Hello everyone

it’s been too long since I’ve done one of these, but Jade Gonzalez tagged me on Facebook about a cover challenge and here’s my reply.

All of these books represent to me my early years as a comic book fan and the love they fostered in me for indy comics.

First on the list is Captain Victory, I love this book because it was the very first indy comic I ever saw and picked up. The other reason I love it is because it was by none other than Jack ‘King’ Kirby. The man knew 15 years before the Image guys that you had to get out and do your own thing.

Next up is Elementals by Bill Willingham one of my all time favorite writer / artists. This wasn’t the first appearance of the group that would have been in Justice Machine annual number 1, but this is the first with them in their own solo book. This is perhaps one of the best superhero comics ever produced that we’ll probably never see collected due to Bill selling off the rights to a gentlemen who practically fell off the face of the earth, who knows what happened.

Next up Dalgoda fun space adventure by Denis Fujitake on art and Jan Strnad was the writer. A great book I honestly don’t remember too much about other than I enjoyed it. I’m going to have to make an effort to go through my collection and dig them out and give them another read. It would be nice to see a collection of these stories.

Armor and Megolith both from Neal Adams Continuity comics. Growing up I would take the NYC subway to school and somewhere during that time I remember seeing these images in the subways as large ads. At the time I thought they were going to be movies because only movies advertised in the subway system this way not comicbooks. The movies never came but one day in one of my local comic shops, the Bat Cave I think, were these two books and I was hooked. The art was great and the stories were fun but mostly consisted of origins.

Elflord by Barry Blair during the early eighties there was a period called the black and white glut which was caused primarily by the rise of TMNT. Many books came out and many of them should be forgotten and this may be one of them but I love this cover and I do remember enjoying this series for as long as I collected it.

Faze One Fazers Americomics by Vic Bridges. He was a John Byrne clone, it was thing back in the day but I loved it and I loved this book. At the time it was new and shiny and full of hope of great adventures. It only lasted 4 issues. It seems Vic and the publisher Bill Black didn’t see eye to eye on certain things and Faze One was never seen again, shame.

Dragon Force by Dale Keown I picked it up for the art and again it was being done by a John Byrne clone, who eventually grew out of it and is now the ultra popular artist who brought us Pitt and many great Hulk images. Another book I enjoyed because it was fresh and new and not part of the big two. It was around for about 14 issues before Dale got his big break doing the Hulk. It was fun while it lasted.

The Realm by Guy Davis. I know there was a writer but I have to be honest with you I didn’t get it for the story, it was all Guy, I know this because once he was gone from the book so was I. It’s a shame because it was a great book with some fun fantasy elements that I remember with fondness, but once Guy left they couldn’t find an artist who could fill his shoes. Guy went on to work at DC and for Mike Mignola on BPRD for a long stretch. My only real problem with Guy is that he changed his style, his choice I know he did what he had to, but I liked the paperclip noses, 😀

Warlock 5 by writer Gordon Derry and artist Denis Beauvais. Honestly I don’t remember much about this book other than the art by Denis Beauvais being incredible and their being 5 avatars that represented 5 different worlds battling for supremacy or something like that. I do remember enjoying it and being very disappointed when Gordon Derry and artist Denis Beauvais abandoned the book over a dispute with the publisher.

Captain Paragon by Bill Black published by AC comics. Early on I was attracted to non Marvel\DC super hero comics, they just seemed more interesting because they worked outside of the normal frame work of those two companies and presented to me an early insight into the type of work I would eventually find myself doing indy comics.

Dynamo Joe by Doug Rice, Phil Foglio and others. Perhaps my favorite giant robot comic of all time, not that there’s that many on this side of the Pacific. This is the story of the human race pairing up with the 2 other species to fight a third alien species that is traveling through their space destroying their ships, people and worlds. This book is a lot of fun and it was a shame when it ended and especially since there was more story to be told by the creators but bad sales brought the book to an end after 15 issues, shame, but well looking into.

Justice Machine by Mike Gustovich. A great book with some of the greatest costume designs outside of Dave Cockrum. This is another one of those early super heroes outside of the big two that I was happy to see. It didn’t really run for too long, I believe the initial series ran 5-6 issues and then made a short come back at Comico for a cross over with the Elementals and then a miniseries soon after. The series was purchased by another creator but I haven’t kept up with the new series so I won’t comment, but those early issues are a lot of fun.

Zooniverse by Fil Barlow. This one was just weird and crazed looking book that I just loved. Fil’s art is incredible and the coloring was awesome and this book was being done long before computer coloring. The art is super detailed and the story revolves around a group of guards called plastiods and how they’re caught in the political intrigues of warring factions in their universe. This book needs to be reprinted in hardcover. The awesome thing is that this series has made a comeback at Image and with any luck that reprint will happen.

Sun Runners by Roger McKenzie. Art and cover by Pat Broderick. Another awesome series that traveled around several publishers. I don’t remember much about the series except that I really enjoyed it and I’m going to have to go back into my collection and reread it from start to finish, although I don’t think it ever really did finish.

I also want to show off a few pages from The Oswald Chronicles that David Montoya has been coloring for the series. One day that color book is going to come out 😀

And once again please vote for Oswald on topwebcomics.com it really does help.

Thank you all once again and please help spread the word about The Oswald Chronicles.

JD