WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…?
I recently purchased a copy of Comics Interview #12 from Ebay. I bought it for a heckuva bargain. I had been searching for this issue for a very long time, because it featured one of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’s rare interviews. The focus of this article was his work on the then-current series, Atari Force.
This particular issue has a publication date of June 1984, and was chock full of great intervews with creators who are still making an impact in comics today, including letterer Tom Orzechowski, writer/editor Louise Simonson, and most notably a lengthy discussion with celebrated comic book writer, Alan Moore.
Among other topics, Moore discussed his start in the industry, writing and illustrating comic strips for local newspapers (I had no idea he drew, too), and his later work writing for the comic books, V For Vendetta and Swamp Thing. Moore also discussed his revival of Dez Skinn’s Marvelman. (Yes, this article even predates the series’ subsequent title change to Miracleman.) Today, any discussion of Miracleman/Marvelman as a commentary on, and subversion of “…the obvious cliches and the absudities of comics,” is par for the course. It’s impossible to discuss without framing it in that context. As Moore says in the interview, “You take all these cliches, twist them one degree to the right, and you’ve got something that’s totally fresh.” In today’s market, that’s standard operating procedure for superhero comics, but in 1984 this was absolutely revolutionary stuff! Later, Alan Moore states:
It’s frightening, what anybody that powerful would do to people around them psychologically. Look at Marvelman-he’s not a human being. I can see him gradually developing a complete contempt for human beings. Everyone would look so crude compared to him. I’d like to explore this idea at DC (Comics) – what Superman has done to the Earth by his very presence. No matter how hard people struggled, no matter what advances they made, what personal bests they achieved, they’d be nothing compared to Superman or Marvelman.
That actually sounds pretty awesome. Hmm, I wonder if he ever did anything with that idea?
- JEP
His was an interesting concept, and one I wished my used to be favorite show “Heroes”
had stayed on track with. Those with powers compared to those without, well there’s bound to be something deeply pyschological (or psycho) within. And what about those of color with powers? Would it be quite so easy to be a hero to those who’ve oppressed you?
I’m toying with this as I create my urban hero Andre Santana, a Katrina survivor turned Werewolf. I think a great inner struggle would be how he views the way society treats him as a young black hispanic. To some he’s not black enough, to others he’s not hispanic enough. Thus, he’s a loner by choice. Anyway, its the inner demons that always make a character fascinating to me.
I’m still not quite there with his look (Did I tell you how much I hate to color?) as I’m still learning photoshop. Right now he looks more like a Doberman than a changling Were. But I’m slowly working on it.