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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 5, 2018 13:14:43 GMT -5
That's one of the things in reading the body of Chaykin's work; it feels like alternate universe versions of previous characters/stories. In many ways, Ironwolf is Fafhrd and Gray Mouser sent into space, then he turns into Cody Starbuck. Then, he gets thrust back in time to become The Scorpion, changes coasts and becomes Dominic Fortune, then gets thrown into the future to become Reuben Flagg. The Shadow, to me, felt like one of Reuben's old acting roles, like while Mark Thrust was on hiatus, or something. At one time he wrote that his main protagonists seemingly look the same intentionally, as they are manifestations of the same character. Certainly in the sense that they were, essentially, more idealized versions of himself; not to mention, they have same kind of personality (in somewhat varying degrees), with the cynical, wise-ass, slightly amoral outlook. In that, they reflected his interest in crime literature (after Archie Goodwin turned him onto it).
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Post by mrbrklyn on Nov 5, 2018 21:16:05 GMT -5
At one time he wrote that his main protagonists seemingly look the same intentionally, as they are manifestations of the same character. Certainly in the sense that they were, essentially, more idealized versions of himself; not to mention, they have same kind of personality (in somewhat varying degrees), with the cynical, wise-ass, slightly amoral outlook. In that, they reflected his interest in crime literature (after Archie Goodwin turned him onto it). I didn't see crime so much. Not like Max Collins. I think he likes to think about sociological issues in a conservative bend, which might be a trait of growing up in the 1970's when the world seemed like it was going to end and Clint Eastwood was a hero. But he is more sophisticated than that... (obviously)
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 6, 2018 0:51:06 GMT -5
Certainly in the sense that they were, essentially, more idealized versions of himself; not to mention, they have same kind of personality (in somewhat varying degrees), with the cynical, wise-ass, slightly amoral outlook. In that, they reflected his interest in crime literature (after Archie Goodwin turned him onto it). I didn't see crime so much. Not like Max Collins. I think he likes to think about sociological issues in a conservative bend, which might be a trait of growing up in the 1970's when the world seemed like it was going to end and Clint Eastwood was a hero. But he is more sophisticated than that... (obviously) I meant that he stated in The Art of Howard Chaykin that Archie Goodwin turned him on to the great crime writers, like James M Cain, Mickey Spillaine, Jim Thompson, etc and that had an effect on the types of stories he wanted to do and the sort of amoral heroes. Iron Wolf and Cody Starbuck (at first) are heavily influenced by Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, in that Iron and Cody are scoundrels on the side of the angels and aren't above running from a fight, if the odds aren't right. Scorpion and Dominic Fortune are playing on the pulp adventurer, mostly in the swashbuckler mode. As time goes on, the amorality of the heroes gets deeper, the cynicism greater, and the corruption is a stronger element,with the heroes having their own moral code, apart from society's. It's there in Flagg, it's there in Time2, somewhat in his version of the Shadow, definitely his Blackhawk, Black Kiss is overflowing with it, and it influenced his work on American Century, with David Tischman, and some of his more recent era works.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 7, 2018 16:24:41 GMT -5
Last time, I promised more sci-fi series, from Renegade. Well, I covered all of them, it turns out (mostly); so, in the grand tradition of politicians everywhere (post-election) I am reneging on my promise. It is renegade Press, after all. There is still a sci-fi themed series to cover, though: Eternity Smith. Eternity Smith is a bit of a hybrid, fom Dennis Mallonee and Rick Hoberg-part sci-fi, part superhero, part pulp adventure. The series features a time travelling hero, who comes from a dark, twisted future, to the past, to try to prevent the future from happening. Sound familiar? Well, that film stole the concepts from others (COUGH........Harlan Ellison.....COUGH); so, welcome to the 80s! Ethan Caldwell Smith was an athlete and scholar, who married budding computer scientist Jasmine Wu. They had a daughter, named Skylark, at the insistence of Ethan, a sci-fi fan (the name is an homage to the space opera hero Skylark Duquesne, hero of a series of novels by EE "Doc" Smith). Ethan disappeared from their lives and Skylark is now an adult, leading a band, called the Crew. Except, these aren't ordinary musicians and singers. They are special agents/adventurers, in the tradition of Doc Savage and his Famous Five. Yep, a rock band of adventurers. (Gotta love those Alex Toth designs!) Well, poppa Ethan "Eternity" Smith turns up, just as Skylark and the Crew fight a group of terrorists, the Force Five Elite, while a billionaire named Jason Thorne acquires a new company, with seemingly insider information and a mysterious armored figure also emerges from a time warp. Smith reunites with his daughter, who is a bit miffed, tries to find his wife, only to discover that she is working with Thorne, though she double-crosses him, and unites with a thinking computer. Thorne has a henchmen, Kung, who turns out not to be a loyal henchman and his trophy wife, Janice, isn't what she seems. Only Eternity Smith is what he seems: a square jawed, old Fashioned "hero." The series grew out of two different concepts. Rick Hoberg and his wife Aleta had pitched the idea of a teenage band of adventure heroes to an animation company, which passed. Dennis Mallonee wanted to do a story about a hero ala Buck Rogers, who ends up in a technologically advanced future; but, with the twist that he comes back to the past. Dean Mullaney was looking for a story to feature in a 6 page bi-weekly comic and Mallonne was already writing Champions, at Eclipse (based on the superhero role playing game). Hoberg had been working for DC and Marvel and he and Mallonee worked together and merged the concepts into one, slightly disjointed whole. The results ended up at Renegade, who departed from their norm and printed it in color. That would prove to be problematic, as that made the book more expensive and a money drain for the struggling renegade. Color was essential to reach the superhero market, which is where this was targeted; but, in a crowded field, it was barely noticed. In the end, Mallonee and Hoberg took the series to Hero Comics (which also continued Champions and its spin-off titles, including the cheesecake-oriented Flare). The series has an intriguing (if unoriginal) premise; but, suffers a bit from stilted dialogue (Eternity Smith tends to be of the Reed Richards school of dialogue) and too many competing mysteries. The crew is grossly underdeveloped in the 5 issues that Renegade put out, as the story mostly centers on Eternity and Skylark Smith and Jason Thorne. There are also more double-crosses than a month's worth of Memphis pro wrestling (everyone turned on Jerry Lawler and he turned on people a few times, himself). At Renegade, it's promising, but raw. It developed more at Hero; but, never really rose above cult status. Renegade's other material is mostly a mishmash of one shots and short run series. Strata was a sci-fi/humor series, which I have never read, nor heard much about. Despite what you might think, Manimal is not derived from the infamous tv series.... It was actually a reprint of Ernie Colon's stories, from Sal Quartruccio's Hot Stuff pro-zine. Robot Comics was a one shot of even more insane stories from Bob Burden. These make The Flaming Carrot look like Schwartz-era Superman stories! Spiral Cage is from Al Davison, and features an introduction from a then-red hot Alan Moore. The book features a rather surreal recounting of the life of a man born with spina bifida, who grows up to be able to walk and function. It delves greatly into his thoughts and feelings, especially dreams. To say it is non-mainstream is to barely scratch the surface. It is an interesting experiment/memoir/fantasy from someone definitely working outside the box. Howard Cruse's Barefootz collects the stories Cruse wrote and drew for Marvel's aborted Comix Book, their collaboration with Dennies Kitchen and various underground cartoonists (under a more restrictive guideline). Cruse is a fntastic storyteller and these stories feature his bigfoot cartooning style (hence the name) with the trio of Barefootz, Headrack, and Dolly; not to mention, the cockroaches. These are fun little pieces, slightly bizarre; but never ull. Cruse is one of the important artists of the Undergrounds and one who transcended into mainstream publishing, though within the more marginalized gay audience, with his books Wendell, Barefootz, and he fictionalized, semi-autobiographical Stuck Rubber Baby. he was also a columnist for the first incarnation of Comic Scene Magazine (Starlog's attempt at a comic-centric magazine, which was more focused on the industry, compared to the second version, which was more focused on the ever-increasing media properties). Trypto the Acid Dog is a somewhat bizarre spoof on the olde Weisinger-era Superdog stories, with a post-Modern twist, involving toxic waste, criminals, little boys and much mayhem. if that isn't enough to interest you, how about the writers: Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer? Yep, that's right, Bill "Will Robinson" Mumy and Miguel "Robocop, NCIS Los Angeles" Ferrer (son of actor Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney, and cousin to George Clooney). Ad further that they were huge comic book fans and write Comet Man, for Marvel, and Mumy also wrote some excellent Lost in Space comics for Innovation and Dark Horse. Terry Beatty's Phony Pages reprinted Beatty's cartoons from the Buyer's Guide of Comics Fandom (the earlier version of the Comic Buyer's Guide), which featured a lampoon of comic strips and comic book history, with such things as Brooke SHIELDS, Agent of FURY and Leave It To Little Beaver and Chaplain America. Not enough? How about Marshal Rogers' Neighborhood? Picture the artist coming home and talking to kids about zip-a-tone and architectural renderings.... How about the teenaged Sugar n Spike, aka Booger and Spyke, a pair of punks. There's some great stuff here! We wrap up with a look at the Brothers Day. Not as renowned as the brothers Hernandez, Gene, Dan and David Day were creative powerhouses, in their own right. Gene got themost recognition, thanks to his work at Marvel, including a celebrated run on Master of Kung Fu. David and Dan got some page space in an anthology, T Minus-1. The central feature was Starbikers, in conjunction with Run Sutton. It is set in a dystopian world of hover bikes, drugs and violence, combining elements of biker movies, underground comics, and Mad Max. the feature would have been right at home in 2000 AD, for a more appreciative audience. Sam euce is a scifi take on a private eye, with a cynical, dark humor and the book is rounded out by a horrific war tale from Gene Day, with art from brother Dan. Dan Day (and Davi) also contributed artwork to adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. This was a bit more experimental, with Doyle's prose text juxtaposing Day's more energetic illustrations. These are musts for Holmes fans. It's more in the tradition of prose story illustration; but, with sequential art, rather than static pieces. That brings us to the big Day contribution... This is a terrific collection of stories and art from gene Day, along with his brothers, culled from fanzines and other sources. gene was prolific as they came, like he knew his time on the Earth was limited. His stories are great pieces of work an he would have been a force to recon with, had his heart not gave out, just as the Direct Market was providing an outlet for a creative talent like him. The series featured work from the Days and others, such as Charles Vess and Dave Sim. The work is first rate. You can see further examples here.Next: we will wrap up Renegade with a few odds and ends and the demise of the company.
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Post by MDG on Nov 7, 2018 18:04:18 GMT -5
... Howard Cruse's Barefootz collects the stories Cruse wrote and drew for Marvel's aborted Comix Book, their collaboration with Dennies Kitchen and various underground cartoonists (under a more restrictive guideline). Cruse is a fntastic storyteller and these stories feature his bigfoot cartooning style (hence the name) with the trio of Barefootz, Headrack, and Dolly; not to mention, the cockroaches. These are fun little pieces, slightly bizarre; but never ull. Cruse is one of the important artists of the Undergrounds and one who transcended into mainstream publishing, though within the more marginalized gay audience, with his books Wendell, Barefootz, and he fictionalized, semi-autobiographical Stuck Rubber Baby. he was also a columnist for the first incarnation of Comic Scene Magazine (Starlog's attempt at a comic-centric magazine, which was more focused on the industry, compared to the second version, which was more focused on the ever-increasing media properties). .... Terry Beatty's Phony Pages reprinted Beatty's cartoons from the Buyer's Guide of Comics Fandom (the earlier version of the Comic Buyer's Guide), which featured a lampoon of comic strips and comic book history, with such things as Brooke SHIELDS, Agent of FURY and Leave It To Little Beaver and Chaplain America. Not enough? How about Marshal Rogers' Neighborhood? Picture the artist coming home and talking to kids about zip-a-tone and architectural renderings.... How about the teenaged Sugar n Spike, aka Booger and Spyke, a pair of punks. There's some great stuff here! Barefootz and The Phony Pages are two of the truly funniest comics ever.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 8, 2018 19:51:48 GMT -5
This is going to be a wrap up of Renegade Press, with some remaining series, mostly odds and ends. In most cases, I will be repeating the immortal words of Sgt Schultz... However, I will try to include anything notable that I do know or uncovered. Let's start with one I didn't read; but did hear vague things about; Kafka. Despite what you may think ( and what I originally thought) this series has no direct relationship with the writing of Franz Kafka. Nor is it an adaptation of the Stephen Soderbergh film (which came later). It is influenced by Kafka's writing and themes; but, is a mystery series about a man name Robert Kafka, whose life is up-ended when his past as a government agent is blown. He finds himself with 6 days to deal with the situation and different groups hunting for him, all claiming to be the CIA. Kafka has mind control abilities, which seem to be at the heart of why these groups are seeking him. The mini-series was from Steven Seagle (The Amazon, Sandman Mystery Theater) and Stefano Guadiano (The Walking Dead) and the premise shares a bit of similarity with the Japanese classic Mai the Psychic Girl. It was also nominated for an Eisner, which is as good a stamp of approval as you are likely to find. It was later collected by Caliber and in 2006, by Active Images. Maxwell Mouse Follies, from Joe Sinardi, is about as close as you are likely to come to something like Neil the Horse. The series centers around a Mouse who runs a nightclub, during the 1930s, and often features musical interludes. The second issue finds a foundling on his doorstep, who becomes a sort of Shirley Temple performer. Lots of charming fun to be had here! Amusing Stories features Scott Shaw's Urban Gorilla and Don Dougherty's Blast Cast. Shaw is pretty much a known quantity, with work at Star*Reach;s Quack, Marvel's efforts on the Hanna-Barbera characters (in the mid-late 70s), and DC's Captain Carrot, which he co-created. Here, the Urban Gorilla is a protector of other animal rights, in the urban jungle. Blast Cast features a space adventure, with a lot of "self-proclaimed" characters. All light-hearted fun. Renegade published one issue of Cecil Kunkle; but, distributed two more, published by Dark Line. The renegade issue collects Charles Wagner's strip (of the same name) from the Comic Buyer's Guide. All I can tell you about this one is that it is by Bill Dinardo and does not feature Ross, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Phoebe, or Monica. It does feature a man named Will, who tries to explain Earth life and culture to an alien, named Miles. The art is inspired by Winsor McKay, creator of Little Nemo and Gertie the Dinosaur. Holiday Out features shot pieces from Michael Vance and a few collaborators (Wayne Truman, Chas Smith) with an interdimensional hotel and a lot of parody. Sounds interesting. Never saw it. Agent Unknown featured the adventures of secret agent brothers Deuces & Jacks and female agent Stacy Anne. The comic is from Robert Sodaro and Dell Barras (Green Arrow, Conan, Motormouth). Don't know much else, other than Barras was a Filipino artist who started there, then started working for US companies in the 80s. The Philippine artists all seemed to have very strong storytelling foundations; so, definitely worth a look. I don't know how I missed this series (other than Renegade being a lower profile publisher); but, this sound right up my alley. Col. Kilgore is in charge of the defense of San Francisco, in WW2; but, is more interested in women and booze. Sounds like it is a parody of the gung-ho war comics of old, with various levels of satire and comedy. Love Fantasy was another post-Modern take on romance comics, with contributions from Arn Saba, Mark Shainblum, Mike Baron, Gabriel Morrissette (no relation to Alanis, who spells the last name with one R) and Jacques Boivin. Baron seems an odd choice for contributor; but, Nexus had quite a bit of romance, between Horatio and Sundra. Mechthings was from Texas-based indie artist Brad Foster. It features a human, named Bertram, who lives in a junkyard with discarded, misfit robots, and tells of their comedic adventures. The robots are forced to hide or be turned into scrap metal, since not being owned is a crime. Sounds different. Open Season is by Jim Bricker and features a comedy, set around three flatmates. Joe is the POV character, who moves into a new San Francisco flat, only to discover an unknown flatmate, Cliff, an aging frat boy (who looks and sounds like a rip-off of Bloom County's Steve Dallas) and also shares with Robin, a female reporter. Roscoe the Dawg, Ace Detective is a funny animal spoof of hardboiled detective fiction, from Martin Trengrove. The genre is ripe for parody, though Nick Cuti and Joe Staton's Mike Mauser is one of the few parodies that had legs. I know nothing about this one. Shadows from the Grave is a horror mini from Kevin McConnell and Dan & David Day. All I can tell you is that it will look nice, with the Day brothers. Starbikers is Ron Sutton and the Day Brothers, with a one shot comic of the same feature as in T-Minus-1. Strata features Flambeau, a warrior from Earth, who ends up on a planet of intelligent otters, embroiled in a war. He gets caught up in things and meets up with the beautiful air pirate, Kapitan Kross. Stories from Jay Judt and Ray Murtaugh. Tony Bravado, Trouble Shooter was from Wordsmith creator Dave Darrigo and Steve Leblanc & Louis Paradis. It features a special agent for a publishing magnate, who investigates and covers up scandals for the super rich. Sounds like the kind of series that would have been popular in Europe or as an adventure tv series, in the 80s (from a Michael Mann, not a Stephen J Cannell). So, like many independents who jumped into the game in 1986, during the Black & White Boom, Renegade had a short shelf life. It wasn't for lack of quality material. As you can see, they had a nice mix of critical hits, Underground-style humor and subversion, action-adventure, interesting autobiographical material, experimental features, and plain old fun. However, it never had a commercial hit that could sustain their cash flow, like Aardvark-Vanaheim had, in Cerebus. Compared to some publishers, Deni Loubert had an advantage in a good relationship with their printer, Preney, who had done Cerebus, from the beginning. However, their cash situation became such that Preney would print their books; but, not ship until full payment was received. That gave Renegade an advantage over companies like Eclipse, who after their flood fiasco ended up in so much red ink and bounced checks that their printers wouldn't touch a book without payment up front (causing books like Mike Grell's James Bond to be massively delayed). Deni was actually working a side job to pay monies owed, to get the books shipped and pay what she owed to creative talent. The Comics Journal reported on the situation, even bringing up the rumor that she was waiting tables to help pay bills. Loubert tried to keep things together; but, with a few months had suspended publication and shuttered the company in 1989. Like many independents of the era, cash flow was the main problem and it was a problem made worse by trying to expand to quickly. You can start small and survive, building a big enough audience to expand. That's what Dark Horse did, really only growing much bigger after Aliens had become a surprise hit. Valiant also started small and gradually built on things. It also didn't help that they were part of the Black & White Boom, which became the Black & White Bust. It was a buble the burst and left a lot of printers owed money and people out of work. It also contributed to some short-sighted comic shops going under (cash flow, the lifeblood of business). After Renegade closed down, she ended up working for Paramount, involved in the Star Trek comics, from their side. She also worked in comic book development for Full Moon Entertainment (who had a deal with Malibu, to publish licensed adaptations and spin-offs), and was a managing editor at WaRP Graphics. She was also one of the founders of Friends of Lulu, an organization that worked to increase the presence of women in comics, both on the professional side and the reader side. Deni Loubert was more than the ex-Mrs Dave Sim and Renegade was an interesting place to find some good and quirky little comics, if only for a brief time. If you encounter these in the wild, you can probably bet that it will be worth the price (and will probably be reasonable, too, for most of them). Next up, we switch from the small, quirky black & whites to a publisher who put out color comics, based on properties from the 60s and 70s. They started out as a small publisher, with low print runs; but, quickly made a name for themselves and grew into one of the top competitors for the Number 3 slot in comic books. Come on back for a look at Jim Shooter's return to comics, a repeat of his recent history, and life before and after Acclaim bought the company. See how they went from publishing Nintendo and WWF comics and magazines, to updating Gold Key properties to creating their own hits; their ill-fated crossover with Image, their 3-D experiment that had surprising results, and their end and resurrection.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Nov 9, 2018 12:42:38 GMT -5
I had never heard nor seen of any of that last batch of Renegade titles either ... it does make their going under more explicable, as you say. Too much product too quickly.
I was always a little irked Valient never revived the Owl/Owlman into their pantheon.
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Post by MDG on Nov 9, 2018 14:13:06 GMT -5
I had never heard nor seen of any of that last batch of Renegade titles either ... it does make their going under more explicable, as you say. Too much product too quickly. I was always a little irked Valient never revived the Owl/Owlman into their pantheon. The Renegade titles I read were generally very good, but were probably hard sells in the shops. Also, they were often B&W for $1.50 or $2 when regular color comics were still under $1.25.
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Post by brutalis on Nov 9, 2018 15:23:24 GMT -5
I had never heard nor seen of any of that last batch of Renegade titles either ... it does make their going under more explicable, as you say. Too much product too quickly. I was always a little irked Valient never revived the Owl/Owlman into their pantheon. The Renegade titles I read were generally very good, but were probably hard sells in the shops. Also, they were often B&W for $1.50 or $2 when regular color comics were still under $1.25. At the LCS I used back then you only got Renegade Press comics if you had a pull box with them on the list and occasionally the owner would order a 1st issue if he thought it might sell or was interested in checking it out himself. The only series ever on the shelf regularly was Ms. Tree, the Day brothers comic for Sherlock Holmes and Silent Invasion.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 10, 2018 0:53:52 GMT -5
I saw the higher profile stuff in my LCS, in college, which used Capital, who were a lot friendlier to the indies than Diamond and some of the regionals (aside from the real indie champions, like Bd Plant). I saw Black Zeppelin and a few others in one of the two shops I frequented, while in the Navy. They were back issues; but, the owners of the shop were pretty much hippies, so they usually had the indies, the major graphic novels from people other than DC and Marvel (and theirs, as well) and some of the more interesting rarities (I got my Monster Society of Evil limited edition there, as well as a signed, limited edition of Will Eisner's To The Heart of the Storm),
With the Black & White Bust, a lot of shops were skittish about small publishers, especially b & w material. Renegade was a major step above most; but, it takes a dedicated retailer, who is smart in his ordering and actively suggestive sells to entice people with unknown products. A diverse community helps. When I was in college, at the univ. of Illinois, we had one decent shop near campus, for most of my 4 years (another was downtown, when I first got there; but, they were out of business within a couple of years) and another moved in a couple of blocks down a year or so later (with a heavier focus in role playing game stuff). The university's retail bookstore, in the student union used to have things like First Comics' graphic novels and copies of Lone Wolf & Cub (which was in the squarebound Prestige format) and stuff like Tintin and Asterix and some comic strip collections (that's where I bought the original Calvin & Hobbes book) and some comic reference books, like the Will Jacobs & Gerard Jones Comic book Heroes. Just down the street was a smaller bookstore that carried a lot of non-fiction material (especially art and philosophy and other academic subjects) and used to carry RAW. I think the LCS had a Love & Rockets or two; but never had much of that on display. I did see Neil the Horse, Wordsmith, Flaming Carrot and Ms Tree there, as well as Eclipse, Dark Horse (when they stated up) and Now and Comico, as well as First. It was a great period for indie comics and to explore things beyond superheroes, though I was doing more of that by the end of my tenure and after going to my first duty station.
I found, generally, it was a lot easier to find indies like Renegade in the 80s than in the 90s, especially after Capital sold out to Diamond. I used to order a lot of stuff from the back part of Previews; but, not many others did, at my LCS, in the 90s and 00s. Working at B&N put me in connection with far more indie material, by that point, as our graphic novel buyers did a decent job (though a lot of the indie publishers had trouble getting a book distributor).
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,269
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Post by shaxper on Nov 11, 2018 10:13:53 GMT -5
Next up, we switch from the small, quirky black & whites to a publisher who put out color comics, based on properties from the 60s and 70s. They started out as a small publisher, with low print runs; but, quickly made a name for themselves and grew into one of the top competitors for the Number 3 slot in comic books. Come on back for a look at Jim Shooter's return to comics, a repeat of his recent history, and life before and after Acclaim bought the company. See how they went from publishing Nintendo and WWF comics and magazines, to updating Gold Key properties to creating their own hits; their ill-fated crossover with Image, their 3-D experiment that had surprising results, and their end and resurrection. I positively cannot wait! Back when I had more time, I was seriously considering doing a full review thread for the Valiant Heroes 1 universe. Maybe I'll still get to it one day...
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 11, 2018 11:39:33 GMT -5
Next up, we switch from the small, quirky black & whites to a publisher who put out color comics, based on properties from the 60s and 70s. They started out as a small publisher, with low print runs; but, quickly made a name for themselves and grew into one of the top competitors for the Number 3 slot in comic books. Come on back for a look at Jim Shooter's return to comics, a repeat of his recent history, and life before and after Acclaim bought the company. See how they went from publishing Nintendo and WWF comics and magazines, to updating Gold Key properties to creating their own hits; their ill-fated crossover with Image, their 3-D experiment that had surprising results, and their end and resurrection. I positively cannot wait! Back when I had more time, I was seriously considering doing a full review thread for the Valiant Heroes 1 universe. Maybe I'll still get to it one day... I'm gonna hit the high points; but, won't go deep on any particular title. Some of their titles didn't really gel with me, so I will probably talk more generally about those. When Valiant started to put out the Gold Key revivals, I was all on board and was buying everything. However, I soon developed favorites and those that I just thought were okay. After Unity, I started re-evaluating how much I was actually enjoying some of their titles and started cutting back. I was completed divested before Acclaim came along. I ended up reading things like Quantum and Woody well after the fact.. My last hurrah with Valiant was the little-discussed Windjammer line of creator-owned books.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,269
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Post by shaxper on Nov 11, 2018 11:44:03 GMT -5
When Valiant started to put out the Gold Key revivals, I was all on board and was buying everything. However, I soon developed favorites and those that I just thought were okay. After Unity, I started re-evaluating how much I was actually enjoying some of their titles and started cutting back. I was completed divested before Acclaim came along. I ended up reading things like Quantum and Woody well after the fact.. My last hurrah with Valiant was the little-discussed Windjammer line of creator-owned books. Yes, Valiant became extremely hit or miss after Shooter's departure and the company's mass expansion. I don't know that there are any bad titles, but some were certainly lackluster, especially Harbinger, X-O, and Rai.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 11, 2018 22:28:36 GMT -5
When Valiant started to put out the Gold Key revivals, I was all on board and was buying everything. However, I soon developed favorites and those that I just thought were okay. After Unity, I started re-evaluating how much I was actually enjoying some of their titles and started cutting back. I was completed divested before Acclaim came along. I ended up reading things like Quantum and Woody well after the fact.. My last hurrah with Valiant was the little-discussed Windjammer line of creator-owned books. Yes, Valiant became extremely hit or miss after Shooter's departure and the company's mass expansion. I don't know that there are any bad titles, but some were certainly lackluster, especially Harbinger, X-O, and Rai. X-O was one I stuck with for a long time, before I felt like it was just spinning its wheels. It was either the longest or second longest run of any Valiant title I had, though I can't recall how long I stayed with it. Rai never did anything for me. I tried the debut and a couple of issues and didn't care for it, at all, and dropped it. Harbinger I was lukewarm to, at the start; but gave it time. I reread the early issues, after it had been going for about a year and thought a little better of it; but, it never really went anywhere that intrigued me and just felt like an X-Men variant, with less spectacular art. Archer & Armstrong was the one that really surprised me. I thought it sounded interesting going into it; but, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, with the first issue or two. By the third or fourth it was my favorite Valiant title and one of my top 5 monthlies. I thought Eternal Warrior would be the book for me; but, it was never quite the book I wanted it to e. meanwhile, Archer & Armstrong was just so much fun. At least, until BWS left the book. Shadowman was never much of a favorite, though I stuck with it for a year or two. Magnus and Solar I read for quite a while. Turok was a huge disappointment. I wanted the old book, with livelier stories; not cybernetic-intelligent dinosaurs in the modern world and techno-arrows. I wasn't surprised that it quickly became a video game as that is what the comic felt like, to me. By the time they were doing stuff like Armorines, I was pretty much done with them. Really, in that time frame, I really started to pull back from all of the companies, apart from ones like Dark Horse, where they had more variety. I was mostly shifting away from superhero and adventure into more unique stuff, more quirky, fun titles, and more of picking up trades and mini-series than sustained series.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 14, 2018 17:55:51 GMT -5
Okay, I promised Valiant and Valiant I will deliver; but, first, I need to prime the pump a bit. Hey, we just came out of an election (well some of us, others are still dealing with said election!); so, broken and nuanced promises are to be expected. First rule of life, kids: learn to deal with disappointment! Anyway.... On September 27, 1951, a giant baby was delivered by one very tired (and sore) stork to Ellie and Ken Shooter, in Pennsylvania. Like others of this era, the giant baby (4 ft 3 and shaving after 6 weeks!) read comic books and did so until about the age of 8. However, giants are known to have health problems and while recovering from minor surgery (to remove spears and arrows from the Lilliputians) the giant read some comic books and found that the DC stories read the same as before; but, these new fangled Marvel comics were pretty cool. Thinking he could do something like this and could sell it to DC, the giant wrote his first story and sent it to DC, for the Legion of Superheroes. Mort Weisinger bought it and offered him more work, and the giant continued writing Legion stories, up through high school. He was the giant boy wonder of comics. His first check bought a rebuilt engine for his father's car, which allowed him to stop walking miles to work (though his son could walk miles with each stride, since he was 10 ft tall and still growing!) The giant finished high school and got accepted to NYU and applied for and got a job at Marvel. He couldn't do both and skipped college (where he would have been a Really Big Man on Campus) and stopped freelancing for DC, to concentrate on working for Marvel and keep from being murdered at the YMCA, where he was living (probably on the roof, because he was too tall for any room, even the basketball court!). After 3 weeks, he gave up and went home. He survived by doing advertising work and eating villagers, stealing livestock and carrying them up the beanstalk. Eventually, he was writing Legion stories again for DC, though he was doing more rewriting than writing and getting fed up. He was saved by a werewolf, named Marv, who offered him an editorial job at Marvel. At Marvel, the not-so-friendly giant proofread, did some writing, did corrections, and ended up an assistant to the assistant to Nero Wolfe. Nero's assistant had found himself dumped in the Editor-in-Chaos role and was trying to tame the whirlwind. A lot of work fell to the giant to fix, usually by stepping on some puny freelancer. Eventually, in 1978, the giant took over as Editor-in-Control. According to him (and with some corroboration) he tamed the beast and turned Marvel into a big moneymaker (with a little help from George Lucas and some Flash Gordon knockoff he filmed). Marvel was riding high, with their comics about Alphabet Men and female characters who are mind controlled and raped (theoretically, based on the concept), and young guys turning swashbuckling heroes into Mike Hammer-with-a-billy club and a rather kinky girlfriend (she has a thing about spikes) and all was well. However, you can't trust a giant and soon he was demanding virgin sacrifices and consuming 20 babies a day and terrorizing everyone at Marvel, causing them to flee in terror to DC. He short-sheeted Jack Kirby's bed, gave Roy Thomas noogies, chased off the werewolf, and threw photocopiers at various people (possibly vending machines, reports are sketchy). Eventually, he started fighting with the execs at Marvel, who were trying to sell the company; but, the giant was making things difficult. Soon, New World Pictures bought the company and found out they had bought a pig in a poke, with some shady mess at the executive level. The giant tried to lobby to get rid of the executives and the company decided to get rid of him. They chopped down the beanstalk and the giant was driven away by the villagers, with pitchforks and fiery torches. And, so, Jim Shooter was left to find work elsewhere, because no one in comics wanted to hire him. After all, he ate Jack Kirby's grandchildren and gave John Byrne wedgies and personally murdered Gene Day; or, so the story went. See how evil he looks? Shooter freelanced, did some writing, did some consulting. One of his gigs was scripting an arena show, for a guy named Steve Massarsky, which, ironically, would feature Marvel characters. Massarsky was a lawyer and artist's rep, working with people like the Allman Brothers and Cyndi Lauper. He represented clients in licensing and merchandising deals. He and Shooter hit it off. Meanwhile, New World had further mismanaged Marvel and was looking to turn a buck and had it up for sale. Massarsky and Shooter had contacts at Chase and put together capital to make a bid for Marvel. They were outbid by The Andrews Group and Ron Perelman, who would eventually bankrupt Marvel. Massarsky and Shooter had been successful in raising money to buy Marvel and thought, maybe, they could get funding for their own company. The ended up meeting with Triumph Capital LP, a venture capital firm, run by partners Michael Nugent and Melanie Okum, who had spun off from Bankers Trust Capital. Nugent was the older veteran, Okum the young tyro. They brokered a deal that gave Triumph 40% (20 for Nugent, 20 for Okum) and 20 %, each, for Shooter, Massarsky and their other partner, Winston Fowlkes. Fowlkes was the financial guy, Massarsky the lawyer/rep guy and Shooter the industry guy, while Triumph were the money. They formed a new company, Voyager Communications. For the actual comic book line, they decided to us the name Valiant, and the compass logo was created. So, Valiant was now ready to publish comics; but, what kind of comics? Well, we all know what their first title was? Right? Those old Gold key characters. right? Here's a hint...... Yep, Nintendo. Wait, what?
Valiant, the hot property of the early-mid 90s, started out doing rather forgettable Nintendo-based comics. On paper, it makes a certain amount of sense. Nintendo was the 1000 lb gorilla of the growing gaming world and their games were massively popular. Licensed comic books were an old staple of the industry; so, why not? Well, Shooter had experience with licensed comic and very few ever did well; generally, only when you had a massively hot property, like Star Wars. Nintendo was big; but not THAT big. He was wary; but was outvoted. Wait, wasn't he the boss? In a word, no. Funny thing happened on the way to Valiant. While the company was being put together, Steve Massarsky and Melanie Okum were doing the horizontal mambo. Okay, these things happen; so what? Well, it created a conflict of interests. Massarsky, as a partner of the controlling interests in Voyager, had a duty to the best interests of his company, first and foremost. As a lawyer, he was well aware of this and it was a feature in the corporate documents. If he was carrying on an affair with the partner of his company's financers, he now had a split loyalty between his company and his lover. According to Shooter, Massarsky didn't think it was a big deal; but, Okum didn't want Winston Fowlkes to know, as he was a big name in the financial world and she was afraid it would affect his respect for her abilities. Well, after the company was formed, it became known to Fowlkes, who wasn't happy. This gave Triumph a majority stake, through Okum and Massarsky's relationship. Fowlkes went to Nugent to fight the situation and Nugent sided with his partner and Fowlkes was the one pushed out! Shooter had nowhere else to go and was stuck with the situation. So, Valiant published Nintendo comics, despite Shooter's reservation, since Triumph had the final say. Yeah; but, why Nintendo? Why not the Gold Key characters?
Nintendo was represented by Leisure Concepts, a firm which dealt in licensing celebrities and properties for tv, movies and merchandising. Steve Massarsky had experience with Leisure Concepts, in his artist representation dealings. He also had a retainer from Leisure Concepts. So, he was using one relationship to make money off another. Can you say "conflict of interest?" I thought you could! As Shooter predicted, the Nintendo comics weren't exactly burning up the charts. They were available on newsstands (I recall seeing some and smirking at yet another attempt to market junk via comics); but it didn't matter. Kids wanted to play Nintendo; but, they weren't that interested in reading adventures of the characters. DC had tried it with Atari and Dungeons & Dragons, with little success. Really, until Sonic, at Archie, video game concepts weren't big sellers. Even then, that success was relative. So, Nintendo didn't set the world on fire; so, they went with Gold Key, right?
Nope. They went with the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE); because pro wrestling was hot, right? Wrong! In 1984, pro wrestling was hot. In 1991, it had significantly cooled off. Hulk Hogan was no longer a big draw, as fans had seen the routine. In fact, the advance on the 1991 Wrestlemania was so bad that the WWF changed their plans of having it at the LA Coliseum and moved it to the LA Memorial Sports Arena. They claimed there were threats of terrorism, based on the storyline of Hogan vs turncoat and Iraqi sympathizer Sgt Slaughter; but, the truth was advance ticket sales were terrible and the stadium would be half empty or worse. During the previous year, Hogan dropped the title to the Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig), who was being pushed as the new company star, allowing Hogan to spend more time on failed Hollywood projects. Warrior proved not to be a huge draw (nobody really was, then) and Hogan regained the title from Slaughter; but, no one cared. So, the WWF wasn't a hot property. So, why the comics?
Remember that phrase I told you? "Conflict of interests?"That's the one! The WWF was a client of Leisure Concepts. Massarsky did a solid for his buddies and Shooter was stuck producing WWF Battlemania! From the get go, it was a disaster. Valiant was promised that the magazines would be sold at WWF live events. They weren't, nor were they heavily promoted on the tv shows. Hell, their awful ice cream bars got more promotion, back in the hot period, not to mention the LJN toys! That was only the half of it. The WWF made producing the comic a living nightmare as they quibbled about everything, especially character likenesses. The first issue featured the Ultimate Warrior, drawn by tracing an actual photo of Jim Hellwig. The WWF came back and said his nose was too big. Shooter said they traced it from a photo, how could it be too big? They insisted. Shooter showed the tracing and projected the photo on a lightbox, to show that it matched the cover image perfectly. Didn't matter. Shooter went back to Valiant and told the production people to go with what they had and made no changes. The WWF complimented him on fixing the photo, when the issue hit the stands. The magazine limped to five issues, before being counted out. There were also a few specials... That last one amuses me to no end. Jim Hellwig, aka the Ultimate Warrior, was nicknamed the "Anabolic Warrior," based on his steroid use (even in a company filled with steroid monsters, including owner Vince McMahon). Somehow I doubt the comic featured injecting decadurabol or winstrol (or taking them orally) or HGH. Thesz knows, McMahon wasn't going to show it, since one of the ringside doctors was being investigated for improper prescriptions and distribution to his wrestlers and the Federal government would soon launch an investigation into the companies complicity in this. So, we had strike two. Triumph was getting itchy about getting their money back; but, they went along with Shooter's original idea of going with the Gold Key characters. Okay, wait, why Gold Key?Well, let's backtrack. Way back, when Cadence Industries was looking to sell, one of the parties interested was Western Publishing. Yep, Western Publishing, as in Whitman coloring books and puzzles & games and Little Golden Books. That's also Western Publishing, as in Gold Key Comics. You remember; I did a whole series on them and their relationship with Dell and the split and birth of Gold Key Comics, the Whitman sampler bags, the licensed Disney comics and all of that. Anyway, as part of the due diligence, Western Publishing's CEO Richard Bernstein interviewed the management at Marvel. He confided to Shooter (according to Jim) that he felt Western would be getting Marvel and a lot of furniture, as Cadence's businesses weren't exactly lucrative. They struck up a friendship. Western passed on buying Marvel and New World got it. When Shooter was fired, one of the people he contacted was Richard Bernstein, about the idea of reviving the Gold Key characters, under Shooter's creative supervision. Bernstein wasn't even aware of the characters (per Shooter); but, liked the idea. He went back to the company to discuss it; but, met with massive resistance. Western had gotten out of comic book publishing by 1984, having lost a lot of money in the latter days, and no one was keen to get back into it. Bernstein went back to Shooter and said sorry; but, he just couldn't sway the troops on this one; but, he had a counter offer. He would license the characters to Shooter. Shooter came back that he wasn't in a position to publish, at the present. Bernstein said, "No problem," and that he would set them aside for Shooter, until he was ready. In the meantime, Mike Richardson (Dark Horse) had tried to license the Gold Key characters and was told that they were reserved. DC and Marvel made overtures and were turned down. Western's licensing people came back to Shooter to press him on the issue, asking if he was going to do something and he replied yes he was and was working on it. Finally, once he had Triumph financing them, he went for it. He met Bernstein at the American Bookseller's Association annual convention and told him he was ready. Bernstein called over his licensing guy and told him to make a deal with Shooter. Unprepared, the man asked on what terms and Bernstein basically told him give Shooter what he wanted. Shooter concocted a deal and essentially gave Western money on the back end, once the comics were going and successful, rather than money up front, as in many deals. The deal was set, Shooter now had the rights to make comics based on Magnus, Robot Fighter; Dr Solar, Man of the Atom; and Turok, Son of Stone. Now was time for the launch of the Valiant Universe. That is our subject for next time.
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