This announcement is somewhat confusing, but so is the entire legacy of Miracleman, one of the most interesting heroes that Marvel has ever published. First off, the run with The Original Writer (Alan Moore) has come to an end with issue #16 that Marvel started printing after they acquired the rights to the character again. Instead of just continuing the book, the publisher has decided to renumber the title starting with Neil Gaiman’s first issue #17 and changing it to Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham #1.
However, the news does not stop yet, at C2E2’s Marvel Next Big Thing panel, the run with Gaiman (drawn by Fables artist Mark Buckingham) was announced to debut September 2015. The original comic ended before the run came to an end with Miracleman #24. There were originally only seven issues of the tale, but Marvel is now attempting to publish the rest of the saga written by Gaiman.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether there are any issues done, or whether Gaiman and Buckingham could perhaps start creating material with the character? Marvel already scraped Grant Morrison material from the vault with All-New Miracleman #1. Who’s to say they can’t publish more? Thanks to CBR for originally reporting on the news — and thanks to Miracleman for being one of the most interesting and convoluted characters in comics both in front of and behind-the-scenes of comics history.
For an incredible history lesson on the birth and death of Miracleman, take a look at our own Poison Chalice pieces.
I thought it’s long been clear that Gaiman and Buckingham both want to work on finishing their Miracleman/Marvelman story. Now that Buckingham is free and clear of his Fables commitments, he should be free to finish his story. Now, with the continued delays on Sandman, it’s a fair question as to what the schedule will be for Marvelman if Neil needs to finish his work. But I think all the legal issues are well clear. at least for Neil and Mark.
After Eclipse went out of business it was discovered that there was another completed (written, penciled and inked) issue of Miracleman which was never published and which has been part of the bait to get Miracleman back into print. At the very least, that will see print at last.
If Gaiman’s work on this is as rapid as his Sandman has been, I will be dead long before Issue 2, so what the hell do I care?
“If Gaiman’s work on this is as rapid as his Sandman has been, I will be dead long before Issue 2, so what the hell do I care?”
That’s the problem with hiring celebrities who have no financial incentive to write comics. They’re doing it as a hobby, so they work at their own pace. And they don’t get fired for missing deadline after deadline. The book just comes out late. (See also: Kevin Smith.)
If I remember correctly, didn’t Neil Gaiman have at least the outline for a few more issues done, which he dug up years ago while going through his basement back in the middle of the McFarland lawsuit?
“That’s the problem with hiring celebrities who have no financial incentive to write comics.”
Even back in the day I remember the original Sandman getting horribly late as it concluded.
Also I would say that Neil Gaiman is more than just a celebrity. His problem is that he has a crazy number of writing projects on the go beyond his comics and from his comments online seems to be missing deadlines on a lot of things.
Also Sandman is likely to sell really well, no matter when it comes out. Eventually it will be collected into a hardcover and trade and sell a huge number of copies no matter how late that is.
IIRC Gaiman was going to do three arcs of MM: Golden Age (which went #17-22), Silver Age (#23+) and then Dark Age. MM #25 was finished (at least up through inking) but never published. There was the three-issue Apocrypha standalone mini that was published by Gaiman & other creators that could be inserted into this run as needed, plus there were some extra MM Apocrypha tales, like the John K Snyder III one, that were started and never completed but could be finished by the original creators.
So there is more MM material in the can right now. Plus Buckingham is more confident & established as a writer at this point in his career than he was almost 30 years ago, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the working relationship slipped to be more 50/50 on writing than originally planned.
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