Dru's Inventory Project - Part II

[wizardru]

So a few weeks ago, I began inventorying my comic collection. Said collection, of course, stretches back to the 1970s...so it's going to take a while. As part of the effort, I'm going to continue to occasionally post stuff from the vault. Whether it amuses me for good or ill....as I've come to realize that I've got some questionable stuff in there.

It illustrates to me pretty clearly how comics were bought back in the day. Before the internet and online previews and so forth, we had the occasional magazine or house promotion to let us know about upcoming stuff. We could flick through an issue in the store before buying, perhaps...but a lot of stuff I got in the 1990s involved following a writer or artist whose work I enjoyed. Sometimes to my detriment.

Last time I brought you some pages from DC's Zero Hour, circa 1994. This time I thought I'd go a little more indie, a little more obscure. I almost did a scan of old Power Man and Iron Fist issues, but decided I'd save that for later. Instead, I decided that what we needed were gun-toting Vegas Showgirls. IN THE RETRO-FUTURE.




So the year is 1985 and the indie comics explosion is in full bloom. It seems like anybody can get a comic and does. Quality is all over the board. Many comics are inexpensive with small print runs in black and white. But some of the big Independents start putting down serious roots. And of the big names other the DC and Marvel, Eclipse stands as one of the leaders. So when a popular artist from one of their competitors, First Comics, wants to start a new series...they say SURE (their eventual implosion is years off, yet). That man was Timothy Truman...but this is about HIM. No, it's about Scout's backup feature: FASHION IN ACTION.

Since Truman was essentially creating a normal length comic, but indie comics weren't supported by ads, they had space for a backup feature (or could be smaller, which usually felt cheaper). Into this walks John K Snyder III, soon to be famous for his work on Matt Wagner's Grendel. And what does he do? Well, THIS:



By today's standards, this isn't that amazing. But in 1985, this art was pretty cutting edge. Very stylish (Snyder would do a lot of fashion mag type work in Grendel and elsewhere). Notice that use of the classic 100 years after it was published gig. The badguys here are the Gargoyle Gang, which I guess are kind of like Hydra...if Hydra existed in the Tick's world, or something. They're very Edward G. Robinson.



FIA is, iirc, basically a group of models/mercenaries. The series takes place in the year 2086, but everything kind of looks like the 30s, with futuristic technology. Kind of like a day-glo Blade Runner. Enter the leader of FIA, Frances Knight...a sort of female Nick Fury. I believe she's a former secret agent or some such.



The plot here is basically that the bad guys (Doctor Cruel and some others) want to kidnap this guy for nefarious reasons and FIA has been hired to protect him. A task they fail at pretty quickly, as a GORILLA WITH A TV HEAD nabs him right out from under him. And yes, he looks exactly like the villain from the old movie, Robot Monster.

I'm not sure how well this ages, but it was fun back in the day. After a good run in Scout for about six issues, I believe, FIA got a few specials before disappearing. Snyder himself did a lot more work, including many covers (especially for other Eclipse titles, like the US release of Marvelman).

publisher: Eclipse, creator: john k. snyder iii

Comments

[jeyl]

Fashion in action.......JACKSON!

[rattsu]

OMG I thought that was SO weird back when I read Scout. I never could decide whether it was good or horrible, so in the end I settled for awesome. I had forgotten it even existed...

[grimmbear]

Dru.... That's just weird.

[wizardru]

No, Savage Henry by Matt Howarth, now that's weird. This us just kind of trippy.

[halloweenjack]

Oh, man, Those Annoying Post Bros. In terms of sheer balls-out celebration of psychopathy, it makes Wanted look like what it is, a half-arsed faux-outrageous piece of derivative shit. The last thing of Howarth's that I saw was this somewhat embarrassing SF porn thing he did for Eros, but there are plenty of things that are new to me listed on his site.

[psychopathicus_rex]

OK, this looks pretty awesome. Do you have any more to post?

[kenn_el]

I remember these! Pretty cool, they were! The main character looked like a mash-up of the then-current look for Black Widow and Nick Fury! PLUS JKS did paper dolls of the characters for the specials!