KC Carlson

by KC Carlson

PREVIOUSLY ON NEVER-ENDING STORY (part 1) (part 2): After intense creative experimentation in the early 1970s, superhero comic books largely stuck to the basics by the end of the decade. There were more creative surprises ahead, but for now, comics’ biggest conflicts were behind the scenes, as a failing distribution system, combined with a poor physical product, would force comics to come up with creative solutions to stay alive. Meanwhile, many comic creators were restless, especially the new, younger talent who had been entering the field over the last decade or so. They also wanted better physical presentation for their work, including ever-expanding formats to experiment with — as well as better working conditions and more return for their creativity. Plus, the effects of growing intelligent critique and criticism from a more vocal fanbase would help push creators into even bigger flights of fancy. All of these factors seemed to indicate that interesting times were around the corner as the 1980s began.

Long-Form Graphic Origins Become a Novel Idea

As we have seen, there have been many long-form stories in comics since its beginnings, mostly as serialized stories continued from one comic to the next. By the 1970s, more and more creators were thinking about long-form stories as a goal, as the ultimate form and format of their work. Artist Gil Kane and writer Archie Goodwin (writing under the pseudonym Robert Franklin) were early American pioneers in this endeavor. In 1968, the pair self-published (with many printing and distribution problems) His Name is… Savage, a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel. That same year, Marvel published two long-form (50 pages plus) Spider-Man stories by Stan Lee and John Romita in the magazine-format The Spectacular Spider-Man, the second story printed in color.

Blackmark

Kane and Goodwin returned to the long form in 1971 with Blackmark, a sword and sorcery tale, published this time by Bantam Books as a paperback with 119 pages of story and art. The project won a special Shazam Award for Kane for his “paperback comics novel”. When it was reprinted in 2001, Blackmark was cover-blurbed as “The very first American graphic novel”. It wasn’t — the term graphic novel hadn’t been coined when it was published, and there were many other illustrated stories produced outside of the comics field in earlier years, most notably a pair of 1950 digest-sized 128-page “picture novels” aimed at the adult market, published by St. Johns. The first, It Rhymes With Lust, was written by “Drake Waller” (Arnold Drake and Leslie Walker) with art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin. It was reprinted in 2007 by Dark Horse Books with a new afterword by Drake. And, as mentioned in Part 1 of this column, European graphic albums (collecting serialized stories) were being published as early as the 1930s.

Early competitors for the first use of the term graphic novel — all published in 1976 — include Richard Corbin’s Bloodstar (a long-form story published as one, i.e., not previously serialized), George Metzger’s Beyond Time and Again (a collection of previously serialized stories from underground comics), and Jim Steranko’s Chandler: Red Tide. This digest-sized book should be more considered an illustrated novel, as it features typeset blocks of text rather than traditional word balloons. All of these formats would eventually be accepted as “graphic novels” as the term increasingly became more of a marketing buzzword than an actual description of form. Many creators who regularly work in the format are more than happy to call their works simply “comics”.

A Contract With God

The term “graphic novel” gained its biggest traction in conjunction with the publication of Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories (1978), itself a collection of similarly-themed short stories rather than a long-form narrative. Since this was a mature, complex work, the term was partially coined to distinguish it from traditional comic books (at that time mostly superheroes). At first, “graphic novel” was perceived in some circles as “snooty” or “arty” — something remedied when Marvel and DC eventually started producing graphic novels featuring their superhero stars. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first produced a long-form Silver Surfer story in 1978, although it was published by Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books (not Marvel) and only distributed in bookstores, so casual Marvel comic fans may have initially missed it. It would be a few more years until Marvel and DC really made the leap into graphic novels.

Sabre

In the meantime, fledgling independent publishers were making inroads with this new comics format. Two creators previously known for their work at Marvel, writer Don McGregor (Killraven) and artist Paul Gulacy (Master of Kung Fu), combined to create the popular Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, a swashbuckling science fiction graphic novel — the first project from new publisher Eclipse Comics. It was among the first graphic novels to be distributed in the then-new Direct Market of comic stores, and it was popular enough to require a second printing and a spin-off series. The storyline also incorporated elements from McGregor’s unfinished Killraven stories at Marvel — which would become somewhat of a trend as more and more of Marvel and DC’s creators moved to independents.

Independent Forerunners

The First Kingdom

Other indy creators were already designing their new series as long-form works — publishing first as chapter-sized chunks, but ultimately eyeing the collected format as the ultimate form that their work would take. Begun in 1974, as one of the first independently published comics, Jack Katz’s The First Kingdom was a sprawling and occasionally epic work that often reminded readers of classic myths with its long-range, civilization-building storytelling. It was truly a one-of-a-kind project, ultimately running to over 700 pages. The first collection of The First Kingdom was published in 1978, and like the comic series, was published by Bud Plant, one of the leading Direct Sales comic distributors of the era. Although historically significant, the series is a slog to read and has been largely forgotten.

Elfquest

1978 was also the year that Richard and Wendy Pini’s fantasy classic Elfquest began. Elfquest has one of the most interesting publication histories in comics, demonstrating how creative control can lead to huge success. First published in the underground comic Fantasy Quarterly in 1978, the Pinis were so disappointed in the reproduction of this first issue that they formed their own company  — WaRP Graphics (WaRP indicating Wendy and Richard Pini) — and began self-publishing with issue #2. (The Fantasy Quarterly material was later reprinted as Elfquest #1, in the same WaRP Graphics format.) What was interesting about the series, at the time, was that it was close-ended — it concluded with #20. A #21 was also published containing fan letters and behind-the-scenes material.

Eventually, the series was collected into handsome full-color collections, originally by Donning/Starblaze and later by WaRP Graphics themselves. There were also many follow-up miniseries and series — some by the Pinis, others by artists and writers under their supervision. The original saga has been in print now for over three decades and has the unique distinction of being republished by both Marvel Comics (under its Epic imprint) and DC Comics (as a part of their hardcover Archives series). At the time of its original publication, Elfquest was the unofficial entry-level book for male fans to present to their girlfriends to interest them in comics. Elfquest’s artist and primary creator Wendy Pini also became notable as a leading female creator in a male-dominated field.

Cerebus

Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark started life in 1977 as a funny animal parody of sword-and-sorcery comics, but in 1979, Sim announced that Cerebus was actually a 300-issue novel. Issue #300 was finally published in March 2004, 27 years later, the story ultimately running 6,000 pages. These have been subsequently collected into 16 collections, nicknamed “phonebooks” due to their size and format. Cerebus and all subsequent collections were self-published by Sim (at first with his girlfriend, then wife Deni Loubert; the two later divorced) under the company name Aardvark-Vanaheim.

The series was not without controversy, mostly over the outspokenness of its creator and his overt misogyny (which Sim calls “anti-feminism”). This, his views on religion, and public feuds with other creators and industry figures often put the spotlight on the man instead of his work. However, Sim was also outspoken in the areas of creator rights and self-publishing, was an early and huge supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and was very supportive of new talent, often printing the work of young creators as back-up features in Cerebus. The fact that he actually finished what he set out to do with Cerebus (assisted by background artist Gerhard) is still an amazing feat — especially when one considers the number of impressive, yet unfinished, similar projects that litter the comics landscape.

But Wait… Reaching for the Stars

Long before these long-form storytelling experiments began, there was another revolution in comics. (A couple actually, but the underground comics moment of the 60s and 70s is beyond the scope of this particular — and already too long — overview. Although I urge adult readers to seek out articles and histories of this fascinating era.)

Star*Reach

In 1974, former DC and Marvel writer  Mike Friedrich (Justice League of America, Iron Man) self-published the first issue of Star*Reach, an amazingly influential science fiction and fantasy comics anthology. On the surface, Star*Reach seemed like just an  outlet for frustrated comics creators to present their work outside the restrictive confines of Marvel and DC, Star*Reach actually bridges a gap between the underground comics (with their more adult content) and traditional comic publishers (offering heroic fiction in genres not fully supported by the Big Two). At the time, the Star*Reach buzzword was “ground-level”.

Frequent contributors to Star*Reach included Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, and Barry Windsor-Smith, all contributing intelligent and mature work that was an important developmental step for what the medium could accomplish beyond superheroes. Stepping away from the restrictive conditions of Marvel and DC allowed their true talent — especially their artwork — to open up and to become something amazing. It also allowed these artists to show off their formable talents as writers, marking an important turning point in their careers.

Quack!

Other significant contributors to Star*Reach included Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Gene Day, Steve Englehart, Michael T. Gilbert, Dick Giordano, Steve Leialoha, Lee Marrs, Al Milgrom, Gray Morrow, Dean Motter, P. Craig Russell, Dave Sim, Walt Simonson, Steve Skeates, Mary Skrenes, Ken Stacey, Joe Staton, Mike Vosburg, Len Wein, John Workman, and SF author Roger Zelazny. Also published by Star*Reach was Quack!, an equally influential (although less appreciated) funny-animal anthology.

Star*Reach ceased publication in 1979, before everything it inspired got a serious foothold, but ultimately, it was an important link to the future of comics, along with the equally –but in other ways — influential Heavy Metal and the quirky one-shot Big Apple Comics, which was published by Flo Steinberg — Marvel’s “gal Friday” during their 60s heyday. Both Star*Reach and Heavy Metal were also important in developing the long-form graphic novel with their collected serialized features. And both Star*Reach and Big Apple were early examples of self-published independent comics. More of both were on the way.

Comic Book “Realism”

“Realism” became a big buzzword in mainstream superhero comics beginning in the 1980s. Building on Stan Lee’s (and later Roy Thomas’) rudimentary work in presenting more three-dimensional characterization in the 1960s-era Marvel comics, superheroes and their villains became increasingly complex over the decades. Anti-heroes (in the beginning, basically “good” characters who used questionable means to achieve their goals or those who have been “pushed too far”) like The Punisher and Deathlok (who both used guns) began to be introduced in the 1970s, reflecting similar characters that were becoming popular in movies (many of whom were portrayed by actors Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson). However, “realism” in comics was often anything but realism when applied to characters who occasionally played billiards with planets. However, the term did lead to some intense fan discussion in the 80s, especially centering on Marvel’s X-Men book and the popular Wolverine and Phoenix characters.

Around this time, Wolverine was being portrayed as a character who would routinely kill other minor characters, just because they were in his way. This led to intense discussions of whether such actions were appropriate in a character that was supposedly a hero. Down the road, many fans realized maybe he wasn’t. Thus, the debate. Comics quickly divided into two camps — those that thought this made him a “cooler” character and those who were appalled by his actions. This schism largely still stands today among comic fans.

Phoenix

The case of Phoenix was even more interesting. Having remade the old Jean Grey/Marvel Girl character into a new character (Phoenix) with seemingly out-of-control cosmic powers, the X-Men creators had her completely wipe out a race of alien beings (the D’Bari) in the kind of a throwaway, up-the ante, “see how powerful this new character is” scene that has now become a superhero cliché. This would come back to haunt them, as then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter decided while reading the original conclusion to the Dark Phoenix saga that Phoenix’s punishment (de-powering) did not match her crime of killing billions of innocents. He demanded the creators re-do the end of the story and kill Phoenix.

This is how the story, one of the most significant of its generation, also became one of the most controversial. (And inadvertently brought a new innovation to comics — the alternate ending — which was published separately after the conclusion of the original.) That this was an example of “realism” in comics is now somewhat laughable. Subsequent alterations and reboots diffused much of the effect of the overall storyline — it turns out that this Phoenix wasn’t actually Jean Grey, who was still alive in a cocoon — which led to yet another superhero comics “innovation”. That being, comic book publishers, editors, and subsequent creators often don’t know when to leave stories the hell alone. Some are more interested in continually re-writing old stories than writing new ones.

Daredevil

Another auspicious beginning was occurring at Marvel around this time, yet it took everybody a few years to actually realize what was happening. New artist Frank Miller began drawing Daredevil, a Marvel title whose sales had slipped so low that it was on the verge of being canceled, leading to a “what the hell, we’re probably going to be canceled anyway — do whatever you want” editorial mindset. Within a year, Miller would be writing the book as well. History was being made, and very few people realized it at this time. In 1981, Miller introduced Elektra, Matt Murdock’s first love turned into a deadly assassin, as Miller added more and more noir and elements from Asian cinema into the series. Daredevil became quite violent, often pushing up against Comics Code guidelines. This would be another harbinger of the future of comics.

Titans Take the Lead

New Teen Titans

Meanwhile, at DC in 1980, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, and editor Len Wein were plotting to revive Teen Titans. The franchise was so hopelessly lost and muddled that most of DC’s higher-ups asked “why?” when the proposal to revive the series hit their desk. So, left to develop on their own without much interference from on high, Wolfman and Pérez took the three most popular (and identifiable) “old” Titans (Robin, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl), created three all-new characters (Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven), and reinvented an old character (the Doom Patrol’s “mascot” Beast Boy) as Changeling. With this cast, they created something truly radical at DC (for the time) — a superhero comic starring characters with actual, individual personalities. Of course, it sold like gangbusters. It was the closest thing DC had to match Marvel’s dynamic storytelling and characterization, and it also owed a little something to Chris Claremont’s X-Men. Although the Titans took it one better (at least in my opinion) — all of the characters worked together as a team and as friends and avoided a lot of the stereotypical “my friend, my enemy” contrived conflicts that were becoming a well-trod hallmark at Marvel. Fans cared about the Titans as friends, not just characters.

It also helped that the creators expanded the Titans universe. The first brilliant thing that Wolfman and company did was to age them slightly into young adults (rather than the wisecracking kids they used to be). Next, the creators created excellent villains for the series, from the demon Trigon (Raven’s father!) to the incredibly complex Deathstroke the Terminator, a character so popular that he was ultimately spun out into his own relatively long-running series. The anti-hero Deathstroke was the antagonist in the most-talked-about Titans storyline “The Judas Contract”, which also introduced potential new Titan Terra. She turned the whole series on its head and ultimately broke hearts (none more severely than the readers’).

Finally, the complex storytelling of the series was also a key factor in its success. Most of the main characters had ongoing character subplots all going at once, some of which took months or years to resolve. Wolfman also played in the whole of the DC Universe, weaving the world of the Doom Patrol seamlessly into Titans history, crossing over with high-visibility characters (the JLA, the Outsiders), and using past Titans characters as effective guest-stars. It was here that we saw Robin become Nightwing as well as meeting the new Robin (Jason Todd) in a memorable Batman crossover. Plus, frequent “A Day in the Life…” storylines, where we followed one character through a day consisting of much more than just superhero action, made the characters feel real to fans. The new Titans were so instantly popular they starred with the X-Men in an 1982 crossover, just two years after their creation. It memorably featured Dark Phoenix, Deathstroke, and Darkseid and was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Walter Simonson.

[Plug: The long-awaited Titans graphic novel, Games, by Wolfman and Pérez is being solicited next month for November release.]

Elsewhere in superhero comics, things were rolling along as usual, although a few interesting things were bubbling under. In the 1980s, the Batman comic book began to link with Detective Comics, as ongoing storlyines would bounce back and forth between the two titles. Gerry Conway was writing both, and on Conway’s departure, new writer Doug Moench would follow suit with linked storylines. At Marvel, similar books like Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants and Avengers and Avengers West Coast would occasionally share story elements and continuity, but largely kept the actual stories self-contained within their respective books.

Direct Only: Publishers React

Dazzler

Also in the early 1980s, DC and Marvel begin paying more attention to several industry changes: the Direct Market distributors, the rapidly growing independent comics publishers, and the increasing concerns of their freelancers, who were starting to look elsewhere for work, over creative rights. First, in 1981, Marvel published its first Direct Sales comic book — Dazzler #1. This comic wasn’t available on newsstands, only through retailers who purchased direct from the new distributors. Initial sales figures were 400,000, all non-returnable. The book was so monstrously over-ordered that you can probably still find copies for a quarter (or less) today.

Madame Xanadu

DC’s first Direct Sales book was a more cautious launch — Madame Xanadu #1 by Englehart and Rogers — and ended up selling in the 100,000-copy range, not bad for a non-superhero book. Marvel responded the following year with their first Direct Sales series — Marvel Fanfare — printed on slick paper with a killer Spider-Man/X-Men story by Chris Claremont, Michael Golden, Dave Cockrum. and Paul Smith in the first four issues. Although originally designed to showcase the work of the industry’s best creators (initially, contributing creators were paid better rates), the title eventually became known as an “inventory” book. It was a place to burn off previously unpublished inventory stories from years past, albeit mostly from first-rate artists and writers. The quality remained high enough for it to run for 10 years and 60 issues, even at a cover price that was higher than regular comic book titles.

Marvel Goes Graphic — and Epic

Death of Captain Marvel

In 1982, Marvel also began its Marvel Graphic Novel line. The first entry was the well-received (and now classic) Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin. Over 75 volumes were published in this format. (The exact number is hard to determine because Marvel stopped numbering them after a while, and many were published under different Marvel imprints.) Interestingly, the early years of the series featured far more creator-owned characters and projects (many of them subsequently published by Marvel’s Epic imprint) than actual Marvel-owned properties. The exceptions (besides Captain Marvel) included the first adventure of the New Mutants, the classic X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (much of which was the basis for the second X-Men movie), and graphic novels starring Dazzler, She-Hulk, and Killraven. In later years, the balance shifted to Marvel characters and properties as the company became less interested in creator-owned projects.

Among those creator-owned projects, many of them had lives beyond Marvel (and Epic), including Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar, Walter Simonson’s Star Slammers, Dave Cockrum’s Futurians, Michael Kaluta and Elaine Lee’s Starstruck, and Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier’s Groo the Wanderer. Many of these volumes have been reprinted in recent years by other publishers, a choice that comes with creator ownership. There were also many Conan volumes and at least one King Kull story, as well as other characters better known from other media, including Michael Moorcocks’s Elric and pulp and radio fave The Shadow. Marvel also used the format for extensive collections of the works of Moebius.

Epic Illustrated

1982 was also the birth year of Marvel’s Epic Comics line of creator owned-comics, spun out of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated magazine, which began in 1980. Both projects were headed up by legendary editor and writer Archie Goodwin, who knew virtually everybody in the industry (many of whom probably crashed on the Goodwin sofa at one time or another) and managed to get most of them to contribute something to either project. Goodwin also got fantasy artists such as Frank Frazetta, Richard Corbin, Boris Vallejo, and the The Brothers Hildebrant to contribute covers to Epic Illustrated. Some of the best known Epic projects (besides the ones listed above) included Steve Englehart’s Coyote, Six From Sirius by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, Marshal Law by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neil, several projects by Rick Vietch including Heartburst and The One, and Moonshadow by J.M DeMatteis, Jon J. Muth, and Kent Williams. Epic also did a few projects with established Marvel characters (Elektra: Assassin, Silver Surfer: Parable), but the imprint is much better known for the many international projects they brought to America, including the work of Moebius and Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga classic Akira. As previously mentioned, Epic also reprinted Elfquest for a larger audience, and Dave Sim provided new stories starring Young Cerebus for Epic Illustrated.

The Epic imprint was a curious bastion of creativity at Marvel during a time when much of the regular line was more concerned with selling toys and toy-related comics, including the very popular G.I. Joe, Transformers, Rom, and Micronauts. Several of these actually rose above their dubious origins to become popular cult classic comics.

New Formats: Mini and Maxi

Untold Legend

Another interesting development in the early 80s was the stand-alone series. Often called miniseries or maxiseries (depending on their length), they were a way to tell a self-contained story, with beginning, middle, and ending, as opposed to the ongoing continuity of regular monthly series. Technically, the first superhero miniseries was DC’s World of Krypton, published in 1979, although its three issues were originally intended for the canceled Showcase series. The first miniseries created especially for the format was 1980’s The Untold Legend of the Batman. DC published a number of miniseries in its wake, including stories about the Green Lantern Corps, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Green Arrow.

Contest of Champions

Marvel quickly jumped on the miniseries wagon with the publication of the first Wolverine mini in 1982 (in retrospect, a try-out of sorts for his future ongoing solo series). Also that year was Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (technically, their first limited series), a team-up story featuring many of Marvel’s biggest characters (and introducing many new international characters). It was also comics’ first event-style book, with its giant cast of characters.

It has been suggested that Marvel ruined the miniseries format for writers. DC’s minis were three issues, which nicely map to the traditional three-act storytelling model. Your first issue establishes your premise. The second issue complicates it, and the third issue is the satisfying resolution. Marvel’s miniseries were four issues, which require more complication or padding between the first-issue introduction and the final conclusion. The standard today is still four issues, because four parts means more comics to sell.

Camelot 3000

Before event books achieved their foothold (or stranglehold?), comics continued to experiment with long-form storytelling. In 1982, Camelot 3000, a futuristic tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland, was published as comics’ first 12-part finite series. The following year, Frank Miller’s Ronin was published by DC in six oversized issues, presented without advertising. Both series were among the first comic book collected editions (now frequently called graphic novels), and readers today may not realize they were originally serialized. The 12-issue format proved to be popular in the 1980s with such titles as Watchmen, Squadron Supreme, and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and later with Batman: The Long Halloween and series-within-series like Batman: Hush.

Moore Is More

Swamp Thing

In 1982, DC revived the Swamp Thing character, mostly to capitalize on the Wes Craven film based on the character. Initially, Saga of the Swamp Thing was a bizarre mix of elements, but mostly a conspiracy book involving a multinational corporation doing bad things while a young girl (who might be the Antichrist) was attempting to destroy the world. It was written by Martin Pasko and was mildly interesting, although Swamp Thing often felt lost in his own book. By 1983, Pasko was getting more screenwriting work, so editor Len Wein assigned then-unknown in America British writer Alan Moore to the series, beginning with issue #20. Moore spent most of that issue wrapping up all the previous story threads. With the following issue, entitled The Anatomy Lesson, Moore rolled up his sleeves, completely reinvented the Swamp Thing character and series, and quietly began changing the face of American comics.

Skizz

By this time, Moore had already made a huge impact on British comics with his work for Marvel UK, 2000 A.D., and Warrior, including the series Captain Britain (with artist Alan Davis), Skizz (with artist Jim Baikie), D.R. and Quinch (again with Davis), Ballad of Halo Jones (co-created with artist Ian Gibson), Marvelman (later retitled Miracleman, with Garry Leach and Alan Davis), V for Vendetta (with David Lloyd), and The Bojeffries Saga (with Steve Parkhouse). All of these projects were eventually collected and either imported into America (the 2000 A.D. material) or reprinted by American publishers (DC for V for Vendetta, Eclipse for Miracleman). Most of these series were immensely popular in America in the wake of Moore’s success with Swamp Thing. Moore was the initial focal point for comics’ version of the “British Invasion” of “new” artists and writers — all of the above plus Alan Grant, Brian Bolland, Dave McKean, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, Jamie Delano, Peter Milligan, Garth Ennis, Paul Jenkins, Mark Millar, Warren Ellis, and many more.

Many of these creators first worked with DC editor Karen Berger (who “inherited” both Swamp Thing and Moore after Len Wein left staff). DC even had a UK office for a time to coordinate with this huge influx of British talent. (Marvel also had offices in the UK, although they often seemed to work as independently run entities, without many cross-productions). Berger’s work with these talented Brits — many of whom were not interested in superhero material — directly led to the development of DC’s Vertigo line in 1993. This dark fantasy/horror imprint evolved out of what was being unofficially referred to as the “Bergerverse” of titles, including Swamp Thing, Hellblazer (starring the character John Constantine from Swamp Thing), Animal Man, Black Orchid, Shade the Changing Man, and Sandman. Most of these titles shared an older-reader sensibility — many were published with a controversial Mature Readers label — and opened up a huge new audience for readers who were interested in graphic storytelling, but not so much superheroes.

But this was a ways down the road. Back in the 80s, and with Swamp Thing’s success, Alan Moore was being offered all the DC work he could handle. Somewhat surprisingly, Moore wrote a handful of superhero characters for DC, helping to evolve him as well, in small ways. In a memorable Superman Annual, he teamed the Man of Steel with Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman in The Man Who Has Everything (which was later adapted into an episode of the popular Justice League Unlimited animated TV show). He also wrote  a Green Lantern Corps story introducing the very cosmic (and trippy) concept of Mogo, the Green Lantern that was an entire planet, that made all the GL fanboys go “Ooooooooooo…”

Superman

Moore’s somewhat surprising love for “old school” superhero concepts led him to the assignment (actually, he demanded it) of the last Superman story before the infamous 1986 Superman revamp by John Byrne. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? was a more than fitting farewell to all the kid-friendly concepts of Superman (the Super-Pets, the Fortress, bow-tie Jimmy Olsen, etc.) which was movingly sad and occasionally brutal, all at the same time. It captured the “end of an era” moment perfectly, like a butterfly in amber. A large part of Moore’s subsequent comics career would be devoted to lovingly nostalgic deconstructions of old-style comics in 1963, Supreme, and much of his ABC (America’s Best Comics) work. But first would come another major project, one initially based on old-school superheroes, that quickly became something completely different. And that’s a story for later…

NEXT ON NEVER-ENDING STORY (in a couple of weeks): More build-up to 1986 — Comics’ Greatest Year. More Indy stuff. More innovation. Reboots. Revivals. Denials. More Moore and Miller. Plus, things blow up and things get dark.

KC Carlson: Testing the limits of his ever-fading memory. In public yet. Really scary, eh kids?! Thanks again to BG.

Classic covers in this article come from the Grand Comics Database.

IT BEGINS

I started work at DC Comics at 666 in the summer of 1989. I’d been to the office a couple of times before that, however. My first visit there (actually my first trip to NYC, I think) was in 1983 while I was working for Capital City Distribution, and I was traveling with the co-owners of the company, Milton Griepp and John Davis. The three of us were in the back of a NYC cab when, out of nowhere, we were hit by another taxi cab. It wasn’t a bad accident, but we were shook up a little bit. Our cab driver, rather than check to see if we were okay, instead jumped out of the cab and ran to the other cab, pulled the driver out of the cab and started screaming at him. The second driver screamed back. I think there were some punches thrown, but I don’t recall any of them landing. All I really remember was sitting, dazed, in the back of this cab, when John turned to me and said, “Welcome to New York City!”

Later in the DC offices, we met Karen Berger for the first time. She had just become the new editor on the Saga of the Swamp Thing book. The first couple of issues by new writer Alan Moore had come out, and Karen was interested in our opinions. One of the guys (who obviously hadn’t read the books yet) kept talking about how awful and miserable the book’s sales were (which they were, pre-Moore, and probably for the first couple of Moore issues, until people caught on), but his negative assessment seemed to confuse her. At that point, we got yanked out of the room to meet with Paul Levitz or Bruce Bristow (then DC’s Marketing Director). As we were leaving, I quickly tried to tell her that I had read the books and thought that they were really great, but I’m not sure she heard me.

My other notable trip to DC was my actual job interview for what would become DC’s first creator-friendly (kinda) line, Piranha Press. There were a lot of other comics notables at the time being interviewed for the job, including Amazing Heroes editor Kevin Dooley, and I want to say Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, but they may have already been at DC by then. Anyway, none of us “regular” comics guys got the job (no surprise, actually) – it went to Mark Nevelow, one of Jenette Kahn’s contacts – but the legend goes that everyone who was interviewed for that job ended up working for DC within a year or so anyway.

The interview was one of the worst performances in my life. Things went badly before I even got in the room, as I had almost passed out from low blood sugar (from not eating lunch) in Peggy May’s office about an hour before my interview. (Peggy was my DC Marketing/Press contact during my earliest years of writing for Westfield, and one of my favorite people in comics.) She very thoughtfully came up with some orange juice and cookies for me, patted me on the head, and sent me on my way. Thanks, Peggy!

All the interviews were in Jenette Kahn’s office, with both Paul Levitz and Dick Giordano in attendance. At least I think it was those three – my interview was very late in the day, and the afternoon sun was blindingly bright, so I was basically facing three silhouettes. As if I wasn’t already nervous enough, not being able to make eye contact with anyone was awful. I completely froze on the easy question – What are some of your favorite comics? – completely and totally blanking out. Later, after calming down slightly, I tanked the interview while they were explaining some of the nuts and bolts of how the new imprint was going to work. Someone had mentioned something about how DC would retain most of the rights to what was going to be published, and I jumped in and said something like “Well, that’s not going to work.” At the time in the industry, creator rights was a major issue, and the right to own and control your character was being asked for – and given – by most of the major indy publishers of the time. If DC wasn’t going to offer the same kind of creator rights being offered by the indy publishers, then they weren’t going to get any of the big-name guys they obviously wanted. So, I was basically telling the DC executives that they weren’t wearing any clothes – probably not the best move in a job interview. And obviously I didn’t get the job. But I ended up back at DC within several months anyway.

BACKSTORY

Richard Bruning needed an assistant. In 1989, Richard was doing what seemed like hundreds of jobs at DC under his title of Design Director, but at the core, he was the guy who made comic books look and feel important for the very first time. Not only was he instrumental in bringing a much-needed design sensibility to comics, he brought in actual graphic designers, worked with existing artists to improve their graphic sensibilities, and encouraged the use of artists who once would have never been considered for comics. Under Richard, DC experimented with formats, paper stocks, and printing techniques. Color – how it was done and how it was printed – became a priority for Richard. Projects that went through his fingers included Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Camelot 3000, Ronin, Arkham Asylum, V For Vendetta, Baxter paper, Prestige format, DC’s early trade paperback collections, and dozens more, including the early Vertigo trade dress. Plus, he was editing a couple of projects, including Dean Motter’s sequel to The Prisoner, and writing Adam Strange on the side. He was a very busy man.

Richard and I had first met in Madison, when he was the editor for Capital Comics (the original publishers of Baron & Rude’s Nexus). At the time, Capital had folded – Nexus, Badger and Whisper were moving over to First Comics -and Richard had started planning his escape from Madison. But we hit it off before he left, having many intense conversations about comics and what they could be. Afterwards, we became phone buddies for a number of years, him talking about new things at DC and me keeping him up-to-date about the weirdness that is always Madison. One day in mid-1989, he called me and said “I need help. Get out here!” And so I went. Exciting things were happening.

Once at DC, I found myself assisting Richard doing basically everything and anything that needed doing. He was instrumental in teaching me the ropes about comic book editing, and my first assignments as an Assistant Editor were The Prisoner and a 2-issue Deadman mini by Mike Baron and Kelley Jones. Editing Baron was a challenge, as his “scripts” were actually thumbnails (with stick figures) indicating the general layout and positioning of the characters. Dialog was handwritten as balloons, or in the margins with arrows to indicate placement. It was my first opportunity to realize that every writer does things a little bit different from what you might expect.

The other major thing that I was supposed to do was log in and keep track of all the original artwork that came through Richard’s office. The logging in part was abandoned pretty quickly because it was done on Richard’s computer and as he was always sitting in front of it, it was just easier to for him to keep the log. And, hard as it is to believe now, this was before we actually had file sharing capability. I still assisted in keeping track of and protecting the original art, which was occasionally a challenge with large pieces like Dave McKean’s paintings. Often it was matter of finding a place to store the oversized packing boxes and crates that the artwork was shipped in – a challenge in the overcramped offices at 666.

Richard also taught me a lot about quality control in checking film for flaws, something that came in handy later when I became responsible for DC’s growing number of trade paperback collections. Little did I know that all of the quality control training was to set me up as one of the few people qualified to go to Montreal to do press checks at the printers there.

NO SLEEP AT MONTREAL

Press checks were done on DC’s most important books at that time, things like Arkham Asylum and all of the trade paperback collections. There was a lot of work to do once you were at the printers – checking dummy books to make sure the film was stripped up properly and all the pages were in order, and checking the actual film to make sure that requested corrections had actually been made. But there was also a lot of waiting around, mostly at night, when most of the comics were printed. What we were waiting for was the book in question to actually make it onto the press.

Once that happened, the presses would start rolling, and an early proof was pulled and given to me to check if everything was all right. And here’s where the fun began, as there wasn’t much time to check things as the presses kept rolling while you were checking! As the print runs on a lot of the early trade paperbacks were quite small, the total print time for a signature could be as little as 10 to 20 minutes. So, working as fast as possible, I had to check the proof against the dummy book to make sure all the pages were still in the right order as well as checking to see if the color levels were all correct. This was extremely hard to do because it was impossible to check everything, so I learned quickly some key things to look for: First and foremost was the quality of the black plate, which meant spot-checking the lettering, panel borders, and large black areas for blotching or fades (usually not a problem at Ronald’s as they ran a 5-color press and used the “fifth” color to back-up the blacks – but then you had to watch that the registration was true). For colors, I used to focus to make sure skin tones were correct. Beyond that, I watched for costume colors – Superman was easy to watch for as he was all red, yellow, and blue – the basic printing colors. The printers could make changes to the colors while the press was running – this is why the printed colors sometimes vary from book to book – but stopping the presses for anything was always a last resort, although it could be done if something catastrophically wrong, like pages out-of-order or occasionally missing or blank.

Ronald’s generally was a very good printer – much better than the traditional Sparta, Illinois, comics printer, especially after they switched to the dreaded Flexographic printing – but they were a high-speed printer, not really one set up to do “art” quality projects. Thus, it was always tricky when an artist or colorist wanted to attend a press check, as happened when David Lloyd accompanied me for the first V for Vendetta trade paperback. David’s original coloring for the work was amazing and subtle, and he spent a lot of time on press trying to get everything perfect, but taking too long to get there. So the books on the tail end of the print run looked very nice, but the colors varied wildly throughout the rest of the run. Unfortunately, by the luck of the draw, Dave’s creator copies came from the front of the print run, before the colors were adjusted to Dave’s liking, and he was, understandably, not happy with them. Fortunately, there were much better printings of the book to come!

The tedious part of press checks was the waiting between the press runs. After a signature was printed, the press was stopped, cleaned, and then set up for the next signature. Often this took up to an hour to accomplish, so there was nothing to do but wait. Ronald’s had a waiting room just for this, with TV and VCR, but all they had to watch was Dirty Harry movies. Usually, I just tried to catch a quick nap before the next run.

Occasionally, something would go wrong, and the presses would be down for hours. In cases like that, Ronald’s would put us up in a hotel so we could get some real sleep. After one press failure, I was deposited – at 4 in the morning – at a five-star hotel in downtown Montreal, in a suite in the top floor of the hotel. When I got to the room, all the lights were out and I couldn’t find any light switches. There was just enough light coming in from a window so I could sort of “feel” my way around the place, but I found myself going into what seemed like a dozen different rooms, none of them bedrooms, and none of them with accessible light switches. Exhausted, I flopped down on a couch and immediately fell asleep. When I awoke in the morning, the room was filled with sunlight, and I could see a hidden stairway that somehow I overlooked in the dark. It led to a gigantic bedroom. Nobody had told me it was a two-story suite.

BACK TO NYC

Living in New York City was a big change for me. It took me a long time to figure out the city. Even simple things were hard if you weren’t used to them. Two things I initially had trouble with in NYC were revolving doors and umbrellas. Growing up in Wisconsin, I had never really used either one.

Seemingly, every building in the city had a revolving door. And to use them properly, there is a secret nonverbal language that outsiders must learn or else have various limbs amputated on a regular basis. The stereotypical New Yorker is usually pictured as trudging up and down the concrete canyons, shoulders stooped, eyes staring at the pavement and making eye contact with absolutely nobody. It’s totally true. This, by the way, is direct opposition to the typical NYC tourist, who constantly walks around with their heads pointed skyward, as if they’re waiting for Superman to fly overhead. They don’t make eye contact either. But to use a revolving door properly, one must make eye contact – often grudgingly fleeting, embarrassed eye contact – or risk either killing someone else with the big, heavy, revolving glass door, or being killed by somebody else. Plus, there’s this weird little dance that’s a lot like Fight Club – no one talks about it. And God help you if you encounter tourists with children in a revolving door.

Umbrellas are totally another story. The first thing that you learn about umbrellas in NYC is that you are a complete doofus if you wait until your first rainstorm to buy an umbrella, because suddenly, the umbrella you could have bought for $2 when it was dry costs somewhere between $20 and $1,000,000 when it’s raining. Further, buying an umbrella in NYC if you are a man is a daunting proposition, because it seems that the only places that sell umbrellas in Manhattan are women’s clothing shops – a place that men only go into when they’re dragged there. Apparently, having an umbrella is not a manly thing to have in NYC. Neither is pneumonia. So it’s an interesting choice to have to make.

Once you have the umbrella, one generally doesn’t think that it’s something that you need practice with, but you actually do, as there is usually some sort of super-secret release mechanism that’s impossible to find. After you start turning the closed umbrella over and over in your hands trying to find the button in the pouring rain, it will inevitably open up right in your face – usually with enough force to either knock you out cold or send your glasses flying into the street and crushed under the tires of an empty taxi that refuses to stop for you. I found that I had a great affinity for buying the cheap model umbrellas that often launched the open “brolly” section into the sky – with me still holding the handle. If there was a good stiff wind (as there always is in NYC rainstorms, what with the concrete canyons and all), the “brolly” would sometimes sail as much as 7 or 8 stories high. Just like flying a kite – without the string.

My DC “friends” were always quite amused by my inability to use an umbrella properly. “How do you not know how to use an umbrella?” they would ask, annoyingly, in unison. “In Wisconsin, we didn’t need umbrellas,” I would bellow. “We had cars!”

BACK TO 666

One of the first things I was taught to do at DC was forge Dick Giordano’s signature. If I recall correctly, there were a couple of people who did this. We never did it with anything too important, like checks or vouchers, but if there was anything annoyingly bureaucratic that we had to get done and needed Dick’s signature when he was out of the office, then someone forged his name. We just had to remember to tell Dick what we had done later.

Mike Gold’s bulletin board drove me nuts when I was at DC. Everybody else’s bulletin boards were a jumbled mess of cover sketches, notes, calendars, color guides, and what-have-you. Some folks competed to see how many cover sketches would stay attached with a single pushpin. Mike Gold’s bulletin boards were fastidiously neat. Everything on his board was lined up in rows, and every piece of paper was attached with four pushpins, one in each corner. There were dozens and dozens of pushpins on his board. I used to think that if DC ever went broke, the cause would be Mike Gold’s pushpins. One morning while I was in the area bothering Bob Greenberger, Bob started talking about Star Trek, and as usual, my eyes glazed over and focused on something else – Mike’s bulletin board. It was then I realized that not only was everything on it annoyingly neat, but that every sheet of paper had four pushpins of exactly the same color. That piece had four red pushpins. This one had four yellow pins. And so on.

“You see this?” I asked Bob.

“Yeah,” he said. “So what?”

“This must stop,” I replied, as I am the Chaos Bringer.

So one morning I got into the office early, which was tough because Mike also was an early arrival most mornings. I snuck into Mike’s office – and rearranged all the pushpins! It was absolute chaos. Blue pushpins were mingling with yellow pins, green pins were fraternizing with red. Some papers had (gasp!) four different color pushpins! Oh, the humanity!

I finished up, fiendishly cackled, and ran away and hid. A few minutes later, I saw Mike come in and head toward his office. I gave him a couple of minutes to take his coat off and get settled before I would come in on some bogus pretense and see if he would notice. Not more than two minutes had passed before I entered his office to watch what would happen.

The joke was on me. As I entered the office, my eyes darted directly to the bulletin board, expecting to see my dastardly work still in place. Instead, my eyes bulged open wide. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! The board was back to the way that it started – with four pushpins of the same color holding up each piece of paper! How could this be? It took me at least five minutes to mess up the board. How could he restore it in less than two, much less notice it in the first place while also getting settled for the day?

I stammered some lame excuse about forgetting why I was there and backed quickly out of his office. Later, I came to the only conclusion that I could:

Mike Gold is not human.

I don’t know if he ever thought it was me that messed up his board. I was pretty quiet most of the time – thus I could easily get away with stuff like this. Perhaps as a non-human he was beneath such things. I guess he knows now.

My abhorrent behavior against neat freaks didn’t stop here, sadly. For over 20 years now, my pal (and former DC 666 denizen) Tammy Brown (and her Band of Renown) and I have been doing a similar little dance. Tammy always fastidiously cleans her home whenever I visit, including creating the (to me) pretentious “magazine spread on the coffee table” so popular in all the fashionable beautiful homes magazines. To me it’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. As soon as I hit Tammy’s living room, I’m at the magazine spread with both hands, messing it up with great gusto and ending with a hand flourish and a “Perfect!” I just can’t help myself. After years of this, I asked her why she still bothered with the spread, knowing I was just going to mess it up, she answered dryly, “because if I didn’t, you’d just destroy the whole house!”

I’ve got lots more 666 stories. I haven’t even mentioned Dollar Beer Night. Or why it’s bad to play softball in Central Park after giving blood. Let me know if you’re interested in hearing more. (Or if you were there, correcting my increasingly faulty memory!)

PLUG-OLA

My old pal Mark Waid has just launched a new blog and forum over at BOOM! that everyone should check out. The blog is mostly about “Writing 101″ – tips and stories about how it’s done from one of the best. Mark’s been just about everywhere, written about most everything and has faced more adversity (most of it not even of his own making) than just about anyone in the industry. And the forums are just plain fun! Go check it out at http://www.markwaid.com (which actually defaults to http://markwaid.boom-studios.net/).

KC CRLSN dn’t lk vwls nmr.

Got comments or questions about this column? You can contact KC at AuntieKC@WestfieldComics.com

It’s time to do yet another one of these year-end lists with me yammering on and on about which comics I liked this year. But: Best? I’m not sure that I’m really qualified to say, since I read such a small percentage of everything published in any given year and I have this annoying tendency (at least in certain circles) to avoid anything even remotely “artsy”. Not that I don’t like art, but I don’t always know what I like, if you know what I mean.

Truth to tell, I think that the “best” (or at least the funniest) thing I read all year was the Archie Giant Series. I tracked down almost all of the first 100 issues, give or take the five or six that I either haven’t found yet or I can’t afford. These were 80- or 64-page Archie comics published starting in the late 1950s and wrapping up in the early 70s. (The series actually extends well into the 80s, but I decided to read another Archie 1960s series after these first 100 issues.) This series of Archie books runs the gamut of most of the Archie line of comics and creators in both new and reprinted stories. But it’s not like you can run down to the corner store and pick up these vintage books in one shopping trip. (At least, not yet, but check out this link for information about a new series of vintage Archie Comics on DVD-ROM.)

So, back to the best … for now, I thought I’d stick to some relatively current stuff, more or less published in the last year or so.

One last note before we get going: I’ve been remiss in mentioning here that I also do reviews (like the one linked above) for Comics Worth Reading, a news and reviews comic site run by the incredibly driven Johanna Draper Carlson (who is also frequently my wife). I’ve sort of evolved into a DVD/animation reviewer of late at CWR, but I hope to do more comics-related stuff there next year. Rather than repeat myself (something I do anyway) in describing some of my favorites this year, I’ll link to the pertinent reviews that I did where relevant, while adding a few additional comments right here at the Westfield site. Have fun, but don’t get lost!

(While you’re over at Comics Worth Reading, you might want to check out some of Johanna’s reviews, as she covers a lot of different ground from me. She reviews everything from current Archies and manga to the best indy comics and collections and even how-to books and textbooks. Graphic novels, minicomics – she covers ‘em all! She also loves to talk about movies, old and new, as well as just about anything else that strikes her pop culture fancy!)

And now, finally, I’m pleased to present, in glorious random order, the Second Annual:

KC’s MILDLY INTERESTING, YEAR-END, SORT-OF “BEST OF” (BUT NOT REALLY), NOT-QUITE TOP 10 LIST OF STUFF HE READ AND THOUGHT WOULD BE FUN TO WRITE ABOUT LIST-THINGY!

Ta-da!

But before I start recommending comic series, one special overall acknowledgment:

Character of the Year: Superman – How long has it been since we could even come close to saying that?! Whether it’s Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s lyrical All Star Superman or James Robinson and Geoff Johns’ roller coaster of big action, big concepts, and attention to the quiet, small moments in Superman and Action or Kurt Busiek’s always deft handing of the Man of Steel as part of Trinity, this was definitely the year of Superman. And nobody deserved it more! Plus, it looks like there’s even bigger and better things planned for 2009. How about a big round of applause to all the talented creators who contributed to the Man of Steel this year!

Young Avengers Presents – The Young Avengers are currently my favorite new-ish Marvel characters, so I’m always excited to see them get a showcase like this for themselves, instead of their usual role as fodder for the latest mega-event. This was an unusual six-issue mini-series – now in trade paperback – as each issue was produced by a different creative team, and there were some unusual pairings. I think my favorite issues were the bookends: The Patriot story by Ed Brubaker and Paco Medina was quite effective in showing how Captain America’s death had a big effect on those who follow his path, as young Eli got some quality time with Bucky Barnes, the new Cap. The final issue featured Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, Alan Davis, and Mark Farmer. I was quite excited by it, as I will buy anything that Davis and Farmer do, and I am beginning to feel the same way about the writing of Matt Fraction. This issue didn’t disappoint, as we got a great little story of romance and growth. I don’t know if this was Davis’ or Fraction’s idea, but basing Kate’s date dress on one of the worst Hawkeye costumes ever (although it works well with the female form!) was a stroke of small brilliance. Young Avengers Presents #6 gets my vote for the best individual issue from Marvel last year.

Teen Titans: Year One – This six-issue mini-series (also now a TPB) featured a somewhat radical rethinking of the original Teen Titans by writer Amy Wolfram (who wrote most of the more interesting episodes of the animated Teen Titans series) and art by Karl Kerschl (Majestic), Serge Lapointe, and Steph Peru. Initially, the combination of the great animation-influenced artwork and marvelous coloring by Peru attracted me to the series, and I was horrified to learn while researching this piece that Peru passed away at age 27 of a heart attack, while the series was in production. (John Rauch did a fine job of coloring the final issues of the series.)

Oddly, there’s a strange sense of sadness that pervades the series itself, as Wolfram has focused on many of the darker traits of the characters, which is quite jarring when you consider that the 1960s source material for the series featured probably the most happy-go-lucky characterization in comics at that time. Here we see a Robin full of doubt, an Aqualad who is alienated and frightened of everything (but true to his actual origins), and a Kid Flash who is bored, fidgety, and ultimately angry and jealous. Only Wonder Girl, who is introduced to the boys in a story we never saw in the original Titans run, seems to be normal, if a bit too boy-crazy and a little bit too full of love (aka, a lot naive about the ways of “Man’s World”). And of course it all comes crashing down for her in issue #5 on a disastrous first date with Speedy, in one of the saddest stories you’ll ever read. Ah, young love. (This, by the way, is my pick for best single issue from DC this year.)

But Teen Titans: Year One isn’t all sadness and dark. It’s actually quite fun seeing how some of the quirkier elements from the original series – the Antithesis, the Ant, the Flips, Ding Dong Daddy, evil brainwashed mentors – get reworked here. I’d love to see some more “lost” Titans stories from this era, especially by this creative team!

Green Lantern: Secret Origins – I wrote about this hardcover collection briefly in last July’s KC Column.

Grant Morrison is getting the lion’s share of attention for “universe-building” in the DCU right now (and point-of-fact, Grant pitched a couple of big GL concepts that have been incorporated into the GL mythos), but Geoff Johns has been digging deep as well and showing us interesting connections and concepts in all his current DC work for GL, Superman, the JSA, his revival of the original Legion of Super-Heroes continuity, and his upcoming Flash series. Geoff is walking that very fine line in remaking some of the classic elements of the DCU (Krypton, the GL Corps, Barry Allen, the original LSH) in a very dynamic way without destroying the original intent or the magic of what made them work in the first place. Johns is the DC guy to watch in 2009.

Secret Invasion vs. Final Crisis – I reviewed both of these over at CWR early in their runs:

Secret Invasion

Final Crisis

As we stand in late December, Secret Invasion has mostly been all wrapped up, but story threads continue into Dark Reign and ooze into some new Dark titles like Dark Avengers, which will in turn set up next summer’s Darker Avengers, the bridging series Darker-Than-Dark Avengers, and finally wrap up in 2011’s Darkest Avengers, where the characters will have become so depressed that all they can do is sit around Avengers Mansion (rebuilt in the Slightly-Less-Dark Avengers mini-series in 2010) and mope.

At least Secret Invasion is history. Final Crisis is still staggering towards its finish line. I won’t bore you with the details. I’ve stopped reading the main book for now. I hope to tackle it again when it’s complete, presumably some time in the next month or two. I’m still holding out hope that somehow writer Grant Morrison can defy the current odds and pull everything together in some kind of satisfying conclusion to this all-over-the-place narrative.

As you might expect from the previous comments, neither one of these titles is in my “Best Of” list for 2009. So why bring them up? Because I consider certain aspects of both some of the best superheroic comics work done this year.

As I mention in my previous review, the current continuity in both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers was given over to a series of one-shot stories – 18 issues total and all written by Brian Bendis – either explaining or spotlighting a specific aspect of the overall Secret Invasion storyline. This was a brilliant, and I believe unprecedented, concept in expanding the universe-building of not only the mega-story but the Marvel Universe itself. These stories ran the gamut of explaining stuff that was there, but unrevealed, from stories as far back as three or four years ago, regarding events from Bendis’ Secret Wars, and the creation of the New Avengers, to telling the secrets of what was really happening right now in the current storyline. It’s a testament to planning ahead, planting concepts and allowing them to simmer, and keeping your mouth shut about them. That’s what you can creatively accomplish by staying on a title for more than 6 or 12 issues, and all of this is exceedingly rare in current comics. Plus, Secret Invasion has introduced or refined concepts (the Illumaniti, the Cabal) and characters (the new Secret Warriors, Special Agent Abigail Brand) which will propel Marvel storylines for years to come.

Over at DC, the “spoke” books spinning off of Final Crisis have been much better than the flagship itself. Virtually all of these were created with the goal of planting the seeds for some new upcoming concept at DC, or to keep some of the newer and stronger concepts created within the last couple of years in the spotlight. For the latter, Final Crisis: Revelations #1-5 feature the former partners Renee Montoya/The Question and Crispus Allen/The Spectre struggling with the eternal concepts of good and evil and life and death in a story that has major impact on the overall Final Crisis story. This has been an excellent series so far, by Greg Rucca and Phillip Tan.

I reviewed both Final Crisis: Requiem and Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1 over at CWR earlier this year.

Those of you looking forward to DC’s revival of the Barry Allen Flash need to pick up the latter series, as it offers up big clues as to what the Rogues will be up to and where their heads are (not in a good place). Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns was a very good but brutal one-shot preview of the current Red Lantern storyline in the GL book that will eventually lead-into the Blackest Night storyline later in 2009. But my favorite Final Crisis spin-off is Legion of Three Worlds – hands down one of the best Legion stories in many, many years. But more about that below…

Geoff Johns’ Legion of Super-Heroes – It all started last year with the appearance of a much-addled Star Boy in the pages of the new Justice Society of America book. Then, several other members became the catalyst for last year’s JLA/JSA crossover The Lightning Saga (Justice League of America #8-10, Justice Society of America #5-6). Finally, the team co-starred with Superman in Action Comics #858-863 in a story arc that could only be called Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes. And all this was going on while the regular Legion of Super-Heroes book chugged along telling the stories of the “threeboot” characters, leading to some very confusing moments for Legion fans trying to make sense of it all. (Plus, there was some minor Legion activity going on in Countdown – the least said about that, the better.)

As it played out however, it eventually became clear that Geoff Johns and his various collaborators were telling new stories of the original LSH characters (aka the original timeline of the Legion as told in such series as Adventure Comics, Action Comics, Superboy, and ultimately their own title). Although there are still a few continuity anomalies to be reckoned with – the biggest is whether the “Five-Year-Gap” continuity still exists (or will exist) in this new continuity, as well as some Legion/Superboy business which may or may not have been changed (or changed back) during either Infinite Crisis or 52 - it appears that Johns’ Legion stories take place at some point shortly following the Magic Wars storyline that closed out the original era of Legion continuity, prior to the “V4/Five-Year Gap” era. This is the best thing to have happened to the Legion in decades, as everything that came after Magic Wars – and as good as it was in many, many cases – was ultimately confusingly frustrating and ended up chasing away as many old Legion fans as gaining new ones. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.

Most of the groundwork for change is being laid out in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds by Geoff Johns and George Perez. It will be the last of the Final Crisis tie-ins to be wrapped up, and for once I am glad that DC is allowing the creators to take the time to get it right. The Legion is the one long-time series that can’t afford to have another misstep in its history, having already had so many confusing ones in the last several attempts. Concept-wise, Legion of Three Worlds is mind-boggling, dealing with the entirety of LSH continuity and starring three different versions of the team. For the first time in a long time, there’s a sense of urgency and grandeur propelling a Legion story along. And if that wasn’t enough, Johns is throwing a little bit of GL Corps lore in the mix as well. Yikes! And if there weren’t enough characters in the book already, Johns has decided not to just use one LSH villain – but ALL of them! Double Yikes! Most artists would be crazy to want to do a book with over 75 characters in it – many of which are the same characters with different designs – but George Perez is pulling out the stops in yet another career-defining project – one he demanded to be a part of.

I’m hoping that DC is smart enough to realize that Legion of Three Worlds is going to need the Absolute format (or some equivalent oversized format) to completely realize its impact on one of DC’s very best long-running series, because only extra-large pages can justify this beautiful Perez artwork, and the annotation of the series will be the most extensive since the original Crisis or JLA/Avengers. It’s a book that a lot of Legion fans (as well as Perez fans and DC fans in general) will want on their bookshelves, hopefully for next year’s holiday season. And man, if there isn’t a Geoff Johns-scripted LSH series on tap following this run, there’ll be a lot of Legion fans who’ll want to know why not!

And another thing! The Legion is one of the biggest — *

THUMP!

Um…

Hey, KC… are you okay? Hmmm, he still has a pulse…

*Ahem*

Hello, everybody! This is Westfield Editor Roger Ash here. KC has apparently just hyperventilated and passed out. Gosh, he sure likes the Legion!

Well, it’s going to be a few minutes before the paramedics can revive him… I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I mentioned a couple of my favorite books from 2009.

Usagi Yojimbo – I recently sat down and read the last three years or so worth of Usagi Yojimbo, because I was just that far behind. This made me appreciate once again the storytelling abilities of creator Stan Sakai and reaffirmed my belief that this is, hands down, the best comic being published today. If you don’t know the series, here’s the setup in a nut shell. It takes place in Japan around the Edo era. It is a time of wandering Samurai, ronin, and great changes. But this isn’t quite the Japan you know. It’s populated by anthropomorphized animals. Usagi is a rabbit (Usagi Yojimo translates literally to rabbit bodyguard). This fantastical setting allows Sakai to play with Japanese legend, making all sorts of creatures and demons real. At the same time, he sticks to history in such elements as sword making, seaweed harvesting, and the tea ceremony. This mix of fact and fantasy works to create a work that is unique. And Usagi and his friends may be animals, but they are just as real as any characters you’ll encounter in other books.

If you were to put all the Usagi stories together, Sakai’s approaching the 200 issue mark of writing and drawing the ronin’s adventures – a very impressive achievement. He’s not one to rest on his laurels as his writing, drawing, and storytelling abilities continue to improve. He also makes it easy for new readers to join in. Yes, he does do longer stories (five, six, or seven parts), but those are followed by a number of two-part or done-in-one stories that are perfect for new readers. And while these stories do stand on their own, they often enhance Usagi’s world and will come into play at a later date. For example, the recent Sparrows story, which featured Usagi’s latest encounter with the demon swordsman Jei, was preceded by a series of one- and two-part stories. These stories, taken on their own, were cool, but they also laid some important groundwork for the Sparrows story.

I’ve talked about craft a lot here, but what about the story? Usagi features many characters whose adventures I look forward to reading and run the gamut from action to horror to humor. The supporting characters, from bounty hunter Gen to Usagi’s maybe love interest Tomoe Ame, are so strong that they sometimes take the spotlight and bump Usagi from his own book. Whether it’s a story of a ghost in a well or a bounty hunter trying to rescue a young girl from a gambler, I know I’ll enjoy reading it. Usagi’s just that damn good.

Halo & Sprocket: Natural Creatures – When Kerry Callen’s Halo and Sprocket debuted from Amaze Ink a few years ago, I thought it was one of the best new comics I had read in a long time. I still do. A human woman, Katie, shares an apartment with Halo, an angel, and Sprocket, a robot. Together they explore the many oddities of everyday life and what it means to be human. That description of the book makes it seem more acedemic than it really is. Callen’s art is crisp and clear and the stories are laugh out loud funny. Four issues came out, which were collected into a trade paperback, then nothing. I had given up on ever reading more of the friend’s adventures, but was glad for what there was. Then, suddenly, there comes Natural Creatures, a collection of mostly new stories and the “old” stories are reprints from source that I’d never seen (and I’d guess many other people didn’t either). This book was just as much fun I had hoped for, with stories of bathroom etiquette, Halo turning Sprocket into a human, a discussion of what makes something cute, and more. This one put a big smile on my face.

Camelot 3000 and Longshot collections – These two collections may not seem to have much in common, but for me they do. Early in 2008, I interviewed Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland about Camelot 3000 and Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams about Longshot, both for Back Issue magazine. In both interviews, the creators commented that they wished that there were nice, new collections of the books. Now I’m not saying there was any cause and effect here (in fact I doubt it), but by the end of 2008, there were cool new hardcover collections of both books! For those who might be unfamiliar with these books, let me tell you a bit about them. Camelot 3000 was a groundbreaking book back in the 80s. It was DC’s first maxi-series, it was one of the first books sold exclusively through the direct market, and was printed on Baxter paper, which was a step above the usual newsprint. It’s an adventure story featuring the return of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, to defend Earth against an alien invasion and the machinations of Morgan Le Fey and Modred. It also features the longest story ever drawn by artist Brian Bolland. If you’re familiar with his art, you know how gorgeous this book is.

Longshot introduced comic fans to a new character who would soon become a part of the X-Men Universe, and artist Arthur Adams. Longshot, an other dimensional being who is incredibly lucky, arrives on Earth and with various newfound friends, including Ricochet Rita, works to defeat the evil Pup and the insane Mojo. This is a fun, and sometimes very odd, story and features the first sequential work by Adams, who is now one the most respected artists around.

Both of these books look wonderful and have a bunch of behind-the-scenes material, making these books perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike.

Uhhhhh…

Well, it looks like KC is just about conscious again. Thanks for listening, and now back to KC!

Amazing Spider-Man – Okay, this is more like it!

I was not impressed with the first six months or so of Brand New Day in Amazing Spider-Man, probably because I was fairly irritated (not the actual word I wanted to use) over the ham-fisted “story” of One More Day. Further, I felt that the brand-new Spidey Braintrust made the rookie mistake of either rejecting or ignoring anything that was great about the old series and instead going out of their way to overwhelm us with NEW and BETTER and DIFFERENT characters and situations. It reminded me of the very worst days of ‘80s second and third-string Spidey titles and their useless and long-forgotten supporting characters and villains. And isn’t this something like the third (fourth? I’ve lost count) time Marvel has created all-new! Spidey supporting characters only to go back to the time-tested ones?

Then Kraven’s First Hunt happened. Granted, it wasn’t an A+ story, but considering everything that coulda gone wrong (“What, another Kraven?”) but didn’t, the brilliant use of multiple identity swaps, and the return of Daredevil as one of Spidey’s great allies, this story gave off great Spidey vibes.

And then came New Ways to Die and the return of John Romita Jr. A new Spidey classic. I know I’m in the minority here, but I hate Venom, and even he didn’t bother me in this great storyline that really showed off what writer Dan Slott is capable of. Masterful use of the supporting characters, great guest stars (the Norman Osborn-led Thunderbolts), excellent sub-plotting and the gathering together of many ongoing storylines, some intriguing romantic complications, and the introduction of Ven-orpion, the Turducken of super-villains. Oh yeah, and a classic Spidey/Goblin battle! And Slott does great Spidey-banter (the Turducken line was his). What’s next?

Well, a shocking single issue story (Wait! Aren’t they illegal or something?) about the heroism of Flash Thompson in Iraq. And then a one-two punch (check out the covers!) that brilliantly re-imagines Hammerhead, one of the least-likely-to-succeed Spidey villains of all time, with gritty art by Chris Bachalo. I scoffed at the very idea of a Spider-Man Extra one-shot that teases stories months down the line, but now I can’t wait for the next one – and the stories that’ll be coming right at’cha in 2009. If you gave up on ASM (and who could blame you after the gut-check of OMD), now’s the time to step back in and check out what’s coming up. 2009 could be Spidey’s year!

(Although, I do have to point out the one really sore spot for me – the “resolution” of the Jackpot storyline in this year’s Annual. Sorry guys, if you’re gonna tease big – no matter how unrealistic that tease may be – and not only not deliver on any of it, but instead provide a totally inconsequential resolution in relation to the implied importance of the tease – well, that’s just not good heroic fiction. Do we really need another character with the same motivation – and epic guilt – as the lead character? Methinks that’s way too much angst for any one book. And look, you made me say “methinks.” Eww.)

Thor – Of all the classic Marvel characters, Thor was always my least favorite. I’m not sure why, but Stan’s faux Shakespearian Asgardian speech patterns may have had something to do with it, or maybe it was all the “father issues” storylines (I had enough of those in my own head, thank you). I’ve only ever liked two runs of the series: the classic Walt Simonson run – because everything Walter did in those days was golden – and the Dan Jurgens/John Romita Jr. run following the off-putting Heroes Reborn stunt. I think that I liked the latter run because Jurgens put much time and effort into re-establishing the Don Blake alter-personna that had been missing from the series for years (decades?). Jack Kirby was so great at doing those Asgardian landscapes that the Earth-bound aspects of the character were largely discarded. I liked that Thor was tied to Earth somehow – it made him more humble, and he hung out with the Avengers a lot more.

So, flash-forward several years and Thor and all his Asgardian pals are dead, and even though I read those books, I don’t remember how and why Rangarok finally happened, and obviously I didn’t care. But the decks were swept clean for a revival… that never seemed to happen. Finally, in 2007, writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Olivier Coipel have resurrected the God of Thunder – literally – and have managed to once again instill the title with humanity.

Y’see, Don Blake, acting as Thor’s earth-bound agent of sorts, decides to plop down the brand-new Asgard several miles from a small town in Oklahoma. And the locals’ reaction to their new godlike neighbors is a big part of the story this time around. There’s lots of great “quiet” moments, such as a “townie” setting up a mailbox for Asgard and painting their new street address (1 Asgard Rd.) just so he could invite his new neighbors to the next town meeting. (“Coffee cakes and ice cream will be served at five.”) #6 shows us part of the town meeting, as well as a remarkably strange encounter with two townies and Hogun the Grim, walking down the highway after a very long walk and “hunt” in Texas, carrying two dead boars on his shoulders. (“It is my hope to be the first Asgardian with a tan.”) And then there is the very touching story of Bill Jr. and his infatuation and courting of a young goddess.

Thor himself is quite busy restoring all the residents of Asgard to life with the exception of Odin, who is locked in eternal battle, and the Lady Sif, whom Thor cannot locate (but the readers are privy to where she is). There is a very strange twist with this series’ version of Loki, which will most likely double the stakes for deceit in upcoming stories. And a longtime supporting character, long missing from the series, Jane Foster, is once again a possible romantic interest for Don Blake in a welcome return.

The story moves at a snail’s pace, perhaps deliberately because of the laid-back small town Oklahoma setting, but more because Coipel is a very deliberate artist. Granted, there was a lot of Thor this year, with five Thor specials and a three-issue Thor: Secret Invasion crossover. But only 6 issues of the JMS Thor were published in 2008, and only 4 of those were drawn by Coipel. They’re all excellent, but it’s a long wait for quality as the regular Thor title is only effectively published bi-monthly.

Captain America & Daredevil – Raved about these a lot last year! Don’t have much to add, except that Ed Brubaker is still great! Steve Epting (on Cap) is still great! Michael Lark (on DD) is still great! Lady Bullseye is um… interesting… and Cap is still dead. Amazing! More!

New Frontier DVD – Last year I said that this was the project that I was most looking forward to in 2008, and despite some initial misgivings (mostly in my own head), it did not disappoint. More about it over at CWR, written the week it came out.

Marvel Chronicles – It’s a great 300-page year-by-year (and month-by-month) publishing history of 70 years of Marvel Comics, with tons of behind-the-scenes facts that even hardcore Marvelites may not have heard. I wrote about this one a couple of weeks back over at CWR. Check it out.

Zot! Special Edition: The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991 – Haven’t actually had a chance to crack this open yet, but I read the originals back in the day and if you haven’t read these comics before, you are in for a massive treat. Comic’s greatest coming-of-age saga, completely annotated by creator Scott McCloud, who’s much better known for something called Understanding Comics. (Zot! has a much better plot!) In glorious black and white! Zillions of pages! And even artcomix reader “Snooty McSnoot” says it’s Okay!

The Wrap Up – Just want to say a few words about a few projects that are great favorites in KC Land that, for whatever reason, got a little bit delayed this past year, but are still great regardless and are definitely not to be forgotten. First up is Patsy Walker: Hellcat which went a bit AWOL towards the end of the year while artist David LaFuente got roped into doing this year’s Ultimate Spider-Man Annual. It’s back on track as LaFuente’s gorgeous artwork propels Katherine Immonen’s big bouncy basket of quirk into new dimensions of “What Ho?!” Plus, there’s lots of snow. Meanwhile, over at Perhapanauts World, Todd ‘n’ Craig took a short break to deal with the real world a bit, but their magnum whatziz of a comic storyline will be wrapping up shortly in 2009, just in time for their long-awaited trade paperback. Yay! And there was much rejoicing in the land! Finally, Marvel’s been playing fast and loose with the regular scheduling of X-Men: First Class but Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, Colleen Coover, and the rest of the gang will be back any minute now with X-Men: First Class Finals – just in time for graduation! (And don’t miss Mr. Parker’s new book, Agents of Atlas, which will be out right around the same time!)

Them’s my (and Roger’s) picks! What did you like last year? What did I forget? What should I read next? Drop me a note! It’s about time for another KC Column letter column – maybe this time we’ll run real letters!

KC Carlson is saving up this year to buy an extra month – just to get caught up on all his reading.

Got comments or questions about this column? You can contact KC at AuntieKC@WestfieldComics.com