Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Cerebuss, dave sim, dez skinn, marvelman, miracleman, neil gaiman

Dave Sim To Reveal Who Exploited Who Over Marvelman & Miracleman

Dave Sim to implicate Chris Claremont over whatever went down with Marvelman and Miracleman? Time to pikc up Cerebus In Hell...

We mentioned Dave Sim was up to this last week, but we now have some more details. A Cerebus parody of Marvelman created with David Birdsong for his Cerebus In Hell series, dubbed Marvelmanvark #1, which looks like it will attempt to address the long and complicated history of Captain Marvel, at both Marvel and DC, Marvelman at Miller and Quality, and Miracleman at Eclipse, Todd McFarlane and now Marvel Comics again. And apparently, it is something to do with Chris Claremont.

What, I don't know. Claremont wrote Ms Marvel – who would later become Marvel's Captain Marvel – and his work on X-Men influenced Alan Moore's work on Marvelman, especially Dark Phoenix and Kid Marvelman but as for the rest? I have no idea. I will have to pick a copy up. The Kickstarter offers are possibly a bit too rich for my blood, however.

Just in time for Chris… err "The Days we Place Aside to be Lazy at the End of the Year" comes the one comic book that will take you until 2024 to actually finish reading! An exhaustive (exhausting?) recap of the history of just about every time somebody wrapped a shoddy costume on a blank human canvas and called it "Captain Marvel." This is the only comic book published in 2023 that will answer your most important Captain Marvel, Marvelman, Miracleman,

MiracleManVark ownership questions. We give you the hard-hitting answers when it comes to who appropriated what and who exploited who – Hint: it isn't pretty and Chris Claremont is only partially responsible. But even more importantly – this is the one comic that will finally ask why there is no Eisner Award category for " Sorry to tease, but we really do want you to buy a few of these in case Neil G. decides to destroy us with his Netflix – Enhanced Pocket Change!

Okay, so, yes. A small history lesson. Very abridged and summarised. Here we go.

Back in the fifties, L Miller and Son had the rights from Fawcett in the US, to republish Captain Marvel comcis in the UK. Then DC sued Fawcett over similarities to Superman and Captain Marvel stopped. So Mick Anglo was employed by L Miller and Son Ltd to create a replacement comic book series, Marvelman, Young Marvelman, The Marvelman Family and the rest.

DC Comics would later acquire the Fawcett assets, but by then, rival Marvel Comics had established themselves and they now had their own Captain Marvel character, later spanning off into Ms. Marvel. Later, DC Comics published their own Captain Marvel comics under the name Shazam, and now the character is just known as The Captain.

In the early eighties on a nostalgia kick, Dez Skinn would revive Marvelman for his anthology series Warrior, for which he would hire his Captain Britain writer Alan Moore, with Garry Leach and later Alan Davis, to tell new stories. And he would get one of the first post-modern deconstructed superhero stories, published for a number of years before they went bust. This would later be reprinted and continued by Eclipse Comics as Miracleman, with Rick Veitch, Chuck Austen, John Totleben, Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, before going bust themselves.

Todd McFarlane would buy Eclipse in an attempt to publish Miracleman, but failed, and it would get caught up as part of a legal suit with Neil Gaiman.

Marvel Comics threw money at everyone, including Mick Anglo, and republished Miracleman, continuing it further with Gaiman and Buckingham thirty years after they stopped. Marvel asserts they own Miracelman and no one has sought to challenge them. Yet.

What is it that Dave Sim and David Birdsong will bring to the party? Here are their Kickstarter tiers.

• THE REGULAR EDITION Cover parody by David Birdsong of the classic Miracleman 23 cover by Barry Windsor-Smith. Available at your Local Comic Shop Worldwide this December. It is also available for a limited time during this campaign in a signed edition. Get it signed or unsigned, with personalization and CAN numbers added upon request Be sure to let us know how you want it signed when filing out your survey.
• THE SWIMSUIT BONDAGE EDITION From the mind of Dave Sim comes a cover destined to roam the Halls of Comic Book Infamy. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Available for a limited time during this campaign in a signed edition. Get it signed or unsigned, with personalization and CAN numbers added upon request Be sure to let us know how you want it signed when filing out your survey.
• THE CHRISTMAS EDITION An All-New cover drawn by Dave Sim for this campaign and for that Special Cerebus Fan on your Christmas list. Available for a limited time during this campaign in a signed edition. Get it signed or unsigned, with personalization and CAN numbers added upon request. Be sure to let us know how you want it signed when filing out your survey.
• THE GREETING CARD New from Cardvark-Vanaheim' comes Cerebus the Christmas Card. Yes, we did it last year, but look at this one! It's cool! It's an Adorable Replica of the comic you just ordered! And unlike last year's Christmas card, this one has 35 Different Boxes to check when you are searching for just the right message to share with that special someone this Holiday Season. With several ordering options to choose from you can't go wrong with this one! (Unless you check the wrong box and you used a pen, be sure to order a back up or two.)
• THE PROOFS There are a handful of proofs available during this campaign. These include a hand corrected proof of the Christmas card as well as a copy of the Regular and Christmas covers all signed by Dave Sim with a StudioComixPress sticker including printer Alphonso's initials so you know you are only getting the real deal. The third copy of the comic, ironically the one that reads "No corrections or suggestions" is suspisciously full of both by someone that stole Dave Sim's pen and made more than one joke a bit funnier. Overpriced? Probably. But as a bonus each of these four items will include a copy of Harpies' Bizarre, the very rare variant cover for March 2022's Cerebus the Emily. (No, it's not because we're trying to get rid of them. It's because it is the only issue of Cerebus In Hell? that is signed by Dave Sim and David Birdsong, so there, we don't have boxes of these just sitting around. Really.)

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