I know you think many of your favorite critically acclaimed comics are original works, but it is my sad duty to inform you that most of them are warmed-over replicas of passionately brilliant works from the Silver Age. It’s hard to accept that these creators have so callously and wholly avoided crediting their predecessors for the ideas from which they have made their careers, but these original comics deserve the acclaim of which they have been robbed.
I first discovered these titles going through a bargain bin at a garage sale, as one makes so many comics discoveries. I was shocked by what I discovered.
Be forewarned: if you value your innocence as a comics consumer, do not attempt to view these images. You will only end up being disappointed in your favorite writers.
Adventures of the Fable Folk only ran a mere seventeen issues before being cancelled, but the rampant imagination of writer Horley McLachlan is unparalleled. Bill Willingham lifted entire story arcs from plots that McLachlan resolved in eighteen pages – and satisfactorily, to boot. McLachlan subtly builds a love triangle between Bigby Wolf, Snow White and Cinderella, hinting at bisexual attraction between the respective women in a way that makes one wonder what he would have done with it had he not been forced to work within the social mores of the time. Fascinating if you can pick it up, but difficult to do, as the reason for the comic’s modern obscurity is shocking: “Fableheads” were one of the earliest organizers of dedicated-subject conventions, and all 1,245 fans of the comic were killed at the inaugural convention when the roof collapsed. DC immediately cancelled the title and now refuses to admit that it ever existed.
Unsurprisingly, the writer of
Yorick, The Last Man On Earth was a woman: Sally Polenti, a trailblazer in the comics field and almost totally unknown today. Her work on
Yorick is more soap-opera-ish, perhaps, than Brian K. Vaughan’s – but then again, she also doesn’t have any of those Trivial Pursuit factoids Vaughan seems compelled to insert into any and all narratives he writes. And if you thought Vaughan’s depiction of the longing between 355 and Yorick was hot – well, Polenti’s positively
smolders. Plus, mad scientists in just about every issue. Girls Romance Comics went out of business in 1958, and most of its writers went into television writing, explaining why it’s now a footnote in comics history. Highly recommended.
An early Robert Kanigher war comic, before he really started to cut loose on the joyous weirdness that came to become a trademark of his career at DC. Kanigher’s work here is still crazy, mind you, but it’s an eerie sort of
plausible craziness, especially in light of what we now know about the weirdness of the completely militarized North Korean society. The issue where Matthew Roth (who never picks up a gun throughout the series) leads his platoon through a field filled with blindfolded North Korean soldiers practicing “alertness exercises” is a highlight. I don’t think Marvel got the rights to this, but it doesn’t matter in any case, considering that the Army censored this title and seized all copies of it they could find. If you find an issue, hold onto it; they’re worth a lot.
This early-70s DC horror comic lasted a mere five issues before being scrapped, ostensibly to avoid competition with Kirby’s
The Sandman. Every issue featured a Hob Gadling backup story. Mervyn Pumpkinhead was a cannibal monster introduced in issue #2, and Morpheus himself was more of a dealer out of ironic punishments than an anthropomorphic personification of human beliefs. ‘
A fairly traditional war comic, but centered around the Navy rather than the Army (as most war comics of the time focused on ground-pounders).
Sea-Guy is good, entertaining fun, and fairly straightforward, but never anything less than completely engaging. The “Invisibles” referred to on the cover were the book’s backup strip: a team of elite frogmen infiltrators. They also explain the book’s disappearance – DC wanted to make sure that the emerging Sea Devils property faced no competition from its other comics.
Originally this comic was simply entitled
The Future Reporters, but along the way one of the supporting characters became more and more popular. Two issues after this one, it was retitled
Spider Jerusalem and the Future Reporters, and then five issues after that it simply became
Spider Jerusalem and remained that way for another two years. The reason it faded into obscurity? A nasty lawsuit initiated by Steve Ditko combined with a weird distribution scheme meant that this title was only printed in Morocco. But it sold very well there.
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I didn’t think it was likely, but you had me wondering until “The King of Dreams.” There were just too many references there to make it real. Also, the “Bad Comedy” tag gave it away.
Bravo sir, Bravo! I am humbled by your Photoshop-fu
You nearly had me there. Good stuff.
That’s some beautiful work right there. Well played!
Gotta admit, I guessed it from the start.
The “entire fandom killed in one tragic accident thing” was brilliant. I am in awe, sir.
You made my morning. I love the little banners at the bottom of The King of Dreams cover.
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Even better than the Civil War riffs? Most certainly, as these are comics people care about. My hat’s off to you sir!
Oof.
The Seaguy photoshoppery was obvious enough to give it away. But dammit – I thought the Yorick and Fables things were real.
Ooooooooooooof. Well done. ^__^
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
‘The Future Reporters’ was a trailblazing masterpiece. I understand that the title picked up a lot of flak from the government over the Francophone War arc and nearly got cancelled for indency after they ran the infamous surrealist nightmare, ‘One Horrible Night in Prague’.
Brown lady doctor back when comics were 10 cents? Yeah, that’s what tipped me off… Although the “Fable Folk” thing did fool me. Excellent job!
It really makes you appreciate guys like Chuck Austen – they weren’t afraid to do their own thing and fail on their own merits, unlike the golden boys of comicdom MGK exposes here!
Had me totally buffaloed until SeaGuy. Man, you’re good!
Oh, man. You had me with the Fables one, but I caught on with the Y: The Last Man bit. Bravo, though!
I could actually hear your nerd cred increasing. In direct opposition to the likelihood you will see a boobie this year. *grin*
Dude, haven’t you heard? It became cool for girls to admit they like comics almost a year ago.
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I call bullshit on this, too.
Well of COURSE girls like comics. It’s not ABOUT the girls liking comics…
Which reminds me, I miss Archie.
It’s almost disconcerting how much that old spectre’s face does look like Morpheus’ helmet…
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I pegged it at ‘Y’, but I looked ahead at its cover before reading the whole text bit under ‘Fables’. If I’d done that, I’m sure the convention deaths would have given it away. Still, excellently done.
Well, I was fooled until Sea Guy and the ‘photoshopp’d’ at the bottom.
Seriously, I was thinking that the Future Reporters one was real. XD
Brilliant as usual, MGK!
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I swear I read some of these … Thanks for the retored memories …
I’d look at Steranko’s Harvey work if I were you …
See, the thing is I could’ve believed that the King of Dreams one was real, since Gaiman liked to lift elements from unused and old comics and put them into Sandman, so it wouldn’t have surprised me to find out Dream had appeared in another form. It was the Future Reporters one that made me raise an eyebrow, but only because the font looked so much cleaner than the rest of the comic.
The DMZ is quite a bit too white, considering the white point on the cover is that yellowed Atlas logo, or their eyes. I’d sample from the existing white point for it. Otherwise everything looks amazing.
Cute.
Great stuff!
That THE KING OF DREAMS logo is great: pure Royer, bravo!
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Beautiful, absolutely beautiful (though too bad you didn’t show one of Joe Kubert’s handful of covers for Sea Guy. Chubby never looked so gritty as he did on #12…)
Linked here from Unshelved so kind of had the joke going in, but I bet it would have had me going if I hadn’t. Looks great, love the writeups, too.
Everyone’s talking about which cover they thought was “obviously” Photoshopped to give it away. Personally, I thought it was the sentence, “all 1,245 fans of the comic were killed at the inaugural convention when the roof collapsed” that did it.
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Fantastic job!
Yeah, that 1.245 stat is what tipped me off as well. Then it was confirmed with the Yorick. You can see where the brown paint job on the lady’s face overlaps her red hair.
Otherwise, excellent work.
BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
The 1245 tipped me off too (although I was really wondering with the Fable Folk).
Question, why is issue #32 of “The King of Dreams” showing if it only went 5 issues? Was it something else before then? Maybe it was renamed but not renumbered when The King of Dreams became more popular than the original title character, “Johnny Constantine, Devil’s Magician”!
The Fable Folk was the most believable (you almost had me on that one), followed by The King of Dreams since Gaiman did take characters from old DC horror comics. Of course, then there were too many references on that one cover. I loved the 1245 fans all killed at once bit and I am in awe of the skill that went into this (as well as the sheer nerdiness–I thought I had it bad!)
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The last man on earth is my favorite! Beautifully done!
Best,
Chris
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MOTHERFUCKER!
I really was buying it until the third one. Great work.
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