The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 885: The Johnny Raygun Freebie, 2005

I've been making an incorrect assumption about Johnny Raygun thus far, and it's one that, with this last issue in my collection, I'm glad to have realized. There's something sinister and intriguing going on in this series.

This issue, the FCBD 2005 giveaway, is a full reprint of issue #5 of the ongoing series, and there's a guy wandering around through the world killing off supervillains. Like, literally, picking them up and just twisting their heads around (which happens to The Filament in this issue). Prior to this, the stories had been relatively benign and humorous, much like the eponymous hero. But now that I've seen that there's a little more than comedy going on, I think I really need to track down the rest of the series.

On that topic, if you're interested in reading a funny and exciting pulp hero comic, head on over to Jetpack Press's website and load up. It's still running, though the series stopped publication around 10 years ago, so I'm assuming you can still snag the series there. I'm hoping so, anyway.

The universe of the Raygun Agency continues to expand with the introduction of a team of teenage superheroes in this issue. There's a part of me that is slightly disappointed, in that I kind of like the idea of a world much like our own, just with a secret hero agency keeping us safe from the strange. Like Planetary, but with much more serendipitous bungling. And perhaps, in that case, it's best that the series wraps when it does (with issue #6), so that it doesn't become another overpopulated superhero universe. There's so many of them.

On to something else tomorrow, but I'm glad to have read all of my Johnny Raygun stuff, finally. As I noted at the beginning, I really enjoyed what I'd previously read of the series, and the subsequent issues do not disappoint. Funny, well-crafted, and equal parts original and homage.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 884: Johnny Raygun Classics #1, 2004

Please forgive a short post today. It's been a busy Friday. Some new strips, one old one, and some little bits and pieces from a newsletter from a local comic shop highlight Johnny and company's adventures. Contrary to how I'd thought about it previously, it seems the Raygun Agency is a known organization in the world, as a reporter follows Johnny into a smelly situation while trying to do a story on him.

A bit more of Mr. Raygun tomorrow. Oh, and the best part of today's comic was a background joke where there's another agent named Ron. Ron Raygun. Yep.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 883: Johnny Raygun Quarterly #1, 2004

As I read through today's comic, I couldn't help but think that it would make great sense if Johnny Raygun and the Raygun Agency existed in the same universe as Spacepig Hamadeus, whose adventures we looked a couple of months ago. There's the same feeling to the Raygun comics, mostly due to the pulp science fiction genre both inhabit, but also the style of art and the obviously love for old-school sci-fi comics of the 1950s.

As this issue is the beginning of what was an ongoing series, we're introduced to more characters and given more background than in the previous, inaugural issue. More Raygun agents show up to quell the threat of Moog(!), as do others who oppose the methods of the Raygun Agency. We're also given some context for this team of adventurers, given that the series is ostensibly set in the present but it seems that the world at large is not aware of the sorts of threats and challenges the agency deals with. Though today's issue seems to fly in the face of it, the agency seems to be a clandestine one, keeping ties with alien lifeforms and threats secret from the general population.

Or, at least, that's how it seems after two issues.

Unfortunately, I don't have the next five issues of this series, but I do have a couple of FCBD releases that have a bit more of Johnny's adventures. We'll have a look at those over the next couple of days. What I'll say about them now is that, unlike many FCBD offerings, these ones did their job well, at least in the case of yours truly. I'm sure that the issue we'll look at tomorrow, the 2004 FCBD comic, was the first Johnny Raygun I read, and if the price tags still on the bags for today's and yesterday's comics are any indication, I was moved to track down some more issues after reading the free one.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 882: Johnny Raygun Special Edition #1, 2003

I don't remember where I first read Johnny Raygun. I'm thinking it was a FCBD some time, and the character and concept just grabbed me. I have a soft spot for this kind of pulp science fiction that draws on things like the old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon film serials. Couple this with a healthy dose of Kirby-esque graphics, and you've got a winner. I've always meant to track down the rest of the series (5 other issues of the Johnny Raygun Quarterly), but, as with many small press comics, they're not the most ubiquitous things in the world. So we'll just read through what I've got, and be happy about it, right?

I think the best way for me to describe the series is Hellboy in space. The main characters are Raygun agents who are sent in to sensitive situations in order to defuse them. Johnny is very good at his job, though his social skills are occasionally lacking - perfect fodder for a protagonist, really. With H2Olaf and Waaage at his side, Johnny protects the innocent, sometimes from situations of his own making. Matt Talbot does a really nice job of incorporating Kirby's science fiction aesthetic, cultivated in comics from 2001 to Captain Victory to give us a retro-future comic that is equal parts exciting and amusing.

More Raygun mayhem tomorrow. To be continued.