(Hello to all of John Rogers’ close personal friends and relations. My, but there are quite a lot of you.)
People nowadays look back at Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld and can’t help but wonder what people were thinking. Nowadays the concept of an ongoing fantasy comics series targeting young girls seems like the sort of thing that makes DC editorial go “hsssst!” and then cower in the darkness. “Catering to different demographicsss.. it burns us, precious, it burrrrrns.”
But here’s the rub: Amethyst was actually pretty goddamned good for what it was, namely an all-ages fantasy epic. It had perfectly acceptable writing and gorgeous art by Ernie Colon, and a fully realized world that was imaginative and unlike “our” world to an extent that made it fresh and exciting. Twelve houses based on birthstones? A world where everybody uses magic and where the laws of physics don’t necessarily apply? It was pretty wicked awesome, doing a lot of what the Harry Potter books did, and long before J.K. Rowling was telling people about how she came up with Harry Potter when she was broke in a cafe somewhere.
It begs the question why there hasn’t been a relaunch or reboot. Can you imagine Neil Gaiman getting his hands on this? Admittedly, Amethyst showed up briefly in Infinite Crisis – but that, much like just about everything to do with Infinite Crisis, was something of a bad idea. (Actually pretty much everything to do with DC trying to integrate Gemworld into the DC Universe proper was kind of a bad idea. Turning Gemworld into Zerox, the Sorcerer’s Planet? Bad idea. Making Amethyst a Lord of Order? Bad idea. It’s your classic case of square peg into dork-shaped hole.)
Of course, to have a great fantasy epic you need a great villain, and Amethyst had one – Dark Opal, one of the truly great fantasy comics badasses of all time. (You know he’s evil because he put “Dark” in front of his name. That’s just classy. He advertises his evilness. Dr. Doom would approve.) And… just look at him, will you? That is fucking awesome visual design right there. That is a villain who will fuck your shit up. It is obvious just from that artwork that Dark Opal is not only a magician but knows how to cut you to pieces with a sword (which he does). Plus he has crazy tattoos and blue skin and an amulet that mirrors his facial expressions. That is some awesomely fucked up shit right there.
Dark Opal is like an evil version of Valda. (Who not coincidentally was also drawn by Ernie Colon. Man, Ernie Colon was so great.) Sometimes you just see a character and you know: this guy is just waiting to be wicked cool once again.
(No, I’m not going to write “30 Reasons Why I Should Write Gemworld.”)
Top comment: Man, I love how *stabby* he looks. Bad guys just aren’t stabby-looking enough these days. — Cookie McCool
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Bless you!
I followed the link with trepidation but I’m relieved to see you’re informed in your opinion of the scourge of Gemworld. He also employed the truly awesome Emissaries of Varn which blew my mind as a kid, and Sardonyx defines henchman with character. He puts his chestplate on while it’s still cooling! That’s balls.
Bless you and again bless you.
Amy Winston is Harry Potter combined with Captain Marvel how is this not in production (I’ve actually pitched it twice and so far gotten no traction).
I’ll even keep the blindness if we just leave all the Lords of Order nonsense behind. Please, more Amethyst. We can drop the pigeonholing Princess of Gemworld moniker, afterall it was added as an afterthought and was the style of the time (Arak son of Thunder, Gemm son of Saturn, etc).
I might bite your 30 Reasons format now….
Bless you Mr. Bird and the good work you continue to do.
Marty, Gemworld Enthusiast Most-Foul
The face-amulet thing was so cool that Phil Foglio snitched it for Girl Genius.
Yeah, another Amethyst fan here. As you say — it was way better than it should have been.
Doug M.
(No, I’m not going to write “30 Reasons Why I Should Write Gemworld.”)
Don’t lie. You’re totally gonna do it.
Re: The first paragraph. You owe me a new keyboard. Tea all over the place.
Is there a collected Amethyst? Or is it banished to the nethers like Atlantis Chronicles?
i think neil gaiman mentioned gemworld in the original books of magic. it was only a single page when tim hunter was being shown the various worlds by titania, but it was in there.
You know you’re going to. Why fight it?
I loved Gemworld when I was a teen-age girl. It was so exciting to be part of a comic demographic for once! I’m glad to know it still holds up. Man, I love how *stabby* he looks. Bad guys just aren’t stabby-looking enough these days.
A recent JSA arc (the weird Johns/Ordway attempt to clean up the Marvels after Final Crisis and Countdown made a mess of them) name dropped Gemworld as one of the various dimensions attache to Earth (this is when Jay Garrick and elder Batson were going to the Rock of Finality.)
I would like to see this brought back. There is a serious lack of fantasy comics out there. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Conan and Conan just doesn’t do it for me. Plus it would be only the second DC book that I can say I would read (Gotham City Sirens looks interesting).
That actually sounds like a fairly original comic series. I’m sure if you put in a more kid friendly artist and marketed it right in those little manga books, you could sell it to kids. Of course, marketing right and the big two comic companies don’t belong in the same thought.
Well, he certainly looks more intimidating that Voldemort.
Yeah. I agree with you that the idea for Amethyst is just ripe for a revamp AND for drawing more young women into comics.
This, along with DC Comics’ failure to make their new Supergirl book a monthly instead of a mini-series, does nothing to help my faith that anyone at DC Comics is really paying attention to the needs of the market.
“Starman” Matt Morrison: There’s always Power Girl right? Or is that too fanservice to count?
@ Doug M: Foglio earlier used the face-amulet thing in Xxxenophile. The effect was… different.
Come on, the guy’s writeup even SAYS “raised his mastery of the mystic powers to AWESOME levels” – you’ve gotta put that over. Might as well say “Powers and Abilities: BAD. ASS.”
We all know Dark Opal was the REAL “Mockingbird” behind The Society.
Amethyst was brilliant and I can’t believe no one has wanted to use that series for a reboot. OTOH, why reboot what was perfectly good to begin with. I wish they’d release this in graphic novel form, though.
And yes, I think YOU should write Gemworld. I would absolutely love to see what you’d do with it. ;-D
SO, apparently I was too young to get the good stuff!! I AM DOWNLOADING THIS.
Apparently, this was never collected into a book, and only one person on Amazon.com is selling the complete series… for $400 USD.
I’m still waiting for manga-fied series aimed at the not-quite-teens from DC. Amethyst. Supergirl. Robin & Batman. Metal Men. It’d be perfect.
How about 25?
@ Matthew Johnson: Did XXXenophile predate Gemworld? IMS the original series started in 1982 or thereabouts.
@ Chunk Rockslam: MGK’s writeup doesn’t mention it, but Dark Opal’s son led a rebellion against him. It ended with them dueling in his throne room. It was almost an even match, but Opal won. He crippled his son… congratulated him on coming so close… and then stabbed him through the heart, killing him.
He was OK, that Dark Opal.
Doug M.
“MGK’s writeup doesn’t mention it, but Dark Opal’s son led a rebellion against him. It ended with them dueling in his throne room. It was almost an even match, but Opal won. He crippled his son… congratulated him on coming so close… and then stabbed him through the heart, killing him.”
I’m going to have to find a torrent of this when I get home as that sounds wicked.
Dark Opal even pulled a Doom thing by putting on the all-house gem breastplate straight from the forge. Red-hot, and doesn’t even scream, just so he can greet the good guys with a smile as they arrive at his fortress. He was awesome.
Amethyst was one of my first comics, and it is much better than you’d think. Warning, though – stop reading once Giffen comes on, the story goes to shit. Also, the 90s miniseries was beautifully drawn, but a very very very bad story.
Apparently Gail Simone has tried to get DC to do more Gemworld stuff once or twice too. Given what they’ll do limited series of, I’m not sure why this hasn’t been tried.
Brucha: Are you talking about “Convergence”? Because according to Wikipedia: “In this story, Amethyst was portrayed as the villain, wanting to unify all the houses in Gemworld by any means.”
Yeah, I can see what you mean about it being bad.
I just want to say that Ernie Colon’s art, even 20+ years later, still looks miles better than much of today’s art by the current ‘hot’ artists. Clean and straightforward — and most important, perfect for the story.
I find a lot of current comic art to be over-rendered, and computer colouring is not always a good thing.
I thought Foglio did face amulet gags back in his Dragon magazine days?
I thought “Gemworld” was generally pretty well-regarded, actually.
DC will bring back “Warlord”, but not this?
Prankster: Warlord was in JLU, Gemworld wasn’t.
Next week: MGK does “30 Reasons Why I Should Write XXXenophile.”
IIRC, Foglio did the face-amulet thing with Buck Godot’s belt buckle, and Buck’s first adventure was published around 1982.
Jim Davis also did the same trick with the head of Wade the Duck’s innertube on U.S. Acres–that’s from 1986, but it’s possible more average people first saw the schtick done there than either Amethyst or Buck Godot. (And I really doubt Jim Davis ever read Amethyst, so it’s either an older trope or something a lot of artists independently thought up around the same time.)
Ernie Colon is definitely in the category of “artists my teenage self didn’t appreciate enough at the time”. Nice clean lines, strong layouts.
In retrospect, he looks a lot like Dave Gibbons. Makes me wonder if they learned at the same school.
Doug M.
I still have my original, mini preview “Duel in Dark Magic”(well of vision), 12 issue first run and the Superman crossover DC presents #63.
“You idiot! That’s no magician– That’s a Strongman. And no man of mere physical strength can match my skill– Not while I command the greatest power of the Gemworld!”
You know who should write an Amethyst series?
Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin.
http://www.tangognat.com/2009/03/15/amethyst-special-feature-interview-with-gary-cohn-and-dan-mishkin/
I think the part of this that makes me happiest is seeing four or so of my favorite people from different parts of teh interwebs interacting!
Doug M! Brucha! Ardy! MGK!
“It begs the question why there hasn’t been a relaunch or reboot.”
No, it doesn’t. It raises the question, and you, MGK, are too good a writer to fall in to this popular misuse of “begs the question”.
And if Dark Opal is 88% RtFWD, that amulet has got to be 20% all by itself.
Where may I find/purchase these nice Gemworld books?
marvinmartian: Your local comic book store I would imagine.
To be fair, “begs the question” may be the most counterintuitive phrase in the English language. It SOUNDS like it should be a more extreme version of “raises the question”, but no…
@Doug M: I meant that Foglio used it in Xxxenophile earlier than in Girl Genius, not earlier than Amethyst. Amethyst definitely predates Xxxenophile.
(Not sure about the Buck Godot reference, I think it was roughly the same time as Amethyst.)
how about 12 reasons? huh, huh? get it?
I have to say. I have never read any of Gemworld, and I do not know much about the series at all, but Dark Opal?
He looks like a man you don’t want to fuck with, JUST from that one picture of him. Screw the text explanations, he looks like he’s in the middle of a killing spree, or about to start one, and you just know you don’t have the skills to stop him.
So I’m counting that alone as a reason why they should reprint it.
…based on this reccomendation do I download Amethyst.
You, sir, are fucking awesome.
(No, I’m not going to write “30 Reasons Why I Should Write Gemworld.”)
Even if we beg?
What about cookies?
What if we petition Flapjacks to bother you until you do it?
Flapjacks! If you can hear this! I will send you valueable American Toaster Pastry Proof of Purchases! They can be redeemed for Star Trek Communicator Flashlights! They will only be sent if you convince MGK to write these Gemworld articles, though.
Great series! For more on Amethyst, check out this 100-minute audio interview with the creators/writers of Amethyst, Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn.
http://onceuponageek.com/2009/06/05/exclusive-interview-with-creators-of-blue-devil-amethyst-dan-mishkin-gary-cohn/
Ernie Colon wins the Should Really Have Gone With a Pen Name Award.
Thanks, Greg, I totally agree about who should write AMETHYST…AND Blue Devil. Sorry, Marty, you may be a fine writer, but sometimes only the originators of a story should touch that story. Actually, I think the first 12 issues, excluding the Superman crossover, is complete and final. Everything else, including anything I and Dan wrote, is apocrypha. Those twelve issues are true text. As for Ernie…the best of the best. Most of the currently working artists aren’t fit to carry his pencil case. Check out his and Sid Jacobson’s graphic novel version of the 9-11 Commission Report and its sequel.