The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1948: Troll Halloween Special #1, 1994

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(Sorry, dropped the ball a bit. Last day of Pride Month, figure I should finish this up ;D)

 

 

 

 

 It betrays in me a prejudice that I was surprised to see a comic from early Extreme Studios that was written by a gay man. Then I really thought about the kind of spandex-clad hypermasculinity on display in a lot of these titles' art, and I thought about that time that Riptide scandalously posed for a porn magazine, and how similar, if not in execution then in stylization, a lot of this work is to Tom of Finland. (Definitely, absolutely 100% NSFW)

So there's that. Today's featured creator is Andy Mangels who, in his Wikipedia picture, has the most epic of mustaches. A quick poke about my collection reveals that he's the writer one of The Maxx's other appearances outside of his own title, which is an interesting niche for someone to inhabit. That story was in Gay Comics #24, which I reviewed a while back. Perhaps Maxx is one of those characters I'm going to have to track down a bit more. Anyway, a surreal little tale, as one might expect from a crossover of The Maxx with Extreme Studios' Wolverine clone. I'll admit, I come to like Troll later in his history. Alan Moore's re-writing, and then Brandon Graham's look at his future, all make these zany adventures from early Image slightly more sinister, and slightly more poignant.

That said, there's always going to be something sinister in a story that involves The Maxx and his cohorts. The Maxx, the series, is very dark, as was the super-awesome cartoon that used to air on MTV.

For Mr. Mangels, I am actually surprised that I haven't got more of his stuff in the collection - he seems much more familiar than just 2 issues in all these comics. I'm certain I'll run across more stuff as I fill in the gaps in my database information.

 

(Oh, and it's inked by Pedi, who did one of the best issues of the old Supreme series!)

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

If you like Troll, here's one of his few other solo comics, another seasonal outing!

And if you want to get an idea of what this character actually is, read the masterful future saga that is Prophet.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1193: Gay Comics #24, Spring 1997

When I first bought this comic, it was purely because of the Maxx on the cover. The Maxx is, I think, one of the great superhero works to come out of the early 90s, and the real surprise about it is that it came from Image Comics at a time when the vast majority of what they were producing was extremely sub-par. But the Maxx is also a perfect character (or setting, at least) to cross over into the subculture of queer comics. Anyone who's read the series will understand how very queer it really is (in the older sense of the word, perhaps), and also that it's about people on the fringes and how they deal with the pitfalls and perils of mainstream society.

The story within the comic, not featuring the Maxx, but one of his supporting cast, Sara, tells a tale that is, sadly, something of a cliche in queer comics - the conversation with the ghost of a queer person who has killed themselves. The worst part of this cliche is that it hasn't become such because it's a particularly popular or current kind of story, but because it happens all the time. Which is exactly why a publication like Gay Comics exists, to highlight facts like this.

But not only facts like this. I don't want you to think that this comic is all doom and gloom, because it's not. The vast majority of the stories are about queer people of all sorts trying to figure out relationships, trying to understand how to navigate in a queer way through a straight world - not really so different from how things are 20 years later, though the avenues of navigation we have are becoming more and more wide.

I was absolutely overjoyed to see some early work from Paige Braddock in today's issue. I reviewed one of the collections of Jane's World a while back, and I've been meaning to track down more of Ms. Braddock's work. One of the nice things about this project, and not knowing, really, what's concealed within this collection, is discovering gems like this tucked away that I would not have recognized when I first bought the comic. It's like putting together a really, really, really big jigsaw puzzle.

There's also a few cool serialized tales in this issue, which is great because I really liked them and I love when I find a story that I really want to follow. The bad part is that the next issue, #25 (which I'll be reading later on this month) is the last issue, so I don't know if any of these serials had a chance to conclude. That, though, is life as a comics fan.

More to come...