Interesting Characters of the '80's

[dr chimp]

Clowes's Lloyd Llewellyn and co.

Only have one issue (maybe no 2?) - what happens in the story where the chief detective is in charge of investigating a murder. He gives everyone an envelope with a photo of a suspect inside and they all have a week to investigate. Cue a series of ridiculous events as they all recount why their suspect was innocent - until it gets to lloyd who of course was in charge of investigating the chief. End of issue. What happened next? (i am crap at working out murder mysteries - to this day I still dont know how The Man Who Haunted Himself ended either)

[Roquefort Raider]

The whole Love and Rockets cast, from Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar gang to Jaime's Maggie, Hopey, Penny Century, and all the rest.

I can't believe I didn't remember them. Good call, berk!

[dupersuper]

Cat Grant
Allie the copy girl
Jerry White
Bibbo
Silver Banshee
Bloodsport
Prof. Hamilton
Thaddeus Kilgrave
Jason Todd
Halo
Katana
Matrix Supergirl
Gangbuster

[SJNeal]

Ms. Michael Tree. The greatest female detective ever.

I actually just picked up some issues of DC's Ms. Tree Quarterly from the $1 bin this weekend. Never had any interest in the character before, but I can't resist complete runs for cheap...

[berk]

Only have one issue (maybe no 2?) - what happens in the story where the chief detective is in charge of investigating a murder. He gives everyone an envelope with a photo of a suspect inside and they all have a week to investigate. Cue a series of ridiculous events as they all recount why their suspect was innocent - until it gets to lloyd who of course was in charge of investigating the chief. End of issue. What happened next? (i am crap at working out murder mysteries - to this day I still dont know how The Man Who Haunted Himself ended either)

The first one sounds like the Red Hoerring story in #4, which Clowes never did follow-up. spoilers:

Red Hoerring was revealed as the murderer at the end of that story.

end of spoilers I just checked my copy of the Complete LL and Clowes says he meant it to be the first of a multi-part story but changed his mind

I can't remember the Man Who Haunted Himself - was that a Lloyd Llewellyn story as well? Great title, wherever it was from.

I can't believe I didn't remember them. Good call, berk!

In the late 80s and early 90s I was into that whole world as deeply as I'd ever been into the MU or its various sub-worlds. I still enjoy the series, but don't feel as immersed in it as I once did, perhaps because I haven't been periodically re-reading it through the collections like I used to.

[Mormel]

I realise I'm re-treading a path I've went down a hundred times in my posts here on CBR (see the avvie and user tag), but for me, it's:



Rachel Summers. Yes, I can quite understand why people would consider here a 'Jean clone', taking the same powers and codename as her mother, or that people may find her backstory to be particularly convoluted.

Why Rachel Summers? Several reasons. Her design struck a chord with me. She was a gaunt, almost androgynous appearance, with a buzzcut and rat's tail. Her look and outfits weren't as 'tradtitionally feminine' as many other female characters that had appeared in Marvel and X-Men up to that point.
Her backstory was a particularly tragic one, being the first of the 'time-travelling' characters (like Cable and Bishop later), coming from a world in which the X-Men -her family- had all been killed. A dystopia where she had served with the bad guys, following a childhood brainwashing.
Perhaps most importantly, her attempt at becoming an X-Men in her 'past' (and our present), was difficult to say the least. She lasted a total of 20 issues, which was the shortest X-Men stint for a member back then, if you disregard the Mimic and Thunderbird, who were both planned to be early departures. I've said this before, but if you read into her thought bubbles in that mid-80s run of Uncanny X-Men, it becomes clear that Rachel is the X-Man that tries to be a heroine, but fails doing so. I always found her arc from that angle to be very, very intriguing.

[hondobrode]

I agree with you.

That's about the time X-Men started to falter IMO and I fell away for the most part, but, Rachel was a character I remember really liking.

[hondobrode]

I actually just picked up some issues of DC's Ms. Tree Quarterly from the $1 bin this weekend. Never had any interest in the character before, but I can't resist complete runs for cheap...

Ms. Tree was a great character. Terry Beatty's artwork had a great Johnny Craig feel and IIRC Max Allan Collins (Dick Tracy) wrote the stories. I'm really surprised it hasn't been collected by someone.

It's a good read. Some of that cheap stuff ends up being real good sometimes.

[tony ingram]

I agree with you.

That's about the time X-Men started to falter IMO and I fell away for the most part, but, Rachel was a character I remember really liking.

I liked Rachel in Excalibur, but I must admit, I started to lose interest in the X-Men to an extent even before she debuted; for some reason, perhapps because I was at an impressionable age when I got into the X-Men's adventures soon after the "All-New, All Different" team arrived, I've never really registered any X-Man who joined the team after Kitty Pryde, or at the outside, Rogue. I still think of Rachel and the rest who came after her as 'new' characters, somehow, not proper X-Men...

[Leocomix]

Concrete by Paul Chadwick

[dr chimp]

The first one sounds like the Red Hoerring story in #4, which Clowes never did follow-up. spoilers:

Red Hoerring was revealed as the murderer at the end of that story.

end of spoilers I just checked my copy of the Complete LL and Clowes says he meant it to be the first of a multi-part story but changed his mind

I can't remember the Man Who Haunted Himself - was that a Lloyd Llewellyn story as well? Great title, wherever it was from.

Yes thats the one! The chief does it but it was left on a cliffhanger - def. had the feeling of a multi part story - always wondered how he was going to resolve it and guess he did too if he changed his mind.

Man who haunted himself was either a really good or really bad UK Roger Moore film from 60s in which Roger Moore spends the whole day going from place to place to find out he's already been there and caused all sorts of ructions. However, I missed last 10 minutes so I never did find out just how that all happened - bugged me very very vaguely (in same way as the Red Hoerring story) ever since - haunted by the man who haunted himself.

[Bad Wolf]

I liked Rachel in Excalibur, but I must admit, I started to lose interest in the X-Men to an extent even before she debuted; for some reason, perhapps because I was at an impressionable age when I got into the X-Men's adventures soon after the "All-New, All Different" team arrived, I've never really registered any X-Man who joined the team after Kitty Pryde, or at the outside, Rogue. I still think of Rachel and the rest who came after her as 'new' characters, somehow, not proper X-Men...

I think Rachel should probably not have become a regular character. I liked her in "Days of Future Past" and was excited to see her return in New Mutants (mainly because I was proud to have figured out who she was when Claremont & Sienkiewicz were just showing hints of her), but bringing her and her baggage into Uncanny X-Men full time led to the depressing path that eventually caused me to leave the book.

[berk]

Yes thats the one! The chief does it but it was left on a cliffhanger - def. had the feeling of a multi part story - always wondered how he was going to resolve it and guess he did too if he changed his mind.

According to the Complete LL, he was going to take it up to Red's trial and everything - and was even contemplating a reader's vote to decide his fate ... he doesn't come right out and say so, but I get the impression that he decided the idea was just plain dumb, rather than dumb-in-an-ironical-way-that's-actually-clever.

Man who haunted himself was either a really good or really bad UK Roger Moore film from 60s in which Roger Moore spends the whole day going from place to place to find out he's already been there and caused all sorts of ructions. However, I missed last 10 minutes so I never did find out just how that all happened - bugged me very very vaguely (in same way as the Red Hoerring story) ever since - haunted by the man who haunted himself.

That sounds like something I might like to watch, one of these days. I have some lingering nostalgia for 60s and early-70s movies and tv series, and Roger Moore was pretty prominent back then - not only for his Bond movies, but The Persuaders, if I have the title right - that tv show he did with Tony Curtis where they're both rich playboys who also work as spies, or something equally unlikely. And The Saint, of course, and various other things.

[Reptisaurus!]

The Tick and related characters.

Man-Eating Cow! Man-Eating Cow!

I never watched the Tick cartoon because they switched MEC from hero to villain.

[dr chimp]

According to the Complete LL, he was going to take it up to Red's trial and everything - and was even contemplating a reader's vote to decide his fate ... he doesn't come right out and say so, but I get the impression that he decided the idea was just plain dumb, rather than dumb-in-an-ironical-way-that's-actually-clever.


That sounds like something I might like to watch, one of these days. I have some lingering nostalgia for 60s and early-70s movies and tv series, and Roger Moore was pretty prominent back then - not only for his Bond movies, but The Persuaders, if I have the title right - that tv show he did with Tony Curtis where they're both rich playboys who also work as spies, or something equally unlikely. And The Saint, of course, and various other things.

Ah i was expecting some massive twist in the story - like he believed he did it - but actually hadnt - glad he just left it the way it was then if red actually did do it. I think i might reread that issue to celebrate finally finding out.

yep the persuaders! this send up of that kind of british swinging 60s tv gets me every time.