I grew up with the Teen Titans. I know that may sound corny ... but it is true.
As a Teenager in the 80's I decided to pick up an interesting looking book ... The New Teen Titans from Marv Wolfman and George Perez. Well, I was familiar with George' artwork and it caught my eye.
Together they decided to do something different. Not only would they tackle real problems along with the fantastic { something Green Arrow/Green Lantern pioneered and Marvel proceeeded to innovate upon } But they would allow they copyrighted characters to AGE... I started reading them as a teen and when I hit University these characters were also in their 20's!!!
The issues and personal development of these characters were such that I could relate to... in a sense I went thru it with them every month.
This cemented my interest in comics from early childhood into a lifelong love affair with the art form.
Fancy variant covers... game tie ins... movie marketing... etc. etc.
All of these sales gimmicks fail miserably to develop loyal fans compared to well crafted stories. This is a story tellers medium and all the AD reps will never 'get' that.
Decide if the path to a better future lies in building a better war machine or in building the relationships that will make the war machine obsolete!
Yeah the initial 60's 70's Teen Titans were camp. I am referring to the re-launch in 1980. They decided to tackle drug abuse, Teen violence, gang issues, runaways, Teenage prostitution, Parental abuse..........
Maybe not so ground breaking today... but it was at the time.
Race, prejudice, justice vs the letter of the law.. many serious themes permeated this book for a decade. Which is why it is the only time when this book actually beat out Marvel's X-men in sales.
The partnership between Marv Wolfman and George Perez was so highly regarded that DC gave them the keys to the kingdom.
The two were allowed to re-mold the entire DC universe { killing characters that had been around for decades.. wiping out entire universes.... } in the higly acclaimed Crisis on Infinite Earths... No other series has so profoundly altered the continuity of DC Comics.
Their work on New Teen Titans is where they made their names { as partners } and it garnered the numerous industry awards.
For me it was a hell of a good read
Decide if the path to a better future lies in building a better war machine or in building the relationships that will make the war machine obsolete!
but my favorite book is Ultimate Spiderman, it's the story of somthing fantastic happing to an ordnary person, and the fantastic spetical that his life becomes as a result.
It's obvious that what is so obvious to us is obviously not so obvious to the oblivious.
"Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea." Mark Twain
03-22-2005 05:58 PM
