The Complete Zenith

[opaque]

Full price

[Frank]

The Great Trade Robbery was originally planned for Zarjaz and would have been in the November issue, but events have conspired against us and so we present it here for you. Words by the Emperor, astoundingly good art by newcomer to Zarjaz Jason Davies and letters by Bolt-01.

Bump for the new page.

[strontium71]

Is there any indication on  how much the deposit is for the book or is it full price up front?

Seeing as it's an expensive price , I reckon a non-returnable deposit of - say £25-30 - could have been been used to hold a copy by , and then the remaining amount payable in 6 months.

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Seeing as it's an expensive price , I reckon a non-returnable deposit of - say £25-30 - could have been been used to hold a copy by , and then the remaining amount payable in 6 months.

Depends on if they need the money to actually pay for it to be published. Balance of cost vs profit etc etc.
Again I suppose there is no need to offer a deposit when there might well be enough people willing to pay the £100 (plus shipping) up front.
We'll find out at 6pm tomorrow though of course
We could all be amazed by many details on the pre-order page. I bet a lot of people will be looking even if not buying.

[strontium71]

But I wonder what'll happen if - highly unlikely - only a fraction of the amount sells?

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But I wonder what'll happen if - highly unlikely - only a fraction of the amount sells?

Yes that would be very interesting.
Especially if the shipping for the US market (plus customs) knocks back some potential customers there as well. Having it start at 6pm here is obviously catered to that market as well as us (I'll just stay at work longer as I couldn't get home in time).

I guess it's all been worked out but there is 5 months until they are due to be shipped so plenty of time to sell them if it came to it. Nemesis Limited edition took a while, but that was with a standard edition available as well of course, but also for less than half the cost. Must be 1000 for a reason.

[Colin YNWA]

We could all be amazed by many details on the pre-order page. I bet a lot of people will be looking even if not buying.

Oh no no no, doing that could lead to temptation getting to critical mass!

[TordelBack]

Can't call it complete now if that piece of red-hot genius isn't in it!  Brilliant work Zarjazzers, you guys are incredible.

[Montynero]

Truly Zarjaz, indeed. Won't be long till we see Jason Davies in the prog if he keeps on at this rate!

[Colin YNWA]

Second part of Laura Sneddon's investigation into the facts of Zenith ownership.

http://comicsbeat.com/mad-mental-crazy-the-true-life-of-the-fabulous-zenith-part-2/

A nice useful summary of things, with another part to come.

[Frank]

Thanks, Colin; I'm shite at keeping up with blogs and that. I know all I had to do was bookmark part one of that series then remember to check in again in seven days time, but I can never seem to get round to doing so. That was a cheery walk down memory lane, particularly the stuff relating to The New Adventures of Hitler and Bible John - they might be due for a re-read.

Fascinating to see how long before publication Morrison was working on a version of (a very distant version of) the stories and characters we eventually saw in print. The Watchmen/Miracleman/Kirby/Siegel & Schuster aspects of those early takes on the material just emphasize the important role the ideas of Brendan McCarthy and Paradax in particular played in the development of Zenith.

[Eric Plumrose]

IIRC, David Lloyd's FANTASTIC ADVENTURE was something he proposed to IPC. So the contract Morrison didn't sign with 2000AD would have been the same contract he wouldn't have signed if FANTASTIC ADVENTURE hadn't have been passed up in favour of MASK, yes?

[O Lucky Stevie!]

The Watchmen/Miracleman/Kirby/Siegel & Schuster aspects of those early takes on the material just emphasize the important role the ideas of Brendan McCarthy and Paradax in particular played in the development of Zenith.

Absolutely. Hands up everyone else who read that synopsis & went Hang on Grant, isn't that pretty much every book that you wrote for DC? 

[Frank]

Absolutely. Hands up everyone else who read that synopsis & went Hang on Grant, isn't that pretty much every book that you wrote for DC? 

Ha! Aye, me too. Can't blame the kid for getting the most mileage possible out of second or third hand ideas.

It's the novel and distinctly British elements Morrison incorporated into the familiar framework that I enjoy; the parts where it reads like a strip from Warlord, the sequences where it's The Tomorrow People meet Antonioni,  how it's sometimes the same run through the pop and political culture of the late eighties you'd find in Deadline and Crisis at around the same time. What seems unique and valuable about Zenith to me is that it's somewhere the reactions of George Formby and Margaret Thatcher to the phenomenon of superhumans are considered more worthy of page time than how they affect the USA.

[TordelBack]

All very interesting, and a tad more balanced in tone than the first part.  We've all been over the Alan McKenzie-not-issuing-contracts-to-Alan-McKenzie thing so often that's there no need to start that argument again, but I always find it interesting to note that Morrison explicitly retained copyright to Really & Truly and Big Dave, implying that he understood that this was not the case with his other work. 

Equally, as the McCarthyless version of Zenith clearly existed in Morrison's head/notebooks as a solid prospect with other possible homes long before he appeared in 2000AD*, would this not have made him far more conscious about the decision about handing the rights over (or not), and a far more signifcant factor in Grant's calculations than just cashing the cheque and assuming all was copacetic would imply? 


*Although how this differs from every long-mulled idea that every creative person harbours while looking for an outlet I'm not sure.