They should get Skottie Young to finish up Big Numbers.
Here I am with more unsatisfying answers to your inquiries:
Gareth Wilson reaches new frontiers with
“Which comic book had the best stories about exploring new worlds?”
Huh. That’s the kind of vague-ish question I occasionally get at the shop that sounds like it should be easy to answer but…I don’t know, can be hard to nail down sometimes. Taken literally, as in “going to new planets in outer space in a sci-fi type way” there are plenty of anthology titles published over the years with weird alien landscapes and critters and situations. Classics like Weird Science or Mystery in Space, or newer (er, relatively speaking) comics like Alien Worlds which pretty much has it right in the title there. For comics with more of a continuing narrative, there’s Black Science from Image, with folks bouncing from dimension to dimension. And there’s Legion of Super-Heroes and the various permutations of Star Trek, I suppose, though those would be far more superficial a take on the “new worlds” thing.
Oh, there’s Stellar from Image, too…I’ve only read the first issue so far (picked it up because I love Bret Blevins’s art) but that looks like it may be up this particular alley as well.
I’ve sure there are others that will come to mind after I hit the “PUBLISH” button on this post, but that’s probably a good start, I think!
Matthew suggests:
“…Maybe write about some never-to-be-finished comic book stories/series. (And not just Sonic Disruptors.)”
Sonic Distruptors was one of those comic series I was enjoying but got cut down in its prime…and I swear I saw a news blurb in the comics press at the time that a one-short or graphic novel or whatever was going to come out wrapping up the series, but of course that didn’t happen. I’ve written a little about it on this site in the past, but look to pal Andrew and his post for the best take on the situation.
Grimjack is another one I’ve mentioned before, where the forward progression of the story has halted. It wasn’t so much cut off mid-story like Sonic Disruptors — there was an ending to that final storyline — but more was definitely planned, continuing the ongoing Grimjack saga. It’s unusual in that there have been newer mini-series featuring the character, but they were essentially flashback tales involving the “classic” Grimjack and not the Grimjack that he had eventually evolved into.
And of course there was the Helfer/Baker Shadow, and Eye of Mongombo which I talked about way back in the very beginnings of this site, so I’m sure all the links are kaput by now. I seem to recall that cartoonist maybe emailing me or leaving a note in the now-deceased Haloscan comments that he planned on bringing the title back to finish it up, but I never saw that he did. Too bad.
Let’s not forget 1963, which is like the patron saint of this sort of thing. Or Big Numbers, which hadn’t really grabbed me as of its second and, as it turned out, final issue, but I was looking forward to to reading through ’til the end anyway. I’d also love to see more of Journey: Wardrums, too.
I was kinda digging this adaptation of the Illuminatus Trilogy, too, but they didn’t want it to finish. You know…them.
More recently there was that Badger revival, which far as I can tell never put out its last issue.
There are no end to series that never reached their intended conclusions, of course. What’s nice is that there is the occasional happy ending, play on words intended, with new collections of previously unfinished comics. I’ve talked about the Puma Blues hardcover before. I thought I talked about the Border Worlds volume on my site here, but I guess I missed it…but that book adds a new 30-page chapter that, despite the publisher’s description, doesn’t exactly conclude things, but is at least more of a stopping point than where it left off before.
So, you know, it’s possible that some of these interrupted comics can get the conclusions they need. Well, maybe not 1963, since it seems unlikely that particular band will ever get back together, but sometimes I think about stocking a complete 1963 hardcover that I’d have to reorder on a regular basis and I get a small tear just in the corner of my eye.
Regarding unfinished business: Was Strangehaven completed?
One thing I always remember when this topic comes up is Alan Moore’s Awesome universe books, Supreme and Youngblood, I think Glory got a little bit of a wrap up at least at Avatar.
I was so hoping that Wardrums would be finished when those great Journey collections came out a few (10? maybe) years back. Wish WM-L was given the space and livelihood to complete it…
Next issue: Hawkman!
So, you’ve gone and reminded me of the final issue of the original Metamorpho series. It began what was presumably meant to be a long serial in which Metamorpho, after being framed by a master villain for the murder of Sapphire’s husband, fights to prove his innocence. However, as previously stated, this was the final issue, and so the story ended with Metamorpho found guilty of murder, and the person who might clear him shown to be under the master villain’s control.
Three years passed before Metamorpho reappeared, in an issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, and then we were told merely that he had spent the last few years in suspended animation, waiting for Simon Stagg to find a cure for his condition. There was no mention of the murder conviction. A short while later he got a new series in the back of ACTION COMICS, and that simply picked up with the old status quo, still no mention of the murder plot. And so on with his other appearances over the years in BRAVE & BOLD, WORLD’S FINEST, JUSTICE LEAGUE, etc.
Given what obsessives some comics writers are, I suppose that, in the fifty years since METAMORPHO #17, someone has tied up those tangling plot threads. However, whatever he came up with is guaranteed to not be what Bob Haney intended, so to me it does not count.
I made a Badger fan film, once, when I was young. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy9gjmEfn6o
Thanks for the suggestions. I would have accepted fantasy and magical equivalents of “new worlds” too. The reason I asked is that there are some superhero titles that you’d think would be good for exploration stories, like the Legion or the Fantastic Four. But they often seem to be confined to conventional superheroics.
Strangehaven has been back since 2014. In color!
I’ve been whittling down my comic collection recently, and so I’ve had to make some decisions about a bunch of series with no ending.
Fell and Desolation Jones are out. (Remember when Waren Ellis’ computer imploded?)
Miracleman is in. (Because I cling to hope.)
The Shadow is in. (Because it was/is like nothing else I’ve ever read. And Baker’s art is soooo good.)
I followed the link to your blog entry about The Shadow. Does anyone remember what commenter Dan said about the creators of the book “just kinda winging it on the series”? I haven’t heard that particular tidbit before.
Randal, are you talking about the Meanwhile anthology? I’ve seen that, but it’s 24,99 a book, that’s just a bit out of my price range these days… :(
philfromgermany, coming in really late here, but Erik Larsen stepped up a few years ago and drew Moore’s final Supreme scripts, and then continued the story his own way.
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The war between the Supremacy and Daxia goes poorly for the Supremes, who have to resort to unleashing Grumpy ’90’s Supreme (who they’d had to keep locked in a closet). The sole survivors were Squeak, Sister Supreme, and Moore’s Supreme, though they were left powerless thanks to Silver Supremium. And Darius Duck.
Then it turns out that Ethan Crane’s artistic talents were one of his powers, and he’s unable to find a new comics gig. Rather depressing.
Then the Blue Rose miniseries happens and we can all forget the unpleasantness.
And as of late Sally’s part of the newest Youngblood revival calling herself Supreme.
Wow,thanks Andrew. Amazing recall! Somehow I completely forgot about both those books. I remember buying Ellis’ Blue Rose mini and selling it of right away once it was finished. Can’t remember much except for the bad guy being much more in the know about what was happening with the Blue Rose and storyline than Diana Dane and me as the reader.
I’d have to look into Awesome shortbox to check if I ever bought the Larsen book. If I did, it didn’t leave any impression at all.
Moore’s Supreme is one of my favorite things ever (alongside original Quantum and Woody, Section Zero, Atomic Robo, and Simonson’s Fantastic Four),so yeah. The finale stuck with me.