Mystery Incorporated

You knew we were going to get to this series sooner or later, right?

Horus

After Big Numbers, Alan Moore’s other big uncompleted work (yes, there’s more than one) is arguably 1963, a six-issue homage/parody/pastiche of classic Silver Age Marvel Comics he did under the Image Comics umbrella back in 1993 with Rick Veitch and Steve Bissette.

As you’d expect, the superheroes that graced these covers and stories bore arch similarities to those created by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. Mystery Incorporated, for example, is the Fantastic Four with slightly different powers. The Fury serves as an analogue for Spider-Man, right down to ever-present angst. U.S.A. is Captain America, Horus is Thor, and so forth and so on.

But Moore and company were not content to merely ape the characters; 1963 mimics the tone and style of early Marvel comics with an almost unerring accuracy at times, from the soap opera romantic subplots, to the fretting over the red menace of communism to the Irish cop stereotypes. The creators even produced phony letters page and ads. Moore even mimicked Lee’s hucksterism, urging readers at one point to go out and buy his book, How I Created Everything All By Myself and Why I Am Great.

As the title of that book might suggest, 1963 was full of sly humor and winking nods to not only Marvel but the comics industry and American culture in general. The Doctor Strange character, for example, is flummoxed by a woman from the future’s PC doublespeak. The Tomorrow Syndicate’s voyage into hyperspace has loads of references to indie comics characters. Moore even breaks the fourth wall as the mysterious villain in the Hypernaut’s adventure is able to literally turning the panel in order to gain the upper hand.

From Tales of the Uncanny

The series is also notable for the number of talented folks that helped produce it. In addition to Moore, Bissette and Veitch, it featured the work of Don Simpson, John Totleben, Dave Gibbons, Jim Valentino and, yes, even Chester Brown himself (on the Hypernaut tale).

1963 was supposed to culminate in an “Annual” issue that would feature a showdown between the Image characters and the 1963 group, providing a sort of compare/contrast commentary on the superhero comics of yesteryear and those of the then “modern” 1990s. Jim Lee was supposed to draw the issue, but decided to take a sabbatical instead. By the time he came back, Rob Liefield was out, and things were starting to fall apart. Moore found himself drawn to working on other Image comics like WildCats and what would eventually become his ABC line.

The final panel from Tomorrow Syndicate

Things got more acrimonious in 1996 when Moore cut off all contact with Bissette, apparently regarding something the Swamp Thing artist said or revealed during a lengthy interview in the Comics Journal. In 1998 Moore, Veitch and Bissette split up the rights to the various cast members, with Bissette walking away with the Hypernaut and a few other characters.

Even then, attempts were made to collect and finish 1963. In a big two-part interview for CBR, Bissette discussed a number of attempts by the three parties, even with Bissette and Moore avoiding any direct contact ,only for things to fall apart time and again. At this point it seems like there’s little to no chance the original series will ever be collected, although Bisette has announced plans to spin off his characters into their own adventures, to be published by About Comics. It seems a shame. Although certainly one of the minor works for all three creators, 1963 remains a bonafide hoot and could easily be appreciated by a new batch of readers.

The Big Lie

Less than a month ago (and just before the 10th anniversary of 9/11), Rick Veitch‘s latest project (published by Image), The Big Lie, was released. While the one-shot has already been released, it’s clear that Veitch hopes the comic can foster discussion. As a storyteller who began pursuit of his craft in the early 1970s, Veitch has a perspective and creative voice shaped by a wealth of experience that few active current creators possess. In that spirit, I interviewed Veitch via email about his latest collaboration with artist Gary Erskine. While it was a one-shot so far, Veitch clearly intends to do more with The Big Lie platform. Here’s Image’s official description of the story: “A lab tech travels back in time on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 to try and get her husband out of the world trade center before it falls, but will the facts convince him before it’s too late?” For additional context on The Big Lie, be sure to also read CBR’s August interview with Veitch as well the preview we ran in late July.

Tim O’Shea: Do you bristle at the characterization by some that this is a Truther comic?

Rick Veitch: Only in the sense that the “Truther” name lumps together everyone who doubts the government’s version of what happened. I think there’s a huge difference between the architects and engineers who’ve put their professional careers on the line by speaking out and those who are claiming space aliens were responsible.

O’Shea: In Chad Nevett’s CBR review of The Big Lie, he wrote: “Obviously meant to present as convincing an argument as possible by giving voice to counterarguments, the contrast of Sandra’s emotional hysterics and the men’s cold logic turns it all into a farce, a comedy skit. It’s very reminiscent of a Jack Chick comic in the way that it tries to be so serious on its subject and winds up producing laughs as a result. Various running jokes, including one about the iPad, don’t help in that regard.” How much did you strive to try to keep the book from being preachy (and avoid Jack Chick comparisons) while still tackling the concerns you felt needed to be addressed in the story?

Veitch: I don’t share Jack Chick’s religious beliefs, but I find his comics irresistible. The Big Lie uses the same narrative device of embedding a propaganda message within a drama (although I prefer to think of our book as an act of anti-propaganda).

What’s different is we’ve strived to humanize our characters a bit more than Jack used to. Sandra looks like a 45 year old lady. None of the men have chiseled physiques. No one is a paragon of virtue or evil incarnate. They’re just people going about their daily lives. I can’t think of a better way to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

O’Shea: Was there any hesitation in releasing the book so close to the 10th anniversary, for fear of it being perceived as exploitative with its timing?

Veitch: Thomas Yeates and I had been discussing this project for about five years. The oncoming anniversary did help us move from talking to doing. But this isn’t a money making project. It’s an act of political theater, if you will. And in this day and age, whatever you do and whenever you do it is going to inspire some yahoo on the internet to call you exploitive.

O’Shea: In tackling such a politically charged topic (albeit through the lens of time travel/Twilight Zone vibe, as you liken it in this CBR interview)–did you fear alienating some of your readership for future stories? Or do you trust that your long-standing track record of respected and engaging creative work speaks for itself?

Veitch: I do a lousy John Wayne imitation but here goes: “Sometimes a man’s gotta’ do what a man’s gotta’ do”.

I suspect my longtime readers know my history as an underground cartoonist. My first printed comic, Two-Fisted Zombies, was published by Last Gasp in 1972. The Big Lie might seem a little strange to today’s comic book fan subsisting on empty-calorie superheroes, but there’s a long proud history of counterculture cartoonists speaking out about politics and repression.

O’Shea: You clearly don’t bristle at criticism of the work, as evidenced by the fact you yourself linked to this Wired review (and the discussion that ensued)? Would you say one of your main goals was to get people talking?

Veitch: After the release of Can’t Get No, as a perverse exercise, I posted all the reviews, good bad and indifferent.

I think it cured me of having my feelings either pumped or deflated by reviews. I usually find something useful or interesting in all of them. And in a way its an honor when someone reads my work and is prompted to respond, you know?

O’Shea: What’s on the horizon for future tales in The Big Lie?

Veitch: The first issue was a sort of basic overview of the big unanswered questions surrounding the attacks. What we’re discussing is focusing in on certain important aspects of 9/11 like the money trail and the Patriot Act.

O’Shea: Clearly the work generated a great deal of reaction, was there any reaction that surprised/pleased you more than others?

Veitch: I got contacted by someone asking if I’d based one of my characters on a real person who died that day. That set me back a bit. But I think the best reaction was the mainstream news coverage the book received. One of the things that has been frustrating those who are asking for a new independent investigation is that the there has been a virtual media blackout on the valid questions being raised. Somehow our comic seemed to open the door to discussions and reporting on these questions. In that sense it has fulfilled one of its most important goals.

O’Shea: What were some of the biggest challenges in terms of trying to tackle the scope of your story in this first issue, without running our of pages to tell the tale?

Veitch: It’s a hell of a thing to get your head around. The physical evidence points to the distinct possibility that the three towers were brought down by demolitions. The implications of what that might mean if it were proved true are monstrous. I personally think it would behoove the government to convincingly clear the air about this thing. By ignoring the science they are only feeding conspiracy theories.

Justice League #1 (Second Printing)

Publishing | DC Comics will allocate the second printing of Justice League #1, with retailers receiving 32 percent of their orders, which now won’t ship until Sept. 21, the same day the third printing will be released. ICv2 reports some stores are concerned that potential new readers drawn in by the publisher’s promotional campaign for the New 52 won’t understand the two-week wait to pick up a copy of the comic. The website also runs down the list of cable television shows during which DC’s New 52 commercial is airing. [ICv2.com]

Passings | Comic Art Community reports that artist Dave Hoover passed away earlier this week. Hoover, who drew runs of Captain America and Starman in the 1990s, more recently worked on Zenescope’s Charmed comic. Before working in comics, Hoover was an animator, working on Flash Gordon, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, The Super Friends, The Smurfs and many more in the 1970s and 1980s. [Comic Art Community]

The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man

Creators | In support of The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man, his new superhero children’s book (with Jake Parker), Michael Chabon tells the Wall Street Journal he wrote it for “the primary focus group,” his son Abe. “This was a story that I wanted to write for him. He’s at the age when, boys in particular, you get into kindergarten and it becomes much more important that you know how to control your body and strength, to restrain yourself and hold yourself back. He was working through a lot of that stuff and occasionally struggling with it. Part of the recipe of a four or five-year-old boy is superheroes and fascination with superheroes. They want to wear costumes all the time. They’ll wear their costumes to school. Part of what makes a superhero a superhero is the ability to use his body and have this incredible power and strength. It seemed like the superhero was a perfect figure to create a little story about someone who needs to control his power and recognize the limits of his power.” [The Wall Street Journal]

Creators | Continuing his publicity tour for Habibi, Craig Thompson talks about the new book in advance of this weekend’s SPX, which Thompson is attending as a special guest. [Washington City Paper]

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story

Creators | Writer Jeff Jensen chats with Geoff Boucher about his true-crime graphic novel, Green River Killer: A True Detective Story. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Retired Marine Capt. Dale Dye and his wife Julia Dye discuss Code Word: Geronimo, which tells the story of SEAL Team Six and the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. [USA Today]

Reviews | Spencer Ackerman takes a look at the 9/11 Truther comic The Big Lie, saying Rick Veitch’s newest work “makes Frank Miller’s forthcoming Holy Terror seem calm and reasonable.”[Wired]

Reviews| Robot 6 contributor J. Caleb Mozzocco reviews Boys of Steel, a children’s book about Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster that tells a carefully restricted version of the story as a picture book but adds a more unvarnished version at the end in text form. [Every Day Is Like Wednesday]

Troop 142

Reviews | Greg McElhatton reads Mike Dawson’s Troop 142 in collected form, after having followed it as a webcomic, and finds that it’s a somewhat different experience: “It was fun, that sort of story about young men at camp that instantly feels real. But reading again a year later, all in one sitting? There’s a much stronger emotional heft to the story that I think is slightly lost in serialized format.” [Read About Comics]

Reviews | Similarly, Xaviar Xerexes finds that the collected edition of Zahra’s Paradise packed a punch that the webcomic didn’t: “This may be the most emotional, involving comic I’ve read this year. I’ve read along with the webcomic but sitting down with the book and reading the story from start to finish was immersive and cathartic.” [ComixTalk]

Comic strips | How do you get your comic strip picked up by King Features? It’s a long shot in this market, says editor Brendan Burford, but he lays out the basics of what they are looking for. What not to do: Submit your comic in a glitter-covered binder or a toilet seat. Oddly, the comments get hijacked by fans of something called 2 Cows and a Chicken, which they keep pleading with Burford to pick up, even after he explains nicely why he can’t. File that under What Not to Do. [DailyINK Blog, via The Daily Cartoonist]

Retailers | Three comic shops within a mile radius of one another? That makes Falls Church sound like heaven. [Falls Church News-Press]

The Big Lie

This September Image Comics will release Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine’s The Big Lie, and no doubt it will turn some heads. It’s the story of a lab technician who travels back in time to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and she has one hour to try and get her husband out of the World Trade Center before it falls.

You can read more about it at USA Today, and check out the preview after the jump.

*****

Impossible Incorporated

Teaser | J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro, who worked together on The Life and Times of Savior 28, have a new project called Impossible Incorporated in the works.

Graphic novels | Rick Veitch, Ramona Fradon, Michael Netzer and Terry Beatty are providing art for The Adventures of the Unemployed Man by Gan Golan and Erich Origen (Goodnight Bush). “Here they’ve written a retro romp that interprets the current global financial imbroglio into classic deadpan superhero shtick,” Veitch writes on his blog. “The writing is quite well done and had me laughing out loud when I first read the script.” The book is due out this fall from Little, Brown and Company.

Prose | Robert Kirkman will have a short story in the upcoming zombie-themed Living Dead 2 from Night Shade Books.

History | DC Comics is working with TASCHEN Books on “an ultra-comprehensive, extra large book so impressive, even super heroes may have trouble lifting it,” according to DC’s The Source blog. 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking will feature more than 1,500 images and essays on the company written by former DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz.

Comic books | Blackline Comics will publish Assassin & Son: Path of Vengeance, a comic written by the WWE’s Shad Gaspard and Mark Copani. Gaspard used to be part of the tag team Cryme Tyme, while Copani wrestled under the name Muhammad Hassan a few years back and was part of quite the controversy on Smackdown.

Adaptations | Pre-order the upcoming Xbox 360 game Singularity from Amazon, and you’ll receive the Singularity graphic novel, which features the work of Tom Mandrake, among others.

Rick Veitch's soul

According to the Swamp Thing, Brat Pack, and Army@Love cartoonist, it looks something like this animated gif. Go to Veitch’s blog for the dreamy explanation.

(Via Arthur Magazine)

early Sentry concept art

The Sentry has had an interesting history at Marvel … remember how the Sentry was first publicized — as a “forgotten” character created by Stan Lee back in the day? And in the comics, there’s the whole plotline about how he made everyone forget who he was to save the world from the Void, even his best friends the Hulk and Reed Richards. So the whole theme of forgotten history has been crucial to the character.

Well, here’s one more “now it can be told” piece of the character’s puzzle: Rick Veitch has started a series of blog posts that explain his role in creating the Sentry with Paul Jenkins. Check out the first part here, the second here and the third here. It’s an interesting, and fitting, reveal about the character.

Jesus + Swamp Thing

Back in March I listed six comics that fell into limbo for various reasons that I’d love to see more of. Earlier this month on his blog, Rick Veitch gave a small taste of what one of those comics would have been like, as he shared the above commissioned sketch of Swamp Thing and Jesus.

Via the Forbidden Planet blog

Miracleman #23

After almost 20 years, it looked like the first two issues of Big Numbers were the only issues we’d ever see. But last week the third issue miraculously surfaced on the internet.

Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz’s aborted epic is one of those series that, even 20 years later, still gets people talking and wondering about what might have been. On his blog, Eddie Campbell remembers talking to Kevin Eastman about why the third issue was never published, even though it was finished: “I recall asking publisher Kevin Eastman at the time why, even though the 12-issue series was abandoned, he couldn’t put out the existing third issue,” Campbell writes. “He looked at me as though I was daft. Who would want a third issue if they knew there wouldn’t be any after that?”

And yet here we are, in 2009, talking about a third issue no one would want.

Big Numbers is far from the only series that ever fell into comic limbo. In honor of Pádraig O Méalóid’s eBay purchase, here are six other comics that I’d like to see more of. Note that for the purpose of this list, I avoided titles that were officially canceled for sales reasons (like Blue Beetle, Aztek or Chase … that’s another list for another day) and instead focused on comics that we expected to see one day, but for some reason or another, they were never published (at least not yet, anyway). Books where I feel I could use some closure. Like last week, I received a little help from my fellow Robot 6 bloggers, so thanks to Kevin Melrose, Tim O’Shea and Michael May for their suggestions.

1. Miracleman: I would consider three comic titles the “holy trinity” of stories lost to comic book limbo — three books that were created but never saw print for one reason or another. One would be the previously mentioned Big Numbers #3, while another would be Miracleman #25. Written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Mark Buckingham, the 25th issue of this epic series was never published.

The legal battles between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over the rights to the character have become legendary, and they’re only one piece of the legal maze that surrounds the rights to Miracleman/Marvelman (if you’d like to run that gauntlet, you can check out many of the referenced articles in the Miracleman Wikipedia entry, or find yourself a copy of Kimota! The Miracleman Companion by TwoMorrows, which details the property’s history). What I do know for sure is this — Moore, Gaiman, Buckingham, Alan Davis, John Totleben and the rest of the creators involved with the book created 25 monumental issues before the book’s publisher, Eclipse Comics, folded in the mid-1990s. Only 24 of those saw print, and Gaiman has said if they can ever unravel the legalities he wants to get the material back into print. Hopefully that day will come in my lifetime.

2. The end of Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing run: And heres’ the third of the trinity I mentioned — Swamp Thing #88. As part of a time travel arc written by Veitch, Swamp Thing was going to meet Jesus in issue 88,. The cover for that issue would have featured an image of Swamp Thing as the cross where Jesus died. DC decided not to publish it, so Veitch left the title, and not only did fans miss out on that particular stories, but we never saw how Veitch would end his excellent run on the title.

This is another one that I’m hoping we haven’t heard the last of. As noted on the Swamp Thing Annotations site, back in 2004 Veitch said he’d be willing to finish his run on the book and even change parts of #88 deemed too offensive for publication. Heck, if Chris Claremont can pick up the X-Men where he left off, why not have Veitch finish his Swamp Thing run? It doesn’t look like DC is interested, which is too bad; I guess fans will once again have to turn to eBay.

Doc Frankenstein #1

3. Doc Frankenstein: Along with Shaolin Cowboy, Burlyman Entertainment‘s somewhat controversial Doc Frankenstein was written by the Wachowski brothers of The Matrix trilogy and Speed Racer fame. Drawn by Steve Skroce, it detailed the fabled monster’s journey through history, as the immortal being becomes a heroic figure plagued by his own origins. It was a great mix of philosophical ideas, satire and big explosions.

The book started out on a bi-monthly schedule in 2004, then moved to a, what, yearly schedule sometime during its run? As of the end of 2007, six issues have been published, but since then, nothing — we haven’t heard about anything comic-related out of Burlyman or the Wachowski brothers since.

4. Leave It To Chance: Back in the mid-1990s, Starman writer James Robinson and Uncanny X-Men artist Paul Smith created Leave it to Chance, a fun comic about the daughter of a city’s mystical protector. The book was initially part of Wildstorm’s Homage line (which also included Kurt Busiek’s Astro City), then moved to DC when they bought Wildstorm, then returned to Image for its 13th (and, it would turn out, last) issue. (For more on the series, I recommend reading this post from the Holy Heroes blog, which captures the spirit and energy of the comic).

The series ended with several dangling plotlines, not the least of which was the question of whether or not Chance’s father, Lucas Falconer, was really dead or not. There was also a cadre of villains from the previous 12 issues forming a pact to take Chance down. But while issue 13 promises a “next time,” it never came … perhaps Robinson’s Hollywood work prevented him from doing further issues, or maybe sales were low. Dunno. What we do know, however, are two things Robinson revealed at WonderCon: Lucas wasn’t dead, and further issues of this fun series aren’t planned. “We’re never going to publish this, so I can tell you, her father isn’t dead. He was going to be the next falconer,” he said.

from Aqua Leung

5. Aqua Leung: Created by Mark Andrew Smith and Paul Maybury, Aqua Leung was intended to be a series of graphic novels about the forgotten son of the king of Atlantis, a coming-of-age tale about his rise to the throne. Blogger Dick Hyacinth was a fan of the book and sums up his feelings on it nicely:

As for the book itself, it wasn’t without it problems, but there were a number of really terrific moments. I’m not really a fan of mid-brow, ground level type comics, mostly because they seem to lack the energy of the trashier stuff and the sophistication of the artsier stuff. The worst examples end up being uptight but not especially deep (the vast majority of Vertigo’s output springs to mind). However, a strong, art-emphasized approach can yield some very commendable results–I’m thinking Mike Mignola and Eric Powell here. I thought Aqua Leung was in this territory, with the promise of even better things to come.

Unfortunately, there was a disagreement between the two creators over who did what on the book, as was detailed in the comments section of Maybury’s LiveJournal (the specific post appears to no longer be available, but you can find the comments toward the end of this Lying in the Gutters column). It’s a shame not only that their partnership ended, but that it ended in such an unpleasant manner.

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11

6. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.: You might be wondering why I included Nextwave on this list. Didn’t it have an ending? Wasn’t it a 12-issue limited series, and all 12 issues were published? Or wasn’t it canceled, so doesn’t including it on this list violate my rule about not including comics that were officially canceled?

Well, maybe, on that last one. But no, Nextwave wasn’t a mini-series, as writer Warren Ellis noted on his blog a couple of years ago. “To clear up a common misconception: NEXTWAVE was always pitched as an ongoing series. However, my original intent was to do 12 and then pass it on to someone else. This got garbled, somewhere down the chain of communication, and so the first issue or two got solicited as ‘part xxx of 12,’” he wrote.

But did it have an ending? Sure. But let’s go back to the beginning. Nextwave was a brilliant, satirical series from Marvel, written by Ellis, wonderfully drawn by Stuart Immonen and immaculately colored by Dave McCaig. It featured a cast of B- and C-grade Marvel characters, like Machine Man, Monica Rambeau (the former Captain Marvel) and Boom Boom from X-Force fighting a guerrilla war against the Beyond Corporation and their “Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

Ellis said that the book was doing okay as a monthly, while sales of the first trade were “terrific.” And he was up for doing a second year on the title, but Marvel found that at its current sales levels they could afford to keep Ellis on as writer, but not Immonen as the artist (he went on to draw the higher-profile Ultimate Spider-Man after Nextwave). So yes, I was hesitant to put Nextwave on this list, as I feel like we did get some closure with that last issue. But Ellis also promised we would, indeed, one day have more of Monica, Boom Boom and the rest. “NEXTWAVE #12 will be the last issue of the ongoing series: but there will be more NEXTWAVE to come, presented as a sequence of limited series,” Ellis wrote on his blog.

So sure, closure, but also the promise of more Nextwave. And thus I wait, patiently, for more of this insane and delightful comic.

*****

So there you have it, six titles we were expecting to see more of but for a variety of reasons didn’t. As we saw last week, anything can happen with an old, aborted project, so maybe the final blog posts on all of these comics have yet to be written. No doubt I’ve overlooked some other ones (like Chester Brown’s Underwater, as Chris Mautner suggested, or DC’s Thriller, as Tom Bondurant threw out), so I’d love to hear from the rest of you on other projects you’d like to see finished.

Brat Pack

Missed this: To drum up some interest in the upcoming rerelease, Rick Veitch is offering the first 32 pages of his superhero sidekick saga, Brat Pack, as a free download:

BRAT PACK’s been my best-seller over the years, with the fourth edition selling out in late 2007. There’s a new generation of fans who dig twisted superheroes, such as THE BOYS and KICK-ASS, who will feel right at home in old Slumberg. Folks looking for something really dark and menacing in the wake of the WATCHMEN hype might go for BRAT PACK too.

The new trade collection of Brat Pack will be 176 pages and cost $19.95. A bargain!