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  1. #16
    Son of Satan DevilBat66's Avatar
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    For DC? that would be 76 through 85.

    For Marvel? 74 through 83.

    Independents and Vertigo? 88 through 97.
    Batman - Daredevil

  2. #17
    Extraordinary Member MRP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BatmanJones View Post
    I'm most nostalgic about the 70s but I can't read comics from back then because the writing is so dated.

    I look back on the 80s as having had the most exciting work (DKR, Watchmen, Vertigo, etc) but a lot of what I loved back then (New Teen Titans for example) I find unreadable because of the dated writing.

    My favorite decade is always the current one because I want to know what happens next and, more so, because comic book writing and art gets more and more sophisticated.
    The thing is, in 20-30 years people will be saying the same thing about the writing of this era. It will be dated to them. It is all a matter of perspective and what is current. We don't like to think our current stuff will be the stuff people will feel is dated and unreadable at some point, but it will be.

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    Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve.

    "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

  3. #18
    (Formerly ilash) Ilan Preskovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BatmanJones View Post
    I'm most nostalgic about the 70s but I can't read comics from back then because the writing is so dated.

    I look back on the 80s as having had the most exciting work (DKR, Watchmen, Vertigo, etc) but a lot of what I loved back then (New Teen Titans for example) I find unreadable because of the dated writing.

    My favorite decade is always the current one because I want to know what happens next and, more so, because comic book writing and art gets more and more sophisticated.
    There is a certain amount of truth to that but I find few modern-day comics as "sophisticated" as early and proto-Vertigo, writing-wise. Comics have never been more literary than they were with stuff like Moore's Swamp Thing, Gaiman's Sandman, Milligan's Shade or Morrison's Animal Man. And, quite obviously, Watchmen is still on a whole other level.

    But, yeah, even in the '80s, the dialogue in mainstream superhero comics was pretty awful.
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  4. #19
    The Spirits of Vengeance K7P5V's Avatar
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    Definitely the 90's. Mostly because of Dixon's Nightwing, Ordway's Power of SHAZAM! and BTAS.

  5. #20
    Mighty Member Kaijudo's Avatar
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    Definitely the 80s, between Crisis, Ambush Bug, Blue Devil, Booster Gold, JLI/JLE, and Suicide Squad. Though the 90s are a close second with Flash, Starman, and more.

  6. #21
    (Formerly ilash) Ilan Preskovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by K7P5V View Post
    Definitely the 90's. Mostly because of Dixon's Nightwing, Ordway's Power of SHAZAM! and BTAS.
    On that subject, why on earth haven't DC collected/ re-released Ordway's Shazam to coincide with the success of the Shazam movie. Even just his OGN.
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  7. #22
    The Spirits of Vengeance K7P5V's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ilan Preskovsky View Post
    On that subject, why on earth haven't DC collected/ re-released Ordway's Shazam to coincide with the success of the Shazam movie. Even just his OGN.
    "Holy missed opportunities, Batman!"

    Indeed. Ordway's run is an all-time favorite and a neoclassic series.
    Last edited by K7P5V; 05-16-2019 at 01:38 PM. Reason: Corrected grammatical errors.

  8. #23
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    I imagine a lot of us read Shakespeare in school. Some even willingly go to see his plays when they're all grown up. Others of us have read the Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur. I somehow managed to read all the novels of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy--and I think I understood them. I'm currently trying to read all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle.

    How is that comics more than twenty years old become unreadable for some? People used to think that comics were for the slow-minded because they were picture stories that didn't require more than a grade two reading level. That must be how I got into them--because I did poorly at reading in school as a kid yet I was able to understand the stories in comics.

    Yet people say that those comics are dated now and can't be read. It's a mystery.

  9. #24
    Son of Satan DevilBat66's Avatar
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    I like reading old comics for the same reason I like big popcorn flicks.

    They may not change my life or the world but, they are fun. I like reading old Lee and Kirby comics just as much as I like reading Gaiman's Sandman.

    Not every reading experience has to give the same rewards.
    Batman - Daredevil

  10. #25
    Boisterously Confused
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    Quote Originally Posted by BatmanJones View Post
    I'm most nostalgic about the 70s but I can't read comics from back then because the writing is so dated.

    I look back on the 80s as having had the most exciting work (DKR, Watchmen, Vertigo, etc) but a lot of what I loved back then (New Teen Titans for example) I find unreadable because of the dated writing.

    My favorite decade is always the current one because I want to know what happens next and, more so, because comic book writing and art gets more and more sophisticated.
    I sometimes think they've gotten a little too sophisticated. For the future of the genre, it'd be nice if we still made these things accessible to kids. I know they'd rather play games than read, but there needs to be some way to reach them.

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    I imagine a lot of us read Shakespeare in school. Some even willingly go to see his plays when they're all grown up. Others of us have read the Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur. I somehow managed to read all the novels of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy--and I think I understood them. I'm currently trying to read all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle.

    How is that comics more than twenty years old become unreadable for some? People used to think that comics were for the slow-minded because they were picture stories that didn't require more than a grade two reading level. That must be how I got into them--because I did poorly at reading in school as a kid yet I was able to understand the stories in comics.

    Yet people say that those comics are dated now and can't be read. It's a mystery.
    I also often have difficulty enjoying comics that were done pre-1980. They often over explain things with a third person narration. It gets overly wordy, which drags down the pacing of the works, which eventually leads to a boring experience. The comics are easy to understand, they're just often plodding, overly wordy, and boring. They're also repetitive and rarely surprise you. The motivations of characters are often predictable and juvenile to the point where a modern adult reader would never relate with what is going on or find it gripping.

  12. #27
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    Not being a modern adult reader, my response is somewhat the reverse. I don't get a lot out of modern comics. There's so little words that the story goes by too fast and the plots are quite predictable and dumbed down. The art is off-putting because it looks like it was spit out of a computer rather than hand-crafted--it lacks a certain tactile quality. There's also rarely a resolution to the story, or even a beginning point--I can't just go in a comics store and pick up a random issue and know what's going on and who the characters are. Which is why I don't buy a lot of single issues anymore--it's easier to trade wait. When I read old comics, I jump right in, I find more going on below the surface and there's much more to appreciate in the craft.

  13. #28
    (Formerly ilash) Ilan Preskovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    I imagine a lot of us read Shakespeare in school. Some even willingly go to see his plays when they're all grown up. Others of us have read the Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur. I somehow managed to read all the novels of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy--and I think I understood them. I'm currently trying to read all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle.

    How is that comics more than twenty years old become unreadable for some? People used to think that comics were for the slow-minded because they were picture stories that didn't require more than a grade two reading level. That must be how I got into them--because I did poorly at reading in school as a kid yet I was able to understand the stories in comics.

    Yet people say that those comics are dated now and can't be read. It's a mystery.
    First, I wasn't talking about all of them. Gerber's Howard the Duck is still fantastic and I really like Green Lantern/ Green Arrow, though that's despite some very clunky writing.

    Aside for something like the Spirit, there's just nothing particularly good about Golden Age comics. Historically important, sure, but not much fun to read.

    For the Silver Age, the problem, unfortunately, is that comics were not written with adults in mind during and even in terms of things aimed at kids, older comics don't exactly fall into the Harry Potter school of writing. There are some fantastically inventive ideas in Silver Age comics and I can have fun with them in small doses but the dialogue is usually pretty terrible, there's too much exposition for a visual medium and the characterization was almost non-existent. I enjoyed that stuff when I was a kid but they're much harder to relate to as an adult. Some really nice art by the likes of Kirby or Infantino, though.

    The Bronze Age is the easiest to get into, of course, but through they're often a lot less childish, they are overwritten to the point where they're a total slog to read. Folks like Chris Claremont and Marv Wolfman (to name the two biggies of the early '80s) are/ were very good writers but X-Men and New Teen Titans are way too wordy for their own good and, again, the dialogue is pretty stilted. It was in this period, though, that comics really started to grow up and there's still stuff from back then that reads just as well today. Moore's Swamp Thing, in particular, shifted the expository narration into something much more poetic and literary, which is something that seemingly all early Vertigo series picked up on. I actually greatly miss that kind of third-person narration and wish it would come back.

    As you can see, my tolerance for old comics greatly improves over the years with each passing "age" offering more and more to latch on to. Though, again, I fully appreciate that for kids, it's really difficult to beat the Silver and Bronze ages.

    I understand the comparison to older movies but it's a comparison that sadly doesn't really hold up. Compare comics in the '60s and '70s to, say, film or music and tell me that the medium - in particular, superhero comics - had come even close to its more respected counterparts. This isn't a criticism of comics as a medium but an acknowledgement that the earlier attitudes towards comics being, basically, trash for kids and juvenile, uneducated adults, and the later attitude of comics being harmful to kids and needing to be greatly neutered, meant that comics were stuck in a state of arrested development for decades. Within these parameters, there's still plenty to admire, of course, about old comics but I can't say that old comics work for me in the way that Annie Hall, Some Like It Hot or Casablanca do for me even now.
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  14. #29
    Hey Baby--Wha's Happ'nin? HandofPrometheus's Avatar
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    I LOVE reading older comics and honestly prefer them over today's. They were brimming with personality. Plus the characters I love actually had stuff to DO than stand around and be wallpaper or live in Limbo.

    My favorite era is 80s. 90s and 2000s come second. I haven't read any 70s so can't comment on that.

  15. #30
    (Formerly ilash) Ilan Preskovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    Not being a modern adult reader, my response is somewhat the reverse. I don't get a lot out of modern comics. There's so little words that the story goes by too fast and the plots are quite predictable and dumbed down. The art is off-putting because it looks like it was spit out of a computer rather than hand-crafted--it lacks a certain tactile quality. There's also rarely a resolution to the story, or even a beginning point--I can't just go in a comics store and pick up a random issue and know what's going on and who the characters are. Which is why I don't buy a lot of single issues anymore--it's easier to trade wait. When I read old comics, I jump right in, I find more going on below the surface and there's much more to appreciate in the craft.
    These are some fine points. I do wonder, though, which decade/ age are you referring to, in particular? I can see this applying to Bronze Age comics and the '80s in general but, aside for being super accessible, I can't say I see it in most Silver Age and prior comics.

    And don't get me wrong, once we stop talking in generalities, there are tons of modern comics that I find to be much less sophisticated, worse written and worse drawn than the better comics from the early '80s. It's also why I rate the '90s so highly - comics, at their best, just seemed to hit the sweet spot between classic and modern that brought the best of both worlds together. Honestly, if we were going by periods rather than specific decades, I would probably go for 1986 to sometime in the early 2000s.
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