The Complete Zenith

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

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).

As far as I can make out, it was some sort of parody.

However, ignore it, the real Zenith was totally different, and awesome.

[Adrian Bamforth]

John Higgins' colouring was far better for me as well: Its neon hues conveyed the flashing lights, claustrophobia and madness of the fairground, and the heat of the city streets, while Bolland's colouring was more or less literal, with a black-and-white device for flashbacks. However, having had my own work coloured, I also know what it's like to have someone else let loose on your work and come back with something entirely different from what you envisioned.

[sheldipez]

Feel like I have to stick up for Bolland's recolouring. It doesn't feel like I'm reading on acid any more and makes the comic less of its time like the subtle recolouring on Year One. IMO. I do own/ like both though!

[jabish]

I'd love to see Phase IV in B&W. I was so disappointed to open the prog the week it started to see it in colour.

WHo knows. Maybe?

[O Lucky Stevie!]

What can we expect from THE COMPLETE ZENITH? Well phase I is 81 pages, Whitlock and Payne add 10 more. phase II is longer at 93 pages. The non Steve Yeowell Maximan and Mandela annual/special stories add 16 more pages. Phase III is a whopping 133 pages of inter dimensional warfare. Mark miller pops in for a 6 page barely Zenith related (although good fun) text story Tales of Alternate Earths. Phase IV adds 82 pages. ZZzenith is 8 pages of craziness plus the 1 page from a night 2 remember. This gets us to 430 pages plus 3 star scans, 17 covers from 2000ad and the 2 best of covers. Perhaps the Titan reprint covers and the odd datafile and the odd pin up. I'd seriously love it if Steve Yeowell could redraw the 2 stories he didn't illustrate. Did I miss anything? Putting COMPLETE on a cover is a serious boast!

I'd pay £100 for that!

Same here.

& anyone who isn't prepared to do so could try requesting it at their local library.

[IndigoPrime]

As far as I can make out, it was some sort of parody.

It didn't really seem a parody to me—more meta-commentary on the '00s in much the same way Zentith was a commentary on the '80s and '90s, along with a dollop of satire. There's also a pretty interesting line in there about the story being a [spoiler]mass hallucination engineered in the macro-mind of a super-telepath, and so where is this Zenith happening? Is it inside Chimera, or has Sir Peter simply 'won' and is he now in control?[/quote] I also took that last line to be beautifully ambiguous—either a dark, horrible ending of the worst kind or merely a comment on vacuous and repetitious modern mass-market consumer culture.

[robert_ellis]

It did feature Britney Spears being sexually assaulted by Robot Archie.
I can see how that could seem like parody.
It was pretty good for the page count. And lovely to see Steve Yeowell recreate Zenith in a different style

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I must declare a pretty much total aversion to anything penned by GM from the time of zzzenith.com.

As far as I am concerned he was great on Zenith and Dare, then started working for American publishers and went right off the boil. I do understand his change in style was popular in some quarters, but I basically do not like anything he's done since Batman Gothic.

[opaque]

& anyone who isn't prepared to do so could try requesting it at their local library.

You'd be lucky if your library is able to buy anything that isn't from a central purchasing system these days, so get hoping for the paperback version!

[robert_ellis]

I wish more writers could go off the boil and still write Flex Mentallo, We3, the Invisibles, New X-Men and All Star Superman. Not every Morrison projects strikes gold but I think he really tries hard to push the medium and not repeat himself. I don't think he could ever be accused of treading water as a writer. I too have great affection his Animal Man and Doom Patrol days but I think its very strange to dismiss his work since then.

[sheldipez]

I wish more writers could go off the boil and still write Flex Mentallo, We3, the Invisibles, New X-Men and All Star Superman. Not every Morrison projects strikes gold but I think he really tries hard to push the medium and not repeat himself. I don't think he could ever be accused of treading water as a writer. I too have great affection his Animal Man and Doom Patrol days but I think its very strange to dismiss his work since then.

If only more writers would take the risk and think outside of the box, not everything he does manages to hit the target dead on but it's always a helluva ride. Though you could argue that he's the only allowed to do this because he's Grant Morrison.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I wish more writers could go off the boil and still write Flex Mentallo, We3, the Invisibles, New X-Men and All Star Superman. Not every Morrison projects strikes gold but I think he really tries hard to push the medium and not repeat himself. I don't think he could ever be accused of treading water as a writer. I too have great affection his Animal Man and Doom Patrol days but I think its very strange to dismiss his work since then.

I haven't read Flex, found We3 to be a horribly under-written artist's showcase, couldn't make it through Invisibles, haven't read and have no interest in New X-Men, but I have read every page of All Star Superman and I hated it with a passion.

So basically I have had a few good goes at more modern Morrison, but it's definitely not for me. Still, maybe one day it will click. I did used to have similar feeling about Pat Mills but then he turned me round with Requiem and I now get on okay with most of his stuff, with the honourable exception of his Third World War-era dip.

[Link Prime]

I found his (long) stint on JLA to be his most accessible mainstream stuff...a very cohesive story for such a large cast.
'Rock of Ages' still does it for me every time I re-read it.

(Hated 'Final Crisis' though!)

[Richmond Clements]

I have read every page of All Star Superman and I hated it with a passion.

You're weird..!

[Daveycandlish]

I'm with JBA block here. I read Flex and We3 and the first half of All Star Superman and none of them grab me in the same way as Zenith does