The Gold Standard
By Adam Murdough
This is Fantastic Comics #24, released in early 2008 as the first in a series of Golden Age-derived specials from Image Comics. This new publishing initiative, dubbed "the Next Issue Project," revives more than just Golden Age characters: it resurrects entire anthology titles of the 1930s-40s, in their original, 64-page magazine/tabloid size and format, right down to resumption of the original series' numbering. (This means that there really was, for instance, a Fantastic Comics #1-23, published by Fox Features Syndicate through November 1941.) The content of each "next issue"--between eight and twelve all-new stories and features based on concepts from the revived series' original run, including text pieces and brief "gag" strips, and even authentic period advertisements--is not necessarily an exact continuation of the content of the last published issue from the Golden Age, however. Instead, each Image special consists of a hand-picked cross-section of features representing the entire publishing history of the original anthology, each one interpreted by a different contemporary creative team.
The Next Issue Project is the brainchild of former Image Comics Publisher Erik Larsen, a fan and collector of Golden Age comic books. With input from his co-conspirator and fellow Golden Age buff, Image Marketing Coordinator Joe Keatinge, Larsen makes the decisions as to which Golden Age titles will be revived under the auspices of the Project, which features from each title's history will be included, and which creators will work on each feature. (Because this creative process is so difficult to coordinate, Larsen lamented, the next planned offerings in the series--Crack Comics #63 and Speed Comics #45, and possibly Fantastic Comics #25--will not see publication for some time.) Larsen also participates as a creator himself, having written and drawn the "Samson" cover story for Fantastic Comics #24, while Keatinge wrote the "Stardust the Super Wizard" story in the same issue.
As both publisher and artist, Larsen is especially proud of the physical format being used, itself a revival of a Golden Age publishing standard. The most noticeable characteristic of a Next Issue Project release is its size, a hefty 7.5"x10.5", which was the norm for comic books sixty years ago, compared to 6.5"x10" for the average modern comic book. Unlike Golden Age comics, however, Next Issue Project specials are printed on high-quality paper stock and cost considerably more than a dime. "I love the dimensions," Larsen said of the oversized throwback format. "I love that size and the logos just look massive. The obvious disadvantage is that it doesn't fit in ordinary comic book boxes or on some spinner racks and even store shelves, plus it's an expensive book to print, but on a pure aesthetic scale it can't be beat."
Larsen's most important editorial proviso is that the Next Issue Project will only consider Golden Age material that has fallen into public domain, like the heroes of Project Superpowers; in fact, several members of the Project Superpowers cast, including Samson, make appearances in Fantastic Comics #24. A large part of Larsen's enthusiasm for the Project seems to stem from the "treasure hunt" aspect of it, the idea that a wealth of potentially interesting forgotten comics concepts of yesteryear are currently "up for grabs" thanks to public domain laws, like so many diamonds in the rough just waiting to be discovered, polished, and appreciated anew. He tries to take a "hands-off" approach to the revival process, providing a new venue for the original characters/concepts and allowing them to speak for themselves with minimal modernization. "What we're trying to do--and not everyone has stuck with the program--is to use these characters as-is and not reinvent and redesign them," Larsen said. "I like the idea of simply picking up the toys which were left in the backyard and playing with them for a while and carefully returning them to where they were instead of transforming and updating and altering them. Otherwise, what's the point? If you're going to change everything, why not make up a new character?"
As Larsen implies, however, not all of the creative teams who contributed to Fantastic Comics #24 are as faithful to the original comics as Larsen might prefer--even Larsen himself has admitted to ignoring most of the Golden Age source material for his Samson story, on the grounds that much of said material was "awful!" Ultimately, the faithfulness of each adaptation is left to the discretion of the respective creative teams. Some of the features are done in a painstaking replication of Golden Age art and scripting styles, right down to simulated discoloration of the pages to evoke the cheap, pulpy newsprint paper on which Golden Age comics were printed; others employ modern cartooning styles while leaving the essence of the characters themselves unchanged; still others are downright avant-garde, differing radically from the Golden Age strips on which they're based. Between the variety of genres represented (superhero, space opera, time travel, sword-and-sorcery, et al.) and the variety of possible artistic takes on the revived features within those genres, there is enough diversity of content and latitude for creative expression involved in the production of a Next Issue Project anthology to satisfy any creator--and any kind of Golden Age fan.
This kind of creative and interpretive freedom is somewhat reminiscent of the Golden Age, when artists were free to experiment (sometimes out of dire necessity, as comics publishers groped desperately for new ideas and gimmicks to keep poor-selling titles afloat) and could do what they wanted as long as pages were filled and deadlines were met. A key difference, of course, is the level of professional talent that is currently enjoying this freedom. Whereas Golden Age creators were often just unskilled teenagers, grinding out pages under sweatshop conditions and struggling to create a new narrative medium from scratch with no frame of reference but B-movies and pulp novels, the Next Issue Project has the benefit of experienced "big name" talent like Larsen, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Casey, Mike Allred, and Ashley Wood. While the revivals of the Project may lack some of the rawness and cathartic spontaneity of their Golden Age forebears, they make up for it in improved craftsmanship.
Look up your favorite comics (Superman, Black Cat) or topic (Artist Interviews, Reviews)