DC's Impact Comics?

[Red Oak Kid]

I ran across a copy of "The Web" published by DC under the Impact logo. I was surprised to see Archie characters such as the Shield(I think). I notice in the small print that the characters are copyright Archie Comics, but the book is copyright DC.

I know nothing about any of this and was wondering if anyone here knows the story behind these DC/Archie collaborations:confused:

[MichikoS]

ROK,

Impact (!mpact) Comics were a licensed line of comics using the old Archie/MLJ characters.

Here you go, courtesy of Wikipedia. I recommend clicking on the link at the end of the entry to a lengthy retrospective on Impact from Newsarama, in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_(comics)

"Impact Comics was an imprint of DC Comics that was aimed at younger audiences. It was begun in 1991 and ended by 1993. (The initial "I" in the logo looked like an exclamation point, but the name of the imprint was not actually !mpact.)"

Michi
p.s. One of the tidbits in the Newsarama article is that JIM OWSLEY and CHRISTOPHER PRIEST are the same person. I didn't know that!

[JulianPerez]

The only comic of the IMPACT! line that is really worth reading is the incredible JAGUAR, especially when written by the always awesome Bill Messner-Loebs.

Every single person in the comic is likeable in the way the Legion of Super-Heroes are likeable: because they have personalities like people we know, that can’t be summarized in a single word, such as “Angry” or “Overconfident.”

All of the characters, in their own way, are legitimately good people that are occasionally sidetracked. Special mention should be made of the winning background cast, including the snotty sorority girl that finds herself Maria’s room-mate, who by an astonishing act of writing, is made to be likeable despite the fact she is one of the most truly vicious and hateful characters introduced, from her mean-spirited replacement of Maria’s papers with blanks, stealing her wallet, all the way to her barely concealed racism.

Tracy could be just another Mean Girl, an uppity character that receives an inevitable commuppance. When we think that’s all there is to her – SURPRISE! Tracy’s casual cruelty is revealed by brilliant slight of hand, to hide an upright character, one that finds them with the knowledge of the Jaguar’s secret identity, which at first she seeks to exploit until guilt drives her to help the Jaguar surreptitiously.

The Jaguar herself, mousy Maria de Guzman, is a babe in the woods who wants very desperately to be liked, who always sees the best aspects of people’s behavior and is truly incapable of thinking ill of others. Maria feels like a real girl, from her schoolgirl crush on her much older professor, to her taking late night jogs, to her simultaneous fear and love of the Jaguar.

As the Jaguar, her thought processes change. She becomes sensual and sexy, both physically (thanks to Wojtkiecz’s art, she has amazing biceps and zeitgeist proportions) and in behavior - not in the sex kittenish, She-Hulk way, but in a violent, aggressive animal way that is intriguing because it is somewhat frightening. Caption boxes are used to their best effect by Loebs to describe the world from the Jaguar’s superior senses. How would a creature with a hyperacute sense of smell describe an encounter with an alien? “They had a smell like molasses in mineral oil, or like a turtle.”

The villains are fantastic creatures of the 1950s Marvel Monster variety, from the Doomster winter creature (who in an original twist, can see the future and murders the guilty before they even commit their crimes), to the suit-wearing Maxx-13 to the electrical void creatures. Her foes, like her antagonistic supporting cast, are more misunderstood than truly villainous. Equally fascinating are the plot elements inserted in Jaguar from other Impact comics, such as the mystery of the Web and the formation of the Crusaders, which makes one want to kick whoever it was at DC that eliminated the marvelous Impact! Comics line, and their fascinating world.

The art vastly improves by issue 5, when the chores are taken over by the impossible to hate and impossible to spell Chuck “My name is a million points in Scrabble” Wojtkiecz. When will you kids ever learn? Consonants are a privilege, not a right!

In conclusion, if you can pick it up for cheap, get it if you can!

[JeffreyWKramer]

THE FLY is worth a look, if only because of the wonderful Mike Parobek artwork.

[MDG]

THE FLY is worth a look, if only because of the wonderful Mike Parobek artwork.
Agreed--I only read a few Impacts and wasn't really impressed.

An artist I was talking to at a convention told me that at one point, a few years before the Impact line was launched, Archie hired an editor who'd worked for DC and Marvel to relaunch the line at Archie. The project was well down the road when the Archie "suits" got a look at what was going on, decided it was too "grim 'n gritty" for something with the Archie name, and they pulled the plug.

It also seemed to me that DC "forgot" that they were supposed to be creating a line for younger readers after not too many issues.

MDG

[MWGallaher]

I second, for the most part, Julian's appraisal of Impact's Jaguar. It was definitely the best of the bunch, but I favor the early issues with art by David Antoine Williams rather than the later Chuck W. (I'm not even going to try!) issues.
Runner-up for best Impact series was the second-wave series, The Black Hood. Great character design, great concept, great execution.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

The Black Hood was one of those 'Brilliant But cancelled' Ideas from that era!


J.A.P.

[Bright-Raven]

I followed THE COMET, but that was only because an artist friend of mine (John Dennis) had been selected as a fill-in artist midway through the series, so I got the back issues to know the story, and then followed the series through to its ending.

[TROUBLEZ]

I'm going to have to search for these comics.

[clayholio]

THE FLY is worth a look, if only because of the wonderful Mike Parobek artwork.

I'll second that. The Fly is the only book I really remember, and I read quite at least a couple of all of the Impact comics at the time. Plus, Mike Parobeck's artwork was fantastic! That cannot be repeated enough.

[jam]

I actually bought each and every Impact comic that came out, despite already being an old fogie. I now have absolutely none, having given them all to charity.

At the time, I loved The Fly (mostly because of Mike Parobeck's work), the Black Hood (Rich Burdett (sic)? : some lovely work), the Comet (Mark Waid! need I say more!). The Jaguar was OK. Liked Grant Miehm (sic)'s work on the Shield .. whatever happened to Grant? Nice clean lines .. The WEB could've been good but I couldn't stand the stratchy artwork (just my personal preference, is all). If someone like Parobeck or Miehm had been working on it ...

Shame it went down. I wonder how it would do now if re-released as digests?

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

At the time, I loved The Fly (mostly because of Mike Parobeck's work), the Black Hood (Rich Burdett (sic)? : some lovely work), the Comet (Mark Waid! need I say more!). The Jaguar was OK. Liked Grant Miehm (sic)'s work on the Shield .. whatever happened to Grant? Nice clean lines .. The WEB could've been good but I couldn't stand the stratchy artwork (just my personal preference, is all). If someone like Parobeck or Miehm had been working on it ...


Grant Miehm is currently doing the 'Scouts in Action' feature in BOY'S LIFE!


J.A.P.

[gentlesatirist]

...again because of the Parobeck art (am I like the 5th person to say that or what?).

Black Hood also was OK, and Mighty Crusaders wasn't totally bad, but the rest you can skip.

Happy hunting!


- FE
Wickliffe OH

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

...again because of the Parobeck art (am I like the 5th person to say that or what?).

Black Hood also was OK, and Mighty Crusaders wasn't totally bad, but the rest you can skip.

Happy hunting!


- FE
Wickliffe OH

The team book was simply called The Crusaders!


J.A.P.

[TROUBLEZ]

Now that I think of it I remember seeing these comics advertised as a kid but they didn't look that interesting.


if DC had pushed !mpact comics more do you think that they would have succeeded in getting the whole 13 and under market into comics?

[Blake Petit]

The Fly and The Comet were both great reads. I'd love to see the Archie heroes pop up again. (I'm sure they will -- it seems Archie tries a revival every few decades...)

[MDG]

if DC had pushed !mpact comics more do you think that they would have succeeded in getting the whole 13 and under market into comics?
I dunno. How would they have pushed them besides house ads or flyers in LCSs?

One of the problems with launching a line for younger readers is why would they pick up a book with unfamiliar characters? If they're just getting into comics, they'd probably gravitate toward "faces" they know like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men. And after that, they don't have much money left.

MDG

[jam]

With all the interest in Digests at the moment (Marvel, Archie) I think DC needs to get back in that arena.

It seems to me that Impact Comics digests would be a pretty neat idea.

I'd even be tempted to, rather than have a title have it's own digest, to do an anthology of issues that came out in the same month and run it that way ...

Well, I'd buy them! I still regret ditching all of my Impact collection to make room ...

[CaptChucky]

...again because of the Parobeck art (am I like the 5th person to say that or what?).

Black Hood also was OK, and Mighty Crusaders wasn't totally bad, but the rest you can skip.

Happy hunting!


- FE
Wickliffe OH

I'd like to continue repeating that THE FLY was a great comic, largely because of the art.

[TROUBLEZ]

@MDG

I read an article on the internet about the formation and cacellation of Impact Comics. Apparently DC wanted to go all out with this line and get more kids into comics. Some editor or higher up guy left and was replaced with some one that had the attitude that the line was not going to do good and cut some of the spending or push to get it into the newstand.
i agree with you on the familiar faces. These comics look interesting to someone whos an older reader and tired of the regular superheroes. Kids want to buy comics, usually on their favorite movie or cartoon.

@jam
I would like to see a digest format of some kind of superhero comics. As long as it had some distinctive art.

[MWGallaher]

DC's Impact Comics? had an interesting crossover with Comics Characters that never were? (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=147333). In the final volume of the curious Who's Who in Impact Comics, readers were treated to previews of characters slated for future appearances in various titles, such as The Fox and...um...I think there was one called "Lamplighter"?...who ended up not making their scheduled debuts in the promised issues. When Jim Owsley (now known as "Priest") took over the editorship, the whole tone of the line changed, and in the few remaining months, what remained of the line floundered, concluding in a strange Crusaders series that wrote a finish to the line that wouldn't appeal to anyone who had followed the line to begin with. I had to wonder why they bothered. It really seemed like DC was contractually obligated to publish a few more issues with the characters, and did so in the context of an utterly conventional super-group series. It was a bad cap on a rather fun experiment, which served mainly to convince me that I didn't much care for anything Owsley worked on.

[Blake Petit]

Man, the more I read this thread the more I remember how damn much FUN some of those Impact comics were. It'd probably be a longshot, but I'd love if DC could cut a deal with Archie to reprint them in some form.

[Pól Rua]

I have a real love of the old Archie superheroes.
The names are so iconic, they sound like Tarot Cards, but with The Shield, The Web, The Comet and The Jaguar instead of The Empress, The Hanged Man (Though they DID have The Hangman) and The Hermit...

I was really keen on Impact at the time, and bought pretty much the whole thing, but I felt that it was badly handled and ended up being a pretty bland imprint overall... which is a darn shame, really, because they had some great concepts and some good people working there.