Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

ZZZZZZENITH!

21:45 / 25.12.02

Has anyone searched for Grant's books on AMAZON recently?

They've got listings for the first two ZENITH books saying they'll be published on January 30th. They're offering a discount if you order them both at the same time.

I don't know how to post a link so you'll have to go and look, sorry. Still, only takes five minutes.

Does anyone know if this is true?

Has Grant resolved his dispute with Rebellion?

It'll be interesting to see if they actually get published, might actually get the last book that I've never read...

yawn - thing's buddy

21:51 / 25.12.02

thats great news if indeed rebellion have sorted out a deal for morrison.

I hope the books still hold up well cos they've certainly been talked up a bit round here.

22:59 / 25.12.02

I read most of Zenith for the first time recently, and I thought it stood up really well.

One of my fave Grant Morrison comics, actually. The tightness of the 2000AD set-up makes sure that he has to be a lot more focussed than normal. Very much of it's time, but not in a bad way...

Lovecraftian horrors, multiple realities, Nazis, 80's pop, and the end of the world as we know it- s'all good stuff.

Zenith's a top character too, both in terms of design and, erm, character I suppose. He's strangely down to earth, without being all mopey and boring like many a "realistic" superhero.

As an aside I just got Paradax 1 & 2 for ma crimbo: fucking top stuff from Milligan and McCarthy!

S'like Zenith's day-glo cousin, so it is.

I'm hopefull that Zenith will get traded sometime soon, but wasn't there some kind of legal difficulty with this title? I can't remember what the problem was, but it didn't sound un-fixable.

23:03 / 25.12.02

Oops, sorry- I'm a fool. You both mentioned the dispute with rebellion in yer posts.

What exactly was the difficulty?

00:58 / 26.12.02

Various rumours have floated round here about why they've been delayed, the most recent being something about Rebellion forgetting to get permission to use the song lyrics that appear throughout the volumes. Didn't think the non-appearance was due to a clash with Morrison, but could well be wrong.

I've had the first book on order since it was announced and the date of release changes regularly, so I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. Unless, that is, anyone else can provide more info.

A

04:14 / 26.12.02

The first post I ever made on Barbelith, some nearly 500 posts ago, was about the "forthcoming" Zenith trade paperback. I'd love to see it, and to read more than the first few installments I've read in one of those "Best of 2000AD" things, but i'll believe it when i'm holding it in my hot little hands.

15:01 / 26.12.02

For anyone who's interested the first Zenith book was reprinted in BEST OF 2000AD 99 and 100. The second was printed, I think, in 111 (Which had a free Zenith poster!) and 112. They should be a damn site cheaper than these trades if they ever surface.

It's worth looking through these old reprint comics if you know anywhere that has some. For example CLASSIC 2000AD printed the first MISSIONARY MAN book, with all those lovely Quitely paintings, about issue 11 or 12 I think. HEWLIGANS HAIRCUT also appeared in CLASSIC 200AD at some point which is about to be reprinted. HALO JONES is another....

17:47 / 26.12.02

Have no idea about this latest rumour of zenith being available again soon, but i do know that the new zenith trade from Titan has already been printed and currently resides in a warehouse in Grantham until such time as the despute is resolved.

and to clarify I have heard from authorative sources that the reason for the delay was that old 2000AD contracts did not specify the ownership of the characters/strips and thus as a default merely covered first english language usage rights. Rebellion were unaware of this when they aquired 2000AD and have recently undertaken quite draconian measures to ensure that they reaquire all the intellectual property they thought they had already owned. New 2000AD contracts apparently contain a clause that states that the author of any new material for 2000AD not only has no rights on the work he is creating but is also waving any and all rights on any previous work for 2000AD.

Understandably, many comics creators most notably Alan Grant have been most displeased with this turn of events.

18:33 / 26.12.02

I remember reading that. I think it's fucking ridiculous. The best thing they could have done is to give the creators what they want. Imagine if Grant started writing for 2000AD again. And I mean properly, not just the odd strip or single page...

Also, imagine if all those old guys like Alan Moore came back? If Peter Milligan started creating for them again. I don't know much about these things but to me it seems they'd make a lot more money that way.

22:19 / 26.12.02

Unfortunately i don't think Rebellion have much interest in comics outside of the gold mine of intellectual properties they reprisent. REbellion are primarilly a computer games company, and while their owner is a fan of 2000AD he is also a busininess man, and there is more money in it for him to exploit 2000AD characters in computer games and other media tie ins than in the few thousand units a zenith graphic novel would shift.

While I would like to see a fair few collections of old 2000AD strips re-released, I'm not sure i'd really want to see morrison, milligan, moore et al returning to 2000AD from a creative point of view. They have been there and done that. And unless they can strike a deal with rebellion that is better than something the larger publishers can provide them with then there is really little incentive for them to return.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:50 / 27.12.02

I still say we should go burgle the place. Rich Johnson knows where it is, we toss him a copy when we're done, everyone's happy!

As for Amazon, I found that every time the deadline was up, they simply shifted the d.o.p. back another six months. And I think, but am probably wrong, that in an interview, either promoting Filth or X-Men, Grant said Rebellion had made no effort to try and talk to him to resolve the matter, and this was a year or two after Zenith was originally supposed to be released.

18:46 / 27.12.02

yes you are indeed right lord of flowers, this is apparently exactly what has happened, despite Titan telling amazon the situation they have simply erroniously the publication date back. I guess the moral of this story is don't believe everything you read on www.amazon.com.

09:19 / 10.01.03

Keep on forgetting to remove this from my orders, and I got an email today that claimed it's now due for release December 2003. Looked fairly generic, though, so don't pin yer hopes on it.