Ostrander scores with Suicide
Our old pal John Ostrander, along with our old pals Luke McDonnell and Karl Kesel, are getting DC’s phonebook treatment as Showcase Presents The Suicide Squad is about to pop up on their schedule – just in time for John’s brand-new Suicide Squad mini-series.
If this event looks to you like a ComicMix staff meeting, you wouldn’t be far off the mark. Suicide Squad was written by our columnist/contributor Mr. Ostrander and it was edited by our columnist/contributor Mr. Greenberger. And the series was a spin-off from the classic Legends mini-series edited by columnist/EIC Mr. Yours Truly.
Pretty cool, John. It’s rather rare for DC to run material from the past 20 years in their Showcase Presents series!
The helfy tome will be out the first week in November.
Artwork copyright DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Artwork by Howard Chaykin. John Ostrander did not contribute to this item, and no animals were harmed in its production, although one committed– aw, you guessed.
Not the most descriptive headline, but I suppose if we'd put "Ostrander commits Suicide" people might take it the wrong way.
I think my ex-husband got our Suicide Squad issues in the divorce, so this collection is much needed in our household!
You lost comics in a divorce? Geez…
Kudos to Johnny O!What the heck ever happened to Luke, btw…?
Luke's been laboring away at Craig Yoe's studio these many years, possibly involved in doing their Big Boy Comics based on the hamburgers of the same name.
I see. God's work…
Excellent news! Even though I have almost the entire run in floppies, I'll be getting this anyway; only the 3rd Showcase to have any appeal for me, along with House of Mystery and Batman.
Absolutely great news! I can't wait to add a copy to my bookshelf!Question for Mr. Ostrander, which is none of anybody's business so I understand if you don't/can't answer. But part of the conventional wisdom among fandom holds that part of the reason DC Showcases were unlikely to publish much material after the mid 70s had to do with the need to renegotiate royalty payments for material of that more recent vintage. Did you have to accept some different sort of payment structure from DC to make this Showcase possible?In any case, between this and the Captain Carrot Showcase they've announced, DC's reawakened a lot of hope among 80s comics fans!
I think that stuff is covered by DC's work contracts. At least it was when I was working there, and I signed enough of 'em to remember. They pay reprint fees; an amount agreed to in the initial paperwork. I hadn't heard anything that would mitigate those agreements.
At the "Countdown & Byeond" that DC held in Charlotte this weekend when DiDio said "Suicide Squad by John Ostrander" it was the biggest ovation given during the panel
Well, that must have been when he mentioned the art team as well, since my husband is inking the book. :)
Excellent. And the War that Time Forgot too. Unfortunately, I just ordered (and have been reading) a bunch of this series, having only picked up a few issues at the time (the JLI crossovers). Will get this to see the issues I haven't found. Any idea how many this first volume covers?