Not All Comics are the Same, Your Quest Begins

QUESTS TO BEGIN
You might have missed them
By Alex Ness
March 26, 2023
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I've tried for quite awhile as a member of the amateur press to give reasons for people to go to a comic store and go on a quest. Some are easier than others, because rarity or how well or poorly the comic shop did upon the first run of a comic. If they cycle their new comics that didn't sell into well organized, bagged and boarded back issues, you've a better chance to find what you are seeking. What you are willing to pay is a different story, since you might think used equals worth less. It might be, but usually there will be a cost in the price tag that comes from being boarded, bagged, and inventoried. While you might find a fantastic deal, it will never be free.

Just come in to the shop with a price and negotiate inside your mind what it is worth to you, if it is more than you like, don't buy it. No one exists to make certain products are cheaper for you than anyone else. There is an idea people have that comics are used, even when they are in a bag and never have been opened to read.

 In no particular order of preference and little of any connection via genre, except for fantasy, these are suggested as works that would be able to be found in a comic store, of recent vintage, and at a large enough store, they might not be marked up much beyond original cover price. I think The American and The Peacemaker will be, but there are collections of The American, if not also Peacemaker.

Jonny Quest is particularly well done, but what is most fun about collecting it, I've never seen anyone read it and not enjoy it it. Whether it is nostalgia, or simply the quality of stories told, I can't say.

Team Yankee is not a flashy work, on first look it could be mistaken for a GI Combat, GI Joe or Sgt Fury and his Howlin' Commandos. But rather than feature generic equipment and stories based upon tropes and comic book war depths, Team Yankee is an adaptation of a rather intelligent book, by Harold Coyle, and the story is not, at all, generic. It focuses on a Warsaw Pact invasion of Europe, with the US and NATO trying to prevent defeat. Seen through the eyes of a tank crew, it is an intelligent book, if too compressed to fully adapt the novel. With current madness in Ukraine, it is still worth a read.

I included the three reprint books from Valiant, as they each reflect the base character they created their universe upon, and had to begin somewhere.  They aren't important in comic book history.  But they are fun reads.

Deadman  Kelley Jones and Mike Baron together redefined Deadman in a time when the comic imprint Vertigo/DC was running wild. So why did this stand out?  It had a dark story, but it wasn't about the darkness. This was a comic work that featured a rather stylistic and definitive artist Kelley Jones who was illustrated by the words of the writer Mike Baron. Whether that was the intention or not, I found it different, light considering the subject matter, and approachable from any fandom interest area.

The 13th Son by Kelley Jones from Dark Horse was building to tell a much greater story.  But sales, I believe prevented it from going further. But the story told through the first 4 issues (maybe 5) was solidly told, dark without being evil or even unpleasant.  The story followed a person who was born at the end of a curse cycle of a family. Rather than accept fate, he chose to embrace a destiny.

With Sunglasses after Dark by Nancy Collins and Stanley Shaw investigate a supernatural and human darkness. Take all of the human common sorts of sinning, the worst imagined sorts of sins, and then the most perverted sorts, and they function as the setting and background of the story. The main story is of a chase, of one vampire hunter and that vampire hunter's creator and master.  It is dark, and it was done in such a way that vampires aren't sexy or fashionable. They may be killers. (So, if you are sensitive, avoid this).

MARVEL UK's Knights of Pendragon did exactly what MARVEL's Excalibur really didn't do. It embraced the superhero team ethos in the UK, as a emblem of the nation or people. It was fantastically imbued with mythology, dialogue and situations that were all perfect and unique in the comic world. The writing was amazing, the art was excellent. All of that, including the editorial voice and shadow, everything considered, wove a new branch of the King Arthur story that went beyond simple retreads or revisitation, it created a new legacy.

There is a deeper story in The American that can be spoiled by too much description, so I'll just say, it turns the concept of a patriotic hero upside down. And it asks, what role does the authority of society  have in making the people believe in the ideal of the nation.  Can a hero embody such a belief?

The character The Peacemaker I came to experience and enjoy as an adult, was/were imperfect, much of the concept, the stories and characters, are rather silly upon first look. However, I confess, I found that innocent and great fun and for me, not a problem. It was about an organization dedicated to world peace, and engaged in small actions to prevent great outbreaks of violence. Later, the comic team from the DC comic Vigilante adapted the Peacemaker, to their story, and created a mini series featuring Peacemaker.

I reviewed Medieval Lady Death rather well when it came out from CrossGen, and found it especially rewarding since it revealed a polished well conceived character, one that had previously languished as a sex fantasy character with little depth. The new version was well illustrated, perfectly defined, and told a compelling story.

Thrud the Barbarian was not a story meant to linger in your heart.  First appearing, that I know of in British RPG magazines, it is a broad and deeply loving satire of Conan the Barbarian, and it is simple humor, but humor that pokes holes across the fantasy genre. I loved it.

I liked and came close to loving the movie Dragonslayer by Disney. It was adapted into comic form and digest form with a great deal of quality. Both during the film and reading the adaptation, I found myself thinking about the future, as the work of the time was quite good, but the effects were not perfect. Some time later we would indeed see a evolution of even greater effects.

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