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Dec 29, 2018

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1404: P.J. Warlock #1, November 1986


Hi. Welcome back. I hope a few people are still checking in here.
As I noted a few weeks ago, I had a serious mental health break. It's still ongoing, but I'm trying to introduce some structure back into my life to cope with it, and I think blogging a comic every day is a nice way to start.

Over the last few days I've been reading what I like to think of as auteur comics from the 1980s. Rather than the undergrounds, these are comics published by indie publishers that grow out of the underground (like Eclipse, Pacific, First) that feature the work of single creators. In some cases, the artist does everything, from the usual writing and drawing to lettering, editing, and colouring. The Tim Conrad, Arthur Suydam, and Bruce Jones comics from the last three days, however, are very different from today's selection. I looked up Bill Schorr to see what else he's done, and according to Wikipedia, this is the only comic series he's done. He's highly regarded as a newspaper strip artist and political cartoonist, but this is his only comic book. From issue 1, I'm getting the sense that it's where Mr. Schorr decided to purge his Dad humour. P.J., being 1400 years old, is an expert in the subject.

The art style puts me heavily in mind of Vaughn Bodé, especially once the female damsel is introduced. I recently picked up the first issue of Junkwaffel, so perhaps once I'm done with Mr. Schorr's series (only 3 issues), I'll delve into some old-school Bodé. I also think that P.J. and Cheech Wizard would probably have a good time hanging out.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow. More to come...

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