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1963 #1-6
1963 Complete
All six issues of the Alan Moore silver age-like series 1963.
204 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Alan Moore
1,582 books21.8k followersAlan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 12, 2021
This is probably a 3.5 because it is interesting but not the most engaging. The format of several one shots connecting together in different ways reminded me a lot of Grant Morrison's Multiversity as well as in that it gives a different look at these very familiar characters.
I think echoing the Marvel comics of the 60s is very successful but it is extremely cynical about that era. Alan Moore makes these fun wacky super heroes and then immediately fills them with aggressive patriotism and cold war/anti-communist propaganda. While this did feel cynical I think it's Moore's attempt at being brutally honest about what comics represented back then.
I did enjoy how dense it was and that even the ad pages were reminiscent from a past era of comics, even giving a parody of Stan's Soapbox each issue title "Al's Amphitheater" ending with phrases like "say no more" and "excalibur!" This again gets a very on the nose critique with phony appreciation and respect for its readers and also saying that the more issues they buy the faster they'll end bigotry. It's not subtle at all but I don't think its supposed to be.
I honestly didn't expect it to be like this but I still enjoyed it and the art was spectacular.
I wish it got a proper trade collection, let alone an actual finished conclusion.
Oh well, maybe in 2023...
I think echoing the Marvel comics of the 60s is very successful but it is extremely cynical about that era. Alan Moore makes these fun wacky super heroes and then immediately fills them with aggressive patriotism and cold war/anti-communist propaganda. While this did feel cynical I think it's Moore's attempt at being brutally honest about what comics represented back then.
I did enjoy how dense it was and that even the ad pages were reminiscent from a past era of comics, even giving a parody of Stan's Soapbox each issue title "Al's Amphitheater" ending with phrases like "say no more" and "excalibur!" This again gets a very on the nose critique with phony appreciation and respect for its readers and also saying that the more issues they buy the faster they'll end bigotry. It's not subtle at all but I don't think its supposed to be.
I honestly didn't expect it to be like this but I still enjoyed it and the art was spectacular.
I wish it got a proper trade collection, let alone an actual finished conclusion.
Oh well, maybe in 2023...
November 9, 2019
This one deserves a review because Alan Moore, but also because it is very much not what people expect of Alan Moore which is Watchmen, but it is no different from anything Alan Moore is. People complain it’s not deep or groundbreaking or special but it’s nothing more than Alan living up to the name of the comic 1963, setting in that year, hearkening back to that era when heroes were bright and colorful and told you everything they were doing as they did it. Colors galore when good guys were good and bad guys were communists. It is perfect in that he writes it as a comic that came out in 1963. As such, it very much accomplished its job, while putting Moore spice atop the heap. It does nice to add some marvel analogues to the Image universe but it loses a star because it ends on a cliffhanger which never came into existence. Which wasn’t Moore’s fault, as there was a lot of Image infighting at the time. But more importantly, it gave us a lens into what would become America’s Best Comics (ABC). It’s a nice little jaunt into nostalgia. And I recommend it, but I will say, his other Image work on Supreme is a far better trip down that lane, but 1963 damn sure has its charms. We simply cannot get enough of a Fantastic Four/Doom Patrol analogue. I particularly enjoyed the spider-man analogue Fury and Thor analogue Horus. And in fact would read ongoing Horus and Fury comics if they existed and were written in this style. Though, minus the female as the “spunky sidekick who knows nothing and gets in the way but looks cute doing it” his use of this a nice spotlight to say and look how ridiculous that was, let’s not do that anymore. See also: Novel “Refrigerator Monologues” on this subject. Make mine Image.
September 21, 2022
Supuesta recopilación digital con:
Libro Uno: Mystery Incorporated
Libro Dos: The Fury
Libro Tres: Tales of The Uncanny
Libro Cuatro: Tales from Beyond
Libro Cinco: Horus, Lord of Light
Libro Seis: The Tomorrow Syndicate.
Libro Uno: Mystery Incorporated
Libro Dos: The Fury
Libro Tres: Tales of The Uncanny
Libro Cuatro: Tales from Beyond
Libro Cinco: Horus, Lord of Light
Libro Seis: The Tomorrow Syndicate.
July 23, 2019
A fun homage to silver age marvel comics and yet another attempt by Moore to add some fun/depth/history to the Image universe that they again failed to do much of anything with.
Fun, and incredibly light on the cynicism and irony usually associated with these kind of projects.
Moore must have been just in the mood to have fun.
Shame they never managed to finish the story.
Fun, and incredibly light on the cynicism and irony usually associated with these kind of projects.
Moore must have been just in the mood to have fun.
Shame they never managed to finish the story.
December 6, 2023
Rejunte digital de la reelaboración filonoventosa en clave homenaje afectuoso de la Marvel sesentosa, creando retroactivamente una "silver eage" para la entonces aún incipiente y relativamente cohesiva Image Comics.
March 20, 2021
Alan Moore's unfinished symphony...
1963 is a gloriously accurate send-up of 60's and 70's Marvel comics. It features 6 newsprint issues, each complete with period 'ads,' and elaborate parodies of other Marvel staples of the era, such as Bullpen Bulletins, Stan's Soapbox, and letter pages.
It's also one of the more mediocre Moore comics I've read. The thing is, I think he accomplished what he set out to do. The problem is, when one is parodying something flawed, those flaws can translate. Like a comic doing an impression of someone irritating, like Sally Field, is still irritating. And at least that bit will end in a minute.
By and large, with a few notable exceptions, the storytelling is every bit as flat and stilted as old Marvels. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE old Marvels, kinda the way you love your first crappy car or guitar. But you don't read Alan Moore for silly Stan Lee storylines. My issue is how frequently he failed to transcend what he was parodying. It may have been by design, but it wasn't all that fun to read.
Mystery, Inc. was every inch as goofy as an old Fantastic Four story. Horus, Lord of Light, was as choked with odd out-of-place mysticism as a Thor comic from 1970. U.S.A. was as dull as Captain America from back then, and the Fury was as annoyingly angsty as late-sixties Peter Parker.
They had their moments. Hypernaut, who is kind of Iron Man meets Arnim Zola, with a side order of Silver Surfer, was fantastic. He really benefitted from being an original character, rather than a cheap, even mean-spirited knock-off of a Marvel classic. His enemy, the 4-D Man, was one of the best things I've seen in comics. In that issue, he really managed to take advantage of the free-wheeling, reality-what's-that storytelling style of 60's super comics. Anyone who's read Flatland will enjoy it especially. Also, no one that hasn't read Flatland (or taken a degree in math or physics) is going to get it, I think.
Johnny Beyond was the other successful character. A sort of beatnik Doctor Strange, he existed as a chance for Moore to write fun beatnik dialogue, and he really rose to the occasion. He's at his comedic best when he gets to do stuff like this. The story was pretty silly, but also fun, in the best 60's Marvel tradition.
The parodic elements were hit and miss. It was at it's best when it was parodying the conventions of the comics themselves. For instance, I loved the Voidoid, a character that was just an outline, surrounding a white field. A terrific commentary on the laziness of some pencillers. Also great was that in their Avengers spoof, The Tomorrow Syndicate, two characters (Infra-Man and Infra-Girl, essentially Ant Man and the Wasp) were members, but didn't have stand-alone stories, paralleling how a lot of early ensemble characters were admittedly not ready for prime time. And the last few pages of the last act are such a great commentary on the shifting era's of comics are worth the price of admission, almost. More on that later.
Far less effective were the parodies of the print features. The running gag on Stan's penchant for alliteration was funny at first, and occasionally virtuosic, but rarely all that fun to read. Also, the parodies of Bullpen Bulletins, Stan's Soapbox, and the letter page, were all absolutely pitch-perfect, but not particularly rewarding. To write a spoof Bullpen Bulletin, and then to have it be every bit as boring as a real one, is kind of a let down. I feel like Affable Al had more fun writing these than I did reading it.
Rick Veitch's art was a standout. Especially exciting was his ability to channel Jack Kirby when drawing the Fantastic Four-type characters, and then pivot to a pretty solid Neal Adams impression when drawing the Thor-type. The guy is versatile, I'll give him that. Although I'm also pretty sure he's nuts, but that's neither here nor there.
The worst part about the series is it has no ending. There was an 80-page annual planned (and extensively hyped), that would have had the '63 characters battling modern day Image heroes (not my faves, BTW), but office politics, bad luck, and character-rights issues came into play, and it never happened. It's a shame, but those Image characters sucked so hard, I wonder if Moore could have saved them. My least favorite work of his was his run on WildC.A.T.S., and I wonder if this would have fared better.
Is it worth a read? Maybe. I doubt anyone who wasn't a massive Moore fan AND a massive fan of old Marvels will find much to love, here. I happen to be both, and I thought it was fun, but flawed. At any rate, it's awfully hard to find. I had to pay fifty bucks for it, which is nuts. Fifty bucks, for a a run of comics half the length of Watchmen, with no ending, that wasn't even that good? Nah.
This is for Alan Moore completists, only.
1963 is a gloriously accurate send-up of 60's and 70's Marvel comics. It features 6 newsprint issues, each complete with period 'ads,' and elaborate parodies of other Marvel staples of the era, such as Bullpen Bulletins, Stan's Soapbox, and letter pages.
It's also one of the more mediocre Moore comics I've read. The thing is, I think he accomplished what he set out to do. The problem is, when one is parodying something flawed, those flaws can translate. Like a comic doing an impression of someone irritating, like Sally Field, is still irritating. And at least that bit will end in a minute.
By and large, with a few notable exceptions, the storytelling is every bit as flat and stilted as old Marvels. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE old Marvels, kinda the way you love your first crappy car or guitar. But you don't read Alan Moore for silly Stan Lee storylines. My issue is how frequently he failed to transcend what he was parodying. It may have been by design, but it wasn't all that fun to read.
Mystery, Inc. was every inch as goofy as an old Fantastic Four story. Horus, Lord of Light, was as choked with odd out-of-place mysticism as a Thor comic from 1970. U.S.A. was as dull as Captain America from back then, and the Fury was as annoyingly angsty as late-sixties Peter Parker.
They had their moments. Hypernaut, who is kind of Iron Man meets Arnim Zola, with a side order of Silver Surfer, was fantastic. He really benefitted from being an original character, rather than a cheap, even mean-spirited knock-off of a Marvel classic. His enemy, the 4-D Man, was one of the best things I've seen in comics. In that issue, he really managed to take advantage of the free-wheeling, reality-what's-that storytelling style of 60's super comics. Anyone who's read Flatland will enjoy it especially. Also, no one that hasn't read Flatland (or taken a degree in math or physics) is going to get it, I think.
Johnny Beyond was the other successful character. A sort of beatnik Doctor Strange, he existed as a chance for Moore to write fun beatnik dialogue, and he really rose to the occasion. He's at his comedic best when he gets to do stuff like this. The story was pretty silly, but also fun, in the best 60's Marvel tradition.
The parodic elements were hit and miss. It was at it's best when it was parodying the conventions of the comics themselves. For instance, I loved the Voidoid, a character that was just an outline, surrounding a white field. A terrific commentary on the laziness of some pencillers. Also great was that in their Avengers spoof, The Tomorrow Syndicate, two characters (Infra-Man and Infra-Girl, essentially Ant Man and the Wasp) were members, but didn't have stand-alone stories, paralleling how a lot of early ensemble characters were admittedly not ready for prime time. And the last few pages of the last act are such a great commentary on the shifting era's of comics are worth the price of admission, almost. More on that later.
Far less effective were the parodies of the print features. The running gag on Stan's penchant for alliteration was funny at first, and occasionally virtuosic, but rarely all that fun to read. Also, the parodies of Bullpen Bulletins, Stan's Soapbox, and the letter page, were all absolutely pitch-perfect, but not particularly rewarding. To write a spoof Bullpen Bulletin, and then to have it be every bit as boring as a real one, is kind of a let down. I feel like Affable Al had more fun writing these than I did reading it.
Rick Veitch's art was a standout. Especially exciting was his ability to channel Jack Kirby when drawing the Fantastic Four-type characters, and then pivot to a pretty solid Neal Adams impression when drawing the Thor-type. The guy is versatile, I'll give him that. Although I'm also pretty sure he's nuts, but that's neither here nor there.
The worst part about the series is it has no ending. There was an 80-page annual planned (and extensively hyped), that would have had the '63 characters battling modern day Image heroes (not my faves, BTW), but office politics, bad luck, and character-rights issues came into play, and it never happened. It's a shame, but those Image characters sucked so hard, I wonder if Moore could have saved them. My least favorite work of his was his run on WildC.A.T.S., and I wonder if this would have fared better.
Is it worth a read? Maybe. I doubt anyone who wasn't a massive Moore fan AND a massive fan of old Marvels will find much to love, here. I happen to be both, and I thought it was fun, but flawed. At any rate, it's awfully hard to find. I had to pay fifty bucks for it, which is nuts. Fifty bucks, for a a run of comics half the length of Watchmen, with no ending, that wasn't even that good? Nah.
This is for Alan Moore completists, only.
Want to read
August 11, 2025Leído de la edición "Omnibus" apócrifa.
September 3, 2022
Moore proves he can write a parody of silver age Marvel comics. Unlike his other brilliant work based on existing characters (Swamp Thing, Miracleman, Watchmen...), this ends up being just a convincing facsimile of the original, and nothing beyond that. Sure, there is some tongue-in-cheek stuff in the letter sections about the industry malpractices of the time, but the comics themselves are a slog to read. A fascinatingly pitch-perfect slog perhaps, but a slog nonetheless. And even if it's a bit unfair to judge an unfinished series, I honestly don't see how another issue could drastically improve it.
September 8, 2024
Moore goes from antagonist of comic books in the 80s to loving pastiche of the silver age in the 90s...like, sure there's deconstruction in the form of tongue-in-cheek commentary but it's playful and most importantly secondary to the imagination, the adventure, the joyful fun on display! captures the energy of silver age stories wonderfully and the meta stuff is fun and i really fucking wish this had been finished because it reads extremely ahead of its time in where it was going...oh well!
September 23, 2022
Aunque es un tanto simpático lo cierto es que resulta super tedioso y aburrido. Me tuve que esforzar muchísimo para terminar las lecturas e incluso me quedaron 2 números sin leer. Quizás en su momento fue interesante, hoy estas historias "retro" de personajes que no conozco y no me interesa conocer ciertamente no suman demasiado.
October 13, 2023
Otra obra magna inconclusa para la biblioteca Lucien, aparentemente a perpetuidad.
Read
January 3, 2024Pack inconseguible con los seis números publicados.
February 9, 2024
Vino recomendadísimo y no falló. La edad de plata que nadie pidió pero todos deberían leer. Lástima que el team-up final quedó en el limbo aparentemente para siempre.
April 28, 2024
Tomo/Pack de historietas con la totalidad de la miniserie jamás recopilada de 1963.
June 24, 2024
Desvergonzado six-pack con la miniserie completa.
August 3, 2025
hace rato no me reía tanto con un cómic. excélsior!
November 24, 2025
The silver age parody/homage stuff can be a bit overdone but this is a really fun version of it that gets the tone pretty well.
December 8, 2023
El pack más caradura y divertido de este increíble proyecto fallido.
December 6, 2023
Potencial recopilación con los seis números de 1963.
August 8, 2024
La Silver Age que jamás existió pero pudo haber existido.
Read
July 12, 2018Colección completa de 1963, nunca recopilada en libro (y muy probablemente jamás suceda) pero reunida en ebook como unidad.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews