From a very American superhero last week to more my cup of tea and a very British take on a superhero. Back in 1987 the weekly UK science fiction comic, 2000AD, was producing a wide range of different stories and encouraging a lot of new talent. One of the stand out strips from that time was Zenith, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by new comer Steve Yeowell. I remember being very taken by Steve's artwork, so much so that I sat and copied the second page from the story line for line (I found it the other day and its pretty close to the original).
The start of Zenith shows the very end of a battle between two super soldiers, Maximan from the UK and Masterman (boo hiss) from Germany. In the first page of the story you see a newsreel picture of Maximan lifting a Tiger tank and that image has always stuck with me.
Zenith ran occasionally in 2000AD over the years and has built up something of a cult following especially as legal wrangling has held off any further reprints of the series. It's a shame really, more for Steve than I'd have thought for Grant but I could be wrong about that? The only reprints outside of 2000ADs own 'Best Of' comic are those by Titan books (some are finishing on Ebay this very day) but even they didn't reprint the final story. I hope sometime in the near future that there will be a resolution to the problems as I know that my bookshelves could happily include a new edition of this great story.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that looked like a Steel Wheeled later model Tiger's road wheels.I always read the old 2000AD's but for the life of me could not remember the Zenith strip.Do you remember offhand what prog it started in?
Cheers Atom, Zenith started in prog 535. That issue is the prologue to the story which features Maximan.
ReplyDeleteThe prog itself is fun to see as it feature loads of well known artists that are sadly missing from the pages of 2Ad now or where just starting off then and showing a few rough edges.
That episode is still one of my favourite morrison comics even after all these years it doesn't seem like 20 years have passed it still stands up. great Maximan by the way
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