 The first publication of America's Best Comics was not
Tom Strong
(the line's much-publicized first ongoing title), nor
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
(the acclaimed mini-series that preceded it). In fact, the line's first publication was
America's Best Comics Preview, contained in an issue of the comics magazine
Wizard. Illustrated by
Tom Strong's
initial artistic team of Chris Sprouse and Al Gordon, it featured a story narrated by Timmy
Turbo (from
Tom Strong),
who held a microphone and toured the offices of America's Best Comics, humorously filled with
the actual characters modeling for the artists who illustrate their stories.
Tomorrow Stories premiered in August 1999 as the fourth of America's Best Comic's initial four regular series, the first issues of which were published over four months, one to a month and each with a cover by Alex Ross.
It contained four stories:
- Greyshirt (illustrated by Rick Veitch), a version of Will Eisner's The Spirit;
- The First American (illustrated by Jim Baikie), a comedic strip featuring in the long tradition of patriotic heroes (of which Captain America is the most prominent member);
- Cobweb (illustrated by Melinda Gebbie), a wealthy lesbian / bisexual vigilante, sort of a cross between Batman as the archetypal unpowered crimefighter and the just-below-the-surface sensuality of Wonder Woman; and
- Jack B. Quick (illustrated by Kevin Nowlan), a comedic strip featuring a hick kid whose absurd country adventures all have pseudo-scientific bases.
With the fifth issue, Jack B. Quick was dropped, replaced in the sixth issue with Splash Brannigan (illustrated by Hilary Barta), a comedic strip satirizing the comic book industry.
Despite its anthology nature, which required only short stories, Tomorrow Stories began running late -- even later than the other titles in the America's Best Comics line.
Issue nine had Dame Darcy take over the Cobweb strip for Melinda Gebbie.
It was also the last issue to feature Splash Brannigan as a regular feature;
with issue ten, Jack B. Quick returned to alternate with Splash Brannigan.
2001 was a particularly poor year, featuring the publication of only two issues: #10 and #11.
Issue eleven had Joyce Chin illustrate Cobweb (in lieu of Dame Darcy or Melinda Gebbie), and
issue twelve featured a crossover between Greyshirt and Cobweb, both of whom operated out of Indigo City,
in their two stories, both of which were illustrated by Greyshirt's Rick Veitch and Splash Brannigan's Hilary Barta,
who seemingly substituted for Joyce Chin / Dame Darcy / Melinda Gebbie as Cobweb's artist.
Issue twelve, the final issue, was published in February 2002, two and a half years from the title's August 1999 premiere.
America's Best Comics Special, a 64-page publication with a spine,
was published in December 2000 on the same day as Tomorrow Stories #9. It reprinted the story from
America's Best Comics Preview and included new material of every character in the
America's Best Comics line, including the five features from Tomorrow Stories as well as
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Tom Strong,
Promethea, and
Top 10. America's Best Comics Special was
notable not only for featuring the most original work in any publication by the line but also
for the first time anyone other than Alan Moore had written work for the line. Specifically,
the special featured debut of two writers who would go on to produce other work for the line:
- Rick Veitch, whose 6 pages of Greyshirt material preceded his work on Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset; and
- Steve Moore, whose Tom Strong and Promethea stories
precede his work on Tom Strong's Terrific Tales.
Another general America's Best Comics publication, America's Best
Comics Sketchbook was published on December 2001, between Tomorrow Stories #11 and
#12, and featured sketches from most of the America's Best Comics line.
A brilliant six-issue mini-series, entitled Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset
and focusing on Greyshirt, premiered in October 2001, between Tomorrow Stories #11 and #12.
Written and illustrated primarily by Rick Veitch, the title featured two stories under a melodramatic cover unrelated to them.
Each issue was 32 pages without ads, and every page was used.
After a single black-and-white page (on the inside front cover) by Veitch, each issue contained a main story,
written and illustrated by Veitch, and a secondary story, written by Veitch (except for one story
written by Dave Gibbons) and illustrated by varying artists (including Veitch, Russ Heath, David Lloyd, John Severin, Veitch & Splash Brannigan's Hilary Barta,
and Frank Cho). The main stories took place chronologically, telling of Greyshirt's
life before he became Greyshirt, retelling his origin (previously shown in Tomorrow Stories),
and telling a final tale in the present that connected with the others. These tales often experimented with
narrative perspective -- such as #3, which had a ghost narrating, or #4, which brilliantly was
sung by a woman whose disfigurement was narrated in her song. The secondary stories expanded
Greyshirt's world and featured tales that were often inconsequential but funny or clever, most
notably #2's incorporation of a surrogate for Pop Art's Roy Lichtenstein, allowing for brilliant
mirroring between the tale's characters and the figures in the paintings. Following these tales
were ten pages (including the inside back cover and the back cover) reproduced from Indigo City's
fictional newspaper, Indigo Sunset, including comic strips, classifieds, an advice column,
and a celebrity gossip column. The news features in this newspaper section would tell the story
melodramatically illustrated on the cover, cleverly marginalizing the cover image (which in most
comic books is either a generic illustration of the title's characters or an image from the
climax of the issue's story). The newspaper pages also tied the title's two stories and their
characters together, including references to Greyshirt tales from Tomorrow Stories and to
other characters in the America's Best Comics line. Despite the series's brilliance, it sold
poorly.
|
| IMAGE | TITLE | DESCRIPTION | STATUS |
 |
Tomorrow Stories
| |
|
| America's Best Comics Preview | included with Wizard; contains an 8-page story, with writing by
Alan Moore
and art by Chris Sprouse & Al Gordon, in which Timmy Turbo (from
Tom Strong) tours the America's Best Comics building and meets all of the creators as well as the characters; includes an 8-page sketchbook section featuring art by Gene Ha, Chris Sprouse, J. H. Williams, Jim Baikie, Melinda Gebbie, Kevin Nowlan, and Rick Veitch; wraparound cover by Chris Sprouse & Al Gordon; cover-dated January 1999 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #1-2 (8 pages each), 3 (6 pages), 4 (8 pages), 5 (12 pages), 6-12 (6 pages each):
Greyshirt short stories with
Alan Moore
script and Rick Veitch art
(Veitch only pencils the episode in Tomorrow Stories #12, which is inked by Hilary Barta and continues into the Cobweb episode) |
| Tomorrow Stories #1 (8 pages), 2-12 (6 pages each):
The First American (and U.S. Angel) short stories with
Alan Moore script and Jim Baikie art
(America's Best Comics Special contains a 6-page story of The First American, written by
Alan Moore,
with art by Sergio Aragones) |
America's Best Comics Special; Tomorrow Stories #1 (8 pages), 2 (4 pages), 3-12 (6 pages each):
Cobweb short stories with
Alan Moore script (
- those in Tomorrow Stories #1-8 feature Melinda Gebbie art;
- those in America's Best Comics Special and Tomorrow Stories #9-10 feature Dame Darcy art;
- that in Tomorrow Stories #11 features Joyce Chin art; and
- that in Tomorrow Stories #12 features Rick Veitch pencils and Hilary Barta inks, the story continuing from the Greyshirt episode by the same artistic team in the same issue)
|
| America's Best Comics Special (2 pages); Tomorrow Stories #1 (8 pages), 2-4 (6 pages each), 10 (6 pages), 12 (6 pages):
Jack B. Quick short stories with
Alan Moore
script and Kevin Nowlan art |
| Tomorrow Stories #1 | 32 pages; Alex Ross cover; cover-dated October 1999 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #1 [alternate cover], 3, 10:
Kevin Nowlan cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #1 [alternate cover] | Kevin Nowlan cover | Needed |
| Tomorrow Stories #2, 6, 12; Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #1-6:
Rick Veitch cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #2 | the Greyshirt featured here is quite good; cover-dated November 1999 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #3 | cover-dated December 1999 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #4, 8: Jim Baikie cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #4 | 26 pages with no letter column instead of 24 with a letter column; last Jack B. Quick story for some time; cover-dated January 2000 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #5: Melinda Gebbie cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #5 | cover-dated February 2000 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #6-9 (6 pages each), 11 (6 pages):
Splash Brannigan short stories with
Alan Moore
script and Hilary Barta art
(America's Best Comics Special includes a 6-page Splash Brannigan story, written by
Alan Moore,
with art by Kyle Baker) |
| Tomorrow Stories #6 | introduces Splash Brannigan as a regular feature, displacing Jack B. Quick; cover-dated March 2000 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories: Book One | collects Tomorrow Stories #1-6 | Needed |
a preliminary version
Larger Version Available
| Tomorrow Stories: Book One [hardcover edition] | Kevin Nowlan cover; published months prior to the softcover
[REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]
| 0 |
| Tomorrow Stories #7, 11: Hilary Barta cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #7 | cover-dated June 2000 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #8 | cover-dated January 2001; published, after a long delay, on Wednesday, 15 November 2000 | 1 |
| Tomorrow Stories #9: Dame Darcy cover |
| Tomorrow Stories #9 | last Splash Brannigan story as a regular feature; cover-dated Februay 2001; published on Thursday, 29 December 2000 | 1 |
| America's Best Comics Special (6 pages); Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #1 (35 pages), #2 (25 pages), #3 (26 pages), #4 (24 pages), #5 (29 pages), #6 (26 pages):
Greyshirt material with Rick Veitch writing and art |
Larger Version Available
| America's Best Comics Special | a.k.a. America's Best Comics 64-Page Giant (or, as printed, America's Best Comics 64 Page Giant); 64 pages;
- includes a 2-page game based on
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
(Alan Moore
script, Kevin O'Neill art);
- contains two 1-page installments of Jack B. Quick's Amazing World of Science
(Alan Moore
writing, Kevin Nowlan art);
- contains three 2-page installments of advertisements for America's Best Clothing
(by Rick Veitch and featuring Greyshirt, these pages ingeniously make advertising a narrative medium);
- contains a 6-page story of The First American
(Alan Moore
writing, Sergio Aragones art);
- includes a 6-page Splash Brannigan story
(Alan More
writing, Kyle Baker art);
- includes a very good Cobweb story
(Alan Moore
script, Dame Darcy art);
- contains a 9-page
Tom Strong
story (Steve Moore writing, Humberto Ramos & John Totleben art) and a nice
Tom Strong
pin-up by John Cassaday;
- contains a 9-page
Promethea story (Steve Moore writing, Eric Shanower art);
- contains an 8-page
Top 10
story
(Alan Moore
writing, Zander Cannon art);
- reprints the 8-page short story previewing of the ABC line (minus the 8-page sketchbook) that was distributed by Wizard magazine;
published on Thursday, 29 December 2000 | B |
| Tomorrow Stories #10 | Jack B. Quick returns (displacing Splash Brannigan); cover-dated June 2001; published on Wednesday, 18 April 2001 | 1 |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Tomorrow Stories #11 | features Splash Brannigan instead of Jack B. Quick; cover-dated October 2001; published on Wednesday, 29 August 2001 | 1 |
| America's Best Comics Sketchbook | features art and commentary by Arthur Adams, Hilary Barta, Gene Ha, Kevin Nowlan, Alex Ross, Chris Sprouse, Rick Veitch, and J.H. Williams III; a waste to all but scholars and the most rabid fans (though Hilary Barta's 4 pages look great and are worthwhile on their own); published on Wednesday, 19 December 2001 | B |
| America's Best Comics | collects America's Best Comics Special, America's Best Comics Sketchbook, and
The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong; published in December 2003 | B |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Tomorrow Stories #12 | final issue; published (at last) on 27 February 2002 (the same day that
Tom Strong #16
and
Promethea #19
were published) | 1 |
|
Greyshirt
| |
|
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #1-6: contains 32 pages of material, plus back cover, inside front cover, and inside back cover (as well as the cover) |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #1 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story in which Greyshirt buys a newspaper,
- an 16-page story ("The Lure") that takes place in 1969, when Greyshirt was a young child,
- an 8-page story ("Six Seconds") that takes place in the present, and
- a 10-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset (including articles relevant to Cobweb as well as as the Weeping Gorilla comic strip, featured in
Promethea);
this was the second mini-series published by America's Best Comics (the first being
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen);
published on Wednesday, 24 October 2001 | 1 |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #2 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story, illustrated by Rick Veitch, in which Greyshirt saves an old man from a punk,
- a 14-page story ("Jail Bait), written and illustrated by Rick Veitch, that takes place in 1978, when Greyshirt was in high school (the tale also reveals the origin of the name "Greyshirt", features Tijuana bibles and future Indigo City mayor Pluto Plutarch, is narrated by Candi / Candice from the Greyshirt story in Tomorrow Stories #2, features Greyshirt as a teenager in the same building as that story and ends with Candi speaking the title of that story, and has a fantasy sequence featuring the Cobweb and the Lure),
- a very good 10-page story ("Swiped!"), written by Veitch and illustrated by Russ Heath, that has an old comic book artist assist a stand-in for Roy Lichtenstein (thus allowing for meritous, though conventional, critiques of Lichtenstein and of the way comic book artists were used by those with power and prestige) and that features a number of nicely ironic juxtapositions, and
- a 10-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset (including articles quite revealing of Cobweb's history and a reference to
Tom Strong
as well as the Weeping Gorilla comic strip, featured in
Promethea);
cover-dated January 2002; published on Wednesday, 14 November 2001 | 1 |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #3 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story, illustrated by Rick Veitch, that introduces Franky and Johnny,
- a 15-page story ("Who Killed Hoodlum Hit?"), written and illustrated by Rick Veitch, that takes place in 1989, just days before Franky LaFayette and Johnny Apollo were blown up (in the Greyshirt origin story from Tomorrow Stories),
- a 9-page story ("Silhouettes on the Shade"), written by Veitch and illustrated by David Lloyd, that features Indigo City's new Greyshirt statue, and
- a 10-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset (including articles, comics, and classifieds);
cover-dated February 2002; published on Wednesday, 12 December 2001 | 1 |
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #4 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story, illustrated by Rick Veitch, in which Greyshirt investigates a missing newspaper salesman,
- a 13-page story ("The Ballad of Franky and Johnny"), written and illustrated by Rick Veitch, that takes place in 1989, just prior to Franky and Jonny getting blown up (in the Greyshirt origin story from Tomorrow Stories) and that focuses on Ella, a whore turned singer,
- an 11-page story ("Recognition!"), written by Veitch and illustrated by John Severin, that tells of the Star of Indigo artifact through the ages, and
- a 10-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset (including articles, comics, and classifieds);
cover-dated April 2002; published on Wednesday, 13 February 2002 | 1 |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available |
Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #5 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story, illustrated by Rick Veitch, in which Fanman has people kidnapped in a truck,
- an 18-page story ("Know Your Fate"), written and illustrated by Rick Veitch, retelling Greyshirt's explosive origin in context,
- a 6-page story ("The Butt Kicks Back!), written by Dave Gibbons (who here becomes the fourth writer to work for America's Best Comics), with Rick Veitch pencils and Hilary Barta inks, and
- a 10-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset;
cover-dated June 2002; published on Wednesday, 10 April 2002 | 1 |
without title or insignia
Larger Version Available
| Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset #6 | contains
- a 1-page black-and-white story, illustrated by Rick Veitch and depicting Greyshirt and Cobweb in a (post-Tomorrow Stories #12) liason,
- a 9-page story ("Shroom!"), written by Veitch and illustrated by Frank Cho, featuring pirates,
- a 17-page story ("The Last Mile"), written and illustrated by Rick Veitch, occuring in the present, revealing Fanman to be Johnny Apollo, and featuring the explosion of Indigo City's mine system, and
- an 8-page black-and-white section from the newspaper Indigo City Sunset;
cover-dated August 2002; published on Wednesday, 5 June 2002 | 1 |
