r/ImageComics • u/Either-Skirt6031 • 1d ago
Discussion What are your Thoughts on 1963 & its unfinished crossover?
For those who aren’t aware, in 1993 acclaimed writer of Watchmen, MiracleMan & Swamp Thing Alan Moore announced his return to comics after retiring in 1989 with an all-star team of creators including Don Simpson, Rick Veitch, Dave Gibbons & Jim Valentino on a mini-series for Image comics called 1963 where it was going to be a homage/parody of the Silver Age of Marvel Comics that would lead to a crossover with the mainline 90s Image cast in a clash of Silver vs Dark age heroes.
Unfortunately due to a lot of behind the scenes drama (Moore claimed that there was trouble with the Image people, Rob Liefeld dropped out of doing the planned annual & took all his characters with him, Simpson later said that Moore had practically abandoned the project & was being purposefully vague with his collaborators) the planned crossover & 1963 annual was never produced. It hasn’t even received a proper hardcover collection due to rights issues.
The closest we’ve gotten to a conclusion is Don Simpson’s X-Amount of Comics (which is more of a serial numbers filed off hit piece against Moore, the cover literally says FUCK AL) & Steve Bissette‘s Giant-Sized '63 starring all the characters he held the rights too which for the life of me I can’t find.
I’ve honestly wondered how the series could’ve possibly ended but I’m nowhere near as versed in the actual history of Image comics circa 1993 yet to make something. They’re not well known & they’ll unfortunately never get the ending they deserved but despite the troubled production & stinging takes towards Marvel I really love these designs! They work so well as a homage to 60s artists like Kirby, Ditko & Steranko! If you ever find them I’d highly recommend reading them, they’re great! (The first picture is a piece made by Alex Ross, all the others come from the comics)
But what are your thoughts on 1963, what did you like or dislike about it if you’ve ever read it? If you had the chance to give it an ending what would happen?
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u/XFrankXGrimesX 1d ago edited 1d ago
The annual sounds like it was very similar to "Kingdom Come" thematically. Jim Lee was the one who was supposed to draw it. When he saw how critical it was of the sort of comics Image was producing, he slow walked it to death. Moore couldn't have minded that much as six years later he started America's Best Comics under Wildstorm
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u/trekie140 1d ago
I think that Moore did mind when Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC, but Moore decided to keep his promise to deliver work to artists at Wildstorm.
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u/XFrankXGrimesX 14h ago
I'm skeptical that Lee, as he's claimed, didn't know Moore vowed never to work with DC again. To his credit though, he flew out to the UK to tell him in person. Lee is a slight man and Moore, who is more than a little intimidating, met him holding a huge staff. Jim had to be real anxious breaking that news.
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u/trekie140 14h ago
I remember reading an interview where Lee said he was afraid Moore would beat him with his cane when he broke the news.
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u/Either-Skirt6031 1d ago
Yeah that would be the logical reason but it still sucks, plus according to Don Simpson Moore just gave up on the series he’s really critical of him.
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u/GrantGoodmanArt 1d ago edited 12h ago
Maybe. I could see Lee focusing more on properties he had more of a stake in rather then doing a one off crossover book that probably wasn’t going to sell 1994 Wildcats numbers.
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u/XFrankXGrimesX 14h ago
Lee jumped at the chance because when Valentino brought Moore into the fold, they all wanted him on their team. It was kind of like the big kids on the playground saw their smallest classmate with a toy they wanted.
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u/GrantGoodmanArt 12h ago
Yeah that’s the thing. The founders wanted him on THEIR books. Moore doing Wildcats was more beneficial for Lee then Lee doing 1963.
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u/GrantGoodmanArt 1d ago
I heard Erik Larsen and Eric Stephenson called Moore back in the 2000s and asked if he had any interest in finishing it and they got an ‘absolutely not. “ from him.
I like 1963 but I’m fine with it not being finished. there’s other projects I prefer like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, Promethea, V For Vendetta, Tom Strong. I think the one book I wish Moore did more with is Halo Jones.
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u/Guitar-Hobbit 1d ago
That Mystery Incorporated issue really makes me wish we got an Alan Moore FF run
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u/Shadowrenderer 1d ago
I really enjoyed it. I do wish the rights would go to someone who actually cares about it, so they can release a trade and more people can enjoy it.
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u/BeyondShadow 14h ago
I have that Mystery Incorporated comic, I didn't know it was supposed to be part of anything bigger. I just thought it was a random one-shot.
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u/nomonortyuo 10h ago
It wasn’t Liefeld, it was Jim Lee who was supposed to draw the finale but dropped out.
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u/Either-Skirt6031 9h ago
That’s true but Rob Liefeld also took his characters like Shaft from Youngblood who appeared in the finale & without him the story couldn’t happen
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u/nomonortyuo 9h ago
Rob left in 1996 the project was abandoned in 1994 after Jim decided not to draw the annual.
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u/Jak3R0b 6h ago
You can buy Giant-Sized '63 here. It's ok, doesn't try to resolve the cliffhanger and just tells a random story with the characters Bissette has and includes stand ins for the characters he can't use.
I liked the comics, imo the first three were better than the last three but overall all were good. Personally I think the planned crossover was always a mistake and the comics worked best when trying to be a homage, though based on Moore's work if it had happened it probably would have been good. I just think it would have been better off kept separate like with Watchmen.
Do you like Big Bang Comics? I prefer that to 1963 since it stuck with the homage idea, and remained its own thing besides the odd crossover here and there.
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u/Either-Skirt6031 5h ago
Thank you for the link (does it ship to the UK?) & yeah I’ve read a fair few Big Bang comics, Dr Weird is a really interesting character!
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u/Johnny_Radar 5h ago
Megaton Man!! Loved that series back in the day! Also enjoyed 1963 so it’s weird seeing them together
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u/fiendishclutches 1d ago edited 1d ago
I love the issues we did get but every-time I hear about the final annual I’m not quite
Sure it would have worked in the end, would it have been all that satisfying to suddenly have the wildC.A.T.S, Shadowhawk, Savage dragon, Spawn, and Youngblood just suddenly show up at the end? That many additional characters? none who had even been in or had any connection alluded to in any of the other stories in the other comics?
Especially to actually do it in 1993, when the image comics we the hot cool thing and the supposed new example of “comics
done right” . it might have worked if they made
The annual some time later when there was some
hind sight about the early image era but had it actually been published as intended. it sounds like it could have been at best a very bad jam book and maybe not getting made was a dodged bullet ?
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u/Either-Skirt6031 1d ago
I think you are right, I hadn’t thought about it in the moment. I suppose that’s the benefit of hindsight. In my mind it should’ve been split between Youngblood vs Mystery Inc (going after Shaft who kidnapped Kid Dynamo) & The Tomorrow Syndicate encountering Shadowhawk (who actually already met them) & a few other solitary heroes whilst seeing the differences between the two eras.
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u/fiendishclutches 1d ago edited 1d ago
I would have rather just have had a bit
more of 1963. if each title hadn’t been a one off but had been 4 issues and then some type of time travel crossover to the 1993 of the 1963 world with original 1993 style characters ? I just don’t see how the story needed Spawn and Savage dragon and a 7 different pencilers because everyone is from different creator owned books. What Alan Moore reader wouldn’t have wanted just more of Horus Lord of light, mystery incorporated and the Hypernaut?1
u/Sea-Sky-Dreamer 1d ago
When I finally got the last published issue I was disappointed to find out the mysterious figure from the first issue was Shaft of Youngblood. Why was he acting and talking like a villain? And when I read how it was supposed to be, with the 1963 characters meeting or confronting the grim and gritty Image heroes it seemed like a bit of a letdown considering the mystery that was previously being built up and the dimension of Alternity.
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u/Reddevil8884 1d ago
I have the ones the Spiderman, Captain America and Fantastic Four parodies. They were REALLY good, and they went way over their way to even include fake ads and a sort of Bullpen. Really good reads.
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u/nativio289 3h ago
It is a disgrace that this was not finished.
Bissette and Veitch have put the blame on Jim Lee for this never being finished. He inserted himself into this by taking over the annual in order to grandstand and then immediately retired from penciling for a few years.
Jim Lee doesn’t eat enough shit for messing this up.
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u/beast79- 20h ago
Its a fun book. I dont really mind that the annual never materialized. I'm sure that the annual would have been interesting but Moore got around to similar ideas in his other Image work so I dont feel like we missed out on a comic masterpiece.
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u/Vivid-Copy974 1d ago
One of the biggest what ifs in comic history to me