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Top Secret 12
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2022-11-05
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³¼MARVEL - A BLAST¼³
³¼FROM THE PAST ?¼³
¹
Absolutely not! Maybe some of you comic
enjoying Marvelites out there have no-
ticed the leaving of all those great
artists like TODD MCFARLANE and ROB
LIEFELD for the new company on the
block called IMAGE PRESS. Those six or
seven mega stars just wanted to have
the copyrights of their characters and
that wasn't possible down there at Mar-
vel. So they decided to found something
new, something of their own. With some
help of the independent company MALIBU
they started the creator-owned company
IMAGE PRESS. After having released a
couple of issues the fans seem to have
given the big thumbs up to this pro-
ject, but this doesn't mean the down
fall of the big one called MARVEL. They
are still the king of the hill and that
is where they'll be for the forseable
future, on top of the world. Marvel
owns about 50% of the comicbook mar-
ket's dollar share. The house of ideas
can trust a real solid foundation being
built up during the last 40 or so
years. Another example for the growing
popularity of Marvel are the back is
sues, which values are still increa-
sing. In several interviews the Image
crew says, that the divorcement between
them and Marvel had been very smooth
and probably some of them will return
to them in the future. Marvel has also
got a new crop of hot artists like MARK
BAGLEY, RON LIM, SAM KIETH and up and
comers known as JOE QUESADA, JAE LEE
(no relation to Stan 'The Man') and
LIAM SHARP. You can't take a few ar-
tists and some Terminator-alike charac-
ters to bring that Marvel down. You can
take the top of the best artists away
and Marvel will pop up with even more
kick-ass artists. Although Image has
really shot like a rocket through the
comic world, you can't take for sure,
that they've got the right stuff to
have a lasting effect on the comic
world, which is no problem for Marvel.
Every month they come up with ner stun-
ning titles. Some of them suck but most
of them will stay in our hearts for
years. The creators of Image don't want
to cause trouble between them and Mar-
vel. They even want to cooperate with
them or with other companies like DARK
HORSE (McFarlane phoned them a lot in
the last time. Are we going to expect
that SPAWN-ALIENS crossover in the next
time, who knows - who cares?). There
are big changes on the market in Ameri-
ca. But no one is able to kick Marvel
from its throne. The second position is
owned by DC (you know them, they have
Bat-Man and Superman), but it seems
that their kingdom's gone. Even though
they try to make their characters real
and to pay attention to continuety in
their strange and unorganized universe,
but anyway, they seem to neglect what
the fans are pleading for. How's about
a fourth Bat-Man or a Robin series? Why
not a monthly LOBO book? Just a succes
sion of mini series is not productive.
With Image steamrolling its way
straight up and companies like VAILLANT
and DARK HORSE lurking to climb on
higher in the charts, it won't take too
long to kick DC's fucking ass from that
second position. In contrast to DC,
Marvel knows what's right. They can be
called the KINGS OF SPECIAL PROJECTS
like glow-in-the-dark- and hologram co-
vers, trading cards, center spreads,
posters, lithos, portfolios, di-cut co-
vers and X-overs. But the most impres-
sive reasons for the success of Marvel
are the true phenOmenal characters.
They've got all these classic heroes
(who are still high in the charts like
Amazing Spider Man. His title reached
position 1 of the top selling titles in
June '92) like Fantastic Four, Aven-
gers, Hulk, X-Men and other ones who
made Marvel that good. But they don't
rest... new creations like X-Force, New
Warriors, Darkhawk, Deathlok and Nomad
are reaching the top positions in the
selling charts.
This was the first installment of a new
column called COLLECTING COMICS WITH
OLGA. I'll try to give you the hottest
items and background informations about
the comic scene. Good bye and stay mel-
low!
²
If you wanna swap comic stuff (cards,
comics...) or just want to get in con-
tact with another comic freak, write
to:
³
Michael Spahn
Pommernstr. 27
D-4020 Mettmann
GERMANY
²
No computer related swapping, coz I
simply ( fasten your seat belts)
don't have one...
³ Olga of Final Concept