Updated March 24, 1999:

And now, on with our story...

Back in the early summer of 1992, I was approached by Larry Marder on behalf of Image partner Jim Valentino. Larry and Jim wondered if Alan Moore and I wanted to work on an Image superhero title (specifically, Jim's own character Shadowhawk). Of course, it was Alan the Image partners wanted -- I was just the go-between, really. But I passed the message on to Alan, and a three-way conversation already in progress between Alan, Rick Veitch, and I gained new momentum.

As luck would have it, Rick and I had been talking with Alan for six months about the possibility of Alan returning to the superhero genre he and Dave Gibbons had so definitively reinvented with WATCHMAN. Originally, Alan would have none of it, voicing his regrets about the impact WATCHMAN and Frank Miller's DARK KNIGHT had in fact had upon the genre, creating an entire generation of mean-spirited, ultra-violent, nihilistic superhero comics. And yet, as Alan began to outline his desire to reinvent the genre yet again by returning to its roots, we also began to address Alan's frustration with the time it took to painstakingly craft the exhaustively-detailed full scripts for ambitious projects like FROM HELL and LOST GIRLS. Alan was understandably unwilling to contemplate yet another expansive project demanding a similar investment of time.

Rick and I proposed that Alan work for the first time ever with "the Marvel method," wherein he would simply outline a storyline over the phone conversationally, and dialogue the fully-pencilled pages Rick and I would produce from his outlines. That sounded like it might be some fun, and would also provide a means to work on such a series without compromising Alan's already crippling writing schedule.

It was at this precise moment in time that Jim Valentino's query call arrived, catching Alan, Rick, and I at a unique juncture in our ongoing conversation.

After checking with Alan, the message was relayed to Jim:Thank you, but no thank you -- Alan isn't interested in working on Shadowhawk at this time. But would Jim and the Image partners be interested in a NEW superhero project from Alan, Rick, and myself? A new project that would evoke the Silver Age of superheroes with a line of never-before-seen characters and stories, created in the spirit and specifics of that Silver Age?

As luck would further have it, Jim immediately grasped the possibilities inherent in Alan's concept. Jim had, in fact, previously created his own loving ode to the superheroes of the early 1960s with his NORMALMAN series.

Thus was born... 1963!

Alan's concept was simple: let's produce six individual but interrelated comic books as if they had been written, drawn, and published in 1963 (a seminal year for our generation of comic book readers: the flowering of Marvel, the peak of the DC Silver Age of superheros). To that end, we would even match the color comics production and printing methods of that era, using the same flimsy newsprint paper stock used in 1963.

Each title would be self-standing, but appear to be a single issue of six different ongoing series, with letters pages, pin-ups, and cover and panel reproductions referring to previous issues and adventures that never existed. Even the comic book ads of the era would be lovingly recreated and parodied, absolutely true to the era we were evoking.

By doing so, we hoped to put some fun, heart, and soul back into a genre that had (to our eyes) become dour, heartless, and soulless.

Once Image gave the go-ahead during the 1992 San Diego Comics Convention (an insane story in and of itself), Alan, Rick and I plunged headlong into the project.

Jim Valentino was our "godfather," sheparding us through the Image line under his own Shadowline imprint. We lined up a formidable band of cronies to lend a hand, including Dave Gibbons, John Totleben, Don Simpson, Chester Brown, Melinda Gebbie, John Workman, Jim Valentino himself, and others.

Murphy Anderson and Murphy Anderson III were our secret weapon in the production of the series, crafting the final color seperations true to the palette of the early 1960s.

Rick and I edited the series, alternating issues between our own work schedules. It was a production nightmare, but it was a lot of fun, too. And it got me back to the drawing board after a long, long dry spell.

From April to September, each issue came out like clockwork, building to an announced "Giant Annual" wrap-up -- which, alas, fell outside of Shadowline's (and our) control, and ultimately was never completed.

Though I'm still saddened over the fate of the 1963 Annual, the series still stands as a unique, fun-filled run of comics.

In its own odd way, 1963 was a landmark in the 1990s superhero scene and in the history of Image Comics. It reawakened Alan's interest in the superhero genre, and as such is the precursor of and catalyst for his exciting new wave of work, from the sadly truncated SUPREME to LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and the entire Wildstorm/DC line.

It holds a special place in my own heart as my final collaboration with Alan and Rick.

But enough background material...

Welcome to 1963!

For current info and new work, see:

http://www.starwatcher.org/bissette.html

• Interview with Sturdy Steve Bissette
• The Shameless Sixty-Three Shopping List!! (all issues still on sale!)