Big Bang Comics
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Big Bang Comics'' is an American
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
series, designed to be an homage to
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...
and
Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...
comics. Most stories in ''Big Bang Comics'' take place either on "Earth-A" during the 1960s, or on "Earth-B" during the 1940s, featuring characters such as Ultiman, Thunder Girl, and Dr. Weird. ''Big Bang Comics'' first appeared in 1994, with a five-issue
limited series In the field of comic books, and particularly in the United States, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined ...
(numbered #1–4 and #0), published by
Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of Americ ...
. A second series lasting 35 issues, set in the Image Universe, was published by
Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...
from 1996 to 2001.


Publication history

Gary Carlson was exposed to Dr. Weird (who originally appeared in the
fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...
''
Star Studded Comics ''Star Studded Comics'' is the name of three comics-related publications, including a comic from the Golden Age of Comics, a comics fanzine, and a modern comic homage to the previous. Cambridge House Publishers title The first publication to ...
'' #1 in 1963) in one of the character's earliest collected appearances, ''Comic Crusader Storybook'' #1 (Al Greim, 1977), in a story by
Howard Keltner John Howard Keltner (1928 – July 29, 1998) was an American comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (co ...
and Dennis Fujitake. ''The Comic Crusader Storybook'' was a trade paperback fanzine anthology which included short stories featuring the work of many independent artists and writers. In 1994, Carlson co-created the ''Big Bang'' anthology series, alongside artist/writer Chris Ecker. In the 1990s Carlson wrote ''Berzerker'' for
Caliber Press Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed (comics), Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is rank ...
; one of the first canonical appearances of a Big Bang Comics character was by the
Knight Watchman Knight Watchman (AKA: Reid Randall) is a fictional superhero from the ''Big Bang Comics'' universe, residing on Earth A during the Silver Age of Comic Books, Silver Age of comics. He first appeared in ''Berzerker'' #1 (February 1993), and was creat ...
in ''Berzerker'' #1 (Feb. 1993). In 1993, Carlson and Edward DeGeorge acquired all rights to Dr. Weird from Howard Keltner, eventually folded him into the Big Bang universe and making him the only character with a genuine pedigree.


Image Comics

Through 2005,
Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...
published 35 issues of ''Big Bang Comics'' set in the Image Universe, followed by seven one-shot comics.


''Big Bang Presents''

As of the 2010s, Carlson self-publishes ''Big Bang Presents''. Like its predecessor series ''Big Bang Comics'', this is an anthology featuring a rotating cast of new and established characters in a self-contained fictional universe, written by Carlson and drawn by Ecker and various other artists. The company has also begun reprinting earlier comics in trade paperback form through Pulp 2.0 press.


Big Bang characters

Some of the iconic characters in the Big Bang Universe include: * The Beacon * Dr. Weird *
Knight Watchman Knight Watchman (AKA: Reid Randall) is a fictional superhero from the ''Big Bang Comics'' universe, residing on Earth A during the Silver Age of Comic Books, Silver Age of comics. He first appeared in ''Berzerker'' #1 (February 1993), and was creat ...
* Protoplasman * Thunder Girl * Ultiman Superhero teams in the Big Bang Universe include the Round Table of America, the Knights of Justice, the
Pantheon of Heroes The Pantheon of Heroes (a.k.a. the Pantheon of Super Heroes) is a 30th-century superhero team based on the Legion of Super-Heroes (the cover for Pantheon's first story was drawn by former Legion artist, Dave Cockrum) and was introduced in '' Big ...
, and the Whiz Kids.


Metafictional imprints

To give more depth to the various characters, in the world of Big Bang Comics, several invented publishing imprints were created which supposedly existed in the Golden Age and the Silver Age (a device later used by
Amalgam Comics Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., the DC Comics character Batman and the Marvel Comics character Wolver ...
). All of these false covers appeared on the reverse of the Caliber Press limited series issues in scaled-down shots, and again as full-page replicas in ''Big Bang'' #0.


In other media

A TV movie named ''Knights of Justice'' was made in 2000. Although it featured the
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...
versions of Ultiman and Thunder Girl and used the name of the company's Golden Age superteam, the team also included Knight Watchman and a heroine called Masker (who appeared in BB #21), both of whom are exclusively Silver Age heroes in the published version of the universe. The team's mission was to defeat a supervillain and prove their usefulness to the President or face being disbanded. The film is loosely based on the hyperactive Saturday-morning shows of the 1970s that combined special effects with live action, yielding a clearly Silver Age feel to the action.


Big Bang Comics RPG

A pen-and-paper
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
has also been released for Big Bang Comics (Pisces All Media, 2006). The Big Bang Comics RPG uses a streamlined version of the
d20 System The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast, originally developed for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, 3rd edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The system is named after ...
.


See also

*
America's Best Comics America's Best Comics (ABC) was a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics. History ''America's ...


References


External links

* — free webcomics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Official Knight Watchmen website
* * *


Jazma Online interview: Gary Carlson June 5th, 2005


{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Bang Comics Caliber Comics titles Image Comics titles Comic book limited series 1996 comics debuts 2001 comics endings