The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 158: Adventurers v.2 #6, November 1988

As we come to the end of Adventurers, at least from the perspective of my own collection, I'll admit that the characters that I was vastly unsure of when I began the series have grown on my in ways I did not expect. I see from the listings at the Grand Comics Database that the series actually continued for quite some time after the second volume, and I think I'll be keeping my eyes open for further issues. But I'll leave the intrepid heroes here for a while, stuck in the immanence of a holy war, stranded in a jungle full of Chaos beasts, but still hopeful. There is a wonderful moment in this issue where Shadolock, who I'm really beginning to see as the focal character of the series, expresses his gratitude for the friendship of a tracker who came along on the expedition into the jungle, hoping for "everyone to know friendship like this." We see moments in comics that are declarations of love, or of fidelity to an idea or institution, but it's rare to see declarations of friendship, words that verge on describing how important some friends can be to us. We use the word "love" when speaking of family or of significant others and acknowledge that it is a word that binds up within itself so many things that we find we cannot speak. "Love" is the closest we can come to describing the indescribable. And there are those who think that the word is used too often, that it should, because it means so much, be used sparingly. I am of the same opinion of the word "friend." To have a friend, a true friend, is arguably as important a relationship as having a lover. Friends are people that you fundamentally count upon, the family that we choose instead of that into which we are born. It is a word that is used very liberally, and I often wonder if its importance is diluted in its overuse. But here, in this issue of Adventurers, Shadolock utters his declaration of friendship with all the solemnity and celebration of the vows of a wedding. He acknowledges the deep importance of friendships, of the bonds we have with our friends that we don't often speak aloud.

For that, despite my qualms with the series, Adventurers secures itself a place in my heart. What will tomorrow bring? No idea, but I'll see you there.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 157: Adventurers v.2 #5, August 1988

We're coming up to the end of my Adventurers collection, and I must admit I'll be sad to leave these characters behind. The five adventurers who survived volume 1 are all coming through this series intact, though I would not put it past the writers to pull off a final act slaughter. In many ways it reminds me of the Game of Thrones TV show (I've not read the books), in that I can't rest easy in the knowledge that the characters I've come to care about are somehow safe from a bloody death. Even in this issue, the noble Shadolok comes pretty close, and I was pretty unhappy about that fact. Thank goodness (or, I suppose, evilness) for the Man-Gods of the lost city.

I love when I get to type sentences like that last one.

The political action continues to take precedence in the book, even to the point of inflecting what was previously the adventurous part of the story. Having escaped the lost city, and having retrieved the Grail of Darkness, alliances are formed in preparation for the return to the city of Liam, where I have to assume the final showdown with the forces of the war God Baal will happen. I have to make that assumption because I don't have the last 3 issues of the series. Though I was fairly critical of the first volume of this title, I'll admit that it's now on a list of comics that, should I come across the issues I'm missing, I'll probably pick up. While I may have had my qualms about some of the early characterization, and the strangely uneven art, I've actually come to like a few of the characters. I've wondered a few times if this is one of those series that might have worked better being published as graphic novels, rather than periodically. Each issue does end on a cliffhanger of sort, thus bringing readers back, but I think that if I had sat down and read the whole story at once, the development of the characters would have made more sense. If you recall, I was concerned that all of the characters were unlikable, and I think this stemmed from the breaks between reading issues, even if it was only a day or so. A sustained look at each character, over the course of a 100-page book, rather than a 20-page comic, might have shown the subtlety of the character development in a way that would have flowed naturally into where they are now, rather than in fits and starts.

Not sure if that makes sense. It did in my head, but it's pretty early in the morning still!

I think we'll be finishing up Adventurers tomorrow, and then sitting behind that in the collection is a huge run of Alpha Flight. I'll have to figure out the best way to make our way through that. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 156: Adventurers v.2 #4, June 1988

This volume of Adventurers is really pretty great. Where the first volume dabbled slightly in politics and religion, this second one is centered very heavily on the ways in which these forces interact and clash in the fictional world. It's, sometimes, as if the story starring the eponymous group is secondary to the intrigues between the followers of Baal and those of Accuris, and their jockeying for position in the cities of the continent.

That said, there's some really great characterization going on in this volume, especially from the more secondary characters. Noble foot soldiers, useless noble officers, a slightly-mad priestess, and a pompous commanding officer make a nice backdrop for our focal characters, and perhaps offers some contrast to the very self-involved feel I got from them in the first volume. The are who they are because of the world the live in, a world that sometimes needs one to be self-involved, and very often requires that one not suffer fools gladly.

I'll make one specific mention of a character here, because he's the one I'm enjoying the most this time around: Coron, the follower of Accuris, the Death God. He's evil, and conniving, and a thoroughly despicable character, but he manages to do it with such joy in his heart that it's very difficult to not like him. I mean, he's a bad guy, but he really seems to enjoy being a bad guy, and it's hard to fault someone for doing what makes them happy.

(Okay, that's no even remotely true. But in a fiction like this, it's a little easier to take.)

Carrying on with Adventurers tomorrow. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 155: Adventurers v.2 #3, April 1988

A short one today. You know in movies where there's the scenes in which the main characters make their way from point A to point B, and in the special edition director's cut (Yes, Peter Jackson, I'm looking at you), that scene seems to take up about half an hour and there's a majestic score, and lots of walking, but really not much else? This issue of Adventurers was like that, only a bit more interesting and less musical. This was a movement issue, getting characters from point A to point B, either in a literal or narrative fashion. The world is fleshed out a bit, the stakes are delineated, but there's not a lot of action, but a lot of interaction.

I have, however, decided that I like the art in the first volume more than the second volume. I noted in my earlier reviews that the art seemed to fluctuate between hyper-real and caricature, and with the original art style, it kind of worked. But with an inker over Burles' pencils, the disparity between the two is far too great, and moments of suspense, in which the caricatured style of solo Burles would have come across as sinister are here faintly ridiculous. That said, it's only issue 3, so perhaps the team is still working out the kinks.

Also, with regard to art, that's a great cover. So very pulp fiction. I love it. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 154: Adventurers v.2 #2, March 1988

I am unfortunately not in possession of Adventurers v.2 #1. Either of them. It turns out that there were two different editions of the first issue produced, each featuring different story pages. I'm not sure what to make of this kind of marketing. To my mind, producing one over-sized first issue would be the way to go, including all of the introductory material. The "limited" version was released two weeks earlier, and featured character bios and an introduction not featured in the "regular" edition.

That said, each issue of Adventurers, thus far, has featured a comprehensive "The Story Thus Far" section, making jumping into the story remarkably easy. I know I was a bit hard on this title the last time I was reviewing it, but meeting up with these characters again was actually quite nice. I am curious as to what has occurred in each character's life to get them to the point of reuniting once more, as this story takes place some years after the first volume of the series. But in the absence of that information, to simply see a maturation in each character attests to the care given to the story by the creative team.

The art in this volume is far less-shadowy than the original run, owing I would imagine to the addition of inker Steve Stiles to Kent Burles' art. I'm not quite convinced it's as effective as Burles' solo art, but I'm willing to give it a go.

As our intrepid heroes push on into a jungle filled with Chaos Beasts, so do I push on into the collection. Coming up on half a year of this project, and I'm still finding cool things to read, and not losing my enthusiasm. I've a few more theme weeks in the works, mainly to cover myself once I return to teaching in the Fall. Again, I'd like to offer my thanks to those of you who pop by and give me ramblings a once over, and to once again open the floor up to suggestions of features you might like to see, or perspectives on the comics you might want to hear.

See you tomorrow.