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Underground > Comic Books >

TOM STRONG

15:59 / 05.08.04

Written by Brian K. Vaughan;
Art by Cameron Stewart;
cover by Chris Sprouse
Featuring the guest creative team of Brian K. Vaughan (Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA) and Cameron Stewart (SEAGUY)! Tom's faithful robot servant Pneuman questions himself. Has he fulfilled the duty assigned him by Susan Strong all those years ago?

CAM doing TOM STRONG!!! Been keep quiet about this eh... what? no sneak peaks?

17:18 / 05.08.04

Whoa....really?

COOL! Very psyched for this. Although for the most part, the "rotating creators" thing on TOM STRONG has annoyed me of late, this is one to watch out for!

CAMERON!!!! What was it like working on this??

20:56 / 05.08.04

>>>CAMERON!!!! What was it like working on this?? <<<

I DON'T KNOW!!!

The Previews solicitation was a misprint. Tom Strong editor and all-round good egg Scott Dunbier asked me long ago if I wanted to do Tom Strong, and I of course agreed. Unfortunately due to a string of circumstances it took nearly 6 months to get me a script, by which time I was deep into Seaguy and regrettably no longer able to do the issue. It was assigned to Peter Snejberg instead but there was a slip-up and the Previews solicit ran with my name still attached.

It's a shame because I've seen a lot of people around the web excitedly talk up this issue, and its nice to know that my work is beginning to stir up anticipation in people, but unfortunately this one isn't gonna happen.

At least for now - I've talked with Scott since and we're both keen to get me on the book at some point, so stay tuned.

Don't worry, if ever I'm working on something, you WILL hear about it here....

22:00 / 05.08.04

Too bad,

still I wonder what the chances are of you have a random sketch of Tom Strong sitting not that far away from your scanner . . .

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

06:01 / 06.08.04

Ah, that's a shame... hope it happens. I'd love to see it.

14:24 / 09.08.04

Thanks for clearing that up, Cam!

17:53 / 13.08.04

Wildstorm/ABC editor Scott Dunbier just said at Chicago that Alan Moore will write at least one more issue of TOM STRONG. Thank goodness... (source: www.comicbookresources.com)

13:39 / 17.08.04

Aww...the end is really here. TOM STRONG'S TERRIFIC tales is ending soon...

>> TOM STRONG'S TERRIFIC TALES #12

Written by Alan Moore and Steve Moore, art by Peter Bagge, Arthur Adams, Alan Weiss and Chris Weston, cover by Adams

ABC. This final issue is an absolute classic. Alan Moore and Peter Bagge collaborate on "The Strongs;" Jonni Future goes through the looking glass; and Young Tom Strong finally reaches the border of adulthood. Final issue.

(from DC solicits)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:21 / 15.02.06

Bump. Tom Strong #36 comes out at the beginning of March, and this is it! How Tom Strong felt about the end of the world, coming in from the end of Promethea. How do people feel about it? Happy? Anyone with speculations about how it'll be? Moore and Sprouse back on the title for one last hoorah!

I'm sort of picturing that Tom Strong's end of the world is going to be collapsing 1986 panic-laden everything's-over and I-have-to-save-everyone Action Jesus complex right up until that last moment when the epiphany hits...

I still think that Promethea would have ended better if we'd seen the new host writing about seeing Promethea up there, in the air, ending the world...and then becoming hir.

15:50 / 15.02.06

Papers... I don't know about you, but I read that exposition about the "new host" meaning something similar to Imaginary Mongoose Solution's idea for the "The Further Adventures of the Invisibles".

We're all the new hosts. Which makes the Wrap Party afterwards more appropriate.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:52 / 15.02.06

Well, I meant more along the lines of a momentary hint of it...an epilogue...but yeah, I get that we're all Promethea.

16:51 / 15.02.06

>> Moore and Sprouse back on the title for one last hoorah!

This is what I'm psyched for. I've skipped all the non-Moore-written Tom Strongs, for the most part...they were fun but I'm kind of spoiled by Moore writing the character he created. And I want to see how Tom Strong experiences the 'end of the ABC universe,' of course.

00:29 / 17.02.06

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this, too. Kinda wraps up Promethea, and Tom Strong, and... the ABC Universe? Is that the case? I know Dark Dossier's on the way, but that was never really the same world.

Interesting. Depending on how long this has been on the shelf, it could be the last thing moore writes for DC.

00:06 / 04.03.06

Due out March 8, sez DC.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

04:37 / 09.03.06

Did anyone else pick up #36 - "Tom Strong at the End of the World" - I believe the last issue of the series? Some pretty wild shit happens, and the Sprouse!

SPOILERS:

America's Best are probably my favourite super-team ever, excluding Morrison's DP and the Seven. I'd love to see some retro comics with them, especially when Bill Woolcott was Promethea. Splash Brannigan pulls out of the black and white era. Little Jack B Quick discovers girls...or Babalon, at any rate.

Thoughts: I loooove the lettering and speech bubbles, and how each are consistent to their characters but utterly different from each other.

It occurred to me that the EM field of the World's End expanding over charaters and opening their eyes to revelation was an inversion/subversion of the anti-matter clouds from Crisis on Infinite Earths - characters walk into them willingly and are born again, rather than dissolving into nothing...

The Secret Origin of Paul Saveen and Tesla's getting married!

12:31 / 09.03.06

I almost bust out crying at Saveen's secret; really nice capstone, this. (Think that Tomorrow Stories special #2 has some old skool America's Best action, possibly involving Bill, but at $6 it was a bit too pricy for me at this point. Prolly get a trade sometime.)

12:35 / 09.03.06

Great capper to the ABC-niverse.

It also still works smashingly as a goodbye if you skipped all the non-Moore issues of this like I did, or if you jump from Book 3 to the Many Worlds of Tesla Strong and then to this final issue.

I liked the description of Tom as a man of pure intent. It nicely summarizes one of the strongest intangible qualities of the series, and Tom as a character.

12:44 / 09.03.06

I got fairly emotional as well. Mostly for Nancy. Parthenogenic Cobwebs!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:18 / 09.03.06

"You see, we're a parthenogenetic lineage, us Cobwebs. With the world ending, there's no point keeping it a secret."

Seriously, I'm madly in love with the section before Tom goes off to Little Millenium to find his loved ones. I want me some more America's Best super-action! But Moore has, much like in Promethea, just effectively left me wanting more. Bastard.

"It's imagery from the Book of Revelation."

"Uh-oh. You know what that means."

Are the Tomorrow Stories trades worth picking up?

16:03 / 09.03.06

I bought the 2nd of 2. Loved it! Lots of 50s-60s era America's best + written SMART. And you'll like the newest member of America's Best!

13:11 / 10.03.06

Oh, and Papers! There's the final Margaret Taylor Case strips of Little Margie in Misty Magic Land. Childishness is outgrown, Racism is let go of, Love is learned... For Shanower's art alone, pick it up!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:21 / 14.03.06

More Little Margie? More? Oh god.

I really might pick these up tomorrow morning. Because I'm a comic book whore.

Or, wait, is that comic book john?

I'd like to look into the Cobweb stories more, I've only had limited exposure...

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

12:47 / 14.03.06

Loved this issue (Tom Strong 36).

SPOILERS
!
!

Splash Brannigans lines for some reason alternately made me smile or hold back manly tears. And the bit where Tom introduces Saveen as his brother. !Sob

Cobwebs parthenogenetic origin was (If I remember correctly) fully detailed in Tomorrow Stories Special 1 of 2. I was a little disappointed in 2 of 2, though Little Margie was great. The lead story just felt like something I'd seen too many times since Supreme. The Jonni Future needs another re-reading with part 1.

16:28 / 14.03.06

I think I recall that recent Tomorrow stories special. Part 1 was Okay but a bit over priced. Skipped part 2... this one had that promethea strip in it? Or are we talking about the TPB's

BTW should we re-name this thread... To TOM STRONG (&ABC) Enthusiasm or some such?

16:38 / 14.03.06

That's a fair Mod request. America's Best Comics Finale: Enthusiasm and Eschatons

The Promethea Little Margie strips are wonderful!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

05:11 / 15.03.06

Melinda Gebbie's rendition of Cobweb makes me absolutely demand that it be socially acceptable for me to wander around in diaphanous (love that word) purple lingerie. Preferrably at work. It wouldn't really do anything for professionalism, but it's like this giant welcome mat for being polymorphously perverse (love that phrase). "I'm sorry, I can't help you at the moment. I'm too busy billowing!"

In particular, Laverne & Clarice on their visit to the mystery tenth planet. Beautiful. Everything about Gebbie's linework is so ... unbound, even with all the bondage implications Moore pushes into it. Overflowing with potency.

Jack B. Quick is the other strong contender for top spot, darlings, simply because of his wildly literal super-brain and the way Queerwater just accepts whatever he's put out. I don't even want to guess at the deepest roots of his parents' madness, though.

Cobweb wins out, though, simply because of all that sex in that ink work & colour...