Empire Lanes: Arrival (1990) by Peter Gross
We did the first Comico Empire Lanes issue a couple posts ago, and this time around, it’s a collection of the material that was previously published by Northern Lights.
Let’s look at the first three pages:
Well, that’s a very efficient way to introduce the book. Sure, we’re got some stock characters here to help things along — a knight, a priest, a sorcerer or two, a halfling, a dwarf and a gnome, where everyone has the character you’d expect from those designations — but still, it’s well done.
And it establishes a kinda serious/jokey feeling from the get-go. I.e., basically a serious fantasy, but with jokes.
And like in many other books, all these fantasy people go to Earth, but in this one they end up in a bowling alley in a rough part of Chicago.
Owned by a fat guy that’s not only very fat, but he’s a bad guy, too (in addition to being fat; his fatness is brought up a lot).
That’s a lot of spatter.
The artwork is perhaps a bit rough around the edges at the start, but I think it’s interesting, and it gets more assured over these four issues.
If Comico had one thing going for it, it was paying attention to production issues. This is the only thing they published in this format, so I guess they didn’t have any experience with paperbacks like this, but the margins are so narrow that you can’t read all the text without applying some violence.
Anyway, the book started off in the middle of a chase scene, and then we spend some pages on establishing a status quo…
… and then, right away, we introduce a villain who is actually pretty scary. A very strange and other-worldly magician and some even scarier sidekicks. So while the rest of the setup is quite cookie cutter, here’s something new.
Oh, and Gross has a lot of fun with doing different layouts…
… but without it getting in the way of some really engrossing drama and fight scenes. I didn’t think I would enjoy this book as much as I did, but I’m totally on board with this. It’s a really successful book — it manages to maintain drive and tension throughout these issues.
And there’s also fun stuff, like Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman making an appearance.
And then it ends, and not really on a cliffhanger. Instead this feels like a very solid first book in a series, but you can read it as a standalone, too.
But! I’ve read these issues before, and I had forgotten. I bought these issues in the 80s, and I think I remember that I liked them? I mean, I bought the entire series…
So let’s have a look.
Ahem. “Empire Lanes is original”. Err… Well, OK, some parts are, but it’s mostly familiar stuff…
I guess the inspiration for the book came from the neighbourhood he was living in?
Hey! Comico’s publisher writes to say that he likes it, and Gross says that he put the series together with Comico in mind. So that took only five years to happen.
More pics from the hood.
The final issue has the normal indie comics way of announcing that it’s cancelled: Gross says that he’s totally going to do eight issues per year.
Hey… what’s this, then? This sequence didn’t happen this way in the collection! Here’s that version:
So Gross redid that way — issue four ended on a real cliffhanger, with the gnome being possessed by that evil thing? I guess Gross wanted to make the collected version stand more on its own?
Anyway! Very good stuff.
The Comics Journal #117, page #58:
Northern Lights Publishing of Minnesota
has released the second issue of its black-
and-white title, Empire Lanes. This is fan-
tasy adventure concerning the adventures
of a somewhat motley band of medieval
types-a princess, a warrior, a sorcerer,
a dwarf, etc.—in contemporary Chicago.
The central situation has the group driven
from their realm by the princess’s unscru-
pulous uncle, who has seized the throne.
To escape certain doom in their own time,
they plunge through a magic portal that
lands them in a bowling alley named “Empire
Lanes.” The preceding action
takes place in the first issue; the second
follows the members as they make their
way into the forbidding streets of Chicago
and concludes with the threat of an immi-
nent clash with a wicked sorceress from
their own time.
Empire Lanes turns out to be an enter-
taining sleeper. The action unfolds in a
breezy, tongue-in-cheek style that stops
short of parody, and the members’ en-
counter with contemporary customs and
language is handled adroitly by creator-
writer Peter Gross. The major characters
are sympathetic and likeable. Each one
has a touch of likeable eccentricity. (The
dwarf named ‘Hammerfoot’ has “a sense
of stone,” a sort of spiritual rapport with
rocks; seeing a block of the decaying
Chicago landscape for the first time, he
says, “Can’t you all feel this stone. It’s
so voung-yet, it’s all tired out.”) And
there’s a great, eerie villainess who makes
a spectacular entrance in the second issue.
Empire Lanes is very nicely drawn in
a precise, clean, imaginative style-a nice
synthesis of cartoony and realistic influ-
ences-by Gross and Eileen Kajiwara. I
didn’t expect to, but I enjoyed this one.
— Dale Luciano
Amazing Heroes #133, page #63:
Writer Peter Gross began his chat with
us by stating that good comics defy
description, but said that he would
attempt to give us a run-down of what
we could expect to see in Empire Lanes
in the next six months. Issue #4, due out
by Christmas, will feature the aftermath
of the companions’ battle with the Guild
sorcerers and will begin to show how
they begin to adapt to life in Chicago.
They will move into the bowling alley.
“I want to spend some time developing
the characterization and interplay
between them,” Gross told us.
In issue #5, the Priest goes to a Blues
Bar, gets drunk and learns the meaning
of the Blues. Renfield releases a spell
he stole from the sorcerer, and a couple
more assassins will pop up to harass our
heroes. “I’m writing each issue of this-
series like a chapter in a novel,” Gross
told us, “So the pacing is nothing like
it would be in a ‘normal’ comic.” He
went on to state that he wanted to reveal
the various characters through their own
actions, rather than waste space explain-
ing about them. Thus there will be more
characterization than action in the book.
“Think of it as a play as opposed to a
movie.”
In issue #6 they will head uptown, and
attempt to seek out corporate sponsor-
ship in their quest to return to their
homeworld. They will also re-open the
ally for business, and there will be more
people after them. In the distant future,
Gross said he would like to include some
back-up material with work by different
artists, but the details of this were not
quite worked out at this writing.-RJS-
Amazing Heroes #145, page #85:
As of this writing, Empire Lanes has
suspended publication with #4. “Issue
#5 is all done, but I was beginning to fall
[below] my break-even point,” writer/
creator Peter Gross told us, “and decided
that now was a good time to stop.” Fans
of the series shouldn’t fear, as Gross
assures us that all is not lost. Currently,
an unnamed publisher is very interested
in picking up the series. However,
pending that announcement from the
publisher itself, Gross was unable to tell
us here and now.
However, Gross isn’t sitting idle, as he
will be drawing an upcoming Grendel
mini-series for Comico, and has offers
from both Marvel and DC. Further,
Gross’s prospective new publisher will
not only publish a color special one-shot
of Empire Lanes, but also probably
gather together the initial four issues into
a graphic album. Still, all of this prob-
ably won’t occur for another year. Thus,
Gross said that if any fan really wanted
to know how things turned out at the
conclusion of issue #4, they can just
write to him c/o Northern Lights, and
he will respond to their questions.
The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #222:
A group of stock fantasy characters, including the princess,
the dwarf, the knight and the priest, transport themselves to
Earth, arriving in the Empire Lanes bowling alley. They’re an
engaging bunch, but the innovative setting remains largely
unexplored beyond a few skirmishes with the local gangs,
and even then they’re possessed by other-worldly demons.
Writer and artist Peter Gross seemed to be pacing his story
as a novel, but it was never concluded.~FP