Epic Illustrated

[torgospizza]

Just bought Jim Starlin's Dreadstar: The Beginning and Rick Veitch's Abraxas and the Earthman and it really struck me how comics' most creative days are behind us. Having said that, Veitch was saying in his introduction what the times were like then with the Big Two chasing after a new generation of spandex fetishists, while neglecting their older readers. It sounds a lot like today. In your esteemed opinions, could a magazine like Epic Illustrated do well today? Is the talent there to be tapped? Or are readers dumbed-down enough they couldn't appreciate anything beyond their standard fare?

BTW, Marada the She-Wolf is coming out next month.

[ctc]

>could a magazine like Epic Illustrated do well today?

They could, and they have been. The collapse of the Big Two-ish opened the door for a lot of independents, and a lot wider selection of subject matter.

Epic always struck me as an odd line. It felt like Marvel trying really hard to be the imports of the day.... mostly European.... but still hanging onto their supers as much as possible. To that end, it always felt like watered down Heavy Metal for me. Their timing seemd askew as well. The slick, adult-ish magazine styler stuff was on it's way out. Warren was dying, the zillion Warren clones were all dead, even Marvel's attempt at similar stuff a decade earlier had met with very limited success. I figure they were bolstered by the inroads stuff like WARP and Star+Reach had made, (although the latter was pretty short lived) and the burgeoning comic shop market. (Populated at the time by older readers not so much into capes and tights.)

>It sounds a lot like today.

It is; except things turned out the opposite from the last time; with the Big Two-ish losing instead of appropriating the industry. I think we're on the cusp of another changing of the guard, with the stage being cleared for a new crop of fans. It'll be interesting to see what wins this time. (Archie's been getting a lot of press lately....)

>are readers dumbed-down enough they couldn't appreciate anything beyond their standard fare?

I don't think they're dumbed down at all. The last bunch of kids to get into comics got into stuff from a lot of different genres and themes; some of which were pretty deep. That's better than us. Our generation looked at the vastness of comics and said "SUPERHEROES! YAY!" and that was it for 15 years.

I think the big problem is that folks get into their ruts, and stay there. So not only do they miss out on the next big thing, they actively impede it. Unless their stuff gets crushed by the incoming style.

Don C.

[Figuremod73]

I would buy a magazine like that, epecially if it had different subject matter every month from veterans we dont see anymore.

The only thing I really bought (since I wasnt exposed to the mag) was Groo. Well....It did say Epic on the cover