Boardindex Page Montage/aka 'Book 1'?

[Gothick]

Dear God! *clutches throat dramatically, gasps, takes DEEP intake of breath*

Just when I thought it was SAFE to go back online!

Clutching newel-post,

G.

[Gothick]

Regarding the professional use of "cover dates," see the section on comic books here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_date

Interesting that the practice goes way back to the 1930s. And of course, Marvel has abandoned it altogether. Just to be different, no doubt.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I was certainly well aware that magazines rarely have the actual date they were published - the date is usually anywhere from a week to a month in the future. But it never dawned on me that comics might do the same. And it's interesting that they're normally dated two months later than the actual publication, which explains why Book 1, Issue 1 of the comic came out in April but is dated June.

You learn something every day. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Normally I would wait until the slideshow changes to post this. But I have so many things to post in this topic today that I'm going to start posting now. So, here's the twenty-fourth page:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

And that concludes the storyline portion of Book 1, Issue 1...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here's the back cover:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

And that concludes everything about Book 1, Issue 1...

Some characters will repeat on the back cover of Book 1, Issue 2 - but three other characters will debut. But obviously more on that when we get to that back cover...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the front cover of Book 1, Issue 2 -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And SG #60 from May 1992 shared artwork that might turn out to be the cover for Issue 2 -

- and it obviously did become the cover.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

However, SG #58 shared a sketch of this preliminary cover for Issue 2:

Click here for a 996X1332version.

Sadly it didn't get used because I actually prefer it. (Though they definitely didn't ask me.    And there's actually a good reason why they didn't use it for Issue 2.) And after seeing this sketch and the actual cover of Issue 2, you can probably also see why I said the sketch of Ang and Barn in front of a tree on Page 29 of Issue 1 might have also been a preliminary sketch for the cover of Issue 2.

And it's interesting to get some insight into the thinking process that went behind the potential covers, as in how the tree actually symbolizes Angelique's curse on the Collins Family (which we won't learn about until an upcoming issue of Book 1). There's more depth behind the drawings than might be immediately perceived...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the inside front cover of Book 1, Issue 2:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Because the letters column in Book 1, Issue 2 features reactions to Book1, Issue1, I'm going to begin posting it now rather than wait for when it comes up in Issue 2. So, here's the first page of the column (twenty-fifth page):

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

Also, news of the '91 Series' release on VHS first broke as a note stapled onto SG #60. However there were no details as of then - they were to come in SG #61. But Book 1, Issue 2 of the comic actually came out before SG #61, so the comic was what actually broke many of the details of the release. Though, considering that we're just beginning Issue 2, it'll be quite some time before we reach the back inside cover of the comic...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the second page of the letters column (twenty-sixth page):

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

Several of the people who had letters published who I happen to know personally weren't too thrilled that the comic decided to post their names and full addresses. It led to, shall we say, a lot of unsolicited mail, and we'll leave it at that. A few wrote to ask that the practice might be discontinued or at least that their addresses not be published again if any of their letters were shared in subsequent issues, but apparently that was too much to ask for from Innovation because they never changed the practice of publishing full addresses - and the fans who'd reached out to Innovation never received any sort of response from them as to why they insisted on doing it. And while it never actually dawned on me back in the day, why do I suspect now that Innovation might have actually been sharing fans' addresses with other parties?

[Uncle Roger]

Here's the second page of the letters column (twenty-sixth page):


Several of the people who had letters published who I happen to know personally weren't too thrilled that the comic decided to post their names and full addresses. It led to, shall we say, a lot of unsolicited mail, and we'll leave it at that. A few wrote to ask that the practice might be discontinued or at least that their addresses not be published again if any of their letters were shared in subsequent issues, but apparently that was too much to ask for from Innovation because they never changed the practice of publishing full addresses - and the fans who'd reached out to Innovation never received any sort of response from them as to why they insisted on doing it. And while it never actually dawned on me back in the day, why do I suspect now that Innovation might have actually been sharing fans' addresses with other parties?

The practice of publishing names and addresses of the letter writers was not unique to Innovation. Marvel and DC did that for years. They were still doing that as recently as 5 years ago. They may still. I haven't picked up a comic book in several years now. Some of the regular letter hackers, such as Uncle Elvis and T. M. Maple, became cult figures in their own unique way.
The Dark Shadows articles that ran in Marvel's black and white magazine (Haunt of Horror or Vampire Tales, not sure which) were indirectly responsible for the birth of DS fandom. Young Kathleen Resch contacted the people who wrote in about the DS piece and that eventually led to the creation of TWODS and Shadowcon.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Young Kathleen Resch contacted the people who wrote in about the DS piece and that eventually led to the creation of TWODS and Shadowcon.

That would have no doubt been a fun piece of mail to receive. But trust me, some of the mail I'm referring to was not fun. And several of the people who received it compared notes and none of them had ever received mail like it until after having their full addresses printed in the comics. So, unless suddenly receiving it was a amazingly remarkable coincidence for them all, the source for their addresses could be directly traced back to having their names in the Innovation comics. What's most interesting, though, is not everyone who had a letter or letters published received such less than wanted mail. Who knows what it was about the letter writers who did? Or maybe they were just unlucky enough to be targeted at random...

Once DS became more popular on the Internet, why do I suspect that the people behind those letters found it even more advantageous (for them, anyway) to act as the trolls that harassed places like the DS Newsgroup on Usenet? 

[Gerard]

Back in, the only thing I can call it is the "late-mid-seventies," a comic book company (and I don't remember which one) started a series of thick comics called Dracula Lives!  They were all about the Count, from his "young" vampiric existence as Vlad Tepes, to his wonderings in 1890's London to today. 

There was a fan-mail section and they published the full names and addresses of the writers.  One of mine was published!  I was so proud.

The comic book was of high quality with excellent stories and art work.  It also brought controversy.  One story dealt with the modern times in the Vatican where a priest is an exorcist who knows a prayer to dispatch vampires.  Dracula hunts him down throughout the Vatican, impressed by the art (and here's what was controversial:  he said he can't believe that such "religious fanatics" could produce it), but hindered by the many crosses, crucifixes and relics wherever he turns.  He finally corners the priest and starts to kill him, the priest too weak to say the prayer.  But before he dies, he informs Dracula that he has sent a copy to the grandson of Van Helsing who still hunts the vampire. 

Dracula Lives! started a serialization of Stoker's novel and the artwork was, again impeccable.  And then the company announced that the comic book would cease publication; not enough people were buying it.  The serialization would continue in another one (and I don't remember the name) also published by the company.  I bought them.  And then, in a couple months, it also ceased publication.

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the first page of Book 1, Issue 2:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)