>1972 internal Marvel Comics memo, ranking each major character/team by importanceUnsupriningly, Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and three of the male members of the Fantastic Four are "Most Important". Suprisingly, so are Doc Savage, Dracula, Conan and Ka-Zar.X-Men and Inhumans are tied as "Important", very fitting for this time.Interestingly, Hank McCoy "The Beast" is off on his own not as a member of the X-Men. I kind of wonder if Marvel was perhaps pushing him to be a independent adventure character that started form a team, like The Thing did in Marvel Two-In-One.Who the fuck is "Gulliver Jones"?
>>153938984>Who the fuck is "Gulliver Jones"?Bargain bin John Carter
>>153938984What are their standards for “most important”? How is Dr. Strange somehow equivalent to Captain America and the Fantastic Four in importance? Is this just for marketability purposes, or does it also refer to how much editorial wants to meddle in any given series? What are the dashes next to both Dr.s meant to signify?
>>153938984>Luke Cage>Very important>Black Panther>Just 'important'How things change
>>153938984>>153939037Gullivar Jones, not Gulliver. He was John Carter before John Carter.
>Interestingly, Hank McCoy "The Beast" is off on his own not as a member of the X-Men. I kind of wonder if Marvel was perhaps pushing him to be a independent adventure character that started form a team, like The Thing did in Marvel Two-In-One.This was during his solo run on Amazing Adventures when he became blue furry BeastAt the time, I think it was Stan Lee or other Marvel eds thought horror was going to come back into vogue which is what led to the creation of Morbius, Man Thing, Ghost Rider, Werewolf by NightThey were also "monster"-fying characters to see what stuck. Spider-Man had his six arms saga. John Jameson became Man Wolf. The Cat would soon become Tigra.And they were giving Beast a shot as a solo monster hero like Hulk and Thing. This is when he had his lab accident
>>153939989He fit the Blackspoitation craze better
>>153940447My bad
>>153939989>meddleBlacksploitation was all the rage in the 70's, and Luke was far more in line with that genre than BP
>>153938984lmao what do they have against Quicksilver?!
Conan really helped Marvel sales at a time when they weren't in the best position
>>153938984>Hank McCoyat issue 67 (late 1970), X-Men becomes reprint of itself; there are no new stories in the title until #94 (mid 1975)the book continued as reprint because Stan Lee liked the concept and, comic fans being mostly kids at the time, reprinting the same stories 5 years later (the book was originally bimonthly, and reprints start from #12) worked out fine as most original readers had moved on by thenhowever at the same time Beast and the other X-Men continued to guest in other titles - Beast for example becomes furry for the first time in Amazing Adventures #11 in early 1972 (but doesn't become blue for several months), a storyline that also briefly guests the rest of the 1963 X-Men lineup and features Angel more heavily; the previous story in Amazing Adventures had featured Magneto in a non-X-Men context, antagonizing the Inhumansthe X-Men weren't really popular until Giant-Size X-Men in 1975 introduced new characters Storm, Colossus, Inukchukpowwow and Nightcrawler alongside recurring story orphans Wolverine, Sunfire and Banshee, trying to rescue Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman and later recruits of the original run Polaris and Havok from Krakoa, which had fucked their shit up real bad as a kind of foreshadowing of where the IP would end up 50 years lateruntil then the X-Men and their antagonists were basically split up among other properties (just as other properties were crossed over to create the Avengers, or to move fan favorites like the Inhumans and Black Panther out of existing titles (both Fantastic Four creations) into their own plotlines); they continued to develop (and like Beast, some of their most interesting stories are outside of "X-Men" continuity) even though their namesake title was effectively dead; Ka-Zar was a similar case, though he's waned in popularitynote also that this page is a memo from Stan Lee himself - these are the characters the EiC thinks are important in 1971, ie the ones he wants to push hardest
>>153941318>Inukchukpowwowcome again
>>153942433you know, ol' Featherheadwampumman
>>153938984These fucks were always about franchising. They never really cared about making good comics.
>>153939497>Very Important-Has own ongoing solo book at the time-Has star role in a team book>Important- Regular role in a team book - Sidekick or love-interest role in a 'Very Important' solo book- Relatively new solo book that's not 'Very Important' yet, or recent but short lived solo book>Not as Important- Character exists but isn't currently appearing anywhere- Cancelled solo book characters- Team book character who has left the team with permanent intent- Character exists to just be occasional guest star>>153940845Quicksilver leaving the Avengers in the early 1970s and marrying Crystal was supposed to be a retirement from ongoing comics for both characters, Crystal doesn't even make the list.>>153941318>the X-Men weren't really popular until Giant-Size X-Men in 1975It took about five years, it didn't happen overnight with that one issue. John Byrne's talked about how they were still in danger of cancellation more than once back when he was on the book.>the X-Men and their antagonists were basically split up among other propertiesIt's more like the non-Beast X-Men members just have some guest appearances in other books over those years, either because a writer liked them, or editorial wanted to keep them out there. As villains go, most of it was just Magneto being a popular villain who kept showing up in other books over those years, plus one Avengers story with the Sentinels.
>>153943820Nope
>>153938984>Suprisingly, so are Doc Savage, Dracula, Conan and Ka-Zar.Doc Savage, Dracula and Conan were all so popular, they had their own black and white comic magazines aimed at adults, which also sometimes sold better than the comics themselves.
>>153938984Conanchads... We're up there with the avengersSeriously though conan comics are great and they're one of the main reasons I don't take people saying marvel sucks seriously. Marvel experimented with all kinds of genres while DC is kinda just capeshit (no offense intended)
>>153938984>three star Doc Savage, Dracula, Ka-Zar, ConanImagine opening someone's pantry, seeing rows of Cilantro, asking them how they use so much and they're like>"Poorly."
>>153940845>>153656205
>>153944750Try that againhttps://desuarchive.org/co/thread/153651777/#q153656205
>>153944738What?
bmuopp
>>153941053>>153944703I don't know why op is surprised. Conan was such a big comic the Arnold movie was switched from Kull to Conan to cash in on the name recognition. Then you got Savage Sword too adding even more quality to the comics
>>153938984Was Dracula in the public domain at this point?
>>153944471Wrong.
>>153949726No
>>153948310iirc the novel entered public domain in 1962
>>153948310in the US it had been public domain since the 1930s because the US wasn't a Berne signatory and Stoker hadn't filed copyright correctly under US lawin the Berne world it probably became public domain no later than 1982, by which point there had been 60 years of adaptations
>>153949740YES.
>>153952350No, Bison
>>153939989Neither matters now.
>>153954501Isn’t Panther still super popular among the negros
