Clairmont X Men/ Miller Daredevil question ?? 1 1

[NoMan]

When did these books hit and become the it comics?  Was Xmen a hit and become a hot book right from the start in 1975?  Same question re: Miller DD - A hit from #158?

Edited June 20, 2019 by NoMan

[RockMyAmadeus]

4 hours ago, NoMan said:

When did these books hit and become the it comics?  Was Xmen a hit and become a hot book right from the start in 1975?  Same question re: Miller DD - A hit from #158?

No.

[NoMan]

1 hour ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

No.

Thanks. Do you know when each title kinda took off?

[RockMyAmadeus]

11 minutes ago, NoMan said:

Thanks. Do you know when each title kinda took off?

Yes.

[The Brain]

9 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Yes.

 

Stop it!!!

 

You made soda spray out my nose!!!!

[RockMyAmadeus]

[Lazyboy]

5 hours ago, NoMan said:

When did these books hit and become the it comics?  Was Xmen a hit and become a hot book right from the start in 1975?  Same question re: Miller DD - A hit from #158?

You have to consider that you're asking about a title that was (pseudo-)cancelled and a bi-monthly title that was pretty close to cancellation.

Miller's art got the title some increased attention, but Daredevil didn't even become monthly again until months after he started writing. Likewise, X-Men was bi-monthly for a few years after the reboot.

Both titles gradually grew into what they became.

[NoMan]

59 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

You have to consider that you're asking about a title that was (pseudo-)cancelled and a bi-monthly title that was pretty close to cancellation.

Miller's art got the title some increased attention, but Daredevil didn't even become monthly again until months after he started writing. Likewise, X-Men was bi-monthly for a few years after the reboot.

Both titles gradually grew into what they became.

Thanks for your thoughts. I was aware that X-Men was in reprints and not doing well and was close to cancellation. Wasn't aware of DD's position regarding sales. 

[sfcityduck]

 

On 6/20/2019 at 7:46 AM, NoMan said:

When did these books hit and become the it comics?  Was Xmen a hit and become a hot book right from the start in 1975?  Same question re: Miller DD - A hit from #158?

X-men heated up quickly, before Byrne joined the titled with 108.  Once he did, it heated up more.

Miller got attention within a year, and hit the stratosphere after RC Harvey did a very nice cover article about Miller's DD in the September 1980 Comics Journal.  

At the time, there was no internet and no "hot comics" hype publications (e.g. Comics Values Monthly, etc.).   So they both became very desirable very quickly for the time.

[NoMan]

1 hour ago, sfcityduck said:

 

X-men heated up quickly, before Byrne joined the titled with 108.  Once he did, it heated up more.

Miller got attention within a year, and hit the stratosphere after RC Harvey did a very nice cover article about Miller's DD in the September 1980 Comics Journal.  

At the time, there was no internet and no "hot comics" hype publications (e.g. Comics Values Monthly, etc.).   So they both became very desirable very quickly for the time.

Thanks. I believe the CJ article pointed me towards the DD title. I have no memory of Xmen.

[Logan510]

41 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

 

X-men heated up quickly, before Byrne joined the titled with 108.  Once he did, it heated up more.

Miller got attention within a year, and hit the stratosphere after RC Harvey did a very nice cover article about Miller's DD in the September 1980 Comics Journal.  

At the time, there was no internet and no "hot comics" hype publications (e.g. Comics Values Monthly, etc.).   So they both became very desirable very quickly for the time.

According to Byrne, sales were just enough to avoid cancellation during most of his run. He said they started noticing an uptick around the Dark Phoenix saga, but he says that sales didn't really explode until Paul Smith became the artist.

[NoMan]

1 hour ago, Logan510 said:

According to Byrne, sales were just enough to avoid cancellation during most of his run. He said they started noticing an uptick around the Dark Phoenix saga, but he says that sales didn't really explode until Paul Smith became the artist.

Thank you. Interesting.

[PopKulture]

I was reading Marvels  heavily then and I put the "buzz" for X-Men right around the Dazzler debut in 130, and then really taking off a few issues later with the Dark Phoenix saga. For Daredevil, it seems the Death of Elektra issue (181) is when everybody else took note and really started buying the back issues. Both runs took a relatively long time to get "discovered."  

[Brock]

I would say that the buzz really started on X-Men late in Byrne’s run... I was mostly a DC guy, but the hype had reached the point tat I gave in and started to collect X-Men, too... my first issue was #145, the return of Dave Cockrum. I had the sense that many others were jumping on board around the same time, and we were all competing to buy the earlier issues.

With DD, things came together a bit later... my sense was that it was more of a slow burn, with the dam breaking with 181 (the death of Elektra). I also feel like DD prices spiked harder and faster than X-men, though, because we were all afraid of missing out on the “next big thing.”

[divad]

IIRC I was still buying two of everything through about XM105 or thereabouts, and quit DD even before 158 . . . does that match-up?

Like SF Duck said, no internet, no real hype.

Edited June 23, 2019 by divad

[aardvark88]

2 hours ago, PopKulture said:

 I put the "buzz" for X-Men right around the Dazzler debut in 130, and then really taking off a few issues later with the Dark Phoenix saga. For Daredevil, it seems the Death of Elektra issue (181) is when everybody else took note and really started buying the back issues.

In the Vancouver, BC area, the 'buzz' for new X-men started around X-men #120 (Alpha Flight, a CANADIAN team ) whereby local collector/specs would buy 10 to 200 copies each. For DD, when issue DD #177 (Elektra) came out, my LCS was desperate to try to re-stock/buy any copies of DD #158 at full Overstreet value.

[PopKulture]

2 minutes ago, aardvark88 said:

In the Vancouver, BC area, the 'buzz' for new X-men started around X-men #120 (Alpha Flight, a CANADIAN team ) whereby local collector/specs would buy 10 to 200 copies each. For DD, when issue DD #177 (Elektra) came out, my LCS was desperate to try to re-stock/buy any copies of DD #158 at full Overstreet value.

Yeah, it was gaining steam locally in the 120's but 130 is the issue I recall when people started buying multiple copies every month. Experiences may vary.  I can recall the big buzz when Alpha Flight got their own mag. I found myself tuning out after the first dozen or so issues. How long did Canadians stay keen on their own series?  

Somewhere I also have a poster that Marvel did for comic shops and distributors - same artwork as the first issue. In fact, I have several other cool posters from that era including one for King Kirby's baxter paper New Gods and several independents like Grim Jack.

[Brock]

12 hours ago, PopKulture said:

 I can recall the big buzz when Alpha Flight got their own mag... How long did Canadians stay keen on their own series?  

I'd say it was pretty big until around the time that Byrne left the title. I recall thinking that he was from Canada, and could at least give the title a little Canadian context. Nobody after him knew the first thing about Canada, and the book might as well have been set in Indiana or Connecticut for all it seemed to have an impact...

Also, the Byrne stories seemed to "matter", and to be focused on the characters... eventually it just become a monthly slugfest like everything else.

Of course, I was a teenager at the time, so everything here is being remembered through my rose-coloured glasses.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Summer of 1978.

That's when the mass awareness of the X-Men started, and people started pursuing back issues. Prior to that point, X-Men #94 and GSXM #1 weren't worth much...around 60 cents in the 1977 OPG. The summer of 1978 is when everything "clicked", and the title started being pursued as a back issue. Overstreet, TBG, and SOOs at the time demonstrate this. Beerbohm claims he was ordering 10,000 copies of X-Men by issue #108, and that Byrne was hot the moment he stepped onto X-Men. Neither of those is supported by published data (10,000 copies would have been about 9% of the entire reported sales of issue #108.) Sales numbers actually went DOWN during Byrne's tenure, just a bit, and he has stated that the title hovered around cancelled numbers (100,000 copies sold per issue, at the time) for the bulk of his run.

X-Men, it must be noted, was a bi-monthly publication until issue #112. Bi-monthly status meant a book was near cancellation. Elevation to monthly status meant sales were improving.

For DD, the end of 1980, and, as others have suggested, at or a little before DD #181. It's one of the reasons why DD #158-172 are so very difficult to find in ultra high grade, relative to books like X-Men. DD #171, with a 6/81 cover date, has a mere 39 9.8s on the census, while X-Men #146, which came out the same month, has 313. That's a huge difference. People simply weren't buying and saving the title, like they were X-Men, and, more recently, New Teen Titans (which rivaled X-Men, so the reports go, in sales in 1981-1982.)

https://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=Uncanny X-Men&publisher=Marvel Comics&issue=146&year=1981&issuedate=6%2F81

https://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=Daredevil&issue=171&publisher=Marvel Comics&year=1981&issuedate=6/81

DD continued to limp along as a bi-monthly for two years after Miller joined the title; not becoming monthly again until issue #171.

 

[NoMan]

22 hours ago, Brock said:

I would say that the buzz really started on X-Men late in Byrne’s run... I was mostly a DC guy, but the hype had reached the point tat I gave in and started to collect X-Men, too... my first issue was #145, the return of Dave Cockrum. I had the sense that many others were jumping on board around the same time, and we were all competing to buy the earlier issues.

With DD, things came together a bit later... my sense was that it was more of a slow burn, with the dam breaking with 181 (the death of Elektra). I also feel like DD prices spiked harder and faster than X-men, though, because we were all afraid of missing out on the “next big thing.”

Thanks for taking the time w/ a learned answer, Brock.