Recently I had a post about ’90s comics (disguised in a post about Shooter’s new gig at Dark Horse). This is start of (that I started elsewhere) of a feature I want to now do within Jan-Ken-Pon, highlighting individual comics (or their collected formats) that interested me either due to content, collectability or a combination of the two. Today, to kick off the feature I chose the Fatale: Inherit the Earth hardcover. The first thing I want to say is yes, I will cover more than (Jim) Shooter related comics! I went with this because it tripped one of my (several dozen) Ebay searches last month and there was one for sale with a BIN for $225 (no, it was not mine or anyone’s that I’m aware of knowing). Your second question—some variation of WTF?– just became your first.
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For most people that first question would probably have been what exactly is Fatale?, and after looking at the image above, a certain majority would automatically assume that they don’t and shouldn’t care. Inherit the Earth collects the six issues that comprised the Fatale series that was written by Jim Shooter and drawn by J.G. (he of the incredible cover for DC’s 52) Jones, and the first issue of Powers That Be and Shadow State#1-2 from1996. It should be noted that I’m listing Shooter, but many writers were credited. I think we an assume that his overall vision or at least approval was what ended up seeing the page. It’s actually worth a read, and perhaps struggled (beyond the market struggles itself at the time) due to the then backlash against badgirls that had been the absolute rage of comics just a couple years (perhaps months) earlier. Pick up a copy of Wizard and flip to the popular character lists and you will they are dominated by character like Vampirella, Pulidio’s Lady Death, Gaiman’s Angela (from Spawn), Lisner’s Dawn, Witchblade, and Tucci’s Shi among others. The only creator that I saw who continually did this post-that era and was mainstream (relative to comics) success was the late Michael Turner. You certainly still have your Bud Roots’ who do this (and get a ton for that original art–and yes I do want one for some reason) but it’swork not really part of the mainstream comic book conscious. It is not at all an attempt at denigrate the creations or creators noted above to say that Fatale really wasn’t a type of comic, more than it probably was trying to look like one, and it you don’t have to look to far to see how (though some of the promotion was, to be blunt, off the hook (bra) strap). It’s also a departure from past (immediate) Shooter projects. With VALIANT and DEFIANT he was very much the architect of rather intricate universes, and though Broadway was shaping up, it seemed to be a much looser application, and more of a group project and not quite as driven. The prior two projects felt much more like the creation of unique blueprints (that certainly pulled from familiar tropes to any SF/F fan), where Broadway felt playing with existing ones. I believe that I heard Shooter once note that the Broadway comics were made with the thought of possible development for film and television (which sounds rather redundant now, but not so much in the mid-’90s) and Fatale come off as very basic concepts that you could easily see a Jolie movie of. Back to concept, however, if you read this book it actually does an oddly fascinating job balancing this stereotypical male-fantasy, bad girl kicking ass, high-octane action book, with a very quirky sitcomish quality that doesn’t 180-flip archetypes (which is a gimmick in itself), but rather forces a sometimes uncomfortable co-existence. I’m not saying this is some underrated gem that all comic fans should read, but nor is it something that should repulse you. On the surface, you assume a superficiality that I’m no going to say isn’t there, but there are foils here that does show a very self-aware book.
I am not an art aficionado, and by that I mean that I can’t relay anything remotely close to authoritative observation about the craft (or tools of ) itself, but as a fan I own uninked J.G. Jones original art from that era (though from DEFIANT) and though I feel like the inker utterly fails him in this run, you really get a moody element from Jones here, somewhat classical in the non-action scenes.
$225? Not too far off actually, though probably approaching the absolute extremes of the current ceiling–it would have to be something you have been looking for to finish off a collecting focus. That I didn’t buy it myself reveals that I think it’s rather aggressive. This book that most comic fans don’t know exist, and if by happenstance they do, the majority of them don’t care, would most likely be sold in an instant if it was listed at$150. Broadway Comics (and the one comic from DEFIANT that has a premium attached to it) have in some manner inherited the extreme fans of VALIANT–the type who make the highest graded copies of Harbinger#1 exceed a thousands dollars (and in a couple of cases more than twice). I can tell you that I lost on a bid for the same item last year that was higher than that amount last year, and going into bidding I thought my chances of winning weren’t too strong. It even goes beyond the concept of “Dead Universe” collecting which seems to be a sub-group, of niche group, of a niche group, of a niche group. I don’t care what the subject or vocation, you have to be really passionate to have that many ‘niches’ attached to whatever you do! Note that this is the hardcover, not the TPB (or softcover) which is more readily available.
I pulled this image from the net (I believe the poster who posted the image actually used to a host a Shooter-fan site) that gives you the low-down:
I’ve heard of unsigned copies (the one on ebay was one) so there is obviously more than that amount floating around.
The one thing I’ve learned about being a VALIANT fan (that can be applied to any collecting habit) is that patience tends to pay off. There is a very small group that pushes the prices of books like these well above what the vast majority of the market would even consider, and all you need is one slip, one person who didn’t set a snipe, was out of town, or had a power outage and you will get something closer to a reasonable price. It’s only really for diehard completists (again, a niche of a niche of a niche of a niche) as the single issues are out there for nothing.
With this in mind this is by no means the most regularly sought after book from Broadway. That would be Miracle on Broadway, which goes for quite a bit more that. I was going to do a write-up on it, but Al Stoltz (a well known dealer) really did a bang up job (or at the very least, a fun one) in 2003 at Scoop.
*pulled the solicitation image off of a forum.
