Short Lived Comic Series #34 - The Big Prize (Eternity Comics)

Before I get started with this post, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. The author of this 2-issue comic series published back in 1988 got into trouble in 2016 and ended up being sentenced to six years in prison for a horrible crime.  This post is not about the author, and it's not about my thoughts of the crime he committed.  This post is about the two-book comic series that was published by Eternity Comics (a division of Malibu Comics) back in 1988, and how much I enjoyed the story.  I'm not looking to discuss the writer; rather, I'm looking at discussing the work itself, and quite frankly, it was worth the read.

 

The Big Prize (The Timedrifter's Odyssey) was intended to be a six-issue mini-series, the first of several mini-series that would tie together to tell the story of Willis Austerlitz.  Unfortunately, "best laid plans" and all that ... Eternity, for whatever reasons, decided to not move forward with the planned series, and the comic ended after its second issue.  Which is a shame, as the premise was fun, and the set-up in these first two issues definitely provided some wonderful fodder for future stories to come.  It is kind of a mix between Quantum Leap and Back to the Future, and it features some fun characters.  Although the author indicates in that second issue his hope to find a way to bring the series back under another title or a different publisher, sadly, that never happened.  Thus, we are left with only these two issues to tease us with the time-traveling odyssey of Willis Austerlitz.

 

The first issue introduces readers to our main character, a data entry clerk who daydreams about his favorite era - the 1930s.  Unfortunately, that daydreaming causes problems at his job.  He is an insecure, glasses-wearing nerd who has trouble with girls.  Walking home from work one day, his destiny literally falls right on top of him in the form of a plastic credit card with a full color hologram of a grinning man.  Approached by a man desperate for change, Willis stuffs the card in his pocket and rushes home.  He sits down to watch an old film, but falls asleep.  He awakes to discover he missed recording a show, and to make matters worse, he finds that card in his pocket.  And that is where things start getting weird.  While talking to his mother on the phone, the man whose face is on the card suddenly materializes right before his eyes, congratulating him as the "lucky winner!"  Willis learns this is his chance of a lifetime, as this three-dimensional hologram says his "Big Prize" is one 24-hour journey to any point in space and time.  He could actually go back in time to the 1930s and experience his favorite era live and in person!  Only, the trip back is not what he expects.  As soon as he and Glint Sparkle (roving emcee for The Planetary Lottery) reappear in his apartment, albeit in 1934, things go from bad to worse.  A woman is being threatened in the next room, but when Willis goes to her aid, he finds himself at the mercy of men with guns!  Glint disappears, Willis takes off running, and the adventure in time begins!  Matters become even more complicated when, on the last page of this issue, Willis finds out Glint has been killed - and he is now stuck in the past with no way home!

 

The excitement does not let up with the second issue.  Willis is driven by these fanatics up to where the Hollywoodland sign looks down on Los Angeles, where they are preparing to dump Glint's body and silence Willis permanently.  Willis manages to come to his senses and convince the men he is from the FBI, and that he is looking for bigger fish then them.  Once they take off, Willis ponders his predicament - only to have Glint come back to life (after all, he is only a hologram, and as such, he cannot really die).  Willis convinces his benefactor to allow him to stay in 1934 for the full 24 hours before returning to his own time, so he can experience more of life in the '30s.  He hopes to aid a certain damsel in distress, meet an actress who was involved in a huge scandal back then, and unintentionally gets involved with some very mob-like men who have plans for him.  Willis gets more than the experience he was hoping for, and once he has had enough, he heads for the place Glint told him holds the jump point for them to return home - Union Station.  There's only one problem - in 1934, Union Station is still under construction and will not be completed until the next year!  And Glint Sparkle is nowhere to be seen!  "It finally begins to sink in," Willis thinks, "I was going to be here for a long time..."

 

The art for the two issues is provided by Bryon Carson and Mike Roberts, who do a great job of creating a sense of that 1930s film style for the book.  The black and white pages, the shading, the action sequences, the looks of the various characters.  I think I actually prefer the interior art to the full-color covers by Tim Hamilton and Scott Bieser (issue 1 colors) / Brooks Hagan (issue 2 colors).

 

This comic turned about to be a surprising little gem, as I had never heard of it prior to stumbling across both issues at a local toy store that had a few boxes of comics in the back.  It is a shame the story was never allowed to continue, even with another publisher. I, for one, would like to have seen where Willis Austerlitz would have gone from here.  (Plus, loved his excitement at being able to pick up first printings of some now-valuable pulps and magazines when they were first hot-off the presses!)  But, I suppose like Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap, he will be forever left without an ending.

 

RATING:  9 time-drifting, 1930s-loving nerds out of 10 for a different kind of time-travel tale with some great art and fun geek-loving antics!

Teen Angst - a Treasury of '50s Romance comics

If you had told me ten years ago that I would be reading and enjoying romance comics of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, I would have told you that you were nuts.  Romance comics were just something I was never interested in growing up.  As an adult, however, I have learned to appreciate them - not just for the pretty art, but also for the historical context of the stories, the moral high ground taken by some of the authors, and the crafty way that the stories more times than now showed the female lead in a bad light, having to learn her lesson when it comes to love, being chaste and honest, and remaining true to one's self.  Rarely do you come across romance comics with a male lead character, and perhaps that stems from the fact that these comics (at least, back in the days when they were published) were aimed at the female readers.  Yet, reading them today, these stories that were considered too racy and a bad influence on kids back then are definitely tame compared to comics that you will find published in the 2020s!

 

Teen Angst is a collection of romance stories from various issues of Realistic Romances, Romantic Love, Teen-Age Romances, Wartime Romances, and Teen-Age Temptations, all published between 1951 and 1953, before the Comic Code Authority put a kibosh on tales such as these. They were collected and published by Malibu Graphics back in 1990, at a time when independent comic companies were really hitting their stride in the industry.  Collected and edited by the company's Creative Director, Tom Mason (who also provided a short introduction to the collection), the book showcases a number of great artists, including legends Matt Baker and Everett Raymond Kinstler.  Baker was one of the first known African-American comic book artists, probably best known for his work on Phantom Lady.  He has been called one of the best "Good Girl" artists in the industry.  Kinstler was drawing comic books from the age of 16 and eventually graduated to portrait painting, including U.S. Presidents such as Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.  During their careers, both artists spent some time doing work on romance comics, and this collection is a nice representation of their work.

 

The stories are not collected chronologically, as there is really no need, since each six to nine page story is unrelated to any of the others.  While the table of contents identifies the comic each story is pulled from, as well as the year of publication, it sadly does not specifically identify the artist of each story.  Kinstler signed the first story, so that one is easily identifiable; as for the rest of the stories, I had to do some digging online to discovery who drew the remaining tales:  Kinstler (pp. 1 and 38); John Rosenberger (pp. 8, 14, and 29); Rafael Astarita (pp. 21 and 71); Maurice Gutwirth (p. 98); Luis Zansky (p. 127); and Baker (pp. 54, 61, 80, 89, 119, and 139).  The stories on pages 45, 104, and 112 do not have credited artists, and I was unable to locate any information online as to who might have drawn those tales.  In addition, the three pages preceding the first story on page 1 offer up  some absolutely gorgeous frontspieces drawn by Kinstler for issues of Realistic Romance and Romantic Love - the black and white images are captivating!  These frontspieces were collages that gave readers a brief glimpse into the stories that were waiting for them in each issue.

 

And speaking of stories, let's talk about the tales that are collection in Teen Angst.  After all, the art may be beautiful to look at, but without the story, the comics do not really mean much.  Tom Mason has to be given credit for picking a wide variety of stories, which offer up great examples of pre-Code comics that dealt with divorce, violence, and a lot of sexual subtext.  There is a story about a woman so in love with her man, she enlists in the military so she can follow the love of her life onto the front lines in "Our Love was Battle-Scarred!"  Then there is a story about a woman who believes she is a jinx to any man who loves her after the first two men she loves are killed in strange accidents in "Jinx Girl."  Another story finds a young woman determined to rise above her poor childhood, even if it means killing the rich, elderly man she married in "Dangerous Woman."  If that was not bad enough, next up is "Fatal Romance!" in which young woman gets hooked up with the wrong man from a carnival and speeds off on a crime spree that ends in death!  In "Make-Believe Marriage," a young woman pretends to be married in order to get a job, only to have her make-believe husband show up and nearly spoil everything!  "Thrill Hungry" is a tale about a woman who ends up believing the wrong man and nearly causes a spy to get away with government secrets, while "Deadly Triangle" features another tale of a woman making the wrong choice in men, leading to her nearly dying when the crook uses her as a human shield against the police!  One of my favorites is "Borrowed Love," a dying woman wants more than anything to be truly loved, and when she finally meets the man who could be that love, he tears her away from the housekeeper that has raised her, she learns a startling secret about her illness!  That story is probably the closest to a soap opera mystery, which is likely why I enjoyed it so much.

 

There are plenty of other stories - "Triumphant Kisses" and "I Craved Excitement" and "Fast Company" and "I Was a Love Gypsy" and a number of others that deal with young women who are looking for love in all the wrong places and in too many faces and ultimately must face the consequences of their actions.  The collection is truly a treat for comic fans and those who love tales of romance, as it offers up such diverse stories - no two are alike, and not every story has a happy ending!  I guess the only thing they really have in common is that the woman in these tales all learn their lesson by the end of each story, some with much more dire consequences than others!  I would love to know who the authors are for these stories and what other work they did; it would be interesting to see if any of the writers went on to become big names in the comic industry (or elsewhere!).

 

In addition to these comic reprints, there are three short prose stories from Teen-Age Romances #20 and #22 (published in 1952).  I cannot say these stories were all that interesting, as they did not feature the intensity of the drama that the actual comic tales did.  In fact, I think I got more of a kick seeing some of the original ads from these romance comics interspersed throughout the collection than I did the prose tales.

 

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves great storytelling filled with plenty of drama and in some cases violence.  And the art is most certainly something that can be appreciated in these stories, if nothing else.  Huge thanks to Malibu and Tom Mason for putting this together back in the day, and grateful there are still copies available out there for purchase!  (And if you want a bit more info, check out the interview with Tom Mason at the Malibu fan Facebook page - Interview with Tom Mason.)

RATING:  10 peek-a-boo lace negligees out of 10 for preserving some classic romance comics that are worth more than just a second glance!

Long-Lived Comic Series #2 - Ex-Mutants (Eternity / Amazing / Pied Piper / Malibu Comics)

Ex-Mutants is a comic book series that had a very convoluted publishing history, bouncing from one publisher to the next - and, sadly, during all those transitions, the stories themselves were affected, and ultimately, the entire premise of the series was laid to waste (sort of like the entire Earth was in the original stories).  I can remember back in the mid-1980s picking up the first few issues of this series published by Amazing Comics, as I was just starting to dive deeper into independent comics at the time.  I found the story interesting, but apparently not a lot of comic readers in my area did, as the comic store I frequented stopped carrying it, so I never picked up any more past those first few issues.  Flash-forward to present day, and after picking up a few issue from the fifty-cent bins at local conventions, I continued to scour those cheap comic boxes until I was able to put together an entire collection of the series (which was no easy feat due to its constant shifting of publishers and numbering), and finally had the opportunity to read the entire series.  Looking back, I think I would have been better off hanging on to my memory of those first few issues and never knowing what happened to this series after that...

The first issue of Ex-Mutants was published back in 1986 by a small company called Eternity.  Created by David Lawrence (writer) and Ron Lim (artist), the comic told the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth where the survivors were all mutated.  Once scientist was determined to restart humanity, and he began by changing five mutants back into their human forms - one male (Belushi) and four females (Angela, Erin, Lorelei, and Vikki).  For reasons unknown to me, another publisher, Amazing Comics, reprinted that first issue the same year with some expanded story pages (this is the first issue I bought), and continued the series with issues two through five.  The next year, issues six through eight were published by a company called Pied Piper Comics, along with a one-shot titled Ex-Mutants Micro-Series: Erin.  Based on some online research, it appears there was some kind of legal struggle, following which the series returned to Eternity Comics, which re-published issues six and seven and collected some of the issues into trades.

Ex-Mutants then saw a new series begin in 1988 under the Eternity imprint, titled Ex-Mutants: The Shattered Earth Chronicles.  This series lasted fifteen issues and also had an Annual, a Winter Special, as well as a Solo Ex-Mutants six-issue mini-series.  During this time, Eternity tried to expand the universe with spin-off titles, The New Humans, Wild Knights, and Shattered Earth.  (I did not collect any of the spin-off titles, so I have no idea as to the quality or stories in those titles.)  This series ended in 1990, only to come back in 1992 under the new Malibu imprint (who, by the way, owned Eternity).  This new series was full color (all previous series had been black-and-white) and was a complete re-boot of the comic.  Malibu's Ex-Mutants featured six ex-mutants - three males and three females.  Shortly into this rebooted series, the company did a cross-over with its other titles (Protectors and Dinosaurs for Hire), which completely changed the dynamic of the comic, even going so far as to give some of the characters super-powers and codenames!  The Malibu series only lasted eighteen issues, and in 1994, the story of the Ex-Mutants was put to rest.

The series started off back in 1986 pretty strong.  Lawrence's writing was fairly strong, and Lim's art was beautiful.  A mutant scientist, Dr. Cugat, is working to restore humanity to the human race.  He selects one male mutant and four female mutants and manages to degenerate them back to their human forms.  He sends them out into the mutated Earth to not only locate more power cells for his research facility (in the hopes that he can restore more mutants to their human form), but also to inspire the mutants out there, giving them hope of restoration.  The Ex-Mutants befriend a group of bikers known as the Wild Knights, and they defeat the villainous mutant who is in control of the population.  Even though the stories are definitely post-apocalyptic and deal with a lot of fighting and deaths, there is still a light-hearted tone.  Lawrence does a pretty good job of characterization with his five Ex-Mutants, and I actually grew to care about the characters over the course of those first eight issues.

When the series re-started as "The Shattered Earth Chronicles," a new creative team took over the chores.  Paul O'Connor was the new writer, and Marc Matos (with occasional help from others) was the new penciller and Jimmy Palmiotti (yeah, I know, right!) was the new inker.  It is here where the series starts to take its downward turn, as it deviates from the original concept.  At the end of the first series, Dr. Cugat sets off what he believes to be an atomic bomb, thinking he will just destroy everything - but, instead, he detonated a dimensional bomb that sends he and his Ex-Mutants to different dimensions.  Dr. Cugat ends up in a dark dimension where he becomes more evil and sets about to find a way to find a portal to the dimension where his Ex-Mutants were thrown.  Meanwhile, Lorelei has been separated from her teammates and is learning some form of mystical arts that allows her to control matter; the rest of the Ex-Mutants are in a different part of the Shattered Earth, where they are constantly facing one battle or another from various mutant tyrants.  Of course, it all eventually leads to a reuniting of the team and a showdown with their former mentor and creator, who has now evolved into a horrifically evil mutant monster.  The last issue of this series barely featured the Ex-Mutants, but rather, featured an annoying gnat of a mutant who gave the team nothing but trouble throughout this run basically just giving an overview of the final fate of the Ex-Mutants.

 

The Ex-Mutants Winter Special was one of the few good stories that came out of this second series.  Set at Christmas time (before Dr. Cugat went over to the dark side), it finds the Ex-Mutants off searching for a Christmas gift for the doctor, and they inadvertently discover a mall that has been untouched by the ravages of the shattered Earth.  It provides an opportunity for writer Tom O'Connor to delve into the characters a bit more, giving readers a chance to see a more personal side to each of them.  Sure, there are fights with mutants in the story, but there are also simple moments that reminded me of the film, Dawn of the Dead, when the surviving humans lock themselves in an empty mall to evade the zombies, and they spend some time going through the various stores.  I think this story is probably closest to the original concept that Lawrence and Lim had created for the book.

The Solo Ex-Mutants series, which ran for six-issues, was hit or miss.  This provided an opportunity for writers/artists to spotlight different members of the Ex-Mutants in stories of their own. None of the stories stood out for me, and it felt more like a way to cash in on the short-lived success of the Ex-Mutants rather than any actual purposeful stories.

After a two year break, the Ex-Mutants returned under the new Malibu logo of comics - and while some of the elements mirrored the original series, this was definitely a re-imagining of the concept updated for the craziness that was the 1990s.  New writers and a new artist (Paul Pelletier - some of his earliest work) gave the series an entirely different feel, and the full-color comic also changed the tone of the stories, with the bright flashy colors.  The series went from four women and one man to three women and three men (equal representation, I suppose), and the characters became nothing more than stereotypes.  Ackroyd (hmmm, a companion to the original male, Belushi, from the first series, perhaps?) is the super-strong jock that isn't necessarily so bright; Tanya is the skilled, fighting female; Bud is the young buck, always acting before he thinks; Shannon is the woman looking for love; Dillon is the leader, focused solely on the job at hand; and Piper is the innocent girl, always fending off Bud's amorous advances.  Dr. Cugat is exchanged for Professor Jonathan Kildare, a mutant cyborg.  After just three issues, the writers change, and after the tenth issue, the series becomes a part of the "Genesis" crossover that tied into Protectors and Dinosaurs for Hire.  This crossover drastically changes the title in a number of ways - new creative team (yet again!), new characters (two members of the Protectors super-hero team joins the Ex-Mutants, while other members of the team leave), and a new premise (as the Ex-Mutants find they have super powers), all of which turn the title into just another big-battle, super-hero comic book.  The final issue of the series (number 18) does not even feature any of its title characters on the cover, but rather, features the group of villains the Ex-Mutants are battling in the story.

It's a shame such a great concept was so horribly handled - but, I suppose as with many independent titles, once the original creators leave the title, it will never be the same.  And that definitely holds true for the Ex-Mutants.  Lawrence and Lim created something unique and fun for the time, and it's a shame whatever legal battle was going on took the title and characters away from them.  I can only imagine what might have been if the two of them had been able to stay with the characters they created - I wonder what stories might have been told!

Nearly fifty issues of story (not counting the duplicate issues by the various publishers), and yet, for me, only the first eight issues actually tell the REAL story of the Ex-Mutants.  As they say, you never know until you try something, and I gave this one a shot.  I guess I am grateful I did not pay full price for any of the issues, as I would have probably been more disappointed than I was.  

RATING:  5 samurai sword wielding humans out of 10 for the original five ex-mutants who actually stood out in a time of super-hero filled comic books as unique and interesting characters!