''Steeltown Rockers'' is a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

published from April to September 1990 by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. It followed a group of teenagers and young adults during the formation of a rock band.

Overview

The six-issue limited series ''Steeltown Rockers'' showcased the efforts of guitarist Johnny Degaestano and his friends to form and maintain a band in a former

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

town that had become economically depressed since the shuttering of the mill. The series depicted the perseverance of the musicians as they not only put together the band, sought bookings, and dealt with intragroup personality conflicts but also faced such obstacles as alcoholism, poverty, racial and socioeconomic tension, and drug abuse. Uncommonly for a Marvel comic at that time, the comic featured no superheroes, no super-villains, and no extraordinary powers of any kind, focusing solely on the lives of ordinary people. The series presented this material more realistically than was then common, while also showing its characters as neither categorically "good" nor "bad."

Playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

, and comics

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

Elaine Lee Elaine Lee is an American actress, playwright, producer, and writer, who specializes in graphic novels. She has also received recognition and awards for her work as a creator and producer of audio books and dramas. Her comics have been illust ...

wrote the series, which was pencilled and frequently inked by

Steve Leialoha Steve Leialoha (born January 27, 1952) is an Americans, American comics artist whose work first came to prominence in the 1970s. He has worked primarily as an inker, though occasionally as a penciller, for several publishers, including Marvel Comi ...

Connection to Marvel Universe

It is not clear whether ''Steeltown Rockers'' takes place in the

Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of ...

, the shared setting for most of the company's output. The band performs one original song, ''Teen Mutant'', which appears to reference events in the Marvel Universe in a general way. However, the lyrics could simply mean that the songwriters in the band were fans of Marvel Comics. Similarly, the cover for the final issue depicts flyers for an

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

lookalike contest which would be possible in either the real world or the Marvel Universe. In Moon Knight, an album cover showing the name of the Steeltown Rockers was present when the titular character was putting on a Dazzler album, indicating the band does in fact exist in the Marvel universe. The band --and lead guitarist Johnny Degaestano-- is referenced directly in the opening scene of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy video game via an article in the Rolling Stones magazine on the bed. " The tar-Lordband says that the teeltownRocker's gig was the only time a crowd chased them off stage. 'He was really cool about it,' Vince says of guitarist Johny Degaestano, 'but that whole steel mill crowd was there for those kids and only them!' "

References

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