......the COMPLETE run , at least going back to the Silver Age , of any long-running title , and title that';s been running (essentially , anyway) continuously since then ???????

  With today's cheap reprints , I think that such an acheivement might actually be possiblefor someone with short-of-Bill-Gates money , especially for Marvel's titles , and especially for those " bread and butter " (Hm , am I kinda hungry ?????????) characters who have tended , generally , to only have one title , not a multitude of them ~ The FF , Flash , Cap .

  As has been commented here , IIRC EVERY Marvel " mainstream " title of the SA and into the early 70s has been reprinted - The mid-ish 70s into the late 70s may be a little difficult , but , onve we get to the era when comics shops really take off - Reagan's inaguration , for a " real world " mark ????????? - Frankly , I think that most meatloaf-and-mashed-potatos Big Two titles , by the time we get to this point , could have their entire runs from then til' now in acceptable/decent reading shape acquired for to-day's $2.99 pre ish average or less !

  So . HHHAS anyone read every issue of Marvel's DAREDEVIL , or all the SA-and-beyond FLASH issues ?

  I tend to think suprisingly few and I think that there is a reason why...

 

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  • Well, to answer your question, yes, i have read several of the series from their origin in the Silver Age, but eventually dropped out of everything for 8 years while at college.  (Yeah, I know the old Animal House joke..."College was the hardest 8 or 9 years of my life...".)

    But Starting the FF at issue 55, I read the initial reprints and bought back issues until I had read or owned #1-125 before I bailed in about 1972.  Ditto for Thor, from 83 to about 193.... DD's reprints from 1-25, but stuck with it until about 92... Submariner, read from  TTA 70-to-Submariner 40 or so... Captain Marvel from 1-23 when it went on hiatus.  Cap American from TOS 59 to Cap. 151 or so... Iron Man from TOS 39 to Iron man 49 or so...  Hulk from TTA #59 to HULK 155 or so.

    X-men from 1 to 66, and again, from 94 to 300 or so, but I lost a  lot of interest after 200 or so with the trial of Magneto.

    New Mutants from 1-100 or so, Spidey from AF 15 to 1 to 110 or so, Dr. Strange from ST 101 to 184 or wherever  he was cancelled, but there's a lot that I didn't pay attention to.. too weird to track...  And Nick Fury from ST 135 to 168 and then SHIELD 1-15, though it became pretty un-readable in the last dozen issues.

    Avengers from 52 to 110, and reprints from 1-52 as well.  Amazing Adventures 1-10, and Astonishing Tales 1-11 but didn't stick with anything beyond the Inhumans, and the Kazar stories.

    What's your point?

  • "I tend to think suprisingly few and I think that there is a reason why..."

    Chunks not been reprinted perhaps?

    I started reading LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES regularly around 1978.  Steve Englehart got me to give some current DC books a look, and after the "Wedding" special (art by Mike Grell) the 1st issue I picked up was the beginning of the "Earthwar" story by Paul Levitz, with absolutely ASTONISHING artwork by Jim Sherman and Bob McLeod (in my view, the BEST Sherman ever, ever looked).  After 2 issues, both artists left and were replaced by Joe Staton... is that a "WTF?" moment or what?

    Somehow I kept reading.  The book went thru many ups and downs... and some downs and downs and the occasional up... I remember being quite surprised when Keith Giffen & Larry Mahlstedt got on the art, and the writing took a major upturn. For awhile, I considered it the BEST thing DC was doing... at least, until the (disastrous?) hardcover-softcover experiment, in which Giffen jumped ship after only 5 issues.  The book stayed interesting for a long while, then got more so when Giffen came back (Levitz had said he was feeling burnt out and was about to leave, but Giffen inspired him to stay another year or so).

    Then there was "Five Years Later"... the less said about the better.  I don't know how the HELL I kept buying, it was so AWFUL.  AWFUL!!!!!  Eventually, things got so bad it led to 35 continuous years of continuity being rebooted.  AUGH. Strangely enough, the first 2 years of the reboot (designed to bring it in line with the earlier SUPERMAN reboot-- something that never, ever should have been a consideration for a book taking place 1000 years in the future) were pretty good... until certain parties sabotaged it. Then the writing went completely to hell.  Then the editor fired everybody off the book, and the art went completely to hell.  Then it got better... and then Marvel (clearly in a move designed to sabotage the book) hired their artist away, just as he was beginning to kick ass. Then, when the book started to improve again, Mark Waid decided to REBOOT it again... for no damn reason.  6 issues in, I got so BORED... I stopped buying it, for the first time since 1978, and have not bought it since.

    But in the meantime, I was also buying, as they came out, the LEGION ARCHIVES10 volumes' worth!  Since I'd bought about 2 years worth of back-issues preceding where I started buying, this meant I wound up with a CONTINUOUS run from the very beginning in the late 50's all the way up to when Waid & Kitson MADE me stop buying.  That's a lot of stories!!!

     

  • Is there any parallel or comparable series over at Marvel... (referring to LOSH here....) 

  • Let's see:

    Legion of Super-Heroes

    Fantastic Four--well, 30 years ago. My hall director in college had a complete collection through 1985.

    I know there are some series with short runs from the Silver Age I've read like Inferior Five and Angel and the Ape, but I'm guessing that's not what you're referring to.

  • ...The  numbers are fun to hear , but , no , I was thinking more of a " How a title changes through the years " , and storytelling/the companies' approach in general did , and the (generally , let's face it , older) reaction of those posting here...........

  • FANTASTIC FOUR is another series I have a long, long, long run of. But I bought so much of it out of sequence.

    In the late 60's, after being introduced to the series by the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series (Alex Toth supervising), FF ANNUAL #3 became my very 1st Marvel Comic ever.  What a place to come in! Reed & Sue (already married on the TV show) got married, and seemingly every major character in the Marvel universe made a cameo appearance.  I got FF #71 a few months later, the climax of a 4-part story in which Reed tries to kill Ben (who spent 2 whole issues trying to kill him, Reed didn't realize Ben had finally been "cured"), I learned Sue was pregnant, and Reed announces he's breaking up the group!

    Here and there I started picking up the occasional issue of MARVEL COLLECTOR'S ITEM CLASSICS with reprints of earlier stories (some of which I recognized from the TV show-- what a kick). Eventually, I started buying MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS (same comic, different name) when they got to the "Klaw" story (another one that had been adapted for TV).  Some months down the line, I began buying the current FF book, as I was curious to see what they were doing "now". It was interesting, but to be honest, it was never-- NEVER-- as good as the stuff from the 60's.  The difference, of course, was one person-- Jack Kirby.

    Eventually, I got back-issues of the newer stuff going back to #125 (when Roy Thomas got on as regular writer-- which didn't really last that long).  I kept buying the new book thru so many changes, and the reprints up until I just couldn't put up with pages being cut from the stories.  That coincided with me getting a job and going to conventions, so I was able to start buying back issues.  At the time, I focused on other books to collect, but sometime in the early 90's (quite a few years later) I began finally going after back-issues of the FF.  Since 1987, I was also buying the MASTERWORKS, which filled in a ton of old issues I had never read up to that point.  This is a really crazy way to read ANY series, believe me.

    As the 90's went on and spilled into the next century, I slowly, bit by bit, closed in on the later issues I was missing.  I forget exactly when it happened, but at one point, I got ahold of an ESSENTIAL book which managed to fill in a FEW issues I was still missing, and I realized that I had actually, FINALLY, managed to get EVERY SINGLE issue of the FF that Jack Kirby had worked on (all 108, including the 6 Annuals-- 109 if you include the "butcher job" done on #108).  This opened the door for me to be able to go back and re-read the ENTIRE run, IN SEQUENCE, from the beginning, which I eventually did.

    Years earlier, I'd finally given up on the new stuff.  I'd gone through Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas (again), Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Steve Englehart, and Walt Simonson... and even with so many immensely talented writers involved, more often than not, the writing still SUCKED. So when it was announced that Tom DeFalco-- who I'd already decided was one of the worst writers I'd ever seen working for Marvel-- was going to take over the book, I threw my hands up.  That was it.  I stopped with the last Simonson issue, and except for the 3 issues by Scott Lobdell (and Alan Davis) and the odd ones with Stuart Immonen art, I haven't bought the book regular since. 

    But that's a long stretch-- 354 issues (PLUS ANNUALS!!!), either in original or reprint form.

  • I've read every issue of Hellblazer from issue #1 (January 1988) to the end, issue #300 (April 2013).

    With the help of reprints and collections, I've read very nearly every story from Our Army at War that features Sgt. Rock, from issue #81 (featuring the prototype Rock, April 1959) to #83 (introducing the true Rock we all know and love, June 1959) up to the title's name change to Sgt. Rock with issue #302 (March 1977) all the way to its end #422 (June 1988).

    And with the help of reprints and collections, I've read nearly every issue of Batman and Detective Comics, from the New Look era to buying both titles each month from 1977 up to the second issue of the "Hush" storyline in Batman #609 (January 2003), where I reached the "I Can't STAND It Any More!" point and walked away from the Batman titles.

  • Since the question was "going back to the Silver Age," I didn't mention my complete runs of Master of Kung Fu, Howard the Duck, and Tomb of Dracula.

    I also have read all of Jonah Hex's appearances in All-Star Western/Weird Western Tales, Jonah Hex, Hex!, Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such, Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo, Jonah Hex: Shadows West, and the latter day Jonah Hex and All-Star Western.

  • "where I reached the "I Can't STAND It Any More!" point and walked away from the Batman titles."

    HAH!  I think we have the seeds for a whole thread-- "I can't STAND it any more!"  When and why did someone FINALLY give up on a book they'd read for so very, very long?  (I quit Spider-Man... 3 times!!!!!)

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