Speaking as one who was there at the time, it DID feel different. The multicultural international team felt like a breath of fresh air and a logical expansion of the world.
I wasn't surprised when I saw the heading, Kayfabe Divided, that the biggest division would be between Rugg and Scioli. I've noticed in a couple of other episodes where Rugg isn't always onboard w/Scioli's unbridled enthusiasm. Truth is they aren't at loggerheads or anything but I can tell they ain't in lockstep when it comes to their particular comic tastes. Good ep, I'm gonna have to break out my copy of Piskor's Grand Design: Second Genesis and actually read it now!
I own that X-MEN Grand Design Treasury Edition. I love it with Giant-Size X-MEN #1. I love your colors, Ed! I miss old, dead Thunderbird. I even drew 4 pages of X-MEN: Thunderbird Beyond when I was 15. My own self produced short comic.
Nice to see Dave Cockrum getting some love! I think it would be cool if you guys reviewed Cockrum's run on Superboy & The Legion of Super-Heroes--not for the story content, just for the great artwork! Also, Cockrum did an ace job of redesigning almost all of the LOSH costumes for the '70s--most of which are the best costumes those heroes ever got! Timber Wolf's feral face and hair-style redesign by Cockrum is a precursor to Logan's hair style. Also of note, Cockrum started out at DC in the early '70s inking Superboy back-up stories over the great Murphy Anderson! It would also be cool if you reviewed Cockrum's creator-owned property The Futurians--which appeared in one Marvel Graphic Novel and three or four issues by Lodestone Comics in the late '80s. I thought it was a fun read with great art! Another review suggestion is the first few issues of Marvel Fanfare with great art by Michael Golden, Dave Cockrum, and Paul Smith in a Spider-Man/Angel/X-Men/Ka-Zar story arc set in the Savage Land. Re: the writing, I've got to side with Tom on this one (just like on Micronauts no. 1!). Maybe Len Wein's script comes across as clunky in some areas...as noted, with Thunderbird's characterization and dialogue -- but it's always important to look at comics as a product of their time. If you look at the expansion of the Civil Rights Movement and the American Indian Movement (AIM), and the Incident at Wounded Knee in 1973, etc., it makes sense that John Proudstar might be terse, bitter, etc. as both a Vietnam Vet and an Indigenous Person seeing all of the injustices that Native Americans had to endure. Also, Giant-Size X-Men no. 1 was cover dated May, 1975--so that's less than a year after Nixon resigned in disgrace. Given that the Cold War was still happening, it is fascinating that Wein and Cockrum decided to create Colossus --who may or may not have been inspired by a Golden Age Comics character from 1941 called "Man o' Metal" (Pat Dempsey) who could change his skin into metal. He was created by famed Wonder Woman artist H. G. Peters and appeared in Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics by Eastern Color Printing. I bring this up because over at DC Comics Wein had revived many of the acquired Quality Comics characters as "The Freedom Fighters" in JLA nos. 107-108 in 1973--so, like Roy Thomas, Len Wein had a love for Golden Age characters. No doubt the popularity of Star Trek also played a role in influencing Wein and Cockrum to create an international team of mutants. Ed called it on Wein using the Gardner Fox JLA trope of splitting the team into smaller teams. I think it's interesting that Ed seems to dislike Roy Thomas' writing on the whole. I mean, to each their own, but Thomas is a key architect in expanding Marvel's mythos from the late '60s and throughout the '70s--also, the Marvel Method might have its flaws, but most of that 1st generation of fans-turned-pro offered up entertaining, engrossing stories throughout the '70s and '80s, which actually were thought-provoking and built up the vocabularies of the average 8-12 year old reader. By contrast, most of the contemporary Marvel and DC Comics are incredibly redundant, formulaic or agenda-driven with generally poor, to mediocre artwork (excepting a few cases)...sadly...
Yeah, Claremont was always a wordy bastard, but unlike so many other verbose writers (especially these days), his words almost always mattered. I think it really helped with the idea that anyone could pick any random issue of X-Men and be able to quickly have at least a decent enough idea of what was going on that they could follow the story and hopefully enjoy it. That's a pretty cool thing. And yes, please check out some classic X-Men!
Classic X-Men video, please! The stories did feel dated and overly verbose back when I was reading them in the early 90s, but not to the point of turning me off from them. It was a nice change of tone after finishing an issue from the Claremont/Lee era.
Love Ed’s colours in the grand design it’s better than the original I just checked with my original copy but for me the black and white Essential will always be my choice for re reading X-Men I’ve got all the X omnibus too but like Tom always says the colours are shit with the reprints of the older stuff so just give em to me in black and whit and let me see them lines
Reread Claremont's run- endless content there! So much to appreciate about how he did the cliffhangers and hooks each issue, and his attention to giving each character in the team a story that was focused on them. And seeing the changing artists over the years is quite fun
Haha - I noticed with the re-coloring you corrected Colossus's upper thighs. In the original comic, his upper thighs are blue when he's in his costume and in human form but when he transforms into his metallic form, his upper thighs are metallic suggesting they should be skin toned. Good job!
It's fascinating, so many books I loved as a teen or a kid and today I might have them but I don't read them or hold them to a higher place in my collection. One that I have found myself not liking as much is Dark Knight Returns. I remember my art teacher not liking the artwork all that much. There was a few portions of it where it looks like the elephant man has become the Dark Knight.
I watched the 90s show growing up but didn't read Giant Sized till I was like 25 and I loved it and was surprised how it flowed compared to other silver aged stuff I'd read. I fuckin love this issue.
Cockrum redesigned Cyclops' visor for _Giant Size X-Men_ #1, but kept his overall design from the first individual costumes for the original 5 X-men and it really pops.
I think it was Gil Kane who misinterpreted Wolverine's mask for the cover and Cockrum went back and redrew parts of the work he had done because he liked Kane's take better.
Sunfire was not in a Neal Adams issue. He appeared in a Don Heck fill-in job in the middle of the Adams run (X-Men #64) and he and inker Tom Palmer did their best to make it look like Adams. They obviously did a great job since so many people misremember the credits for that issue.
Classic X-men is where I started with the X-men. Not sure where I read Giant-Sized, but I know I read that Nightcrawler origin. Maybe it was a flashback in a different comic. But please, don’t go to Len W Swamp Thing. If I never hear “muck encrusted mockery of a man” again it’ll be too soon. Maybe an artist edition just for the Wrightson.
I remember when I was a kid, my cousin tried to explain X-Men to me and it made no sense. 'So Wolverine has blades that shoot out of his hands and he slashes people. That doesn't sound like a superhero to me... Wouldn't that mean he's just constantly killing people? Is that morally good?'
Speaking as one who was there at the time, it DID feel different. The multicultural international team felt like a breath of fresh air and a logical expansion of the world.
I wasn't surprised when I saw the heading, Kayfabe Divided, that the biggest division would be between Rugg and Scioli. I've noticed in a couple of other episodes where Rugg isn't always onboard w/Scioli's unbridled enthusiasm. Truth is they aren't at loggerheads or anything but I can tell they ain't in lockstep when it comes to their particular comic tastes. Good ep, I'm gonna have to break out my copy of Piskor's Grand Design: Second Genesis and actually read it now!
Your right, the Thunderbird conversation with Xavier is a trope as exactly said by “Comic Tropes” RUclips segment on this very issue.
I own that X-MEN Grand Design Treasury Edition. I love it with Giant-Size X-MEN #1. I love your colors, Ed! I miss old, dead Thunderbird. I even drew 4 pages of X-MEN: Thunderbird Beyond when I was 15. My own self produced short comic.
Nice to see Dave Cockrum getting some love! I think it would be cool if you guys reviewed Cockrum's run on Superboy & The Legion of Super-Heroes--not for the story content, just for the great artwork! Also, Cockrum did an ace job of redesigning almost all of the LOSH costumes for the '70s--most of which are the best costumes those heroes ever got! Timber Wolf's feral face and hair-style redesign by Cockrum is a precursor to Logan's hair style. Also of note, Cockrum started out at DC in the early '70s inking Superboy back-up stories over the great Murphy Anderson! It would also be cool if you reviewed Cockrum's creator-owned property The Futurians--which appeared in one Marvel Graphic Novel and three or four issues by Lodestone Comics in the late '80s. I thought it was a fun read with great art! Another review suggestion is the first few issues of Marvel Fanfare with great art by Michael Golden, Dave Cockrum, and Paul Smith in a Spider-Man/Angel/X-Men/Ka-Zar story arc set in the Savage Land.
Re: the writing, I've got to side with Tom on this one (just like on Micronauts no. 1!). Maybe Len Wein's script comes across as clunky in some areas...as noted, with Thunderbird's characterization and dialogue -- but it's always important to look at comics as a product of their time. If you look at the expansion of the Civil Rights Movement and the American Indian Movement (AIM), and the Incident at Wounded Knee in 1973, etc., it makes sense that John Proudstar might be terse, bitter, etc. as both a Vietnam Vet and an Indigenous Person seeing all of the injustices that Native Americans had to endure. Also, Giant-Size X-Men no. 1 was cover dated May, 1975--so that's less than a year after Nixon resigned in disgrace.
Given that the Cold War was still happening, it is fascinating that Wein and Cockrum decided to create Colossus --who may or may not have been inspired by a Golden Age Comics character from 1941 called "Man o' Metal" (Pat Dempsey) who could change his skin into metal. He was created by famed Wonder Woman artist H. G. Peters and appeared in Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics by Eastern Color Printing. I bring this up because over at DC Comics Wein had revived many of the acquired Quality Comics characters as "The Freedom Fighters" in JLA nos. 107-108 in 1973--so, like Roy Thomas, Len Wein had a love for Golden Age characters. No doubt the popularity of Star Trek also played a role in influencing Wein and Cockrum to create an international team of mutants. Ed called it on Wein using the Gardner Fox JLA trope of splitting the team into smaller teams.
I think it's interesting that Ed seems to dislike Roy Thomas' writing on the whole. I mean, to each their own, but Thomas is a key architect in expanding Marvel's mythos from the late '60s and throughout the '70s--also, the Marvel Method might have its flaws, but most of that 1st generation of fans-turned-pro offered up entertaining, engrossing stories throughout the '70s and '80s, which actually were thought-provoking and built up the vocabularies of the average 8-12 year old reader. By contrast, most of the contemporary Marvel and DC Comics are incredibly redundant, formulaic or agenda-driven with generally poor, to mediocre artwork (excepting a few cases)...sadly...
Well done, again. Would love to see Ed recolor a 60's or 70's Marvel page or cover in Photoshop, to see his technique.
That would be great, for sure.
Yeah, Claremont was always a wordy bastard, but unlike so many other verbose writers (especially these days), his words almost always mattered. I think it really helped with the idea that anyone could pick any random issue of X-Men and be able to quickly have at least a decent enough idea of what was going on that they could follow the story and hopefully enjoy it. That's a pretty cool thing. And yes, please check out some classic X-Men!
Classic X-Men video, please! The stories did feel dated and overly verbose back when I was reading them in the early 90s, but not to the point of turning me off from them. It was a nice change of tone after finishing an issue from the Claremont/Lee era.
Love Ed’s colours in the grand design it’s better than the original I just checked with my original copy but for me the black and white Essential will always be my choice for re reading X-Men I’ve got all the X omnibus too but like Tom always says the colours are shit with the reprints of the older stuff so just give em to me in black and whit and let me see them lines
Reread Claremont's run- endless content there! So much to appreciate about how he did the cliffhangers and hooks each issue, and his attention to giving each character in the team a story that was focused on them. And seeing the changing artists over the years is quite fun
Love that Silver-y white. Classic modern look. Kinda just started watching regularly, love the show and the comic work!
Haha - I noticed with the re-coloring you corrected Colossus's upper thighs. In the original comic, his upper thighs are blue when he's in his costume and in human form but when he transforms into his metallic form, his upper thighs are metallic suggesting they should be skin toned. Good job!
Thank you for this existing. ❤ This was very necessary
It's fascinating, so many books I loved as a teen or a kid and today I might have them but I don't read them or hold them to a higher place in my collection. One that I have found myself not liking as much is Dark Knight Returns. I remember my art teacher not liking the artwork all that much. There was a few portions of it where it looks like the elephant man has become the Dark Knight.
I watched the 90s show growing up but didn't read Giant Sized till I was like 25 and I loved it and was surprised how it flowed compared to other silver aged stuff I'd read. I fuckin love this issue.
I feel like I agree with Tom on this one, but maybe, like Tom, I haven't actually read it, and will end up agreeing with Jim!
Cockrum redesigned Cyclops' visor for _Giant Size X-Men_ #1, but kept his overall design from the first individual costumes for the original 5 X-men and it really pops.
I think it was Gil Kane who misinterpreted Wolverine's mask for the cover and Cockrum went back and redrew parts of the work he had done because he liked Kane's take better.
Sunfire was not in a Neal Adams issue. He appeared in a Don Heck fill-in job in the middle of the Adams run (X-Men #64) and he and inker Tom Palmer did their best to make it look like Adams. They obviously did a great job since so many people misremember the credits for that issue.
Wow, I didn't realise you guys had done all these "Grand Design" books! I'm off to Amazon to see if I can buy 'em all!
Love the lightning coloring on the storm panels.
I have giant size x-men #1 but it's really musty, yellow, and kinda beat up.
I only have the X-Men Grand Design singles, but this has made me want to get the TPBs.
Classic X-men is where I started with the X-men. Not sure where I read Giant-Sized, but I know I read that Nightcrawler origin. Maybe it was a flashback in a different comic. But please, don’t go to Len W Swamp Thing. If I never hear “muck encrusted mockery of a man” again it’ll be too soon. Maybe an artist edition just for the Wrightson.
Best channel ever. Fight me. Lol ✌🏾
Oh wow a video I can do a read-along with
It's odd to realize that I used to own this, and now I can't afford comics at all.
Lovin this, what is the florescent popping up off the page in the recording.
Please do X-Men 94.
That signature use of white tho.
Old school
We need a line of recolored Marvel classics by Ed.
I remember when I was a kid, my cousin tried to explain X-Men to me and it made no sense. 'So Wolverine has blades that shoot out of his hands and he slashes people. That doesn't sound like a superhero to me... Wouldn't that mean he's just constantly killing people? Is that morally good?'
Sweet!