Where Were You When Crisis #1 Came Out?

[karlos]

Was it a big deal to you?

What did you think of it?

It seemed like a HUGE deal to me and my comic book chums at the time, but it seemed to quickly fizzle? 

Or is my mind playing tricks?

[Funt Solo]

Crisis had a really strong design aesthetic, at launch.

The info. panels at the beginning seemed well researched - although I now have to "pinch of salt" them because Mills has at least partly exposed himself as a lizard-worrying Tin Foil Hatter. He's not averse to just making shit up to fit his world view, is what I'm saying - even though he combines it with actual research. These days, though - research can just mean writing down what some dim-bulb or agitator is pushing online.

New Statesmen was clearly inspired by Watchmen, but is worth a modern re-read. I think it was ahead of its time.

The quick fizzle was a strange thing - I managed to split the four year run into five phases in my data-review pages.

[karlos]

Had no idea your write-up existed, Funt.  Looks great and I'll be checking it out!

It was a stunning looking comic, you're right.  Fantastic aesthetic - perfectly of it's time.

I remember the day it came out and selling many copies in my LCS.  It was huge for the first few issues.

New Statesmen was definitely overlooked.  I need to read it again.

Looking back, were a lot of people expecting something else?  Something more 2000ad-y?

[Colin YNWA]

I was just starting 6th Form when this launched and it felt like it was such a big deal and seemed designed for me and my few comic reading friends.

I kept with it until pretty much the bitter end but it did flag a little as it went on. New Statemen was a fav then and remains so now. Well worth a re-read if you haven't for a while. While it may be a little diveriative, it used those influences really well and took things in great new directions. Holds up really well and boy oh boy that Jim Baike art is sublime.

3rd World War I liked at the time, but for me really doesn't hold up anymore.

There were a few gems that came after the launch series. Troubled Souls, Brenden McCarthy's Artoons, True Faith, New Adventures of Hitler all well worth reading.

The real highlight for me though was forgotten gem (so much so I've forgotten it for something!) Myra Hancock and David Hine's fantastic Sticky Fingers. Which was quite superb. 

[karlos]

Was trying to remember Sticky Fingers a few days ago.  Yeah, it was fantastic.

In fact, I agree with pretty much everything there, Colin!

Still quite fancy getting a "Govt Hooligan" tee, though!

[broodblik]

I read the first few but quickly lost interest maybe because I wanted another 2000AD but got something different. If I reflect back it was strange that this was not banned in my country since most political motivated anti-government related things was always heavily censored.

[Fortnight]

I'm terrible with dates, but I reckon I'd have been about to start college. Although I never got or read Crisis, or even heard about it til much later. I wasn't reading comics any more by then. I'd put my Eagles in boxes, and decided I'd grown out of it all.

[Funt Solo]

There were a few gems that came after the launch series. Troubled Souls, Brenden McCarthy's Artoons, True Faith, New Adventures of Hitler all well worth reading.

Generally in agreement. I had to reevaluate True Faith with a modern lens. It's perhaps inspired by the dark comedy of something like Heathers, and at the time I liked it. But a recent re-scan put my hackles up, because it seems to be promoting deadly violence against, well, just people one doesn't get on with. It's more dangerous, in that regard, than the cartoon chaos of Big Dave.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I was aware of it but too young - my pocket money didn't extend past one comic anyway. I remember reading through it in the newsagent's and being surprised that there were actual curse words in a comic of all things.

I remember my brother picking up one issue in its dying days; they were reprinting Manara soft porn by then.

It was only in later life when I managed to find a lot of the back issues. World War 3 was a bit heavy-handed and preachy but i suddenly got why Garth Ennis had been given a top job at 2000ad when I read his Belfast strip (shame about his Dredd and Stronts).

I love John Smith's work with a passion but I just couldn't get into New Statesmen. I'd read Watchmen many times over by then so I was probably making a bit of an unfair comparison.

[Le Fink]

I had just turned 14! For me it was just a comic I think, but the initial line up was really strong, and it left an impression. I carried on reading it... don't think to the end though.

New Statesman - I was a bit too young to get all the references. The religious connotations near the end lost me. Otherwise loved the story and art. I was really put out when Sean Phillips drew an episode some way through as IIRC Jim Baikie was running behind. I heard later Sean was told to draw it to look as much like Baikie's style as possible - so of course it was a bit of a disaster. He got a bit of criticism in the letters pages. Looking at his collaborations with Ed Brubaker his style is now kinda similar to JB's. He painted the final episode or epilogue as well I think, in his own style, and it was fantastic. Duncan Fegredo did a couple of episodes, I think they were pretty good.

Third World War was just so readable. Yes I was being lectured a bit but the cast was interesting, stories exciting and being 14 it was a bit of an eye opener. Mostly Ezquerra, art a bit rough and ready, but vivid and energetic. I think Angie Mills also did an episode? Which was pretty good. I was certainly invested in Eve's story. Didn't enjoy it as much when she returned to the UK though. Did Ezquerra stop at that point?

Troubled Souls also good, True Faith was pretty nasty. Sticky Fingers I didn't get on with the art at the time but would probably enjoy it more now. The Hitler one I really didn't get. Wouldn't mind revisiting it now.

[karlos]

https://youtu.be/dSQXumqHdbg?feature=shared

Just remembered there's a little bit in here about CRISIS (14 mins in)

[AlexF]

it seems to be promoting deadly violence against, well, just people one doesn't get on with. It's more dangerous, in that regard, than the cartoon chaos of Big Dave.

Am a bit surprised by this assertion - surely the story is not meant to be taken at all seriously? Does it really promote vuiolence more than any given 2000AD strip? I've a particular fondness for it, mostly on the grounds that it builds you up from a mildly unlikable protagonist (pretending to be interested in Christianity to get into a girl's pants) to a prpoerly unhinged one (the plumber) to an even more unhinged, and actively nasty, one (the doctor).

And there's a read of the whole thing that's it's just the idle fantasy of a bored/frustrated schoolkid wondering what it might be like to murder people and burn down the Church, which is I reckon something many a 2000AD reader has toyed with in their imagination (where there are no limits, not even to good taste).

As for Crisis the comic, I remember it being heaviuly advertised in 2000AD at the time, don't remember ever seeing it in the newsagent or my LCS, but at 10 was far too little and indeed scared of the content to actually read it anyway.

I've been impressed by the recent TWW trade collections. VERY dense, and quite a bit of conspiracy-theorizing, but still compelling comics.

[AlexF]

My apoliges Funt, if it's bad form to copy/paste excerpts from your hard-built site, but this run-down of one-offs from late-era Crisis was too delightful not to share...

[The one-off slot(s)]
Although these often feature strong messages of social justice, in this phase we start to see a move into more art house fare, which can have the drawback of leaving the reader nonplussed.

   
    Brighton Gas - a homeless young man in Brighton, whose name is Gas, hangs around the town filled with ennui. It's possible that at the end he's insane and thinks he's an astronaut.
    Passion and Fire - perhaps about heroin addiction.
    Faceless - a woman starts getting wrong number calls for a sex line, and eventually confronts the owner (an anthropomorphic razorback).
    Try a Little Tenderness - A man hunts down and kills Hammond organs. True.
    The Soldier and the Farmer - Khmer Rouge guerillas massacre a farmer and his family when they discover that he used to be a teacher.
    Felicity - a young man signs on for his dole, and later he witnesses an older man having a heart attack in the pub. It's possible they're the same person.
        Chicken Run - a young man is depressed and feeling melodramatic because his girlfriend left him.

It just perfectly sums up my memories of burning through a bunch of Crisis back issues I managed to buy in the early 2000ADs. (Trying to read bits of Third World War books 2/3 with epsiodes missing and not having read the originals was wildly difficult to make any sense of.)

I like to imagine all the above stories were written by Si Spencer.

[Magnetica]

I couldn't really get into Crisis at the time.

Third World War was way too political and preachy for me.

I gave up after about 6 issues.

Now I have, not sure if it is 2 or 3 volumes, of the Third World War collected edition sitting on my bookshelf, unread since I bought them. Which was as soon as they came out.

I'd probably buy a collected edition of the New Statesman too.

And probably leave that unread for ages as well.

Overall, nah it wasn't for me. I guess I was hoping it would be like 2000AD, but it wasn't.

[IndigoPrime]

Timing-wise, this one was just out of sync for me. In 1988, I'd not even started getting 2000 AD weekly, but I'd seen Crisis ads elsewhere. It looked and sounded quite exciting, but I never picked up a copy. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I never saw a copy, mind.

Years later, probably in the early 2000s, when I was in my late 20s or early 30s, I secured a complete run. I've no idea where from. I enjoyed the initial run, with TWW and New Statesman, but the entire publication felt like diminishing returns with the odd gem thereafter. I wasn't keen on where TWW ended up heading.

Later, I had a re-read and didn't care for it to the point I sold the collection off. I do still have some New Statesman Quality editions though. (Five little ones.) It just all felt quite dated and not that interesting. I imagine part of that stems from my tendency towards more fantastical and escapist comics, vs the more straightforward storytelling in the European fare that Crisis ended up using quite often.

Regardless, it felt by the mid point, let alone the end, that Crisis could have done with the word 'identity' being placed above it on the masthead. It didn't seem to know what it wanted to be.