The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1963: Aster #0, 1995

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We get a look at Aster's past, and at the events leading directly to the beginning of the series...which is what a zero issue ought to do, I suppose.

I'm even more intrigued by the setting of these stories now - Aster seems to have come from a Green Lantern-style corps of knights whose job it was to follow the directions of the Celestial Guardians. Often, it seems, this job involved destroying planets that the Guardians felt were a threat to the balance of the universe. So he worked for the fascist overlords of the universe, but felt compassion for a race on his first time out destroying a planet.

The other fascinating part is that the Guardians have control over the Knights' memories, so they don't actually remember committing genocide on multiple occasions. Aster is aware of this, and still decides to become a knight. As I say, a fascinating setting, so I may have to track down the rest of them. (Note: a few weeks later, I've ordered the second series as well as some ancillary series that grew from this one. Honestly, just great story and great art. Worth tracking down.)

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1962: Aster #4, March 1995

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Aster's strange adventure ends with a battle against the evil Dessa, now possessing the body of one of Aster's comrades. It also ends with the death of one of the main players, a death I was not expecting. It's always nice when a comic surprises you.

I've just had a look, and my favourite mail order place, Doug Sulipa's Comic World, has the issues of the series I'm missing (#3 [As yesterday's post proves]), and some of the follow-up series. I may have to grab it. I'm intrigued by the universe this story takes place in, and I'm curious about Aster's story within it. Plus, the covers are all decorated with this pretty well-rendered muscly guy, which isn't usually my thing, but I'm quite enjoying these covers.

I think the isolation is getting to me. ;D

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1961: Aster #3, March 1995

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On the way to the gem that Aster needs to regain his former strength, our intrepid heroes are beset by an enemy. They all assume that this is Dessa, the corrupted Guardian, though it turns out to simply be someone else on the planet looking to take power.

The idea of a planet assembled from fragments of the planets Aster destroyed is a cool one. It reminds me of Battleworld, but far more permanent.

And, honestly, I don't have a lot more to say about this one. The story moves along, facilitating some really interesting revelations and surprises, I'm sure. We'll find out more tomorrow.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1960: Aster #2, November 1994

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Covers aside, this series is produced by a group of Filipino artists, and the letters pages have some lovely praise for their work and for their representation of a talented group of South Pacific creators. A couple of other names are mentioned, Whilce Portacio on Wetworks and Nick Manabat on Cybernary (whose work I love, and who died far too soon), but I have to say that Ronaldo Roxas and Oliver Isabedra are, in my opinion, light years ahead of those two. Not that Portacio and Manabat are by any means poor artists - in fact, of the early Image artists, they may be amongst my favourite. But there's a nice mesh in today's artists of contemporary (for the time) style and an earlier, cleaner style of comics. At no point in this series was I confused as to which panel I should read next, nor who was talking to whom. That's not always a given in early 90s comics.

Perhaps it's time to go through the collection and have a theme week of Filipino creators.

Story-wise, this is a pretty standard quest narrative. We've got a hero who is out of his usual milieu,  an enemy with a connection to our protagonist, a mysterious gem that must be procured/arrived at, and perilous obstacles to overcome. Today's is a dragon that is really, really cool.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1959: Aster #1, October 1994

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(I prepared the following posts for a week when I was feeling overwhelmed. Well, here it is. This week we'll be thinking about a Filipino-created character who made it into the American market. There's a nice summary of the series here.)

 I thought that I would find the publishers from whom I only have a few comics and read through what output of theirs I have. For Entity Comics, who I'm more familiar with for Zen, Intergalactic Ninja, I have 4 of the 5 issues of the first series of Aster (Edit: I did find the one I was missing). I did a bit of research, and this character apparently spins out of another series by Entity called Harriers about which I can find little info. Indeed, the information about that and this series are hard to come by. But it was the 90s, and there were a billion comics (I'm exaggerating) that came out in that decade.

What I will first say is that Aster is a gorgeous comic. There's something of George Perez to the Roxas' work. The women in the comic are not top heavy, though they're still quite scantily-clad. That said, it's a very primitive world upon which the story takes place, and with the exception of Aster himself, everyone is scantily-clad. Which works out nicely for the bisexual comic reader ;D.

I am intrigued by the story here - somehow Aster is a ridiculously powerful "celestial knight" who awakens after an exile on an unfamiliar world that has been taken over by an old comrade of his. I think with the context of Harriers, the story might have a little more weight, but there's a handy little exposition at the beginning that gives enough information to enjoy this story without having read the previous one. I had some qualms with this when I was reading London Night's Razor: Torture series, so it's nice to see that some of the publishers in the 90s were thinking about each comic being someone's first.

More to follow.