I’ve decided that I’ll just do one more post replying to Isaac’s question, as I’m sure I’ve hit the big ones here. Specifically, as you may remember, he asked about the different “universes” publishers were cranking ouit in the ’90s, which titles I wish had been successes (i.e. still published ’til today) and what memories I had of these companies at the time.
I’ve already tacked Valiant and Ultraverse, and I know there are plenty more, but I’ve got to move on to other stuff. But you never know, I may come back to this topic when you least expect it.
But to wrap things up, for now, let’s talk about Dark Horse’s superhero universe initiative, Comics’ Greatest World:
Launched in 1993 as a series of one-shots, each centered around a different character or team. Y’know, like the one above, which is where the character Ghost first appeared. The one-shots themselves were released in themed sets, after a fashion, with characters attached to four different locations across the U.S., represented by a symbol on the cover. Like, some of the books would be tied to Steel Harbor, others to Arcadia, and so on. That “scales of justice” with the anti-sign over it on the Ghost cover? That represents Arcadia.
Anyway, I don’t know how much attention fans paid to that region-specific distinction. As I recall, customers either just bought all of the CGW books, didn’t buy any at all, or just bought one or two, like Ghost because Adam Hughes did the art. I seem to recall these one-shots selling…okay, not great. It was just too much all at once with too many new characters that didn’t grab a lot of interest.
Didn’t stop Dark Horse from continuing to push it along, with attempts at ongoing series and mini-series spinning out of this initial launch. Ghost was relatively popular at our shop from the get-go, particularly with the Adam Hughes boost when he was on the book, and I feel like this is the one I wished had continued on ’til today. I mean, she sorta has, having had a mini within the last ten years, so they’re still trying with her. But it ran for quite a few issues in the mid to late ’80s, making this probably the most successful comic of the bunch.
Another title I wish was still around was Barb Wire:
…which…yes, I know, the Pamela Anderson movie, yuck, but it’s probably because of that movie folks even remember Barb Wire today. I know they tried another Barb Wire series a few years back, but it’d be nice to have it back on the stands. Folks seem to have a soft spot for it.
X is another title that had a following at our shop:
…both the initial series, and this revival series that ended about a decade ago. This Punisher-esque vigilante character still had a little bit of a following around here.
So there. you go, those are the three properties from Comics’ Greatest World I wished had been successful enough to continue non-stop from the get-go, no relaunches required. (To be fair, they did come close.) Or, maybe, a series of mini-series, one or two a year, Hellboy-style. That would have been nice. Just this little circle of books in a shared universe that might have been the focal point for future spin-offs and crossovers with other CGW characters.
This isn’t a fair assessment, I realize, since I’ve not read the majority of the comics under the Comics’ Greatest World banner. I mean, I don’t know, The Machine could’ve been good, but I suppose there is no way for us to ever know. And some of the above comics I singled out had been revived within the last decade, but departed fairly quickly.
This brings us back to the post were this all started, where I relate how I saw the Comics’ Greatest World on the cover of Diamond Previews and wondered how anyone could afford all these. Which really is the most prominent memory I have of this influx of new publishers and imprints at the time. So many companies just desperate for attention in a marketplace that had recently explosvely shrunk and wasn’t getting much larger.
Okay, that’s enough on the topic for now, and I’ll try to get back to it later in the month if interest warrants. And I’m sure I’ll see something in the comments sections that I’ll want to address. But ’til then, thanks for reading all this, and I should be back Wednesday with more typing on a different topic.
Has sentiment for the Barb Wire movie not swung back around yet? Gender swapped post-apocalyptic Casablanca seems like something that would grab someone nostalgically these days
I would have bet money that Ghost cover was by Yanick Paquette. But apparently it’s by Dave Dorman? In any case, great cover.
CGW also had a crossover with THE MASK (of all people), in THE MASK: WORLD TOUR, which the GCD records as THE MASK #10-13.
It was… definitely a thing that happened.
To repeat my recent CGW comment: Although the ‘Barb Wire’ comic and movie were nothing special, the former was an ideal project for Adam Warren’s babes-and-tech art and Pamela Anderson was perfectly cast in the latter.
Now might be a great time for a Barb Wire revival since Anderson’s star is on the rise. She probably can’t play the title character anymore, but she could play a mentor figure or produce it or something.
The CGW titles are intrinsically tied in my memory with my then LCS “The Lion and the Unicorn”. It was once a great little shop here in B’ham, AL. They rode they early 90’s boom and eventually moved into a HUGE space that seemed absurd even by 90’s boom standards.
Walking around the new store I saw the CGW titles and thought exactly the same thing, “How can anyone afford to buy all of these titles?”
Turns out people couldn’t and the store soon moved to a smaller location before shuttering completely.
Just one store out of hundreds that grew too big too soon based on a speculator market, and things like the CGW titles.
“The Machine” did have an awesome cover by Mignola. I had that taped to my inspiration wall for years.
For a long time I only knew Ghost via the two-part Hellboy crossover and the one-shot Shadow (!) crossover from the ’90s, when Dark Horse was also doing Shadow books around the time of the Alec Baldwin movie.
I did read the odd issue of Ghost here and there, but was only able to read the whole thing when Dark Horse published the Ghost compendium late last year. I liked it well enough, actually a lot more than I expected I would. Might try the second one when it comes out this year.