Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Justice League, Superman | Tagged: alex ross, kingdom come

The Secret Origin Of Kingdom Come That Even Alex Ross May Not Know

he Legend Of Kingdom Come is a documentary about the Alex Ross and Mark Waid comic book published by DC Comics thirty years ago

The Legend Of Kingdom Come is a documentary about the Alex Ross and Mark Waid comic book published by DC Comics thirty years ago. Directed by Remsy Atassi and produced by Ross's art dealer and longtime friend Sal Abbinanti, the Kickstarter has currently raised over a quarter of a million dollars from over a thousand backers against a $50,000 goal. And featuring commentary from Alex Ross, Mark Waid, Todd McFarlane, Paul Dini, Brian Pulido, Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, and more.

It also comes with an additional exclusive cover version of the original comic below. But what about Wayne?

Wayne Markley was Manager of Editorial Communications at DC Comics for two years back in the nineties before becoming President of comic book distributor FM International for ten years and, for the last 17 years, working at Westfield Comics. And, with the news of a documentary, he shared his own story about his involvement in that project that, as he puts it, is a "little story (absolutely true) about how the book came to be, which I am confident will not be in the documentary."

He writes to Facebook, "I remember the book well. Alex Ross had originally told me about Kingdom Come at a dinner in Philadelphia with Alex and James Robinson, but I do not think it was called that at this point. (Alex was trying to get James to write it.) As I worked at Capital City Distribution at the time and was friends with both James and Alex, and we were all at the same show, we decided to have dinner together after spending the afternoon in the bar. Then a couple of years later I was working at DC Comics and I was asked to try and get Alex to do a Superman retail poster, (which he kindly did), but he brought up what ever happened to his project Kingdom Come, which he had submitted to DC. After a bit of time and chasing down the editor who had the proposal sitting in their desk drawer, and weekly pressure from me to at least look at it, (As whenever I spoke with Alex about the poster, he would bring up Kingdom Come). The original editor eventually passed it onto another editor, who I once again bothered once a week. The editor finally read Alex's proposal but did not want to do it as there was no writer attached to the project. After a lengthy conversation I suggested Mark Waid, as he's a great writer and he knew the DC mythology. The rest is history. A little behind the scenes of how the project came to be, and I am not even sure Mark and Alex even know this story. I have not used the editors' names to save them embarrassment."

Very kind of you, Wayne. However, I will note that Peter J. Tomasi was credited as Assistant Editor, Dan Raspler was credited as Senior Editor, Mike Carlin was credited as Executive Editor and Jenette Kahn was credited as Editor-in-Chief. Wayne also told me, "They were sitting on Kingdom Come for close to a year, if not longer. Not because of any ill will, but the editors at the time were busy, and my guess is the original editor did not realize what he had. If I had not pursued it, I would not be surprised it still would be sitting in a box somewhere. On the other hand, everybody at DC at the time seemed scared of Alex for some reason, and it was well-known within DC I was friendly with most creators, the main reason I was hired. They asked if I knew Alex, which I did, and away we went."

Might be worth the documentary makers getting in touch!

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