Wolf Boy2
05-01-2009, 02:31 PM
Since all the talkbacks are for current series, I thought I would start conversation about the classic comics.
Hands down, the best Golden Age series I've ever read is "The Spirit." It is outstandingly amazing. It would be awesome as a 70s or 80s (or modern) work, but forties?! It blows the mind just how innovative Will Eisner was, at the time when Superman and Batman were campy and poorly drawn. It also has the most variety I've ever seen, especially in Eisner's post-war work. The 1946-1952 run of The Spirit is, IMO, Eisner's magnum opus. Truly ahead of it's time -- hell, truly ahead of OUR time.
Jack Kirby's run on "Fantastic Four" is a favorite of mine, but it's so widely celebrated in fan circles that I'm not gonna moon over it here because you've probably heard it all already. This is the series that made Marvel great, and the first 3 Essentials volumes are literally essential. The evolution of Kirby's art style from good to great is most evident in FF. At the beginning, his art is still very rough and "golden age" looking. But by the end of Volume One, he had hit his stride, achieving a ballance between realism and minimalism.
Larry Hama's "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" run was also great. IDW is putting them out in recolored trades, and they look fantastic. Granted, the art wasn't always top-notch, but the stories and characters mostly made up for it. Volume One of the TPBs is a mixed bag, like most first volumes. The first two stories are awesome (especially issue #2, which introduces Kwinn the Eskimo; one of my favorite endings of any comic). While the technology is pretty campy, it sets the stage well. Volume Two is pure, undiluted awesome. A story arc is built and paid off, making the whole volume (minus the first and last stories) a single, cinematic graphic novel. The death of ***** was very tragic and a powerfull moment. Volume Three is not as good, but it contains the famous "Silent Interlude" (told without any words) and the two-part origin of Snake Eyes. Duke and Roadbock are also introduced, saving the Joes from an attack on ****** *****'s funeral (vol. 3 had a heavy death toll of 4 main characters). GI Joe also had strong female characters and subtle romantic elements, and it attracted a female audience (which is rare, for a war comic).
Simon Furman's "The Transformers" (both his US and UK work). Transformers was a mediocre comic under writer Bob Budiansky, not great but not totally sucking either. But while the US series was just making the mark, the UK series was turning this toy commercial into a genuine fantasy epic. Simon Furman saved Transformers from itself, developing the characters and mythology into something that rivaled anything Marvel and DC were doing at the time. Originally part of the Marvel universe, Furman gave Transformers it's own complete, self-contained mythology. Furman took Unicron, a 2-bit Galactus rip-off from the cartoon movie, and made him into a fallen God and an integral part of the Transformers history. His run on the US series turned a faltering title into a cosmic epic rivaling "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (but it was all told in a single series without any crossover nonsense). Granted, the series had little to no romance or female characters, yet oddly enough, a lot of girls wrote into the letters page and enjoyed the series.
Hands down, the best Golden Age series I've ever read is "The Spirit." It is outstandingly amazing. It would be awesome as a 70s or 80s (or modern) work, but forties?! It blows the mind just how innovative Will Eisner was, at the time when Superman and Batman were campy and poorly drawn. It also has the most variety I've ever seen, especially in Eisner's post-war work. The 1946-1952 run of The Spirit is, IMO, Eisner's magnum opus. Truly ahead of it's time -- hell, truly ahead of OUR time.
Jack Kirby's run on "Fantastic Four" is a favorite of mine, but it's so widely celebrated in fan circles that I'm not gonna moon over it here because you've probably heard it all already. This is the series that made Marvel great, and the first 3 Essentials volumes are literally essential. The evolution of Kirby's art style from good to great is most evident in FF. At the beginning, his art is still very rough and "golden age" looking. But by the end of Volume One, he had hit his stride, achieving a ballance between realism and minimalism.
Larry Hama's "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" run was also great. IDW is putting them out in recolored trades, and they look fantastic. Granted, the art wasn't always top-notch, but the stories and characters mostly made up for it. Volume One of the TPBs is a mixed bag, like most first volumes. The first two stories are awesome (especially issue #2, which introduces Kwinn the Eskimo; one of my favorite endings of any comic). While the technology is pretty campy, it sets the stage well. Volume Two is pure, undiluted awesome. A story arc is built and paid off, making the whole volume (minus the first and last stories) a single, cinematic graphic novel. The death of ***** was very tragic and a powerfull moment. Volume Three is not as good, but it contains the famous "Silent Interlude" (told without any words) and the two-part origin of Snake Eyes. Duke and Roadbock are also introduced, saving the Joes from an attack on ****** *****'s funeral (vol. 3 had a heavy death toll of 4 main characters). GI Joe also had strong female characters and subtle romantic elements, and it attracted a female audience (which is rare, for a war comic).
Simon Furman's "The Transformers" (both his US and UK work). Transformers was a mediocre comic under writer Bob Budiansky, not great but not totally sucking either. But while the US series was just making the mark, the UK series was turning this toy commercial into a genuine fantasy epic. Simon Furman saved Transformers from itself, developing the characters and mythology into something that rivaled anything Marvel and DC were doing at the time. Originally part of the Marvel universe, Furman gave Transformers it's own complete, self-contained mythology. Furman took Unicron, a 2-bit Galactus rip-off from the cartoon movie, and made him into a fallen God and an integral part of the Transformers history. His run on the US series turned a faltering title into a cosmic epic rivaling "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (but it was all told in a single series without any crossover nonsense). Granted, the series had little to no romance or female characters, yet oddly enough, a lot of girls wrote into the letters page and enjoyed the series.