The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 30: Heavy Metal v.33 #8, Fall 2009

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Going to try to get back to my weekly magazine. Otherwise it'll be the 90 Years of Comics Project, and I'd like to think that I'll finish this strange and interesting journey one day.

I'm trying to figure out ways to get the rest of my comic collection into the house and out of the garage, and the magazines, Heavy Metal and otherwise, are amongst those items in the garage. The other night I brought a couple of boxes in, and this magazine had been put into one of the boxes while I was packing. It's been a while since I read an issue, so I thought I'd check it out.

Pat Mills loves to right ultra-violence. I know that that's a given for anyone who's read 2000A.D., but I'm not super-familiar with that magazine, or Mills' work in general, so it was a bit of a revelation for me. I enjoyed Claudia Vampire Knight: Violent Women, despite not having any background for the series. After a moment's confusion, the context of the piece helped me understand the setting. It was pretty cool, very violent, and quite funny, actually. The other long-from piece in this issue was Call of the Locnar, a call-back to some of the oldest HM stories, and featured some flashes of setting that I remember from watching Heavy Metal the movie in my pre-teen years. I wonder how it would hold up these days.

More, hopefully, to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1409: Doctor Who (1984) #1, October 1984

Doctor Who Weekly #19, from which part of today's comic is drawn, is perhaps the comic I have that is the one that I remember having read the longest. It came out in February of 1980, which means I very likely had it while I was still in England. "The Starbeast," the story featured in today's reprint comic, is permanently emblazoned in my brain, along with the Wrarth Warriors and the Meep. And, of course, Sharon, who I've just confirmed is the first POC companion in the series history. Only took 17 years :D.

What's kind of cool about this reprint is that it's been coloured. The original weeklies were all in black and white, so I've always envisioned the Meep as being white, but he's apparently blue. I suppose that makes sense, given that he's got green blood. White would not be a natural colour for him. I guess. I don't know why I'm trying to figure out alien physiology from a single re-coloured panel of a Doctor Who comic.

The other neat thing about this issue is that in the text feature that gives some background on the Doctor, there's an amazing picture of the fourth Doctor and the second Romana by Walt Simonson. It's a bit of a revelation for me, but I can't imagine a better-suited artist. Mr. Simonson's incredible command of movement in his panels would be a brilliant fit for the Doctor and his adventures. Sadly, these appear to be the only illustrations of the Time Lord that he's done, all reprinted from Marvel Premiere #60 (which I read yesterday).

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 28: Doctor Who Summer Special, 1980

Thinking about it, it's entirely possible that I actually brought this comic with me when we moved to Canada in 1980. We emigrated in July of 1980, so there's a good chance I'd been bought the Summer special to read on the plane. I'm going to have to headcannon that one - my memory doesn't stretch that far back (except in those strange, dream-like flashes that accompany early memory - this is one of those comics that helps me to understand Benjamin's "Unpacking My Library," in that I can almost hear and see myself as a six year old, based on my knowledge of how they act - I have very vague remembrances of the woman sitting beside me, upon whom I think I vomitted - I remember being at the very front of the 747, moved there because my Mum needed a crib for my youngest brother, barely 6 months old - my Mum, who travelled to Canada, a month behind my Dad, with a 6 year old, a 3 year old, and a 6 month old, is as close to a superhero as any of us are every going to see - how many times have I opened this comic in the last almost-40 years?).

The special reprints the first adventure of the Doctor in his weekly comic, and I just love this story. I've been reading it for so long that it's ingrained on my brain. Reading it again, encountering the Iron Legion again, after so many years, was like meeting up with old friends, and you pick up a conversation like no time at all has passed. I missed Morris, and Vesuvius.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 10: Doctor Who Weekly #1, October 1979

I just realized that I didn't do my magazine last Friday. Must be that memory thing that happens with age.

Today's magazine has got to be one of the oldest inhabitants of the collection. Not, necessarily, by it's actual age, but by the amount of time it's spent with me. The first issue of DWW I ever got was #19, but my Mum and Dad managed to track down a few back issues for me and have them sent to us in Canada in early 1980. I'm still trying to track down one or two to fill out my run of the weekly series - perhaps the Calgary Expo this weekend will bear some fruit.

Speaking of, I know I say it every year, but I'll try to do a full write-up of the con next week. I'm presenting a paper on Sunday afternoon, if you're about.

Today's inaugural issue features the first part of "The Iron Legion," one of my absolute favourite Doctor Who stories - imagine Rome never fell, and rampaged across the galaxy at the behest of demonic aliens for millennia. It's good and epic and everything that the television series was unable to be in those early days. It's amusing, and slightly unnerving, to me that one of the articles in this issue notes that the series began "16 years ago" and here we are in 2017 celebrating it's 50+ anniversary! There's something wondrous about the fact that this show has managed to stay around for over half a century, especially given the ridiculousness of its premise. But then, I'm a guy who love superheroes. Ridiculous premises are par for the course.

I read a few issues of this series a while back, but perhaps I'll put it on deck for my Friday magazines to come. Might be interesting to take a look back not just at old comics, but at comics that have been with me for a really, really long time.

Onward!