From: Richard Johnston <[t--i--t] at [ketchup.cts-group.co.uk]>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: Rich's Revelations: The Latest News
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 96 22:20:28 GMT

Rich's Revelations.... All the news that's print to fit...

These are Rich's Revelations after a great weekend at the UKCAC! Attendance
was down but fun was up! I met people I haven't seen for ages, put faces to
email addresses, was on a panel on comics and the internet, and ended up in
bed with a rather nice blonde. Not a bad convention actually. Anyway,
news/rumour time. As always, its always alleged. Believe what you want,
disbelieve what you want. Take as much salt as you fancy. Right, here we go.

Swamp Thing is being cancelled, as Mark Millar winds up the book, playing
heavily on past continuity, as the place of Swamp Thing in the world is
settled, Arcane returns, and we get the origin of John Constantine. The book
will be replaced with a series of mini series by different writers and artists.

Both Alan Moore's Swamp Things and Sandman are going to be reprinted by
DC/Vertigo in individual issues, each priced at 99c.

Grant Morrison is ill, suffering from a collapsed lung.

Steve Pugh will be drawing Garth Ennis' Saint of Killers.

Mark Millar is writing/has written a book about Superman originally landing
in the USSR. Naturally he's called Stalin (The Man of Steel), and he is used
to as the USSR's main weapon of destruction.

Todd McFarlane has bought Eclipse Comics for $40,000, primarily for the
rights to publish Miracleman. But has he got what he wants? Dez Skinn says
that he has an original contract with Eclipse that throws this in doubt.
With many clamouring for the rights, including Mick Anglo's niece, Todd
McFarlane had better have a big cheque book. Oh, wait a minute... he has,
hasn't he? I wouldn't be surprised if Todd gives Eclipse to Larry Marder as
a birthday present, or something.

Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future is dead.

Missing your copies of JLX in Britain? Because of a "production error" from
DC, the Amalgam books had to be reprinted, and while DC and Diamond worked
fast and close together, all the British copies of JLX ended up in Seattle.
They'll be here this week though, and as the only Amalgam available this
week, they'll sell fast!

Neil Gaiman has signed a book deal for a new novel and a reprint of short
stories for a cool million pounds.

Fabian Nicieza is all set to take over Bob Layton's position at Acclaim.

Why isn't Phil Hall allowed to talk about X-Men/ClanDestine?

Alan Davis is still going on about Bryan Hitch. Sigh.

Onslaught seems to be Dark Professor X, and the fight between X©Men and
Onslaught is due to reduce the X©Men to their essentials in the battle,
before the Marvel world is split asunder and Marvel heroes are sent tumbling
to a new universe where men have large breasts. However, the first mention
of Onslaught was when Juggernaut fell from
the sky with "Onslaught" on his lips... but wouldn't Cain Marko recognise
his own brother as "Charles" or "Xavier" or "that bald bastard"? When
Onslaught was created... the creators didn't know who he'd be... Anyway, the
X©Men will be blamed for the disappearance of FF, Cap A, etc, and so there
will be more mutant angst, etc.

John Byrne takes on New Gods from issue 12.

More Diamond drops? Tripwire, a UK fanzine has dropped from 660 copies to 76
copies from one issue to the next. Ouch!

Forbidden Planet financial reorganisation?

Gillian Anderson was in London... and in the same hotel that many guests and
fans were staying at. Could she have chosen a worse time and place to visit
London, guaranteeing contact with hundreds of drooling fanboys?

Judge Dredd movie bits. Did you know that casting demanded actors that were
under 5'6"? And that Sly wore 5 inch heels? Things to look for... Sly's
wobbling temples in the locker scene, the set reflected in Dredd's helmet at
one point, showing Mega-City one to be some scaffolding 1 and 1/2 stories
high, and radio mikes visible on people's necks.

More stories behind the Lee/Liefeld shennanigans? From Marvel's side. Jerry
Caliabrese joined Marvel from the print industry but without a comics
background, and from day one he didn't have time to ask questions, just to
make decisions. Noting the high points of Marvel, Spider-man 1, X-Men 1,
X-Force 1, he instigated the deal with Lee and Liefeld, and Liefeld on the
verge of bankruptcy, took it. May be he should have asked "which sells
better, Avengers? Or Team Youngblood", and the fact that the many popular
Wildstorm comics sell perfectly well without Jim Lee, may have something to
do with it. Marvel's short termism sees the first few issues of the books
selling very highly indeed,
instead of planning for years in advance.

Lee and Liefeld may be happy with their $100,000 advance each, but the root
of their acceptance goes deeper. Back in the Marvel days, they battled over
who was better, faster etc. Amicably, but a battle nonetheless. Jim Lee is
quite happy to do his books because he believes he'll show he can outsell
Liefeld on a one to one basis. And he'll win the bet of $1.

And Marvel's short termism? DC discussions during the crossover showed that
while DC discussed work in 1997 and 1998, the Marvel plans weren't than well
laid, more about 2 or 3 weeks. The fact is that job security is so low
there, that planning is pointless. Mind you, the Lee/Liefeld scenario is
seen as just the first step in licensing characters, whether
editorial duties of the characters themselves.

Heroes World is being seen as a failure by most. It may end up with Marvel
just shipping comics UPS, without Heroes World.

Top comics that if you haven't bought, you should be buying.

Sleaze Castle, from Gratuitous Bunny Comix, soon to be solicited through
Capital. The funniest sci-fi comic you'll ever read.

Six Degrees, in your handy copy of Previews. A reworking of the Jamie Bulger
case, fascinating, absorbing, and reminiscient of Hellblazer.

Memory Man, a related title to Six Degrees, because the creators are friends
and give each other comics. A very good superhero comic, set firmly in
reality and unreality. The fight scenese are like bar brawls and the
characters as weird as in Savage Dragon, with a overwhelming feeling of
mundanity. Too gorgeous.

And, I s'pose, I should plug Dirtbag 6, now solicited, too. Picked up loads
of pieces for it at the UKCAC, there really are some damn fine creators out
there. Grap a Previews or Advance Comics and look up Twist and Shout Comics.

Warren Ellis continues to expand. We had a chat at the bar, in which he
managed to buy me a drink without paying for it. I proposed the possibility
of a pregnant Rahne, Phil Hall said that I was a pathetic fanboy, and Warren
said that if he ever did such a thing, she'd carry it to term, and the child
would have blue fur. Heh.

Preacher wiped the floor at the UKCAC awards, winning Best New Title, Best
Writer, Best Artist and more. Fleetway did nicely, and Stuck Rubber Baby won
best graphic novel.

Dez Skinn is Ian Hislop.

Piles of pages of Judge Dredd/Batman by Glenn Fabry were available. Away
man, it looks absolutely gorgeous, but it's been a time coming, eh?

And the blonde? That would be telling...

That was the Revelations that was! This column may be reproduced anywhere,
with this piece added:

Richard Johnston ([t--i--t] at [mail.cts]©group.co.uk) writes, draws and publishes
Dirtbag and X-Flies, available to order from your local comic shop.

I thankyew.
Richard Johnston
Copywriter back in work!
Creator and Publisher of Dirtbag and X-Flies as Twist and Shout Comics.
Reviewer and Networks contributor for Comics International, and reviewer for
Indy.
Dirtbag 6 is available now in Previews and Advance Comics
0 (1144) 1865 775236