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Immortality
2007-07-27 12:31:38

Secret Project--soon to be revealed!

So this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego has begun--and this year, as with the past couple of years, I'm not in attendance, having remained behind to kind of mind the store here at Marvel central.

We'll be making a number of announcements in San Diego about upcoming projects, one of which will be a secret project that I've shown some pages from on this blog over the past few months, concerning itself with a number of golden age characters. And that, along with the recent announcements from other companies about Alex Ross's Dynamite series, and the Next Issue project over at Image, got me thinking about a particular element of comic book publishing that I really like.

In all three of these cases, these assorted projects, whether they turn out to be great or awful, will be dealing with characters who were originally created sixty-some odd years ago. In many instances, because of the way comic books were done back in the 40s, we can't even be sure as to whom the original creators of these characters were. And yet, sixty-some odd years later, here they are, coming back into print again to potentially enthrall an entirely new generation of readers.

Immortality.

One of the great aspects of this business--and I'm putting aside any issues of financial gain for the purposes of this discussion--is that every once in a while, when we have a good day and we hit the ball just right, we create ideas and stories and characters that will outlive us, that will be able to entertain our children and our children's children in one media or another, both in their original form and in new adaptations, long after we're gone. And through that, some small part of the creators gets to live on and be remembered, even if the audience doesn't know specifically who it was who was behind the character in the first place.

That's really kind of cool.

More later.

Tom B

It's not a secret any more, Tom! :)

Posted by Fetsur on 2007-07-27 17:34:38

yup
Absolutely. One of the things that drives me to do what I do is the idea that people after me might not know my name, but I might be a blessing to them with what I leave them.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-07-27 22:20:15

I'm particulary fond of "hidden years " ,retro-pulp stories;
let see what could be tell now that couldn't before,
and with all the other up-coming projects, it's just... wow,so...
just good to see everything in his right place.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-30 04:08:05

What Survives
I think one of the core attributes of a lot of the 40s-50s characters that has kept them in the human (or American) consciousness is that they were inspired by the strong emotions of the time - or born from war. That sort of altruistic battle against a terrifying force with everything at stake stayed with the characters from the creators, and will most likely continue to echo until war or humankind is abolished.

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-07-30 15:33:22

Striking an Interest with America
I believe that the projects being undertaken as I type this are amazing and worth every effort; I often find myself looking back into the Golden Age list of superheros and wondering what their futures could have held if they were only given a longer print life.

I am sure that many of those long lost heroes will still strike an interest in readers across America, perhaps the globe. There is something remarkable about the older Comic book characters, is that in their magnificence you can find common ground with them; be it for a desire to uphold justice or to never give up.

The future rests in looking back to the past for inspiration. I believe that the older comic book characters hold plenty of inspiration, and for a reason. It's the fact that although they do everything in their power to thwart a villain, they still have weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could very well take them out of their pursuits. And, in those final frames, you find that its not the superpowers that eventually win the day, its the superheros will to do good, no matter what the costs may be to themselves.

Posted by jimmychap1 on 2007-07-31 17:44:19

Array

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