The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2354: Doctor Tomorrow #1, September 1997

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on the importance of being vaccinated, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 

(Yeah, yeah, 2 in a row. Contain yer excitement 😏 Going to try a bit of a format change for a while, see how it feels.)

Publisher: Acclaim Comics

Writer: Bob Layton

Penciller: Don Perlin

Cover Artist: Mike Mignola

I've had this one kicking about the collection for about 20 years now. I started finding Acclaim comics in the comic bin at a used bookstore in Kitchener, ON, that I'm sure has gone the way of most used bookstores nowadays. It's where I first found Quantum & Woody, and where I started poking my nose into the Valiant/Acclaim universe. I've always found the idea of a historically presented superhero universe, like Astro City, for example, and this series is a cool way for the Acclaim superhero universe, relatively new, to establish a history for itself.

I don't really know much about the series, having only read this issue, but I'm intrigued by the premise, though I have inklings already, of an ontological paradoxical nature, about what's going to happen.

Or, perhaps I think I do, except that I don't. Bear with me. The series is the brainchild of writer/inker Bob Layton. Each issue has a different art team, and is presented in tribute to a particular luminary of Comics' history. Today's is a paean to Jack Kirby. I'm missing a couple of the later issues, which I may try to track down in the next few days, but I noticed at some point that Mr. Layton's name does not appear on the final issue. And, being, as far as I can tell, a fairly open company about the ways things work behind the scenes, there's an explanation in the back matter of the final issue. According to this, Layton asked to have his name removed from the issue because he had differences with the editorial department over how the series should end. The editorial side had plans for a character from later in the series that must have somehow conflicted with Mr. Layton's, as the writer, original ending.

That got me thinking about The Eternals. Not the movie, but the mid-80s maxi-series from Marvel that dropped around the same time as Squadron Supreme. The last four issues of that series, originally helmed by Peter B. Gillis, were written by Walt Simonson. It's been a while since I've looked, but I imagine the excuse given for Gillis' departure is similar to that given for Layton's. I wondered, briefly, why this might be the case until I realized that by the end of the series, there would have been significant sales figures for previous issues, indicating whether or not it was worthwhile to continue the character/series somehow. And that continuity, the imposition of the shared narrative universe, on what looks to be a story with a definite end, has to cause some ruptures. Perhaps I'll look into it a bit more over the next few days as I continue Dr. Tomorrow's cool-ass history.

"Who is this mysterious man from the future who has joined forces with the allied march into Europe?"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2353: Valiant FCBD 2016 - 4001 A.D. Prologue

 For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on the importance of being vaccinated, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 

I honestly hadn't intended for there to be months between posts anymore, but, y'know, holy shit life gets in the way sometimes. I've been channeling a lot of my creative energies into music over the last few months, managing to compile three full albums of music that I hope to somehow release to the world once I figure out a good way to do so. And comics have fallen by the wayside.

Sort of.

I've kept up with the reading, and since we last met I've made my way through most of the Harris Comics content in the collection. I've come to appreciate Vampirella a bit more now - I made the classic mistake of seeing what she looked like and assuming that was the be-all and end-all of the character. It's shocking to realize, only every now and again thankfully, how much that kind of thinking, especially with regard to women, has been intrinsically programmed into my psyche. I've been thinking a lot lately about the ways that I have to deprogram myself from the toxically masculine behaviours that were performed as the norm for me when I was still learning how to human. Going back to school helped in a big way, but moments like this remind me that I have to remain vigilant.

So, yeah, Vampirella's a kick-ass lady who uses her scantily-clad appearance to stop enemies in their tracks, giving her the opening to kill the hell out of them. And she's battling in an America that's been, in some ways, taken over by all the creatures of the night that we fear. And her boyfriend's a creature-hunting congressman. It's all pretty great and ridiculous, and just good comics.

After that, I decided to dive into the Valiant/Acclaim publishing universe. There's a couple of longer runs in there that I skipped over, and will perhaps start on tomorrow, but I'm glad I did my overview first, as the Valiant/Acclaim universe is one with which I'm only tangentially familiar. I was a fan of the Acclaim Comics iteration in the early Naughts, but only, sadly, as that line was imploding. Quantum & Woody still ranks as one of the best superhero stories I've read, and I only wish Mr. Priest and Mr. Bright had been able to finish telling their story. I'll talk more about that soon, I hope. All that said, I'm going to be a little more on the lookout for Valiant/Acclaim stuff when I'm doing my dollar bin or TPB buying. I've managed to read bits and pieces across about 4 different iterations of this universe, as far as I can tell, and each of them have been really quite good. I think I used to link Valiant to Image too much, as the most prominent Valiant exposure I've had was their crossover with early Image in Deathmate. But where Image was over the top and grandiose, Valiant took a different route. I wonder if anyone's ever compared them with DC and Marvel at the beginning of the Marvel Era? Valiant takes the Marvel route of grounding its heroes in the "real" world, and it works almost too well. There's a series called Armorines, about, you guessed it, an armoured Marine squad. The characters are really well done, and there's some excellent commentary on U.S.-Cuban relations, from a diasporic point of view even (!), but it's still very pro-military in a way that just doesn't sit right with me. I've noticed this in only a few comics as I've been going through the collection, but there's definitely ones written so much farther right on the political spectrum of where I sit that it becomes noticeable. The key, I suppose, is to appreciate that the belief in that particular ideological perspective has created what amounts to a wonderful popular work of art. The artists behind the work all obviously feel strongly about the material they're presenting, and that's fabulous. Indeed, I get that feeling from all of the Valiant/Acclaim books - but again, they promote a "Bullpen" atmosphere in their back matter, so perhaps I'm simply buying into the rhetoric that Stan Lee perfected back in the 60s.

Ah, voluminous. I really ought to try to get back to daily writing.

More to come.

The irony has not escaped me.

Our boyfriend came for a visit this week, and there's been very little extra time. Catching up now.

Here.

Have some articles I've written for CBR lately:

Archie Comics Celebrates National Coming Out Day with It Gets Better Project

AMC Theaters Bans Man for Life Over Joker Prank

Valiant's Quantum & Woody Return With New Creative Team in 2020

Serpent War Introduces An Obscure Robert E Howard Hero to the Marvel U