So who else found out about Rob Liefield purchasing the rights to legendary comic book artist and creator Dave Cockrum's Futurians?
Yup.
Apparently Liefield's been after the publishing rights to Futurians for some time, since the mid-90's to be exact, and recently he did so with Cockrum's wife's blessing.
Who are The Futurians you might ask?
They're creator-owned team of super-heroes given their super powers from a source from the far future, called the Terminus.
This was done so that the Futurians could prevent a disaster in their future.
The team first appeared in the 9th issue of the Marvel Graphic Novel series at the time in 1983, and its where at Marvel they could've called home were it not for Cockrum being persuaded by an indie publisher to take them to his company, Lodestone Publications, to be published. From the sound of it, he was probably promised royalties and creative freedom, all of which quickly became a collection of broken promises.
He only got three issues printed, despite four being produced.
Hen tried again in the mid-90's at Aardwolf Publications, finally publishing that fourth issue, and even after his is death, around 2010 his friend Clifford Meth tried to restart the series at David Miller Studios, but nothing came out of it.
Cockrum really regretted not keeping his creations at Marvel, but I'd think if they had, Marvel would have probably ruined them or at the very least, changed them so much that not even Cockrum would've recognized them anymore. But we'll never know what might have been.
Now I've read in interviews how much Cockrum's Futurians hits Liefield right in the Bronze age feels, and how much he respects Cockrum and wants to do this right.
But shit, hasn't he said that before various other projects like this before?
And he want the Futurians to be a part of his Extreme comic Universe instead of existing on its own.
I don't know guys. Seems like the same old song and dance with Liefield, and while the teaser at looks good for it being drawn by Rob Liefield, I'll believe it when I see it when it comes to the follow through,
We'll see. But I do agree that team with a concept like the Futurians deserves to be seen and read by the comic reading public.
4 comments:
i've seen that Futurians graphic novel around for years now. usually in some sort of discount box or something of that sort. never caught my eye or attention per se, can't imagine why liefeld would have had such a hard time buying the rights to that obsolete and obscure licenced property. or why he would want to for that matter.
I believe he had problems because, well he's Rob Liefield, and usually for more ill than good, his reputation proceeds itself. He couldn't convince creator Dave Cockrum due to Cockrum being burned badly in the past by similar offers from similar prospective publishers. It wasn't until this Clifford Meth (best and worst last name ever) guy reached out to Liefield and then both of them convinced Cockrum's wife to sell the publishing rights to Liefield, that this even became a reality of sorts.
Obscure? Sure, but like I said, this is clearly a nostalgic pet project of Liefield's (like so many before) so again, we'll see if there's any follow up on his usual promises and bluster.
i didn't read this myself but you might find it interesting when it comes to Liefeld .... http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2017/06/liefeld-reaches-limits-of-his-creativity.html
Yeah I remember all that, reading about all that in Wizard Magazine, seeing all the ads and shit. While it can be debated just how much originality he ever had, I agree that's all gone now. He's basically in acquire mode since he can't come up with new creations of his own. I guess that's fine, because that's mainly what big comic corporations do these days, but I'd say in that case, don't refer to him as a creator then, since he's not.
I actually did buy some of those Fighting American issues. Best thing I can say is that they looked nice, but the stories were the drizzling shits.
Post a Comment