With the formal announcement by Marvel Comics (at New York Comic Con on October 14, 2013), of the publisher's planned volume reprints of the 24-issues run of Eclipse's Miracleman (hitting LCS racks sometime in January 2014), and the continuation and perhaps the conclusion to Neil Gaiman's saga of the character, I could not help but get nostalgic about the first time Alan Moore's ground-breaking sojourn into superhero deconstruction, appeared in print.

Sometime in 1985, I first read the exploits of Michael Moran in the pages of Eclipse's Miracleman. The artwork and "foreign" feeling to the character really excited me, much like the first time I read Judge Dredd. There was an odd vibe, an air of grey if you will... an almost hallucinatory and bizarre skin to it, common from comics published by the independents, but something that was so very different and lacking from the generic titles which appeared in the pages of Marvel and DC in the early 80's. Yes, I was so very excited, and also somewhat in awe and a bit frightened, much like when I was a child and first beheld a comic book... for I knew I was onto something!

Reading the editorial pages, I discovered Miracleman was really a British import known as Marvelman. Little did I suspect back then, Miracleman was also my very first exposure to who was to become my favorite comic book author: Alan Moore (Just an FYI: I read Miracleman before Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing. Yep, I did things backwards back then... actually still do). Lamentably, due to Eclipse's financial difficulties, which led to long delays on issue releases and much shorter print runs in the low thousands, buying Miracleman became an impossible challenge. As teenage wildlife became the norm for me, I soon gave up on comic books altogether and entered college, missing out on perhaps the best of Moore's and Gaiman's Miracleman saga yet-to-come.

Fast forward to late 2005 or early 2006 (memory is foggy), when I bought my first CGC graded comic book ever: Swamp Thing Volume 1, No. 1 in 9.2. This purchase soon fueled the "CGC bug", and eventually I began to search for more comics I always wanted in encapsulated form. Such purchases were representative of titles and comics that really resonated with me as a young collector. But it wasn't until January 2012, when I bought my very first encapsulated Miracleman: Issue #15: the controversial "Death of Kid Miracleman". It's a glorious 9.8 sold to me by fellow boardie EwanUK. EwanUK used to have the number one ranked CGC graded Miracleman collection in 2006 and 2007.

The current Miracleman number one rank since 2009 is held by mschmidt, called M's Miracleman. Congrats Mr. Schmidt! Beautiful collection! I bow to you!

I was (and still am) very envious of EwanUK's collection, as well as Humbug's (2008's champion), and mschmidt's (who amazingly, has two collections in the two top spots), and wanted to purchase each and every Miracleman issue to compete with theirs, including the fabled Miracleman #1: Blue and Gold Editions, given away at San Diego Comic Con back in 1985. Some of these rare and hard-to-find Miracleman #1's, feature Alan Moore's inscription. Holy Sh*t! But I soon reasoned that there was no point to this pursuit because money's just too damn tight!

But seriously, I thought to myself, "Why would I want to dethrone a fellow collector... a champion... who worked so very hard to put together such a magnificent collection? Why? Is there really a point to it? I said to myself, let the champion enjoy the limelight... let the champion enjoy the fruits of their labor... he deserves it!" Instead, I said to myself, "Why don't you just build your very own collection... a new and original collection... a never before seen collection... from the ground up! And build something related to Miracleman and Alan Moore... something you could be equally proud of and not have to rain on someone else's parade!" Then the inevitable questions came, "But what? What could this new, never before seen collection be?"

Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning, "Where had Eclipse's Miracleman really come from?" Kimota!

Many of you are aware, and many of you are not, but British publisher Quality Communications and Editor Dez Skinn (the UK's answer to Stan Lee), published an anthology magazine in the early 80's called Warrior: The Magazine of Quite Weird Heroes. This adult-oriented, black and white monthly, had a serialized format, with original works contributed by some of the UK's top talent: Steve Moore, John Bolton, Steve Parkhouse, David Lloyd, Brian Bolland, and some newcomers: Gary Leach, Alan Davis, Steve Dillon, Grant Morrison (perhaps you've heard of him?), and including perhaps the greatest living writer of comic books today: Alan Moore. Mr. Moore, if you are somehow reading this, please, take a bow.

Marvelman, Warrior's flagship character, was a gritty take on UK publisher's L. Miller & Son and creator Mick Anglo's Golden Age knock-off of Fawcett's Captain Marvel/Shazam. This serial saw Alan Moore's first foray into the land of Superhero Deconstruction pre-dating DC's Saga of the Swamp Thing and Watchmen. The premise was simple: "What would happen if a middle-aged man would awaken from a "virtual amnesia" only to discover he's the by-product of a government experiment that gave him superpowers from the infusion of alien technology? Only later to discover, the suppression of his memories was a government cover-up?" Holy Sh*t what a premise! I love conspiracy theories, and this one read like an X-files before the Chris Carter show ever saw the light of day!

Also in these very same pages, came the debut of Alan Moore's dystopian masterpiece: V for Vendetta. A seminal and powerful manifesto, Alan Moore, the "Modern-Day Shaman", injected V for Vendetta with a heavy dose of candid realism and magical realism, and spun a beautiful web... hand weaving a complex tapestry which explored such themes as politics, the human condition, domino effect, and synchronicity, rarely seen in comic books before and even today. If you read and re-read V for Vendetta, and pull back and look at all the details as they link and come together, perhaps you'll understand the genius behind the man, who must be channeling the Universe and Womb of Creation for such insights!

Although both serials were critical successes, Warrior struggled with sales and only lasted 26 issues. Its demise was brought about by a confluence of low sales, creator control issues, -script and art delays, and ultimately Marvel Comics trademark suit over the use of the word "Marvel" in "Marvelman". The consequences of Marvel's litigious actions against Quality Communications, also meant that both Marvelman and V for Vendetta never saw their respective sagas completed, until some years later when their ownership rights were sold to Eclipse and DC Comics respectively. Eclipse's Miracleman issues 1 through 6, as well as DC's V for Vendetta's issues 1 through 6, are color reprints from the black and white serials which first appeared in Warrior.

In the summer of 2012, leading up last year's NY Comic Con, where I would submit my first comics to the CGC, I decided I was going to make an ambitious and mad-dash effort into putting together a collection. Imagine a collection that featured both Alan Moore's Marvelman and V for Vendetta in the very same pages? Not to mention some other oddball characters the likes of Axel Pressbutton the Psychotic Cyborg (co-created by Steve Moore and Alan Moore; BTW: these two have no relations), Father Shandor the Demon Stalker, illustrated by legendary artist John Bo

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