tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:172314 Bringing the crack since December 2003 Scans Daily 2011-09-12T01:37:53Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:172314:3287776 causticlad 2011-09-12T01:07:16Z 2011-09-12T01:37:53Z public 11 Posted by: <span lj:user='causticlad' style='white-space: nowrap;' class='ljuser'><a href='http://causticlad.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='http://causticlad.dreamwidth.org/'><b>causticlad</b></a></span><br /><br /><img src="http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i452/causticlad/Scasn%20Daily/cover-2.jpg"><br /><br />The most peculiar '80s comic event was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle boom. Or rather, it was the flood of knock-offs inspired by TMNT's incredible success (for a while issue #1 was selling for a couple of hundred bucks). Pretty much every publisher put out something black-and-white involving funny animals, most of which didn't make it past the first issue. A lot of them skated dangerously along the "parody" line -- a quick poke around the web to refresh my memory turned up <i>Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters</i>, <i>Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils</i>, <i>Adult Thermonuclear Samurai Elephants</i>, <i>Naive Interdimensional Commando Koalas</i>, and <i>Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos</i>. It felt like Blackthorne Publishing printed nothing <i>but</i> them for a while. It was a weird time, kind of similar to the record companies' rush to Seattle after Nirvana hit big...hmmm, Stone Temple Pilot Turtles? Nah.<br /><br />Anyway, one nice side effect of it was that for a while other more original B&W funny animal stuff would get printed, and a lot of very non-mainstream stuff snuck through. The quality was pretty uneven, to be kind, but there were gems. One of my personal favorites, forgotten by me until I stumbled across their one-shot from Eclipse this afternoon, was <i>Weasel Patrol</i>.<br /><br />Ken Macklin has dropped off the map, unless he's <a href="http://www.kenmacklin.com/">this Ken Macklin</a>, which I have a funny feeling he might be -- I vaguely recall he was Canadian, and so's this sculptor. Whatever happened to him, it's a shame he's apparently stopped making comics because the guy had serious talent. His signature work was Dr. Watchstop, a Vaughn Bodé-esque SF strip that started out in Marvel's <i>Epic</i> magazine and then became a back-up series in Eclipse Comics' <i>Fusion</i>. <a href="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/jbwarner86/595_14.jpg">It was beautiful</a>.<br /><br />On the other hand this collaboration with fellow <i>Fusion</i> artist <a href="http://www.leladowling.com/">Lela Dowling</a> was a throwaway. But it was funny and the art was nice, which is two more points than many of the funny furries of the TMNT Land Rush had.<br /><br />For no obvious reason their one solo outing sent them to the Old West. Well why the hell not? We'll begin with their recurring villain, Reefer Rick:<br /><br /><span class="cuttag_container"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b>(&nbsp;<a href="http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3287776.html#cutid1">Even the crime of cattle rustling hadn't changed, until one day so many cattle were missing that folks noticed, and the local sheriff appealed for help...</a>&nbsp;)</b><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div></span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=scans_daily&ditemid=3287776" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments