Comico Complete

Bloodscent (1988) by Dean Allen Schreck, Gene Colan, Steve Oliff and others

Comico had done this before with some of their books before — reaching out to a famous person vaguely in the same field as the book’s subject matter. It makes sense — but the connection here seems tenuous, to put it mildly.

But that’s a good way to start a horror book.

And Colan’s artwork looks lovely. Eclipse had previously published some of his uninked work with varied results, but this looks very good. Colan’s a difficult artist to ink, because his pencils are so moody and swirly.

The writer goes for a 70s horror comics feel where the text explains what we’re seeing, and it does set the mood. But when the text describes a gleaming eye, and there’s no gleaming eyes to be seen, it starts feeling disconnected.

And Schreck just isn’t a good enough writer to keep the language consistently spooky. “He dropped he pace a hair, opting for stability.” Scary it’s not.

Dean Allen Schreck… the editor-in-chief’s name is Bob Schreck. Could Dean Allen be his brother, by any chance? Yes indeed! Not that there’s anything the matter with your brother giving you a comic book to write — that’s what’s brothers are for — but this does remind me of a common theme with many of Comico’s books: They often seem to be put into motion by the editors, and not by artists offering Comico their work.

With the licensed properties, like Gumby, it does make sense that editor Diana Schulz would badger Arthur Adams into making it, even though he had little interest in Gumby per se. Several of the other series are books that have previously been published somewhere else, but then the editors reached out and asked whether they’d like to be published by Comico instead.

There seems to a lot fewer books where people came to Comico with new properties and said “do you want to publish this?” It’s just a bit unusual…

Stygian black. Check. The black of space without stars. Check. I think what he means is that it’s quite dark out.

Fortunately it’s not so dark that he can’t see Dracula and His Companions arrive to dreeenk… heees… blood…

It’s not even much of an ironic ending — I mean, the serial killer gets killed by Dracula (well, or some other vampire), which is pretty standard as these things go — but it’s…

Well, Colan’s artwork’s fine, and essentially carries the book. With an artist not as accomplished, the book would essentially have been nothing.

And we get a bonus — a short story by Schreck. It’s not good.

But Bernie Mireault’s illustrations are.

And lucky us! We also get a poem. Can’t say they skimped on the features.

I guess the moral of this book is: Sometimes nepotism doesn’t yield excellent results.

Comics Scene Volume 2 #5, page #33:

Bloodscent was truly frightening to
me,” says Gene Colan, the veteran
comics artist who illustrated the
forthcoming title from Comico. “I read it
and the hair on my arms was standing on
end. It was very believable. Tomb of
Dracula [the classic series he drew for
Marvel Comics written by Marv
Wolfman, see page 21] wasn’t that
believable; I was always aware that I was
reading a story. With Bloodscent, I knew I
was reading a story-but it felt like it
could have happened.”
A newcomer to comics. Dean Allen
Schreck adapted Bloodscent from his own
short story. Explains Schreck, “Blood-
scent is based on a serial killer—it’s very
difficult not to give away too much of the
plot-who has the tables turned on him,
and finds out what it’s like to be the
prey.”
Although he had written the text ver-
sion of Bloodscent before the comic went
into production, it has yet to be published
in its original form. “It was supposed to
be, but the publisher had a delay in
scheduling, so I had to pull it,” Schreck
says. “On the other hand, the story just
seemed to belong in a graphic format.”
If the writer’s name sounds familiar, it’s
because Schreck’s brother Bob is ad-
ministrative director of Comico. By now,
cries of “Nepotism!” are echoing through
seen my work all along. He liked this
story. He had the idea before he ever took
it to Comico that this would be perfect for
Gene Colan,” Dean Schreck notes.
Bob Schreck explains, “I took my
brother’s name off of it and then gave it to
[Comico execs] Phil and Dennis La Sorda
and Diana Schutz. I guess they thought I
wrote it. They said it was terrific, and
then I explained that Dean had written it.
They said, ‘Let’s talk about it. If you’re
willing to go through the hell of explain-
ing how this came about, we’re will-
ing…’ It worked out great.”

[…]

The art in Bloodscent has been
reproduced directly from Colan’s pencils.
Others have previously attempted this
with Colan’s pencils-notably Eclipse
Comics on Ragamuffins and the second
Detectives, Inc. series and DC on
Nathaniel Dusk I and II (all written by
Don McGregor). By all indications, this
try is the most successful yet. Bob
Schreck says that’s because of some good
advice and a new technique.
“I have to say thank you to Dean
Mullaney at Eclipse Comics. He was 100
percent supportive and helpful in giving
us all the information he had on how they
put their two books together.
“The challenge was to present the raw
Gene Colan-pencils only,” he notes. “We
at Comico pride ourselves on the jobs
we’ve done in the past. Space Ghost and
Rio were technical nightmares, so here’s
another nightmare we gave ourselves.
“What really turned it around for us
was that Concept Color, our color
separator, gave us the idea of laser-scan
separating the pencil art as well as the
finished color art and then combining the
two. Previously, the pencil art had just
been photographed and screened. This
means we’ve been able to capture not just
Gene’s hard pencil line but his wispy tex-
tures as well.”
Bob Schreck says the decision to do
Bloodscent as a one-shot rather than as
part of an anthology or as an on-going
series was largely a commercial one. “We
wanted to test the waters, to see how peo-
ple feel about a horror comic and
discover whether the sales would warrant
continuing,” he explains.

Fantasy Advertiser #109, page #6:

Bloodscent: A Tale Of Modern Terror
by Dean Allen Schreck and Gene Colan;
Comico.
Comics that try to be scary generally
aren’t. Comics written by brain-dead hacks
that promise to “convey a special lamenting
morbidity, a pang that nestles in the pit
of your stomach and can’t be shaken by
sunrise” don’t have a chance.
Bloodscent is an exceptionally mundane
‘horror’ story. Its concession to “modern
terror” begins and ends with the inclusion
of a serial killer and from there on it’s
straight into the gothic with vampires
and all the people he’s ever killed coming
back to haunt him. The story is tedious
and regurgitated and it seems incredible
that they think they can get away with
it.
It’s like this; Dean Allen Schreck is
some sort of horror fan-boy. He writes
short stories, one of which is printed
as a back-up to the comic, and bad poetry,
an example of which you can find on the
back cover, and, and this is a major and,
he’s the brother of Comico boss Bob
Schreck. Dean has read, seen and obsessed
over so many genre horror stories that
he truly believes that all it takes to
scare people is murders and vampires and
blood. He wrote a comic that contained
these vital elements and passed it on to
Bob who couldn’t turn it down because Dean
is his brother.
Bob then has a problem. He has a shit
comic book to sell (though whether he sees
this as a problem is academic at best –
he’s got millions of shit comic books and
it’s never seemed to bother him before)
and it’s a shit horror comic book. All
he needs now is an artist and who does
he know that’s a good horror comic artist?
Why, Gene Colan of course, he did Dracula
and Night Force and they were horror comics
(well frightening, personally I couldn’t
sleep for a week after any issue of Tomb
of Dracula). So he gets Gene, and as has
now become traditional, he realizes that
it it imperative that Colan’s artwork must
be reproduced from the pencils, cos that’s
what you do if you’ve got Gene. Never mind
that Gene’s as boring a hack as anybody
else working in mainstream comics, he is
a horror artist, and that should do the
trick.
Bloodscent isn’t at all scary. It’s
turgidly written, badly drawn and displays
no imagination of any kind whatsoever.
It does though contain one unusual and
amusing twist. Whereas most comics writers
make the mistake of writing captions that
describe the pictures, here Gene, the
artists, draws, literally, the writer’s
bad similes and metaphors. Thus we have
the caption “A black hooded snake thing
devouring his humanity whole like a plump
and tasty rat,” and beneath it a picture
of said imaginary snake eating a plump
and tasty rat. “His fear pounding now like
an endless hall of massive steel doors
slamming shut in rapid succession,” is
written right next to a picture of loads
of doors slamming. Brilliant. Who said
comics could never be great?
I’d pan this some more but a far more
effective criticism would be for you to
skim through a copy sometime because it
says more than I ever could. Bloodscent;
A Tale Of Modern Terror. They’re not even
joking.
– Andrew Moreton

Harsh!

Amazing Heroes #155, page #70:

Oboyohboyohboy!
Another off-beat effort from
Comico. You know, the guys who
publish Gumby and Grendel and gave
The Jammer his first full-color book.
The guys who love comics so much
they put out a line-up with nary a
clinker in the bunch.
Well, they haven’t ruined their track
record yet.
Bloodscent is a chilling little tale
built around the premise of a serial
killer ceasing to be the hunter and
becoming the hunted.
Dean Allen Schreck has taken all
the elements of a number of conven-
tional horror tales and given them
some zippy and demented little twists.
Whether you enjoy monster sellers
featuring warped serial killers, or
vampire/creature-of-the-night chillers;
whether you enjoy classic horror
flicks or the latest strangeness from
Stephen King/Clive Barker/Dean
-Lawrence Burdick
Koontz-there is something here for
you.
As the book progresses from the
killer almost being interrupted at
work, to the chase and the inevitable
conclusion, there is a tone, a mood
that permeates every page. This book
is scary!
And the horror/humor of the last
line is completely unexpected. Packs
a wallop, too.
The art is perfect for the tale: hand-
painted ethereal tones over finely-
detailed pencils. Gene Colan has done
other things in this way: a couple of
detective mini-series’ over at DC and
Ragamuffins for Eclipse. Here,
though, is the perfect vehicle for this
type of work. And Colan really rises
to the challenge.
Bloodscent is easily Colan’s best
work since the early Tomb of Dracula.
Facial expressions, body language,
surreal (though only just) scenery.
Wow!
But wait a minute! There’s more!
Acts of Darkness is an equally hor-
rific text story with enough subtlety
to drag a scream from the most
hardened horror fan when the dawn
comes. And the unsubtle, yet surpris-
ingly sophisticated illustration by The
Jam’s Bernie Mireault adds a
convincingly creepy atmosphere to the
proceedings.
Comico should be proud of this
effort. This is the stuff of which
nightmares are spawned.
GRADE: MINT

— Sheldon Wiebe

Opinions differ!

Comics Interview #97, page #49:

DAVID: BLOODSCENT.
GENE: Oh, I loved it, I think it came out
well. The writer is sensational! Dean
Schreck is his name, Bob Schreck is his
brother. Dean Schreck is a very talented
man. A very quiet, unassuming type of
person, shy – but boy is he one first-
class writer! I wouldn’t mind him being
on anything that I would do.

Gene Colan seems very nice.

And they reunited for a backup story in Marvel Fanfare #51, which is nice.

This person liked it:

Bloodscent was something truly groundbreaking. The story features a look into the mind and the actions of a serial killer. If that wasn’t enough, said look was illustrated and shot straight from the pencil art of Gene Colan. This was pure, unadulterated Colan, with all of his mood, impressions, and cinematic staging.

I’m not able to find any further chatter about the book on the web, so I guess it didn’t make much of an impression. It’s never been reprinted.

Jezebel Jade (1988) #1-3 by William Messner-Loebs and Adam Kubert

This is the second of two mini-series that Comico published because their Jonny Quest license was running out. While the first one was a mess, this one seems like a more logical series to do — it’s about the background of two Jonny Quest characters (Race and Jezebel Jade)…

… and don’t feature the kids except in this framing sequence. (They’re reading a book Race has written about his adventures, you see.)

So that’s a classic setup for a spin-off mini-series, and it’s written by regular Jonny Quest writer William Messner-Loebs to boot.

So Race is a secret agent or something, and was much more fun back in the days, apparently.

Oh, when I said the kids don’t appear — that’s not quite right. We frequently get silhouettes of them reading the book, which is a fun touch.

The three issues tell one single story, but it does take some detours.

Kubert’s artwork is solid — it’s got that moody, slightly noir feel going on, and he’s got an attractive line.

I’m not sure the story actually makes much sense — Race’s boss appears and randomly kills a woman (that he thinks is Jezebel Jade). Just to impress this other woman?

And… they consult a feng shui guy to get the beef about the building where the Evil Main Guy lives? It rather feels like Messner-Loebs is just dropping in stuff he feels is Hong Kong appropriate to pad the pages…

All of a sudden, Jezebel Jade starts giving the agent the side eye because they’re not respectful enough of Hong Kong traditions!?

Er… what?

And then Messner-Loebs fridges dozens of people (off page) who were protecting what they thought was Jade’s box of treasures. It was really just a box of make-up that Jade had made those poor people hide for her, and…

I cannot state this strongly enough: “Wat”.

See, she used the make-up to disguise Race as a rickshaw guy from Hong Kong. Amazing, huh?

And the major bad guy is an ancient soldier from the Crusades, who has arranged to have Race kidnapped because he wants to have his immortality serum recreated, and he thinks that Race can help because… because…

Yes, nobody notices when you hoist a flag up the walls of a sky scraper — everybody does that every day. That’s totally how you transport a flag to the top of a building. They don’t have elevators. Very few people know this.

The denouement involves about two dozen characters, and I’m not sure whether Messner-Loebs wanted this to be as funny as it is.

So apart from Kubert’s artwork, this is a bit of a mess. I wonder whether Messner-Loebs had to come up with the story in a hurry because the Jonny Quest license was ending, and they absolutely had to get the series out before the end of the year?

Amazing Heroes #152, page #79:

Joe Kubert is one of the undisputed
masters of comic art and storytelling.
His school of cartooning has trained
and brought us many talented artists,
not the least of which are his own
sons. Adam Kubert is the artist on
Jezebel Jade, the new three-issue
mini-series from Comico, and here he
shows that he’s learned an incredible
amount about comics from his father.
Jezebel Jade is a spin-off from
Jonny Quest, and Jonny is the one
who introduces the story. He and
Hadji are cleaning up Race Bannon’s
room when they chance upon a
manuscript he’s written. Not realizing
it is autobiographical, they launch into
reading the story of Race’s first
encounter with Jade. On a spy mission
to Hong Kong to rescue a scientist
who may have the secret to eternal life,
Race meets the best thief in Japan,
Jade, who is disguised as a French
double agent.
The book is full of espionage and
skullduggery, with more than a few
hints of old-time movie serials thrown
in for good measure. Scripter William
Messner-Loebs manages to work
humor and warmth in amongst the
triple-crosses and crossfires, no mean
feat for any comic scripter. His
dialogue is naturalistic, and he
manages to portray accents in an
easily readable, non-stereotypical
manner.
However, two moments seem
incongruous in the story. First, Jezebel
Jade uses colored contact lenses to
disguise herself. The story is set
sometime before 1976, and it is my
understanding that colored lenses
were not able to be worn longer than
a very brief period of time prior to a
few years ago. This is, for instance,
why the actors on the V TV show
could not keep their cat-eye lenses in
for more than a few minutes.
Secondly, one of the characters does
a double-cross at the end of the story,
but absolutely no attention was called
to it. I had to reread the pages four
times to find out where a certain
character had gone before I realized
what had happened. This was sloppy,
and could have been played much
better.
Adam Kubert’s art rates nothing but
praise. His storytelling is immaculate,
his figures are strong and sure, and
his inking style no longer looks
completely like his dad’s. Adam seems
to have picked up some inking tips
from Gil Kane and Moebius of all
people, because the newer style is
much stronger than some of his past
work. Adam is going to do his father
(and comics) proud, as his near
beginning work is so strong that it
leaps ahead of what most old pros can
do. Watch this guy!
Jezebel Jade is an entirely enjoyable
espionage comic that works on every
level except the two points noted
above. While it is nothing revol-
utionary in comics, it is such solid
“good comics” that it should not be
ignored.
GRADE: MINT
-Andy Mangels

Back Issue #90, page #72:

STROUD: I may not be the best versed in the Jonny
Quest storylines, but it seems to me that Race Bannon
was portrayed kind of differently in this series. He seemed
much more flippant and in your face. Was that deliberate
or a departure?
MESSNER-LOEBS: Part of it was that it was always a
complicated thing to have Race and Jonny Quest and
Jezebel Jade or Dr. Quest and Race and Jezebel Jade where
they’re essentially having a storyline that we don’t need
to see in its entirety, because they’re involved in some
things that a kid would not find important.

My favorite item in the whole series, especially in terms
of Race and Jezebel Jade, is when they were having
some sort of conflict about something. Probably about
Dr. Zin, because Dr. Zin was always on the table
when Jezebel Jade was around, and so Dr. Quest said,
“Oh, we should really get Race in on this. Do you know
where he is?” And the response from Jonny was, “Yeah,
he’s in the library, and he’s been in there for about half
an hour with Jezebel Jade. I’ll go and get him.” Then Dr.
Quest said, “Okay, fine. Oh. Half an hour. Um, Jonny?
Knock first.” [mutual laughter]
KUBERT: That’s great.
MESSNER-LOEBS: So there was always this sort of
subtext of stuff that was going on. The other thing I
found that I had to sort of force myself to forget
when I was writing Jezebel Jade was that Doug Wildey
had given her Mae West’s voice. Back in the ’30s, in the
pre-Code days, [Mae West] was just this red-hot babe.
But for me and my generation that was just such a
cartoony parody of a voice that it has no sexual feeling
to it at all.
So ultimately, what I was getting at was that I was
trying to get Race to come across differently to Jezebel
Jade than in the way he was always coming across to Jonny.
I figured he would be more like a James Bond character.
I was trying to get a little more of that into the story.
STROUD: How did you decide on Hong Kong for a setting?
MESSNER-LOEBS: I think I was looking through National
Geographic and came upon Hong Kong. I think what
I was really thinking was that Jezebel Jade was always in
Jonny’s world and I wanted to see what her world would
be like in the sense that it would be somewhere in
China. We are never explicitly told if she’s Japanese or
Chinese or a mixture or what exactly her heritage might
be. The assumption is that she is part of that general
part of the world.
By the way, you can’t help but be pleased when you
put something into the story and it actually survives not
only being edited, but being drawn and inked. I had
a little note up on the wall that it was supposed to be
a sort of Simon Templar, someone who by that time
would be about 70 years old, and the impression was
that he was a mentor. And, of course, I couldn’t go any
further than just Simon, but to have it survive and
getting it in for all my friends who were big fans of The
Saint, well, Adam once again came through with that.
STROUD: Adam, how big a challenge was it to draw
all the details for that background? Was a lot of
research involved?
KUBERT: Yeah. We’re talking the days of having to
crack a book and going to the library, which was fine.
It was just part of the job. I definitely had to use lots
of reference for it.
MESSNER-LOEBS: I think one of the other things I
had in mind as far as using Hong Kong was the idea
that it would be reasonably accessible for you. I know I’ve got a friend who was
also an artist who laid into me with, “I don’t know why you writers are not forced
to Xerox off all the references you found for we artists to have something to work
from. Or you just make the stuff up.”
I could certainly see his point, but I could also point to artists like Adam who
think that actually doing research is part of the job.
KUBERT: It definitely is part of the job, but I tell you, these days I don’t even have
to open a book any more. Just type it in and out comes a gazillion pictures.
MESSNER-LOEBS: I know. It is so wonderful. I do my own art every now and
then, and to be able to just bring up authentic Indian moccasins without having
to go into Old Fort Wayne and taking pictures, it’s just such a relief.
KUBERT: And that also goes not just for setting, but for characters. I drew this
book for Marvel called Axis, with all these characters in there, and, of course,
I don’t know what the costumes look like or what their powers are or even who
their alter egos are. I just Google it and instantly it’s there for you to find out for
yourself. It’s really, really awesome.
STROUD: Did you two conference much during the series, and was it full script?
MESSNER-LOEBS: It would have been full script. I almost always worked in full
script unless I changed for a particular reason, but I’m sure this would have been
a full script.
It seems to me it would have been a good idea if we’d been doing a lot of
conferencing, but the reality of it is that through most of my career, where I was
doing three or four books a month, it wasn’t really very helpful. It just slows you down.
KUBERT: I was scared to call him. [mutual laughter] I mean, I was really pretty green.
I hadn’t been in the field for that long. As long as I understood what was going on,
there was no reason to talk other than to schmooze, and I wasn’t comfortable
schmoozing, to be honest. I don’t think we spoke at all on the project.
MESSNER-LOEBS: I’m pretty sure that we didn’t. I would have been terrified of
your last name. [mutual laughter]
KUBERT: Just to circle back, Diana was just the glue that kept the whole thing
together. With her involvement, I didn’t have a reason to conference. There were no
questions with the script and she was the go-to person, so it all worked perfectly.
MESSNER-LOEBS: Of course, what no one realizes is that the rational voice in the
inner storm was provided by Diana. She just set her feet and would not tolerate
any startup work, at least on Jonny Quest, until we had an entire year in the can.
The publisher, no matter what they say, as soon as you’d have two or
three months’ of stories, they’d want to publish. No matter what was agreed to,
no matter how reasonable it is to get a backlog, but all the things that happen
in comics happened, but Diana would not hear of it. She held out for an entire
year of finished scripts in my case, and that included artwork. As a result, Jonny
Ouest was never late.

Back Issue #59, page #65:

“The Jezebel Jade series was a result of Comico trying to accomplish
two things,” says Schreck. “One: put out a female lead character
that might attract a female readership, and Two: give us the chance
to work more with Adam Kubert, who is a great person and an
amazing artist.”
In the series, Jonny and Hadji discover a manuscript in Race’s
room. They start reading and discover that it’s a story of Race’s
time in the Agency with Wild Jim. Race is assigned to bring back a
kidnapped professor and heads to Hong Kong, where he finds
treachery, betrayal, Jezebel Jade, and Dr. Zin.
Since the story is being read by Jonny and Hadji, Kubert came up
with a unique way to show that. “The whole story was reading this
manuscript,” he says, “and I thought rather than just do something
with the borders, maybe rounded corners or whatever, I decided to
do something a little bit different and have a small silhouette of the
characters over each two pages of the narrative. It made it fun for
me, and a little bit more interesting.”
And when the professor appears in the story, the fact that he
resembles Adam’s father, Joe Kubert, is not accidental. “I put him in
wherever I can use him. It’s a fun thing for me.”

The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #349:

JEZEBEL JADE
Comico: 3 issue miniseries 1988
Spinning off from Jonny Quest, this miniseries spotlights
Race Bannon and Hong Kong’s best thief, Jezebel Jade, in a
fast-moving thriller. The Quests’ old foe Dr Zin has
kidnapped an American scientist who’s working on a
formula to prolong life, and it’s up to Jade and Bannon to
rescue him. Strongly plotted by William Messner-Loebs,
with plenty of action and surprises, the illustration by
Adam Kubert is excellent. Don’t be put off if you haven’t
read Comico’s Journy Quest (although you should): this is
superior adventure material.~FP
Recommended: 1-3

Here’s an interesting article:

Then, I met Adam Kubert with my wife, Kris, at a convention. I loved his work and even my father-in-law Neal Adams used one of his Wolverine covers as inspiration and a color guide. Burning red and full of vengeance. Neal absolutely loved that cover. I told Adam that I totally loved his Jezebel Jade series. He sat back in his chair, laughed out loud and threw his hands into the air.

“I hated that series,” he screamed with humor. “It was a nightmare.” Then he paused and collected himself. “I made a terrible decision to create that border of the kids reading Race Bannon’s diary. Every single page had to have the kids in a different position on the top of the page. I used to wrack my brain to come up with new positions for them to be in. On the bed. On the floor. Jonny reading. Hadji reading. Hanging off the bed. I simply ran out of positions for them.” Then he laughed. “But it was a great series.”

The series has never been collected or reprinted.

Jonny Quest Special (1988) #1-2 by Arthur Byron Cover, Richard Howell, John Hebert and others

This is the first of two Jonny Quest mini-series that appeared in late 1988. That wasn’t because the market suddenly demanded my Jonny Quest product, but because Comico was losing the Jonny Quest license by the end of the year, so they rushed out more books to try to eke out some more money before time was up.

At least that’s my guess — these two issues have different artists, and they feel like they were done in a hurry.

Like… what is Jonny wearing!? Mr. Howell, please!

And there’s these panels that are just… wonky.

I mean, it’s all just minor stuff, but there’s panel after panel that could perhaps have done with a little more time on the artwork.

The writer tries to give Dr. Quest some character, and originally enough, it’s not through the age-old medium of Daddy Issues, but instead Granddaddy Issues! Now that’s new!

Oh, and the story? There bare is a story here — it’s about Granddaddy Quest having discovered a time machine, so the timelines are breaking down, and you get to see alternate (and perhaps evil) versions of the crew. Then Dr. Quest figures out that the Cat Lady is the problem, and then everything returns to normal. The end. (There’s the standard ironic time travel twist at the end.)

The second issue is very, very different.

It’s set in the Soviet Union, which has been struck by a mysterious illness that makes people into grey zombie-like people with a hive mind (much commentary), and then Dr. Quest figures out that being bitten by the dog un-zombifies people (the dog has magic saliva…?) and then it’s over.

It’s very strange, and doesn’t make much sense.

WWRD — that’s something we’ve all asked ourselves.

And this is how it ends, with a gag… that I don’t get, even after flipping back a few pages (and then deciding I didn’t really care, so it’ll have to remain a mystery, unless somebody leaves a comment explaining it).

… Isn’t Boris the fat guy? Oh, is Boris the guy with the stache? I don’t know. And I guess that’s three words, even if they’re not said at once, but sequentially.

Oh, us nerds…

Amazing Heroes #154, page #59:

To this devoted fan of the regular
Jonny Quest comic book, this Special
#1 is a big disappointment! A lot
happens at breakneck speed, so much
that Jonny and the regular cast are
completely bewildered—and so is the
reader.
A dimensional warp materializes
just outside the Quest Institute, trig-
gered by the arrival of an adventurer
in a time machine and an alien cat-
girl who he picked up on his travels.
They are fleeing enemies who are
attacking them. “I never knew why.
I never cared why,” the adventurer
says. Suddenly more sets of dimen-
sional travelers start popping out in
rapid succession, both humans and
aliens, both criminals and lawmen
(maybe—they act more like trigger-
happy bounty hunters), including evil
duplicates of Jonny, Hadji, Dr. Quest,
Race, and even Bandit. Soon there is
a five-way free-for-all going on, with
rayguns blazing in all directions in the
midst of a timewarp hurricane; until
Dr. Quest orders Jonny to attack the
cat-girl, which sends everybody back
to his or her proper worlds. “Don’t
worry. I’ll explain everything,” Dr.
Quest tells Jonny, but the next panel
begins, “. . . and that’s it, son,” so the
reader never does find out what was
going on.
This Special has none of the charm
of the regular series. There the adven-
tures seem to develop naturally
because of reasonable actions by the
Quest team. Here they seem to be the
victims of a weird happenstance. The
time adventurer turns out to be Dr.
Quest’s youthful grandfather, but there
is no feeling that this relationship has
anything to do with his time machine
being drawn to the Quest Institute. It
seems to have emerged from the time-
stream there through pure coinci-
dence. There are none of the human
interest touches that are usually
present to make the Quest team such
believable and likable characters.
The only good thing about this Special
is the five-page art gallery at the end.
GRADE: FAIR – Frederick Patten

That’s the only review I can find of this series.

Ginger Fox (1988) #1-4 by Mike Baron & the Pander Bros

The first Ginger Fox book was a bit of a mess, but kinda interesting. And this time around, Mike Baron has the Pander Bros aboard, which might be a good thing for this type of book.

Heh… there’s a third Pander Bros, Henk, who only does plants?

I guess that must be a Henk Pander creation?

Oh, wow. The Pander Bros have developed further after the Grendel stint they did. The artwork is now more extreme and more cartoony — and… less punk, I guess?

The style leads to some absolutely bewildering body shapes. Yes, all these people have huge elbows, but the Bros sometimes forget how to link up arms to the torso.

But you gotta love that fight scene — that staggered hand motion…

Baron is know for doing quippy comics, and this is the sort of book that certainly could do with repartee, but there’s very little in the way of jokes here, really. And what there is (like the above) is pretty lame.

Oh, right, the plot: Ginger Fox runs a movie studio, and for some reason this gossip columnist has it in for her. So she kidnaps (!) her housekeeper (!) so that she can… er… get some gossip? That’s pretty far out, or… just… a very lazy plot. And then her sorta co-conspirator sorta saves the housekeeper, who then goes back to Ginger Fox, and… then that plot is rather forgotten, and they decide to kill Ginger Fox instead, because… because… It had something do to with… running the studio? Was that it?

It’s a pretty convoluted plot, anyway.

The artwork just reminds me of so many other things, like, the above guys somehow made me think of this:

By Willy Smax. But I guess it’s that kinda wild slightly jazzy thing…

But what’s going on here? Very Picasso I’m sure, but what’s the twirly thing at the eyebrow even supposed to be? His other ear? A… wart?

There’s also an AIDS subplot.

It’s really a pretty fun read — it’s quite over the top, but not in an overwhelming way. I guess the main problem is that it feels a bit under cooked — it’s mostly PLOT PLOT PLOT, and then it’s over, and the plot just isn’t all that interesting. So it feels like the book is missing something.

Wow, that’s some eye action.

And this is how the mini-series ends (except for an epilogue): “Roar!”? Wat? I think I missed something.

[Edit: Brian Nicholson notes that the pages were printed in the wrong order, and indeed:

Of course the pages are just swapped. D’oh!]

Amazing Heroes #145, page #101:

Okay, fans of sleaze, sex, and cellu-
loid-Ginger Gox, the star of Comico’s
critically-acclaimed The World of
Ginger Fox graphic novel, is back in her
own four-issue mini-series, courtesy of
Mike Baron and the Pander Bros.
While attempting to film what Baron
describes as “the ultimate horror movie,”
Ginger’s Peppertree Studios is shaken by
an ugly scandal when the calumnious
Tammy True announces that actor Lewis
Lassiter is suffering from AIDS. Lewis
must not only deal with the disease, but
also with the reactions of those he works
with.
And, of course, there’s much more
going on in Ginger Fox. Ginger’s
scummy ex-husband returns, causing
difficulties for her and her son Huck.
Ginger’s beau, Jason, is philandering.
Ousted and disgruntled, director Creigh-
ton Caw plans to regain control of “his”
movie-at any cost! There are also plenty
of phony Hollywoodians in the mini-
series who kiss each other on the cheek
and address each of their friends as
“dahling.”
Yes, Ginger Fox is pure soap opera-
and you don’t have to worry about being
interrupted by an Ivory Snow commer-
cial while enjoying it. Issue #1 bubbles
onto the stands in September.

Amazing Heroes #131, page #28:

Many Minis
Have no fear, oh lovers of the mini-
series; they have not been neglected—
not by a longshot. There are at least
four in the works from Comico. They
are:
Ginger Fox—taking up from the
recent graphic novel, in four issues by
Mike Baron, who has decided that he
will write the mini-series, and not just
supervise as he said in the recent in-
terview in AH #128, and will have not
only the artistic skills of those Pander
Brothers, but it will also be co-plotted
by said siblings. The plot within has
Ginger in the soap operatic milieu of
Hollywood making, what Mike Baron
has referred to as “the ultimate hor-
ror movie”-ooo, scary- as well as
dealing with an actor who has AIDS,
her ex-husband threatening to take
their child, and Ginger possibly being
replaced. Ah, just another quiet day
in tinsel town.
If successful, this may lead to an
regular, open-ended Fox series.

Amazing Heroes #147, page #7:

The latest exploits of Ginger Fox
will be presented this fall in a four-
issue mini-series written by MIKE
BARON and drawn by the PANDER
BROTHERS. Fox fans can expect
many of the same characters from The
World of Ginger Fox, but BOB
SCHRECK says this mini-series “is
much sleazier and action-oriented
than The World of Ginger Fox graphic
novel…The World of Ginger Fox
was about success and how you get it,
whereas this new Ginger Fox mini-
series is about the price of success and
staying on top. There was a lot of
optimism in the graphic novel. The
series is a lot darker… I really feel
that this is one of MIKE [BARON]’s
best stories to date.”

Amazing Heroes #154, page #58:

Okay, soap fans—this is the big one!
Sleaze, sex and celluloid have
returned to your local comics shop.
Yes, the irrespressible Mike Baron has
done it to us again with his lovely new
mini-series, Ginger Fox.
The series deals with Fox’s efforts
to complete the ultimate monster
movie. The problems include a star
who turns out to have AIDS; the
return of Fox’s ex-husband; the kid-
napping of Doris by an unscrupulous
gossip columnist; the ever unsubtle
Babs the bodyguard (eat your heart out
Mr. T!) and much, much more.
It constantly amazes me how much
information Mike Baron can cram into
a single issue of a comic without
making it seem cluttered and disor-
ganized. Here, he has done it again.
The art of the Pander Brothers is
also consistently amazing. For such
an angular style, the Panders show a
lot of curve—a lot of subtlety. Their
strong linework almost makes any
other artistic effects unnecessary, and
yet they do have other strengths, not
the least of which is layouts.
Between Baron’s writing and the
Pander Brothers’ art there is no seam.
This is a team effort in the same sense
that Nexus is a team effort. The art and
script complement each other almost
perfectly, in just the same way.
This is a fast-paced romp through
the sordid and the sleazy. If television
soaps moved like this they might actu-
ally be worth watching for something
other than the gorgeous casts.
Once again Mike Baron has created
a winner. The book is fun and
thought-provoking. It is a world like
no other in comics.
If, like me, you didn’t snap up the
graphic novel, “The World of Ginger
Fox,” don’t make the same mistake
here.
Ginger Fox, a “four-issue collector’s
series”—buy this book!!
GRADE: PRISTINE MINT-Sheldon Wiebe

This book sure got a lot of coverage in Amazing Heroes…

Andy Mangels writes in Amazing Heroes #149, page #48:

For those who missed the Ginger Fox
Graphic Novel, you do not have to
rush out and buy it to understand this
series! Nor do you have to buy any
cross-overs, Ginger Fox Universe
books, or spin-offs. Ginger Fox is a
nice little stand-alone package. At
least, I think it will be by the end of
the mini-series.
Although this first issue of Ginger
Fox does not complete a story per se,
it does succeed in setting up the story
in exactly the ways St. George failed.
What’s the story? “Stories” would
actually be more appropriate.
Ginger Fox is the C.E.O. of Pepper-
tree Studios in Hollywood. She’s also
a single mother, although that fact is
only slightly dealt with. As the story
opens, gossip columnist Tammy True
is threatening to reveal that big-time
movie star Lewis Lassiter is dying of
AIDS while working on the projected
hottest new movie of the decade (for
Peppertree, natch). Ginger’s violent ex-
husband comes to call, and her house-
keeper is kidnapped by Hollywood
moguls scheming to take over Pepper-
tree. A crazed director is willing to
kill Ginger to get back the only print
of his new Western in existence, and
to top things off, Ginger’s supposed
boyfriend is hanging out (really out!)
with a mysterious woman in Rome!
Whew! Does that sound about like
a year’s worth of plots and subplots
for your average comic? And these
will all be resolved in a four-issue
mini-series!
Writer Mike Baron is back in form
again after his disappointing Sonic
Disruptors and silly assembly-line
Jademan work. Here he is terse with
the dialogue, saying reams with a few
lines and innuendos. His dialogue
reads like a well-paced movie sounds:
fast, to-the-point, and meaningful.
Not to say that there aren’t any pro-
blems with Ginger Fox. Baron has
almost too many plots going on in the
series, although I am led to assume
that many of them dovetail into each
other.
His Hollywood is a little unbeliev-
able as well-that is, if Mark Evanier
and many other Hollywood writers are
to be trusted. We all know what a
fantasyland Hollywood is supposed to
be, but this seems a little too much
“fantasy” at times.
The Pander Bros. art is typical of
their work; i.e. style conscious before
anything else. These local (for me)
boys make no attempt at anatomical
correctness, storytelling, or panel
composition. Unlike Mitch O’Connell
(who did the Ginger Fox Graphic
Novel, and who is a fashion designer),
these two go for the grotesque and
unusual. If the rules in comics say to
do this, the Panders don’t.
Especially in Ginger Fox (as oppos-
ed to Grendel), this brash rule-break-
ing fails to work well. Layouts are
confusing, making some pages near-
incomprehensible, and some of the
figures look directly out of Picasso’s
worst nightmares. Seeing the Western
sequence as rendered by the Panders
is somewhat akin to seeing Marilyn
Chambers portraying the Virgin Mary.
Some things just don’t work well
together.
Mike Baron’s scripting saves the
book, and although I’ve kvetched a lot
about it, Comico could have gotten
worse artists than the Pander Bros. on
this project. At least they bring a sense
of style and flair to the book, although
they bring along with that all of their
incomprehensible storytelling faults.
Ginger Fox was an experiment as a
graphic novel, and the mini-series is
a bolder such experiment. Because I
respect (and try to support—if they’re
good) experimental books and Mike
Baron’s fast-moving script is simply
too much fun, I do suggest giving this
one a try.
Grade: Near Mint

See?

Comics Interview #51, page #16:

MARK: What about in the comics field,
do you have any plans?
JACOB: The next step for us is, basical-
ly, to propose our own concept to Comico.
ARNOLD: But right now we’ve pencil-
ed the first issue of GINGER FOX, work-
ing with Mike Baron on this four-issue
mini-series, and if you think that’s going
to look like an L.A. GRENDEL, don’t
worry.
JACOB: It’s beautiful so far.
ARNOLD: It’s a whole approach that
we’re taking based on Oriental fashion il-
lustration, and I’ve been experimenting
with these kind of cubist cartoon images
for the characters that are more of the bad
guys or the villains, those characters that
are not the main figures. So it has a real
stylistic look to it, moreso I think than
GRENDEL – more linear.

Fantasy Advertiser #110, page #13:

Ginger Fox 1-4
by Mike Baron and the Pander Brothers;
Comico.
Yay, this is the biz – now I remember
why I put up with all those sneering
comments from my peers – this is why Mike
Baron’s ‘Next Nexus’ was so weak – Mr B
has been sweating away at this masterpiece
for the last millenium. This comic reeks
of style, atmosphere and sophistication.
This series really is for the mature
reader, not because of the occasional flash
of a naked body, not because of the odd
piece of extreme violence or strong
language but because it manages to treat
these elements, and many others, in a
mature, non-gratuitous manner. As far as
originality goes, even the covers smack
of thought and fresh vitality – cliches
nowhere in sight here folks. The use of
photography on the covers provides an
excellent contrast to the cartoony style
of the Pander Brothers’ sharp internal
artwork, offsetting beautifully the
surrealistic feel of the comic.
The story follows the exploits of Ginger
Fox, film producer extraordinaire and ties
her into an intricate plot involving drug
abuse, the social stigma attached to AIDS,
the decadence of the Hollywood set and
media back-stabbing. Somewhere in the
middle of all this Ginger attempts to hold
together a relationship with her teenage
son and keep an eye on her ex-husband’s
manic, dangerous behaviour.
All the characters in this series really
leap off the page in a sharp montage of
colour and sound conveyed by some
brilliantly creative lettering and stark.
contrasting colouring. The cast of
characters simply ooze malevolent
insincerity and I found myself, in true
pantomime spirit, shouting “Look behind
you!” at every second person as yet another
character assassination took place under
the guiding hand of villainess ‘Tammy the
gossip queen’. The flow of the story is
helped along brilliantly by the electric
Pander Brothers artwork – their best since
their stint on ‘Grendel’. It suits the
zany, offbeat style of this series
perfectly, highlighting the insecurity
of life in the fast lane as the characters
plough on deeper and deeper into the
quagmire of their social scene.
Mike Baron throws in enough confusion
to keep the readers on their toes without
over-complicating and unduly slowing the
pace of the story down, and the result
is breathtaking but not without its
sensitive side seen in the portrayal of
the destruction by the press of a once
respected director, now ridiculed by the
media due to his suffering from AIDS. This
comic is brilliant, complex, sophisticated
but never pretentious – it’s good, clean
(well, more off-white really) fast paced
fun. Buy, buy, buy.
– Simon Ward

The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #278:

GINGER FOX
Comico: Graphic Novel 1986, 4 issue miniseries 1988
What should have been a run-of-the-mill tale of Hollywood
folk was, incredibly, one of the most bizarre comics of the
1980s. Actually, the graphic novel by Mike Baron and a
young Mitch O’Connell was a largely uninteresting affair,
enlivened only by its stylish art. For the miniseries, however,
O’Connell was replaced by the Pander brothers, for whom
the description “eccentric” is an understatement of
gargantuan proportions. While the comic is ostensibly about
studio boss Ginger Fox and her tussles with murderous
actresses and unruly directors, the expressionistic, distorted
art transforms it into an insane, nightmare world. However,
whereas the Panders’ art is unrelentingly demented and
staggeringly ugly, Baron leaves no cliché untapped, with
every Hollywood stereotype present and accounted for. It’s
a rare title that manages to be outrageously camp and soul-
destroyingly banal at the same time, but Ginger Fox is that
comic.~DAR

Amazing Heroes #128, page #20:

I’m only super-
vising the course of the Ginger Fox
mini-series, which the Pander
Brothers are writing. Robotech is
over, thank God.

Heh heh.

Amazing Heroes #128, page #26:

AH: You also mentioned earlier that
you’re relinquishing the writing of
Comico’s Ginger Fox mini-series to
Arnold and Jacob Pander of Grendel
fame. What type of control, if any, are
you keeping with that project?
BARON: Well, I imagine I have final
control over the product, if I want to
exercise it. But the thing is, they’re
doing such a good job that it’s going
to come out pretty much the way they
planned it, and that’s the way I want

This guy liked it a lot:

If you ever come across this book in a back-issue bin, I’d definitely suggest picking it up – well worth the read!

RATING: 10 highly sought-after film canisters out of 10 for an out of the ordinary comic book
with extraordinary art and storytelling talent!

And this guy:

And nobody seems to remember this but me, however, the Pander Brothers had been tapped for a Max Headroom comic that never saw the light of day, but really should have, given the preview art that I’d seen. Scour the dollar bins for these.

A rare negativish review:

Needless to say, while the original TPB showed the sliminess of the Hollywood industry and Pander’s artwork really makes them look evil and slimy. Granted it’s an artistic look, which those who appreciate art, will like his unique style. While those use to a certain style for comic book characters, may not get into Pander’s artwork.

For the first issue, it’s an interesting storyline but the first issue was for the most part, OK.

OK, that’s it. The book certainly has a something jennesequa, but I don’t know what. So it’s a shame it’s never been reprinted or collected, really. It’s pretty good.