boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (07/27/84)
THE MAD ARMENIAN'S GUIDE TO BRITISH COMICS
FOUR-ISSUE LIMITED SERIES
(Collect them all. Trade them with your friends.)
Responding to Jeff (Moriarty) Meyer's request, I am about to submit a series of
articles covering British comics. Nota bene: I am hardly an expert in this area.
I'm just learning about them myself, but I thought that others might appreciate
what I've learned so far. This series is currently intended to appear in four
installments. I'll be keeping all of them on disk for an indefinite period of
time, so if anyone is missing any and wants them, send me mail and I'll send the
missing installments. The series will appear over the period of a week or two,
so don't start thinking that you're missing future installments already. As cur-
rently comtemplated, the first installment will cover Quality Communications (eg
WARRIOR, but in slightly more detail than previous postings), the second, IPC
(eg. 2000 A.D.), the third, Marvel-UK, and the fourth, random publishers (of
which there aren't many).
********************************************************************************
#1 -- Quality Communications
Quality Communications, which started just a few years ago, currently publishes
only two regular magazines. One of these, HALLS OF HORROR, is a horror film mag-
azine much like Warren's now defunct FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. It started as
HOUSE OF HAMMER, from a different publisher, concentrating mostly on the horror
films from the Hammer Studio. Of interest to comics fans though, is that it pub-
lishes comic strip adaptations of Hammer's Dracula films. One of the more inter-
esting aspects of these Dracula serials is that they introduced the character
(who to my knowledge is not in any of the films) of Father Shandor, who has his
own strip in WARRIOR.
It should be noted that the first two adaptations, "Dracula, Prince of
Darkness" and "Horror of Dracula", have been reprinted in DRACULA COMICS SPECIAL
#1, which should be available in the US sometime this summer (it should've been
available in May/June, but they are about as on-time as Pacific or Eclipse). I
hope that later serials are reprinted in the same manner, as it probably isn't
worth collecting HOH just for those serials (unless you like collecting horror
film magazines as well). HALLS OF HORROR is carried by some US comic shops, but
not many.
WARRIOR is the other mainstay of Quality Communications. It's available in the
US, and if you haven't been following it, you should. It's an anthology comic
with a handful of regular series, along with some one-shot or short-serial (ie.
2 or 3 installments) stories. There have been four regular series so far: "Mar-
velman", "V for Vendetta", "Pressbutton and Laser Eraser", and "Shandor, Demon
Stalker". The first volume (issues 1-12) also featured a long serial entitled
"The Spiral Path", a sequel to which is promised for the future. What follows is
a run-down of the regular series.
MARVELMAN: Some background may be useful here. Back in the 50's, there was a UK
publisher who published reprints of the Fawcett CAPTAIN MARVEL books. When DC
successfully sued Fawcett, and got them to stop publishing CM, this guy was left
with nothing to reprint. So, without batting an eyelash, or missing a month, he
got a writer and artist to come up with a new character, Marvelman, which was an
unabashed rip-off of CM: the origins, powers, enemies, and sidekicks were almost
exactly duplicated. For example: (1) A newsboy, Mike Moran, was visited by the
spirit of an atomic physicist who gave him a magic word to say, "kimota" ("atom-
ik" backwards), which would change him into Marvelman; (2) instead of CM, Jr.
and Mary Marvel, he had Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman; (3) Dr. Sivanna was
replaced with Dr. Gargunza; (4) where Fawcett published CAPTAIN MARVEL, CAPTAIN
MARVEL, JR., and THE MARVEL FAMILY, this British publisher had MARVELMAN, YOUNG
MARVELMAN, and THE MARVELMAN FAMILY. This publisher managed to get away with all
this (God knows how!) for about ten years, folding the line around 1962.
Enter Quality Communications, who, looking to develop features for WAR-
RIOR, acquires rights to Marvelman and picks Alan Moore to write it. What Moore
did was to take a somewhat amnesiac Mike Moran (he doesn't remember having ever
been Marvelman) in the present day, and have him suddenly remember the word that
changes him into MM, as well as the circumstances that caused his memory loss
(and the deaths of Young and Kid Marvelman). When he reveals his identity to his
wife, we find out the catch. *He* remembers his former career in the 50's, but
she remembers none of it, nor is there any record of MM's existence. How Marvel-
man solves this perplexing problem covers the first 11 issues of WARRIOR.
If any of you who have been following Alan Moore's work in SWAMP THING
wonder just what he'd do if he were scripting SUPERMAN, this strip'd give you a
damn good idea. I would venture to say that this is *the* best straight-forward
superhero strip being done today. Moore comes up with all kinds of ideas and
complications about superheroes no one's ever thought of before. And he manages
to pull some amazing plot twists, to say nothing of the fact that things have
hardly gotten going when MM comes up against a supervillain who is powerful and
nasty enough to give Darkseid a run for his money. And Gargunza turns out to be
not quite what you'd think.
There have been three Marvelman-related stories in WARRIOR so far. Issue
#12 has a new, set-in-the-50's Young Marvelman story, the latest issue, #19, has
the first part (of two) of a story about Big Ben, the Man With No Time for Crime
(not written by Moore, though), a whacked-out superhero introduced in the MM
serial. Issues #10 and 11 had a two-part, very confusing story about a science
fiction character named Warpsmith. He ties, or rather will tie, into the Marvel-
man milieu sometime in the future. You see, WARRIOR #4 was published as a Summer
Special and the MM story in that was a sort-of excerpt from a Marvelman story
that hasn't been written yet, in which MM and Warpsmith team-up.
The artwork on Marvelman started out by Gary Leach, and was extremely
good. After a half-dozen or so issues, Alan Davis took over, and while his art
isn't quite as good as Leach's, it's still very good. This summer should see
publication of MARVELMAN SPECIAL #1, which will reprint some of the original
Marvelman stories from the 50's, with a framing device by Moore and Davis.
V FOR VENDETTA: This is another Alan Moore strip, which as far as pure quality
goes, I would say is better than "Marvelman" (though I prefer the latter). It
has *very* moody artwork by David Lloyd, which may not be to some people's taste
but I think suits the story perfectly. The story takes place in the late 1990's,
in a fascist Britain. "V" fancies himself as a latter-day Guy Fawkes, and does
his best (which is pretty damn good) at harrassing the powers-that-be in an at-
tempt to cause a collapse of the fascist regime. V always dresses up in a very
bizarre outfit, complete with a mask that looks like it came out of a Middle Age
morality play. We never see what he actually looks like, and part of the whole
intrigue of the strip is just who this guy actually is. If you follow the let-
ters page, you'll see some interesting theories, but the most common, and obvi-
ous, one is wrong. I think I've interpreted some of the clues correctly, and if
so, his identity is an interesting one.
PRESSBUTTON AND LASER ERASER: Axel Pressbutton has had a long and interesting
career, published in inverse chronological order. His first appearance, chrono-
logically at the end of his career, was as a supporting character in an under-
ground strip, "Three Eyes McGurk" (which has been relatively recently reprinted
in RIP-OFF COMICS #8). Next he appeared in a long serial in a British rock maga-
zine, SOUNDS, entitled "The Stars, My Degradation", written by "Pedro Henry"
(actually Steve Moore, no relation to Alan) and drawn by "Curt Vile" (Alan ---
yes the same one --- Moore). Finally, he stars in a strip in WARRIOR, one that
hasn't been quite as regular as the other regular strips. The original artist,
Steve Dillon, sort of up and disappeared, which put things a bit behind sched-
ule.
Anyways, "Pressbutton and Laser Eraser" takes place in the far future,
during the early career of Axel Pressbutton, in which he's teamed up with Mysta
Mystralis, the Laser Eraser (a "legal" hitman, who was set up by her boss, and
is now wanted by the law). Pressbutton is a bizarre character. Formerly an owner
of a plant shop, he got almost totally eaten by a rare carnivorous plant and his
body is now mostly cyborg parts. Needless to say, he now has a fanactical hatred
of all members of the vegetable kingdom. He also has a disposition that makes
Wolverine, on his meanest days, look like Little Lord Fauntleroy. The P&LE stor-
ies are serio-comic in nature, much like, say, JUDGE DREDD. There have been a
couple of spin-off stories from this strip, two involving Zirk, a rather strange
interstellar pervert, and one about Ektryn, a Warrior Woman, ah, ancestor of
Mysta's. In the aforementioned "Summer Special" issue (#4), we are treated to an
Axel Pressbutton origin story.
SHANDOR, DEMON-STALKER: Father Shandor, fresh from his appearances in the Dracu-
la adaptations, is a priest in 18th Century Europe who has learned the black
arts in order to use them to fight the forces of evil. In the course of his ser-
ies in WARRIOR, Shandor has been accused not only of witchcraft, but of the mur-
der of his dearest friend, Georg Tollund, as well. Actually, Shandor has travel-
ld to Hell itself to avenge Tollund's death, and to destroy any number of demons
in the process. A recent sub-plot involves one of Shandor's more tenacious ad-
versaries, a demoness named Jaramsheela.
Despite the high quality of the artwork, first by John Bolton (known in
the US for his work on the Baxter editions of KULL and the Claremont-written
"Marada, the She-Wolf" in EPIC ILLUSTRATED) and later by David Jackson, this
strip is the weakest of the regulars in WARRIOR. The Steve Moore scripts here
feel too ponderous, very much unlike his "Pressbutton" scripts.
OTHER STRIPS: I briefly mentioned "The Spiral Path" above. This was written and
drawn by Steve Parkhouse, and while having some interesting aspects, it sort of
meandered incoherently. It is a sword-and-sorcery strip with a Celti feel to it.
"The Bojeffries Saga", by Alan Moore and Parkhouse, had one serial already, and
is the middle of a second. It follows the days in the life of a very weird fami-
ly. The humor is not perhaps for everyone but I get a kick out of it. The second
serial, however, is not as sucessful as the first. "Twilight World" was inter-
esting, but somehow lost its focus. It was a story of a man/alien symbiont who
returns to a far-future dying Earth. While competently written and drawn, it was
never clear what the point of the whole thing was.
As I've mentioned before in net.comics, and has been mentioned in various fan
magazines, Pacific Comics will be publishing reprints (all in color for the
first time) of various WARRIOR features. On sale, theoretically, in August/Sep-
tember, will be the first issue of PRESSBUTTON, which will reprint, of course,
the "Pressbutton and Laser Eraser" strip, as well as the related adventures of
Zirk and Ektryn. Alternating with it on a bi-monthly basis will be CHALLENGER,
which will co-feature "V for Vendetta" and "Shandor", as well as including "The
Spiral Path", "Twilight World" and other one-or-two-shot strips. At this time,
there are no plans to reprint the Marvelman stories, presumably because of pos-
sible trademark problems with Marvel Comics.
WARRIOR is a black-and-white, magazine-sized comic that is available in most US
comic shops (it's probably the most widely available British comic in the US).
It's US cover price is $2.00, and it's well worth it. Of course, there are the
reprints from Pacific, but they will be 20+ issues behind, and it'll be worth
buying WARRIOR for "Marvelman" alone.
*****
Sorry this has been so long-winded, but I am acquainted more with WARRIOR than
with any of the other British comics, so I have more to say about it.
"England Prevails!"
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
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