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Post by rom on Sept 17, 2016 23:51:30 GMT -5
First's Evangeline series from the '80's was fantastic. I read several issues, and remember it was extremely well-done, with great art & story. I wish I had been able to find more of the issues, but remember it was quite HTF at the time - even in indy comic stores. The concept of a "sexy vigilante nun" set in the far future was so bizarre & strange, but it really worked - after all, it was the '80's! I would really like to see a Trade collecting all of the character's appearances, but doubt it will ever happen. Here's a link with more info. on the series: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline_(comics)In Fall 1991, Matthew Sweet's iconic rock album Girlfriend was released - this is definitely one of my all-time favorite '90's rock/pop albums. On the album, there is a great song called Evangeline - which is clearly about this comic character. IMHO this is Sweet's best song. This song was told from the perspective of the Johnny Six thief character in the comic - he lusted after Evangeline - but because of her faith/religion, he couldn't get anywhere with her. The song is fantastic even if you have no familiarity with the comic or character - however, if you do, you can appreciate the lyrics much more. As I said, no matter how you look at this, IMHO this is Sweet's best song. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Sept 18, 2016 0:25:02 GMT -5
Jon Sable, Nexus, and Grimjack rocked my world, I sampled E-Man, American Flagg and Dreadstar, though the last 2 and Sable faded quickly when their respective creators left.
Never really got into Badger or the Moorcock books, but loved what the company tried to acheive.
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Post by rom on Sept 18, 2016 2:31:08 GMT -5
Thanks for the reminder re: Ms. Tree. Great book! I remember reading a couple of issues years ago. It was a nice noir-ish detective series, but with a female as the protagonist (instead of a guy). Very well-done. Also highly deserving of reprints.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 18, 2016 7:41:51 GMT -5
First was one of the best, they had a strong and consistent line that nevertheless managed to be varied and experimental.
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Post by Pól Rua on Sept 20, 2016 2:43:18 GMT -5
Between American Flagg, Grimjack, Nexus, Jon Sable and Dreadstar, they were producing some of the best comics of the 80's.
Unfortunately, a lot of their titles were very much a product of an idiosyncratic creator or creative team (especially American Flagg, Jon Sable and Dreadstar) and when the creators left, they just couldn't recapture the feel with a new team.
I confess to a particular love of Grimjack and Nexus.
One thing that frequently gets overlooked was their run of Classics Illustrated. Featuring creators like Peter Kuper on 'The Jungle', Kyle Baker on 'Cyrano De Bergerac', Rick Geary on 'Wuthering Heights', Mike Ploog on 'Tom Sawyer', Dean Motter on 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', Gahan Wilson on 'The Raven, and other stories' with the crown jewel being a magnificently operatic version of 'Moby Dick' by Bill Sienkiewicz was an absolute cavalcade of amazing talent really bringing their A-game to some of the world's greatest stories.
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Post by earl on Sept 20, 2016 16:25:08 GMT -5
I read a ton of their comics, probably a good portion of the line over the 80s quite a bit picked out of quarter boxes of the era.
Why did First not make it even though they were obviously trendsetters?
1.) They didn't have a second wave of creators to follow up on the original series success. It was a different era and difficult for comics to just end or come to a natural conclusion like now (see #3).
2.) DC poached pretty much most of their talent wholesale including editor Mike Gold.
3.) There wasn't a real way to sell back stock trades, especially in the book store market like there was a decade later.
4.) They licensed some good stuff including being way ahead of the curve in putting out Lone Wolf & Cub but they were not as good at it as Dark Horse, which I think is why they are the last one standing of the US indies all these years later. Dark Horse being in Cali. had some Hollywood connections which got them some big selling comics like Predator and later on Star Wars and cache enough to get big names to do creator owned books through them. First nor Eclipse were not able to pull that off. Comico was a different story, but similar items as they lost creators to DC too.
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 20, 2016 17:34:10 GMT -5
First had some stuff that was cutting edge. DC and Marvel took notice and darkened up to match the tone and took the steam out of First's sails as well.
It was sad to see as they had one of the best lines.
Fairly small but mighty and just gargantuan.
Even some of the stuff I didn't care as much about back then, like Whisper or Dynamo Joe, has grown on me over time.
Twisting the knife, they've merged with Devil's Due a few years back, and we still don't see anything.
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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 21, 2016 12:18:02 GMT -5
Dark Horse being in Cali. had some Hollywood connections A small point - Dark Horse is and always has been based in Oregon, in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie (yes, that's how we spell it here). They are certainly a lot closer to Hollywood than any New York publisher, and they've had an office on the 20th Century-Fox lot for over 20 years, so they definitely have longstanding Hollywood connections. |
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Post by brutalis on Sept 21, 2016 16:01:30 GMT -5
When First was publishing was in the heyday of my buying power. i believe at the time i must have bought every single thing they ever published as what they were doing carried such fun and style doing things so unlike DC and Marvel. Some of what they did was better than other things they did but everything they did was done very well. There was a unique vision of comics there in First and to me they were in touch with what was new, exciting and visually stunning art with grand concepts mixed with quirky writing. I have over time traded of much of what i had from them but i still have Nexus, Grimjack, Dynamo Joe, Jon Sable and E-Man in boxes awaiting me finding time to revisit them one day.
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