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McFarlane Spider-Run!
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54 posts in this topic

13 hours ago, StreetPreacher said:

Well it's been nearly 30 years in the making, but I finally completed my McFarlane era run of the 1990 launched "Spider-Man" series!  I'll have to see if there's any documentaries about this comic era on youtube, because there must have been some craziness going on. 

Just look at this run for example.  Marvel gave Todd nearly full creative control of his own brand new 'Spider' book series, but then he only did 15 issues before jumping ship along with most of Marvel's top artists and starting up Image! lol 

Anyway, just wanted to share my complete McFarlane run in celebration of SaTodday ;) 

Spider-Run_McFarlane.JPG

 

Still working on my McFarlane ASM run, but those #300,#316 are making that collection a bit more expensive to fill in...

Are you going to look to add the covers he did for other Spidey titles as well?

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8 hours ago, Broke as a Joke said:

Cool to look at but have a bottle of Motrin ready if you try to read them.

Haha!  Yeah, especially issue #4, in which Todd was ALSO the colourist!  The Kayfabe guys actually went through the issue pointing out all of McFarlane's 'less traditional' colouring decisions ;) 

 

Quote

Are you going to look to add the covers he did for other Spidey titles as well?

 

Yes, like I said I'm trying to collect his ASM run as well, but that's a bit more pricey :)  And also want to track down some of the cool Spidey covers he did on a few of the Marvel Tales books!

And then it's on to the Hulk where he did interior pencils from 330-346? along with a few nice covers.  Only have 3 books from his Hulk run so far, but at least one is #340 ;)

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I got most of these when they first came out, but some I got a few months. The Lizard is my favorite character of all time. I remember when I had 8-11 (12 hadn't come out yet) and I was at the LCS looking at a 2 and a 4 because of the Lizard covers...$4.50 for #4 was steep but I knew there was no way I could swing $7 for #2...I really like all the stories at that time but I guess they didn't age well (and to many, never came across well in the first place!). I completed the run soon after and continue to impulse buy issues from the run I like when I see them. The Platinum #1 still eludes me...and I guess technically the UPC 2nd print, but I didn't hear about that one for years afterwards...

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6 hours ago, PeterPark said:

I I completed the run soon after and continue to impulse buy issues from the run I like when I see them. The Platinum #1 still eludes me...and I guess technically the UPC 2nd print, but I didn't hear about that one for years afterwards...

Yeah, luckily my LCS always seems to have a few issues, and other than #1, most of them were in the $5 (CAD) bins, so I'm sure I overpaid for a few, but $5 a book seemed reasonable at the time...  Managed to grab #14 on ebay with a coupon for $2.50 shipped, which is about what it would have cost at cover price ;)

I think  it was when I finally started checking prices on some of my 'old' books and realized they still weren't worth much, that I decided that instead of selling what I had, I might as well by more and finish it off!

And when I said I had the run, I wasn't referring to all of the variants of #1...  1 Silver foil cover is enough for me!

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On 9/20/2020 at 8:28 AM, StreetPreacher said:

Haha!  Yeah, especially issue #4, in which Todd was ALSO the colourist!  The Kayfabe guys actually went through the issue pointing out all of McFarlane's 'less traditional' colouring decisions ;) 

 

 

Yes, like I said I'm trying to collect his ASM run as well, but that's a bit more pricey :)  And also want to track down some of the cool Spidey covers he did on a few of the Marvel Tales books!

And then it's on to the Hulk where he did interior pencils from 330-346? along with a few nice covers.  Only have 3 books from his Hulk run so far, but at least one is #340 ;)

How high would the grades need to be on the Hulks? Have 330-346, minus 340:cry:, in pretty high grade. Could send pics. That is, if you're looking to dive in right away!

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1 hour ago, Spawnfreak said:

How high would the grades need to be on the Hulks? Have 330-346, minus 340:cry:, in pretty high grade. Could send pics. That is, if you're looking to dive in right away!

Any chance you're in Canada?  I've been watching a few issues on ebay, but shipping charges usually make the deals not worth it...  I was assuming I'd be able to find them over time at my LCS, but they NEVER seem to have much Hulk stuff, and nothing from McFarlane's run!

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22 minutes ago, StreetPreacher said:

Any chance you're in Canada?  I've been watching a few issues on ebay, but shipping charges usually make the deals not worth it...  I was assuming I'd be able to find them over time at my LCS, but they NEVER seem to have much Hulk stuff, and nothing from McFarlane's run!

Sorry, and even sorrier that the rates are so high! I live in Massachusetts, USA

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Congrats!

I enjoyed McFarlane's ASM run. This solo series though, I feel the stories and art were terrible, outside of the first couple issues. 

I have not bothered to read any of his Hulk stuff outside of issue #340 which, the cover I can dig but the interiors are downright horrendous. Definitely a display book.

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1 hour ago, comicginger1789 said:

Congrats!

I enjoyed McFarlane's ASM run. This solo series though, I feel the stories and art were terrible, outside of the first couple issues. 

I have not bothered to read any of his Hulk stuff outside of issue #340 which, the cover I can dig but the interiors are downright horrendous. Definitely a display book.

Yeah, Todd's amateur writing skills were definitely apparent throughout his "Spider-Man" run, but I feel the art was as strong as on his ASM run...  Even when he was allowed to include Wolverine and Ghost Rider, the story still just never grabs you...  Although you have to agree, it's a great set of covers, even if a couple are a a bit too similar, and the lame #11 that looks like it came from the previous 'age'

And were you able to read a physical Hulk #340, or did you get the digital version?  They completely altered the colouring on the digital edition, so if that's all you've seen then I agree, that for instance Wolverine just always looks odd, likely due to not being coloured quite right?

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4 hours ago, Spawnfreak said:

Sorry, and even sorrier that the rates are so high! I live in Massachusetts, USA

Yeah, I'm not sure what the 'actual' shipping cost would be, but it seems most of the ebay ads charge like $25 to ship a raw book...  I'd be happy to pay the ~$15 'but it now' price for many of those Hulk issues, but once I add $25 delivery plus whatever additional duty/taxes/brokerage fees charged at the border, suddenly a $15 book becomes a $50+ purchase! lol 

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20 minutes ago, StreetPreacher said:

Yeah, Todd's amateur writing skills were definitely apparent throughout his "Spider-Man" run, but I feel the art was as strong as on his ASM run...  Even when he was allowed to include Wolverine and Ghost Rider, the story still just never grabs you...  Although you have to agree, it's a great set of covers, even if a couple are a a bit too similar, and the lame #11 that looks like it came from the previous 'age'

And were you able to read a physical Hulk #340, or did you get the digital version?  They completely altered the colouring on the digital edition, so if that's all you've seen then I agree, that for instance Wolverine just always looks odd, likely due to not being coloured quite right?

Ya I have 340 raw. Hate how he draws Hulk. He’s a bulging mass of squiggles. McFarlanes work appears messy. It had that messy cartoonishness in ASM but it worked. Then the solo series I feel went back to being sloppy. Covers were fine but interiors were never as strong as his ASM work. Just this guys opinion though:)

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1 hour ago, comicginger1789 said:

Ya I have 340 raw. Hate how he draws Hulk. He’s a bulging mass of squiggles. McFarlanes work appears messy. It had that messy cartoonishness in ASM but it worked. Then the solo series I feel went back to being sloppy. Covers were fine but interiors were never as strong as his ASM work. Just this guys opinion though:)

It's a valid criticism, but at the time, we were coming out of an era where Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe and then Mike Mignola were sort of the "house style" Hulk artists.  When Todd started doing what he did, it was crazy and groundbreaking, and to a 17 year old, pretty cool.  Having seen all of the imitators and the hyper-realistic guys and everything else that has come out in the last 30 years, I can see why it could be scoffed at.  BUt man at the time, Todd's milkshake brought all the nerds to the yard.

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2 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

Ya I have 340 raw. Hate how he draws Hulk. He’s a bulging mass of squiggles. McFarlanes work appears messy. It had that messy cartoonishness in ASM but it worked. Then the solo series I feel went back to being sloppy. Covers were fine but interiors were never as strong as his ASM work. Just this guys opinion though:)

Yeah, I guess a lot of the grey hulk in the middle of a snow storm did tend to look a bit messy.  You get the regular overload of line work providing 'detail' to the Hulk, and then more random lines to represent falling snow flurries and drifts on the ground...  I'll have to read my physical copy again, but when I just reviewed the digital edition on my ipad it seems that often the shade of Wolverines costume appears to change...  I'm not sure if maybe this was intended to represent Wolverine standing in differently lighted areas, but in the panels it just looked like the colour saturation kept changing... 

But the eternal question, which cover is better, Hulk #340 or ASM #316?  Or am I wrong about the top 2? :) 

For me a close 3rd would actually be a cover also featuring TWO characters that Todd was well known for.  The final McFarlane Amazing Spider-man issue #328, bought back in the day, but I would have been 11 when it came out, so I can't recall if it was already a back issue when I got it...636068238_AmazingSpider-Man328a.thumb.JPG.338c7f9d83a213f7c464055e50bfaf79.JPG  After this it was onto these 15 issues he did on "Spider-Man", and then I believe his next published work was Spawn?    :)

And BTW, does anyone know why they had Erik Larsen do Spider-Man #15, and then McFarlane came back and made the sideways #16 his final issue?  Was it a time thing to line things up with the X-Force sister book, or was it because the fighting had gotten bad, and McFarlane was already on his way out the door to establish Image?

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On 9/19/2020 at 9:31 AM, StreetPreacher said:

Well it's been nearly 30 years in the making, but I finally completed my McFarlane era run of the 1990 launched "Spider-Man" series!  I'll have to see if there's any documentaries about this comic era on youtube, because there must have been some craziness going on. 

Just look at this run for example.  Marvel gave Todd nearly full creative control of his own brand new 'Spider' book series, but then he only did 15 issues before jumping ship along with most of Marvel's top artists and starting up Image! lol 

Anyway, just wanted to share my complete McFarlane run in celebration of SaTodday ;) 

Spider-Run_McFarlane.JPG

 

Still working on my McFarlane ASM run, but those #300,#316 are making that collection a bit more expensive to fill in...

The majority of these books were/are available in the $1/$2/$3 bins since they were published, with only a handful of exceptions noted in this thread.

are you saying that you actively pursued this set for 30 years?  Seems like a long time to put together such an easy to find, low-cost set (shrug)

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1 hour ago, StreetPreacher said:

Yeah, I guess a lot of the grey hulk in the middle of a snow storm did tend to look a bit messy.  You get the regular overload of line work providing 'detail' to the Hulk, and then more random lines to represent falling snow flurries and drifts on the ground...  I'll have to read my physical copy again, but when I just reviewed the digital edition on my ipad it seems that often the shade of Wolverines costume appears to change...  I'm not sure if maybe this was intended to represent Wolverine standing in differently lighted areas, but in the panels it just looked like the colour saturation kept changing... 

But the eternal question, which cover is better, Hulk #340 or ASM #316?  Or am I wrong about the top 2? :) 

For me a close 3rd would actually be a cover also featuring TWO characters that Todd was well known for.  The final McFarlane Amazing Spider-man issue #328, bought back in the day, but I would have been 11 when it came out, so I can't recall if it was already a back issue when I got it...636068238_AmazingSpider-Man328a.thumb.JPG.338c7f9d83a213f7c464055e50bfaf79.JPG  After this it was onto these 15 issues he did on "Spider-Man", and then I believe his next published work was Spawn?    :)

And BTW, does anyone know why they had Erik Larsen do Spider-Man #15, and then McFarlane came back and made the sideways #16 his final issue?  Was it a time thing to line things up with the X-Force sister book, or was it because the fighting had gotten bad, and McFarlane was already on his way out the door to establish Image?

ASM 316 is Todd’s best. Best Venom cover for me of all time.

ASM 300 is obviously iconic. Simply and beautiful.

ASM 327 is everything I dislike about his drawing. It’s too much.

ASM 306 is a great Action 1 homage

An underrated fav of mine is 311. Great Mysterio cover.

A couple though like 307, 308 and 312 I find the faces on Chameleon, Taskmaster and Green Goblin laughable.

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