From Jack Staff and Mud Man to The Union -What Went Wrong?

I was asked whether I had re-read the Marvel Comics series The Union and whether my opinion of it had changed?

Well, as I was very bored in the early hours of this morning and since the series was in bag nearby I thought "go on" and I did. I re-read the six issues which was a strain in itself. Anyone who has read my posts knows that I rated Grist as a wonderful fun comic writer and he even gets a mention in my Improbability of the British Super Hero post.

https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-improbability-of-british-super-hero.html

Unfortunately, Blogger appears (again) to have deleted images from posts -I would ask Blogger to explain why they keep doing this but their policy is to never respond to any blogger's queries. So not such great scans ans the good ones are from CBO.  Just a note here; I looked for images to Jack Staff and Mud Man online and they were all lifted from CBO (I put something on all images I use that only I know about) and where "This image is no longer available" appears on various sites is because, again, the images were lifted from CBO and I actually deleted them when I re-edited posts!

Any way, back in the day (as we say when we cannot remember a date) I was in Forbidden Planet in Bristol when it was still in The Haymarket and more easily visited. I had found a couple of comics but that was it so I was going to pay and leave when I was a comic in amongst the little selection of zines (small press comics) tucked under a shelf. "Britain's greatest hero? Oh, get *****!" was my response. But I cannot walk away from obscure books and so I picked it up and at the till was told "It's not much you know" (good way to promote books you sell, that).

Once I got home I eventually sat down and read through my comics -leaving Jack Staff until last. I flipped open the cover and thought "That head is off" and all those hyper critical things my mind goes through. When I reached the final page I recall asking out loud "Is that it??" Was I underwhelmed? Nope -I wanted to see more. In fact the next day I ordered issue 1 and 2 and after a heated exchange in Forbidden Planet the title was added to my pull list.

What Grist had done was what Moore had done with Tom Strong which was take things that were embedded in the minds of a certain generation and threw them into well crafted stories (sorry to those who keep saying I despise Alan Moore but he did). With Grist I laughed out loud as Captain Mainwaring (ahem "obviously not"), Sergeant Wilson and the rest of the Walmington-on-sea Home Guard from TVs Dad's Army appeared as did a certain father and son scrap merchants looking rather ("not") similar to persons in Steptoe and Son another very popular TV comedy and there were other touches and those included Grist's love of old Marvel Comics series such as The Invaders

 

But there was far more to this series with its vampire, paranormal investigation team and much more. Grist set the stories in what was clearly the average English town and there was pop culture, local radio and the creation of a whole world filled with action and fun -and added humour.

And then....nothing...until Grist's series moved from his own Dancing Elephant Press over to Image Comics in the United States and into full colour. Was I going to complain? No. I did find that now Forbidden Planet were less grumpy about the title being on my pull list because it was being published by Image.

There were a couple specials and then...nothing. I waited. I searched for news. Nothing. I asked the 'professionals' in the comic shops who knew nothing and really did not care. I asked Image through email and was just thanked for my fan feedback -??

Then, after a long wait -Mud Man. What?! Not my German character, Schlammmann (Mud Man), but one based in a seaside town. A school boy and if you thought Peter Parker had a hard time when he found he had spider powers imagine poor Owen finding he had...uh, mud powers.

See what I mean? And I did wonder whether this would work and whether at some point a certain Jack Staff would turn up...never did.

I think the title got up to issue 5 and then completely vanished. Whether this was Grist's decision or Image Comics I have no idea since the man himself (Grist not Mud Man) would not respond to email or Face Book messages on the matter.

Look online and you will find little about the Mud Man series. Probably, so many years on people could not give a crap since, after all, Jack Staff and Mud Man have not appeared in TV series or movies.

Then, while doing other work online I saw a headline: Highbridge comic book superfan Paul Grist speaks about landing Marvel  dream.  And there was a photo of the man himself holding up some comics.

You can read the item here:

https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/highbridge-comic-book-superfan-paul-grist-speaks-about-landing-marvel-dream-job/

Which brings us back to The Union.  I know there were delays due to a certain "cough" doing the rounds and it was also supposed to tie in to the latest Marvel reboot extravaganza the name of which I cannot remember and do not care about.

I read the first issue and thought that, perhaps, something had to be altered based on the Marvel mega reboot cock-up so waited for issue 2. In fact, as each issue appeared it was quite obvious that this was just plain awful. Ignoring the fact that the artist had no idea what Weston-super-Mare seafront looked like (it was more like Coney Island in The Union) Grist seemed to be writing with gritted teeth: this was serious story-telling with no side gags or the usual Grist magical elements.

It was crap. Even the Union Jack character, which used to be one of my favourites, left me cold.  Looking online, again, it is almost a mythical quest to find out anything about The Union and I can find no information on the series or even characters returning.

Rather like when Rebellion decided to use old British comic characters that are still much cherished and put them into a title -The Vigilant- it was an abysmal mess. "Make them American" just did not work and neither did having writers who had no idea what the characters were or anything about them.  

All the rather unique Britishness of Grist's Jack Staff and Mud Man and all of the background references might be lost on American readers so my guess is that he went for straight out story-telling and it just fizzled.

What is Grist doing now? No idea. If he no longer has interest in Jack Staff or Mud Man then that is it. Here is a thought for Rebellion: reboot The Vigilant with Grist employing his old Jack Staff style since these are British characters and British comic fans get the humour and little touches.