Looking Back at Crimson Plague

Looking Back at Crimson Plague

With George Perez’s Sirens coming out next week, I thought I’d take a look at the last time George Perez launched a creator-owned comic that used real people as models for the characters.

Crimson Plague’s first issue was published in 1997 by Event Comics, a company that wouldn’t stick around for much longer, mainly because the guy heading it was only a few years away from taking over Marvel Comics. At the time, Perez, only one of the rare artists who had been a superstar in each decade he worked in (his third, at that point), was experiencing a slump in his productivity. Ending the 80s on a high note with Crisis on Infinite Earths and a very successful Wonder Woman relaunch, Perez didn’t do so well in the 90s up to that point. He was getting out some successes like Future Imperfect and his creator-owned Sachs and Violens (both with Peter David), but he was also late with the latter. His event at DC, War of the Gods, wasn’t even marketed as an event by DC Editorial (DC Editorial: Screwing Things Up Since Even Before 1991) and was pretty much overshadowed by Armageddon 2001, a truly atrocious “event” even if your comparison was strictly atrocious events. Meanwhile, at Marvel, Perez was working on Infinity Gauntlet, a true comic book phenomenon, and he couldn’t even finish past midway through the fourth issue of six.

Crimson Plague was Perez’s last project before he returned full time to Marvel with Avengers. The concept was that DiNA: Simmons, whose origin is unknown, has a plague carried by her bloodstream, and anyone who comes into contact with her blood instantly dies. The setting is futuristic, and there’s an entire crew who’s after her, led by a military woman named Shannon Lower.

It’s actually difficult to summarize the story because, to be honest, the first issue was a little confusing. I’m a big proponent of the idea that artists are co-authors, since they are responsible for so many storytelling decisions, such as pacing and expressions — regardless of how tight or not the script is, the final execution is always in the hands of the guy holding the pencil. But one thing that’s definitely the provenance of the scriptwriter is the overall structure of the story, and in Crimson Plague, Perez decided to use a nonlinear framework, putting flashbacks within flashbacks. The first narrative captions of the story read, “Her name is DiNA: And, contrary to what she said, this is not the end of the story. This was but one random chapter in the history of Crimson Plague. What follows is another. The setting is approximately one year ago on a faraway moon, where, five years ago, DiNA: Simmons was born.”

So in case you missed that, the next scene took place one year ago. DiNA: was born there five years before that. But the scene, containing Shannon Lower’s fleet on their way to a mission, was only a year ago. Until at some point in the scene they get briefed, so we have another flashback.

Structurally it’s a bit of a mess. The comic under Event folded, Perez went to do Avengers, and then in 2000, he re-issued the series under Gorilla Comics. I understand the re-issue of the first issue had additional material, but the second issue’s letters page has someone criticizing the structure and Perez copping to it not being as clear as he’d have liked, in hindsight, so I guess the issues weren’t resolved.

Crimson Plague’s also a bit unwieldy because there are so many characters introduced pretty much all at once, and they all seem significant. This isn’t really a problem, given that it’s a comic and you can just go back and forth to figure out who’s who. It’s also helped that it’s Perez drawing it, and he’s one of the best ever when it comes to drawing distinctive faces (Shannon Lower is distinctly Shannon Lower, whether her hair is down and she’s in her underwear or her hair is tied up and she’s in full military gear, for example). But because it’s full blast and the juggling of the characters isn’t really done as deftly as someone like, say, Kurt Busiek would do it, it does prevent a reader from getting immersed in the story.

This sounds like I’m saying Perez is a bad writer, but I’m not. I hold his Wonder Woman run in high regard, and he did pretty much all the writing for that (he had assistance with the dialogue), and Marv Wolfman never fails to call him a co-plotter for New Teen Titans. Kurt Busiek has mentioned before that Perez would take liberties with his plot-first scripts on Avengers, because Perez would just make storytelling decisions like “Hey, this page where Kurt describes four things would need 16 panels.” But I think in Crimson Plague, Perez tried too much. The one time he was fully responsible for handling structure was on Wonder Woman, still focused on one main protagonist and thus giving him a focus. Crimson Plague is ostensibly about DiNA: Simmons, but it’s mainly about Shannon Lower and her fleet. It’s really a case of Perez flexing writing muscles that he wasn’t used to flexing.

I think one of the reasons he tried introducing as many characters as he possibly could right away was the whole idea of the series basing its characters on real people. Shannon Lower actually is based on a real woman named Shannon Lower, a friend of Perez’s wife, and so the fictional Shannon Lower has a tiger tattoo on her leg just like (presumably) the real Shannon Lower. DiNA: Simmons actually is based on Dina Simmons (pictured here from George Perez: Storyteller). So it did seem that he was shoehorning everyone in right away so … people would be happy? I don’t know.

Crimson Plague ended at two issues because Perez didn’t make enough money to cover the costs of production, including the costs of paying Dina for public appearances. He estimated he’d lost $5,000 per issue, which makes me wonder how Sirens is going to work, since it’s based on nine different cosplayers.

He’s mentioned that royalties from his old work will keep it afloat, but I also worry about how he will juggle nine different protagonists since he seemed to have a hard time with it the last time he tried doing it on his own. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to Sirens, because whatever criticisms I may have about Crimson Plague, it was an interesting concept, the leads were gripping, it was well drawn, and it was nice to see Perez really reach for something different. If Sirens can be nine times as interesting, gripping, well drawn, and intriguing, then I think we’re in for a treat… as long as the whole problems of juggling the characters and structuring the story don’t stick out nine times as obviously either.

I’ll be reviewing Sirens #1 next week! Come back then!

On The Punisher Meets Archie

On The Punisher Meets Archie

Stan Goldberg died earlier this week. He was highly accomplished in the comics industry, having had stints at Marvel twice, picking Spider-Man’s colors, and, most notably, being one of the main artists of Archie Comics. He was the main Archie artist of my generation, and for that reason, I placed him fifth on the list of the most important Archie artists ever, kind of sad that I couldn’t rank him any higher and also kind of surprised that I got comments telling me he was too high. (I will grant that there is an argument between him and Bob Bolling, but no one else right now would outrank Goldberg.) Goldberg didn’t really get all the appreciation he deserved, though he was well-respected, and even I, who had him pegged as my favorite Archie artist when I was young, eschewed him later on in favor of my older self’s tastes, gravitating as I did to the crispness of Dan DeCarlo, the motion of Harry Lucey, and the sight gags of Samm Schwartz. Goldberg’s forte was action, and he handled the two-part strips in the Archie Comics where Archie furrowed his brow a lot, played detective, and tackled a bad guy. He was the best at it, but I don’t think I can really be questioned for saying that I didn’t really read Archie in the hopes of seeing fights in them.

Which is why it may be odd that my favorite Archie comic ever was drawn by Stan G. Or half-drawn, anyway. The Punisher Meets Archie, published in 1994 and written by Batton Lash, was Marvel’s first intercompany crossover in a very long while, and was, as you may have guessed from the title, an extremely risky venture in a creative sense. There’s no reason it should have worked! The quintessential symbol of any grim and gritty movement meeting the quintessential humor strip character makes it the most disparate pairing possible without going into funny animal territory. But work it did. The Punisher came into Riverdale looking for a criminal named Melvin Jay (this book is full of Easter eggs), who looks like Archie, and hijinks ensue.

One reason it worked was because it didn’t take itself so seriously, as writer Batton Lash carefully plotted out everything so that nothing seemed out of place. Even Punisher throwing a pie at a gunman doesn’t come off as contrived.

But another reason it worked was because of the artists. John Buscema drew the Punisher parts, and (possible controversial opinion ahead) he was a significantly better storyteller in the latter half of his career than in the first, getting a much better grasp of body language and subtle facial expressions without losing the action instead of trying to mold his style into the Jack Kirby mold as he did in the 60s (it doesn’t work; it’s like Tim Duncan deciding he wanted to play like Dennis Rodman). Stan Goldberg drew the Archie parts, and this is where Goldberg is crucial — his style was always the most “Marvel” of the Archie guys, and because of that, he was able to bridge the Archie house style with Buscema’s style (which has a strong case for being the Marvel house style). Goldberg drew a lot of Archie action strips, so he was the only choice, really, to make this work.I really can’t imagine anyone else from the Archie bullpen being able to make these panels work.

Here’s how good the combination of Buscema and Goldberg was: I have no idea who drew Mel Jay. If I had to guess, I’d say they took turns, based on the situation. If I had to pick just one, I’d say Buscema, but it’s a close call.

I wish Marvel and Archie would get together and reprint this comic, in a nice oversized edition just like IDW’s been doing with the Archie artist spotlights. Stan Goldberg’s only got one “Best of” volume right now (Schwartz and Lucey each have two, while DeCarlo deservedly has four), and Stan deserves some more lasting exposure in the book market. What’s more, since The Punisher Meets Archie has been out of print for 20 years, a lot of people haven’t been exposed to it, and that’s a shame.

It’s a little heady to me that this comic, out 20 years ago, may be my second-favorite intercompany of all time (this is the first), and it’s even weirder to me that the artists have passed on. I never really appreciated either of them enough when they were active, but we fortunately live in a golden age of comics and reprints, where I can seek out their work pretty easily.

Hopefully one day we’ll get a deluxe reprint of it, to be put on a bookshelf so we can easily pull it out for the entertainment value of America’s Teen Supreme contrasting with the Quintessential Grim and Gritty Vigilante. And besides, they still owe us a sequel.