Void Indigo issue 2

Void Indigo
by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik
issue 2, March, 1985
Marvel / Epic

The fact that it takes four months for the second issue of Void Indigo to appear suggests (correctly) that this title is in trouble....and Indigo was indeed cancelled after this second issue was released.

It's not too hard to see why Marvel's management decided to pull the plug. Gerber's plotting for the second issue is even more incoherent than what what he provided for the first issue. And Val Mayerik's artwork is even more rushed and makeshift (is the drawing of the girl in the bearskin dress on page 8 an example of truly awful foreshortening.....or does she really have a Giant Head ?!).

But.....the California craziness continues unabated: we have a nude hand-to-hand combat with a naked fire-angel (?!); a doctor gets all the skin on his hand burned off; there is a super-cheesy out-of-the body-segment involving Linette (who, of course, is nude); and the book's final page is a LOL experience......toss in truly bad 80s fashions.......and all of it makes me wish the final four issues had indeed been published in those long-ago days of 1985......

Hive by Paul Kirchner

'Hive' by Paul Kirchner
from Heavy Metal magazine, January 1980

A classic from the Old School days of HM.....it does more with its 7 pages than entire comic books do with 22 pages, nowadays. Note the use of the external narration to inform the reader what is taking place, and the care with which the dialogue is used in a sparing manner in order to advance the story. These skills are sorely lacking in many contemporary comic books, where external narration is regarded as aiding and abetting the sin of 'telling rather than showing'.......

Book Review: Joshua, Son of None

Book Review: 'Joshua, Son of None' by Nancy Freedman

2 / 5 Stars

'Joshua, Son of None' first was published in 1973 in hardback; this Dell paperback (237 pp) was published in August, 1974.

The book's main premise is laid out on the first page, so it's not spoiling anything to say that it involves the cloning of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

'Joshua' starts its narrative in the afternoon of November 22, 1963. Thor Bitterbaum is a young resident at Dallas's Parkland Hospital; just as he is departing his shift, a Lincoln convertible veers into the hospital's emergency room driveway.....its back seat a 'slaughterhouse'. Bitterbaum is recruited to administer emergency care to the dying President. He quickly realizes that Kennedy is beyond saving, and the unique promise that JFK held for the future of America, and the future of the entire World, is Gone. 

Then an idea forms in Thor Bitterbaum's traumatized mind: can recent research into cell biology and embryology be leveraged for a holy and righteous cause......the cloning of JFK ?

Bitterbaum covertly samples some tissue from the dying man's tracheotomy, flash-freezes the sample, and places it in storage......and then sets off a momentous task to find a man with the wealth, vision, and willingness to fund the cloning.

After careful deliberation, Thor BItterbaum finds a patron, the magnate Gerald Kellogg. With the aid of a surrogate mother, the infant - christened Joshua Francis Kellogg - is born. Then begins the most difficult part of the entire experiment: raising Joshua in such a manner as to duplicate all of the critical events of his donor's life, thus preparing him for his role as Savior of Mankind. These efforts dominate most of the book's middle chapters.

As Joshua reaches manhood in the early 1980s, and everyone comments on his startling resemblance to the late JFK, concealing the truth of his origins become harder and harder to maintain. Gerald Kellogg's covert efforts to manipulate the life of his adopted son become ever more calculating and amoral. However much Thor Bitterbaum rues these actions, he finds he cannot contradict them....and the biggest subterfuge in modern history comes to its fateful conclusion.........

In 1973, the year 'Joshua' was written, JFK still was a secular saint in the consciousness of the American psyche. Accordingly, modern readers are going to have to negotiate page after page of a reverential, even worshipful, treatment of what we now know is the Mythology of Camelot; this tends to dilute the narrative of any real tension, since everything the clone does is Kind and Good. Indeed, reading 'Joshua' is simply a matter of observing a series of incidents designed to showcase the courage, fortitude, thoughtfulness, compassion, and selflessness of the reincarnated JFK.

The book's main drawback is author Freedman's regular use of extended passages of figurative prose designed to impart a kind of mystical, other-worldly Sense of Destiny to the actions of Bitterbaum and later, Joshua. The stilted, self-consciously 'poetic' wording of these passages makes them awkward and unrewarding to read.

The novel does have some near-future sf content, which is couched in decidedly optimistic terms; this is in keeping with the theme of JFK as the Man of the Future, a new paradigm for not just American, but World, governance.

Summing up, 'Joshua, Son of None' has an interesting premise, but when all is said and done, it is simply another wistful, starry-eyed examination of The New Frontier that Could Have Been. I really can't recommend it for anyone other than those with a dedication to the sf subgenre of 'cloning' novels.

Batman: Digital Justice

Batman: Digital Justice
by Pepe Moreno
DC, 1990

 

It was 30 years ago next month (i.e., March, 1985) that the first 'digital' comic strip, Shatter, was published in the PC magazine Big K............

In December of that year, First Comics released the first issue of a dedicated Shatter color comic book series, which eventually lasted for 14 issues.

Marvel, noticing the high sales of the initial issues of Shatter, hired its artist, Mike Saenz, to produce Iron Man: Crash in 1988. Crash was advertised as the 'world's first digital graphic novel.'

DC eventually entered the digital comics market two years later, with its own graphic novel, 'Batman: Digital Justice.'

As indicated in the jacket flap, 'Justice' was composed on a Mac II with 8 MB of RAM, 45 MB of hard disk space, and a Trinitron 19 inch monitor ....a high-end setup for the late 80s !

Pepe Moreno, author and artist of 80s comics favorites like 'Rebel' and 'Generation Zero', took a year to complete 'Justice.' Given that Moreno was a more accomplished artist than Saenz, and was working with more advanced computing equipment, 'Justice' - not surprisingly - is the better-looking of these early digital comics.

'Justice' is set in the early 21st century; a time when hardly anyone remembers the legend of a caped crusader named Batman. Law enforcement in Gotham City has been modernized, relying on a system of ubiquitous, hovering drones to deter crime and punish evildoers.

James Gordon's grandson - also named James - is a sergeant on Gotham's police force. As 'Justice' opens, Gordon is in plainclothes, and pursuing an illicit drug transaction, when a drone lays waste to perps and police alike.

Outraged, Gordon starts an investigation of the drone's programming, which leads to a direct rebuke from his superior officers. Continuing his investigation through covert channels, Gordon discovers that a rogue AI - the digital embodiment of the long-ago super villain 'The Joker' - is in control of the city's computer network.

Stymied by a bureaucratic coverup, corruption in City Hall, and the deaths of close friends and associates, James Gordon finds himself alone and embattled......

However, when he pokes through some of his grandfather's old files, Gordon comes across knowledge that may turn the tables on the Joker.....knowledge about the legend of Batman........

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that Batman - and a reincarnated Robin, and a reincarnated Catwoman - will soon be dispensing digital justice on the evil forces, digital and 'real', besieging Gotham City.

To anyone under 30, obviously the computer-drawn and colored artwork in 'Justice' is going to appear crude. However, if you are willing to make allowances for the limitations of the technology at that time (keep in mind that today's XBox One is a more powerful PC than anything available in 1989), you will find that Moreno succeeds in giving 'Justice' a unique look and atmosphere, and the graphic novel retains its artistic appeal even to the present day.

Copies of 'Batman: Digital Justice' can be obtained for reasonable prices from your usual online vendors (I got mine for $5, from the discount bins at my local comics shop). It's well worth picking up.

Epic Illustrated February 1983

Epic Illustrated 
February, 1983
No. 16

February, 1983, and the latest issue of Marvel's Epic Illustrated showcases former Marvel / Conan the Barbarian artist Barry Windsor-Smith; the cover art is titled 'Self Portrait with Wings'. 

Smith's meticulous artwork and colors are finally well-served by a Marvel publication, in terms reduced editorial oversight; quality resolution and color separations; and the choice of 'slick' grade paper.

Archie Goodwin's 'Overview' column praises 'The Beguiling', one of several Windsor-Smith features in this issue. 

'The Beguiling' represents Windsor-Smith's fascination and admiration with the Pre-Raphaelite artist school of 19th century Britain, and Edward Byrne-Jones in particular. Up until the late 60s the Pre-Raphaelite artists had been utterly ignored - even dismissed - by the art establishment, but in part due to the efforts of artists like Windsor-Smith, a new appreciation for the school had gained momentum.

Smith's artwork is a homage to Byrne-Jones's masterpiece, the four-painting series titled 'The Legend of the Briar Rose' (1885 - 1890); this one is titled 'The Briar Wood'.

Posted below is 'The Beguiling'. A case could be made that this was one of the high points not just in the publishing history of Epic Illustrated, but in American comic art / graphic art of the 1980s.........