The Epic (and Epic Illustrated) thread

(At least I think the magazine came first; I read it before reading any of the Epic comics, anyway.)

They brought back the epic imprint recently in an attempt to lure in new talent. Didn't work.

Less _Crimson Dynamo_ & _Trouble_ talk, more _Alien Legion_ & _Coyote_ talk please!

Oh man, I had friends who were fanatical about Alien Legion.

Coyote was good, too, what I remember of it. And I think it was the first comic I read with sex in it.

The new Epic thing seemed destined to failure from the beginning because Marvel just doesn't have the same things to offer as it did twenty years ago: there are more alternatives to the Big Two for getting published, and "making it big" doesn't seem to entail the things it used to (unless you option things out and merchandise the hell out of everything and start a toy company).

The Epic imprint as "brought back" by Jemas last year was never a serious thing. Jemas had enough clout to get it as far as it did by sheer willpower alone, but it was never viewed as anything other than ego-stroking. Which is a shame, as it could have been something kinda cool, but Marvel's stance as an IP and not a comics company was what ultimately killed it.

The original Epic was teh roxxor. So much good stuff that holds up even today (and gets reprinted by Vertigo, among others.) Not to mention VOID INDIGO, which got labeled as a "crime against humanity" or somesuch nonsense. Too bad that never got finished.

Let's point out that Epic had the coolest titles, too. I mean, hello, Void Indigo! Alien Legion! These are great words.

Epic is also responsible for my first exposure to the still-overdone-unfortunately "character was molested at a young age and is still not okay with it, and pointing this out makes the character deeper" trope, thanks to an issue of Dreadstar (another great title).

I was a little shocked just now, debagging my Epic Ills, to discover that one of them has a back-cover ad for WHISKEY. I have trouble picturing that happening today, even in a clearly-not-for-kids comics magazine.

I'd rather have a back-cover ad for WHISKEY than a back-cover ad for a Star Wars Atari game where I can clearly see that the kid playing the game needs to PICK HIS DAMN NOSE!

I'm too lazy to G00gle this, but is there an Epic compendium site listing all the stuff that Epic published?

Not that I can see, even after Googling -- which is kind of weird. I wonder -- tangentially -- if the writers' contracts either didn't give Marvel an option to anthologize, or only gave them anthology rights during a now-expired window. Some of this stuff would be pretty marketable collected or anthologized, and they printed prose stuff too -- there's a Zelazny short story in here, and I think a Harlan Ellison one (and I would have known who neither of them was at the time).

Oh, and you know, Archie Goodwin really needs to be namechecked in praising Epic: he launched both the magazine and (iirc) the imprint, and became the imprint editor (I don't remember if he went directly from being editor in chief to imprint editor -- wasn't there someone between him and Shooter?). He always seemed like the anti-Shooter, but not in a way that actually put them in conflict. (I've maligned Shooter some but have a generally good opinion of him as EiC, especially compared to his successors.)

For years I couldn't read a Nero Wolfe mystery without being weirded out (Nero's partner/sidekick is a wisecracking womanizing Bogart-ish sort of guy named Archie Goodwin).

Oh, and here is a partial list of Epic Ill contents and some early Epic series (I'd forgotten about Six From Sirius and Sisterhood of Steel! And The Black Dragon was such a huge deal, I think it was on that special paper -- Baxter paper? -- and came out at the same time as Secret Wars and Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger.)

Tep

If by Rich Geary you mean Rick Geary, then he's done lots of wonderful stuff since Epic Illustrated. See www.rickgeary.com and www.nbmpub.com/mystery/geary.html for examples.

I remember liking the Epic Illustrated issues I read at the time, but in retrospect it was a bit rub. all those standalone stories were a bit pointless, like an entire magazine full of sub-standard Tharg's future shocks. Still, I wuvved both Cobalt 60s, and I remember the doomy goth story being a larf. I also salute Epic Illustrated for introducing me to "Cerebus". I have a friend who still thinks of Cerebus as that character who appeared in two short Epic Ill stories.

Epic resurrected shockah! Bill Jemas seems to be trying to do the Epic thing with his new company. Check out Rich Johnston's column (updated twice!) for details.

There we go, yes, Rick Geary, not Rich -- it's good to see he's still around.