Red Dragon (1996) #1 by Brian Azzarello, Tony Akins and others
Scoring a cover by Simon Bisley must have been quite a win for the Comico guys. But… “Comico’s new smash mouth comic”? “1st smash collector’s issue”? I know there’s a band called Smash Mouth, but I didn’t know it was, like, an expression… Oh, it’s a sports term. Never mind.
The editor certainly sounds enthusiastic.
And… Red Dragon is an Elementals spin-off!? I though we were going to get an original concept for once. I can’t say that I remember any Elementals-related character called Red Dragon, though.
Hey! This looks kinda interesting?
Yeah, it’s one of those 90s hyperviolence books.
The artwork looks like a cross between 2000 AD artwork and Japanese comics of the Akira kind, doesn’t it?
But we’re also in the Age of Image.
Yeah, OK, Akins has totally been reading Japanese comics — most of the character designs, layouts and action sequences seem cribbed.
Hyper violence!
So, the plot of the book: Red Dragon stops a… hostage situation. It’s not quite clear why they were hostaging so much, until…
… twist ending! It was all a gummint conspiracy to secure people to do dastardly experiments on! Because the Chinese gummint surely can’t just kidnap a bunch of people willy nilly but have to arrange a huge televised hostage situation where the hostages are then… carried off into a lab instead of being reunited with their families.
On a This Plot Makes Sense scale from one to ten, this scores a “Stop Drinking, Son” rating.
But this book is a lot better than the rest of the dreck that Comico had been publishing over the past few months. It’s very… lively. Even if it’s all copied from Japanese comics.
Wizard Magazine #51, page #24:
Revitalized publisher Comico continues its
resurgence into mainstream comics with Red Dragon,
a superhero book inspired by Hong Kong cinema,
Eastern mysticism, quantum physics and manga.
Red Dragon is the story of the most powerful
being on the planet, a man who is possessed by the
spirit of an ancient Chinese dragon. When the story
begins, he is the secret weapon of communist China.
Once the Dragon realizes he’s been duped and
manipulated by the reds, however, he goes
independent and moves to Hong Kong where he
battles local villains.
The series will be written by Brian Azzarello, with
interior art by Tony Akins (Star Wars: Tales of the
Jedi-The Freedom Nadd Uprising) and covers by
painter Simon Bisley. “Red Dragon is the Chinese
Superman,” said Azzarello. “My hope is that people
who don’t normally buy independents or superhero
comics will give Red Dragon a shot.”
Akins’ art can best be described as a hybrid of
manga and American-style superhero comics.
Red Dragon hits the stands this October with a
cover price of $2.50. Christopher Griffen
Hero Illustrated #22, page #89:
John Woo Meets
Akira
One of the more ‘esoteric’ Elementals
characters will appear totally revamped
this August, courtesy of Brian Azzarello
and Tony Akins. Red Dragon will find
himself cast into a more modern
mold-in fact, one the writer describes
as kind of “Quentin Tarantino meets
Superman and Hunter S. Thompson.”
Appropriately enough, the first issue will
sport a cover by the Gonzo-like Simon
Bisley.
“It’s certainly got a Gonzo sensibility
to it for a superhero book,” Azzarello
says. “The thing’s pretty nuts. [And]
both of us have a real strong affection
for a lot of the Hong Kong movies [like]
John Woo, that type of stuff. We’re
working a lot of that … beautifully
choreographed violence into this book.
That’s also something that I think a lot
of comic fans share with us. But it’s
never really been addressed, I don’t
think, effectively in comics, outside of
manga-which is something that unfor-
tunately a lot of buyers of traditional
mainstream comics don’t see.
They cringe when they hear
‘manga,’ but they’ll eat up the
videos. It’s never really seemed to
translate well in panel-to-panel
storytelling, other than Akira … up
until now with Red Dragon.”
Who?!?
“He’s certainly been a back-
ground character,” Akins admits.
“On one of the first covers I drew
for Comico I remember having to
find his image to put him in the art,
and thought, ‘This was kind of a
cool character. I don’t know what
he does.’
“I found out he does virtually
nothing,” he laughs. “The
Elemental bible is fairly large, but
[a lot of the] characters either got
killed off or were just window
dressing. Brian was asking in the
course of the last two years, ‘If
you had a character, which one
would it be that you would try to
revamp?’ Bloody Mary was one, I
got to redesign her for the
Elementals graphic novel. Before,
it looked like she shopped at T.J.
Maxx. That was her costume. So I
got to do some work with her.
Devil Dog was another one I
would have liked to revamp, but
Red Dragon kept crossing my
mind.”
So just who is this newly defined
character?
“In the Elementals Universe.”
Azzarello says, “he would be the
equivalent of Superman, power-
wise. But he’s not America’s
Superman, he belongs to the Red
Chinese. So he’s controlled by a com-
munist government, and he’s essential-
ly a super soldier. The way we’re
approaching it now is, he’s a man who
has an immense amount of pride and
his pride is what’s blinding him to the
fact that he’s pretty much just an over-
stuffed puppet. And the government just
sort of placates him to keep him in line,
and happy.”
Very Good,
Children-But What
Does It Mean?
As editor in chief, Azzarello
receives the task of summing up the
overall focus of Comico’s return.
“What we’ve been really attempting to
do-and I think we’ve pulled it off-is
create some books that are exciting
to read, and when people are done
reading them, they’ll smile and they’ll
look forward to reading the next
issue. I hope.” ▲
Overstreet’s FAN #1, page #75:
What Is Red Dragon? Well on the surface it’s a
super hero book. This surface, however, is a web that
covers a hyperkinetic amalgamation, complete with
philosophical overtones, Eastern mysticism, and
quantum physics. Throw in the extremes of Quentin
Tarantino, the weirdness of David Lynch, the mayhem
of Hong Kong cinema, the skewed sensibilities of
Hunter S. Thompson, and the adrenaline rush of the
arcade action games, and you’ve got one seamless
whole that Comico describes as “Smash Mouth
Comics.”
“Red Dragon is a super hero. In fact, [he’s] the
most immensely powerful being on the planet. He’s
also under the control of the Red Chinese, which
means he works for what we may not consider to be
the good guys,” states series writer Brian Azzarello.
“So, we’ve got this superman who doesn’t share your
values, and who may be misdirected as far as his
abilities go. It’s like trying to keep a nuclear bomb
happy. You’d never want it to find out the real extent
of what it can do, because if this bomb realized how
powerful it was, it may use this power against you.
Keep it happy and distracted, and never, never, never
let it find out it can blow the place to kingdom
come. Did 1 mention he’s also a reincarnated dragon
spirit?
ATHE CHRYSALIS
These books only comprise Comico’s first wave.
“What we’re out to do initially is establish our place
in the comic market,” comments Allen. “With these
first titles leading the charge, we feel we’re in good
hands. Good hands, holding big guns!”
As for the future, Comico has a number of projects
along in development which will expand and diversify
the company’s title line. Look for the collectable card
game Chrysalis: Born of the Supernature, of
which a very limited number of prototype cards will
be available this June. Comico promises to turn up
the heat this summer with plenty of cool promotions
as well.
Adds an enthusiastic Allen, “I know everybody
involved are as proud of these titles as I am. We’ve
really created something to get excited about. Watch
out comic fans, get ready, Comico’s back!”
Sure, sure… in other news, I only have two more posts in this blog series to do, because Comico went under again a couple months after Red Dragon was published.
I could find no reviews of this book.