The End (1985-2000)
Okay, I have been somewhat busy over the past few days, you know, doing other stuff, like graduating high school, that sort of stuff. I originally wanted to do three updates, but in the end, I think that maybe I should perhaps wrap this up soon. I have another idea for a TL, that I really want to get to (I need to do a lot of research for that, so...). After that one is wrapped up, this one will be rebooted. So, without further ado,....
"We are very saddened to inform you that our longtime editor Al Feldstein has announced his retirement. We appreciate his long service to this company, and wish him all the best...
- Letter pages, Fables and Other Strange Tales, July 1985
"A Mystery in Time", written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, and published in the pages of Science Heroes, Sept-Nov. 1986, opens with the murder of Turok in the distant past. It then shifts a mysterious murder in the distant future, of "Professor Supermind," which Magnus Robot Fighter investigates. Eventually, he travels back to the past, where he encounters heroes including Nukla, Doctor Solar, and the Green Hornet. Eventually, they find out that the Sky-Gods (from Tragg and the Sky Gods) have been going through the ages, trying to weaken humanity. Known for its dark tone and its strong sexuality, the story became a staple of the so-called "Dark Age" of Comics.
- Summary, "A Mystery in Time, eccomics.com
Ultimate Comics grew respectably over its first few years, thanks primarily due to the help of the Schanes brothers, who were friends with Kirby, and helped him run Ulitmate, using their own distribution company "Pacific Comics." They also managed to acquire Eclipse Comics in 1985, and the small Illusion Studios from Eastman-Laird in 1986 (which gave them the popular TMNT series). However, the biggest coup for Ultimate was acquiring Extreme Comics in 1986. The company had declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and cancelled most of their titles. Ultimate bought most of the assets of Extreme decided to take one of their only titles left, Dark Magic , and revamped it as an urban fantasy imprint, focusing on fantasy based characters. The first was Sandman, by Neil Gaiman, who interacted with EC's other regular characters...
- Introduction, "Dark Fantasy: Omnibus," Ultimate Comics, 2000
"The End of the Dark Age is said to have started to end with the death of Batman in Detective Comics #500, and the brief retiring of Superman in Action Comics #615. This would be the indication that comics would become far more darker than they needed to be. 1988 also gave us Alan Moore's Twilight of the Gods, which helped further this image. Eventually, the dusk settled down, and the dawn emerged..."
- "The Dark Age, a brief history," article discussing the "Dark age of Comics", Comicvine, dated June, 6th, 2010.
"...And, with 300 electoral votes, the election is called for Senators Al Gore and John Glenn, over President Edward Brooke...
- TNN Newsroom, November 8th, 1988.
"I'm Back!
- The Crypt Keeper, Tales from the Crypt#1, 1990.
"The Decision to bring back Tales from the Crypt in 1990 was the result of sales from their older horror books increasing over the past few years, due to releases of several older issues by EC. They wanted to test the waters to bring it back. Sci-fi/Fantasy had been on the decline over the past decade, and the revival of horror in the mid-Eighties had increased interest in the genre. In the end, Tales had become very successful, and EC made steps to bring back its horror staple.
- "Horror as a Genre," a History and examination of the genre, 2014
The so-called "Platinum Age of Comics," was largely heralded by DC, who managed to avoid all the darkness they had garnered with the Death of Superman and Twilight of the Heroes, by bringing back Superman inTales of Superman, and also lightened the adventures of Dick Grayson, the new Batman. Atlas-Archie, which changed it's name to A-A (after rejecting other names including Marvel), also began to make lighter adventures, starting with their Crusaders arcs (which would be adapted into a popular film series in the mid-2000's), as well as the X-Force comics(which became a film by James Cameron in 1998) despite its occasional dark tendencies (such as the infamous Spider arc "The Clone Saga.") Meanwhile, after Jack Kirby's death in 1994, several new artists entered Ultimate, such as Todd MacFarlane and Rob Liefield, who would severely damage the company through their characters, and end up causing the company's bankruptcy in 1998.
And then there was EC. They were able to climb out the decade long stump, (culminating with the death of long-time owner, William Gaines in 1991, and by 1997, had revived most of their horror comics, and even introduce "True Crime," which was a description of real life crimes (with permission from the participants, of course.) They had managed to come out of the century a top participant, and were ready to enter the new one a champion...
- "Comic Books: a history," General history book, 2015
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So, that's it. And if you're said it's over. Don't worry. I will create a new version of this in the future, which will fix some of the errors I made during the early part, and go from there. For now though, I hoped you enjoyed reading it.