A live-action Syzygy would be pretty cool looking, I’d think.
So probably at the top of my “least expected comic book news” list, right beneath “Steve Ditko Joins Andy Kaufman for Dancing with The Stars,” is “Dreadstar to Become TV Show,” and yet, here we are. Doesn’t mean it’s absolutely 100% going to happen, but that this is even an announcement in Variety is pretty amazing. I hope it does make it to air, at least long enough for the scene in the panel presented above to appear directly and faithfully translated to screen.
And as I noted on the Twitterers, I would like the first season to be an adaptation of Metamorphosis Odyssey (the Epic Illustrated serialized series that introduced Vanth Dreadstar) if only to enjoy the television viewing public’s almost inevitable reaction of “…what did I just watch?”
I hope at the very least we get out of this, if not new Dreadstar comics, then relatively inexpensive and complete reprints of the older comics. There aren’t really that many issues: 64 in the original comic series, plus 6 in the follow-up mini from Malibu, and all the Epic Illustrated stuff plus the two graphic novels fit into that one hardcover from a few years back. Oh, and that cameo in ‘Breed III as well. And that First Comics crossover thing. …And I’m probably missing something else, but honestly, that’s not a whole lot. Let’s get some books of these things, even if you have to slap “FROM THE CREATOR OF THANOS” across the tops of the covers.
In other news:
- Pal Dave just wrapped up a year’s worth of entries in his “I Had That!” series, looking back at all the toys and games and media tie-ins and what-have-yous that most of us accumulated through our formative years. Interesting reading, as Dave examines these artifacts mostly not just through romanticized nostalgic filters but through an after-the-fact understanding of what it was that made us want to possess via plastic tchotchkes whatever passing cultural zeitgeist that caught our attention. He and I are about the same age, so I promise you, I declared “I had that, too!” with a disturbingly large number of each of the series’ installments. Highly recommended.
- Pal Andrew’s most recent Nobody’s Favorites covers a comic featuring a characters that, given my love of the original Saturday Night Live, should have been entirely within my wheelhouse, but man, I just couldn’t do it. I don’t even think I ever saw more than a few minutes of the film.
- Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull who is strong in the Force, is presenting 365 Days of Star Wars in his own inimitable little fuzzy way. Probably should have mentioned that sooner, as he’s quite a few segments in. You’d better go catch up before he comes after you with the cutest little lightsaber you’ve ever seen.
I loved Dreadstar – at least up until when Starlin stopped drawing it. I wasn’t reading it when it came out but I discovered the 6 issue Marvel reprint “Dreadstar and Company” at a flea market in or around 1989 and had to go back and get everything. It was probably the second or third title that I actually managed to assemble a near-complete run of after the fact (I’m still missing a few issues of the Metamorphosis Odyssey story from Epic Magazine, but the SLG reprint book a few years back dropped those off my list of “must haves” even if the quality of the reprint probably wasn’t the best).
This is on my radar – if there’s a Dreadstar TV series I plan on tuning in every week. It will probably end up disappointing, but I’m along for the ride anyway :)
I picked DREADSTAR up when it first came out, but I lost interest 15 or so issues in. Starlin set up a lot of stuff like the “Replacement God” sublot and the anti-Catholic church stuff seemed superficial and pat. The series needed long term plot mapping like you have nowadays; coming from traditionally serialized storytelling, I don’t think Starlin had the writing to chops to go full Space Opera. (I did enjoy the Fumetti strips in the back of each issue where he’d sport a paper bag mask and take shots at Jim Shooter, but I am easily amused.)
Correction: “Starlin set up a lot of stuff like the “Replacement God” sublot which had no pay off…”
I would actually watch that episode of Dancing with The Stars.
Count me among the old school DreadStar fans. I got into it just after the Metamorphosis Odyssey – and fell in love with it from the OGN magazine; “the PRICE”. Syzygy Darklok grabbed my mystic-central comic nerve pretty quickly.
I lost interest after Starlin left, but even before then was just plodding along with it going it would rediscover it’s early glory.
Then, every so often if check out new creative teams, but alas it was never quite as good.
I would be eager to see what is done with it in live action.
-P-
Thanks for the plug, Mike! I do have a lightsaber, but I won’t go after anybody. I’ll just slice up some cake for them.
I remember the first installment of Metamorphosis Odyssey, in Epic #1, being the first time I ever saw someone say “shit” in a Marvel publication.
Being about 14, I thought this proof of the maturation of comics.