Doom comic

From DoomWiki.org

Front cover of the Doom comic.

The Doom comic is a sixteen-page comic book written in 1996 by Steve Behling and Michael Stewart, with art and color design by Tom Grindberg and lettering by Edd Fear. All contributors were credited with gory nicknames to fit the theme of the work. It was initially produced by Dana Moreshead for Marvel Comics as a giveaway, according to former id Software business manager Mike Wilson, for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1996.[1]

The story is based on that of Doom, and revolves around a space marine searching for powerful weaponry in order to defeat a cyberdemon. The strip includes most of the well-known Doom monsters, including zombies, imps, cacodemons and spectres. Several of the weapons from the game are also featured, including the shotgun, chainsaw, chaingun, plasma gun and BFG9000.

The comic was not originally well received, and was quietly forgotten for several years after its release. However, it gained significant attention in 1999 when Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka reviewed the comic on PlanetQuake (archived 🏛). It later received yet more exposure from the 10 Years of Doom special at Doomworld in December of 2003, where it was published online. Original art from the project was put up for auction on eBay in April of 2004. The over-the-top character of the Doom comic has made it notorious within the fan community.

Printings[edit]

There are two known printings of the comic. The first is the original giveaway printing, and the second is a set that was produced for the id Anthology collection. When compared to the better-known id Anthology version, the giveaway printing features the following differences:

  • The original edition is printed on whiter paper than the id Anthology copy, which gives it more contrast.
  • The original edition's front cover looks somewhat paler.
  • On the original edition, the issue number on the front cover is italicized, while the warning text at the top is not. These are opposite on the reprint, with a normal issue number and italicized warning text.
  • The advertisements are different. In the original edition, there are ads for Hexen for Sony PlayStation on the inside front cover, PlayStation Plus on the inside back cover, and Final Doom for PlayStation on the back cover. The id Anthology reprint has ads for Final Doom for PC, Hexen for PC, and various Windows 95 versions of id Software games in the same respective locations.
  • Mike Wilson states that there were 50,000 copies of the original E3 version produced, and 100,000 copies of the id Anthology version.[2]

Quotes[edit]

Extract from the Doom comic
  • "Who's a man and a half? I'm a man and a half! A berserker packin' man and a half!"
  • "I'm a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness!"
  • "Rip and tear rip and... TEAR RIP AND TEAR... RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS! YOU ARE HUGE! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS! RIP AND TEAR!"
  • "Here comes the Night Train!"
  • "Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!"
  • "Sweet Christmas! Big-mouthed floating thingies!"

Trivia[edit]

  • The Doom comic was used by id Software as part of the swag given to participants in the Final Doom project. TeamTNT coordinator Ty Halderman referred to it as "rather lame." [3]
  • Lines from the Doom comic form the names of achievements in the Xbox 360 version of Doom II as well as the Doom 64 2020 remaster.
  • The Doom comic was referenced as an inspiration by id Software during the aftermath of the Doom (2016) QuakeCon reveal in 2014.[4]
  • The comic is heavily alluded to by Doom Eternal in achievement and milestone names, Easter eggs, and even spoken lines of dialogue and song lyrics, particularly with the phrases "rip and tear" and "huge guts". "Rip and tear" is even translated into the language of the Night Sentinels, where it is rendered as "kar en tuk".

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Fan tributes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Wilson, Mike (18 July 2020). "90% sure that's what it was. If not, it was for the first Quakecon in Aug 96." Twitter. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. Wilson, Mike (18 July 2020). "I think GT Interactive ordered up 50k of them to give away at E3." Twitter. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  3. Halderman, Ty (10 December 1998). "5 Years of Doom - Interview with Ty Halderman." Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  4. id Software (24 July 2014). "The 1996 Doom Comic, inspiring the next evolution in Doom. #TBT." Retrieved 25 July 2014.