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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16497
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | 1
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Eric Jansen wrote:
| ...Do we think that Marvel tanked MALIBU on purpose? Malibu seemed to be doing everything right--they actually advertised, they had distinct characters that stood out, movie deals were being talked about--but I've heard Marvel bought them just for their coloring system... |
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Yes, I believe Marvel bought the competition to get rid of it. It was around the time I opened my shop that Marvel bought Malibu, and even back then I thought the story about buying the publisher for its coloring was ridiculous. Malibu was using what all the colorists for the publishers would eventually use: Photoshop. I thought then, and still think that Marvel bought the largest competitor it could to squash it.
It's insane that Marvel owns all the Malibu characters and haven't done anything with them in 20 years. Almost as crazy as burying their own, original characters to spite a movie studio.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 15 July 2016 at 3:53pm
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Ted Downum
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2378
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | 2
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Valiant is my favorite second-tier player, both the old and the new stuff (I think the new books have a definite edge in terms of consistent quality).
I also liked what few Ultraverse books I happened across, and I miss Dark Horse STAR WARS.
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Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5581
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | 3
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Atlas .Probably a good 60% of the first comics I got were Atlas. That was the first few months of '75. They did a pretty good job of raiding some talent from the big 2.
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Bill Guerra
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 March 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1072
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | 4
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The new Valiant IS my "3rd company". They have been putting out consistently solid books since their (re)debut back in 2012. Their continuity has made far more sense that Marvel and DC in that same timeframe.
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Shane Matlock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 August 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1760
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | 5
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With few creators willing to use their best creations in a work for hire environment it seems like the Marvel and DC universes will likely never be matched. There have been many attempts, all of which produced some good comics, Ultraverse, Dark Horse's Comics Greatest World, Valiant, the Wildstorm universe, but none of them produced anything close to a Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Fantastic Four, etc. If anything they had a lot of analogues for more successful Marvel and DC characters (which of course, these days, so does Marvel and DC with their de-uniquing of every single popular character they have).
Personally I enjoyed the Shooter led Valiant books quite a bit (the company went downhill quickly after he was ousted) and what I've read of the new Valiant via Scribd is all pretty good too, especially the Jeff Lemire books. I also really enjoyed a lot of the Wildstorm universe stuff circa the late 90's and early 00's especially Sleeper and Planetary. Of course DC pretty much did away with what made those books good by integrating them into the DC universe proper with Nu52.
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2364
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| Posted: 15 July 2016 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | 6
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"With few creators willing to use their best creations in a work for hire environment it seems like the Marvel and DC universes will likely never be matched."
Well, now that you mention it, you COULD do creator-owned AND do a 3rd Company at the same time!
Continuity's characters were all created, guided, and owned by Neal Adams and they had a real chance--if only Adams had brought in powerful writers.
Likewise, Wildstorm's stuff was all created, designed, and owned (I believe--I don't know if his main writer or anybody else co-owned stuff) by Jim Lee and he DID bring in some super-stars like Alan Moore, James Robinson, Travis Charest, and some others to take over WILDCATS...but he also used too many clone artists too.
In fact, you could say that Marvel was all one man's vision for its formative years. (No matter how much credit you give Ditko and Kirby, it was still Stan Lee who pulled it all together.)
Maybe one person (an artistic genius, hopefully) designing a good 8 or 10 creations is the only way to get a viable 3rd Company going. Kurt Busiek has at least 8 good stars in ASTRO CITY that could potentially carry their own book. Neal Adams' creations could come back, written by the best writers for hire this time. I wouldn't mind seeing more of JB's Torch of Liberty, Danger Unlimited, Babe, and all the Triple Helix-related characters, but the problem there is that I wouldn't want to see anybody but Byrne handle those.
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 11:04am | IP Logged | 7
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Back in the day I was a big fan of First Comics. BADGER,
GRIM JACK and AMERICAN FLAGG!
Comico was close behind with licensed books for ROBOTECH
and JONNY QUEST. They also had JUSTICE MACHINE.
As for today, it flip flops between IDW and Dynamite. I'm a
huge fan of pulp characters so I'm glad a company like
Dynamite exists. Unfortunately, the quality of books they
publish on those characters range from great to terrible.
IDW is currently putting out solid to great product be teen
there licensed material and creator owned books. They also
make the best art books in the business.
In a perfect world, IDW would buy Dynamite and carry
pretty much everything I like outside of the Big Two.
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14852
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | 8
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Do we think that Marvel tanked MALIBU on purpose? Malibu seemed
to be doing everything right--they actually advertised, they had distinct
characters that stood out, movie deals were being talked about--but I've
heard Marvel bought them just for their coloring system.
------
https://longboxgraveyard.com/2012/07/03/tom-mason-on-the-
malibudc-comics-deal-that-wasnt/
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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | 9
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I recall Malibu's books as generally awful. They did have some accomplished creators on their side, though (Steve Gerber, George Perez, for example).
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | 10
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I recall Malibu's books as generally
awful. They did have some accomplished
creators on their side, though (Steve
Gerber, George Perez, for example).
=========
Joe, I really enjoyed a couple of them,
PRIME and NIGHT MAN, which changed after
the initial creative teams left.
PRIME was an interesting take on the Billy
Batson/Captain Marvel type hero.
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Robert Shepherd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1268
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | 11
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Wow....mind blown at all the memories you guys just forced me to relive. There were some really good non-Marvel/Dc companies back then.
I really like Comico's Elementals and Innovations's Hero Alliance, and Noble's/Innovation's/Comico's Justice Machine.
Heck I love all the independents back then....good times.
Edited by Robert Shepherd on 16 July 2016 at 7:05pm
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Robert Shepherd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1268
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| Posted: 16 July 2016 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | 12
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Hey does anyone remember a book, wayyyyyyy before he was "known" illustrated by Marc Silvestri (I think) called Project StrikeForce or Codename: StrikeForce (not to be confused with his title Codename: StrykeForce) or something like that? It would have been way before his Image days and even before his Marvel days.
Edited by Robert Shepherd on 16 July 2016 at 7:19pm
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Topic Closed)
