Weekly Update 09/15/19

Good evening to all our generous backers! Hope you're enjoying the overall rise in quality of 70's comics; I know I am!

Something I've been thinking about now that we have our feet planted firmly in the Bronze Age is genre and style. Clearly, this is a time of big genre exploration, with Kung-Fu, Horror, and Blaxploitation all entering the Marvel universe. Something that distinguishes Blaxploitation and Kung Fu is that these genres are often produced by non-white creators, and have a focus on non-white characters and stories. But, to the best of my knowledge, the Marvel offices were not hiring Asian or African-American creators to craft or at even to consult on these comics.

I'm not going to make an argument about appropriation (although there certainly is one to be made); instead, I want to talk about quality. When an Anglo or a Jewish writer sits down in 1974 to write a comic about Chinese heroes fighting Chinese villains using Chinese fighting techniques, it can often feel... inauthentic. There's a feeling of this strange world (to U.S. eyes) of Kung Fu being passed along to us through a filter of someone who is translating what they themselves have only experienced secondhand. Mistakes get made with terminology, philosophies or concepts get muddied or misunderstood, nuance is lost. I don't want to make it sound like only a Chinese writer could write a good Kung Fu comic, just that without a considerable understanding of that world, we're getting a lesser product.

This is part of the reason Black Panther works so well (and hopefully why the upcoming Shang-Chi movie will be great). It feels like a product of a lot of care and attention to getting the details right, and honoring the cultures and people it's leaning on for world-building. It doesn't feel like a film made by someone who took a 10 day sightseeing trip to Africa and called it a day. It feels like a film made by someone who took the time to honor the details... and when we're talking a genre comic, those details can make all the difference between a passable comic and a great one.

 

This week's episode is Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Pt. 2, out Monday, 09/16/19. Please get any 1974 feedback for us to discuss on our next Variant Cover episode by 09/18/19. You can send it to mymarvelousyear@gmail.com

1974 PART 1:

Avengers \ Fantastic Four    #127 / #150
Amazing Spider-Man    #129, #131
Amazing Spider-Man    #135 to #137
Tomb of Dracula / Werewolf by Night    #18 / #15
Captain America    #170 to #175
Jungle Action    #9 to #12

1974 PART :

Daredevil / Captain Marvel / Avengers    DD #107, CM #31 to #32, Avg #125, CM #33 to #34
Marvel Premiere / Astonishing Tales   #15 / #25
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu   #1
Avengers / Giant-Size Avengers   #128 to #129, #2
Incredible Hulk    #180, #181

EXTRA ISSUES 1974 (always changing, check the spreadsheet for current):

Defenders #16, 17  Alpha the Ultimate Mutant & Baby Magneto!, Intro of the Wrecking Crew
Man-Thing #1, 3  Start of a Man-Thing solo series. Intro of the Foolkiller!
Doctor Strange #1 to #2, #4 to #5 The first Strange story from Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner. You can skip issue #3.
Marvel Two-In-One #1 The Thing team-up book w/ Man-Thing and the reutrn of the Molecule Man
Amazing Spider-Man #130 The Spidermobile!
Marvel Team-Up #19 Intro of Stegron the Dinosaur Man!
The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #1 Martial Arts Magazine!
Giant-Size Creatures #1 Tigra!
Captain America #169 Captain America framed!
Daredevil #111 Intro of Silver Samurai
Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 Dracula & Spider-Man
Comic Book #1 Marvel's Underground Comics!

UPCOMING PODCAST SCHEDULE:

September 16:  Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Pt. 2
September 18:   Feedback for 1974's Variant Cover Due
September 23:  Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Variant Cover
September 30: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 1 (w/ special guest)
October 1:   Feedback for 1975's Variant Cover Due
October 7: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 2
October 15:  Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Variant Cover

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