Dystopian Countdown #1 - V For Vendetta!

V for Vendetta is in my estimation Alan Moore's finest work. I know that Watchmen gets enormous attention and deservedly so, but it's always been this more relentlessly somber tale that's captured my fancy first and foremost. Perhaps it's because it all seems so very very real. V for Vendetta first ran in the magazine Warrior, where Moore partnered with David Lloyd created a dour vision of Britain run by Fascists and standing up to them was only a single man who refused to be just a man,but became a symbol of revolution.

The story survives because it found a home at DC Comics where thanks to the success of Watchmen, it has remained in print. I prefer it, but I think it doubtful this dour tale of a dark tomorrow would be so readily available if Alan Moore wasn't such a bankable name.

Despite the fact that Moore wouldn't put his name on the film version. The movie is exceedingly entertaining, if a bit more hyperbolic than the relentless comic story, but those are variations I think fitting to the form. V for Vendetta was written many years ago when it seemed that regressive forces were seizing command of the society, a retrograde movement which fought against the future, a future filled with greater liberties for a broader range of people. 

The story is about staying true to one's self when doing so is not just upsetting but possibly dangerous. Dangerous times are on us again alas and the words about Guy Fawkes have a resonance in these grim times. 

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot:

I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

In these dystopic times, when leaders lie with abandon and plunder with little opposition, it might be moment indeed to reflect on such Second Amendment remedies. I don't recommend such drastic action, but we must always remember we are the masters of our own thoughts and so our own deeds. Two plus two is four and must ever be so.

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Dystopian Countdown #3 C - Kamandi!

Sadly when Jack "King" Kirby was not able to finish his epic Fourth World saga as he saw fit, I took that moment to leave DC behind for a bit. I'm sure other matters had something to do with it, but it neatly coincided with the end of the New Gods material and the beginning of Kirby's other projects The Demon and Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth. Consequently I had a disdain of sorts for these latter efforts, allowing my disappointment at not getting epic Kirby to color my appreciation of his other storytelling styles. I've long ago seen the error of  my ways and long ago filled in my collections of these books as well as pop for collections.

In Kamandi we get to see the world as it is after having suffered a "Great Disaster". Vague is the word as to what happened exactly, but whatever it was resulted in an avalanche of new evolved species as all sorts of creatures such as Rats, Tigers, Bats, Bears, Wolves, and more were changed from what we know in our world into beings able to create offbeat societies echoing those of men across the years. Mutants too, human or at least appearing so walked this new world and Kamandi, a boy who was raised apart from the world and is discovering through eyes as fresh as our own.

There is some hint he was raised by Buddy Blank, the protagonist of OMAC another Kirby series picturing an earlier dark future. But this is the same "Great Disaster" which we first learned of in the pages of The Atomic Knights and learned more about in Hercules Unbound. In later issues of Kamandi after Kirby had left, these connections are made more clearly in back-up stories.

So as can be seen "The Great Disaster" was arguably the most comprehensive of the post-apocalyptic futures seen in comics, as it spread far and wide thanks to the cleverness of many creators over many years. Now it's just a once-was, disappeared as was so much by the Crisis on Inifinite Earths, but for me it will always loom.

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Dystopian Countdown #3 B - Hercules Unbound!

Hercules is the perfect superhero, a demi-god on Earth trapped between his two heritages and generally striving to improve the lot of those regular folks he lives among. Usually he struggles with his own limitations, anger and such, but holds himself to a standard beyond that of mortal men. Such a character is ideal to plunk down not in the usual mythic setting, or even the modern day, but in the future, particularly a future which erupted from the "Great Disaster".

Part of Gerry Conway's "Conway Corner" productions (though the nickname might've been dropped by this time) Hercules Unbound was drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez with Wally Wood inks. Later Walt Simonson stepped in, so this is a consistently good-looking comic. Hercules here comes to future Earth and immediately sets out to help people against an array of threats. He deals with the kinds of things that had much in common with other DC comics like sentient animals and suchlike. The Atomic Knights make a guest-starring appearance, their first in many years. Much of the world Hercules worked in was at first made into a dream and then wiped away all together with the ballyhooed Crisis on Infinite Earths.

But for this fanboy, the "Great Disaster" has always happened, and we'll take a look at yet another part of it tomorrow in a third and final entry.

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Dystopian Countdown #3 A - The Atomic Knights!

The Atomic Knights are just freaking cool. I ran across them for the first time in reprint form but instantly fell in love with the idealistic artwork of Murphy Anderson who with writer John Broome gave us the offbeat image of stalwart men and women using ancient medieval armor to withstand the radiation of a Great Disaster. "The Great Disaster" itself was oddly unclear, an atomic war presumably given the look of much of the territory and the radiation which quickened the suits to be proof against the weapons of their enemies was suggestive. We have communities, living hand-to-mouth but with the knowledge of what had gone before.

The Knights as rendered by Murphy Anderson had that clean-cut handsomeness so common in his work, even though it might've made them seem a little too polished for the existence they lived in little "Durvale". In the wastelands of what was once the United States they faced threats in the pages of Strange Adventures and their travels were wide ranging across the continent taking them to Washington DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans among other places.  There is something delightfully marvelous about the idealism of Gardner Grayle and the other knights faced with a bleak future, something for all of us to pocket for tough times.

This is but the first installment of Dystopian Countdown #3. Be here tomorrow for part B of this expansive entry on the "Great Disaster".

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Dystopian Countdown #4 - Doomsday +1!

Anyone who spends anytime here at all will know of my abiding affection for most things Charlton, the little Derby Connecticut comics company that paid little but offered scores of opportunity for seasoned pros like Steve Ditko looking to do comics his way and for up and coming talents looking to break into the business but not quite having gotten the nod from the "Big Two". John Byrne falls into that latter category and based on his work on Rog-2000 in the back of E-Man and on the title under scrutiny today he made his chance at Marvel into an epic transformative gig, The title today is Doomsday +1, a little comic about the end of the world and what followed on after all that. The cover of the debut issue uses the iconography made famous by many a sci-fi magazine and an apish feature film to instantly say to the reader that the world as you know it is not still here.

We follow three astronauts (two girls and a guy) as they return to the planet after watching the world destroy itself from orbit. They are promptly joined by an ancient barbarian chisled out of the glacial ice and these end-of-the-world castaways are up and at it. The comic delivered many of the major sci-fi tropes such as time travel, undersea society, giant robots, aliens, cyborgs, and much more in its measly six issue run (with another appearing in Charlton Bullseye issues). Written by Joe Gill, this comic lets you see Canadian John Byrne get better month by month and page by page and by the end you know you are seeing someone special plying the craft.

Doomsday +1 was reprinted by Charlton and later by the folks at Fantagraphics under the title Doomsday Squad fitting all the issues with snazzy new covers by Byrne, Neal Adams, and Gil Kane. The book has never been forgotten because of Byrne's involvement and he himself produced something of a reboot several years ago. But the magic was missing in that one. Certainly the magic was present in the original which gave us some of the dandiest end-of-the-world yarns in comics history.

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Dystopian Countdown #5 - Guardians Of The Galaxy!

Marvel Super-Heroes #18 featuring the debut of the Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my most favorite single comics. Written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Gene Colan this pure sci-fi one-off told of a future in which mankind has reached the stars but found there only a new species named the Badoon who have conquered the many worlds of mankind. People had spread across the solar system and even furter and new variations on mankind had developed such as the immense Charlie-27 to deal with the rigors of Jupiter or the diamond-skinned Martinex from distant Pluto.

Even before this migration and mutation of man, Major Vance Astro had launched toward Andromeda only to find that men were waiting after his thousand year voyage due to new notions of space flight. Trapped in a foil suit to protect from the rigors of time he found a partner in the silent Yondu, an alien from Andromeda who has a clever arrow that follows his whistled signals. These four were the Guardians and at the end of their first story which showcased how they came together and vowed to become freedom fighters, and I was eager to see more. But it didn't come...for quite a while.

When it did come it was in the pages of Marvel Team-Up and The Defenders as writer Steve Gerber sought to see how this grim future of a thousand years from now of men held captive by the Badoon Empire might develop. Later still the Guardians even joined forces with the Avengers themselves. The Guardians got their own comic in Marvel Presents and later Jim Valentino revived them yet again for a more lasting fame. 

As everyone knows the Guardians of the Galaxy became the source of two of Mavel's most entertaining movies to date. But it's these four stalwarts who are my "Guardians of the Galaxy". Sorry about that Groot, we love you too in our own way.

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Dystopian Countdown #6 - American Flagg!

Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! is one of the best comics of the 80's. Published by First Comics, the series was remarkable in the Indie market in two ways, it's consistency of quality was remarkable and it was never late. So much potential was withered away in the early days of the market when decent stuff was killed off by creators who couldn't get the stuff to the stands in a timely way. It was one reason I abandoned Independent comics for a time in the latter part of the decade. But American Flagg! was the exception.

The stories of a near-future America overwhelmed by politics and consumerism was briskly and brightly fabricated by Chaykin, one of the smartest comics creators of his generation. When he stepped away from the series good talents were used to keep the quality near what Chaykin had wrought. There is a bite to this comic unlike other dark views of the future, and it's because even the heroes have feet of clay and find a smile (or perhaps a smirk) even in the darkest days.

If I have to be in a dystopia future, being Reuben Flagg's wingman is the way to do it.

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Dystopian Countdown #7 - War Of The Worlds!

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells feels like the original dystopia and Marvel was brilliant to adapt the novel to comics form by focusing on the rebellion which might develop when the Martians returned to Earth and succeeded as they had not done in the Wells novel. In the pages of Amazing Adventures we meet Killraven, a gladiator in the arenas of the Martian-Earth of 2018 A.D. (I have lived long) who becomes the Sparticus of his brave dark world and he and his fellow rebels take it to the invaders in fine form.

Neal Adams was involved with the series for the briefest of times when it debuted in Amazing Adventures, producing some of the pages in the debut but the strip was lucky to find other creators of talent like Herb Trimpe and Howard Chaykin to handle the art chores. The writing though would eventually fall to the verbose Don McGregor who with P. Craig  Russell made Killraven their own as the years went by.

Unlike other dystopic comics at Marvel and elsewhere, the future of Killraven seemed to stay isolated and so not a proper part of the Marvel mix like Deathlok would do. Nonetheless the series is fondly remembered and is one of the most evocative and most imaginative variations on the themes H.G. Wells developed so long ago.

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Dystopian Countdown #9 - Deathlok The Demolisher!

Rich Buckler was one of the Bronze Age's greatest talents, and his magnum opus with the assist of writer Doug Moench, was Deathlok the Demolisher which debuted in the pages of Astonishing Tales #25. The comic had hosted Dr.Doom and Ka-Zar, but with the latter's graduation to his own title room was available for new occupants. Deahtlok was the saga of a cyborg warrior who found he worked for the wrong side in a world where good and evil was difficult to discern. He and 'Puter revolt against the government that built them and try to find fragments of the life Deathlok left behind when he "died" and bring some measure of justice to a cracked up civilization once considered the home of free will.

Deathlok is Luther Manning a man who falls victim to the government's desire for an effective efficient killer. He is deemed dead and his body fitted with all sorts of computer hardware and equipment. He rebels almost immediately from his boss, a lunatic military man named Ryker. The time of the original stories is the 90's (at the time the future) but to make Deathlok more a Marvel character he is shifted in time to the then current Marvel Universe. Others have been turned into "Deathloks", but for me Moench's and Bruckler's is the real deal.

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Dystopian Countdown #10 - Judge Dredd!

I don't know really when Judge Dredd debuted (second issue of 2000 AD -- I looked it up), but I first encountered his delightful brand of justice in the debut issue of Judge Dredd from Eagle Comics. It was some dang frosty storytelling with a slightly adult tang that made it ideal for the burgeoning direct sales marketplace. I was eager to sample all the new wares in this new market and I found Dredd dealing justice in his over-populated cities in his blighted future a real a page turner.

Judge Dredd's ability to mete out justice on the spot has a nice efficient ring to it that should terrify anyone. Bringing evildoers to justice is the work of a cop, but Judge Dredd's authority was greater and he could pronounce and carry out the sentence of death. It's a poignant way to point at the corruption which all too often corrodes the process of justice for so many. Dredd is a steely honest "Street Judge", a man of integrity dedicated to the job. But others are not so stalwart.

One of my favorite recent movies was Dredd starring Karl Urban and I give him enormous credit for keeping that helmet on just like Dredd in the comics. It's what elevates the character and makes him greater than himself. Mega-City One needs him, or someone like him.

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Dystopian Countdown #11 - Xenozoic Tales!

Dinosaurs are always guaranteed entertainment and when you mix them with sophisticated human society it's a go, though as with all dystopias it's not a world in which I personally would prefer to live. Mark Schultz too those notions of dinos and autos and created Xenozoic Tales for Kitchen Sink. It's post apocalypse and after a five hundred year tenure underground mankind emerges to find a brand new or really vintage fauna inhabiting the world. It's the story of Jack Tenrec, who fixes old vehicles in particular vintage Cadillacs and Hannah Dundee, a politician and scientist with some kickass moves as they work together, mostly, to try and keep human society afloat despite all sorts of threats.

The series was exceedingly well crafted and only got more so as it continued. It was picked up by Marvel and later Topps and later still Dark Horse, and got some measure of fame and was even a cartoon on TV for a time. But Schultz had a hard time finding time to keep it going and it lasted a mere fourteen lush beautiful issues. It's a dangerous world, but lovely to behold.

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Dystopian Countdown #12 - Magnus Robot Fighter!

I can see where folks might think that Magnus, Robot Fighter is not in a dystopian world but just the opposite, a high-tech utopian  paradise. But it's what lies beneath all that sleek Russ Manning splendor that becomes top of interest in the Valiant revival. Magnus is rocked to learn that there is a great deal of suffering which makes the life in the clouds possible. Also his war on robots is not so much the center of the tale as just one more way in which the future has gone haywire.

Russ Manning conceived Magnus as a Tarzan of the future, a man somewhat out of step with his future era but nonetheless dedicated to it and willing to sacrifice his life to protect it. But like soldiers in all societies, it ain't as simple as that of course.

One other way in which the world of Magnus is explored is in the pages of Rai, and there too the utopian experience is tempered significantly. I found Jim Shooter's take on the classic Gold Key universe astonishingly fresh and real. He's tried to work the magic a few times since, but it never worked so well as when he peeled back the veneer of the future world of Magnus and allowed all of us a peek at its tawdry interior.

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Dystopian Countdown #13 - Planet Of Vampires!

I was all in on Atlas-Seboard, the little company that burst onto the comic racks in the mid 70's all ready to pick a fight with Marvel and anyone else. They got the best talent available at the time, launched a bunch of great comics and promptly folded. One of their titles was titled Phoenix and that explains the companies rise and demise pretty well. One comic they published was Planet of Vampires which postulates what it would be like when four astronauts return to Earth after a worldwide conflagration and find the populace of the planet changed into blood-seeking enemies. The creative teams on this changed up pretty much each of its three issues but they were all good with the likes of writer John Albano and artists Neal Adams, Pat Broderick, and Russ Heath in the mix. It's like spoiling a movie to talk about this comic, but know that you'd better not attached to any of the main characters all that much as the book shifts its focus with each issue, a common feature of Atlas-Seaboard comics.

I almost gave Morlock 2001 its own entry, but thought it just as well to mention this blend of George Orwell's 1984 and the classic comic The Heap here. Again after a lustrous start it transformed and transformed again lasting three issues I think. The first two issues are by Mike Fleisher and Al Milgrom with Gary Friedrich, Steve Ditko and Berni Wrightson handling the third. There was a fourth issue advertised I think.  We have a man who is not a man but a plant monster and despite the cover above, they are not opponents but aspects of the same creature. The "monster" was created to face up against a totalitarian society and hopefully bring some measure of justice to that world. It seemed a bit far-fetched even in the comic itself.

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Comic Book Dystopian Countdown!

Starting tomorrow and continuing on weekdays this month the Dojo will present a baker's dozen (or more) of my favorite comic books set in dystopian environments. Heroism is easy to spot in terrible societies which demand ultimate sacrifices sometimes to bring about positive changes. These are some of the comics from years past which I found particularly enjoyable. So slip on your apocalyptic loafers and amble along with me as we revisit some really delightfully terrible places.

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