In the next issue of Spirou Magazine, the pre-publication of Spirou and Fantasio’s fiftieth adventure will kick off, in which scientist-gone-wrong Z goes all loony again.  As BoDoi points out, it’s the final one for the creative team of José Luis Munuera and Jean David Morvan (with a little help from Yann for the story).

(the cover to Spirou Number 3672, October 2008)

On the Spirou website, a few previews and quite a large set of sketches from the album have been posted, some of which feature the Marsupilami! However, you won’t find the wonderful animal in the final story, as these sketches are only Munuera’s way of paying hommage to its creator and long-time Spirou artist André Franquin. Still, one can dream, and the book does seem to feature a souped up update of that jewel among cars, the Tarbot (see below).  A story preview can also be found on the Spirou site.

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and when not pondering when books and comics became consumerist products instead of art writes extensively on comics culture and art; you can read more of his work on his own Ephemerist blog.

Here we go again, continuing the list of all of those great comics that we all want to see collected so we can gaze lovingly at them on our bookshelves - for the idea and the rules see the first post.

This time it’s a straight A-Z, with the contributor in brackets alongside the title.

Justice League / All-Star Squadron (Stuart Fletcher - ex Nostalgia & Comics)

Stuart: Personally I’m desperate for reprints of 80’s Justice League issues. It’s where it all began for me and I’d like to see it all again. When you write about reading Captain Britain for the first time it all feels very much like the memory of buying two comics while visiting my Nan oh so long ago. Stick All-Star Squadron in there too for the same reason. Sadly nostalgia often bypasses taste.

I’m guessing he means the early 80s stuff with the classic crossovers between the JLA & All-Star Squadron around 1982 (cover galleries: JLA / All-Star Squadron).

Laser Eraser & Pressbutton (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Obviously the great draw to Warrior was Alan Moore’s Marvelman and V For Vendetta but Steve Moore’s psychotic cyborg with an orgasmic pressbutton surely deserves a collection by now? (Reprint This)

Jeremy Dennis Complete (Matthew Badham)

Jeremy Dennis is a veteran of the UK small press scene, producing beautifully individual strips. Yet 10 plus years of comics and nothing in a book yet.

Lux & Alby Sign On And Save The Universe - Martin Millar & Simon Fraser - 1993 (Matthew Badham)

To my knowledge this was writer Martin Millar’s only comic series. Bizarre, drug-fuelled and funny.

Master Of Kung Fu - Steve Englehart & Jim Starlin, Doug Moench & Paul Gulacy (Paul Cornell)

Paul: The Essential Master of Kung Fu. We’d need about five volumes, we want five volumes. That lovely Paul Gulacy art will look much better in black and white, and the scripts need to be out there for a modern audience.

‘Mazin Man - by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano - from 1996 (Pádraig Ó Méalóid & Matthew Badham)

Padraig supplies just this: “because it was lovely!” And it was. (wiki)

Martha Washington - the complete collection (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

As I write this, I’ve just seen that Dark Horse are actually doing an Absolute style Martha Washington collecting everything Martha Washington. So that’s one off Padraig’s list! Although I did read one review of it that did suggest getting it and then ripping out Martha Washington dies as it’s possibly the worst comic the reviewer had ever read.

Misty (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Starting in 1978 and peetering out after a merger with Tammy in 1981/2 Misty was a most unusual thing, a horror comic for girls. As is the way with many UK girls comics of the time the stories and art were top notch. The plans to reprint Misty were announced on Down The Tubes back in February 2008, but as yet nothing has appeared. We shall wait and see. In the meantime, head to MistyComic.co.uk for more, including the special 2006 Misty.co.uk Halloween special comic, the first new Misty for 24 years.

Neil The Horse - Arn Saba - 1975 (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Neil The Horse was published here, there and everywhere from 1975 to 1991, but this happy, inventive comic that did it’s best to make the world safe for musical comedy has never seen a collection. Indy Magazine has a nice retrospective review.

Puma Blues - Stephen Murphy & Michael Zulli (Richard Bruton)

A wonderful series, collected once long ago, but never again. Environmental issues, isolation, post nuclear America, mutated animals including the beautiful flying Manta Rays. It started out simply but swiftly became complicated, dense, visionary and wonderful.

Rocketeer - Dave Stevens (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

With the sad, premature death of Dave Stevens earlier this year I’m surprised that nothing definitive has been released. Of course, there isn’t that much to release, but it was all great.

Rick Geary’s Blanche comics (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Padraig: If there’s not enough to make up a volume, let him write more if it! (And if you haven’t been buying his Treasury of Victorian Murder, you’re in for a treat…)

Roachmill - Rich Heddon & Tom McWeeney (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

This was one of those on the list that I’d completely forgotten, but just the memory of it triggered waves of nostalgia. A great series. A four armed exterminator willing to kill anyone or anything. Insanely funny as I recall. (wiki)

Robo-Hunter - John Wagner & Ian Gibson (Joe Gordon)

Joe does love his old 2000AD strips. And with quality like Robo-Hunter I can’t argue.

Rubber Blankets - David Mazzuchelli (Richard Bruton)

Mazzuchelli’s Rubber Blankets was incredible when it came out. Partly because this was the guy who’d just done Batman Year 1, partly because it was so different, partly for the incredible oversized book, but mostly because it was just so amazingly good.

And that’s it for part 2. Any to add? Hit those comments. Final part tomorrow.

I may not have wanted to read a lot of it, but I always had (still do have) a somewhat nostalgic warm and fuzzy feeling for the Marvel and DC Universes. And since I used to work at Nostalgia & Comics Birmingham for many years I could always find out the ins and outs of a comic by skimming a few books or by asking staff or customers exactly what was happening in a book I didn’t want to spend the time or effort reading. Sometimes, after all, you really need to know who Green Lantern is this week.

But since relocating up to Yorkshire I’ve really missed not being able to find out what’s been going on in any title I wish to know about. I know there are various internet sites I can go to, but none of these every really tell the whole thing as I used to get from skimming the books or asking folks. And they often deliberately hold back on the spoilers. And let’s face it, most times I just don’t want to know that much.

Which is why this article by Tom Bondurant on DC’s Universe problem was so great. Actually it was his response to reading the JSA Annual, but he saw so many problems in that regarding the new multiverse setup he felt compelled to write. And in the process managed to make the last 20 years+ of DC continuity a little easier for me, particularly the recent stuff I missed out on.

It seems that the complicated astro-physics of the DC Universe Multiverse Universe Multiverse runs thus:

The Universe (1956 - 1962)
The Multiverse (1962 - 1985)
The Universe, Beta Test Edition (1985 - 1986)
The Universe 2.0 (1986 - 1994)
The Universe 2.1 (1994 - 1998)
Hypertime  (1998 - 2006)
The Multiverse 2.0  (2006 - ???)

Now, if someone could just spend a similar amount of time writing reasoned, rational expainations for every other aspect of the Marvel & DC universes that would be lovely. Like I say, I don’t necessarily want to read the books, but the small child in me that delighted over countless Marvel and DC adventures really wants to know what’s going on.

Richard Carbonneau and Robin Simon are putting up a comics biography of Jack Parsons online entitled The Marvel. Parsons was a pioneer in rocketry and a founder of the famed and internationally respected Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). It appears away from his heavy duty science research though he was heavily into the ‘mystical’ (or simply plain bonkers, depending on your views) works of Aliester Crowley and conducting supposed occult ritual with L Ron Hubbard, one time SF writer (not one of the better ones in my opinion) and later founder of Scientology. (via Boing Boing)

(a view of the End of Days in Marvel, written by Richard Carbonneau with art by Robin Simon)

Princess At Midnight

by Andi Watson

Image Comics

I can honestly say that as far as I’m concerned Andi Watson just can’t write a bad book and with this and his other current project Glister he’s keeping up a phenomenally good standard. Princess At Midnight was first published in the first volume of Best New Manga, this has been reformatted and extended with an extra 10 page story to make a delightful, playful and satisfying couple of short tales at a bargain price.

(Princess at Midnight page 1. This is the house where our Princess lives. If one panel could ever capture the quirkiness and delightfulness of Andi Watson’s work this may be it. (c) Andi Watson, published Image Comics)

Princess at Midnight is lovely and simple; Holly Crescent is a quiet, home schooled girl by day but at night she’s becomes the Princess of Castle Waxing. For years all has been well, but suddenly the Princess, who previously wanted nothing more than a picnic and to choose the colours of her new dresses, finds herself doing battle with the Horrible Horde, a gang of nasties, Ogres and monsters, who want to take possession of her favourite picnic spot. As these things do, the war escalates, the armies are raised, artillery is brought into play and all the time Castle Waxing’s chancellor warns of dire budgetary trouble approaching. And each time the Cockatrice crows it’s time for the Princess to return to bed and wake up in her real world, where her twin brother has been acting suspiciously like one of the Horrible Horde himself.

(At first our Princess is a lovely thing, interested in nothing but picnics and having fun. From Princess At Midnight (c) Andi Watson, published Image Comics)

It’s a a book that manages the all too difficult task of being all things to all ages. My 9 year old loved it for the fantasy and the fun and the weird everyday life. And I loved it for the layers of detail Andi puts in over this simple tale. It’s all in the delicate touches; Holly’s home schooling beacause of her parent’s worries about the twins, who were premature and spent months in hospital, is presented beautifully. He never explicitally says it but a few deft touches tell us everything we need to know about the fear, worry and overwhelming yet potentially stifling love their parents are showing them. Similarly the comedy of the situation is subtle and underplayed yet no less well observed. Once in Castle Waxing, the fretting of the Chancelllor over money and the Princesses obsessive demands to never give in to the Horde that mirrors perfectly a little girls fights with her (slightly) older twin are equally clever, underplayed and funny.

(Second stage of Princess behaviour, just not wanting to share. From Princess At Midnight (c) Andi Watson, published Image Comics.)

As usual his art style is subtly different this time with a simplicity of line in his figures and a lack of detail in his backgrounds, but every stroke of the brush, every line and every detail is obviously thought through and considered. Like every single of his books I just can’t recommend it highly enough. The only risk with Princess At Midnight is that some readers will look at it as too light, in tone, content and length. But if they do, their missing out on a lovely little book.

(And a final stage of Princess behaviour; the escalation of things into all out war. More from Princess At Midnight.)

If there’s another cartoonist in Britain today as talented, as readable and just as all round brilliant as Andi Watson I’d love to know because he’s really setting a wonderfully high standard for everyone to aspire to.

Andi Watson does have a website and a live journal and a flickr photostream, but he’s too busy making great comics for Molly and I to enjoy to be done with updating them!

Richard Bruton

The BB of C reports that the next season of Torchwood, currently filming in Cardiff for broadcast next year, will be one story arc instead of the usual independent episodes, with the team dealing with one serious alien threat through the five episodes. I think that might actually be a good move for Torchwood, which has been pretty patchy so far, although the good spots have outweighed the rough patches and weak episodes enough to keep me interested (besides, who can resist Captain Jack’s charms?).

Another in the Uncollecteds series, for the idea and the rules see the first post.

This time it’s a straight A-Z, with the contributor in brackets alongside the title.

2001 - Jack Kirby (Paul Cornell)

Give it the Essentials treatment because Kirby would, again, look a lot better without those muddy Marvel colours back then.

A1 - various (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

The variety of material in the various issues of A1 (from 1989) is still amazing, even today. But at the time, this high quality comic had some amazing stuff and was practically a who’s who in comics for the time. Well due some sort of best of collection.

Angus Og - Ewan Bain (Joe Gordon)

I’ve got a strong fancy for some collected Angus Og by Ewen Bain. There was a local publisher in Glasgow did a collected book, the Og Logs, but that was a decade ago and not seen anything since. It ran for years and years in the Daily Record and Sunday Mail. (wiki, sample page)

Bogie Man - John Wagner, Alan Grant & Robin Smith (Joe Gordon)

Scottish mental patient with a Bogart fixation on a rampage through Glasgow. It even got made into a BBC movie in 1992. So far it’s been collected twice. Maybe third time lucky?

Brave & The Bold - with Jim Aparo (Paul Cornell)

Paul: Still an under-appreciated artist, and these were my first exposure to DC as a kid.

Breathtaker - Mark Wheatley & Marc Hempel (Kenny Penman)

Kenny: It was collected but long out of print. I always thought it a beautiful book. Filled with some of the real joy of love and sex coupled with the guilt and regret of broken hearts and broken dreams. Lovely art too.

The Champions - Tony Isabella, Don Heck (Paul Cornell)

Paul: Becomes a great superhero book out of insane beginnings, and is then instantly cancelled.

The Cloak - Mike Higgs (Gary Spencer Millidge)

I knew Mike Higgs back in Birmingham and it’s nice to see him get a nod as one of the key figures in British comics, both for his cartooning and his efforts at co-ordinating the UK fanbase and th efirst Birmingham convention. The Cloak is one of those strips with a timeless quality - the nature of Mike’s art makes it work today as well as it did in 1967-1969. For more on Mike & The Cloak, there’s a great piece at Lew Stringer’s blog.

Dalgoda - Jan Strnad (Dave Hopkins of Nostalgia & Comics)

Dave: I can’t remember much about Dalgoda except that it featured a dog, was written by Jan Strnad and had really nice clean art by Dennis Fujitake. Apparently it was finished in a hurry, only ran 8 issues, and was set in the future

The Complete DC Thompson Libraries  (Kenny Penman / Joe Gordon / Gary Spencer Millidge / Dave Whitwell / pretty much all of us)

This really should be a no brainer. Why isn’t there a reprint series for the classic stuff sitting at DC Thompson’s vaults? How much would you pay for a hardback collection of Baxendale work? Or  Ken Reid? Or Dudley Watkins? Yes, so would I. And whilst we’re on classic British material (deadlines mean having to shoe-horn it all together with the DC Thompson entry - sorry folks!) how about Queen of the Seas (Ken Reid, Smash! 1966), Jonah (Ken Reid, Beano 1958-63), Frankie Stein/Jasper the Grasper/Dare-a-Day Davy/The Nervs (Ken Reid, Odhams; various, 1965-69), Colour Work of Roy Wilson (1930s to 1950s).

Dan Dare (2000AD version) - Kelvin Gosnell, Steve Moore, Gerry Finley-Day, Tom Tully, Massimo Belardinelli, Dave Gibbons, Brian Lewis, Trev Goring, Garry Leach (whew) (Joe Gordon)

Joe: Although it never quite hit the right note for the writers I’d like to see the early 2000 AD Dan Dare strips again (Belardinelli’s freaky alien art!). That was the biggest strip in the comic for the first year or two, still have a DD annual somewhere back home, he had one before Dredd got his own. Rights probably a minefield now with the new DD on the scene, I suppose, but I’d like to see the early strips again.

Druid - Warren Ellis & Leonardo Manco 1994 (Richard Bruton)

Doctor Druid, a dull Marvel Comics character gets the full Ellis treatment; powermad, went insane, betrayed by his allies, and killed by Hellstorm, Son of Satan. Marvel reprint anything, but not this?

E-Man - Nicola Cuti & Joe Staton (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Padraig specified the Charlton series of this wonderful superhero’s comic runs. I remember the First series though and also loved it. Fun and light at a time when that really wasn’t the done thing at all. I’ve just found out that there’s a new E-Man series by Staton from Digital Webbing. Maybe there is hope for a collection after all? And maybe they’ll start from the Charlton issues to make Padraig’s day?

Escape - A Best Of (Kenny Penman)

Another one that makes you think - why haven’t they already? There was so much great, original and ahead of it’s time material in Escape that it’s a terrible loss to be without it now. Paul Gravett has an informative look back at his own past over at his website.

Fish Police - Steve Moncuse 1985-1990 (Richard Bruton)

I almost hesitated to put this on the list as I think it might be one of those things that was hilariously funny and wonderful at 16, but just wouldn’t hold up now. But dammit, I’d like the chance to find out! Fish Police: exactly what is says. They’re fish. And they’re police. Except the hero, who is possibly a man transported into this bizarred world. Sort of Life on Mars but underwater. Until looking for images doing this I was never aware of the animated series they made in 1990. Now, thanks to You Tube, I wish I’d never been aware of it at all. It completely misses everything I remember the series being great for.

Girl - Pete Milligan & Duncan Fegredo (Marc Ellerby)

Marc writes: Amazing three issue series Vertigo put out god knows how long ago. (ed - 1996) It’s amongst the best sequentials that Mr Fegredo has ever done - I pretty much love everything about it. Especially the bits in the council flat lift. Surprised this hasn’t resurfaced due to Duncan doing Hellboy, but oh well.

Hellstorm - Warren Ellis & Leonardo Manco (Richard Bruton)

This was Ellis’ first work at Marvel. So he’s obviously out to prove a point. The point being that no one does cynical and nasty as well as he does. So he takes one of Marvel’s crap horror characters and turns him into a complete bastard. It was great. (Johnny Bacardi overview of Ellis’ run.)

Hero Hotline - Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)Corporate Superheroes having fun. No wonder it was cancelled and not collected. We certainly can’t have our heroes enjoying themselves at DC.

Howard The Duck - newspaper strip (1977-78) - Gerber, Colan and Mayerik, later Marv Wolfman & Alan Kupperberg. (Gary Spencer Millidge)

Gary: Marvel published a Spidey newspaper strip collection a couple of years back, but sadly Howard remains in limbo.

Hugo Tate - Nick Abadzis (Richard Bruton)

From basic stick-man lost in a normally drawn world through to the epic O America, we really want to see Abadzis’ creation once more on our shelves.

Join us tomorrow for the next part….

Up until a few weeks ago, I was under the impression that Tintin was a comic book character. I grew up reading and immensely enjoying his adventures (in fact, you could say that they taught me to read, and they endowed me with a preference for rather old-fashioned ways of speaking), and later, I really became a fan. I bought the books, and the biographies; I visited the events and the exhibitions (even though they quite often weren’t that good), and I generally turned a blind eye to the obsessiveness with which Moulinsart protected their posessions. After all, Tintin was a comic book character, and as such couldn’t quite defend himself against plagiarism and satire.

But no more. It would seem that Moulinsart has found a new enemy: the fan. A decade after Paramount tried (and failed) to remove any and all Star Trek material from unlicensed websites (and Fox’s Monty Burns-like lawyers tried the same with fan sites celebrating the X-Files and Simpsons, succeeding only in alienating their own hardcore audience - Joe), Moulinsart has decided that, with all their copyrights and trademarks, their investments still aren’t protected well enough. They need more.

And so they sent a cease and desist letter to Objectif Tintin, arguably the best informed and most enjoyable source of Tintin-related information on the web . Their complaint ? Objectif Tintin used elements from Hergé’s oeuvre in their logo and illustrations (even though, as Didier Pasamonik asserts on Actua BD, this is fully covered by the Belgian quotation law), and they mentioned or even advertised events that were not licensed by Moulinsart. In other words, Objectif Tintin, in their attempt to be an objective (hence the name) and complete source of information for Tintin fans, failed to ask Moulinsart first if they could publish something.

(Blistering barnacles! Captain Haddock mirrors the shock and surprise of many a Tintin fan at this strange action which effectively aims to stop free advertising for their own company’s character; (c) Moulinsart)

That, my friends, amounts to nothing more than censorship. And it was then that I finally understood that Tintin is no longer a comic book character - it’s a brand. Moulinsart couldn’t care less that Tintin’s readership is rapidly aging, and that younger readers are a bit bored with his old-fashioned adventures and values. After all, Tintin is a brand for chocolates, toys and most of all, fashion. Hergé’s work has become a reference book for the design of t-shirts, jackets, sweaters and more. And brands need protecting. If you put “Coca-Cola” on a rug, you had better asked (and paid) Coca-Cola beforehand.

Oh well, I think I’ll pull out The Black Island tonight and ruminate on how cool it all was.

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and when not trying to save the world from the tyranny of dictatorial machines writes extensively on comics culture and art; you can read more of his work on his own Ephemerist blog.

(click the pic to visit full-size version and the complete archive of Darryl’s previous Super-Sam and John-of-the-night strips. Art ©2008 Darryl Cunningham; if you want permission to reproduce any part of it you should ask him)

Another in the Uncollecteds series, for the idea and the rules see the first post.

I knew there would be a Grant Morrison special as soon as I started this. If only because there’s a hell of a lot of Grant Morrison stuff that I own that I’d love to be able to get in collections. In fact, just in one piece would be good, as some of my Grant Morrison rarities are in a file, ripped from magazines and comics.

But, like Alan Moore, I think we should really have better access to all of these Grant Morrison rarities:

The Complete Grant Morrison - The Early Years

Looking at the excellent TimeMachineGo comixography there’s an awful lot of stuff that could be pulled together as a Complete Early Years type thing. Even if Fleetway just collected all his work for 2000AD it would be a start.

Bible John: A Forensic Meditation - Grant Morrison & Daniel Valley

Published in Crisis #56-61, 1991. A look at the nature of evil investigating the unsolved Bible John case (Bible John wiki).

Big Dave - Grant Morrison & Steve Parkhouse

Part of the 2000AD summer offensive of 1993, where Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and John Smith were allowed to write everything in the comic, introduce new series and basically go wild. It’s basically Desperate Dan meets Viz with added violence.

Lovely Biscuits

Grant Morrison’s only published prose collection from 1998. It’s a grab bag o previously published short stories and plays.It’s either brilliant or virtually unreadable, depending how much of a genius you think Grant Morrison is.

Flex Mentallo - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

At one point we figured this would never, ever be collected. The similarities between Flex and Charles Atlas resulted in almost immediate legal action for DC Comics after Morrison’s Flex Mentallo first appeared in Doom Patrol and then his own brilliant 4 issue series. But DC have recently reprinted the Doom Patrol issues featuring Flex in Volume 4 so maybe there’s hope yet?

New Adventures Of Hitler - Grant Morrison & Steve Yeowell 1989/1990
Spectacular art and truly bizarre colouring just added to an already bizarre concept of Hitler in Liverpool between the wars, hallucinating Morrissey and John Lennon singing to him from his wardrobe. It also helped to show that Hue & Cry were not just a terrible band but pompous wankers as well. (wiki, Steve Flanagan overview on his blog.)

St Swithin’s Day - Grant Morrison & Paul Grist 1989/1990
This sort of doesn’t belong here, since it was originally published in issues of Trident in 1989 and then collected into one comic in 1990. But the rules are mine and I’ll be breaking them for possibly my favourite Morrison comic.

“Death To Maggie Book Sparks Tory Uproar” was the Sun’s headline at the time this came out. Morrison maintains the dialogue comes from his own diaries of the time. But I imagine he never stole a gun and took a train to do damage to Maggie.

I’d pay really good money to see this as a hardback reprint with extra illustrations by Paul Grist. In fact, I have Paul Grist’s email and my family always struggle for original Christmas presents …… (wiki)

Steed & Mrs Peel - Grant Morrison & Ian Gibson 1990

Three books starring the Avengers from the TV series. (Reprint This)

I think that’s it. Somebody, somewhere, please try to get this stuff back into print.

Recent announcements on Brenden McCarthy’s official fansite; The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy, has made a lot of people very happy indeed:

Brendan: I’ve been commissioned by Marvel Comics to write and draw a new Dr Strange and Spider-Man three issue mini series. I’m just getting into it and I expect it to be finished early next year. It’s quite a thrill to finally get to draw the Doctor, my favourite Marvel character - and Spidey too.

Even better than this news is the preliminary work Brendan’s doing for the project; a series of remix pages of Ditko Dr Strange art. Obviously more news as and when we get it, but everyone needs to bookmark Brendan’s site now.

(One of Steve Ditko’s Dr Strange pages as “remixed” by Brendan McCarthy.)

Wired (via Boing Boing) has a set of pics up of some seriously cool comic book tattoos snapped at the recent Comic Con. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of depicting a whole four panel strip or a one-page comic story in one tattoo?

As previously mentioned, London Underground Comics has it’s second big event of the year this coming Saturday - 30th August.

Low Energy Day is shaping up to be a who’s who of the London Small Press. Have a look at the exhibitor list here & the table plan here. Very impressive.

Another in the Uncollecteds series, for the idea and the rules see the first post.

I had an idea we’d be doing a special Alan Moore Uncollecteds at some point but as more and more responses came back pointing out all of the Alan Moore material that lies dusty and uncollected in comic book limbo I was amazed at quite how much material by the greatest living comics writer just isn’t available. I think I’ll be off to email Top Shelf in a minute asking them if they fancy having a look at this list.
At this point the honourable mention should go to Pádraig Ó Méalóid, who recently graced the FPI blog with a brilliant Alan Moore interview (part 1, part 2). For many years he’s run an Alan Moore live journal called Glycon: Why I Love The Master. There is so much incredibly rare stuff on there that I’m just going to highlight a few to give you an idea of what sort of things we’re looking at.

The Complete Alan Moore

Can you imagine a deluxe repackaging of everything that’s just unavailable. I’m not talking about major series or work do for Marvel or DC or Image here. This would be early works, work for small publishers, that sort of thing.

Imagine: all of the short stories, all of the one offs, all of the weird early stuff. I’m thinking Pictopia, The Bowing Machine, Maxwell The Magic Cat, Outbreaks of Violets, From Hell Major Arcanna. Even the really early work like Myra. The list really does go on and on. It would also be great to see collections of all of his critical writings as well, of which there are many, as shown on this pretty complete Moore bibliography.

Also requested from Padraig:

Glory

This is the second Rob Liefeld creation Moore worked on. The first, Supreme is still available and is Moore’s classic retelling of the Superman myth. Described from the Avatar press release as:

Glory has been the tale of the daughter of a warrior goddess and a demon lord — a strong, beautiful, and immortal demi-goddess who is t he progeny of two worlds but belongs to neither, and thus has consigned herself to the mortal realm, where she has fought for the causes of humanity for decades. Alan Moore’s Glory chronicle further defines the character and expands on her role as goddess and warrior, as well as her anchor to humanity

And described in this review as Promethea-lite. But never collected.

A *complete* version of Alan Moore’s Songbook,

Padraig: as the one that exists missed two of the pieces from Negative Burn where they originally appeared.

1963
a one-volume 1963, including the currently non-existent annual
(1963 interviews on Comicon.com, 1963 Comicon.com article, wiki)

Now a few from me:

Bojeffries Saga (Alan Moore, Steve Parkhouse)

The Bojeffries originally appeared in Warrior magazine, and then in A1 & Dalgoda. This soap opera of the paranormal featuring werewolves, vampires and tax collectors was released as a collection by Tundra but is now going for silly prices on ebay.

Spirit: The New Adventures (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman, Eddie Campbell)

I’d love to see the stories he did for Kitchen Sink’s Spirit: The New Adventures collected. There’s also a couple of good stories from Neil Gaiman and Eddie Campbell and Paul Chadwick. But as I recall nothing else matched the genius of the Moore tales, particularly the beautifully melancholic “Last Night I Dreamed Of Dr Cobra” with Daniel Torres providing incredible art.

Sequart has a detailed issue by issue breakdown. And the complete issue has been scanned and is available at Again With The Comics.

Obviously your first place to go to for Alan Moore should be Padraig’s Glycon: Why I Love The Master. But there’s other great resources out there: Sequart’s Alan Moore pages and chronology, Alan Moore Fansite.Okay, I’m off to write that email to Top Shelf.

Over the years I’ve seen many comics and owned a lot. And thanks to my decidedly obsessive nature with space I’ve gotten rid of a lot of comics. I’ve sold them, given them away, passed them on, cut them up for displays and even used a few as wallpaper (I was young, give me a break).

But now that I am old and I can look back with wonder at my youth I can also lament some of those comics that I had or remember reading. We’re all very fortunate right now to be living in an era where so much of the material published will be collected for posterity. But there are some notable exceptions. I was thinking rather obsessively about this the other day and started, as we aging men do, to make a list …….

But of course, a list is only as good as the listmaker’s memory. So it would be much better, thinks I, to open it up to various friends of the blog and see what we can all come up with. Of course, you can get involved as well - that’s what the comments box is for!

The only rules I set for it were:
The work had to have been published completely in the past. So take Big Numbers by Alan Moore off the list straight away.
Previously collected material is allowed as long as it’s almost impossible to get hold of now. (I’m thinking Brenden McCarthy’s Swimini Porpoise or Alan Moore’s Bojeffries Saga here).

Before I get started I must point out that this is pretty much identical to the Reprint This idea done by Hipster Dad. I only realised this when I tripped over his name and the idea on this FPI post when googling about Zenith. I hope nobody minds the duplication of ideas etc etc. Obviously you should all head over to his site for a little look-see as well.

That’s about it…. now on with the first, most obvious couple:

Marvelman / Miracleman. by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman et al

Possibly the most requested uncollected on the list. One of the biggest pieces of Alan Moore’s work that’s completely unavailable, this exploration of the Supehero mythology is sadly missing from too many shelves.

The four volumes by Alan Moore et al (Volumes 1-3) & Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham (Volume 4) have long been out of print. At some point in the future all of the various copyright and ownership problems are going to be resolved and we’ll finally see the reissuing of all 4 Miracleman books. (Although some notice would be nice and then I can get my copies onto Ebay). After that of course it would also be nice to let that lovely Mr Gaiman chap finish the story off like he planned to do all those years ago.

Marvelman links:
Wiki, The Super Miracle of Captain Marvelman, Sequart article, Cover Browser, Fictions, Hipster Dad’s Reprint This.

Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

Zenith’s back? Oh, how we wish it were so. Possibly the second most requested one on the list. This story of the Thatcherite superhero and more multiple Earths than even DC would no what to do with is much missed.

A few years ago the possibility of this getting back into print were quite high, and copies of volume 1 were sitting in a warehouse waiting for final go ahead. Unfortunately copyright disagreements between Morrisonand Fleetway/Rebellion have led to those copies, together with the plans for all of Zenith (including the as yet uncollected Phase V) being put into limbo.

Maybe sometime, but no signs of it being sorted soon.

Zenith Links:
Wiki, Zenith History, CBR article, Hipster Dad’s Reprint This.

And that’s it for now, just a tease at the idea. Next time we’ll theme it some more.