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Mars Will Send No More

~ Comic books, art, poetry, and other obsessions

Mars Will Send No More

Category Archives: first issue

indie box: Tales of the Cherokee

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in educational, first issue, indie

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black and white, Cherokee, creation myth, first issue, Gene Gonzales, indie box, Indie Comics, Mandalay Books, Native American Myths, Native Americans, Tales of the Cherokee

Today’s pick from the box of indie and small-press comics is Tales of the Cherokee. Let’s have a look at Gene Gonzales’ illustrated version of the Cherokee creation myth in “How the World Was Made.” Dig that splash page featuring the worlds above and below!




Below is another tale, a Cherokee love story Gene calls “The Origin of Strawberries.”

Collector’s Guide:
– From Tales of the Cherokee #1, Mandalay Books 2001.

To see current works by Gene Gonzales, visit
http://www.genegonzales.com and http://www.genegonzales.blogspot.com



indie box: This Is Sold-Out

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, humor, indie

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Augustus Mattick III, black and white, FantaCo, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics, John M Hebert, Roger Green, This is Sold Out, Tom Skulan

This is Sold-Out lampoons the comic book industry of the 1980s, and no one walks away without a few lumps. It’s too bad the creators never did a sequel satirizing the 1990s speculator craze. Long-time comic book fans will enjoy picking out the altered comic book titles on the racks and the ridiculous hyperbole about the medium we know and love.

My favorite moment might be when a rodent and a turtle use random words from the dictionary to come up with the title of the latest black-and-white indie sensation: The Catastrophic Obsequious Belgian Hibernation Retrieval. Someone must create that book!

This Is Sold Out has an outrageous second issue that concludes the story as the “Color Police” get together to eradicate all competition for the black-and-white madness. Absolute lunacy!

Collector’s Guide: From Sold Out; 1986, FantaCo. Last we checked, FantaCo was defunct and this title is out of print.

indie box: Salvador

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, science fiction

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Boom Studios, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics, JK Woodward, Mark Polish, Michael Polish, Polish Brothers, Salvador, Sebastian Jones

Today we open the indie short-box to find the first and only issue of a series that never happened: Salvador!

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The ultimate intent of the lavish, wordless art remains a mystery to me. I felt like I followed the central character’s journey, even though the world was unfamiliar to me, and I could draw some conclusions about what it was all about. But did this episode set up a longer storyline, or is this issue a self-contained story? What did the creators think was coming next?

The blurb in the back of the book, which you can see in the scans below, says Salvador was to be a five-issue series, and the main character was a “savior for DNA discards” in a world of genetic engineering gone awry. He can fly, but he was born brittle, so he is easily broken. I don’t know if that will help you make more sense of this unfinished work, but have a look at these gorgeous pages anyway.

Collector’s Guide:
Salvador #1; Boom Studios, 2007.

salvador 1-005

Interview with 4 Seconds creator Paul O’Connor

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in crime, first issue, indie

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

4 seconds, Billy King, comic book scripting, concept art, digital comics, first issue, Indie Comics, interview, Karl Kesel, Paul O'Connor, think fast, thrillbent

Author Paul O’Connor joins us today for an interview about his newly launched digital comic book story 4 Seconds. You can read 4 Seconds for free at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent. Paul discusses with us the technical side of producing a story for Thrillbent’s unique reading platform, including how he invented a new scripting technique working with artist Billy King on the initial concept design and artist Karl Kesel on the final story.

Paul, what is 4 Seconds and how did it come about?

4 Seconds is an original comic story in digital form published at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent site. It is free to read right now, and I hope everyone will give it a shot. The story is self-contained and easy to complete in one sitting. It tells the tale of a petty thief who discovers she can see into the future… but only 4 seconds into the future! This proves to be just enough superpower to get her into trouble.

The story was born when I won Mark Waid’s open-microphone pitch contest at San Diego Comic-Con. I was super-excited for this job, because I am a big believer in the new way stories can be told at Thrillbent. There are dozens of stories at the site, many of them are free, and they all have something to say about how comic stories can be told beyond the printed page.

As someone who makes books, I’d love to hear about the technical side of creating 4 Seconds specifically for the Thrillbent digital format. What’s unique about Thrillbent compared to printed comics, or even other digital platforms?

Even during the pitch stage, it was important to me that I create a story best told (or perhaps only told) in the Thrillbent format. Thrillbent specializes in digital-native stories that expand the way comics stories are told. It is critical to understand that these are still comics stories. They aren’t motion comics, and they don’t have soundtracks or spoken dialogue. They are still words, pictures, and panels that the reader pages through at their own pace.

One way things are different is in the fluidity of transitions afforded by this platform. For instance, we can do actual fades, wipes, and pans, imparting a more cinematic feel to a traditional comics story. Likewise, this platform allows for new types of page architecture and panel borders, and new approaches to balloon placement and dialogue construction. In creating 4 Seconds, artist Karl Kesel and I tried to take full advantage of being in a paperless environment, and using this platform to tell our story in a more memorable way. 4 Seconds is built from the ground-up to be a new thing in familiar clothing.

Tell me how those possibilities came to life in creating a scene from 4 Seconds.

For example, we might have a “master shot”—say, a nighttime interior of the mansion of the villainous Anton Glass. Rather than show the entire shot at once, our story might reveal it in portions—first showing just that slice illuminated by the moody moonlight leaking through the floor-to-ceiling windows, then picking up the trail of bloody footprints on the floor, then finding the outstretched hand of a body lying just inside the shadows.

Across this, we place our characters, posing them for the critical moments of storytelling. And then we bring in dialogue balloons, captions, and sound effects. What Karl had to deliver were all the many individual panels, frames, and character poses that made up the story, which are then placed in the correct order for viewing via Thrillbent.

The results are equivalent to what might be many panels and pages in a paper comic, all playing out in the same narrative space using comic conventions of panels to parse time and focus reader attention on the sequential elements needed to tell the story. It’s still the same toolbox used in conventional comics, but there’s greater freedom of expression in how it’s used, particularly when it comes to isolating specific elements that you want the reader to see.

How was writing the 4 Seconds script different from comic scripts you’ve written for other media? Was it anything like a traditional comic book script?

This was a very different process. The Thrillbent format demanded that I take a new approach to scripting, and I also challenged myself to think in visual terms from the get-go. I deliberately went outside of my comfort zone of concentrating on dialogue and description and leaving everything else up to the artist. Instead, I wanted to provide a deeply thought-out visual blueprint for Karl, which he could (and did!) use as a springboard to make things even better in the penciling stage.

That meant I was doing scene-blocking and transitions—new things for me—and also figuring out how to break the rules as fast as I made them! To tie it all together, I invented a hybrid script form that offers conventional comics direction, dialogue, etc., but abandoned panels as the unit of storytelling in favor of frame advances. Determining how much information to add/change to each advance drives the pace of the story, and sometimes the challenge is as much about deciding what to retain from previous frames more than it is about what to add.

Thank you, Paul! 4 Seconds keeps the twists and turns coming right up to the very end. Revealing the story in frames like this means readers share Cassie’s experience of her world. They know something is coming in that empty space of the future, but they can’t see far enough ahead to be sure what it is. I found it drew me into the story and made me care that much more about what happened to her.

Read 4 Seconds for free at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent.

indie comics spotlight: 4 Seconds by O’Connor and Kesel

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

4 seconds, first issue, four seconds, Indie Comics, Karl Kesel, Mark Waid, online comics, Paul O'Connor, san diego comic-con, think fast, thrillbent, web comics

4 seconds paul oconnor promo

4 Seconds is a noir thriller about a petty thief who discovers she can see four seconds into the future. That’s just enough precognition to get into trouble, but not nearly enough time to pull off the heist that will save her sister’s life.

4 Seconds is an original story from Paul O’Connor of Longbox Graveyard, in collaboration with artist Karl Kesel, launching today at: Mark Waid’s Thrillbent.com. The complete story is FREE to read online.

Paul’s pitch for 4 Seconds won Mark’s fifteen-second pitch contest at San Diego Comic-Con. Click here for the full story of that memorable event.

indie comics spotlight: robbie burns witch hunter

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, occult

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

emma beeby, first issue, Gordon Rennie, indie box, Indie Comics, robbie burns witch hunter, tiernen trevallion

In June, to promote their inclusion as award nominees by the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance, the creators of Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter made a preview of their work available. We read it, were immediately hooked, and ordered the book. One reviewer on Amazon has compared the artwork to Mike Mignola’s style on Hellboy, and we will agree that if you like Hellboy then you will love Witch Hunter.

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The story begins with the humiliation of poet Robbie Burns, a historical figure Witch Hunter brings to life in fiction. Soon, Burns stumbles across a pagan ritual in an abandoned church, a ritual matched in its sensuality only by its pure evil. There, Burns is rescued by a pair of experienced dispatchers of hellish hordes. And so begins his adventure. (Burns composed a horror poem you may know: Tam O’Shanter, first published in 1791. It serves as the inspiration for this tale.)

Did we mention how much we love the artwork in this book? Let us say it again, to give artist Tiernen Trevallion his due. After all, writers Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby did win the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance ‘Best Writer’ awards at the Glasgow Comic Convention, Beeby won ‘Best New Writer’, and the book itself won ‘Best Graphic Novel’. But it’s Trevallion’s artwork, along with Jim Campbell’s lettering, that brings the rollicking script to life for us on the page.

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You may recognize co-author Gordon Rennie from his work on Rogue Trooper, a classic 2000AD series we have featured on this site. So, if you are a fan of that unique Scottish comic-book sensibility which brought readers in the States such popular writers as Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, or if you are a fan of 2000AD comics in general, that’s just one more reason to read Witch Hunter.

Our favorite character is Meg: tough as nails, quick with profanity, great with a crossbow, and seemingly unafraid to ride into the very mouth of hell itself to do battle with the demonic forces of the underworld.

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Meg stands in sharp contrast to the vacuous ladies Burns pleasures himself with in the opening pages. She’s every bit an action hero with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, and her inclusion in this tale endears us to it all the more. And to think that Meg was merely the noble horse in the original Tam O’Shanter!

Fast-paced adventure with an outstanding cast of leading characters fighting the hordes of hell make Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter an enjoyable and unforgettable read. We look forward to more work by these creators and from Renegade Arts Entertainment.

You can order Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter directly from Renegade Arts Entertainment, or you can find it on Amazon in both hardcover and Kindle editions.

demo 1 by brian wood and becky cloonan

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

becky cloonan, black and white, Brian Wood, Dark Horse, DC Comics, demo, dreams, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics, Vertigo Comics, waking life of angels

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These page come from the beginning of the first issue of DC/Vertigo’s Demo series by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. AIT/Planet Lar published a twelve-issue Demo series in 2003-2004 before Wood and Cloonan began with a fresh number one at Vertigo in 2010. DC/Vertigo published both series in two Demo paperbacks, and Dark Horse put them together in a single Demo Complete Edition which is 464 pages softcover.

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I love Becky Cloonan’s black-and-white artwork and how she brings to life this dramatic first issue where dreams and reality intersect. Brian Wood is the author of DMZ, one of my favorite series. I did not feel like the target audience for the romantic drama of Wood’s New York Four and New York Five, but I have seen a few issues of Northlanders which interested me, and I enjoyed the three pointless punk-rock issues of Pounded.

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strikeforce morituri 1: the last stand of the black watch

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, science fiction

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Black Watch, Brent Anderson, Marvel Comics, Peter B Gillis, Scott Williams, strikeforce morituri, wilce portacio

strikeforce morituri 1 (2)

Strikeforce Morituri shows up on comic book nostalgia blogs every once in a while. The series had a great premise, one that would bear re-imagining at today’s Marvel. You get some random superpowers as an experimental soldier to combat an alien invasion of earth, and the powers kill you within one year.

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Our favorite aspect of the first issue is the contrast between a heroic comic book adventure the protagonist reads and the harsh realities of a film he views. In the comic book, the Black Watch confront and heroically destroy some aliens with their Morituri powers, their last act alive. This inspirational piece of propaganda turns out to have little to do with the final tragic moments of the Black Watch.

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Collector’s Guide: You can buy it as Strikeforce Morituri #1, Marvel Comics, 1986. In 2012, Marvel collected the series as Strikeforce Morituri trade paperbacks. The third paperback includes the Undertow series, which took place ten years after the end of the story in the original series. Undertow had artwork by Mark Bagley in 1990, long before he set the record for longest-running Spider-man artist on Ultimate Spider-man.

Brent Anderson & Scott Williams on pencils and inks, with Peter B. Gillis scripting. Wilce Portacio provides the artwork for the comic-book-within-a-comic-book story of the Black Watch.

indie spotlight: Cabra Cini Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, occult

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actuality press, bruno letizia, cabra cini, dark new year, Indie Comics, nathan ramirez, RD ricci, sam johnson, voodoo junkie hitwoman

Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman – Dark New Year is a new digital comic available FREE at ActualityPress.com and DriveThruComics.com. This free issue introduces new readers to the character in an interesting way. From page one, we know she has a hit to carry out. But on the way, she travels through a limbo where she confronts an abusive figure from her past.

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We enjoyed this action-based approach to learning about a character’s background. It got us involved with the story and with her. We’d love to read more from this creative team to see where they take this unusual story.

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Cabra Cini is a bad-ass, and the authors seem determined to subject her to some pretty horrifying events to test her mettle. The free issue of Dark New Year is a great place to jump on board, meet the character, and begin what promises to be an exciting adventure. Here are the first three pages to preview!

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Written by Sam Johnson (Geek-Girl, The Almighties). Illustrated by Bruno Letizia, Nathan Ramirez, and R.D. Ricci (Ligeia the Vampire, Reborn, The Shadow of Rivene) , published by Actuality Press.
Suggested for Mature Readers. 17 pages.

Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman – Dark New Year is available FREE at ActualityPress.com and DriveThruComics.com.

indie spotlight: Silvertongue 30xx, Space-time District Attorney

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

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black and white, first issue, Indie Comics, little nando, manga, silvertongue 30xx, spacetime detective

silvertongue interior 0 cover

The opening scene of Silvertongue 30xx: Space-Time District Attorney caught our eye and drew us into this book. The coin falling, flipping end over end from heads to tails, in a dramatic beam of light, with short voiceovers: what a visually dramatic way to bring us in and set up the story! In the scenes that follow, creator Nando Sarmiento delivers on the expectation for visually striking settings.

silvertongue interior 1

The opening scenes make it clear this digital manga will address political and cultural conflicts in its two-part story, The Chippewa Vendetta. Silvertongue Hernandez and all his supporting characters have a unique perspective on the central conflict: industrial construction and waste disposal in tribal lands. Each scene explores what they personally have at stake, and this really puts the meat on the bones of the main courtroom drama. We expected more of a straight detective story, but found ourselves drawn into a story you don’t usually see in comic books.

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As with many first issues, it can feel like we need to do a lot of catching up to understand the main scenes. Background exposition takes the form of a news broadcast which reinforces the court case as a spectacle, a form of entertainment. The case takes place in a gigantic court-on-wheels whose laws change as it crosses state lines. This puts pressure on the case and keeps the dramatic tension at a feverish pitch.

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The first issue promises an episodic manga with entertaining, dramatic artwork and character-driven scenes. We look forward to seeing how this story continues, and what other thought-provoking scenarios Nando can invent for his space-time district attorney.

View more interior artwork and a short video about Silvertongue 30xx: Space-time District Attorney at Little Nando’s website, where you can purchase the book in several digital formats.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Graphic Novel Collection by First

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

collection, color reprints, first issue, First Publishing, graphic novel, Indie Comics, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT

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IDW has lately been reprinting the earliest and original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics from the 1980s. Back in the 80s, prices of first prints of the original comics skyrocketed, and they still retain a fairly high collector’s value. In response to their limited availability to all but the wealthiest collectors, First Publishing produced four, full-color, oversized graphic novels from the original black-and-white stories.

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The unique and gritty visual style of Eastman and Laird’s reptilian martial artists comes through even in color. First did a wonderfully professional job on this production. They wisely included the Leonardo one-shot, since its story leads right up to the events of issue #10. And, First thoughtfully preserved the dramatic three-page fold out from issue #10. We have scans of the original black and white pages in our archives for comparison.

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All of the splash pages look great, and the binding and paper quality of these turtle tomes remains evident decades later. From the first issue to the battle with Triceratons in space to the hilarious Cerebus crossover, all of the Turtles earliest adventures rock hard in this graphic novel format.

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Let us offer a few suggestions for those seeking some high-quality Turtles reprints. You can still find copies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TPB by First in stock at reasonable prices ($10-$15 for a Fine copy,) though you may need to go to eBay to get a complete set all at once! IDW printed the stories in single issues in full color as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Color Classics, but it seems they left out the Leonardo one-shot to include issue #11 which more or less wraps up Eastman & Laird’s original plot line.

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A second volume of color classics reprints some excellent adventures from the subsequent stories, including a reprint of the glorious Return to New York storyline this spring. Those who want these stories in black and white should get the excellent seven-volume Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collected Book produced by Mirage in the 1990s. IDW more recently gave us The Ultimate Collection in hardcover which wisely includes the one-shots from the 80s as well as the original title.

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Despite the availability of recent reprints, the old ones have held onto their collector’s value due to their limited runs and high production values. The First Publishing collection also gives you a much larger page size than, say, Mirage’s normal-zized Collected Book reprints.

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IDW has much to gain by reprinting these collectible issues, but they also do readers a great service by keeping these classics in print. We sold both the First TPB set and the Collected Book set on eBay last year, but you can bet we would like another copy of Return to New York in our hands before all this is over!

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Incredible Hulk Pocket Book 1978

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

1978, collection, Herb Trimpe, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hulk Pocket Book, Jack Kirby, paperback, Pocket Book, Pocket Books, reprint, Stan Lee

Hulk Pocket Book 1978  (2)

This handy paperback has most recently proven useful in settling questions about Hulk history. Often these stories get forgotten in the vast expanses of Hulk lore, with his origin retold so many times that any two people probably have a different version in their heads. Here, Hulk remains more a man than a monster — a sullen and irritable man with a limited vocabulary, but far from the dim-witted “Hulk Smash” of the 1970s. In these stories, Banner hulks out at night, not simply from rage.

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Stan Lee provides a brief but entertaining introduction as he did with all the Pocket Books we’ve seen from the 1970s. These books were great fun to own then, and we read these stories until we had them memorized. Ditko’s artwork — featured in one story here and in the similar Spider-man paperback — and Kirby’s artwork entertained us to no end.

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These days, they seem a bit dated. Hulk is always fighting Commies, the art is far more simplistic than Kirby’s later style, and the plots seem kind of goofy. Stan and Jack probably hit the nail right on the head for their audience: boys and young men who enjoy action stories full of conflict and gadgets, at a particular time in history. Today they are curious beasts, an odd lot from a simpler time of comics where pulp horror and science fiction met in the mainstream to create superheroes.

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Stan and Jack had no idea how big this thing would blow up, and readers fifty years later would seek out these stories for reference and entertainment. The charm in these first six Hulk tales lies in that very lack of self-consciousness, innocently dashed out in a few days or weeks. Just look at the utter disregard for backgrounds and ornamentation on these pages: direct, economical, focused entirely on figures and dialogue.

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This little volume from Pocket Books in 1978 held up remarkably well. Even as a mass-market paperback, it enjoys very solid production: durable pages with clear art and color, a firm binding more than thirty-five years later, and a tight, glossy cover.

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It even comes with a bonus two-page spread of “Hulk’s life in a single image” by Herb Trimpe. Trimpe had put his unmistakable stamp on the Hulk by the time this reprint book arrived in 1978, visually defining the Hulk for a generation of fans.

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Out of the Ruins of Fascist Amerika, Trashman Fights for Freedom!

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, science fiction

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Agent of the Sixth International, Fantagraphics, first issue, Indie Comics, origin, Rip Off Press, Spain, Spain Rodriguez, Subvert, Trashman, Trashman Lives, underground comix

It’s our birthday today, so we offer you an origin story. But not just any origin story: Trashman! Bearded hero of the people’s revolution: Trashman! Sometimes called “the Superman of the New left”: Trashman!

subvert 1 -001

Subvert #1 by Spain Rodriguez contains the origin of his guerilla resistance character, Trashman. This off-beat 1970 story published by underground comix legends Rip Off Press describes the transformation of average guy Harry Barnes into an Agent of the Sixth International. He even masters molecular disintegration — whoa!

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Murder, nuclear apocalypse, covert agencies, class struggle, satire — and that’s just the origin! The longer story which completes Subvert #1 involves some sexually hungry female revolutionaries. It’s a hoot, but forgive us for not sharing a few pages of THAT with you here.

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Collector’s Guide: You can still find well-read copies of Subvert #1 for a few dollars if you are willing to dig. We found a VG- copy at the local comic store for 3 or 4 bucks, or you can go right to Subvert #1 on Amazon. Fantagraphics published a wonderful collection of all the Trashman stories from 1968 to 1985: Trashman Lives! It fetches a hefty price on Amazon these days, but we found a copy at a used bookstore for less than $20.

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Indie Spotlight: Nova Phase released today on Comixology!

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

8 bit art, Adam Elbatimy, comixology, first issue, Indie Comics, Matthew Ritter, Nova Phase, Slave Labor Graphics

nova phase 1 cover

Now that Nintendo is becoming ‘vintage’ and a generation of comics readers has already grown nostalgic for the nineties, Nova Phase may be hitting the market at just the right time. With a plot loaded with action and rendered in the style of 8-bit arcade graphics, it reads like one of Warren Ellis’ fast-paced sci-fi stories in the shape of an old video game.

In this six-issue series from Slave Labor Graphics, Veronica Darkwater is a down-on-her-luck bounty hunter who finds herself plunged into an intergalactic treasure hunt for a legendary world of untold wealth. But, she must compete with a crazy military commander who will stop at nothing to cement his name in history. Will she stay alive long enough to see if the legends of the mythical world of Una Tesara are true?

You can score the first issue of Nova Phase at http://www.comixology.com/Nova-Phase/comics-series/14632 — and the second issue is up now for just 99 cents!

From the creators of Nova Phase:

“I wanted to do a space western because I love space and I love westerns. I also love old video games. So there you go.” — Matthew Ritter, writer

“I love pixel art. I think of it as a genuine aesthetic choice, as apposed to a limitation. It has allowed us to give Nova Phase a really unique look.” — Adam Elbatimy, artist

Enclosed in a Globe of Pure Force is a Submicroscopic Insect!

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, golden age

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bob Powell, first issue, golden age, jet powers, magazine enterprises, meteor, wasp

jet powers 01-26 bob powell

This panel comes from Jet Powers #1; Magazine Enterprises, 1950. The Thing in the Meteor. Artwork by Bob Powell.

Bob Powell’s work also appeared in the first issue of Race to the Moon, in the stories The Invasion and Disc Jockey.

Jim Starlin’s Origin of God and Birth of Death!

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Death, Eclipse Comics, first issue, God, indie box, Indie Comics, Jim Starlin, origin, science fiction, Star Reach, Star Reach Classics

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Jim Starlin’s single-page origin of god and his short origin of death originally appeared in the first issue of the 1974 series Star Reach. Star Reach Productions published its own Greatest Hits in 1979. In 1984, Eclipse reprinted six issues of highlights from the series as Star Reach Classics. We recommend it for fans of classic 70s science fiction. It’s in stock far more often than the original issues, and Eclipse printed it on high-quality paper, a really nice production. You can get most of them for just a couple dollars a piece.

Starlin gives us some of his finest 70s illustration, artistically superior to his more famous work on Captain Marvel, and on par with his best Warlock stories. If you enjoy these, you will enjoy Starlin’s Darklon the Mystic from that same era. Diversions of the Groovy Kind hosts some pages from Warren’s Eerie magazine where you can read part of Darklon in black and white. Or, you can drop a dollar on a back issue by Pacific Comics that reprints the complete Darklon story in color.

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Collector’s Guide: From Star Reach Classics #1; Eclipse, 1984.







No Pride, No Passion, No Pity!

01 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

John Byrne, Legends, planets

legends 1 -001

John Byrne’s establishing shot of the evil planet Apokalips may well be the high water mark for Legends. The series attempted to simplify and reintroduce some characters in the wake of DC’s continuity-destroying Crisis on Infinite Earths. Other than kick off what many fans remember as a cool run for the Suicide Squad, the series won’t be remembered for much. But, we will always remember this stunning planet, seething with electric and cosmic energy, bathed in a wash of interstellar light effects, its complex surface suggesting massive structure with tiny lines. From a student’s perspective, this panel abounds with art lessons. Welcome to the John Byrne Academy of Awesome!

Collector’s Guide:
– From Legends #1; DC, 1986;

Men of War #1: The Origin of Gravedigger

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, war

≈ 1 Comment

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David Michelinie, ed davis, first appearance, first issue, gravedigger, men of war, origin, racism, Romeo Tanghal, war, war comics

Men of War #1 gives us the first half of the origin of Gravedigger in his first appearance in DC Comics. Author David Michelinie would conclude next issue with a tale of Gravedigger’s breaking into a military installation, an unlikely story that plays well as a comic book nevertheless. Gravedigger earns his nickname digging graves in a non-combat unit. He wants to fight in the war, but the color of his skin gets him assigned to an all-black non-combat unit.

men of war 1 -002

While films and novels have dealt with racism in the military before, Michelinie sticks to a theme of institutional racism. We do not see Gravedigger suffer from physical and verbal abuse, but we do see him confronting a racist system. Artists Ed Davis and Romeo Tanghal deliver a realistic style in the vein of DC’s other 1970s war comics like Sgt. Rock. Let’s have a look!

Collector’s Guide: Men of War #1; DC, 1977.






When I Ran the Avengers, We Didn’t Kill People!

27 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

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Avengers, Captain Marvel, first issue, Monica Rambeau, Next Wave, Photon, Stuart Immonen, Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis imagines a childhood with photonic laser powers for Monica Rambeau, also known as Photon, formerly known as Captain Marvel, and one-time leader of the Avengers. Bad doggie be quiet now.

Collector’s Guide: from Next Wave #1; Marvel.

next wave 1 -001
next wave 1 -002

Marvel Man in Warrior 1

19 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by EllieKitty in first issue, indie, superhero

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Alan Moore, Marvelman, MiracleMan, Warrior

Marvelman appeared in Warrior #1-21; Quality Communications, 1982-4. #25-6 contained the letters from Marvel demanding Quality cease publishing Marvelman. The series would start from the beginning as Miracleman, reprinted in color by Eclipse Comics, continuing the story once the first six or seven issues wrapped up the revised reprints. Script: Alan Moore; Art: Gary Leach, Alan Davis, etc.





Jack Kirby’s Captain 3-D!

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, golden age, superhero

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Captain 3D, golden age, Harvey Comics, Jack Kirby

One of our guest bloggers, Kandou Erik, covered Captain 3-D by Jack Kirby for us in detail. We refer you to that post! Since then, we found scans of the entire issue you might like to see. Enjoy!

Collector’s Guide:
– From Captain 3-D #1; Harvey, 1953.
Pencils by Jack Kirby; Inks by Steve Ditko.













Dreams by John M. Pound

02 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

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dreams, first issue, Indie Comics, John Pound

dreams by john pound

Check out this single page of dream images arranged as comic book panels. It doesn’t tell a story like the Rick Veitch things we’ve shared with you, but we dig the style. Especially cool is the hidden face… Do you see it?

Collector’s Guide: From Ground Pound Comix #1; Blackthrone, 1987. Art by John M. Pound, 1978

Captain America 100: This Monster Unmasked!

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

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Black Panther, Captain America, first issue, Jack Kirby, origin, Stan Lee

05

People complain about Marvel’s constant renumbering of titles these days, and you can count us in on a vote for the ridiculousness of all that. But do you remember that in 1968, Marvel’s first volume of Captain America began at #100? Up until then, Cap had filled the pages of Tales of Suspense. When TOS rolled over from #99 to #100, it became Cap’s own book. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee present Cap’s origin, which they would also do a year later in #112, perhaps to bring even more and more fans on board. To be fair, this one only covers Cap’s defrosting by the Avengers.

Collector’s Guide: from Captain America #100; Marvel, 1968.








Alarming Tales 1: The Fourth Dimension Is a Many Splattered Thing by Jack Kirby!

21 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, science fiction

≈ 3 Comments

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Alarming Tales, first issue, Harvey Comics, Jack Kirby

In 1957 and 1958, Jack Kirby created stories for Harvey’s six-issue series Alarming Tales. These hard-to-find comics from the Golden Age showcase Kirby’s early flair for science fiction. You will see familiar themes like Martians, strange dimensions, conscious robots, and alien worlds. You will witness harbingers of future sciences like genetic engineering and cloning.

And, you will see a few ideas Kirby revisited decades later, such as the walking dogs and rats of “The Last Enemy” who resemble the animalistic characters of Kamandi, and a flying chair that would get an upgrade to seat Metron of the New Gods. Enjoy!

Collector’s Guide: From Alarming Tales #1-4; Harvey, 1957-1958. Issues #1-3 are now collected in a Kindle version!



Alarming Tales 1: The Cadmus Seed by Jack Kirby!

14 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, golden age, science fiction

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alarming Tales, first issue, golden age, Harvey Comics, Jack Kirby

In 1957 and 1958, Jack Kirby created artwork for Harvey’s six-issue series Alarming Tales. These hard-to-find comics from the Golden Age showcase Kirby’s early flair for science fiction. You will see familiar themes like Martians, strange dimensions, conscious robots, and alien worlds. You will witness harbingers of future sciences like genetic engineering and cloning.

And, you will see a few ideas Kirby revisited decades later, such as the walking dogs and rats of “The Last Enemy” who resemble the animalistic characters of Kamandi, and a flying chair that would get an upgrade to seat Metron of the New Gods. Enjoy!

Collector’s Guide: From Alarming Tales #1-4; Harvey, 1957-1958. Issues #1-3 are now collected in a Kindle version!



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