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Topic: Alpha Flight #1 Released This Date in 1983 Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Let's hear it for Alpha Flight #1!
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

AF 1 paid the highest royalty seen at Marvel up to that time. But not without a speed bump. When I received the check a 9 had been dropped from the middle. I called accounting and pointed out the goof, going so far as to say I thought something like that might happen, as they were not used to dealing with numbers that big. (And it was small compared to what would come later.)

The fact that I was calm and polite—and didn’t go nuclear as some were wont to over even the tiniest errors—made me a favorite with “the gals in accounting”.

:-)

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Joe Smith
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Ah, Mac….we hardly knew ya.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

This was a great story and quite unlike other first issues. It kind of threw me when I first read it, as it felt like we were joining at the end and it seemed there was so much back story I had missed (I had never encountered AF before; little did I know that I hadn't missed as much as it seemed).

Tundra, awesome. And the issue's double-size was great to really get stuck into as a reader. 


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Peter Hicks
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Joined: 30 April 2004
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

And just a reminder that there will be a hard cover omnibus of all JB Alpha Flight comics later this year.  Order one now if you want it!
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

On the list already
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Paul Wills
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Seems like whenever someone references this series, they tend to mention that John Byrne didn't like doing it but I think I read somewhere on the forum that this wasn't the case?
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Jonathan A. Dowdell
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I met Mr. Byrne not long after AF 1 came out and got a signature... So Great! 


sorry if I've posted this before. 
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

[Edited to add: this is in response to Paul Wills' comment]

IIRC, JB has said he didn't want to do the series in the first place and the characters never felt real. My interpretation from what John has said over the years is that it was far from his favourite title to work on.

Doing a quick search, from this site's very own FAQ:

"Alpha Flight was never much fun. The characters were created merely to survive a fight with the X-Men, and I never thought about them having their own title. When Marvel finally cajoled me into doing Alpha Flight, I realized how incredibly two-dimensional they were, and spend some twenty-eight issues trying to find ways to correct this fault. Nothing really sang for me. If I have any regrets, it would probably be that I did the book at all! It was not a good time for me."


Edited by Peter Martin on 17 May 2023 at 6:30pm
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Jim Petersman
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

“Two-dimensional”? Maybe 40 years ago, but compared to what is being
published these days, they are incredibly layered. Even if they weren’t, the
introduction of Puck and Heather makes this series worth their weight in
gold!
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L Hunt
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Joined: 20 November 2020
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Posts: 159
Posted: 17 May 2023 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Still one of my favourite ever runs on a Marvel book. It still has me coming back to each new iteration that they bring, just hoping they can find 1% of the magic that JB created.
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Ryan Maxwell
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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Posted: 17 May 2023 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Star Wars. Tolkien. Marvel, and specifically Alpha Flight. The three big pop culture obsessions I’ve had for most of my life. I had read plenty of comics before I found AF, but that turned me into a true fan and collector. Absolutely the foundation for everything superhero I’ve loved over the years.  
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