Beyond the Justice League and the Avengers…
In the mid- to late ’80s, you could not go into a good comics shop without seeing shelves of black-and-white comics. It was boom times for the DIY crowd and the proliferation of titles lent a real punk sensibility to the whole thing.
Most titles faded into oblivion but a number of creators became stars — and their signature characters became part of the fabric of the Modern Age. The B&W movement also paved the way for the Images, Dark Horses and IDWs of the world.
Anyway, it’s this corner of comicdom that Back Issue will be celebrating with Issue #125 this November — the Creator-Owned Comics Issue.
Dig the official description:
December 2020 – 84 FULL-COLOR pages
Back Issue #125 takes a stab at the evolution of Creator-Owned Comics, featuring in-depth histories of Matt Wagner’s Mage and Grendel. Plus other indie sensations of the Bronze Age, including Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, Steve Purcell’s Sam & Max, James Dean Smith’s Boris the Bear, and Larry Welz’s Cherry Poptart! With a fabulous Grendel cover by Wagner. Edited by Michael Eury.
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A few thoughts:
— I dig Matt Wagner a lot, though I admit I’m more familiar with his mainstream work than Mage or Grendel. I’m an idiot, I know.
— As you might imagine, Cherry Poptart was quite popular in my college dorm.
— Back Issue #125 is scheduled to ship Nov. 18, give or take a week or so. It’ll be available at comics shops, of course, but you can also get it directly from publisher TwoMorrows. (Click here to pre-order, if you are so inclined.)
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MORE
— BACK ISSUE Magazine to Highlight Superheroes’ Greatest Love Stories. Click here.
— BACK ISSUE Magazine to Spotlight HORRIFIC HEROES. Click here.
February 25, 2020
Still have all of those, in storage. Those were exciting times, as you never knew what to expect when you walked into your LCS. Early Eclipse, Aircel, Mirage, Fantagraphics, DH, Comico, Pacific Comics…like fine wine…
February 27, 2020
Man, I loved me Bill Willingham’s Elementals. And Southern Knights, too. I bought the entire DNAgents collected in One Volume. I read Grendel, but was only “Meh” about it. Mage, to me, was far better. And I also remember reading a comic called “Red Fox”. And in college, I got into Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. Then Star Blazers, and Gold Digger
February 27, 2020
Pander Bros was anything but “meh” and the dynamic first arc of the tale — the contrast of good & evil paired with his art style was hardly meh to me either. No offense, I’m just saying.
I mean…a Native American werewolf in a wheelchair who is fighting an ancient, spiritual form of evil (that fights its own forms of ancient evil)…that certainly isn’t commonplace!
I also love Mage, but it’s a modern re-telling of King Arthur (which I enjoyed missing the first time around). Never forgotten that tale either.