I've followed Lloyd Smith's Blue Moon Comics Group for a little over 5 years now, and the imprint's flagship title has been a favorite of mine for that entire time.
For those interested in catching up, you can get (cheap!) digital copies here:
Blue Moon Comics on DriveThruComics
And (also cheap!) digital copies as well as print-on-demand copies here:
Blue Moon Comics on IndyPlanet
However, as the title of this post implies, I'm here to talk about the two most recent (at the time of this writing) issues of "Diversions."
So, without further ado, here's the cover to issue #18:
Even though one feature is very prominently featured on the cover, you can guess from the exclamations above the main title that this is an anthology-format series, with this issue focusing on three tales.
The "cover story" is "Sideral: The Last Earthman," a character created by Chris Malgrain of Oniric Comics, who writes and draws the feature as well.
This is the most recent chapter of an ongoing tale, but the gist is this: Sideral is "The Last Earthman" because he basically caused the destruction of our planet and is the sole survivor. He also received seemingly unlimited cosmic power in the process, and now wanders the cosmos in search of some sense of purpose in the face of all this existential happenstance.
It's kind of a "reverse Silver Surfer" idea, and I really like it.
In this installment, Sideral convinces an alien race to stop worshipping him as a god, and then finally encounters an alien woman whose image has been haunting his dreams.
It's a very well done space opera, with introspective themes, but with plenty of action as well. Malgrain's original "Oniric Comics" like this is great stuff, but his imprint tends to vastly get by on restorations/repackagings of public domain comics, which I have basically no interest in. Comicbookplus.com and other sites let us read pretty great scans of all those old PD comics for free, ya know. But hey, if it sells for him, what do I care? :)
Next up is "Skyblazer," a pulp-era rough-and-tumble ace pilot character type in a story called "Smoke on the Water." It's a brief, kind of shallow story, but it goes like this: Mark Mason (the "Skyblazer") is approached by a woman who calls herself "Danger," who offers him $10,000 (in 1940s money, remember) to deliver some apparently very sensitive documents to Washington. As they fly off, the tiny island that Mark was operating from is completely destroyed by what modern eyes will easily identify as an atomic explosion. So much for that supporting cast we were introduced to in the opening pages, eh? On the other hand, you can't get a much better cliffhanger than that! Evan Driscoll's art suits the genre perfectly, too, so that also helps. Also: "Smoke on the Water" ends with what we could call "A Fire in the Sky?" Hah? Hahhh?
Wrapping up the affair is a combination of two regular Diversions features "The Vault of Shadows" and "Other Worlds," for a short chiller thriller featuring sci-fi sprinkled with old-school "Charlton/Gold Key" style horror.
In "No Trespassing," Mister EEEE! (horror host in residence) introduces us to a tale of Max Tuna and Sondra Starr, two ne'er-do-wells who hijack a vacationing star cruiser and leave the passengers to their deaths. Escaping to the planet below, the two scoundrels are quickly attacked by prehistoric creatures (coutrtesy of "Jurass, Inc" who recently bought the land). Max uses his blaster to easily defeat all comers, and even shoves Sondra into some quicksand to avoid sharing the loot. Apparently, though, Max never learned how to count his shots, and runs out of ammo at a very inopportune moment.
It's a fun, classically-styled "twist-ending" horror story, bolstered considerably by JW Erwin's fantastic artwork.
And so! On to issue #19!
You know the drill now: Look above the title (and at the portraits in the corner box!) for a list of this issue's features: Night Spider! The Glass Guardian! Skyblazer!
Night Spider is our "cover story" feature this time out, with art by a recent addition to the Blue Moon Bullpen: Dana Black. Dana's a fantastic artist that I've been FB friends with for years, and from whom I've purchased several original pieces, so it's been really cool to see him join the ranks of one of my favorite modern day comics publishers.
Night Spider is perhaps Blue Moon's flagship superhero, having debuted in the first issue of "Diversions," and created by Lloyd Smith and artist JW Erwin. This issue opens with the Night Spider tale, and its a really cool one, to boot.
"In a Moment's Time" is written, drawn, and colored by Dana Black, with lettering by Lloyd Smith. It's a story told mostly in splash pages, with some pages formatted as splash panels aside smaller insets, and a pair of double page spreads. It's a daring experiment in format for Black's first "solo" comic story, and perhaps more so on the writing side of things.
The entire narrative of the tale is told in captions, telling the tale of a man who loses a loved one that he feels Night Spider could have saved. The mostly "off screen" narrator details his growing hatred, culminating in the moment just before his plan for ultimate vengeance is carried out.
However, as well know, things can go wrong at ANY moment in time...
As "daring" as these creative choices are, they pay off pretty much perfectly. Each page is beautifully and engaging rendered, with "watercolor"-like coloring giving things a very distinct look and feel. The narrative flows well, and brings things to a tragic conclusion in just the right amount of time.
Dana Black has several more project planned with Blue Moon, and I cannot wait to see them.
And now, with the unenviable task of following THAT story up, we have:
"Skyblazer" in "Don't Fear the Reaper!" I wonder how long 'blazer will keep up with the "song titles" trope for these chapters, eh?
Speaking of "chapters," nowhere do I see any indication that is "chapter two" of the story from Diversions #18. Not only would this help new readers figure out what they're getting into, but it would maybe sell them on buying the previous issue, ya know? Anyway...
In this chapter, Mark Mason lands his plane (at gunpoint, courtesy of the femme fatale named "Danger") in Arizona (not Washington0, and is quickly ushered into a meeting with...President Truman! (Guess it is kind of a meeting with "Washington" after all)
Truman and co. inform Mason that his island was not destroyed by an A-bomb (as this does apparently take place after Hiroshima and Nagasaki), but from a weapon based...in outer space!
Looks like the nefarious "Dr. X" is somehow connected, and soon enough, Mason is trained to fly an experimental rocket plane to go up and pay the not-so-good Doctor a visit. The story ends with Mason (and "Danger's") new ride approaching a orbital base bristling with gun posts, guarded by at least one rocket and several flying saucers!
One again, the quick-and-carefree pulp tone is captured perfectly, and I'm really hoping that Lloyd and Evan have lots of interest in continuing with the Skyblazer saga.
The final full-length story in the issue is called "The Glass Guardian vs The Drone Master!"
The Glass Guardian was created by Mark F. Davis, another creator I've followed and been FB friends with for several years. Mark and Lloyd Smith have both been in the indie comics game since at least the 1990s, and Mark's recent revival of his own "Golden Era Comics" title was another big fave of mine from the past 8 or so years.
Unfortunately, Mark has dropped GEC back into hibernation for now, but several of his creations live on in the pages of Blue Moon Comics these days. "The Unbeatable Brick" and "Depthon of the Deep" are already faves of mine, and it looks like GG is bound to join 'em.
So! In this actual story! Written by Mark Davis and Ray McKay with art by Brad Olrich (creator of another great Blue Moon comic, "Commodore Dinosaur"), GG intervenes in a bank robbery being carried out by...little robotic drones!
The drones kind of look like something Gyro Gearloose from Duckburg would have created, so GG can be forgiven for taking things lightly at first.
However, the drones surprise our hero by combining into one massive robot, and GG just barely manages to stay on top of the situation.
Tracking the sole surviving drone to its home, GG confronts their Master and...accidentally knocks his head off!
Turns out, the "Master" is really a six-inch tall, very bitter little man who was hiding in the "head" of the robot body that answered the door!
This felt very much like a modern take on a Golden Age style superhero story, briskly paced and nicely crazy in just the right way. I know Mark is in "semi-retirement," but I'm hoping form more GG adventures sooner rather than later.
Remember how I mentioned Mark Davis's "Unbeatable Brick" a few paragraphs back? Well that very character caps off this issue in a one-page "Snazzy Snack Cakes" advertisement in which he faces "Dr. Robotx." If you recall the classic Hostess ads in Bronze Age comics, you'll love this, and it's a more or less regular feature in Blue Moon comics.
See how long it took me to type all of that? And that was only two issue's worth! There's seventeen more issues of Diversions (so far) and many more Blue Moon offerings to enjoy for wicked cheap out there, folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment