The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1964: Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils, January 1991

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A bit of a break takes us into another of the very, very strange corners of the Marvel Universe that is inhabited by creations of Steve Gerber. I've had this comic on my radar for a while, but only procured it recently, and it was both everything I expected and nothing like what I expected. A tiny little child gets quite brutally killed in the first 2 pages, but everything is in Amanda Conner's inimitable cartoonish style, so it's like a cute brutal killing?

The story, and the villain, however, are pure Gerber. A giant-lipped immortal descended from an Aye-Aye wants to take over the world and eat it. A suburban housewife has been training three young married women as ninjas to take on this evil and save the world.

Yep.

The great part is that there are some hints that this is also taking place in the Marvel Universe proper, as Scarsdale is revealed to be a secondary Nexus of All Realities, subordinate to the primary one that Man-Thing guards in the Florida swamps. Which also means that there's a great chance that the She-Devils might show up again one day in the Marvel U. Or the MCU, perhaps? Wouldn't a premise like this make for a great MCU-set sitcom?

Worth a read if you're looking for something quite unlike just about anything else you've read from superhero comics - but that's kind of Steve Gerber in a nutshell

More to follow

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1838: Hard Time Season 2 #7, August 2006

First and foremost, this comic felt the most like a Steve Gerber comic of any issue in the series. There were splash pages, and big chunks of text, and weird technology. Gerber's earlier work, when it was at its best, pushed at the edges of the medium. In fact, I got into Howard the Duck after tracking down Mr. Gerber's illustrated prose ramblings in issue #16 of that series, having recently read his Vertigo offering Nevada. I get a similar feeling from Mr. Gerber's stories as I do from the music of Rush. In the documentary All the World's a Stage, the band are asked about their intellectual lyrics, and note that they figured if they could figure out these heady concepts, so could their audience. Steve Gerber's stories don't attempt to speak down to their audience. They assume that with a small bit of effort invested, concepts that might seem difficult can actually be easily understood and enjoyed.

I think it may be time to start seriously tracking down more of Gerber's work. I've got a fairly substantial collection of his writings, but there's definitely some holes, not suprisingly in his earlier works. And if he's a writer with whom you're unfamiliar, I highly recommend giving him a go. But be prepared for the weird.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1837: Hard Time Season 2 #6, July 2006

Cutter cuts loose! (Sorry, I had to.)

The confrontation between Ethan and Cutter comes to a head in the infirmary and Ethan manages to regain control of his spirit form in time to save the day. Cutter isn't dead, and appears to have some kind of understanding that Ethan is operating on another plane.

And that's it. The series ends. There's a coda issue tomorrow, but that's really all we have of what could have been a really great series. And I feel like so many things written about Mr. Gerber's writing echo that sentiment. His wonderful stories had this propensity to get cut short. I still contend that it's because he writes stories that are well ahead of their time. Give this one another 14 years, and we'll start looking at it the way we look at Howard and Man-Thing, brilliant prescient works.

One last visit with Ethan tomorrow. More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1836: Hard Time Season 2 #5, June 2006

Dealing with a backlog now - got some wrist pain with the cold weather.

Duane Cutter lies on an operating table and Ethan's spirit form is disarrayed by the circumstances. Meanwhile, the story of Cindy's journey to prison is concluded, and the efforts toward Ethan's emancipation progress.

A bit of a hodge podge of an issue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In extended stories like this you're always going to have an issue or two that can't focus on only one of the storylines because there are so many going on that are equally interesting and important. Were this published as one long graphic novel, we likely wouldn't blink at the sudden shifts between scenes - indeed, such a thing would heighten the tension of the scenes. But that atmosphere isn't really created in a serialized medium like this one. I recently read that Kurt Busiek is moving Astro City to a graphic novel-centered publishing model, so that the team can tell longer stories and take advantage of the "novel" aspect of the format. Busiek's wonderful superhero series is no stranger to long delays in the middle of 6 or 7 issue stories, and it certainly hurts the momentum of a piece when the last time you were immersed in the story was 7 months ago. Would Hard Time have been better served as a series of graphic novels, moving toward a European publishing model? Is the reason that the superhero thrives in the serial medium that they are infinite stories, whereas Ethan's story, a finite one, can't sustain a publishing format suited to infinite stories? Interesting.

Things finish up tomorrow. Sort of.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1835: Hard Time Season 2 #4, May 2006

Cindy's back story! She is such a fascinating character, occupying a very central yet liminal space in the jail. Her story is unsurprising in a lot of ways, being the story of so, so many queer kids. A mother that cannot accept her child's difference, the people at school cannot accept her difference, and it really is only in the prison that Cindy is allowed to be who she is. There's still cruelty, but in a microcosm of broken and damaged people, Cindy's particular difference is benign. As it should really have been on the outside too.

The Cutter story appears to be ramping up, and will hopefully have a satisfying(ish) ending in the next 2 issues. The final issue bears the label "49 Years Later," mocked up to look like the "1 Year Later" label that followed Infinite Crisis, which was occurring in the DCU at the same time as Hard Time, so I imagine any hanging threads of the current story will have to be dealt with before that final issue. I hope that any hanging threads of the current story will be dealt with. I'm still convinced that there are some of the ideas of Omega being dealt with in this series, though the setting skews things a bit.

My brain is not processing things properly today, I don't think. It's taking me ages to type this, and I'm not really saying anything.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1834: Hard Time Season 2 #3, April 2006

Things are getting more and more weird in the state Pen. With the arrival of Cutter, a serial killer covered in scars, we seem to be getting an opposite number to Ethan's psychic force, one that revolves around evil rather than good. And Ethan is, for all his 16 year old angst and attitude, a good person. Most bullied kids actually are, though the reaction to the bullying can often set them on a path toward repeating their abuse.

Ethan's psychic emanation reacts very poorly to Cutter's presence, and as Fruitcake Mullins suggests, it is because Cutter actually is evil. He puts forth that most of the inmates don't fall into that classification, in that they're cruel and mean, perhaps, but ultimately still possess some level of humanity within them. Mullins does not think the same of Cutter, and Ethan's reaction to him seems to bear this out. Which makes the final few pages of this comic much more disturbing, as Cutter performs what we could almost read as an initiation ceremony on Cindy, bringing her and another inmate, Hardin, into his orbit. Some of the language that Cutter uses hearkens back to ritual magic and practice - I feel like he might have linked somehow to Ethan's ancient lineage, had the series continued.

And who knows? Maybe he still will, but it'll have to happen over the course of the next 4 issues.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1833: Hard Time Season 2 #2, March 2006

Today's issue was much more prison drama than metaphysical action adventure. Ethan learns the hard way (which seems to be the norm for him) that even if you follow the rules of the penitentiary, you can sometimes lose.

The story, as with yesterday's, seemed much more about the establishment of the setting and situation than it was about furthering the plot. Much is made of the arrival of Cutter, a "celebrity" serial killer, who only shows up on the last page, and appears to portend trouble for our superpowered stalwart. Again, I'm sure that much of what we're being told was meant to play out over the course of much more than 7 issues, so I'm trying to read the series as if I didn't know it was cancelled prematurely.

Not so easy.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1832: Hard Time Season 2 #1, February 2006

Okay, I lied. I was really pumped to see what happens next, despite the surprisingly good Spider-Man comic I read yesterday.

It's hard to say how long is meant to have passed between the end of the previous series and the beginning of this one. Not too long, as Ethan is still 16, but I get the sense that a bit more time has passed, in that Ethan now seems to be much more in control of his spiritual body than we've seen previously.

This issue was basically a retelling of the first issue of the first series, in order, I have to imagine, to get new readers up to speed. This is a weird choice, in some ways, as we live in a world of trade paperback collections and ample back issue bins - and as the series is subtitled "Season 2," you'd think those interested might do a bit of research. That said, TPBs and back issues aren't always economically available to everyone, so perhaps the recap is necessary. Of course, because Mr. Gerber and Ms. Skrenes are very capable writers, the recap actually gives us some information that we previously had not seen. I'll admit, it was kind of a difficult comic to read. It's a pretty stark depiction of middle to high school bullying.

I was bullied as a kid. It might be a tough thing to wrap one's head around nowadays, as I'm a 6'2" white male, and I'm pretty large and imposing. And, to be fair, I've always been one of the tall kids. But I've also always been one of the sensitive and intellectual kids, and those kids are easy prey for bullies. Add to the horrific mixture of high school an extremely homophobic societal atmosphere, and a young person trying to figure out their sexual identity, and it's a pretty good recipe for bullying. I still deal with it, even today, though I like to think I've made some progress over the last few years. I can't stand bullies. I know we're supposed to pity them, that they're likely getting mistreated themselves in some aspect of their lives. But I've seen bullying ruin lives, up close, and I'm shocked that it's still so prevalent in pubescent culture. We can do better - we simply have to be willing to tell boys no every now and again. And girls, I suppose. All teenagers can be cruel.

I am excited/saddened to read the next six issues. I think Ethan's story could have been epic if it had been given the life span it deserved.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1830: Hard Time #12, March 2005

Well, that doesn't bode well for Year 6. A busy week at work. Apologies.

Ethan's birthday is rife with portent. If Fruitcake Mullins is to be believed, the tone of the series has dramatically shifted. Ethan has asserted some control over the force, stepping into a story much bigger than his own. The difficulty now lies in the fact that the second series only runs 7 issues, and Mr. Gerber has since passed away. Hopefully he gets a chance to tell Ethan's story in a relatively satisfying manner, though not nearly so satisfying as a longer run might have been.

I begin to wonder if Hard Time might be playing with some of the ideas that Gerber and his writing partner Mary Skrenes (who co-wrote this series too) had with regard to Omega the Unknown. There's an interesting parallel to be called between Omega and James-Michael, and Ethan and the Red Force. Both young men are mature for their age, precocious, and sense a strange affinity for a semi-voiceless super-powered force. Could it be that in Omega, James-Michael may have come to realize that he was controlling Omega? Or perhaps Omega and James-Michael's stories would have reached back into ancient Earth history, and shown them to be products of an ancient technological culture? Given Ms. Skrenes' involvement, I don't think it's that big a leap. Now I'll have to go back and read Omega and see if there's any indicators.

Taking a short break from Hard Time, just a few days, and then back to Ethan's story.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1826: Hard Time #8, November 2004

Welcome to Year 6!

If indeed this project takes me 40 years, then I am one eighth finished - not a huge chunk, but definitely a significant fraction. I was going to read something special, a key issue from the collection, or something important to me, but I really just wanted to keep reading this story. It's very good.

A strange thing happens in today's comic, though - it seems that Ethan has become aware of his ability to astral project somehow. Indeed, we now find out that the red spirit is Ethan's astral projection, though it's only been hinted that that's what it is up to this point. For me, this was a moment of puzzlement in the story. Ethan hasn't been show to even have any awareness of the spirit, or of it's nocturnal activities, but now he's talking about projecting ("tripping") and has memories of the things he's seeing. I feel like there was a step of logic that was skipped here, and I can't for the life of me think of a reason why. Perhaps we'll get a flashback in the next issue to Ethan's discovery of this power, or perhaps we're simply to understand that his time in solitary has given him some insight into what's happening in the prison.

This coming year, I'm hoping to read from a really wide variety of publishers. I feel like I was a bit mainstream over the last year, and as I'm going through and revamping my sorting system, I'm coming across lots of really cool things from lots of really cool places. I hope I'll have an opportunity to share them with you over the next little while. But, for now, we're going to stick with this odd and interesting emanation from Steve Gerber's mind, at least until the end of Season 1.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1825: Hard Time #7, October 2004

The final comic of year 5 takes us into the lives of some of the other inmates to share Ethan's cell block. Some characters came in with Ethan, some were there before him, and all have stories. Turo, Cole, Deshonn, and Cindy are all featured in today's issue, perhaps signalling that these are characters who will play larger roles in Ethan's story than the rest of the inmates. Ethan, of course, is absent from today's issue as he spends his 30 days in solitary confinement.

I've not much to say about the issue, except that it offers some development of characters that, had we not had an issue like this one, may have remained a little less three dimensional than they now appear. I'm fascinated by the character of Cindy, who is simply accepted for herself by all of the inmates, showing a tolerance that is often absent outside of the prison setting. How accurate this is to real life, I'm not sure, nor do I hope to find out. Except, perhaps, academically.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1821: Hard Time #6, September 2004

While the series isn't really broken into what we might call discrete arcs, a number of the ongoing plot threads come to a head in this issue. Well, at least one very important one, to do with Gantry, the evangelical preacher who is a pervasive presence of the cell block. A few issues earlier, Gantry executes a pedophile, ostensibly in the name of God, and since has had his eyes on Ethan, whom he suspects of harbouring a demonic presence. Which, for all we know, he might.

Gantry's comeuppance in this issue speaks once again to the wish-fulfillment aspect of the series - Ethan manages to circumvent prison rules and makes a fairly technologically-sophisticated weapon in the toilet section of his cell, using it to fend off Gantry. Somewhat permanently, if we're to be honest. And again, I like it because if definitely feeds into some of the thoughts and beliefs I've always had about myself. But something about Ethan's situation makes those thoughts and beliefs seem ridiculous. How plausible is it that someone like Ethan, of for that matter someone like me, could survive, and even to a certain extent flourish, in a place like a penitentiary?

Now, all this said, I'm sure that the portrayal of prison that we are exposed to in media is quite unlike what actually happens inside such an institution. We need our drama in our media, so of course we have protagonists like Ethan. There are no protagonists in real life, at least not protagonists with the kinds of resources and, let's be honest, luck that Ethan has. Which will not stop me, at all, from enjoying the fantastic nature of his ability to survive prison.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1820: Hard Time #5, August 2004

The strange occurrences in the penitentiary continue, and, true to the fashion of fantasy/horror/supernatural universes, the reaction isn't quite what one would expect. I think that an entire cell block being toilet-papered might prompt a slightly more intensive investigation, rather than a basic keep your eyes open, see who's doing this. I think that there's a strange push in such settings for people to find the most rational excuse for the irrational occurrences, as that makes the irrational stand out more. Or something.

I'm enjoying the fact that Ethan's story is more about his acclimatization to prison than to his having superpowers, or whatever the red spectre is. Though I get the sense that the powers will come more to the fore later in the series, it's the trials and tribulations of his cellmates that offers the real drama of the piece. In today's issue, for example, the Aryans get tired of waiting for Ethan to come clean about an attack on one of their people, and he is roundly punished for it. Add to this the suspicions of a number of his prison mates that he harbours some kind of demonic entity, and this poor teenager's life is just the worst. But Ethan is a protagonist - he's full of intelligence and ideas and can somehow hold his own against hardened criminals who, in many cases, are at least both twice his height and age. As I said in an earlier post, there's definitely something of the bullied kid wish fulfillment going on here. Not that I mind. It's fulfilling a few of my wishes, I must admit.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1819: Hard Time #4, July 2004

How is it that every time I read a Steve Gerber comic, I've somehow forgotten what a great writer he was? This comic is just excellent, and I'm not generally a fan of jailhouse fiction. Perhaps it's the supernatural element, though, honestly, it doesn't play a huge role in what I'm loving about the series. Mostly it's Ethan, who definitely is embodying the kind of fantasy life in which a bullied person like myself used to (and to a certain extent, still does) indulge in. He's the kid who was picked on so much that he's actually developed skills enough to survive prison. At 15. I will admit that there's still a small part in my head that tells me that all the slings and arrows I suffered in school have prepared me to be a total badass in life, like I can take anything that gets thrown at me. Sadly, bullying simply breaks people - it doesn't make them superheroes somehow. But something tells me, and this is not just an insight gleaned from Hard Time, that Mr. Gerber might have suffered a bit at the hands of bullies too.

I do have a concern about the series, though. Thus far, 4 issues in, we're only maybe 4 days into Ethan's sentence. While I appreciate that there's a large amount of drama to be had around the introduction to a new and dangerous environment, and around the supernatural occurrences in the jail, Ethan's sentence is for 50 years, and I wonder how much of that we're likely to see if there's no bouncing forward in time. Now, I know the series doesn't last long. It got 19 issues total, including the second season, and the final issue leaps ahead to the end of Ethan's sentence. If that's the case, and the plan was always for Ethan to serve out the whole of the sentence, then we need to see the introductory arc wrapped soon and time jumping ahead. I've noted before my dislike for the propensity of new series, and sometimes new creative teams, feeling like they need a 6-issue introductory arc to get things rolling. If you're an unproven commodity, expecting a reader in this economic climate (not that different from the climate in 2004) to invest 6 months of their time and money in a property is too much. Give the readers a one-shot or two, maybe a 2 or 3-issue arc, and then dive into the longer, half-year stories. That's perhaps what gets lost in the writing process. It's easy (not really) to write a long story, but then you're experiencing it all at once, as a whole. But the reading public is experiencing that over the course of half a year, if the series maintains a monthly publishing schedule. Imagine following a bi-monthly series for 6 issues. That's whole year commitment to a series that one might not be sure one will follow any further.

Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke do it right at the beginning of their JLA run, starting with issue 61. The one-shot introduces their particular take on the team and line-up, and then jumps into a 3-issue arc as follow-up. That said, I never did keep reading Kelly's run, and I probably should have as I quite like his Superman work. A project for a later date, perhaps.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1818: Hard Time #3, June 2004

2 days in and Ethan is making too many mistakes. This may sound obvious, but the will to go against the rules in support of what he believes is right is what makes him a protagonist, really. Background characters very rarely do things that we don't expect of them. Where we have to start asking questions is whether Ethan, as rule-ignoring protagonist, is heroic or villainous. In a setting, narrative and literal, like the one he inhabits, anti-hero is perhaps the best we can hope for. Ethan has a fairly strong moral compass, a trait I see in virtually everyone I know who was bullied, but he's also in an environment that privileges might over right.

The whole series, as do many series set in prisons, is functioning as an indictment of what many see as a broken justice system. This applies not just to the American system that we're seeing, but the Canadian one as well. The first issue, and the series by implication, is also asking us to think about the education and firearms systems in place in the U.S. But another thing the comic is thinking about is the idea of nature versus nurture. Given an adolescent boy who is developing superpowers after a traumatic experience (of his own making, but traumatic nonetheless), what effect does environment have on his moral development? Hero or villain? There is part of me that could imagine this story taking place in the Marvel Universe - Ethan's story could very easily be the story of a mutant in that fictional universe, though maybe in the 80s or 90s, rather than the mutant heyday that we find ourselves in nowadays.

Another aspect of the series that I'm kind of fascinated by is the character of Cindy. She's a femme, hooked up with one of the Aryans for protection, and living her life in as feminine a way as possible. The series is 16 years old, so some of the language around this character is likely to be outdated, but Mr. Gerber has been writing his way around such issues since his days on Man-Thing and Howard, so appropriate language or not, I'm hoping for an interesting portrayal. But this raises a concern (as does the shower beating in this issue) around all of the characters: aside from Ethan, we're not 100% sure why each character is incarcerated. Lewis, another of the new intakes that we met last issue, turns out to have raped and murdered a little black girl, hence his beating at the hands of the POC in the prison this issue. So much as we're trying to find characters with whom to identify, with whom to experience the story, there's a good chance that some of them have committed really heinous acts. So what happens when we come to identify with a character, and then find out what they did? Perhaps it allows us to consider that people are truly multi-faceted, and might have sides of themselves that we recognize, despite the horrors of their other faces.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1817: Hard Time #2, May 2004

Ethan enters prison, and his first day is every bit as harrowing as you might expect.

What I find interesting about his character is that he's a kid who's been bullied all his life. The set-up in the first issue is that his friend is a geek who has been picked on, and Ethan too has been bullied due to his short stature. As a result, the bullying he endures on the bus ride to the penitentiary, and to a certain extent on that first day, is nothing to him, and he reacts to it the same way he reacted to bullying at school. The problem is that his reactions might well get him killed in prison.

Though there was a chance he'd get killed in school by a shooter, if the way the story begins is anything to go by. And, speaking as someone who was bullied for most of school, it can begin to feel like a prison. I think there's some really interesting parallels to be explored here.

The weird energy being makes an appearance at the end of today's comic. I'm not sure if it's subconsciously controlled by Ethan or if it has more of an independent, Negative Man-vibe to it. Regardless, if Ethan's sleeping expression is anything to go by, there's some sort of psychic and emotional connection between the two.

Once again, just let me laud Steve Gerber's writing. At no point do any of the characters feel wooden, nor does their dialogue come off as expository or unnecessary. I have to assume that Gerber never spent any time in a penitentiary like the one in the comic, but he seems to have a good feel for not only the ways in which people interact there, but also the oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere of the institution itself.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1816: Hard Time #1, April 2004

I've had this series in my Gerber collection for a while now, and I figured it was time to get to reading it. The premise is a dark one - a young man, unpopular in high school, is part of a prank to scare all the popular kids by bringing guns to school, ostensibly loaded with blanks. It turns out his partner has more homicidal ideas, and starts opening fire on his schoolmates. A strange energy emanates from Ethan, our hero, ripping the shooter's heart from his chest.

And then he gets given 50 years in jail for his part in the crime. And he's only 15 years old.

This is not going to be a happy comic. I'm curious about this strange energy - I know that part of the set up is Ethan's discovery of these powers after the fact of his incarceration. I'd forgotten that he was a school shooter. It's a strange kind of character to try to have sympathy for, even though he had never meant for anyone to be killed. But that's just the beginning of his story, and unlike many school shooters, there is more to Ethan's story.

The series runs two "seasons," 19 issues total. It's nice to read some Steve Gerber again. He just has this wonderful way with words and pictures.

More to follow.

Look What I Just Found! - Man-Thing Appears in Guardians of the Galaxy!

Maybe someone else has seen this, but I couldn't find anything online about it. In the end credits sequence for Guardians of the Galaxy, we see one of my favourite characters, Howard the Duck. Howard first appeared in the series Adventure Into Fear when it was the primary vehicle for Man-Thing, a character that's far more interesting and far less sexual than he sounds.

Here's what he looks like:

In the post-credits sequence, we pan down on the Collector sipping a drink and getting licked by Laika. But have a look at what's in the top left of the screen:

Here's a closer look:

(Note - edited May 22 - tried to enhance the picture a bit.)

I don't know about you, but that certainly looks like Man-Thing's eyes and nose, and it definitely looks like a plant.

Both Howard and Man-Thing had their heydays under the auspices of the amazing Steve Gerber. His runs on both titles are near the top of my recommendation list. Actually, the Guardians' first substantial run was written by him too, though they were a very different team. Definitely a writer worth checking into.

Keep Reading?

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1234: Giant-Size Man-Thing #4, May 1975

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1248: Howard the Duck #9, February 1977

Weird Worlds: The Minor Mainstream Works of Steve Gerber, Part 1 – Dr. Fate

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 27: Vampire Tales #6, August 1974

My quest to read all things Gerber led me into an area of Marvel's legacy that is completely esoteric to me - fittingly, perhaps. The Marvel horror magazines of this era never held much draw for me as a kid, when they were in their dotage, and the older stuff was just never available enough to even register on my pre-pubescent brain. If is wasn't superheroes or Transformers, I wasn't interested.

In today's issue, we have the first story of Lilith, the daughter of Dracula, plotted by Marv Wolfman and dialogued by Mr. Gerber. It's an interesting way of writing. If I understand the Marvel method, Wolfman would have plotted it, given it to Bob Brown, who would have drawn it, and then it would have gone to Gerber, who would dialogue the art according to the plot. I guess it makes more sense if the same person plots and scripts, but when it's someone else, that would be strange. Conversely, perhaps that's a more truly representative way of thinking about the collaborative process of comics. The dialogue is provided after the story has been told. Though I imagine Brown would be thinking about speech bubble placement while he was drawing.

It's not a collaboration that I see in contemporary comics that much, except perhaps in cases where a writer has...um...unexpectedly departed a title, where they might be credited with the story, along with a fill-in scripter.

So, as far as a Gerber piece, it was middling. Lilith is a nicely feminist character, despite her typical superheroine garb, but the stories really are pretty run of the mill. The same goes for the other tales in here, all interesting takes on vampires, but nothing that leapt out at me. Maybe that's a good thing in a vampire comic ;D

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1277: The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel, April 2007

I don't really have a lot to say about this comic, though once I finally get around to writing my book about Steve Gerber, I'll say more. This is kind of an intro to Gerber's final series, Countdown to Mystery. The end text claims that there will be a new Gerber-written Doctor Fate series after this comic, but I think Mr. Gerber's health problems probably changed these plans.

Zauriel is a great character. I really like him, though I'm actually not certain of his fate after the 3(?) reboots since this comic.

More to come...