11/12/12

It’s been over a year since I updated this board. I find myself talking about Steve often and thinking about him but there hasn’t been anything that has prompted me to post here. Maybe we can change that. I’ll start a new thread and ask that folks post about the Gerber work that has been reprinted lately…and what hasn’t been but should be.

21 Responses to “11/12/12”

  1. Roger Green Says:

    I’m totally out of the comic book loop, save for what I read in a blog or three, so I’d be excited to find out just what new/old Gerber stuff IS out there

  2. marc bryant Says:

    I would love a DC anthology of Phantom Zone and A. Bizzaro.

    A nice hardcover of Nevada would be great too, with the short that wasn’t included in the original trade, as well as any notes/development material. A foreword by Gaiman might give it a leg up. This is something Image might jump on. I have no idea who holds the rights.

  3. Kevin J. Maroney Says:

    Still appalled that the FOOLKILLER mini has never been collected. I think it’s the best of Steve’s work from his later period, and I think he did a lot of great work in his later period.

    Weird to think that his “early” comics period only lasted about 10 years, ’72-’83, while his “later” period stretched from 1990 to 2008. But a lot of creators make their biggest splash early, and then have long periods of maturity in which they’re taken for granted–“Oh, just another work of genius from…”.

  4. Nat Gertler Says:

    I had been waiting for the Amazon-listed hardcover collection of his long-in-the-making, recently-published Man-Thing miniseries with Kevin Nowlan… but I’ve figured out at the hardcover was just an illusion in the system, and that I’ll need to order the paperback.

  5. David Allen Says:

    Cool that Man-Thing has been collected in two Essential B&W volumes and an enormous color Omnibus, but unfortunate that it stops prior to the Marvel Comics Presents serial by Gerber and Tom Sutton.

    “Elements of Terror” (’88-89) appeared in issues 1-12 of MCP, 8 pages a shot, or 96 pages total. I suspect it’s his longest single Man-Thing story!

    It’d be nice to have that collected and presented in one place. It’s the only Gerber Man-Thing story between the Rampaging Hulk backup in 1978 and Screenplay of the Living Dead Man more than 30 years later.

  6. Tim Finn Says:

    DC announced a second “Hard Time” paperback, of all things, and Amazon has it listed at 144 pages (so it will likely be issues 7-12) and with a release date in January 2013.

  7. John Pannozzi Says:

    I really want a nice collection of everything Destroyer Duck.

  8. Lou Mougin Says:

    Why the heck not an anthology of Gerber’s work for Hanna-Barbera funnies? Not much of a market for it, I suppose, but I’d love to see them collected, including the ones that never appeared Stateside.

  9. Claudio P. Says:

    Keep it going anyway, Mark, even yearly if nothing comes to mind. I still think this is a precious place to meet here and there to talk about Steve and remember him.

  10. BobH Says:

    I was hoping we’d see this given next Superman movie villains.

    Superman: Phantom Zone [Paperback]
    Steve Gerber (Author), Gene Colan (Illustrator), Rick Vietch (Illustrator)

    Release Date: July 23, 2013
    Explore the history of Krypton and the origins of The Phantom Zone, Krypton’s other-dimensional prison, in this new title. Collected for the first time, this epic story stars Zod, who will be featured in the summer 2012 movie THE MAN OF STEEL. This story comes from the mind of Steve Gerber, writer of DC’s acclaimed series HARD TIME and creator of Marvel’s HOWARD THE DUCK.
    Paperback: 160 pages

    http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Phantom-Zone-Steve-Gerber/dp/1401240518

    That’s the Gene Colan illustrated 1982 5-issue series and the followup from the final issue of DC COMICS PRESENTS in 1986 with Rick Veitch.

  11. Ray Cornwall Says:

    I’m not surprised that DC is thinking of putting out more Hard Time trades- Didio always like Steve a lot, and said nice things about him after his passing.

    I just reread the series over the last few pages, and it might be my favorite Gerber story. It shouldn’t have worked, but man, it was beautiful. It tapped right into the zeitgeist of our prison-crowded violent society and made something beautiful out of it. It’s a shame it ended so quickly, but even so, the last issue is a thing of beauty. Really hope it gets fully reprinted someday.

  12. alunited1961 Says:

    I just found this blog and thought i would comment. I loved Steve Gerbers Defenders and loved the fact that Marvel would publish it. So is there a reprint of his run on the Degenders?

  13. Steve D Says:

    @alunited1961:

    Gerber’s entire DEFENDERS run can be read — albeit in black & white — in Marvel’s ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS Volume 2 & 3.

    In the deluxe color Marvel Masterworks series, they’ve only just started to reprint Gerber’s run. See the recent Marvel Masterworks: THE DEFENDERS Vol. 3. Presumably, more volumes will follow.

  14. Stefan "Starocotes" Immel Says:

    The Infernal Man Thing finally was released: http://www.comixology.com/Infernal-Man-Thing/comics-series/8098

    Read it and found it very disturbing in a “good” Steve Gerber way. You could see that it had a hugh autobiographical touch.

  15. Jim Sheridan Says:

    Agreed that Foolkiller needs to be collected!

    I have been enjoying the heck out of the Man-Thing Omnibus and the TPB of Infernal Man-Thing too.

    DC is doing us right with the Hard Times AND Phantom Zone TPBs in 2013.

    Marvel needs to step up. The Defenders Masterworks are very pricey, and speaking of, the all-too-swiftly out-of-print Howard the Duck Omnibus needs a reprinting!! You can’t find it for under 200 bucks, which is tough to justify.

    Sigh. I really, really, really have been loving that Man-Thing Omnibus.

  16. Bart Lidofsky Says:

    About 15 years ago, I sent my Foolkiller collection to Steve, who told me that he had misplaced his. He mentioned that there was talk about a collected edition, and he asked me if there was anything that should be edited out (like redundant flashback scenes. IIRC, there were only 2-3 panels which I suggested cutting out. But it just goes to show how far back they’ve been talking about a collected Foolkiller.

    I do assume that BBS’s FOR DUMMIES is not about to be reprinted, though. It’s probably on the same shelf as other books that were outdated upon publishing, like Asimov’s AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE SLIDE RULE (a major embarrassment for him, as he had predicted the prominence of the pocket calculator) and THE (disco) DAZZLER…

  17. Gordon Kent Says:

    Well, as Mark reminded me yesterday, it’s been 5 years since Steve left us. As time passes, it becomes more clear to me how much Steve and his work meant to so many of us.

    I was a friend of Steve’s before I ever really became aware of his work.

    Steve was a wonderful friend. He was thoughtful, he was smart and he didn’t just stand up to be counted on behalf of himself. He stood up for others, too — and there aren’t many of them. I’ve been fortunate enough to know a few people like that — but they are very rare.

    It’s amazing to me how often I think of the man and I truly miss him.

  18. Esco Says:

    Just finished reading the History of the Marvel Comics by Sean Howe. I think Steve Gerber, Englehart and Jim Starlin come across as almost the real stars of the book (outside of the long running thread of Jack and Stan). Don’t know how true the book is but it seems to ring right to me. I was too young to get what I was reading when I was a kid and as far as Gerber and Englehart went and have been going back and re-discovering them. It’s been a treat. I really thought The Doctor Fate series Steve did right before he passed was great and just so FULL of potential. I think DC just kicked it to the curb unfortunatly. To be fair who could have picked it up from Steve and carried it as well?

  19. Tony Lazarus Says:

    I can’t believe it’s been five years. I guess that’s what happens as you get older, time starts zooming by.

    I think I’ve got most of Steve’s work, with maybe a few gaps (Subby, Daredevil) but I’d like to second the requests for the Foolkiller mini-series to be collected, maybe with the previous Man-Thing and Defenders appearances included too.

    Esco, thank you so much for the heads-up on the History Of Marvel Comics, which I shall be devouring as soon as is humanly possible. Like you, I read Gerber, Englehart and Starlin as a pre-teen / teen and loved the concepts and the disturbing imagery – and it gets better when you read them as an adult and realise “oh, so THAT’s what he was getting at there”.

    Steve Gerber, you are much missed 8=(

  20. Alan Ekblaw Says:

    The fourth volume of the Defenders Masterworks is currently being solicted, so get your order to your favorite comic shop immediately, especially if you want the traditional-style variant cover (like I do). As Jim Sheridan said, they are expensive at seventy bucks, but you’re not likely to ever get a finer edition. I don’t know if they’ll be reprinted in softcover anytime soon. Comics from the seventies and early eighties seem to be tough sells in the book market.

    Sean Howe’s book is definitely worth getting also. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and was dubious, thinking that it might be a company-approved waste of time. I flipped it open, and the first thing that I saw was a behind-the-scenes anecdote that I’d never read before. So I bought it and was pleased to find that Howe had gotten many former Marvel employees to share their stories. If you enjoyed the Bullpen Bulletins pages, this is a book for you.

  21. ekko Says:

    I’m blogtributing The Defenders and I’m up to the Steve Gerber years (the best years), if anyone is interested….
    http://berkeleyplaceblog.com/tag/a-panel-from-every-issue-of-the-defenders/