Read on Twitter
Here's an example of how research can take on a life of its own. In 1990's The Saviour #2, Millar takes the job of replying to the mostly positive letters that Trident Comic had received about the title's debut issue. What's noticable is that Millar's voice is, even then... (1/2)
...recognisably the one that we encounter today. It still has a way to go before it's fully formed, and, unsurprisingly, it seems clear that Stan Lee's columns for Marvel have been very influential upon Millar's tone & style. Millar's ruder, but Lee's role as avuncular uncle (2)
.. seems to be the foundation that Millar, at first, was building on, forging his own version of hyper-confidence and self-deflation. MM would quickly forge ahead with a serious injection of faux-aggressive laddishness, as you can see here .... (3)
... but the uncredited ghostly presence of Stan The Man is still often there. What I hadn't realised until researching another book, which I'll probably never have time to write, is that placed Millar at the end of a very American dynasty of pop culture columinsts .... (4)
... by which I mean, Lee's columns, for all that they appeared radical in the context of 60s comics, had much in common with editor's columns elsewhere in the broader American media. Take the columns of Bill Parker, the editor of the massively popular Mechanix Illustrated .. (5)
... from 1948 to 63. Parker's writing is aimed at an older audience, but it clearly belongs to a chummy tradition of The Friendly Uncle Who Won't Lead You Wrong. So too did Parker transmit the sense of a bullpen at MI, with guest 'visits' to car critic Tom McCahill's articles (6)
In short, Parker was doing everything at Mechanix Illustrated that Lee was at Marvel, creating a clubbish atmosphere - see 'Uncle Tom' below - while encouraging reader's involvement. In short, Millar wasn't just tapping into Lee in those Saviour columns, but a long US ....(7)
... tradition. & through this, a strange lineage from Bill Parker to Mark Millar can be seen. Which is both unexpected & appropriate. Because Mechanix Illustrated editor Bill Parker was also the co-creator of Captain Marvel, of "Shazam!", for Fawcett in 1940, the best-selling (8)
...superbloke of the 40s & 50s. (Mechanix Illustrated and Captain Marvel were both Fawcett titles.) Millar, of course, co-created his own version of Parker & C C Beck's Captain Marvel in Superior ... (9)
....although Superior is usually described as an analogue of Superman, by MM as much as anyone.
I like the fact, no matter how loosely & spuriously, Millar can be connected through Lee to Parker & Superior to The Big Red Cheese. It feels a little magical in a very roundabout way
I like the fact, no matter how loosely & spuriously, Millar can be connected through Lee to Parker & Superior to The Big Red Cheese. It feels a little magical in a very roundabout way
What can I say? This is the kind of thing that too much research can do to the comic-researching writer. Everything starts to connect to everything else.
