Summer used to be the season which set the comics industry salivating. Young boys discharged from school lounging around and looking for cheap entertainment would buy scads of funnybooks. Publishers exploited this seasonal interest by releasing more comics during the summer months. The trend became entrenched in the '60s with Marvel's famous summer Annuals, oversized specials which spotlighted special events in the Marvel Universe. DC quickly picked up the Annual habit which over time expanded to include mini-series, mega-events, cross-over stories, the launching of new titles and the release of trade paperbacks. During the last several years you could count on a tidal wave of product swamping store shelves each summer.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the bank. An immensely bloated comics industry finally imploded last year. Impressionable young collectors finally got wise to the hype and cut back on their buying or abandoned the hobby entirely. Sales have dropped across the board and some major publishers are hanging on by the skin of their bank loans, coasting on inertia. So I'm not surprised that a skittish industry is pulling back. This summer's usual flood o'product was little more than a trickle. Unfortunately, the ratio of swell comics to swill is about the same. Probably 74% or more of what's being published is of little interest to grown-ups or the general public. So to help you with your selections, I offer a roundup of current and forthcoming comics of particular interest to New Agers. (Format key: os- ongoing series; ms - mini-series; sp - one-shot special; gn - graphic novel; hd - hardcover; tp - trade paperback.)
Acclaim Comics (formerly known as Valiant) is diversifying and experimenting with various genres. Sliders (ms, os) is spun out of the Fox hit series which features a quartet of accidental travelers pinballing through diverse dimensions of alternate Earths. TV producer Tracy Torme and comics writer D.G. Chichester have promised that the comics will maintain close ties to the TV show. (Fans of the series will have to "slide" back and forth between the two mediums.) Also new from Acclaim, The Gravediggers (os) are a NYC police unit which specializes in unusual crimes. It's headed by Marc Cohen, who has the psychic ability to "see" events as they unfolded in the past. You don't need precognition to sense that this comic has been -- shall we say -- "influenced" by The X-Files. Still, the premise has promise.
An energized Caliber Publishing has upgraded its formats and improved its production values and is publishing a slew of provocative comics for grown-ups. In Dreamlands (os), a research project trying to bridge the gap between consciousness and fantasy goes awry, and innocent people begin experiencing weird hallucinations and each other's nightmares.
They are considered the greatest adventure writers of the turn of the century. But what if the worlds of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs really existed? In the new series, The Searchers (os), the real life descendants of these authors' greatest characters band together to search for the truth about the strange reality they inhabit. On another literary note, the legend of the Bandy Man (os) is the disturbing tale of a creature which God left unfinished. An alcoholic artist learns from his dying father that he has a brother, kept locked away because he may be the Bandy Man, with the power to destroy creation.
Animal Rights Comics (os) intends to tell the full story of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). This full-color series is being produced in conjunction with that controversial international organization, and promises to pioneer a new words-and-pictures genre, corporate bio comics.
DC Publishing's major comics event for summer is Kingdom Come (ms). Armageddon has arrived and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are super-heroes. In the 21st century, a new, more volatile generation of superbeings, who fight not for truth or justice but just for kicks, clashes with their older counterparts. With the world spinning out of control, heroes and villains jockey for power, battling inner demons and each other in a final war that will determine the fate of the planet. This 4-issue prestige format mini-series features vivid painted artwork, and a story that will appeal to fans of DC's action heroes.
Nine Princes in Amber (ms) adapts the first prose novel in Roger Zelazny's award-winning fantasy saga, The Chronicles of Amber. Prince Corwin of Amber, exiled on Earth for centuries, struggles to regain his lost memory and claim his inheritance, using science, magic, and sheer force of will. This three-issue mini-series was adapted for comics by novelist Terry Bisson, and features a different painter artist on each book. Adaptations of other Amber novels are being planned.
From DC's Paradox Press imprint: 100% True is a new bi-annual magazine-size comic that will reprint samplings from The Big Book Series of factoid comics. Like those popular anthologies, this zine will offer provocative tidbits of info about conspiracies, weirdos, freaks -- all 100% true. Paradox is also republishing one of Japan's most popular and unusual comics. Gon (ms-tp) spotlights the wilderness adventures of the last living dinosaur, encountering beasts from around the world, including lions, bears, even penguins. Exquisitely crafted, the wordless "pantomime" comic is violent, touching, sometimes bizarre, occasionally humorous and altogether fascinating. And expected in time for book report season, DC is releasing a softcover edition of Stuck Rubber Baby. Howard Cruse's acclaimed, award-winning graphic novel meticulously and sensitively details a young man's coming of age and coming to grips with his sexuality during the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. They don't get much better than this.
DC's eccentric Vertigo imprint continues offering some of the better metaphysically-themed comics for grown-ups. Though its linchpin Sandman series may have passed on, new stories live on in The Dreaming (os). Set in the ethereal realm of the Dreamscape, this new title spotlights characters introduced in the Sandman comic, and will feature various writer/artist teams. The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (hd, tp) collects the penultimate pivotal storyline from that now-concluded series. The abduction of a young boy by the vengeful Furies paves the way for the destruction of the Dreaming and the death of a major character. And speaking of which, Death herself is the focus of Death: The Time of Your Life (ms), the second mini-series featuring the phenomenally popular punkish pixy.
In Swamp Thing: Trial by Fire (os), a mad muck monster, enraged at the callous destruction of the environment, sets out to destroy all human life on Earth. This climactic storyline ends (for now) Vertigo's seminal title; the Swamp Thing has been canceled. But as long-time readers know, the protector of the Green has died and been resurrected before.
The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution (tp) collects the first eight issues of this provocative if sometimes obtuse series about a time-spanning secret society of occult subversives caught up in the conspiratorial machinations of history. Though the ongoing series goes on hiatus with issue #25, writer Grant Morrison promises to return with another mega-maxi-series. Paranoia also permeates Vertigo Verite: The Unseen Hand (ms). Mike Webb is a bright American college graduate who wants to establish a business in Europe. But his dreams are shattered when he inexplicably becomes the focus of the Unseen Hand, a sinister shadow group which has secretly controlled the world for 500 years.
In The Books of Magic (os, tp), young Tim Hunter has been born with a latent power that could eventually make him the greatest magician on Earth. But right now he's just trying to muddle through adolescence. In the summer storyline, "Rites of Passage," Tim leaves his home town of London and heads for San Francisco in search of the wizardess Zatanna. Once there, he's kidnapped by a van full of beautiful models, and that's only the beginning of this flirty, phantasmagorical fantasy fable.
Seekers into the Mystery (os) continues to chronicle the spiritual awakening of Lucas Hart, out to discover the secrets of existence. In "Falling Down from Heaven," Lucas becomes a believer in otherworldly visitors when his closest friend is abducted before his eyes. Are the strange beings angels, aliens or projections of the collective unconscious? This story arc is exquisitely rendered by artist Michael Zulli.
Something sinister is happening in The House of Secrets (os). A tribunal of five tortured spirits are luring ordinary individuals into a haunted mansion, and putting them on trial for the truths they've kept hidden in their lives. This discomforting new series blends psychology, sociology, history and myth with an undercurrent of horror, preying on our fear of having our worst secrets exposed to those who sit in judgment. Methinks this could be a good one.
And hoping to duplicate the success of the Vertigo imprint, DC Comics is launching a new imprint, Helix, a line of science fiction comics. Titles premiering over the summer include Cyberella, Gemini Blood, Vermillion, and Bloody Mary. Although the sci-fi fiction market is huge, sci-fi comics have not fared well (the one exception being Star Trek).
Of special note: In celebration of its 20th year as the comics industry's foremost critical zine, The Comics Journal #188 takes a hard look at "The State of Comics 1996." This jam-packed issue is in two parts. "The State of the Industry" examines the disruptive changes of the past year and interviews a host of major industry players. "The State of the Art Form" dares question the vitality of the medium itself, offering last rites to the super-hero genre, and looking for hope to small press and self-published comics. A listing of the "25 Best Creators in Comics Today" is bound to get tongues wagging and the Internet sizzling. This special issue of CJ is must reading for anyone who cares about this unique art form.