boyajian@akov68.DEC (03/28/85)
As we have seen in Larry Yudelson's "Marv Wolfman Leaves DC" posting, THE
COMICS JOURNAL had a little April Fool's joke in their April issue. They
aren't the only ones:
AMAZING HEROES #68 (April 1, 1985) has some yucks in *its* news
column. The main thrust of the column was that both Marvel & DC were eliminat-
ing the regular 32-page comic. DC decided to go the route of 100-page comics
for $2.95, while Marvel went the opposite way --- 16 pages for 52 cents. Since
it's hard enough fitting all of the X-Men as it is into a 23-page story,
they've decided to split the X-Men into two teams: Storm, Cyclops, Kitty, and
Nightcrawler will be in THE UNCANNY X-MEN, while the others will be in THE
REST OF THE X-MEN and the old X-Men from THE DEFENDERS will be in THE X-FACTOR.
Likewise, The Avengers will split into THE AVENGERS, THE FEMALE AVENGERS, THE
WEST COAST AVENGERS, and THE DETROIT AVENGERS.
Meanwhile, Dave Sim is cutting CEREBUS THE AARDVARK to eight pages,
but increasing it to weekly. "In view of this format adjustment, Sim has
abandoned his plans to continue CEREBUS THE AARDVARK for 300 issues, and will
now take 984 issues (1,231 in Canada) to chronicle the life of his aardvark."
The "Coming Distractions" section contains some rather bizarre entries
such as PREZ MINI-SERIES #4 and SAGA OF IT'S A POTATO #3. And R. A. Jones
reviews, among others, LOCKHEED THE DRAGON #1 and BROTHER POWER THE GEEK
SPECIAL #1.
MARVEL AGE #28 also contains an April Fool's section: "Not the Marvel
Coming Attractions" that is an absolute scream. If nothing else, it makes it
worth picking this rag up to see that Marvel still has a sense of humor. Some
of the funnier entries are:
"DAREDEVIL #222 -- Frank Miller returns for a one issue fill-in to
the comic that made him famous! Foggy Nelson, heavily intoxicated
after a friend's party, jokingly ties Matt Murdock's shoelaces to-
gether. Failing to find the humor in this prank, Matt switches to DD
and beats Foggy to death. Co-plotted by Jim Starlin."
"TWO WILD AND CRAZY MUTANTS #1 -- Czechoslavakian mutants Jorge and
Yortuk Festrunk journey to New York City to find mutant "foxes" with
large American breasts. From the team of writer Chris Claremont,
penciller Bob Hall and inker Brett breeding. Printed on high-quality
Mando paper."
"MTV #1 -- A rocking new series from Mighty Marvel! Martha Quinn, Boy
George and the Dazzler take on the Juggernaut! "Non-Stop Bop! Written
by Alan Zelentz and pencilled and inked by Barry Windsor-Smith."
"SKULL THE SLAYER SPECIAL EDITION #2 -- Reprinting issues 3 and 4
of this timeless Marvel series, in our ridiculous $2.50 format."
"X-MEN AND MICHAEL JACKSON #1 -- An exciting new monthly series by
Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice! In the debut issue, Wolverine
makes fun of Michael's high-pitched voice and makes him cry. Printed
on high-quality Mando paper."
SENTINELS (Limited Series) #1 -- Even though this is the second issue
of this four-issue series, we've numbered it as "#1" so we'll sell
more copies! Iceman faces the wrath of the murderous Sentinels in
"When Titans Clash", written by Chris Claremont and pencilled and
inked by Herb Trimpe. Guest starring Friday the 13th's bloodthirsty
Jason! Printed on OK-quality paper."
COMICS INTERVIEW #19 contains an interview with, among others, Brian Bolland.
In that interview is the following interesting tidbit:
"For a while DC and Eagle, working under license from IPC, were talking about
doing a BATMAN MEETS JUDGE DREDD comic. A synopsis was written by Alan Moore
a while ago, but due to the usual complications when companies --- be they
major or minor --- try to get together, after a lot of haggling and discussing
and countless attempts to convince IPC that Batman was a viable character ---
"Who is this Batman character? Didn't they have some sort of TV series about
him once?" --- the whole thing fell through.
"The story synopsis that Alan handed in seemed a very interesting
idea. The whole premise would have been that Judge Dredd is an organ of the
law whereas Batman represents justice, and the story revolved around the
conflict between these two, and the misunderstanding that would arise from
the two completely different ways of looking at how society is run. The two
would be mutually incompatible....
"It was all very much under wraps for a while, but now there's no
possibility of it coming about..."
Then the interviewer says: "...everyone should write to IPC and say that they
want to see it. A deluge of letters ought to be addressed to John Purcell,
c/o IPC Comics Division, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1
[England]."
Sigh. Too bad.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
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