In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, discover whether Mike Wieringo and Todd Dezago's Tellos originated as an X-Men comic book story idea
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and fifty-first installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first legend of this installment of all-Mike Wieringo legends. Click here for the second legend of this all-'Ringo installment.
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COMIC LEGEND:
Mike Wieringo and Todd Dezago's creator-owned series, Tellos, originated as an X-Men story idea.
STATUS:
False
A very, very common thing in the world of comic books is taking an idea that was intended for one property and adapting it into something else entirely. I've covered a number of these over the years, from Marc Silvestri's Cyberforce, which he described as:
I went over to New York for the big X-book meeting. Bob Harras was the editor-in-chief who pulled us all together. Rob Liefeld was there, Peter David was there and we were in a conference room talking about the direction of the X-Men books. In that room I was pitching the idea of Cyber Force to Bob Harras as a spinoff book of the X-Men, which accounts for a lot of the similarities Cyber Force had in the early days with the X-Men. I wanted my own book, Jim Lee had just had success with "X-Men" #1 and spinoffs were going all over the place. I'd pitched a spinoff of "Wolverine," and that didn't go anywhere because they were doing something with Weapon X. Rob would later tell me that he wanted to kick me under the table because he already knew about Image Comics and was thinking, "No, no, no, don't tell them. Save this. This would be great for Image."
to, famously, J.M. DeMatteis idea for a Batman/Joker story that he pitched to DC, "but they ended up turning him down because they had other plans for the Joker.
So DeMatteis changed the piece, this time making Hugo Strange the villain of the piece. This approach, too, was turned down. Not wanting to let a good idea go to disuse, DeMatteis pitched the idea to Marvel, only now re-formulated to Spider-Man and the villain Kraven. Thus, we got Kraven's Last Hunt (with art by the amazing Mike Zeck), where we see what Kraven would do next if he ever actually "killed" Spider-Man (here's a hint - it does not end well for Kraven). The story, which Marvel cleverly spread out over all the three Spider-Man monthly books of the time (which gave the story a bit more of an "event" feel to it), was a big success, critically and commercially."
So it is not at all hard to believe it when reader Sam K. wrote in to ask whether the excellent creator-owned series, Tellos, by the late, great Mike Wieringo and the aqlso great Todd Dezago, began life as an X-Men comic book idea.
So...DID it?
The answer is no, but the X-Men DID play a role in the idea behind Tellos, to a certain extent.
In 1998, Dezago, Wieringo and inker Brad Vancata did a delightful X-Men #1/2 for Marvel through Wizard Magazine.
The issue featured apparently an alternate reality version of the then-current lineup of the X-Men, but set in a fantasy world...
Wieringo really did some excellent designs...
In the end, it was all Mesmero messing with them, and they were all still in their own time...
Well, in an excellent conversation between Dezago and Wieringo that made up TwoMorrows' Modern Masters: Mike Wieringo, 'Ringo discussed how the X-Men issue played into things:
Dezago: So how did Tellos come about?
Wieringo: The short-version answer is that Tellos came about because of one marathon phone call we had one day. The long version is that the seeds for what became Tellos were planted during our experience working on the aforementioned X-Men #1/2. It ostensibly set the X-characters in a fantasy setting, and as it turned out, we're both fantasy fans. We began talking about fantasy novels and comics we'd read, and during the course of one very long conversation, we came up with a premise that ended up being Tellos.
So there ya go, Sam! It wasn't literally an X-Men idea that evolved into Tellos, but the X-Men DID play a role in the whole thing!
CHECK OUT A TV LEGENDS REVEALED!
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MORE LEGENDS STUFF!
OK, that's it for this installment!
Thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo, which I don't even actually anymore, but I used it for years and you still see it when you see my old columns, so it's fair enough to still thank him, I think.
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