Warlords

Warlords
by Steve Skeates (story) and David Wenzel (art)
DC Comics, Graphic Novel No. 2, 1983

Strange as it may seem, this DC Comics graphic novel was based on an eponymous 1980 Atari video game.

Trying to visualize an 8-bit video game for the purposes of a tie-in graphic novel called for quite a bit of imagination, but writer Steve Skeates was up to the task.

While Skeates's plot stays true to the game's theme of four warlords competing for control, he uses as a lead character a troll named Dwayne:

Dwayne is not your usual fantasy hero; he's more than a little shady and conniving. Skills which come in handy when trying to play each of the four Warlords off against each other.

I won't disclose much more about the plot, save to say that it relies as much on humor and satire as it does on sword and sorcery action. It's surprisingly readable for a 64-page graphic novel based on a video game.

'Warlords' benefits quite a bit from David Wenzel's great art. It's hand-painted, or course, and holds up very well when compared with the computer-generating coloring used in today's comics. Wenzel is particularly skilled in drawing facial expressions:

Summing up, 'Warlords' is one of the better entries in the graphic novel boom of the early 80s. With used copies in good condition available for under $10, it just might be worth searching out if you are a fan of the comics of that time period. 

Ring of Roses

Ring of Roses

Das Petrou, John Watkiss, Trevor Goring,and Mike McClester

Dark Horse comics 1992 - 1993; Image Comics (graphic novel) 2004

Ring of Roses was first published by Dark Horse Comics as a four-issue limited series from November 1992 - February 1993. The series was republished in 2004, as a graphic novel compilation, by Image Comics.

As writer Das Petrou relates in the introduction to the graphic novel, in the early nineties he was an advertising writer, and he teamed up with artist Watkiss, and advertising designer Goring, to do a comic with overtones of Camus' The Plague. Petrou also was interested in incorporating a theme about secret societies (The Templars, etc.) fomenting a political conspiracy.

It's London, Summer, 1991......but an alternate London, where, in a manner akin to that outlined in Keith Robert's 'Pavane', the Catholic Church rules Great Britain.

Where Roberts had a victorious Spanish Armada serving as the vehicle for Catholic ascendancy, here, it's James the Second's victory in the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 that has enabled the Church to assume power.

It's an uneasy world, however, with what could be the First World War underway on the Continent, and a British populace increasingly discontented with Papal rule. In an effort to retain British loyalties, Pope John XXIX is visiting London on a good-will tour.

This is a London where technology has advanced only to a point equivalent to the 20s or 30s of 'our' 1991. The police and military are armed with crossbows, radio is a newfangled gadget, antibiotics have yet to be discovered, and public health, an evolving institution. 

London's population is squeezed within the city walls, and the poorer districts are filled with garbage, dilapidated housing, and rats.

Samuel Waterhouse is a prosperous lawyer (er, barrister) who moves within the aristocratic circles of London society and politics. When ten priests go missing on the eve of the Pontiff's visit, a group of clerics ask Waterhouse to do some impromptu detective work. 

When Waterhouse finds his inquiries stonewalled by the establishment, he enlists the aid of a roughneck brawler, William Barnet, whose familiarity with the criminal world allows him access otherwise unavailable to an upstanding member of society.

As Barnet pokes within the dark corners of London, there are worrisome developments elsewhere in the city. An outbreak of severe illness is growing among the population, and by official order, the city gates- already scheduled to be closed for the week of the Pope's visit - are to be closed indefinitely to prevent its spread to the outlying districts.

 

Before long, the plague, and a conspiracy emplaced by the highest levels of the city government, collide to make London a dangerous place for Samuel Waterhouse and William Barnet. 

But if they fail in their efforts to unmask the conspirators, the death toll will be enormous...for the worst of the plague has yet to be visited upon London......

To me, Ring of Roses is an interesting melding of the novel 'Pavane' by Keith Roberts, and the 1977 thriller 'The Black Death' by Gwyneth Cravens and John S. Marr, still one of the best "plague loose in a modern city" novels ever written.

There are some weaknesses to Ring of Roses, however, and these can make the novel difficult to understand. One weakness is the lack of sufficient external narration to keep the various plots and sub-plots coherent. 

This emerges as a real problem when writer Petrou commissions one page to address two different plot threads, using text boxes reflective of one character's internal monologue superimposed on panels illustrating a different character, busy at something associated with an independent plot thread. This sort of quasi-cinematic jump-cutting occurs too frequently for its own good, and in fact, I had to re-read Ring several times before the sub-plots and side narratives finally made sense.

But the major drawback to the book is Watkiss's artwork. It's too loose, too half-finished, too murky. [A Spanish artist named Antonio Navarro was originally chosen to illustrate the series but withdrew when it became clear he couldn't meet the deadline]. I frequently found myself having to peer at a panel for an overlong amount of time in order to decipher Watkiss's poor draftsmanship.

Things aren't helped by the fact that the graphic novel released by Image uses an off-white, putty-tinted paper, that makes Watkiss's artwork even more opaque and difficult to make out.

[My advice is to seek out the original comic books, which are available at eBay for reasonable prices, and which used a white paper stock.]

In 2004 Petrou was approached by two film companies in regard to licensing rights to Ring of Roses, and in 2009 the film appeared to be nearing production stage. Where the project stands at this time is unclear.

In summary, despite mediocre artwork, and a narrative that often gets too complicated for its own good, Ring of Roses is one of the more clever treatments of an alternate, quasi-Steampunk UK, and readers with a fondness for that subgenre of sf will want to take a look.

Swords of the Swashbucklers

Swords of the Swashbucklers
by Bill Mantlo (story) and Jackson Guice (art)
Marvel Graphic Novel No. 14 (1984)

'Swords of the Swashbucklers' (64 pp.) is Marvel Graphic Novel No. 14, and was released in 1984.

As 'Swords' opens, it's the morning after a major storm off the South Carolina coast. A teen-aged girl named Domino is wandering the beach to see what has washed ashore.

Among the dunes, Domino comes across a strange piece of machinery that has become uncovered by the storm. The machinery emits a signal pulse.

The action then shifts to another part of the galaxy, where ships 'sail' the depths of space thanks to enwrapping force-fields that retain a bubble of breathable air for the crew.

We are introduced to the pirate ship 'Starshadow', her crew of alien scum, and the captain, a red-headed woman with horns (?!) named Raader. 

Without giving away spoilers, I'll simply say that Raader and her ship are the scourge of the spaceways, and the sole opponent of the rapacious Colonizers. And there is a connection between Raader and Domino, a connection that stretches back hundreds of years and across light-years of space.......

'Swords of the Swashbucklers', needless to say, is an attempt to infuse a sci-fi adventure narrative with the theme of the pirates of historical fact. In this, Mantlo's script does a reasonably adequate job, although the presence of a lot of hanging plot threads at the book's conclusion signals that the creators were hoping to launch a franchise from this Graphic Novel. This of course came to pass, with the 'Swords' series of 12 comic books that were released, under Marvel's Epic imprint, from March 1985 to March 1987.

Jackson Guice's artwork is the major selling point for this Graphic Novel, as it represents his customary level of high quality. Alfred Ramirez's colors at times overwhelm Guice's penciling, but this is simply a reflection of the limitations of the color reproduction processes Marvel employed for its Graphic Novels in the early 80s.

Summing up, 'Swords of the Swashbucklers' is another of those 80s sci-fi Graphic Novels that sets out to be a fun and entertaining read, no more, no less. It has a lighter quality than the overwritten, weighty sci-fi comics one sees nowadays (like Saga, Descender, Bitch Planet, and Invisible Republic) and if this is appealing to you, then acquiring a copy is recommended (used copies of 'Swords' can be found for under $10).

Dreadstar: The Beginning

Dreadstar: The Beginning by Jim Starlin

 

Jim Starlin’s ‘Dreadstar’ comic books and graphic novels appeared on a regular basis throughout the 1980s, and since that time, have been reprinted in a bewildering number of volumes in different color formats from different publishers…… trying to sort out the contents of each of these compilations is no small task.

This Dynamite hardbound edition (2010; 230 pp) compiles all the Dreadstar material from ‘Metamorphosis Odyssey’, ‘The Price’ graphic novel, the ‘Dreadstar’ graphic novel, and the ‘Dreadstar’ chapter that appeared as a singleton adventure in Epic Illustrated. All of these works first appeared in the interval from 1980 – 1982.

This volume from Dynamite uses a high-quality, glossy paper stock. However, it is several inches smaller than the magazines and graphic novels the stories originally appeared in, so the typeface is comparatively cramped……and sometimes difficult to read.

The whole 'Dreadstar' series started as a serial in Epic Illustrated magazine: ‘Metamorphosis Odyssey’, which appeared in the very first issue (the Spring, 1980 issue), and appeared in succeeding issues as 14 chapters, concluding with the December, 1981 issue. All of the artwork in the chapters was painted, some of it in black and white, and some in color. 

‘Metamorphosis’ dealt with adventures in a galaxy far, far, away, a long, long time ago (the entire ‘Dreadstar’ canon borrows, not surprisingly, from ‘Star Wars’). The dread Empire of the Zygoteans is enslaving all civilizations in the galaxy; only the planet of the Osirosians is able to resist, but their resources are becoming depleted as a result of the 500-year conflict. 

 

In a last, desperate effort to defeat the Zygoteans, the Osirosians dispatch their most gifted warrior and priest, a long-nosed man named Aknaton, to scour the galaxy for a team of heroes capable of joining together to wield the ultimate weapon. 

Among this team of heroes is the orphan Vanth, from the planet Byfrexia. Vanth is the equivalent of a Jedi Knight, equipped with a magic sword, superhuman strength, impressive spaceship piloting skills, and unmatched skills in hand-to-hand and ranged weapon combat.

I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that Vanth – soon rechristened Vanth Dreadstar – plays a key role in the struggle against the Zygotean onslaught.

In 1981 a quasi-sequel, titled ‘The Price’, was published by Marvel / Epic as a black-and-white graphic novel. ‘The Price’ was primarily concerned with the adventures of Syzygy Darklock, the man who would become Vanth Dreadstar’s mentor and ally. 

‘The Price’ moves away from sf, and more into the type of magic-based adventures that characterized the world of Marvel Comic's 'Dr. Strange'.

  

The series’ next installment was ‘Dreadstar’, a Marvel Graphic Novel published in 1982. Featuring color artwork, this volume centers on the adventures of Vanth Dreadstar as he confronts – however unwillingly – the need to deploy his martial skills in the ongoing conflict between the Monarchy and the Instrumentality, the two major political blocs fighting for control of the galaxy.

 

The 'Dreadstar: The Beginning' compilation concludes with an Epilogue, a ‘Dreadstar’ chapter that appeared in black-and-white in the December, 1982 issue (No. 15) of Epic Illustrated. This chapter relates Dreadstar’s efforts to seize a spaceship from an Instrumentality mining colony and contains a lot of flashback sequences. 

Starlin was presumably using this chapter as a teaser for the Dreadstar comic book series, which was inaugurated in November, 1982 by Epic Comics and eventually ran for 64 issues.

So, what do you get with this compilation of all the early adventures of the ‘Dreadstar’ franchise ? As I mentioned, it borrows to some degree from classic space opera and ‘Star Wars’, but it also incorporates the ‘cosmic’ perspective that Starlin routinely employed in his work during the 70s and 80s for Marvel titles like ‘Warlock’ and ‘Captain Marvel’, as well as the high-profile crossover series ‘Infinity Gauntlet’, and ‘Cosmic Odyssey’ for DC.

Dreadstar is not an action comic or a superhero comic; instead, it chooses to focus on a more wordy, cerebral approach, leading to panels that are overloaded with speech balloons and text boxes. This may turn off readers who are more accustomed to the minimalist, 'show, don't tell' formatting of contemporary comics.

 

While there are occasional bloody battles between Dreadstar and Empire troops, much of the series’ contents are devoted to lengthy dialogues between various characters on a variety of ‘deep’ topics. There is always a note of ambiguity about the seemingly ‘right’ decisions that are made in the struggles against the forces of evil, and every victory comes with its cost. At times Starlin’s prose becomes too overwrought, and unconsciously comes a bit too close to self-parody, a phenomenon that characterized his efforts for ‘Warlock’, ‘Thanos’, and ‘Captain Marvel’. 

By and large, however, if you appreciate a space opera with more depth than the genre is usually accredited, then this Dreadstar compilation is worth investigating. It’s also a welcome change from contemporary comics, in that Starlin takes pains to frame his plots using flashbacks and external narration, devices rarely present in modern comics, which often suffer from awkward lapses in visual and storytelling continuity.

As well, Starlin’s use of painted artwork, involving a canny use of different shadings of grays and whites for the black-and-white episodes, stands apart from contemporary comics and their flat, computer-assisted approach to illustration.