Posted: 15 July 2016 at 12:20am | IP Logged | 1
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With everybody complaining about DC and Marvel not knowing what they're doing, their endless "events" driving people away, their ruining our old favorites, etc., it really surprises me that no one is trying to start a viable 3rd Company! I don't mean Dark Horse or Image, which are both mostly creator-owned books these days (IDW too), or Archie which is a tiny niche publisher. I'm talking about an honest-to-gosh 3rd Company with potential big sellers like iconic super-heroes.
Dynamite is coming the closest with all its public domain and/or licensed characters like the Shadow, Red Sonja, Tarzan, John Carter, Green Hornet, Zorro, all the Project Superpowers heroes, etc., but, while they've hired some name writers, I just can't buy the stuff because most of the art is amateurish, rushed, or otherwise off-putting. Still, I'm ready to jump on the moment they step things up.
The question for this thread: What's your favorite 3rd Company?
Past or Present, what 3rd Company did you like the best and which did you think had (or has) the most potential to be up there with the Big Two?
Some possibilities-- CONTINUITY COMICS--Neal Adams created some iconic-looking characters and kept a solid look to the art over most of the line, but the writing just wasn't there.
CROSS-GEN--They invested heavily in fantasy-oriented titles tied together by some sci fi thread, but their best book RUSE didn't need either. They expanded way too fast and imploded.
ATLAS COMICS (SEABOARD)--I still love some of "Marvel Jr's" first or second issues, but they expanded and imploded even faster than Cross-Gen! Slow growth, people!
VALIANT. ACCLAIM, DARK HORSE (their connected super-hero titles), IMAGE (their original books), FUTURE COMICS (the last attempt I remember by names I recognized, Bob Layton & Dick Giordano), and a multitude of tiny publishers--they all tried but they all failed by making very obvious mistakes (expanding too fast, not bothering to hire name creators, concentrating on an unattractive tone or genre). Jim Shooter tried THREE times, picking a very dull house art style every time.
So many legendary creators from the 70's/80's (when the Big Two produced a LOT of material that is being mined for billion dollar movies right now) are still producing! Except for Jim Starlin and Neal Adams, most of these Masters of the Artform have (by their own volition or by some misguided decisions by the editors and publishers) left the Big Two in favor of doing creator-owned material. If I had some millions to spare, I would drop a big pile of money in front of legends like Byrne, Perez, Simonson, Ordway, Gulacy, P. Craig Russell, and solid storytellers like Tom Grummett, Kerry Gammill, Keith Pollard, Steve Englehart, Doug Moench, Don McGregor, and many many others and say "Build me a creative empire!" No matter how much you spent, you'd make it all back and much more with the first billion dollar movie you sell based on the new creations these geniuses would make!
My point is--there's money out there to be invested and to be made, the talent is there, and there is a market in the pop culture right now like never before--all the factors exist for a 3rd Company to take the world by storm!
Second question for this thread: Do you see any up-and-comers?
Edited by Eric Jansen on 15 July 2016 at 4:35am
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