Bronze Deals

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks, I've been trading in books and building up credit with MyComicShop.com, and I am trying to decide what series I want to start picking up.  Until recently I've had specific titles or runs I wanted, however, I've gotten to the point where I've got most of the inexpensive runs that I was interested in.  It's been my habit to look for neat Bronze Age runs that are pretty cheap, or occasionally books from the 80's and 90's that aren't expensive either.  I picked up the excellent Batman: Adventures series that way, but I'm pretty much out of ideas.  Do y'all have any suggestions for great 70's-early 90's books that would be cheap and worth picking up?

[Randomdays]

Marvel from the 70's - Original Nova, Doc Savage (B&W mag), the Eternals or the Invaders. For non superheroes, I picked up a complete run o Marvel's John Carter of Mars cheap not too long ago.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks RD!  I actually was looking at several Marvel books from the 70's, but most of them are holding their value a bit too well.   It's funny you suggested John Carter, though, because I just finished my collection of that series.  It is awesome.

[Xenolith]

Why not get the Essential volumes?

[BentonGrey]

Why not get the Essential volumes?

Ehh, I don't really see the point of black and white versions of color work.  You lose a lot. 

[Randomdays]

I just went through my collection recently, getting it in order and ready to sell, probably to mycomicshop or Mile High. Times are rough and I could use the money. It's about 3000+ and taking a lot of room as well. If you're interested, I know I have a complete run of Nova v1 as well as a few other small runs - Skull the Slayer, the Marvel Premiere runs of Doctor Strange and Iron Fist, and lots of odds and ends.

[Xenolith]

Why not get the Essential volumes?

Ehh, I don't really see the point of black and white versions of color work.  You lose a lot.

Well, I disagree.  What I discovered is that once the terrible coloring is gone you see how great some of these artists truly were.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the offer RD, but I doubt I have the funds to make that worth your while.  I was thinking about putting in a $50 order with MCS.com, but most of that was going to come from trades.  I've only really got about ten or twenty bucks to spend. 

Xenolith, that might be true, and I can certainly think of times when that might be the case.  Still, I prefer to get the colored works.  I should have clarified that it was my opinion that much is lost with color.  For example, I had a Captain America Essentials volume, and while Jack Kirby's art is always beautiful, without the color it paled in comparison to the finished product.  I'd rather save up and buy the omnibuses now that Marvel's actually printing collections again.

Have any of y'all read DC's Warlord run from the 70's?  I've got my eye on that one.

[Randomdays]

I was going to mention Warlord, but from what I remember it lasted a while and had a good run. The second series that came out a few years back was rather short, 10 issues I think. I bought them but don't remember being that impressed with tem.

A couple of short series that came out from Marvel 4-5 years ago you might want to look at are "The Thing" - 8 issues and "Spider-man and Human Torch" - 5 issues. They both have a good 70's retro feel to them. You don't see Ben apologizing to the villian too often for Spider-Man showing up to help "Sorry - I didn't know it was going to be him!"

[hoss20]

Maybe take a look at Marvel-Two-in-One featuring the Thing. It ran for 100 issues, which might put it out of consideration, but I remember enjoying the issues I read. My cousin, who got me into comics in the first place, was a huge Fantastic Four fan and the Thing was his favorite character. So, whenever I went to visit and we did our revisiting of his immense comic collection, I would always check out Marvel-Two-in-One. For not being a "popular" book, it had some important stories. There was a focus for some time involving the Serpent Crown and an Annual (#2, I believe) done by Jim Starlin, that was the continuation of his classic Avengers Annual #7 story involving Thanos' first attempt (I could be wrong) at collecting the Infinty Gems and the death of Adam Warlock.

[Xenolith]

MTiO is a good choice.  It was the first "complete run" I ever collected.  I'm reading the Essential versions right now.  The stories are spotty, but mostly good.  The art is solid most of the time.  Toward the end of the run Ron Wilson starts to polish his style, but it is a style I didn't care for.  The Perez covers are great.  Like HOSS said, there are serpent crown stories, project pegasus stories, asgardian/egyptian god stories, street level stories, and a lot of four color stories.  There are both main stream and second string guest stars, which keeps it kind of fun.  There is also an annual where a bunch of Marvel heres are challenged by the Champion, one of the Elder Gods.  Corny, but fun.

I just read a story where Daredevil uses his super powers to win at gambling.  He was gambling against a kid!  They were gambling for money!!  "This'll teach him not to gamble" - says DD.  Gotta love the '70s.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!  I'm glad that Warlord was decent.  I think I'll try that one out.  As for Marvel Two in One, that sounds like a blast.  I just checked them out, and with the exception of the first few issues and occasional singles after that, most of them are affordable.  I'll definitely pick some of these up and check them out.

[Randomdays]

Two in One and Marvel Team Up used to be two of my favorite runs. You got a lot more of the wise-cracking Spidey without the melodrama. The Team Up run where he time travelled and met Dr Doom, Deathlok and Killraven was one of my favorites.

[SkeleTony]

Warlord was great if you are interested in fine art. Mike Grell is regarded, by other artists within the comic industry the same way that  Eric Clapton is regarded by other guitarists. His art though...was (almost)never flashy or 'splash-pagey'(whereas Clapton could 'flash' with the best of them) but when it comes to things like composition and actual knowledge of drawing he probably has very few rivals.

Sorry I cannot offer any helpful suggestions as I wrote off mainstream comics almost two decades ago(for the most part) and there were not many indie books back then(in the 1970s). 1980s...I could probably suggest stuff all day long that you can get dirt cheap and is well worth reading but 70s? Not so much.

[BentonGrey]

Well, when modern superhero books let you down, it's time to go to the past!  I'm looking at more Bronze Age books, and I came back to this thread for inspiration.  I enjoyed the Two-in-One books I got, but I just came across a really neat arc in Fantastic Four that tied in with a newly minted Nova series, way back in the late 70s.  I see that RD said the first volume of Nova was great, but does anyone else have any thoughts on it?  I'm leaning that way.  Convince me.

[DrMike2000]

I've got memories of Nova from reading it as a kid, Benton, and they're very positive.

He had a really good Spidey-ish vibe, as a young guy who's just been handed enormous power and is trying to get his head around it, but still didn't come across as a Spidey clone.
His rogue's gallery (Diamondhead, the Sphinx, Powerhouse and the Condor(?)) were pretty cool.  Best of all I remember the surreal creepy story featuring this faceless guy called "Megaman", who used to be human but had been restructured by a sentient atom that talked in lower case and addressed him as "entity". And I think was in love with him? If that isn't in the first collection, keep on going. It was an awesome story.

Let's just say it had a little of Steve Gerber's Defenders in it there, in the sense of extreme weirdness with a very human base. I'd highly recommend it.

(And BTW, the Defenders by Steve Gerber were well worth tracking down. I know you said you don't like the black and white Essentials, but in my opinion these ones dont lose anything from the lack of colour.)

[detourne_me]

like the two-in-one and team up books, if you want more bang for your buck i'd suggest the early marvel comics presents. they're mid 80s-early 90s and had a bunch of different storylines,  I specifically remember a few Wolverine arcs, with Shang Chi and Man Thing backups.  Later in the series there were some great one-off backups with Colossus, Werewolf at Night and Captain Ultra,  One arc was a pretty great Spider-man/Wolverine team-up with Erik Larsen art, (and a proto-Savage Dragon for a thug)

[Cyber Burn]

I definitely agree with DM, the early issues of "Marvel Comics Presents" are worth reading, they had some enjoyable story arcs.

As for the '70's era books, I always tended to find myself drawn to them, the back issue bin was my favorite hangout when I was younger, books like "Marvel Team Up" and "Marvel Two-In-One" were great, and I would also recommend the "Nova" series, as well as "The Avengers".

[JKCarrier]

Another '70s Marvel series that is worth getting is Master of Kung Fu. Lots of over-the-top James Bond-style action, and a really strong supporting cast. Shouldn't be very expensive, although the Paul Gulacy-drawn issues probably go for more.

[Deaths Jester]

Luke Cage, Power Man!  Those are the ones I've lately found myself delving into.

[Amazo Version 2.2]

not quite 70's stuff, but if you haven't read the squadron supreme series fform the 80's you are definitely missing out

[BentonGrey]

I have read the graphic novel, Amazo, but I don't know about the series.

Dr. Mike, that sounds pretty good, alright.  I've got Nova on my list!

There are a lot of good suggestions here.  I'll be checking a lot of these out.  Thanks guys! 

[DrMike2000]

Have you read Tom Strong or Terra Obscura, Benton?

If you haven't, I'd give them a try. Tom Strong is a great example of a married character whose wife and family form an integral part of the story. Plus its good old-fashioned pulp with a modern edge written by Alan Moore.
Terra Obscura was a couple of spin-off series that came out of the Tom Strong universe - written by peter Hogan but a seamless change of writer.

[Cyber Burn]

Another '70's/'80's Era title that I used to pick up from the back issue bin was "The Defenders/New Defenders" during the run that had (I think) Angel, Beast, and Iceman. That title had some interesting stories as well.