Main Menu

Zenith Phase IV

Started by Ancient Otter, 17 July, 2015, 11:08:28 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ancient Otter

Haven't got my copy yet, it's waiting for me at my local book shop so I had a quick flick through.. Wraps up with zzzenith,com and a few colour pin-ups.

Colin YNWA

Mine arrived the other day. Its as handsome as they rest, it also has the Millar text story from the annual at the back. I have to say as well they look very handsome next to each other on my shelf. While the limited edition has certainly done well in the resale market I for one am very glad I waited for these volumes ... though I pine for the Apex edtion.

Hawkmumbler

Still awaiting mine. Pictures or it's a lie!

glassstanley

Is there anything that connects the Millar story to Zenith?

robert_ellis

...a logo when it was printed? It is a tale of alternate worlds - and a good one . But I agree it doesn't join in to the main story at all.

glassstanley

Make a good Meg strip that - an Ordinary man in a world of superheroes...

Now I've got all 4 volumes, I've found one part that was originally printed in colour but is only to be found in b&w in these reprints. Any guesses?

sheridan

Quote from: glassstanley on 20 July, 2015, 09:04:39 PM
Make a good Meg strip that - an Ordinary man in a world of superheroes...

Now I've got all 4 volumes, I've found one part that was originally printed in colour but is only to be found in b&w in these reprints. Any guesses?
The Maximan story from a Winter Special?  Or the Fourth Phase, which was originally printed in colour?

glassstanley

No and no.

It's the last page of the Shadows & Reflections Interlude (the last page of strip in Phase III). The whole page is in b&w, but the original printing in the 1990 annual had the coin ST John gives to the beggar in colour. :)

sheridan

Quote from: glassstanley on 21 July, 2015, 07:05:02 AM
No and no.

It's the last page of the Shadows & Reflections Interlude (the last page of strip in Phase III). The whole page is in b&w, but the original printing in the 1990 annual had the coin ST John gives to the beggar in colour. :)
The Jim McCarthy story?  Gotcha.

The Monarch

Rereading the entire series its amazing (and kinda ironic) how much of this series morrison recycled for multiversity

Art

Weird superhero apocalypses are kind of a running Morrison theme, but a lot of Multiversiry reminded me of Zenith specifically, yes.

My copies of III and IV turned up just after I'd finished Season of the Witch, a nonfiction book on popular music and the cult, which was an interesting spot of synchronicity given how many of the same themes it covered - right down to III name checking Temple ov Psychic Youth.

And IV is basically Morrison's extended riff on the Bowie song "Supergods".

TordelBack

A consistently high quality finale to this gorgeously produced series of hardbacks. Particularly happy to get the (essential) Fab Hits Idol Gossip page, which younger me always thought was the final touch in establishing Zenith as a real world superhero.

Finishing the book this morning, and shelving it climactically with its spinerotic brethren, my immediate thought was: 'I really hope this edition gets Yeowell the wider recognition he deserves'. What an achievement for (mostly) one artist this is!

Sadly a series of bizarre '90s decisions on show here may undermine this hope.  Why in the name of the many-angled ones did Tharg switch this to colour? Gina Hart does a restrained professional job ( unlike some that would grace the GGC in the years that followed), but somehow it just serves to mute and shrink Yeowell's panels. Where in the previous phases negative space and half-seen parts of things encourage the reader to populate the ingeniously designed stage with directed imagination, here, where it's probably most essential, blocks of colour constrain and tie everything down to within the faintly blurred lines. Even faces, one of Yeowell's great strengths, look bland and repetitive under largely flay yellow-tinged magnolia. 

Matters aren't helped any by the hideous typeface used in the chapter headings or the puce oval dropped behind the logo: again, design of the chapter pages were a highlight of previous phases, here they are an intrusive eyesore. The overall impression is of the parent publication slipping into hamfisted 'progress' mode, and abandoning the sense of timeless style and confidence that Phase II-III exude.

All that said, the actual underlying art remains magnificent, the slight story cleverly structured and satisfying, and I found zzzzenith.com a better fit than I had remembered - although I could live without the ambiguously sexual nature of Archie's  assault on Britney, and with the 'singing universes' nonsense being the final line in such a great story. The drooling Tony Blair puppet however has agreed extremely well, and I welcome it.

The single thing that stood out for me on this re-read is the John Smith 'prediction'. Now that IS freaky Morrison weirdness.


TordelBack

Sorry, the Tony Blair bit has 'aged extremely well'. Autocorrect is the REAL chemtrails project.

I, Cosh

Quite surprised to find a copy of this in my local Comix shop today. I'm not sure who's going to buy the lonely copy of Phase 3 sitting on the shelf.

Haven't had a chance to sit down and read it yet but thought you'd all like to share in my good fortune.
We never really die.

Satanist

Well I read all 4 over the last month and then popped them snuggly into their slipcase. Fucking lovely I must say. Going from a few the way it was a few years back when I never thought I would own decent copies of this and MiracleMan I must say that looking at them on the shelf fills me with child like glee.

Anyway back to Zenith, its a bit good innit.

But yeah I wish book 4 was b&w as well.
Hmm, just pretend I wrote something witty eh?