1963 was a fabulous retro-comic mini-series that aped the style and hype of Marvel Comics’ halcyon days. Each issue of 1963 was a different comic that recreates the experience of reading a new Silver Age Marvel comic. The 1963 books were not parodies of titles like Fantastic Four and Strange Tales, they were loving satires of those books, delivered with just the tiniest smirk. They were completely “in character” books, full of phony ads and letter columns and gratuitous alliterations.
This first issue of 1963 is Mystery, Incorporated – The World’s Most Exciting Comic Book! Written by Alan Moore and illustrated with charmingly dated art by Rick Veitch and Dave Gibbons, Mystery, Incorporated works both as a clever riff on the early Fantastic Four comics and as a solid comic book on its own. I would have loved this book as a kid; it’s no more goofy than the FF, and it’s got this Planet guy who just rules.
Mystery, Inc are Crystal Man, a shapeshifting crystalline genius; Neon Queen, who can transform into fluorescent gas; Kid Dynamo, an electrical Human Torch; and Planet, a super-strong brawler with a green planet for a head. That’s right – dude’s got a planet face! They operate out of Mystery Mile, a mile-long underground fortress packed with strange science and weird inventions. It’s neat.
The 1963 series also included faux-retro “titles” such as The Fury, Tales of The Uncanny, The Retro Syndicate, Tales from The Beyond, and my favorite – Horus, Lord of Light. They were all brilliant, and sort of tied together.
My favorite part of this comic is the great full-page “Shamed By You English?” ad on the back cover. This is a brilliant take on an old ad that ran in Marvel comics back in the day that offered a correspondence course for people who were, well, shamed by their English.
Here’s the real ad and the 1963 fake ad. Click on the image to make it bigger.
I don’t know if that’s legible or not, but the contemporary “ad” has text that is all spelled correctly, but grammatically mangled beyond repair. It’s like reading something Yoda wrote:
“Gain you to speak the ability and write college like a graduate in your own home, right each day for 15 minutes only.”
And:
“I can you too help, give will you 15 day minutes, to the Linguage Institute Method. To my answers the questions following explain why need you a good English command and easily how you can something do about ahead getting.”
That shit cracks me up EVERY TIME.
27 comments:
1963 is one of the greatest things ever--right up until the last page of the last issue, when it begins to suck. A lot.
Ooh, I want to reread those now. Sort of a precursor to America's Best Comics in many ways, and with enough ideas running through them to sustain a similar extended treatment.
...Planet, a super-strong brawler with a green planet for a head. That’s right dude’s got a planet face!
There's something similar in Excel Saga, except there it's a galaxy not a planet, as seen here.
And I think the guy in the spoof English ad is Warren Ellis...
Now I have to go home and dig this issue out of the box. I know it's there, I remember seeing it right after the first issue of the Damage Control mini-series.
I think I have about... half of these. How difficult would it be to find the rest?
This is something that would probably make a dandy trade, too.
I agree it would be a great TPB. That is, if they ever finsih it.
There almost was a trade collection, but those ever-feuding Image partners got in the way; see here and here.
Yeah, the last page sucked, but it WAS supposed to lead into the final issue. Which, of course, never happened. One of the great "unfinished" books of all time. With Big Numbers, that makes two for Moore. Maybe he eats his collaborators ...
"I think I have about... half of these. How difficult would it be to find the rest?
This is something that would probably make a dandy trade, too."
I got a full set off of E-Bay, and I've seen back issues for 2 bucks and change in comic shops in the area. I bought this issue from a guy selling comics at the mall. My favorite of the whole series was probably the Spider-Man/Daredevil pastiche whose name I can't remember. I think that nailed the vibe of the character it was based on better than even Mystery Incorporated.
That add Dave posts is great, but my favorite gag from the series was in one of the letter pages, where "Affable Al" explains to a letter writer what work for hire means. I don't remember it verbatim, or even conherently enough to repeat, but it still cracks me up.
How did Image go from this to Team Youngblood?
I was rereading some of Lefield's finest last night and the only reason I can figure I even own them is that I was fascinated by the big boobs and even bigger guns(I was 16 when I bought them).
Also female characters in thongs were pretty rare at the big two at that time.
Yail Bloor
I have this entire series. It's too bad the whole cast of characters have vanished into limbo.
I had heard of these but I haven't read them. Now I have a mission for Dragon*Con: Find and buy the 1963 issues.
Great write-up, by the way.
By the way, can we all agree that Kelvingreen is a goddamn encyclopedia of comics lore and that he should have a blog just so we have a repository of knowledge to dip into?
He has got a blog, and mighty fine it is too.
http://kelvingreen.blogspot.com/
So now you know.
I've just reread these recently and what struck me was how mean spirited these were in some ways.
I have this entire series. It's too bad the whole cast of characters have vanished into limbo.
It's a similar situation to the Miracleman rights, I believe. Moore owns some, as do the artists, but Moore isn't speaking to (I think) Steve Bissette, so the characters cannot be used by others without a consensus that's unlikely to appear.
Also, I think the creators, if they could agree, would probably want to finish the original series before loaning the characters out.
And I'm no encyclopedia. Coyle knows far more than I. I just know where to look for the stuff I don't know! :)
I loved the Ditko-ish beatnik/sorceror story the best, can't remember what it was called.
Chaz: That was Tales From Beyond, starring Johnny Beyond, daddio!
Kelvin: I think the story of the 1963 rights is on the net somewhere if you google it. Bisette had a disagreement over the rights with Veitch, Moore, and the rest when they decided to reconvene to do the Annual, which caused the project to never happen.
Moore's disagreement with Bisette stems from a Comics Journal interview- as I understand it, Bisette made some comments about Moore that were sent to Moore by TCJ for proofing, and whatever was said in there (it was cut out of the interview) soured relations between them.
I have found a copy of this first addition (1963 mystery incorporated book one) and dont know what it is worth. Anybody want to contact me? It is in great to mint condition. danandteri@sbcglobal.net
Dude. I must have been seven when the 1963 line came out, and I picked them up and took them completely at face value. I didn't realize it was part of an event until, oh, last year. These comics rocked my world. I was obsessed with them. I actually went to the comic book store every week for a couple of months to see if they ever put out a second issue of the Hypernaut or Mystery, Inc.
Seriously.
Brad Curran said...
My favorite of the whole series was probably the Spider-Man/Daredevil pastiche whose name I can't remember. I think that nailed the vibe of the character it was based on better than even Mystery Incorporated.
That was the Fury. And you're so right about the vibe-nailing.
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