Holy macaroni!

February 28, 2005 6:57 AM

Miracleman is arguably one of the finest superhero comics ever made, but it has been dogged by legal disputes even in its pre-post-modern, pre-Alan Moore days, when it was called Marvelman. But the many fans and would-be fans of the modern comic have suffered greatly as a result of a big rights dispute which kept the existing work from being reprinted, so enthusiasts and interested parties have had to pay big bucks for the existing copies out there or console themselves with companion books (which also go out of print!).

But there is an end in sight! Neil Gaiman, one of the parties in the dispute, has good news to report.
posted by sninky-chan (15 comments total)

I so want to be able to read Miracleman! I hope it gets reprinted.
posted by gnat at 7:41 AM on February 28, 2005

Fans of the series, will, no doubt, understand that I am quite pleased....
posted by kimota at 7:42 AM on February 28, 2005

If this comes out, I will pinch my nipples with glee.

I've been wanting to read this series for years and I've never been able to afford shelling out $300 per trade. (I did manage, however, to get my hands on the first 5 single issues published by Eclipse for about $25. Never taken them out of their mylar, though).

And may I just say that Todd Macfarlane is a money-grubbing d-bag and a hack writer and artist? I may? Ok. I said it.
posted by papakwanz at 8:12 AM on February 28, 2005

I wonder if this is freely available in digital form, if you know where to look?
posted by smackfu at 8:59 AM on February 28, 2005

I wonder if this is freely available in digital form, if you know where to look?

My sources say yes. That source is a 300mb zip file with issues 1-25 + extras.

But I'm wondering... Where would this fall, ethically? If the price of these comics is driven by their rarity, how ethical is it to get the content for free? After all, who wants to pay hundreds of dollars to read a comic book?

Of course, personally, I don't have a problem with it, but I tend to download mostly Japanese comics anyway :)
posted by splice at 9:22 AM on February 28, 2005

Just a note to those of you still writing 2004 on your checks -- Gaiman's post is from last year.
posted by The Bellman at 9:52 AM on February 28, 2005

Why is it always Todd McFarlane's name that's always attached to litigation in the CB-world? Is it the money-target on his back, or is he really just an a-hole who attracts anti-notoreity to his cosmic suck?

(He's probably one of the 4 guys responsible for the spec-market blow-out in the 90's, but still...)

I skipped most of the late '80's for comics. I think it had something to do with being a college/grad student/paying rent or out-of-the-country. Possibly a combination. I remember McFrarlane drawing Spider-Man at one moment, turning my back on the whole thing for a while, and suddenly Spawn was everywhere, and 'primo' creators had suddenly left Marvel and DC to start their own labels.

Is there a good chronology for this stuff somewhere?
posted by vhsiv at 10:45 AM on February 28, 2005

Never taken them out of their mylar, though

Where would this fall, ethically? If the price of these comics is driven by their rarity, how ethical is it to get the content for free? After all, who wants to pay hundreds of dollars to read a comic book?

Apparently few want to pay hundred of dollars to read, they just let them sit all wrapped up and feel smug about it. I can understand keeping a rare comic that has been reprinted all vacuum sealed away from prying eyes, but not Miracleman. I'm much more in the "comics as readable entertainment" camp and not the "comics are fetish objects" camp, though. Seriously, carefully opening it and reading once isn't going to destroy the damn thing.
posted by mikeh at 11:39 AM on February 28, 2005

One of the best series ever and I am proud to say I own copes of 1-25. In regards to McFarlane being an ass, I have no idea. Dave Sim would suggest he is an arrested adolescent. But whom among us comic fans isn't?
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:52 AM on February 28, 2005

mikeh, many people (not papakwanz, of course) who have comics like MM and never take them out of the mylar probably wouldn't enjoy reading them in the first place. It's an investment to them, and maybe a point of pride, but nothing more. It's like asking a financier if s/he likes those tasty pork bellies.
posted by sninky-chan at 12:09 PM on February 28, 2005

Is Dave Sim qualified to judge adolescent behavior?

McFarlane certainly comes off as a complete ass-hole in The Devil You Know (better than a 4.3, but not brilliant). When I saw him at comic conventions around the time of Spiderman #1 he did show a little respect for his fans, but he was not the nicest guy in comics even then.

So yes he has a bad attitude, and his writing is crap, but his art was good, possibly even brilliant.
posted by Chuckles at 12:18 PM on February 28, 2005

I'd just like to say: thanks a frickin' ton. I just bought the first five issues from an online store, and will be blowing a LOT of cash to get this comic. Because I must read it. And read I will.
posted by graymouser at 12:45 PM on February 28, 2005

I am so undeniably pleased with this post. I, though a comics fan, was mostly rabid about it in my youth. I stopped reading for the same reason a lot of us did (the 90's) and as of now had never heard of miracleman. This was a fascinating read and now I'm all kinds of juiced for reading miracleman material, one day.

Alan Moore is the Benjamin Franklin of the comics industry and Todd McFarlane is the King George III.

Or, if you prefer: Todd McFarlane is the Mr. Potter of Comic Books' Bedord Falls and Neil Gaiman is George Bailey with Alan Moore as his guarian angel. The difference being that Moore earned his wings long ago.
posted by shmegegge at 1:04 PM on February 28, 2005

One of Neil Gaiman's Silver Age Miracleman stories, the one with a Prisoner pastiche (sort of,) is one of my favorite single issue comics stories ever.

I'm amazed he's still interested in finishing the story after all these years, and would love to see the results.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 2:05 PM on February 28, 2005

mikeh & sninky- re: the 5 issues of MiracleMan that I own

To be honest, the reason why I've never even opened them is not so much to preserve the value of the comics, although that is of course somewhat of an issue, but more about the fact that I hate reading anything and not getting a complete story out of it. If I read the 5 issues and was really blown away, I would probably be tempted just to sell a kidney or something and buy the rest of the damn books on eBay. If I didn't, I would just be very frustrated at reading part of a story. So, they sit in a longbox.

For the same reason I only buy very certain select comics in single issue format anymore (Y - The Last Man & Fables). Those happen to be my 2 favorite books, and I just like collecting them. Just about everything else reads better in a trade collection, its a lot more economical (usually), you often get bonus material (sketches, scripts, alternate covers, and no ads!) and you can put them on your bookshelf to show off to all your friends.
posted by papakwanz at 2:53 PM on February 28, 2005