From: Rich Johnston <[r--n--n] at [ea.com]> Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc,rec.arts.comics.alternative,rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe,rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks,alt.comics.image,alt.comics.alan-moore Subject: Rich's Revelations: Almost November Date: 29 Oct 1996 03:39:01 -0800 Rich's Revelations. Almost November. Oh, BTW Elayne, my birthday's on the 21st. This month: Marvel heroes, Marvel X-heroes, Top Cow stuff, Sleaze Castle, Alan Moore and libellous rumours. Take your pick Heroes Reborn has been a big success for Marvel, with orders up to half a million. The good old days, eh? So what next. Frank Miller back on Daredevil and Walt Simonson back on Thor are possibilities. Even Mike Zeck on The Punisher. We could also look forward to an Ant-Man/Hercules series in 97, by Bob Layton. Shanna The She-Devil is looking for a revival. The resolution of Heroes Reborn may occur thanks to Quasar, who goes looking for them, using the Star Brand. Timothy Zahn may write this SF series, and it reads like a Mark Gruenwald tribute to me. We could also see Alpha Flight, Werewolf By Night, Black Panther, Dazzler and Longshot, Cloak and Dagger and The Rawhide Kid make returns as Marvel goes to the vault to exploit what it sees as the market resurgence in 1997 and 1998. Even Power Pack may return, aged five years. Howard Mackie and Tomm Coker are doing a sequel to Logan: Path of the Warrior, exploring more pre-Weapon X history of this feral character. Shadow Society will also star Carol Danvers. Andy Kubert leaves Wolverine to join The Incredible Hulk, doing nine issues a year. Anthony Winn will replace fill-in artist Val Semieks on Wolverine. Anthony is more familiar to Top Cow readers and may signal a return to Wolverine by Marc Silvestri, in an attempt to bring sales back to Wolverine's glory days of over a million. Wolvie fans will be pleased to see the adamantium returning. The Silver Surfer will also be getting the Top Cow treatment, and George Perez will find himself being booted off yet another Heroes Reborn title. Witchblade's David Wohl will be taking over creative duties on the title. Sleaze Castle 7 1/2 is out, telling half of issue 8, in which we find out just how Panda can be pregnant. Yes, folks, it's alternate dimensions again! The Sleaze Castle calendar will also be delayed till next year. Caption 97 WILL be happening. But will the UKCAC? No news so far... but its such an institution that someone will have to do something. Dave Sim says that Jeff Mason can “bite me!” Alan Moore's Plans: An interactive CD-Rom called “The Moon And Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre Of Marvels”n, based on the CD of the same name. Co-collaborators include Dave Gibbons and Tim Perkins. Big Numbers: “it looks increasingly likely that it will be turned into a British TV series by award-winning producer Alex Usborne.” Other works include “a personal autobiography in comic form, about my own experiences, or apparent experiences, with magic. Which I think would be like... Harvey Pekar meets Doctor Strange.. From Hell: There will be a second appendix to From Hell, the Dance Of The Gull Snatchers and that'll come out as a separate little twenty-four page comic later this year... End of the Century: I've currently been looking at the end of the century. There was something grand about the way in which the 1800s rose to their climax. I don't see much that is grand today. So what I thought was, what about a visionary magazine. Neil Gaiman would like to be in on it, Oscar Zarate, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland. I could see a people like maybe P. Craig Russell, Charles Vess, ones who have kind of a visionary quality to their work. I would also like people from outside comics, Iain Sinclair, Brian Catling, Aaron Williamson, Peter Ackroyd. We're thinking of something large format, beautifully produced, a limited edition, very expensive, like RAW.” Lost Girls: “That's two-thirds finished, and I'm pleased with it. The reaction from women has been wonderful. We're going overboard on the girliness of this. This is why we put boxes of chocolates on the front, because everyone knows that women are sexually aroused by chocolate. Kitchen Sink are doing us proud. It's an all-women editorial team, who are just as girly as we are. They stick all the little bits of lace and things like that around the stuff, they love doing it. They don't very often get the chance to do a comic that can have flowers all over it, and things like that. It'll probably get a few meaningless awards, and sell about twenty thousand copies like From Hell does. When we bring it out as a book, however, then we're going to push it to the mass market. Because I think that sex is a big crossover. Superheroes, no. Sex, yeah, that's generally guaranteed to get people's attention. According to Fabian Nicieza, the difference between Ennis' Shadowman and Delano's Shadowman is that “There's still a lot of swearing, there's still a lot of shooting, running around and ripping people's heads off but they discuss it first.” Marvel's packagers have toild Marvel that they will not be able to reach demanded performance times according to contract. But what can Marvel do about it? Keep shipping badly through Heroes World, of course! It happens so often that I get a news story so juicy it's unrepeatable. Well this is one about Bob Layton. And I want to tell you all, but I just can't because it could ruin him and could be libellous if I wasn't able to back him up. Damn. Buy me a drink at a UKCAC and I'll tell you. But I have additional information to a previous Rich's Revelations that alleged that a chunk of X-Files 1 from Topps were stolen from Diamond UK before they were shipped to the rest of the UK. Basically it's been backed up, and linked to someone who then went on to sell hundreds of the issue at top prices. On that note, a whole pile of X-O Manowars 1 seem to have gone missing this week too, leading a number of shops to be massively allocated. Is any of this true? Diamond shipped full orders. British shops didn't get them. Something is happening-- but what? Rich Johnston <[r--n--n] at [ea.com]> Twist and Shout Comics. Order Dirtbag and the X-Flies wherever you see out name. Seriously. If you don't advance re-order X-Flies Bug Hunt 1 now... are you sure you could find a copy?