Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and twelfth installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
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COMIC LEGEND:
Peter David's Sachs and Violens characters were originally intended for his Hulk run
STATUS:
True
In 1993, Carl Potts and Marie Javins tried to resuscitate the dying Epic line of comics for Marvels by bringing in a number of big-name creators to do new projects for the line, dubbed "Heavy Hitters." These comics were also more action-oriented. They brought in Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin and, in one of the biggest books of the launch, a new series from Peter David and George Perez, who had just recently worked together on the hit Hulk series, Future Imperfect.
The book was called Sachs and Violens...
It starred a softcore model, J.J. Sachs, and her photographer, Ernie, who was a photojournalist during the Vietnam War and he is still haunted by what he saw over there....
After one of her friends (and fellow models) is seemingly murdered as part of a snuff film, J.J. decides to become a vigilante to hunt down her friend's killer. Ernie knows what J.J. is up to, so he breaks out his old skills from the war to help her. He used to be known as "Violens"...
I think you get the idea.
It was a good miniseries. Sadly, Epic didn't last past 1994. Years later, David brought Sachs and Violens to his Fallen Angel series as supporting characters. Perez even did some covers to note their return!
However, what's fascinating is that Peter David originally conceptualized the characters of Sachs and Violens as characters for his run on Incredible Hulk!
It just didn't work (as they really just did not fit into the pages of a Comics Code approved book. I mean, come on, right?), so he instead pitched the concept as a series to Epic Comics, back when Archie Goodwin was still in charge of the line (so this would have to take place fairly early in David's run on Incredible Hulk, since Goodwin left Epic at some time in 1989 and David's first Hulk issue was in early 1987). Goodwin turned it down, but obviously it eventually ended up at Epic years later!
I think everything worked out for the best, especially the fact that David obviously has creator ownership over Sachs and Violens that he wouldn't have had had they become Hulk characters!
Thanks so much to Peter David for the information!
Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed - Why was Die Hard 2 sued by Black and Decker?
Check back later for the final part of this week's Christmas-themed Comic Book Legends Revealed!