Excalibur #104
“The Old Ways”
Writer: Ben Raab
Pencils: Salvador Larocca
Inks: Scott Koblish
Colours: Kevin Tinsely & Graphic Color Works
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Editors: Matt Idelson & Paul Tutrone
Original Publication date: April 1997
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_code][et_pb_button button_url=”https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/8572/excalibur_1988_108″ url_new_window=”on” button_text=”marvel unlimited link” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”14px” button_text_color=”#FFFFFF” button_bg_color=”#ef00db” button_border_width=”8px” button_border_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_letter_spacing=”2px” button_font=”Nunito|700||on|||||” button_use_icon=”off” custom_margin=”30px|||” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”right” animation_intensity_slide=”5%” animation_starting_opacity=”100%” hover_enabled=”0″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”0px” box_shadow_vertical=”25px” box_shadow_blur=”45px” box_shadow_color=”rgba(148,166,191,0.25)” global_colors_info=”{}” button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_button][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”My Books Section” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”23px|||||” custom_padding=”100px||100px|” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”-78px|auto||auto||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||7px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]The streets are getting punchy and Kitty and Rahne are getting pretty in Excalibur #108, “The Old Ways,” co-starring Spiral and the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn and also Shamrock is there! Molly Fitzgerald is too good for this comic and so is our guest, award-winning comics scholar Dr. Susan Kirtley, who comes bearing tales of rebellious reading and secrets from the serial adventures of Cathy and the transformative talent of Lynda Barry. Plus! Fabulous female friendships in comics and why they matter.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="26px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On origins:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/107_no-girls-allowed.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#107_no girls allowed" sticky_enabled="0"]“I was in elementary school, and I was told by some kids on the playground that girls don’t read comics… This made me determined to read all of the comics all of the time.” -Susan
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On wasted potential:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_90s.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_90s" sticky_enabled="0"]“The comic has potential that is crushed by its determination to be a 90s comic.” -Mav
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="-16px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On presumptions:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_sexism.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" custom_padding="0px|||||" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_sexism" sticky_enabled="0"]“People will often say to me—oh, you study comics? Aren’t they sexist? And I’m like—yes, isn’t the world? It’s funny that people don’t ask me that question when I say I study classics.” -Susan
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On comics histories:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_histories.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_histories" sticky_enabled="0"]“I have such a strong memory of when I was first starting to read books about comics, and being shocked by how women were so absent within those histories, even though I knew they were there. I was proof they were there.” -Anna
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On friendships:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_friendships.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_friendships" sticky_enabled="0"]“There were so many female characters introduced during the Claremont era of X-Men that even when you get to an era like this, where the characterization is a bit generic, women and female friendships are still here, because they’ve become the substance of the franchise.” -Anna
[/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title="On subtext:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_homoeroticism.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_homoeroticism" sticky_enabled="0"]“This was a great opening scene—two men are rolling around half naked and loving it… Is the homoeroticism intentional? I don’t know. But it is delightful.” -Susan
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On the strange loves of Kitty Pryde:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_phasing.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#108_phasing" sticky_enabled="0"]“I have a hard time believing that Kitty loves Pete Wisdom. But she definitely loves computers, and would never intentionally fry one.” -Anna
[/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]You can find Anna and Andrew’s series of Sequential Scholars threads, featuring discussion of the connection between Spiral and Ann Nocenti, right here!
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="20px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_team_member name="Want more Susan Kirtley?" image_url="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/108_typical.jpg" _builder_version="4.18.0" _module_preset="default" link_option_url_new_window="on" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" sticky_enabled="0" title_text="#108_typical"]Dr. Susan Kirtley is a Professor of English and the Director of Comics Studies at Portland State University. Her research interests include visual rhetoric and graphic narratives, and she has published pieces on comics for the popular press and academic journals. She is the author of the Eisner-winning book Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass (2013), and co-editor of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comics (2020).
Her book, Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips, won the 2022 Charles Hatfield Prize for the best book from the Comics Studies Society. She is currently an Associate Editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society.
[/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-107px|||||” custom_padding=”80px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-63px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]And as usual:
You can find Anna on Twitter (@peppard_anna) and at Sequential Scholars (@seqscholars).
You can find Andrew on Twitter (@ClaremontRun) and at Sequential Scholars.
You can find Mav on Twitter (@chrismaverick) and on his podcast, VoxPopcast (@VoxPopcast).
Enjoy!
-GGW Team
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I can’t help feeling that you’ve been a little hard on the Ben Raab issues so far. To explain where I’m coming from, my two big comics loves are 70s-80s X-Men and the Claremont and Davis eras of Excalibur. I’ve been reading along with the podcast, and this is the first time I’ve read any post-Davis Excalibur.
The Ellis era of Excalibur felt like it wasn’t really Excalibur, it was Pete Wisdom, with Excalibur appearing as supporting characters. It was fine, but it wasn’t what I wanted to read.
So far with Raab, he’s shown that he is recentering the comic on the Excalibur characters and sidelining Pete Wisdom. I am excited about this. He is also making Excalibur the British X-Men. My take is that if I can’t have Claremont/Davis Excalibur, 80s X-Men is the next best thing, and so far that appears to be what Raab is setting up.
Your comments on the podcast imply that the comic doesn’t live up to its potential under Raab, but through issue 108, I’m happy with what I’ve gotten. The writing could be better, but I’m excited for the premise, for the first time since Davis left.
Fair enough! I feel badly that none of us is a real champion of this era of Excalibur, though we will have some nice things to say in forthcoming episodes, including the upcoming episode on Excalibur -1, which we describe as Raab’s best work on the series!
I can’t help feeling that you’ve been a little hard on the Ben Raab issues so far. To explain where I’m coming from, my two big comics loves are 70s-80s X-Men and the Claremont and Davis eras of Excalibur. I’ve been reading along with the podcast, and this is the first time I’ve read any post-Davis Excalibur.
The Ellis era of Excalibur felt like it wasn’t really Excalibur, it was Pete Wisdom, with Excalibur appearing as supporting characters. It was fine, but it wasn’t what I wanted to read.
So far with Raab, he’s shown that he is recentering the comic on the Excalibur characters and sidelining Pete Wisdom. I am excited about this. He is also making Excalibur the British X-Men. My take is that if I can’t have Claremont/Davis Excalibur, 80s X-Men is the next best thing, and so far that appears to be what Raab is setting up.
Your comments on the podcast imply that the comic doesn’t live up to its potential under Raab, but through issue 108, I’m happy with what I’ve gotten. The writing could be better, but I’m excited for the premise, for the first time since Davis left.
Fair enough! I feel badly that none of us is a real champion of this era of Excalibur, though we will have some nice things to say in forthcoming episodes, including the upcoming episode on Excalibur -1, which we describe as Raab’s best work on the series!