Thursday, November 10, 2022

THE FINISH LINE

As we enter the final hours of the Spellbound Comics/DeMultiverse Kickstarter campaign, I want to thank my extraordinary co-creators, whose art brought the visions in my head to brilliant visual life: Matthew Dow Smith, Tom Mandrake, David Baldeon, and Shawn McManus.


Thanks, too, to our colorists, Arthur Hesli and Jan Duursema...our main letterer Taylor Esposito...and the superstar artists who crafted our alternate and trade paperback covers: JH Williams III, Kevin Maguire, Kent Williams, Dustin Nguyen, and Liam Sharp.


My old pal Vassilis Gogtzilas graciously allowed me to include the first issue of our new project The Edward Gloom Mysteries as a last minute surprise for our supporters. Thanks, Vass! (And big thanks to Chris Ryall, too: We couldn't have included Gloom without him.)


Oceans
of thanks to the amazing fans that are supporting us and my fellow creators who backed the campaign and spread the word. The comic book community is a wondrous thing. (Special tip of the hat to Gail Simone for banging the drum so enthusiastically!)

Last, but far from least: Words can’t express my gratitude to Spellbound Comics head honcho David Baldy for dropping out of the sky like an angel and making this creative miracle happen. You’re the best, David!

But we're not done yet! There are two+ hours to go, so if you haven't taken a dive into The DeMultiverse, now's the time. Come with us as we race over the finish line.

The good news? This isn't the end, this is just the beginning! Come join us!


22 comments:

  1. I read Spider-Ma: Lost Hunt #1.

    No, it is TRUE! I DID!


    Jack

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    1. Spider-Ma? Is that Peter Parker's mother? I thought she was dead!

      Yeah, I know it was a typo. Hope you enjoyed the book, Jack!

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    2. Actually Dematteis, Spider-MA is the What If story where a 1950's Brooklyn mother gets bitten by the radioactive spider.

      "Hey Nicky, that's my SPider-Ma yer talkin' 'bout! AY! You knew since you were in diapers, you gonna believe her or that nudnik Jameson!? Now let's go get a slice, best in the city!"

      I understand why you don't remember the story. All Spider-Ma sis was was tell her kids they were hanging out with a bad crowd, and that they'll get themselves killed if they keep it up. She just did it on the ceiling.

      I am sure you remember her catchphrase though, "fine, go ahead, it is like a dagger in my heart.



      I wrote a letter Dematteis, maybe they will publish it. Maybe not.


      Jack

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    3. I am not sure why me writing a letter about your comic amuses you, but.... whatever.

      By the way, you hang out with comic books characters. How often do Jimmy Olsen and Robin argue about who the original sidekick was?

      On one hand, Jimmy Olsen predates Robin by a year and a half, but he only had five adventures with Supes before Robin showed up. He then of course did not reappear until a year after Robin showed up.

      What happens when Jimmy points out he got an ongoing series that lasted a over a hundred issues, 40 years before Robin did?


      Jack

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    4. That crazy JIMMY OLSEN series was a big part of my childhood. I have never forgotten the image of Jimmy turned into a giant turtle man!

      I wonder whose DC series lasted longer: Jimmy Olsen, Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis?

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    5. Jimmy Olsen: 163 issues
      Jerry Lewis: 124 issues (solo)
      Bob Hope: 109 issues

      Of course, we all know the REAL reason you liked Jimmy Olsen:
      https://d29xot63vimef3.cloudfront.net/image/jimmy-olsen/79-1.jpg

      In the modern world, where everything at DC bends to the will of the Batman, it is almost hard to believe that Superman was once so popular his friend got a book.

      I remember reading once, that the reason they pushed the Superman Batman friendship so hard in the late 50s and 60s was to boost sales on Batman books. The sales were not even low, it just was not Superman levels.

      Jack

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    6. How long did Jerry last when you include the Dean Martin issues?

      Now I want to buy an Olsen collection. I wonder if there are any...?

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    7. The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis: 40 issues

      Back when DC was doing their version of Marvel Essentials "DC Showcase" they did one called "Superman Family, which was just the Jimmy Olsen series the earliest ones.

      Did you know Superman 76 is considered the first appearance of both the Silver Age Batman and Robin?

      I checked the DC chronology, the Golden Age Superman was not first viewed as part of Earth-2 until 1969. So, there are comics from the early 50s where issues of Superman and Action Comics where some are the Silver Age and some are the Golden Age.

      That obviously was not the intent, they were just writing Superman stories, and some one years later...probably Roy Thomas, or Maybe Gruenwald in a fanzine... decided what the criteria was to separate these worlds that were never intended to be separate.

      The point is, all this obsessive fan stuff predated the internet by a lot. Well... probably not the actual internet. The popularization.

      ON a side-note, you may or may not recall, after Crisis, Roy Thomas created the Young All-Stars. A group which, among other things, introduced stand-ins for characters that no longer existed, Iron Munro for the G.A. Superman for instance.

      I think it is a real shame no one did that for the silver age stories. I think that the goofiness and more kid friendly writing style created a false dichotomy in the comic industry, intentional or not, that you could not have crazy imaginative stories where anything can happen, and still be well written.

      OF course, the Fantastic Four still exist, which is a little weird, but even that was more grounded than a lot of Silver Age DC sci-fantasy storied. WOW Lee and Kirby were more grounded than somebody.

      Even Grant Morrison, who wants everything to be in continuity, and loves off the wall stories, waved the 50s stories of Batman away as stories he wrote about he and Robin having adventures. MEtafiction

      I get it, until they decide Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman may occupy a unique place, and shutter them off to a universe where they are the only heroes... there is a lot of value in those characters being in something at least slightly analogous to the real world.

      It just seems a bit of a waste that walls were put up to keep Batman from fighting a giant praying Mantis, or Superman can become king of the ants, and exploring it with more character depth than they were allowed at the time.


      Jack

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    8. I'm with you on that, Jack. I think a modern sensibility applied to Golden Age wonder, imagination, and goofiness would be a great thing. I love those old stories and, honestly, a ten page Superman story from the late 50s/early 60s probably had more plot than a current day five issue series. So much to expand on and play with.

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    9. Fascinating as always, Jack. Thanks!

      I wonder if Steve Gerber was the true heir of Silver Age goofiness? Just done with an intellectual and emotional twist.

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    10. If you look at a lot of the 0s era guys, you can see a combination of both Marvel and DC Silver Age influences, even if they did not realize that was happening. It is just because so much of the Marvel Revolution was about character, that became more prominent.

      Starlin and Englehart certainly had some of that element, just, like Gerber, playing it more to older audiences.

      I Starlin's case, he was such a Kirby/Lee disciple, I am not sure the DC stuff came out as pure.

      For that matter, Wolfman and Wein, two creators not often associated with the zanier elements of the Bronze Age, have their influences to Silver Age DC.

      Swamp Thing,even under Wein could be viewed as DC's first Marvel hero, but stuff like the clock work people, and carrying around a dog to talk to, if played less serious, could easily be in a Silver Age Superman or Batman story.

      Marv Wolfman is often, rightfully, credited as the guy who helped keep DC afloat in the troubled early 80s. Mostly with his New Teen Titans run. SOmething that was actively trying to bring MArvel writing sensibilities to DC,and likely uncnsiously , separate itself form the goofy perception some had of the company left over from the Adam West show. A show that was not as different from the comics of the era as people like to think.

      However, his Nova serious reflects a lot of Silver Age DC kookiness. I have often described it as a Marvel character in inhabiting a DC neighborhood. If you don;t believe me, go back and look up his Mega-Man story in Nova #8-9. It could easily be a Jimmy Olsen story.

      I think the end to that really came with Jim Shooter. He was so focused on Marvel, and what made it unique, along with his love of story kind up put down walls at Marvel. Again... even if it was not intended, which it probably was not. After all, everyone knows how much Shooter loved his precious Legion.

      This of course is coupled with X-Men becoming the most dominant book, and Claremont not having the same warm-fuzzies for DC of the 50s and 60s, along with the rise of street level characters in popularity.

      Probably did not help that the two biggest names in the decade were Frank Miller and Alan Moore. One who wanted to specifically separate Batman from that image, and the other citing it as an example of why superheroes should not be written in certain ways.

      Jack

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    11. NOVA always seemed like Marvel's answer to GREEN LANTERN, and, if so, its roots were very much in the Silver Age. Maybe the NOVA movie will be the GL movie we've been waiting for...

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    12. I did not even know there was going to be a Nova movie The question is...Which Nova? Rich Rider or Robbie Reyes?

      In terms of having a corps sort of like Green Lantern, but power wise, it was more Quasar that seemed like the Marvel GL.

      Nova is an interesting character...at least Rich Rider, who I am more familiar with... because of how many times he has been reshuffled.

      First he is sort of a non-gifted Peter Parker who actually has friends, operating in a series of DC like stories.

      IN the 90s Defaclo and Fabian Nicieza found a really interesting take. The hero who went into space as a teenager to fight the good fight, and to return only to have hissed his last year of school, graduation, and had all his friends move on with out him, and have no powers to prove why he was gone.

      Then be lost in the shuffle of the world, and have to rebuild his life

      That is actually the movie I would most want to see with the character. Good drama, and uncharted territory for one of these movies.

      Then the fabulous 000s series saw him as a hero aged beyond his years by ANNIHILATION, unwanting to return to Earth... because he is again alienated from what has gone on...and traveling the universe to get things back and running again, with the Nova World mind jabbering to him, since he is ...AGAIN the last Nova.

      I know it sounds like a lot of retreading old ground, but that series really was amazing.

      Meanwhile, form personality to powers... i seem to remember Wendell Vaughn creating hard-light objects... could slip into the silver age DC corps pretty easily.

      You know... it is pretty well documented that Mark Grunewald loved both Marvel AND DC. It is also well documented that he was pretty devoted to the Marvel company, and was not thinking about jumping ship.

      I wonder if his Quasar series was an attempt to split the difference and do a DC type hero at Marvel.


      Jack

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    13. Haven't read it in years and years, but I remember really liked Gruenwald's Quasar stories. Some of his very best work.

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    14. A few years ago, at a panel a creator... who you know...described Batman as a "very versatile myth." He later went on to imply Superman fit the same bill.

      Now, I hate the idea of superheroes being "modern myths." Hate it. Not the people who propagate it, but the idea.

      HOWEVER, the veritable part is a little more important than people give it credit, It is said often enough, but how often do people really think about it... or mean it?

      Sometimes that power can be in ways that get completely overlooked. Check out these covers from World's Finest...

      https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/worlds-finest

      Superman and bats did not start teaming up in the book until around issue 60 or 70. Previously, it was just an anthology they were both in, among others, but they did not interact. Not uncommon. According to Roy Thomas, the Invaders were created because of the Marvel anthologies what had Namor, Cap, and the Torch fighting together, but not in the book itself.

      Take a look at those World's Finest covers. Until they team-up, they are not really doing anything superheroey. Okay, maybe rising war bonds and growing a Victory Garden to fight Hitler and Hirohito is heroic in its own way. It is not SUPERheroey.

      If anything these covers are.. wholesome. Sure, some look weird to a modern eye, but it is just like Superman spending time with his single father friend. Almost like the covers were to give kids whose fathers were were serving over sees... remember many soldiers were on clean up duty for a few years after... a sense of paternal normalcy.

      This, of course, while Superman was still telling a little darker stories than the Silver Age, and Batman kind of was. The larger perception was already going on.

      That continued, As the Silver Age raged through the 50s, with Superman was ditching the more aggressive tactics, and social commentary, the Adventures of Superman had the Man of Tomorrow was fighting crime and injustice with articles and people with lead helmets holding up the Planet and making demands at gunpoint.

      If you were first introduced to superheroes with The Adventures of Superman and the Adam West Batman, Superman seemed the more heavy superhero, and Batman the more laid back one.

      Despite this history, people seem to be letting it wear away...

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    15. The creator also said "Batman can be anyone." I think there are three comic characters who fit that truth. Superman, Batman, and Spider-man.

      Your Ben Grimms, Captains America, and Wonder Women are on the bubble, but there are a few that don't quite work.

      The interesting element of course being Supes and pointy ears work because of how broad they were originally conceived, and Spider-man because of how detailed. Stan made him the humor and the tragedy. The square, and the swinging youth. The noble hero and the selfish jerk.

      IN the 70's Conway, Mantlo, Wein, and Wolfman were the primary writers on the character in the decade. Each chose a different element of SPidey. Each .exploring a different part of Pete, unique from the others. However, all seeming right. That trend only continued.

      Of course, ti was capitalism that fueled all this as well. Superman and Batman never stopped selling. So, they were shoehorned into sci-fi, gangster, horror, romance, and humor.

      Spider-Man was just so popular they guest starred him in every book, and made him fit. The there was MArvel-Team-up, where he teamed-p in hopes of selling other books, and everything collided with him., Horror, time travel, fantasy, you name it. Suddenly, he seemed to make sense in every story.

      When you consider how diverse DC stories were, and how each Marvel superhero was seemingly occupying a genre (Spidey/soap opera, F.F./ high concept sci-fi, Thor/Fantasy, Cap/spy) it would seem the idea of "superhero stories" was not really a thing until the 80s. It was just people with powers doing all kinds of things.

      Somehow, it is these characters, with so much diversity of storytelling that the malleableness is forgotten...

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    16. Let's start with Batman. For years, the Adam West Batman was reviled. In recent years it started to get some love again, but only kind of. It is mostly just a fuel for nostalgia.

      Batman Brave and the Bold seemed like it might be making way for that type of more fun interpretation to exist. However, the kids who grew up with it are teenagers now (ouch) and The Batman is what was successfully marketed to them. I did not see it, but it did not look light-hearted.

      Even the Batman of the 70s, the era that brought back the darker shades to the Caped Crusader's cowl still had him smile, fall in love, Hell, in one of eh most seminal Batman runs, Englehart's, henont only smiles and falls in love, he tussles Robin's hair, and jokes around with him after not working with him for a decade.

      Even Gotham never gets to not be a hellhole..

      I am not saying these are bad, but if we all agree he is versatile, why is this always what he seems to have to be? Why does it always seem like Batman cracking a smile is the cardinal sin? Or being wrong? Or Gotham having good people
      ...to be continued...

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    17. My experience with Batman is that the character can be bent and twisted many ways: I've written the lighter B&B Batman, the unrelentingly grim Batman, the JLI Batman, and many other colors. My feeling is as long as you remain true to the core, the essence, of the character, you can find many interpretations along the way. The same with Superman.

      Spidey has bent over the years, too; for instance, the recent Spider-Man animated series I wrote for—MARVEL'S SPIDER-MAN—was very different from any Spidey I'd written, and miles away from, say, my SPEC SPIDEY run with Sal, but, at its core, it was still Spidey.

      But sometimes people bend and twist these characters and break them. The essence is lost. We, as readers, know when that happens.

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    18. The point I was admittedly taking a long... and still unfinished... point to was more to the opposite.

      Everyone agrees these characters are very malleable. However, it seems artificial walls are put up around them. Not only blocking the potential of what they could be, but what they have been.

      Yes to a certain extent this is done by companies. The characters are money streams, and they want o=to be able to predict just what they are so they can keep making money.

      However, just as often, or more, it is done by fans or readers. The very people who claim to have a deep abiding love for the characters are the ones who want it to conform to a small part of what they are.

      Sometimes that is very much fans who have become creators... but just as often, if not far more so, it is just the average fan.

      It is at the point where disliking certain stories of a character is almost sacrilege, and liking others might as well be a proclamation of hatred for everything the character ever was.

      No question. No answer. No theory. Or if I had one, it has been so long that I forgot.

      Just a strange observation about the nature of comics.

      Jack

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    19. There's a book title there: STRANGE OBSERVATIONS. I like it!

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  2. hopefully my last comment went through, or this will make no sense...

    Come to think of it, Quasar came out in 1989, when the post-Crisis DC was really coming into fruition.

    I wonder if the creation of Quasar was in part Gruenwald trying to preserve the spirit of the pre-crisis DC Comics he loved.

    That WAS the series where where he tried to preserve Barry Allen as "Buried Alien.

    Wait,Quasar and Buried Alien, Green Lantern and Flash. Interesting.


    Jack

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