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[Andrew999]

Fun news that Marvel have reissued six postage-sized mini-books from 1966. They star Thor, Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Nick Fury.......and Millie the Model!

A reminder that once upon a time you could buy a wide range of genres in comic books before buffed macho-men in stretched lycra squeezed out all the rest.

Millie was joyful with cracking dialogue but the seventies were more serious times and she was gone. With the success of Riverdale and its spin-offs, who's with me in calling for a revival of the Model with the Most?

[Andrew999]

Sorry to hear of the passing of Denny O'Neil, aged 81.

Much of that cracking dialogue mentioned in my previous post was by Denny - though of course he is better known for his work at DC - Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow in particular. He is credited - rightly - with creating the new pathological Batman where darkness clouds the soul and then building a whole universe around that concept - no mean feat to re-imagine a much-loved icon for a less optimistic world.

It would be fair to say that Denny opened the doors for the second wave of comic creators in the eighties.

The creator of Talia al Ghul, amongst others, I looked out for Denny's darker, edgier work on Batman, Doc Strange, The Creeper etc before he moved more into editorial.

[The Australian Panther]

The Character Patsy Walker who became the Avenger HELLCAT was originally model, the star of a marvel comic [either that or she was a co-star in Millie the model's comic]. If I remember correctly Milly turned up in a couple of Hellcat comics.

Fun news that Marvel have reissued six postage-sized mini-books from 1966. They star Thor, Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Nick Fury.......and Millie the Model!

This is marketing, and might indicate that they do indeed have plans for Millie.

[Mr. Magnificent]

To star in a comic book now, wouldn't Millie have to have breast enlargement surgery?

[SuperScrounge]

Not at Marvel these days.

Big breasts are not part of the approved body type.

Carol Danvers who used to be drawn quite feminine tends to be drawn more masculine these days leading to people joking that her name is Carl Manvers.

If Millie got her own comic these days she'd probably have a body like a character from Steven Universe, her hair would be dyed blue, half her head would be shaved and she'd be a lesbian.

[Rintintin]

Yes. Comic industry has always been very homogenic. It's one bandwagon of copycats after another. The romance comics for example were stuck on the same confessional formula for decades and never strayed from that.

Not at Marvel these days.

Big breasts are not part of the approved body type.

Carol Danvers who used to be drawn quite feminine tends to be drawn more masculine these days leading to people joking that her name is Carl Manvers.

If Millie got her own comic these days she'd probably have a body like a character from Steven Universe, her hair would be dyed blue, half her head would be shaved and she'd be a lesbian.

[Andrew999]

That's a good point, Rintintin. I have a theory that this is why genres die.

I understand an editor who says, "Let's stick to this. We know it sells. If we change it, the risk is that our readers won't like the change and sales will plummet."

Trouble is, if you keep it exactly the same, it becomes stale and doesn't attract new readers - whilst the old readers slowly lose interest (or even die!)

The secret I guess is to continuously evolve and reinvent the product - be creative - in the hope of maintaining current readership whilst exciting new readers. There's no point just copying someone else either - why buy an imitation when you can buy the original? So your product has to evolve in different and better ways. Who'd be an editor?! Stan Lee must have had nerves of steel.

[The Australian Panther]

I understand an editor who says, "Let's stick to this. We know it sells. If we change it, the risk is that our readers won't like the change and sales will plummet."
Trouble is, if you keep it exactly the same, it becomes stale and doesn't attract new readers - whilst the old readers slowly lose interest (or even die!)

The problem essentially that where the people who control the money are not the creators, they demonstrate their fear of newness and fear of losing money,   by resisting change.

That's why not only comic books but also TV, movies, music and magazines [to name a few] become formularized and then monotonous and then lose sales until someone with a new idea and the means and determination to put it out there comes along and changes everything.         

[Rintintin]

I understand an editor who says, "Let's stick to this. We know it sells. If we change it, the risk is that our readers won't like the change and sales will plummet."
Trouble is, if you keep it exactly the same, it becomes stale and doesn't attract new readers - whilst the old readers slowly lose interest (or even die!)

The problem essentially that where the people who control the money are not the creators, they demonstrate their fear of newness and fear of losing money,   by resisting change.

That's why not only comic books but also TV, movies, music and magazines [to name a few] become formularized and then monotonous and then lose sales until someone with a new idea and the means and determination to put it out there comes along and changes everything.         

Music isn't as bad as comics imo. It's easy to sift through the dreck on bandcamp and find too many bands I will like.

But comics, there's only a few good artists and they're all illustrating the exact same stories with the same old tired characters. Maybe I'm the only one who is absolutely sick of Superman & Batman idk. If they brought back Millie, they probably would stick the Avengers and Iron Man with Hydra in the book even if you don't want to read about those characters.

[Andrew999]

I strongly agree RTT - the main reasons I gave up on reading DC/Marvel comics was (a) it's such a narrow world really - nothing but super heroes, over-emphasis on conflict and violence, mind-numbingly slow plot and character development (b) the breakdown of series boundaries with the same characters popping up everywhere as you suggest - sadly the different TV series seem to be going the same way with guest appearances in almost every episode and (c) the encyclopaedic knowledge required to read a single issue of anything - with endless cross-references to plots and issues elsewhere in the universe that you probably haven't read, don't care about and may have happened yonks ago anyway.

Rant over

[Andrew999]

Interesting article from Brian Cronin:

https://www.cbr.com/marvel-comics-millie-model-tessie-typist-nellie-nurse-dolly-dill/

I never realised Millie went so far back. Interesting to compare her, Dolly, Nellie etc with the girls found on CB+ from the Golden Age