1963 is an American six-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore in 1993, with art by his frequent collaborators Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch. Dave Gibbons, Don Simpson, and Jim Valentino also contributed art. Image Comics published the series.
The six issues are an homage to the Silver Age of American comics (in particular, the early Marvel Comics), and feature spoof text pieces and advertisements.
Creation Ashcans for the characters were created in 1992 before the series was announced in spring 1993, and marked Alan Moore's return to superhero comics after announcing his retirement from the genre in 1989, with 1963 as a banner title for six one-shots – Mystery Incorporated, The Fury, Tales of the Uncanny, Tales from Beyond, Horus – Lord of Light and The Tomorrow Syndicate, to be followed by an 80-page 1963 Annual drawn by Jim Lee. His initial intention was to create old-fashioned Silver Age-style heroes to contrast with the grimmer characters that made up Image Comics' output at that point, with a direct crossover in the concluding annual. His train of thought was that in a Silver Age morality, the likes of Spawn and Shadowhawk would have been considered villains for their violent methods, but also felt it would show evolving gender roles in the medium. While Moore had long fallen out with both Marvel and their rival DC, he remained fond of their Silver Age output. The series was assigned to Jim Valentino's Shadowline imprint.
Moore worked with several artists he had previously collaborated with on the series – notably having worked alongside Bissette, Veitch and Totleben on his acclaimed Saga of the Swamp Thing run. All involved worked for low page rates, hoping to profit from long-term royalties for the creator-owned work. In addition to the comic stories being pastiches of the Silver Age material of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the issues featured additional pages parodying the material found in Marvel comics of the period. Each creator was given bombastic, alliterative nicknames – 'Affable' Al, 'Sturdy' Steve, 'Roarin' Rick and 'Jaunty John' – while the "Sixty-Three Sweatshop" column mirrored the style and content of Lee's "Bullpen Bulletins"/"Stan's Soapbox" columns, with the letters pages also containing fake missives in the style of those from the period, complete with replies from 'Al'. Also included were mock contemporary advertisements, satirising many of the services displayed in comics of the time such as Charles Atlas' fitness programmes. The parody was not entirely affectionate; 'Affable' Al was implied to be an amoral self-promoter and credit-hog, referencing Lee and Marvel's legal disputes with Kirby and Steve Ditko while vociferously defending his work for hire policy. Al also advertised his book How I Created Everything All by Myself and Why I Am Great – a reference to Lee's own Origins of Marvel Comics, which has been criticised for overplaying the writer's part in the fertile Marvel Silver Age at the expense of his collaborators. The series even went as far as to use newsprint stock to replicate the feel of 1960s comics, rather than the high-quality gloss stock used by other Image titles, while the creators also gave in-character interviews to Tom Fields for an issue of British magazine Comic Talk.
Publishing history The six one-shots appeared as scheduled and sold well; the first issue was Diamond Comic Distributors' 15th best-selling title of June 1993, with the second 29th the following month, the third 68th in June, the fourth 71st in July, the fifth 85th in August and the sixth 87th for September. Bissette recollected the issues sold between 300,000 and 500,000 copies each, earning Bissette and the other contributors a significant amount of money.
However, the annual – slated to feature the 1963 characters crossing over with the Image Universe characters WildC.A.T.s, Spawn, Shadowhawk, Youngblood, Savage Dragon and Supreme – failed to appear. Moore was halfway through writing it when Jim Lee announced he was taking a year-long sabbatical from drawing comics to focus on his growing business role within Image.1963 annual at Comicon Letterer Don Simpson would later accuse Lee of never planning to work on the annual as part of a plan to sabotage the series. Bissette would later state he felt Valentino had brought Alan Moore to Image in the hope that 1963 would function as a gateway for the acclaimed writer working on other Shadowline characters, something which saw the series' creative team caught in a political crossfire as the relationship between the founding Image partners began to fray. Moore himself was rapidly tapped to work on other Image titles including Spawn, Violator and WildC.A.T.s.
Appearances in other comics The Tomorrow Syndicate are among the characters to be featured outside of the original limited series in Big Bang Comics #35 (January 2001), while the Fury appeared in Shadowhawk #14 (October 1994) and Noble Causes: Family Secrets #3 (December 2002).
Completion attempts Fellow Image Rob Liefeld was planned to work on the annual, but left the company in acrimonious circumstances in 1996 to found Awesome Comics – meaning none of his characters could be used for 1963; Shaft of Youngblood had featured in the cliffhanger ending to No. 6. Further problems came when Moore fell out with Bissette in 1996 after the writer took offence at comments Bissette had made in an interview in The Comics Journal #185 (cover dated March 1996). In a 2010 interview with Comic Book Resources, Bissette claimed to still be unaware at what exactly had caused the rift, having only found out Moore had taken umbrage through mutual acquaintance Neil Gaiman. An attempt to find out from Moore himself via phone was met with the curt reply "Right, Steve? I'll keep this short. Don't call me, don't write me, as far as I'm concerned, it's over, mate." – at which point Moore hung up.
Bissette, Moore and Veitch began communicating in 1998 to divide ownership of the various characters created for 1963. In 2002, Wizard Magazine included the series in a sidebar of an article on the greatest comic stories never told, noting that it was unlikely to ever be finished. Over the following years Bissette and Veitch worked to create a collected edition of the material, with Moore deigning to contact the pair by email for some time. Asked about the series in 2007, Erik Larsen – one of the founders remaining at Image Comics – stated he felt the "ship may have sailed" for completing the work."I called Alan Moore at one point and talked with him directly about finishing up 1963 and he did not seem to be interested in completing it. Alan had a falling out with one of the creators on the 1963 project and he did not want to re-open those wounds. That ship may have sailed, sorry to say", Newsarama, July 12, 2007. Nevertheless, some work continued when the trio could find time. After rejecting what the trio considered a derisive buy-out offer from DC Comics, they came close to a deal with Dynamite Entertainment in January 2009. However, after this collapsed in 2010, Bissette used his blog to announce negotiations had fallen through, and that even a collected edition of the already-published material was unlikely during his lifetime.
In 2022, Simpson announced plans to create his own version of the 1963 Annual as a solo work. Fueled by a dispute over a reprint of an unrelated Moore-scripted story which the writer refused to allow his name to be used for, Simpson's cover for the annual featured the strap line 'Fuck "Al"', complete with a caricature of an irate Moore in the corner box. Posting in-progress pages on his Facebook account, Simpson also included comments that indicated he believed Moore's intransigence and ego were as much responsible for 1963s collapse as the oft-blamed Image partners.
Plot Book One: Mystery Incorporated Mystery Incorporated test the Mystery Mile's new defence system. Despite their seeming success a hooded stranger arrives inside via the Maybe Machine, and soon afterwards the highly advanced defence system turns on the team. The masked invader captures Kid Dynamo, while Crystal Man deduces the stranger is from a parallel universe. The remaining trio enter the Maybe Machine to recover their team-mate.
Book Two: No One Escapes... the Fury The Fury is engaged by Commander Sky Solo of L.A.S.E.R. to escort the secret Cargo X to their headquarters under the United Nations Building. The convoy is attacked by jet-vested Raiders; chasing them down the Fury is also attacked by enemy Voidoid. Cargo X meanwhile turns out to be a cryogenically frozen three-eyed talking dinosaur with opposable thumbs, which escapes and interrupts the fight between the Fury and the Voidoid. The Fury is saved by Solo's intervention and ducks out of the battle to phone his mother, who believes he is at school. He defeats the monster and is able to get back without blowing his secret.
Book Three: Tales of the Uncanny U.S.A. – Ultimate Special Agent U.S.A. uses his abilities to take the place of President Jack Kennedy in Dallas following a tip-off, drawing out the assassin. However, the would-be assassin vanishes, and U.S.A. finds a brainwashed doppelganger tied up in a book depository. The latter is Leo Harley Osbourne, who was under police observation; the double however seems to have disabled other would-be assassins stationed at the Grassy Knoll. U.S.A. investigates and discovers Osbourne is a member of the Communist Party, recently returned from a trip to Russia. He realises the plot is linked to villain Red Brain, and foils the latter's plan to assassinate Osbourne. However, Red Brain turns the nearby police into brainwashed Communist zombies. U.S.A. is nearly defeated until he is saved by the Osbourne double, who only gives oblique explanations for his actions before disappearing.
The Hypernaut The Hypernaut and his twin-headed monkey Queep are relaxing on the Hyperbase behind the Moon when they come under attack from a being from the fourth dimension. Due to the creature's ability to occupy an extra dimension the battle is difficult, and the Hypernaut is seemingly destroyed. However, he preserves his intelligence in his cerebro-sphere and is able to slip between the invader's atoms, disrupting the four-dimensional being and sending it fleeing back to its home dimension. Hypernaut is then able to transfer to a spare body.
Book Four: Tales from Beyond The Unbelievable N-Man The N-Man investigates a high-radiation zone in the Yucca Flats. An atomic bomb test has created a pocket of mutant animals and plants. He is attacked by mutated Soviet scientist Grigor Kokarovitch, who traps him in a lake of setting molten glass. N-Man breaks free and Kokarovitch is sucked into a collapsing Neutron Bead at the centre of the zone, while N-Man escapes to safety.
Johnny Beyond Johnny Beyond encounters a lost woman searching for a bar called The Laundry who speaks strangely and has a telephone in her purse and keeps mentioning feminism. He offers to walk her home but she takes him to his own apartment block. Once inside he is further confused by the plastic cases on her books and coasters in cigarette cases before finding out she is married to an older version of himself called John Behan. Confused, he and the woman go outside, only for the house to fold it on itself. She runs back up to find her room inhabited by saxophonist 'Lips' Lincoln. Beyond contacts his mentor Garab Dorje via Necrosphere, who warns them the building is twisted in time. He tries to return everyone to their correct times but he himself is sucked through before he finishes the job.
Book Five: Horus, Lord of Light