Clearly I won't read this issue of Epic until later, when I find back issues.
The issue's introduced by Stan Lee, looking very 70s and shirt-not-very-buttoned, the way he did in the trade paperbacks of yore: Bring On The Bad Guys, et al. Two short decades, yadda yadda, Marvel revolutionized comics, and so on and wockety.
The first story's a Stan story, illustrated by John Buscema, Rudy Nebres, and the marching-towards-ubiquity Rick Veitch. "The Answer," starring Galactus and Silver Surfer, back when Surf was still herald -- he's all "what's the deal, what is the answer?" (he doesn't mention a question) and Galactus is like "none that live can know the answer, there is no answer," and Surfer zooms through the universe ONLY TO COME BACK TO WHERE HE STARTED. "At last I understand. I searched for a place. But there is no place. The answer lies -- within us."
The art is amazing. The quality of the color -- especially compared to other 1980 comics -- is just insane. But this story, in particular, it's like the kind of thing Ditko would have done in 1966 if only he'd had access to this quality of printing and color reproduction. Floating blobs of color, red and orange and green shards of cosmic hoohaw all over the place. Awesome.
"Homespun," Wendy Pini -- an ElfQuest story, specifically a Preserver story explaining the we-already-knew-all-this backstory behind the humans Cutter and the gang found wrapped in wrapstuff in the Forbidden Grove en route to Blue Mountain. Or maybe this story was written first? I don't know. ElfQuest gets dismissed for being twee-looking and all, but if you ignore everything not done by the Pinis, it too is awesome. (Although the Preservers are its Ewoks, yes -- despite predating the Ewoks.)
"Aware," Leo Duranona. A topless bald Egyptian princess and an astronaut, both of them sepia-tone, show up with no memories, realizing they're one-dimensional and made of lines and figure out they're comic characters and are all spooked. Totally blew my head off when I first read this.
Then there's this thing where there's an emergency broadcast test and OH NO the guy's head -- who's watching the TV -- blows up. Like blipverts on Max Headroom, except without any point.
Now Starlin's up, with the first b&w story of the issue -- "Metamorphosis Odyssey, Akhnaton: Chapter 1." In the years since I read this, I've taken a seminar on the Amarna period of ancient Egypt -- the bit where the wacky quasi-monotheist Akhnaten reigned as Pharaoh. So it's strange to see this now, knowing I read it back then, and also to see the weird spellings: Akhnaton, Osiros.
"Lullabye of Bedlam," Ray Rue. Yes, LULLABYE of BEDLAM. For a year and a half in high school, I did a goth horror zine thing, and wow, would I have loved that title. There's a girl in a coma, and she's in this crazy dream world with living psychic forces real as you and I. The art reminds me of how I picture characters from Zelazny's Amber series. The story is sort of Heavy Metal meets The Twilight Zone.
Then we've got some illustrated prose, an exerpt from a fantasy adventure novel. And three pages of one-page comic strips by a Yugoslavian cartoonist named Mirko Ilic -- great stuff.
"Convert," Ernie Colon -- another "punchline" story, you know, like "To Serve Man ... it's a cookbook!", that kind of thing.
"Heads," Arthur Suydam. Again, really lush color. There's a caveman or something chasing someone, and then these mushroom people who look slimmed down versions of Mojo from Uncanny X-Men annual #10.
And then "Metamorphosis Odyssey chapter two"! Whoa! "ZA!" That's what it's called. "You never realized that was YOUR name, now did you? In fact, up until a moment ago, you had no idea what a NAME was!" Lots of ponderment and this Beast-looking primitive alien guy in some 2001-ish sequences the textboxes narrate in second person. Then Akhnaton makes him smart, and they head off for Earth on a giant flying space-ant with butterfly space-wings.
"Metamorphosis Odyssey Chapter THREE!" Holy crap. "Juliet" is this one, and it's on Earth in probably the modern day, or at least some period with both blue jeans and front porches, judging from the first panel. Less ponderous now. Some aliens land near the porch -- not Za and Akhnaton, different aliens; Z&A (... ohhhhhh, okay, like Alpha and Omega. I'm on to you, Mr Starlin!) show up to help out.
Color in the last page of MetamorphOd!
Another prose story: "Detour," art and story by GEORGE BUSH.
"Topaz," by Carl Potts (RIP), with a topless redhead talking to a blue satyr architect who builds an Escher house. Seriously, there's no reason for her to be topless, it's just Epic Ill, man. It's the zeitgeist.
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)
Three ads at front:
1: Brut for Men2: the Science Fiction Book Club, which in my life I believe i've joined 38 times.3: Enjoy the rich tasting low 'tar' 100s, Rich Light 100s from Viceroy, also available in king size!
This issue has what the first one didn't: an overview telling us what to expect from each of the stories, by Archie Goodwin.
"Almuric" - beginning: an adaptation of the novel by Robert E Howard, scripted by Roy Thomas with art by Tim Conrad. The proportions look weird -- Al looks a little like Akira -- but this is good solid barbarian stuff, of the "modern guy is sent back to barbarian age" school. Long, too, especially since it's just the first installment.
"Hope's End" -- prose story, Marv the Man Wolfman. Not Marv's best. I'm not sure it's really a story as such: it's 6 numbered paragraphs without much going on in them. A healthy dose of pretentiousness is also part of the zeitgeist. Don't fight it.
"Monkey See," by Steve Bissette and RICK MY MAN VEITCH. There's this magic monkey, and some redneck stereotypes in a robot shark give him a hard time.
Then there's this one-pager where a buttefly flies in a guy's ear and out his mouth.
Article! "Fantasy and the fantastic in European comics." I remember this made me wish we had European comics in America, so I could buy more comics.
"Metamorphosis Odyssey"! Chapter IV: "Whis'par." (Oh, Mr Starlin. Oh, no.) Topless chick with butterfly wings. Up close, she looks kind of like Adam Warlock with a big white Afro. And butterfly wings. Wait, now we have color! What is with the color coming and going? I don't know, but the last two and a half (half!) pages are in color here. Maybe it's to underscore what the story itself tells us: something strange is going on.
"Siegfriend the Dragon," P Craig Russell. It's weird seeing Russell's art here -- it becomes so much more developed later. (But I imagine he couldn't afford to take laborious time with it for this.) Kind of cartoony, kind of Frazetta-like.
Interview with Glen Larson (the Battlestar Galactica creator)! How great was Battlestar? Eight tons of fucking awesome, is how great. They talk about Buck Rogers here, too, and some other stuff. It's like reading a back issue of Starlog.
"Sinner," one of those comics where there are not-very-active cartoony drawings and all-caps typed text set off from it. No word balloons, etc. All-caps typed text really grates my eyes. But the story ends with "God was in his Heaven and all was right in the world," which is something I used to say all the time and sometimes still do. But not because of this story.
"Seven Moons' Light Casts Complex Shadows," by -- y'all ready for this? -- Howard Chaykin and Samuel Delany. MotherFUCKER!
"Tarn's World," Robert Wakelin and Archie Goodwin. Another swords and sorcery mixed with the modern now kind of thing, which I remember as being big in Epic but also my least favorite stories. (What I liked best about Epic, I think, was the availability of stories without clear genre. That and the space opera, which I didn't yet know was a genre.)
"The True Game," Ernie Colon. Looks like a cross between Nocenti-era Daredevil (who did the art for that?) and MAD Magazine. There are some cool-ass bits, though, like the white streaks in a woman's hair forming the panel borders for one page (okay, that's hard to explain). Actually, in general the composition and layout are really nice, the art itself just leaves me a little flat somehow.
Back cover ads:
1: The Black Sheep of Canadian Liquors. YUKON JACK. Soft-spoken and smooth, its hundred-proof potency simmers just below the surface.
2: Create a Champale moment with someone you like. Champale -- the ultimate experience! When the time is right and the mood is light, go with your feelings. Experience Champale malt liquor, sparkling extra dry or Pink! Champale tastes like a light bubbly wine. Champagne quality without the champagne price. Tonight, let the good feelings come. Celebrate life! Share a Champale ... together.
(When and why did liquor ads stop emphasizing touchy-feely togetherness in favor of partying in swimming pools?)
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)
(Nocenti-era DD art = JR JR, w/ some Rick Leonardi thrown in to taste.)
― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)
The cover has a big pterodactyl skeleton that looks like it's just fallen on the ground, and this Star Trek On Gor looking warrior woman with a laser rifle and a gilded version of Emma Frost's Sunday dress.
Front ads:
1: Today's your Brut day.
2: The lighter side of flicking your Bic. (Cartoons NOT by the guy who did the "lighter side of..." cartoons in MAD! They look like generic boring New Yorker/Playboy type single-panelers.) "He has an ironclad alibi, chief. Ten people saw him flicking his Bic a mile away."
3: Enjoy the rich tasting low 'tar' 100's, Rich Lights 100s from Viceroy. Also available in king size.
"A tale of Elric of Melnibone and his enchanted runesword Stormbringer, also called Stealer of Souls: The Dreaming City, part 1," Roy Thomas and P Craig Russell. Russell's art here reminds me of the folks who do Aeon Flux/Reign, especially for Mr Elric himself (who looks a little like AF's Trevor). Epic Ill was definitely my first exposure to Elric, but I'm not sure this story itself was.
Ad: QUESTAR magazine, SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY ADVENTURE!
"Metamorphosis Odyssey, Chapter V: Vanth"!! Vanth does not appear until the last panel, but this chapter is in COLOR, baby! I'll tell you who Vanth is when we get to Chapter VI.
"Forest Magic," Archie Goodwin, painting by George Bush. Another text story. Not bad, not great.
"Libido," Paul Gulacy and Doug Moench (of MOON KNIGHT fame!) This is one of those stories where the lettering is typed, which I tend to hate. It makes it look like a story with illustrations, not a comic.
"Almuric: Episode Two!" Definitely one of the stories that benefits from the larger magazine format -- there are a lot of panels (this was true of the Galactus story in #1, too) that wouldn't work if they were slightly smaller/more cramped. However, everyone's face looks strange.
"The Worker In The City," Archie Goodwin, illustrated by Terry Lindall. Now here is where we worry a bit, because when editors are overcontributing to their magazine or anthology, it's for one of two reasons: either the project is really a vanity project they're allowing other people to participate in, or they have a dearth of good material and are generating their own in order to get to the necessary pagecount. Neither leads to sexy results, but this is Archie Goodwin, so I'm sure it's the second reason.
Article: "The Gamesmen of Earth Prime." "They're here, fighting their battles right now. That elfin wizard, that barbarian warrior, that cosmic spacelord; all of them walk among us. In fact, they might be you or me." Written by Dennis O'Neil and Mike Barr. Yep, it's about roleplaying games.
"Metamorphosis Odyssey Chapter VI: The MEeting"! Vanth who? Vanth HOWDY MOTHERFUCKER Dreadstar, that's how! Fuckin A! We are picking up some real steam here. Dreadstar kicks some ass, with his gun and his sword and his COSMIC HOODIE. Akhnaton enjoys observing this, and poses some.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream," Robert Wakelin. A butterfly chick again! What the fuck! It's not even the late 90s yet.
"My Room," Paul Kirchner. This guy is all a control freak, because whenever a little chaos happens, he hallucinates giant rotting skull demons. This was a huge influence on my writing as an early teenager.
"Tomb Stones," Michael Saenz and Bruce Jones (?). "I build the wall. I always build the wall." Good opening lines for fair to middling space short with crap ending.
1: Yukon Jack
2: Champale
They just will not stop telling me to drink, those Epic fiends.
― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)
― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)