The DC Spirit - First Wave Part Two!

Following the mini-series The First Wave, The Spirit is awarded a second DC series which begins with a new number one. The first issue features an alternative cover by Mark Shultz who also writes the first three issues. Ladronn is the primary cover artist and does a magnificent job for most all of the series. The interior artist is Moritat who gives us a gritty but potent and atmospheric Central City, just right for crime. The Octopus is in this one but reimagined as the mysterious leader of eight crime families. The tone is more serious as The Spirit must fight for his life and the lives of his allies. In this one Ebony White is reimagined as a woman, a tough and sassy young lady who gives as good as she gets. The Spirit is also assisted by a what I dub the "Central City Irregulars", a gang of street kids who feed him info. Commissioner Dolan is presented as somewhat more corrupt police man but one finds his way in a dangerous environment. Ellen is present and empowered as well. 

David Hine takes over as the writer and remains steadfast alongside the artists for most of the run. We get some hard-hitting stories about drugs and their deadly effects. 

In the first nine issues of this run each issue also included an black and white short story back-up by a wide range of talents including writers Denny O'Neil, Harlan Ellison, Michael Uslan, Marv Wolfman, David Lapham, Brian Azzarello, Jan Strnad, Walter Simonson, and Paul Dini. The artists were Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, Justiniano, Phil Winslade, Mike Kaluta, Eduardo Risso, Rich Corben, Jordi Bernet, and Mike Ploog. 

Hine and Moritat continue with their ongoing saga of The Spirit's battle against The Octopus gangs. The mystery of the Octopus is never solved though, and I guess we'll just have to live with that. 

Matthew Sturges and Victor Ibanez step in for one issue which offers up a light-hearted romp all about the tragic death of a cartoonist and original art. 

John Paul Leon steps in on the art for the penultimate issue. 

The final issue features a trio of short stories in black and white by writers Howard Chaykin, Paul Levitz, and Will Pfeifer. The artists are Brian Bolland, P. Craig Russell and Jose Luis-Garcia Lopez. The comic looks magnificent. 

I'm not aware that any of these issues were ever offered up in trades, but they should be. The black and white stories would make for a true-blue all-star offering of some great Spirit stories. And that wraps up The Spirit's stay at DC in new stories with a single exception produced in conjunction with IDW. But more on that later. 

Rip Off

Rowlf And Other Fantasy Stories!

Rich Corben was a fantastic artist who fashioned images which linger in the mind decades after first encountered. Corben had a style unlike any other artist, one which weirdly created heft and weight in a way that proved particularly effective when presenting women gifted with bountiful bosoms. Several such dames can be found in the pages of Rowlf and other Fantasy Stories from Dark Horse. 
 

Rowlf is the story of a girl and her dog. In the fanciful kingdom of Canis there is a princess named Maryara who possesses a loyal pooch named Rowlf. Her father rules a poor land but nonetheless there are suitors for Maryara's hand. One such is Raymon who is less than a scrupulous fellow, and one Rowlf distrusts immediately. 

Raymon takes Maryara and Rowlf to a sorcerer named Sortrum who is able to turn one animal into another. But Rowlf is suspicious, and he and Maryara soon leave so that she can bathe in a cool pool. But she is spied upon by a demon, part of a military unit on a mission of destruction and plunder. 

She is kidnapped and Rowlf in desperation returns to the tower of Sortrum where in order to get the truth from him he is transformed into a creature both dog and man. Rowlf uses this new form to pursue Maryara's captors. 

Rowlf catches up to the demon army and we are treated to the naive man-dog hero using their own tanks against them as he fights doggedly to save his mistress. 

Rowlf originally appeared in the fanzine Voice of Comicdom and later was collected by the underground Rip Off Press. 

It was in a Rip Off's Grim Wit that The Beast of Wolfton first appeared. This is a two-part story which is more firmly rooted in classic werewolf tradition, and it is the second of three proposed stories about werewolves that Corben planned. In this tale a knight and his wife, who hates him ferociously, travel to a remote region to rid it of a predatory creature. This creature turns out to be a man-beast named Wulv who is among the last of a tribe called the "Krind". This story is wildly violent and has a bizarre ending. 

To complete the trilogy Corben gave us The Spirit of the Beast, in which we encounter the son of the previous werewolf named John Wulv. He finds a woman being assaulted by three men and drives them off. Then she agrees to lock him up because of his dangerous change in the full moon's light. What happens then is quite a surprise. Both of these stories were reprinted in Heavy Metal in, though we get them in the original black and white format in this collection. 

Oteg is the third tale in this collection and is based on a Japanese folk tale. In this tale a man schemes to wait for his dead wife's resurrection, while thieves attempt to steal the riches he has accumulated over the years of his vigil. 

Rip Off

Spirts Of The Dead!

There are two recent comic artists who bonded perfectly with the zeitgeist of Edgar Allan Poe, the late Berni Wrightson and the late Rich Corben. I cannot choose between them, and fortunately I don't have to. In the collection Spirits of the Dead, we have Corben's adaptations of Poe which he crafted in the final decade of his life for Dark Horse Comics. These are not the adaptations he did for James Warren's outfit, but fresh takes on tales that have become foundational in the American mind. I will go a step further and suggest the unthinkable, and that is in some few of these adaptations, Corben has improved upon Poe's original. 

All the shorter stories below (and some poems) are vintage Poe-etic reflections on love and death and how the former is not hindered by the latter, but that neither is the latter respectful of the former. They appeared in different issues of Dark Horse Presents though Corben's efforts with Poe only rated one cover mention and that was a corner shot. 

"Spirits of the Dead" (1827) is the poem that kicks off the collection and is presented in text form only.

"Alone" (1829) introduces the reader to Mag the Hag, Corben's EC-style ghost host. She's one-eyed and bends on a staff quite often, though she's still able to insert herself into many if most of these stories. "Alone" tells us of a fellow named Solomon who gets lost between this world and the world of his dreams. 

"The City and the Sea" (1831) gives a tale about slavers who find justice if not mercy when they discover the titular city. 

"The Sleeper" (1831) is classic Poe and shows us an adulterer and murderer who has a hard time enjoying the fruits of his crimes. 

"The Assignation" (1834) is a truly disturbing yarn about a chap who ends up married to a mad woman and seeks a measure of solace. 

"Berenice" (1835) gives us a tale with some gender-bending when the titular character turns up help a chap who is lost in readings and has no time for practical things. 

"Morella" (1835) offers up a dash of incest which turns into something stranger and even uglier. 

"Shadow" (1835) gives us the grim tale of a Roman military unit which seeks shelter from a plague in a catacomb which turns out to be no shelter at all. 

"The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) is masterfully adapted in two self-titled issues and takes the famous Poe story we all know and twists it into something even creepier. And that's doing something to one of Poe's most vivid yarns. 

"The Man of the Crowd" (1840) is the new story added to my version of the collection and has a man chase another who eludes for reasons which are mysterious and strange. 

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) adapts the great Poe detective story and gives it that little jigger of grotesque and pungent horror it's been needing but didn't know it needed. 

"The Masque of the Red Death" (1842) by Corben gives us a party full of revelers who try to escape the plague only to discover weirdly that it's come to visit. 

"The Raven" (1845) is a second adaptation by Corben and this one takes the most famous of Poe's work and well and truly adds some surprises. 

"The Conqueror Worm" (1843) is about as gross as a story can get, but it's still compelling stuff about a chap who murders and then realizes that his prideful retribution was only the beginning of his suffering. 

"The Premature Burial" (1844) is a zany tale of burials and resurrections which keeps the reader guessing even past the final page. I immediately read this story over again. 

"The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) takes the classic tell of revenge and wine and offers up a frame story which allows us to see some cosmic justice take hold. 

This is as good as horror stories get. I found Corben's robust artwork more than up the challenge of offering us insights into Poe's cracked-up universe. Poe's work has always been something I access better through the lens of creators who take the stories and adapt them, either to film, television or as in this case comics. Corben and Poe are a perfect match. This collection is highly recommended. 

Rip Off

Murky World!

Murky World is one of the last expansive fantasy creations of the late Rich Corben. The series was originally produced for Dark Horse and appeared in Dark Horse Presents over the course of three issues. These issues were then collated and published as a one-shot. The color version appeared originally in the pages of the newer Heavy Metal. 

Later Corben took the concepts introduced in the series and expanded upon it. The original stories become part of the climax of a meandering tale which takes inside and out of the mind of our protagonist Tugat. 

The longer saga begins with Tugat as an older man, and we are introduced to narrator named Mag the Hag who seems know the secret of the story. But we are not to share it for a long time, if at all. We follow Tugat as he enters a strange angular building where he seems to encounter some strange females who turn out not to be what he or we first imagine them to be. Tugat is seemingly awakened from his dream by a woman named Moja, who it turns out seems to be a slave. Tugat himself turns out to be a young man. Moja is a slave and untrustworthy. In fact, none of the women in the story seem to be reliable. For that matter neither do the men. Even Tugat's horse Frix keeps getting taken by different people. Tugat ages as the story rolls along, suggesting that we of course are not seeing anything approximating reality. 

I'm not going to pretend I understand everything Corben was trying to get at in this tale. My favorite sequence comes near then end when for reasons which will make sense at the time, we find Tugat being served sand by two zombie servants, who dish up dirt in lieu of the water which has long ago vanished. But I can say that despite the myriad questions, the story is compelling if only because Corben's artwork is as always utterly fascinating. 

Rip Off

A Starr Is Born!

It all began in The Chamber of Darkness in 1968. "The Sword and the Sorcerer" appeared by the duo of Roy Thomas and Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith. It was a warm-up for Conan the Barbarian, a comic which changed the landscape of comics. In 2010 Starr was revived by Daniel Way and the late great artist Richard Corben. Published under Marvel's MAX Explicit Comics label, this story is not your Mother's barbarian story. It's like National Lampoon made a barbarian comic. It's got a flavor of the underground and any reader should be prepared for foul language and extreme violence. 

The first issue introduces us to Morro, a minstrel who speaks in rhymes mostly and he tells how Starr's family came to the city of Kulmurud the capitol city of Zardath. The savage Starr kills the brother of Trull and soon the entire family is arrested and executed. Starr is only saved because he is seen as a potential gladiator. We also meet Len Carson, an aging and desperate writer who once upon a time created Starr and was met with great success until his ego got the better of him and he tried to go "legit" and hawk his great American novel. His career was ruined, and he'd saved very little of his money. 

Starr is trained but has little interest in fighting which makes him look like a wimp to Tira, a gladiator chick with potent moves. Trull uses his magic to bring Len Carson's soul to Zardath and inhabit the body of a helpless victim. He forces Carson to change the story of Starr and the history of Zardath by engaging in a magical "retcon". Starr is liked by Moonja who helps him escape to the Darlands again, but not before he spurned her advances. 

Trull begins a steady and brutal process of ascending to the throne. The body count is enormous as he kills his way to the top using cunning and magic. He is assisted by a powerful man-dragon. It is at this point that Morro's story ends and we are caught up. But things have been changing in the Darklands and Starr is at last poised to wreaks some vengeance upon Trull. 

In the finale Starr confronts Trull with lethal consequences. Len Carson gets free of his magic trap and writes the story in a way in which Starr comes out on top. It's a bloody path to the end of this yarn, but Carson makes sure there's room for a sequel. 

Let me quickly say this book ain't for everyone. The foul language in this story at times stunning, at least for reader used to the sanitized world of mainstream comics. There's a blend of modern idioms and classic barbarian tropes. Daniel Way is a controversial writer, but the MAX imprint is the ideal home for him. Or I guess it was since it is no more. 

Above is a preliminary sketch by Marie Severin for issue four of Chamber of Darkness. Originally Starr the Slayer was to get the cover treatment, but instead the cover spot was given to a story by Jack "King" Kirby.

As I mentioned before Chamber of Darkness is from 1968 was an important comic book in a number of ways. "The Sword and the Sorcerers!" (called "The Secret of the Silver Sword!" on the cover) which really is remembered from this issue. Written by Roy Thomas, the story was a practice run for Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith before he and Roy teamed up to bring the world the most famous barbarian of all -- Conan the Barbarian. Below is that actual story. Enjoy!

The story has a wild energy thanks to Smith's offbeat layouts. He wasn't afraid to try things, that's for sure. It's easy to see how the design of Starr would influence Conan who would debut on the stands in just a few months.

Corben's Starr is much different than Smith's for obvious reasons, but they both share that wild energy. Corben's underground comix roots make him a great choice for such bloody work. The underground artists made their names showcasing the real world in all its savage glory. Way's and Corben's Starr is a flawed work but it does much the same. It's an underground version of a barbarian story, full of grim realities of life and lore. 

Rip Off