

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 2:43 pm 
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Hanzo the Razor wrote:
Beachy wrote:
Wow. That came out in 1982? I was already 19. Dad had a lot of these types of comic collections,
but it really surprises me how I thought I was much younger when I read it.

Maybe you're getting it mixed up with Jules Ffeifer's book? It's very similar.

Possibly. He had both, and the Ffeifer book would have been on hand in the 60s when I started
learning how to read.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 9:09 pm 
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Glad to see you took my recommendation, Hanzo!

The Jules Feiffer book is pretty awesome too. The main difference is that the Feiffer book is very superhero-centric, whereas the Smithsonian book tries to shine a light on the other styles and genres of the Golden Age, and has much less superhero content. As such, the two of them are very complementary with almost no overlap.

One thing I like about the Smithsonian Book is that it is sourced directly from photographs of actual printed comics, rather than the complicated process used with most Golden Age reprints wherein they traced the original comics to create new B&W photostats that they could freshly recolor. The latter approach was taken with the Feiffer book as well as DC's Archives and most other Golden Age reprints that have been published over the years. While it is true that the colors look murkier and duller when you use photos of comics, to me that is far better than using trace jobs which subtly alter the artwork and lose delicate linework, making the art look more crude than it originally did. The Smithsonian book is the only book where you can see the first Batman story as it originally appeared in Detective #27. Every other reprint of this story uses one of two trace jobs done in 1968 and 1972.


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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 8:42 am 
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Ancient Alien Theorist

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Jason Czeskleba wrote:
One thing I like about the Smithsonian Book is that it is sourced directly from photographs of actual printed comics, rather than the complicated process used with most Golden Age reprints wherein they traced the original comics to create new B&W photostats that they could freshly recolor. The latter approach was taken with the Feiffer book as well as DC's Archives and most other Golden Age reprints that have been published over the years. While it is true that the colors look murkier and duller when you use photos of comics, to me that is far better than using trace jobs which subtly alter the artwork and lose delicate linework, making the art look more crude than it originally did. The Smithsonian book is the only book where you can see the first Batman story as it originally appeared in Detective #27. Every other reprint of this story uses one of two trace jobs done in 1968 and 1972.

Good point, though more modern books scan the pages and look much better... but obviously that process wasn't available in 1981. The Simon & Kirby YOUNG ROMANCE collection was created by restoring scans of the original comics... but it was a labor of love that might not be economically viable for reprints in general (though if they're paying to have them recolored...).

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 8:44 am 
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I found this scan of a Scribbly page and would be totally satisfied with this line and color quality --

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 8:50 am 
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Photos/scans of the original printed pages (or, of course ideally, of the original art) are the way to go for me. Some of the early Archives and Masterworks are not representative of the original artists' work. The ones I was most disappointed with were the Plastic Man and Shazam volumes, where whoever DC had "restoring" the books was no Jack Cole or C.C. Beck. It was heart-breaking to see those poor tracings being preserved as though they were in any way representing the work of those men.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 9:30 am 
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Jason Michael wrote:
Photos/scans of the original printed pages (or, of course ideally, of the original art) are the way to go for me. Some of the early Archives and Masterworks are not representative of the original artists' work. The ones I was most disappointed with were the Plastic Man and Shazam volumes, where whoever DC had "restoring" the books was no Jack Cole or C.C. Beck. It was heart-breaking to see those poor tracings being preserved as though they were in any way representing the work of those men.

Yeah, I actually sold off my Shazam Archives. That said, CC Beck wasn't the CC Beck we'd all come to know and love early on in his run with Fawcett -- he even drew Cap with a different face!

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 10:12 am 
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Yes, the early Captain Marvel was based on actor Fred MacMurray who was a very big movie star at the time. Now he's pretty much remembered (If he's remembered at all!) for '60s sitcom My Three Sons.
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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 11:25 am 
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I love that early costume!

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:21 pm 
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Jason Michael wrote:
Yes, the early Captain Marvel was based on actor Fred MacMurray who was a very big movie star at the time. Now he's pretty much remembered (If he's remembered at all!) for '60s sitcom My Three Sons.

Yeah, but then he changed the way he drew him later and I wonder why. His face got rounder and his nose a bit shorter as well. He looked a lot like German boxer Max Schmeling to me.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:22 pm 
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Marcus wrote:
I love that early costume!

:thumbsup: Yeah, I always liked it too. it's pretty unique.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:39 pm 
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Jason Michael wrote:
Marcus wrote:
I love that early costume!

:thumbsup: Yeah, I always liked it too. it's pretty unique.

CC Beck weighs in on it --

CC Beck wrote:
While Superman's costume was essentially the old-time circus strongman's outfit of tights and long cape, Captain Marvel's was an operetta-style soldier's uniform. He wore a sash, a jacket-like top, tight pants (not tights), and had a small, braid-trimmed cape flung over one shoulder when he first appeared. Such a costume was often worn by drum majors, doormen, or ushers. It wouldn't have been out of place even on the streets in those days.

Captain Marvel's so-called 'armbands' were his Captain's sleeve marks, showing the rank of Captain. Few people - artists, editors, or publishers - ever understood this or the fact that the decorations on Captain Marvel's cape were the ornamental buttons and braiding used on military outfits...

The Marvel Family characters were originally designed to be as different as possible from all of comic books' other tights-wearing strongman characters, who were also often hooded or masked. The Marvel Family were supposed to look more like high school or college athletes.


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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:42 pm 
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CC Beck is an interesting guy. He was a total curmudgeon who didn't like the direction superhero books took after the Golden Age, yet was also very humble about his role in Cap's success, seeing himself as merely an art robot that illustrates the stories (which he considered the real source of success for the franchise).

https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/an-interv ... h-c-c-beck


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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:44 pm 
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And here's a retrospective essay he wrote in the mid-eighties covering Captain Marvel --

https://twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/03beck.html

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 1:37 pm 
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Beck had a regular column in the Comics Journal in the '80s.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 2:06 pm 
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And a weird,crabby read it often was.
Beck came off sounding like John Byrne,but at least smarter.

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 Post subject: Golden Age Comic Books
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 3:07 pm 
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Interesting column on Captain Marvel's origin --

Quote:
But that first act of the origin tale is remarkable. It's so charged with the symbols of both fairy tale and initiation ceremony that it generates a level of power quite separate to the effect of the visible events on the surface of the tale.

And so, when, for example, Jim Steranko said of "Whiz Comics" # 2, in his "History Of Comics" volume 2, that "... even the youngest comic book reader could have no trouble understanding the story", he wasn't quite succeeding in explaining how this tale actually worked, and what still underpins a great part of its appeal. For, yes, any reader could follow and enjoy the elegant simplicity of writer Bill Parker and artist C. C. Beck's story, but understanding a story is of course a quite a different thing to comprehending its effect.

In fact, I really don't think that I truly understand the first five and so pages of the tale myself, though I've read it time and time and time again over the past forty or so years. Studying it still gives me the sense of being a swimmer on the surface of a very big ocean who's faintly aware that far, far below him are huge and otherwise unknown, and perhaps unknowable, creatures.

And though that may sound - indeed cannot help but sound - like the ramblings of a blogger caught up in the self-importance of his own opinion, I do think that there's far more going on in those 31 panels than can often be perceived in some entire runs of many contemporary superhero titles.

http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogsp ... l-and.html


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