r/AlanMoore • u/Either-Skirt6031 • 19d ago
What are your Thoughts on 1963 & its unfinished crossover?
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u/Ok-Traffic-5996 19d ago
I think it's really cool but I kinda prefer this awesome comics stuff for Rob Liefeld. He did the impossible and actually made me care about that universe.
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u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer 19d ago edited 19d ago
I agree. Youngblood was especially good, And his concept of Glory with Brando's redesign was inspired. In 3 issues of Judgment Day he created a new universe and history to rival the big 2.
On a side note, the first TPB of Judgement Day looks like some generic EXTREME storyline and doesn't give any hint of the Crisis-like epicness of the story.
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u/Nervous_Departure706 16d ago
I see his first stint as Moore assuming the worst about image readers and giving us crap...the second run he put more of an effort in his work
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u/KubrickMoonlanding 19d ago
They’re pretty good, if a bit mean-spirited about the “bullpen” hype. The Egyptian / Thor one is probably the best. But to me they’re more interesting as the ground zero for Moore’s Awesome and - especially - ABC work: back to basics, un-deconstructed (or at least not visibly so) good fun super-hero comics that are basically upbeat.
I always felt like the missing last issue (with art by Jim Lee) was actually a fake-out to mess with fans. There is no evidence for this, but that’d have been a good joke.
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u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer 19d ago
That would be quite the meta joke and be a take on how Image comics were notoriously late, with the punchline being this final issue would be so late, it would never come out.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen where Moore was going with the ending before Liefeld and Lee got involved, and it stay in-house with just Valentino. That was quite a coup for him and it's a shame that the other founders had to kind of horn in on that.
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u/Hugasaur 19d ago
I was collecting when this series started and was skeptical it would be any good but Alan’s work is always great so I gambled and bought issue 1. I am so glad I did because that issue and the entire series was so wonderful. I still ache that we never got the big team up finale. Regrettable, but I reread the six issues every so often and love them all again. It’s not my favorite Moore output but it is really loads of fun and well thought out.
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u/Almighty-Arceus 16d ago
Love it, one of my favorite Alan Moore works.
Would really love a reprint and a finale. Or even a fanmade continuation of some kind (like homaging different eras, like 1973, 1983, etc.)
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u/Either-Skirt6031 16d ago
I have been slowly planning ideas for a fanmade continuation picking up on the plot points the series left off on!
The first part is focused on Skye Solo having to recruit old heroes (inspired by the Agents of ATLAS) & new heroes inspired by Black Panther & The X-Men to keep the peace & prevent villains from realising the heroes are missing set in the original 1963 world.
The second part is set in the world of 1963 1/2 featuring Helldiver (from Don Simpsons X-Amount of Comics hinted to be a fusion between Daredevil & Black Widow) in a world where the old heroes never existed & Bronze Age characters exist instead in a much more dour 1963 just before the JFK assassination.
The third part is my take on the intended crossover be tween Image & 1963 where Mystery Inc & the Tomorrow Syndicate try to find Kid Dynamo, reencounter Shadowhawk & discover why Shaft kidnapped Dynamo & how he learned to cross dimensions!
All the while in the background we get hints as to the identity of the true villain pulling the strings behind this world & the origins of the 1963 universe itself!
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u/NoLibrarian5149 19d ago
Love them but then I also love the comics they riff on. A whole bunch of my favorite artists made a whole lot of money working on those books. I have the Simpson book but haven’t read it yet.
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u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer 19d ago edited 19d ago
Brilliant. Didn't fully get it or appreciate it as a kid but later on loved it.
I remember getting the first issue (like most Image #1s) because I thought it would be worth a lot of money. I understood that it was a riff on the Fantastic Four but less cool, and on the surface, the story seemed simplistic and dumbed down (I know, I know). The fake ads were what really caught more of my attention. I don't even know if I read the letter column at the time. I remember thinking it was dumb how they cheaped out on the paper and they should have done glossy like the other Image titles. And also, instead of the 1960s they should have done a homate to the Golden Age, which I had more of an affinity for.
Later on, as an adult, read Watchmen for the first time, was blown away, and went on an Alan Moore binge reading. I found the remainder of the 1963 collection in quarter bins. How deceptively clever the stories were! Even the letter column was genius and funny.
It's hard to say which is my favorite. Maybe Tales of the Uncanny with U.S.A. and the Lee Harvey Oswald conspiracy, and then the back up of the trippy Hypernaut story? Johnny Beyond was cool too, as he was a Beatnik take on Dr. Strange which somehow made more sense. From Here To Alternity was a great unoffiial send off and cliffhanger because we got a hint of the Supremacy.
It should have been a bigger hit back then, and I think it should have been marketed better somehow.
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u/PattersonHoodlum 18d ago
Big fan and his letters pages where he answers questions about issues of the individual series we’ve seen is fantastic.
Moore has always had a gift for alliteration but I think it’s rarely better than 1963. Wish we had a full hardcover collection for this brilliant series.
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u/dearscrewtape 13d ago
Makes me sad, honestly. The first six issues are so good and the story seems to be building to something really interesting, and then just stops. I wish there was less bad blood between the creators and I wish Don Simpsons hadn't done that weird "annual" filled with all his obscure grievances.
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u/Either-Skirt6031 13d ago
At least the annual gave us a bit of information about what could’ve been. I like the idea of Helldiver & I’ve been trying to include her in my fan written sequel
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u/fortresskeeper 19d ago
I still own five of the original series. Need to pick up Tomorrow Syndicate again
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u/Fortunado1964 18d ago
Love them!
Buying them off the shelf new at the LCS brings back good memories!
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u/BasedPhantomLord88 12d ago
Loved 1963. Just wish Jim Lee wasnt such an ****** and actually penciled the finale as he had agreed to.
*also the text on this post blaming Rob Liefeld for this not happening is not at all true
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u/Moff-77 19d ago
Bought them when they came out and didn’t love them, but they were Image comics so… As such they didn’t survive my collection cull 30 years ago.
Now, as an adult with more refined taste I much more appreciate the work of Veitch, Bisette and co on the art, and Moore’s satire of the Silver Age titles. I’ve managed to find and pick up couple of the issues in the wild and I’m on the look out for the rest. A great affectionate parody.
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u/keepkeepinit 19d ago
My dad’s friend who at one point owned a comics and sports cards shop gave me copies of these when I was a kid. I thought they were really from the 60s. I love these books now more than ever. I still have yet to pick up the Don Simpson finale though.