tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post1670497430990690981..comments2024-03-19T10:41:35.976-05:00Comments on Bronze Age Babies: The Comics Code Authority: Revised to Relax, Part 10Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04248324005584963229noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-25975770907605152222012-05-22T20:33:41.799-05:002012-05-22T20:33:41.799-05:00I seem to remember an editorial in Stan's Soap...I seem to remember an editorial in Stan's Soapbox or Bullpen Bulletins explaining that they were downplaying exclamation points and asking for feedback. A few months later, Stan said in his column that they got very few comments, and that the few letters about it that they did receive mostly said that it did not make any noticeable difference. So, after that, they did not have an across-the-board policy about punctuation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-44225789322469381052011-11-03T12:22:22.915-05:002011-11-03T12:22:22.915-05:00Point taken, Matthew -- I don't believe this w...Point taken, Matthew -- I don't believe this was ever addressed in a Soapbox or on a Bulletins page anywhere. Certainly the exclamation point is as much a part of comic book and strips as are colorful longjohns and gag lines. So that they brought that style back seemed inevitable.<br /><br />Thanks for the comment! (exclamation point, you see...)<br /><br />DougDoughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04248324005584963229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-29475257175585210362011-11-03T12:08:21.339-05:002011-11-03T12:08:21.339-05:00I don't think Artie Simek can be blamed for th...I don't think Artie Simek can be blamed for the alleged sloppiness. At one point there was a movement afoot to avoid having every single sentence end in an exclamation point, as it was felt (quite rightly) that this was not realistic. So Stan decreed that there would be few if any exclamation points used, but the problem was that the periods were so small, they often didn't print properly--which is apparently what happened here--leaving the sentences looking like they had no punctuation whatsoever. At that point, I believe they reluctantly returned to the exclamation-point-heavy style.Matthew Bradleyhttp://bradleyonfilm.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-25422300670224064552010-06-07T00:39:09.962-05:002010-06-07T00:39:09.962-05:00Very true, Karen, although I think even some of St...Very true, Karen, although I think even some of Stan's writing was becoming bleaker by 1970, what with the death of George Stacy and growing hints of marital discord between Reed & Sue in the FF, which Roy and Gerry stoked to greater effect in their stories. <br />I recently reread the classic Mad version of Donald Duck by Kurtzman and Elder, which includes a shift from Disney style kid friendly cartooning to Elder's more shadowy, eerie style, which Darnold Duck remarks on just before Mickery Rodent traps him in a cage. That seems to reflect the difference between the Marvel Comics of the mid-60s and that of the '70s, when the monsters were unleashed and things got much darker. <br />But, hey, we still got Howard the Duck for a while back then, and that was certainly fun, even when poor Howie quacked up and was institutionalized!Fred W. Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07602124919964053532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-83142651263583160922010-06-06T22:34:24.000-05:002010-06-06T22:34:24.000-05:00Hey Fred, it sounds like we were both getting Spid...Hey Fred, it sounds like we were both getting Spidey around the same time, and I've often thought back about how I was reading the contemporary Spider-Man as well as Marvel Tales at the same time. There was a huge difference in tone as you say; while Peter had problems galore in Marvel Tales, the mood was still lighter than the regular book. While I enjoyed Conway's work on the book it was kind of a downer a lot of times! I think Stan's attitude -which permeated the Marvel titles when he was writing them -was that life is hard but if you really try, you can make it better. The 70s were of course the decade of Viet Nam and Watergate, and that cynicism had an effect on the titles to be sure.<br /><br />KarenKarenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032477453891087135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-29908373989231323172010-06-06T18:21:41.450-05:002010-06-06T18:21:41.450-05:00This three part story was, IMO, a contender for th...This three part story was, IMO, a contender for the last great story that Stan wrote and this particular issue was one of the earliest of my collection -- or at least the earliest that I bought off the rack, at age 8, and which didn't wind up getting lost or thrown away the next time my family moved. While it wasn't the first Spider-Man comic I'd ever read, it was one of the comics that made the biggest impact on me, as much for the dynamics of the storytelling as for the plot. I hadn't read the previous two issues, didn't really know who Harry, or the Goblin or Gwen were, so by some points of logic I should have hated it because it wasn't a complete story for me. Yet I loved it! Even without any sort of mega-recap, Stan provided enough info for me to figure out what was going on and figure out the relationships of these characters to one another, and, more importantly, make me care about them, even old slimy, demented Norman Osborne. At the time I also still occasionally read some DCs, and it didn't matter that they provided a complete story in one issue, because the characters were so bland and the stories so formulized I didn't really care what happened to them the issue before or what might happen in later issues. But at his best, Stan made me interested in Peter Parker, with his all-too-human problems, as in Spider-Man the super-hero. And Gil Kane was a master not only of portraying action, but emotion as well. <br />It would still be nearly two years before I began collecting Spider-Man (or any other title) regularly, catching issue #111, then #119 and the next 100 or so with only a couple of gaps. Of course, that second continuous issue of my collection was #120, the most heartrending Spidey tale of all and a leading contender for the start of the Bronze Age of Comics. Definitely, from that point the tone of the Amazing Spider-Man became dramatically different from the Lee & Romita reprints I was reading in Marvel Tales.Fred W. Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07602124919964053532noreply@blogger.com