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Mark Buckingham Is "Primarily Focused On Getting Miracleman Done"

Published Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:00:26 -0500

Miracleman – originally Marvelman – is a superhero comic book legend. A British replacement character for Captain Marvel from the nineteen fifties, it was revived for Warrior Magazine by the little-known writer Alan Moore with Garry Leach and then Alan Davis. One of the first superhero deconstructions, it was a tale of power and people. And it was bloody brilliant.

Reprinted and continued by Eclipse Comics, the also-little-known writer and artist Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham took over the title after Alan Moore's run, then with John Totleben reached its conclusion. We had a series of vignettes set in the world that had been created, with Buckingham doing some of the more successful and experimental work of his career, before embarking on a story, The Silver Age, looking at some of the remaining machinations of the central characters. It was unfinished, as Eclipse began to fold. Eclipse was bought by Todd McFarlane, along with the Miracleman printer files, and he published a few comic books and a statue featuring Miracleman, though the legality was questionable.

That was settled in court, and then by Marvel Comics dealing with the character's original creator, and Marvel began reprinting the series with the intention to continue where it left off.

That didn't happen. New comics by Gaiman and Buckingham were solicited, became later and later and then dropped off completely.

Thanks to the Cultured Vultures at London Film And Comic-Con a couple of weeks ago, we now know the current status. And it's all because of the bloody kids. Mark Buckingham told them, "I'm also primarily focused now on getting Miracleman done… having accidentally ignored it for a little while! The problem is, Neil also became a Dad again, and so basically [our children] have been the reason why very little work got done! The good news is that it is coming, Neil and I have been meeting regularly to work on the new scripts together…we've made a few interesting changes, so it's not going to be the exact story we'd intended to tell back in the 80's and 90's, we're now thinking about it in the context of today, and in how the world's changed."

You know what that says to me? Miracleman 2018…

"With Neil, we've always had a good friendship and a nice working relationship. In this case, I'm actually co-writing the scripts for Miracleman with him…so what's happening is we're meeting from time to time and actually going over our plans for the stories and fleshing everything out. It's a fun process, and it's nice to be involved right from the outset on the development of something like this, because the storytelling aspect of it is very important to me. If I'm involved with the plotting and the scripting of the thing, it helps me get a sense of the weight and scale of a story before I sit down to draw it."

Here's the solicitation from what would be the next issue…

• The wait is over!
•  Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham present the story you've waited decades for – the first ALL-NEW chapter in "The Silver Age!"
•  High atop the Himalayas, Dicky Dauntless searches to find his place in the Age of Miracles. He'll make new friends and encounter a frightening, familiar face – Johnny Bates!
•  It's Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman face-to-face!