The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 158: Adventurers v.2 #6, November 1988

As we come to the end of Adventurers, at least from the perspective of my own collection, I'll admit that the characters that I was vastly unsure of when I began the series have grown on my in ways I did not expect. I see from the listings at the Grand Comics Database that the series actually continued for quite some time after the second volume, and I think I'll be keeping my eyes open for further issues. But I'll leave the intrepid heroes here for a while, stuck in the immanence of a holy war, stranded in a jungle full of Chaos beasts, but still hopeful. There is a wonderful moment in this issue where Shadolock, who I'm really beginning to see as the focal character of the series, expresses his gratitude for the friendship of a tracker who came along on the expedition into the jungle, hoping for "everyone to know friendship like this." We see moments in comics that are declarations of love, or of fidelity to an idea or institution, but it's rare to see declarations of friendship, words that verge on describing how important some friends can be to us. We use the word "love" when speaking of family or of significant others and acknowledge that it is a word that binds up within itself so many things that we find we cannot speak. "Love" is the closest we can come to describing the indescribable. And there are those who think that the word is used too often, that it should, because it means so much, be used sparingly. I am of the same opinion of the word "friend." To have a friend, a true friend, is arguably as important a relationship as having a lover. Friends are people that you fundamentally count upon, the family that we choose instead of that into which we are born. It is a word that is used very liberally, and I often wonder if its importance is diluted in its overuse. But here, in this issue of Adventurers, Shadolock utters his declaration of friendship with all the solemnity and celebration of the vows of a wedding. He acknowledges the deep importance of friendships, of the bonds we have with our friends that we don't often speak aloud.

For that, despite my qualms with the series, Adventurers secures itself a place in my heart. What will tomorrow bring? No idea, but I'll see you there.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 157: Adventurers v.2 #5, August 1988

We're coming up to the end of my Adventurers collection, and I must admit I'll be sad to leave these characters behind. The five adventurers who survived volume 1 are all coming through this series intact, though I would not put it past the writers to pull off a final act slaughter. In many ways it reminds me of the Game of Thrones TV show (I've not read the books), in that I can't rest easy in the knowledge that the characters I've come to care about are somehow safe from a bloody death. Even in this issue, the noble Shadolok comes pretty close, and I was pretty unhappy about that fact. Thank goodness (or, I suppose, evilness) for the Man-Gods of the lost city.

I love when I get to type sentences like that last one.

The political action continues to take precedence in the book, even to the point of inflecting what was previously the adventurous part of the story. Having escaped the lost city, and having retrieved the Grail of Darkness, alliances are formed in preparation for the return to the city of Liam, where I have to assume the final showdown with the forces of the war God Baal will happen. I have to make that assumption because I don't have the last 3 issues of the series. Though I was fairly critical of the first volume of this title, I'll admit that it's now on a list of comics that, should I come across the issues I'm missing, I'll probably pick up. While I may have had my qualms about some of the early characterization, and the strangely uneven art, I've actually come to like a few of the characters. I've wondered a few times if this is one of those series that might have worked better being published as graphic novels, rather than periodically. Each issue does end on a cliffhanger of sort, thus bringing readers back, but I think that if I had sat down and read the whole story at once, the development of the characters would have made more sense. If you recall, I was concerned that all of the characters were unlikable, and I think this stemmed from the breaks between reading issues, even if it was only a day or so. A sustained look at each character, over the course of a 100-page book, rather than a 20-page comic, might have shown the subtlety of the character development in a way that would have flowed naturally into where they are now, rather than in fits and starts.

Not sure if that makes sense. It did in my head, but it's pretty early in the morning still!

I think we'll be finishing up Adventurers tomorrow, and then sitting behind that in the collection is a huge run of Alpha Flight. I'll have to figure out the best way to make our way through that. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 156: Adventurers v.2 #4, June 1988

This volume of Adventurers is really pretty great. Where the first volume dabbled slightly in politics and religion, this second one is centered very heavily on the ways in which these forces interact and clash in the fictional world. It's, sometimes, as if the story starring the eponymous group is secondary to the intrigues between the followers of Baal and those of Accuris, and their jockeying for position in the cities of the continent.

That said, there's some really great characterization going on in this volume, especially from the more secondary characters. Noble foot soldiers, useless noble officers, a slightly-mad priestess, and a pompous commanding officer make a nice backdrop for our focal characters, and perhaps offers some contrast to the very self-involved feel I got from them in the first volume. The are who they are because of the world the live in, a world that sometimes needs one to be self-involved, and very often requires that one not suffer fools gladly.

I'll make one specific mention of a character here, because he's the one I'm enjoying the most this time around: Coron, the follower of Accuris, the Death God. He's evil, and conniving, and a thoroughly despicable character, but he manages to do it with such joy in his heart that it's very difficult to not like him. I mean, he's a bad guy, but he really seems to enjoy being a bad guy, and it's hard to fault someone for doing what makes them happy.

(Okay, that's no even remotely true. But in a fiction like this, it's a little easier to take.)

Carrying on with Adventurers tomorrow. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 155: Adventurers v.2 #3, April 1988

A short one today. You know in movies where there's the scenes in which the main characters make their way from point A to point B, and in the special edition director's cut (Yes, Peter Jackson, I'm looking at you), that scene seems to take up about half an hour and there's a majestic score, and lots of walking, but really not much else? This issue of Adventurers was like that, only a bit more interesting and less musical. This was a movement issue, getting characters from point A to point B, either in a literal or narrative fashion. The world is fleshed out a bit, the stakes are delineated, but there's not a lot of action, but a lot of interaction.

I have, however, decided that I like the art in the first volume more than the second volume. I noted in my earlier reviews that the art seemed to fluctuate between hyper-real and caricature, and with the original art style, it kind of worked. But with an inker over Burles' pencils, the disparity between the two is far too great, and moments of suspense, in which the caricatured style of solo Burles would have come across as sinister are here faintly ridiculous. That said, it's only issue 3, so perhaps the team is still working out the kinks.

Also, with regard to art, that's a great cover. So very pulp fiction. I love it. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 154: Adventurers v.2 #2, March 1988

I am unfortunately not in possession of Adventurers v.2 #1. Either of them. It turns out that there were two different editions of the first issue produced, each featuring different story pages. I'm not sure what to make of this kind of marketing. To my mind, producing one over-sized first issue would be the way to go, including all of the introductory material. The "limited" version was released two weeks earlier, and featured character bios and an introduction not featured in the "regular" edition.

That said, each issue of Adventurers, thus far, has featured a comprehensive "The Story Thus Far" section, making jumping into the story remarkably easy. I know I was a bit hard on this title the last time I was reviewing it, but meeting up with these characters again was actually quite nice. I am curious as to what has occurred in each character's life to get them to the point of reuniting once more, as this story takes place some years after the first volume of the series. But in the absence of that information, to simply see a maturation in each character attests to the care given to the story by the creative team.

The art in this volume is far less-shadowy than the original run, owing I would imagine to the addition of inker Steve Stiles to Kent Burles' art. I'm not quite convinced it's as effective as Burles' solo art, but I'm willing to give it a go.

As our intrepid heroes push on into a jungle filled with Chaos Beasts, so do I push on into the collection. Coming up on half a year of this project, and I'm still finding cool things to read, and not losing my enthusiasm. I've a few more theme weeks in the works, mainly to cover myself once I return to teaching in the Fall. Again, I'd like to offer my thanks to those of you who pop by and give me ramblings a once over, and to once again open the floor up to suggestions of features you might like to see, or perspectives on the comics you might want to hear.

See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 153: Adventurers v.2 #0, July 1988

And back to Adventurers again. I talked a bit last time I started reviewing this series about the problems of the zero issue, the uses to which it can be put. I think this particular zero issue is well-deployed, offering a bit of history that, I'm assuming, adds to the ongoing story, but doesn't interrupt it. As with last time, this issue was released part way through the main story (issues 4 and 5, to be specific), so I'm assuming that the characters and setting whose origins we witness here have been introduced there. I guess I'll find out as I read the rest of volume 2. My run of the second volume is slightly more comprehensive than the first, so I'm interested to see how the story hangs together.

My only criticism of this tale, which is a more solid comic than much of the previous volume, is that it falls into the trap of its predecessors in having no decent characters to cleave to. I know this is meant to be the origin story of the villains of the volume, and they're ostensibly a better nemesis than the incarnated god that takes center stage in this story, but they're still despicable people. Perhaps it's just a matter of taste, but I need to have at least one character, major or minor, who I can identify with, and in this issue there were none. Again, as with the last time, I perhaps should have read this issue not in numerical order, but publication order, so that I would see this as merely a side story of the villains of the piece, an aside, rather than as a story contained all in itself. As a side story, I can read the issue from the vantage point of having experienced characters that are not self-serving religious fanatics, but are opposed to those religious fanatics. Perhaps from now one when it comes to zero issues, I'll have to figure out at what point in a story they are published, and read them accordingly.

More Adventurers tomorrow, and for the next few days until we get through the series. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 116: Adventurers #10, November 1987

The end of book 1 of Adventurers (which I have mistakenly been calling The Adventurers to this point), and I think it's time for a break. I'll admit that over the last few issues I've been enjoying the story a bit more, but it's just not grabbing me the way some other comics do. There's also a bit of a jarring shift in art style this issue, as rather than Kent Burles airbrushed art we have Burles' pencils inked by Jack Torrance. Sadly, I find this reduces the quality of the artwork to a pretty standard, nondescript level, though I can certainly see how it might allow production of the series to maintain an even keel.

The climax of the first adventure, "The Gate of Chaos" is pretty much destruction and action the whole way through. Having been able to read three consecutive issues, I'm getting a better sense of the aesthetic of the series. The eponymous adventurers are really just small parts of some larger machinations that are occurring in their world, which makes me feel like the series should have been named something that would not make one think that the universe revolves around the focal characters. This is a difficult balance to maintain in titling a series. Adventurers certainly gives you an idea of the kind of comic you're about to pick up, but I certainly expected something far more along the lines of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comic. This one could have been called "Anoria" (the world in which it is set), which would have communicated that the series was about the setting, not the characters, but then who would have picked up a series whose title conveyed nothing of what was contained inside?

So, the adventurers (those who've survived, anyway) triumphant, some of the devious plots foiled, and the party splits up. I have a far more complete run of book 2, so we'll see how that progresses, but maybe after a bit of a break. I think I want, once we're done with Klarion, to delve into the miscellaneous section of the letter A in my collection, and present some really weird stuff. But before that, we have two more issues of the witch-boy's adventures. I'll see you tomorrow for more necromantic madness.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 114: The Adventurers #9, October 1987

A quick one today. The Adventurers book 1 nears its end, betrayal abounds, the dead return (sort of), and Tarrus, the bad guy, has a very strange-looking bird/dragon/plant from Little Shop of Horrors hybrid thingy that hangs out with him. This comic is weird.

Sorry. Busy day today. Back to something more considered tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 112: The Adventurers #8, September 1987

What does it say about me that the first issue of this series that I've really enjoyed is one where a couple of the main characters meet grisly deaths?

This issue made great use of caption boxes to give us some internality for the characters, virtuous and villainous, juxtaposed with relentless action sequences, and gave a splendid example of the way that the words and pictures of this hybrid medium can work together. The prose was deeply poetic, something I would not have expected given the previous issues of the series that I've read, so it was a nice surprise to open up something very different from what I was expecting this morning. Now I'm feeling more invested in the story, in the characters, and in what's happened to them previously. Not that this means that I'll go back and re-read, or get the missing issues. It's more like what I was mentioning about Barry Allen or Hal Jordan the other day, in that one can be nostalgic for something that wasn't really that great based on the treatment that something receives at a later date. Which, for all intents and purposes, is what nostalgia actually is.

There's only two issues left in this first book of The Adventurers, and I have a bit more complete a run of the second book. Troublingly, the editorial in this issue claims a 20-issue storyline for Book 2, but only 9 or 10 issues, including a zero issue, were published. Ah well. I can't hope too much for completeness in my project, but I find it's easier when I only have one or two issues of a series, rather than a whole run minus 2 or 3 issues. I'm a soft touch when it comes to getting invested in a protracted story line.

Back to Klarion tomorrow (which I actually started reading today until I realized it was an Adventurers day). I'm hoping, too, to get caught up on some of the articles I've been meaning to write over the last few weeks, and I'll post links to updated and completed posts like last time. That aside, I'll see you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 110: The Adventurers #5, 1987

The back of this comic has a mail-order ad for American Comics, and it describes The Adventurers thus: "Hottest now comic book of 1986. Prices continue to skyrocket!" As I noted in a previous post on this series, I remember it being a pretty big deal at the time, but reading it now I am, again as I've noted, not really that impressed.

This issue does the same thing the last one did, wherein the climactic final page of the issue is also the subject of the cover. It could be because they're both based on the same script page, perhaps, but it's still a very strange practice.

Again, none of the characters seem particularly likeable in this issue, and in fact seem to be growing more and more self-involved. If I learned one thing from the many (many) hours of gaming I've done in my life, it's that teamwork is vital to the completion of adventures. If you don't trust your teammates, you're screwed. And I can't see how any of the characters in this series can possibly trust one another.

There is a nice Ray Harryhausen tribute in this issue, as Anubis, god of the dead, tosses a handful of dragon's teeth to the ground and skeleton warriors spring up from the ground where they land. Much as I may not enjoy the story itself, the creators are obviously invested in the fantasy genre, and do their damnedest to pay homage to what's come before.

Lastly, there's an interesting coming attractions page that lists the next 3 issues of The Adventurers that are forthcoming, and actually reveals that characters are going to die in each issue. It's an odd kind of pseudo-spoiler, and as with the covers depicting the final moments of the issue, as strange practice. I think I'd like to put the question to the creators of the series to see why they made the creative and business choices they did.

Back to Klarion tomorrow. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 108: The Adventurers #3, 1986

Back to The Adventurers today, jumping into the middle of their story. It seems that evil is all around these unfortunate characters, from the Lord who hires them in the first place to their human-sacrificing compatriot in the dark robes (seriously, guys, don't the dark robes tip you off?). It seems, however, that rather than presenting completely altruistic heroes in this series, along the lines of the adventurers from AD&D, the writers of this series want to give their characters a bit more darkness, a bit more self-involvement. This is a tricky tactic, as one can often end up in these situations without characters that one's readers are invested in. A reader can only take so much of an irredeemable character.

I'm still unsure about the artwork in the book. Kent Burles obviously spent a lot of time on his renditions, but there's strange shifts in perspective that I'm not sure are intentional, and a strange flip from photo realism to almost caricatured facial expressions that's a bit off-putting. On a different note with the art, I think that the choice to put what is basically the climactic cliffhanger moment from the end of the comic on the cover is a strange one to have made.

I remember when The Adventurers was being published, and some of my friends who were also gamers were reading it, but I wasn't amongst those who were. I think it may have appealed to my adolescent self. There's just enough posturing from all of the characters that I might have interpreted each of them as badasses, but my (apparently) more mature self just sees them as sociopaths. Don't get me wrong; I still think that pulling off a fantasy hero is possible, but nuanced character does not necessarily mean complete scumbag who's only in it for him or herself.

I've quite a few more issue from the series, which I will dutifully get to, but I'm not really enjoying them that much, so I'll have to intersperse it with something else. What that will be, I guess we'll see. Tomorrow, that is.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 106: The Adventurers #0, 1986

From fantasy comic to fantasy comic. Of the 12000+ comics in the collection, 749 are tagged with the fantasy genre, making it the 5th most numerous genre in the collection. Which, really, for a medium overwhelmed by the superhero, is pretty good.

There's the is weird danger with zero issues. This one was published after the first 4 issues of The Adventurers. It's fairly obvious that the issue is geared toward people who have read issues 1 - 4, rather than as an introductory story to bring people into the world of Anoria. I'd hazard a guess that what is revealed in this issue in some ways spoils the intrigue that probably unfolds (we'll see soon, I guess) in the previously published issues, yet there's no real warning inside that one ought to read this issue after the ones that numerically follow it. If I had the first four issues, it would be interesting to read them knowing what I now know, and contrasting it to how the series had originally unfolded. Sadly, that won't happen. It would be nice if I could finish off all of the series that I'm partially reading, but as my wife pointed out to me last night, collecting is not the purview of the poor. This project is less about completing series and more about reading comics.

The Adventurers, at least as represented in this issue, has something going for it, but in contrast to the AD&D comics I've been reading the last couple of weeks, it suffers for the comparison. I delved, a few years back, into the strange world of amateur Star Trek web series, fascinated by the idea that some people loved the show so much that they would plunge their time and money into continuing the series. What I came away from this experience with was the knowledge that there's a reason we have professional actors. I wonder if the same can be said of professional comics writers? The Adventurers is written by someone who obviously loves the genre, and loves the medium, but the dialogue, the plot, it's slightly amateurish. While this lends it a certain naive charm, it also highlights the technical acumen that a comics writer must master. Writing a comic is not like writing a screenplay or a novel. In this case, it's more collaborative, and there's an aspect of visuality that is occasionally difficult to write. I've attempted it myself, and the visual language is by far the hardest part to write with words. The nice part is that writer Scott Behnke acknowledges this in the prefatory material in the comic, noting that his writing "has improved significantly" since starting the project 2 years earlier. He also notes that "the best way to learn is by doing," and to note that one can always improve, can always learn, is the sign of an agile mind. I look forward to seeing this improvement in subsequent issues.

Problematically, there's very little action in this comic, it being mostly about the assembly of the party of heroes from the previous four issues. There is one double-splash page battle, a flashback, that's pretty cool, but everything else is talking heads, basically. Again, this points to the idea that this comic is intended not to stand as an introduction to the series, but as an expansion of the knowledge a regular reader already has. It might have been better to label it issue #4 1/2, but the zero issue seems to be a regular trope of the medium, and who are we to argue with tropes.

I'll stick with The Adventurers for a few more days, but it'll jump around a bit as I don't think I have that many consecutive issues of the series.