I loved most of the Ultraverse titles. With Sludge,Prime and Firearm being the stand outs. I know Rune by BWS gets lots of love,but I didn't care for the artwork in it.
The art was the only thing I did like about it. Love that BWS art! But I didn't like the character or the concept.
I tried most of the Ultraverse titles, and I liked Prime well enough, but the only one I stuck with and truly loved was Firearm, by James Robinson and Cully Hamner. That was a great series that ended well before its time.
Cover by Dan Brereton.
Yeah, I was forgetting about Firearm. I agree, that was one great series. And I still have the VHS video that came with the first issue! (I think that was a premium offer of some sort.)
I need to track down that VHS. I figured by now someone would have ripped it and it would be floating around on a torrent site. I also remember a commercial for Ultraverse comics. Only saw it once during an episode of the FOX X-men cartoon.
I loved most of the Ultraverse titles. With Sludge,Prime and Firearm being the stand outs. I know Rune by BWS gets lots of love,but I didn't care for the artwork in it.
The art was the only thing I did like about it. Love that BWS art! But I didn't like the character or the concept.
I like most BWS artwork. But his run on Rune didn't click with me. But that might be cause I was also reading his run on Archer and Armstrong around that time and to me that is his best artwork since his run on Conan.
I tried most of the Ultraverse titles, and I liked Prime well enough, but the only one I stuck with and truly loved was Firearm, by James Robinson and Cully Hamner. That was a great series that ended well before its time.
Cover by Dan Brereton.
Yeah, I was forgetting about Firearm. I agree, that was one great series. And I still have the VHS video that came with the first issue! (I think that was a premium offer of some sort.)
Yes, I don't remember what you had to do to get it, but it was a voucher and mail order deal. I didn’t buy it, but one of the guys that worked at the shop did. The video was pretty silly and didn’t do the book justice, as I recall.
I liked Gulacy’s work for the most part, particulary on the original Master of Kung Fu book. He wore his Steranko influence on his sleeve a bit too much in those days, and sometimes he seemed a little too reliant on photo reference, but he fit the book quite well (though I prefer Gene Day). The Marvel Max series wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to the original run.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
The stories in Flinch can be a little hit or miss, but there are some gems there. After the first couple of issues I dropped it from my pull list, but I would still flip through it at the shop and pick up the ones that looked interesting. If they compiled a “Best of” collection, it would be pretty impressive.
I am a huge horror fan so I will end up buying the entire run of Flinch. Sadly the horror genre is one that in comics is under used. It seems since the creation of the CCA the horror genre has been shuttled off to the side.
Dark Horse has become something of a bastion for horror lately. They’ve got quite a few titles to choose from.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
The stories in Flinch can be a little hit or miss, but there are some gems there. After the first couple of issues I dropped it from my pull list, but I would still flip through it at the shop and pick up the ones that looked interesting. If they compiled a “Best of” collection, it would be pretty impressive.
I am a huge horror fan so I will end up buying the entire run of Flinch. Sadly the horror genre is one that in comics is under used. It seems since the creation of the CCA the horror genre has been shuttled off to the side.
Dark Horse has become something of a bastion for horror lately. They’ve got quite a few titles to choose from.
Yeah I have noticed Dark Horse is putting out lots of horror stuff. IDW has also. But I hate the high prices on IDW's issues and trades. I usually wait till I can catch their stuff on sale.
I liked Gulacy’s work for the most part, particulary on the original Master of Kung Fu book. He wore his Steranko influence on his sleeve a bit too much in those days, and sometimes he seemed a little too reliant on photo reference, but he fit the book quite well (though I prefer Gene Day). The Marvel Max series wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to the original run.
I love the original Master of Kung Fu run and wish it was reprinted in trades. But so far just reading this first issue of the MAX run I really enjoyed it.
A year or so ago I discovered a run of Super Villain Team Up in my boxes. I keep meaning to give them a read, but so far they haven't popped into my mind at the right time.
I did blast through Ed the Happy Clown over the past few days. It was good stuff. I haven't read all of Chester Brown's stuff, but he's never disappointed me.
This is a great series that people skipped. Also has some of Adam Pollina's early work.
Yeah, I skipped the whole Defiant line because of the Warriors of Plasm thing. Most of the customers at the shop I worked at did too. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Defiant’s first “comic” was Warriors of Plasm. The gimmick was that the first “issue” was a series of trading cards. So you had to keep buying packs of cards until you completed the set in order to read the entire story. There was also a special binder you could buy to store them in. That just turned me off completely to Shooter’s new company, and I refused to support them.
So I spent much of my weekend at the local NC Comicon. Duncan Fegredo was the special guest, and someone I’ve wanted to meet for some time now. I had a nice chat with him today, and since it ties in with the Vertigo theme from the past few days, I thought I’d post the covers of the first big project he did here in the States: the Kid Eternity prestige format mini-series.
This was a pretty good mini written by Grant Morrison, and it was successful enough to spawn an ongoing series, which while not quite as good was a decent little series. But the highlight of the mini for me was Duncan’s fully painted artwork. He was fantastic right from the start.
Duncan’s second big US project was also for Vertigo, an eight-issue mini-series called Enigma—a post-modern take on superheroes written by Peter Milligan. It wasn’t the greatest story ever told, but it was enjoyable and thought-provoking, and again Duncan’s artwork—this time pencil and ink—was impressive.
This is a great series that people skipped. Also has some of Adam Pollina's early work.
Yeah, I skipped the whole Defiant line because of the Warriors of Plasm thing. Most of the customers at the shop I worked at did too. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Defiant’s first “comic” was Warriors of Plasm. The gimmick was that the first “issue” was a series of trading cards. So you had to keep buying packs of cards until you completed the set in order to read the entire story. There was also a special binder you could buy to store them in. That just turned me off completely to Shooter’s new company, and I refused to support them.
See I skipped Defiant back then cause I was semi out of comics at the time. But over the past 5 years have gotten an almost complete collection of Defiant stuff out of cheap bins. Most of it is really well written.
So I spent much of my weekend at the local NC Comicon. Duncan Fegredo was the special guest, and someone I’ve wanted to meet for some time now. I had a nice chat with him today, and since it ties in with the Vertigo theme from the past few days, I thought I’d post the covers of the first big project he did here in the States: the Kid Eternity prestige format mini-series.
This was a pretty good mini written by Grant Morrison, and it was successful enough to spawn an ongoing series, which while not quite as good was a decent little series. But the highlight of the mini for me was Duncan’s fully painted artwork. He was fantastic right from the start.
I read the Morrison Kid Eternity mini earlier this year and wasn't a fan of it. One of the few things Morrison did back in that era I didn't enjoy. But I have read some scattered issues of the later ongoing series and have liked what I have read.
No idea how this series slipped by me. I have always liked the Typhoid Mary character. But only found out about this series when I got the first issue in my 10lbs of random "Adult" comics last week.
No idea how this series slipped by me. I have always liked the Typhoid Mary character. But only found out about this series when I got the first issue in my 10lbs of random "Adult" comics last week.
I’m not sure why I didn’t read this when it came out because I do remember it. I generally like Ann Nocenti’s writing, particularly on Daredevil, and John van Fleet is a solid artist. It must have come out during one of my lean periods.
Van Fleet did some nice work on the X-Files series too.
So I spent much of my weekend at the local NC Comicon. Duncan Fegredo was the special guest, and someone I’ve wanted to meet for some time now. I had a nice chat with him today, and since it ties in with the Vertigo theme from the past few days, I thought I’d post the covers of the first big project he did here in the States: the Kid Eternity prestige format mini-series.
This was a pretty good mini written by Grant Morrison, and it was successful enough to spawn an ongoing series, which while not quite as good was a decent little series. But the highlight of the mini for me was Duncan’s fully painted artwork. He was fantastic right from the start.
I read the Morrison Kid Eternity mini earlier this year and wasn't a fan of it. One of the few things Morrison did back in that era I didn't enjoy. But I have read some scattered issues of the later ongoing series and have liked what I have read.
It certainly wasn’t Morrison’s best work, even for the time, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe partly because it brought back a Golden Age character, and a character from my favorite Golden Age publisher, Quality Comics, no less!
Cover art by Sheldon Moldoff, the co-creator of the character.
This is a great series that people skipped. Also has some of Adam Pollina's early work.
Yeah, I skipped the whole Defiant line because of the Warriors of Plasm thing. Most of the customers at the shop I worked at did too. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Defiant’s first “comic” was Warriors of Plasm. The gimmick was that the first “issue” was a series of trading cards. So you had to keep buying packs of cards until you completed the set in order to read the entire story. There was also a special binder you could buy to store them in. That just turned me off completely to Shooter’s new company, and I refused to support them.
See I skipped Defiant back then cause I was semi out of comics at the time. But over the past 5 years have gotten an almost complete collection of Defiant stuff out of cheap bins. Most of it is really well written.
I have the Plasm trading cards and the binder!
I found it very hard to get into any of the Defiant books for the most part; I just couldn't really connect with their particular universe. It wasn't the writing that bothered me, it was just that nothing seemed particularly interesting, and Plasm seemed particularly icky.
However, there was one series I enjoyed a lot:
Dark Dominion. Written by Len Wein, drawn initially by Steve Ditko, then by Joe James, it was about a man who learned to see and interact with the world on a sub-quantum level, discovering how there were creatures, large and small, who were affected by, and fed off of, our negative emotions, and where there were people with the ability to manipulate energies to affect the world 'above'. I thought it was an intriguing series with an equally intriguing concept. That one series I tried to follow through to the end, but had difficulty getting the later issues.
@Chuck_Melville: all those "dislikes" are for the ugly-ass 90s superhero covers, not your insights thereupon.
Thank God those weren't personal!
Actually, the Malibu covers weren't nearly so bad as most of the Image covers of that era -- and I rather liked the Breyfogle and Hoberg art!
The Malibu Ultraverse, of course, came to an ugly end after a few years, when Marvel bought the company, lock, stock and color platform -- and it was the computerized color platform that Marvel was mostly interested in. The Ultraverse heroes had a very short shelflife after that, mixing it up with the Marvel heroes with some bleeding between the two universes, (The Godwheel was one of the better attempts during this period) but, because the characters were creator-owned, Marvel didn't have the rights to continue using them and didn't come to any agreement with the creators to do so. Eventually, Marvel seemed to lose any interest in the characters (if, in fact, they ever really had any to begin with), and the Ultraverse just quietly faded away.
So I spent much of my weekend at the local NC Comicon. Duncan Fegredo was the special guest, and someone I’ve wanted to meet for some time now. I had a nice chat with him today, and since it ties in with the Vertigo theme from the past few days, I thought I’d post the covers of the first big project he did here in the States: the Kid Eternity prestige format mini-series.
This was a pretty good mini written by Grant Morrison, and it was successful enough to spawn an ongoing series, which while not quite as good was a decent little series. But the highlight of the mini for me was Duncan’s fully painted artwork. He was fantastic right from the start.
I read the Morrison Kid Eternity mini earlier this year and wasn't a fan of it. One of the few things Morrison did back in that era I didn't enjoy. But I have read some scattered issues of the later ongoing series and have liked what I have read.
It certainly wasn’t Morrison’s best work, even for the time, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe partly because it brought back a Golden Age character, and a character from my favorite Golden Age publisher, Quality Comics, no less!
Cover art by Sheldon Moldoff, the co-creator of the character.
Cover by Al Bryant.
Cover probably by Pete Riss.
Yeah my love of Kid Eternity is what made me check out the Morrison mini. Quality was one of the better Golden age publishers. Didn't they also do Plastic Man and the Blackhawks?
This is a great series that people skipped. Also has some of Adam Pollina's early work.
Yeah, I skipped the whole Defiant line because of the Warriors of Plasm thing. Most of the customers at the shop I worked at did too. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Defiant’s first “comic” was Warriors of Plasm. The gimmick was that the first “issue” was a series of trading cards. So you had to keep buying packs of cards until you completed the set in order to read the entire story. There was also a special binder you could buy to store them in. That just turned me off completely to Shooter’s new company, and I refused to support them.
See I skipped Defiant back then cause I was semi out of comics at the time. But over the past 5 years have gotten an almost complete collection of Defiant stuff out of cheap bins. Most of it is really well written.
I have the Plasm trading cards and the binder!
I found it very hard to get into any of the Defiant books for the most part; I just couldn't really connect with their particular universe. It wasn't the writing that bothered me, it was just that nothing seemed particularly interesting, and Plasm seemed particularly icky.
However, there was one series I enjoyed a lot:
Dark Dominion. Written by Len Wein, drawn initially by Steve Ditko, then by Joe James, it was about a man who learned to see and interact with the world on a sub-quantum level, discovering how there were creatures, large and small, who were affected by, and fed off of, our negative emotions, and where there were people with the ability to manipulate energies to affect the world 'above'. I thought it was an intriguing series with an equally intriguing concept. That one series I tried to follow through to the end, but had difficulty getting the later issues.
Cover by Steve Ditko.
Dark Dominion was another great series from Defiant. I just wish Ditko had stayed on the title longer. As far as the Plasm trading cards and binder. I got them and the Dark Dominion ones. Found the Plasm tin set that was numbered and limited for super cheap on Ebay a few years back. I found the whole "comic book as a set of trading cards" idea interesting. But IIRC back when it was coming out the first printings of the Plasm binder were extremely limited and hard to get. I seem to remember another comic company using the same idea. Want to say it was Majestic comics.
@Chuck_Melville: all those "dislikes" are for the ugly-ass 90s superhero covers, not your insights thereupon.
Thank God those weren't personal!
Actually, the Malibu covers weren't nearly so bad as most of the Image covers of that era -- and I rather liked the Breyfogle and Hoberg art!
The Malibu Ultraverse, of course, came to an ugly end after a few years, when Marvel bought the company, lock, stock and color platform -- and it was the computerized color platform that Marvel was mostly interested in. The Ultraverse heroes had a very short shelflife after that, mixing it up with the Marvel heroes with some bleeding between the two universes, (The Godwheel was one of the better attempts during this period) but, because the characters were creator-owned, Marvel didn't have the rights to continue using them and didn't come to any agreement with the creators to do so. Eventually, Marvel seemed to lose any interest in the characters (if, in fact, they ever really had any to begin with), and the Ultraverse just quietly faded away.
I have also heard that Marvel bought Malibu cause DC was interested in them. And they were worried that if DC combined their market share with Malibu's they might take teh number 1 spot from Marvel. No idea how true this is. I loved the Ultraverse. And it is another of the 90s "Dead Universes" I have been slowly collecting over the past 7 or so years. With the Ultraverse I have never had to pay more than a buck for any title. But from the issues I have read the quality of the writing went downhill quickly once Marvel took over. I got a Nightman VS Wolverine comic that was supposed to be limited to like 10,000 copies and it is one of the worst comics I have ever read that the big two has published. I seem to remember a Prime VS Hulk comic that came out around the same time. Want to say these comics were only available by ordering them from an ad in teh comics. And cost like 10 bucks or more each.
A year or so ago I discovered a run of Super Villain Team Up in my boxes. I keep meaning to give them a read, but so far they haven't popped into my mind at the right time.
I did blast through Ed the Happy Clown over the past few days. It was good stuff. I haven't read all of Chester Brown's stuff, but he's never disappointed me.
Isn't Ed the Happy Clown the comic where Reagan's head gets attached to someone's "unit"? Or am I getting my late 80's early 90s indy books mixed up again?
Comments
I need to track down that VHS. I figured by now someone would have ripped it and it would be floating around on a torrent site. I also remember a commercial for Ultraverse comics. Only saw it once during an episode of the FOX X-men cartoon.
I like most BWS artwork. But his run on Rune didn't click with me. But that might be cause I was also reading his run on Archer and Armstrong around that time and to me that is his best artwork since his run on Conan.
One more 1973 cover by Gil Kane before I have to get to work today
Janet Jackson
Adam Pollina
Bob Wiacek
This is a great series that people skipped. Also has some of Adam Pollina's early work.
I did blast through Ed the Happy Clown over the past few days. It was good stuff. I haven't read all of Chester Brown's stuff, but he's never disappointed me.
A rare treasure from 1980: FantaCo's Smilin' Ed Smiley by the late Raoul Vezina. (With a backup feature by Fred Hembeck!)
This was a pretty good mini written by Grant Morrison, and it was successful enough to spawn an ongoing series, which while not quite as good was a decent little series. But the highlight of the mini for me was Duncan’s fully painted artwork. He was fantastic right from the start.
I read the Morrison Kid Eternity mini earlier this year and wasn't a fan of it. One of the few things Morrison did back in that era I didn't enjoy. But I have read some scattered issues of the later ongoing series and have liked what I have read.
John Van Fleet
No idea how this series slipped by me. I have always liked the Typhoid Mary character. But only found out about this series when I got the first issue in my 10lbs of random "Adult" comics last week.
Van Fleet did some nice work on the X-Files series too.
Cover art by Sheldon Moldoff, the co-creator of the character.
Cover by Al Bryant.
Cover probably by Pete Riss.
I found it very hard to get into any of the Defiant books for the most part; I just couldn't really connect with their particular universe. It wasn't the writing that bothered me, it was just that nothing seemed particularly interesting, and Plasm seemed particularly icky.
However, there was one series I enjoyed a lot:
Dark Dominion. Written by Len Wein, drawn initially by Steve Ditko, then by Joe James, it was about a man who learned to see and interact with the world on a sub-quantum level, discovering how there were creatures, large and small, who were affected by, and fed off of, our negative emotions, and where there were people with the ability to manipulate energies to affect the world 'above'. I thought it was an intriguing series with an equally intriguing concept. That one series I tried to follow through to the end, but had difficulty getting the later issues.
Cover by Steve Ditko.
Actually, the Malibu covers weren't nearly so bad as most of the Image covers of that era -- and I rather liked the Breyfogle and Hoberg art!
The Malibu Ultraverse, of course, came to an ugly end after a few years, when Marvel bought the company, lock, stock and color platform -- and it was the computerized color platform that Marvel was mostly interested in. The Ultraverse heroes had a very short shelflife after that, mixing it up with the Marvel heroes with some bleeding between the two universes, (The Godwheel was one of the better attempts during this period) but, because the characters were creator-owned, Marvel didn't have the rights to continue using them and didn't come to any agreement with the creators to do so. Eventually, Marvel seemed to lose any interest in the characters (if, in fact, they ever really had any to begin with), and the Ultraverse just quietly faded away.
Yeah my love of Kid Eternity is what made me check out the Morrison mini. Quality was one of the better Golden age publishers. Didn't they also do Plastic Man and the Blackhawks?
Rich Buckler and Dan Adkins