1963 (comics)
| 1963 | |
|---|---|
1963 no. 1: Mystery Incorporated
|
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Image Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date(s) | April - October 1993 |
| No. of issues | 6 |
| Main character(s) | See Characters |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Alan Moore |
| Penciller(s) |
Rick Veitch Steve Bissette |
| Inker(s) |
Dave Gibbons Don Simpson John Totleben Chester Brown (issue #3) |
| Letterer(s) |
Don Simpson John Workman |
| Colorist(s) |
Marvin Kilroy Anthony Tollin |
1963 is an American six-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore in 1993, with art by his frequent collaborators Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch. Dave Gibbons, Don Simpson, and Jim Valentino also contributed art. Image Comics published the series.
The six issues are an homage to the Silver Age of American comics (in particular, the early Marvel Comics), and feature spoof advertisements on the rear covers—in a manner to be repeated with a twist by Moore and Kevin O'Neill in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Moore's homage to Marvel clichés included fictionalizing himself and the artists as the "Sixty-Three Sweatshop", describing his collaborators in the same hyperbolic and alliterative mode Stan Lee used for his "Marvel Bullpen"; each was given a Lee-style nickname ("Affable Al," "Sturdy Steve," "Jaunty John," etc.—Veitch has since continued to refer to himself as "Roarin' Rick"). The parody is not entirely affectionate, as the text pieces and fictional letter columns contain pointed inside jokes about the business practices of 1960s comics publishers, with "Affable Al" portrayed as a tyrant who claims credit for his employees' creations. Moore also makes reference to Lee's book Origins of Marvel Comics (and its sequels) when Affable Al recommends that readers hurry out and buy his new book How I Created Everything All By Myself and Why I Am Great.
The series has never been finished as originally intended. When first announced, the limited series was supposed to be followed by an 80-page annual, illustrated by Jim Lee, in which the 1963 characters were sent thirty years into "the future", where they met then-contemporary 1993 characters published by Image Comics. Moore intended to make a commentary on how the air of "realism" brought to Marvel Comics in the early 1960s had paved the way for the "mature" and "grim and gritty" American comics of the 1990s. Moore has stated that his own work, Watchmen, is at least partially responsible for this trend.
...
Wikipedia