Unseen Flashback Universe Art

Recently, I was contacted by a company that wanted to use some of the art from the Flashback Universe as material for a pitch meeting for a television series. After signing the appropriate contracts, I then reviewed loads of artwork Pierre has sent me over the years and sent the company what I thought was some very nice images to use for their pitch. While doing this, I found several pages of art that readers of this blog may have never seen before, so I'm going to post them today for you all to enjoy.

First  up, this amazing battle scene with the Golden Age Flashback Universe characters (who I often refer to as the Wayback Universe) versus the U-Bolts. This image actually appeared in our zuda pitch in a smaller version, but it's easier to see the neat details Pierre put in with this version.

Next up, here is a cover of a Flashback Super Villain Two In One based on an idea from Jason Wright.

At one time Pierre and I talked about doing a Flashback Backstory for the Artifact. Here's a page Pierre created for that story.

While not a Flashback Universe creation, Mister Crimson is definitely one that I wished I had created which is why I was glad to host the web comic here. Seth Sherword and Diego Tripodi really put a lot of nice work into that web comic, and did a outstanding job hitting their weekly deadlines. However, on the occasion that they might be running a bit late, I would get other creators to step in with a piece of art. Here is one Pierre did which is a homage to the classic Dr. Fate/Hourman Showcase story.

Finally, here are two pages from our first Zuda project Kharon, Scourge of Atlantis. Looking through the file folder, I was surprised at how far we got with this project before circumstances caused forced us to stop. I could see picking this project back up again in the future.

I have quite a bit more, but I'll save it for another post someday.

Bonus: In honor of Memorial Day (which we will be observing tomorrow in the USA), enjoy this older Free Comics Monday post dedicated to the spirit of the holiday.

- Jim

The Marxist Manhunter

Slowly but surely Pierre and I are working on the Trial of the Red Death comic we mentioned a million years ago. I won't bore you with the details of why the project has taken so long, but I will say that in the downtime, I've had to change a couple of plot points, as they have since appeared in other comics. (Most recently, The Twelve: Spearhead had a scene that was identical to something I was going to do...)

Anyway - one of the characters in the comic is a villain we are calling the Marxist Manhunter. We just aren't sure which of Pierre's versions to use.

Which one do you think looks best?

Red M on Top

Double Gray M

Yellow Cape

Red/Yellow M's

Feel free to chime in!

Today's Free Comics feature the character that inspired this whole project - The Black Terror.



[ Black Terror 26 ]



[ Black Terror 27 ]

- Enjoy!

Free Comics Monday: More Cat Man and Kitten

A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of issues of Cat Man which proved to be very popular, so it's probably no surprise that I would post more issues of the popular Holyoke Publishing character. One of the biggest fans of the GA Cat Man comics turned out to be FBU's own Pierre Villeneuve! Pierre liked the character so much that he has created WayBack Universe renditions of both Cat Man and Kitten:



Pierre also created some modern versions of Cat Man with a sort of Jim Aparo feel, but I'll save those for another time.

[ Cat Man 06 ]

[ Cat Man 23 ]

Hope you enjoy these issues!

- Jim

Silver Age Mister Crimson

Hey guys, Diego sent me an email saying new pages of Mister Crimson are getting finished so expect new story this week.

However to tide you over while we get the new pages ready, Pierre Villeneuve was kind enough to scan this cover from one of his favorite Silver Age Mister Crimson comics.

Check out the classic Silver Age Cover here .:

Free Comics Monday: The Blue Bolt

Today, I present another one of Pierre's versions of a Classic Golden Age character - this time it's The Blue Bolt, from Novelty Press.

The Blue Bolt is a sort of interesting case study in comics in of himself in that like Daredevil, the comic named after him stopped featuring him on the cover. Also, as the popularity of superheroes began to fade in the post-World War II era, Blue Bolt was transformed from a superhero into a plainclothes type of hero.

[ download Blue Bolt Vol 3 No 4 ]

Pierre also colored his version of the Blue Bolt with a yellow costume to change things up a bit, but I think we'll most likely go with the blue costume.

[ download Blue Bolt Vol 3 No 7 ]



Have a great day!

- Jim

Free Comics Monday: The Human Bomb

Today, I present another one of Pierre's versions of a Classic Golden Age character - this time it's The Human Bomb, from Police Comics.

Roy Lincoln, aka The Human Bomb, was originally a scientist working with his father on a special explosive chemical called "27-QRX." However, when Nazi spies invaded his lab and killed his father, he resorted to ingesting the chemical to prevent it from falling into their hands. As a result, Lincoln gained the ability to cause explosions in any object he came into contact with, particularly through his hands; the only way to control it was to always wear special asbestos gloves (which were subsequently retconned into "fibro-wax" gloves after the human health hazards of asbestos were discovered).

Donning a containment suit to prevent any accidental explosions, Lincoln became the "Human Bomb," removing his gloves only to expose his explosive powers against Nazi and Japanese enemies, as well as ordinary criminals. He later gained enough control over his powers to be able to remove the containment suit, though the gloves were always necessary.

The Human Bomb appeared as regular feature in Police Comics.

[ download Police Comics 25 ]

A Human Bomb feature continued in Police Comics through issue 58, published in September, 1946. During that run, he was given a comic relief sidekick named "Hustace Throckmorton," who acquired a power like the Human Bomb's (though instead centered in his feet) after receiving an emergency blood transfusion from the superhero. Throckmorton was then briefly replaced by three youngsters who were collectively called "the Bombardiers."



[ download Police Comics 26 ]


Have a great day!

- Jim

Free Comics Monday:The Ray

Today, I present another one of Pierre's versions of a Classic Golden Age character - this time it's The Ray, from Smash Comics.

The first Ray was a Quality Comics character who was one of those purchased by DC Comics. He was later retconned as a member of the Freedom Fighters. His son, the second Ray, and Stan Silver, the third, were created by DC.

[ download Smash 31 ]

The Ray was Happy Terrill, who gained energy-based super-powers as a result of having been exposed to lightning and sunlight at the same time while ballooning. And as wacky as that origin is, all of the origins new versions of the character seem worse...

[ download Smash 36 ]

In thinking about the Public Domain aspect of the Quality Characters, I keep wondering why the Dynamite series Superpowers Project didn't include any of them. I'm not really a fan of the current DC revival of the characters - Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. I think it would be interesting to see what the gang at Dynamite could do with the characters.

Have a great day!

- Jim

Free Comics Monday: The Shield

Here is another Bob Morane rendition of a classic Golden Age Character by Pierre Villeneuve - MLJ/Archie Comics The Shield.

Some of you may remember that JM Straczynski is supposed to be using some of the MLJ characters in his upcoming Brave & The Bold run. From Newsarama...

Using the book as his platform, Straczynski will be taking on and introducing the group of heroes commonly known as the “Archie heroes”, that is, the super-hero characters that were generated by Archie Comics beginning in the ‘40s (and who have had various incarnations in the decades since). Among the more famous of the characters are The Shield, The Web, The Comet, The Fly, The Jaguar, and The Black Hood.

Having recently read the first volume of The Twelve, I'm not sure what to think of that. On one hand, It will be nice to see new renditions of these characters. On the flipside, I hope JMS doesn't follow the same path he has trod in such comics as The Twelve or Squadron Supreme. While there are some interesting things in both comics, the grim and gritty portions are getting a little stale.

Anyway, enough soapboxing - here are two awesome Golden Age comics featuring The Shield

[ Pep Comics 10 ]

[ Pep Comics 11 ]

Have a great day!

- Jim

Free Comics Monday: Ibis The Invincible

Here is another Bob Morane rendition of a classic Golden Age Character by Pierre Villeneuve - Fawcett's Ibis The Invincible.

From Wikipedia:

Ibis began his life as Amentep, a prince of ancient Egypt who was in love with the beautiful Princess Taia of Thebes. As a young man, Amentep had been given the Ibis-stick, a talisman of incredible power, by the Egyptian god Thoth, who empowers the talisman. Amentep's throne was eventually usurped by a cruel magician known as the Black Pharaoh, who shot Taia with a poisoned arrow. Using his Ibis-stick, Amentep placed his beloved in suspended animation to allow her to heal. He soon cast a similar spell upon himself, hoping to be present when Taia revived.

Centuries later, the mummy of Amentep returned to life in an American museum in 1940 (this was later revealed to be the work of the wizard Shazam). Now called "Ibis," Amentep set out in search of his beloved, eventually finding her at another museum. Seeking to adjust to this new world, Ibis used his vast powers to become a crimefighter, operating primarily in Fawcett City. ~wikipedia

Here are two comics featuring Ibis:

[ Download Ibis the Invincible 2 ]

[ Download Ibis the Invincible 3 ]

- Enjoy!

Free Comics Monday: Alias The Spider

There were many archer characters during the Golden Age, but one of the more interesting was Quality's Alias the Spider. Below is Pierre's version of the character.

From Wikipedia:

The Spider was, in reality, playboy Tom Hallaway. Hallaway had tired of seeing criminals have their own way harassing and murdering honest citizens, so he adopted the guise of The Spider to settle the score. The Spider fought crime in a yellow shirt and blue shorts. He was armed with a fairly ordinary bow and arrows, a special car known as The Black Widow, and the assistance of his valet Chuck (who helped out Hallaway in both of his identities without anyone making any sort of connection). He also had a special arrow he called the "Spider's Seal", which had a flat disc on the end he shot at thugs' hands to disarm them.

[ Crack Comics 6 ]

Only one adventure of the Spider has ever been reprinted by DC Comics (which acquired the Quality Comics stable of characters when the company went out of business in 1956), the story from Crack Comics #25, which saw print in Detective Comics #441.

The Spider later showed up a few times in the pages of All-Star Squadron and The Young All-Stars, though only in a cameo role. As a Quality Comics character, he was one of the heroes who went with Uncle Sam to protect Earth-X during World War II, becoming part of the Freedom Fighters. This was the fulfillment of a storyline that began in Justice League of America #107 - 108, which introduced most of the Quality Comics' characters to the DC Universe (previously only Plastic Man and Blackhawk had been used). - wikipeida

[ Crack Comics 11 ]

Enjoy!

Free Comics Monday: Pierre's Airboy and The Heap

As with last week, today I will preview two more characters that will be making cameo appearances in our Trial of the Red Death comic.

First here's Pierre's Airboy using what we call his Bob Morane style...

And an issue of Airboy Comics featuring Airboy.

[ Airboy Comics vol 4, number 11 ]

And here is Pierre's The Heap. By the way, when I say cameos, I really want to stress the fact that these will be minor appearances in our comic. (So, don't go getting all lawyered up yet McFarlane.)

And here is an issue of Airboy Comics featuring The Heap.

[ Airbody comics vol 9, number 7 ]

Enjoy!

Free Comics Monday: Back in Black

With todays free comics, I am also going to preview two character designs Pierre has worked up for our Trial of the Red Death comic. These characters will be appearing as small cameos in the comic.

First here's Pierre's Black Kondor using what we call his Bob Morane style...

And an issue of Crack Comics featuring the Black Condor.

[ Crack Comics 22 ]

And here is Pierre's Black Terror

And an issue of Exciting Comics featuring Black Terror. Check out the young sidekick shooting the gun. I think when we remember the Golden Age comics, we forget just how violent they actually were. I think the recent hubbub over Batman using a gun in Final Crisis 6 demonstrates this - but that's a whole other post one day...

[ Exciting Comics 36 ]

Enjoy!

Which Red Death is Better

Today is a short post because like a character in a Jack London story, I've gotta build a fire and keep it going (our heater is on the fritz.)

Anway, I mentioned the Wayback Universe a while back, which is our Golden Age Flashback Universe. One of the characters in this universe is a guy we are calling The Red Death. He's our tip of the hat to The Black Terror. Pierre's whipped up a pretty nice costume for the character, but we are both waffling on the color scheme.

Below are two images Pierre did with the character as a test. The images are from a story we are working on called The Trial of the Red Death. If anyone has a preference, please let us know.

Black and Red?

Or All Red?
Have a great weekend!

The WayBack Universe

Let's talk a second about Public Domain Characters and Golden Age Comics. So does Pierre. The guy over to the left here is the Gray Ghost, the first Golden Age character he ever drew for the Flashback Universe. At the time I wasn't sure I wanted a Golden Age Flashback Universe, but I'll show you how the character AND the FBU idea evolved in a second.

First let me answer a reader's email:

Where can I find a list of all the Public Domain Superheroes?

Wikipedia used to be a great source for a complete list of all public domain comic books characters, but as with all useful wiki pages, some jackass put [citation needed] on the page, and now it's gone.

Now the best place to start is the Golden Age Comic Book site:

For characters outside of comics, you can begin here: the index of Public Domain Resources note: Wikipedia has a similar index on this page: Wiki: Public Domain Resource but it's rather long and hard to wade through, and it might be gone next week, so I wouldn't depend on it.

This is such a confusing issue partly because American Copyright law is a mish mosh that changes depending on the time a character was created AND because it's hard to verify exactly whether companies really took the time to copyright/trademark their characters correctly the first time.

Witness this discussion at Wikipedia over the Nedor Superheroes:

...The above report on Nedor characters may or may not be accurate depending on the actual circumstances of the company when it ceased publishing. It is clear that Ned Pines did renew copyright on most of his characters' first appearances, despite widely reported statements to the contrary. Also, Pines sold one of his companies, Popular Library, to Fawcett Publishing, who in turn, sold it to CBS, and today, the Nedor characters would be owned by either Bertelsman AG or Warner, if the comic books they appeared in were published by Popular Library. If Ned Pines used different companies to publish these books, they may be in public domain.

So, given all that, when Pierre came to me with an idea of working on some Public Domain heroes into our Flashback Universe, I was a little hesitant.

First, how would we know if they were really public domain?

Second, I've heard that even if you use public domain characters, it's hard to then turn around and do anything else with them (like a movie for instance) because other companies are scared of public domain characters.

Still, I liked the idea of working in the Golden Age setting, so we decided to create our OWN Golden Age universe, which we smartly dubbed the WayBack Universe.

The first stab at this was to create a super group of characters similar to the Invaders. If you've read the Paladin comic, you've already seen a reference to these characters. In that comic we call them the Intruders, but in other places, they have been called the Insurgents. I'm going to say that because their missions were classified by the government, an *official* name was never recommended. ;)

One of the coolest characters in that group is the Golden Age WildCard:

Another favorite of mine is the Crimson Cossack (there's a big story behind this pose that I won't go into here...)

Not seen in the Intruders picture is probably one of my favorite WayBack characters - a character who sort of started as the Gray Ghost and changed into something much cooler I think - The Purple Puma.

And of course heroes are only as good as the villains they face, so we've created quite a few WayBack Universe Villains as well...here is a group we call the U-Bolts.

And here is a another group shot with a few familiar faces in the mix...click to enlargify.

We have several more characters, and hope to have a complete comic featuring some of them in the near future. (I just need a story... :D )

I'll keep you posted. :)

- Jim