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Stan Lee

Silver Surfer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Silver Surfer comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! A part of Crushing Comics. Last updated Novemver 2024 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

Silver_Surfer_Vol_7_1_Francavilla_Variant_TextlessSilver Surfer has had several ongoing titles over the years collected in a variety of formats. However, there are a few specific formats of books that cover large portions of this title, and I’ll cover those first – Essentials, Epics, Masterworks, and Omnibuses. [Read more…] about Silver Surfer – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Review: Savage Hulk, Vol. 1: The Man Within by Davis, Farmer, & Hollingsworth

July 1, 2016 by krisis

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about audiences and about screaming into the void.

One of my earliest ongoing creative endeavors was writing fan fiction inside the Final Fantasy II (Japan IV) universe. I was writing it just to write it, but then I discovered a few other like-minded folks on the internet and we had a small, shared universe of fiction. Honestly, I have no idea how 14-year-old me put it all together – the details are a blur. It was mostly just that same handful of people who were reading it. No one was writing for attention or exposure. We were all writing for the joy of writing.

The same is true for my songwriting. I spent years writing songs for no one to hear before I started pushing to play them for more people. Even after being in a gigging band for years, to this day the vast majority of my catalog has never been heard outside of our house or this website because I write so darn many songs. I’d have to put out an album a year to keep up and tour constantly.

I have the luxury of doing those things for fun. My fanfic was niche and so is my music, but it doesn’t really matter. I am happy to cast that art out into the void knowing no response would echo back at me.

The problem with doing art for the love of it comes once you’ve actually earned some attention. What happens when more than a handful of people like your writing or your music? Now you have an audience. If you were making art for the love of it, their eyeballs and ears shouldn’t make any difference to you. Yet, it’s hard to avoid their influence, even if you aren’t performing craven acts of fan service to keep them all pleased. Once you’ve seen an indicator that your art is actually being consumed it’s hard to ignore it completely.

Let’s advance that to it’s end state: a popular artist who has followed their own path and pleased fans along the way now wants to do something inherently less popular – or simply something different. I’m not thinking about the dangers inherent in each new release. Instead, consider an independent artist experimenting with a new genre or a big money director wanting to make a decidedly non-mainstream film. J.K. Rowling is a terrific example; after Harry Potter, she didn’t want to write another young readers opus, but that’s what everyone wanted!

It’s a risk. Do they trust fans enough to compartmentalize this work of otherness away from their main oeuvre? You might not be able to afford the detour if it turns too many people off. In Rowling’s case, she released one novel under her own name (The Casual Vacancy) and then another under a pseudonym (The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith). Neither detracted from the fervor for Potter, but the latter earned higher marks from fans and critics, called “a brilliant debut.”

Was it the quality of the Galbraith book that made it more successful, or that it was free of baggage? How would you enjoy the new album from your favorite artist if you didn’t know it was by them?

Savage_Hulk_Vol_1_1_TextlessThese questions occur to me with every subsequent piece of art I purchase or consume from a known artist.

Savage Hulk, Vol. 1 – The Man Within 3.5 stars Amazon Logo

Collects Savage Hulk issues #1-4 written and penciled by Alan Davis, with inks by Mark Farmer and colors by Matt Hollingsworth. Also includes X-Men (1963) #66 written by Stan Lee with pencils by Sal Buscema.

Tweet-sized Review: Alan Davis writes/draws a lovely, clever sequel to X-Men #66, a face-off w/Hulk, in this ode to early-70s Marvel.

CK Says: Consider it.

This Alan Davis Hulk and X-Men story is a love letter to early-70s comic books and it’s possible you simply won’t care. His tale in The Savage Hulk, Vol. 1 – The Man Within branches off from a bash-em-up encounter between the heroes in X-Men #66, the last comic before the hiatus ended by their Giant-Size comeback in 1974.

In a follow-up to that orphaned story, a recovered Professor Charles Xavier feels compelled to design a device that could help Bruce Banner control the Hulk as repayment for Banner’s cure for his mental exhaustion. However, the Hulk is being hunted by the military after causing serious damage in Las Vegas, while Xavier has unwittingly attracted the attention of Hulk’s foe The Leader. [Read more…] about Review: Savage Hulk, Vol. 1: The Man Within by Davis, Farmer, & Hollingsworth

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Alan Davis, Hulk, Mark Farmer, Matt Hollingsworth, Sal Buscema, Stan Lee, X-Men

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses – What’s been printed and what’s gone missing?

June 19, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on ShelfAlright eager readers – like modern-day Marvel with their absurd .1 issues, I have one more interstitial installment of extra material about Marvel’s Most Wanted Omnibuses to share with you before I recap the final two spots of this year’s secret ballot tomorrow.

For this installment, I want to take a look at the books that have been printed and the ones that have mysteriously gone missing from the survey – and why that might be!

Not counting a few newly-revealed omnibuses for early 2017, the 83 books voted on in the first three years of the survey have yielded 20 Marvel Omnibus volumes. Whether you look at the survey as a guessing game or information that Marvel actually considers, seeing one out of every four books get printed is not such a bad ratio!

There have also been 21 books previously voted on that haven’t hit omnibus and aren’t represented this year, plus a few more than dropped off the survey and came back. If they didn’t get printed, why did we lose track of them?

Allow me to explain… [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses – What’s been printed and what’s gone missing?

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Avengers, Collected Editions, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Doctor Strange, Galactic Storm, Machine Man, Marvel Comics, Master of Kung Fu, Omnibus, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, War of Kings

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #4 and 3

June 17, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on ShelfWelcome back for the next pair of books from the Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus secret ballot by TigerEyes. I covered #5 & 6 in the last installment.

Today’s installment of the next pair of books on the survey is a pair of prohibitively classic runs – one from the early 70s and another from the mid-80s. Even without the ballot results in front of me, I’d probably name these as two of the most famous single-creator streaks in Marvel’s pre-00s history.

For one of the runs I even took the unusual, exceedingly-rare step of recruiting a guest author to make sure I’ve got the details right.

(Clearly, that run is not The X-Men ;)

Marvel has released these oversized omnibus editions for over a decade now, with a staggering amount of their most-popular material now covered in the format – from Silver Age debuts to modern classics. Is your favorite character or run of issues already in an Omnibus? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for answering that question – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support.

Okay, here we go – the fourth and third of Marvel’s most-wanted Omnibuses! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #4 and 3

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Collected Editions, Gwen Stacey, Hulk, Jeff Purves, John Romita Sr., Kingpin, Marvel Comics, Omnibus, Peter David, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #9, 8, and 7

June 15, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on ShelfWelcome to another edition of Marvel’s most-wanted omnibuses based on the annual secret ballot by Tigereyes. I covered #10-12 in the last installment.

We’ve broken through to the Top 10 books on the survey. That doesn’t immediately make all of it classic – some of it warrants high demand for other reasons, like a specific creator or filling in a highly-desired gap.

However, today I have three classics for you. For two of the books, that designation is an obvious one. For the third, this might be the first time you’ve ever been asked to consider it as a classic, but I’ve felt that way for over 25 years!

Do you own an oversized tome of the comics starring your favorite character or featuring your favorite story? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features details on every oversize book, including a rundown of contents and if the volume is still readily available for purchase. [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #9, 8, and 7

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Alan Davis, Avengers, Black Panther, Captain Britain, Chris Claremont, Collected Editions, Excalibur, Fantastic Four, Hank Pym, Jack Kirby, Kitty Pryde, Man-Ape, Marvel Comics, Nightcrawler, Omnibus, Rachel Grey Summers, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Ultron, Vision, X-Men

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