Where were you when you first read Marvelman?

[SW3D]

Where were you when you first read Marvelman?

 

Hey you! Yeah, you know who you are! You love Alan Moore's take on the one-time rip-off of the Big Red Cheese, who became a god and ruled a utopia after the near destruction of London. Where were you when Mike Moran uttered the word Kimota? I know where I was... it was 1985 and I was in a dingy and cramped comic book store called Bishop Comics in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY, which smelled ferociously of paper oxidation. I was an aimless 14-year old bored out of my mind... bored of the same old superheroes... with the same old predictable endings... who no matter how high the odds were stacked against them... always managed to come out on top. See you next ish true believer! And why didn't they age? And why, as I matured, did they seem to become more and more irrelevant, almost infantile, as I was absorbed into the turbulent world of teenage life?

 

Of course, Eclipse's Miracleman shocked the sh*t out of me. Never had I beheld such an amazing spectacle of life and death and utter realism (if one could be said of comic book heroes). And being an aimless kid, with a new found drug, I was eager to learn more about this wonderful creation. But what exactly were Miracleman's roots? His origins? As it turns out, Miracleman was really Marvelman, and it took me a long time to accept this and the fact that he was a foreign creation. Can you imagine? Comic books written and drawn by non-Americans. That was absurd. Americans are like Wolverine... We are the best there is at what we do! But that cynical and backward egotistical notion soon came crashing down and yielded to a golden dawn which lit the way and I stepped through into another world. Suddenly I was no longer sheltered. I was no long exposed to just one world view. I was emancipated! I was liberated! And it was just the beginning. And I no longer looked at comics in much the same way. And Marvelman set the barometer for me. From that day on, all comics were to be held to a higher standard... accountable for quality... not just in art, but literate stories with a higher sense of realism.

 

So why the BFD (big f**king deal)? Why all this hoopla over Marvelman? I don't know? Maybe it's because I recently went to Midtown Comics and picked up several copies of Avatar Press's Hero Worship... and the bolt of flashback lightning hit met (like Barry Allen when he stood to close to those chemicals), and I just thought, wow... is this Deja Vu? Didn't I live this event already? Why does it seem so familiar? Yes... of course... Zenith reminds me of Kid Miracleman... not just in looks but the whole faux realism... a world where superheroes are as human as human can be... for better or for worse.

 

So where does one start to begin the exploration into the essential roots of Marvelman's unique vision? I'm glad you asked... Why in the black and white pages of the British magazine known as Warrior. Warrior is where it all began... where Alan Moore's vision took fruit and Garry Leach and Alan Davis made it all too real.

 

So do yourself a favor and get out your wallets, then scour the auction sites, your local comics specialty shops, and flea markets for back issues of Warrior, and purchase a copy (or more), then ask yourself... I wonder if the CGC will grade my Warrior? The answer is NO! Then ask yourself... Am I content to live with the colorized reprints (issues 1 through 6) which appeared in Eclipse's 80's cancelled run. And the unmistakable conclusion is... NO! Why?...because I declare myself a voracious and passionate comic book collector with an insatiable appetite and need to acknowledge and preserve all important documents of comic book history... and Warrior is a landmark deserving grading services.

 

...And then...

 

...take a few minutes from your busy schedule and send the CGC a short and sweet e-mail. Let them know your voice needs to be heard, and that you demand CGC grading services for Warrior... no matter the cost... for the long term benefits outweigh the short term. And if you care to send that message, if you care to stand up for a cause, please courtesy copy me at screenwriter3d@yahoo.com.

 

A shout out to Tnerb... for his passion and spirit. May the fire always burn.

 

Kimota!

 

See more journals by screenwriter3d

[surfer99]

I looked, but he hasn't written any journals for me to read...

 

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/PublicUserHome.aspx?PeopleID=53571

 

 

 

[SW3D]

Damn! I told him to get something posted... he must be too busy dealing with that pesky Johnny Bates?

[Ronnylama]

I thought Wolverine was Canadian

I do love Alan Moore speaking in earnestnes

[SW3D]

Wolvie is Canadian, but his creator Len Wein is American, so that makes him in my mind, a product of American know-how.

 

I couldn't agree with you more... what's not to love about Alan Moore.