First Night:

I had word from a schoolfriend a while back, telling me that he was going to be moving to work in San Francisco, and wondering if I wanted his comic books. Obviously I said yes. We were both into Marvel Comics for a couple of years in the mid eighties, and I figured he would have a pretty consistent run of X-Men, if nothing else.
I’d forgotten about Classic X-Men though. Back when I was 15, I think I gave it a couple of issues before deciding it wasn’t for me. My mate gave it nineteen issues, and I’ve started reading them tonight. Its a great little book, combining retellings of the original (and at that point, very expensive) ‘New’ X-Men issues, with additional material by Chris Claremont and John Bolton. At this point, Claremont had become rather wordy – it’s fascinating to see the old material next to the new material, and see how much more verbose he’d become. But that’s not the real delight.
John Bolton’s work is gorgeous. It’s completely wasted in a crappy newsprint superhero comic of course, but his delicate linework of real people is an elegant contrast to Dave Cockrum’s more traditional superheroics. It’s a different Marvel that, in 1985, didn’t see the opportunity to slap this book out at a premium. 32 pages, no ads, new material, covers by Art Adams. Cover price – 1 dollar. Granted, it was too much for me, but in the days of the $3.99 standard comic book, it’s a bargain.
So yeah, 19 issues of Classic X-Men. I’ve got a week to get through them cos I’m passing them off to Rad this weekend. I’m going to enjoy them.
Posted: August 16th, 2010 by Steve under Comics, Him.
Comments: 2



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