Planet Comics Covers from the Golden Age

Tragg and the Sky Gods

It's been a slow and somewhat depressing work week, so I went out to The Shed to see if there was anything exciting there I could rediscover.

I came across a small box of comics my dad sent me once as a surprise. Somehow these had survived my parents divorce and put into storage after I fled the East coast some 20+ years ago. There was a lot of crap in there, a few early New Mutants, some Star Wars even. What stood out were two seriously beaten up comics I'd bought at a drug store or flea market while vacationing in the Thousand Islands. One is DC's "Strange Sports Stories" - really odd, that one. It's like a collection of Twilight Zone stories which all somehow revolve around a sport. For example, the first story is about how aliens steal everyone's faces except for a basketball team, and if they can beat their faceless competitors, it will somehow vanquish the aliens. I did not make that up. Another story is about a golden boxing gloves talisman that a boxer uses to some effect, but which turn his boxing gloves to lead weights sometimes (maybe if he morally backslides?)...

The prize is the other comic in that box that caught my eye. "Tragg and the Sky Gods" from 1976. That would have made me about six years old when I got it, or maybe just a bit older if it'd been collecting dust in a shop somewhere when I found it. It was published by Goldkey/Whitman. I wasn't really interested in superheroes at that age - I distinctly remember picking up a Savage Sword of Conan one year there, and being slightly disappointed in the B&W art. Ignorant child!

My Tragg #4 has been through the ringer. Here's the cover scan:

The first page catches you up on Tragg's universe pretty well...

Alien but human babes. Prehistoric times. Good start...
And a little more background...

Enter the Universal Combiner...

Saber tooth lion + cave man. Sounds like a good idea to me!
Quickly sent to find and kill Tragg of course.

There were less than a dozen Tragg appearances - nine in his own comic, and a few elsewhere. Anyone else ever pick up one of these back in the day?

Witch Doctor Comic

This looks like it might be fun...

"It’s a sick world - literally! The universe is a living thing and the monsters of legend are its parasites. Humanity has been at war with the supernatural for its entire history. But to fight a disease you don’t need soldiers - you need doctors. Meet Dr. Vincent Morrow, who makes up for what he lacks in bedside manner with black humor and brilliance. Dr. Morrow’s on a quest to understand the supernatural using every tool at his disposal, magical and medical. The apocalypse is a disease - and he’s looking for a vaccine."

Witch Doctor is a four issue limited series coming out soon from Skybound/Image Comics. (Found via io9)

Groo the Wanderer as an Allegory of US Foreign Policy

Nah I’m just joshin’ ya. I’m not about to make that comparison or bring politics into this blog. Crazy!

I have fond memories of Sergio Aragones' Mad magazine work. As a kid, I could always count on finding a copy of Mad even in the rural supermarkets or drugstores of upstate New York when we were camping or in the Islands. A lot of the political satire and social commentary went over my head, but I was always fascinated and impressed with Sergio’s art. There was just so much going on - he manages to cram in so much detail that keeps you looking long after you’ve gotten the joke.

Later on, I managed to discover Marvel’s Epic production of Groo the Wanderer. By this time, I’d mostly stopped buying any DC or Marvel comics and wasn’t interested in superhero faire (unless Alan Moore was involved - Miracleman / Watchmen). I'd been a fan of Plop! and when I realized that this Groo wasn’t just a one-shot I subscribed for the next three years.

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of comics over time, bouncing back and forth between the East and West coasts, but I always held onto those first thirty six issues of Groo. I thought of them after getting the DC: AD&D comics in the mail the other day and took them out of storage to re-read. I’ll be watching out for magic items and silly plot ideas to steal.

Fans of Groo and old lead might be interested to know that Dark Horse cast a Groo mini way back when. I saw one go for $26 on eBay this week.

At one time there were plans for a Groo the Wanderer movie. I’m hoping to hear back from Mark Evanier about whether it's still in production.

DC Comics' Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1988-1990

A couple weeks ago I’d made an impulsive purchase on eBay of DC’s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons comics (before Zak's post, fwiw). As the days went by, my buyer’s remorse grew.

The problem was, I’d been reading the first volume of Darkhorse’s reprint version of (Marvel’s) The Savage Sword of Conan, and loving it. This was probably the inspiration… eBay is really a dangerous place to be lurking late at night after a few too many drinks - I bought the whole thirty six issue run along with annuals.

I’d never read or even noticed them back in the day, basically only collecting oddities like The Flaming Carrot and other weird indy comics during the late eighties and early nineties. So I wasn’t eager to open the package when it arrived. I knew that the art wasn’t going to be anything like the Buscema/Starlin/Windsor-Smith work in the SSoC. I still hoped that it might be mildly entertaining and suitable for the bathroom though.

Well, that’s where they’re going. On page twelve I learned that one of the main characters is a centaur. It’s not just that though, it’s the whole “we’re superheroes in a fantasy setting” thing that irks me. I’d have much preferred to follow some low level fools (some of whom will die) as they work their way up to owning their own fortresses. I suppose that’s where the game went overall in the years to follow though - towards epic stories that could be retold and sold in lines of fiction that earned the company more than the actual games that inspired them.

WotC & IDW to Publish Dungeons & Dragons Comic Books

From PRWeb: "IDW Publishing, under license from Hasbro, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast, will launch several all-new comic book series based on the many worlds of the hugely popular roleplaying game, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Following IDW’s previously established comics model, the first new series will begin with an introductory debut issue in August 2010, with new monthly comics and deluxe reprints of past series launching in November." More.

Hardcore Forgotten Realms fans might be interested to know that plans include a series for that setting.

Personally I've always hoped to see a S&W or LL comic in the old school B&W Trampier style, for the same shared marketplace reason...hey, I can dream.

Poor Hanuman: Addendum

In a previous post lamenting the shabby treatment given to the Indian god Hanuman in OD&D (a deity with still millions of devotees), Limpey commented that he seemed to ‘remember “Hanuman” appearing in Conan (or other books) as a kind of evil monkey god…’ - Well, yesterday by chance I was reading a reprint of the July 1974 Marvel comic Savage Tales of Conan the Barbarian (#5), and sure enough, there was mention of a Hanuman.

This time he took the form of what appeared to be a hill giant, whom Conan readily dispatched. This does lend some evidence that it was Howard (or even Marvel Comics) that supplied an inspiration for the 1976 Supplement IV appearance of Hanuman as a giant evil monkey god.

The complete page is here, frame detail above.