The Dark Age by TwoMorrows Publishing

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

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