The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2270: The First Kingdom #6, 1977

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 I have definitely, definitely, complained on this blog about misleading covers on comics. Sadly, today's is one. Tundran and Fara, seen so joyously holding hands and hunting on the cover, never meet in the interior of the issue. Fara's life, post-slavery (oh, yeah, she's enslaved and leads a revolt and then escapes last issue), is taken up with the old hunter Nator, who is banished after Darkemoor is slain. He hitches his star to her wagon and trains and befriends her. Though the passage of time is not always well-delineated in the series, I think by the end of this issue, she's about 11 or 12. You'll notice that even from the cover, Mr. Katz has started changing her design, especially in light of how she was depicted on the previous cover. While Tundran retains his muscled build, Fara's is fading into the lithe form of the vast majority of women in the series. This is not to say that they're not still strong warriors, only that the "ideal" that Katz shoots for in his depictions is more influenced by the thin female forms of the 70s than by what an actual hunter/warrior maiden might actually look like.

However, far more intriguing is the delving back into the past of Terog and Himemet's lives. Definitely more of a science fiction bent, and some really intriguing clues dropped as to the origins of the Transgods of Helleas Voran. There's an introductory piece by Mark Evanier in this issue, and he notes that, in creating such rich and complex worlds, few writers manage to do so "without pillaging other creators' universes." He goes on to say that Katz actually has, and I think I'd have to agree. I don't see any reflections of other epics, fictional or not, aside from the very broad strokes of there being gods, and a godly realm, and a hell realm, though with the aforementioned clues in this issue, I'm starting to question if those realms, and those gods, are actually what I think they are. And then there's the mysterious references to "the experiment" throughout the issue. There's something deep and interesting going on here. I'm happy to be experiencing it.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2269: The First Kingdom #5, 1976

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 "The Children of the Tamra." The Tamra, if I'm understanding context, is what the people of this era call Earth, so in naming Tundran and Fara (whose birth is chronicled this issue, and who is the reincarnation of the goddess Selowan) so, we're being given yet another clue as to the importance of these two characters. You'll also see a seated figure up there between the two children - this is the Oracle, who has shown up since the first issue and given some dire predictions about Tundran's life. Poor kid.

I have to say, these kids are ripped. Not just on the cover, but as we witness their development through the issue, they're in super-great shape. As is, literally, everyone in the series. Perhaps it's as a result of the harsh environment in which they live, but there doesn't look like there's the opportunity, or genetic predisposition I suppose, to grow...softer. This is a hard world full of hard people. That said, both children were born of great love, so beneath the chiseled exteriors must dwell some gentler emotion.

I'm going to step lightly into a dodgy subject now. I want to offer some thoughts on Mr. Katz's depictions of nude and semi-nude children in this issue. I noted in a previous post that the majority of the people in this series are bare with the exception of tiny, tiny codpieces. In introducing characters who are minors, I wondered how Mr. Katz would handle the nudity. Turns out, he handles it just the same way he handles the nudity of everyone involved. It's there because of the environment and that's it. Not for titillation but for narrative consistency. What's quite wonderful about these depictions is that there's really not that much difference between the pre-pubescent forms of Tundran and Fara - perhaps some slight deviations due to biological sex, but in their abilities and their early development, they're just kids. I'm curious to see if, as the two mature, if they err more toward the typical representations of male and female in the rest of the series. Males seem to be muscular and developed, while women are slender and lithe, with little muscle definition. I think to take away Fara's more muscular design simply because she goes through puberty would be a shame. If she's to be a companion for Tundran (and I think that's where things are heading), then let her keep her warrior physique as he tries to regain his kingdom.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2268: The First Kingdom #4, 1976

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Book four completes the introductory parts of The First Kingdom, introducing what Mr. Katz himself calls the hero of the series, Tundran. Though I came to enjoy Darkenmoor's story, it seems he is a precursor, and that his son, born in tragic circumstances, will be the focal character for the remaining 20 books of the epic.

The other interesting aspect added in today's comic is a dash of science fiction, as we are given the origins of Darkenmoor's mutant companion Terog and his love Himemet. Their story cements the idea that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth, as the two mutants start out life as human-looking creatures from another galaxy who head to Earth to try to stop the imminent nuclear holocaust. They don't quite make it, and then are exposed to radiation that turns them to their current, diminutive (and long-lived?) forms. I'm curious to see if the science fiction aspect becomes more prominent as the series unfolds, though I only have up to issue 8, so I'm going to have to do some hunting soon.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2267: The First Kingdom #3, 1975

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And finally we see the founding of Darkenmoor's "Gan," the major city of the First Kingdom. I find it amusing that the technological level is probably about Iron Age but no one wears any clothes. I'm considering that it could be that the temperature is constantly so warm that they don't need clothes, and that there's no nudity taboo in the culture. Or that Katz just like drawing (and who doesn't?) naked people. It reminds me very much of Mike Grell's work on The Warlord, and that series explicitly notes the temperature of Skataris. Perhaps with this being technically a post-apocalyptic setting, the ambient radiation adds to the temperature. It certainly is meant to have mutated many, if not all, of the animals in the world, and some of the people.

One character I'm finding both confusing and annoying is an old prophet who just keeps showing up and dropping cryptic hints about Darkenmoor's son and then disappearing. I'm just not sure where he came from - he's one of the few characters that we haven't really been given even a little bit of background. I'm banking on time traveller.

We also get our first major death, maybe, in today's issue. Nedlaya, Darkenmoor's mortal love, despairingly throws herself from a cliff after finding out about the hunter's immortal love, Selowan. I say maybe because there's never a body recovered, and somehow Darkenmoor needs to sire an heir and Nedlaya was the primary candidate for Queen and Mother that we've seen thus far.

Katz produced this series, to begin with, 2 issues per year. And he leaves us on cliffhangers, which is a strange choice for such a spaced-out publication schedule. I think I'd have made each issue self-contained. Trying to keep the momentum of a cliffhanger over 6 months would be difficult, and, aside from Darkenmoor and Selowan, the characters are fairly thinly-scripted, so there's not a lot of investment there yet either. This is another of those series that, I think, works better as a whole rather than as a serial.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

An interview with Mr. Katz from a few years back. Some insight into the series and its finale.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2266: The First Kingdom #2, 1975

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 I read the first issue of this sprawling epic years ago as part of my magazine read-through. I don't think that's likely to pick up any time in the near future, and I'm curious as to where the story's heading, so let's get stuck in.

Continuing the tale of Darkenmoor the hunter as he travels across the wasted realms to found the First Kingdom, Katz's epic continues to lay out the history of the post-apocalyptic world (well, we're assuming it's post-apocalyptic - the editorials make reference to this, but there's been little evidence in the actual narrative). Today's issue gives us some history of the "Transgods" that seem to rule over this world. I was concerned that it was going to turn into one of those things where I'd have to try and remember a billion names, but it really doesn't appear so. There's a large-ish main cast, but not so large that I have to turn back pages and remember who each character is. The only problem is that with some of the gods the designs are very, very similar. There's differences in height, but not a lot of difference in design, even of clothing. But there's few enough of the characters that it only takes moments to sort out who we're talking about.

As much as I'm getting to know the characters, there's definitely a sense that it's not really Darkenmoor and his people we're that interested in, so much as his son, of whose future fate we get occasional glimpses and prophecies.

And then there's that format. As I noted in my previous entry I'm not a huge fan of the reliance on expositive captioning, but the editorials have pointed to the experimental nature of Katz's work. I'm trying to embrace that.

More to follow.

Further Reading or Related Links

The First Kingdom puts me in mind of Marvel's awesome Weirdworld.

And, this venerable series still has a web presence! 

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 26: The First Kingdom #1, 1974

It's been half a year since I did a Friday magazine. It's been a busy few months, and something had to give, unfortunately. I'm feeling a bit more on top of things lately, so I'm going to try to get ahead on these and make them more regular. Let's shoot for bi-weekly, for now, shall we?

The First Kingdom was amongst the magazines that I procured with my large Heavy Metal purchase in 2012. I didn't know anything about it, but educated myself as to its genesis thanks to the mighty Internet. Jack Katz began this story in 1974 and finished it in 1986 with the 24th installment. The First Kingdom is a sprawling, generational future history story, set after the inevitable nuclear war that seemed to be just around the corner throughout the 70s and 80s. It reminds me, as much as I'm familiar with them, of those big, epic fantasy series, like the George R.R. Martin ones, or Robert Jordan. There's all kinds of people and names that you know you're going to be expected to remember in someone's lineage 10 issues down the line. This feeling is intensified by the style in which the story is told. Having read this first issue, I wonder if Don McGregor didn't have it in mind when he did the Killraven comics. In the introduction, Katz himself calls it a "novel in which the characters live in front of you," and cites Hal Foster's Prince Valiant as an inspiration. There's definitely more of the novel to this graphic novel. That said, the characters do speak, though in an unbounded way. Katz does not do speech bubbles. The one off-putting thing for me about the text, however, is that it's all typeset. Narration is in block, dialogue in lower case, but still typeset. I'd never really thought about it before, but the organic look of a font is a way that we equate the text we see upon the page with a spoken voice. And if that text is typeset, the whole thing sound like a robot.

To me, at least.

But perhaps that really works, almost as if we're experiencing this narrative through some holographic future technology that allows us to relive the beginnings of this civilization. They just can't get the voices right?

Did I say that it's pretty cool?

It's pretty cool. If you can get your hands on a copy, it's worthwhile. It's just different enough from the usual comics fare that I think anyone would be entertained by it.

Onward.