1963!: Unfinished Business

Remember the incomplete Image series 1963 by former Swamp Thing alums Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Rick Vietch? For those that don’t, it was a series designed to evoke the Silver Age of superheroes with a line of new characters and stories, according to Bissette at http://www.comicon.com/bissette/1963.htm. “Each title would be self-standing, but appear to be a single issue of six different ongoing series, with letters pages, pin-ups, and cover and panel reproductions referring to previous issues and adventures that never existed,” writes Bissette. “Even the comic book ads of the era would be lovingly recreated and parodied, absolutely true to the era we were evoking.”

The series was supposed to end with a giant annual, but the book was never completed.

Well, Steve Bissette has been discussing his return to that universe with a new N-Man related fanzine project at Fanboy.Info.

Steve says that he is working through his “faux-history of the faux-'63 comics universe” and is “concocting some faux-histories of faux-publishers.” However, he is drawing on the real history of publishers, editors and cartoonists. He mentions “DC's closet-pedophile editors; Kanigher's browbeating of artists, to the point of tears” and “the original DOC SOLAR artist sandbagged into his apartment with a machine gun at ready.”

He also talks about the status of the 1963 character rights and mentions his relationship with Alan Moore:

For the record, the December 1999 split of the '1963' properties led to my owning The Fury, L.A.S.E.R., N-Man, The Hypernaut, and all the characters and concepts unique to those stories in their respective solo '1963' stories (e.g., The War Beast, The Voidoid, etc.). Alan and Rick own all the rest -- though jointly, as they didn't define any relevant division between themselves in the documents we all signed -- including the '1963' moniker and trademark and the anthology comics titles (I only own THE FURY comic title).

I am NOT permitted to ever reprint the Fury, N-Man, or Hypernaut stories themselves that Alan scripted; I presume I could reprint the art alone, sans any text. Such, I fear, was Alan's determination to never again be associated with me or mine, though that's a supposition; he was, however, adamant about NO reprints of that material in anything I might chose to do down the road, and made a point of emphasizing that. Alas.

Well, what's done is done, and this is the first time I've really had the wherewithal, will, or desire to move forward on what are now my properties. Significantly, that flow of creative energy immediately followed the completion of my essay, "Mr. Moore and Me," for ALAN MOORE: PORTRAIT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN, shipping next month from Top Shelf.

I'm currently working up a number of various items for this planned weirdo zine, including a surprise contribution or two from some writers you'll be surprised to hear of -- but it's too soon to ballyhoo all that.

Thanks to Takashi Miike for the tip.

This Has A “Ballyhoo Was Probably A Word Used In 1963” Factor Of Six Out Of Ten