The Complete Zenith

[Hawkmumbler]

Agreed. Also redrawing the McCarthy cover would be the work of a heathen.

[matty_ae]

  The McCarthy cover is half-traced off Steve Yeowell anyway.

[Jim_Campbell]

The McCarthy cover is half-traced off Steve Yeowell anyway.

It's a photocopy and Yeowell is credited.

Cheers

Jim

[Hawkmumbler]

Well bugger me, that's something I didn't know.

[TordelBack]

I can understand why it might be nice for to have a single artist throughout, but that's not quite how it happened and the last thing Zenith needs is Lucasification.

Absolutely, it is what it is.  Perversely I do wish they'd sort out the arseways dates at the start of Phase 1!

[IndigoPrime]

the last thing Zenith needs is Lucasification

Horses for courses. I'd prefer (if there were infinite production money, which there isn't) to have a book where one page of Phase I doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, due to a historical quirk of 2000 AD where Zenith once got the back page. I'd prefer to have Phase IV in black and white, like it should have been, rather than with murky watercolours that were solely added because everything in 2000 AD had to be in colour at that point. On the non-Yeowell stories, I actually like the annual one (not the special one), but I'd still prefer the coherence of all-Yeowell. As for Lucasification, it worked well for The Invisibles, for one, and also one of the Sláine trades.

It's all immaterial anyway, because this fantasy version of the book won't (and probably, more importantly, can't) happen. We'll get whatever was in the comics as-is, hopefully in top-notch repro.

[hippynumber1]

What have they done to 'The Invisibles'? I replaced my original comics with the MAHUSIVE omnibus but haven't read it yet...

[matty_ae]

(from Wikipedia)
Issues #4-2 included artistic collaborators who did not illustrate Morrison's scripts precisely as written. The most notable examples were the three pages Ashley Wood drew in Vol. 3, #2 that were later redrawn by Cameron Stewart for The Invisible Kingdom trade paperback.

[IndigoPrime]

Frankly, the redrawn stuff wasn't great, but it at least helped you make more sense of what was going on. (Less helpfully, DC inexplicably cut a couple of pages from the collections.)

EDIT: SPOILER ALERT There's an overview of three amended pages on Comic Vine. Clearly, do NOT go there unless you've already read The Invisibles, because this is right near the end of the entire run.

[hippynumber1]

Fascinating! And surprising that DC would go to the time and expense of doing something like that...

[matty_ae]

Obviously 'Lucasfilmification' is meant as a derogatory change but not all tinkering is bad.

I loved Brian Bollands re-colouring of Killing Joke and felt he had the right to do it. So if Steve Yeowell felt strongly he didn't do those scripts because of time, he should have a go. If alternatively he passed because one was a treading water recap and the other bizarre Alice in Wonderland tosh, he may have passed originally. Certainly Annuals and Special felt like the home of sub standard strips in those days so you have to suspect the latter.

[Trout]

Frankly, the redrawn stuff wasn't great, but it at least helped you make more sense of what was going on. (Less helpfully, DC inexplicably cut a couple of pages from the collections.)

EDIT: SPOILER ALERT There's an overview of three amended pages on Comic Vine. Clearly, do NOT go there unless you've already read The Invisibles, because this is right near the end of the entire run.

Let's sum that up without spoilers: in the original comic version, the artist ignored the script. This was crucial because one of the pages involved was the big reveal, the massive plot twist that came after years and years of build-up. It was a very silly thing to do.

The art was redone so that readers could understand what was going on. The first version had been unfit for purpose so a new artist was brought in.

Other than in such an extreme case, I'm very much against redoing art. IMO we should accept what was done and represent it faithfully. There have been examples of bits of comics being revisited because their creators were unhappy - the recoloured Flex Mentallo is a good example - but I am very nervous about that idea. Creative people tend to... fuss. Where would it all end?

- Trout

[Patrick]

I'd have to say that Zenith Phase 4 is the only time I've seen anyone (other than Steve himself) colour Steve Yeowell successfully. Apart from the prologue, which Gina Hart did in her usual modelled style, she laid down flat colours that fit perfectly, and otherwise got out of the way. I say leave it as it is.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Obviously 'Lucasfilmification' is meant as a derogatory change but not all tinkering is bad.

I loved Brian Bollands re-colouring of Killing Joke and felt he had the right to do it. So if Steve Yeowell felt strongly he didn't do those scripts because of time, he should have a go. If alternatively he passed because one was a treading water recap and the other bizarre Alice in Wonderland tosh, he may have passed originally. Certainly Annuals and Special felt like the home of sub standard strips in those days so you have to suspect the latter.

I prefer John Higgins' colouring on Killing Joke. The best I can say for the deluxe edition is that the re-colouring doesn't mess up the genius of the writing and artwork too much.

Should Steve Yeowell wants to redraw those interludes (and Rebellion want to pay him to do it) then good luck to him, but it's really not necessary and it's not going to improve the collection by any noticeable degree.

However, if I had any revisionist tendencies (which I don't), I would be more interested in seeing zzzenith.com redone to be a proper Zenith story that actually made sense.

[Dark Jimbo]

However, if I had any revisionist tendencies (which I don't), I would be more interested in seeing zzzenith.com redone to be a proper Zenith story that actually made sense.

That remains my only encounter with the character, and I've never been quite so bemused (and stuggled to see what the fuss was about).

I don't mind little changes like this when it's sensitive and in the material's best interests - like the omission of the unecsessary Dredd intro pages from the Al's Baby collection; Clint Langley's tweaking of the ABC art for the graphic novel format; the re-lettering of the start of Defoe book II for the graphic novel, etc.