June is a busy month for pop culture in general, with the wave of big summer movie and streaming drops about to get going and Comic-Con looming in the near distance. However, it’s a bit slow for big industry stories, so here are a few quick hits on topics on my mind.
Byrne notice. A popular topic among comics retailers of a certain age is a reverence for the “golden era” of X-Men, kicked off in the late 1970s by the unbeatable team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne (with a generous dose of Terry Austin inks). Those books turned my generation of fans from readers into diehards, and laid a strong foundation under the nascent direct market. It’s no wonder that some would be nostalgic for both the creative and the commercial zest they brought to the superhero genre.
A lot has happened in superhero comics stylistically since the early 1980s: Dark Knight, the British invasion, the Image Comics era, “decompressed“ storytelling, greater diversity of creative perspectives, company writer summits to plot out continuity, the broader stylistic palette of today‘s leading practitioners. We are now almost as distant chronologically from the Claremont-Byrne X-Men as those books were from Famous Funnies #1. Let that sink in.
That’s why reading John Byrne’s X-Men: Elsewhen Volume 1, out later this month from Abrams ComicArts (see “Abrams To Publish ‘X-Men: Elsewhen’“), is so fascinating. As you probably know by now, the book collects the first tranche of more than 30 “issues” of X-Men that John Byrne drew as a passion project from 2019-2022 and posted free on his website, proceeding from the premise that Jean Grey had survived the Dark Phoenix saga from X-Men #137. The idea that an artist of Byrne‘s stature would commit himself to a long-term “fan art“ project based on one of his signature works by itself is weird enough. But digging into the story adds a whole other layer.
First, it‘s a great “What If“ of comics history. We all had 15 years to find out what Chris Claremont had planned for the X-Men, but what about Byrne? We know from Fantastic Four, Superman and his many other projects that he was a creative force in his own right, especially in that era. Now we know.
More profoundly, Elsewhen gives folks a taste of what a revival of old-school superhero comics would actually look like. Cracking the cover of this book is like taking a trip back to 1981, as if the last 45 years of both X-Men and comics history had never happened. The page layouts, the dialogue, the pacing, the unpretentious commitment to pure action, Wonder Man’s red leisure suit: it perfectly evokes that moment in all its warts and glory.
Would a book like this sell today? Would a more meat-and-potatoes approach to superheroes appeal to fans after 45 years of refining their palettes? The release of Elsewhen probably doesn‘t answer that question but it makes the concept a lot more concrete. Look for some further thoughts on this from me at the other place next week.
Dark days at Dark Horse. Probably the closest modern analog to Byrne-style storytelling out there is Mike Mignola‘s Hellboy universe, along with some of the other output of Dark Horse Comics (one-time publishers of Byrne‘s 90s project Next Men).
The Portland-based publisher has been going through some things lately. Following some staff shakeups last year in the wake of its acquisition by Embracer Group, then the departure of founder Mike Richardson and the closure of its retail outlets, we most recently heard the new management has recognized its workers’ right to collectively bargain (see “Dark Horse Recognizes Union“).
The labor relations honeymoon turned out to be shorter than most actual honeymoons, as word started spreading late last week that staff reductions were underway in the organization. Zach Rabiroff reported yesterday in The Comics Journal that the layoffs were primarily in the IT and operations department, related to efficiencies the new management hopes to achieve.
If these staff reductions were grandfathered into the union recognition, as Dark Horse interim CEO Jay Komas told TCJ, it‘s not a great look for the union to see a bunch of prospective members thrown overboard before the ink is even dry on the agreement. The union organizers dispute having had specific prior knowledge, and, regardless, suggest that the whole process has been more contentious than management‘s public statements let on.
For most of Dark Horse‘s existence, the company was run on a classic paternalistic small business model, for better or worse. That meant leadership (Richardson) could defer hard choices as long as no one but him had to bear the consequences. As I wrote last time (see “Scale, Monetization and Branding: How Much is Too Much?“), the economic realities of the 2020s, including the corporate acquisition that funded Richardson‘s retirement as well as causing his undignified exit, means those days are over.
Here‘s hoping that the laid off workers quickly find new and better jobs, and that Dark Horse workers and management can get on the same page about how to best compete in today‘s unforgiving market.
Don‘t Panick, but there‘s going to be a “Black Diamond“ movie. We haven‘t heard too much from Panick Entertainment, the horror-focused imprint launched by Kris Longo and Adam Schlagman, with Chris Ryall, David Dastmalchian, Shannon Eric Denton and others onboard, but they have been releasing a few titles over the past year including Black Diamond, T.A.M.A., Savager and The Accessories.
Today Variety reports that Black Diamond, written by Brendan Columbus with art by Danlio Beyruth and colorist Lee Loughridge, is being adapted into a feature film in partnership with Fangoria Studios. Ernest Dickerson (The Walking Dead, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) is attached to direct, with Columbus writing the script. Fangoria is the brand best known for the long-running horror zine, which has now, according to its website, expanded into media under SVP of Film and Television Armen Aghaeian.
Five or ten years ago, during the streaming gold rush, these kinds of announcements were commonplace. These days, it is nice to see a new imprint gain any kind of media traction and deliver on some of its promises to creators and fans. Who knows if this will go anywhere, but like any good horror film, it is bound to keep us in suspense.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Rob Salkowitz (Bluesky @robsalk) is the author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, a two-time Eisner Award nominee, and a proud longtime contributor to Eisner-nominated ICv2.
Source: ICv2
