Dr Freud to the white courtesy penis.. I mean POWER TOOL!!!

[icon_uk]

My first contribution to "Beyond the Big Two Week" is courtesy of Epic Comics in 1986. Now this is sort of a cheat, since that was a Marvel imprint, but it's notable that it was it's creator-owned imprint. The likes of Jim Starlin's Dreadstar and Christy marx's "Sisterhood of Steel" were part of the Epic line as were Alien Legion and Six from Sirius. Sometimes they used Marvel characters (Most notably in Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz's Elektra: Assassin series and Stan Lee and Moebius' Silver Surfer: Parable.

This is none of those, this is a six issue miniseries (created, written and drawn by one chap, Alan Weiss) featuring a new character, a new approach to technology and more suggestive subtext than anything you can probably imagine... no strike that, this is scans_daily... more suggestive subtext than most non-s_d reders can probably imagine.



I really wouldn't recommend that as a tag line...

Welcome to the world of...



Yup this cover sort of sumamrises what I mean, it's the adventures of a man in improbably tight jeans, whose raw masculine creativity is channelled into thrusting, throbbing technology every time he grasps the big red handle of the rod emerging from his all purposes power tool and squeezes it tightly!



I swear to God that's not a photoshop, that's the actual cover.... the handle is even RIBBED for pities sake.

Anyway, the book starts with a run through of American tradition of legends and tall tales about those who, in some way, embody Americas pioneer spirit, the hard working work ethic made flesh - Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Casey Jones, Pecos Bill, Rosie the Riveter and John Henry, the Steel Drivin' man. This is, as they cheerfully admit, "a tall tale for today", which is perhaps a good way to look at most comic books... And now, meet our hero



So here we seem to have a sort of visual precursor to Tom Strong (though he is ginger, which I'm sure will please some).

One young woman bucks the trend, actually coming into a building site looking for one Patrick Starkey. The site foreman, who it is a fairly loathesome bag of crap names Blasko, sleazes on her instantly, when he is interrupted by a rather grubby looking fellow who is a friend of Mr starkey, and not of Blasko.



Blasko is so annoyed that he throws Ryan into a large and very muddy pit on the site, and is so pissed off at him interrupting that he decides to take slightly more violent retribution, reasoning that






The tool? What tool could THAT be? (and yes, Blasko is the sort of sexist, racist, everything else-ist man that makes me feel embarrassed about even owning a Y chromosome)

Starkey and Ryan both agree to go with the mysterious lady (Who hasn't yet introduced herself) though before she goes, she decides that Blasko has earned her PERSONAL attention (I like her!)



"...bBetter use for my talents", and then she met the mysterious Mr Pilgrim.



I have to say I do like the term "technalchemy", it's easier to say than it looks. So the powertool has been built but requires a special someone to activate it.

So Shari shows them the toolbox that contains the power tool.



Yes, you there in the unfeasibly tight t-shirt and jeans, you just show us your purity of energy by grasping that handle shaft in a purely unironic fasion of course!

(Any symbolism you care to attribute to these scenes is entirely your own, but trust me, whatever it is, you are NOT the first think it.)



I have to say, I do LIKE the tech the APPT produces, and I suspect that it's one of the reasons Alan Weiss started this project, you need to have a crazy love of angles and curves and drawing machinery (and1986 pretty much ensures that this was pre computer assisted drawing)




And after whipping up a 1/20th scale Empire State Building in less than 10 minutes...




They go to their new HQ, which is a suit of rooms that Mr Pilgrim (Who shari has seen and Red will meet, but Steelgrip won't, for various reasons) owns, which are located UNDER the New York Public Library.

The deal is that Shari will program the parameters into the APPT (She's the only one who can do that part), Steelgrip will operate it and be the public face, and Ryan will sort out transportation, on the road matters and be the on the spot business manager (eg haggling where required)



Silly? Heavens no... a possible replacement member of Village People perhaps (The silver riveted trim is just SO 1980's!), but not SILLY! (and if you thought his last pair of jeans were tight then good lord check out this pair!


(That being said, I soooo would... well, I probably couldn't since his forearms are more solidly built than my torso, but never mind)

Whilst Ryan is out of the room, Shari does ask Steelgrip about Ryan's R-shaped scar on his forehead, Steelgrip says it's not something that Ryan talks about much and he starts to explain but is interrupted, if I post any more, I'll try and include the eventual explanation)

And so it's off to their first mission. It seems that a satellite is falling from the sky and heading towards Chicago... By the time they get there the Mayor tells them that they have discovered that it'll actually miss the city, but will land in some remote farmland, where people can easily be evacuated from, so they can go home. But Steelgrip being the sort of bloke he is, can't let that happen, the rural folk deserve the same service as the city folk, so he heads with his team out to the rural area, which appears to be populated by Central Casting when asked to provide "Rural yokels, and plenty of them".







And on that painfully clean-cut note I have to finish, as even a 30 page comic has to obey the 1/3 rule. Sadly that means I need to omit the assault on the UN building by terrorists that leads to the first issues cliffhanger, but I think you get the general idea.

In fairness, Saturday morning cartoon concept (though as others have noted, whereas in thie era, we usually saw how technology was always evil and nature/magic was good, it's nice to see positive applications of tech, even magical tech), and and hilarious subtext to one side, this is a beautifully drawn comic with few pretensions, and that can be great fun in and of itself.

And a couple of covers from later in the series, just for fun. The first one because it emphasises the handle bit again and sometimes I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old, and the second one for the unfortunate alignment of what I am sure is the part of the tool grabbing his left arm, which does appear to be probing... somewhere else instead!


 

Comments

[medster_comics]

WOW! how that big macjine can go in a so little box?!

[icon_uk]

Technalchemy! It produces the machinery required from the air around it, and then dissolves it back when it's not needed any more.

[medster_comics]

Owww! Cool!

[mrosa]

The guy bears a striking resemblance to Tom Strong.

[ensiform]

OP already noted that:

"So here we seem to have a sort of visual precursor to Tom Strong (though he is ginger, which I'm sure will please some)."

I kind of want to buy the first issue now just to show it to people and giggle.

[michael_ellis_day]

I never saw this before but had heard the name as the punchline or setup for jokes over the years, so thanks for clearing up the mystery!

This partly seems like a riff on an idea from Jack Kirby, who once had the New Gods using a "techno-active" device that started as a featureless white cube but sprouted all sorts of Kirby tech until it was a mass of circuits and conduits exactly like the power tool here. I'm not saying that as a criticism, riffing on old good ideas while creating something genuinely new is a good thing!

What I *would* say as a criticism is that this suffers from the most common failing of artists-turned-writers: they're so in love with their ideas that they overexplain and underline everything, drowning the page in exposition and backstory to make sure you get every one of their wonderful ideas. Half the exposition in these pages could have been cut with no damage to story comprehension. It sometimes felt weighed down with information we didn't need right then.

[michael_ellis_day]

P.S.: I liked it enough that I would have bought the next issue! I just felt it could have been better.

[icon_uk]

Not sure Kirby can take all the credit here as the magic box which contains more than it's dimensions would allow is an old established trope of any number of tales, modern interpretations would include Mary Poppins carpetbag, Dr Seuss's many levelled contrapations, Felix the Cat's bag of tricks, and even the TARDIS! :)

And agreed that it's a little wordy, but I can imagine the writer being so KEEN to get their ideas across that they overexplain it.

Still, this is as nothing compared to Deadbeats, another title that I might feature later in the week if I can find a good sample.

[michael_ellis_day]

I totally get what you're saying re other predecessors of the magic box idea, but respectfully submit that this particular application of the idea really looks like it was strongly influenced by that scene in New Gods described above. And I promise you Alan Weiss had seen that issue.

Deadbeats is a different kind of verbosity. That's more a case of a writer trying to write a comic as if it were a literary prose novel, so the characters just sit around and talk with one another about their feelings. This, as you say, is someone who's just really really KEEN on his ideas. I call it an artist-turned-writer mistake, but that's another way of saying it's a total rookie mistake. You create a backstory for all of your characters and you're so in love with that backstory that you want to make sure everyone hears all the detail you've lovingly crafted into it. An experienced writer knows you work all that stuff out and then never tell it, or only as needed. In comics we tend to see it more with artists because they most often come to writing second.

[blackruzsa]

1) FILIPINA GIRL! IN A MAJOR ROLE! 8D And oh so pretty and smart. Man, how could we (and by we, I mean the people who like to go Pinoy hunting in comics) have missed this?

2) There is something frightfully appealing about the design of the power tool when it... powers up. Like, how huge it is with all the fixings, and not like, compact tiny :)) I know the point is that that huge thing fits in some alchemical other-place, but I like that the power tool actually builds, bolts to beams, an entire heavy-duty machine to do the work.

3) "Honey, I was born ready, and also my pose and the star on my glove say I'M TOTALLY STRAIGHT AS I SMILE CHARMINGLY AND HOLD ONTO THIS RIBBED RED SHAFT" :D

[icon_uk]

Regards 2) I don't think the APPT does fold up, I think it really does start small and "grows" shiny new tech every time it's used.

[greenmask]

Okay - you were right. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

What a charming, charming book. What a tight, tight outfit.

[icon_uk]

:)

The latter doesn't always assure the former, but it's nice when they coincide!

[shadowpsykie]

..... yeah... this is pretty blatant.... i mean... really....

[mastiff]

Hehe, is that a 'boobs n' butt pose on issue #2? How progressive ;)

[icon_uk]

Indeed... :)

[shadowpsykie]

and the second one for the unfortunate alignment of what I am sure is the part of the tool grabbing his left arm, which does appear to be probing... somewhere else instead!

[nemryn]

This reads a lot like a promotional comic to me, for some reason. Even after Mr Pilgrim and the technalchemy are introduced, it's still got the same kind of breathless, gee-whiz "Look at all the neat things STARKEY (TM)(R) brand power tools can do! Wow!" narration style.

[cypherfdp]

It's Tool Time, isn't it?

[kraesil]

Hats off to this guy for Science Machinery Extreme.

[salad_barbarian]

I remember reading an old magazine that talked about this comic. I kind of wish this were still being published.