Space: 1999 #7

I bought two issues of this in 2013 at the South Attleboro Comic, Card, & Toy Show.

Title: Space: 1999
Issue: #7
Publisher: Charlton Comics
Date: November, 1976
Writer: Mike Pellowski
Artist: Pat Boyette

Cover: Pat Boyette
Editor: George Wildman

I reviewed the previous issue here.

This issue has two comic stories and a prose story, all focused on the character of Maya, the shapeshifter who was introduced in the second season of the TV show.

The first story adapts the episode "The Metamorph", the first TV appearance of Maya, as Commander Koenig and members of his crew are captured by Mentor, an alien with designs of feeding their mental energy to an ancient computer to restore his lost civilization. Maya, his daughter, ends up helping the Alphans escape and becomes a regular character on the show.

Even though it serves as Maya's origin story, it's Koenig who shines here as the commander forced to make the difficult decisions.

Maya is definitely the star of the second story in this issue, though. With Koenig and some other crew held hostage by a greedy tribe of reptilian aliens, Maya pretty much handles their rescue singlehandedly. The comics medium lets her show off a much wider range of shapshifting powers than she ever did on TV and this story makes it very clear that she is extremely capable and not someone you want to mess with.

The prose story read like a brief random encounter in a roleplaying campaign. Koenig and Maya land on a frozen planet, quickly discovering that the local life forms are not exactly friendly, and decide that discretion is the better part of valor. There really was not much in the way of plot, but it did serve as a nice "day in the life" segment, giving the reader a taste of the possibilities of what might be waiting out in space for the Alphans.

As a whole the book feels a bit choppy with no real continuity between the stories. The supporting cast doesn't get much attention, with almost all the focus on Koenig and Maya. I did like the character work on both of those characters. As far as how well it adapted the series, I think it got the flavor right, but it has been way too long and I watched way too few episodes to say for sure how faithful to the source material this comic was.

Rating: 6/10

Azteca #1

My last review from the South Coast Toy and Comic Show. Writer Enrica Jang was one of the guests at the show and I got a chance to pick up the first issue of her comic, Azteca.

Title: Azteca
Issue: #1
Date: November 2010
Publisher: Red Stylo Media
Writer: Enrica Jang
Penciler: Jhazmine Ruiz
Inker: Andre Frattino
Colorist: Andre Frattino
Letterer: Andre Frattino

Crime story set in Mexico. A vigilante is hacking up gang members in a small Mexican tourist town, and the local politicians scramble to use the situation for their own gain.

I liked the backdrop of political intrigue in this story. The mayor, police chief, gang leader, and councilwoman are all pursuing their own agendas, which are nicely intertwined with the mysterious vigilante killings. The character of Councilwoman Pilar particularly stands for her complex motivations and some Machiavellian maneuvering behind the political scene in the town.

I would have liked to see similar complexity in more of the characters, and especially some breaking away from the stereotypes of corrupt politician, snobbish ignorant American tourist, and animalistic thug.

This story has a ton of potential to rise about the cliches and present a truly three-dimensional Mexico while still telling an intense crime story, and I hope that that it reaches that potential as it continues to unfold.

Rating: 7/10

SCTC Showcase #1

Title: SCTC Showcase
Issue: #1
Date: February 2011
Publisher: South Coast Toy And Comic Show
Art Director: Noah Barrett
Featured Writers & Artists: Noah Barrett, Frankie B. Washington, Errick Nunnally, Scott Hamilton, Bob Almond, Enrica Jang, Jason Casey, Jeff Burns, Shawn Corliss, Cesar Feliciano

Very clever promotional item. This is a program for the South Coast Toy And Comic Show in comic form. It includes comic previews from two of the guests and plenty of sample art from others, as well as spaces for sketches and autographs. This was a great way to connect with the artists at the show, and the comic format made for a very nice-looking product (where program booklets from other shows might get thrown out, this was definitely a keeper).

The first story is Oliver Roach by Noah Barrett, and it involves a character being menaced by an angry toon. It's played part serious and part for laughs, and there's enough of a scene here to establish the basic scenario but not all the details of how things work in this world. Still, it looked like a pretty entertaining story that didn't take itself too seriously.

The second sample story is Nightblade by Errick Nunnaly. The scene involves a former vigilante in court-mandated therapy following his release from prison and serves as a compact recap of the character's origin story while namedropping some of the supporting cast. It had a lot of stereotypes (vigilante, gangbangers, hooker-with-heart-of-gold, mysterious FBI agent), but it was effective in its purpose of introducing the story, and there were some potentially interesting plot developments hinted at.

The rest of the book contains profiles, interviews, sample art, and a bit of sample script. This definitely contributed to the enjoyment of the show and from what I observed it was a big hit with the attendees. It's a nice idea and I hope that they will do it again for future cons.

Rating: 7.5/10

Mercy Sparx: Under New Management #1 Free Comic Book Day Edition

This is the first of my purchases/finds from the South Coast Toy & Comic Show in Fairhaven MA a couple of weeks ago. This was one of a stack of old FCBD books that Rubber Chicken Comics had brought and put out on the freebies table.

Title: Mercy Sparx: Under New Management
Issue: #1 (Free Comic Book Day Edition)
Date: May, 2009
Publisher: Devils Due Publishing
Writer: Josh Blaylock
Artist: Matt Merhoff
Colorist: Bill Crabtree
Letterer: Crank!
Cover Art: Tim Seeley, Josh Blaylock

Two pages of text in a very small font are required to fill the reader in on the basic scenario and the happenings in the previous series. And then it takes another four pages of exposition before the story gets started. This could have gotten out of the gate a lot faster and with a lot fewer words.

Mercy Sparx is a, well, essentially a demonic being of some sort, but she's not particularly evil. Just snarky. The main thing she seems to do is to get manipulated into doing other people's dirty work. Dirty work, in this case consisting mostly of tracking down rogue angels and beating them up. With occasional moments of getting beat up by said rogue angels, not to mention suffering the occasional serious beatdown from the various more powerful beings that she works for.

When we finally get to the plot of this issue, Mercy is acting as a messenger for Heaven. Messenger here kind of in the mob sense. So she's got some angel she needs to deliver a message to, but en route she gets jumped by some other angels. A brawl ensues, followed by the seemingly inevitable bondage scene.

I liked the cynical dialogue in this, and the fight scenes were reasonably pretty if occasionally lacking in logic (Mercy gets knocked through a window and into a wall by an angel flying at full speed and gets up swinging, but a single kick puts her lights out a couple of pages later).

But there is a definite vibe that this is a comic that's pretending to be about a strong woman, when really it's a comic about a woman that things happen to, and who is constantly being controlled by (male) beings that she is hopelessly outmatched against. Silly excessively revealing outfits, generic comic-heroine body types, and bondage sequences did little to alter my opinion.

Which is too bad, because there is a lot of fun in the way this is written and there is a lot to like about the artwork. I have a distinct bad gut feeling about the themes I'm reading into this, but I would love for that feeling to be proven wrong.

Rating: 5.5/10

Reviewing Our Comic Haul From SPACE

My awesome and talented wife, Gynn Stella (illustrator for Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire among other works), just returned from SPACE (Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus OH. Parenting responsibilities meant only one of us could attend this year, but from all indications Gynn had a great show.



In addition to selling our comics, Gynn did plenty of buying and trading. SPACE is a great opportunity to connect with other small press creators and see some truly amazing comic work that you won't find at most other shows or at most comic shops.



Over the next couple of weeks, it's my goal to review the entire haul from SPACE, starting tonight. We have some other shows coming up, including next Sunday's South Coast Toy And Comic Show in Fairhaven MA, so I might take the occasional break from the SPACE comics to review any purchases we make at South Coast or our other scheduled shows, but for the next few weeks, the comics that Gynn brought home from SPACE will be the focus of this blog. If any of them sound interesting to you, I'd encourage you to give them a try. These small press books are true labors of love for their creators.