Impact Comics

inmyblood · Post by **inmyblood** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:22:12 pm

I gave the universe a try. Didn't work for me. Glad I bought 'em out of the 50 cent bin!

Byrneout · Post by **Byrneout** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:25:17 pm

In that case...

Are you looking to get rid of any "Legend Of The Shield" or "Black Hood" issues?

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:17:55 am

Impact is a mixed bag but there is REALLY good stuff in there.

I highly recommend Black Hood, one of my favorite super hero series of all time

. The series basically asks the question what would happen if a real kid was compeled to go out and be a vigilante? It challenges most of the conventions of the genre like early Valiant or Hall's Shadowman. Quirky and entertaining as hell

. Great art

.

Legend of the Shield was a bit more traditional but a very good mix of action and characterization. Good art, a great read

.

I also recommend The Fly 1-6. It's very funny with lots of action. Very fun stuff

. Mike Parobeck's are is outstanding. The rest series is a bit mixed but there's some enjoyable issues in there.

The Crusaders 1-4 and the Impact Winter Special were also good and the back-up stories in all the annuals were top notch

. The rest of Impact had very intersting concepts but the execution was mainly okay. Still very readable stuff.

If it had only come a year or so later we could've actually got a few years of comics out of them

.

davidb · Post by **davidb** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:23:11 pm

I'm still working to finish my runs of Comet and Fly. Maybe after I get those done I'll branch out to the others.

That said, I'm surprised that somebody doesn't try to get the rights again. Archie doesn't seem interested in publishing super-hero stuff. Maybe the same deal could be worked out that DC did - follow the Archie guidelines and actually put out some books that young kids could read.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:32:30 pm

davidb wrote:I'm still working to finish my runs of Comet and Fly. Maybe after I get those done I'll branch out to the others.

That said, I'm surprised that somebody doesn't try to get the rights again. Archie doesn't seem interested in publishing super-hero stuff. Maybe the same deal could be worked out that DC did - follow the Archie guidelines and actually put out some books that young kids could read.

I never quite got why Impact was more "kid friendly" than DC's normal offerings. I read a good bit of both at the time (I was 11 or 12). The only real difference I noticed was that the characters in the Impact books were less whiney and that Impact didn't spend five to ten pages an issue on supporting character scenes that read like bad soap operas. All that crap in DC's normal books annoyed me then and still annoys me now that I'm 27.

But I guess Impact did have less blood and death than a typical Batman issue at the time so maybe that's good for the kids.

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:57:35 pm

Whoa whoa... now I need a lesson here.

From what I gather or believe to have seen. Impact Comics was it's OWN company at one time. And from what I gather, DC picked up some of the titles and produced them through DC at some point ?

I would love to be researching this now but my internet is flowing about as slow as molasses right now. I swear, I am going to switch back to DSL.

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:02:53 pm

OK I stand corrected... whenever looking for these issues it reads that DC is the publisher. Now to find 'the info'...

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:24:26 pm

Knightt wrote:Whoa whoa... now I need a lesson here.

From what I gather or believe to have seen. Impact Comics was it's OWN company at one time. And from what I gather, DC picked up some of the titles and produced them through DC at some point ?

I would love to be researching this now but my internet is flowing about as slow as molasses right now. I swear, I am going to switch back to DSL.

They're old characters Archie owned (and still does). They licensed them to DC who published them under them as a new imprint called Impact in 1991. They revamped all the characters and created an entirely new universe based on the old properties. It lasted about a year and half, and then died. Mark Waid had one of his earlier regular writing gigs on the Comet and Shield and Quesada did some covers (the first pencils I recall seeing from him).

davidb · Post by **davidb** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:14:12 pm

Just to expand a little:

Like Todd said, Archie (the owner of the characters) licensed them to DC for the Impact line. Kind of like the Gold Key Valiants, but Archie retained much more control than Gold Key.

First up was the fact that everything had to follow the Archie guidelines - nothing major, things like the books had to be Comics Code approved, and characters riding in cars always had to wear seat belts. Archie's got a list of things they promise parents on their website (www.archiecomics.com) and everything in Impact had to follow that.

Second, and most different from Valiant, was that Archie retained all the copyrights and trademarks. If I've got this right, on the Valiant Magnus, Turok, and Solar, the copyright is to Valiant, even though Gold Key owned the characters. All of the Impacts are to Archie. As I understand it, if Archie wanted to reprint all of the Impact stuff they could. All they'd have to do would be to pay DC for the artwork.

There's a ton of information on Impact at www.mightycrusaders.net. Something I found interesting was that the guy who runs the site was talking to Mark Waid. After Crucible had wrapped, plans had been to launch Impact, Phase 2 (which never happened). He asked Waid how close to completion Phase 2 was. Waid faxed him completed artwork (lettered as well) of three of the proposed 5 books' new #1s.

davidb · Post by **davidb** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:21:45 pm

Also from that site, here are some of the names who were working on the books:

Mike Gold - editor
Mark Waid - wrote Comet, Legend of the Shield, Crusaders, and Crucible
Peter Snejbjerg (Starman) - art on at least 1 Black Hood issue
Dave Cockrum - would have been artist on Phase 2's Wrath of the Comet
Joe Quesada - Crucible 1-4 layout artist, 1 & 2 covers
Jimmy Palmiotti - inked Crucible
Dan Jurgens - cover for Crusaders #1
Rags Morales - Crusaders 1-4
Mike Parobeck (animated Batman comics) - Fly 1-7
Carmine Infantino - Impact Winter Special #1
William Messner-Loebs - Jaguar
Trevor Von Eeden - Legend of the Shield Annual 1
Jim Owsley (Christopher Priest) - replaced Gold as editor of the line

DC was putting some decent names on the books. Gold blames the line's failure in the interview on the site on lack of marketing support.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:20:17 pm

davidb wrote:
There's a ton of information on Impact at www.mightycrusaders.net. Something I found interesting was that the guy who runs the site was talking to Mark Waid. After Crucible had wrapped, plans had been to launch Impact, Phase 2 (which never happened). He asked Waid how close to completion Phase 2 was. Waid faxed him completed artwork (lettered as well) of three of the proposed 5 books' new #1s.

Wow

Thank you so much for pointing that out

I don't know if all that Impact stuff was added since I looked at that site a while back or if I missed it but I'm amazed at all of it! All those pages for the unpublished Phase 2! They were as bad as I thought they would be (I lost interest in the line when they started killing everyone, ect in the final issues, I didn't bother with Crucible) but I'm glad i did get to finally see what they would've been like. And the interviews were fantastic. Thanks.

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 11:30:07 pm

VERY interesting and insightful, THANKS for the valuable info and the links guys. This was more IMPACTual than I thought...

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:00:30 am

Checklist:

Shield 1-16, Annual
Fly 1-17, Annual
Jaguar 1-14, Annual
Comet 1-18, Annual
Web 1-14, Annual
Black Hood 1-13, Annual
Crusaders 1-8
Impact Who's Who 1-3
Impact Winter Special

Note for completists: There was an insert with previews and synopsises of all the books in Batman 464 and there was also a Previews issue with an Impact cover and really nice pin-ups of each book (probably the one with Legend of the Shield 1 solicited in it). If anyone has that Previews issue and could post the cover and pin ups that would rock .

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 1:55:46 pm

I really enjoyed most of the Impact line and bought everything they published back when they were originally released. The Comet was my favorite, but The Fly and Legend Of The Sheild were pretty good too. I didn't really care for The Web or The Crusaders, but I bought them anyway. Somehow, over the years, several issues have come up missing, so my collection is incomplete. If anybody has any to trade, let me know and I'll give you my Impact "need" list.

mrwoogieman · Post by **mrwoogieman** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 2:44:18 pm

I have a small batch of these somewhere. I'll dig them out and anyone interested can PM me.

Technique · Post by **Technique** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:02:09 pm

Todd Luck wrote:Checklist:

Shield 1-16, Annual
Fly 1-17, Annual
Jaguar 1-14, Annual
Comet 1-18, Annual
Web 1-14, Annual
Black Hood 1-13, Annual
Crusaders 1-8
Impact Who's Who 1-3
Impact Winter Special

Note for completists: There was an insert with previews and synopsises of all the books in Batman 464 and there was also a Previews issue with an Impact cover and really nice pin-ups of each book (probably the one with Legend of the Shield 1 solicited in it). If anyone has that Previews issue and could post the cover and pin ups that would rock .

Wasn't The Crucible (6 issue mini) part of the Impact line? I think it's the only Impact book I own. I think it was a team-up book of sorts.

jedimarley · Post by **jedimarley** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:05:57 pm

mrwoogieman wrote:I have a small batch of these somewhere. I'll dig them out and anyone interested can PM me.

ME ME ME!!!!

I'm interested!!!

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:39:29 pm

Technique wrote: Wasn't The Crucible (6 issue mini) part of the Impact line? I think it's the only Impact book I own. I think it was a team-up book of sorts.

Yep. It was the last Impact story printed. As I understand it, the series was supposed to be the beginning of the relaunch, but when those relaunch plans were scrapped, the ending of the story had to be revised.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:11:30 pm

Technique wrote:
Todd Luck wrote:Checklist:

Shield 1-16, Annual
Fly 1-17, Annual
Jaguar 1-14, Annual
Comet 1-18, Annual
Web 1-14, Annual
Black Hood 1-13, Annual
Crusaders 1-8
Impact Who's Who 1-3
Impact Winter Special

Note for completists: There was an insert with previews and synopsises of all the books in Batman 464 and there was also a Previews issue with an Impact cover and really nice pin-ups of each book (probably the one with Legend of the Shield 1 solicited in it). If anyone has that Previews issue and could post the cover and pin ups that would rock .
Wasn't The Crucible (6 issue mini) part of the Impact line? I think it's the only Impact book I own. I think it was a team-up book of sorts.

Oops, sorry.

Thanks for pointing that out

I tend to ignore Crucible. By that time the Impact universe was dead as far I was concerned. Like Heath said, it was a series with all the surviving characters who weren't in limbo. It was supposed to redo the line and set things up for new "darker" series which never happened

. I wish they hadn't done that and just let Impact die with dignity.

Half the line was fine. The other half just needed better writing. Destroying everything they had built so they could start over (sorta) wasn't going to accomplish that. It just ruined some otherwise enjoyable characters.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:14:08 pm

I just took inventory and I'm missing more of these than I realized. I guess some of these actually sold when I briefly had my own comic store using my personal collection as a start on inventory... But anyway, here's my "need" list:

Black Hood 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Comet 1, 3, 4, 16, 17, 18

Crusaders 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, Annual

Fly 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17

Jaguar 11, 14, Annual

Shield 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 16

Web 12

Who's Who 1, 2, 3

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:22:00 pm

davidb wrote:
First up was the fact that everything had to follow the Archie guidelines - nothing major, things like the books had to be Comics Code approved, and characters riding in cars always had to wear seat belts. Archie's got a list of things they promise parents on their website (www.archiecomics.com) and everything in Impact had to follow that.

After reading those guidelines I'm wondering if Archie even read Impact Comics. I just read a story that opened with the main character not wearing seat belt while drunk driving (under the age). Then we see him smoking (under the age) and by the end of the story we see a corpse laying in a pool of his own blood (on panel). And that was just one short story. The star of the story was just a normal kid who was mixed up with the mob so maybe the rules strickly apply to "good guys"? I mean Hit Coffee additioned girls for phone sex lines and blew off people's knee caps (on panel) but even when he was Black Hood he wouldn't been considered a "good guy."

BTW, reading that short story in the last of Impact annuals I just found reminded me of how incredibly good those back-up stories were. They were original, deep, and quirky as hell. Those stories and the Black Hood where the best thing that Impact did. Highly, highly recommended

.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:28:43 pm

Todd Luck wrote:
davidb wrote:
First up was the fact that everything had to follow the Archie guidelines - nothing major, things like the books had to be Comics Code approved, and characters riding in cars always had to wear seat belts. Archie's got a list of things they promise parents on their website (www.archiecomics.com) and everything in Impact had to follow that.

After reading those guidelines I'm wondering if Archie even read Impact Comics. I just read a story that opened with the main character not wearing seat belt while drunk driving (under the age). Then we see him smoking (under the age) and by the end of the story we see a corpse laying in a pool of his own blood (on panel). And that was just one short story. The star of the story was just a normal kid who was mixed up with the mob so maybe the rules strickly apply to "good guys"?

Oh, and about that "no nudity" rule on Archie's site, this is from Jaguar 9 (she's got her arm over her breasts but she's still a VERY naked woman, so know this before you click

):

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/rtluck75/naked.jpg

That's Jaguar's roommate and (best?) friend. I guess the rules must not apply to supporting cast either. I mean, Nate (Black Hood) Cray's best friend was a drug addict over in Black Hood and that's also listed as an Archie no-no.

davidb · Post by **davidb** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:17:12 pm

Hey, she's not naked! She's got her shoes on...

dac55 · Post by **dac55** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:10:14 pm

Thats one hot picture. Is she a bad girl? I like bad girls.

dac

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 8:51:43 pm

The story behind that panel is that Jaguar's college roommate, knowing her secret ID, wants to make a buck off it. So she steals Jaguar's outfit which Jaguar keeps in her dorm closet and tries to storm a studio and get on TV. The problem is Jaguar makes her costume magically appear on her body just by thinking about it. Jaguar stumbles upon a crisis and calls for the costume at the exact second blondie jumps out in front of the camera.

She gets in a animalistic pose and says "Grrr. I'm the Jaguar." while standing there stark naked!

Then she realizes she's naked and runs like hell out of there looking for her overcoat. That's the panel I linked to. The next panel she frantically asks the secretary at the desk where her coat is (as the guy noticably checks out her a$$) and runs off when she can't tell her.

"She was very rude." the secretary remarks.

"Good runner, though." says the guy.