Wait… John Byrne is 70 today? How old does that make me? Yikes.
Continuing our celebration of “Independents” month with a bonus entry by Byrne.
John started his Next Men series at Dark Horse in 1991, ultimately stopping in 1994, during an epic industry-wide sales implosion.
In 2010, after some wrangling, John restarted the series at IDW and this beautifully detailed art was used for the announcement at SDCC, along with one of the cover variants.
Happy Birthday, John!
Published cover and original promo for SDCC.
Dark Horse #1 launch issue from 1992 along with Dark Horse Presents #54, featuring the team’s first appearancein 1991.
Byrne in 2017 at NYCC, his first convention appearance in many years.
Happy Independence Day! Welcome back to a month long celebration of the “Independents” — Independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium.
Remember what is was like to first watch Sopranos or The Wire or some of other great early HBO-produced television shows? You knew it was TV, of course but it was so different… so much better than typical commercial fare, it made you think about what the medium could actually be.
For many fans — myself included — Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg (especially the first dozen issues or so) had a similar impact on comic books in 1983. Part SF, part satire, all adult, Flagg’s dystopia was like nothing else in contemporaneous comic book publishing.
Its inventive storytelling was groundbreaking, an oft-overused word that most definitely applies here. Need validation? Read those first twelve Flagg issues, and then read The Dark Knight Returns, by Howard’s studiomate Frank Miller, which appeared a few years later.
I’ll wait.
Or, just trust me on this.
Flagg came from nascent publisher First, and its editorial plan pursued mature, original comics from talented creators. And Flagg was one of the best of them.
It was obvious that Howard put his heart — and more — into the series.
In fact, I think there are only two reasons why Flagg isn’t frequently discussed in the same breath as other innovative titles like DKR or Watchmen.
First, it’s because of First.
Independent comic book publishers almost entirely relied on the direct market. Their reach wasn’t anywhere near as wide the mass market, and even with some newsstand distribution, a top independent comic book would never have the reach of a poor-selling superhero title from Marvel or DC, let alone a smash hit.
In other words, no chance you were going to score an American Flagg Slurpee at 7-Eleven.
The second reason is more frustrating.
Remarkably, all 50 original issues of Flagg have NEVER been collected. The early issues appear in and out of print from time to time, but it’s a pity that you can’t get the complete series in digital or print, on demand, as they say.
And that’s a conversation I’ve had with Howard many times. Many, many times.
Trust me on that, too.
Issue #1, and the Hardcover collection of the early issues.
Welcome to July and a month long celebration of the Independents! — Independent creators whose work has captivated us as much, or even more, than the traditional commercial product typically coming from the large mainstream publishers.
This is a very cinematic Tim Truman page from the very first Grimjack story, a two-part back up that appeared in Starslayer #10 and #11, from First Comics in 1983.
Who (or what) is Grimjack? Created by writer John Ostrander, along with Truman, this very succinct description from the Wiki page sums it up nicely:
“Grimjack is the street name of John Gaunt, a sword-for-hire, ex-paramilitary, war veteran and former child gladiator. He operates from Munden’s Bar in the Pit, a slum area of Cynosure, a pan-dimensional city to which all dimensions connect.”
Swashbuckling SF involving multiple dimensions? Sold.
Grimjack ultimately proved more popular than main feature in Starslayer, and the character was awarded his own ongoing series in 1984, which ran originally ran 81 issues until First’s bankruptcy in 1991.
With the help of former First publisher Mike Gold, we brought Grimjack back for a series of new adventures at IDW Publishing starting in 2008. It is now in development for a film / series at Amazon Prime with the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame).
Tim has gone on to a remarkable nearly 40-year career that includes Hawkman, Jonah Hex, Turok, Tarzan, Conan and many others. I had first had the pleasure of working with him and writer Joe Lansdale at Topps in the early 90s on a cool Lone Ranger series that highlighted Tonto more than the masked man himself. And then again 20 years later on another Lansdale series, Hawken.
First Comics itself launched in 1983, and rapidly rose to publishing prominence with other additional quality titles and creators including Frank Brunner, Mike Grell, Jim Starlin and Howard Chaykin, whose American Flagg series is featured in the next post — on Independence Day, of course!
Joe Sinnott, easily one of the greatest comic book inkers of all time, and a terrific person to boot, passed away a few days ago. He was 93.
Joe drew the very first sketch I ever owned (and still do, BTW) in my convention program at my very first NYCC, 1972.
Reed Richards — Mr. Fantastic — was an appropriate choice, because Joe’s legendary inks on both Kirby and then John Buscema (and ultimately others) provided a polished, consistent look for “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.”
I own other art inked by him, but this one is extra special.
RIP Joe. Many thanks and salutes from all of us for your astonishing career.
Concluding our ongoing series celebrating multiple anniversaries for the classic pulp character, The Shadow.
Gravity. What a bitch.
Comic art (and animation) often defies gravity, and pretty much all other laws of science. (Not just physics.)
Didn’t care as a kid, don’t care now.
As long as the art is dynamic, the storytelling is clear, and we don’t push the boundaries into the realm of downright ridiculous, I’m good.
Also, consistency helps too. If Wile E. Coyote has a one-second mid-air pause before he falls helplessly to the earth, each and every time, no problem. Not realistic, but completely plausible within the context of the character and story.
Falling: always a bit slower in comic books than reality. And the character is often calm and composed about the whole thing.
Like our friend Lamont Cranston here. He’s not flailing; he’s carefully shooting at whomever caused his drop.
We know he’s going to finish getting some shots off, and, at some point in the drop, reach for a convenient flagpole. Or something. He will figure it out.
In “real life,” perhaps not so much.
A terrific cover, illustrated by the terrifically talented Sean Chen. Flailing not permitted.
Hans Gruber’s famous fall with gun in hand in Die Hard is probably a bit more realistic… no handy flagpole or awning nearby.Also, sheer terror.
Your favorite heroes, on their way down, down, down.
Continuing our ongoing series celebrating multiple anniversaries for the classic pulp character, The Shadow.
Howard Chaykin will tell you — often, and with emphasis — that he is not a guy rooted in the classic pulps.
That said, there is something consistently special about his artistic interpretation of the Shadow.
Maybe it’s his actual distance from the character that makes it so terrific. It’s strictly a professional relationship, without fannish admiration.
Whatever the reason, Howard’s Shadow always looks like the character should look like in my mind’s eye.
On this bold and striking cover, the buildings and effects were added digitally of course, and atypically, I’m thrilled they were. I love the character composed powerfully on his own in the original art.
As noted, striking and bold. Lots of black ink and just enough lighting. Guns out, cape flowing.
Just as it should be.
Published color version and black and white variant — more detail, but less impactful, as the character is reduced in proportion to the cover size to make those details and logos fit.
A simple rendering of the Shadow by the legendary Alex Toth leads us down the “What If” rabbit hole.
What if Archie Comics had phoned Toth in 1964, and said “Hey, we just acquired the rights to The Shadow, not sure what direction we should go with it, are you interested?”
Would Toth, who five years previously had beautifully illustrated another pulp icon, Zorro (based on the popular TV series) said yes? One can only imagine the results if he had.
Archie did indeed take the license for the Shadow. But instead of a classic version, illustrated by Toth, or someone comparable, we are left with a giant puzzle.
The cover of issue #1 features a classic rendition of the character.
But inside? A completely different version, with blonde hair no less.
Issue #2 amplifies the gaudy superhero costume, keeps the blonde hair.
Issue #3 keeps the costume, but changes the hair to black.
And so on. At this point, he looks — and pretty much acts — like a poor knock-off of any number of classic Archie / MLJ heroes from the golden age that they already owned.
Why license The Shadow if you’re going to create something wholly different? That indeed is a puzzle. (And also, it can’t capitalize on the “camp” craze,” because it appears well ahead of the Batman TV series.)
After eight issues, the title is mercifully cancelled.
As for Toth? He spent much of the 60s designing many of our favorite animated TV shows, including Space Ghost and Super Friends.
But he never strayed too far from comics, and has illustrated all-time classic stories, in many genres. And, many of his sketches and commissions reflect a passion for classic pulp characters and motifs.
A Toth Shadow series would have been something to see.
Toth, born in 1928 (and died in 2006 at his drawing table), would have turned 92 today. Happy Birthday, Alex!
Toth noir, as evidenced by the illustrations above.
Archie Comics’ version of The Shadow: A mystery wrapped in an enigma, etc….
From Zorro to Batman, Toth was a master of shadow and light.
Continuing our ongoing series celebrating multiple anniversaries for the classic pulp character, The Shadow.
Here is another great Matt Wagner cover, from the same terrific Shadow “origin” series as the last one.
So great, it ended up as the cover of the collection of the entire series as well.
So, I think we should, and will in fact, let this superb cover stand on its own without additional dissection.
For more on Matt and his interest in the character and other legends of the pulp era, click here.
Also definitely worth checking out are the exhaustive Shadow Chronology, available at a very reasonable price from Amazon, and Walter Gibson’s (out of print, unfortunately) Shadow Scrapbook, a nice first person history.
Tim Bradstreet delivers a great Shadow cover that was, ultimately, unused.
Why are some comic book covers re-worked?
Subjective question. Subjective answers.
If it’s a licensed title, as in the case of The Shadow, maybe the licensor doesn’t like it.
Editorial decision, perhaps? Certainly a logical answer in many cases. Possibly not a strong enough image to “sell” the issue. Or perhaps the content doesn’t quite match the interior content.
And, in some cases, the artist himself finishes the piece and decides he doesn’t like it. Both Jim Steranko and Neal Adams have told me they’ve finished covers, changed their minds, and started from scratch.
That seems reasonable, even if time consuming. If your signature is going on the piece, you might re-think something you personally don’t like. Especially if you’re going to have to look at it — forever.
And in a pre-digital age, physical covers were lost occasionally. Trust me, it happened.
Whatever happened here –– definitely not the final possibility, of course — I think the unpublished version is cool. The puzzle pieces, skull included, are a nice touch. The published cover drops them in favor of a larger, more dramatic Shadow pose.
Bradstreet, of course, is a great choice for Shadow covers. Can’t go wrong, and for my two cents, I don’t think there’s anything wrong at all here.
Comic book pundits in 1986 decided the Shadow mini-series by Howard Chaykin was “controversial.”
Translation: Some fans liked it, some didn’t.
The late Harlan Ellison famously hated it. And Harlan was not famous for being gentle about his opinions. So there’s that. (Comic book journalists, critics, fans and trolls didn’t need the Internet in those days. They had fanzines. But I digress.)
Setting the series in the contemporary era seems to be a primary trigger for fans of the classic pulp character. Fans, who, it should be noted, mostly had abandoned their commercial interest in the character long ago.
A decade earlier, a series by Denny O’Neil and initially drawn Mike Kaluta, brilliantly faithful to The Shadow’s pulp origins and era, didn’t last past 12 issues.
So DC and Chaykin took a different approach with this series. And Chaykin’s world of The Shadow was definitely more “adult” (grittier, sexier, etc.) than earlier versions. Sign of the times, and Chaykin’s mature approach to comic book content specifically. (Chaykin’s Blackhawk and Black Kiss would follow shortly.)
For what it is worth, I gave it a shot, and liked it. The storytelling and art were — not surprisingly — top shelf. Did I care that the character was set in modern times?
I didn’t lose much sleep over it.
Controversial was an overly word then, and virtually worthless now. Dictionary definition is “giving rise or likely to give rise to public disagreement.”
So art is pretty much always “controversial.” Read some contemporaneous reviews of Citizen Kane or Star Wars. I’ll wait.
In 2020, of course, everything is controversial. I never thought I’d see the day when established facts were “controversial.”
