Hi, Tamara.
TH> And Lobdell is always being cited as a "hot, fan fave...."
DH> Interestingly enough... I can't recall hearing one person on this
DH> conference say how glad they were that Scott Lobdell was writing
DH> the "Fantastic Four".  The most positive it got seemed to get was,
DH> "Well, I guess I'll give it a chance".  My point is that just
DH> because he
TH> Yeah, Lobdell as creator on a title does not make me stand up and
TH> take notice.  Alan Davis on FF did make me notice but then I found
TH> out he was only going to be on for the first three issues.
TH> Pffffttt. Why bother?
     Alan Davis did a great job on those 3 issues... but like
yourself, I found myself wondering why Marvel bothered with him at all
if he was only interested in doing 3 issues.  As it is, Salvadore
Larocca is doing a "fantastic" job (I really like his rendition of the
Thing)... and I find I don't really miss Davis at all.  One thing that
did kinda bug me about Alan Davis though, was when Marvel announced
(shortly after he left the F.F.) that he will be doing 6 or MORE
issues of an X-book.  I mean, what's "the Fantastic Four"... chopped
liver???...
TH> Oh definitely, Claremont needed to leave Uncanny long before he
TH> did.
     IMO, he probably should've left after #175 (the wedding of Scott
& Maddy).  There were the odd good issues after that... but overall, I
found the quality of the stories dropped like a stone.  It was almost
as if the Marvel began relying more and more on the X-Men's reputation
as a "hot" book...  instead of justifying that reputation.
TH> I remember reading the comic and getting disgusted. I just didn't
TH> care where it was going. At the time I was living in NYC and
TH> working for a magazine which employed Bob Harras' sister (still
TH> does) and she knew I read Uncanny so she asked me what I thought
TH> could be done to improve it. I told her it was time for Claremont
TH> to go.
     What was her response to that?
     I think what Chris Claremont needed (desperately) was to go off
and write other characters for a while.  I can remember reading the
Star Trek ("Debt Of Honor") graphic novel he and Adam Hughes did for
DC and thinking how much I liked it.  I'm hopeful that Claremont
coming to the F.F. is a good thing... and that he has a full
understanding of the characters and what I call, the Fantastic
"Four"-mula for success.  They're not the Avengers and they're not the
them great.
TH> Maybe his return to X-land is being looked upon favorably these
TH> days but I could care less.
     I'd have to be honest and say that the X-books in general get a
huge "yawn" from me these days.  Whether Chris Claremont returns to
writing an X-book or not affects and impresses me not at all.  For the
most part, those characters just don't interest me anymore (and
haven't for a number of years now).
TH> Oh, please don't mention the Bret Blevins run on NM. That was
TH> awful. I like his work in general though. But those issues were
TH> bad and where I gave up on the series. 
     I agree.  Those issues were bad... and not just from an art
standpoint either (IMO).  I found the whole Bird-boy story was so
incredibly boring... in retrospect, I'm surprised I kept buying it for
as long as I did...
Talk to you later.
David
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