boyajian@dec-akov68.UUCP (06/10/84)
from THE COMIC READER #218 (June 1984):
(1) "[DC UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS] will forever shake up the struc-
ture of the DC Universe in that the conclusion of the series will result in all
of the various parallel worlds collapsed into one --- i.e. there will no longer
be an Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-X, ...[etc.]"
Looks like Hutch's source was right.
(2) "Negotiations for the three suspended Capital books (NEXUS, WHISPER, and THE
BADGER) continues, and currently, the best money is on First Comics being the
one to take them over. Talks with marvel and pacific continued, both of whom ex-
pressed interest only in NEXUS, and with DC and Eclipse, who, like First, were
interested in all three."
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAjack@hp-dcde.UUCP (06/14/84)
> "[DC UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS] will forever shake up the structure > of the DC Universe in that the conclusion of the series will result in all of > the various parallel worlds collapsed into one --- i.e. there will no longer > be an Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-X, ...[etc.]" Will the population of the final Earth (Earth-?) be n times that of the original earths? Will everybody be confronted with several doubles of themselves? What about the various funny-animal earths, like that of Captain Carrot? Will the funny animals live cheek-by-jowl with Clark Kent? Or will they just take the daring approach and kill off the other earths!? (Saving, of course, the various heroes from Earth-2 so we can still see them from time to time. But where to put them? You can't have two Supermen on Earth!) Perhaps the Huntress will come to live with Uncle Bruce! -Jack Applin {hplabs,csu-cs,hp-pcd,nwuxd}!hp-dcd!jack
boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (06/21/84)
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 15 June, 22 June, and 29 June issues:
(1) GROO THE WANDERER is switching from Pacific Comics to Epic Comics. Unlike
previous Epic Comics, GROO will be on Mando paper for $.75 and available on
newstands. Aragones wants GROO to have a wider distribution [I agree, it's a
good title for newstand distribution], which is why he's switching to Epic.
(2) The fourth issue of JERRY IGER'S FAMOUS FEATURES from Pacific [the first ish
should be out shortly] will be a 3-D comic featuring Sheena of the Jungle, pre-
sumably to tie in with the forthcoming Sheena movie. Speaking of 3-D, the 3-D
ALIEN WORLDS was a great success, so Pacific is thinking of doing another one.
(3) Steve Gerber is *not* going to be doing WONDER WOMAN. Previous announcements
stated that Gerber would be doing a second, direct-distribution WW title, but
the plans for it fell through.
(4) Marvel may reprint (for the US market) the Captain Britain series that's run
in the Marvel-UK titles THE DAREDEVILS and THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL by Alan
Moore and Alan Davis. The cynical side of me says that they're probably only do-
ing this to cash in on the notice that Moore's been getting lately for his work
on SWAMP THING. Not that the Captain Britain stuff isn't good, mind you; I've
got two of the DAREDEVILS issues, and it's a pretty wild strip. As cynical as I
am about Marvel's reasons, I still welcome the reprint.
(5) Pacific's ELRIC #1-2 will be expanded and reprinted in a graphic album for-
mat. Some of the art will be re-drawn (not counting the expansion) and all of
it will be re-colored, using the new coloring method used for the last few is-
sues of the comic.
(6) The British Eagle Awards: US UK
(Favorite) Writer Howard Chaykin Alan Moore
Artist Howard Chaykin Alan Davis
Inker Terry Austin (1)
Comic AMERICAN FLAGG! WARRIOR
Story "Hard Times" "V for Vendetta"
(AM. FLAGG! #1-3) (WARRIOR #9-14)
Cover CAMELOT 3000 #9 WARRIOR #13
(Brian Bolland) (Garry Leach)
New Title AMERICAN FLAGG! THE DAREDEVILS (2)
Character Reuben Flagg V
Supporting Char. Raul Zirk (3)
Team The New Teen Titans The Special Executive(4)
Villain The Joker Torquemada (5)
Char. Most Worthy of Own Title The Rocketeer Captain Britain
Roll of Honor: Julius Schwartz
For those of you unfamiliar with British comics:
(1) Most British artists ink their own work, so no Favorite UK Inker award was
given.
(2) THE DAREDEVILS was a black&white Marvel-UK comic which featured reprints of
the Frank Miller DD stories, as well as new British material, such as
Captain Britain. Oddly enough, despite its award, it folded after #11.
(3) Zirk is a slimy little alien pervert who's appeared in the "Pressbutton and
Laser Eraser" strip in WARRIOR. Pacific is planning to reprint this
strip (as well as others from WARRIOR) starting this summer.
(4) The Special Executive is a super-team from the "Captain Britain" strip.
(5) Torquemada is the villain from the "Nemesis" strip in 2000 A.D. The first
"book" of "Nemesis" is soon to appear as a 7-part mini-series from
Eagle Comics.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAboyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (10/22/84)
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 12 October 1984:
(1) Marvel raises prices on their regular comics to $.65 [why can't this damn
terminal have a "cent sign" key?!] starting with the comics shipping in Decem-
ber. The limited series, as well two of the regular comics, G.I. JOE and TRANS-
FORMERS, will remain on Mando paper for $.75.
(2) The Archie Adventure line is being temporarily held back pending "re-evalu-
ation"
(3) Don Newton apparently did get some work done on INFINITY, INC. before his
untimely death. The first work he did for the title will be published last, in
issue #13 (he did the whole story for that one). #11 will see a framing sequence
Newton did for a George Tuska pencilled story, and #12 will have three pages by
Newton that were the last work he did.
(4) COYOTE will be cancelled sometime in the future due to poor sales. It's sup-
posedly doing reasonably well, but not well enough to be worth it. It's not def-
inite when the comic will end, since Englehart will be taking whatever time he
needs to bring the story to a natural close. Englehart will be using the time
freed up from this to do some other work, including the "Iron Maiden" strip for
Deluxe Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, "Green Lantern" for DC, and, rumor has it,
a Silver Surfer project for Marvel.
(5) Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz will team up for a two-issue story in
DAREDEVIL, #219-220. Miller will write and Sienkiewicz will pencil and ink. The
story will wrap up the Kingpin/Vanessa subplot.
(6) Eclipse Comics will take on four more of the titles originally scheduled
from Pacific Comics: (1) SIEGEL AND SCHUSTER: DATELINE 1930'S, featuring pre-
Superman work from the duo; (2) BERNI WRIGHTSON, MASTER OF THE MACABRE #5, the
last issue scheduled for that title; (3) STRANGE DAYS #1, containing "new wave"
British material; and (4) PRESSBUTTON #1, reprinting material from the British
comic, WARRIOR. The last two are to be regular series from Eclipse.
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 19 October 1984:
(1) First Comics cancels WARP with issue #19 and MARS with #12. Both comics had
relatively low sales, and First needed to make room on the schedule for NEXUS
and BADGER. They also have further plans for the "Dynamo Joe" back-up strip from
MARS. First will retain publishing rights for WARP material, though MARS will be
up for grabs by whomever wants it.
(2) Kitchen Sink will upgrade the format on their three main books. STEVE CANYON
will go from quarterly to bimonthly and from 68 (saddle-stapled) to 76 (square-
bound) pages on higher quality paper. The price will increase to $4.95 [*Still*
a bargain, I say!]. WILL EISNER'S QUARTERLY will likewise become squarebound,
increasing its page count to 68 on heavier paper, keeping its Spirit-reprint
color section. The color SPIRIT comic will increase to 44 pages for $2.95. Kit-
chen claims that the only alternative to this re-formatting was to downgrade the
production.
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
While I'm not sure that the WEQ will last in this format and price, I
hope that this doesn't sound the death-knell for the other two. In my opinion,
THE SPIRIT, in terms of writing, art, and production (coloring, printing, paper,
etc.) is the BEST COMIC BEING PUBLISHED TODAY, bar none! If it went up to $5.00
an issue, it'd *still* be worth it! Do yourself (as well as comic fandom as a
whole) a favor and buy this comic. It would be a *shame* if this comic were to
fold.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAboyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (11/06/84)
from THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 26 October 1984:
(1) Well, Moriarty scooped me on the new X-Men title, but he didn't mention
that HAWKEYE AND THE WEST COAST AVENGERS are getting their own book. It
will be written by Steve Englehart and probably drawn by Al Milgrom. If
Milgrom *does* draw the book (which isn't certain right now), the regular
AVENGERS book will be done by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.
(2) DC *promises* to have CAMELOT 3000 #12 out for Christmas.
from THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 2 November 1984:
(3) As reported previously, Frank Miller (story) and Bill Sienkiewicz (art)
were scheduled to do DAREDEVIL #219-220. This is no longer operative.
Instead, the story that they were going to do for those two issues will
be published as a graphic novel.
(4) Harlan Ellison will work on two projects for DC. One is a graphic novel
adaptation of his OUTER LIMITS script, "Demon with a Glass Hand", which
is intended to be drawn by Marshall Rogers. The second project is a mini-
series starring Wally West. There was, if you can remember, an enigmatic
comment by Marv Wolfman in the latest issue of one of the Titans books
about how Ellison had called him up with a suggestion about how Kid Flash
should be handled. Well, Wolfman and Giordano decided to have him put his
typewriter where his mouth is....
(5) First Comics has gotten a big response to their request for suggestions
for their team-up cross-overs with DC. The two most popular seem to be
Batman/Jon Sable [the obvious one, in my opinion] and Grimjack/Teen Titans.
[I don't know --- I kind of like the idea of The Badger and Blue Devil...]
(6) Aardvark-Vanaheim plans to publish another, bi-monthly, Cerebus book,
called CEREBUS JAM. Each issue will have two stories, one by Sim/Gerhard,
and the other one by a guest artist.
from THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 9 November 1984:
(7) Eclipse picks up some more Pacific titles. They will publish issues 5 & 6
of SOMERSET HOLMES, which will end the current storyline. Nothing's been
said about whether there will be any more after that. They will also do a
one-shot called MR. MONSTER, which will reprint the first installment of
the three-part story (from VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED), plus the previously
unpublished parts 2 & 3. They also intend to publish the TWISTED TALES and
ALIEN WORLDS material that's already been written and drawn, probably pub-
lishing two issues of each title, though ALIEN WORLDS will also contain
some material done for the second issue of PATHWAYS TO FANTASY.
**********
WARNING!!! WARNING!! DON'T PANIC! JOKE AHEAD! DON'T PANIC! WARNING!! WARNING!!
A sign at my local comics shop says that Pacific Comics is offically kaput.
Just to lighten up things, though, it also had a marvelous gag:
"Marvel Comics goes bankrupt! Jim Shooter commits suicide!"
Then goes on to say what other publishers have picked up rights for which
Marvel comics. Some examples that I can remember:
First Comics picks up NEW MUTANTS & FANTASTIC FOUR. Watch for an AMERICAN
FLAGG!/NEW MUTANTS team-up.
DC takes on THE AVENGERS and THOR. The Avengers to become the even newer
new Justice League of America.
Comico picks up POWER PACK, as the kids are orphaned and adopted by Evangeline.
Nobody seems to want the X-Men, though....
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAboyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (12/13/84)
All kinds of news from various places (THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, AMAZING
HEROES, THE COMICS JOURNAL, and even MARVEL AGE).
(1) The Alpha Ralpha Roulette Wheel is about to take another spin. Place
your bets, everybody... In issue #23, as the rock group Queen put it so
succintly, "another one bites the dust". My guess is Shaman, to make way
for Talisman to take his place.
(2) Steve Englehart starts writing GREEN LANTERN as of #188. Art will be
by Joe Staton. Some of the artists for the "Tales of the G.L. Corps" back-
up feature will be Steve Leialoha, George Freeman, and Marshall Rogers.
Englehart will also be doing, among other books, a Silver Surfer maxi-
series for Marvel.
(3) DC's next Baxter reprint series (now that Dr. Fate is done) will be
the entire run of Neal Adams' Deadman stories from STRANGE ADVENTURES.
(4) Kirby's graphic novel, THE HUNGER DOGS, has been pushed back to an
April 1985 release.
(5) EVANGELINE (from Comico) has been indefinitely suspended because the
writer/artist team (Charles Dixon and Judith Hunt) could not meet the
deadlines.
(6) First Comics has picked up the rights for ELRIC (formerly from Pacific
Comics). Instead of it being a continuous run, like the Pacific series was
intended to be, First will do each Elric book as a mini-series.
(7) While the two issues of DAREDEVIL (#218 & #219) that were to be done
by Frank Miller (script) and Bill Sienkiewicz (art) have transmogrified
into a graphic novel, Miller still plans to write issue #219. It'll, of
course, be a different story.
(8) POWER PACK #11, crossing over into THE X-MEN #195, will have the
Power kids getting kidnapped by the Morlocks and getting rescued by guess
who. Kurt and Kitty guest star in the first part.
(9) Berni Wrightson is working on a Hulk graphic novel.
(10) Marvel will be doing a Baxter reprint series called THE LIFE OF
CAPTAIN MARVEL, which will basicly be a condensation of his career, with
some new art by Jim Starlin. It'll sort of be a companion piece to Starlin's
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL graphic novel.
(11) It's official!! The contract has been signed for Mike Grell to write
and draw a Batman/Jon Sable crossover for release next summer.
(12) You've all heard about Marvel doing a SECRET WARS II. Well, it's
definitely confirmed, considering that Shooter mentions it on the Bullpen
Bulletins page in the April-dated Marvels.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAmoriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (12/17/84)
In article <232@decwrl.UUCP> (Jerry Boyajian) writes: >(1) The Alpha Ralpha Roulette Wheel is about to take another spin. Place >your bets, everybody... In issue #23, as the rock group Queen put it so >succintly, "another one bites the dust". My guess is Shaman, to make way >for Talisman to take his place. I wonder if this is under Byrne or Bill Mantlo? Under Byrne, they generally stay dead (though death is used as somewhat of a commercial tie-in). Mantlo tends to bring 'em back in about a year... >(2) Steve Englehart starts writing GREEN LANTERN as of #188. Art will be >by Joe Staton. Some of the artists for the "Tales of the G.L. Corps" back- >up feature will be Steve Leialoha, George Freeman, and Marshall Rogers. This is the second "all-time great" writer to hit the book (Wein being the first) -- it hasn't been much to write home about, still. Let's hope Englehart can do something with it... Coyote was a pretty good book until Leialoha left it. "Lithium is no longer available on credit" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (01/03/85)
Some brief comics news from several issues of The Buyers's Guide:
1) Dave Cockrum's "Futurians" series has gone over to Deluxe comics.
This is basically interesting, because it is the first time an author has
taken their work from a major comics company to one of the independents
(The Futurians was a Marvel Graphic Novel). It has not yet been
established whether or not they have the right to reprint the Marvel GN.
My comment: no biggy... "The Futurians" was one of the most banal things
published through the Graphic Novel line (not the worst! :-) ), being a
very poorly-written mish- mash of every team book of the last 10 years.
Great art, but pictures do not a story make...
2) The people publishing "Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" is being
sued by the persons who published another version. Gee, I'm not going to
get into it all... apparently, the gist of it is:
a) Long ago, so long ago that I bought these issues almost 10 years
later, a company named Tower published a comic called "T.H.U.N.D.E.R.
Agents", which had lots on great peo- ple writing and drawing it,
including Wally Wood (jwm: great stuff, very tongue-in-cheek for the
time, and being probably the earlist case of killing off a major
character I can remember).
b) Unfortunately, the mid-60's were not kind to small comics
companies, and Tower perished. But before dissolving, the people
involved tried to legally make their characters public domain.
That's right... you, me, and Uncle Schmoo can publish adventures with
Dyanamo, Lightning, NoMan, and others (including Weed, who looks just
like you-know- who).
c) Somebody else (I believe the name is Joey Carbonaro (a relative
of Johnny Dangerously, perhaps?)) apparently bought the licensing
rights for the charac- ters, and went on to publish a (jwm: very bad)
new edition of "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents". It folded (jwm: there is
justice in the Universe).
d) "Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" is published by Deluxe
comics, with Perez & Giffen art, etc.
e) Carbonaro sues, asks for Voluntary Legal Assistance, is granted
it, and gets the prestigous firm of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander,
and Ferdon -- who once employed Richard Nixon and John Mitchell (no,
I am *NOT* making this up).
Of course, this is just one interpertation of the story. What happens
next, sports fans? Same bat-time, same bat channel...
Also, it contains a neat picture from the Macintosh-created (just like this
article) comic, "Shatter". Nice, but it looks like they don't have MacDraw
yet, either -- they're sticking to MacPaint at this time, it seems. Also,
there is an ad in the Bud Plant catalog for a book written by someone
called... Jerry Moriarty? Gee, maybe we merge... Firestorm, the Nuclear
Comics Critic!
"You'd do it for Randolph Scott."
(chorus) "*gasp* RANDOLPH SCOTT!"
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPAmoriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (06/06/85)
Well, a whole slew of news, with a nasty rumor at the end.
Well, it looks like _Flash_ ends with issue #350. Cover shows Barry
walking off hand-in-hand with a women on the cover (her back is
to the reader, so we can't tell who it is (but it's by Carmine
Infantino, so we couldn't anyway)). All it says is that Flash is
re-united with his "true love", and that the character ends here.
Looks to me like maybe Mr. Whiz finally traverses the dimensional
barrier into Heaven ("Whoops! I knew I should have taken a left
turn at Albequerque!"). On the other hand, maybe CRISIS leaves
him with a nice, peaceful Universe with an Iris clone on it....
Marvel's two Graphic novels being released look like the
re-incarnation of Marvel Team-Up. Toss in a bunch of heroes for a
slam-bang fight, and price it at $6.50. The cover for "Revenge of
the Living Monolith" is really hysterical -- reminds me of "Revenge
of the 40-foot Woman"...
And now, the bad news: Tucked away somewhere, it indicates
rumors that Howard Chaykin is thinking of leaving
_American_Flagg!_ in some capacity -- at the very least, art, and
possibly scripting. Again, these are only rumors, but if they get
into _The_Comic_Buyer's_Guide_ they usually have something to
them. And while AF isn't as fresh as it was two years ago, it's still
one of the things I can count on for solid entertainment. After
seeing some of the fill-in issues, I'd as soon that Chaykin just
stopped the series except for an occasional new Graphic novel.
Anyway, Mike Gold, editor for First Comics, makes it sound as if
he'll stay with them. Nothing lasts forever...
"You are still dead, then?"
"Oh yeah, hey, totally."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPAmoriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (10/16/85)
Phew! After two weeks with my Macintosh out of commission, I
haven't had the chance to report some of the news seen in snatches
in the trade press, most notably the CBG (I do most of my posting
from home). However, there's a lot here to make up for; the most
recent info at the bottom of this article seems nothing less than
flabbergasting. So let's get going...
--------------
This has been reported elsewhere, but Marvel Epic comics
STARSTRUCK, TIMESPIRITS and SISTERHOOD OF STEEL will be
cancelled (at issues 6, 8, and 8 respectively). Speaking for
myself, I'll miss TIMESPIRITS very much -- this was one of the
finest creations to come out of the whole EPIC enterprise.
SISTERHOOD OF STEEL was enjoyable as a "foreign legion" comic
which substituted psuedo-historical detail and political intrigue
for swords-and-sorcery or outer-space trappings. I never warmed
to STARSTRUCK, but I have to admit that the artwork was some of
the finest I've seen anywhere. Hope that Eclipse or First decides
to pick these titles up; I am amazed that TIMESPIRITS was doing
poorly enough in sales to have this happen.
NEIL THE HORSE will end with issue #14, which is not much of a
surprise, given the amount of reprint material that has been
published in the last few issues.
DC has cancelled OMEGA MEN and BEST of DC, and Marvel has
cancelled INDIANA JONES.
COMICO will be releasing a JONNY QUEST comic book. No, the
cartoon series is not planned for rebirth anytime in the near
future...
Steve Gerber, late of various duck magazines, will be scripting a
regular monthly SPECTRE book for DC. Apparently the Spectre is
being planned for a total re-vamp... Gene Colan will pencil. Gerber
describes it as "Miami Vice meets Stephen King" [ack ack].
Howie Chaykin, after leaving AMERICAN FLAGG! art chores to Joe
Staton, has got a number of projects going, all high-visibility: A
SHADOW four-part mini-series, called "Death is Cobalt" (I look
forward to this -- The Shadow is a character without the kind of
depth which makes him interesting as a character to me; but when
done with style (e.g. Kaluta) it can be extremely entertaining. And
I think you'll agree that Chaykin has style...). Also a
Wolverine/Nick Fury graphic novel (with Scorpio (Nick's brother)
as the villain). The last is a series of graphic novels for First
which are like "Damon Runyon and Phillip K. Dick collaborating on a
prime-time soap" (now, don't try this at home, kids...).
And finally, a little ground-rumbling: starting in July, 1986,
SUPERMAN will end. And begin again. What? Well, SUPERMAN has
been published for more years than I've non-graced this planet, and
it's always been as "Volume I, #nnn". Starting in July, Volume I
ends, and Volume II begins. And it will be written and illustrated
by John Byrne, who has become a freelancer (but says he will stick
with the FF and HULK comics). Apparently the character is being
"refined" -- CRISIS allows Byrne to completely dump any
characters he doesn't want. Basically, it sounds as if he is going
to use it. He mentions that the standard characters will be back
-- Lois, Jimmy, Perry, and Luthor will still be there. Lana will
also be alive, but in a "substantially altered form" (as a toaster?).
The JLA will be around, but in a background role; and Batman and
Superman are not on particularly good terms with one another. Oh,
yeah, The Kents are still alive. You think I'm making this up, don't
you?! It's in the CBG, for crying out loud! No Superboy, no
Supergirl, no Krypto, no Kandor, no Zones of any kind. Only Uno
survivor of dat Doomed Planet Krypton.
How do I feel about it? Sounds good, as I haven't bought hardly any
Superman issues in the last few years (any that didn't have the
Ambush Bug in them, anyway). Actually, it sounds delightful; but
it strikes me as amazing how CRISIS will leave some characters
completely shattered (Supes) and others probably untouched (BLUE
DEVIL). Discussion? Comments? Taunts? Egads, folks, we're
talking about one of the three most popular fictional characters in
the "Free World" (or "Cheap World", as some of us call it).
Well, I've got two Stupid People's Courts (one for Jim Shooter, heh
heh heh), two movie reviews, one TV review, a Macintosh notice,
three comics reviews, Henry's SOUTHERN KNIGHTS complete
nit-picking review and the premiere BLAST FROM THE PAST column
to do (oh, and a wedding to go to), so I better finish this off...
"He was sweet and sincere and giving and good...
AND A CHERISHED NEIGHBOR UNDESERVING OF SUCH A
FATE!!
"Nevertheless, better him than me. Amen."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb6, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (10/29/85)
A quick rundown of the news:
The biggie first: Marvel's lawyers have sent a "cease and desist"
order to Kitchen Sink. Three guesses why. Yup, they feel the
"Megatropolis Quartet" and some other characters that appear in
MEGATON MAN are "copyright infringement and unfair competition".
Kitchen Sink has basically told them that they refute these
statements, but they have also said that Donald Simpson, the
writer/artist/creator of MEGATON MAN, is through using these
characters, and that the buttons that were sold with MM saying
"Are you KIDDIN'? I eat X-MEN for breakfast!" are sold out and will
not be reprinted. If you're in the market for a personal opinion,
mine is that this does not increase my general opinion of Marvel's
lawyers (or the people who hold their leashes), and that this
company's bully-boy attitudes are going from annoyance to an
actual threat. I'm sure most of the independents don't have the
kind of cash to go against legal action in a serious way; and thus
parody is suppressed due to economic pressures. Not much fun,
that...
Mike Gold resigned as President of First comics; he is on salaried
leave of absence as a Managing editor. No one has any idea when
he'll be back.
MIRACLEMAN #2 Sold out. This is getting to be a trend....
Mandatory Plug: And Don Thompson has returned to reviewing
comics in this week's CBG. Also, Ward Batty proves why he is
replacing Jim Engel as the funniest man in comics fandom....
"Threats are illogical, and payment is often expensive"
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb6, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>