BALTIMORE COMIC-CON 07: IMAGE'S '76 - TALKING TO MOORE & PECK

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

B. Clay Moore and Seth Peck have come together to bring us '76, an eight issue mini-series from Image Comics featuring two separate stories set in 1976. The new series which is not a flip-book is more like a drive-in double feature.

First off, why go back to the seventies in the first place? Wasn’t That 70’s Show enough for the duo? “I've done books set in the forties, fifties, and sixties (being Battle Hymn, Hawaiian Dick, and The Expatriate respectively),” Moore said. “And have an equally soft spot in my heart for pop culture of the seventies. I think initially we'd planned to move a little closer to the start of the decade, but there's something about '76 that resonates. The Bicentennial, the beginning of the recovery from Watergate, a period of national soul-searching as the dreams of the sixties crashed and burned, and an explosion of exploitation pop culture, (like) movies, television, comics, magazines that we knew we wanted to tap into.”

So are the guys fans of those old seventies comic books? “I love 'em,” said Moore. “The mid-seventies at Marvel were very writer-driven, and they sometimes come off as long-winded, caption heavy, and maybe a tad pretentious these days, but we also saw the rise of guys like Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart, who did stuff that still seems fresh all these years later. By and large, Marvel's mid-seventies books reflected America's restlessness and uncertainty about the future, but they also took full advantage of all the groovy pop culture obsessions of the day, from Kung-Fu to karate to horror. DC, on the flip side, was already moving away from the more relevant themes of their early seventies work (like Green Lantern), and into a sort of all ages period of straight-up action stories, although we still saw books like Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Detective Comics pushing in new directions.”

Peck: “I grew up on the old 70’s Marvel stuff My favorite superheroes as a kid were Black Panther, Iron Fist, and Power Man, all of whom were products of that era. That said, my story in ‘76, called Cool, doesn’t have much in common with any of those books, and it has zero superheroes in it. It’s closer to Taxi Driver by way of Elmore Leonard.”

Cool, written by Peck with art by Tigh Walker, tells the story of bounty hunters Pete Walker and Leon Campbell, as they chase down a missing exotic dancer with a suitcase full of stolen money in 1976 Los Angeles. “A drug deal gone bad is at the heart of the story, and at least one character who may qualify as a hippie, but I really wanted to do a kick-ass crime story without playing off of the 70’ clichés like disco and pet rocks,” Peck explained. “Most of the characters in Cool wouldn’t look out of place walking around the Los Angeles of today. Fashion is cyclical and drugs never really went away.”

So no pet rocks. No disco. What else can we expect from Cool? Peck continues, “It’s a crime story, first and foremost, with a fair amount of action and humor thrown in. It revolves around a pair of hard-luck bounty hunters tracking down an exotic dancer with a suitcase full of cash. Along the way they run into mobsters, midget druglords, a pornstar turned hitman, and other assorted n’er-do-wells. Tigh Walker has taken all of these insane concepts I’ve thrown at him and really turned them into gold. I think people will really fall in love with Tigh’s work. He’s amazing.

“The heroes of the story, if you can call them that, are Pete Walker and Leon Campbell, a pair of bounty hunters. They’re best friends who served in Vietnam together and sort of fell into bounty hunting when they came back to the States. Leon is probably the brains of the operation, and he’s level-headed and cool, a tactician. Pete’s gotten by on his quick wit, looks, and ability to take a punch. There’s a story behind how these two met, and what happened to them in Nam that Tigh and I would like to tell at some point down the road.

“Pete and Leon are charged with finding Cherry Baum, an exotic dancer with a suitcase full of drug money. Cherry’s boyfriend got killed in a drug deal and Cherry made off with the cash. She’s completely unaware of how deep she’s in over her head, and how many people are looking for her.

“Logan Pierce is a dirty cop, and the guy who killed Cherry’s boyfriend. He’s got his fingers in several dirty pies, and needs to get the money back before his boss, Caesar Navarro, runs out of patience. Caesar Navarro is the most brutal drug lord in LA, having risen to power through sheer viciousness and terror. He’s ruthless, psychotic, and just over 4 feet tall. Last is Jimmy Length, a pornstar who became a hitman when the thrill of having sex on camera wore off. He works for Caesar here, and has a pretty memorable entrance to the story.”

With all that packed into one story it really sounds like Moore has a lot to live up to with his story, Jackie Karma that he’s collaborating on with artist Ed Tadem. Jackie Karma tells the tale of sixties-era street fighters Jackie Karma and Marcus King, as they come out of retirement in 1976 New York City, to tackle the threat of an old enemy who's returned to the scene. “Jackie Karma will probably read more like a smarter exploitation flick,” says Moore. “Although the climax of the story would probably be beyond most B-movie budgets of the day.

Were Jackie and Marcus hippies? Militants? “Both Jackie and Marcus would have embraced youth culture of the day, so in flashback to the late sixties we'll see them in their beads and kaftans, but I don't see them as particularly militant, beyond a burning desire to see justice carried out at a street level,” Moore said. “When we meet Marcus in 1976, he's a social worker, and Jackie is an attorney, so they've carried some sense of social justice into the ‘new’ decade. There was a third partner they hung with occasionally in the sixties. A judo expert named Bobby Howler, who ended up in Vietnam. Bobby's the first of the three we meet, and later we'll flashback and examine Jackie and Marcus's reactions to his 1968 decision to enlist.

“Ed Tadem's done some nice research into NYC of the period, and some of his cityscapes are just beautiful and hand drawn,” Moore said of Jackie Karma’s New York City. “Ed understands the value of environments, which is growing more and more rare in comics these days. As for the characters, the street hustlers respect the legend of Jackie Karma and Marcus King. Best not to get in their way. They've grown since they retired at the end of the sixties, so they're hip to the times. It's just that they're in their thirties now instead of their twenties.”

So what kind of ‘bad guy’ does it take to make the two come out of retirement? “It starts with contact from Bobby Howler for the first time in years, and the re-emergence of a truly bad cat named Gil Gunn that they thought they'd drummed out of the city years ago. Gil has some mysterious new connections this time around. Our New York City isn't touched by superheroes, although there are street level fighters who pop up here and there, including the Sabaki Boys, an order of fighters who nurtured Jackie as a kid, Sam(antha) Jones, a private eye who knew Jackie and Marcus back in the day, Holly Gold, a mysterious Asian swordswoman, and the Soul Brigade, a soul group that doesn't mind kicking a little ass now and then.”

“It's personal,” Moore adds in. “Plus, you know---KUNG FU!”

Moore and Peck are hard at work to make sure that each issue of ’76 is jam packed to bring readers back each month. “We're packing a lot of material into each issue, and trying to give readers something a bit outside the norm,” Peck said. “Clay and Ed are doing some great work on Jackie Karma, the other half of the book, and Tigh is going to be a superstar. I’ve had a ton of fun working on this project, and hopefully that shows in the finished product. I’d also like to apologize to my mom for all the nudity and swearing that took place in the book and at dinner last Thanksgiving.”

Interested? Check out www.76blog.blogspot.com where Moore and Peck update regularly on the progress of the book, including art from both stories.

[xdemon]

That sounds like fun. I may have to pick it up.

[J. Torres]

Okay, first an Invaders riff, now Power Man & Iron Fist... I know where Clay's going next... Dazzler!

Now, that I can't wait for

[Blast-Off]

This really sounds interesting. I'm sure I'll be picking this up.

[Punchy]

This looks awesome.

I am in.

[Xero]

Originally Posted by J. Torres

Okay, first an Invaders riff, now Power Man & Iron Fist... I know where Clay's going next... Dazzler!

Now, that I can't wait for

Actually it's a lot more like Richard Dragon Kung Fu Fighter from DC Comics, with Marcus King standing in for Bronze Tiger. Or the three Sons of The Tiger, from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu by Marvel Comics.

[GenerallZodd]

Interesting stuff here.

[BClayMoore]

Originally Posted by Xero

Actually it's a lot more like Richard Dragon Kung Fu Fighter from DC Comics, with Marcus King standing in for Bronze Tiger. Or the three Sons of The Tiger, from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu by Marvel Comics.

I'd say it's a little bit of all of that, and more.

Everything from the era is grist for the mill.

-BCM

[J. Torres]

And by grist you mean option and the mill is Hollywood

[BClayMoore]

Originally Posted by J. Torres

And by grist you mean option and the mill is Hollywood

It's a great book. If Hollywood wants Jackie or Cool, they'll have to get in line behind READERS OF GOOD COMICS.

You go straight to the back of the line.

-BCM

[Blast-Off]

Originally Posted by BClayMoore

It's a great book. If Hollywood wants Jackie or Cool, they'll have to get in line behind READERS OF GOOD COMICS.

You go straight to the back of the line.

-BCM

That's right!! We, the RoGC, are a special bunch. We deserve awesome stories that are beautifully drawn and not the same old thing. Plus, we are snappy dressers.

[BClayMoore]

Originally Posted by Blast-Off

Plus, we are snappy dressers.

Which immediately knocks J. Torres off the list!

-BCM