The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1920: Legionnaires #20, December 1994

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 Sadly, the Legion titles in this era appear to be doing the same thing the Superman titles did, and they continue their stories between series, the rest of this one being told in Legion of Superheroes. It pisses me off when companies do this. This, to me, is simply a way to force your readers to spend more of their money on your product, even though it's got to be plain to those in charge that many comics fans can't possibly afford such things. I was annoyed by it when Marvel decided that some of their comics would be published twice a month. The 90s Superman titles were the most egregious, stretching their stories over 3 (4?) monthly titles. For me, had I been collecting at the time and interested in Superman, this would have meant that I couldn't afford any other comics. Four continuing titles a month on one character (I'm looking at you, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine) is just too much.

That said, the Legionnaires are successful in keeping Mano from blowing up the Moon, so let's call it a win.

One thing I am finding kind of intriguing about this LoSH future is that it's really not that different, socially, from our own time. Money still seems to be the driving force in the universe, governments appear to not be able to be trusted. I would have hoped we'd iron these particular problems out once we became an interstellar culture, but perhaps we're just not that smart. The number of people I've seen in the last few days just completely ignoring physical distancing or any other safety measures is frightening.

*sigh*

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1919: Legionnaires #19, November 1994

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

It seems this story takes place in a soft reboot of the Legion, and focuses on Xs, a version of whom recently featured in The Flash television series. What I'm finding interesting is that the Nora Allen version of the character is actually my introduction to Xs, so this new old version is a bit off-putting. But that's just the way it is with superhero stories.

That aside, we join the story in the wake of a death, that of Kid Quantum, who I read a little bit yesterday. There was a lot of backstory stuff going on with the government that I didn't quite get, but Tom Peyer did what Tom Peyer does really well and there was some amazing dialogue in this issue. He's one of those writers who doesn't get the attention he ought to (though with The Wrong Earth, I would hope that changes), but he has a really deep and subtle understanding of the superhero. Hourman is just bloody brilliant.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1374: High Heaven #3, 2018

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1373: Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror #2, 2018

Ahoy Comics continues to crush it with every issue published.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1356: Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror #1, 2018

I hadn't realized, but I really have been tracing a bit of a lineage over the last few days.

One thing I haven't mentioned about the Moon Girl replicas is that they start with #5 because the very first EC horror story appears in it. So Moon Girl is the progenitor of the magazines that we see in the Vault of Horror reprint series. As I noted when I talked about that comic, Bruce Jones' Twisted Tales keeps the EC horror tradition alive through the waning years of the Comics Code that had ended those comics in the 50s. And now today's comic, a horror/comedy compilation, hosted by a cranky and verbose Poe, continues the tradition. It's gross, it's shocking, and, much like its earlier ancestors, it has a healthy sense of humour about itself.

I've told everyone I can to read the comics that Ahoy is putting out right now. I really am amazed at how strong every title is, and for those with multiple issues, have continued to be. There would have to be some serious, serious ball-dropping for me to lose interest in any of these titles, for which my brain is grateful, my wallet less-so.

"Dark Chocolate" - the comic opens with an adaptation of Poe's story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," and then the balance of the book is given mostly to this haunting tale of a noble, a sorrowful vampire, known across the land for not giving dinner parties, but breakfasts. His name? Count Cocoa. After reading this, you'll never eat that cereal the same way again. It really is a lovely story, seemingly amusing thanks to its liberal borrowing of mascots, but growing ever more suspenseful as the sunlight creeps across the breakfast table, and the Count's narration becomes more and more harrowing.

Seriously, just go read one of their comics. I can't imagine a fan of the medium, or just a fan of good stories, not enjoying them.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 286: The Silver Age: Doom Patrol #1, July 2000

Okay, so I didn't manage to find The Infinite Loop #5 or 6 today. I was at a comic store, but there were multiple issues of the new Howard the Duck series, and the last issue of The Surface, finally, so I got those instead.

So today we'll look at the Doom Patrol entry in Mark Waid's little love letter to the 60s, The Silver Age. Looking back over my tag list, it seems odd to me that I've only got one other issue featuring the Doom Patrol in my project thus far. They are, by far, my favourite superhero team, based almost entirely on Grant Morrison's take on the team in the late 80s. It's just that good. But what is quite lovely about having been so enamoured of that run is that I went back and bought ALL of the appearances of the Doom Patrol from their first one in My Greatest Adventure #80 up to, at the time, the final issue of the Vertigo Rachel Pollack-penned #88. They've since had 3 other series, plus a s issue mini-series in the New 52 featuring Robotman. And I think they've shown up as a back-up team in some of the newer DC stuff, but I'll be honest, I'm a little afraid to see what DC have done to my favourite characters.

This issue, though published in the waning days of the 20th century, is actually historically set about 40 years earlier, just as the Doom Patrol were coming into their own. It's set in the second phase of the Doom Patrol - you can tell by the red and white costumes - an era that saw the world's strangest heroes beginning to interact a bit more with the superhero universe around them. Not that they weren't still outcasts, but they were outcasts that were accepted by the less-outcast Justice Leagues and Teen Titans that were poster children for the Silver Age. Tom Peyer manages to capture quite nicely the feel of the dialogue and action of those early comics in this part of the crossover, though the art by Bachan doesn't quite have that Silver Age look to it. It does, however, have that weird, Doom Patrol look to it.

The story itself is sort of mediocre, especially when compared to the truly weird comics within which this story ostensibly takes place. The whole Silver Age crossover is a bit lame, but I think that that lameness is actually intentional. Comics in the 60s, especially DC superhero comics, were a bit lame. Sometimes I think it's how they differentiated themselves from the gritty drama of early Marvel comics. Sometimes I think it's because they'd been neutered by the Comics Code Authority. Regardless, at the time, Doom Patrol was charting weird waters, and I'll forever be grateful to Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani for these characters.