The work for DC Comics continued and Moore’s story lines tended to concentrate on the frailties of the superheros.  Twilight of the Superheroes (1987) focused on a future in which the earth is dominated by superhero family dynasties (Captain Marvel’s family on one side and Superman/Wonderwoman on the other).

Twilight of the Superheroes (1987)

By the late 1980′s Moore relationship with DC Comics had begun to break down – partly over a financial dispute over royalties but also a comic book age-rating system which DC was promoting.  Howard Chaykin, Marv Wolfman and Frank Miller were other notable employees equally unhappy.  Moore finally left DC in 1989.

The next few years saw a return to writing on British subjects and Moore set up his own publishing company called Mad Love with his wife Phyllis and their shared lover Deborah Delano (the arrangement underlining Moore’s unconventional attitudes).  Gone were the superhero stories to be replaced by social commentary and political comment.  Among his targets were the Conservative governments ‘homophobic’ Clause 28, the CIA and big business.  He also dipped a toe into comic pornography with Lost Girls, an imaginative look at the sex lives of fictional female characters such as Alice (from Wonderland), Dorothy (from Oz) and Wendy (from Peter Pan), although by this time Phyllis and Deborah had absconded with much of the profits from Mad Love and that company had been shut down.

Lost Girls (1991)

Following the Mad Love and the prosaic, everyday political stuff, Alan Moore returned to the superhero genre with Image Comics in 1993 (Image had only been in existence since 1992).  Spawn is probably the best known work from this period and it also marked a return to writing for a younger teenage audience.  It didn’t always go well; WildC.A.T.S. is a prime example of Moore trying to interpret what his audience wanted rather than concentrating on his own narrative.  His biographer, Lance Parkin, said that “you feel Moore should be better than this.  It’s not special.” and Moore was forced to agree.

Image offered Moore the opportunity to essentially produce his own comics under Image’s Wildstorm offshoot but there was disappointment when Image subsequently sold Wildstorm to DC Comics.  Moore had called his new venture America’s Best Comics (ABC) and it took the persuasion of two Image executives to reassure Moore that his work for ABC (under DC) would be unimpeded.  Moore stuck with the venture and subsequently produced The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a fan favourite from this period and Tom Strong, a slightly more adult-oriented superhero strip.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999)

Although the enterprise almost inevitably ended in arguments, Moore did stick with ABC for almost ten years until he returned to independence in 2009.  In 2005 he had warned that “I love the comics medium.  I pretty much detest the comics industry.  Give it another 15 months, I’ll probably be pulling out of mainstream commercial comics.“  Moore or causer lasted a few years longer than that but ultimately he is an independent voice with the talent and resources to write whatever he wants and he’s still at it now.

The market in general was maturing and readers were no longer discarding comics as they aged.  Students and adults were taking an interest in the new genre and this must have inspired Moore in his writing.  It was 2000AD which eventually offered him proper employment and they came up with a character named Skizz.  More memorable of Moore’s creations of the period ware the anarchic D.R. & Quinch and the almost peerless Ballad of Halo Jones.

D. R. & Quinch

V for Vendetta was another of Moore’s creations from this era although this was written for Dez Skinn’s relatively short-lived magazine, Warrior and he also wrote some stories for Captain Britain for Marvel UK.  Alan Moore continued to work for various publications in the U.K. until 1986 when he finally decided he’d had enough of the one sided nature of the writer/publisher arrangement.  The artist/writer was unable to keep the rights to their own work and Moore’s outspoken stance on this subject began to alienate him from the publishing industry.

V for Vendetta

By this stage however his success and talent had come to the attention of the American comic book industry and from 1984 he been producing work for DC Comics.  He reinvigorated the stuttering Swamp Thing series and this success led to an offer to write a story for one of DC’s flagship characters – Superman – in 1985 (For the man who has everything) and then another in 1986 (Whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?).

In 1986 Moore made sure of his reputation when he penned the iconic Watchmen series.  You can read more about that here but suffice to say it gained Moore a measure of fame he was not entirely prepared for, or comfortable with.

Part Three follows…

Alan Moore was born in Northampton, UK in 1953 into a poverty stricken family in a poor area of the town.  As a child he was a keen reader of books and comics.  The comics he read were both British and American and Moore remembers reading the Fantastic Four and Detective Comics alongside kids comics such as Topper and Beezer.

In his late teens he became involved in a project called the Arts Lab which supplied material for Moore’s own magazine named Embryo.  It was also around this time he became “the world’s most inept LSD dealer“, leading to his expulsion from the grammer school he was attending.

Maxwell the Magic Cat

In his early 20s, bored with the job he had working for the local gas supplier, he began to use his illustrative talents to produce work for alternative fanzines and similar magazines.  Music magazines NME and Sounds were the first to pay him for his work and it was his Roscoe Moscow strip for Sounds which he produced under the name ‘Curt Vile’ for the first time.  He used ‘Gilles de Ray’ when producing Maxwell the Magic Cat for the local newspaper.

Roscoe Moscow

Alan Moore continued in this vein until the mid-1980s when he came to the realisation that he could not write and draw his own comics and make a decent amount of money.  He decided to concentrate on writing and took advice from a friend and fellow writer Steve Moore.  Following Moore’s advice, he began to submit stories for 2000AD’s flagship character Judge Dredd.  None were accepted, largely because 2000AD did not need any but the editor Alan Grant recognised the quality of his work (“this guy’s a really fucking good writer“) and asked him to submit stories for the Future Shocks series.  Some were rejected but soon they were regularly appearing in 2000AD.  Moore’s career was on it’s way.

Part Two follows…..

Lee’s influence at Marvel and in the comic industry in general was massive.  At Marvel

Stan Lee/DC Comics Just Imagine

during the 1960s he was responsible for the majority of the output in terms of script-writing and directing.  He championed a previously used production method of comic creation which subsequently became known as the Marvel Method.  When promoting to a wider audience he would sign off with his trademark flourish of ‘Excelsior’.

Having such an enormous influence in the industry gave Lee an opportunity to become something of a social commentator.  He developed what became known as ‘Stan’s Soapbox’ which was really an opportunity for Lee to promote the causes which he considered important.  These included subjects such as racism and bigotry.

He also contributed to the reformation of the American Comics Code Authority (CCA) – a set of regulations determining the subject matter of comics which at that point were still largely geared towards children.  The Comics Code was not legally binding but comics which conformed to the regulations were able to feature the seal.  This came about when Lee was asked by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to include a sub-plot about the dangers of drugs in a storyline.  This he duly did (in The Amazing Spiderman 96-98), but even the mention of drugs (pills in this case) in this positive storyline was enough to have the seal refused.  A successful run of sales saw the CCA begin the reformation process.

Some argue that the 1960s were the high point for Stan Lee and his input into the comic

Stan Lee's Stripperella

book industry.  This could be true but only in terms of the nuts and bolt work that Lee did when he was directly involved in the creative process.  In the 1970s Lee began to make regular appearances at the comic book conventions springing up around the United States.  He was one of the first major celebrities of the comic book industry and soon added college lecturing to his list of talents.

At the turn of the 1980s he moved to California to oversee Marvel’s television and film industry and took to making cameo appearances in many of the productions.  He was president of Marvel for a short period but son stepped down as he regarded himself as too far from the creative process.

Despite a failed business venture (Stan Lee Media) through no fault of his own, Lee continued (and continues) to inject creativity into the comic book market; he even produced some work for DC Comics in the early part of the 21st century (the Just Imagine series).  In 200 Marvel celebrated 65 years of involvement with Lee by producing a series of comics featuring Lee with the superheroes he created.

Stan Lee

most influential figures.  President and chairman of Marvel Comics, he was also a comic writer and editor, an actor, producer and publisher and also something of a ‘personality’.

Born in New York in 1922, his original name was Stanley Martin Lieber; his parents were Romanian-Jewish.  He had a relatively poor upbringing and worked many part-time jobs while at school.  After graduating he joined the Federal Theatre Project, an attempt to fund artistic performances during the Great Depression run by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  He didn’t spend long at this project and in the same year his uncle helped him get a job as an assistant at Timely Comics (which would later become Marvel).

It’s fair to say that Lee started life in the comic book industry at the very bottom of the ladder; as Lee himself later recalled:

“I had to make sure the inkwells were filled.  I went down and got them (the artists) their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them.”

Not until 1941 did Stan Lee get to write any actual content but even then it wasn’t his own work; he was just filling in text for other artists.  Just a couple of issues later however, he did begin to create content.  The Destroyer was his first in issue 6 of Mystic Comics in 1941 and this superhero was followed by Jack Frost and Father Time during the same period.

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were the editing and creative team at Timely Comics at this point and when they left towards the end of 1941, Lee was given the chance to stand in as editor on a temporary basis.  Performing so well, Martin Goodman the publisher gave him the job on a permanent basis.  In 1942 he was conscripted into the U.S. Army and did not return to Timely until 1945.  Vincent Fago stood in for him during this time.

During the 1950s Timely Comics began to be known as Atlas Comics as part of

Fantastic Four

Goodman’s restructuring of his various companies.  It was also the period when Stan Lee was turning the company into one of the most influential comic book creators.  It’s main rival was DC Comics and when that company introduced a new version of The Flash and the Justice League of America, Atlas needed to reply with something impressive.

By the early 1960s that process had begun and Lee had overseen the creation of a number of now famous characters.  Spiderman, the Hulk, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four all saw their first action in this period and Lee, inspired by his wife Joan, added extra dimensions to his characters by giving them human frailties and adding details to their lives that fleshed out a deeper story than may have previously been revealed.  Stan Lee also attempted to create a connection between the creators and readers by introducing the ‘credit panel’ with each story – naming each person involved rather than just the writer and penciller.

Part Two follows….

In this article we’ll have a look at a few of the most expensive comics of all time.  These are the ones which have changed hands privately, or at auction – there may be other collectible comics out there, perfectly preserved but which will never witness a financial transaction and their value will never be known.  The three most expensive comics all each feature what are arguably the three most famous comic book characters.

Action Comics #1 – $1,500,000

In March 2010, Action Comics #1 went up for auction via the online ComicConnect

Action Comics #1

auction website.  Action Comics #1 is possibly the most sought after issue of any comic – it dates from 1938 and introduces Superman to the reader.  It was graded 8.5 (very fine+) on the comic grading scale.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were the creators and the character of Superman had spent several years on the drawing board before being introduced to the public.  Read more about Superman’s history here.

Action Comics #1 is so valuable because of it’s condition; of course it has Superman’s first appearance, it’s very old but it when discovered, it had been stored inside a movie magazine for 50 years, meaning it was like new.  Co-owner of ComicConnect, Vincent Zurzolo, said that the “the colors are extremely vivid, the whites behind the Action Comics logo are snow white.  It’s just a stunning copy – it almost looks brand new.” There are thought to be between 50 and 100 copies of the issue around and this one was bought by an anonymous buyer.

Amazing Fantasy #15 – $1,100,000

More recently, in March 2011, a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 graded 9.6 (near mint+)

Amazing Fantasy #15

was sold for $1,100,000.  The value for this edition is impressive because it’s nowehere near as old as the above comic.  It dates from August 1962 but does feature the first appearance of Spiderman.

It’s incredibly well-preserved condition contributed to it’s value but just as importantly this was a Stan Lee piece of work.  The legendary jack Kirby also had a hand in the artwork (the cover) but most of the inking was done by Steve Ditko.

The comic features the famous line “With great power comes great responsibility!”

Detective Comics #27 – $1,075,500

To complete our top 3, Detective Comics #27 sold for just less then Amazing Fantasy #15

Detective Comics #27

in March 2010.  Heritage Auction Galleries was the auction house responsible and it was graded 8.0 (very fine).

The selling price was briefly a world record until Action Comics #1 came on the market shortly afterwards and it’s value was largely to do with the first appearance of Batman.  It dates from May 1939 and it’s publication so close to the release of Action Comics #1 was no coincidence – Batman was created as a rival superhero to Superman.  Bob Kane and Bill Finger were the creators.

We’re all familiar with the abilities traditionally ascribed to the Man of Steel:

“faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound”

The phrase was coined in the 1940s, not by Shuster and Siegel but by a writer called Jay Morton and listeners to the radio series were the first to experience it.  It would be interesting to ask those writers how they would compare Superman now – faster than a laser? more powerful than a Jumbo Jet?  You get the picture; Superman’s abilities were compared to contemporary things.

Superman

Superman’s original abilities as conceived by Shuster & Siegel, were amazing strength, speed, almost invulnerability and an enormous jump.  He could not, however, fly.  It was the Fleischer Brothers animation studios which pushed for the ability to fly as they found the constant leaping from building to building tough to animate, specifically it took too many sequences to get Superman from place to place.

Krypton

At this early stage Superman’s abilities were derived from his Kryptonian heritage – namely that Kyrpton was a much older civilisation and the inhabitants were more evolved.  Later iterations of the background story pin Superman’s powers on the fact that gravity is weaker on Earth than on Krypton, providing him abilities based on those differences.  Superman’s vulnerability to Kryptonite was also introduced in the 1940s.

During what has become known as the Silver Age of comics from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, Superman gradually became the recipient of many other abilities, many involving his eyes such as super hot rays, x-ray vision and microscopic vision (a sort of zoom ability).  Other powers included super-hearing and super breath.

Superman in space

All these extra abilities certainly added to the fascinating Superman story but the writers were backing themselves into a corner. It became harder and harder to present Superman with challenges that would actually test him.  What could possibly defeat someone with so many unbeatable abilities?  Story lines became more and more fantastical with Superman zooming around the universe solving interplanetary problems, a long way from the vigilante saving office girls from muggers and thwarting the Klu Klux Klan.

John Byrne

To their credit, DC Comics recognised this and in the mid-1980s began to look at ways to

John Byrne's Superman

curtail some of his abilities once more, to enable writers to expand the story lines back to a more terrestrial level.  As mentioned in the previous article, John Byrne was the main driver behind this move, tidying up some of the strands of recent history, rewriting some of the main characters (Lex Luthor) but more importantly reigning in some of Superman’s powers.  Events in one or two story lines proved him to be vulnerable and he could only travel intergalactically as long as he could hold his breath.

These changes were a welcome step back for the franchise but inevitably it didn’t last long.  Superman can now zoom through space unhindered once more and even fly into the sun without coming to harm.

Front Cover Issue 1

Although a fantastically well-drawn comic, much of the appeal of The Establishment was the numerous references to 1960s television series.  Each character appeared to based on a persona from some cult programme or other.  Check out the characters below:

Jon Drake: shares his name with the central character from Danger Man and The Prisoner.

Scarlet: bears definite similarities to Emma Peel from The Avengers.

Equus: again, John Steed, the main man from The Avengers seems to be the basis for this character.

Mister Pharmacist: the only character with a more modern influence; seems to be based on the Tom Baker version of Doctor Who.

The Golden: three gifted superhero children apparently based on the three protgonists from The Champions.

George Bulman and Christopher Truelove: would seem to be related to the characters from Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

Aside from these interesting references, the story revolves around a group of diverse superheroes who work for the British government to protect the nation from a variety of enemies, most of which are alien in origin.  Villains have included the Daemonites, zombies and other little green men.  The Daemonites are one of the links between The Establishment and the Wildstorm Universe, in which the comic is set.  Edginton and Adlard have both been connected with the Wildstorm Universe, which was a product of DC Comics from 1992 until 2010.

This relatively simplistic story line of crime fighting in the big city continued until the

Jack Kirby's Jimmy Olsen

1970s when Jack Kirby was brought in to add some creativity to the character.  Kirby added the development of Jimmy Olden, Superman’s co-worker and created a spin-off comic based on the character.  This was also the era of the multiverse, a narrative device used to introduce other versions of Superman and to provide other options for story telling.

By the mid-1980s, John Byrne’s Man of Steel had re-written the history once more by bringing together the various multiverse Universes, eliminating many of them through a story involving the evil Anti-Monitor.  Man of Steel was immensely successful and tweaked Superman’s powers somewhat.  His previously limitless powers appeared to be paired, meaning that his speed and strength were limited although did not lose any specific abilities.

Byrne’s stories added a less fantastical feel to the character, which was probably

John Byrne's Man of Steel

appropriate for the era.  Lex Luthor, previously an old-style evil villain, became a billionaire philanthropist (while remaining evil), adding a vague uneasiness to the ability of readers to label him as such.  Byrne notably also dispensed with Superboy, the character which had been developed when Kal-El was first adopted in Smallville.

Part Five follows……

Early Supergirl

archetypal villains that battled other contemporary comic book characters.  Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were developing the character in the Great Depression and this formed the background to Supeman’s battles.  The writers were also regarded as left-leaning and plots would often feature slum landlords, corrupt politicians and even the Klu Klux Klan. Their moderate Jewish upbringings were also believed to have some influence on Supermen.

Siegel and Shuster’s 1930s character was also more violent than the Superman which followed.  He appeared to have no issue with causing fatalities by flinging villains into the distance and perhaps this relates more to attitudes of the day than any deliberate attempt to make Superman more violent.

Whitney Ellsworth became the editor in the late 1940s and the character became less violent.  Whether it was Ellsworth’s own influences or just a change in attitudes in post-war America, Superman suddenly had a code of conduct; in fact several times in the strip he has promised to hang up his cape if he kills anyone.

By the 1950s Superman had collected a group of arch-enemies, Brainiac and Bizarro amongst them.  he had also acquired some friends and this came in the form of Supergirl and The Justice League of America.  His background was also fleshed out somewhat and it is during these years that we begin to learn of Krypton, Superman’s home planet, and this introduces to the reader that he is, in fact, an alien.

Justice League of America

Back in the real world, Superman was about to face a marketing challenge from a range of newly introduced superheroes.  Although Batman had been in existence for some time, what would prove to be some of Marvel Comics most popular characters were introduced; these were the beginnings of The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four, among others, and the level and quality of storytelling meant that Superman’s writers had to step up their own efforts.

Part Four follows…..