No Bad Characters
Feb. 5th, 2004 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodwardiocom-I assume those of you who read comics have heard of America's Best Comics, the Alan Moore-driven imprint. (An "imprint" is like a "publisher", but smaller. ABC is an imprint, published (I believe) by Wildstorm, and distributed by DC Comics.)
-What many people don't know is that ABC existed before, as a minor comic book publisher in the 1940s. Their heroes were the Lady in Red, Mystico, the American Eagle, the Magnet, etc. These names may sound familar, as Moore brought them back as the heroes of Terra Obscura, in the comic of the same name (and initially in Tom Strong). He revamped them, and made them fun and entertaining characters for 21st Century readers.
-To make ends meet, I've been winnowing the crap out of my comic book collection and selling it on eBay. Today's haul includes a lot of stuff from Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios: Black & White, Doom's IV, Knightmare, Bloodstrike, Bloodwulf. It amazes me I had the spare cash to spend on stuff like that. "Bloodwulf", for gods' sake...
-But, it occurs to me that someday, someone will buy the rights to these characters for a song. And they'll probably be able to find some nugget of good in them. The stories in these comics are trite, the art is mediocre, and the origins are formulaic, but any of these characters could be made fun with a little work. (Maybe it will be Alan Moore himself; lord knows he did good work recreating Supreme, Youngblood, and Glory.)
-The lesson here is that there are no bad characters, only bad stories.
(Okay, except for frickin' Bloodwulf.)
-What many people don't know is that ABC existed before, as a minor comic book publisher in the 1940s. Their heroes were the Lady in Red, Mystico, the American Eagle, the Magnet, etc. These names may sound familar, as Moore brought them back as the heroes of Terra Obscura, in the comic of the same name (and initially in Tom Strong). He revamped them, and made them fun and entertaining characters for 21
-To make ends meet, I've been winnowing the crap out of my comic book collection and selling it on eBay. Today's haul includes a lot of stuff from Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios: Black & White, Doom's IV, Knightmare, Bloodstrike, Bloodwulf. It amazes me I had the spare cash to spend on stuff like that. "Bloodwulf", for gods' sake...
-But, it occurs to me that someday, someone will buy the rights to these characters for a song. And they'll probably be able to find some nugget of good in them. The stories in these comics are trite, the art is mediocre, and the origins are formulaic, but any of these characters could be made fun with a little work. (Maybe it will be Alan Moore himself; lord knows he did good work recreating Supreme, Youngblood, and Glory.)
-The lesson here is that there are no bad characters, only bad stories.
(Okay, except for frickin' Bloodwulf.)
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Date: 2004-02-05 11:38 am (UTC)Lame lame lame.
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Date: 2004-02-05 06:07 pm (UTC)(Amusing note: Tom Strong's counterpart on Terra Obscura is Tom Strange -- who frequently gets referred to as "Doc". Yup, his original comic book moniker was "Doctor Strange".)