Recovery

[randy_byers]

Well, it took me all weekend to recover from surliminal's visit! The party Friday night was fun. Somehow she had never been to our house in all her previous visits to Seattle, so I got to show off the back garden and the Zen Room (a.k.a. the Kingdom of the Spiders). A good group of the usual suspects showed up, despite the fact that it was a Friday. Jerry Kaufman said I must be getting them in shape for the Clarion West parties that start this week. L seemed slightly disappointed that the party didn't rage until 3 ayem, but we don't do that anymore. As it was, I think it was 1am when I threw her, John, and Eileen out and collapsed into bed.

Saturday was pretty much a lost cause after four nights straight of social engagements. Sunday wasn't much better, although I managed to make it to the Potlatch committee meeting and subsequent pubmeet, as well as a Skype conversation with ron_drummond. Oh, and I finished a blog post, and I wrote a letter. However, I didn't get any work done on any of the other writing projects that need my attention, and next weekend is the Solstice Parade and Fremont Street Fair. Well, I've really got to get cranking on a couple of these pieces, and I need to figure out what I'm doing with the Potlatch progress reports.

I'm almost feeling human today. We'll see how long that lasts. At the party holyoutlaw asked who the next British visitors would be. It was kind of a joke, based on the fact that almost exactly a year ago we threw a part for Doug and Christina, but after a moment's thought I realized that in fact the Fishlifters will be coming through after Worldcon. Keep your party hats handy!

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Ah well Fishlifters - that's twice as good as me!!:-P

I really enjoyed the party - v nostalgic- and finally seeing your place - thanks again. At least you didn't have a twenty hour journey for afters! Actually it all went pretty well and I don't feel quite as wrecked as I predicted - guess I really have to go to Germany now - sigh!! (It would help if I'd written a paper to take with me yet..)

I also have a real desire to read some old X Men comics now - and I'm going to see the film again tomorrow :) Gad I'm such an indoctrinated victim of capitalism!!

Funny when I come back from being all intense for a couple of weeks. despite being knackered it takes me a day or so to calm down and feel ok about not doing exciting stuff all the time. I just felt it happen this min, almost physically..

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to check whether Denys has any of the X-Men collections, but I doubt I really want to spend the time reading them. It's more fun reading synopses by other people. It did make me a bit nostalgic for my days as an avid comic book reader. I remember discovering the Claremont/Byrne X-Men on spinracks at Fred Meyers ("One-Stop Shopping") and then assiduously collecting the preceding Dave Cockrum issues. Those were the days! Ultimately I traded all my X-Men comics for the Gregg Press edition of Dhalgren. Hah! Don't have that anymore either ...

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

The Claremost/Byrne x men period was when I started reading Marvels, like I told you and they sort of hit me like a bullet - so I guess the most intensely comics fangirl thing I ever had (the next nearest was the Miller Daredevils). I did get most the Cockrums for completism (though not all, cos some had never been imported here outside of comic book shops, so were horribly expensive) but I really hated the art! (Also I lost all mine in that bloody fire at my parents house c late 90s?). I expect even if not for that I'd probably have dumped my comics collection in all these moves since but wotthell, I can blame my mum!)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

From comments on the threads on Ta-Nehesi Coates' blog I got the impression that the Cockrum issues were not well distributed, and therefore were hard to find even over here. I think I started tracking them down early enough that it was still possible and still affordable for a teenager. I didn't like the artwork either, but I wanted the stories.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, you're sorta in luck. I have almost all of the X-Men in Masterworks - the entirety of the Real X-Men except for the first ten issues, and the New X-Men from 1975 to 1982 except for a gap from 1978 to 1980 (111-131). The missing Masterworks volumes are currently OP. They're in the bookcases by the front door - have at 'em!

-- Denys

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's actually the early ones I'm most interested in, even though major parts of the storyline used in the new movie weren't developed until after I stopped reading the X-Men stuff in the '80s, I think. (E.g., Magneto as a Jewish survivor of the concentration camps.) Somehow I hadn't realized that the X-Men story had always been about protecting mutants from prejudice.

I am power, men call me Magneto

[grytpype-thynne.livejournal.com]

Pace various coments.

For all the kudos Byrne got he was working with images created by Cockrum (although Byrne is I think not recognized enough for using more body shapes than yer average comic book artist of the time).

I also think a lot of the pizzaz about the artwork that characterised that sequence of X-Men is due to Terry Austin's very geometrical inking style. Wouldn't have been the same ifthey'd been done by Joe Sinnot (classic brushwork overlays on John Buscema's FF) or Klaus Janson (inked Miller's Daredevil pencils). Inkers - equally responsible for your emotional reaction to the images and the forgotten men of Comix.

I didn't realise Dave Cockrum was dead until I did a quick check tonight.

Re: I am power, men call me Magneto

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Very good point about inkers, who rarely get the credit they deserve from those like me who don't know much about art. Did Frank Miller end up inking himself? I remember thinking that the style on Daredevil was a lot more interesting to me than the heavier fascist line of his Dark Knight stuff, but it's also true that by then I had become nauseated by Miller's politics. Then again, I don't remember any inker making John Buscema's artwork look good to me. I always went for the more artsy-fartsy stylings of people like Mike Kaluta and Craig Russell anyway.

Re: I am power, men call me Magneto

[grytpype-thynne.livejournal.com]

Back in the day (like about 1980) you could have shown me ANY panel from Marvel and many from DC and I could've told you not just who drew it but who inked it. Was much more of a big deal to me then who WROTE it.

Re: I am power, men call me Magneto

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Hey I could at least have done the artist if not the inker and i'm not even an artist!

Re: I am power, men call me Magneto

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Agree. Byrne lost all his precision when Austin bunked off - but then I've always preferred the more anal style of superhero art (think, Art Adama, Sienkewicz, Bachalo) to the more muscular Neal Adams style (tho i should hesitate to use either of these terms when thinking about current X men fandom..:-)