RELATED: Did Gerry Conway Not Know the Identity of the Jackal Was When He was Introduced? Did the series run into trouble on the US/Canada border?Īt the time, The Comics Journal reported in issue #95 that:Įpic Comic’s controversial new Void Indigo series is being cancelled with its second issue, making it the first ongoing Epic series to be cancelled. The end result was a Marvel Graphic Novel that led into a six-issue Void Indigo miniseries (with the possibility of more in the future). Thirdly, following the out-of-court settlement of the Howard the Duck case, it struck me that it would make an interesting statement to return to Marvel with a property copyrighted in my name (and Val’s, of course). Secondly, both Val and I like working with Archie Goodwin, who, by anyone’s standards, is one of the most competent and creative editors in the industry. Marvel, we knew, was capable of providing that support we were less certain about the smaller publishers. We chose Epic for three reasons: In a market dominated by mutant ninja teenagers, we felt this book needed every ounce and, yes, every dollar of promotional support it could get. DC was lukewarm toward Val’s artwork and declined to negotiate on ownership of the copyright and division of ancillary income that left us with nothing to discuss. It seemed like a strange move, seeing as how he had just been SUING them, but Gerber explained his thought process in The Comics Journal #99.Īll of the independents passed: Eclipse felt it too violent Pacific couldn’t visualize how the prose treatment and Val Mayerik’s presentation drawings would translate into a comic book First claimed it had a similar project in the works. Gerber did a number of projects for Eclipse Comics during this period.Īfter Gerber settled with Marvel, he brought his new concept, Void Indigo, to Marvel's creator-owned line of comics, Epic, about an alien merged with the soul of an ancient barbarian who returns to Earth and ends up in Los Angeles, where he sets out to get his revenge. Obviously, then, Gerber wasn't going to be working for Marvel during that period, so after doing some animation work, he began to find work at DC (who he had done freelance work for in the 1970s, as well), and the new independent comic book companies that were starting to proliferate in the 1980s due to the expansion of the direct market system (which allowed companies to now make a profit on relatively small print runs, leading to an explosion of independent comic book companies), the ones that were willing to do creator-owned work. As the character became more and more popular (and Marvel clearly was looking to try to adapt the character into film and/or television), Gerber sued Marvel in 1980 for copyright infringement. As I noted at the time, Steve Gerber had been one of Marvel's most prominent writers in the 1970s, but the relationship deteriorated over Gerber's hit creation, Howard the Duck. This time, our second legend is about whether Void Indigo was canceled in part because copies were seized at the USA/Canada border over the content.Įarlier this month, I did a Comic Book Legends Revealed about Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik's controversial comic book project called Void Indigo. Welcome to the 902nd installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them.
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