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Zzap! 64

Started by Famous Mortimer, 04 March, 2018, 01:22:53 PM

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IndigoPrime

The entire run is online. As I understand it, IDW had plans to reprint all this material some years back, but no-one could figure out the current rights situation. A pity. I'd have happily bought a Zoids volume. (Well, assuming it was done properly – i.e. thinking about it, in a manner better than IDW's usual reprint stuff.)

sheridan

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 09:59:59 AM
Link fixed.

And, yes, some of Grant Morrison's early work was found in the Spider-Man and Zoids comic, including the set-up (but, sadly, never any resolution) for the universe being a 'game' played out by extra-dimensional beings. (The comic was set to continue as a US-format with Yeowell on art duties. Some pages exist in low-res scanned form.)

What, like people playing with little plastic toys? ;-)

IndigoPrime

I imagine that's basically where Morrison was going with it, to be honest. Still, if Transformers can gradually morph into an epic political drama painted in shades of grey, there's no reason Zoids couldn't have become something long-lasting.

Link Prime

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 05:34:18 PM
I'd have happily bought a Zoids volume.

Yeah, I would too, and I'm sure quite a few others would at that.
Rare material from the creators of Zenith with added 80's nostalgia appeal? It's a win.

I assume its still a little known fact about the creative team involved, I recall I was only made aware of it myself due to this forum a few years ago.

IndigoPrime

Yep, although it's a shame how the other creators have been whitewashed, to some extent. Ian Rimmer built the UK Zoids world (which was frankly a lot more interesting than the Japanese one), and Kev Hopgood's art in those early episodes were spectacular. I love Senior, Anderson and Yeowell, but it always felt like a downgrade when Hopgood went away.

Grant Morrison doesn't show up until issue 18, with a two-prong script that introduces Metalon (which feels very much unlike everything that had happened until that point). Furman has a run after that, and then Richard Alan (a name I don't recognise), and Rimmer again.

Morrison returns in issue 30, expanding on the Zoids' thirst for galactic conquest, has a break (during which some of the Silverman arc is set up), before returning in #36 for a trip to Earth. We later get the Black arc Zoid (which is, frankly, perhaps the best 'clear the deck for new toys' writing, bar possibly the abrupt annihilation of a slew of Autobots in the Transformers movie, during which the Decepticons suddenly learned how to shoot straight), and a load of plot threads that were left dangling.

Despite some clear 'inspiration' from Aliens and Terminator, Morrison's Zoids was turning into something really interesting, and it's a pity the proposed Zoids comic never came to anything. At the very least, it would have been great to see a run of a dozen issues, to conclude the story of the survivors of the Celeste, and everything else that was going on.

JOE SOAP

#20
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2018, 09:57:53 AM
Kev Hopgood's art in those early episodes were spectacular. I love Senior, Anderson and Yeowell, but it always felt like a downgrade when Hopgood went away.

And Ron Smith.



http://www.comicartfans.com/comic-artists/Ron_Smith.asp?m=NewArt&PM=9&PI=18

The only reason I bought Spider-Man and Zoids was for the B story which was really the A story and I don't think I ever read the rest of it - certainly can't remember any of it.


IndigoPrime

I read the other bits, but Zoids was clearly the main event. In a sense, it was almost an anthology comic, given how rapidly the back-up strip changed: Sectaurs; Fantastic Four; Star Wars; Star Brand; Strikeforce Morituri; Secret Wars II.

Those issues where it was just Zoids and Spidey were the best. But, man, I wasn't happy when it finally dawned on me in March 1987 that the promised Zoids comic was never going to materialise.

Link Prime

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 07 March, 2018, 05:34:18 PM
The entire run is online.

Was reading through that on my lunch break earlier, surprised to find that there are several episodes I can clearly recall- must have been a spoiled brat very good child to have that comic and 2000AD bought for me regularly.

It holds up quite well.
Clever stuff having the youngest member of the Celeste crew being the only one small enough to fit inside a commandeered Zoid.