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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 15:02:21 GMT -5
I'm a fan of DEFIANT Comics and spend several hours a week checking out DEFIANT related listings on eBay and involving myself one way or another with the universe. So I thought I'd start a thread to see if there are any other DEFIANT fans on the board. Plus, it'll be a place I can post about DEFIANT and share some of my findings I come across.
I'm currently working on putting together a DEFIANT Fanzine, and have been blessed with the involvement of some talented people helping me with it. A comic book writer whose name most of you might recognize is one of the folks offering his help on the fanzine.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 16:55:39 GMT -5
Warriors of Plasm 1. Cover art by David Lapham.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 17:06:28 GMT -5
Warriors of Plasm 1 page 1 by David Lapham recently fetched $307 including shipping on eBay.  |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on May 28, 2017 17:43:10 GMT -5
I always thought Defiant: Genesis was the most impressive launch of a universe ever. I didn't actually like the concepts and thus didn't follow up with the individual titles, but a zero issue laying down the basis for the universe ahead of individual title launches inspired the heck out of me. I wrote a zero issue for my own universe a decade later (and it was GOOD) but then I decided that wasn't what I was going to do with my life.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 18:03:51 GMT -5
What was your universe, Shaxper? Was any work done on it beyond the zero issue you wrote?
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 18:36:01 GMT -5
The JG Jones Dark Dominion 9 cover art sold for $250 today on eBay.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 28, 2017 20:24:00 GMT -5
I wanted to like it, based on Valiant and despite Shooter's fantasizing through press releases (more about his resume, than what Defiant would be doing). However, War Dancer was about the only thing that interested me, due to Alan Weiss doing story and art and I liked art more than story. It just didn't grab me. Broadway Comics ended up the same way. Some of it was boredom with superheroes, as I was reading a lot more alternative material, in that timeframe. I sampled the rest but didn't stick with them for more than a couple of issues.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 20:35:41 GMT -5
I find Warriors of Plasm to be a set in a brilliantly unique and memorable world.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on May 28, 2017 21:02:34 GMT -5
What was your universe, Shaxper? Was any work done on it beyond the zero issue you wrote? None of it ever got anywhere near far enough along to be published. I did have several people working on it at one point, but I didn't like the direction they were taking. EDIT: Just remembered that I posted the original concept here a long while back: www.classiccomics.org/thread/2480/universe |
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 21:35:03 GMT -5
never could get into Defiant.. I just could NOT get past the "ewwww" factor of Plasm.
(let's just say, I'm not picking up "Snotgirl" from Image).
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Post by Icctrombone on May 29, 2017 7:28:21 GMT -5
never could get into Defiant.. I just could NOT get past the "ewwww" factor of Plasm. (let's just say, I'm not picking up "Snotgirl" from Image). Man, I agree. But the other books that they published had very poor artwork, and that helped to keep me away. I'm guessing since Shooter was the comic book pariah, all he could get to work with him were people fresh out of school. I agree with a previous poster that the book that I enjoyed the most was Wardancer. But I did enjoy the Broadway line of books and the artwork was a big step up for that set of books. |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2017 12:33:44 GMT -5
David Lapham wasn't new and was at the top of his game while drawing and providing covers for every issue of Warriors of Plasm. A guy named Steve Ditko did design work and early art on Dark Dominion. JayJay Jackson did a lot of work for DEFIANT. Chris Claremont signed on from the beginning but the company folded before much of his work was published. Len Wein worked for DEFIANT, as did Dave Cockrum. JG Jones did his first pro work on Dark Dominion and some of his earliest covers were on Dogs of War. He was a Shooter discovery, as was Art Holcomb, who did a brilliant job scripting Dogs of War. DEFIANT had a mix of great veteran and new talent. Shooter had no problem getting talent to work at DEFIANT. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Shooter's visions take time to unfold. Schism was just getting started when the company folded. It's a shame, but I hope someone licenses the properties and at least finishes up Schism.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 29, 2017 13:48:01 GMT -5
I bought many of the Defiant books and they had really bad artwork. You mentioned Lapham but the others were lousy.
Dogs of War, Good Guys, Prudence and Caution had subpar artwork. Even the book that had Ditko was bad. Sorry, we'll have to disagree.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2017 13:58:50 GMT -5
You're probably right about some of the artwork. I guess I look at the overall concept of DEFIANT and where it was heading. I'm sure Marvel's lawsuit ate up working capital that could have been used for artists and led to the demise of DEFIANT. It was a calculated business move by Marvel. If not for the lawsuit I never would have known Marvel had anything to do with the word plasm.
When the New Universe was about to launch, Marvel pulled the promised funding leaving Shooter scrambling for artists and having to use mostly inexperienced new artists who didn't know what they were doing. That's twice Marvel pulled the rug out from under Shooter Universes. Notable exceptions with the New Universe artists were John Romita Jr, who volunteered to work on Star Brand and Paul Ryan, who drew all 32 issues of DP 7.
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Post by hondobrode on May 29, 2017 15:40:32 GMT -5
You're not alone mfd1. I too read and enjoyed Shooter's Defiant. In fact, I was anxiously awaiting Schism. Defiant, in my mind, was kind of Valiant's Earth-2; not Golden Age knock-offs, but a parallel universe connected through Shooter.  This was War Dancer, Defiant's most powerful character. He was an Aztec-oriented harbinger of the end of the world. Earth had become infested with the Black Plague, and Schism was the story of how War Dancer helped to bring about its end and usher in the Defiant universe, which was a corrupted Dreamtime that produced with world of Org, the living organism existence as the back drop for Warriors of Plasm. War Dancer was co-created by Shooter and Alan Weiss. He did this beautiful cover. |
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