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Post by kirby101 on Jul 18, 2022 21:41:01 GMT -5
Next question: Dave Sim criticized First Comics in the Comics Book Journal for putting a new creative team on American Flaag! after Chaykin left the book. Do you think it was a bad idea for First to keep publishing its books after the original creators had left? Did Chaykin approve?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2022 21:41:39 GMT -5
Which do you think is a more important work, Cerebus or Elfquest? I think Cerebus was more important, in that its success did alot to make independent publishing viable.. I'm not sure TMNT ever exists with out it. Elfquest, of course, is far, far superior in terms of just about any other measure though. I've only read Cerebus through Church and State... some of Sim's parody is pretty funny (and I bet I'd get alot more of it now that I know more about comics history than when I read it many years ago), but it got downright boring at the end. When I considered going back later Sim's personal history made me not want to give him any more money. Elfquest, I own probably 75% of what's published (though I don't have the originals.. I started with the Marvel Epic reprints), and have read the rest at some point. It's definitely one of my favorite comics...right up there with TMNT and Usagi as my favorite non-Big 2 series ever.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2022 21:50:46 GMT -5
Next question: Dave Sim criticized First Comics in the Comics Book Journal for putting a new creative team on American Flaag! after Chaykin left the book. Do you think it was a bad idea for First to keep publishing its books after the original creators had left? That's the nature of comics... Did Dave Sim thing Spider-Man should have been cancelled after Stan Lee and Ditko left? No more Superman after Siegel and Schuster? That's just silly. Unless there was a question of rights, of course they're going to try to continue with a new creative team.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 19, 2022 5:06:16 GMT -5
Next question: Dave Sim criticized First Comics in the Comics Book Journal for putting a new creative team on American Flaag! after Chaykin left the book. Do you think it was a bad idea for First to keep publishing its books after the original creators had left? Did Chaykin approve? First Comics granted creator rights on their books and I'm sure Chaykin did approve. He also eventually returned
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 19, 2022 7:47:59 GMT -5
First Comics granted creator rights on their books and I'm sure Chaykin did approve. He also eventually returned So what the hell was Sim complaining about? I could see if they took the book from Chaykin, but he was probably still getting royalties and wanted to keep it going. To me this is like Gaiman taking over Miracleman from Moore, or Peter David doing Dreadstar for Starlin.
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Post by commond on Jul 19, 2022 8:17:59 GMT -5
Here is Sim's full quote:
“The inverted pyramid is difficult to disguise…but then, little effort is expended in doing so. ‘First Comics! You can count on us.’ (this was the motto of First Comics, publishers of American Flagg among other titles) (This means you can count on Rick Obadiah, Rick Oliver, the production guys.) ‘We publish one of your favourite characters -- American Flagg!’ (As Mike Gold says, ‘A great character is forever -- a fresh approach is what’s needed, that’s all.”) “created and written by Howard Chaykin, Joe Staton artist.” (Doesn’t really matter who does it, right? A great character is forever.)
This approach is a betrayal of the fans, the readers, the shop owners, the distributors and everyone who had a stake in American Flagg!, emotional or financial. The back issues will decline in value, a slap in the face to those distributors and shop owners who now have boxes of dead or dying wood-pulp they will be forced to sell at cost or below. Chaykin’s assurances all along that “he can’t foresee leaving Flagg!” gave a false message to the marketplace in which economy functions (Flagg! Is, after all, a direct-sales-only comic). The fans feel betrayed because they had come to rely on Chaykin’s Flagg! month-in and month-out; and, more importantly, had been given no indication that this situation could or would change.
If, as I have heard, Chaykin planned it this way all along, we can chalk up another victory for the inverted pyramid. Had this been the ‘independent comic’ it had been declared to be (and I’ll get to my personal definition of that term in due course), it would have run its course over 20-some-odd issues and have left a legacy of a remarkable (I’m going to go out on a limb and add ‘brilliant’) and singular vision. With the replacement of Howard as artist on the series, First Comics and Howard declare themselves to be ‘business as usual’ and neither alternative nor independent.”
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2022 9:42:01 GMT -5
To be fair, almost all of First's comics were s*#t after the creators left. The sole possible exception I can think of is Starslayer, which wasn't as good but wasn't utter crap.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 19, 2022 10:55:01 GMT -5
I stuck it out with Nexus for the entire First Comics run as well as all the Dark Horse material. Even though Steve Rude left at some point (he did return for mini-series), Mike Baron remained as it's writer. But like many things that are financially successful (or close to it), they just go on and on with a reluctance to quit while they are on top. That goes for Dave Sims and Cerebus as well
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Post by commond on Jul 19, 2022 18:26:02 GMT -5
I stuck it out with Nexus for the entire First Comics run as well as all the Dark Horse material. Even though Steve Rude left at some point (he did return for mini-series), Mike Baron remained as it's writer. But like many things that are financially successful (or close to it), they just go on and on with a reluctance to quit while they are on top. That goes for Dave Sims and Cerebus as well The only thing that was going to stop Dave from reaching 300 issues was his death, and I believe he even had a contingency plan for that.
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Post by commond on Aug 2, 2022 16:47:30 GMT -5
My next question is inspired by Paul Smith's work on Nexus. As a kid, I used to hate it when there was a guest penciller. Nowadays, I understand it's the nature of the beast. Who were some of your favorite guest pencillers?
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Post by arfetto on Aug 2, 2022 17:25:47 GMT -5
My next question is inspired by Paul Smith's work on Nexus. As a kid, I used to hate it when there was a guest penciller. Nowadays, I understand it's the nature of the beast. Who were some of your favorite guest pencillers?
I will think more about this question soon and add to it, but the first one that comes to my mind is Rick Leonardi during his guest stints.
His fill-ins on Daredevil (Nocenti/JRJR) and Warlock and the Infinity Watch (Starlin/Medina) helped him stand out in my mind because I am a big fan of JRJR and Medina and was still not disappointed when Leonardi work appeared on those titles instead (since usually I would be a bit disappointed if there was a guest penciller, but not in these cases).
Also Uncanny X-Men I believe he did a couple issues (but I haven't looked at his work on that in a long time).
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Post by tarkintino on Aug 2, 2022 17:59:15 GMT -5
My next question is inspired by Paul Smith's work on Nexus. As a kid, I used to hate it when there was a guest penciller. Nowadays, I understand it's the nature of the beast. Who were some of your favorite guest pencillers? 1960s - 70s John Romita on anything, whether as an official guest penciller, or when making his well-known touch-ups of other artists' work.
Neal Adams was a joy to see no matter what title he temporarily graced.
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Post by berkley on Aug 2, 2022 22:51:27 GMT -5
Favourite guest penncillers: I'm not sure if these issues count, because they were actually fill-in stories written by different writer than the series regular, but anyway, two that come to mind are:
the Son of Satan issue drawn by Russ Heath
and the Killraven story in Amazing Adventures drawn by Keith Giffen
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 3, 2022 4:42:11 GMT -5
Anytime Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Jerry Ordway, or Steve Rude popped up as a guest penciller, I was ecstatic.
Cei-U! I summon the terrific trio!
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Post by kirby101 on Aug 3, 2022 7:25:59 GMT -5
I always liked a good John Buscema fill in.
I don't know if they are considered Fill ins, since they were planned, but what Barry Smith did an issue of X-Men or DD or The Avengers, it was always great.
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