Weekly Update 10/7/19

Good morning to all our wonderful backers! Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all of you! I think compared to other Patreon creators, we have a particularly loyal and active fan base and it's so flattering to me that our work means something to so many people.

Ok, this week in "Zack Tries to Find Something to Write About", I'm really spit balling. I've got some facts and maybe will try to spin a thesis out of them... but this might just be an info dump.

Ok, first the facts. The ages of Marvel creators in their prime:

SILVER AGE:
- Stan Lee: 43 in 1965
- Jack Kirby: 48 in 1965
- Steve Ditko: 36 in 1963
- Jim Steranko: 40 in 1968

BRONZE AGE:
- Steve Englehart: 26 in 1972
- Jim Starlin: 26 in 1975
- Chris Claremont: 26 in 1976
- Steve Gerber: 25 in 1972
- Doug Moench: 26 in 1974
- Gerry Conway: 23 in 1975

I think you can see yourself the divide in ages I noticed here. I'm not sure how the change came about (Roy Thomas became editor-in-chief in 1972, so that could be it), but clearly Marvel started putting the reigns in the hands of a much younger group of writers and artists.

Ok, now that I've laid all this out... I really don't have anything more nuanced to say than I think the real sense of freshness, creativity, and immediacy we're seeing at the moment could in part be attributed to having a generation of creators more in tune with the culture of the times. Sorry if that's nothing revelatory, but I when I found out all these writers are a bit younger than me, I was pretty astonished. Young people forever! Down with the olds (myself included, sad to say)!

This week's episode is Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 2, out today, 10/07/19. Please get any 1975 feedback for us to discuss on our next Variant Cover episode by 10/08/19. You can send it to mymarvelousyear@gmail.com

1975 PART 1:
Giant Size X-Men #1
Uncanny X-Men #94, #95
Giant Size Fantastic Four #4
Tomb of Dracula #26 to #28
Avengers / Giant Size Avengers #133 to #135 / #4
The Champions #1

1975 PART 2 :
Amazing Spider-Man #144 to #149
Jungle Action #13 to #18
Strange Tales / Warlock #178 to #181 / #9 to #11
Werewolf by Night #32, #33
Giant-Size Defenders / Defenders #5 / #26 to #29

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:
October 7: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 2
October 8:   Feedback for 1975's Variant Cover Due
October 14:  Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Variant Cover
October 21: Marvel Year Fifteen: 1976 Pt. 1
October 28: Marvel Year Fifteen: 1976 Pt. 2
October 29:  Feedback for 1976's Variant Cover Due  
November 4: Marvel Year Fifteen: 1976 Variant Cover

Come chat with us in the Slack channel (available to $5+ patrons), and find us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
You can find all the My Marvelous Year reading lists here and check out the rest of what Comic Book Herald has to offer here.
Thanks for joining us on this journey through Marvel comics!