Friday, March 08, 2002

Knives Out


The more I learn about the comics industry in the 1970s, the more amazed I am that there still was a comics industry in the 1980s.

Case in point: Vengeance, Inc., the (possibly-true) story of how, in 1972, former Marvel honcho Martin Goodman came out of retirement to start Atlas Comics primarily as a vehicle for a personal vendetta against Stan Lee, enlisting top Marvel talent—and even Lee's own brother!—in his efforts, against the background of a tormented Arthur Miller-style father/son psychodrama, then proceeded, through ego, incompetence and overextension, to fail spectacularly on every level.

Train-wreck fascinating. The Gaiman-McFarlane lawsuit pales in comparison.

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