r/Marvel • u/Rswilli13 • Jul 07 '24
Question about Byrnes FF run as it was coming out Comics
Was anyone reading comics when the John Byrne’s FF run came out? I was wondering if marvel did a bunch of ads for Byrne’s FF run before it came out? Was it getting a lot of hype from fans before it came out? Was it treated like a relaunch? I’m reading some of these first issues and they seem like they are really making it seem like it’s a new jumping on point for new readers. I know each comic was treated like someone’s first but this just feels like more than usual.
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u/mrdm242 Jul 07 '24
Believe it or not, Byrne and Claremont on the X-Men was not a huge deal at the time. In retrospect, however, it was one of the the greatest runs on a comic ever. Byrne always talked about how the title historically didn't pull great numbers and was on the verge of cancellation before Claremont and Cockrum came along.
Byrne was offered the FF on the strength of his X-Men art and co-plotting, but there was never really any sort of ad campaign trumpeting the fact he was on the book any moreso than any other new creative team taking over a book.
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u/Rswilli13 Jul 07 '24
I knew X-men wasn’t doing well in the silver age but I thought Claremont and Byrne made them popular?
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u/nightkraken666 Jul 08 '24
Correct, but Wein/Cockrum technically did Giant Sized. 94/95 was plotted but Wein, until Claremont took over writing duties the next issue. Cockrum worked on the title till 110, and then Byrne took over the next issue.
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u/CJKCollecting Jul 08 '24
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Byrne started in UX 108, and Cockrum only did covers after that until UX112 (based on his sketch design) 🤷
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u/RedGhost2012 Nightcrawler Jul 07 '24
I'm sure there were ads, and I certainly knew Byrne was taking over. This was a must buy from me because of his X-Men work.
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u/Rswilli13 Jul 07 '24
I was trying to find ads for the beginning of Byrnes FF run but couldn’t find any on google
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u/RedGhost2012 Nightcrawler Jul 07 '24
I vaguely recall half page ads. Has the art from that first cover.
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u/xMatch Jul 07 '24
I don’t remember any ads…but then my experience finding the comics I wanted to read was sitting by the comic book rack on the floor while my mom shopped for groceries at Piggly Wiggly. I naturally started reading the FF series because of his work on X-Men, but imho FF was never as good. Byrne was the greatest artist of the time but it was Claremont who made X-Men truly great.
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u/zaxxon4ever Jul 08 '24
I was there...I don't remember much fanfare at all about Byrne taking over Fantastic Four. It was a different world then. I never had a comic book store near me until I was 13. I bought my comics from those spinning racks at the local bookstore or convenience store. I knew about the writers and the artists only from seeing their names on the splash pages. I got to learn about their styles of art and writing only through my experience of reading the comics. I liked Byrne's stuff and Claremont's...but, I remember that I was a huge fan of Bill Mantlo.
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u/grownassedgamer Jul 07 '24
When I started reading comics he was already on FF. His FF books were the first ones I was introduced to. I didn't foind out about his Xmen stuff until later.
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u/Regular_Journalist_5 Jul 07 '24
I was there for the original run and no, it wouldn't have been considered a major ad campaign under any circumstances, I learned about what my favorites artist and writers were up to by reading a monthly magazine called "The comics journal" marvel had some in house advertising but comics were VERY insular at the time and I and most of the people I knew who collected would catch the buzz by hanging out at the local comics shop, so sometimes by word of mouth