Wonder Woman and Spider-Girl fail to hit the upper limit on their respective companies' records for longest run by a female lead character whose book began before the Silver Age...
cunix...@hotmail.com
apparently not been given the opportunity by the top brass at DC to top
the record by competing w/her own Volume 1, which ran an astounding 329
issues, a truly impressive feat for any female character. She holds
the distinction of having starred in the longest running female comic
book of all time.
Over at Marvel, May Parker's Spider-Girl (this volume at least) is
facing imminent cancellation, despite what might as well be the dozenth
time fans are trying to keep the dreaded axe from falling. Although
Spider-Girl will now hold the distinction of having the longest running
title featuring a female at Marvel since Fantastic Four #1 heralded the
arrival of a new, reinvigoration at what was once called Atlas Comics,
and Timely Comics before that. And yes, I know Spider-Girl will be
relaunched, but like Wonder Woman, that doesn't help her beat any
records, now does it? (And them pulling the renumbering stunt that
they did w/Avengers, Hulk, Thor, Fantastic Four, et al. doesn't count
-- sorry.)
But she can't be said to have been the longest, and even the longest in
the Marvel Universe (although perhaps you would consider her outside of
the "Marvel Universe" proper, since she hails from an alternate future,
but I'll have to preempt that by saying all timelines that diverge from
somewhere in the 'mainstream' Marvel Universe, whether or not it's been
revealed exactly how things got as warped from 616 Earth as they did,
count as being part of the "Marvel Universe" for the sake of the
categorization I'm doing for this geek-lover's post). The longest in
the Marvel Universe (we have established what counts as the MU by now,
haven't we?) would be none other than Patsy Walker, who actually had
two books that laste longer than the 100 issues Spider-Girl will last -
Patsy Walker (#124; cover dated Dec. 1965) and Patsy & Hedy (#110;
cover dated Feb. 1967).
For ultra-geeks, you'd probably be satisfied if I mentioned that if you
exclude DC from the equation, there are two other female dominated
titles that have had lasted longer than May's did, but they are *not*
from Marvel --
can anyone guess which they are?
Ding! If you said Vampirella and Femforce are the ones, you'd be
correct!
YKW '06
<cunix...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Well, hell, if you're going to count humor books (and, btw, the books
featuring Patsy and her friends are only "MU" to the extent that their
616 counterparts were written by Patsy's mom based on her impressions of
the gang; they didn't "actually" chronicle MU events), then the folks at
MLJ/Archie have a bone to pick with you on what follows below...
> For ultra-geeks, you'd probably be satisfied if I mentioned that if you
> exclude DC from the equation, there are two other female dominated
> titles that have had lasted longer than May's did, but they are *not*
> from Marvel --
>
>
> can anyone guess which they are?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ding! If you said Vampirella and Femforce are the ones, you'd be
> correct!
>
>
FEMFORCE has no stars and a goodly number of male characters (in tights
and out) in its cast. The leads do tend to be more female than male at
any given time, but I wouldn't count that as making it a "female-
dominated" title anymore than I would say the general preponderance of
males over females in AVENGERS would make that book "male-dominated".
As for poor Vampi... with all the gaps in her publication history and her
checkered history with multiple publishing houses (not to mention format
changes galore), even if her title retains its original numbering, it
can't really be said to be a single title.
I'd nominate ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK for the post-Golden-Age
longevity title, what with 150 issues as headliner for, essentially, one
company without significant breaks in publication.
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Lynley
<cunix...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hasn't Witchblade passed issue 100?
Lynley
cunix...@hotmail.com
been released, its 101st hasn't yet - though it will either next or the
following week. So although its currently tied with Spider-Girl, it
will surpass May quicker than 3 shakes of (insert whatever the cliche
is here). But until then, Vampirella, Femforce, and Elvira stand. As
for Archies, did the other poster mean Betty & Veronica? Is there a
good guide for Archie comics out there that would have this kind of
info...?
wbe
> Hasn't Witchblade passed issue 100?
It reached #100 last month.
-WBE
Laurent Lehmann
<ykwBLOC...@gmail.BLOCKER.com> wrote:
>As for poor Vampi... with all the gaps in her publication history and her
>checkered history with multiple publishing houses (not to mention format
>changes galore), even if her title retains its original numbering, it
>can't really be said to be a single title.
Even if you don't count the various Harris series, the
original Warren series lasted 112 issues, which is still remarkable.
--
Laurent
cunix...@hotmail.com
Vampirella most definitely stays on the list of those that surpassed
Spider-Girl from companies outside of the big two.
Matt Deres
<cunix...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1155373396.7...@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks for bringing that up! Witchblade, although its 100th issue has
> been released, its 101st hasn't yet - though it will either next or the
> following week. So although its currently tied with Spider-Girl, it
> will surpass May quicker than 3 shakes of (insert whatever the cliche
> is here). But until then, Vampirella, Femforce, and Elvira stand. As
> for Archies, did the other poster mean Betty & Veronica? Is there a
> good guide for Archie comics out there that would have this kind of
> info...?
Try here:
http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?query=veronica&type=title&sort=alpha&Submit=Search
"Archie's Girls, Betty and Veronica" lasted 347 issues (1950-1987) to be
replaced (following a two-month hiatus) with simply "Betty and Veronica",
which is still published (230+ issues and counting). If you fudge May 1987
(where the gap lay), that's 580 issues. Never mind the numerous digests,
spectaculars, annuals, and the like that were published before, after, and
during those runs.
Matt
George Peatty
wrote:
>"Archie's Girls, Betty and Veronica" lasted 347 issues (1950-1987) to be
>replaced (following a two-month hiatus) with simply "Betty and Veronica",
>which is still published (230+ issues and counting). If you fudge May 1987
>(where the gap lay), that's 580 issues. Never mind the numerous digests,
>spectaculars, annuals, and the like that were published before, after, and
>during those runs.
We have a winner!
Mr Vo
news:1155373396.7...@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
>> >can anyone guess which they are?
>> >
>> >
>> >Ding! If you said Vampirella and Femforce are the ones, you'd be
>> >correct!
While not the winner by any means, I wanted to have Ms Tree get her props
as well.
They published 64 comics that featured her as the title character.
1-9 at Eclipse
10-50 & a Summer Special at Aardvark/Vanaheim - Renegade Press
1-3 of Mike Mauser & Ms Tree at First
1-10 of Ms Tree Quarterly at DC
While not as high in issues as Vampirella, SPider-Girl, Femforce, or
Witchblade, i think it's a legitimate #5.
Vo
--
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of civilization.
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Jay Rudin
> The longest in
> the Marvel Universe (we have established what counts as the MU by now,
> haven't we?) would be none other than Patsy Walker, who actually had
> two books that laste longer than the 100 issues Spider-Girl will last -
> Patsy Walker (#124; cover dated Dec. 1965) and Patsy & Hedy (#110;
> cover dated Feb. 1967).
Both were topped by Millie the Model, which lasted over 200 issues -- one of
only three female-named comics to do so.
> For ultra-geeks, you'd probably be satisfied if I mentioned that if you
> exclude DC from the equation, there are two other female dominated
> titles that have had lasted longer than May's did, but they are *not*
> from Marvel --
>
>
> can anyone guess which they are?
>
> Ding! If you said Vampirella and Femforce are the ones, you'd be
> correct!
Not really. Femforce has only been out for the last 21 years, and has only
had had 136 issues. The original 1969 Vampirella had 113 issues. None of
the other Vampirella books has topped 100.
Millie the Model had 207 issues, from 1946 to 1973. Both the original
Wonder Woman and the original Betty and Veronica had over 300 issues, from
the forties to the mid 80s.
Jay Rudin
Lynley
<mdere...@rogers.com> wrote:
Are these the digests or the normal comic book sized issues? If the
former, you'd have to change that number to a lower one as the modern
Acrhie digests are about half the width/length of the old ones and the
double digests they sell now are what I remember as the old digests.
Lynley (Yes I know it doesn't work that way, but wanted to get my,
"Archie is smaller than I remember" rant in)
cunix...@hotmail.com
non-DC comics unless there is an *expert* that's actually working on
it. Their spotty coverage of the various Love and Rockets series is
hideous, and I tried to even volunteer to fill some of it in, but they
refused to take most of the entries I tried to compile for them...