The Dark Age: Grim Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics

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‘‘Deep into that darkness peering long I stood there wondering, fearing Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before” — Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

‘‘The change, it had to come We knew it all along’’ — Pete Townshend, Won’t Get Fooled Again ‘‘It seems as if from being a novelty nine-day wonder, the super-hero has become a part of American life.

It’s here to stay. For better, or for worse.’’

— Alan Moore, Watchmen

© 2006 MARVEL COMICS

Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics Our heartfelt thanks to Howard Bender, whose love for comics is so fervent, he practically is a comic book; to John Morrow, our publisher; and to the creators who graciously submitted to my interrogation and/or posed for Kathy: Laura Allred, Mike Allred, Brett Breeding, Greg Capullo, Mike Carlin, Alice Cooper, Howard Cruse, Dan DiDio, Will Eisner, Danny Fingeroth, Dave Gibbons, Mark Hamill, Jack C. Harris, Steven Hughes, Manon Kelley, Joe Kubert, David Lapham, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Scott McCloud, Todd McFarlane, Mike Mignola, Doug Murray, Leonard Nimoy, J. O’Barr, Michael Avon Oeming, Dennis O’Neil, Brian Pulido, Joe Quesada, Trina Robbins, Alex Ross, Jim Salicrup, Julius Schwartz, Howard Simpson, Kevin Smith, Louis Small Jr., Mickey Spillane, Dave Stevens and Michael Uslan.

We thank those who provided information, materials and/or support: Michael Benson, Alex Brewer, Peggy Burns, Eric Deggans, Fred Greenberg, David Hyde, Ray Kuckelsberg, Pete Maher, Eric Nolen-Weathington, Rich Rankin, Gail Stanley, Martha Thomases, Maggie Thompson, Tony Timpone and Megan the X-Chick.

We also thank our wonderful families; my colleagues at the Asbury Park Press; the gang at Big Apple Con (especially Allan Rosenberg, Karen Hollingsworth and Mike Carbonaro); The Comics Buyer’s Guide; The Comic Shop News; The Comics Journal; Comics Scene; Comics Plus in Ocean Township, N.J., and Comic Relief in Toms River, N.J. (support your local comic shop!); and some who lit the darkness: Brian Voglesong, Beverly Squillante, Wallace Stroby, Jeff and Max Colson, Teddy Karropoulos, Aimee Kristi and Keith Roth, Art Scott, Mike and Sue Frankel, Toni Misthos and Adriana Libreros-Purcell, Dorothy Schaffenberger, Bruce Friend, Richard Ponton and mis hermanos siempre, The Burners.

Acknowledgments:

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Mark Voger, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Inquiries should be addressed to Mark Voger c/o: TwoMorrows Publishing. Photos credited to Kathy Voglesong © the estate of Kathy Voglesong.

Published by: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614

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Written and designed by: Mark Voger With photos by: Kathy Voglesong Publisher: John Morrow Front cover art: Todd McFarlane; Frank Miller; Mark Bagley and Art Thibert; Rob Liefeld; Steven Hughes; Dale Keown Frontispiece art: Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti Back cover art: Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein; Jim Balent; Dave Gibbons; Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley; Val Semieks and John Dell

Foreword by Jack C. Harris ——————————————————4 Introduction ———————————————————————————— 6 Harbingers of the Dark Age —————————————————— 8 Crisis on Infinite Earths ———————————————————— 14 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ————————————— 20 Dave Gibbons —————————————————————————— 24 Watchmen Character Design ———————————————— 28 Doug Murray ——————————————————————————— 30 Batman Dominates ——————————————————————— 33 Dennis O’Neil —————————————————————————— 34 Lone Wolf and Cub ——————————————————————— 40 Sandman ————————————————————————————— 41 Michael Uslan —————————————————————————— 42 J. O’Barr ————————————————————————————— 50 Early 1990s ——————————————————————————— 55 Todd McFarlane ————————————————————————— 56 Jim Salicrup ——————————————————————————— 60 Spider-Man Cover Gallery —————————————————— 63 Jim Lee —————————————————————————————— 64 David Lapham —————————————————————————— 70 Valiant Cover Gallery ————————————————————— 73 Brian Pulido ——————————————————————————— 74 Image Comics —————————————————————————— 78 CONTENTS

The Genesis ——————————————————————————— 81 Revamps ————————————————————————————— 82 Rockwellian Vision ——————————————————————— 83 Rebels ——————————————————————————————— 84 Big Guns ————————————————————————————— 85 Cheesecake ——————————————————————————— 86 R.I.P. ———————————————————————————————— 88 The Death of Superman ——————————————————— 89 Mike Carlin ———————————————————————————— 90 Erik Larsen ———————————————————————————— 94 Howard Simpson ———————————————————————— 98 Defiant, Ultraverse —————————————————————— 101 Mike Allred ——————————————————————————— 102 Scott McCloud ————————————————————————— 106 Diversity in Comics —————————————————————— 111 Alex Ross ———————————————————————————— 112 Mike Mignola —————————————————————————— 120 Dark Age Cliche #1: Makeovers —————————————— 124 Dark Age Cliche #2: Crossovers —————————————— 126 Dark Age Cliche #3: Cover Enhancements ——————— 128 Danny Fingeroth ———————————————————————— 129 Dark Age Cliche #4: Polybagged Editions ———————— 130 Superman #75 Dissected —————————————————— 131 Dark Age Cliche #5: Milestones —————————————— 132 Dark Age Cliche #6: Death of . . . ————————————— 134 Dark Age Cliche #7: Celebrity Creators ————————— 136 Mark Hamill ——————————————————————————— 138 Alice Cooper —————————————————————————— 139 Dark Age Cliche #8: Cheesecake ————————————— 140 Dark Age Cliche #9: ‘‘Spoofs’’ ——————————————— 142 #0 Issue Cover Gallery ———————————————————— 144 Dark Age Cliche #10: #1 and #0 Issues ————————— 145 Joe Quesada —————————————————————————— 146 Kevin Smith ——————————————————————————— 150 Frank Miller’s Sin City ———————————————————— 158 Maus: A Survivor’s Tale ——————————————————— 159 10 Most Important Books of the Dark Age ——————— 160 10 Most Ludicrous Books of the Dark Age ——————— 161 Epilogue ————————————————————————————— 162 Index ——————————————————————————————— 166 CONTENTS

‘‘THE DARK AGE: Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics’’ © 2006 Mark Voger ISBN 1-893905-53-5 First Printing, January 2006 Printed in Canada

For Kathy

‘‘O Theos na anapafsi tin psihi tis’’

BOOKS ABOUT COMICS can be as much fun to read as the comics themselves. We did our best to acknowledge any and all sources up front in our text, but certainly there are books that have helped to shape our thinking over the years (as we hope to do with this humble offering). Robert M. Overstreet’s The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has crept in many places that won’t be hard to spot for comic book geeks. Inspiration was also found in the books of Les Daniels (particularly DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes and Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics ), Jim Steranko, Ron Goulart and Chip Kidd; Mark Cotta Vaz’s Tales of the Dark Knight: Batman’s First Fifty Years; Mike Conroy’s 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes; Roger Sabin’s Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels; Maurice Horn’s The World Encyclopedia of Comics and many others that line my shelves and yours.

MY NAME IS BENEATH THE TITLE, but I think of The Dark Age as a collaboration among four people: myself; my wife, the photographer Kathy Voglesong; my fellow writer/designer Steve Muoio; and my nephew, Ian Voger, who as a high school kid was already an aspiring filmmaker and novelist with some impressive achievements in those areas. Alas, by the completion of The Dark Age, only Ian and I were left standing. Steve died in a traffic accident in 1997 at age 29. Kathy died at home in 2005 at age 42.

The world lost two gifted, funny, caring people, both of them tragically young. When Kathy and I started this book, it was as something of a tribute to Steve, who for years was my comic-shopping, conventionattending compadre. When The Dark Age was born as a three-part newspaper series in early ’97, Steve consulted on it via telephone, and it was the last time I would speak with him. Ian was just turning 9 at the time of Steve’s death. In the intervening years, Ian became such a voracious, knowledgeable reader of comic books and graphic novels that I found myself turning to him with those questions and theories I would have bounced off of Steve. It was as if a torch had been passed. As this book was weeks from completion, I lost Kathy, and finishing the project through bouts of tears became, again, a form of tribute, a sacred mission to preserve, protect and present an artist’s final work.

So this is a happy occasion. The Dark Age is meant to be a ‘‘living’’ history, in the sense that we watched this period unfold before our eyes; we bought and read the comics as they first graced (or sometimes cluttered) the comic shop shelves; we discussed them and dissected them; we interrogated and photographed the creators. We were there.

We’re not all here anymore, but we were there. And we’ve done our very best to bring you there, too.

Please join us. — MV

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Foreword by Jack C. Harris Dark.

At first, being “lost in the dark” might be thought of as a bad thing. But if you’re there with familiar friends, it can be a thrilling, exciting and delightfully terrifying experience. Of course, some of these accompanying old friends might appear a bit twisted, and clad in different and unusual garb. Their actions might be atypical and distorted, but you know the territory. You’ve walked this way before, when the path was better lit.

Such was the case with the Dark Age of Comics. The colorful, heroic champions of my youth were draped in more somber tones,

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their actions motivated by more personal devils rather than their philanthropic incentives of before. Mania, fervor and obsession seemed to have replaced “truth, justice and the American way.”

But I knew obsession. It was an old friend, to whom I had acquiesced long ago. At the age of 12, I was thoroughly obsessed by comic books. I bought them, read them, studied them, sorted them, collected them, talked about them, corresponded about them, dreamt about them and spent every extra cent I had to obtain more of them. I would bicycle 30 miles or more from my Delaware home to a little store across the Pennsylvania state line, which stocked all of the comics weeks before they appeared on my local newsstands.

FOREWORD

My legs would be aching from pedaling, and my hands would be black from the rubber of my handle grips, but it was worth it. I had my treasures: the latest issues of The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Justice League of America, Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and others.

This occurred during what was to later be labeled the Silver Age of Comics. Not only was DC Comics (under the deft editorial guiding hand of Julius Schwartz) reviving all of the superheroes of the ’40s, not only was Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee following Schwartz’s lead with his own revivals and expansion, but older fans such as Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas were creating comics’ First Fandom.

All of their efforts were aimed directly at my impressionable 12year-old mind. They fueled my obsession, much to the chagrin of my parents and teachers. Although, in their collective eyes, my future appeared dark, those well-meaning adults needn’t have feared. As fate would have it, my obsession was my saving grace. It opened a path to my art studies and later to my writing and my career as an editor, writer and teacher. For eight extraordinary years I labored the labor of love in the editorial offices of DC Comics, guiding the very fates of those characters who had shaped my earlier life. It was almost a kind of payback.

But by the advent of the Dark Age of Comics, I had moved on to other career pursuits, while still keeping an occasional grip on comic Opposite: A familiar book writing. As I have always consilhouette swoops tended, comic books reflect their through the raintimes. They are both influential to, and swept gates of influenced by, the events of the day.

Arkham Asylum, As times darkened, so did the heroes; ground zero for the so did their concerns, so did the methDark Age of Comics, ods of the resolutions to problems. in Batman: The However, once again more of an Killing Joke (1988). observer than a participant, I loved Art: Brian Bolland many of the darker stories. I thought [ © 2006 DC Comics ] Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was one of the greatest Batman stories of all time. I still tell my writing students at the School of Visual Arts in New York City that Watchmen is the best utilization of the comic book medium to tell a story — ever. I even managed to contribute my own dark chapter (aided by artist Bo Hampton) with Batman: Castle of the Bat, mixing the dark origin of the Batman with the even darker tale of Frankenstein.

And I have to stake another claim as well. One summer, I immersed myself in the dark works of H.P. Lovecraft, reading his ghastly and gruesome tales of nether gods and loathsome creatures from the depths of Hell. It was during a conversation with writer Denny O’Neil, before I had even graduated from college, that I suggested that Batman villains such as Two-Face and the Joker should never be housed in a common prison; they should be locked away in an insane asylum. And what better asylum could there be for such maniacs than Arkham, the dark dwelling of the tormented souls from Lovecraft’s horrific tales? Denny agreed and used the idea, making Arkham my first contribution to the foundations of the Dark Age of Comics. (It’s all there, in Batman #258, September 1974, the true first appearance of Arkham Asylum in DC Comics.

Earlier reports of its initial use in the Batman legend have been erroneous.)

Of course, much of the criticism of the Dark Age was over the gore and gimmicks. But such things were

FOREWORD

there for the neophytes and the speculators. We knew it; we fans could see past all of the glitz (if darkness can be considered glitzy).

Between the multiple covers, sealed deep inside the polybags and hidden in the darkest of storylines, we could still find all the allures of the medium that had originally attracted us to comic books in the first place: colorfully costumed heroes, dynamic art and well-crafted storytelling. We knew that once the shadowy trends and the murky fads fell by the wayside, these were the things, the basic substance of the medium, which would survive, perhaps better for the experience.

Just as I had endured my obsession with comics, the industry emerged from its Dark Age, more mature and with even more potential than before. What this current “Age” of comic books might be called will have to be left up to the historians of the future. However, whatever name or label they may attach to today’s comics won’t matter. As I hoped, comics arose from the gloom improved and enhanced, both in content and quality. After all, how can we appreciate light without knowing darkness?

Now it’s time to take your own tour of the Dark Age of Comics.

Follow Mark Voger as he guides the way, his lantern of insight held high to illuminate the road ahead. But watch your step; obsession lies just beyond the boundaries.

Jack C. Harris is a former DC Comics editor and a professor of writing and comics history at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Former DC Comics editor Jack C. Harris.

[ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

INTRODUCTION:

The good, the badass and the ugly “I remember the day Superman died, back in ’92,” you may tell your grandkids one day. “It was in Superman #75. What a beauty! It was polybagged with a poster and a trading card and an obituary and an arm-band and stickers — all for $2.50! Those were the days.” To which your grandkids will look up at you with undisguised annoyance and say, “Polybagged? What the hell is that?”

Yep — it’s been a long, strange trip for comics. Clearly, something significant was triggered in the mid-1980s with the seminal series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen — something that made things begin to happen again in comics.

And happen, they did: The 900-line vote for Robin’s death . . . the blockbuster 1989 movie Batman . . . the recordsetting Spider-Man #1, X-Force #1 and X-Men #1 . . . the rise of independents such as Valiant and Image Comics . . . and, of course, gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks. It was clearly an era unto itself, right up there with what we comic book geeks call the “Golden Age” and “Silver Age” of comics.

In 1996, as The Dark Knight Returns turned 10, I figured the time was right to look back on this modern era, identify its aspects — and name it.

The good: Maus: But what to call it? The A Survivor’s Tale by “Copper Age?” The Art Spiegelman. [ © “Cubic Zirconia Age?” 2006 Art Spiegelman ] No. Just as the modern Below: ‘‘The Dark era shattered many of Age’’ is heralded comicdom’s old-fashin the pages of ioned rules, there was Comics Buyer’s no need to slavishly Guide. [ © 2006 adhere to the tradition Krause Publications ] of naming it after a precious metal. The most appropriate monicker borrowed from Frank Miller’s title as it captured the era’s essence: The Dark Age. In January of 1997, I wrote a three-part newspaper series about the era titled “The Dark Age.” Later that year, the Comics Buyer’s Guide published my article (also titled “The Dark Age”) in CBG #1252.

Screamed the CBG headline: “Enough, already! It’s time to finally name this era of unkinder, ungentler comic-book heroes . . .”

WE HAD A NAME. BUT WHAT WAS THE DARK AGE? How would you describe it to someone who wasn’t there? Someone for whom this period really is history? Graphically, comics never looked better, thanks to fantastic strides in printing technology. But lurid form often superseded literate content; the industry may have

reached financial zeniths, but not always artistic ones. With conscience-deprived heroes indistinguishable from their adversaries, the Dark Age was typified by implausible, steroid-inspired physiques, outsized weapons (guns, knives, claws), generous bloodletting and vigilante justice. While heroes of the Golden and Silver Ages depended solely on their wits and powers to vanquish their adversaries, heroes of the Dark Age were not above flaunting a weapons advantage. Their guns got bigger and bigger. It seemed the bigger the guns, the smaller the heroes’ heads.

The quality of comic books may have been debatable, but the medium’s growing popularity was beyond debate.

Blockbuster movies based on comic book characters offered further proof. Beginning with Tim Burton’s film Batman (1989), comics and movies began to enjoy a glorious period of cross-promotion. Comic book movies were a huge part of the fun and excitement of the Dark Age. After seeing a comic book movie, geeks couldn’t wait to run back to their local comic shop and compare notes on Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman Begins, Steel, Catwoman, X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Blade, Daredevil, Elektra, The Punisher, Sin City, Spawn, Hellboy, The Crow, Barb Wire, etc.

Just about every comic book movie was, in turn, adapted to the comics again — a spinoff industry! Get this: DC’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm adaptation (1993) was a comic book based on a feature film based on an animated series

based on a feature film based on a comic book. Are you still with us?

Comic book “speculating” — the act of buying up comic books, not to read or to save or to cherish, but purely in anticipation of their resale profit — was hardly an invention of the Dark Age. But during that time, it took off like a Batman #600 out of Hellboy #1. What threw Dark Age speculation into overdrive was the fact that occasional flurries of media attention inspired “civilians” — people who normally never darkened the doorway of a comic shop — to scarf up copies of books perceived to be surefire collectibles.

Superman, dead? Must buy copies! Cyclops and Marvel Girl, married? Must buy copies! Spider-Man #1? Must buy copies! Anything #1? It’ll put my kids through college!

You’ll have a lot more than polybagging to explain to your grandkids. Cliches of the Dark Age included superhero makeovers; inter-publisher crossovers; cover enhancements such as foil-stamping, embossing, glowin-the-dark ink and holograms; cheesecake comics; celebrity creators and “spoof” comics.

But many comic books of the Dark Age commanded our attention the old-fashioned way: They earned it.

Owing to the form and tone established by Miller in The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in Watchmen, the graphic novel format thereafter retained the basic components of comics — sequential art with word balloons

— but offered serious storytelling in a literate presentation. Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale — a World War II memoir in which Jews are portrayed as mice and Nazis as cats — became the first comic book to win the Pulitzer Prize. Miller topped himself with his gritty series Frank Miller’s Sin City. Once the final gimmick faded, you see, the focus of comics returned to storytelling.

That just about scratches the surface of the Dark Age. We’ll attempt to put it all into perspective in the following pages.

We’ll look back on the “harbingers” of the Dark Age; meet the movers and shakers of the period; examine the Top 10 Cliches of the Dark Age; dissect a copy of Superman #75; identify both the The badass and 10 Most the ugly: Gun Important nuts the Punisher and 10 Most Ludicrous (art: Dave Hoover books or series of the and Don Lomax), Dark Age of Comics; Deathlok (art: and more.

Denys Cowan) We apologize and Cable (art: in advance if Art Thibert). your favorite [ © 2006 Marvel Dark Age subComics ] ject isn’t covered; we tried to hit all the “big gun” events of the era (pun intended). But let’s face it: One could write a 168-page book alone titled Anti-Matter Matters: The Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion. Still, we’ve done our very best to bring you back to a time, a magical time, when comic books literally sparkled.

And sometimes they were worth reading, too.

The darkest book in the history of comics will never be topped.

No amount of blood, entrails, spent hookers, grizzled gumshoes, jittery drug dealers, semi-automatic weaponfire or black ink will ever trump Detective Comics #27.

Because in 1939, no one had seen its like.

As opposed to the Dark Age of Comics, when one “grim” and “gritty” psychodrama after another was met by a jaded audience who demanded increasing levels of depravity. (Need reminding?

How about a naked Commissioner Gordon tied to a funhouse ride and forced to view giant photos of his likewise naked daughter crippled from gunfire in 1988’s Batman: The Killing Joke? Or a thug raping the dead body of Eric’s fiance in 1989’s The Crow? Or the naked Yellow Bastard binding and whipping a topless dancer in 1996’s Sin City: That Yellow Bastard?)

Of course, the Batman’s debut in ’Tec #27 is tame by comparison, but it still Opposite: The wins the “darkness” prize talons-down eternally dark for its bleak tone, its stark, urban settings and mysterious and especially, its influence on so many Batman’s debut in comic books to follow.

Detective Comics We call it one of the most important #27 (1939). Art: “Harbingers of the Dark Age” — those Bob Kane. moments in the history of the medium [ © 2006 DC Comics ] that signaled, usually unknowingly, what it all would lead to.

Just as Beethoven somehow begat Anthrax; just as Charlie Chaplin somehow begat Paulie Shore; just as Michelangelo somehow begat Mark Kostabi; we can argue that the Yellow Kid (R.F. Outcault’s seminal 19th-century comic-strip creation) somehow begat the Yellow Bastard.

Before we shine a light on the Dark Age — which was irrevocably ignited by three groundbreaking series in 1985 and ’86: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen — we’ll attempt to connect the dots that led to it (and soak in a little history in the process). Following are the Top 35 Harbingers of the Dark Age. ■ HARBINGER #1: FIRST CHARACTER In or around 1896, Outcault’s Yellow Kid — a dopey looking slum urchin in a nightshirt emblazoned with smart alecky sayings — began to appear in the Sunday New York World, at a time when newspapers were just beginning to use color cartoon sections to build circulation. The Yellow Kid is recognized as the first major, regularly appearing character of the comics, making him the spiritual descendant of every comic-book character from Azrael to Zen.

HARBINGERS

■ HARBINGER #2: FIRST CREATORS’ RIGHTS FACEOFF When Outcault moved over to William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, World publisher Joseph Pulitzer sued, according to Richard Marschall in America’s Great Comic-Strip Artists. This triggered the comics’ first-ever squabble over creators’ rights (a perennial issue that would be revisited with a vengeance during the Dark Age). The resulting — and puzzling — legal decision allowed both newspapers to publish Yellow Kid cartoons.

■ HARBINGER #3: FIRST COMIC BOOK The Sunday funnies led to the first comic books, which were reprint compilations of strips. The first was Funnies on Parade in 1933, followed by Famous Funnies #1 in 1934 (both published by Eastern Color and edited by Max C. Gaines, father of Tales From the Crypt publisher William M. Gaines). Famous Funnies was the first regularly published comic book, lasting 218 issues until 1955.

■ HARBINGER #4: FIRST SUPERHERO Action Comics #1 in 1938 introduced Superman, the comics’ first costumed superhero. The sci-fi pulps-inspired Superman was created by two eager and unknown boys from Cleveland, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and published by National Periodical Publications (later known as DC Comics) under the editorship of Vin Sullivan.

■ HARBINGER #5: FIRST BATMAN Batman debuted in the aforementioned Detective Comics #27 in a story titled “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” written by Bill Finger, illustrated by Bob Kane and edited by Sullivan. Kane is credited as Batman’s sole creator, though many believe Finger’s indelible contributions merit co-creator credit.

■ HARBINGER #6: REVENGE MOTIF Perhaps there were revenge-themed origins prior to that of Batman in Detective Comics #33 (1939). But this one — in which young Bruce Wayne witnesses his parents’ murder in the street at the hands of a gunman — forcefully established the revenge motif which was a cornerstone, if not an outright cliche, of many Dark Age superhero origins.

■ HARBINGERS #7-8: FIRST X-RATED AND UNAUTHORIZED COMICS “Cheesecake” and pornographic comics were readily available during the Dark Age, but this was hardly new. The “two-backed beast”

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■ HARBINGER #9: FIRST DEAD SUPERHERO The ghostly, greenhooded Spectre debuted in DC’s More Fun Comics #52 in 1940, paving the way for the Crow, Death (sister of the Sandman), Evil Ernie, Lady Death and other Dark Age deadies.

■ HARBINGER #10: FIRST TRUE CRIME COMICS Comic books and trading cards depicting the “careers” of serial killers and gangsters proliferated during the Dark Age, thanks in part to the media outrage they garnered for small-time publishers who were otherwise at a loss to promote their product.

In other words, any publicity is good publicity. The granddaddy of all true crime comics was Comic House’s Crime Does Not Pay #22 (1942).

■ HARBINGER #11: FIRST ‘‘SPOOF’’ BOOK The so-called “spoof” and “parody” books that littered comic-shop racks during the Dark Age were the illegitimate grandchildren of E.C.’s Mad #1 (1952), created by writer/artist Harvey Kurtzman and published by William M. Gaines. The early, pre-magazine-format Mad parodied familiar comic-book characters such as Superman and Archie.

■ HARBINGER #12: SUPERHERO MAKEOVER Yes, DC’s Showcase #4 (1956) is credited for reinvigorating the then-flaccid superhero genre and kicking off the socalled Silver Age of Comics. But editor Julius Schwartz, writer Robert Kanigher and artists Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert accomplished something else nearly as profound. They introduced

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a new costume, origin and secret identity for an established character (in this case, the Flash) — something which seemed to happen every other month during the Dark Age. ■ HARBINGER #13: AN EARLIER ‘‘DEATH OF SUPERMAN’’ Action Comics #255 (1959) trumpeted “The Death of Superman.”

No, Supes didn’t really die in this issue, but does he ever? Action #255 failed to attract the media attention and speculator fury that the identically titled Superman #75 would in 1992, but give it points for being published 33 years earlier.

■ HARBINGER #14: FIRST ALTERNATE UNIVERSE In The Flash #123 (1961), the Barry Allen Flash is entertaining orphans when he accidentally zaps himself onto a parallel Earth where his boyhood idol, original Flash Jay Garrick, can easily be located in the White Pages. Jay, older now than in his Golden Age days, wears gray temples (a condition the Hal Jordan Green Lantern would inherit during the Dark Age). “The way I see it,” Barry tells Jay, “I vibrated so fast, I tore a gap in the vibratory shields separating our worlds! As you know, two objects can occupy the same space and time — if they vibrate at different speeds! My theory is, both Earths were created at the same time in two quite similar universes!” Little did Schwartz, Infantino and writer Gardner Fox realize what a Pandora’s Box they were opening.

■ HARBINGER #15: FIRST “CRISIS” Before Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was “Crisis on Earth-One!” (in Justice League of America #21) and “Crisis on Earth-Two!” (in JLA #22) in 1963.

Somehow, R.F. Outcault’s seminal 19th-century comic-strip character, the Yellow Kid, begat Frank Miller’s Yellow Bastard.

[ © 2006 Frank Miller ]

[ © 2006 current copyright holder ]

had been depicted in comics since the dawn of the medium. Beginning in the 1930s, the so-called “Tijuana bibles” — crudely printed, illegally sold bootleg comic books — depicted the private peccadilloes of such popular characters as Dick Tracy, Olive Oyl, Flash Gordon and Betty Boop, and such reallife celebrities as Mae West, Cary Grant, Clara Bow and W.C. Fields.

The celebrity smearing also anticipated the unauthorized celebrity bio trend in comics during the Dark Age.

No, you fools! You’re screwing it all up! Two Flashes meet in The Flash #123 (1961). Art: Carmine Infantino. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] Once again, Schwartz and Fox, not to mention artist Mike Sekowsky, were ahead of the curve, unwittingly paving the way for future continuity gaffes.

■ HARBINGER #16: DEATH OF . . .

During the Dark Age, the deaths of major characters were so commonplace — and fleeting — that they ultimately lacked impact. In 1964, the cover of Marvel Comics’ The Avengers #4 promised the return of Captain America, but a bigger surprise awaited readers within; a flashback revealed that Cap’s sidekick Bucky was blown to bits by an exploding drone plane during World War II! This masterstroke was courtesy of editor/writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

(Nine years later, another major Marvel character was killed off. Gwen Stacy, the blond third of the Peter/Gwen/Mary Jane love triangle, was murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121, in story by Gerry Conway and art by Gil Kane and John Romita.)

■ HARBINGER #17: SUPER WEDDING Decades before superhero weddings were regularly exploited as magnets for media attention and circulation building, Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic) and Sue Storm (a.k.a. the Invisible Woman) of the Fantastic Four wed in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)

by Lee and Kirby.

HARBINGERS

■ HARBINGER #18: FIRST BLACK SUPERHERO Cultural diversity among superheroes was a long-overdue trend during the Dark Age, particularly given DC’s Milestone line, in which black superheroes sprang forth from black creators. The first major black superhero was Black Panther, who debuted in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966 from Lee and Kirby.

Six years later, Marvel’s Hero for Hire #1 featured the debut of jive-talking Luke Cage in a story by Archie Goodwin with art by George Tuska. It was the first regularly published title toplined by a black superhero.

■ HARBINGER #19: A DEADER DEAD SUPERHERO Dead though he may be, Spectre is not nearly as

Neal Adams art of Deadman (left), and the cover of Action Comics #255 (1959). [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

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morbid a superhero as Deadman, a trapeze artist who cannot succumb to eternal sleep until he tracks down his own murderer.

Deadman began regularly appearing in Strange Adventures beginning with issue #205 (1967) in a story by Arnold Drake with art by Infantino; the character’s preeminent artist, Neal Adams, took over from #206 through #216.

Right: Neal Adams’ cover for Green Lantern #76 (1970). [ ©

■ HARBINGER #20: REALITY CHECK Since the late 2006 DC Comics ] ’60s, realism had Below: Ross been increasingly Andru’s cover for practiced in Superman vs. the superhero Amazing Spidercomics, but Man (1976). [ © reached an 2006 DC Comics important crossand Marvel Comics ] roads beginning in Green Lantern #76 (1970). This is when editor Schwartz tapped writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Adams to resuscitate the ailing title.

Sixteen years before Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, O’Neil and Adams introduced stories exploring urban crime, political corruption, poverty and drugs in which the cluelessly conservative Green Lantern clashes with the radically liberal Green Arrow.

■ HARBINGER #21: COMICS CODE AUTHORITY DEFIED The self-censoring Comics Magazine Association of America was set up by publishers in 1954 to assure America that comic books were squeaky clean (following a period of gory horror and crime comics which drew the ire of a senate subcommittee). For years, publishers played ball with the CMAA, until Marvel’s Stan Lee decided to damn the torpedoes and publish an anti-drug story he wrote without the CMAA’s Comics Code Authority approval, in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (1971).

■ HARBINGERS #22-25: GRIMACING UPSTARTS Four enduring characters introduced by Marvel and DC between 1973 and 1983 were ahead of their time. Upstarts Blade, Wolverine, the Punisher and Lobo meted out uncompromising justice with perpetual grimaces, and came into their own

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during the Dark Age. Blade debuted in 1973’s Tomb of Dracula #10 (story: Marv Wolfman, art: Gene Colan); Wolverine debuted in 1974’s The Incredible Hulk #180 (story: Len Wein, art: Herb Trimpe); the Punisher debuted in 1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (story: Gerry Conway, art: Ross Andru) and Lobo debuted in 1983’s The Omega Men #3 (story: Roger Slifer, art: Keith Giffen).

■ HARBINGER #26: FIRST INTERPUBLISHER CROSSOVER Inter-publisher crossovers reached a fevered pitch during the Dark Age. But prior to DC and Marvel’s superhero summit Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man in 1976, such a thing was anathema. The crossover pioneers included DC’s Infantino, Marvel’s Lee and especially

artist Andru, who worked for both companies and reconciled their styles seamlessly.

■ HARBINGER #27: EARLY GIMMICK Gimmicks such as cover enhancements and polybagged premiums were painfully de rigueur during the Dark Age. There were certainly comicbook gimmicks prior to that, but one memorable — and incredible — gimmick seemed to anticipate the cynically exploitative depths that would later be reached. This was Marvel Comics Super Special #1 (1977), which starred the pancake-and-leatherwearing rockers Kiss. In real life, each member of Kiss had blood extracted, which was mixed in with the red ink used to print the edition. Now, we ask you — knowing how many liaisons Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has had, would you want his blood mixed in with your red ink?

■ HARBINGERS #28-32: THE “INDIE” BOOM Black-and-white comic books produced by independent publishers began to proliferate in the late ’60s with the “underground” comics movement spearheaded by Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Spain, et al. Their numbers continued to grow through the ’70s and ’80s. But five series in particular offered proof that you didn’t have to be a major publisher to attract a large, loyal readership, and paved the way for the “indie” boom of the Dark Age. These were Cerebus the Aardvark, Dave Sim’s self-published, 300-issue epic which began in 1977; Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini, which premiered in Fantasy Quarterly #1 in 1978; Flaming Carrot by Bob Burden, which premiered in Visions #1 in 1979; Grendel by Matt Wagner, which premiered in Comico’s Primer #2 in 1982; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by writer Peter Laird and artist Kevin Eastman, which premiered from Mirage Studios in 1984.

■ HARBINGER #33: THE DC IMPLOSION In 1978, DC Comics canceled more than 30 titles in a superhero bloodbath mockingly named the “DC Implosion” (following as it did a shortlived company promotion called the “DC Explosion”). After the smoke cleared, surviving editors, writers and artists reconvened to explore new avenues to attract and keep readers, which ultimately led to such series as Crisis on Infinite Earths, et al.

■ HARBINGER #34: FRANK MILLER’S DAREDEVIL Frank Miller first demonstrated his penchant for reinventing established characters when he was assigned to Marvel’s Daredevil. Miller took over DD in degrees, beginning with artwork in issue #158 (1979), soon followed by plotting and then all-

HARBINGERS

Above: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was darker than the kid-friendly incarnation.

From TMNT #11 (1987). [ © 2006 Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman ] Left: An Elfquest being. [ © 2006 Wendi and Richard Pini ] out scripting. Under Miller’s aegis, Elektra was introduced (in #169) and killed (in #181).

■ HARBINGER #35: SPIDER-MAN’S BLACK COSTUME When Spider-Man updated to an all-black costume in Ron Frenz art in Amazing Spider-Man #252 (1984), it wasn’t the first time a superhero changed his pajamas. But it attracted so much buzz, the black costume was worn longer than planned. Marvel learned that media attention equals increased circulation, and thereafter became increasingly media savvy.

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intervention

Solving crises with Crisis on Infinite Earths

IF THE ADAGE “LESS IS MORE” IS WRONG — if, indeed, more is more — then DC Comics’ 1985 “maxi-series” Crisis on Infinite Earths was a lot more.

More character crossovers. More character deaths.

More new characters. A story that spans from the dawn of time to the 30th century, with visits to King Arthur’s day, the Old West and World War II. And a hot blonde in a peek-a-boo costume.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was the opening salvo for the Dark Age of Comics for many reasons — for its obsession with crossover continuity; for its hit list of superhero deaths (notably those of Supergirl and the Flash); for the intense buzz it created; and especially, for its aftershocks, Opposite: Heroes which are still being felt. flail helplessly The creators of the series in the cosmos in — writer/editor Marv George Pérez’s art Wolfman; plotters Wolfman, for the back cover Robert Greenberger, Len of Crisis on Infinite Wein and George Pérez; penEarths #1 (1985). ciler Pérez; and inkers Dick Right: Another one Giordano (then a DC vice bites the dust in president), Mike DeCarlo and Crisis #7.

Jerry Ordway — didn’t con[ © 2006 DC Comics ] ceal the fact that Crisis was a goal-oriented enterprise. The mission: Clean up the messy DC Universe, and do it in time for DC’s 50th anniversary.

Dennis O’Neil was one DC editor who welcomed the streamlining.

“Crisis on Infinite Earths was going on about the time that I came back to DC to take over the Batman franchise,” O’Neil told me in 2005.

“That was a case of the thing just having gotten so unwieldy. There were so many different versions of all of the main characters. It was bad storytelling, because one of the things that makes superheroes good is that they’re unique. And if you have six Supermen running around the universe, then if this one gets in trouble, so what?

There are five others.

“That’s a storytelling problem which is unique to comics. No other medium has ever had to face that.”

Wolfman explained the goals of Crisis in an essay he wrote which appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths #1.

“Change, real, permanent change, is on the way,” Wolfman promised readers. “Changes that will affect our top line of heroes. If you think even Superman is immune, you’re in for a big surprise. That’s a promise!”

According to Wolfman, the idea for Crisis was born when reader Gary Thompson of Michigan pointed out a continuity gaffe in a letter in Green Lantern #143 (1981).

We ask you — can George Pérez draw superheroes or what? In probably the most talked-about scene from Crisis on Infinite Earths, Pérez depicted more than 150 superheroes and villains in this two-page spread from Crisis #5. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

“You see,” Wolfman wrote, “DC Mythology, which had grown helter-skelter over the past 50 years, had become rather convoluted.

DC had been and remains a company of many editors, all of whom have good ideas of their own. Therefore, in the past, Editor A may have created an Atlantis for their comics while Editor B may have created a very different Atlantis for theirs. So Lori Lemaris’ Atlantis in Superman bore no resemblance to Aquaman’s or Travis Morgan’s, or the Atlantis the Sea Devils may have swam across, or the one Cave Carson may have stumbled into, or the one Batman . . . well, you see the picture.

“The problem began when comics changed. When heroes teamed with other heroes. When a touch of reality found its way onto the four-color pages. We strove to make our books seem more real by making our characters more realistic. Once you think in that direction, logic shifts somewhat. If Superman can meet Aquaman, there should be consistency between their worlds because we’ve just shown they exist on the same Earth.’’

By 1985 — the year in which Crisis on Infinite Earths was set as well as published — DC had established many Earths. The ‘‘Silver Age’’ Justice League of America dwelled on Earth-1; the “Golden Age” Justice Society of America on Earth-2; the JLA’s mir-

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ror-opposites, the Crime Syndicate, on Earth-3.

Some Earths contained superheroes created by other publishers.

When DC acquired these properties, the characters were assigned their own DC Earths. Such as: Charlton Comics’ Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, the Question, et al. (on Earth-4); Fawcett Publications’ Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, et al. (on Earth-S); Quality Comics’ Uncle Sam, Dollman, the impossibly endowed Phantom Lady, et al. (on Earth-X).

Some Earths were even seen for the first time in Crisis on Infinite Earths — just in time for them to be destroyed. (You could take this to mean that the Crisis team was still contributing to the problem, even as they were solving it.) Among Crisis-centric Earths were Earth-6, home of Lady Quark (who resembled ’80s food guru Susan Powter drained of estrogen), seen in Crisis #4, and the home Earth of perennial sad sack Pariah, seen in Crisis #7.

Feeling confused? It was hoped that these infinite problems would be solved by Crisis on Infinite Earths.

“For the past several years,” Wolfman continued in his essay, “many people have suggested ‘fixing up’ the DC Universe.

Simplifying it. Making it consistent, yet in a way which would not prevent experiments that varied with an ‘established’ future. I

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS

Above: Superheroes question the Monitor’s intentions in Crisis #2. Below: Harbinger in her peek-a-boo costume. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

remember (writer) Gerry Conway talking about his ‘big bang’ theory several years ago. Other writers and artists have often mentioned how they wished the morass of continuity could be repaired.

“Well, Crisis on Infinite Earths will attempt such a repair job. By series end, DC will have a consistent and more readily understandable universe to play with.”

Crisis accomplished this goal, but opened a few hornets’ nests that comic book geeks still love to jaw over.

For instance: What about the fact that DC superheroes had many crossovers with Marvel superheroes?

Wouldn’t that put the Marvel heroes on Earth-1? Where are they?

And: When the Monitor says, “I have analyzed all those with power in the past, present and future,” it begs the question: If the Monitor can see the future, doesn’t he already know the outcome of the crisis?

(Of course, slavering Crisis geeks will answer that, yes, the Monitor can see the future, and he can take steps to change it. But doesn’t that mean he isn’t really seeing “the” future?)

And most importantly: Why didn’t Crisis include Jerry Lewis? The comedian starred in his own DC comic book and had crossovers with Superman and Batman. Heck, Lewis even had a real-life counterpart on Earth-Prime!

Okay, okay — we’re just having a little fun here.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS

NOT EVERYONE WAS IMPRESSED BY CRISIS ON Infinite Earths.

In a 1985 interview with The Comics Journal, Frank Miller all but named Crisis when he groused to Kim Thompson: ‘‘Now, modern superhero comics have reached the point where there are so many superheroes and so damned much superpower flying around that there’s no room left for anything human, and the only way to make the genre seem interesting is to wildly escalate the powers, the numbers, the quantity of planets that can be demolished per panel. Just look at how many characters are being killed these days.’’

But love it or hate it, you’ve got to give Crisis its due as a gargantuan task ably met.

Sometimes, Crisis seems like a religion. When the Anti-Monitor travels back to the dawn of time in order to prevent creation itself, well, that’s pretty heavy stuff — and a long way from Little Dot in Dotland.

MANY HEROES were gathered in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but the true hero of Crisis is George Pérez. The artist spared no effort, fudged no crowd scene, skimped on no costume.

In illustrating Crisis on Infinite Earths, Pérez seemed to operate under the theory: Why draw 10 superheroes when 100 would do?

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ISSUE:

SYNOPSIS:

CRISIS #1: “THE SUMMONING” Sad-eyed Pariah hates his job — watching helplessly as universes are gobbled up by anti-matter. Earth-3 is obliterated, but not before Alexander Luthor — a red-bearded hero on this world — pulls a Jor-El and sends his baby son off in a ship he devised to “bridge the vibrational gap” separating the universes. The Monitor compels his hottie adoptee Lyla to become Harbinger, replicate herself and summon 15 specially selected heroes and villains from Earth-1 and Earth2. This group is attacked by “shadow demons” in the Monitor’s satellite. The Monitor shoos the creatures away and tells his guests: “Your universes are about to die!”

OF NOTE:

Deaths of Power Ring, Ultraman, Johnny Quick, Owlman, Superwoman, Alexander Luthor and Lois Luthor, all of Earth3. The DC debut of the former Charlton Comics character Blue Beetle.

CRISIS #2: “TIME AND TIME AGAIN” In a prehistoric jungle, Anthro spies a futuristic city. In the 30th century, the Legion of Super-Heroes deals with a stampede of mammoths. In present-day Gotham City, Batman and the Joker witness an apparition of the Flash that warns: “The world is dying.” The Monitor dispatches teams to “crucial eras” to guard his “devices powerful enough to halt the anti-matter tide.” One is Kamandi’s future; another is ancient Atlantis. In the latter, Psycho-Pirate — not a team player — wanders off and absorbs the emotions of the ever-jittery Pariah. The Monitor is aware that Harbinger is under the control of a mysterious enemy.

The Monitor’s prophecy: “Earthquakes, volcanic disturbances, floods . . . will crush your coastline cities like so many twigs beneath your feet. Then shall come the nothingness.”

CRISIS #3: “OBLIVION UPON US” Earth-3 survivor Alex Luthor has grown from infancy to adolescence in a short span. The mysterious baddie orders Harbinger to kill Alex. On Earth-2, the Teen Titans, the Outsiders and the World’s Finest teams deal with an anti-matter wave. Once again, Flash appears, warns of doom and then vanishes. In 1944 Markovia, Easy Co. and the Losers are attacked by shadow demons and aided in battle by Geo-Force, Dr. Polaris and the Blue Beetle. In Kamandi’s future, an anti-matter wave nears. In the Old West, colorful cowboys are astonished at the presence of superheroes. Harbinger tells the weakened Monitor, “It is time for you to die.’’

Deaths of Gunner, Sarge, Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm, Flower, Solovar, Nighthawk and Kid Psycho. Cowboy Jonah Hex refers to the John Stewart Green Lantern as ‘‘colored.’’

CRISIS #4: “AND THUS SHALL THE WORLD DIE!” Supergirl and Batgirl commiserate on a skyscraper. Pariah witnesses the destruction of Earth-6, but not before plucking Lady Quark to safety. In Earth-1 Japan, scientist Kimiyo Hoshi vanishes. The mysterious baddie summons Red Tornado. In King Arthur’s time on Earth-2, Firebrand and Killer Frost join the Shining Knight in fighting shadow demons, which merge into one, giant being — as they do in other eras containing the Monitor’s protective ‘‘vibrational forks.’’ The Monitor reveals to Pariah: ‘‘The worlds are separated by vibration and time . . . my machines will bring them together!’’ Harbinger then kills the Monitor.

Deaths of Lord Volt, Princess Fern and all of their subjects on Earth-6. Debut of the new, female Dr. Light (a.k.a. Kimiyo Hoshi, as if you didn’t know).

Death of the Monitor.

CRISIS #6: “3 EARTHS! 3 DEATHS!” The evil Monitor increases Psycho-Pirate’s powers. Thanks to a self-sacrificing gesture by Harbinger, heroes of Earth-1 and 2 are scattered to surviving Earths just before the good Monitor’s satellite is destroyed.

Superhero battles erupt courtesy of the Psycho-Pirate. Earth-1 and 2 heroes battle the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X, the Charlton heroes on Earth-4 and the Fawcett heroes on Earth-S. Inhabitants of these Earths witness a vision of Harbinger, whose final act was to pull the Earths away from deadly anti-matter clouds. Meanwhile, reporter Yolanda Montez observes the ailing Wildcat — and takes over his superhero identity.

Harbinger is no more (though her civilian identity, plain old Lyla, survives). A new Brainiac (a skull-like, talking satellite) and a new Wildcat (Montez) are introduced.

CRISIS #5: “WORLDS IN LIMBO” Harbinger (now free from possession) and Pariah mourn the Monitor, until a pre-recorded video message reveals that the Monitor wanted to be killed. His death ‘‘created a netherverse, one which has temporarily absorbed your two universes.’’ The only downside: ‘‘All time has become one!’’ Sure enough, dinosaurs, pilgrims, World War I planes and spaceships all occupy the same space and time. Pariah, Harbinger and Alex Luthor — now a mullet-wearing youth — make a plea to Earth-1 and 2 heroes and villains. The mysterious baddie reveals himself to be . . . the Monitor! (A different Monitor, that is.) Earth-X nears destruction.

Red Tornado’s form is changed, turning him into a deadly storm.

Wildcat falls after being hit by lightning, and his legs are shattered. Ultra Boy’s diagnosis: He may never walk again.

ISSUE:

SYNOPSIS:

CRISIS #7: “BEYOND THE SILENT NIGHT” Pariah and Lyla gather delegate heroes on a floating rock and recount the origin of the multiverse, the anti-matter universe, the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. Alex Luthor increases the anti-matter force within him to open a portal to the anti-matter universe. Pariah guides delegates through the portal to the Anti-Monitor’s monolithic fortress, where walls form into rock monsters and attack. Earth-2 Superman and the new Dr. Light pair off against the Anti-Monitor.

When Superman is injured, Supergirl rushes the Anti-Monitor and is killed by an antimatter blast. Supergirl is mourned by many. The merging of the five Earths halts.

OF NOTE:

The death of Supergirl, one of the two most memorable events of Crisis (the other happens next ish). Batgirl gives a eulogy; the funeral is covered by Lane.

CRISIS #8: “A FLASH OF THE LIGHTNING!” The Anti-Monitor returns to Qward to rally his forces. Darkseid plots against the Anti-Monitor. The John Stewart Green Lantern enlists the Blue Devil. Red Tornado’s body explodes, and the Blue Devil is sucked into another dimension. The Anti-Monitor supervises the construction of a giant anti-matter cannon. The Flash uses inner-vibrations to free himself from a ‘‘gelatin jail’’ and pummels the Psycho-Pirate, forcing him to frighten the AntiMonitor’s guards. The Flash then runs counter to the flow of the cannon’s power source. The cannon is destroyed, but the Flash disintegrates in the process.

The death of Barry Allen (a death that actually stuck); the seeds are sewn for Wally West’s assumption to the Flash throne; a new look for the Anti-Monitor.

CRISIS #9: “WAR ZONE” Guy Gardner becomes an official Green Lantern just before an Oan citadel is destroyed, killing all of the Guardians of the Universe but one. The new Brainiac gathers supervillains onto his ship. Chaos persists on the remaining Earths. Alex, Lyla and Pariah address the United Nations to calm the public. The plan backfires when Pariah is again zapped to another universe and a vision of Brainiac and Luthor appear, demanding control of all five Earths. Jay Garrick and Wally West construct a cosmic treadmill to allow superheroes to access the other Earths. Tula is killed by Chemo. When Brainiac explodes, the guilty party is revealed to be Psimon.

The death of the Earth-2 Luthor (the new Brainiac made an example of him to establish his supremacy); the death of Tula (who is Aquagirl).

CRISIS #11: “AFTERSHOCK” Superman I wakes in 1985 Metropolis and reports to the Daily Planet, where he is greeted incredulously by Perry White, et al. Clark Kent (Superman II) shows up to explain that this is his ‘‘Uncle Clark.’’ Nobody seems to remember the crisis, until the Supermen meet up with Jay Garrick and Wally West.

They operate the cosmic treadmill, which reveals a black void. Harbinger tells surviving heroes there is now only one universe. The heroes compare rampant anomalies.

Superman I mourns the loss of Lois Lane I. Shadow demons attack and electrical storms develop, meaning the one Earth has shifted into . . . another universe!

Finally folding all of the universes into one universe would have made Crisis #11 truly historic — if not for the fact that the Anti-Matter Universe appears at the end.

Amethyst goes blind.

CRISIS #10: “DEATH AT THE DAWN OF TIME!” Brainiac kills Psimon. Battles and anomalies persist on Earths 1, 4, S and X. The Spectre declares that the Anti-Monitor is alive and has traveled to the dawn of time. He urges superheroes and supervillains to combine forces. The Metal Men form into a conduit to power time machines, while Jay Garrick and Wally West provide the superspeed. The heroes travel to the dawn of time, the villains to ancient Oa. But the Anti-Monitor expected the heroes, and absorbs their energies. Meanwhile, the villains’ bid to prevent Oan scientist Krona from accidentally triggering the multiverse is unsuccessful. The universe explodes.

CRISIS #12: “FINAL CRISIS” The sky turns black on Earth, which is now located in the Anti-Matter Universe. Harbinger divvies herself up to again rally forces. Superheroes defend Earth from attack by millions of shadow demons; some die in the fight.

Other heroes convene on Qward, where Wally West finds Barry Allen’s costume and ring. In Salem, the Sorcerers summon mystical energies to imprison the shadow demons. It takes a couple of tries, but the heroes finally kill the Anti-Monitor, with the final blow coming from Superman I. He, Superboy and Lois Lane I are sent to a kind of superhero heaven. Psycho-Pirate becomes a babbling patient of Arkham Asylum.

The death of Psimon; a new containment suit for Brainiac; Negative Woman kills Chemo; Kole turns Black Adam into crystal; oh, yeah, and the destruction of the universe.

Deaths of Dove I, Kole, Robin I, Huntress, and Green Arrow I; Wonder Woman appears to be killed, but it’s explained that she never existed; Wally West assumes the mantle of the Flash.

Born-again Batman Character, and industry, revitalized by series

Above: Panels of Bruce Wayne, Robin, Commissioner Gordon and Clark Kent from Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986). Opposite: A Dark Knight Returns page. Below: A member of the vigilante group ‘‘Sons of the Batman.’’ [ © 2006 DC Comics ] IT’S A BIT IRONIC THAT WITHIN A YEAR OF Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC Comics released two superhero series that proved to be the most memorable of the era — both of which wantonly brushed aside the freshstart continuity so painstakingly established by Crisis.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was set in a vague future in which Batman has been AWOL for 10 years. (Or was it a future? Ronald Reagan is president, after all.)

Watchmen was set in an alternate present-day which introduced yet another set of superheroes (and, presumably, yet another Earth) with no connection to the pre- or post-Crisis DC universe. The best laid plans of mice and comic-book editors . . .

IT’S EASY TO UNDERESTIMATE or forget the impact that Batman: The Dark Knight Returns had on the medium of comics. Yes, by 1986, the industry was already well into an upswing in readership and quality. But writer/artist Miller’s powerful four-issue series (inked by Miller and Klaus Janson, colored by Lynn Varley) seduced former readers into trying comics again, and attracted new ones.

For the first time — to a lot of these readers, at least — comics reflected the real world. The story of a bitter, alcoholic, directionless Bruce Wayne coaxed back into his old costume became a metaphor for old readers coaxed back into comics.

Batman, and Batman fans, were born again.

THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

BEGINNING IN 1979, MILLER’S BRIEF RUN penciling Spectacular Spider-Man won the attention of thenMarvel head Jim Shooter, which led to Miller winning the assignment to pencil Daredevil. Before long, Miller was plotting and then outright scripting the exploits of the blind, red-clad “Man Without Fear.” With Daredevil, Miller first exhibited his penchant for reinventing a superhero by basing him in a no-nonsense reality. Under Miller’s aegis, liberties were taken. One of the most memorable was the introduction of DD’s Irene Adler, foxy ninja Elektra.

This approach reached its apex in The Dark Knight Returns, which teamed a gleefully uncompromising Batman with a wide-eyed female Robin and pitted them against a vicious street gang, the Joker and even Batman’s old buddy, Superman.

“Batman is as good and pure a superhero as you can find,” Miller told Kim Thompson in The Comics Journal #101 (1985). “He’s actually a good character, as compromised as the idea has become, as corrupted by shifting political attitudes and 50 years of monthly publication. . . . What I’m trying to demonstrate in the Dark Knight series is that superheroes do come from a good idea, by portraying the city in somewhat more realistic terms and showing . . . the way I think things actually happen in society and why they happen.”

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As Miller’s Gotham City is a very dangerous place, the latter point was no bluff. Miller told Thompson: “In the Dark Knight series, that’s a much more direct use of my real-life experiences in New York, particularly my experiences with crime, my awareness of the horrible pressure that crime exerted on my life . . .

Crime is so much taken for granted that people live in fortresses and walk around looking and acting like victims, carrying money to bribe muggers, acting as if it’s all a numbers game . . . whether or not some monster can rob, rape or kill them, for all intents and purposes giving total power over their lives to anyone who’s savage enough to take it.”

Whoa.

There was something revolutionary about The Dark Knight Returns — you could feel it as you read it — but not everyone was enamored. Batman creator Bob Kane told Terri Hardin in Comics Scene Spectacular #6 (1992) of Miller’s series: “I think it was very innovative, but I didn’t know what he was talking about.

The drawings are so far removed from what I drew when I created my style. I tried to look at it objectively, that it’s being progressive. But basically, I don’t think so. I think what happens is that when they change the original drawings, they turn it into their own personality. And in doing that, it maligns and distorts the original comic art. . . . I didn’t understand the storyline too well.

Swastikas on women’s breasts and buttocks — I don’t know what he’s talking about. . . . All in all, I really don’t understand Frank Miller.”

These many years later, some of The Dark Knight Returns seems cliched or old hat. At one point, Batman actually tells a baddie: “I’m the worst nightmare you ever had” — a line that may have sounded fresh in ’86, but today would prompt Bruce Willis to demand a rewrite. Even the word ‘‘dark’’ itself became so overused in comics in the ensuing years.

So keep in mind that a lot of what Miller was doing had never been done before in comics. The tone, if not the quality, of The Dark Knight Returns was recycled in so many comic books to follow that the original was, inevitably, watered down.

NOT SO WITH WRITER ALAN MOORE AND artist Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. This complex 12issue “maxi-series” has rarely been imitated — and never equaled.

Like Crisis, Watchmen was set in 1985, but not the 1985 we remember. Richard Nixon is still president; superheroes are outlawed; everyone drives floating electric cars and smokes weird cigarettes; and the international political scene points with dread to a pending Armageddon. When someone begins killing off former superheroes, their surviving colleagues commiserate, reopen old wounds — and suit up.

The series was universally lauded for its exploration of the human foibles of costumed heroes.

“I think the timing of it was very apt,” Gibbons told me in 2005.

“Because it hit a point where comics were going through a certain, slightly moribund kind of phase. It jerked everything up to date. It put a lot of attention on comics. It also coincided with Frank Miller’s wonderful Dark Knight Returns. The two things kind of went hand in hand.”

Watchmen wasn’t the only time Northamptonshire-born Moore tweaked history and politics. He set V For Vendetta in an England after which the Nazis prevailed in World War II. Moore also penned The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a wonky kind of superteam featuring familiar characters of 19th-century fiction.

The same year as The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, DC had John Byrne relaunch Superman in The Man of Steel, and Marvel Comics kicked off The ’Nam, a serious series about the Vietnam War. The ’Nam proved that 1986 was truly a year of comicbook synchronicity. The series was created by writer Doug Murray, who knew his stuff; Murray was a Vietnam veteran.

Frank Miller’s stark Batman from the frontispiece of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986). [ © 2006 DC Comics]

‘‘Accessibility and complexity’’

Artist Dave Gibbons on creating Watchmen JUST AS THE CONTRIBUTION WATCHMEN MADE TO the superhero comic book cannot be understated, neither can the contribution made to the series by British artist Dave Gibbons.

DC Comics’ 12-issue “maxi-series” of 1986 and ’87, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Gibbons, challenged the way many creators and readers thought about the relationships among superheroes, their loved ones and adversaries — and exactly what goes on behind the masks.

In clean, straightforward artwork, Gibbons brought alive the world envisioned by Moore — a world set in what was then the present day, but with cogent differences. Gibbons’ heroes were believable people with complicated emotions rather than the onedimensional costumed characters often associated with the genre.

“It might sound immodest,” the artist told me during a 2005 conversation, “but looking back, even I am amazed at what I put into some of those pictures.”

Opposite: Things go terribly wrong in Watchmen #12 (1987). Right: A soonto-be-disturbed statue graces the cover of Watchmen #8 (1986).

Art: Dave Gibbons. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

Q: As the artist of Watchmen, you obviously took your role very seriously. There is so much going on in your artwork, so many little touches — the locales, the set decoration, what the characters are smoking, etc. Were you responding to Alan Moore’s script?

GIBBONS: Oh, yes. It was very much, probably, the best script that I’d ever worked on in my career. I mean, I knew that from the beginning. We obviously had no inkling of what sort of impact it would have, but I knew that it was an extremely well written script. There’s something about working with a writer like Alan. He puts so much of himself into it and visualizes it so clearly, essentially giving the artist a range of things to draw — or not draw. It actually raises the artist’s game.

Q: We take it you’ve worked with writers who weren’t so, let’s say, conscientious?

GIBBONS: (laughs) I mean, there’s nothing worse, as an artist, than being given a script where the writer hasn’t clearly thought out the visuals and hasn’t really taken much time in the writing of the script. It makes it a very hard job to actually rise, yourself, and do something worthwhile. But when you’re given a well written script, really, the pressure’s on you to put the same amount of effort into the artwork.

Q: But Watchmen is obviously not a case of “writer writes, artist draws.” There’s a lot of you in the story as well.

GIBBONS: I did have involvement, even before scripts were written out. Alan and I talked over the whole thing. I designed characters. I had a very clear idea of the kind of graphic look of the thing, the

DAVE GIBBONS

way that it would be done on the grid. While Alan was thinking a lot about the characters, I spent a lot of time thinking about how the world would be different — you know, different “fast foods,” different fashions, different comic book genres, stuff like that. So, yes, the combination of a wonderful script and a personal involvement from the ground up meant a great deal. It was hard, but there was nothing I ever would rather be doing at the time, you know?

Q: The legend goes that Watchmen began as a vehicle starring Charlton Comics characters. But since you were taking them in such a radical direction, it was decided that you would create new characters that were sort of inspired by the Charltons.

GIBBONS: I think DC realized that having possibly paid a fair

25

[ © 2006 DC Comics ]

WATCHMEN ARTIST DAVE GIBBONS WILL BE THE FIRST TO admit that a big part of what put his artwork over was the superb coloring of John Higgins.

Higgin’s use of color was anything but typical. He specialized in using surprising color combinations to depict mood, time of day and even temperature. Readers can “feel” the cold as Nite Owl and Rorschach cruise Antarctica in their hover vehicles (below); we “feel” the wet when the deranged protagonist of the comicwithin-a-comic Tales of the Black Freighter sloshes onto the beach following his eerie journey; we “taste” the acrid smoke in Happy Harry’s bar as Rorschach mercilessly shakes down the local riff-raff for leads.

Listening to Gibbons describe the coloring procedure for the 1986-87 series is a pointed reminder of how far printing technology has come since.

“Way back in the days when we originally did Watchmen,” the artist recalled, “John lived, oh, about eight miles away from me (in England). Once every couple of months, he would come over with the color guides. Because in those days, the colorist would paint some Xeroxes of the artwork and notate it all up with an arcane kind of coding process. Like, ‘Y2/B2’ is a light green; it’s 25 percent yellow, 25 percent blue.

We’d check those over, and he’d explain to me why he’d made the decisions he had. We worked very closely on it.

“Then, in those days, the separations were done by, I think, ladies who worked at home on their kitchen tables. They probably weren’t paid very much money. They had to paint out, on sheets of acetate, where the different percentages of colors fell. Now, they did a very good job of it — considering.”

Because, Gibbons maintained, sometimes the finer points of Higgins’ coloring got lost in the shuffle.

“Really,” Gibbons said, “there were several places where John’s guide wasn’t followed. Particularly with things like color that didn’t have a black line around it — where lighting was indicated on someone’s face or whatever, and it was left up to the (color) separators to decide where to put the line. Quite often, they’d put it in the way that was quickest to do. So there was a lot of slippage between what John did in his guide and what ended up in print.”

Two decades later, DC’s hardback reprint of the series, titled Watchmen: The Absolute Edition, rectified the situation by presenting the coloring as originally intended, in digital recoloring overseen by Higgins himself. Watchmen geeks, of course, must own both — the better to obsess over the discrepancies.

26

amount of change for these properties, to have them killed off in their very first series perhaps didn’t make a lot of sense (laughs).

When we came to come up with substitute characters, we realized that actually, what we had — inasmuch as a lot of the Charlton characters were kind of knockoffs of existing characters, or certainly genres of characters — we had very clear genres. We had the superhero, which was Dr. Manhattan. We had the kind of Batman figure, which was Nite Owl. We had the kind of vigilante, which was Rorschach. It seemed that all of a sudden, we’d been given the perfect vehicle in which to do a treatise about superheroes. But we actually could look at all the different genres or sub-divisions of superheroes.

So it then really became a question of writing them from Alan’s point of view, and designing them to the extreme from my point of view. For instance, Rorschach was obviously based very much on the Charlton character the Question, who was created by Steve Ditko who, as you know, was also the co-creator of Spider-Man — a wonderful artist with a real feel for these kind of characters.

Q: You say that when you designed the Comedian, you added the smiley-face button to represent the character’s name — something which Alan saw as an opportunity to make a broader statement.

GIBBONS: That’s right. I thought it was just a throw-away detail.

But of course, when I got the first script, Alan had made the smiley face kind of the focus of the first issue. Indeed, it sort of became the symbol of the whole series, in that this smiley face is the most basic cartoon of a human physiognomy that a baby will respond to.

And then we put this very realistic splash of blood on it. Which was kind of what we did with the comics: We took something that was a cartoon concept and we tried to add a splash of reality to it.

I just mention that as being an example of the kind of organic or symbiotic nature of our working relationship, in that I, if you like, came up with the smiley face, but Alan made it into what it was. That was very typical of the way we worked.

Q: Let’s talk about your storytelling in Watchmen — the way you might depict a flashback, for instance. In a prison sequence, Rorschach has a flashback to a murdered dog. It’s not presented in a heavy-handed fashion, with a narration box saying: “This is a flashback.”

Megalomaniacal golden boy Ozymandias. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

“This smiley face is the most basic cartoon of a human physiognomy that a baby will respond to. And then we put this very realistic splash of blood on it. Which was kind of what we did with the comics.”

The Comedian’s DNA, and smiley-face button, go down the drain in Watchmen #1 (1986). Art: Dave Gibbons. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

GIBBONS: Well, the funny thing was, as we got into Watchmen, we actually realized that it was a treatise about superheroes, but it was also a treatise about comics. We wanted to do something that could only really be done as a comic book — in other words, use all the narrative devices that were particular to comic books, like keeping a fixed camera and moving the characters past it from picture to picture. Or moving with the characters through a fixed background.

I mean, things which you can have in film, but which don’t have the same graphic impact as they do in a comic book.

The whole thing with the flashbacks was that quite a lot of that was left to the coloring (by John Higgins). That has a very subtle effect. As you say, you don’t have to draw kind of a scalloped edge to the thing. You can just keep it the same feel, but by the coloring or by the way it’s staged, show that it’s not in an ongoing continuity, but it’s flashing back to something previous. I think, really, we both got off on the possibilities of what you could do with comic book storytelling.

Q: The reaction to Watchmen was really a phenomenon. The series took on a life of its own after you and Alan were finished with it. Were you surprised? Were you grateful?

GIBBONS: I mean, I am a modest man, as Alan is. But I think as a lifelong fan of comics, it gives me tremendous pride to think that I’ve made a contribution to the medium which has brought the medium forward and which, I suppose, appears to be a classic in the field.

I mean, we had no idea or aspirations to do that;

we just wanted to do the best comic book we could.

Q: There’s never been a Watchmen sequel or spin-off series — or even a prequel, for that matter. I’d love to read a Minutemen comic book, for instance. Why didn’t you do more issues?

GIBBONS: The fact that Alan and I chose just to do those 12 issues, despite entreaties, despite persuasion from DC — we said, “No. That’s all we’re going to do. That’s all there is.” I think that gave it a kind of completeness and an inviolability that has actually contributed to its ongoing success. I think in the long run, DC Comics have probably made more money by us not doing any spin-offs than if we had (laughs).

I think what happens nowadays is that — along with The Dark Knight Returns and maybe Maus and a handful of other things — Watchmen seems to be the thing which is recommended to people who are trying to get into comics, who are interested in graphic novels. People say, “Right. Here’s Dark Knight. Here’s Watchmen.

Here’s . . .” I dunno, Sandman or Cerebus or something. “This is what comics are about.” I think that’s one of the reasons for its ongoing success.

It was because — although we hopefully were dealing with quite advanced and complex matters — we both wanted to do it in a very clear and straightforward way. I think the fact that you can read Watchmen almost like you can read an old Superman comic has meant that it’s a very accessible book. I think it’s the accessibility and the complexity — paradoxically — which has attracted people to it.

27

RORSCHACH

■ COSTUME: Superhero noir. With his trenchcoat-andhat ensemble, Rorschach looks something like The Asphalt Jungle meets Halloween.

OH, !

E V A H BE

■ SAID GIBBONS: “Alan came up with the idea of using a Rorschach (test) blot. Originally, we were going to give Rorschach a full-body kind of blot costume, so that he would appear down the alley and open his coat like some kind of flasher and show you his whole body thing. But actually, when it came to draw it, it didn’t work. So we just went for the mask. And I must say, I’ve seen people dressed up at masquerades as Rorschach with just static blots on their face.

That’s a pretty scary thing, when they talk to you. It’s like the way you can’t see people’s eyes when they wear sunglasses. That’s kind of disorienting. If this blot really was moving around while somebody was talking to you, it would, I can assure you, be more scary than even I can imagine.”

▼ DR. MANHATTAN

■ COSTUME: Not much. In what has to be the biggest downside to Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan’s blue naughty bits are constantly in the reader’s face. (We would have preferred Silk Spectre II.)

■ SAID GIBBONS: “We thought, ‘If Dr. Manhattan was going to be a superhero, what costume would he have? Hey, hold on a minute!

If he were that super and that detached, would he even bother with a costume?’ ’’

▼

YES, THE OLD CHARLTON COMICS CHARACTERS (such as Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle and the Question) were initially supposed to be the stars of Watchmen, before it was decided that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons should develop an original line of costumed heroes. Artist Gibbons’ resulting Watchmen costume design is memorable in its own right, particularly that of Rorschach; you’re always wondering what’s going on behind that creepy moving mask. Gibbons described his process in designing four Watchmen characters . . .

THE ORIGINAL NITE OWL

■ COSTUME: Right out of a ’40s issue of Union Suit Monthly.

■ SAID GIBBONS: “One thing that gave me a bit of pleasure was that, when we were casting around for what would become the Nite Owl character, I said to Alan, ‘I made up this character when I was 12 called Nite Owl, spelled N-I-T-E.’ He went, ‘That’s perfect, Dave! That’s the name of the character!’ I still had a sketch of this slightly dopey kind of Golden Age character. We actually used the costume I designed then as the costume of the older Nite Owl (Hollis Mason).”

▼

▼

THE COMEDIAN

■ COSTUME: Not so laughable. The Comedian’s Minutemen-era look is Golden Age corny, but by the time he gets to Vietnam, he is a fierce vision in black leather, weaponry and mock-Captain America stars and stripes.

■ SAID GIBBONS: “When it came to the Comedian, all I really had was the name and that he was some kind of military operative in the sense of (author) Graham Greene’s The Comedians – somebody who was a one-man dirty tricks department. I thought, ‘OK. Comedian.

Well, he can’t look like the Joker.

What other comedian could he look like? I know! Groucho Marx. A tougher version of him. He could have that mustache, which kind of has the Nick Fury vibe to it as well.’

Then we tried him in an olivedrab, army kind of camouflage suit. That really didn’t look very special. And then we thought, ‘Ah! Black leather. That’s what to go for.’ So I drew this character dressed completely in black. And I thought, ‘That’s scary enough, but it doesn’t really look like a comedian.’ And just for fun, I drew this little, yellow, smiley badge on it. Alan liked that.”

From Vietnam to Doug Murray’s journey

THERE’S A REASON MARVEL COMICS’ THE ’NAM — a serious and compelling series about the Vietnam War and a classic of the Dark Age of Comics — rang with such authenticity. The founding and longtime writer of the series was Doug Murray, a veteran of the Vietnam War. With a stronghold of readers made up of Vietnam vets as well as teenagers too young to remember the war, The ’Nam was a surprise hit for Marvel when it debuted in 1986. (The series ended in 1992 with issue #84.)

“The only way I can really judge who is reading it is from the letters,” Murray told me in 1989. “The letters seem to indicate that our breakdown is 50/50. About half our readership is composed of vets, active duty Army, people of that nature who are between 25 and 45 years of age. The other half seems to be fairly young, maybe 12 and 14 years Opposite: An old. Kids who knew nothing about the assortment of Vietnam War, became interested due to covers from films like Platoon (1986) and TV shows Marvel Comics’ like Tour of Duty (1987-90), picked up The ’Nam conveys the comic because they’d see them at a the series’ deadly comic book store, and read it and related serious tone. to it because of that. [ © 2006 Marvel “And then we have a small percentage Comics ] of people who are maybe in their late teens now who have parents who were at Vietnam but won’t talk about it. In some cases, they will get their fathers talking by showing them a comic and rattling some old memories loose.”

The vet half of The ’Nam’s readership demanded — and appreciated — the attention to authentic detail that Murray and his artists brought to the comic book.

“Most of the time, they’re very positive about the authenticity because we try very hard to be authentic,” Murray said. “They like that. If I get a weapon wrong or a patch wrong, I hear about it. It doesn’t happen all that often, because we research it pretty carefully. Most of the response we get is: ‘Yeah, I was there at such-andsuch a time period and it was just like this.’ You know, or ‘Did you hear the story about what happened at suchand-such a place at such-and-such a time?’ Things like that.

“There was an issue, #30, in which I used a story that was Writer Doug given to me by a vet who’s also Murray used a filmmaker, Tom Savini. He’s his real-life a makeup man. He was a experiences in medic in Vietnam. He was Vietnam as a there about two years after I springboard for was, and he told me a story a comic book about a duck which I used for series. [ Photo: the whole story in #30.”

Kathy Voglesong ] (Savini is responsible for the special effects and makeup

“I had done a story (for DC Comics) about a sniper who decimated a Marine company in the bush. When it finally appeared, the sniper became a Nazi shooting at Sgt. Rock and Easy Company.’’ for such films as Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.)

Murray described his own tour of duty in Vietnam.

“I got sent over there initially for temporary duty as a radar specialist,” the writer said. “I was not supposed to be there.

Because I was an NCO (non-commissioned officer), and they were short on NCOs, they had to take the patrols out. I spent about eight months there before I got shot up and sent back home.

“And then I did a second tour two years later for pretty much the same reasons. There was a radar test going on, which I was familiar with. And I was in Korea, which was relatively close by.

My name came out of the computer to take over the testing and I ended up back in ’Nam again for six months. I was there during the Tet Offensive in ’68. I was in some bad places. I got shot up in an ambush.”

Murray didn’t read many comic books while in Vietnam, although they were available.

“My escapism when I was overseas was more in terms of science fiction and fantasy paperbacks,” he said.

“When I got out of the Army, I tried to make a go of it as a writer. I got a job at DC writing Vietnam stories. They got rewritten as World War II stories. This was ’72.

“I had done a story about a sniper — in fact, I used it later on — a true story about a sniper who decimated a Marine company in the bush. [The sniper] was a 14-year-old girl, who they finally killed. I did it as a Vietnam story. When it finally appeared, the sniper became a Nazi shooting at Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, who he didn’t kill anyway. The only positive part of that was I got paid for the story.”

Murray gave up on writing and went to work for a bank. In the mid-’80s, he began to write again.

“In the interim,” Murray recalled, “(Marvel editor) Larry Hama had decided to do a book of tales about warfare in general (Savage Tales, 1985) and had asked me to do a Vietnam story.

The response to that had been positive enough that we were able to push through the idea of doing a whole Vietnam comic.”

At the time Murray and I spoke in 1989, Vietnam-themed TV shows had been cropping up such as Tour of Duty and China Beach (1988-1991). Murray didn’t watch these shows, in order to avoid their possible influence on The ’Nam. “(CBS) was initially trying to buy The ’Nam and use characters from The ’Nam, and we turned them down,” Murray said.

“And now they’re using the characters anyway (in Tour of Duty).”

The writer saw the Vietnam-themed Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) as ‘‘an entertaining movie,’’ but criticized the My Laitype episode in director Oliver Stone’s Platoon.

“It bothers me,” Murray said. “Certainly, these things happened, but they were really isolated incidents, and I thought it was just a case of him spicing up the film with something that would help sell it rather than doing something truthful. ‘‘I wouldn’t really care, except for the fact that Oliver Stone is a vet and should know better. We vets have had a pretty bum rap already. Adding to it kind of bothered me.”

32

DOUG MURRAY WORKED ON ANOTHER PROJECT that commanded attention during the Dark Age of Comics.

Batman: Digital Justice (1990) was a 110-page hardcover graphic novel produced entirely on a MacIntosh computer by artist Pepe Moreno. (As computer technology was still very much on the ascent in 1990, DC Comics trumpeted that Moreno drew from ‘‘a palette of over 16 million colors.’’)

The plot was appropriately computer-themed: In the future, a “Joker virus” attacks Gotham City’s computer system, and a “computer Batman” program is created to battle the virus. Murray co-scripted the book with Moreno.

Recalled the writer in a 2005 conversation: “Pepe and I had worked together on The ’Nam and a couple of other projects, so we knew each other pretty well. Pepe was a pretty cutting-edge artist at the time. He had been experimenting with digital artwork. He went to DC with the concept of doing Batman as a digital piece of work. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] DC was interested, but didn’t really trust Pepe in keeping the storyline clear enough to make it work. I was approached to basically make the story work as a story through dialogue and plotting.

“I came aboard at the point when Pepe had already done most of the character designs and had sort of a story idea that didn’t have a beginning, middle and end. So working with him — on the computer, actually — we revised the order of a lot of the things he wanted to do to make a more coherent storyline.

And then I did the dialogue to fill in the gaps.

“So I guess I came in as a sort of a script doctor, in some ways, because I was pretty good with minimal dialogue and pictures and making stories work. That’s why DC thought I could take care of things.”

Murray felt right at home in the high-tech milieu.

“Keep in mind that I was working as a computer operations manager at the time, so computers were part of my life as well,” the writer said.

“But I didn’t really see computers as the future of comics.

Certainly not from the artwork side; obviously, I wrote on the computer. I thought that the artwork had to become a little more traditional before it became more popular. At the time, I really wasn’t as aware as I am these days of anime; I think anime has made a big difference in the way comics have come to look.”

Batman has been interpreted so many different ways since swooping into our lives in 1939. What did Murray believe was his contribution to the Batman legacy in Digital Justice?

“I guess, given the material we were working with, my biggest contribution on that project was to try and make it as true to the Batman of the past as we could,” Murray said.

DOUG MURRAY

Few will disagree that the late ’80s belonged to Batman.

Such was the boost given the character by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns that writers and artists — and even Miller himself — suddenly lined up to add their spin to the comic-book icon’s legacy. In 1987, Miller’s follow-up was the “Year One” series exploring Batman’s origin in Batman #404-407, with moody artwork by David Mazzucchelli. The following year, Alan Moore stepped in with the twisted Batman: The Killing Joke, which provided the Joker with a sympathetic back story as it presented some of the villain’s most vile offenses.

“The Killing Joke script was really like a telephone book,” artist Brian Bolland told Joe Monks in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1001 (1993). “He worked out the camera angles. He works the whole thing out in time and space, really. He works out the whole Above: The Joker three-dimensional environment where the story takes place.” torments CommisThese well-executed books continued the escalation sioner Gordon in of Batman’s popularity within the comics-reading Batman: The Killing population, but another Batman series captured the Joke (1988). Art: attention of the entire nation in 1988. Once the Brian Bolland. media learned that DC was contemplating killing Right: Promo art off Batman’s sidekick Robin, and inviting readers for the ‘‘Year One’’ to decide via a 900-line vote-in, there was coverseries in Batman age galore — and not a little outrage.

(1987). Art: David The four-part series, titled “A Death in the Mazzucchelli.

Family,” was edited by Dennis O’Neil (who [ © 2006 DC Comics ] dreamed up the stunt), written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by Jim Aparo, with covers by Mike Mignola. At the climax of Batman #427, Robin (a.k.a. Jason Todd) was caught in an explosion. DC’s cynical slogan: “Robin will die because the Joker wants revenge, but you can prevent it with a telephone call.”

Readers in the United States and Canada voted on Robin’s death by calling one of two 900-lines at 50 cents per call (ka-CHING!). The days of reckoning: September 15-16, 1988. The verdict: Readers killed Jason by a vote of 5,343 to 5,271 — as close as the 2000 presidential election!

O’Neil — who would again bring attention to the franchise five years later by sidelining Batman with a broken back in his “Knightfall” series — took a lot of heat, even from within the ranks of DC Comics.

Recalled a onetime DC freelancer: “Warner Bros. got really upset when DC killed Robin. Even though it did generate a lot of publicity, they figured they lost out on a lot of merchandising opportunities when Robin died.”

Shakeup in Gotham City

Editor Dennis O’Neil left mark on franchise

BY THE LATE 1980s, YOU COULD ALMOST HAVE considered writer/editor Dennis O’Neil to be one of comics’ “old guard.” After all, O’Neil entered the field in the 1960s, during the so-called Silver Age of Comics. But O’Neil — with his quietly intellectual approach and hippie-ish sensibilities — soon established a stance as a “thinking man’s” writer for the superhero genre.

With artist Neal Adams, O’Neil was responsible for one of the most powerful Harbingers of the Dark Age of Comics: the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow series of the 1970s, which brought gritty realism to comics 16 years before The Dark Knight Returns.

As an editor for DC Comics’ Batman line during the Dark Age, O’Neil helmed two of the era’s most talked-about events: “A Death in the Family,” during which readers voted in favor of Robin’s death via a 900-line poll, and “Knightfall,” during which Batman’s back was broken by the implausibly bulky Bane, and his duties taken over by the hissably merciless Azrael.

The erudite, articulate O’Neil reflected on the sometimes formidable consequences of messing around with long-standing characters during a 2005 conversation.

Q: Let’s talk about the events of 1988. “A Death in the Family” was your brainchild, and it’s something you have struggled with since. First of all, why did this particular Robin — Jason Todd — become a target?

Opposite: You asked for it. Bruce Wayne tenderly removes the body of Jason Todd from wreckage in Batman #428 (1988). Art: Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo.

O’NEIL: It was a classic case of what you hear about in creative writing classes: a character taking on a life of his own. That Robin was created by (writer) Gerry Conway.

Certainly, Gerry did not intend him to be a “snot,” but that was kind of what he had evolved into. So we were going to have to write that character out of the continuity.

Q: One aspect of “A Death in the Family” that seemed to capture the public’s imagination was the concept of a vote-in. Robin’s fate was in the readers’ hands. How did this rather perverse idea pop into your head? [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

O’NEIL: Well, we were on a retreat in upstate New York — Mount Mohonk, I believe it was. It was toward the end of the retreat when a bunch of us sort of gathered in a room, staring out the window at the mountains.

We had talked about the Robin problem. What are we going to do with this character that was not what we wanted? I came up with the idea of

Batman line editor/writer Dennis O’Neil. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Robin, a ‘‘snot?’’ ‘‘That was kind of what he had evolved into,’’ says Dennis O’Neil. Above: Jason Todd demonstrates same in a series of panels from Batman #426 (1988). Art: Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano. Opposite: A powerful Aparo scene. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] giving the readers a vote. I mean, it just seemed like kind of a cool thing to do at the time. I certainly did not expect to be accused of running a Roman circus.

Q: So the response surprised you?

O’NEIL: That was probably the biggest surprise for me, because of how seriously people took it. I thought it was a way to have the readers participate in the storyline — not unlike what happens in improvisational theater, for example. And, hey, you know, no real kid died. This is paper and ink, and it’s stuff that people make up at 3 o’clock in the morning in front of computers. But, wow, the backlash was enormous.

Q: Not just the backlash, but the media attention.

O’NEIL: Yeah. For three days, I did nothing but talk on the phone to radio guys. The woman who was in charge of public relations (for DC Comics) at the time felt it was part of her job to minimize it.

So, I mean, it’s not that we went out and sought that attention. We dodged a lot of it. They, for example, did not let me go on television. I was later grateful for that (laughs). I didn’t want this face to be attached to that stunt — this face that was riding the subways 20 times a week.

Q: Didn’t this episode lead to a bit of professional introspection on your part?

O’NEIL: It changed my mind about what I did for a living. Groucho

36

Marx once said, “I wouldn’t belong to any club that would have me as a member.” I just thought I was a writer and an editor working in an interesting field, a form of storytelling that I found very congenial. But after that (“A Death in the Family”), I realized that, no, I am in charge of post-modern folklore. These characters have been around so long and so ubiquitously that they are our modern equivalent of Paul Bunyan and mythic figures of earlier ages. Which could have been intimidating if I’d let it.

Q: Sure. You could lay awake nights contemplating the responsibility of it all.

O’NEIL: Yeah. It’s a job. The advice I always give to people is: Respect it as an art form, but regard it as a job. You’ve chosen to do this for a living. It’s something that you have to get done.

Q: A few years later, the “Knightfall” series opened up more “Pandora’s boxes” in Gotham City. You had to know that sidelining Bruce Wayne would stir up more media inquiry. Were you now intentionally courting publicity?

O’NEIL: No. It was our way to face what had been the elephant in the corner: the idea of a hero who refuses to take life. I mean, James Bond — from Dr. No onward — kills people and makes lame jokes about it. We wondered if our notion of hero was way old-fashioned. We sort of danced around it for a few years, and then finally decided that we would confront it by creating a hero who was a Batman who did not have those scruples.

DENNIS O’NEIL

“You know, no real kid died. This is paper and ink, and it’s stuff that people make up at 3 o’clock in the morning in front of computers.”

That’s gotta hurt! Bane gets cracking in Batman #497 (1993).

Art: Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

Q: Rather than have Bruce Wayne suddenly morph into Bruce Willis?

O’NEIL: Had the book gone the other way, I don’t really know what I’d have done, what kind of compromise I’d have made.

We all have the lines that we draw in our particular sand. One of mine is to refuse to glorify violence and brutality. Let me emphasize that this is just my thing. I’m not positing this as some kind of universal. That’s just the way I feel.

One guy.

Q: One guy who ran the risk of having his unkinder, ungentler Batman become more popular than the Real McCoy.

O’NEIL: But then the mail started coming in.

Even though I created Azrael, I was rejoicing when the fans hated him (laughs). Whether that dislike of the character came from a dislike of what he represented or just the fans’ loyalty to the earlier version of the character, I don’t know.

Q: It sounds as if Azrael — like Jason Todd before him — took on a life of his own.

O’NEIL: Something I find myself thinking a lot about is how characters evolve. Part of that is a recognition that certain aspects of our characters have become outdated. Usually, this evolution occurs naturally. People get different ideas. New creators come onto a series, as had happened to Superman between the ’40s and ’50s. The culture’s idea of hero changes. Sometimes, if you’re in that weird and wonderful job of being in charge of a major comic book character, you have to goose it along. You have to decide: “This is becoming dated.”

The main way that happened during my tenure on Batman was — when I started, it was Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the cave, and Dick Grayson if we needed him for story purposes. By the end of those 15 years, my creative people had convinced me that the idea of Batman as a rather stern father figure was more contemporary than my version of the complete loner. So that was a case where the creative people provided the impetus, and I just stepped back and let it happen. I think it was the right decision. Will it be the right decision 10 years from now? I have no idea.

Q: The important thing is that, as with all of culture — music, film, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, comic books — you picked it up and passed it on.

O’NEIL: Yes. We are part of a long process.

DENNIS O’NEIL

ALL OF THIS BATMAN MOMENTUM COULDN’T HAVE hurt in getting the 1989 movie Batman greenlighted. Once that project began lensing, the media — then controlled by aging ‘‘baby boomers’’ with a nostalgic fondness for the 1966-68 TV series Batman starring Adam West — jumped all over it. America soon found itself in the grip of full-blown “Batmania” for the first time since West wore the cowl. (Batman-related newspaper headlines written by clueless editors invariably included the ‘‘Pow! Bam! Zowie!’’ vernacular from the West era. Of course, West’s Batman and the one in Tim Burton’s film couldn’t have been less alike.)

So popular was the 1989 Batman — which starred Jack Nicholson as a paunchy Joker and Michael Keaton as a chindeprived Bruce Wayne — that it triggered a comic-book renaissance. Now, average citizens — not just pimply faced geeks — were becoming interested in the venerable medium. (An overused sentence in articles about the phenomenon: “Comic books aren’t just for kids anymore!”) Comic shops — heretofore found only in big cities — began popping up in neighborhood shopping centers.

There were residual dividends for publishers other than DC, too.

BY THE LATE ’80s, THE GROWTH OF INDEPENDENT publishers was in full swing. Dark Horse was founded in 1986 and largely made its bones with adaptations of high-octane sci-fi movies (Terminator, Predator, Aliens), before morphing into a haven for creators working outside of the majors. Five cases in point: Frank Miller’s Sin City, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, John Byrne’s Next Men, Paul Chadwick’s Concrete and Mike Allred’s Madman Comics. It must be noted that Dark Horse’s Alien vs.

Predator #1 (1990) eerily predicted the movie of the same name, which was released 14 years later.

Cartoonist-turned-publisher Denis Kitchen’s Kitchen Sink Press began life in 1969 as a purveyor of underground comics, later developing a specialty in reprinting the work of

40

the old masters (Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, et al.). But Kitchen Sink, too, provided a forum for original creations, such as Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales, Allred’s Madman Adventures and Alan Moore’s From Hell.

Beginning in 1987, First Publishing reprinted writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima’s samurai epic Kozure Okami as Lone Wolf and Cub, which translated from Japanese the exploits of assassin Itto Ogami and his infant son Daigoro. With its stark visuals, assured storytelling and economy of text, Lone Wolf and Cub kicked into overdrive the manga craze in the United States, which hasn’t let up since. Frank Miller, a manga booster whose artwork is unapologetically influenced by the artform, provided covers and introductions for early issues.

AC Comics found its niche printAbove: Itto Ogami ing “good girl” comics (some origilets his sword do the nal, some reprints, all mouth-watertalking in Lone Wolf ing) such as Femforce, Good Girl and Cub #1 (1987).

Quarterly and Jungle Girls. Eclipse Art: Goseki Kojima.

Enterprises developed a specialty [ © 2006 Kazuo Koike adapting properties by British horror and Goseki Kojima ] author Clive Barker, such as Tapping Bottom left: Paul the Vein, Rawhead Rex, Son of Chadwick’s Concrete.

Celluloid and Clive Barker’s Life of [ © 2006 Paul Chadwick ] Death. (Marvel Comics’ Epic imprint would eventually take over the Barker honors.) Fantagraphic Books gave us Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez’s Love and Rockets, Peter Bagge’s Hate and Dan Clowes’ Eightball. New England Comics Press gave us Ben Edlund’s The Tick. Slave Labor gave us Evan Dorkin’s Milk and Cheese. Tundra gave us Allred’s first-ever Madman miniseries.

Also on the radar were two companies formed in 1986, Malibu Comics and Now Comics. Among the first titles published by Caliber Press was J. O’Barr’s ultra-dark The Crow #1 in 1989.

AROUND THIS TIME, MARVEL COMICS WAS SPOTlighting three up-and-coming talents that would shortly become superstars of the Dark Age. Todd McFarlane’s first Spider-Man art appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #298 (1988), when Spidey was

LONE WOLF AND CUB

still in his black pajamas. Jim Lee’s first X-Men art appeared in X-Men #248 (1989). And Rob Liefeld’s Marvel debut was in X-Factor #40 (1989). (Liefeld’s industry debut came a year earlier, in DC’s Hawk and Dove #1.)

Fans immediately responded to McFarlane’s insanely intricate webbing and Lee and Liefeld’s razor-sharp edginess.

Little did Marvel realize at the time, the artists’ popularity would become a twoedge sword.

(Marvel proved to be a pioneer of a different sort in July of 1989. That’s when the price of regular-sized comic books crossed the tripledigits mark for the first time in comics history, from 75 cents to a buck. Up until then, this was the largest increase ever, penny-wise and percentage-wise. Marvel may have set the precedent, but they weren’t alone for long.)

DC, TOO, LEARNED that creators were beginning to supplant characters as the superstars of the industry.

Beginning in 1988, British writer Neil Gaiman produced Sandman, a spacy, poetic, nonsuperhero series for mature readers. The title entity had no shortage of nicknames (Morpheus, Lord of the Dreamworld, Prince of Stories, Oneiros, Dream) or siblings (Death, Destiny, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delirium, collectively called The Endless).

Morpheus’ sister Death — who looked more like a Goth-obsessed mallrat than a metaphysical being — spawned her own cottage industry.

Sandman artists included Sam Kieth, Dave McKean, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, P. Craig Russell, Charles Vess and Kelley Jones.

But for the time being, Batman was still where DC’s bread was buttered. June of 1989 marked two significant events in the Cowled One’s history: the 50th anniversary of Batman’s debut and the release of the Batman movie. To celebrate the occasions, DC went bat-crazy with:

■ Gotham by Gaslight, a one-shot which pitted Batman against Jack the Ripper in 1880s London;

■ Legends of the Dark Knight, which featured a new storyline and creative team every five issues;

■ Arkham Asylum, a morbid, though somewhat

SANDMAN

Left: Death: The High Cost of Living (1993). Art: Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. Below: Sandman #50 (1993). Art: P. Craig Russell. [ © 2006 DC Comics]

humorous, graphic novel written by Grant Morrison with splotchy art painted by Sandman artist Dave McKean;

■ Batman #436-439, a trip back to ‘‘Year Three’’ in which writer Marv Wolfman recounted how Dick Grayson’s parents were murdered via the old acid-on-the-trapeze-ropes trick;

■ Batman: The Official Comic Adaptation of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture (is the title long enough for ya?), the comic book version of the movie version of the comic book, written by Dennis O’Neil and illustrated by Jerry Ordway. The adaptation was released in two formats: “vanilla” ($2.50) or the glossy, square-bound edition with an alternate cover ($4.95).

Yes, Batmania was rampant in 1989. Everywhere you looked, you saw the oval bat-emblem and/or Michael Keaton’s pursed lips.

There were McDonalds tie-in toys, Topps trading cards, even Batman cereal. So heightened was anticipation for the film, that Topps printed the phrase “#1 Hit Movie” on its trading-card packs — which were sold weeks before the release of the film! You couldn’t escape the nagging notion that while you were watching a film titled Batman, a more apt title might have been Batman I.

41

From Gotham to Hollywood

Michael Uslan never gave up on Batman

“When I was a kid growing up, Batman was it for me. The greatest superhero that ever was. Looking back, it was probably because he was human and I could identify with him a lot more than Superman or Spider-Man. He also had the greatest villains in the history of comic-bookdom. He just had the best.”

— Batman executive producer Michael Uslan

BACK WHEN MICHAEL USLAN WAS THRILLING TO the adventures of Batman, little did he know that one day, he would set in motion a Batman renaissance.

With longtime partner Benjamin Opposite: Jack Melniker, Uslan executive-produced Nicholson, Michael Batman (1989), Batman Returns Keaton, Kim Basinger, (1992), Batman Forever (1995), Michael Gough and Batman and Robin (1997) and other Batman cast Batman Begins (2005). The team members are captured was also responsible for the comicsin Jerry Ordway art themed films Catwoman (2004) and from 1989’s Batman: Constantine (2005). the Official Comic It all started with Uslan’s youthful Adaptation of the ambition to contribute to the Batman Warner Bros. Motion mythos.

Picture.

“I’ve wanted to write Batman [ © 2006 DC Comics ] comics since I was a kid, probably since I was 8 years old,” Uslan said.

“Finally, I had the opportunity to do that. That was in 1975; it was a dream come true for me. I had been teaching the world’s first accredited course on comic books at Indiana University. DC and Marvel had heard about it. I was contacted by Stan Lee, and the powers-that-be at DC. It eventually led to me working for DC in a number of different capacities.”

Uslan began writing Batman and The Shadow for DC. That dream realized, Uslan developed a new one: “To bring the definitive Batman to the screen. A serious Batman. A dark Batman. The way he was originally intended by (Batman co-creators) Bob Kane and Bill Finger.”

After completing law school, Uslan landed a position as a motion picture production attorney for United Artists.

“I learned the business,” Uslan said. “I learned how you finance and produce films. I met a lot of the power brokers in the business.”

After three-and-a-half years at United Artists, Uslan raised funds and formed a partnership with Melniker, who put together the deals for Ben Hur, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Zhivago. The pair entered a six-month negotiation with DC. “I’d worked with these guys (at DC),” Uslan said.

“They knew me.” Uslan said then-DC president Sol Harrison told him: “I trust you. I know in your hands you will never let it become a campy Batman, like it was in the mid-’60s” — a reference to the 1966-68 action comedy series Batman starring Adam West.

Comic-book fan turned movie producer Michael Uslan. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Uslan said the ’60s TV series “ultimately almost put Batman out of business on the comic book side. Because after the show went off the air and all of the fly-by-night fans left, the hardcore fans were fed up with the campiness, and really, Batman came within an inch of cancelation.”

In 1979, Uslan and Melniker finally obtained the film rights to Batman, and they pounded the pavement trying to score a movie deal.

Recalled Uslan: “I thought it was going to be Hollywood with open doors. ‘Oh my god — it’s the guy with Batman!’

“We were turned down by every single studio in Hollywood. Every single one. My knuckles were bleeding on a regular basis. I was told, ‘Terrible idea.’ ‘Lousy idea.’ I was told, ‘Nobody’s ever made a feature film based on an old TV series. It simply isn’t done.’ I was told that Batman could never be successful because the movie Annie wasn’t particularly successful. I said, ‘What does one thing have to do with the other?’ Their response was, ‘Well, they’re both out of the funny pages.’

“My favorite rejection: I was told Batman and Robin would never work as a movie because the movie Robin and Marian did not succeed. That was the one that sent me up to the mountaintop for 10 years to ponder, until I could only conclude because they both had the name ‘Robin’ in the title, he figured it wouldn’t work.”

Uslan was asked if Frank Miller’s 1986 graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns had any influence on the 1989 movie Batman. “It was not a factor at all,” he

said, “because this was happening in the period from 1975 to ’79.”

Uslan credited the mood and look of the 1989 Batman to meetings he had with director Tim Burton, who previously had made Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and Beetlejuice (1988).

“Tim Burton came into it in ’86,” Uslan said. “Tim and I had a series of two or three meetings. At that point, I had just seen his rough cut of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which won me over. I thought this guy was incredible.

“We had a detailed conversation about the fact that there’s probably been over 60 different interpretations of Batman over the years, ranging from a guy who fights aliens to the classic detective to the creature of the night who stalks criminals from the shadows to the buffoon.

“With so many different variations, it was important to me that Tim see only the good stuff, only the things that identified Batman with his greatest series over the years. So I put together a ‘care package’ for him. The material I chose were the Bob Kane-Bill Finger stories, the first 10 or so stories up until the origin of Robin. Very early stuff. Literally up until Detective #38 (1940). Maybe some early Batmans that had the first Joker or Catwoman.

“Then, I gave Tim the (artist) Marshall Rogers series that he did with (writer) Steve Englehart. And I gave him the (artist) Neal Adams-(writer) Denny O’Neil stuff. That was the meat that Tim Burton was picking at, which was wonderful as a starting-off point.

“As Tim got into it and then (screenwriter) Sam Hamm got into it, that’s really when the whole project gelled, and the Batman as the ‘Dark Knight’ really came to be.”

Uslan was also quick to credit Batman production designer Anton Furst. “He really was responsible for Gotham City and the whole look of that picture,” Uslan said. “It was revolutionary.’’

BUT USLAN CONCEDED THAT HE WAS initially disappointed with the casting of Michael Keaton as Batman. He said it was Burton who pushed for the controversial casting.

Recalled Uslan: “When I first got the call and they said, ‘What do you think about Michael Keaton playing Batman?’ I laughed and said, ‘Very funny.’ ‘No, seriously, what do you think about it?’ ‘What do you mean, seriously?’ I went crazy. Absolutely went crazy.

I said, ‘From the beginning, the whole point is that

we’re doing a serious Batman, not Mr. Mom as Batman.’ And I truly went nuts.

“In a later conversation with Tim Burton, Tim said something that really made a terrific amount of sense, and gave me some insight into his creative capacity, his vision. He said, ‘You want a serious movie, right?’

I said, ‘Right.’ He said, ‘Up until recently, we thought about getting an unknown for Batman.’ At this point, Jack Nicholson had been hired to play the Joker. He said, ‘You’ve gotta admit — you can’t get an unknown to play opposite Jack Nicholson. He’ll wipe the screen with the guy.’ I said, ‘Agreed.’

“He said, ‘I don’t know, as a director, how to take a serious actor — Dennis Quaid, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, whoever it might be — and show him getting into his bat-tights, getting dressed up as a bat, going to fight crime, without getting snickers from the audience. I don’t know how to sell them that, so that they buy it as a serious thing.’ At that time, he had just finished Beetlejuice.

“He said, ‘No. 1: Michael Keaton is a terrific dramatic actor.’ And, in fact, they set up a rough cut of Clean and Sober for me to see. And I came back and said, ‘All right, I take back everything I said that he’s just a comedian or he’s just Mr. Mom. The guy’s a great dramatic actor. I take that back. But physically, he’s all wrong. He doesn’t look like Batman. He doesn’t have a big, muscular build. He’s not real tall. He doesn’t have a square jaw.’

“And Tim said to me, ‘Michael, a square jaw does not a Batman make.’

“Tim said, ‘With Michael Keaton, I know we can create that portrayal of Bruce Wayne as driven, neurotic, nearly psychotic. I know I can convince an audience that, yes, this is a guy who is capable of dressing up as a bat and fighting guys like the Joker.’

“He said, ‘If they don’t buy it, if they don’t suspend their disbelief and buy Batman’ — and he also mentioned if they don’t buy Gotham City, which to Tim was going to be the third-most important character in the piece — ‘then we’ve lost it. But I can do this. And physically, it doesn’t matter.’ He said, ‘We can cheat that.’

“He said, ‘We are making the transition from comic books to film, and we want to do a serious, dark movie and make an audience suspend its disbelief and really believe in this character and in this world.’’’

Burton prevailed, and Keaton was cast.

“The first day I was on the set at Pinewood Studios (in England),’’ Uslan recalled, ‘‘there were about 20 people standing around. And about a minute later, I

Opposite: What Michael Keaton lacked in jaw, he made up for in lips. From Batman (1989). [ Photo © Warner Bros. ]

realized that Michael Keaton was in the middle of it and he was in most of the costume, and I didn’t pick him out of the crowd initially! I said, ‘Oh my God — how is this going to work?’

“But the second I saw the first bit of footage, I knew that Tim, the genius, knew exactly what he was talking about. He had the vision and he knew how to execute it.’’

But Uslan soon learned that his fellow comic book geeks would also need convincing.

“When Tim selected Michael Keaton to play Batman,’’ Uslan recalled, ‘‘there was this huge outcry from comic book fandom. Those same people who cried the loudest about it were the ones who protested the most over the idea of Keaton not playing Batman in the third movie (Batman Forever ),” Uslan added with a laugh.

THE 1989 MOVIE BATMAN NOT only opened the door for the many superhero movies to follow, but was responsible for attracting a wider audience to Batman’s medium of origin: the comics.

“In the 10 years it took us to get the first Batman movie made,” Uslan said, “there was never a moment of doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t be a great success, and a chance to reinvent the whole genre of what was pictured by the public to be ‘comic book’ movies or ‘superhero’ movies, and to do something dark and serious in its approach.

“As a result of that, in comics and movies and the way these things were done, people were willing for the first time to try something other than camp as an approach, and to take it seriously and respect the source material and the creators. It was the beginning of an important turn-around. I really, truly believe that.

“In terms of its impact on the comics industry itself, I remember one of the heads of Marvel Comics calling me after the first movie. We went out to lunch and he said, ‘Look, we had a 25 percent rise in sales overall, which we credit right to the Batman movie and to the recognition that

Batman villains brought to life in films produced

by Michael Uslan include (from top left) Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze and (right) the Joker. [ Photos © Warner Bros. ]

it brought to the general public in 1989.’

“The point was: Hey, comic books are still being published. They’re still out there. No, you can’t find them in the candy store or the drug store any more.

But they’re still out there. We have these things called comic book shops. The movie drove a lot of new people into comic book shops who never would have known that comic books were still out there. I think that was important.”

In 2004, Uslan and Melniker executive-produced a movie about another character from the Batman fran-

Can a movie with Halle Berry in a skintight costume cracking a whip really be a waste of time? [ Photo © Warner Bros. ]

MICHAEL USLAN

to see “half-breed” angels and demons who exist in our realm. But Constantine’s suicide bid fails; he is resuscitated, and must seek redemption by sending those nasty demonites to hell.

The comic book connection was superfluous, Uslan maintained, because Constantine stood on its own merits as a movie. Uslan’s goal was to give the horror genre a much-needed revving up.

“Many of the movies that have been classified as horror in recent years are low-budget, blood-and-guts, ‘slasher’ pictures with kids being killed making out in cars,” Uslan lamented. “We wanted to rise above that.”

Said Uslan of Batman Begins: “If you are a true fan of Batman, this movie will give you reason to rejoice. The last time I said that was the time of the first film.”

Batman Begins

© 2006 Warner Bros.

chise, Catwoman starring Halle Berry. The story veered considerably from that of the comic book character, instead borrowing some plot elements from Burton’s Batman Returns (which starred Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman).

“It’s a mythology rooted in the concept that was first expressed in Batman Returns,” Uslan said, “with the possibility of how a woman becomes Catwoman, what it is that transforms her and empowers her. If you go back to that — conceptually, the idea is that therefore, it could happen to any woman at any particular time.”

Fans and critics were nearly unanimous in their contempt for Catwoman — but, hey, any chance to see Halle Berry in a skintight costume cracking a whip and saying “Meow!” can’t be a total waste of time.

The following year, the team released two comics-themed films: Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves as the hero from the Hellblazer series, and Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the fourth Batman in five films.

Said Uslan of Constantine: “In looking for comic book- and graphic novel-based material beyond Batman, there was never any point for me to just do anything — just to do a Green Arrow or an Aquaman. It had to be very, very special material and very unique.”

In Constantine, Reeves plays a man driven to attempt suicide in order to escape a horrible gift he’s had since childhood: the ability

47

DESPITE USLAN’S MOVIE SUCUslan said he “played Madeline Albright” cess, he did not turn his back on the mediand negotiated the particulars.

Once word got out that Lee was um that started it all for him. During the revamping DC’s characters, the medium’s Dark Age of Comics, Uslan spearheaded hottest talents signed on to collaborate with two memorable projects that explored alterthe old master: “It became the ‘We Are the native origins for familiar DC Comics charWorld’ of comic book artists,” Uslan joked acters: Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the again. But he had a point; participating DC Universe (2001) and Detective No. 27 artists included Joe Kubert (on Batman), (2004).

John Buscema (on Superman), Dave When word of the former series got out, Gibbons (on Green Lantern) and Jim Lee many in the comics-reading public did a (on Wonder Woman). double-take. Lee? The guy who created “Stan thought I was out of my mind,” Spider-Man and the Hulk for Marvel Uslan recalled. “He said, ‘Do you really Comics? Revamping heroes for DC Comics, think DC would let me play with all his onetime fierce of these great characters?’’’ competitor?

Left: Bruce Wayne “It would be akin to registers shock in BUT USLAN HAD HIS OWN bringing Henry Ford to Peter Snejbjerg art ideas for a DC hero’s alternative General Motors,” joked from Detective No. Uslan, the man who got origin. The hero? Batman. The 27 (2004). Below: the ball rolling on this twist? No cape, no cowl.

Stan Lee’s alternative comic book “defection.”

Uslan’s Detective No. 27 was Batman in Joe Kubert Lee, then 78, provided a part of DC Comics’ Elseworlds art from Just Imagine dozen DC costumed series, in which alternate realities Stan Lee With Joe heroes with new origins, for iconic characters are explored.

Kubert Creating including Superman, Uslan and artist Peter Snejbjerg Batman (2001).

Wonder Woman, had Batman’s alter ego, Bruce [ © 2006 DC Comics ] Sandman, Green Lantern Wayne, becoming not a costumed and Aquaman. Uslan avenger, but a detective — No. 27, said the idea to bring Lee to DC was born at to be exact, in a secret society of do-goodthe premiere of the 1989 movie Batman, ers. (Need we tell you that the title is an inwhich was attended by Lee and Batman crejoke for comic book geeks, who know well ator Bob Kane. that Batman made his first appearance in Recalled the producer: “Here I was standing Detective Comics #27 in 1939?) with Stan Lee and Bob Kane — that’s who I Recalled Uslan: “When I was sitting late wanted to hang out with, not the movie stars. one night trying to come up with how I I remember Stan always saying, ‘Let’s do could do this with the Bruce Wayne characsomething together some day.’ It’s funny — ter, I was thinking of Detective #27 as at every premiere (for subsequent Batman more than just one of the two most imporsequels), we wound up getting together. Stan tant and valuable books (along with Action would say, ‘I should have created Batman!’ It Comics #1) in comic book history, but a got me thinking.” way to make it into a secret society of detectives.”

Batman executive producer Michael Uslan with his version of the Batmobile, his Thunderbird convertible. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Uslan’s story is filled with such in-jokes, as well as cameos by historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Babe Ruth and Sigmund Freud.

“I’m a history buff,” said Uslan. “I was a history major in school. A literary device that has become popular over the last number of years has been this concept of taking a fictional character and entwining him in real events of history with people who really lived. I think Ragtime was the first to do it successfully. In the ensuing years, The Alienist and Carter Beats the Devil and (The Amazing Adventures of ) Kavalier & Clay have just done such a great job with that. I wanted to introduce that device to the graphic novel format. I thought that the character of Bruce Wayne would be an ideal subject to weave that story around.”

In Batman lore, young Wayne watched helplessly as his parents were gunned down in the street. Years later, a grown-up Wayne was contemplating a crime-fighting career when a bat flew into a window, providing the inspiration for his costume. In Uslan’s alternate reality, Wayne was interrupted by a doorbell just before the bat appears.

In his book, Uslan had a little fun with dialogue from Batman’s origin as written by Bill Finger.

Explained Uslan: “While Bruce is sitting in his father’s study and the doorbell rings, Bill Finger’s next line never gets to be read.

So I put it in the Babe Ruth sequence: ‘As if in answer, a huge bat flies through the open window.’’’

The “bat” in this case is, of course, a baseball bat.

MICHAEL USLAN

A line of dialogue borrowed from the 1989 movie Batman became a plot point in Uslan’s graphic novel. Explained the producer: “Sam Hamm, working with Tim Burton, came up with this line: ‘Did you ever dance with the devil by the pale moon light?’ which was a mysterious, almost Edgar Allan Poe-poetic kind of line. In the movie, the Joker used it whenever he was about to kill someone. But after that, it was, like, dismissed. It was almost like it was a crazy afterthought of the Joker that had no meaning whatsoever.

“I was always fascinated and intrigued by it. I felt, personally, that there had to have been a great story behind that line. I always wondered what it might be. I decided to take pen in hand and create my own explanation. So in this book, we went back to the origin of Batman as portrayed in the movie in 1989, and used that as the jumping-off point.

“This was the kind of stuff that made it fun for me along the way, as just a comic book fan and a Batman fan.”

Detective No. 27 was an exercise in the “what if” scenario as described in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” which Uslan included in his book.

“That was actually my favorite poem growing up,” Uslan said.

“It really impacted my life directly about the choices we make in life. It’s that Ray Bradbury ‘butterfly effect’ — choices that over the course of a lifetime impact the twists and turns your life may take. This book is largely about choices and which path to take.

Sometimes the path less traveled is the best path.”

49

AS THE

FLIES

How The Crow creator J. O’Barr mixed theater, religion – and despair

COMIC BOOKS DON’T COME MUCH DARKER THAN The Crow. The story of Eric — a dark-haired urbanite who returns from the dead to avenge his own murder, as well as the rape and murder of his fiance — The Crow debuted from Caliber Press in 1989 (later to be published by Tundra and Dark Horse). Writer/ artist J. O’Barr imbued the grim, surreal series with an unblinking intensity.

The black-and-white comic books became a cult hit — so much so that in 1992, Carolco Studios began production on a film adaptation starring Brandon Lee (son of the late martialarts superstar Bruce Lee, who died in 1973) as Eric.

But the following March, tragedy struck on the North Carolina set of The Crow; Lee was killed in a freak accident when a projectile was emitted from a stunt gun. He was 28.

The majority of Lee’s scenes had been shot, though, and the film was completed. The Crow became the nation’s #1 film in its first week of release, grossing nearly $12 million.

The Crow’s creator, Detroit native J. (for James) O’Barr, got to know Lee during the filming of The Crow. O’Barr reminisced about Lee and the creation of the Crow during a 1994 conversation.

Q: The first Crow book came out in ’89, just prior the comic-book awareness bounce triggered by Tim Burton’s first Batman film.

O’BARR: The Batman movie caused me all kinds of trouble. All the printers were doing Batman material, and I couldn’t even get black ink for my covers for a while. They had to use “Midnight Blue” (ink) on them. Everything was geared only for Batman merchandise. Black ink was at a premium then. Now, I hope I’m doing the same thing to Batman.

Q: How did the Crow character of Eric come to you?

O’BARR: Basically, I was just playing around with the makeup on the face. I was in England. On the side of a building was painted the three faces of the English theater, which were Pain, Irony and Despair. The smiling face was Irony. So that’s basically where the makeup came from. Physically, Eric is kind of a mixture of Iggy Pop and Peter Murphy.

Q: There is religious imagery, and some quasi-religious verse, in the pages of The Crow.

O’BARR: I tried to use a lot of Catholic symbolism in it.

J. O’BARR

Writer/ artist J. O’Barr in 1994.

[ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

I’m not Catholic myself, but I was surrounded by it for quite a few years. I kind of portrayed Eric as a Christ figure.

Q: Except that Eric does not forgive. His philosophy is more along the lines of “an eye shot out for an eye.”

O’BARR: Where love is concerned, there is no good and evil, no right and wrong. People kill and die for love, so there really are no median grounds.

Q: In your Crow artwork, one notices you alternate among black-and-white media, depending on the sequence.

O’BARR: For the nightmare sequences, I used watercolors and color pencil, because I wanted them to have a soft, dreamy feel to them. For the flashback sequences, I used lot of Zip-a-tone (dot patterns) and various ways to put tones on pages that didn’t have a lot of heavy shadows. When most people have memories, there doesn’t tend to be a lot of darkness in them, especially when you are remembering something fondly, or something you cared a lot about. It all seems to be a lot of light and not much shadow. For the present-day things, I used a kind of film noir lighting — really harsh spotlights and solid shadow with no gray areas in between.

Q: So you cite a cinematic influence: film noir.

O’BARR: Basically, it was filtered through Will Eisner’s The Spirit comic book, which I was always a big fan of. He was the first one I ever came across that used cinematic lighting techniques and camera angles and stage lighting for the characters. Even though I do watch a lot of films and rent a lot of videos, mainly the influence on the comic work is through Will Eisner.

Q: In your Crow books, the order of events dawns on the reader over the course of several books. There is no hard, linear sequence of events, as might be required in a movie. Do you think that the firming-up of the time sequences for the film version of The Crow was a necessary evil in interpreting the story onto celluloid?

O’BARR: I didn’t necessarily think so. I’ve been told I tend to overestimate the reader, that my books are too dense or difficult to follow, but I don’t think that’s the case. When they were putting the film together, they put the flashback sequences right at the beginning of the film. They were afraid there wouldn’t be enough empathy for the character if it was left toward the end, because he was so brutal toward the bad guys.

So they thought they would show it right up front. It was kind of a taking-no-chances approach.

When I was first doing it (The Crow comic book), I’d never really even intended to show exactly what had happened. But as I went along — Eric is, at times, almost cruel to some of these bad guys — I felt I needed to justify the violence in it.

Q: Are you most comfortable as both writer and artist?

O’BARR: Yes. I’ve tried to work with other writers, but I end up wanting to change everything and put my own stamp on it. So I’ve found I work better alone.

Q: What were your impressions of Brandon Lee? One reads he was very centered and very psyched about this project.

O’BARR: He definitely was. Brandon understood that he had to pay his dues with his other martial-arts films. He was really excited about The Crow, because this was the first time he got to act. For the first time, he wasn’t in his father’s shadow. I think he pulled it all together. I think he would really, really be proud of the finished product.

Q: How long were you on the set?

O’BARR: For over a month. I had a lot of input on everything. Part of my contract for the film was that I would have input all the way through. I would have say-so on pretty much every aspect of it. I wasn’t selling it to them outright.

Q: What sort of discussions did you have with Brandon about the character of Eric?

O’BARR: We would sit in his trailer and talk for three or four hours at a time about different scenes, and what Eric’s motivations would be for a scene, how we should approach it. I think he did a really tremendous job.

Q: Was there anything unique to the film that came directly from Brandon?

O’BARR: I think he brought a lot more humor to the character than was in the book. There are a lot of

really dark one-liners in the book, but Brandon brought a physical, almost slapstick comedy to the character.

Q: Were you present on that horrible day?

O’BARR: No. I had come home, like, the week before that happened.

Q: Were you afraid the movie would never come out?

O’BARR: It was totally left up to (Lee’s fiancee) Eliza Hutton and (Lee’s mother) Linda Lee. If they said, “No, we don’t want it finished or released,” then it would have been shelved. I’ve read things from other people, insurance people, who said it was never really in question whether it would be released, but (The Crow producer) Ed Pressman left it totally up to them. They said Brandon was really, really proud of his work. They both gave it their blessing.

Q: One supposes a lot of grief had to be overcome before everyone could get back to work.

O’BARR: They took about two months off before they went back to finish the filming, do all the pickup shots and things. They asked me to come back, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t imagine standing in the same place where I’d stood with Brandon joking around, and him not being there. That was something I couldn’t deal

Says J. O’Barr of the late star of The Crow, Brandon Lee: ‘‘He would really, really be proud of the finished product.’’ [ Photo © Carolco Studios]

with. I have to applaud everyone, especially, Jeff Cadiente, Brandon’s best friend. He’d worked with Brandon on his last two or three films and was his stunt double. Now, I really have to applaud him for coming back and doing all the double shots and all the pickup scenes.

Q: Some have commented that the darkness of the film gives it a comic book-like quality, as if the film literally moves from panel to panel.

O’BARR: There are sequences in the film where 10 minutes will go by, and it’s shot-for-shot right from the comic. That was because they had the comic books on the set, sitting in their laps the whole time. They were kind of using those as storyboards. The film doesn’t really make any apologies about its source material. It doesn’t treat the books in a juvenile manner at all.

Q: Can you give an example of a sequence you illustrated that was used as a storyboard?

O’BARR: The pawn shop sequence at Gideon’s Pawn Shop. The dialogue is pretty much verbatim. The shots are pretty much panel by panel, right from the book.

Q: Comics can be such a personal medium, but a movie is intrinsically collaborative.

O’BARR: There is such enormous input from so many people in film. It’s up to the director, really, to keep tight control over the finished vision. I think (The Crow director) Alex Proyas really did a tremendous job on that. It really is hectic on the set, with the director having to answer 50 questions every hour, and every one of those answers is ultimately going to end up on the screen. So, it’s definitely a different medium.

Q: In The Crow, Eric can’t cross into the spirit world until he avenges his wrongful death. This may seem morbid, but do you feel that Brandon Lee’s wrongful death has been, in a sense, “avenged” by the completion of the film? That the film’s very existence furnishes some closure?

O’BARR: I think it did. After seeing it onscreen a couple of times, it kind of brought a sense of closure for me. I think I finally started to let go of Brandon’s death.

Q: Do you believe in the afterlife?

O’BARR: No. It’s a nice idea, but I just can’t really seem to justify that in my head. I’d like to think I’m going to see Brandon again at some time, but in the real world, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

A painting of a characteristically mournful Eric done

by O’Barr in 1996. [ © 2006 J. O’Barr]

Was the tail wagging the dog? By 1990, the tide had turned in comics. Artists, not characters, were now the superstars of the industry. Marvel Comics had been steadily nurturing talent, and reaping the benefits of the growing fan mania for its up-and-coming artists Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. All three men would have career-defining, record-breaking releases virtually back-to-back in 1990 and ’91.

First came Spider-Man #1 (1990), in which McFarlane took the writing reins for the 28-year-old web-slinger. The book sold an astonishing 2.65 million, the highest circulation for a single comic book up to that time. But the record would be shortlived.

Then came X-Force #1 (1991), illustrated by Liefeld, which obliterated the previous record by selling 3.9 million copies. It was clear, however, that this number was inflated by the fact that fans were buying up multiple copies. X-Force #1 was polybagged with five different trading cards, and many anal-retentive collectors were actually buying five copies in order to collect all five cards. With a cover price of $1.50, those were some pretty expensive cards.

Within a month, lightning struck a third time for Marvel. X-Men #1 (1991), illustrated by Lee, nearly doubled the sales of X-Force #1 by selling 7.5 million copies, a record that would stand for many years to come. Again, the purchase of multiple copies played into this victory, as X-Men #1 featured four different covers. Marvel further taxed collector’s wallets by releasing a fifth edition of XMen #1 — this one with a double gatefold of all four covers.

Marvel was very happy with its wunderkinds McFarlane, Liefeld and Lee. But within a year, the artists would bite the hand that fed them superstardom.

AT FIRST GLANCE, YOU WOULD not have guessed that Valiant Comics was destined to become a major player in comics, however briefly.

Yes, one of its co-founders was former Marvel honcho Jim Shooter.

But its initial offerings in 1990 didn’t exactly have DC and Marvel shaking in their boots: Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers Special Edition and Nintendo Comics System — insipid video game tie-ins, all.

But Valiant soon announced its intentions to revive heroes from the Gold Key line such as Magnus and Solar. Using the old characters as a springboard, Valiant began cultivating quite a stable of new characters — not to mention new talent. Magnus Robot Fighter #1 (1991) — written by Shooter, penciled by Art Nichols and inked Bob Layton and Kathryn Bolinger — represented the dawn of the Valiant superhero universe.

Titles published during Valiant’s heydey included Armorines, Bloodshot, Chaos Effect, Deathmate (a crossover with Image Comics), Destroyer, Eternal Warrior, Harbinger, H.A.R.D.Corps, PSI-Lords, Mirage, Ninjak, Rai,

1990-1991

Secret Weapons, Shadowman, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Unity (which offered an attention-grabbing free #0 issue) and X-O Manowar. On the Valiant team were co-founder Steve Massarky, editor Layton and artists David Lapham (Valiant’s star), John Dixon, Jeff Johnson, Kevin Kobasic, Nichols, Don Perlin, Joe Quesada, Bart Sears, Howard Simpson and Barry Windsor-Smith.

But after Shooter and Valiant, shall we say, parted ways on June 30, 1992, Shooter took Lapham with him — and proved that he still had a trick or two up his sleeve. Later in the ’90s, Valiant fell victim to the post-boom bust. But the Dark Age wouldn’t have been the Dark Age without this company that, through sheer valiant effort, gave the majors a run for their readerships.

From Magnus Robot Fighter #25 (1993).

Art: James Brock and Ralph Reese. [ © 2006

Voyager Communications ]

55

He spawned a movement Meet the new boss: Todd McFarlane THE MOON WAS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE FOR TODD MCFARLANE IN 1990.

No one at Marvel Comics — not McFarlane, not Spider-Man editor Jim Salicrup and certainly not Marvel’s “suits” — could have guessed that Spider-Man #1 would break sales records, ignite speculation fever and place McFarlane at the top of the industry. But McFarlane had to fight tooth-and-nail for this opportunity to write and illustrate the adventures of Spider-Man — and he would not soon forget that often frustrating struggle.

Two years later, unhappy with Marvel’s treatment of what he calls the “creative community,” McFarlane organized an exodus of key Marvel artists. These renegades — seven of them, including McFarlane, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld — formed Image Comics, an act that was meant to be both a swipe at practitioners of corporate oppression and a rallying cry for creators’ rights. For Image, McFarlane produced Spawn #1 (1992), the first appearance of what became his flagship character — a dark superhero with a chain fetish and the comics’ most unwieldy cape.

McFarlane discussed his career from Spider-Man to Spawn during a 2005 conversation.

Q: With Spider-Man #1, you made that transition from being — quote, unquote — “merely” an illustrator to a writer/illustrator. Why was that was important to you?

McFARLANE: You know, the itch, the creative itch, of writing at that point wasn’t so much that I wanted to be a writer.

Because to me, I just wanted to draw. It was being in Opposite: Spidey webcontrol of what I was drawslings in the best-selling ing. The only way I was going Spider-Man #1 (1990). to get there was to go, “Well, I [ © 2006 Marvel Comics] have to make up the story.”

Right: Todd McFarlane’s Because every time someflagship character, body gave me a Spider-Man story, Spawn. Art: McFarlane. they were basically writing, I assume, what they wished they could [ © 2006 Todd McFarlane] draw. They were putting their favorite characters in it and their favorite settings and doing their favorite tricks.

At some point, I was going, “I don’t wanna do your tricks and your characters and your favorite heroes and villains. I wanna do the guys that I get off on.”

And unless I could convince the writer to do it — which I was never able to do — then I thought, “Okay, I guess I have to be the writer, so I can convince myself. I’m gonna have to figure out how to write.”

So that I could then go, “I wanna do this guy and I wanna do this scenario and I wanna do this scene and I wanna do this situation.” That’s basically the impetus of all of it.

As time goes by, you actually come to understand just how big of a weapon that thing called writing is that you hold in your hand.

“As time goes by, you actually come to understand just how big of a weapon that thing called writing is that you hold in your hand.’’

Where it was simple-minded at the beginning, which was, “I just want to draw these things. I’ve got a story with these things.” You then, as time goes by, go, “Wow. Now the story is actually more important than the things that you wanna draw.” The whole becomes better than the parts, hopefully.

Q: When you left Marvel to form Image Comics, it was a time when artists were supplanting characters as the stars of the medium.

Were you confident that readers were following you, the artist, and not just the character of Spider-Man?

McFARLANE: I never thought that people, just because we moved on, would go, “Oh, you know what? I loved Todd’s Spider-Man drawing, but if he’s not drawing Spider-Man, I’m not gonna look at him.” I don’t think that’s true. I sort of considered myself like an athlete. Where you go, “OK, there’s Michael Jordan. He’s playing for the Bulls.” There are a lot of Bulls fans, but when Michael Jordan left the Bulls to play for Washington, although it disappointed a lot of people in Chicago — I’m sure it disappointed people when I left Spider-Man. But it doesn’t mean you don’t follow that guy’s career to wherever he ends up going. You’re still gonna collect Spider-Man even though Todd’s not drawing it. Why? Because you like the character. But it doesn’t mean you’re not going to follow Todd to the next character he does, because he might do Batman or Superman or whatever. In this case, I did Spawn. “Cool. I like his style. I wanna see his style someplace else.”

Q: Spawn is your flagship character. When you think of Bob Kane, you think of Batman.

When you think of Siegel and Shuster, you think of Superman. Obviously, characters outlive their creators. At some point, when characters are interpreted by other artists, they change. The true test of a character’s mettle is how much of his original intention, his original identity, remains after the creator is gone. Some day, Todd McFarlane will no longer be standing on this A formidable pose Earth, but Spawn will. from Spawn #13 What do you hope (1993). [ © 2006 will be the legacy Todd McFarlane ] of this character?

From Spawn #13.

[ © 2006 Todd McFarlane]

What thread is important to be carried through by other artists?

Q: Could you expand on that — the “attrition” concept?

McFARLANE: On an historical basis, I agree with you, and I’m tryMcFARLANE: My grandma knows who Superman is. But I know ing not to be egotistical here. If you actually look at the history of she doesn’t read that comic book and may never have read a comic books, there are characters that get created and they last for Superman comic book. But she intellectually knows about decades. Spawn is one of the few guys that’s been around now for Superman. How did that happen? Well, attrition just got to her.

15 years. I mean, what is the Can I, on a smaller scale, do new character in the last two that with a character like Spawn? decades that has really resonatI’m hoping so. Hopefully, the ed with the crowd? That you consumer can continue to tell me go, “Gosh, that character might what they want and don’t want, last for 50 years.” There aren’t and I can make the adjustments that many of them. Most of along the way. them were created in the ’70s Q: One of the ways Superman and even earlier than that, the landed on your grandmother’s ’60s, and with Superman and radar was via his presence in Batman, even in the ’30s and other mediums besides comics. ’40s stuff.

Superman was also a newspaper So, you know, I’m sort of strip, a radio show, a movie seriproud. There’s been a lot of al, a live-action TV series, an anicomic books and a lot characmated series, a film series, etc. ters who have come and gone.

With Spawn, you’ve got a good A lot of minor ones. But Spawn start with the movie, the animated has a chance to actually put a series and especially the toys. footprint down and actually be there. From a creative point of McFARLANE: The hard one is not view, all you can hope for with necessarily getting stuff in the your creative children is the public eye, but how do you then same with your real children, keep it going? Sin City has had a your flesh-and-blood children, beacon shined on it, but how do which is that once you’re gone, you keep that machine going for that they carry on in some 20, 30 years? And not just be, capacity and make the world “Oh, yeah, that was a movie that somewhat enjoyable. Walt came out 10 years ago.” Not just Disney’s not here, but we’ve be one of a handful of things that still got Mickey Mouse. society goes, “Oh, yeah, it came Spawn, hopefully, will be my and it went. Big deal.”

Mickey Mouse. Maybe not I mean, you and I, we’re quite as cute, but he will live geeks. We understand it. But beyond his creator, as you menbeyond that, that’s what’s going tioned. to give you one of those decadesNow, what does all of that long careers that people are going mean? Once the book has been to care about. And even more written — I’ve still got, hopeimportantly, then also ask you the fully, a lot of years of living in bigger question, potentially, me to steer the direction of this which is: “Well, what else do you character, to see whether I can have other than Spawn?” Or, make that footprint any bigger “What else, Frank (Miller), do than it currently is. And to get you have other than Sin City?” out into the subconscious of the So you don’t become a one-trick casual person, even if it’s just From Amazing Spider-Man #301 (1988). [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ] pony, either. through attrition.

TODD McFARLANE

59

‘‘ARACHNERD’’ Spider-Man #1 did not pander to speculators, says Jim Salicrup, editor of the historic issue

THAT INTRICATE WEBBING . . . THAT SILVER INK . . . that irresistible issue number.

Among speculators, there was a nigh unquenchable thirst for #1 issues during the Dark Age, a situation which Marvel Comics’ 1990 edition Spider-Man #1 — written, penciled and inked by Todd McFarlane — played no small part in. The book inspired much media attention, solidified McFarlane’s career and proved to be Marvel’s best-selling Spider-Man edition ever.

Editing Spider-Man #1 would make a nice little line on anyone’s resume. The man behind this Dark Age classic was none other than self-proclaimed “Arachnerd” Jim Salicrup. It’s no wonder; at the time, the Manhattan-born editor was also helming Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man and Spider-Man Comics Magazine, among other Marvel books. Salicrup maintained that Spider-Man #1 was produced “organically” — not by cynically pandering to speculators — in a 2005 conversation.

Q: What were you doing prior to Spider-Man #1?

SALICRUP: All my energy was going into Amazing Spider-Man. I enjoyed working with Todd and (writer) David Michelinie and everyone. But Todd was unhappy with the inking. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the inkers who were working on him; it was just a question of his approach being so different at the time, the inkers thought they were “fixing” the art. They weren’t.

They were trying to correct his drawing and missing the point that it should look the way it should look. So I encouraged Todd to get more involved and start inking his own work.

It naturally led to — he was such a naturally good storyteller, and thinking about everything he was doing. We got along so well. We were both very competitive. I thought that if we stuck with what we were doing long enough on Amazing SpiderMan, we would eventually overtake X-Men, which was Marvel’s biggest seller for the previous decade. Todd thought I was insane, that it was impossible. I thought it would take us seven years to do. We wound up doing it in three years.

Q: How did you pull this off?

SALICRUP: Basically, it was just simple things like having the same creative team issue after issue.

Everyone just trying as hard as he could. At

Spider-Man #1 editor Jim Salicrup. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong]

some point, Todd was hoping to do his own writing as well. That’s what led to Spider-Man #1. It was really sort of a series of developments that happened.

Q: So Todd asked to take over the writing?

SALICRUP: Well, Todd was very professional. He wasn’t going to tell me, “Get rid of the writer and I’ll write it myself.” David Michelinie was the writer on Amazing Spider-Man. So Todd was willing to go off and write backups or do whatever he could just to start writing and learn the whole writing thing. I felt he was so vital to what we were doing with Spider-Man at the time that I found myself doing something I never thought I’d want to do, which was to add yet another Spider-Man book.

Q: What brought you around?

Too much webbing?

Pshaw!

SpiderMan #1.

[ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

SALICRUP: There were a bunch of reasons for it; not just the obvious. One was — look at what they’re doing with trade paperbacks nowadays. The ongoing Spider-Man books were like never-ending soap operas. When they tried to collect stories, they had a problem.

So the idea was to create a new series where we would do six-part, self-contained stories that could then easily be collected as trade paperbacks, as opposed to the ongoing storylines we had in all the other Spider-Man books.

Another reason was — which people have forgotten now — Todd had noticed that Epic (Marvel’s fantasy magazine) had been publishing books on nicer paper with better printing. We had tried to see if we could do that with Amazing Spider-Man, but Marvel wanted to keep the price — wisely — as low as possible to keep as large an audience as possible. But (onetime Marvel honcho) Carol Kalish had mentioned if we wanted to start another Spider-Man book on the better paper with the better coloring, go right ahead.

know, the “Stupendous Spider-Man” and “The Extravagant SpiderMan,” etc., etc. Whereas I knew just calling it “Spider-Man” would be a great hook.

Q: Of course, the fan buzz was followed shortly by the media buzz, which really heightened anticipation for the book.

Q: So the timing was right?

SALICRUP: Right. Sure enough, when the media got ahold of it, they got all over the story, announcing there was a new Spider-Man #1 coming out. It wasn’t so much appealing to speculators, as to a lot of people who may have forgotten that Spider-Man was still being published. So it created a lot of attention.

Q: Fan buzz on the project was pretty intense. What started that?

SALICRUP: (laughs) I remember being on CBS This Morning, being interviewed by Paula Zahn with Stan Lee in a remote from L.A. It was all planned ahead of time. But the day we were on was the morning it was being announced that Kuwait was invaded. So people were just tuning in hearing that their country was at war, and then they got to see Stan and me talking about this Spider-Man comic!

So it was just a tremendous amount of publicity. There was a lot of excitement with what Todd and everyone else was doing in the Spider-Man books at the time. So it was just a lot of excitement.

SALICRUP: Well, at the time Carol originally told me that, I had no intentions of doing that. But when Todd was thinking about leaving, then suddenly that became a great idea (laughs). It would be a good showcase for Todd. I felt we could work well together. I had as much faith in him as a writer as I did almost any other writer working in the business at that point.

So that was basically it. Todd wanted to write. I was trying to figure out a way to make that happen. Here was a way to sort of keep it in sync with the other books, but solve the whole trade paperback problem.

SALICRUP: Well, Todd had been steadily building a following on Amazing Spider-Man, so there was a lot of built-in interest already.

Sales had been going up every issue. We were having lots of fun.

We were doing silly things like hiding spiders on the cover. I was calling Spider-Man the “non-mutant superhero.” It was just a lot of things. Once we started the publicity (for Spider-Man #1), my favorite thing was asking people what they thought the new SpiderMan title should be called. Everyone would keep guessing, you

62

Q: Did you have your five minutes of fame?

Q: What do you say to cynics who charge that Spider-Man #1 was sold merely on the merit of being a #1 issue?

SALICRUP: I think, unlike some of the other #1’s that followed, ours was built more organically by building up a readership first. I’m not denying there were people buying copies just because it was a #1 Marvel. But since then, they’ve tried a lot of other Spider-Man #1’s. None of them have had quite the same success.

JIM SALICRUP

The Amazing Spider-Man #308 (1988) [© Marvel Comics ]

The Amazing Spider-Man #312 (1988) [© Marvel Comics ]

The Amazing Spider-Man #313 (1988) [© Marvel Comics ]

The Amazing Spider-Man #320 (1989) [© Marvel Comics ]

TODD McFARLANE SPIDER-MAN COVER GALLERY

The uncanny Jim Lee At home with original and classic heroes

WHEN JIM LEE’S EDGY X-MEN ARTWORK BURST onto comic book racks in the ’80s, fans had not seen anything like it. But within a few years, that’s all they saw.

“I assume a lot of the artists who started adapting my style or incorporating elements of my style into their work were doing so because they liked it,” Lee said.

“But I think also, because X-Men had become so big and so successful, maybe editors were asking for or seeking out talent that drew in a similar style. That was very flattering.”

As well as exasperating.

“On one hand,” Lee said, “there were people who were literally tracing drawings I had done, which wasn’t so kosher.

“It kind of died out after three or four years, which was good. I think it was too much. It was everywhere. It kind of watered down what I was doing — made it less special, less unique.”

A founder of Image Comics, Lee remained one of the industry’s most influential artists. His original creations include WildC.A.T.s and Gen13, but Lee also put his mark on mainstays such as Fantastic Four and Batman. His X-Men #1 in 1991 was one of the best-sellers of the Dark Age. Lee spoke during a 2003 interview.

Q: You first came to the attention of the comic book world when you began drawing X-Men. Was that an exciting time for you?

Opposite: The W.I.L.D.Cats gang is all here.

Any similarity to the X-Men is thanks to artist Jim Lee. [ © 2006 Jim Lee ]

LEE: That was a very exciting time. I was a huge X-Men fan as a kid. That was my favorite comic book. If I had a lifelong dream, it would have been to work on that title. When the opportunity came to do a fill-in issue, I leapt at it and gave it my all, and it turned out I got the final assignment.

Q: Getting that gig must have flipped you out.

LEE: That was a very heady experience. I was still fairly young. It wasn’t that long ago that — I could still remember reading the comics and sitting around drawing the characters on the floor, you know, hanging out with my friends and talking about the characters, making up stories, whatever.

Oft-imitated artist Jim Lee. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

And here you are, drawing the stories and working with (writer) Chris Claremont.

Q: Your style was pretty unique from the beginning. Was this a conscious effort?

LEE: There wasn’t a lot of thinking going on. A lot of it just kind of came from the gut. I was just drawing. I’d drawn these characters so much as a kid. It wasn’t hard or intimidating to draw the characters, because I’d drawn them so much. It was just hard to try to keep up with the monthly pace. But I was still young and I had a lot of enthusiasm for it that just pushed me through on sheer momentum.

Q: At the time, did you feel your fame beginning to grow?

X-Men characters Cyclops and Wolverine unleash their fury in Jim Lee art. [ © 2006 Marvel Comics]

LEE: Things started heating up for my career.

People started to notice what I was

doing. That was very gratifying. I just didn’t want to get kicked off the book (laughs). So, you know, I wanted to make my deadlines and do the best work possible.

It was a funny time in comics. X-Men had always been popular, but when I got on the book, the book’s sales doubled within a year, and tripled or quadrupled in another half-year. Then X-Men #1 sold, like, 8 million copies.

Q: By this time, your style defined the era. As you’ve said, some comic book artists seemed to be tracing drawings you’d done.

LEE: But others were definitely taking cues and being inspired by the work I’d done. That was a real trip. That wasn’t really part of the game plan.

It just came about because X-Men had gotten so big.

Q: What was going on in your life at the time?

LEE: It was a crazy time. I was just married, no kids, and all I did was draw late into the night. And then once or twice a week, my wife and I would go see a movie (laughs). That was it.

That was all I needed, honestly. Our studio — me, Scott Williams, who inked me, and then Whilce Portacio, who was working on another “X” book — we worked together in a two-bedroom apartment that we rented out and used as office space. So we were cooking ramen noodles for lunch, whatever.

Meanwhile, you know, we’re getting very well paid to do what we were doing, but we literally lived like we were still in college, eating threeminute noodles and ordering pizza late at night and working all night. We’d do the book in two or three weeks, and then it would take a week to recuperate, and then, boom, we’re back in the saddle working the next issue. So it’s really a blur.

I don’t remember too many of the details, honestly, because it just seemed that I was just always drawing.

Q: Can you still work that kind of pace, or are those “frat boy” days over?

LEE: I can, but I have better food (laughs). It’s impossible for me to do that. I can do it in concentrated spurts, but I sort of have to get permission from my wife. Like, “Honey, you’re not going to see a lot of me for the next five

days, because I’ve got this tight deadline.” If I stay up all night, which I still do, it takes me a lot longer to recover. But I just can’t do it anymore. I don’t want to do it anymore. It’s just not a healthy way of doing it.

And I like to put a little more thought into what I’m doing.

I plan it out a little more. I’m not instantly just sitting down and drawing the scene as I see it. I’ll maybe even take some photo reference to play around with a couple different angles. So I can’t really run at the same sprint pace, I guess.

I can’t sprint that constantly. I have to be more judicious with how much time I put into it.

Q: Let’s talk about the founding of Image Comics. I know things got messy later on...

LEE: Messy from the start (laughs).

Q: It was kind of a shock in the comics industry. It got a lot of attention. I always had this image — no pun intended — in the back of my mind that you guys all kind of stood around a flame and cut your thumbs and mingled your blood over the flame . . .

LEE: (laughs) Right, right.

Q: . . . and you all chanted in unison, “Damn them! Damn them!”

LEE: It didn’t get that bloody, but we certainly did sit around and work our-

selves up into a revolutionary fervor or lather or whatever (laughs).

We’d meet three or four times a year. I guess they were — quote, unquote — the “board meetings,” but they were anything but.

Literally, you’d have founding members of Image — I won’t say who — jumping up and down on a bed while we were discussing business matters. We’d take meetings where all of us would have pages of artwork that we were late on, sitting there — none of us would be looking at each other; we’d all be drawing with our heads down and just sort of shouting out things we thought were important. We had meetings where guys had their shirts off. I had my baby at one, walking around and rocking her to sleep as we were cutting some business deal. It was a pretty informal time. There were some pretty oddball meetings, some pretty strange times.

Q: When you approach an iconic character such as Batman or the Fantastic Four, there’s so much history. Every artist wants to leave his imprint on it that’s unique to From left: him, but at Jim Lee’s the same incarnations time walks the of X-Men fine line characters of not Storm and messing Magneto. too much [ © 2006 with the Marvel history and Comics ] traditions.

LEE: I think you hit the

“These are iconic characters. You don’t want to change them too radically. A character like Batman has aged very well. He doesn’t really require a lot — maybe some fine-tuning here and there.”

Above: Batman’s origin revisited by writer Jeph Loeb and Lee in 2001. Opposite: The Dark Knight in flight. [ © 2006 DC Comics]

nail right on the head. These are iconic characters. You don’t want to change them too radically. A character like Batman has aged very well. He doesn’t really require a lot — maybe some fine-tuning here and there. But obviously, you want to do your take on it, too, but have it be recognizable. Have it still be Batman.

Q: As someone who’s been called upon again and again to breath new life into these characters, is there a ‘‘right’’ way to approach this conundrum?

LEE: There are two ways that you can go. You can look at it either thematically or stylistically. Stylistically, you have issues of: How long are his ears? Does he have a belt? Is it a utility belt or is it more functional? Does it have pouches? Is it more militaristic looking? Does he have boots with grids on the bottom or are they flat?

How big is his belt? How long is his cape going to be? How much black are you going to put into the blue areas of the costume? Little things like that.

Over the decades that artists have interpreted Batman, everyone’s done it a different way. There are all these different versions

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you can look at, but you want to pick a look that speaks to you.

Thematically, Batman has been played a lot of different ways, from the campy sort of ’60s version that people are familiar with from the TV show, to the very dark, brutal Batman from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. There’s also the Dick Sprang smiling Batman. So there are all these different versions of Batman.

Q: How did you approach Batman?

LEE: Well, Batman in recent years had been more of a loner, a brooding, dark character — more of a detective than a superhero, I wanted to go back to more of a superhero version of Batman. This would be the Batman that could be part of the Justice League. This would be the Batman that could go toe-to-toe with Superman.

That’s really what I remember when I was a kid.

I think when you work on these characters that are very familiar, one tends to do their strongest work when they can conjure up memories of the character from when they were a kid, and sort of filter it through, obviously, their adult point of view. When I collected Batman, it was in the ’70s. He was more of a superhero Batman.

JIM LEE

He wasn’t as dark of a character. So I was pulling mostly influences from that period of time — Jim Aparo’s work, Neal Adams’ work, Bob Brown.

Working on Batman has been a lot of fun. In fact, when I started out — my first issue of Batman looks very different from the Batman I’m drawing now, I think. You just find that as you work on the character, you get more comfortable with it.

You start experimenting with the look a little bit, adding more “blacks” (black areas) and trying out different things with the character. It’s been a learning experience for me, too.

Q: Hey, Jim, it warms my heart that you even know the name Dick Sprang.

LEE: Oh, of course, yeah! That’s how I knew Batman. When I was a kid, my parents didn’t give me any money for comics, so I went to the library and checked out these black-and-white reprints of all that old Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman stuff. They were, like, three inches thick. They had maybe a little bit of color in the middle. Just very different stories (laughs). That’s the stuff I loved when I was really young.

Later on as a teenager, when I had some money, I got into the monthly comics. So, yeah, I’m very familiar with all of that stuff.

Bulletproof career cachet How David Lapham survived being ‘hot’

BACK WHEN THE ADJECTIVE “HOT” WAS BEING increasingly applied to comic book artists in the early ’90s, David Lapham was on fire.

It seemed that every book the artist drew for Valiant Comics — Harbinger, Shadowman, Rai — was being speculated on for resale value by dealers and collectors. You’d see Lapham’s books at conventions and on comic-shop racks with wildly marked-up price tags (especially the #1 issues), and on the hot lists (there’s that word again) of trade gospels such as Wizard and Comics Buyer’s Guide.

Then, lightning struck twice when Lapham switched publishers and scored newsstand gold for Defiant with Warriors of PLASM. Opposite: Attractive Lapham was officially at the top of young superheroes the field. and righteous wheels, But by 1995, the comics from 1992’s Harbinger industry had taken a #1. Art: David Lapham. dip (evidenced by [ © 2006 Voyager the dissolution of Communications ] many independent Right: Lapham’s publishers and gloppy PLASM art.

Marvel’s cancela[ © 2006 Defiant ] tion of at least 20 titles). And so David Lapham was, as the cliche goes, poised for a comeback.

At 24 years old.

Lapham’s return would be his defining project: Stray Bullets, a “mature readers” series he wrote, illustrated and published through his own company, El Capitan Books.

“Being with Valiant at the beginning, and then being involved in the Defiant startup, I learned a lot,” Lapham told me in 1995, on the eve of the release of Stray Bullets #1. “It (starting a comic-book company) is work, but it’s not complicated.”

Lapham began his career at Valiant, which was the brainchild of ex-Marvel head Jim Shooter, who acted as Lapham’s mentor.

“I came in at the right time, just as they were starting from the ground floor up,” Lapham recalled.

For Valiant, Lapham became the founding penciler for Harbinger, Shadowman, Rai and H.A.R.D.

“The way I see it, if someone wants you to sign their book, that’s a compliment.’’

The cover of 1995’s Stray Bullets #1. [ © 2006 El Capitan Books ]

Corps. Lapham said Shadowman was primarily his creation, while the X-Men-ish Harbinger was “Jim Shooter’s baby.”

But just as Valiant approached its peak of popularity, Shooter suddenly left and founded Defiant, a move that initially puzzled some industry watchers.

“Basically, Jim was forced out of the company,” Lapham recalled, “so he started a new one. I worked well with Jim, so I decided to go with him.”

At Defiant, Lapham co-created Warriors of PLASM. The PLASM trading-card set (and its collector binder) became one of 1993’s must-have items.

All of which could have given Lapham a big head.

After all, the so-called “hot” artists of the day were treated like rock stars by the public at comic conventions. But Lapham maintained a humble outlook while he was at the top.

Recalled the writer/artist: “The first year, Valiant was hot. The next year, Defiant was hot. A lot depends on the books at the time. If the book is popular, you’re popular. That’s what makes the autograph line long.

“The way I see it, if someone wants you to sign their book, that’s a compliment.”

Lapham categorized Stray Bullets as a clearer reflec-

72

tion of its creator than the Valiant and Defiant material.

“Obviously, this is not a superhero book,” he said. “This is different. It’s me.

“Thematically, Stray Bullets is a crime drama, but it shows different sides of the story. The main focus is the people who are caught up in it, the people who are victims, the people who get hurt.”

The look of Stray Bullets is completely different from Lapham’s earlier work. For one thing, the “blacks” (industry-ese for black areas in artwork) are much more prominent.

“Obviously, it’s a black-and-white book,” Lapham said, “so I have to work up my blacks. For the color books — color does a lot.

I would leave a lot more open spaces for color.

“But also, I wanted Stray Bullets to have a darker, grittier look, in keeping with the story.”

The heavier blacks lend Lapham’s Stray Bullets artwork a resemblance to that of Will Eisner, the Spirit creator who was then in his late ’70s and still very active in the medium. Lapham appreciated the comparison.

“Eisner is definitely the greatest talent in comics,” the writer/ artist said.

Our conversation took place at a decisive moment for Lapham: while he was in the midst of illustrating Stray Bullets #3. At the time, the artist still wasn’t aware what the retail orders would be for his then-new venture.

“We don’t know what to expect,” he said, “but I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m just concentrating on doing a good book.”

David Lapham displays his penchant for blacks in a four-panel sequence from 1995’s Stray Bullets #1. [ © 2006 El Capitan Books ]

DAVID LAPHAM

H.A.R.D. Corps #5 (1993) [© Voyager Communications ]

Harbinger #23 (1993) [© Voyager Communications ]

Secret Weapons #5 (1994) [© Voyager Communications ]

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 (1993) [© Voyager Communications ]

VALIANT COVER GALLERY

Something

this way comes

Brian Pulido turned death into a cottage industry

MODERN MOVIE MONSTERS OFTEN GO BY first names: Freddy, Jason, Chucky, et al. Filmmaker Brian Pulido wrote a screenplay that would have added Ernie to the roster — Evil Ernie, that is, Pulido’s teenaged zombie who wears a grimace, a black-leather jacket and a mullet with a life of its own.

Why a teen monster? “I noticed that all the horror antiheroes were father figures, like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers, etc.,” Pulido told me in 1991.

Pulido’s original intention was for Evil Ernie — a 17-yearold heavy-metal fanatic named Ernest Fairchild who returns from the grave, commands a zombie army and hangs out with scantily clad Lady Death — to premiere as a movie. Though Pulido got some bites on his script, he decided to first go the comic-book route, and promptly made the medium his home.

Evil Ernie premiered in 1991 as a five-issue miniseries from Malibu’s Eternity Comics imprint, with artist Steven Opposite: No X-ray is Hughes doing the penciling necessary in this detail honors. The bleak inaugural from the cover of story reads very much like a 1991’s Evil Ernie #1. horror film in print.

Art: Steven Hughes.

“It’s like Night of the [ © 2006 Brian Pulido ] Living Dead with a leader,” said Pulido, a comics fan who Right: Brian Pulido doted on the infamous EC makes like his Evil horror title of the 1950s, Tales Ernie character.

From the Crypt. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ] Within a couple of years, Pulido had formed his own publishing company, Chaos! Comics, and built Evil Ernie into a cottage industry, in the process parlaying top-heavy tease Lady Death into a fan-favorite spinoff character.

1993 saw the release of Chaos!’s Evil Ernie: The Resurrection, which got the full Dark Age treatment: a gold-foil-enhanced cover with art by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. On it, Ernie brandished a myriad of implausibly outsized weapons, making him look more like a Dark Age superhero than a horror character. At the time, Pulido was asked if this was a departure in philosophy for Ernie.

“Not at all,” the writer said.

“When I asked Joe to do the cover, I said, ‘Go crazy. Do anything you want to do.’ I really wanted his take on the Evil Ernie character. Joe decided to parody Cable, hence the gun and the suit. But Evil Ernie has not become a superhero — no way! This is still a comic book where the bad guy wins.”

BRIAN PULIDO

“It’s like Night of the Living Dead with a leader.’’

Pulido with the founding artist of Evil Ernie, Steven Hughes, in 1991. Hughes died in 2000. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Still, Pulido predicted that Chaos! would dabble in the superhero genre. As he put it: “Tough heroes for tough times. The work will fall somewhere between Vertigo and Image in tone.”

For Dark Horse, Pulido was at work on the superhero titles Rack and Pain (which would later be published by Chaos! as Rack and Pain: Killers) and Detonator.

Pulido then categorized the latter as a “fairly brutal, realistic handling of the concept: What if regular, everyday people suddenly possessed superpowers? They wouldn’t necessarily put on a cape and tights and pledge to wipe out evil. It’ll explore the corrupt side of power.”

MUCH OF THE SUCCESS OF EVIL ERNIE AND LADY Death can be attributed to the frenetic, detailed work of Hughes, the characters’ founding artist. Hughes’ style became a benchmark of the Dark Age. Shortly after Hughes’ untimely death on February 18, 2000, Chaos! Comics issued a heartfelt statement:‘‘Steven was one of the

76

driving forces behind the success of Chaos! Comics. . . . Steven’s work gained national attention with the success of the wildly popular Lady Death #1 and he rose to global prominence with the release of the sequel, Lady Death: Between Heaven and Hell.

Steven was listed in Wizard Magazine’s top-10 artist list in 1995 Opposite: The first and his work was featured on the appearance of topcover of Wizard #75. He was one of heavy anti-heroine the most prominent African-American Lady Death, from Evil artists in comic-book history. Steven Ernie #1 (1991). Art: was an outspoken, fiercely indepenSteven Hughes. dent artist. . . . Steven was recently [ © 2006 Brian Pulido ] recognized during the Black History Month celebration at the Words and Pictures Museum located in Northampton, Massachusetts, in February 1999.’’ The Chaos! statement also noted: ‘‘He was popular with his fans, a dedicated, hardcore following who often waited in long lines at conventions for an autograph or a sketch.’’

BRIAN PULIDO

A day of reckoning came during the Dark Age of Comics when, in 1992, Image Comics was formed by disgruntled former Marvel Comics superstars. Were they striking a blow for creators’ rights? Or spitting in the eye of the company that “made” them?

Whatever your view, the founding of Image signaled a renaissance in the comics industry — and shook it up some, too.

Image was formed by Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and Whilce Portacio.

The seven founders each published their own “flagship” titles: Spawn (McFarlane), WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams (Lee), Youngblood (Liefeld), Savage Dragon (Larsen), Shadowhawk (Valentino), CyberForce (Silvestri) and Wetworks (Portacio). All of Image’s startup titles sold as well or better than long-established books from DC and Marvel, but

[ © 2006 Whilce Portacio ]

Wetworks.

McFarlane’s Spawn #1 (1992) took the prize with a print run of 1.7 million (according to Comics Buyer’s Guide #976). Another early Image hit was Pitt #1 by onetime Hulk artist Dale Keown.

What was the impetus behind the founding of Image Comics?

“It kind of started with Rob Liefeld, actually,” Larsen told me in 2005. “He took an ad out in the Comics Buyer’s Guide at one point to do his own thing, to do his own book. Pretty much, he was thinking, ‘Why can’t DC or somebody else do a mutant book? How come Marvel is the only company doing these X books?’ So he took out an ad for a book called X-Terminators.”

Things might have ended there if Marvel had let it go.

“That (angered) Marvel pretty bad,” Larsen said.

“They were gonna fire him and the whole bit. But it did definitely get us all thinking of, ‘What would we do? What could we do? How could this work?’’’

Before long, motive met opportunity.

Recalled Larsen: “Todd, at that point, was not doing anything. His wife had just given birth to their first child, so he was taking some personal time; he had stopped doing Spider-Man. My gigs had kind of wrapped up, so I didn’t have anything I thought of as being really regular. So it started with the three of us. From there, it just built, in that Rob knew some guys. He brought in Jim Valentino.”

This fledgling group began to hatch a plot.

“The thought with Todd and Rob was that the clincher would be to get Jim Lee aboard,” Larsen said. “Because Jim had kind of been Marvel’s ‘golden boy.’ They treated him well; he treated them well. It was like, ‘You know, if we could score this, then we’ve really taken out the guys, the top tier of creators.’ Because at that point, they didn’t have anybody else, really, that was substantial. That was the thought process.”

Lee recalled that he was pitched by McFarlane and Liefeld.

“I had pretty much kept in contact with Todd and Rob,” Lee told me.

“We used to talk a lot on the phone.

I had no idea, for instance, that Jim Valentino and Erik Larsen were

part of the group. And Rob was working in the studio with Valentino; he was more friendly with Erik, and so he brought them in.”

Another founder fell into place when these interested parties convened in New York.

Recalled Lee: “We were all in New York for some business or a Sotheby’s auction or something. Marc Silvestri just happened to be around. He was at the same hotel all of us were at when we were cutting our deal with Malibu, who was our first sort of sub-distributor before we went out on our own. We liked his work. We sat him down and we sold him on it that night. So if he hadn’t been there, I don’t think he would have been a member.”

Plenty of details needed hashing out before the seven artists could form a united front, according to Lee. “When this idea of founding Image began — we didn’t have a specific date that we were going to start it,” Lee said. “I think each of us had a different idea of what it would be.

Todd thought maybe it would be more of a union of sorts — like, everyone who wanted to join would be part of this. It could be a thousand strong or something like that.”

McFarlane was asked if this was a scary or anxious time for him, since he was starting a family and possibly endangering his income.

“It wasn’t scary for me,” McFarlane told me, “and I’ll tell you why. #1, I knew that we were going to be at least moderately successful.

And given that, when you go and work for yourself, you get the lion’s share of the finances. You don’t have to sell and be as successful at the same level to get close to the same money. So on an economical point of view, it wasn’t a big deal.

“Although I’ve got to tell you that even if it meant going down a tenth of what I was earning before — to have my mental well-being back was a jump for me. I was like, ‘I don’t care how much they give me.

I’m just losing my mind here.’

“But what ended up happening was bigger than any of us anticipated. We actually sold the same, if not more, and we owned all of it! So the finances actually just got crazier than where we were before.”

Lee sensed a certain glee in the “mutinous” aspect of the founding of Image Comics.

Recalled the artist: “I think the fact that we were doing something that was atypical and because we were artists — we didn’t have to do it the way the ‘big boys’ did or whatever — there was definitely a part of that that we took delight in and played up.

“A lot of us would go to conventions and sign all night and go out and have dinner, so a lot of times our meetings

with distributors or whoever wouldn’t take place until 11 o’clock at night. Our meetings would run until 3 or 4 in the morning. So we would just sort of sit around late at night, B.S.-ing about comics, the industry. A very spirited time.”

Image Comics sold books, that’s for sure. But did the company achieve its loftier goal — that is, to strike a blow for creators’ rights?

“I think we did,” The CyberForce McFarlane told me. gang in art by Marc “Some of it in an Silvestri (1992). obvious way, because we [ © 2006 Marc set out and we sort of put Silvestri ] our lance in

Getting the idea that Image was superteam crazy? A Youngblood panel by Rob Liefeld (1992). [ © 2006 Rob Liefeld ]

the ground. I think some of it, actually — although a lot of people won’t admit it — in an inadvertent way. Because some of the companies had to restructure their contracts to make sure they treated the creative community a little bit better, because they didn’t want more of an exodus.

“I would run into creative people who said they thought what we were doing was dumb. They loved where they were at. They had no intention of leaving the corporate world. Their contracts got upgraded because of some of the things that we did. So even they benefited, although they had no intention of ever causing a — quote, unquote — ‘stink.’ If you take a look at where the bar was before we left and where the bar is now, something has moved.

“As a matter of fact, Marvel and DC now have tried to tie people up to exclusive contracts, because they’re afraid people will leave. So now, they’ve almost got to chain them via contracts and make ‘non compete’ contracts, so you can’t work for anybody else.

That, to me, is silly. I’ve never done that to one artist. If you like what you’re doing, stay. If you don’t — I don’t want you to stay begrudgingly just because I’ve a piece of paper over you. The betterment of the community is there, and I think that we had some nudging inertia to do with some of it.”

FOR A LOOK AT HOW THE FOUNDING OF IMAGE Comics affected Marvel, we turned to artist Greg Capullo, who was with Marvel at the time but would move over to Image, eventually entrusted by McFarlane with no less an assignment than Spawn.

As Capullo told me in 2005: “When all those superstars — Todd and Jim Lee and so on — went off and formed Image, it left all these slots open at Marvel where I was. I went from a nothing book to X-Force. Todd spotted me really quickly and tried to recruit me at that point.”

Capullo didn’t bite — at first.

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“I didn’t really want to leave Marvel,” the artist recalled. “Image was an upstart company. I had that cool gig now. But as things were irking me a little bit at Marvel, I called Todd back and the job was still available. So he was keeping me busy with some sporadic work. Eventually, he got me to do Spawn full time.”

What irked Capullo at Marvel? In his view, Marvel responded to Image by shifting attention from artists back to characters.

“I think the thing that was bugging me — they stopped promoting the talent that was on the book,” Capullo said. “And, you know, understandably. They had just been stung. They promoted all these guys and pushed them to the forefront and made them superstars, and then all of the superstars left.

“Me being a loyal player — as Todd will attest — it bugged me that they weren’t doing anything on the artists’ behalf that way. I would mention things and was just ignored, as far as that stuff went. Then I went, ‘The hell with it,’ because Todd was offering good money and good opportunities. So I decided to give it a crack.

And that’s it. But I still have a great relationship with the guys I worked with at Marvel, the editors and such.”

Of course, Capullo was told, Lee has worked for both Marvel and DC since the Image days, so it wasn’t as if the “majors” shut the door on the Image guys entirely.

“Well,” Capullo said with a laugh, “if somebody’s got talent and they can make you money, then doors usually swing back open, you know what I mean? It’s a dollar-driven world. If you can make them money, chances are that bygones will be bygones. Unless you really ‘flamed on’ the bridge.” ‘‘Flamed on’’ — good one.

But not everyone fawned over the founders of Image Comics. ‘‘The Image guys came in like a bunch of rock stars,’’ Frank Miller told Gary Groth in The Comics Journal #209 (1998). ‘‘They were clearly expecting to get rich and famous.’’

IMAGE COMICS

Above: Batman relishes the sting of battle in Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986). From top right: Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre and Nite Owl from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen (1986). [© 2006 DC Comics]

A swishy Supes.

Superman #123 (1997). Art: Ron Frenz, Joe Rubinstein.

Thor + leather jacket + ponytail = Thunderstrike #1 (1993). Art: Ron Frenz. [© 2006 Marvel Comics]

[© 2006 DC Comics]

Would-be Batman Azrael shows no mercy.

Batman #500 (1993).

Art: Kelley Jones. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Future shock.

Spider-Man 2099 #25 (1994). Art: Rick Leonardi, Al Williamson. [© 2006 Marvel Comics]

No artist reinterpreted the classic heroes with more clarity and realism than Alex Ross. Insets, from top: The Thing and Captain America [© 2006 Marvel Comics] ; Batman and Wonder Woman [© 2006 DC Comics]. Main image: Superman surveys. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Rebel superheroes were spawned – pun intended? – by feisty publishers. Insets from top left: Pitt [© 2006 Dale Keown] ; Bloodshot [© 2006 Acclaim Comics] ; Savage Dragon [© 2006 Erik Larsen] ; Ripclaw of CyberForce [© 2006 Marc Silvestri]. Main image: Spawn [© 2006 Todd McFarlane].

What, only three guns for Stryker’s four arms? Cyber Force #2 (1993). Art: Marc Silvestri. [© 2006 Image Comics] Lobo frags away. Lobo #8 (1994). Art: Val Semeiks, John Dell. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Now, that’s a gun. Cable #17 (1994).

Art: Steve Skroce. [© 2006 Marvel Comics]

Luscious – and handy with a sword. Gen 13 #5 (1995).

Art: J. Scott Campbell. [© 2006 Aegis Entertainment]

Silver Sable gets a leg up.

Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #1 (1992). Art: Steven Butler, Jim Sanders III. [© 2006 Marvel Comics]

Heroine – or exotic dancer? Shadow State #2 (1996). Art: Dave Cockrum, Frank McLaughlin. [© 2006 Broadway Comics]

Nice definition there, Selina!

Catwoman #2 (1993). Art: Jim Balent, Dick Giordano. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Modeling Frederick’s of Hell. Lady Death in Lingerie #1 (1995).

Art: Steven Hughes, Jason Jensen. [© 2006 Chaos! Comics]

Even ‘‘Cartoon Pam’’ is fun to watch in action.

VIP #1 (2000).

Art: Tom Grindberg, Charles Barnett III. [© 2006 TV Comics]

Lois takes it hard in Superman #75 (1993). Art: Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Robin goes to pieces in Batman #428 (1988). Art: Mike Mignola. [© 2006 DC Comics]

Superman mourns his cousin Kara.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985).

Art: George Pérez. [© 2006 DC Comics]

By 1992, the superhero who started it all was losing the battle against his big, mean, nasty, ugly adversaries. We’re not talking supervillains here.

Superman was losing where it counts — at the cash register — to upstart characters such as Spawn.

If readers were taking the original superhero for granted, DC Comics seemed to conclude, then let them see what the world would be like without Superman.

“I can’t say that no one thought this wouldn’t sell books,” DC’s then-spokeswoman, Martha Thomases, told me at the time, “but that’s actually not the reason we’re doing it.

“We really wanted to delve into a storyline that explored the possibilities of what the world would be like without Superman.

And how the people of that world — and the supporting cast that we all know and love — would react to his self-sacrifice.”

Mike Carlin, then-editor of DC’s Superman titles, recalled that the death of Superman was an idea perennially pitched at editorial meetings. This time around, he said, “was the right time to do it.”

Once DC announced Supes’ pending demise (with an eight-issue prelude titled “Doomsday” that was scattered over DC’s Superman titles as well as Justice League America #69), the resulting whirlwind media coverage and fan interest made Superman #75 the most anticipated comic book event of 1992 — a year that wasn’t exactly hurting for comic book events.

The big day was November 18, 1992. (A T-shirt was later marketed with the slogan: “Where were you when Superman died?”) In the story — written and penciled by Dan Jurgens, inked by Brett Breeding — Superman was pummeled to death while defending Metropolis from Doomsday, a baddie originally characterized as a “escapee from a cosmic lunatic asylum.” (Doomday’s credentials were later softened to “escaped supervillain” for political correctness; Bill Clinton had just been elected president, after all.) Jurgens and Breeding told the story using one large panel per page, rather than multi-paneled pages.

Superman #75 was sold in two editions: “vanilla” (no perks) for $1.25 and polybagged (mucho perks) for $2.50.

The latter was a bonanza of collectibles: a fold-out back cover, a poster depicting Supes’ funeral, an obituary from the Daily Planet, a mock postage stamp, a prototype card from Skybox’s Death of Superman Trading Cards series and best

[ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Superman #75 inker Brett Breeding.

(sickest?) of all, a spiffy, black, satin arm-band.

The initial print run for Superman #75 was reported at 3 million.

DC immediately followed up with a “vanilla” reprint. Due to the expense of the arm-bands, there were no additional printings of the polybagged edition. As a result, copies of the polybagged edition were soon selling for as high as $90 (a price that would not hold).

Overall, there were four printings within a one-month period. By year’s end, Superman #75 surpassed the 4 million mark, making it the second-best-selling edition up to that time (after X-Men #1), as well as the fastest-selling issue; the best-selling non#1 issue; and the best-selling Superman issue up to that time.

DC kept the momentum going with “Funeral for a Friend,” its eight-issue followup continuity. But Carlin and his Superman team had a problem: How do you attract readers to four Superman titles, none of which even have Superman?

Superman Their solution was an inspira#75. tion: Four new Supermen. [ © 2006 At the climax of Adventures DC Comics ] of Superman #500, Superman’s coffin was found to be (gasp!) empty. In the next issues of the four Superman titles, Supes’ throne was claimed by four Supermen in a continuity titled “The Reign of Supermen.”

Action Comics #687 presented the “last son” of Krypton, who commandeered the Fortress of Solitude (writer: Roger Stern; artists: Jackson Guice and Denis Rodier).

Adventures of Superman #501 presented a randy Superboy with shades and attitude (writer: Karl Kesel; artists: Tom Grummett and Doug Hazlewood). Superman #78 presented a cyborg (script/layouts: Jurgens; finished art: Breeding). Superman: The Man of Steel #22 presented Steel, a hammer-swinging black Superman (writer: Louise Simonson; artists: Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Jenke).

All four issues featured die-cut covers and were released on the same day — shades of Kiss’s 1978 solo albums, man.

FOR ALL THE hoopla surrounding Superman’s death, it came as no surprise when the ‘‘one, true” Superman finally returned in Superman #82 (1993). What was a surprise was that he returned wearing a mullet! Was that “Doomsday” — or “Bad Hair Day?”

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Death be not proud

Mike Carlin didn’t mean to kill Superman Superman #75 editor Mike Carlin in 1993. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

WHAT LEX LUTHOR, BRAINIAC AND MR. MXYZPTLK couldn’t accomplish with weapons and powers, Mike Carlin did from behind his desk.

In 1992, Carlin made comic book history by editing Superman #75, which presented the brutal death of the Man of Steel at the hands of beefy, spikey baddie Doomsday. The heavily hyped, extravagantly packaged book attracted millions of non-traditional readers and necessitated four printings.

Carlin and his creative teams on the four Superman books then published by DC Comics — Superman, The Adventures of Superman, Action Comics and Opposite: DoomsSuperman: The Man of Steel — followed up day is just about Superman’s death with an inspired idea. Four done punching Supermen materialized to take the real Superman’s lights Superman’s place: a black man, a teenager, a out in Superman cyborg and a fellow Kryptonian. #75 (1992). Art: In a conversation conducted in 1993 — in Dan Jurgens and the midst of the Superman ballyhoo — Carlin Bret Breeding. spoke about the death of Superman and its aftermath. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] Q: For the record, who came up with the idea to kill Superman?

CARLIN: There are guys who claimed they said it first, but my experience is that since I became the editor of Superman (in 1986), I’ve been pitched a death-of-Superman idea every six months. So it really doesn’t matter. That was the right time to do it.

Q: Was the hype calculated, or did it take off by itself?

CARLIN: It totally took on a life of its own. I mean, we wrote it, so I won’t say it had nothing to do with us or our marketing people here.

We definitely rose to the occasion when it got large. But there’s no way anybody on Earth can guarantee that kind of interest. (The television program) Entertainment Tonight decides if they feel like bothering with us — we don’t command their

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attention. If there had been an earthquake or anything serious in the news, we wouldn’t have had half the success we had. And we know that.

Q: At what point did you develop the packaging — the poster, the obit, the stamps, the arm-band and so forth? Was it after you saw how much interest there was in Superman’s death?

CARLIN: That was all part of our plan. We wanted to make a big deal of it and give away some stuff. We made that a collector’s set, literally. We did try to keep the option open for those people who just wanted to read the book, by printing a regular edition as well.

On Adventures # 500, we added the card toward the end once we saw how many were ordered, because we were concerned, frankly, that stores would not be able to sell them. They ordered so many of them. So we wanted to give a free bonus there. And when you put a card in with a comic book, you have to put a bag on it. Otherwise, it falls out.

Q: Did you always know you were going to bring Superman back?

CARLIN: Oh, yeah. Yep. We knew it right from the start.

We would have been what everybody said we were if we left Superman dead.

Q: Which is?

CARLIN: Creeps.

Q: That day in November, everybody seemed to know that Superman would be back. One DC freelancer told us: “DC isn’t going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”

CARLIN: The biggest surprise for me, personally, was just Face to face with Doomsday how seriously everybody took it.

(1992). Art: Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] I mean, this is not the first time Superman died. If I thought we were doing it for the first time, I would have been nervous about doing it. It had been done so many times, and we just felt we were going to do a little more in-depth version of it.

It became a lot more in-depth when we added the four-Supermen idea.

Q: The four-Supermen concept gave us a black Superman, a teenage Superman, etc. Was that an attempt to appeal to wider segments of the comic book-reading public?

CARLIN: It was a couple of things. It was mostly an attempt to make our story bigger, because once the world got a load of Superman’s death and it became huge, we really felt we had to have a big payoff. We didn’t want to simply have Superman sit up in his coffin and say, “Hi — I’m back!” We wanted to make the story larger.

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MIKE CARLIN

The more realistic concern for us was: We have four Superman titles.

There’s a different creative team on each one — writers and artists. They all had different ideas for how to bring Superman back. The fourSuperman concept was a really easy way for them to do whatever they wanted to do. It was very freeing, considering how tightly we do our books.

Q: Did the numbers prove that you snared new readers since Superman #75?

CARLIN: Yes, sir. We’re definitely doing big box office. It’s amazing. The question, though, is will people stick with us once they’re back? We think we have good stories in the works.

We had good stories before Superman died. The problem for us was getting people to try Superman.

The death and the subsequent return handled that.

People tried it. If people try our books and they don’t like ’em, that’s cool. But the big problem for us was that people would perhaps think of Superman as a cartoon they saw when they were 8 years old, and just decide that it was corny.

We’re doing stuff that’s a little more up-to-date than that.

The story is not over. You don’t just die, rise from the dead, and go back to work the next morning.

You’ve got a lot of things to iron out and deal with.

FOUR YEARS AFTER MIKE CARLIN AND his Superman staff cooked up the concept of four Supermen filling in for the “late” original Supes, one of those Supermen hit the silver screen.

The 1997 film Steel starred basketball great Shaqille O’Neal as John Henry Irons.

The theatrical release of Steel coincided with that of the big-screen adaptation of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn (starring Michael Jai White).

This made for a bit of superhero-movie synchronicity: Though it took Superman more than 40 years to star in a feature film (faster than a speeding bullet, eh?), both Steel and Spawn did it within five. Another significant coincidence: Steel and Spawn are both AfricanAmerican superheroes.

“It’s neat and it’s synchronicity,” Carlin told me in 1997. “It’s cool and great. It’s actually kind of cool being involved in naming a character and creating his story. I did not do the creating, but I was there at the meeting where Louise (Simonson) and Jon (Bogdanove) created the character, and we just

MIKE CARLIN

The aftermath began with part one of ‘‘Funeral for a Friend’’ in The Adventures of Superman #498 (1993). Art: Tom Grummett and Doug Hazelwood. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

knew right away that it was going to be something iconic. We were thinking of John Henry, the legendary character from American history. Jon drew him at the meeting, and he was just a done deal from the minute we made him up.”

Four years after the fact, Carlin could still recall the electricity at the office.

“It sounds corny,” he said, “but we’ve literally had Superman meetings every year for over 10 years now. Some meetings really stink, and you just know that you don’t have anything amazing.

But the meetings where we came up with Steel and Superboy and the whole storyline for the return of Superman was invigorating and thrilling.

“We all knew we had something special. We didn’t realize we had, arguably, the best Superman story ever done. But it definitely was the most positive meeting we’ve ever had. And to have something land on a movie screen from that is just icing on the cake. It was fun.

“I’ve never been involved in any project that actually landed on a movie screen before. We’re the kind of people who get a kick out of a toy being made our of our characters. We’re big kids here.”

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MEAN&GREEN Image founder Erik Larsen on his alter-ego

AS ONE OF THE SEVEN FOUNDERS OF IMAGE Comics, Erik Larsen’s status as an influential participant in the Dark Age is sealed. But while some of the founders of Image eventually drifted away from the company — or diverted their attention to ventures outside of comic-book publishing itself — Larsen’s unblinking focus on one character emerged as something heartfelt and organic in a frequently plastic time: the fin-headed, greenskinned, no-nonsense cop Savage Dragon.

Larsen — who eventually attained the rank of publisher for Image Comics — spoke about creating Savage Dragon and the historic founding of Image during a 2005 conversation.

Q: How did Savage Dragon come to you?

LARSEN: It’s something that I set out to do very early on, this character that I created when I was a little kid. So really, to not do it is — I can’t conceive of such a thing (laughs). I’ve gotta do the book.

I’m all about that.

Opposite: Savage Dragon packs a wallop in the longevity department.

Art: Erik Larsen.

Q: Savage Dragon’s look is a bit more “classic” than his Image contemporaries.

Just his green skin alone is kind of Brainiac 5. Who were Savage Dragon’s spiritual parents?

LARSEN: Captain Marvel. You know, Shazam! (laughs) — not Marvel’s Captain Marvel but DC’s Captain Marvel or at that point, Fawcett’s Captain Marvel. My dad bought comics when he was a kid, so we sort of grew up with all these wonderful old Golden Age comics, all this great old stuff. That was it. That was the stuff I wanted to be.

Dragon started out as an amalgam of Captain Marvel and Batman and (the animated character) Speed Racer. And then over the years, I sort of lost every part of all of those guys, and it became something else entirely. But you can picture the Batman aspect of it, with the fin being my 10-year-old equivalent of the bat-ears. It used to be a mask, rather than something that is part of his actual head. [ © 2006 Erik Larsen ]

Q: You’ve been doing Savage Dragon for so long, he’s almost like an alter ego for you, isn’t he?

Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen.

[ Photo by Kathy Voglesong ]

LARSEN: Pretty much. I mean, it’s always easy to just base a character on yourself. It just makes your job that much simpler. You can keep track of stuff a little better if you just go, “Yeah, pretty much, he’s just me.”

Q: When Image was formed in 1992, it was you seven guys. Did you all have a very firm mission in mind?

LARSEN: Well, the thing is, I think if you ask any one of us, we would all have a different mission than the other (laughs).

Because while we were all in it together, we all had our own things that interested us and things that we wanted to do, and our own personal goals.

My personal goal was just to do this book for the rest of my life. But not everybody, obviously, had that same goal to do whatever they’re doing forever. So that was my part of it.

Q: What were the other guys’ motivations?

LARSEN: I think Todd (McFarlane) was more wanting to make his creation (Spawn) more of an icon, something that would endure for generations to

If Savage Dragon’s brawn ever fails him, there’s always his huge gun. From Savage Dragon #4 (1993).

Art: Erik Larsen. [ © 2006 Erik Larsen ]

come. He wanted to sort of become the next Bob Kane or Stan Lee or whatever that might be. And then others just wanted to fill the racks with as much stuff as they could create as possible. And others probably were in it for the cash. It was just a combination of things.

But the group of us could stand each other long enough that we got together and did this comicbook company. It worked out rather well, I thought.

Q: When you were discussing forming the company, one imagines there was a lot of potential for disagreement.

The

name of the company and the logo, for instance. Did you have your fights?

LARSEN: Not really. It almost seemed like that stuff kind of just fell into our laps.

I’m not even sure who came up with the name “Image Comics.”

We all had our own characters that we wanted to do. The company name was just kind of superfluous. It really wasn’t a big thing. I remember that at that point, in the (wholesale ordering) catalog that was coming out, everything was alphabetical. So we were like, “Well, this name will put us right between DC and Marvel.

So we’ll just be this chunk of pages riding between the two. That’ll work out OK.”

Q: You certainly made DC and Marvel scramble to retain readers. What was your take on the whole ‘‘polybagged premium’’ and ‘‘foil-embossed cover’’ craze?

LARSEN: Well, it was just a weird thing where DC and Marvel

had to compete. They were in this unenviable position of trying to compete when they didn’t have the “marquee” guys anymore. It made for some kind of desperate moves. And some of those were: “Well, what can we do? Well, we can put polybags on things.”

Those were kind of the tricks they knew at that point.

Q: Was the Image founders’ attitude along the lines of: Let’s put a hurt on those old-timers?

LARSEN: (laughs) It’s not that we were out to wound them. But if we were gonna make this successful, the thought was that it would have to be done en masse with the top talents at that point.

Q: Who were your heroes in comics?

LARSEN: I could just go all day long, really. Artist-wise, Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson and Frank Miller and John Byrne and Steve Ditko. Just a whole mess of guys were part of that.

Character-wise, I was a big fan of the Hulk, a big fan of SpiderMan. Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four was a gigantic influence — Stan (Lee) and Jack, I should say.

Q: There’s nothing like it. It’s an epic, a 100-issue epic.

LARSEN: Yeah — 102, actually (laughs). See? I am a geek. It’s official.

Q: As an artist, was it strange for you to play publisher?

LARSEN: It’s cool to be in a position to be able to help put together some really great books. Being part of that process as things are put together — and being the guy who makes some of those decisions — is awesome. I get to have there be more books that I would want to read.

‘‘(DC and Marvel) were in this unenviable position of trying to compete when they didn’t have the ‘marquee’ guys anymore.’’

A Valiant effort

Howard Simpson wants readers to believe

VALIANT COMICS WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN VALIANT Comics without Howard Simpson, an artist whose style helped defined the company’s — ergo, the era’s — look with his work in Harbinger and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.

Simpson was prolific, all right — but not so much that he lacked a personal life.

“I didn’t get to a (Jack) Kirby pace of five or six pages a day,” the artist said with a laugh during a 2004 interview, “but I did pretty well. I was averaging about two or three pages.

“I tried to maintain a balance. I tried to leave time for the family and to be social and do stuff afterwards.

Because it’s very easy to fall into drawing and not picking your head up and seeing what’s going on around you.

“As I was doing my work for Valiant, I got faster.

I was finishing my books ahead of schedule. I worked on almost every book at Valiant in some capacity, because I ultimately was helping other artists out. I was the only artist at Valiant who never missed a deadline and never had a substitute on any of the books that I drew.”

Those books included Harbinger — which Simpson very much made his own after inheriting the title from founding Opposite: The artist David Lapham — as well as odds are not Turok, X-O Manowar, Eternal Warrior, in favor of Timewalker, Deathmate and Psi-Lords.

Stronghold and Simpson’s brief tenure on Psi-Lords Livewire in came at the tail end of the title’s existence, Harbinger #16. after it had already been canceled.

Art: Howard “I knew there was nothing I could do Simpson. wrong, since I was only going to be drawing [ © 2006 Voyager two and a half issues, so I experimented with Communications ] a different style,” Simpson recalled. “And actually, it seemed like the fans responded well to it. Because they’d say, ‘Wow, if the book was drawn that way (all along), I would have kept buying it!’’’

Simpson’s style was unique for the time in that he didn’t draw the superhero de rigueur: that is, impossibly musclebound, weapons-toting and bloodthirsty. Simpson believes his cleaner, somewhat more classic figures lent believability to the superhero stunts he was called on to depict in scripts by such writers as Maurice Fontenot, Bob Layton, Timothy Truman and Anthony Bedard.

“I tried to do something that appealed to me, and not flow with any style,” the artist said, “even though at that time, I was heavily into anime and manga, and a little bit of that was starting to creep in. But it never took over my work.

“But I tried to draw comics that I’d like to see,

HOWARD SIMPSON

“If I draw an out-of-proportion body, then it’s not too much of a leap to think that he can fly. But if I draw a regularsized guy, it’s that much more fantastic to see.” which was a lot of detail, very grounded in realism. Because to me, the more realistic I can make it, then the more fantastic the fantastic things seemed. If I draw an out-of-proportion body, then it’s not too much of a leap to think that he can fly and lift heavy objects. But if I draw a regular-sized guy — well, a little over regular-sized — it’s that much more fantastic to see. ‘Wow, this almost normal-sized guy is lifting this stuff and then flying!’’’

Simpson fell in love with comics at an early age.

“I always wanted to draw comics,” he said. “From the time I was 5 years old, I made a decision to do that. The first comic I read was a Superman Giant. It was old, it was tattered, but it gave me the whole history of Superman — everything I needed to know, like Krypton and kryptonite and Supergirl. After that, I searched out the comics to buy in the stores.

“At that time, I didn’t even know I knew how to draw. I don’t remember even lifting a pencil at that stage. It wasn’t until fifth grade that I even did start drawing.

“Eventually, during college, I started to do my first work on Green Lantern and then other books at DC. I started working for other publishers. I eventually went the independent route.

I wound up at Valiant.”

After riding the crest of the Valiant wave, Simpson found himself illustrating the exploits of Disney characters (such as The Lion King ensemble) for covers and interior pages in the Disney Adventures magazine and digest, as well as Looney Tunes for DC Comics.

“I went into that because I just wanted to take a break from superheroes,” Simpson said. “I just needed to recharge and do something different.

“Plus, I wanted to do something that my kids could take to school and wouldn’t have to be embarrassed about, as far as violence is concerned.

I don’t want to be picketed in my own neighborhood.”

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Sting flies in Harbinger #23 (1993). Art: Howard Simpson. [ © 2006 Voyager Communications ]

HOWARD SIMPSON

You have to give Jim Shooter the credit for rising Phoenix-like from the ashes after his apparently unpleasant parting-of-ways with Valiant in 1992.

(“Once he got kicked out, they lived on what he created for a year,” a onetime Valiant Comics intern told me.) With Valiant’s star artist David Lapham in tow, Shooter seemed to whip up a new company, Defiant, from thin air, building it into a major player with little more than buzz in a matter of months.

You have to take points off, though, for the transparent way Defiant played to the collector mentality. Defiant’s first release — the Soylent Green-esque sci-fi saga Plasm #0 (1993) — was, depending on your viewpoint, either innovative or gimmicky.

Plasm #0 was a comic book in the form of a trading card set, with each card representing a comic-book panel. To follow the Plasm protocol, collectors had to assemble these cards in a special Plasm #0 binder. There were 15,000 first-edition binders and 30,000 second-edition binders produced. You knew things were getting out of hand when binders were considered collectible.

Here’s where the situation got a little dicey: A blow-in ad in the binders offered a mail-in coupon for a special Plasm #0 “back cover” for $9.95. Ten bucks for a back cover? Pretty nervy, but such was the speculator frenzy of 1993.

Defiant’s wasn’t the only new universe of 1993. Malibu Comics announced its ambitious Ultraverse line of interconnected superhero titles that year: Prototype, Prime, Hardcase, Strangers, Firearm, The Solution, Mantra, Freex, The Night Man, Sludge, UltraForce, Rune, Liberty, Wrath, Solitaire and Exiles. Comic shop retailers were promised for every 100 copies of a title ordered, they could purchase one “limited edition” hologram-cover of that same title for $5. “These will be hot,” the copy promised.

BUT ALL OF THIS “HOTNESS” WOULD EVENTUALLY burn the retailers. By mid-1993, the incredible glut of comic book product finally took its toll, and so the Great Boom of the early ’90s was followed by a Not-So-Great Bust. Capital City Distribution reported a rapid, industry-wide plummet in sales.

Gimmicks and #1 issues were no longer a guarantee of consumer interest. Independent publishers began to close shop left and right. An industry that had endured many peaks and valleys since its inception in the early 1930s was now deep in a valley.

Top right: Plasm #2 (1993).

Art: David Lapham. [ © 2006

Enlightened Entertainment Partners ]

Near right: Exiles (1993). Art: Paul Pelletier. [ © 2006 Malibu

Comics ]

DEFIANT, ULTRAVERSE

Good, clean, fun Art of Mike Allred a bright spot in the dark

NO BLOOD-LETTING. NO GARGANTUAN WEAPONS. No Schwarzeneggerian one-liners. No transparent self-promotion.

Mike Allred became a fan favorite during the Dark Age of Comics without stooping to any of the above. He did it the oldfashioned way: by telling good stories with good, clean art.

Not surprisingly, Allred’s titles Madman Comics, The Atomics and Red Rocket 7 amounted to good, clean fun. His love for oldschool comics — particularly Marvel’s earliest Avengers — shines through in his work. (Could Metal Man of the Atomics be any more early Iron Man-like? Could his buddy Zapman be any more Antman-like?)

During a 2004 conversation, Allred was asked what statement he was making with Madman and company.

“First and foremost, the statement would be to throw up a big flag, a symbol of my affection for comic books,” Allred said.

“As a kid, not for a second did I think that the comic books that we read and enjoyed were for kids. I didn’t feel like it was only ‘kid’ material that I was reading. It just opened me up to all kinds of possibilities. It fed my imagination. And it was so tangible, too — you could hold it and stare at it and smell it.

“That’s what is always at the forefront of my drive to be involved in comic books — just this intense affection for it.

Opposite: Madman and cohorts experience interdimensional turmoil in The Atomics #12 (2000). Right: Mike Allred’s flagship hero. Art: Mike Allred. [ © 2006 Mike Allred ]

And Madman is the ultimate figurehead for that, the icon for my affection for comics. He’s the perfect vehicle to pretty much tell any kind of story.”

Said Allred of Madman’s fellow wonky costumed do-gooders such as It Girl (meow!), Metal Man, Zapman, Lava Lass, the Slug, Mr. Gum and the Black Crystal: “It’s everything that my career has built towards — just having this very fluid series, to just have the ultimate playground. And to do material which would be appropriate for any kid to pick up and enjoy, which I think is sadly lacking in comics today. There’s very little material that you could give to a kid and have them enjoy or that would even be appropriate for them.

“At the same time, it has the same themes and hopefully, thought-provoking ideas and concepts which I’ve always tried to include in my work — accessible, but hopefully, sophisticated at that same time.

I feel like I’ve taken

some leaps, not only in my artwork, but in my storytelling.”

Allred didn’t set out to become a comic book artist. In the middle 1980s, he was teaching television and film production at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Allred said there is a “strong comic-book community” in Colorado.

“That’s when I started getting excited about the comic-book medium beyond just a hobby,” the artist said. “Up until then, it was something I loved to read. Comic books were fun. I liked having them around.”

Allred began writing and drawing his own comics. During this time, he was introduced to writer Steven T. Seagle, who was then autographing his book with artist Stefano Gaudiano, Kafka (Renegade), during an appearance at a comic shop. The two struck up a friendship.

Allred’s industry debut, the graphic novel Mike Dead Air, was Allred’s greenpublished by skinned alien hero 1989, folSpaceman. lowed by [ © 2006 Mike his first Allred ] series, Grafique Musique (Slave Labor). In late ’89, the Seagle-penned series Jaguar Stories “hooked me up” as artist, according to Allred. Allred decided to take a chance and move to Oregon in January of 1990. “I became a fulltime cartoonist,” he said.

But Jaguar Stories was illfated. According to Allred, the publisher went Chapter 11 after about half of the series had been illustrated.

“All of the artwork is gone, lost,” Allred said. “It was a bitter experience.”

Happier career moments would follow. Madman debuted in 1992 as a threeissue miniseries from Tundra, followed by Madman Comics from Dark Horse. Madman Comics — “The World’s Snappiest Comic Magazine!” — detailed the adventures of the white-clad, self-doubting title hero and his wonky circle of co-horts and nemeses, including freckled gal pal Joe and fatherly Dr. Flem.

Madman Comics was followed by The Atomics from Allred’s own imprint AAA Pop Comics. For Marvel, Allred lent his talents to X-Force, later X-Statix.

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IN 2004, THINGS CAME FULL-CIRCLE WHEN an Allred/Seagle collaboration finally hit the comic-shop racks. DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint published their offbeat one-shot, Vertical, in which readers had to view panels from top to bottom rather than left to right. The unusual format was a metaphor for the story, which concerned a member of Andy Warhol’s legendary art colony “The Factory” who has the power to jump from high places without injury. The coloring by Allred’s wife and erstwhile colorist Laura Allred was suitably Warhol-esque.

“For 10 years, we’ve been trying to come up with the perfect project to work on together,” Allred said of again working with Seagle. “Ultimately, this was the project that piqued all of our

Zilly, the Twiggy-inspired heroine of Vertical. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

MIKE ALLRED

She is It Girl, hear her roar. Luna gets something straight in The Atomics #12 (2000). Art: Mike Allred. [ © 2006 Mike Allred ]

interests — an intense interest in Andy Warhol and the culture that swirled around him and the Factory in the ’60s. Of all the concepts we discussed, this was the one that was, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’

“We loved the format of doing it vertically — telling a story where everything seems to be constantly falling, constantly going down and down.”

Not all of Allred’s art is seen in the pages of comics, though.

Fans of writer/director Kevin Smith also remember Allred’s artwork from Chasing Amy, Smith’s 1997 film set in the comics industry. (One memorable example is Allred’s cover for Bluntman and Chronic, a parody of Bob Kane’s famous Detective Comics #27 cover of 1939.

Allred’s version shows Smith as Bluntman and actor Jason Mewes as Chronic.)

Smith has often expressed his appreciation for Allred’s art. Allred likewise acknowledges Smith’s talents, but with a considerable caveat.

“It was thrilling,” Allred said of seeing his artwork on the screen. “But at the same time, he’s my greatest curse.

“I’m really thrilled with his success, and also that I’ve been able to be a part of it. But as much as I

love his work, I also have a conflict with it. It’s a little too adult for my taste. I’m a family man, so it’s a mixed bag. I have a huge affection for him and what he does and his creativity, but his material isn’t for all tastes. I can’t always share that with people from my circle here.”

Allred believes Smith’s sometimes crude sense of humor is an innate aspect of his personality.

“I mean, it’s just built in,” Allred said. “He’s a walking contradiction. It’s one of the things I find endlessly fascinating about him. He’s a very spiritual person, and yet he’s drawn to this poop-joke humor, to put it kindly. It’s a strange thing.”

Allred believes this dichotomy is illustrated

by Dogma, Smith’s religion-themed comedy which drew controversy.

“Dogma, I think, is the greatest example of that,” Allred said. “It’s a deeply affectionate work for him, but highly controversial. In some cases, it created the opposite effects of his intentions, which was to throw a spotlight on his faith.

“So I admire him for that. I think he’s a very brave person. He’s his own self. He’s his own person. No outside force is going to put him in a box. You’ve got to really respect people like that, and I certainly do.”

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The whole thing explained Understanding writer/artist Scott McCloud

com-ics (kom’iks) n. plural in form, used with a singular verb.

Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and-or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.

THAT DEFINITION MAY SOUND A LITTLE DRY, SOMEwhat didactic. But although much of the text in writer/artist Scott McCloud’s 1993 book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Tundra) — from which the definition was culled — occasionally tumbles into dry-and-didactic territory, the book comes across as anything but.

In 215 pages, all in Opposite: comics form, McCloud Great Scott! takes us on a graphic Writer/ artist odyssey that identiScott McCloud fies, defines and as he saw himexplains previously self, hosting unwritten theories Understanding about how the Comics. medium of [ © 2006 Scott comics works.

McCloud ] He accomplishes this with an easy-on-the-eyes, cartoony style (“hosted” by a self-caricature) which lends the book an undeniable accessibility. McCloud deciphers primitive cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Bayeaux Tapestry and pre-Columbian manuscripts, making the case that these are early forms of comics. He explains how time flows through comics, how motion is depicted, the use of iconography, color theory and the relationship between panels.

The Boston native worked in the production department of DC Comics (“Essentially a day job, but it was great preparation”) before kicking off his own comic book Zot! for Eclipse in 1984. In a 1993 interview, McCloud explained that Understanding Comics took about 15 months to write and draw.

Q: What does the word “invisible” in the title refer to?

McCLOUD: Actually, it has a few meanings. I called the book The Invisible Art partially because comics themselves, as an art form, have been virtually invisible in popular culture. I also called it that because I think that the heart of comics is that invisible world between the panels, where audience’s imaginations have to complete a scene.

Right: Writer/artist Scott McCloud in 1993. [ Photo by Kathy Voglesong ]

Q: In your book, you use the word “closure” to describe the process of perceiving a whole by viewing the parts. One can’t quite find a dictionary definition for “closure” that agrees with your usage. Is that an art-school term of which Webster’s isn’t aware?

McCLOUD: That’s an invented definition I appropriated from (media critic) Marshall McLuhan. I’m not even sure McLuhan used it in quite the same way. But because I was entering forbidden, unexplored territory, I actually had to take some liberties and invent a few definitions of my own, including my definition for comics.

“Closure” comes as close as any word to describing the phenomenon that I saw in comics.

histories or how-to books. I really admired Will’s example, and wanted to continue that work. When Will’s book came out, people generally accepted it and congratulated him on a job well done, but there wasn’t debate. I think he would have liked there to be more.

So I’m hoping to spark some more debate with this book, because both Eisner and I would really like to see an ongoing dialogue about the nature of comics, not just a lot of congratulations and back-patting.

Q: Some of what you present in Understanding Comics are hardand-fast facts about the medium, but you also mix in personally held theories. Were you trying to push some personal ideals with the book, perhaps subconsciously?

McCLOUD: Oh, sure. Even though the book is ostensibly neutral — I don’t devote a lot of time talking about how to tell good comics from bad comics — I think it’s inevitable in 215 pages that certain biases and prejudices are going to show through. In the end, it is a bit of a personal statement of where I think comics can go. I choose to see comics in the way I do because that presents the most exciting possibilities. But one could certainly lay an entirely different theoretical framework on comics, and produce very different results. It is a very personal book in a lot of ways.

Q: You bring up manga — Japanese comics — frequently in your book.

Magna storytelling is vastly different from that of American comics. What are inherent differences between the Eastern and Western cultures that the comics storytelling styles are so different?

Q: You frequently refer to Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art (1992), the first book to take on this tricky subject matter. How did his book influence yours?

McCLOUD: A lot of the ideas for Understanding Comics were already brewing when I came across Will’s book. But Will definitely opened the debate, in a public way, on the nature of the art form.

All books before Comics and Sequential Art had been primarily

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McCLOUD: Although there are many varied differences between Japanese comics and American comics, probably the one word which sums them all up is “involvement.” The Japanese are masters at involving the reader in the role-playing aspect of comics, rather than telling a linear story in a very detached way.

This does, I think, have resonances in the differences between Eastern and Western culture, although I wouldn’t want to generalize too much. There are always exceptions. But for that reason — because Japanese comics are so involving, because you are sucked right into those comics and become a part of the story — Japan has an enormous comics industry. Comics are read by people of all ages, sexes and backgrounds. For that reason, the Japanese comics industry sell probably four or five times as

Above and opposite: More ruminations. [ 2006 Scott McCloud ]

SCOTT McCLOUD

many comics in a country half the size (of the United States). It certainly has resonances with traditional ideas about Western and Eastern culture, the fact that in the Eastern culture, there’s more of an acceptance of labyrinthian and (non-narrative) works.

McCLOUD: I know. And sometimes it really shows, too (laughs). A lot of black-and-white comics look like color comics without the color. It’s very sad.

I think there are profound differences between black-and-white and color.

McCLOUD: A little of both. I have a history of comics going back quite a ways.

But when I began the book, I went on the conviction that there were probably other major gaps in comics history that I didn’t know about, and I began to look around through the history of art, and began to find other precedents that I hadn’t noticed before. I was also helped quite a bit by the discovery of a book by a man named Jeffrey Kunzle (The Early Comics Strip, 1973), who had compiled an enormous tome chronicling ancient comics from European broadsheets dating back as far as 1450.

He helped me to fill in European history quite a bit.

McCLOUD: Comics readers by and large — those who read for the enjoyment of a good story — don’t like style getting in the way. When they become accustomed to one particular style, that style vanishes and they see only the reality of the story. So when you read a Curt Swan Superman, you saw Superman flying through the air, you saw him punching buildings and lifting cars. But with another artist’s work — one whose Superman drawing you were unfamiliar with — you saw drawings on paper. The drawings have formed a barrier to your comprehension and enjoyment of that other reality, which Curt Swan had become just a window to.

Q: You spend quite a portion of your book analyzing ancient cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Were you always infatuated with art history, or did you do crash research for the book?

Q: Utilizing, as you do, the comics format itself — rather than presenting your ideas in text form — gives the book an accessibility it wouldn’t otherwise have. Some of the word-balloon text can be academic, but there’s never more than about 40 words per balloon.

Q: Why do people have such personal and subconscious reactions to certain artists’ styles? Thinking back to my childhood, I remember loving Curt Swan’s Superman artwork without even knowing Swan’s name.

Q: You refer to Eisner, Carl Barks, Jack Kirby, Art Spiegelman and Osamu Tezuka as the masters of the medium.

But you also acknowledge that because comics have such a lengthy history, and because so many comic books have been produced, that no one person can know the whole no matter how voraciously he collects, reads, studies.

Given that, can one really say who the masters are? Isn’t this too subjective, based as it is on personal knowledge and preferences?

McCLOUD: Yes, about 40 — that’s my max. Although I never envisioned the book as anything other than comics, as time went on I became more and more certain that comics was the right medium. Because I realized the ideas I was expressing in comics form, if transMcCLOUD: As my friend (Tales of the ferred to text, would really baffle a lot Beanworld creator) Larry Marder likes of people. And yet, if I’m able to show to say, the people who are going to it, it becomes much clearer. And the decide who the great masters of the comprehension level, the learning curve 20th century comics are haven’t even for my audience, is a lot steeper. been born yet. This is true of music Certainly, this book could be read by and art and literature. Those determinafairly young readers — let’s say high tions are made many, many years after school age, junior high, even — and we’re all just dust. I can only guess McCloud identifies the six possible relationships understood to a very large extent. If it who’s going to survive the test of time. between panels in comics. [ 2006 Scott McCloud ] were in text form, it would just be I think that (Tintin creator) Herge and ignored. It might have made a few ripKirby and Tezuka and Eisner and Spiegelman are likely candidates, ples in academic circles, and then died a quick and merciful death. but that’s just my prediction. There’s no telling what obscure, Q: You seem to have a lot of reverence for the black-and-white form under-recognized, impoverished artist slaving away on some tiny in comics. A lot of people working in black-and-white only wish black-and-white independent comic with a print run of 200 may yet they could work in color. ascend to those heights.

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SCOTT McCLOUD

Long-overdue strides were made in the area of superhero diversity during the Dark Age of Comics.

1993 saw the release of the first comic books from the African American-owned Milestone Comics line, which published black superhero titles Hardware, Static, Icon and Blood Syndicate. Like Superman’s Metropolis and Batman’s Gotham City, the Milestone heroes had their own fictional base: Dakota City.

Milestone Media was formed by writer Dwayne McDuffie, artist Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle and Michael Davis. Milestone’s releases were distributed through DC Comics. More Milestone titles followed the initial four, including Kobalt, Shadow Cabinet, Xombi and Deathwish.

Meanwhile, other publishers were introducing black superheroes. Image Comics’ characters Spawn, Chapel, Rapture and Shadowhawk were black, as were Marvel’s Bishop, Shard and Captain Marvel; Big City’s Brotherman and DC’s Superman spinoff, Steel.

“When I was a kid, there were two black characters in comic books,” McDuffie told my colleague Eric Deggans in 1994.

“Three years ago, there were two black characters in mainstream comics that had their own books. Since we’ve launched, we’ve seen more characters of color as supporting characters at other companies. But if you’ve been around for 50 years, and for 40 years you did nothing but white guys, you could do nothing but minorities for 10 years and not catch up.”

McDuffie’s comments sounded like a slam at DC Comics. But Mike Carlin, then DC’s executive editor, defended DC when Deggans contacted him.

“We’ve had minority characters for years,” Carlin said. “But it’s been a response to what the real world is like, not because of anything that Milestone, Image or anyone else is doing.”

Deggans pointed out that Superman and his inner circle — Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White — are all white characters.

“We’ve been handed a set of characters and we have to do what we can,” Carlin said. “It doesn’t make Superman wrong to be white. To have a character like Jimmy Olsen, after 50 years with red hair and freckles, suddenly appear black is even more offensive — it’s tokenism.”

McDuffie rejected the theory that white readers would not be interested in black characters.

“Black kids love Thor and Spider-Man,” he said, “so there’s no reason why white kids can’t love Hardware.’’

Top right: Static (1993). Near right: Icon and Rocket in a cover detail from Icon #1 (1993).

Art for both: Denys Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti. [ 2006 Milestone Media ]

DIVERSITY IN COMICS

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Capes on canvas

Heroes live and breath in Alex Ross art

WHILE OTHER ARTISTS WERE REINTERPRETING classic superheroes during the Dark Age by adding armor, robotics, prosthetics, high-tech weaponry, goatees, ponytails and — invariably — unflagging scowls, Alex Ross had a different idea.

With painstakingly rendered watercolor-and-gouache paintings, and utilizing live models, Ross presented the classic heroes as they would look in real life. In art that evoked Norman Rockwell, Ross faked nothing; every face, locale, “camera angle” and light source rang true.

The artist captured the comicsOpposite: Galactus shows reading public’s attention in 1994 no mercy to puny Earthwith Marvel Comics’ four-issue lings in 1994’s Marvels. miniseries Marvels, in which he [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ] and writer Kurt Busiek retold key Left: Ross’s Superman events in the formation of the stands proud in 1998’s Marvel Universe from the point Superman: Peace on of view of the man in the street.

Earth. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] Ever since, Ross has steered the superhero genre in a direction all his own with Kingdom Come (DC heroes reconvene in the 21st century, written by Mark Waid), U.S. (a mentally ill homeless man may or may not be Uncle Sam, written by Steve Darnall) and a series of large-format graphic novels spotlighting Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America (all written by Paul Dini).

Ross subscribed to the wisdom that illustrating a comic book is akin to working in a vacuum, owing to the delayed response to the work.

“It’s a very solitary type of pursuit,” Ross told me in 1994. “Not so much the craft of painting that I do — it’s more the intensity of doing the number of paintings it would take to produce a periodical of a comic.

“To exist in

The nation (even J. Jonah Jameson) is caught in the grip of FF-mania in Alex Ross art from 1994’s Marvels. [ 2006 Marvel Comics ]

the medium that I do, they (readers) really need to have that kind of material published from you as regularly as possible. The fans don’t have a very long memory. They need to keep seeing you. So you can’t disappear for years on end just to complete one 60-page work.

I’d better be able to turn around something once a year. That can very well kill me sometimes, but it’s what I have to do to maintain a certain amount of market presence.”

In Marvels, Ross showed recognizable celebrities (such as Patrick Stewart, Russell Johnson, Timothy Dalton and Bea Arthur) “playing” characters in the story. After defecting to DC, Ross apparently abandoned the practice.

“Obviously,” the artist said, “I could get away with a little bit more of that stuff then, since Marvel pays less attention than DC does to that kind of thing. But I also reached a saturation point of putting a lot of the hidden guffaws in the background in both Marvels and Kingdom Come. I wanted to wean people off of that in my work. They got to like that almost a little too much. Basically, it’s only distracting.”

1998’s Superman: Peace on Earth opened with a tree-lighting

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ceremony in Metropolis, during which Superman spots a starving girl in the crowd of thousands. After flying her to a homeless shelter, Superman attends the Daily Planet’s office Christmas party in his guise as reporter Clark Kent. But Superman/Kent steals away from the party to the Planet’s “morgue” — newspaper-ese for clipping library — where he takes a crash course on world hunger.

Thus begins a journey that takes Superman around the globe.

At the time, Ross was asked if world hunger was a big cause for him. “Geez,” the artist said, “I don’t want anybody to be hungry.

The greater ambition of the book might be that what he (Superman) accomplishes, what he learns, what he does in the story, is the same as what the book does, which is to shed light on the issue itself.

There are millions, if not billions, of people who are hungry. It’s something the average kid, the average adult, is really ignorant of in our modern Western culture. It’s a big thing just to accomplish that feat alone, to put that thought in people’s minds: that you should want the world to be saved from hunger. That you should want to do as Superman does, which is to try to find some solution.”

On the 60th anniversary of Batman in 1999, when it came time

ALEX ROSS

for Ross and Dini to take on that formidable comic-book icon, they managed to uncover a fresh angle.

“It really was a matter of spending a lot of time going over the aspects of the character that have never been fully explored,” said Ross, “that maybe we’ve just absorbed, dismissed and don’t really think about. We had to remind ourselves that we assume things too quickly about Batman. We let things just slide right by.”

The team’s fresh angle? “At his core,” Ross said, “he’s a rich man. He’s a rich man fighting his own personal war here. Think about that in the context of what it means to him. So much of crime is based upon survival for the lower classes, for people whose options are few and far between.

“I mean, not all crime is guys in leotards running around trying to screw with Batman,” Ross added with a chuckle. “I know a certain percentage of it is, but not all.”

The result was Batman: War on Crime, which examined the premise that Bruce Wayne, being a man of wealth and influence, is able to witness firsthand how corruption in high places paves the way for violent crime at the opposite end of the economic spectrum.

In Ross and Dini’s story, Batman has a climactic standoff with a street punk who has turned to a life of crime after his parents were

killed in a holdup. Sound familiar?

Said Ross: “I really wanted to put Batman face-to-face with something that might be uncomfortable for a lot of people — examining more of the truth of it. I ran into resistance from friends who were aware of what I was doing. They urged me, through whatever their experiences, to believe that crime was a variation of: ‘Some people just do evil things.’ But that’s more the exception than the rule. The rule is based upon survival — people stealing, doing whatever it takes, to survive. That’s much of what happens from the economic disparity we have around us.

“And so what better thing to focus on with Batman than his being above that? And the possibility that by being above it, he cannot fully understand what he is up against, unless he were to experience it himself. Bruce Wayne is coming from an environment, an entire lifetime, of being rich. So how can he say he fully knows where (criminals) are coming from? So he has to put his mind into that a little bit. He has to question himself on that level.

“In truth, that’s a question that wouldn’t occur with Batman just in this one story; it would occur with Batman all the time. He would be fully aware of it. But we make a specific point of it.”

Ross backed up that lofty premise with his realistic artwork. One

A street person who looks a lot like Uncle Sam stares down the police in the 1997 Vertigo release, U.S. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

Batman swoops down on Gotham City in 1999’s Batman: War on Crime. Opposite: A global-minded avenger in 2001’s Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth. [ © DC Comics ]

particularly breathtaking page shows Batman swooping down from the rooftops of a teeming Gotham City at night.

“I was trying to make it look like a city that was not so overly characteristic as, say, Gotham City was to the Batman movies,” Ross said. “I wanted something that essentially looked like your middle-of-the-road urban metropolis, like New York or Chicago.”

The following year, Ross and Dini put their spin on Captain Marvel in Shazam! Power of Hope. Fittingly, the story was set at a children’s hospital. (Remember, Captain Marvel is a child himself.)

The late actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in four films between 1978 and 1987, was the impetus for the concept behind Power of Hope.

Recalled Ross: “I remember hearing about Chris Reeve, at the time when he was first playing Superman, actually going into children’s hospitals. It made me think: Can you imagine the impact that it would have had at the time, for the man who’s playing this superhero — of course, seen as that superhero by young kids — to see that guy in a children’s hospital?

“Taking that a step further, to imagine it’s not simply an actor, but in fact this is the superhero character who shows up at the children’s hospital. The impact would be so riveting. I could just imagine the emotions of those kids, the power that that would convey to them, the impression, of course, and the humanity that the character would show by actually doing something like that.”

In the period between the release of Power of Hope and Ross’s next offering, Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth, came America’s darkest day: the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. You can bet Ross wished Spirit of Truth — in which Wonder Woman fights a terrorist junta — weren’t so infernally relevant.

“At the time (of the terrorist attacks),” Ross recalled later in 2001, “I was in the last 10 pages of the book. We had planned a year ago to send Wonder Woman into the Middle

East. And there’s a clear scene of Wonder Woman surrounded by Muslim people and also fighting to liberate some of the Muslims from their own people who are enslaving them.

“And the metaphors to the times that we are now focused in are very powerful — to the point where, the minute I saw what happened, one internal fear became, ‘Oh, damn, I might get censored.’

Because it’s almost too timely, much in the same way a lot of movies and television shows got pulled. This would have potentially similar issues to it.

“But the difference is, we were very much directly dealing with the issue head on, in terms of Middle Eastern strife, without commenting upon any of the specific countries or faiths involved. We just show you a culture you can very easily recognize. So we end up having a book that, through no fault of our own, is more timely than we ever imagined.”

Ross felt that Wonder Woman, who is an Amazonian transplanted to America, was best suited to this type of story.

“We’re showing a character who is very clearly dealing with all types of situations worldwide,” the artist

The X-Women never looked so X-cellent.

Alex Ross art from 1994’s Marvels #0. [ 2006 Marvel Comics ]

said, “meaning that this is a very global character. So wherever there is strife, wherever there is worry, that person is there. This is a character that doesn’t have a city to focus her activities around. So we clearly give you the impression of what issues are concerned on the grand scale.”

In 2002 came JLA: Secret Origins, followed by JLA: Liberty and Justice. Said Ross of the latter book: “The biggest payoff is not so much, ‘Boy, you’re gonna be so excited about my plot.’ It’s more like, ‘Hey, you’re going to get to see me paint all the classic Justice League guys running around in a story together.’ That’s the biggest appeal for me as a creative person. I’m able to work on these classic characters for the first time, really, in my entire career with DC. “I’ve drawn maybe one-shot or two images here and there of the different heroes in their classic looks, but I’ve finally got the opportunity to do a project that realistically, I couldn’t even do within the mainstream DC universe, where you’ve got your classic Barry Allen Flash, your Hal Jordan Green Lantern, your Green Arrow and Black Canary

together. Just all parts of the original, classic Justice League working together.”

The question of how many hours Ross spends on a page is a recurring — and difficult — one.

“That’s the hardest question,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing that can’t be judged on that level. It’s not like I ever sit down and compose a page from start to finish. What I do is, I allot the particular number of pages I’m doing in a particular month, which is usually 10. I’ll basically cut up the process of the month doing a couple of weeks on pencils, a couple of weeks on the first stage of painting, and then a few days left over to put the final finishing touches of color and airbrush and whatever else I incorporate into making the final product.”

During one of our conversations, Ross howled when told that in viewing his

artwork, one is struck with the notion that such a perfectionist must neglect his personal life.

“It’s funny,” Ross said. “Your astute comment is the most to-thebone summation I could have gotten in my whole life. ‘This guy, you can tell by looking at his work how much he neglects his personal life.’ Boy! Man! I’ve never heard that amount of accuracy lodged at myself.

“Most people look at the accomplishments of others and assume that that person has it great. ‘Damn, I wish I was him.’ When the truth is that usually, the person who is doing that exhaustive work — through whatever their obsession or determination — has basically neglected so many other things they could have enjoyed or done in the meantime. I would definitely fall into that category.

“It’s like — the rest of your life that you enjoy and get to see and do? That wouldn’t exist if you were doing this kind of thing.

You wouldn’t really get the extra time in the day to fit in those other things.”

RAISING

Mike Mignola talks about summoning the demonic character

IT’S NOT HARD TO TRACE THE ORIGINS OF the pop-culture smorgasbord that is Hellboy.

The red-skinned, stone-faced, trenchcoat-wearing avenger borrows from Captain America (he has World War II origins), The X-Files (he’s a paranormal investigator), the Fantastic Four’s orange-skinned Thing (he has a stone arm) and The Demon (Jack Kirby homages abound), among other sources.

Opposite and right: Hellboy was summoned, er, created Mike Mignola’s by writer-artist Mike Mignola at a time flagship character when the creator-owned revolution was from The Art of hitting its stride. Hellboy debuted from Hellboy. [ © 2006 Dark Horse Comics in 1994. A demon Mike Mignola ] conjured for Nazi use but adopted by the U.S. Army, Hellboy (alter ego: Anung Un Rama) grew up to become an agent for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

Mignola discussed Hellboy and another memorable career moment — his quartet of covers for the 1988 “A Death in the Family” series, which presented the reader-approved death of Robin — during a 2005 conversation.

Q: In the ’90s, there was a revolution in the realm of creatorowned characters. But yours seems to have caught on without the big hype. Hellboy kind of overtook a lot of his contemporaries among the creator-owned characters that sprung out of that early-to-mid-’90s period.

MIGNOLA: I mean, so much of the stuff that came out of Image — not to say anything bad about those guys as a whole — but there was so much hype and there was so much fanfare around that stuff. Hellboy came out small and certainly, for at least 10 years there, it was relatively steady. I didn’t expand it all over the place. I tried not to wear out my welcome. I just kind of kept my head down and did what I wanted to do. Nobody was more surprised than me when that worked.

Q: Let’s talk about all of the elements you brought into the character. I see some of the Captain America legend in Hellboy’s World War II origins. One of his arms reminds me of the Thing. I sometimes recog-

MIKE MIGNOLA

Writerartist J. O’Barr.

[ Photo

by Kathy Voglesong ]

nize B-movie stuff. There can be a lot of humor in the stories.

MIGNOLA: It was always in my mind that Hellboy would be the only thing like this that I ever create. So it really is my dumping ground for everything I’ve ever liked. And everything I like, I want to put in there. It’s like I want to let the audience know that, yeah, I grew up reading old Marvel comics so, yeah, I wanted a little touch of Captain America and that kind of stuff in there. I like certain old movies. I like certain books. I’ll read a certain kind of book and go, “Oh, I’d like to do a Victorian ghost story kind of thing, because I love that kind of stuff.” Or I read some old pulp magazine stuff and go, “Oh, I kind of want to do a story like that.”

Fortunately, Hellboy was created to embrace all of that stuff. I didn’t create him just to do a certain type of story. I can literally do anything with that guy. If I want to put him in space, I’m pretty sure I can find a way to put him in space.

Q: Hey — Eisner put the Spirit in space.

MIGNOLA: That’s right.

Q: With superhero movies, it seems that comic-book fans either love them or hate them on a case-by-case basis. We

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have so many expectations of how we think a comic book should be translated onto the screen. What did you think of the 2004 Hellboy movie (starring Ron Perlman)?

MIGNOLA: I was real happy. It hit a really good note. I knew it would. I knew the director (Guillermo del Toro) knew what he was doing. It’s the movie I thought he was going to make. It’s the movie he told me he was going to make, the very first time I met him.

Q: What did you hear from fans of Hellboy the comic?

MIGNOLA: I was happy that the Hellboy audience embraced the movie, because it was a little different from the comic. But I figured we’d get that audience — kind of preaching to the converted.

The big surprise was that the general public embraced it as much as they did, that it got the really good reviews from the regular media. So, yeah, I think I kind of really got away with something there.

Hellboy battles a beastie reminiscent of Jack Kirby’s Fin Fang Foom phase.

From The Art of Hellboy. [ © 2006 Mike Mignola ]

Q: You illustrated the covers for “A Death in the Family.” The one cover everybody remembers is the “death of” issue itself, Batman #428, in which you drew a closeup of Robin’s face at the moment of the explosion. Since there was so much going on around that issue, with the 900-line vote and everything, we have to ask: When you drew that cover, did you know whether or not Robin was going to survive the blast?

MIGNOLA: You know (laughs), it’s so amazing to me that people are still talking about that damn thing. I didn’t know if he was going to live or die, because I did the cover ahead of time. So the idea was: I’ll draw him dead, and if he lives, then it’s just a cover of him being badly hurt. I’ve gotta say — I don’t think I was giving it a lot of thought. I never imagined I’d be talking about it all these years later.

Q: So ‘‘A Death in the Family’’ is something that fans bring up often?

MIGNOLA: You know, it does crop

up. When people talk about my career, that is one of the covers that a lot of people kind of go back to. I wish I had something profound to say about it. But at the time, it was just another job.

Q: You bobbed and weaved your way through that period of comics when gimmicks such as polybagged premiums and cover enhancements abounded. What was your take on that trend?

MIGNOLA: I thought it was amazingly grotesque. It’s so gross to me.

It’s so much not what I do. It’s not what I care about. Believe me — if there are tricks to make comics sell, I can certainly understand it. But I don’t like it.

I think ultimately, all of that kind of garbage is really bad for the business. Because, as we saw in the ’90s, it creates this false hype that this stuff is going to be valuable, and it’s all fake, of course.

Everybody saves this garbage. It’s not valuable at all. You attract people to the business for the wrong reasons. You get people to buy multiple copies of stuff, and then it turns out the stuff is all garbage. It has no value at all. And everybody gets (angry). The people that did come to the business leave. It’s just bad.

The trick to the thing is to make better stories. It’s always going to come down to what people read. Comics are not trading cards.

Comics are, theoretically, a way to tell stories. And that (excrement) isn’t anything to do with telling stories.

Fans often bring up Mignola’s covers for the death-of-Robin issues Batman #426-#429 (1988). [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

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How does an old fogey compete with a young whipper-snapper? During the Dark Age of Comics, longestablished characters whose circulations were threatened by upstart challengers simply . . . changed their pajamas!

Aquaman lost a hand, but gained a hook, a beard, long hair and a scowl. Iron Man’s armor was tweaked interminably. Everybody’s favorite robot fighter, Magnus, got a new get-up (goodbye hot pants, hello shoulder armor) in Valiant’s Magnus Robot Fighter #25 (1993).

Daredevil’s makeover transpired over a seven-issue continuity beginning in Daredevil #319 (1993). DD’s costume was augmented with armor, and its color was changed from all-red to blueand-maroon. Perhaps Matt Murdock’s blindness contributed to this unfortunate color scheme?

“You’ve got to be kidding,” exclaimed Robin in Batman #500 (1993), when he happened upon the design sketches for a new Batman costume — sketches which fill-in Batman Jean Paul Valley (a.k.a.

Azrael) carelessly left laying around the Batcave, mind you. Batman’s new look favored eyeball-threatening sharp points.

The continuity, spearheaded by Dennis O’Neil (who never shied away from shaking up the Batman franchise), was historic as the first time Bruce Wayne was taken out of the picture, and the first time the Batman costume was updated to such a radical extent.

DC went to town to make Superboy edgier in Superboy Annual #1 (1994): a black leather jacket, a flowing headband, spikes, shredded trousers and, of course, that nigh inescapable

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scowl. This was one of DC’s Elseworlds books, and its slogan bespeaks the whole superhero makeover phenomenon: “Where familiar faces are no longer familiar.”

A weird and prevalent trend had fresh characters bastardizing the costumes and vague sensibilities of established characters, and then carrying on their missions — invariably with a less forgiving attitude.

Thus, Iron Man begat War Machine, Thor begat Thunderstrike and Batman begat the nasty “Azrael” Batman.

In 1992, Marvel kicked off an entire line in this vein with Spider-Man 2099 #1. The inaugural title followed the adventures of the Spidey of 102 years in the future: Miguel O’Hara (who had no connection to Peter Parker).

The story had its futuristic touchs, but nothing over-the-top à la The Jetsons. Joey Cavalieri edited, Peter David wrote, Rick Leonardi penciled and EC legend Al Williamson inked the series. Hot on the heels of Spider-Man 2099 was Doom 2099, Punisher 2099 and Ravage 2099. (Stan Lee himself jumped back into monthly-comic-book-scripting mode with Ravager 2099 for the first seven issues.) All of the #1 issues had — are you sitting?

— foil-stamped covers.

More titles in the series were XMen 2099, Hulk 2099 and 2099 Unlimited.

Let’s not forget about the four (!) Supermen DC introduced in 1993 following “The Death of Superman” continuity: Steel, Superboy, the last son of Krypton and the cyborg. When Supes himself returned from the “dead,” his makeover was minor, if embarrassing: a mullet hairstyle.

Of course, there were

Thunderstrike (left) and Superboy (above).

[ © 2006 Marvel Comics, DC Comics ]

MAKEOVERS

New looks for old heroes! Left: War Machine #8 (1994). Art: Gabriel Gecko and Pam Eklund.

Below: Daredevil #334 (1994) Art: Tom Grindberg. [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

those characters who literally took over the original superhero’s identity. Post-Dick Grayson Robins included Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Carrie Kelley. Wally West assumed Flash duties after Barry Allen disintegrated in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Never mind how many Green Lanterns have worn the power ring.

Sometimes superhero makeovers were more in the realm of content than visuals. In 1986, DC had John Byrne retell Superman’s origin in the six-issue miniseries The Man of Steel. In 1993, DC added a member to its robot team the Metal Men in the form of formerly human Doc Magnus: Veridium. (Doc got to keep his precious pipe, thankfully.) Early in 1996, Marvel announced that it signed year-long contracts with onetime defectors Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld to “pencil, produce and reshape” its classic characters Captain America, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and Iron Man. The series was titled “Heroes Reborn.”

The superhero makeover trend reached its nadir in 1997, when DC performed a radical makeover on Superman — costume and powers — in Superman #123 (edited by Cavalieri, written by Dan Jurgens, with art by Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein). Superman turned a glowing blue and resembled Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley on steroids.

“So far, so good,” then-DC executive editor Mike Carlin told me at the time, when asked about response to the new Supes.

“Plenty of people hate it, plenty of people love it, which is all we can ask for — to get people talking about it. Honestly, all we ever feel is that we want to put out something that is a cool story, whether it’s a cool updating of something we liked when we were kids or whatever. We’ve never seen this before with Superman.”

But Carlin sounded as if he and his staff felt a bit disheartened by all of the nay-sayers out there.

MAKEOVERS

“I am sometimes distressed at the level of venom that some people have towards us for just trying to do something that they haven’t seen before,” Carlin groused.

“Personally, that’s why I go to the movies and read comics and read books, is to see something I haven’t seen a million times before. So that gets to us sometimes. At the same time, it doesn’t stop us from trying.

And nobody’s ever going to convince me that this wasn’t a good try.

“It got people talking about Superman. It is a story literally about what Superman is and what he stands for — not about what he’s wearing and what he can do with his eyes. I mean, it’s about: ‘The clothes don’t make the man.’ Ma and Pa Kent made him what he is, and nothing’s going to change that, no matter how much we torture him.

“The fact that some people are aggravated about the costume is strange to me, because we’ve certainly done worse things to Superman. I mean, killing somebody is a lot heavier than changing his shirt.”

Yes, Virginia, there really was an Archie/Punisher crossover.

Bullets fly in the superhero crossover BatmanPunisher: Lake of Fire (1994).

Note that this is the Azrael-era Batman. Art: Barry Kitson and James Pascoe.

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[ © 2006 DC Comics , Marvel Comics ]

That should give you an inkling of how prevalent inter-publisher crossovers became during the Dark Age of Comics. Publishers — especially independents — welcomed crossovers as an opportunity to expose their characters to new readers. The buzz factor was enormous.

Crossovers were a win-win situation.

Batman was cowls above all other characters in the realm of crossovers. DC’s Batman met Marvel’s the Punisher; Matt Wagner’s Grendel; Dark Horse’s Judge Dredd and Predator; Image’s Spawn (in an initial faceoff written by Frank Miller and illustrated by Todd McFarlane); and participated in a comprehensive Marvel / DC crossover miniseries.

That four-issue series, DC Versus Marvel / Marvel Versus DC (1995), depicted 11 battle royales: Batman vs. Captain America; Superman vs. the Hulk; Superboy vs. Spider-Man; Lobo vs.

Wolverine; Wonder Woman vs. Storm; Green Lantern vs. Silver Surfer; Captain Marvel vs.

Thor; Flash vs. Quicksilver; Robin vs. Jubilee; Catwoman vs. Elektra; and Aquaman vs. the SubMariner. (Five of the battles were voted on by readers via ballots found in stores and online.)

Before long, DC and Marvel merged as Amalgam Comics, publishing nothing but crossovers.

Dark Horse kept Predator busy. Besides meeting Batman in 1991 and thereafter, Predator tussled with the toothy mama from Alien (14 years before the two monsters tussled onscreen) and Magnus, the latter in the Valiant Comics crossover Predator vs. Magnus Robot Fighter (1992).

The following year, Valiant joined forces with Image Comics to produce Deathmate, a comprehensive six-issue crossover. The plot had Valiant’s Solar meeting up with Image’s Void (a WildC.A.T. hottie) during a spate of dimension-hopping, thus plunging their respective universes into disarray.

In on the fun were Bob Layton, Joe Quesada and Barry Windsor-Smith of Valiant, and Jim Lee,

CROSSOVERS

Above: Duking it out in DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC (1995). [ © 2006 DC Comics , Marvel Comics ] Below: Dragon meets Turtles (1993). [ © 2006 Erik Larsen, Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman ] Bottom: Batman-Spawn: War Devil (1994). [ © 2006 DC Comics , Todd McFarlane ]

Rob Liefeld and Marc Silvestri of Image. (Some of the Valiant guys later griped that it was a job in itself keeping the notoriously deadline-challenged Image guys on schedule.)

Gimmick alert: Deathmate issues were printed in nigh-impossible-to-find gold-foil as well as “vanilla” editions, further draining the wallets of speculators and completists. Comic shop proprietors were told that for every 50 Deathmate copies ordered, they would receive “one free special edition (with a hologram or gold-foil logo) as the 51st issue in the bundle.”

The crossovers kept a-comin’ in ’93.

Erik Larsen produced a Savage Dragon/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover.

(Hey, they all have the green thing in common.) Neal Adams’ Valeria the She Bat #3 guest-starred McFarlane’s Spawn.

Triumphant’s Doctor Chaos met Defiant’s War Dancer in what was billed as “the industry’s first non-crossover-crossover.”

(Credit Jim Shooter with that headscratcher.) Two issues each of

CROSSOVERS

T Unleashed!, Doctor Chaos, Prince Vandal, Riot Gear, Scavengers and The Chromium Man were purported to form one giant poster. There were crossovers between Marvel and Malibu (Prime Versus the Incredible Hulk, Ultraforce / Avengers, The All New Exiles vs. X-Men).

1996 saw the first-ever Star Trek crossover, Star Trek/X-Men #1, written by Scott Lobdell and penciled by Silvestri. In it, Kirk, Spock and company (in the likenesses of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, et al.) interacted with Wolverine, Cyclops, Phoenix, the Beast and Storm. The same year saw a Marvel / Valiant crossover titled Iron Man/X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal. Marvel and Image went crossover crazy with Spider-Man / Gen13, Prophet/Cable, Generation X/ Gen13, Team X/Team 7, WildC.A.T.S./X-Men and XMen/Youngblood. In 2000, DC Comics joined forces with Dark Horse for Ghost / Batgirl.

We don’t have to tell you how much havoc crossovers wreak on comic-book continuity.

(Crisis on Infinite Earths, anyone?) But admit it: Didn’t you always want to see a showdown between between Aquaman and Namor the SubMariner?

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A comic book just wasn’t buzz-worthy unless its cover somehow gleamed, sparkled, blinded or otherwise reached out and grabbed you. At least, that was the state of the medium at one point during the Dark Age of Comics.

Fortunately for the medium, people eventually came back around to a couple of wise old adages: “You can’t judge a book by its cover” and “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

The most common cover enhancement was a touch of silver or gold foil, frequently on the book’s logo. The biggest buzz-magnet was the hologram.

In between could be found die-cut covers, coated covers, all-foil covers, embossed covers, glow-in-the-dark covers, sparkling covers, wraparound covers, sliding “alternative” covers and combinations thereof.

It was a creative time for comic-book marketing, if not always comic-book content.

The trend approached silliness when DC affixed a fake purple jewel to Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1 (1992), and an independent publisher punched a ‘‘bullet’’ hole through every page of one title (without making allowances for the inside story or advertising).

A smattering of cover enhancements that twinkled during the Dark Age . . .

■ HOLOGRAMS: In 1991, DC’s Robin II featured four different covers for issue #1, each with a hologram of Robin.

(Later issues of the four-book miniseries were polybagged with hologram trading cards.) The following year, in honor of Spider-Man’s 30th anniversary, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #365 and Spectacular Spider-Man #189 featured nifty holograms (the former a recreation of Jack Kirby’s famous inaugural cover for Amazing Fantasy #15). In 1993, holograms were seen on Marvel’s X-Men #25 and Malibu’s Hardcase #1, Prime #1 and The Strangers #1.

Above: The purple “gem” from Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1 (1992). Above right: The die-cut cover of Superman #78 (1993). Right: The hologram cover of Robin II #1 (1991). [ Photos: Kathy Voglesong;

artwork: © 2006 DC Comics ]

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■ SILVER FOIL: Marvel’s Silver Surfer #1 (1991) featured an embossed silver foil cover, necessitating three printings. The cover of Iron Man #288 (1993) featured a silver foil logo and Iron Man figure. In 1994, Marvel applied bands of silver foil “computer” graphics to its X titles Excalibur #82, X Factor #106, X-Men #37 and X-Force #38. Silver foil gleamed from the cover of Bongo’s Bartman #1 (1993), which showed Bart Simpson about to fall into a vat of silver ink while thinking: “Aye carumba! It looks like the next cover enhancement is gonna be my blood!’’ Silver foil was combined with embossing on Image’s WildC.A.T.s Sourcebook #1 (1993), and Valiant’s Magnus, Robot Fighter #25 (1993) and Bloodshot #0 (1994).

■ GOLD FOIL, ETC.: Gold foil gleamed from the covers of Chaos!’s Evil Ernie: The Resurrection #1 (1993), and Marvel’s Cable #1 (1993) and Web of Spider-Man #117 (1994). Multi-colored foil covers were seen on DC’s Metal Men #1 (1993) and Marvel’s Fantastic Force #1 (1994).

■ DIE-CUT: In 1993, following the “death of Superman,” DC introduced four challengers to Supes’ throne in covers die-cut with the shape of his famous chest emblem: Action Comics #687, Adventures of Superman #501, Superman: The Man of Steel #22 and Superman #78. Other die-cut covers included Marvel’s Wolverine #50 (1991) and Malibu’s The Ferret #1 (1993).

■ GLOW-IN-THE-DARK: When you turned out the lights, you could see images from the glow-inthe-dark covers for Marvel’s Ghost Rider #15 (1991); Bongo’s Radioactive Man #1

ENHANCEMENTS

(1993); and DC’s Superman #123 (1997), in which Supes’ Michael-Flatley-on-steroids look premiered.

■ AND THE REST: Marvel’s Spider-Man #1 (1990) featured silver ink on the logo and spider-webs. Marvel’s Thunderstrike #1 (1993) featured sparkles. Superman’s post-‘‘death” return happened in Superman #82 (1993), which featured the cover-enhancement trifecta of embossing, coating and silver foil. Marvel’s Generation X #1 (1994) featured a coated wraparound cover. Marvel’s Ectokid #1 (1994) featured intricate embossing. DC’s Superman: The Wedding Album (1996) featured grained white paper embossed with silver ink, à la wedding invitations.

But there were signs that creators, distributors, retailers and readers were getting sick of the trend. Image took out a full-page advertisement in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1042 (1993) which stated: “Dear Readers: In response to your dissatisfaction with overpriced foil and gimmick covers flooding the market place, Marc Silvestri has decided to release Codename: Strykeforce #1 in December with a $1.95 cover price and without any gimmicky cover enhancement — just a great looking cover by Brandon Peterson and Marc Silvestri. Thanks for hanging with us!”

So there.

Detail from the hologram cover of Spectacular Spider-Man #189 (1992). [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

What went on behind-the-scenes during the planning and production of a hologram cover?

As the longtime editor of Marvel’s Spider-Man titles who was at the helm when Spidey turned 30 in 1992, Danny Fingeroth edited Amazing Spider-Man #365 and Spectacular Spider-Man #189, the 30th-anniversary hologram editions. We wanted to know: Were the holograms a corporate decision? Or did Fingeroth pitch the idea? What was the scoop?

“You know, it was interesting,” Fingeroth told me during a 2005 interview. “We had wanted to do something extra special for the actual Amazing Spider-Man anniversary. And then, you know, it was perceived on corporate levels that there was a big collectible market, so why not see what the market would bear?

“We all, at that point, tried to do what we could, given those parameters, with some integrity, giving some value for money.

You know, I can’t claim it was done out of any charitable impulse, but I think we worked really hard on the Spider-Man holograms. John Romita did great sketches. People did sculptures.”

Yes, the hologram editions were more expensive at the comic shop, but Fingeroth said he tried to keep readers’ options open.

“I always pushed to have two versions,” the editor/writer said.

“Sometimes, I succeeded. The plain ‘vanilla’ one was for people who just wanted the story, and the hologram one for people who love that. But it was fun to do.

“I tried to give people their money’s worth. I hope the people who bought them enjoyed them, and took them in the spirit we did them in. When you work in a medium like comics, it’s a combination of art and business. Things like that happen. You put it out in the market and people decide whether they want to buy it or not, or whether they’re glad they bought it or not.”

At the time of our conversation — more than a decade after those hologram editions first hit the stands — said holograms still looked brand new. They had yet to dim or fade.

“Right, exactly,” Fingeroth said with a laugh. “Those things will outlive all of us.”

ENHANCEMENTS

Editor/writer Danny Fingeroth. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Move over, Tony the Tiger. Like breakfast cereals, comic books can have a prize inside — if the issue is sealed in plastic.

“Polybagged” editions were all the rage during the Dark Age of Comics, with trading cards being the standard polybagged item. Polybagging represented higher production costs for publishers, but there was a payoff. Speculators and completists often purchased two copies of a given edition — one to open and read, another to maintain in its original unopened condition.

The king of all polybagged editions was, of course, Superman #75 (1992), the “Death of Superman” issue which contained a poster, a trading card, an obituary, stickers — even a black cloth armband for the savvy griever (see following page).

Polybag mania took hold a year earlier, when copies of Marvel Comics’ X-Force #1 were bagged with one of five X-Force trading cards. “FREE OFFICIAL MARVEL SUPER HERO TRADING CARD ENCLOSED AVAILABLE ONLY WITH THIS COLLECTOR’S EDITION” was emblazoned on the bag.

Free? Yeah, right. To collect all five cards, completists had to buy five copies of the same book — and you’d better believe a lot of suckers did just that.

Polybag contents began to get more elaborate. In 1992, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 was bagged with a “three-dimensional Arkham Asylum pop-up,” an Arkham blueprint, two posters (by Brian Stelfreeze) and a “special edition bookmark.” Robin III #1 was bagged with a “special moving cover” (with how-to instructions printed on the back of the bag), a “second reversible cover” and a poster.

In 1993, the #1 issues of Topps Comics’ new Jack Kirby-created line (Bombast, Nightglider, Captain Glory and Satan’s Six) were polybagged with what Topps called “Kirbychrome” trading cards. That same year, Adventures of Superman #500 was bagged with a Bloodlines trading card featuring four new Supermen, giving readers a clue of the direction the post-death Superman titles were going in.

In 1994, Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four and Iron Man titles were packaged in a polybag on which was emblazoned: “DON’T BAG THIS BAG.” Within the bag could be found a 16-page comic book previewing the animated TV show Marvel Action Hour, and one of eight acetate prints based on the show. Readers could mail in three bags to receive an animation cel.

Trumpeted the fine print on the bag: “You can take advantage of this dynamite deal as many times as you’d like, so start sending in those polybags!”

In 1996, Blackout Comics polybagged Hari Kari: The Silence of Evil #0 with a CD-ROM. Looking back, some may find the calculated, commerce-centric polybag craze to be offensive. But one polybagged item was offensive in more ways than one. Marvel’s Ren & Stimpy #1 (1992) included scratch-and-sniff “air fowlers” — the opposite of air fresheners — in two scents. Would you prefer “wet Chihuahua” or “litterbox?”

POLYBAGS

ARM-BAND STICKERS

TRADING CARD

POLYBAG

POSTER

OBITUARY

COMIC BOOK

Mia doesn’t sugar-coat her H.I.V. diagnosis in Green Arrow #44 (2005). Art: Phil Hester and Ande Parks. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

On their wedding night, did Lois and Clark have to take special precautions? Think about it: the superspeed, the heat vision, the invulnerability . . . ouch!

Superhero weddings and other milestones such as injuries, illnesses, even gay “outings,” helped garner buzz and move product during the Dark Age of Comics. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987). Lois Lane got engaged to Clark Kent in Superman #50 (1990) and learned his secret identity in Action Comics #662 (1991). But Jean Grey and Scott Summers beat Lois and Clark to the altar. The X-Couple wed in 1994’s X-Men #30. Jean’s wedding gown was created especially for the edition by real-life fashion designer Nicole Miller.

Meanwhile, Lois and Clark’s long engagement was coming to an end. On October 6, 1996, the couple married on the popular ABC-TV show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman starring Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain. The folks at DC, sensing valuable cross-promotion, got right in step. (In fact, DC’s Mike Carlin said Superman’s wedding in the comics had been postponed until after the TV show was optioned. “We’ve had the blueprints for this story for four years,” Carlin then told me.)

Three days later, DC Comics released Superman: The Wedding Album, a deluxe edition that coincided with the TV wedding without exactly mirroring it. But media and fan inquiry into Superman’s wedding didn’t hold a candle to that of his death.

“Unfortunately, I guess death sells a little better,” Carlin said.

“Here, we have some happy news about Superman for a change.”

Would the marriage stick? “My impression is that it would be terribly out of character for Superman to ever get a divorce,” DC’s then-spokeswoman Martha Thomases told me.

Carlin agreed. When reminded that another paragon of virtue in

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the comics, Dick Tracy, had recently separated from Tess Trueheart, Carlin didn’t miss a beat.

“Ah,” he said, “but Dick Tracy’s not a superhero. He’s just a regular guy like you and me — and I got married and it didn’t work out. Just ask my ex-missus.”

The cover of Superman: The Wedding Album resembled a wedding invitation with its textured white paper stock and embossed silver ink. Best line from the book: “Here, let an expert help you with that,” said Jimmy Olsen while tying Clark’s bowtie. (OK, really it was Mr. Mxyzptlk in disguise, but you get the idea.)

Weddings weren’t the only headline grabbers during the Dark Age of Comics. 1992 saw the first official outing of a gay superhero: Northstar. Dr. Fredric Wertham — the psychologist who accused Batman and Robin of being gay in his infamous 1954 rant Seduction of the Innocent — must have been spinning in his grave.

Northstar came out in Alpha Flight #106 (in a script by Scott Lobdell and art by Mark Pacella and Dan Panosian). “Northstar as you’ve never known him before!” promised the cover slogan.

The red-and-silver-clad superhero was a member of two teams, Alpha Flight and the X-Men’s Canadian contingent. His alter ego?

A former Olympic skier. (Insert joke here.)

But Marvel Comics was just warming up. In 2003, they likewise outed the Rawhide Kid, a western hero who debuted in 1955 — come to think of it, around the time of Wertham’s book. (Funny, but Wertham never accused the Rawhide Kid of having a preference for male companionship.)

In an odd development, superhero injuries were deemed buzzworthy. Barbara Gordon remained wheelchair-bound after her scrape with the Joker in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke (1988). The former Batgirl sharpened her computer skills and became Oracle. In 1993, Batman’s back was broken by Bane in Batman #497, Magneto fell into a vegetative state in XMen #25 and Wolverine was skinned alive in the same issue.

MILESTONES

Jean Grey and Scott Summers say ‘‘I do’’ in X-Men #30 (1994). Art: Andy Kubert and Matthew Ryan. [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

The same year, Wolverine became “a shell of his former self without any admantium” (the material his claws are made from) in Wolverine #77.

DC’s series Identity Crisis (2004) presented a host of atrocities perpetrated upon the loved ones of superheroes, not the least of which was the shocking rape and murder of Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man. Themes related to AIDS and H.I.V. found their way into the comics. Northstar came out because Major Mapleleaf revealed that his son died of AIDS. In Daredevil #2 (1998), Matt Murdock’s lady love Karen Page tells him: “I have AIDS!” That scene was written by Kevin Smith who, in his Green Arrow series of 2001, introduced the new Speedy, Mia. It turned out that in Green Arrow #44 (2005), Mia reveals to Oliver Queen that she is H.I.V. positive. “Is it AIDS or H.I.V.? She said she had H.I.V.,” Oliver implores of a health care professional (in dialogue written by Judd Winick, a cast member of MTV’s Real World 3).

“You’re correct,” the woman answers.

“Mia has seroconverted. She’s a person with H.I.V., not an AIDS diagnosis. And her prognosis is excellent. Now, immunity is gauged by the T-cell count. Normal is anywhere between 500 and 1300. Mia’s T-cell count is 350, which is still pretty good.”

When you know a character’s T-cell count — that’s when comics are getting heavy.

MILESTONES

“Nobody stays dead in comics except for Gwen Stacy and Bucky,” goes the adage.

Therein lies the rub with the “death of” trend in comics. If the death of a superhero doesn’t stick, why should we care? But like lambs to the slaughter, we scarfed up multiple copies of “death of” issues anyway during the Dark Age. The logic: “If a character dies, the book must be valuable!”

When Krypton’s Kara died in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985), her cousin Kal-El blubbered like a baby. He could have spared himself the embarrassment. Even though Crisis writer Marv Wolfman promised “real, permanent change” — and we don’t doubt his sincerity at the time — back Supergirl came. Presumably, it wasn’t the same Supergirl we later saw cavorting in her red miniskirt mourning — irony alert — her cousin Kal-El after his ‘‘death’’ in Superman #75. Do you feel cheated and/or confused?

Then the Barry Allen Flash died in Crisis #8. Barry remained dead, but his red, hooded costume (not to mention, his comic book title) was taken over by Wally West — once known as Kid Flash, Barry’s hormonally charged nephew/sidekick.

These events made quite a splash among comic book geeks, but the whole world was watching when, three years later, the Jason Todd Robin was killed off in the infamous “A Death in the Family” continuity in Batman #426-429.

Dennis O’Neil, the editor who engineered the 900-line vote that sealed Robin’s fate, found himself on the receiving end of more than a little backlash — this despite the fact that yet another new Robin, Timothy Drake, was standing by to don the red and yellow.

“These characters have taken on the weight of folklore that goes way deeper into people than, you know, some George Clooney character that you’ll see in some movie and forget about a month from now,” O’Neil told me in 2005.

“In my particular doing-in of main characters, the biggest mistake I ever made was killing Batwoman (in Detective Comics #485, 1979). I mean, it was not a mistake to get her out of the continuity, but I did it ‘offstage.’ You know, any time a main character is going to be killed, you should make a big, dramatic thing of it.”

Publishers agreed, and indeed made a big, dramatic thing of it when killing off familiar characters. In 1992, Superman “died” in Superman #75 (as if you didn’t know). In 1993, Reed Richards and Dr. Doom appeared to die in Fantastic Four #381, with the cover teaser “Four No More” and

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Above: Sappy Lois in Adventures of Superman #498 (1993). Art: Tom Grummett, Doug Hazlewood. Left: Morbid Bruce in Batman #428 (1988). Art: Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo. [ © 2006 DC Comics ] the story title “And Then There Were Three.” Yeah, right.

Mockingbird died in West Coast Avengers #100, which featured an embossed red-foil cover. Magik died in Uncanny X-Men #303 and was buried in #304 (both 1993), the latter edition marking the occasion with a hologram cover.

Gold of the robot team Metal Men died shortly after it was revealed he was once the human brother of his “creator,” Doc Magnus, in 1993’s Metal Men #4. (Gold’s final words fell considerably short of career-cappingly profound: “My . . . responsometer . . .”) That miniseries was written by Mike Carlin and illustrated by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, the team behind Superman #75.

Teased the advertising copy: “They killed Superman! What are they doing to the Metal Men?”

DEATH OF . . .

“We’re going to raise the stakes for them a bit,” Carlin told me at the time. “In the old days, if the Metal Men got destroyed, they’d get revived. Why should anybody care about these characters? How can you kill a robot? They’re not mortal. That’s one thing we are going to address. It was too easy to bring them back if they did die.

That’s kind of what the story’s about.”

Other characters who came and went during the Dark Age included Phoenix, Psylocke, Magneto, Colossus, Elektra, Warlock, Thunderstrike, Nick Fury and the Hal Jordan Green Lantern.

Even the death of an ostensibly minor character such as Aunt May was given special consideration. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #400 (1994), which was edited by Danny Fingeroth.

“We wanted to really bring some changes to Peter’s life,” Fingeroth told me in 2005. “This was in the middle of the dreaded ‘Clone Saga’ (a controversial continuity), which has been unjustly maligned in some circles. But it was a part of a symbolic way of showing that things could change in comics and that things really did have consequences. It certainly was not done gratuitously or without thought. Aunt May had been ill many times over the years. It seemed like it worked dramatically and it worked as a part of the growth of the character and of the whole Spider-Man universe that she would go with dignity.’’

Added Fingeroth with a laugh: “I guess it’s no surprise that it was eventually ‘reconned’ (reversed).

But it just seemed like a very organic and natural thing to happen to the character, who we believed in and do believe in as a living, breathing part of our lives.”

For some characters, it would seem impossible to be “reconned.” DC’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 (2005) ended with the Ted Kord Blue Beetle getting his brains blown out. I asked the man who spearheaded Infinite Crisis, DC’s then-executive editor Dan DiDio, a simple question: Will Blue Beetle’s brains ever be reassembled and put back into his head?

“You know what? It’s funny,” DiDio said with a laugh. “If you want to compare, you can

compare superhero storytelling against soap opera storytelling on television. We put so many ills and problems and adventures with this small group of characters, because these are the ones that the fan base identifies with most. So you want to put them through all the ills, because you know the people want to see story with them.

“I like to think that in certain cases, the relevance of the death of a character really has a direct impact on the prolonged effect of that death. But you won’t be seeing Blue Beetle or Ted Kord return at any point during my tenure with DC Comics. It’s not the story I want to tell. There’s no need for that. We told a very strong, powerful story about his life. Unfortunately, that story ends with his death. As long as I feel that story was told well and properly, I see no reason to undo it.”

Not even corporate clout can perpetuate the death of Hal Jordan.

“We laugh over here when we have characters like Hal Jordan,” DiDio said. “Everyone says, ‘Well, Hal Jordan has been dead for 10 years.’ The funny thing is that he’s never really been dead in the DC Universe. If you go through all the stories that DC has told over the last 10 years, you can’t go six months without seeing Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern. That one never stuck, so it only made sense for him to return in some sort of strong fashion.

“Everything is about story and character. If you have a good story to tell about how a character dies, then you should tell it. If you have a great story to tell about how that character returns, it better be really good. It’s gotta be better than the initial story that was told.”

Come to think of it, when Sherlock Holmes was killed off by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in 1893, public outcry forced Doyle to revive the great detective. So one could argue that the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes paved the way for that of Hal Jordan — not to mention good old Aunt May. “You’re absolutely correct,” DiDio said, laughing again. “I always say (the ’80s television series) Magnum P.I., too.

When Magnum was canceled, he was shot and you saw him walking up cloudy steps, disappearing. Then the network decided to renew it for one more season, and they had to bring him back to life!”

From the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (1985).

Art: George Pérez. [ © 2006 DC Comics ]

Above: Aerosmith meets Master Darque in Shadowman #19 (1993). Art: Bob Hall and Tom Ryder. [ © 2006 Voyager Communications ] Below: Watch out! Prince has a gun! From Prince and the New Power Generation: Three Chains of Gold (1992). [ © 2006 Pirhana Music ]

The public will buy anything if a celebrity is selling it — at least, that’s what they believe on Madison Avenue.

That theory was put to the test and then some during the Dark Age of Comics via the “celebrity creator” trend — in which famous folks tried their luck at the comics game. Often, the celebrity’s name was seen prominently above the title for maximum “box office.” Just as often, the celebrity’s contribution to the comic book was “in name only,” with a vague premise constituting creator credit.

BIG Entertainment exclusively published celebrity-created titles such as Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger, Leonard Nimoy’s PriMortals, Isaac Asimov’s I.-Bots, Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Universe, Neil Gaiman’s Phage, Neil Gaiman’s Mr. Hero, Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice and Tom Clancy’s Net Force. (Yes, the names were built right into the titles.)

Spillane — architect of the detective novel — created Mike Danger as a comic book in the ’40s, but World War II thwarted its publication. Five decades later, BIG Entertainment approached Spillane with a proposal involving another character of his.

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As Spillane told me in 1994: “Along came BIG Entertainment, and through my friend Max Allan Collins — who was the writer for Dick Tracy for about 15 years — said they wanted to do Mike Hammer. I said, ‘No way.’ Max said, ‘How about Mike Danger?’ I said, ‘That’s great!’ It worked for me. Max is doing a lot of the writing and editing on this thing here.” Added Spillane with a wry chuckle: “Me — I’m sort of in the economic end of it.”

PriMortals was an expression of Nimoy’s belief that intelligent life lurks somewhere out there in the universe.

“I’m trying very hard to keep us addressed to an intelligent audience,” the Star Trek star said during a conference-call interview in 1994. “I feel like a father giving birth here, as opposed to executing someone else’s idea or ideas. I feel very much like it’s coming from something that I have strong, personal feelings about. The way the artwork is done today is light years ahead of what I was reading when I was a kid. But at the same time, storytelling is storytelling. And because it is such a cinematic form these days, I’m feeling very comfortable doing it.”

CELEBRITY COMICS

Caricaturist Drew Friedman skewers his subjects in cover art for He Said/She Said Comics #2-3 (1993). [ © 2006 First Amendment Press ]

Nimoy’s Star Trek co-stars William Shatner and Walter Koenig also got in on the fun. 1992 saw the release of TekWorld #1, Marvel’s adaptation of Shatner’s sci-fi novel series. Shatner’s protagonist was Jack Cardigan, a grizzled gumshoe in 2020 drawn to resemble an angry, unshaven Shatner circa 1969. The following year, Koenig (a.k.a. Ensign Chekov) created Raver, about a psychotic young man with a superhero alter-ego, for Malibu Comics.

In 1993, horror author Clive Barker whipped up a line of titles for Marvel’s Razorline imprint: Hyperkind, Hokum & Hex, Ectokid and Saint Sinner. “Super heroes from the mind of Clive Barker” was emblazoned on the covers. (Earlier Barker adaptations included Tapping the Vein, Hellraiser, Nightbreed and Rawhead Rex.) “It’s a very interesting cultural phenomenon, this crossbreeding,” Barker told Wallace Stroby in 1989. “The Hellraiser comic comes out of a movie which, in turn, comes out of a book. So if I was ever to do another follow-up on that story, I’d have to take into account both the movie and the comics, because they’re part of the mythology now. It would be naive not to.”

There was an offshoot of the celebrity creator trend during the Dark Age: celebs “starring” in comics via illustrated likenesses.

Busty TV horror hostess Elvira (a.k.a. comic actress Cassandra Peterson) was no stranger to the medium. Elvira “hosted” DC’s series Elvira’s House of Mystery for 12 issues (1986-87), and Marvel published an adaptation of her movie Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988). Beginning in 1993, Elvira “starred” as herself in Claypool Comics’ series also titled Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

In 1992, prissy funkster Prince “starred” in Prince and the New Power Generation: Three Chains of Gold (Piranha Music). The following year, Boston rockers Aerosmith ‘‘starred’’ in Valiant’s Shadowman #19, in which baddie Master Darque transformed an Aero-fan into a carbon copy of singer Steven Tyler. (In real life, the band appeared at the Chicago Comic Con to promote the issue.)

In 1994, Malibu rolled out Rock-It Comix, authorized comic books about rock stars (Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, Metallica, Carlos Santana, etc.). That same year saw Sir Charles Barkley and the Referee Murders (Hamilton Comics) and Mr. T & the T Force (Now Comics).

The underside of this trend was the “unauthorized” celebrity comic — sleazy titles chiefly published by low-end independents grasping for any way to drum up market presence. The artwork was often inferior — but, hey, someone was buying these books.

CELEBRITY COMICS

Beginning in 1989, Revolutionary Comics published Rock ’n’ Roll Comics, which featured bios of the mullet brigade: Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Poison, Whitesnake, Metallica, Guns ’N’ Roses, etc.

Personality Comics Presents specialized in bios of athletes (Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan), rockers (Kiss, The Beatles) and the occasional hottie (Traci Lords, Paulina Porizkova). First Amendment Publishing was behind the He Said/She Said series, which skewered Woody Allen and Mia Farrow; Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers; Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher; etc. All had ‘‘flip’’ covers.

A comic book about Joey Buttafuoco? The bottom of the barrel had officially been scraped.

William Shatner’s TekWorld #1 (1992). Art: Lee Sullivan. [ © 2006

William Shatner ]

To millions of science-fiction geeks, Mark Hamill is a hero. In a way, Hamill’s portrayal of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) was an homage to the sci-fi icon’s own boyhood idols: comic book superheroes.

In 1996, Hamill took part in the “celebrity creator” trend of comics when he created The Black Pearl for Dark Horse, his industry debut.

“It wasn’t originally envisioned as a comic book,” Hamill told me in 1996 of the five-issue miniseries cowritten with his cousin, Eric Johnson. Originally a screenplay, The Black Pearl is the story of Luther, a lowly court reporter and electronics buff who becomes an Sci-fi icons Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford face baddies in unlikely vigilante.

“Looking back on George Lucas’s original Star Wars (1977). [ © 2006 Lucasfilms ] the books I read as that we so readily accept in comic books are hard to translate into a kid,” Hamill said, “or the real world.” even the television shows Hamill and Johnson attempted this with their Black Pearl like Zorro, I so easily screenplay, which they pitched to the folks at Dark Horse. accepted the idea of “Dark Horse read the screenplay and really understood what we somebody putting on a wanted to do,” Hamill said. “Dark Horse wasn’t sure they wanted costume and going us to write it.

They wanted to buy the property and turn it over to out and fighting their people. And they’re so talented, that might not have been a crime or maintainbad idea. On the other hand, I said, ‘You know, if I don’t try this ing a dual identimyself, I won’t learn anything.’’’ ty. But all of Adapting The Black Pearl from their screenplay to a comic those elebook script proved no easy task for Hamill and Johnson. ments “I was taken aback, in a way, since certain comic book sensibilities don’t really work in the real world,” Hamill said. “To have it go full circle and become a comic book — with word balloons and all that — was a challenge. So we realize that we really have to rethink this from the ground up. We had to distill it down to its essence. Not so much Cliff’s Notes or the Reader’s Digest version, but really analyzing: Do we need this character or that character?

Can this one character represent a lot of others?”

One Black Pearl character, abrasive talk-show host Jerry Delmen, was Hamill’s take on real-life tabloid TV hosts.

“The public — myself included — has this voracious appetite for sensationalism,” Hamill noted.

“I love comic books. Always have. I’ve always been fascinated by the attempts to translate them to liveaction films. A first, we thought, ‘Well, we can just illustrate the screenplay.’ But instead, you realize that comic books are, in a way, almost like slide shows, Mark Hamill’s masked where you avenger from The pick images Black Pearl #1 (1996). to keep the story Art: H.M. Baker and going.’’

Bruce Patterson. [ © 2006 Mark Hamill ]

MARK

HAMILL

Anyone who places his head in a guillotine or performs with a snake onstage is telling a story.

Alice Cooper — the theatrical “shock rocker” behind the FM classics “School’s Out” and “Eighteen” — has always been a storyteller. When Cooper decided to create a concept album, he turned to a writer he admired: Sandman creator Neil Gaiman.

Gaiman co-plotted and contributed lyrics to Cooper’s 1994 album The Last Temptation. The project came full circle when Marvel Comics published a three-issue miniseries based on the album, co-plotted by Cooper and Gaiman, written by Gaiman and illustrated by Michael Zulli. For Cooper, the faith-inspired story of The Last Temptation held great personal significance.

“I had just become a Christian,” Cooper recalled in 2005. “Even though I grew up a Christian, I was the ‘prodigal son.’ I really went away from everything — became an alcoholic, almost died, almost lost my wife, almost lost my family. Twenty-three years ago, I quit drinking. I did become Christian — not just in mouth, but in lifestyle.”

In Marvel’s miniseries, Cooper “played” a showman who tempts a young man with stardom.

“The story really is about the temptation of Christ,” Cooper said. “The parallel story is how the devil comes and tries to Panel from The Last Temptation tempt Christ in the (1994). Art: Michael Zulli. [ © 2006 wilderness. It’s the same thing with the Nightmare Inc. and Neil Gaiman ] showman tempting the boy. ‘Here, I’ll give you this lifestyle. I’ll give you this woman. All you have to do is join the circus.’

“Neil got it, totally. He didn’t blink an eye. He sat there and he said, ‘Yeah, I get this.’ He’s not coming from a Christian point of view, but he wrote the comic book to do exactly what I thought it should do.”

But the Biblical allusion was lost on many, according to Cooper.

“Nobody picked up on that except some of the churches,” the singer said. “I went into Christian Bible stores and The Last Temptation was in there — even the comic book.”

Said Cooper of comics: “It used to be underground comics were Zap, R. Crumb. Now, you go into a comic book store — man, there are thousands of characters that I have never heard of!

I mean, it would take forever to catch up on who’s who in the comic book world.”

ALICE COOPER

Rocker turnedcomics-creator Alice Cooper. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong]

Cover detail from Lady Rawhide #1 (1993).

Art: Mike Mayhew and Jimmy Palmiotti.

[ © 2006 Topps Comics ]

Is that a superheroine — or a surgically enhanced exotic dancer?

Comic book geeks are more concerned with checklists than bedpost notches, so it’s no wonder that a cover showing an implausibly busty heroine has never hurt sales.

It can get awfully lonely when your best pickup line is: “Wanna see my mint-condition Spider-Man #1?”

For fans of the female form, there was DC’s Black Canary and Catwoman; Marvel’s Shanna the She-Devil, Silver Sable and Marvel Swimsuit Issue; Image’s Gen13 and Rapture and Ricochet; Dark Horse’s Barb Wire, Ghost and Dirty Pair; AC’s Femforce; Harris’ Vampirella; Chaos!’s Lady Death; Topps’s Lady Rawhide; Brainstorm’s Vampfire (for which FrenchCanadian beauty Manon Kelley modeled) and Vampress Luxura; Blackout’s Hari Kari; and Broadway’s Fatale. The great practitioners of Dark Age “cheesecake” comics include Jim Balent, Ed Benes, Brian Bolland, J. Scott Campbell, Frank Cho, Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke, Holly Golightly (herself a looker), Greg Horn, Adam Hughes, Greg Land, Phil Noto, Gordon Purcell, Louis Small Jr., Dave Stevens, Bruce Timm and Adam Warren.

Stevens — who helped trigger renewed interest in ’50s pinup queen Bettie Page by “casting” her in his Dark Horse series The Rocketeer — believes women are more difficult to draw than men. “The female figure is fleshier and softer,” Stevens told me in 1993, “so the forms underneath the skin, the muscle groups and everything, are much harder to get ahold of. You spend all your time noodling with the pencil, trying to find what makes figures work. I think I keep doing it because I want to get it right.”

Not everyone applauded the trend. As artist Trina Robbins — an underground comics pioneer and author of A Century of Women Cartoonists — told me in 1993: “If you look at today’s superheroines and the way they’re drawn, they are very insulting to women. The latest Catwoman is a classic example. They’re pushing it like it’s some kind of feminist thing, with this strong woman. But then the art, the way she’s drawn, is unbelievably insulting. The thing that is stressed the most about her are these huge, improbable breasts.

It’s terribly insulting to women.”

Vampfire model Manon Kelley. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong]

CHEESECAKE

Above: Rapture crackles in Savage Dragon #4 (1993).

Art: Adam Hughes.

[ © 2006 Erik Larsen]

Right: Jim Balent’s Catwoman (1993).

[ © 2006 DC Comics ]

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There’s an old joke: “Those who can’t do . . . teach.

Those who can’t teach . . . teach gym.” To which we would add: “And those who can’t teach gym . . . draw ‘spoof’ comics.”

The “parody” or “spoof” books that cluttered comic-shop racks during the Dark Age could have/should have been a bright spot of the era. After all, Dark Age comics often begged to be ridiculed.

Who can’t find something funny to say about Dark Age superheroes’ stifling uniformity? Their unflagging self-seriousness and brutality? Their ridiculous weaponry? Their conspicuous crotches?

But spoof comics sometimes weren’t worth the paper they were printed on. Many looked as if they were traced on light tables by rushed hacks using Flair pens. It seemed the goal wasn’t so much to skewer the subject as to leech onto its circulation.

Prepare to bust a gut when you hear some of the clever titles that were published. Noel Coward is not dead!

Parody Press gave us Yawn (instead of Spawn ),

Oldblood (instead of Youngblood), Sewage Dragon (instead of Savage Dragon), Magnets Robot Dismantler (instead of Magnus Robot Fighter), Bloodyhot (instead of Bloodshot), Headbanger (instead of Harbinger), Unfunny X-Cons (instead of Uncanny X-Men) and Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters (instead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

Personality Comics gave us Spoof Comics with its parodies Spoon (instead of Spawn), Youngspud (instead of Youngblood ), CyberFemmes (instead of CyberForce), Wildchicks (instead of WildC.A.T.s), Ox Cow O’ War (instead of X-O Manowar), S.O.F.T.Corps (instead of H.A.R.D.Corps), Wolverbroad vs. Hobo (instead of Wolverine vs. Lobo), ImpUnity (instead of Unity), Bloodskirt (instead of Bloodshot) and Daredame (instead of Daredevil).

‘‘Spitt’’ from Stupid #1 (1993).

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[ © 2006 Hilary Barta ]

‘‘SPOOFS’’

Above: A collage of ‘‘spoof’’ artwork from Spoof Comics and Parody Press. [ © 2006 Personality Comics and Parody Press ]

To Spoof Comics’ credit was the participation of Adam Hughes (Justice League Europe, Ghost) on a half-dozen issues.

Ocean Comics published The Greatest American Comic Book #1 (1992), in which Spider-Maniac faced off with Batmaniac.

Comic Zone Productions published Defective Comics #1 (1993), with the “Silver Age” parodies Just-Nuts League of America (instead of Justice League of America) and Spastic Four (instead of Fantastic Four). Full disclosure: Yours Truly is to blame for the latter, as well as its 50-card spinoff set, Defective Comics Trading Cards (Active Marketing).

The best spoof comics of the Dark Age were produced in 1993

‘‘SPOOFS’’

by, of all publishers, Image Comics. These did a fine, objective, unblinking job of satirizing its subjects. In Splitting Image, writer/ artist Don Simpson threw no softballs in telling the story of how the superstars of “Marginal Comics” split off to form “Splitting Image.” (The book’s slogan: “The Egos! The Greed! The Gimmicks!”)

In Stupid, writer/artist Hilary Barta was merciless in his mockery of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn (called “Spewn” in issue #1).

Barta’s art style — though accessible, cartoony and whimsical — nonetheless matched that of McFarlane, chain-link for chain-link and fabric-wrinkle for fabric-wrinkle.

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Steel #0 (1994) [© DC Comics ]

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #0 (1994) [© DC Comics ]

Marvels #0 (1993) [© Marvel Comics ]

Armorines #0 (1993) [© Voyager Communications ]

# ZERO COVER GALLERY

How times have changed.

In 1959, when DC Comics decided to again regularly publish The Flash following the superhero’s successful revival in Showcase, editor Julius Schwartz was faced with a decision. ‘‘I got the issue ready, and I went in to whoever was the editorial director at the time— possibly Irwin Donenfeld,’’ Schwartz told me in 2000. ‘‘I said, ‘What are we gonna call The Flash? You have a choice of calling it issue #1 or issue #105.’ Because the last Flash — the ‘Golden Age’ Flash — had died at #104. The editorial director said, ‘No, we’re going to put it out as #105.’ ‘‘When I asked him why, he pointed out that there were so many comic magazines on the newsstand that if a prospective buyer came to the rack and saw two magazines next to each other — one which was called issue #1 and one which was called issue #105 — he would reach for #105 because, ‘Hey, man, that magazine’s been going for 105 issues! It must be pretty good.

Who knows anything about issue #1? I’m not spending a dime on a magazine I never heard of.’’’

Reverse that theory, and you’ve hit on some of the infernally illogical logic of the Dark Age of Comics. It went something like this: “Since Action Comics #1 (1938) is worth tens of thousands of dollars, then I should buy lots of copies of Pitt #1 (1993) and wait until the year 2048, at which time I’ll become a millionaire!”

The feeding frenzy over Spider-Man #1 (1990) solidified the trend. It got the point where just about any #1 issue was selling like ice cubes in hell — regardless of whether it was ever followed by a #2.

A startup company like Image Comics reaped the benefits of the trend, since the first six issues it released were, understandably, #1 issues (Spawn #1, Youngblood #1, WildC.A.T.s #1, Shadowhawk #1, CyberForce #1 and Savage Dragon #1). To get on the gravy train, the “majors” had to develop new titles or release miniseries based on established characters — whatever it took to get #1 issues out there.

That is, until someone hit on the idea of the #0 issue. Presumably, the logic here was: “#0 issues are one better than #1 issues!”

When it came to #0 issues, Valiant had zero restraint. Valiant published #0 issues of Archer and Armstrong, Armorines, Bloodshot, Destroyer, Harbinger, Magnus Robot Fighter, Ninjak, Rai, Timewalker, Unity and X-O Manowar. In 1993, Dark Horse and Gaijin Studios announced Ground Zero, an 11-issue series which would count down from issue #10 to issue #0. The following year, DC Comics rolled out a post-Crisis company-wide crossover, Zero Hour. The five issues of the Zero Hour kickoff miniseries began with issue #4 and counted backward to #0.

Wanna hear something sad? In 1994, DC actually published a Detective Comics #0. So even the longest-running regularly published comic book in history was not immune to the trend.

But take comfort in the following thought: In 2004, Detective Comics surpassed the 800-issue mark. Yes, there was a Detective Comics #0, but there will never be an Armorines #800.

Sign of the ‘Q’

From indie to Marvel honcho: Joe Quesada

THE CLICHE ‘‘HE’S DONE IT ALL’’ IN THE COMICS FIELD is a bit broad to be applied to many, but Joe Quesada is certainly a candidate. Just consider all that Quesada has accomplished since his humble ‘‘indie’’ beginnings. There is Quesada’s rise as an in-demand penciler (often teamed with erstwhile inker Jimmy Palmiotti); his tenure on DC Comics’ Sword of Azrael; his tenure as a Valiant Comics cover artist (on such titles as X-O Manowar, Solar: Man of the Atom, Ninjak and Bloodshot); his founding of Event Comics (publishers of Ash, 22 Brides and The Legend of Kid Death and Fluffy); his on- and off-screen association with filmmaker Kevin Smith; and his assumption of the throne of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Jim Shooter, et al., as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000.

But narrowing all of that down to one career highlight is easy: Daredevil.

Despite Quesada’s formidable predecessors — Gene Colan, John Romita Jr., Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Miller, to name a few — the artist has somehow made the blind, red-clad ‘‘Man Without Fear’’ his own.

Essential Quesada Daredevil is the Marvel Knights series he, Smith and Palmiotti produced beginning in 1998, which was compiled into the trade paperback Daredevil: Visionaries (and which apparently influenced the 2003 Ben Affleck film Daredevil).

In 2002 and 2005 conversations, the artist whose trademark is his distinctive ‘‘Q’’ signature spoke about Valiant, Daredevil and the state of comics.

Q: When you started out in comics, you couldn’t have guessed that one day you’d be editor-inchief of Marvel Comics. What were your career dreams when you first put pencil to paper?

QUESADA: Well, I got into comics later on in life, actually. I didn’t even aspire to be a comic book artist early on. I wanted to be an illustrator and then a musician and all sorts of other things. When I got back into comics at the age of 28 or 29, my major goal was really just to put out great comic stories — to be known for the type of stories that I gravitated to and decided to tell.

Q: For a time, all eyes were on Valiant Comics. Valiant utilized you largely as a cover artist.

QUESADA: I did do some interiors. I did X-O Manowar #0 for them and a book called Ninjak,

Opposite: Daredevil’s life flashes before his eyes, courtesy of Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti art.

Above: DD broods. [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

which I also designed for Valiant. That was a great time, because it really looked like Valiant was going to make a real go of it, and become one of those top companies that was going to be around for 20 or 30 years.

Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen for them.

But I remember it was just a great, great atmosphere there, filled with a lot of young creators, people who eventually became major players in the comics industry.

Q: Your association with filmmaker Kevin Smith indirectly led to your becoming Marvel’s editor-in-chief.

QUESADA: Well, you know, Kevin is, obviously, the world’s most famous comics-fan-turned-comics-creator.

He’s a wonderful guy.

Q: Where did you meet?

QUESADA: I met Kevin many, many years ago at a convention. He was a fan of my art; I was a fan of his movies. At that point, it was only Clerks (1994) that was out. He approached me about doing some artwork for Mallrats (1995), which I was thrilled to provide. I did a piece for Kevin then. At that point in my life, I was running my own comic company (Event Comics). We had a deal on the table we were working out with DreamWorks Studios. I had driven up to Red Bank (in New Jersey) to sort of sit with Kevin and ask him some advice about the movie business in general. We really kind of hit it off at that point. We said that some day we were going to work together. Lo and behold, a few days later, I’m over here at Marvel and we’re relaunching my favorite character and also Kevin’s favorite character, Daredevil.

We found ourselves working on that title for almost a year.

Q: With Marvel Knights: Daredevil, you and Kevin were retelling many of Daredevil’s key career points, and also adding to the legend. What did that project mean to you?

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QUESADA: Well, Daredevil has always been my favorite Marvel character, so when I got the chance to actually work on Daredevil — and especially with Kevin — that was really one of those dreams-come-true for me as a creator. But also, Daredevil now holds an incredibly special spot in my heart because that

Attitude and armor compete for our attention in this X-O Manowar figure by Joe Quesada. Below left: Quesada’s cover for Solar: Man of the Atom #22. [ © 2006 Voyager Communications ]

project was probably instrumental in getting me to my position here as editor-in-chief. So as much as I love the character, the character kind of loved me back.

Q: Who was your favorite Daredevil artist and writer from back in the day?

QUESADA: Wow (sighs). I would have to say my all-time favorite Daredevil artist would have to be John Romita Jr. There’s something about the athleticism he brought to the character that was really fantastic. As far as writers are concerned — I’ll put Kevin aside, because I’m too close to it — I would have say it’s between Brian Bendis and Frank Miller.

JOE QUESADA

A pleasant flashback gives way to harsh reality for Matt Murdock in Marvel Knights: Daredevil #6 (1999). [ © 2006 Marvel Comics ]

Q: It seems a lot of what you and Kevin did in Marvel Knights: Daredevil wound up in the 2003 Ben Affleck flick, Daredevil.

QUESADA: Well, there were certain elements of it. There were a lot of visuals I had done for that particular book that they used.

Particularly, the end shot of the movie was the first cover I did for Daredevil. That was really incredibly flattering — especially since I had no idea it was happening until I saw the movie. The director (Mark Steven Johnson) sort of nudged me and said, “Wait’ll you see this.” I said, “Oh my God, look at that!” It was so cool.

Q: Marvel became a media target over Nick Fury’s R-rated antics and language in Fury, from Marvel’s MAX line. What do you say to people who think four-letter words should not appear in comics?

QUESADA: Well, you know, it’s not about cursing and it’s not about onscreen nudity, realistically speaking. Really, this is strictly a North American thing. Because in Europe, in Japan, they fully see comics as a complete entertainment package, where you can have material that entertains little kids as well as have material next to it that entertains adults. It just has to be labeled properly.

JOE QUESADA

The thing about comics that John Q. Public in the United States really isn’t aware of, is the level of sophistication of the type of story that can be told. And you can still do that under the umbrella of a G-rated or a PG-rated book. That doesn’t keep you from telling sophisticated stories. I mean, heck, the X-Men have been talking about sophisticated ideas for years. It talks about prejudice and racism and ostracism and coming of age. These are all classic, classic subject matters.

But I think what people have in their minds is — imagine if you’ve never seen TV in your entire life, and today you watch an episode of Ozzie and Harriet, and tomorrow you watch an episode of The Osbournes. You’d go, “My God — TV’s really come a long way.” It’s the same thing with comics. If you haven’t read a comic in 10 years, you probably still have the Ozzie and Harriet days of comics in the back of your mind, where it’s really simplistic and really quaint, but it’s for kids. Well, we do a lot of different stuff now. Yes, we do some comics for kids, but the stuff is really, really sophisticated. I think as soon as the mainstream becomes aware of that, the more surprised they’ll be at the quality of story that you can find inside the world of comics.

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Not-so-silent Bob

Kevin Smith is a comic book guy at heart

MOST PEOPLE WOULD DO IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. The idea is to become a comic book pro first, and then become a filmmaker. (Hey, it worked for Michael Uslan and Frank Miller.)

Because once you join the exalted rank of movie folk, who needs to be slumming at comic shops and conventions? But if you love comics, you love comics, and Kevin Smith loves comics.

Smith is the writer/director behind Clerks (1994), Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Jersey Girl (2004) and others. Many of his films have comic book themes.

Opposite: Jay and Despite Smith’s movie success, he estabSilent Bob in their lished himself as an important voice in comics natural habitat, in during the Dark Age, bringing dialogue to a front of the Quick medium that seemed to favor violence and Stop convenience Schwarzeneggerian one-liners. store, from Chasing Smith scripted the exploits of two of his Dogma. Art: favorite superheros: Daredevil and Green Duncan Fegredo.

Arrow. Beginning in 1998, Smith wrote Marvel [ © 2006 View Askew Knights: Daredevil for Marvel Comics, which Productions ] was illustrated by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti (and since collected in the trade paperback Daredevil: Visionaries). Beginning in 2001, he wrote Green Arrow for DC Comics, which was illustrated by Phil Hester and Ande Parks (and since collected in the trade paperbacks Green Arrow: Quiver and Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence).

Smith also wrote comics based on his own creations, clueless stoners Jay and Silent Bob — characters from his films played by Jason Mewes and himself, respectively (and since collected in the trade paperback Chasing Dogma ).

Smith’s superhero books are reverent and reference-packed; his Jay and Silent Bob comics are raunchy and hilarious.

In a half-dozen interviews conducted between 1997 and 2005, Smith spoke about the rebirth of comics, the speculation craze and his own history as a comics fan.

What comic books did Smith read while growing up?

“As a kid, I remember, it was just all Marvel,” Smith recalled. “Everything.

Of course, X-Men, Spider-Man. Then I fell out of it for a long, long time, from the time I was about 11 or 12 up to about 17.

Filmmaker and comic-book writer Kevin Smith. [ Photo: Kathy Voglesong ]

Kevin Smith, in makeup as Silent Bob, takes a cigarette break on the set of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001).

[ Photo by Kathy Voglesong ]

On the speculation boom: “It was more about the collectibility of the book rather than the readability of the book. It was a period when you didn’t seem to notice you were getting bilked out of your dough.’’

“That’s when my friend, Walter Flannigan, actually handed me “You know, I give it up to Watchmen a little bit over Dark Knight Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. Because, I had written a Returns,” he said, “because it’s so sprawling and so intricately report for school about Batman. It was more influenced by the plotted, drawn and detailed. It’s just brilliant.”)

(1966-68) TV show than the comic, and Walter thought it was important I see Miller’s book. ‘You have to read the comic — it’s BUT SMITH WASN’T ENAMORED OF THE PERIOD all changed!’ that followed — the “speculation” boom, during which people “So I read it, and I was just amazed. Finally, comic books had bought multiple issues of sometimes gimmick-laden comic books in come of age. It wasn’t all about guys in tights beating the (explethe hope that their monetary value would increase. tive) out of each other. I mean, yes, there is a large degree of that, “It’s not a time that I look back on fondly,” said Smith. but it’s more psychological. I thought, ‘This doesn’t feel like a “It was a time when a lot of your weekly comic book budget comic book. It feels like a novel that just happens to have pictures went out the door in buying duplicates of the things you already in it.’ So what brought me back was Dark Knight Returns, and after had. It was more about the collectibility of the book rather that, Watchmen. I was back. I was buying books on a regular than the readability of the book. It was a period when you basis.” didn’t seem to notice you were getting bilked out of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, in particular, your dough. supplied Smith with an epiphany. ‘‘I mean, we all got wise pretty quickly, which is Said the filmmaker: “Watchmen is handswhy those gimmicks fell by the wayside. But it also hurt down the most brilliant comic book work the comic book market, because you had a lot of ever published. It’s accessible for those who investors or kind of curious people come in.” have no idea about comic books or have never For example, Smith points to the famous — or infaread a comic book in their lives, or for people mous? — “Death of Superman” edition of 1992, who haven’t read comic books in years. It’s a Superman #75. great entry-level book. It was a masterwork from “You know,” said Smith, “they sold some issue 1. Alan Moore could have sat on his (posteobscene amount of comics, like a million or rior) and Dave Gibbons could have sat on his 2 million copies. Because everyone saw the (posterior) for the rest of their lives and produced news reports that stated, ‘This is the issue nothing else except that, and still died geniuses. It’s where Superman dies. It’s going to go up in a fantastic, fantastic book. value. It’s gonna be huge.’ And everyone had “Usually, when I talk to people who aren’t into heard the stories about how Action Comics comics about comics, I urge them to read Watchmen. #1 (1938) goes for $60- to $80,000, and so Because, it’s just flat-out literature; it just happens many people would have had a copy of to have graphics accompanying it.” that if their parents hadn’t thrown them Looking back, Smith is amazed that one year out.

— 1986 — saw the “So you had a lot of speculators release of two such showing up at comic book stores important works, and buying hundreds of copies of Batman: The Dark that particular book, thinking Knight Returns and that in two years they could Watchmen. turn ’em all in and send “That was their kids to college. But, a banner as common sense dicyear for tates, nothing goes comics,” he up in value if it’s said. “That readily available kicked off the everywhere.”

‘Modern Age’ or Because speculators failed to grasp what some people call the ‘Dark Age of at least one basic truth of collectibiliComics.’ In one year. Can you imagine? ty, Smith believes.

That hasn’t happened since, where you “The reason Action Comics #1 had two such seminal works come out is worth $60- to $80,000 or A sketch of Silent Bob in the same year.” however much it’s worth

by Duncan Fegredo.

(In Smith’s view, has one of these right now,” Smith [ © View Askew Productions ] books held up better than the other? said, “is because

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“I never picked up the collector mentality again. From that point forward, I just became a guy who bought comics that he knew he was going to read and would appreciate.’’ there are very few left in the world. There were very few made to begin with, and very few are left, particularly in mint condition.

“But when you have millions of copies of ‘The Death of Superman’ polybagged, unopened, floating around — and then to have the character come back, as well, just a year later, making the story kind of insignificant at the end of the day — it’s just not a book that anyone is going to retire on. That was kind of indicative of that whole period.”

BUT DC COMICS WAS HARDLY THE sole publisher to play to speculators, Smith believes.

“Marvel and Image, I think, were the most egregious offenders, in terms of putting out chromium covers and (expletive) Right: Black like that,” said Widow hangs Smith, who admits that tough in Kevin he, too, took part in the specSmith’s Marvel ulating game.

Knights: Daredevil.

“I can’t tell you how many Opposite: Spidey copies of Hawk and Dove eases DD’s mind. #1 I bought, thinking Art: Joe Quesada that it would go up in and Jimmy value,” he said with a Palmiotti. chuckle. [ © 2006 Marvel “Or how many copies Comics ] of that ‘Reign of the Supermen’ issue with the chromium cover. Or how many copies of X-Men #1, the Jim Lee book. Or Sleepwalker, the Marvel character who was kind of their answer — and a bad answer — to DC’s successful Sandman book. Books that I would buy two or three copies of.”

But Smith has no regrets, because all of these multiple copies helped to fund his 1994 movie breakthrough.

“They came in handy for me,” Smith said, “because I dumped all my stuff when I was trying to make Clerks. At that point, when there was still interest in books like that, I kind of got away with it. Like, I fell for every gimmick, bought every one of those books in multiples, and then sold that whole collection.”

Smith unloaded his books at a comic shop then located in Middletown, New Jersey — the town where he shot most of Clerks.

Recalled Smith: “They gave me

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— what? — $2,000 in store credit, which wasn’t very helpful in financing Clerks, but I would sell off that store credit to my friend Walt Flannigan. He would give me, like, 80 bucks on every 100 bucks that he spent in store credit. That was good for paying off credit card bills and what-not.

“So I got out of the market when I dumped my collection. I let go of all that stuff.”

Did Smith — who would later own two comic books stores of his own — ever re-acquire the habit?

“After Clerks got bought, I finally came into some scratch,” he said. “I never picked up the collector mentality again, where I felt the need to buy multiple copies of first issues or anything like that. From that point forward, I just became a guy who bought comics that he knew he was going to read and would appreciate.”

SMITH LOST ANOTHER ASPECT of the collector mentality at the urging of comics pro David Lapham.

“I even fell out of bagging-and-boarding later on,” the filmmaker recalled.

“It was thanks to David Lapham, who does Stray Bullets. He was based in Toms River (New Jersey) for a long time, and then he went out to Los Angeles. He came to visit us on the set of Chasing Amy, and brought me a full run of Stray Bullets. I remarked that I wanted to get home and bagand-board ’em as soon as possible.

“He gave me this little speech that was, ‘Don’t bother, man. Bagging-and-boarding? Look, you read it, and then you pass it on to somebody else.

Because that’s the only way word-of-mouth spreads.’ He’s going, ‘Don’t treat it like an antique. Just read it and enjoy it. Never mind bagging-and-boarding.’

“That kind of stuck with me, to the point where I did stop bagging-and-boarding.

Which is very liberating.

Because, man, I was a slave to the bag-and-board. I would buy oversized boards that didn’t fit the bag so that I could trim the sides down to fit into the bags so that they would be tight. You could bounce a quarter off the book if you needed to.

“So I was really crazily into it. But

KEVIN SMITH

“I like to see these characters talk to one another. It’s nice to do a story where the dudes are in costume, but it’s between fights.’’

I’ve gotten to a place where I buy my books — well, I don’t buy them, actually, because I own the store. But I’ll buy my books, read my books and then I’ll actually bring them back to the store. I don’t feel the need to collect them in libraries anymore. Now, I just want to read the stories.”

Reading the stories. What a concept.

“I thank God we live in an age now when comic books seem to be driven by the writer,” Smith said. “It’s all about the writing. The speculators and the investment interests have fallen out of the comic book marketplace. It’s just left those of us who like to read and appreciate the art form to kind of jockey for position at the counter come Wednesday, Thursday, whenever you pick up your new books.”

WHICH BRINGS SMITH TO HIS Daredevil and Green Arrow series.

Smith clearly took delight in referencing the superheroes’ histories, as well as inserting characters from elsewhere in their respective universes.

Among comic book writers, he is not alone in these practices.

“It seems that we’re in this period of comics history where continuity is everything,” Smith said.

“Because, most of your really strong writers — your Brian Bendises or your Brad Meltzers or your Jeph Loebs — are all into continuity. These are dudes who will refer back to obscure storylines from books that came out 10, 20 years ago, to inform the current work.

“So it’s all about history now, which is great, because that’s always been one of the most fun aspects of comics — dealing in a world where so much has happened. You can tell a story and include a cursory or throw-away mention to an event that took place in somebody else’s storyline years ago featuring those same characters.”

In Marvel Knights: Daredevil, Smith wrote salient sequences for longtime Marvel heroes Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. He really got nuts in Green Arrow, writing scenes for Superman, Batman, Aquaman, the Justice League, the Demon, the Spectre and, of course, Oliver Queen’s erstwhile buddy Green Lantern.

“I also like to do continuity stuff,” Smith admitted.

“The ‘Quiver’ run I did for DC was steeped in DC continuity. At the time I did it, I remember reading some online criticism of the book saying, ‘Well, if you don’t follow

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DC, then it’s not going to be a book that’s readily available to you as a reader. You’re going to be a little lost.’

“And then I read Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis.

There’s a book that’s really steeped in continuity. If you don’t know your DC history, you’re completely lost. So I scratch the service, and people like Brad and Jeph Loeb go far, far deeper, in terms of tying storylines into ancient runs of books that you haven’t seen in years.

“But that’s part of the fun, man. It’s something that writers do because we enjoy doing it. But also, because it’s a nod to those fans who have faithfully stuck by characters or particular comics for years and years and years. It’s a genuine payoff.”

Smith learned from an old master that continuity, while important, should never alienate the first-time reader.

“You don’t make it so it’s impenetrable to people who have never read a comic book before,” Smith said.

“Most of us follow the Stan Lee advice. Stan Lee once said, ‘Every comic book is some kid’s first comic book.’

So you can’t make it something that a first-time reader can’t access. I think continuity references are best when they don’t interfere with the story and they don’t leave people sitting out in the cold who aren’t familiar with those storylines.”

ANOTHER DISTINCTIVE SMITH touch in his Daredevil and Green Arrow scripts was his dialogue.

Left: Old pals Smith’s take on Green Arrow and these classic Green Lantern flex superheroes was to anew in Kevin have them speak to Smith’s Quiver. each other like real Opposite: Clark human beings. and Bruce deliver (Cases in point: Smithian dialogue.

Smith’s thoughtful closArt: Phil Hester ing scene between and Ande Parks.

Daredevil and Spider[ © 2006 DC Comics ] Man in Marvel Knights: Daredevil and his opening scene between Superman and Batman in Green Arrow. ) “When I write, I tend to be very dialogue-heavy, of course, because I’m a dialogue guy,” said the filmmaker — and one gander at Clerks, for example, should be proof enough.

“I like to see these characters talk to one another and inter-relate. For years, we had so many books where all they did was have superheroes put on tights and just beat the (expletive) out of each other. So it’s nice to be able to do a story where these dudes are in their costumes, but it’s between fights. As they speak to one another, you kind of hear what’s on their minds.”

KEVIN SMITH

“Comics is a medium, not a genre,” writer Evan Dorkin once groused.

Marv plots his next move in Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. [ © 2006 Frank Miller ]

Dorkin was expressing frustration at the notion that comics are all about superheroes, and the undeniable prevalence of the superhero genre within the medium. Because after all, some of the best comic books have nothing to do with masked avengers.

The old master, Will Eisner, was a proponent of this theory. Though Eisner’s most famous character, the Spirit, wore a mask, you’d be hard-pressed to call him a superhero. When you think of Eisner’s Spirit, the first thing that comes to mind is the dyed-inthe-ink film noir atmosphere of his pages.

Two of the greatest practitioners of comics during the Dark Age both cited Eisner as an influence, and the best works of both writer/artists fell outside of the superhero realm: Frank Miller’s Sin City and Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

Dark Horse Books published seven volumes of Frank Miller’s Sin City between 1991 and 2000: The Hard Goodbye; A Dame to Kill For; The Big Fat Kill; That Yellow Bastard; Family Values; Booze, Broads and Bullets; and Hell and Back.

Miller’s Sin City is a nightmarish and violent urban wasteland of scarred cops, sleazy hookers, exotic dancers, on-the-take politicians, crooked clergy, drunks, punks, junkies, thugs and anti-heroes. Bullets fly, windows shatter, derrieres undulate, blood is spilled. Let’s put it this way: If a priest in Sin City deserves instant judge, jury and justice, he’ll get it, even in the confessional.

The gritty tone is not altogether original; Miller is clearly chewing up and spitting out his most beloved pulp-fiction influences. But Miller hooks the reader with his stark blackand-white artwork. You can’t look away from Miller’s high-contrast light-and-shade scenes (particularly when he depicts rain); his action sequences are riveting. The cream of every visual form Miller has studied — from film noir to Eisner to manga — is on display.

The 2005 film Sin City, co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez, was called the truest adaptation of a graphic novel up to that point. Miller certainly laid the groundwork with his Sin City pages, which read very much like movie storyboards.

The best comics always do.

Jews in Srodula watch as their children are taken away to Zawiercie. From Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. [ © 2006 Art Spiegelman ]

Imagine a comic book as compelling as The Diary of Anne Frank, Sophie’s Choice and Schindler’s List.

Writer/artist Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale offers ultimate proof that comics is a storytelling medium with unlimited potential. Once you get hooked into the story of how Spiegelman’s parents Vladek and Anja beat impossible odds and survived Nazi concentration camps in Poland during World War II, the idiosyncrasies of the medium fall away. You forget that Jews are depicted as mice, Nazis are depicted as cats and Poles are depicted as pigs.

You forget, even, that you are reading a comic book.

The story itself — horrifying, heartbreaking and undiluted— takes over, and the medium of comics becomes merely its vehicle of delivery.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale — collected in two Pantheon Books volumes as Part I: My Father Bleeds History and Part II: And Here My Troubles Began Vladek shares his — was originally unimaginable burden. published between From Maus: A Survivor’s 1980 and 1991 (in Tale. [ © 2006 Art “somewhat differSpiegelman ] ent form,” according to the indicia) in Raw, Spiegelman’s

often experimental art magazine. In the former volume, Spiegelman reprinted his 1973 strip Prisoner on the Hell Planet (from Short Order Comics #1), which recounts with horror the suicide of Spiegelman’s mother at age 56.

Maus tells two stories. One is about Art, the cartoonist, connecting with Vladek, his father, who meanders in his dotage through Rego Park, New York, ranting at the world in broken English and bickering with his soliticious second wife. The second story presents Vladek’s vivid memories of how he and Anja miraculously navigated their way through the Nazi oppression and systematic murder of more than six million Jews.

We sense Vladek’s relief at sharing his unimaginable burden with his son; we sense Art’s eagerness to capture his father’s memories in print; we sense the growing bond between the two men.

Part II: And Here My Troubles Began ends on a bittersweet note: the improbable reunion of Vladek and Anja following the war.

With the knowledge that Anja would end her life two decades later, the reader is painfully aware that in many ways, Anja never escaped the Holocaust. Spiegleman’s final illustration shows the dual gravestone of Vladek and Anja Spiegelman.

Upon release, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale was showered with kudos and awards, none more impressive than the Pulitzer Prize — the first comic book to be so honored.

If there is one comic book that anyone — of any age, race, class or sensibility — could and should read, it is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

BOOKS OR SERIES OF THE DARK AGE EARTHS (1985) For kicking fan obsession with continuity into overdrive, for having a (more or less) lasting effect on continuity thereafter, and for its unequaled volume of superhero casualties.

X-MEN #1 (1991) For becoming the best-selling comic book of all time (7.5 million), a record that would stand for many years. You may debate how X-Men #1 won that distinction, but you cannot debate the numbers.

2 BATMAN: THE DARK

7 SPAWN #1 (1992) For

3 WATCHMEN (1986)

8 SUPERMAN #75

1 CRISIS ON INFINITE

KNIGHT RETURNS (1986) For changing the way creators and readers approached superhero comics, and for bestowing upon Batman a comeback that would serve the character for decades.

For embuing superhero comics with a tangible sense of humanity. The characters in Watchmen have complicated lives and emotions – just like we who dwell on this side of the printed page.

4 ‘‘A DEATH IN THE

FAMILY’’ (1988, in Batman #426-429) For garnering unprecedented media coverage for its 900-line vote on Robin’s fate, thus goading the mainstream into talking about comics again.

5 MAUS: A SURVIVOR’S

TALE (1991, compilation edition) For silencing the naysayers of comics who publicly doubted the medium’s capacity for conveying a worthwhile story, and for being the first comic book to win the Pulitzer.

6

shaking up an industry that, it’s fair to say, hasn’t always been forthright with creators. Image Comics led the creator-owned pack, a movement which Todd McFarlane’s Spawn #1 came to symbolize.

(1992) For exceeding all previous media coverage, for becoming an event unto itself, for luring ‘‘civilians’’ into comic shops, and for proving there was life in the original superhero yet (even if it took his ‘‘death’’ to prove it).

MARVELS (1993) For introducing the comic book world to painter Alex Ross, who in turn introduced an atmosphere of reality and wholesomeness to a genre that was headed in increasingly bleak directions.

9

10

UNDERSTANDING COMICS (1993) For identifying and clarifying the previously unwritten tenets of comics, and challenging creators and readers to examine what lies between the panels.

10 MOST IMPORTANT

BOOKS OR SERIES OF THE DARK AGE X-FORCE #1 (1991) We’re not casting aspersions on the work of writer Fabian Nicieza or artist Rob Liefeld here. We’re taking the speculators to task.

Buying up six copies (one to open) of a comic book because it is polybagged with five different trading cards borders on reckless.

1

2 ECLIPSO: THE DARK-

NESS WITHIN #1 (1992) For its gaudy cover enhancement: a fake purple gem. We know a comic shop proprietor who ordered hundreds of copies of Eclipso #1 – only to endure the ridicule of colleagues and clientele when the issue didn’t sell.

3 PSYCHO KILLERS #8

(1992) For using a painting on its cover by John Wayne Gacy (who was convicted of torturing and killing 33 young men), thus putting Gacy in a category with, say, Frank Frazetta.

The issue also contained an ad for original paintings

by Gacy, with proceeds going to his defense (!).

4 SUPERMAN #75

(1992) Hey, wasn’t this one of the 10 Most Important?

For its over-the-top premiums, not to mention the fact that Supes didn’t die.

5 PLASM #0 (1993)

Like we said: When a binder becomes collectible, things are out of hand.

6 SPIDER-MAN: MUTANT AGENDA #0 (1993) For being, basically, a comic book full of blank pages. Readers, you see, were expected to paste in daily installments of the Spider-Man newspaper strip in what was billed as the first comic book/comic strip crossover. Get it?

7 PROTECTORS #5

(1993) “First ever Forcebeam Hole comic!” proclaimed the polybag. “This issue is not to be missed!” And what was this enhancement?

A hole. All the way through the issue — advertisements and all. Just a hole.

8 THE PUNISHER MEETS ARCHIE (1994) No explanation necessary.

9 SUPERMAN #123

(1997) For revamping Superman’s costume and powers in a transparent bid for buzz. The fact that the new Supes looked like the star of an all-male revue didn’t help things any.

10

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN (2003) Considering Frank Miller’s many lasting contributions to comics, he should be able to live down this disaster. Pundits talk about Miller ‘‘taking risks’’ with this sequel to The Dark Knight Returns, but it looks more like he was taking naps. Miller’s heart obviously wasn’t in it, and readers deserved better.

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Old masters stayed strong. Above: Fax From Sarajevo (1996). [ © 2006 Joe Kubert ] Below: Minor Miracles (2000). [ © 2006 Will Eisner ]

There was a crossroads in the mid-1980s, a fork in the road.

Creators — and those fans who were destined to soon become creators — could have taken either path. They could have gone the way of Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns or Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. For better or worse, they chose the former. Comics literally became darker, superheroes more brooding and less tolerant, from that point forward. Would the incredible ‘‘boom’’ period of the late ’80s and ’90s have happened, had those same creators instead followed the lead of Watchmen and delved more into the interpersonal relationships of characters?

We’ll never know, but we somehow doubt it.

The thing to do now is look back and take stock. Sure, it was fun meeting at the comic shop every week, buying up all of those over-hyped books and feeling as if you were witnessing milestones in the history of the venerable medium known as ‘‘the comics.’’ But when you review the period, what was the cream that rose to the top? What books are still worth reading? What books would you recommend to the next generation?

There are plenty. Near the top of my list is Epileptic by ‘‘David B.’’ (2005, Pantheon). At 361 pages, it’s no exaggeration to call David’s decades-spanning memoir an epic. His childhood in 1960s France was forever changed when his older brother, JeanChristophe, suffered his first epileptic seizure. The seizures became increasingly frequent and violent, and the parade of doctors and healers — with their sometimes bizarre methods of treatment — merely offered temporary hope.

In time, the entire family became consumed by Jean-Christophe’s epilepsy. David’s defense against

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this debilitating stress was to retreat into a fantasy world steeped in symbolism, where he spoke with his dead grandfather (in the form of a long-beaked bird) and obsessed over historical battles, often illustrating these in painstaking detail. Some stories don’t have a happy ending. Epileptic is pure heartbreak.

Another is Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds (also 2005, Pantheon). Every bit as true-to-life and accessible as Epileptic, and also set in France, Gemma Bovery is the story of a beautiful married woman, a British transplant, who is worshiped from afar by a French baker. After she dies, he absconds with her journals and recounts her life story with all of its peccadilloes. Simmonds’ inkand-wash illustrations are simple, subtle, elegant and telling.

Sometimes, it took an old master to show the kids how it’s done.

Joe Kubert and Will Eisner produced some of their strongest work during the Dark Age. Kubert’s Fax From Sarajevo (1996, Dark Horse) is a compelling case in point. ‘‘We all hear stories about 100,000 people killed there, 10,000 people killed there; it’s really just a number,” Kubert, then 73, told me in 1999. “But when you actually know somebody in that kind of a situation, the whole experience becomes quite, quite different. You are really connected to what’s happening.”

This happened for Kubert in 1992. After war broke out in Sarajevo, Bosnia, a colleague of Kubert’s lost his mother, his home and his business — and very nearly lost his wife and children. Ervin Rustemagic, an artists’ agent and native of Bosnia, updated friends around the world of his desperate mission to get

EPILOGUE

his family out of Sarajevo via a series of faxed missives. As Rustemagic’s family tried to stay a step ahead of advancing tanks and snipers, his friends in the outside world — including Kubert — monitored his situation, a helpless feeling for the artist.

“It’s like having someone you know and you care for in deep, deep trouble just an arm’s length away from you, but you can’t really touch him, you can’t really help him,” Kubert said. “As much as you’re trying to contact outside forces that might get to him, it’s just a series of terrible frustrations.’’

Rustemagic finally got out of Sarajevo himself, and worked from the outside to arrange his family’s escape. Kubert said he was not concerned whether such deadly serious subject matter in comic book form — with graphic depictions of the massacres and destruction in Sarajevo — would find a publisher.

“The story, as it unfolded itself to me, was such an incredible one,” From top: Kubert said.

Epileptic “Really, it hit me (2005). Art: so hard that I felt David B. [ © I had to record it 2006 David B.] in some way. I had Gemma Bovery to put it down the (2005). Art: best way I knew Posy Simmonds. how. This is what [ © 2006 Posy I’ve done all my Simmonds ] life: put it down in World’s Funnest picture and story (2000). Art: form.’’

Brian Bolland.

Said Kubert of [ © 2006 DC the comics medium: Comics ] “Many people who don’t know a helluva lot about comic books, they immediately identify that with humor or funny stuff or Peanuts. They don’t know what to make of (Fax From Sarajevo) without having looked at it first. But as soon as somebody reads it, as soon as somebody gets through it, I’ve not had any kind of negative reaction. But getting somebody to read it in the first place — that’s difficult.

“It’s kind of ironic; the fact is that comic books are an American invention. It started here in the States. But it started, originally, as a child’s medium. In other places in the world — in Europe and Japan — it has been accepted as a legitimate form of literature.

Here, we’re still trying to push the envelope. I think a good deal has been done. It’s being more legitimized now here in the States than ever before. So the surface has been scratched.”

EPILOGUE

Eisner, who died at age 87 in 2005, was hunched over his drawing table right up until the end. (In fact, his final book, The Plot: The Secret History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was published posthumously.) Two of Eisner’s later works, Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood (1996) and Minor Miracles (2000), both published by Kitchen Sink Books, brought readers back to a time before mass communication, when stories traveled through close-knit communities via word-of-mouth. ‘‘I think the idea of a closed neighborhood or the hometown kind of thing has been eroded tremendously by television, radio and the fact that we move around so quickly, so rapidly,’’ Eisner told me in 2000. ‘‘When I grew up, the street we lived on was like a little town. You knew everybody, and stories evolved around the people who lived there. But beyond the neighborhood was another world, as far as we were concerned.

It evolves around the idea of all the Yiddish shtetel in the small Polish and Russian towns in Europe, where the Jews lived in a sort of a ghetto atmosphere. Today, people are so mobile that they lose a sense of neighborhood or small town. I feel that we’re losing some of the magic that occurs when you live in a small neighborhood or a small town for most of your life.’’

Graphically, Eisner remained as strong as ever, continuing to hone his penchant for thoughtfully designed pages with borderless panels that meld into a whole. ‘‘The panelization is very much a part of the alphabet,’’ Eisner said. ‘‘It’s part of the language of the comics. It’s a containment unit. It holds the flow of dialogue and it deals with time. If I gave the audience greater participation in the storytelling, the audience can be held a lot more easily. The space has value in comics in that it invites the reader to insert something of the reader’s own experience.’’

Writer/artist Howard Cruse followed in Kubert and Eisner’s footsteps with Stuck Rubber Baby (1996, Paradox Press), his graphic novel about a gay white man who denies his gayness amid the turbulence that was the Civil Rights era in the South. All 210 pages of Stuck Rubber Baby are tinged with realism and drama.

“This book is the result of stuff that had been simmering in me for decades,’’ Cruse told me in 1996. For instance, the artist identified correlations between gay and black oppression in Stuck Rubber Baby.

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“I ultimately realized that there were definite parallels, and I brought some of those parallels to the story,” Cruse said.

“There’s nothing like experiencing oppression for having insights into it. As a theoretical construct, it doesn’t have as much power as when you’re the person who’s got the boot on his neck.”

The pattern revealing itself here is that many of the best comics are about real life. ‘‘There are a lot of people who have a bunker mentality about anything in comics that is not costumed avengers,’’ Milk and Cheese writer Evan Dorkin told me in 2000. ‘‘That’s tunnel vision.

Every genre is represented out there, but if they’re not superhero, they’re not doing well, because they just don’t have the industry support. That’s like going to Blockbuster (Video), and all you’ve got there are Arnold Above right: Schwarzenegger Powers (2000). movies.

Art: Michael Avon ‘‘It’s a tough nut to Oeming. [ © 2006 crack.

We need to Brian Michael Bendis learn from what and Michael Avon manga publishers are Oeming ] Right: doing, and sell the actual Mad Love (1994). medium of comics. But Art: Bruce Timm. we act like we’re jealous Opposite: Countof manga, instead of down to Infinite being willing to learn Crisis #1 (2005). from it.’’

Art: Jim Lee and Dorkin took continuity Alex Ross. obsessed fans to task with [ © 2006 DC Comics ] his humorous Elseworlds book of 2000, World’s Funnest, in which silly DC villains of yore Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite trigger a multiverse implosion worthy of 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. (In fact, more than 20 artists, many of them Dark Age greats, were in on the fun, including Frank Miller, Alex Ross and Brian Bolland.)

Said Dorkin of post-Crisis superhero comics: ‘‘Everybody is so damned ugly and the storytelling is so nuts — and incomprehensible characters and situations. Crisis just kind of broke comics down and made them incomprehensible to the average fan. I mean, after Crisis, all bets were off as to understanding a superhero comic in one reading. ‘‘Superhero comics — even the best of them, to some degree — come out like McDonalds hamburgers, and people seem to forget them by the next week.’’

Not everyone agreed. Crisislevel continuity obsession was alive and well in Infinite Crisis (2005-06), DC’s seven-issue miniseries (written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Phil Jiminez and inked by Andy Lanning) which promised

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to dictate ‘‘the direction of the universe for the next generation” and expressed ‘‘eternal gratitude’’ to original Crisis creators Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for building the foundation that all superhero epics have come from.’’ ‘‘We’re really looking at it as a sequel to that story (the 1985 Crisis),’’ Dan DiDio, then DC’s executive editor, told me in 2005. ‘‘The ramifications will be felt throughout the DC Universe hopefully for the next 20 years.’’

Time will tell. There were plenty of superhero comics published during the Dark Age that will stand the test of time.

DC’s The Batman Adventures, a companion to the early ’90s TV ’toon Batman: The Animated Series, featured a deceptively ‘‘cartoony’’ look (courtesy of artists Mike Parobeck, Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett and others) in keeping with the television series. During the simplicitystarved Dark Age, this was a breath of fresh air. More books in the so-called ‘‘animated’’ style would follow (Superman Adventures, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman Strikes, Teen Titans Go! ). Producers / comic book guys Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s one-shot spinoff spotlighting Joker sidekick Harley Quinn, The Batman Adventures: Mad Love (1994), is one of the best comic books of any era.

For likewise clean, accessible superhero storytelling, there was Marvel’s Ultimate series, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man by writer Brian Michael Bendis, penciler Mark Bagley and inker Art Thibert; and Image and Icon’s Powers by Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming. These titles told good stories with good art. What a concept.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO remember is this: Thanks to the dedication and talent of comic book creators — not to mention the passion of the fans — during the Dark Age, the embattled medium thrived. And survived.

Like rock ’n’ roll, comics is a ‘‘passalong’’ culture; someone has to pick it up and pass it on.

During the Dark Age of Comics, someone did.

Trends and fads and computer programs and the latest gotta-have-it devices come and go, but somehow, comic books are still with us. Ink on paper — how anachronistic. How last century. How cool.

EPILOGUE

Dorkin, Evan: 40, 158, 164 Doyle, Arthur Conan: 135 Adams, Neal: 12, 35, 45, Buttafuoco, Joey: 137 69, 127 Byrne, John: 23, 40, 97 Drake, Arnold: 12 Dringenberg, Mike: 41 Affleck, Ben: 149 Cadiente, Jeff: 54 Eastman, Kevin: 13 Allbright, Madeline: 48 Cain, Dean: 132 Eisner, Will: 40, 52, 72, Allen, Woody: 137 Campbell, J. Scott: 86, 108, 110, 122, 158, 162, Allred, Laura: 104 141 163 Allred, Mike: 40, 102Caniff, Milton: 40 Eklund, Pam: 125 105 Capp, Al: 40 Engelhart, Steve: 45 Andru, Ross: 12, 13 Capullo, Greg: 80 Aparo, Jim: 33, 36, 38, Carlin, Mike: 89-93, 111, Farrow, Mia: 137 Fegredo, Duncan: 151, 69, 134 125, 132, 134, 135 Arthur, Bea: 114 Cavalieri, Joey: 124, 125 153 Fields, W.C.: 10 Asimov, Isaac: 136 Chadwick, Paul: 40 Finger, Bill: 9, 43, 45, 49 B., David: 162, 163 Chaplin, Charlie: 9 Fingeroth, Danny: 129, Bachalo, Chris: 41 Cho, Frank: 141 135 Bagge, Peter: 40 Clancy, Tom: 136 Fisher, Amy: 137 Bagley, Mark: 164 Claremont, Chris: 66 Fisher, Carrie: 138 Bails, Jerry: 5 Clinton, Bill: 89, 137 Flannigan, Walter: 153, Baker, H.M.: 138 Clooney, George: 134 154 Bale, Christian: 47 Cockrum, Dave: 86 Flatley, Michael: 129 Balent, Jim: 87, 141 Colan, Gene: 12, 147 Flowers, Gennifer: 137 Barker, Clive: 40, 137 Collins, Max Allan: 136 Fontenot, Maurice: 99 Barkley, Charles: 137 Conner, Amanda: 141 Ford, Harrison: 45, 138 Barnett III, Charles: 87 Conway, Gerry: 11, 12, Ford, Lita: 137 Barta, Hilary: 142, 143 17, 35 Fox, Gardner: 10, 11 Basinger, Kim: 43 Cooke, Darwyn: 141 Frank, Anne: 159 Bedard, Anthony: 99 Cooper, Alice: 139 Frazetta, Frank: 161 Bendis, Brian Michael: Costner, Kevin: 45 Frenz, Ron: 13, 82, 125 148, 156, 164 Cowan, Denys: 7, 111 Benes, Ed: 141 Crumb, Robert: 13, 139 Freud, Sigmund: 49 Friedman, Drew: 137 Berry, Halle: 47 Cruse, Howard: 163, Furst, Anton: 45 Bogdanove, Jon: 89, 93 164 Gacy, John Wayne: 161 Bolinger, Kathryn: 55 Dalton, Timothy: 114 Gaiman, Neil: 41, 136, Bolland, Brian: 5, 33, Darnall, Steve: 113 139 132, 141, 163 David, Peter: 124 Gaines, Max C.: 9 Bow, Clara: 10 Davis, Michael: 111 Gaines, William M.: 9, Bradbury, Ray: 49 DeCarlo, Mike: 15, 35, 10 Breeding, Brett: 88, 89, 134 Gecko, Gabriel: 125 134 Deggans, Eric: 111 Brock, James: 55 Del Toro, Guillermo: 122 Gibbons, Dave: 7, 22-29, 48, 81, 153, 162 Brown, Bob: 69 Dell, John: 85 Giffen, Keith: 12 Buckingham, Mark: 41 DiDio, Dan: 135, 164 Giordano, Dick: 15, 38, Burchett, Rick: 164 Dingle, Derek: 111 87 Burden, Bob: 13 Dini, Paul: 113, 115, Golightly, Holly: 141 Burton, Tim: 6, 40, 45, 117, 164 Goodwin, Archie: 11 49, 51 Disney, Walt: 59 Gough, Michael: 43 Buscema, John: 48 Ditko, Steve: 26 Grant, Cary: 10 Busiek, Kurt: 113 Dixon, John: 55 Greenberger, Robert: 15 Butler, Steven: 86 Donenfeld, Irwin: 145 Greene, Graham: 28

INDEX

Grindberg, Tom: 87, 125 Groth, Gary: 80 Grummett, Tom: 89, 134 Guadiano, Stefano: 104 Guice, Jackson: 89 Hall, Bob: 136 Hama, Larry: 32 Hamill, Mark: 138 Hamm, Sam: 45, 49 Hampton, Bo: 5 Hardin, Terri: 22 Harris, Jack C.: 4, 5 Hatcher, Teri: 132 Hazlewood, Doug: 89, 134 Hearst, William Randolph: 9 Herge: 110 Hernandez, Gilbert: 40 Hernandez, Jaime: 40 Hester, Phil: 132, 151, 156 Higgins, John: 26, 27 Hoover, Dave: 7 Horn, Greg: 141 Hughes, Adam: 141, 143 Hughes, Steven: 75, 87 Hutton, Elizabeth: 53 Infantino, Carmine: 10, 11, 12 Janson, Klaus: 21 Jenke, Dennis: 89 Jensen, Jason: 87 Jiminez, Phil: 164 Johns, Geoff: 164 Johnson, Eric: 138 Johnson, Jeff: 55 Johnson, Magic: 137 Johnson, Russell: 114 Johnson, Mark Steven: 149 Jones, Kelley: 41, 82 Jones III, Malcolm: 41 Jordan, Michael: 58, 137 Jurgens, Dan: 88, 89, 125, 134 Kalish, Carol: 62 Kane, Bob: 9, 22, 43, 45, 48, 58, 96 Kane, Gil: 11 Kanigher, Robert: 10 Keaton, Michael: 40, 41, 43-46

Kelley, Manon: 141 Keown, Dale: 78, 84 Kesel, Karl: 89 Kieth, Sam: 41 Kirby, Jack: 11, 97, 99, 110, 121, 122, 128, 130 Kitchen, Denis: 40 Kobasic, Kevin: 55 Koike, Kazuo: 40 Kojima, Goseki: 40 Kostabi, Mark: 9 Kubert, Andy: 133 Koenig, Walter: 137 Kubert, Joe: 10, 48, 162, 163 Kunzle, Jeffrey: 110 Laird, Peter: 13 Land, Greg: 141 Lanning, Andy: 164 Lapham, David: 55, 7072, 101, 154 Larsen, Erik: 78, 79, 84, 94-97, 127 Layton, Bob: 55, 99, 126 Lee, Brandon: 51-54 Lee, Bruce: 51 Lee, Jim: 41, 48, 55, 57, 64-69, 78-80, 125, 126, 154, 164 Lee, Linda: 53 Lee, Stan: 5, 11, 12, 48, 62, 96, 97, 124, 147, 156 Leonardi, Rick: 92, 124 Lewis, Jerry: 15 Liefeld, Rob: 41, 55, 57, 78-80, 125, 127, 161 Lincoln, Abraham: 49 Lobdell, Scott: 127, 132 Loeb, Jeph: 156 Lomax, Don: 7 Lovecraft, H.P.: 5 Lords, Traci: 137 Lucas, George: 138 Marder, Larry: 110 Marschall, Richard: 9 Marx, Groucho: 28, 36 Massarky, Steve: 55 Mayhew, Mike: 140 Mazzucchelli, David: 33 McCloud, Scott: 106110 McDuffie, Dwayne: 111 McFarlane, Todd: 40, 41, 55-61, 63, 78-80, 84, 93, 96, 126, 127, 143, 160 McKean, Dave: 41 McLaughlin, Frank: 86 McLuhan, Marshall: 108 Melniker, Benjamin: 43, 44, 46 Meltzer, Brad: 156

Mewes, Jason: 151 Michelangelo: 9 Michelinie, David: 61, 62 Mignola, Mike: 33, 88, 120-123 Miller, Frank: 6, 7, 10, 13, 17, 21-23, 33, 40, 44, 59, 80, 81, 97, 126, 147, 148, 151, 153, 158, 161, 164 Miller, Nicole: 132 Monks, Joe: 33 Moore, Alan: 7, 22, 2528, 33, 40, 81, 132, 153, 162 Moreno, Pepe: 31 Morrison, Grant: 41 Murray, Doug: 23, 30-32 Nichols, Art: 55 Nicholson, Jack: 40, 43, 45 Nicieza, Fabian: 161 Nimoy, Leonard: 127, 136, 137 Nixon, Richard: 22 Noto, Phil: 141 O’Barr, J.: 40, 50-54 Oeming, Michael Avon: 164 O’Neil, Dennis: 5, 12, 15, 33-39, 41, 45, 124, 134 Ordway, Jerry: 15, 41 Osbourne, Ozzy: 137 Outcault, R.F.: 9, 10 Pacella, Mark: 132 Page, Bettie: 141 Palmiotti, Jimmy: 75, 76, 111, 140, 147, 151, 154 Panosian, Dan: 132 Parks, Ande: 132, 151, 156 Parobeck, Mike: 164 Patterson, Bruce: 138 Pelletier, Paul: 101 Pérez, George: 15-17, 88, 135, 164, 165 Perlin, Don: 55 Perlman, Ron: 122 Peterson, Brandon: 129 Peterson, Cassandra: 137 Pfeiffer, Michelle: 47 Pini, Richard: 13 Pini, Wendy: 13 Poe, Edgar Allan: 49 Porizkova, Paulina: 137 Portacio, Whilce: 66, 78 Powter, Susan: 16 Pressman, Ed: 53 Prince: 136, 137 Proyas, Alex: 54

Pulido, Brian: 74-77 Pulitzer, Joseph: 9 Purcell, Gordon: 141 Quaid, Dennis: 45 Quesada, Joe: 55, 75, 126, 146-149, 151, 154 Reagan, Ronald: 21 Reese, Ralph: 55 Reeve, Christopher: 117 Reeves, Keanu: 47 Robbins, Trina: 141 Rockwell, Norman: 113 Rodier, Denis: 89 Rodriguez, Robert: 158 Rogers, Marshall: 45 Romita, John: 11, 129 Romita Jr., John: 147, 148 Ross, Alex: 83, 112-119, 160, 164 Roddenberry, Gene: 136 Rubinstein, Joe: 82, 125 Russell, P. Craig: 41 Rustemagic, Ervin: 162, 163 Ruth, Babe: 49 Ryan, Matthew: 133 Ryder, Tom: 136 Salicrup, Jim: 57, 60-62 Sanders III, Jim: 86 Santana, Carlos: 137 Savini, Tom: 31 Schultz, Mark: 40 Schwartz, Julius: 5, 1012, 145 Schwarzenegger, Arnold: 164 Seagle, Steven T.: 104 Sears, Bart: 55 Sekowsky, Mike: 11 Semieks, Val: 85 Shatner, William: 127, 137 Shelton, Gilbert: 13 Shooter, Jim: 21, 55, 71, 72, 101, 127, 147 Shore, Paulie: 9 Shuster, Joe: 9 Siegel, Jerry: 9 Sienkiewicz, Bill: 147 Silvestri, Marc: 78, 79, 84, 85, 127, 129 Sim, Dave: 13 Simmonds, Posy: 162, 163 Simmons, Gene: 13 Simonson, Louise: 89, 93 Simonson, Walter: 97 Simpson, Don: 143 Simpson, Howard: 55, 98-100

Skroce, Steve: 85 Slifer, Roger: 12 Small Jr., Louis: 141 Smith, Kevin: 105, 133, 147-157 Snejbjerg, Peter: 48 Spain: 13 Spiegleman, Anja: 159 Spiegelman, Art: 6, 7, 110, 158, 159 Spiegelman, Vladek: 159 Spillane, Mickey: 136 Sprang, Dick: 69 Starlin, Jim: 33 Stelfreeze, Brian: 130 Stern, Roger: 89 Stevens, Dave: 141 Stewart, Patrick: 114 Stone, Oliver: 32 Stroby, Wallace: 137 Sullivan, Lee: 137 Sullivan, Vin: 9 Swan, Curt: 110 T, Mr.: 137 Templeton, Ty: 164 Tezuka, Osamu: 110 Thibert, Art: 7, 164 Thomas, Roy: 5, 147 Thomases, Martha: 89, 132 Thompson, Gary: 15 Thompson, Kim: 17, 21, 22 Timm, Bruce: 141, 164 Trimpe, Herb: 12 Truman, Timothy: 99 Tuska, George: 11 Tyler, Steven: 137 Uslan, Michael: 42-49, 151 Valentino, Jim: 78, 79 Varley, Lynn: 21 Vess, Charles: 41 Wagner, Matt: 13, 126 Waid, Mark: 113 Warhol, Andy: 105 Warren, Adam: 141 Wein, Len: 12 Wertham, Fredric: 132 West, Adam: 40, 43 West, Mae: 10 White, Michael Jai: 93 Williams, Scott: 63, 66 Williamson, Al: 82, 124 Willis, Bruce: 22, 38 Windsor-Smith, Barry: 55, 126 Winick, Judd: 133 Wolfman, Marv: 12, 16, 41, 134, 164 Zahn, Paula: 62 Zulli, Michael: 139

Mark Voger & Kathy Voglesong

Mark Voger and Kathy Voglesong during an in-store appearance promoting Hero Gets Girl! at Comic Relief in Toms River, N.J., in January of 2004. [ Photo by Ray Kuckelsberg ]

166

were an award-winning husband-and-wife writer-photographer team specializing in entertainment topics for 19 years.

Their book Hero Gets Girl! The Life & Art of Kurt Schaffenberger was published by TwoMorrows in 2003. Artists interviewed by Mark and photographed by Kathy were as varied as Keith Richards, Ringo Starr, James Brown, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Robert Plant, Malachy McCourt, Peter Max, Jackson Browne, Kevin Smith, Joey Ramone, Frankie Avalon, Alice Cooper, Steven Van Zandt, Brian Wilson and Rob Zombie. Kathy died at home in 2005 at the age of 42. Mark is a writer/designer for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey and lives at the Jersey Shore.

INDEX

Celebrate JACK KIRBY’s 100th birthday!

THE PARTY STARTS WITH

KIRBY100

TWOMORROWS and the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate JACK KIRBY’S 100th BIRTHDAY in style with the release of KIRBY100, a full-color visual holiday for the King of comics! It features an all-star line-up of 100 COMICS PROS who critique key images from Kirby’s 50-year career, admiring his page layouts, dramatics, and storytelling skills, and lovingly reminiscing about their favorite characters and stories. Featured are BRUCE TIMM, ALEX ROSS, WALTER SIMONSON, JOHN BYRNE, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE RUDE, ADAM HUGHES, WENDY PINI, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE GIBBONS, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and dozens more of the top names in comics. Their essays serve to honor Jack’s place in comics history, and prove (as if there’s any doubt) that KIRBY IS KING! This double-length book is edited by JOHN MORROW and JON B. COOKE, with a Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER. (The Limited Hardcover Edition includes 16 bonus color pages of Kirby’s 1960s Deities concept drawings) All characters TM & © their respective owners.

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THE WORLD OF LEGO MECHA! Learn the secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecha builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

The legacy and influence of WALLACE WOOD, with a comprehensive essay about Woody’s career, extended interview with Wood assistant RALPH REESE (artist for Marvel’s horror comics, National Lampoon, and undergrounds), a long chat with cover artist HILARY BARTA (Marvel inker, Plastic Man and America’s Best artist with ALAN MOORE), plus our usual columns, features, and the humor of HEMBECK!

KIRBY: OMEGA! Looks at endings, deaths, and Anti-Life in the Kirbyverse, including poignant losses and passings from such series as NEW GODS, KAMANDI, FANTASTIC FOUR, LOSERS, THOR, DEMON and others! Plus: The 2016 Silicon Valley Comic-Con Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN & MIKE ROYER panel, WALTER SIMONSON interview, & unseen pencil art galleries! SIMONSON cover inks!

FIGHT CLUB! Jack’s most powerful fights and in-your-face action: Real-life WAR EXPERIENCES, Marvel’s KID COWBOYS, the Madbomb saga and all those negative 1970s Marvel fan letters, interview with SCOTT McCLOUD on his Kirby-inspired punchfest DESTROY!!, rare Kirby interview, 2017 WonderCon Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, unpublished pencil art galleries, and more! Cover inked by DEAN HASPIEL!

ONE-SHOTS! We cover Kirby’s best (and worst) short spurts on his wildest concepts: ANIMATION IDEAS, DINGBATS, JUSTICE INC., MANHUNTER, ATLAS, PRISONER, and more! Plus MARK EVANIER and our other regular panelists, rare Kirby interview, panels from the 2017 Kirby Centennial celebration, pencil art galleries, and some one-shot surprises! BIG BARDA #1 cover finishes by MIKE ROYER!

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(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Fall 2017

REED CRANDALL Illustrator of the Comics

From the 1940s to the ’70s, REED CRANDALL brought a unique and masterful style to American comic art. Using an illustrator’s approach on everything he touched, Crandall gained a reputation as the “artist’s artist” through his skillful interpretations of Golden Age super-heroes DOLL MAN, THE RAY, and BLACKHAWK (his signature character); horror and sci-fi for the legendary EC COMICS line; Warren Publishing’s CREEPY, EERIE, and BLAZING COMBAT; the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS and EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS characters; and even FLASH GORDON for King Features. Comic art historian ROGER HILL has compiled a complete and extensive history of Crandall’s life and career, from his early years and major successes, through his tragic decline and passing in 1982. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS, a wealth of RARE AND UNPUBLISHED ARTWORK, and over EIGHTY THOUSAND WORDS of insight into one of the true illustrators of the comics.

(256-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-077-9 • SHIPS JULY 2017

It’s

GROOVY, baby!

Follow-up to Mark Voger’s smash hit MONSTER MASH!

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

From WOODSTOCK to THE BANANA SPLITS, from SGT. PEPPER to H.R. PUFNSTUF, from ALTAMONT to THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES, LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. GROOVY revisits the era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, MOVIES, ART—even COMICS and CARTOONS, from the 1968 ‘mod’ WONDER WOMAN to R. CRUMB. A color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the acclaimed book MONSTER MASH), GROOVY is one trip that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9 • DIGITAL EDITION: $15.95

SHIPS OCTOBER 2017 • Free preview online now!

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

All characters TM & © 2006 DC Comics

. . . The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen ? .. . . . The ‘polybagged premium’ craze? .. . . . Renegade superheroes Spawn, Pitt, Bloodshot and Cyberforce? .. . . . When vigilantes spilled blood by the gallon – and those were the good guys?

Read all about the sometimes glorious, sometimes gory era of comic books known as . . .

Featuring interviews with Todd McFarlane (Spawn ), Dave Gibbons (Watchmen ), Jim Lee (X-Men ), Kevin Smith (Clerks ), Mike Mignola (Hellboy ), J. O’Barr (The Crow ), Alex Ross (Kingdom Come ), David Lapham (Stray Bullets ), Dennis O’Neil (Knightfall ), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon ) and others. $19.95 in the U.S.