1963 (comics)

1963 is an American six-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore in 1993, with art by his frequent collaborators Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch. Dave Gibbons, Don Simpson, and Jim Valentino also contributed art. Image Comics published the series.

The six issues are an homage to the Silver Age of American comics (in particular, the early Marvel Comics), and feature spoof text pieces and advertisements.

Ashcans for the characters were created in 1992 before the series was announced in spring 1993, and marked Alan Moore's return to superhero comics after announcing his retirement from the genre in 1989, with 1963 as a banner title for six one-shots – Mystery Incorporated, The Fury, Tales of the Uncanny, Tales from Beyond, Horus – Lord of Light and The Tomorrow Syndicate, to be followed by an 80-page 1963 Annual drawn by Jim Lee. His initial intention was to create old-fashioned Silver Age-style heroes to contrast with the grimmer characters that made up Image Comics' output at that point, with a direct crossover in the concluding annual. His train of thought was that in a Silver Age morality, the likes of Spawn and Shadowhawk would have been considered villains for their violent methods, but also felt it would show evolving gender roles in the medium. While Moore had long fallen out with both Marvel and their rival DC, he remained fond of their Silver Age output. The series was assigned to Jim Valentino's Shadowline imprint.

Moore worked with several artists he had previously collaborated with on the series – notably having worked alongside Bissette, Veitch and Totleben on his acclaimed Saga of the Swamp Thing run. All involved worked for low page rates, hoping to profit from long-term royalties for the creator-owned work. In addition to the comic stories being pastiches of the Silver Age material of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the issues featured additional pages parodying the material found in Marvel comics of the period. Each creator was given bombastic, alliterative nicknames – 'Affable' Al, 'Sturdy' Steve, 'Roarin' Rick and 'Jaunty John' – while the "Sixty-Three Sweatshop" column mirrored the style and content of Lee's "Bullpen Bulletins"/"Stan's Soapbox" columns, with the letters pages also containing fake missives in the style of those from the period, complete with replies from 'Al'. Also included were mock contemporary advertisements, satirising many of the services displayed in comics of the time such as Charles Atlas' fitness programmes. The parody was not entirely affectionate; 'Affable' Al was implied to be an amoral self-promoter and credit-hog, referencing Lee and Marvel's legal disputes with Kirby and Steve Ditko while vociferously defending his work for hire policy. Al also advertised his book How I Created Everything All By Myself and Why I Am Great – a reference to Lee's own Origins of Marvel Comics, which has been criticised for overplaying the writer's part in the fertile Marvel Silver Age at the expense of his collaborators. The series even went as far as to use newsprint stock to replicate the feel of 1960s comics, rather than the high-quality gloss stock used by other Image titles, while the creators also gave in-character interviews to Tom Fields for an issue of British magazine Comic Talk.

The six one-shots appeared as scheduled and sold well; the first issue was Diamond Comic Distributors' 15th best-selling title of June 1993, with the second 29th the following month, the third 68th in June, the fourth 71st in July, the fifth 85th in August and the sixth 87th for September. Bissette recollected the issues sold between 300,000 and 500,000 copies each, earning Bissette and the other contributors a significant amount of money.

However, the annual – slated to feature the 1963 characters crossing over with the Image Universe characters WildC.A.T.s, Spawn, Shadowhawk, Youngblood, Savage Dragon and Supreme – failed to appear. Moore was halfway through writing it when Jim Lee announced he was taking a year-long sabbatical from drawing comics to focus on his growing business role within Image. Letterer Don Simpson would later accuse Lee of never planning to work on the annual as part of a plan to sabotage the series. Bissette would later state he felt Valentino had brought Alan Moore to Image in the hope that 1963 would function as a gateway for the acclaimed writer working on other Shadowline characters, something which saw the series' creative team caught in a political crossfire as the relationship between the founding Image partners began to fray. Moore himself was rapidly tapped to work on other Image titles including Spawn, Violator and WildC.A.T.s.

The Tomorrow Syndicate are among the characters to be featured outside of the original limited series in Big Bang Comics #35 (January 2001), while the Fury appeared in Shadowhawk #14 (October 1994) and Noble Causes: Family Secrets #3 (December 2002).

Fellow Image Rob Liefeld was planned to work on the annual, but left the company in acrimonious circumstances in 1996 to found Awesome Comics – meaning none of his characters could be used for 1963; Shaft of Youngblood had featured in the cliffhanger ending to No. 6. Further problems came when Moore fell out with Bissette in 1996 after the writer took offence at comments Bissette had made in an interview in The Comics Journal #185 (cover dated March 1996). In a 2010 interview with Comic Book Resources, Bissette claimed to still be unaware at what exactly had caused the rift, having only found out Moore had taken umbrage through mutual acquaintance Neil Gaiman; an attempt to find out from Moore himself via phone was met with the curt reply "Right, Steve? I'll keep this short. Don't call me, don't write me, as far as I'm concerned, it's over, mate." – at which point Moore hung up.