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| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Genre | Superhero |
| Predecessor | Extreme Studios Maximum Press |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | Rob Liefeld (founder) Jeph Loeb (publisher) |
| Defunct | 2000 |
Key people | Rob Liefeld |
| Products | Comics |
Awesome Comics orAwesome Entertainment (also known asAwesome-Hyperwerks when briefly joined withHyperwerks Entertainment) was an Americancomic book studio formed in 1997 byRob Liefeld following his expulsion fromImage Comics, a company he co-founded five years prior.
Awesome Comics was the successor of Extreme Studios and Maximum Press, Liefeld'simprints at Image, and was followed by his new companyArcade Comics upon its closure in 2000.
Netflix was in talks to adapt the characters for a series of films in 2018[1] but the deal collapsed.[2]
In 1992, seven high-profile comicsartists leftMarvel Comics to form their ownpublisher, where comics creators could publishcreator-owned material without having to give upcopyright-control to their characters. The seven artists (barWhilce Portacio, who opted not to become a full partner) formed a partnership among their individual studios, and published their comics under the over-arcingImage Comics banner. Image's early titles were distributed byMalibu Comics (a company chosen for its good marketing and distribution practices), while Image established itself independently.[3] The studios were:Todd McFarlane'sTodd McFarlane Productions,Marc Silvestri'sTop Cow Productions,Jim Lee'sWildstorm Productions,Erik Larsen'sHighbrow Entertainment,Jim Valentino'sShadowLine, andRob Liefeld'sExtreme Studios.
Extreme Studios'sYoungblood became the first comic released under the Image banner, and became the first independent (non-DC/Marvel) title to be a number-one best-seller[3] since DC and Marvel became dominant. Other Extreme titles published through Image included:Badrock,Bloodstrike,Brigade,Team Youngblood,Youngblood Strikefile,Glory,Prophet,Supreme,Troll andNew Men.
Titles thought not to fit with the Image brand were self-published under Liefeld's separate imprint:Maximum Press. These titles includedAsylum,Avengelyne,Warchild,Law and Order,Black Flag,Risk, and even licensed properties such as the classicsci-fi TV showBattlestar Galactica (based on theoriginal 1978–1979 TV series). After Liefeld's departure from Image in 1996, Maximum Press began publishing some of Liefeld's Extreme titles (includingGlory andSupreme), before Awesome Entertainment came into being.[4]
After acrimonious disputes with the other founding partners (not least over allegations of irregularities surrounding Liefeld's separate imprint Maximum Press), Liefeld andExtreme Studios broke from Image Comics in 1996, and became "Awesome Comics." Shortly thereafter, Liefeld found a new publisher — writer-producerJeph Loeb[5] — and additional financing from both John Hyde (Film Roman CEO) andScott Mitchell Rosenberg, newly Chairman ofPlatinum Studios. Platinum Studios continues to play an integral part in Liefeld's comics work. (Liefeld had previously worked with Rosenberg, the founder ofMalibu Comics, Image's original distributor, which (post-Image) had been sold toMarvel, in 1994.)[3]
Awesome Comics continued many of the popular Extreme series, as well as launching new titles, includingThe Coven andLionheart by Loeb and artistIan Churchill. Perhaps Liefeld's best move, and the one for which Awesome's output is best known, was the decision to hire acclaimed comics writerAlan Moore to breathe new life into several of Extreme/Awesome's comics and characters. Although Moore's first output for Liefeld came when Extreme was still publishing under the Image banner, the majority of his work was done under Awesome, with several issues (ofSupreme) also being published by Maximum in-between the two imprints.[citation needed]
Moore's most lauded work for Awesome Comics was forSupreme.[6] Taking over initially with #41 (#49 was the first to bear the "Awesome" imprint), Moore deconstructed and reconstructed the core character (and his supporting cast) from a relatively generic superhero, into a glowing tribute to theMort Weisinger-era ofSuperman. Featuring both comics and social commentary and both general and specific tributes to aspects of comics history,Supreme received much critical praise, withEntertainment Weekly, for example, calling a Supreme collection a "graphic novel you really oughta get your hands on".[3]
FollowingSupreme, Liefeld asked Moore to write alimited series crossover featuring almost the entire cast of the Awesome Comics universe, as part of a planned move for Moore to have free rein to redesign and overhaul the entire Awesome Universe. Given the titleJudgment Day, Moore, according to one writer, took exception to the by-then hackneyed idea of an apocalyptic crossover, and instead "chose to frame the story around a trial, which would provide the impetus for the title. ...[A]s super-heroes testified while a member of Youngblood was tried for murder, flashback sequences would redefine the entire company's universe".[7]
However, the overhaul faltered from the start. The threeJudgment Day issues were each labeled as individual number "#1"s, and only differentiated through slightly-confusing subtitles:Alpha,Omega, andFinal Judgment. In addition to the sales-boost issues labelled "#1" regularly achieve, the three issues were longer than normal though priced conventionally. However, the confusing labelling and severe publishing delays (particularly by the third issue) caused sales to falter.[7]
In December 1997, Moore wrote a follow-up issue, theAwesome Holiday Special featuring his newYoungblood team. He followed this the next month withJudgment Day: Aftermath, featuring artwork by the renownedGil Kane (who also appeared in the story as a character), which cleared the stage for the intended revised and revamped Awesome Universe, plotted by Moore.[citation needed]
The first title to be relaunched wasYoungblood, the first Image title, and core title in Liefeld's various — and subsequent — imprints. Issue #1, written by Moore with art bySteve Skroce, was released around the same time asJudgment Day: Aftermath in early 1998. Despite Moore reportedly having the first 12 issues outlined and part-written prior to its launch, the title was delayed considerably, with the second issue not seeing print until six months after the first. The second issue also proved to be the final issue, although the title was subsequently retitled and relaunched a year later asAwesome Adventures, featuring a foreshortened story from Moore's script and notes. This followed the publication of aGlory Preview issue (#0) by Moore for a series that would not see print from Awesome. (Ultimately, and also plagued by similar delays, a couple of issues of Moore'sGlory finally saw print fromAvatar Press in 2001/2002.)[8]
Awesome's initial releases also included entirely new properties which were generally received more favorably than either the Extreme or Maximum lines had been. These includedKaboom, created by artistJeff Matsuda (and written byLoeb), which dealt with main character Geof Sunrise, who on his sixteenth birthday is given "access to the Kaboom Power Cycle, the mystic source of all power", and subsequently hunted by "the Nine, a group of demons".[9] ArtistIan Churchill created two series—Coven andLionheart (both also written by Loeb).Coven (which followed a fairly regular bi-monthly publishing schedule between August 1997 and July 1998 for its first 6-issue series) was a supernatural, "Heaven vs. Hell" title, featuring the titular group. "The Coven" was made up of "Fantom (half-human vampiress); Spellcaster (white witch with owl familiar); Scratch (Catholic priest possessed by a demon); Blackmass (leader, descendant of Cain); and Phenomena (can tell when trouble's a-brewing)", and featured "a healthy mix of lightheartedness and horror".[10]Lionheart's two issues told the story of Karen Quinn, an archaeologist accidentally transformed into Lionheart, a warrior "infused with a divine power tracing back to the Garden of Eden and the expulsion of Adam and Eve."[11]
Another of Awesome's bigger releases was the revival of the classic patriotic comic book characterFighting American, created byJoe Simon andJack Kirby in 1954. Liefeld acquired the rights to this character in confusing circumstances, allegedly due in large part to a lawsuit between himself and Marvel Comics over "his" characterAgent: America, which drew litigation for the characters' extreme similarities to Marvel'sCaptain America, which had also been created by Simon and Kirby. During the early stages of the legal action, Liefeld bought the rights to Simon and Kirby's ownCaptain America-esque character: Fighting American. MergingFighting American withAgent: America managed to confuse and defuse much of the lawsuit. Despite the derivativeAgent: America having seen publication before Liefeld purchased the rights toFighting American, the ultimately melded creation managed to avoid the brunt of Marvel's suit, and both sides walked away reasonably confident of their "victory" in the case. As part of the ruling, Liefeld'sFighting American was allowed to have a shield, but not to throw it like Captain America.[12]
Awesome eventually collapsed for a number of reasons, in which cause and effect appear muddled and linked. Its launch and success occurred towards the end of the 90s comics boom, in which speculation forced sales up artificially and unreasonably. The speculator boom was fueled in no small part by the trend for multiple variant covers — something which the artist-led Image had a hand in, and a trend which was followed to extremes by Awesome.Youngblood featured at least eleven variant covers on its debut issue (see below). Concurrently, internal disputes among its partners and the abrupt departure of its primary investor hamstrung the company, while the erratic content of some comics (sometimes not including the solicited content, featuring multiple artists, etc.) and unpredictable publishing schedule hurt sales.[citation needed]
Moore moved on from the collapse of Awesome to almost immediately start his ownAmerica's Best Comics imprint forJim Lee'sWildstorm (later, and controversially from Moore's perspective, sold toDC), creating and writing its entire output in much the same way he had been planning that of the Awesome Universe. Indeed, Liefeld has subsequently suggested that Moore's ABC work owed a significant amount to his work for Awesome, suggesting onMark Millar's MillarWorld forum[13] that:
"...much of the ABC line is made up of poorly masked Awesome characters and story outlines he prepared for us... I believe I could draw direct connections to many of the ABC characters and their origins coming from pages of Awesome work we commissioned from him. In short order,Tom Strong isSupreme mixed with hisProphet proposal.Promethea isGlory and the rest I honestly don't pay much attention to. Don't have the time or interest. Simply put, there is no ABC without Supreme and the Awesome re-launch."[14]
Jeph Loeb has continued his post-Awesome success-story with a great deal of writing for both DC and Marvel. Notably, in 2003, he and artistJim Lee produced the year-longBatman: Hush, one of DC's biggest-selling titles. In 2004, he launched theSuperman/Batman title, continuing as writer until issues #25 and #26. He has also written for the TV seriesSmallville, and is a writer/producer onLost. In 2007, Loeb signed a Marvel-exclusive contract that saw him become an integral architect of theUltimate Universe (writingUltimates 3 andUltimatum along with several specials) as well launching a newHulk book with Ed McGuiness.[citation needed]
Loeb and Churchill were reunited for an issue ofSuperman/Batman, from which they spun off 2005's soloSupergirl series. Churchill returned briefly to Marvel, working on severalX-Men titles in 2000/2001 (most notably a relaunch ofUncanny X-Men with writer Joe Casey running alongside Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's more memorableNew X-Men), but most of his subsequent work has been for DC, for whom he remains under an exclusive contract, which has seen him produce work for four issues ofCountdown (October 2007).[citation needed]
Jeff Matsuda moved more towards animation and videogames and is best known now for having created the character designs for the television animationsJackie Chan Adventures (2000) andThe Batman (2004), as well as working on 2007's animatedTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film:TMNT.[citation needed]
Ed McGuinness has produced a considerable amount of work forDC, most notably on their flagshipSuperman title, andSuperman/Batman (both with Jeph Loeb). In 2006 he signed a one-year exclusivity deal withMarvel and, in 2007 launched a newHulk series with writer Jeph Loeb, spinning out of the 2007World War Hulk crossover series.[citation needed]
Liefeld has occasionally solicited and sometimes published various comics under his newArcade Comics imprint (2003–2006), including several attempts to relaunchYoungblood. These have included a single issue ofYoungblood: Bloodsport (July 2003), an unfinished projected mini-series with art by Liefeld, and written by currentMarvel starMark Millar; two issues of a semi-ongoing series entitledYoungblood: Genesis (July 2003, March 2004) byKurt Busiek andBrandon Thomas (art byChad and Eric Walker, who had previously worked on Awesome'sProphet (2000) and a single issue ofYoungblood: Imperial by rising starRobert Kirkman (art byMarat Mychaels). Liefeld briefly returned to work for both DC (on two issues ofTeen Titans in 2005) and Marvel (Onslaught Reborn mini-series withJeph Loeb).[citation needed]
Due to the vast number of alternative covers, varied publication history, etc., the below list should not be considered exhaustive.
Supreme #1–42 were published byImage Comics;Supreme: The New Adventures #43–48 by Maximum Press; andSupreme #49–56 andSupreme: The Return #1–6 by Awesome Comics.
Supreme #1–42 were published byImage Comics;Supreme: The New Adventures #43–48 by Maximum Press; andSupreme #49–56 andSupreme: The Return #1–6 by Awesome Comics.