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Posted: |
Aug 2, 2017 - 3:47 PM
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By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
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So wot’s the overall consensus in royal retrospect on Marvel’s Epic experiment?
The consensus in my neck of the woods started with "Awesoooome!" and ended with "They're ending it? NOOOOOO!!!" (That also applied to the start/end of Epic Illustrated, which is where the comics line was derived.)
Their rationalization was "Well, if we have Epic Comics, we don't need Epic Illustrated any longer." Which was BS, of course. Dwindling sales? That I can understand. But it was an outstanding complement to Heavy Metal, and often featured better stories (that were original and not taken from European creators and painfully serialized in 4-5 page "episodes").
I loved the Epic Comics line. I'm a Metamorphosis Odyssey fanboy. That's Jim Starlin's baby. It started in the pages of Epic Illustrated, continued with the standalone b/w graphic novel The Price (which detailed the origin of the warlock, Syzygy Darklock), which was published concurrently, and from there we got Dreadstar (Marvel Graphic Novel #3), which focused on Vanth Dreadstar, the saga's central character.
Epic Comics introduced the Dreadstar ongoing title. It worked fine (with less "adult" content) for many issues, but inevitably changes started happening to the characters, not always for the better. Vanth's power was converted from his "laser sword" to his body, and his costume went from hooded space pirate to a more colorful "looks like he could hang with Star-Lord" garb. Eventually, the title went to First Comics (after Epic Comics folded), and Jim continued to write but not draw it. That's where I got off. But what a run!
Epic Comics did some other cool stuff (you mentioned The Bozz Chronicles, which was smartly written and elegantly drawn), but this is the other title I latched on to. From the always-arse-kicking team of writer Doug Moench and uber-artist Paul Gulacy...
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oops
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I am a big fan of Byrne's art, particularly his work from the '70s and '80s. His work with Claremont on X-Men is probably my all time favorite work of his, but he also did some excellent work with Fantastic Four, Marvel Team-Up, Avengers, and many other titles. In fact, I am hard pressed to think of any Marvel character in existence before 2000 that he didn't draw.
In X-Men he drew one of my favorite cliffhangers of all:
He also did some great work with the Fantastic Four, including its unofficial fifth member:
He also left his mark on Captain America, Avengers, and many others. I haven't been as fond of his later work, although I really liked the Captain America/Batman cross-over he did.
For the distinguished competition, his work rebooting Superman was my Superman, so he definitely influenced how I saw the character and his supporting cast.
These days he mostly seems to do commission work. It is a shame Marvel and DC don't seem to have any interest doing cross-overs anymore, as I would love to read the story inspiring this splash page:
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oops
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Bill also did very interesting and eye catching covers for Judge Dredd collections printed by Titan in the late 80s/90s. That's where I first saw his stuff.
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