Pipeline - Oct 30, 2012

[CBR News]

Augie looks at the first year of the classic 'Excalibur' series and finds much to admire from Chris Claremont and Tom Orzechowski. Time for writing and lettering lessons, kids!


Full article here.

[Supajoe]

Great article! Excalibur is quite possibly my favorite Marvel series ever.

[inferno]

Good article, great points about the word balloons and lettering. Groo also had a good letterer - Stan Sakai

[Lemurion]

You know, you made me dig up and read the original Excalibur special tonight.

[ShaunN]

Great article! I really enjoyed Excalibur when it first came out and I'm sure it would stand the test of time if I dug up my issues today.

One of the things it offers that modern comics don't is actual bang for the buck. Today, i can spend (at least !) 3 dollars on a comic that takes five minutes to read. Back in the 80s, we actually got story and content for the money. I also enjoyed the series for its spotlight on Rachel Summers - a fully powered Phoenix who was not going crazy with power and behaving like an idiot. (Once again underlining how stupid AvX was!)

[tedbragg1]

Excalibur was my absolute favorite comic, bar none. That first year was pure magic. Bob Wiecek took over art duties after Alan & Paul, and boy was it a huge letdown. The style he went with was so radically different and out there, I stopped buying. :-( Picked up the Amanda Conner issue and when Alan returned a few years later I started to get it regularly.

Story density in Excalibur was high-- more than other books out at the time, and yet it was 'lighthearted'. Looking at those old issues now and the decompressed crap put out today -- man, we sure got our money's worth.

[dancj]

I've always found Claremont's writing a tedious slog, but I did always feel drawn to Excalibur - That said when there was a fill in artist it became obvious to me that Alan Davis was the only thing I really liked and I never went back to the book.

On Groo - I've got the Slings and Arrows Comic Guide which provides a write-up and list of recommended issues for most American comcis ever and I always liked that for Groo it (the first edition of the book at least) the recommended issues are "pick a doze, any dozen". That sounds about right for Groo.

[pmpknface]

I recently got a bunch of Excalibur issue for nothing, maybe 1-35? I'll have to give them a flip sometime soon.

[Imraith Nimphais]

Great article.

Early Excalibur was indeed delightful wicked-fun! This was one of those few (and rare) books where writing, art, colours and lettering worked so perfectly well together. And Claremont's writing was at his lyrical best. I often feel quite sympathetic and sad towards those "youngsters" now who say they cannot "get into" an eighties (and earlier) comic...because of the writing back then.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Glad you're all having a fun trip down memory lane with "Excalibur" with me. It IS an incredibly fun book, and far too often overlooked, I think. I'll have more to say about it, possibly this week. I still have the second year of the series to talk about, and then we'll just skip ahead to Alan Davis' return to the title. Thanks to Modern Masters: Alan Davis, I have some historical context to put it all into, as well. This is a fun job sometimes. =)

It might get pre-empted for another week by The Art of Todd McFarlane, though. We'll see how fast I can read through that tonight. =)

-Augie