Lone Sloane was
first published in the 1966 French magazine Mystère
des Abîmes and continued onto the Belgium comic Pilote (which also gave us the Smurfs)
Along with its French contemporaries, the author was incredibly influential
especially in the field of science fiction comic artistry, eventually bleeding
over into American art in the 1970s. Honestly, I am kicking myself that I
haven’t read this author before. He is truly a master of his craft. Each panel
is intense and precise. It is a crime more of his work hasn’t been translated
into English.
This
particular story was first published in English in the 2000s. While the clothes
are science fantasy and cosmic, as sci-fi was wont to be in the 1970s - replace
the flying horses with spaceships - and this story is as cosmic as they come.
Universal forces, railroads through time space and dimensions, and enough
allegorical exposition to make Dante puke.
Set
ten years after The 6 Voyages of Lone
Sloane, this book sees our protagonist return from the dead to challenge a
universal force of evil which has overcome most of the intelligent life in the
galaxy. This time, he comes face to face with his old enemy, Shaan - who gives
us a twist. Whether it’s a good or ill one is up in the air. Not that it
matters. The plot is a little mystical and doesn’t make much sense, but then
the reason to read one of Druillet’s books is the wonderful wonderful artwork.
Which does not disappoint in any way. I’ll let the artwork do the talking here.
“You know why
people don’t talk about those rods anymore? Why nobody shows up in one of my
jobs at the cruise-ins or the county auto show? Because they’re all gone. Not
one of ‘em lasted more than a year. They didn’t fail, now. They all ran just
like they was supposed to, but every last goddamn one of those cars put
somebody in the ground. They were killers. And I’m the one who turned ‘em
loose.”
An
ode to the nearly lost tradition of the Midnight Creature Feature and their
macabre hosts. If you fondly remember Elvira, the Svengoolie, Vampira, Dr.
Creep, Sinister Seymour, or Grampa Al Lewis you will absolutely love this
sinister adaptation of the late night monster movie scene. The debut novel of
this author, Midnight Horror Show takes place in the 1980s when the horror host
was on its last legs, with a few flashbacks to the 1960s when they were at the
height of popularity.
The
actions of the last late-night horror host in the small town of Dubois come
back to haunt the present day. A series of savage murders rocks the town. The
local sheriff is stumped as the evidence begins to point to revenge by a dead
man and a pair of satanic sisters who died nearly twenty years earlier. Many
twists and turns occur and just when you things are wrapped up in a nice tight
bow, and other criminal complication springs up to throw the theories out of
whack. All of it ends with an October surprise and a Halloween event no one in
Debois will ever forget.
I’ve covered all
of the Jon Sable, Freelance comics
which were published as trade paperbacks. I don’t know why the series is called
the “complete” Jon Sable when they don’t bother to publish the last ten issues.
Maybe it’s because the series tends to stall in these issues. Don’t get me
wrong, the action is great, the emotions are tense, and the art is tight, but
many of the events in these issues have no lasting impact on the character. He
is stuck in limbo, when a few issues earlier we were teased with a reckoning
between Sable and a master assassin which never comes to fruition.
Maybe
Grell just became tired of the whole schmear. This was the end of Jon Sable,
Freelance, but not the end of the character. The series restarted under the
title Sable with Marv Wolfman
(formerly of Marvel comic) at the helm. That series lasted 27 issues before
ending. I may or may not be reviewing them in a future post, depending on how
much they cost. However, I managed to get each of these for an average of $2.00
each, so it probably will be pretty cost effective.
We
begin with Sable’s rendition of Die Hard
- a must rip-off of the time. In issues 46-47, Gunmen have taken over a Chicago
office tower, sealing off the top floors while they hold a group of executives
hostage. Unknown to them, one of the hostages is a man intent on killing his
boss who had blackmailed the man's wife into an affair. His wife meanwhile,
hires Jon Sable to prevent that murder. Now Sable just has to find out how to scale
the tower and get inside.
For
issues 48-49 we have a sort of swashbuckling, foreign affair. Sable is asked to
handle security for a visit by British royalty to a small European duchy. The
problem is, there are forces within the country Jon knows nothing about, and
since Jon has more than a passing resemblance to the country's ruler, they have
their own plans for him.
In
landmark issue 50. In which the titular character turns 50 and reunites with
Maggie the Cat, a jewel thief who stole an Andrew Wyeth painting from Jon. It seems she's stolen some jewels from
someone high up in the Mafia. Bigger problem is, she also stole his record
book. When it is discovered that there's more to the book than meets the eye,
Jon comes up with a plan to make sure all of the guilty parties are punished.
In
issues 51 and 52. Jon is forced to babysit his agent’s AWOL son for a day. The
pair get mixed up with a prostitute who needs protection from her pimp, against
whom she testified, but he was released on bail and is out for revenge. This
one mostly reads like a comedy of errors, a lot of missed messages. A story
which couldn’t be written today, because we all have cell phones.
Issues
53 is a standalone issue focusing on a frequent frenemy of Sable, Police
Captain Winters of the NYPD. Here we see Winter’s backstory and his rise up the
ranks of the NYPD, plus his frequent run-ins with Sable, who is always just one
step away from jail.
The
series concludes with a three part tale, called The Trojan Wars. Issues 54, 55,
and 56, takes us on a European mission where the CIA blackmail Sable into
investigating an illegal shipment of weapons into Ireland. The guns are supposedly
being run by Sable’s estranged father. As we find out, Sable was the bastard
son of an officer and a resistance fighter – a one night stand which resulted
in a love child. A series of double-crosses, misinformation, and plenty of
gunning and running. Enjoy.
Like the previous
volume of this series I recently covered, volume 6, I do not in fact own or
have read the book. Instead I found it much cheaper to buy the individual
issues which make up this trade paperback. While it might have gone down since,
I picked up each one for about a dollar to two bucks each.
For
those who need a refresher, Jon Sable is a freelance operative with a tortured
past. A Vietnam Vet and former Olympic athlete, he was in Munich during the
1973 Olympic massacre. He met his wife, a former gymnast, and went to live in
what was then called Rhodesia in Africa. They had two children and lived
happily until the family, except Jon, was murdered in standard hero vigilante
style, leaving him a bitter mercenary shell. The only joy he feels in life is
risking it in aid of mercenary work.
Three
story arcs, comprising two issues each, make up the content of Volume 8. The
first deals with Jon’s entrance into a gun competition in Texas, where a fan
-read fanatic- of his feels snubbed. Angry, the fan quickly creates a scenario
where Jon has to defend a woman and engages in a deadly conflict with the
lunatic.
The
second story brings back Mossad agent from volume 5, with whom Sable had a
brief liaison and who he also thought was dead. He since discovers not only was
she still breathing, but she was married the whole time. This throws a wrench
in Sable life as he allowed the Russian assassin The Sparrow to escape in order
to avenge her death. Now the Sparrow will return to kill Sable one day, and the
mercenary will not have the satisfaction of having let the man go for a good
reason. In this story the pair become wrapped up in a terrorist plot to blow up
the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July.
The
third is almost an Agatha Christie whodunit. An unreleased film, "The Hard
Way" is finally being screened since it stars a recently departed actor.
Jon Sable becomes involved because Myke Blackmon's roommate Grey had a role in
the film. So when one of the only two remaining copies of the film is destroyed
by a truck bomb, Sable is hired by the producer to protect the last copy.
Travelling to Cannes on the producer's yacht are the main stars of the film,
plus Jon Sable. Everything is going fine……until one of the stars is murdered.
Loads of fun.
I
have to confess to a lie here. While I am covering the material in volume 6 of
the complete Jon Sable, Freelance, I did not buy the book as the asking price
by these third party retailers is ridiculous. $60? Are you out of your fucking
mind? I actually found it much cheaper to buy the individual issues - that’s
numbers 28 through 33 of Jon Sable, Freelance. I am leaving links to the issue
page for both Mile High Comics and My Comics Shop, along with the Amazon
Listing. Numbers change so perhaps the graphic novel will eventually be
reasonably priced.
For
those who need a refresher, originally published by First Comics, Jon Sable is
a freelance operative with a tortured past. A Vietnam Vet and former Olympic
athlete, he was in Munich during the 1973 Olympic massacre. He met his wife, a
former gymnast, and went to live in what was then called Rhodesia in Africa.
They had two children and lived happily, until the family, except Jon was
murdered in standard hero vigilante style, leaving him a bitter mercenary shell.
Sable
is on the shelf about the direction of his life. What’s bothering him is his
evolving relationship with Myke, the good girl character, for whom he has
strong feelings, but the shadow of his dead wife and children hang heavily over
him. After a mild breakdown when Sable forgets his wife’s birthday, something
he’s celebrated since her death, and the knowledge that the Russian assassin,
the Sparrow, will someday show up for revenge - Well, let’s just say their
relationship has a lot of baggage. So much, that Jon’s not sure it’s right for
him to impose it on Myke.
While
that is the overarching metaplot, the actual issue stories vary from poor, to
explosive, to weird. The first story, which takes up three issues for some
reason, deals with Sable and friends attending an auction of movie memorabilia
where the original prop falcon for the Maltese Falcon is stolen. Sable is hired
by several people to find it, just like in the original. Blah blah blah. It
follows the film pretty exactly, with much less charm however.
The
whole thing should’ve been wrapped up in one issue, 2 max. It contained none of
the good material I expect from a Jon Sable story. Possibly being the worst one
ever produced - with the possible exception of Ashes of Eden. Perhaps part of the reason was that First Comics was
attempting to pimp their new comic Shatter,
so they had to take valuable pages from Jon Sable. Shatter, for those who are interested, is the first computer
generated comic book. All art was done on a Mackintosh. And considering the
comic came out in 1985, I’m sure you can guess just how good it is.
The
story taking up issues 31 and 32 are is “The Gauntlet”. Sable hooks up with an
old mercenary pal who is putting together a deniable team to enter Nicaragua
and check up on the contents of worrisome containers being offloaded from a
hostile power. Sable’s team is to check on the cargo and either radio a no-go
call or allow the bombing to occur. What they find makes everyone pause.
Grell’s artwork and the use of shade and color often underline his hero’s inner
sadness to brilliant effect. He expertly moves between scenes, panels flying up
before us, knowing when to talk and when to show. He is a true master of the
craft. The best tale of the lot.
The
last and oddest story of this bunch is in issue 33. Jon Sable’s alter ego is a
successful children’s writer under the name of B.B. Flemm. His books deal with
a group of Leprechauns who live in Central Park. He meets Sergio Aragones in
the book - the actual illustrator, creator of Groo the Wanderer and drawer of Mad
Marginals - who is illustrating one of his books. Most of the issue is
Sergio Aragones drawing of a children’s book about how the Leprechauns arrived
in New York. Fun, silly, definitely different for the series.
The final five
issues of the original series. From what I gather it wasn’t canceled from low
sales, but the author felt he could take the character as far as he could at
that time. In the final issue, Scout walks away. For some time, the character
had been war- weary, a person who never wanted to be a warrior or soldier in
the first place. It was immediately followed up by two 4-issue mini-series, Swords of Texas and New America where minor characters come to the forefront. Then later
succeeded by Scout: War Shaman which
picks up with the main character fifteen years later.
As
it stands, these are the best issues of the entire series. Gripping and raw,
the stakes have never been higher and that tension ripples through the pages
and illustrations. Though I do have to say that Scout seems to become an
observer in his own comic. Everyone else is running about with big plans and
he’s just swept up in the tide. No wonder the author chose to tuck him away.
From the beginning he had no real ambition beyond living wild in the Apache
hills of his ancestors.
Issue
20: “Black Cat Bone”: Monday and Scout hook up with the Swords of Texas and a
US Senator who has caught wind that something nasty was hatching from the top
of the U.S. government. The side-story deals with recurring character Lt. Rose
Winter who is sent by the President’s office to secure the nuclear warhead.
These stories collide as the Swords of Texas and crew find the warhead about to
ship off with the people who shot up the mercenaries. Violence breaks out and
the warhead is accidentally dropped onto Las Vegas.
Issue
21: “I’m on Fire” With the aftermath of the bomb, Scout and his allies move
south and begin a propaganda campaign against the current administration. While
the country is really being ruled by Vice President Lowery, the president
becomes suspicious of his activities. Rose Winter and her troops catch up with
Scout.
Issue
22: “The Wolf is At Your Door” This begins the final three issue arc of the
series. Scout, Monday, The Swords of Texas are squared off against the
communist Mexican forces invading Texas. Meanwhile, Lt. Rose Winter defies her
orders to pull back and allow the insurgent forces free reign. The Vice
President then murders the President, attempting to make it look like an
accidental overdose, and seizes control, but the act is recorded by Mossad
agents.
Issue
23: “Cryin’ at Daybreak” The invasion continues on for a week. Many are killed
on both sides. Then the United States Army appears and orders everyone fighting
the invasion to lay down arms and surrender. The rebels choose a third option
and essentially the rag-tag team declare civil war on the government. Israeli
troop arrive to help the Scout and friends, but then discover that their own
country was invaded after they left. This leaves us to the final showdown and
the confrontation with whoever is pulling strings in the shadow.
Issue
24: “Sittin’ on Top of the World”. The skirmish along the Mexican border has
caused a domino effect across the world, culminating in what seems World War III
has broken out. Monday has a plan to end the conflict and blasts off into space
to take command of a Russian Nuclear Defense Platform.
As
the rest of the series has never been collected into trade paperback format, I
bought all the rest of the issues off of Mile High Comics, My Comic Shop, and
eBay, and I got them for a fairly reasonably price with sufficient shuffling
about. There were a few sellers with ridiculous asking prices, but the most I
paid for any individual issue was $4 (issue 16- the 3D issue) , most circled
around the two dollar range.
As
I stated in the previous entry on this series, Scout takes a little bit of time to find itself and these next
seven issues I believe it does that. Gone is the overt supernatural elements of
the series, replacing them is more unnerving, covert mysticism, where the
reader finds the line between divine inspiration and insanity a thin line. There’s
enough political drama in the world of Scout
without needing to add much more to it.
Starting
with issue 15, featurettes become common in the series, where a mini-story is
added to look at the perspective of another character in the same universe. Their
stories will eventually merge with the greater arc of the world of Scout.
Issue
15: “Uncle Sam Blues”: In the last issue, Scout was taken prisoner by the U.S.
military. Rather than imprison him, the chuck him into a veterans asylum for
his P.T.S.D and drug him up. He goes through another mystical experience,
naturally, before summoning up the strength to break out. But he is stopped by
another mystical warrior imprisoned in the hospital, a mass-murderer called
Monday the Eliminator. The side-story deals with the mercenary group Swords of
Texas, who are tricked into smuggling an important crate of McGuffins to a
terrorist organization and then are double crossed.
Issue
16: “Stormy Monday”: This was a 3-D issue which was a minor fad in comics back
in the late 1980s. It passed quickly though, leading to the bankruptcy of one
publisher Blackthorne. In this issue, Scout and Monday have a protracted fight
scene (needed to justify the 3-D costs I guess) before teaming up and breaking
out of prison. Honestly this is only issue of Scout where virtually nothing happens.
Issue
17: “Key to the Highway”. The art really improves in this issue. You can see,
smell, taste, and touch the talent as the artist finally blooms into his own.
Monday and Scout spend months being tracked by government forces as they take a
circular route to meet Scout’s uncle at the ancient Apache hills. He goes on a
mystic quest once again and fights his personal demon, with the help of some
weird beings from Beanworld - another
comic from Eclipse about minimalist beans- making just about one of the
weirdest crossovers ever. The backup feature deals with Missy and her band,
survivors of the Houston massacre, are strong-armed by local thugs in Las
Vegas.
Issue
18: “Blues Hit Big Town”. Scout and Monday hit Las Vegas and become wrapped up
in Missy and her band’s legal trouble. Which nearly leads to violent
confrontation and a glimpse at the future of the series. The backup feature
deals with Monday meeting several underground connections in the city. We learn
more of his boring “mysterious” past. He doesn’t need to sleep. He’s also some,
apparently, immortal warrior who travels from conflict zone to conflict zone.
Not much else is revealed. A pretty standard “mysterious” past for an 80s character.
Luckily the rest of the issues don’t waste any time on it.
Issue
19: “Houserockers”: This issue carries another gimmick, briefly popular in the
1980s, the floppy square 48 record attached inside. This was mostly done in
books, I remember Bloom County: Billy and
the Boingers had one attached - there must have been others. They were
cheap, easy to produce, so why not. The used issue I bought still had it
attached. Recorded by the Dixie Pistols,
a band fronted by Scout creator Tim
Truman, gives us two songs: Double Moon Stomp and Blues Crusade. I won’t
comment on the quality as I haven't listened to them, but below I included a
video of Truman doing a karaoke version of Blues Crusade.
The
rest of the issue deals with Missy and her band struggling against the local
gangsters and trying to win a battle of the bands. While Monday picks up
information that a nuclear warhead has been stolen - the mysterious package
from issue 15 - while the Communist Mexican army begins moving north. Issue 19
is easily the weakest of the series. All these important events are revving up and
yet we focus on a stupid battle of the bands.
The second book in
the Scout series collects issues 8 -14 from 1985 and 1986 - or issues 9-15 if
you are reading the Dynamite reprint. Originally released by Eclipse comics, it
has some of that drag and momentum of the time, but also remains an indie pleasure.
In these issues, as well as the future one, he begins to expand the Scout
universe. Political maneuverings and weirdos abound. A fascinating world of
hi-tech future wild-west America is opening. Shotguns and mechs abound.
As
I stated in the previous entry on this series, Scout takes a little bit of time
to find itself and these next seven issues I believe it does that. Gone is the
overt supernatural elements of the series: the Gahn and the Four Beasts.
Replacing them is more unnerving, covert mysticism, where the reader finds the
line between divine inspiration and insanity a thin line. The series benefits
greatly from this adjustment. There’s enough drama in the world of Scout
without needing to add much more to it.
Scout
is set in the dystopian future of 1999 - our old future- where, in a similar
vein to Solyent Green, the problems
inflicted on modern American society are due to overfishing and exhaustion of
the soil from overproduction. Most of the rest of the world seems to be under
the grip of a Soviet Pact and have leveled trade embargos on the United States
and allied countries, forcing us to fend for ourselves. A power struggle is
occurring between the new president of the United States, a former junkie, and
the former advisor to the previous president, who summoned up the four beasts.
Here
a religious movement has taken over a decommissioned nuclear missile silo,
which mistakenly had a few nukes left. Half the government wants the group to
fire off the bombs, so they can take tighter control of the country, while the
other attempts to stop the missile launch. Scout is caught in the middle. He
makes new friends - if a man like him can be said to ever make friends - and
loses a few as well. This story arc is the tipping point, in my ever humble opinion,
the series. The issues where it really begins to sit up and cook.
Since no good new
comics are being produced, I keep stretching further and further into the past.
And here’s a ripe oldie from the second golden age of comics - the 1980s -
Scout a comic put out by Eclipse Comics - my favorite of the indie publishers
at that time. Alas, it has fallen to obscurity. The first published Alan
Moore’s Miracleman in America,
adapted a whole bunch of Clive Barker stories into beautifully painted comics,
and created my particularly favorite comic, Destroyer
Duck. Enough about them, let’s look the first collection of Scout, The Four Monsters.
Scout
is set in the dystopian future of 1999 - our old future- where, in a similar
vein to Solyent Green, the problems inflicted on modern American society are
due to over-fishing and exhaustion of the soil from overproduction. Most of the
rest of the world seems to be under the grip of a Soviet Pact and have leveled
trade embargoes on the United States and allied countries, forcing us to fend
for ourselves. Into this the four monsters of Apache legend have snuck into
power - presumably guided by other forces not revealed in the first book. Mass upheavals followed, with many losing
their land, unemployment skyrocketing, defunding of police, and force conscription
of the young into the armed forces.
This
leads to our hero, Emmanuel Satana aka Scout, a former drafted soldier who has
gone AWOL to retreat into his Apache roots. While on a peyote bender, he is
contacted by a spirit guide named Gahn, who first appears as cricket, then as a
squirrel. He directs Scout to take on these four monsters which have seized
control of the country and to destroy them. The last being none other than the
president of the United States. Thus begins a violent road.
This
volume collects the first seven issues of the comic (a more recent reprint by
Dynamite Comics has the 1 - 8), and you can see the nascent artist coming out.
The art isn’t the greatest, yet you can see the talent just about to bloom into
full maturity. Some of the story pacing, some of the dialogue could be
improved, but you can easily see the talent behind it. And judging from issue 7
- drawn by Tom Yeats- it is just on the cusp of becoming itself. Remember, the
weakest story in the Sandman series
was the first one, then it became something amazing. I have a feeling it will
here as well.
This
is one of those sci-fi driven comic albums, called bande dessinée, translated
from French. Like Valerian and The Waters of Deadmoon, it demonstrates
how much great material there is in other languages which desperately needs to
be translated in English. But finally the whole of the Yoko Tsuno series is
available in English, if perhaps it is not presented in the correct
chronological order by Cinebook- who also published the whole of the Valerian
series.
This
is a fast paced book, filled with lots of technical jargon and hard science,
which made it a very intelligent read on top of the all of the action. If you
ignore the extra-terrestrial material, a lot of what is going on seems somewhat
plausible. The main character is Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of
Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic Video and Pol Pitron.
While many adventures are on Earth, most of them deal with the blue-skinned
alien race of Vineans, who can be friends or enemies depending on the story.
In
this album, the crew investigate a mysterious light that appears on the moon
Ixo every five years, which turns out to be at the center of a conflict among
the descendants of Vinean exiles working on Ixo to supply their city located on
a dead astronomical body with energy.
If
the art seems a little familiar it’s because Roger Leloup began by drawing
detailed backgrounds for Herge’s Tintin,
then collaborated with Peyo (of Smurfs fame)
on a lesser known project Jacky and
Célestin. In fact much of the first material for this series was published
in the same illustrated magazines as was the other two, Spirou. While working
on Jacky and Célestin he created a
female character that became the inspiration for the protagonist of this
series.
This
is volume 21, the final album, of the series Valerian & Laureline: Spatio-Temporal Agents. The Valerian
series (for those who don’t know) is one of the longest running series ever in
French-Belgium comic history. Now you might see that the series goes up to
volume 23, but the following two albums simply collect short stories and
vignettes from the two characters. The authors even write on page one, “This
volume is the conclusion to Valerian and Laureline’s saga. It brings back
characters and refers to events from just about every book in the series. It is
highly recommended that you read those first.”
Valerian
and Laureline used to work for the Spatio-Temporal Service which protects the
planets of the Terran Empire and its capital, Galaxity, in the 28th century. An
event in 1986 where a disaster did or did not occur has wiped this timeline out
of existence, displacing our two heroes in alternate time. They have discovered
that Earth has been displaced by a race of sentient stones, called the Wolochs,
has displaced Earth in the Great Void and our heroes rush to put time and space
right, not knowing which Earth will be released - the devastated one, or the
shining jewel of Galaxity.
In
a way this volume is a farewell to the entire series. All the old characters
show up to help our heroes fight against the Wolochs. Old enemies are destroyed
and goodness finally triumphs at a great cost to our heroes. Kind of like the
final episode of Seinfeld, this story is about taking a last look at old
friends and enemies rather than focusing on an amazing final story. While the
battle is intense, you always kind of knew they were going to succeed. What
happened after that was unforeseen and well done. A fitting end to our heroes.
