Showing posts with label 1986. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1986. Show all posts

Sep 5, 2025

Miracleman and a democratic art-form

Excerpts from Amazing Heroes Preview Special n.2, published by Fantagraphics in 1986.
At the time Eclipse was publishing Miracleman, reprinting for the US market the Marvelman episodes previously presented in UK Warrior magazine, in b/w. Starting from issue n.6, Miracleman included (then) new material continuing the stories of the British hero. 
Alan Moore: What we’re attempting to do with Miracleman is strip away a lot of the accumulated cliches and dross that have built up around the super-heroes, and try to get back to what we perceive as the original idea - which was probably something very closely akin to the original function of the Greek and Norse legends. When those particular legends were current, when they had just been evolved, they were contemporary: they weren't set in an exotic faraway land or faraway time, they were happening at the end of the street. What we are trying to do is reinterpret the idea of a god amongst people, which is basically what the idea oi the super-hero is, even though the original idea has been diluted.
We're trying not to go over the more conventional background of the super-hero, like... you won't find a lot of super-heroes in Miracleman. With the exception of Kid Miracleman, whom you've seen already [in the first two issues], there are not any villains planned for the immediate future of the book. I find it more interesting not to see how powerful, exaggerated characters react to each other, but how one powerful, exaggerated character - Miracleman - reacts to the human race in general.
We'll also be going into the psychology of the character, trying to get into what would feel like to actually do all this bizarre and miraculous stuff. Anytime someone jostled you in the line at cafeteria you could just throw them into orbit. I think it would probably change your view of society slightly.
Those are the areas that we're going to get into: what it feels for the person himself being a god amongst creatures that must look to him like animals.
What it feels like for the humans suddenly being confronted with something that's a million times better than they are. [...]

[Talking about the inflated prices on the premiere issue of MM] 
Miracleman #1 is a comic book, a throwaway comic book, that should be bought for 75 cents and briefly enjoyed. The thing I like about comics is that they are a democratic art-form - often with very good art - that is in the price range of anybody who has 75 cents. He can just go down to the corner news agent and buy a comic. That is one of the things that attract me about comics.
When you start getting to the point where something with a cover price of 75 cents changes hands for 10 dollars, I certainly don't want anything to do with it. I find it a bit distressing, I certainly wouldn't pay that much. Quite frankly, I would advise other people not to, although obviously, what they do is up to theme. It seems like a wholly false, manufactured, and artificial situation to me. 

Aug 14, 2025

Dr. Spock, Gorbachev and Reagan

Above, a hilarious ad promoting the collected ed of Q.R and Quinch. 80s were funny times, weren't they? Enjoy!

Nov 16, 2022

Brian Bolland 1986

Above and below, pages from IT'S ABOUT TIME: A Memoir in Pictures and Words by Brian Bolland, due Spring 2023. Shared by Bolland on his FB page
Don’t know whether this is of interest. Pages 27 and 28 of my memoir part 2 “Where Was I?”  I’m in 1986 here I think. Bolland

Jul 16, 2022

Reading Watchmen in advance

Few days ago, American writer and journalist Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, tweeted a piece, dated 1986, by Don Thompson who read Watchmen n.1 in advance and reviewed it for the Comic Buyer's Guide. Howe wrote: "Don Thompson's review of Watchmen #1, for Comics Buyer's Guide, 1986. Imagine what it would be like to read this comic in advance of publication, before any critical consensus had been formed."
Below, an excerpt from the review and the scan of the complete piece. Enjoy!
Don Thompson:[...] The Watchmen is perhaps the ultimate treatment of what would be like to have superheroes in real world. The title comes from the Latin phrase, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?" or, "Who will watch the watchmen?" If you have superpowered policemen, who polices them
[...] 
This bare-bones outline of the first issue does not even attempt to capture the flavor of the writing - some of Alan's best - and there's no way I can prepare you for how good Dave Gibbons'art is [...]. It's good, really good.
[...] Please don't miss this one.

Jan 3, 2021

In Pictopia 2021

This April, Fantagraphics will reprint In Pictopia (without the exclamation mark), a fundamental short story written by Moore and originally published in 1986 on Anything Goes! n.2. Per Moore request his name will not be mentioned in the book.
In Pictopia is the legendary comic created in 1986, written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer and drawn by a bevy of indie cartoonists—helmed by Don Simpson, with Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski, and Eric Vincent. Presented here for the first time, scanned from the original line art and full-color painted boards, in an appropriately oversized format. Pictopia is the allegorical city inhabited by old, forgotten, but once famous and iconic comics characters, now considered pitiable has-beens by the popular new comics characters who are cheerfully and inevitably taking their places in the pop culture pantheon of celebrity. It is both a paean to timeless, beloved comics characters and a scathing critique of the then-contemporary comics sub-culture.
 
Extra info about the story: HERE!

Nov 15, 2020

Discarded Watchmen page

Today, during the Comic Art Live weekend, BritComicsArt.com sold a very special piece of (unfinished) original art and comics history: 
"Rare unpublished Watchmen page of Dr Manhattan on Mars. Drawn for the series in 1986 but discarded when Dave [Gibbons] decided to change the layout. A historical glimpse into the creative process.
Above, the unpublished page (it's page 28, the final one from issue n.4, "Watchmaker"): panel 3 and 4 are not present and caption boxes in panel 1 and 2 are differently positioned respect to the final printed page (below). 
 
I have no details about the final selling price.

May 16, 2020

Miracleman commission by John K. Snyder III

Art by John K. Snyder III.
Above, you can admire a fantastic Miracleman commission by comic book writer and artist John K. Snyder III. The illustration is a sort of recreation of the cover he did for Miracleman n. 10 in 1986.

He writes: "Miracleman commission based on my original cover for Miracleman #10 (Eclipse Comics). Featuring Miracleman in full costume and a host of characters written/co-created by Alan Moore. Great fun! Pen and ink, ink wash, prismacolor, paint, on strathmore illustration board." Check HERE.

You can recognize several characters such as: Miracleman, V, Halo Jones, Captain Britain, Swamp Thing and more. So, get them all! :)
Art by John K. Snyder III.

Feb 24, 2020

DAILY MOORE [24]

From: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? Part. 2.
First edition: in Action Comics n. 583 (1986, DC Comics).


Feb 18, 2020

DAILY MOORE [18]

Art by Dave Gibbons.
Colors by John Higgins.
From: Watchmen n. 1.
First edition: 1986, DC Comics.

Feb 10, 2020

DAILY MOORE [10]

Art by Joe Orlando.
From: "Footsteps".
First edition: in Secret Origins starring The Phantom Stranger (1986, DC Comics).

Feb 1, 2020

DAILY MOORE [1]

Art by Don Simpson.
From: "In Pictopia!"
First edition: in Anything Goes! n. 2 (1986, Fantagraphics).

More info HERE.

Jan 10, 2017

Comic Book Legends: Alan Moore and Dez Skinn

The naked artist.
Excerpt from page 96 of The Naked Artist...And Other Comic Book Legends, a fantastic and hilarious book written by Bryan Talbot and illustrated by Hunt Emerson, published in 2007 by Moonstone (an expanded edition has been released in 2014). 

[...] During a Forbidden Planet party one night at UKCAC I was propping up the bar after several pints when Dez [Skinn] ambled over, equally sozzled, and the talk turned to Alan.
"Listen Dez," I ventured, "the British comic industry isn't big enough for this falling out. It needs Alan working in Warrior. You must sort out your differences."
He was nodding sagely at this as Alan arrived in the pub in the company of Karen Berger, who'd just taken him out for dinner, having headhunted him for DC.
"Look," I said to Dez, "there's Alan. Now's your chance! Go over and make it up with him!"
He looked at me, determined.
"By God! You're right! I'll do!" he said and strode over to Alan, who stopped stock still and stared stonily down at him from his great hairy height.
"Alan," Dez began, "I'm sorry if I've done anything to offend you. We need to continue our work together. Let's put aside our differences. Let's be friends."
Alan regarded him gravely.
"Dez," he rumbled.
"Yes?"
"Fuck off."

Oct 14, 2016

Bob Dylan in Watchmen

From Watchmen - Chapter I: At Midnight, All the Agents...
Closing Quotation: "At midnight, all the agents and superhuman crew, go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do." - Desolation Row by Bob Dylan
Note: the quote doesn't appear at the end of the original serialized issue N. 1 because DC hadn't cleared the rights in time, but it was added in reprints. 

From Watchmen - Chapter X: Two Riders Were Approaching...
Closing Quotation: "Outside in the distance a wild cat did growl, two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl." - All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan
Cover of Watchmen N. 10. Art by Dave Gibbons.

Jul 10, 2016

This is an IMAGINARY STORY... aren't they all?

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Alan Moore: Writer - Curt Swan & George Pérez: Artists.
From Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (DC Comics, 1986) opening page.

This is an IMAGINARY STORY (which may never happen, but then again may) about a perfect man who came from the sky and did only good. It tells of his twilight, when the great battles were over and the great miracles long since performed; of how his enemies conspired against him and of that final war in the snowblind wastes beneath the Northern Lights; of the women he loved and of the choice he made between them; of how he broke his most sacred oath, and how finally all the things he had were taken from him save one. It ends with a wink. It begins in a quiet midwestern town, one summer afternoon in the quiet midwestern future. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky... but no: it's only a bird, only a plane — Superman died ten years ago. This is an IMAGINARY STORY... 
Aren't they all?

Jul 7, 2015

1986 Jon Haward's homage to Alan Moore

Art by Jon Haward.
Excerpt from Jon Haward's blog (posted the 15th of March 2012).  

"Another retro blog going back to 1986 when I was a fresh faced fanboy aged 21, still learning the craft of drawing and writing comic strips.
It's no secret to those who know me I'm a huge Alan Moore fan have been since his work for Warrior and 2000AD.
These scans are from colour photocopies that are 26 years old so the colour has faded and Alan's skin has turned yellow! [...]"
 
Jon Haward is a British comics artist. He has illustrated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter and Biker Mice from Mars, among others. [Wikipedia]

The complete 4 page strip can be seen here.

Apr 27, 2015

Alan Moore and The Dark Knight

Batman: The Dark Knight returns.
Excerpt from the introduction written by Moore in 1986 for the hardcover edition of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight returns.

[...] The importance of myth and legend as a subtext to Dark Knight can't really be overstated, shining as it does from every page. The familiar Batman origin sequence with the tiny bat fluttering in through an open window to inspire a musing Bruce Wayne becomes something far more religious and apocalyptic under Miller's handling; the bat itself transformed into a gigantic and ominous chimera straight out of the darkest European fables. 

[...] Beyond the imagery, themes, and essential romance of Dark Knight, Miller has also managed to shape The Batman into a true legend by introducing that element without which all true legends are incomplete and yet which for some reason hardly seems to exist in the world depicted in the average comic book, and that element is time.
All of our best and oldest legends recognize that time passes and that people grow old and die.

[...] In his engrossing story of a great man's final and greatest battle, Miller has managed to create something radiant which should hopefully illuminate things for the rest of the comic book field, casting a new light upon the problems which face all of us working within the industry and perhaps even guiding us towards some fresh solutions.
[...] A new hero.

Alan Moore
Northampton, 1986


Apr 7, 2014

if you happen to be a cat...

Excerpt from Maxwell The Magic Cat Vol. I afterward.

If you find it to be totally lacking in charm or humour then I should perhaps point out that many of the jokes were designed so that they're only funny if you happen to be a cat. So, just because you personally find the book unreadable, please don't give up. Try sticking it in the bottom of your cat's litter tray for the beloved beast to peruse during the quiet and intensely personal moments it spends in that location.
I honestly think you'll be surprised by the results.
 
Alan Moore (Big in Northampton), 1986