In the Shadow of the Sun
I’ve been hunkering down lately. I am not a fan of the holiday season in general. When I was doing frontline work in harm reduction, mental health and housing, I liked working the holidays. It was a chance to dig in, avoid my family and be there for folks through a difficult time. I haven’t done front line work in a number of years. It’s hard work and takes a toll. Now I spend the holidays eating junk food on my couch and watching time wash away. We barely get any snow in Vancouver, so winter here is kind of abstract. I’ve really been taking pleasure from my continued journey into bizarro comics from the 80’s and 90’s. My friends think there is something wrong with me. That’s ok, we don’t have enough time for everything that is wrong with me, so let’s just enjoy the ride.
If you want to send something for me to read, please see below.
Inkstuds
#2147 – 720 Sixth St
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3C5
Canada
and only if you are mailing from the United States
Robin McConnell
1685 H Street # 27043
Blaine, WA 98230
United States
T-Bird Chronicles is by Pierre R McNeil out of East Point, Georgia. Pierre only has a handful of comics from around 1986 and 1987, 2 issues of T-Bird and 3 issues of something called Peter Risk Monster Masher. I desperately want copies of Peter Risk. The comic is about a guy that is a super secret agent that is for some reason the lone security guard at nuclear power plant that is finishing construction. Somewhere in the building, evil doers are using the atomic radiation to create super steroids and jacked up cocaine. Our hero needs to stop those guys and all sorts of things happen. the drawing is brutal, just hard blunt lines creating disfigured characters. But the cars, this guy obviously loves to draw cars. I think about all the interview with comic artists having a tough time with cars, but this guy is just killing it!
I am starting a read of Rick Veitch’s King Hell Heroica series he has been self-publishing through amazon. While there are a million reasons for folks to stay away from Amazon, I appreciate how it’s helpful for someone like Rick Veitch to have an easy venue to publish his work. He’s a fabulous story teller and I have always enjoyed his comics. He has such a massive library of work with so much to explore. The first volume of the Heroica is the Maximortal book. It’s fucking brutal. Probably one of the best takes on the early comic industry I have read. There is obviously no love for the owners of the companies that exploited the artists in the early days, taking whatever they could and offering bread crumbs to the talent. The story weaves a pseudo superman origin tale that interweaves with creation of a similar character and charts those early days, but instead superman is an insane menace. Peak cathartic comic industry comics.
The first issue of Craig Stormon’s The (Devil’s) Workshop is not for the faint of heart. Published by Blue Comet Press, the same folks that brought us the wonderful power comics. This comic has everything you need. There’s a couple of hot super heroines dancing it up in a Birmingham nightclub celebrating a victory and shutting down gross men. It’s got some cyborg drug dealers and so much more. This comic was much better than I was expecting. The story and art were decent and it was just so over the top. It’s like watching a sploitation move from the 70s. I got what I needed from this experience.
Synthetic Assassin I written by Fred Diana with art by 15 year old duo George Todorovski and Chris Turner. The art is actually pretty accomplished for a couple of young guys. This is also ticks an extra box for me because it’s Canadian, published in 1986 out of Kingston, Ontario. There’s a secret mission that only the Synthetic Assassin can handle. He is also joined by Dragon-Fire, a wise combatant that knows and sees all and is not to be fooled.
Project Hero seems to be a part of wider super hero concept that I know very little about. Published out of Saskatoon in 1987, this book spares no cost. It’s full colour. Obviously very informed by the Watchmen, some heroes have been outlawed, others are working for the man, but there’s a new villain on the horizon that requires everyone to work together. One of the characters is named Lord Torbac, which sounds like a Quebecois villain to me. It’s clunky, juvenile and a lot of fun.
My last old timey comic for this instalment Rockmeez. It’s kind of like the metal men were actually made of rock and they also had a rock band, oh and they were aliens too. Our heroes come to earth to teach in a high school and boy, are they over their heads! That’s a tough high school. I think this is the only comic I have read that has several references to Primus. The story is written by John Petersen and drawn by Monty Regan, with additional art work including colouring by Flynn Prejean. The cost on producing this book must have been unreal. The gold foil lettering on the cover is also embossed. The back cover features a Dr Pepper ad that must have been unauthorized. If it is a legit ad, these guys deserve some props for great hustling.
Lilly Wave is the latest by Brian Blomerth’s ongoing series of out there bio comics exploring the pivotal people in the history of psychedelics. Blomerth’s style lives in this topic. It’s funny animal circa mid 30s disney meets the freakwave of the 70s. This volume is about prominent scientist, Dr John C Lilly and his work around Ketamine. It’s not flattering portrayal, while the art is steeped in psychedelia, Blomerth really goes to task to tell a story that get’s to the heart of the subject, allowing you to live through experiences and not having a story handed to you. I really appreciate his approach. So many bio comics are really just wikipedia/paint by numbers book that provides absolutely zero personality and seems that it was just created to be a good stocklist book for the christmas season. The narrative flows in a way that captures things in essential qualities that imbue more emotion than straight up narrative beats. Also, I had no idea about connection between the video game, Ecco the dolphin and psychedelic research. Puts part of my childhood in a different light.
Matt Howarth is another artist with a large volume of strong comics that are woefully out of print. I know Cosmic Lion is publishing his latest work and hopefully we see more to come. I got a copy of My Name is Lesion off of amazon POD. It’s an anthology of short stories that were featured in different anthologies in the 80s and 90s, like Taboo and Fly in My Eye. Matt’s a great cartoonist who I really wish I spent more time on exploring when I was doing inkstuds. I have a feeling we would be able to talk music for several hours straight. A bunch of stories are different versions of things that happen with a space ship crashes on an alien planet. All very different stories, but coming from a similar conceit. There is some pretty funny parts to the comics, my favorite being the inner dialog of infatuation. There’s got to be close to 150 issues of Matt Howarth comics out there, so lots to enjoy and jump into.
I was really excited for this third volume of Luther Arkwright. I liked the other volumes, but often get lost in the whole meta-multi-verse concept. I am not a big fan of multi-verse concepts. Overall, I really enjoyed the comic. The style harkened back to his earlier work, really vivid and tight black and white lines. The whole book was really enjoyable until the last page when there was a John Lennon reference, at which point I wanted to throw the book out the window. I never need to hear Imagine ever again. it’s ok, i know you like it, that’s great. Enjoy that moment of hope you had in 1976. Everything is shit now, just accept it.
