I was a really big reader of the X-Titles and the Superman books at the time....I also loved the Midnight Suns line of books too..
I was a really big reader of the X-Titles and the Superman books at the time....I also loved the Midnight Suns line of books too..
Obviously bad and good are subjective and I tend to enjoy more cartoony or indie artwork (I actually prefer that to a more realistic style but whatever fits the story) but the Pander stuff was just falling apart for me left and right. The key I think is to make the style clean and this wasn't really. Felt like they needed a couple of years to refine it. And the hard to follow lettering didn't help either. Also the colouring which just killed the mood.
Great thread. After about a five-year hiatus, I started getting back into comics again in the early '90's. I was a poor college student at the time, so couldn't get that many titles, but do remember:
Star Wars: Dark Empire - amazing!
Grendel: War Child - I had been a fan of Comico's Grendel in the late '80's, so enjoyed this new post-apocalyptic incarnation of the character/story-line
Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
Classic Star Wars (reprinting the old newspaper strips)
I also got into reading at lot of the then-new DC Vertigo TPB's at the time, reprinting Neil Gaiman's seminal Sandman series, Hellblazer, Preacher, etc. Great stuff. I remember finding a lot of these Trades at the now-defunct Border's Books & Music.
However, I had 0 interest in any of Marvel's '90's comics. The numerous alternate foil/cardboard/hologram covers, re-numbering of X-men & Spider-man, etc. were complete money grabs & total bull$@$%, as far as I was concerned. The art was not that impressive, and was fairly interchangeable as well. I know comics are in the business to make money (just like any other business), but trying to "trick" fans into buying numerous covers, etc. - with the idea that these would be worth a lot of $ later - was very underhanded. Glad I never spent one cent on Marvel's '90's comics. Not surprisingly, many of these '90's Marvel comics are worth next to nothing these days. I've heard of cases where people try to sell them and there is either no market for them, or else they only get a small fraction of they paid for them.
Agreed. Grendel (by Comico) in the late '80's was stellar; the Pander Bros. art was amazing - very edgy, violent, and at the same time intentionally cartoonish. In contrast, Bernie Mireault's art in the subsequent 3-issue arc was quite different, but still excellent; very moody & dark. I liked the contrast between the two artists, which fit each separate storyline (the 12-issue arc & the 3-issue arc).
Last edited by ROM Spaceknight; 06-17-2017 at 11:35 PM.
just got to the end of the House of Secrets omnibus and one of the last stories was drawn by the Pander Bros. Very pleasant surprise, their style got much better since Grendel wish they could redo that story with this style and colouring.
Black Hole
One of the best comics of all time, and arguably the best comic with prominently teenage characters. (That's all subjective of course.)
Books of Magic (Miniseries)
Absolutely engrossing comic book, great from start to finish, this is a series which has made me want to read all of DC's magical themed books, one problem many people have is that the main character is not really all that interesting, but then again the Book's purpose was to essentially be a walking encyclopedia for the more mystical side of DC, so the focus isn't exactly on the character, also you could make the point that making the main character sort of kind of bland helps the reader put him or herself into the main character's escapist position. If you want to get into DC's more magical characters, start with this.
Books of Magic (Ongoing)
While not perfect, (continuity problems, Whenever the comic was trying to be playful or imaginatively silly, it just seemed dumb, and I questioned if the book was meant for elementary school kids despite having a suggested for mature readers label on plastered on the cover. Characters speaking their thoughts aloud like no rational person would.) the Books of Magic ongoing series overcame those flaws with absolutely fantastic characters that you cared about, and it finally gave the title character from the original miniseries depth and personality. While not as perfect as The Books of Magic miniseries, on it's own it's still a fantastic series and worth checking out.
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
While I'm not the biggest fan of Frank Miller, I was pleasantly surprised by this comic. While Miller is known for his gritty noir ultra-violence, this comic is like if Jack Kirby and Stan Lee made a Manga in the 60s. Also Geof Darov is the greatest artist ever.
Last edited by Timothy Hunter; 07-21-2017 at 08:51 PM.
From Marvel I would say Hulk was the best from the 90s
and I think Flash was the best comic from DC in the 90s
Last edited by Combo Man; 07-09-2017 at 04:33 AM.
i thought DC was rocking it in the 90s. the superman triangle era, batman and its crossover frenzy, waid's flash, the reboot legion, morrison's jla, hitman, i really enjoyed marz's green lantern, starman, the jsa returned with a bang at the end of the decade... dc one million remains my all-time favorite crossover. there were also some killer b-list books like chronos, hourman, aztek the ultimate man, chase...
marvel seemed so x-driven in the 90s. the two core books were alright most of the time, but i didn't think marvel as a whole got it's act together until the heroes return relaunch. it had been *years* since i had read a good avengers, iron man, or thor book and i was gobbling up all of them after the heroes reborn nonsense. captain america found it's groove before HR with waid/garney, i was dismayed that garney left so quickly after the relaunch. not a banner decade.
so many amazing vertigo, dark horse, image, and other small publisher books have already been mentioned. one i haven't seen in this thread: alan moore's supreme. rob liefeld's maximum press/awesome comics was a very mixed bag of short-lived titles, but we got a good 20 issues of moore's supreme. one of my biggest comic-related regrets is that we only got, like, three issues of his youngblood relaunch.