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Post by BigPapaJoe on Oct 23, 2017 9:07:40 GMT -5
I recently read an article about how Final Fantasy was close to getting an Americanized comic series off the ground in the early 90's. It was going to be written by Kurt Busiek, interiors done by Dell Barras, and covers by Mike Mignola. The article is a short read which I'll link here. Basically, Disney somehow got a hold of the Final Fantasy license and were interested in doing a comic adaption as early as 1992 under their own comic line called Hollywood comics. Unforutnately, it didn't come to pass and Hollywood comics closed down in about a year. I would have definitely been interested to see what Busiek would have written for a story though. He has a lot of help from Squaresoft directly at the time. However he now says it probably would not have been a good story that fans of the franchise would have liked. Too bad we'll never know. Are there any other big projects that were almost close to launching, but it just crumbled? I feel like I'm forgetting a big one. |
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Post by badwolf on Oct 23, 2017 11:30:08 GMT -5
The Derangers was a project of Bill Mantlo's about a group of mental patients with super-powers. I don't remember all of the details but there was an Amazing Heroes feature on it at the time. It was to be drawn by Butch Guice, but it never came to fruition and the characters eventually appeared as foes in Mantlo's run on Alpha Flight (with one of them joining the team in the end.)
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 23, 2017 22:17:27 GMT -5
Doug Rice, of Dynamo Joe (First Comics) and Manhunter (DC) fame, had a series that was going to be published, via a small publisher, Grey Productions, called Squadron. It was an aerial pulp adventure, set in 193X; an alternate late '30s timeline where a natural disaster had cut off North America from Europe. An expedition is mounted in a special aircraft to re-establish contact. I met Rice in 1993 and 94, in Springfield, IL, at a small convention, and talked to him at length. At the '94 one, he had a promotional flyer, which features a man in flying gear, including goggled and a gas mask, holding a Mauser pistol above his head, while dozens of futristic-looking aircraft fly overhead. It was supposed to be a six-issue mini-series; but, it was never published.  Rice said the idea was, in part, inspired by the movie FP1 Doesn't Answer, with Conrad Veidt, which features a floating platform (FP1) in the Atlantic Ocean, which is a landing field and ship docking facility, for trans-oceanic travel. It is subjected to sabotage, within the plot. Rice intended to show that kind of retro-futuristic technology and ideas, within a pulp adventure world. So, it would have had a lot in common with things like the Crimson Skies computer game, comics like Crash Ryan and Boston Bombers, and movies like FP1 Doesn't Answer, Gunbus, Fighting Devil Dogs, and Blackhawk. Would have been awesome and Rice would have made it look great. Alas, it was never to be. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 23, 2017 22:28:00 GMT -5
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 25, 2017 0:57:54 GMT -5
Doctor Strange by Roger Stern and Frank Miller
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 25, 2017 3:04:34 GMT -5
Ha! The first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread topic was the Dr. Strange house ad. But that's not so much a project as an announcement of a new creative team on an existing title - and Stern did take over as writer, to produce what I consider one of the best runs of Dr. Strange stories, with several top-notch artists, including Marshall Rogers and Paul Smith. (Still, I agree it would have been cool to have had at least a few issues drawn by Miller...) A similar case of a house ad for a project that never took off was for a character named Starhawk, which appeared in Marvel Super-heroes back in the late '60s. Some of the pages apparently got published elsewhere, and they can be seen at comics blogger Rip Jagger's site. |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 25, 2017 10:44:05 GMT -5
Ha! The first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread topic was the Dr. Strange house ad. But that's not so much a project as an announcement of a new creative team on an existing title - and Stern did take over as writer, to produce what I consider one of the best runs of Dr. Strange stories, with several top-notch artists, including Marshall Rogers and Paul Smith. (Still, I agree it would have been cool to have had at least a few issues drawn by Miller...) A similar case of a house ad for a project that never took off was for a character named Starhawk, which appeared in Marvel Super-heroes back in the late '60s. Some of the pages apparently got published elsewhere, and they can be seen at comics blogger Rip Jagger's site. I have and have read the complete Stern Dr. Strange run and I wholeheartedly agree. Criminally underrated run and probably my favorite Paul Smith work, even over his X-Men.  |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 25, 2017 11:00:34 GMT -5
The biggest project I can think of that never got off the ground was the entire line of FIRST comics (Dreadstar, Nexus, etc.) that, after the cancellation of all the monthly and bi-monthly comics, was supposed to be relaunched as a series of complete books or mini-series. That never happened. Nexus eventually showed up at Dark Horse, and Dreadstar had a very forgettable mini-series at Bravura/Malibu, but First was unfortunately gone. (I really like First comics, dammit!)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2017 11:19:41 GMT -5
The biggest project I can think of that never got off the ground was the entire line of FIRST comics (Dreadstar, Nexus, etc.) that, after the cancellation of all the monthly and bi-monthly comics, was supposed to be relaunched as a series of complete books or mini-series. That never happened. Nexus eventually showed up at Dark Horse, and Dreadstar had a very forgettable mini-series at Bravura/Malibu, but First was unfortunately gone. (I really like First comics, dammit!) Well First is back now, sort of, partnered with Devil's Due, but most of their new projects are getting launched via crowdfunding (Kickstarter) before hitting the shops through Diamond. -M |
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 25, 2017 12:14:23 GMT -5
1. Jerry Siegel had apparently been asked to script the last Superman story back in 1986 but either legal reasons prevented this from happening (which, I believe, I read in the 10th anniversary re-release of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow) or he turned the offer down (according to Wikipedia, though there's no source for this claim). The job of course, went to Alan Moore instead. I would have loved to have seen what Siegel would have come up with. It isn't just the symmetry of having Superman's co-creator penning both the first and last Superman story, but the fact that Siegel wrote the best Superman tales of both the Golden and Silver Age and it would have been fascinating to see what ideas that last story would have planted in him. I mean, you've got to figure he must have given it some thought even after he wrote the imaginary Death of Superman in 1961 and how many mythical figures actually get a beginning, middle, and end anyway? Aw well. 2. This one got off the ground and I imagine it would have been brought up by one of us eventually, so...  Jack Kirby's The Prisoner. The first issue is out there (as well as the Kirby penciled Prisoner inspired Fantastic Four storyline beginning with FF 84)  but really, there should have been more. |
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Post by byronlomax on Oct 25, 2017 13:49:12 GMT -5
Tom Fontana, the creator and principal writer of TV shows Homicide: Life on the Street and Oz, once announced he was doing a Batman project, but it never materialised. That would have been interesting to see.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Oct 25, 2017 16:06:18 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, there was a whole Kirby Magazine line at DC that never quite happened. Titles like Soul Love and True Divorce Cases. (!!!)
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Post by DubipR on Oct 25, 2017 16:55:22 GMT -5
Some of them I can think of: From DC Comics - Twilight of the Superheroes by Alan Moore - Black Canary done by Greg Weisman & Mike Sekowsky. Was to come out in I think 1983/84 but was shelved due to Mike Grell ramping up for the Longbow Hunters - All Star Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes. Announced in 2006 - Legend of King Arthur by Gerry Conway & Nelson Redonodo. Great house ad but never came to fruition  From Marvel - Kirby's Prisoner - The Thing limited series by Barry Windsor Smith. The Thing ongoing series was cancelled with issue 36. The letters column of the last issue mentioned an upcoming limited series by BWS. He had previously written and drawn a Thing story in Marvel Fanfare #15, but nothing came from it. From Image Comics - 1963 Annual #1. The issue that was tie up the brilliant 1963 mini-series by Alan Moore. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 25, 2017 18:10:10 GMT -5
Steranko's History of the Comics Volume 3.
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 25, 2017 18:32:19 GMT -5
Here's another one - Batman: Gotham Knights 7 (2000) was originally solicited as containing a back up Batman black and white feature drawn by Steve Ditko. Unfortunately, Ditko turned down the assignment and the story was instead penciled by John Buscema. Nothing against Buscema, but the idea that this kid born in 1979 could have walked into a comic shop and picked up a new Batman comic drawn by Steve Ditko is mindboggling. In 2007, former DC editorial assistant Valerie D'Orazio explained on her blog that she delivered the Batman script to Ditko's office but later "found out that he rejected the script on the grounds that it had a supernatural basis, and that he didn't do stories with supernatural elements in it..."
unitedfanzineorganization.weebly.com/ditkofaq.html#039
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