Decisions, Decisions...
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! It's the Summer of 1979 and you're at the barbershop waiting to get a haircut (or waiting for your brother to get one). There's a stack of new comics in the waiting area. You have time to read only one of them...which do you choose and why? Have fun!
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!
Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.
All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.
As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!
Not fair, groove.
ReplyDeleteI owned them all, and priorities changed from month to month. There's a few continued stories that meant priorities changed. By this point there's a fair chance it would have been Daredevil; though maybe it was still Iron Man where it was great to finally see him beating down scores of villains after having had a bad time of it in recent issues; Byrne and Michelenie's Avengers was a must read; and Project Pegasus was the highpoint run on Marvel Two In One, which was usually a lower order read. And even though I'm a DC and love JLA, Legion, and (the criminally unreprinted) Warlord, nothing from DC was fighting to the top of the pile.
Of course, if Uncanny X-Men 126 or 127 had been there it would have been no competition at all.
We're in the same boat, Gary! My opinions change day to day, sometimes hour to hour, lol, so I was really curious to see what everyone else would pick! Oh, and I left the X-Men out on purpose--the idea was to make it a hard choice. ;D I think now, I should have asked which would you have chosen back then AND which one would you choose now...hmmm... Maybe we'll try this again. :D
DeleteYou would be insane if you didn't choose that Daredevil comic to read. Just look at at that cover.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great cover! Iron Man fighting all those villains really beckons, too...
DeleteI think I would go with the Brave and The Bold, 70's Batman is still my favorite version and also having Dr. Fate? How could you possibly go wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnd that one has some great Don Newton artwork, to boot!
DeleteThe Brave and the Bold is my all-time fav Batman titie, the 1970s Batman is my fav version, and Jim Aparo my fav version of Batman (the one that first pops into my head when I think of Batman).
ReplyDeleteSo, the answer is obvious.
JLA? Just kidding, Scott! B&B was probably the most consistently groovy superhero book DC put out in the 1970s. Haney and Aparo need all the love they can get! (Ironically this is one of the rare fill-ins on B&B, Cary Burkett and Don Newton provided this cool team-up.)
DeleteOh, for the days when there was so much good stuff coming out, that one was wonderfully tormented with these kind of decisions!
ReplyDeleteAt that time in 1979, with limited funds, my one choice was WARLORD 27. It was a few years years later that I bought the others as back issues, and had the pleasure of reading those as well. AVENGERS 181-191 in particular stands out as great storytelling.
And lesser known these days, the "Pegasus Project" storyline in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE 53-58.
And in its day, the Michelinie/Romita Jr./Layton IRON MAN run (issues 115-156) was my favorite even over the Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-MEN run.
We had no idea how good we had it in 1979, Dave!
DeleteThat Avengers is still one of my favorites - Byrne art, a cool concept for a villain group. I loved they brought them back in New Warriors, but Mark Bagley is so different from Byrne, I hated it.
ReplyDeleteNever read the New Warriors, but like you, that ish of Avengers is a favorite from an excellent run of issues.
DeleteAt the time I was nine years old and it would probably have been the Brave and the Bold, a few years later, if I'd seen them at a thrift store or the second hand bookshop, where I bought most of my comics, a few years out of date, it would have been The Avengers or Daredevil.
ReplyDeleteIt really does depend on when you find them. I think when I do another of these types of posts, I'm going to add a "then and now" amendment. I bet a lot of us would choose differently today than back in the day.
DeleteThis hurt to see those Warlord & Superboy covers, no joke--in 1979, I was a senior in high school & was seriously trying to wean myself off comics. My god, I can't believe I used the price jump to 40 cents as my reason!! This is my first time on your site--man it's awesome!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Groove City, ApacheDug! Sorry to bring you pain with those Warlord and Superman covers, but, hopefully, you'll dig enough material here on the Diversions to make you feel better than ever!
DeleteIronically this was during the 9 year period (1977 - 1986) where I was not collecting comics. But in back collecting from 86 onward I'd have to go with the Daredevil. Miller's run on the title was amazing. He actually worked better under the restrictions of the code than when he was free in his later work. The code acted as a restraint against his more extreme instincts such as violence and fascistic tendencies.
ReplyDeleteWow, tough choice! Your choices as nominees are really interesting-I love Don Newton's work, especially his Batman stuff, Warlord was a huge favorite, Michelinie's 70's and 80's work was so bold for the time, and Iron Man was at the center of it. If I were looking at the covers in the barber shop, I would probably choose the Avengers book, but in retrospect that issue of Daredevil was one of the first that really showed how Miller's work was bringing Will Eisner's vision to the modern reader. Still the best run ever on the character, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteModern era John votes Daredevil, Groove Age era John votes Avengers.
Best,
John
Flash & JLA if I can buy two. Green Lantern & Flash were my favorites at the time. Then Brave & Bold is I could afford a third. I always liked DC's characters a little better than Marvel's.
ReplyDelete