Miracleman

Born today in 1953 in Northampton, England, Alan Moore grew up to be a giant. His impact on comics is so vital and apparent that even reporting on his accomplishments feels both daunting and profoundly unnecessary. Widely regarded as the best comics writer of all time, Moore's influence is without question; his presence an articulate line of demarcation carving up the medium into two decidedly different eras. Moore is a juggernaut, monolithic in both influence and intractability, with a true legacy even greater than his supposed one.

The complicated history of Miracleman reaches its long-delayed resolution in September with the launch of Miracleman #1, by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. The issue kicks off Gaiman and Buckinham's 'Golden Age' storyline, remastered from the original artwork with colors by D'Israeli and lettering by Todd Klein. Later issues will continue and complete the 'Silver Age' and 'Dark Age' storylines. The first issue also features covers from Joe Quesada, Simone Bianchi, and a jam cover from Miracleman veterans Garry Leach, Jon Totleben, Alan Davis and Rick Veitch.

Miracleman, aka Marvelman, has one of the most convoluted publishing histories in comics. Created by Mick Anglo, but very closely modeled on Fawcett's Captain Marvel, the character has passed between several owners and publishers over the years, and run afoul of all sorts of legal entanglements. Those complications seemed to be resolved by a recent court case --- so this is clearly the perfect time to add yet another publisher to the character's long history! IDW is getting into the Miracleman game with a deluxe hardcover 'Artifact Edition' reproducing pages from the 1980s Miracleman revival in Warrior magazine, by artists Garry Leach, Alan Davis and John Totleben and "the Original Writer." (Pssst; it's Alan Moore.)

Marvel has announced plans to publish a Miracleman Annual this New Year's Eve that feature the publisher's first original Miracleman story, by the X-Statix team of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred, and a long-lost Johnny Bates story by Grant Morrison, illustrated by Joe Quesada. The book also features a cover by Gabriele Dell'Otto and a variant cover by Bone's Jeff Smith. Miracleman, originally called Marvelman, was created by Mick Anglo in 1954 as a British analog of Fawcett's Captain Marvel (now Shazam). The character was revived in the early 1980s by Alan Moore as part of the era's deconstruction of the superhero motif, but ownership of the character later fell into a protracted dispute.

With Marvel’s publication of Miracleman #1, thirty years of hearsay, hopes, rumors, big announcements, broken relationships, erroneous claims, false starts, and mountains of litigation were finally resolved with a conclusion that once seemed, for all intents and purposes, totally impossible. Now, through the magic of lawyers, digital coloring, and the unlikely cooperation of all parties involved,

  This week, Marvel posted a few preview pages from its newly "remastered" first issue of Miracleman. Before the images were even officially released Wednesday, fans had gotten a hold of the new images and posted comparisons to the original black-and-white versions from the magazine Warrior, Eclipse Comics' original issues, and recolored versions from the original Eclipse collected editi

Thursday's links are here to comfort you right after the jump.

Though the response from readers was overwhelmingly positive, last weekend's announcement that Marvel will republish Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham's scarcely available work on Miracleman, as well as allow the writer and artist to finally finish their long-incomplete story, led very naturally to one question: what about the Miracleman work of Alan Moore, which is similarly unavailable? Fortunatel

At a 'Cup O' Joe' panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2009, Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada announced that the publisher had acquired the rights to Marvelman, the character created by Mick Anglo in 1954. A few months later, it was revealed that Marvel would be publishing "Marvelman Classic" reprints, though that would not include the iconic -- and due to their scarce availability,

Known for his consistently excellent work on titles like The Twelve, Ministry of Space and Judge Dredd, Chris Weston is one of the most skilled draftsmen in comics. His work is characterized by a tightly rendered style that's often startling to behold, especially on deeply immersive works like The Filth...