Bye bye Brandon and Awesome, Hello Marat and Avatar

Brandon Peterson came up at Marvel on the X-titles in the early '90s. He drew parts of X-Cutioner's Song among other issues. He would go on to work at Top Cow on Codename: Strykeforce there before taking a stab at writing and drawing his own series: Arcanum.

The series didn't last long and he was called about working with Moore on Glory. He drew the one cover for #0 (Awesome) and the eight-page story for that issue.

He also contributed these sketches for that issue:

  

  

  

  

  

When Awesome collapsed in 1998, Peterson left. Moore contacted him to see if he wanted to draw Promethea, but Peterson said no. He went back to Marvel and has been working steadily ever since.

Liefeld still intended to publish more Glory. This ad appeared in the pages of Supreme: The Return #6 in June of 2000:

 

There was even going to be an Alex Ross painted cover (though this is a weird sketch for it - you can't even see her face!):

 

By 2001, Avatar had licensed the Glory series along with four Alan Moore scripts for it. Avatar released this press release about the series:

Avatar Press has announced that it will publish Alan Moore’s Glory, a four issue mini-series completely written by legendary comic creator Alan Moore. The full color series features art by Marat Mychaels (Demonslayer) and covers by Joseph Michael Linsner, David Finch, Brandon Peterson, and others. The eagerly anticipated saga is scheduled to begin in November, 2001.

“As a fan of Alan Moore’s work since the days of Miracleman, Watchmen, and Swamp Thing, I am extremely proud that Avatar is a part of this project,” says Avatar Press editor in chief William Christensen. “Moore is one of the most highly regarded writers in the history of the medium, and his stellar work on Glory will add yet another highlight to his amazing body of work.”

“And the rest of the team is equal to the task of realizing Moore’s vision,” Christensen continues. “Image star Marat Mychaels is doing the work of his career, the detail he is putting into the pages is simply amazing. Rob Liefeld also deserves major praise on a couple of fronts here. First, for providing a foundation for this work with an inspired character — Glory is one of my favorite Liefeld creations, in fact. And secondly, for his vision in bringing this outstanding Alan Moore saga together.”

“It will be nice to see this material finally coming out,” adds series writer Alan Moore, who will also be contributing editorial guidance to the series as the work progresses. “When I told Moore we would spare no effort in making the finished work live up to his excellent script, he graciously offered his feedback and comments as the saga develops,” notes Christensen. “I’m delighted to have the insight of one of the masters of the medium as we continue to work on the series.”

Moore commented on his involvement and it didn't sound like he planned to do much:

"There's no chance for me to be an [editor] of the mini-series, because I've got far too much work going on with other stuff. Still, I agreed that if Avatar sent me some of the completed pages, I could have a look. I'll cast an eye over the series and tell them if there are any pages missing, but I don't know if that really counts as editorial input."

In December 2001, Avatar republished the Gate of Tears #0 story in their own version of a #0, this time adding the illustrated history of Glory I showed in my Glory before Moore post. This being Avatar, they overloaded it with variant covers with "sexy" images of Glory:

 

  

  

  

  

The miniseries was to be mainly penciled by Marat Mychaels (with backup stories by other artists). Mychaels was born in Kiev, Russia, but grew up in Los Angeles, where he got his interest in comics working as a store clerk at a comic book store. 

He began working as an artist when he became the assistant of Rob Liefeld. Mychaels worked for him at Extreme/Image for years, working on Brigade and other forgettable, but well-selling, series. Somehow he's managed to work for a long time, even though he's not what anyone would describe as great.

Still, even mediocre art on an Alan Moore book is still an Alan Moore book. We'll dig into that next week.