Steve Skroce, eh?

I had never heard of Steve Skroce before Youngblood, so I guess it's a good idea to talk a little bit about him. He's a Canadian, so he must be nice. (That's a thing, right?)

He broke into comics in 1993 on the Clive Barker series Ectokid for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint, where he worked with one of the Wachowski Brothers (now sisters). He went to work on the Marvel series Cable and X-Man before moving onto The Amazing Spider-Man in 1996.

After that, Awesome came calling for Youngblood. He'd do two+ issues before Awesome went belly up. Moore approached him about doing Top Ten for his ABC line, but Skroce didn't want to do a monthly comic at the time.

Having worked on Ectokid, Skroce was contacted to create storyboards for The Matrix, which were used by the writing-producing-directing Wachowskis team to help pitch their movie to Warner Bros.

Here's some of his storyboards:

Skroce briefly returned to Marvel in 2000 to write and pencil four issues of Wolverine before drawing storyboards for the rest of the Matrix Trilogy. Here's an interesting interview about his storyboarding work.

Skroce often works on movies with the Wachowskis, and has done storyboards for I, Robot (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), Speed Racer (2008), Ninja Assassin (2009), Cloud Atlas (2012), and Jupiter Ascending (2015).

In 2004, he co-created (along with comicbook artist Geof Darrow) and drew Doc Frankenstein for Burlyman Entertainment, which is written by the Wachowskis.

With Brian K. Vaughan in 2015, Skroce was the co-creator and artist of the Image Comics science fiction series We Stand On Guard.

More recently, it was announced that he's doing an Image comic called Maestros.

Weekly Reading: Youngblood #1

Published by Awesome Entertainment in February 1998

The covers:

Title: Occupations

(Youngblood is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

My goodness, that's a lot of variant covers. When you add in the ones with a metallic ink logo, you have 13 different variants! And that's not even counting the weird +1 issue!

So here we are with issue 1. Of course, unless a reader had known to grab the Awesome Holiday Special, they'd have no introduction to Doc Rocket, Big Brother or Johnny Panic, or how Suprema and Twilight joined up. And unless they had a time machine to go forward a month to March, they couldn't get the Judgment Day: Aftermath issue, which would show the team in their first mission and which gets referenced in this issue.

So really, anyone who might have picked up this issue would have no clue who half these characters are or how this all came about. Is it really surprising that most Moore fans have never given Youngblood a shot or if so, have started in the wrong place? Sigh. Well, at least we can try to rectify that.

Moving on, the issue begins with The Veil, the top secret government occult group led by Blake Baron, experimenting on travel to another dimension called the Azure. It's a weird, blue floating place. There's a naked guy with some sort of gray scales being brought back to our dimension by robotic arms.

Bishop, someone who works for Baron, tells us that the transfer is going successfully, bringing something alive back through. The "volunteer" soon wakes up and steals Knight's gun and shoots him. He then touches Bishop before collapsing. Bishop, disobeying Baron's orders, shoots the volunteer before blowing up the connection to Baron.

I like this prologue a lot, setting up The Veil and Baron as government spooks we're not supposed to sympathize with, though I can imagine a lot of Moore fans trying this issue and having no idea what's going on. Bishop heads toward some government flying ship and touches the guard before slumping over himself. The guard blasts Bishop, gets in the ship and flies off. I love the view from the hangar, showing us that The Veil's base, called Threshold, is way up high.

We're now on the ground in Star City with Twilight, reporting back to Shaft, that she's going to check out the crash of some experimental vehicle. Shaft's busy training with a giant wooden robot sparring partner named Custer, but asks Twilight to keep the camera on her motorcycle turned on while she checks out the crash. Steve Skroce, unlike most other artists, seems to love drawing lots of characters, like the panel showing Shaft flipping through the air. He's great at it, too!

Then Waxey shows up and Shaft wonders where Leonard is. Waxey expositions that his foster son (he said he was adopted in the Holiday Special - but maybe Shaft misunderstood the situation) is working on his Big Brother robots. Waxey mentions that "Suprema's off dusting the Sahara." It'll become a running gag to have a character flippantly explaining where Suprema is off to.

Then another Shaft shows up, but it's just Johnny in disguise. Shaft brushes him off as Waxey tries to talk Jeff into using trick arrows like old superheroes. This dialog is hilarious:

"The Black Bow, from the Five Footsoldiers of Freedom, he used boomerang arrows... uh, well, actually, thinking about the way Black Bow met his tragic and ironic end, that's probably not such a good choice. Now, the American Archer, back in the 'fifties, he used nuclear arrows... although again, bad example."

If there was any question I was going to enjoy Youngblood, Waxey was the answer.

Meanwhile, we can see Twilight approaching the crash on the screen behind them. She approaches a police officer who is shooting the guard. Twilight is shocked, asking him why.

"Cleaning last residence. They wake up with ideas," he says.

Twilight asks him who he thinks he is.

"Occupant."

This is our introduction to the Occupant, a being who can take control of another's body.

We're back at the House of Wax where Johnny's expositioning about his suit's abilities while we see the police officer grab Twilight on the video screen behind him. Uh oh.

Rachel (Doc Rocket) shows up and Shaft asks her if she's seen the paper about Stormhead and Coast City (what will have happened in Judgment Day: Aftermath) when she points out that Twilight has grabbed the officer's gun and is about to shoot the officer. And then we just see her hat like in a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon.

Rachel is running at superspeed while changing into her costume. I love this part so much. Is there any superpower that's more fun and interesting in comics than superspeed? Also, let's take a note to appreciate Steve Skroce - he even drew a burger and fries flying through the air on a small highway panel! If ever there was an artist who would bring out all of the background details Moore would write into his script, it was Skroce!

We then see her on the video screen grabbing the cop and getting him out of the way as Twilight fires the gun at point blank range. Shaft and Johnny play back a squeal of audio recording to listen to what Doc Rocket radioed to them. Shaft gets Johnny and Leonard together and they're going to fly Biggest Brother to Star City, though Leonard complains about having to be the chauffeur.

Doc Rocket confronts Twilight, who says that she is cleaning up her tracks. She tries to attack Doc Rocket, but she's not there. "After images. I mean, come on, Linda, my grandpa used that trick in the 'forties!" Yep, Doc is great.

Twilight/Occupant says that she is "free of the Azure. I am in the consequential world." Twilight throws a blackout bomb, but Doc pushes the smoke back at her. When Twilight threatens to kill more people, a voice from above says that she will not. And then Suprema comes sweeping in.

Just a note, it's kind of weird that she has a new uniform for Youngblood but uses her old one in the pages of Supreme. Oh well.

"Did you think I wouldn't overhear you? I was only on Jupiter, for gosh sakes, not in the next galaxy or something!" I'm so glad Suprema is here.

Suprema flies into the smoke and then her conversation suddenly stops. She emerges with an unconscious Twilight.

We cut to inside Big Brother, where Leonard notes a big flash of heat and light from Star City. Uh oh. Blake Baron then cuts into Big Brother's video screens, telling Youngblood to stay away from the Occupant. Shaft refuses and he and Johnny jump out of Big Brother into the rubble of part of Star City. Doc runs up to them holding Twilight, warning of eye beams. And then Suprema turns her eye beams on them!

Shaft whispers, "Nuclear arrows. Waxey suggested nuclear arrows and I just laughed..." I love the way Moore has the characters comment on the action. It adds a level of humor that makes these stories so much fun.

Then Big Brother comes and stomps on Suprema. The rest of the team back away as Suprema and Big Brother have an awesome air battle. (Just a question - what is going on with Suprema's leg here?)

I love this line: "You know, this is weird. Just the other day I was thinking, 'Gee, I hope Suprema gets taken over by an alien or something. Then I could stamp on her head without feeling bad.'"

The antagonistic relationship between Leonard and Sally will be fun to watch, knowing what Moore has planned for them.

Meanwhile, Twilight is starting to come around while Johnny uses his holograms to go into hiding. And then Big Brother comes crashing down. Suprema comes down to finish them off.

Then Supreme shows up, sounding very strange: "Forsooth! Lo! I was watching from my...uh...from my secret place supreme, and I thought I'd come and teach you a lesson! After all, I'm much more powerful and invulnerable and...uh...supremer than you are!"

Shaft tries to warn Supreme about the Occupant, but Supreme just hands him a gun and tells Shaft to shoot him if he doesn't think Supreme is protected. Shaft realizes it's Johnny's gun as Suprema/Occupant grabs Supreme to take him over.

Supreme calls for Shaft to shoot him and as the Occupant takes over Supreme, we see that Supreme was just Johnny in disguise and the drug makes Johnny/Occupant go unconscious.

"God, that was a smart move," Doc says. "Where does a wise-ass slacker like Johnny get his brains from?" Where indeed!

Blake Baron, calling himself auto mechanic Charlie Officer, shows up and with Rook puts the Occupant in a monkey trapped in a box, and then leaves.

Youngblood brushes themselves off and is indignant about Baron. As Doc says: "What a jerk! he gave us no credit for stopping that rampage! I mean, I know it was our rampage, but that's not the point! He's just jealous because he's old and we're the ones with the youth, vitality and energy!"

Um... okay. And that was Youngblood #1. Lots of action, lot of laughs, lots of fun. Granted, it doesn't have the aim of Supreme: Story of the Year, commenting on comics while recreating them, but Moore had clearly found a way to tell modern comic stories that were fun and had a modern sensibility, without feeling trapped by the Image style.

And just as Moore was getting Awesome on its feet, Awesome lost its investor and it would all fall apart.

Drat.

Fortunately, there's a lot more Youngblood for us to get to. As we'll continue next week.

In case you want to read it, here's what Rob Liefeld had to say in the back of this issue:

 

So that's nice.

As always, please check out the Annotations Page for more details and references and be sure to let me know any that I missed.

Weekly Reading: Youngblood stories (pre issue #1)

Awesome Holiday Special #1A

Published by Awesome Entertainment in December 1997

The covers:

Title: Youngblood Prologue Featuring Shaft

(As always: Youngblood is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

Awesome being Awesome took the most complicated way possible to introduce the new Youngblood. Following the end of Judgment Day: Final Judgment, the government has withdrawn its funding for Youngblood and Shaft was in discussion with Waxey "The Waxman" Doyle about finding a way to continue the team. This was Moore's way of setting aside all that came before and starting afresh.

So two months after the end of Judgment Day, Awesome released two Holiday Specials, numbering them 1A and 1B. They were both flip books with a small Youngblood story combined with a small Fighting American story and a small Kaboom story combined with a small Coven story. Obviously I'm only going to talk about the Youngblood one.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't think it'd be a great idea to put the introduction to one of your premiere series in a comic that most fans don't think of as anything more than glorified backup stories.

Here's the story:
 

Anyway, in the eight-page story, Moore and Steve Skroce tell the story of the founding of the new Youngblood told through the diary of Jeff "Shaft" Terrell. Shaft is mourning the falling apart of Youngblood, with Combat returning to outer space, and "The former Vogue returned to the Soviet Union." (Wait, what? So we're clearly in some alternate universe where the USSR still exists or it's a typo and it should have been Vogue returned to the former Soviet Union.) Badrock went to Hollywood to make a movie about Youngblood, which will become a great running gag throughout the series.

Shaft goes to visit Waxey at the House of Wax mansion, which will become Youngblood's new base. Waxey will become a running gag as well, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the fake superheroes that Moore is creating for Awesome's past. As a condition for funding Youngblood, Waxey's adopted son, Leonard, and his giant robot "Big Brothers" have to join up.

Moore tried to absolve himself of turning the African-American hero Sentinel into a villain by having African-American hero Leonard comment on it. It mostly works because Leonard will become such a well-defined character as the series continues.

So Shaft agrees to Waxey's deal and starts auditions, with the focus being on younger, teenaged heroes. Twilight and Suprema join up. Next we meet John Paneczik, known as Johnny Panic from a Sylvia Plath story, which I'll get into later. Johnny was the result of in vitro fertilization with an unnamed genius father. More on that later, too. Johnny has a holographic suit, allowing him to look like anything and a gun that shoots designer drugs.

Then comes everyone's favorite, the new Doc Rocket, granddaughter of the original Doc Rocket. She's a super speedster, too.

Of course the team has some personality issues with everyone hating Suprema's goody-two-shoes personality and Suprema wanting to replace them with heroes from her era, such as Skipper ad Roman's nephew Lamprey.

Around Christmas, a weather-controlling villain named Stormhead shows up and starts threatening Coast City. But we won't see that action until we get to our next story.

This is a fun, ironic little story, basically recreating a Teen Titans for the Awesome universe. Steve Skroce's art is busy, but a lot of fun, filling all the little details of the page so well. This was a good partnership in the making. Even from this small start, the series already shows great potential.

Judgment Day: Aftermath

Published by Awesome Entertainment in March 1998

The covers:

Title: Trial by Tempest

(Judgment Day is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

So, three months later and a full month after the first issue of the new Youngblood came out, in the pages of another Judgment Day book, we get that fight with Stormhead. So the fight with Stormhead that was supposed to happen before the first issue came out after the first issue. Sigh, of course it did.

This continuation of the Holiday Special story was drawn by Gil Kane in six pages. I love Gil Kane's work with Alan Moore, but after the Holiday Special, the comparison between the two artists is a little jarring, as you can see here:

Anyway, Youngblood is in Coast City. We see Shaft rescue a woman and child while Twilight flies one of Big Brother's drones to hook up with Suprema. Twilight flashes back to show Professor Night encouraging her to audition for Youngblood, which she's now second guessing. Back in the present, Suprema saves her as the drone conks out in the cold snow from Stormhead's mood swings. Apparently the weather changes with his mood, which is a cool concept for a villain.

Suprema complains for a bit about the new Youngblood members "Doesn't-wear-a-brassiere-girl" and "Thinks-it's-clever-to-swear-lad." Ha. She's about to go save some kids in the path of an avalanche when Doc Rocket beats her to it. Doc and Suprema get into it for a bit.

Doc: "You know when you fly? Well, everyone can see up your skirt!"

Suprema: "Oh! Is that so? Well your bosom goes up and down when you run..."

Moore gave himself quite the gift when he introduced Suprema in the pages of Supreme, but she's even more fun here where she can't seem to fit in with this younger generation of heroes. Again, there's so much potential.

Leonard in his Biggest Brother robot pops up to stop the avalanche and soon he's bickering with Suprema, too.

Big Brother: "What is it with you, Gidget? This is because I'm black, right?"

Suprema: "Don't be stupid! It's because you're loud and impolite!"

Suprema and Doc head on toward some monsters up ahead, but it turns out they're just holograms as Johnny's suit went on the fritz while fighting Stormhead. But the weather is changing to sunny and nice and we find out it's because Johnny popped Stormhead full of Prozac.

Um, does anyone else notice that Kane's Stormhead looks nothing like Skroce's.

Let's just assume that Johnny's suit is still acting weird and is masking Stormhead in whatever he's supposed to look like in that second one.

And that was Youngblood's first mission.  According to Moore's proposal (which I'll get into later), Moore intended to have small flashbacks for all the characters, like the one we got for Twilight here, to show how they all came to join Youngblood, but with the weird publishing of this story, I guess he decided to give up that idea.

Youngblood #1+

Published by Awesome Entertainment in February 1998

The covers:

Title: A Brief History of Twilight

(As always: Youngblood is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

In addition to releasing Youngblood #1 in February 1998, Awesome also produced the small +1 issue, too. It was a special exclusive edition. Don't ask me where you could find it, but it's another of those rarities that few people knew about at the time. It didn't include the content from issue #1, instead it featured a small Twilight story and republished the story from the Holiday Special and a lot of stuff encouraging retailers to push the series.

The Twilight story doesn't add much, but it features beautiful Steve Skroce art and for anyone who is unfamiliar with Twilight's backstory, it fills them in.

Here it is, if you've never read it:

We see her as a baby with her parents before they died. (I love the newspaper with Detective Gorilla!) She has the same illness as her uncle, Taylor Kendall, which is similar to Porphyria's Complaint, meaning they can't stand the sun. Her uncle took her in and she soon discovered his secret identity as Professor Night.

At the age of Seven she became Twilight and joined her uncle's work, joining with Supreme to fight Fakeface, the Lounge Lizard  and Jack-A-Dandy. Then she tells about how she got frozen in suspended animation by Hulver Ramik in the '70s (back in the pages of Supreme) and eventually rescued by The Allies in the present.

She joined Youngblood, but is already having doubts about the team. "Personally, I give it six months, but you never know." Sadly, she's not far off.

As I said, it's a fun little thing, but isn't really necessary.

Here's the material for retailers if you want to see it. Of course they were even trying to sell an action figure that doesn't look anything like Shaft's new costume.

 

 

Okay, so next week it's on to issue #1.

As always, please check out the Annotations Page for more details and references and be sure to let me know any that I missed.