Comics

If you've walked into a comics shop recently, you know that these days there's a wide variety and hundreds of titles to choose from. Some fans are calling the '90s comics' new Golden Age. But when the average price of a comic is $2.50, it's hard to sample the field without emptying your wallet. If you're bemoaning the glut of overpriced comics out there, have patience; all things come to those who wait. When comics titles suffering from poor sales get canceled, they lose their collectibility and investment value and usually wind up in discount boxes. Dealers needing to clean out overstock or raise quick cash will reduce prices substantially. So if you like to read comics, aren't picky about condition, and don't care about future value, you're in luck. Here's a sampling of some excellent comics for grownups which unfortunately bit the dust. Their loss is your gain.

Seekers into the Mystery (DC; 15 issues). Lucas Hart is a disillusioned, divorced part- time father, former teacher recently located to Hollywood. His dream is to write for the movies and TV. His nightmare is embodied in recurring, haunting dreams and a persistent, stabbing feeling in his heart. Like many people, Lucas is on the run from inner demons he tries to keep at bay with liquor, drugs, sex, other pleasurable diversions. Unlike most of us, Lucas is one of the favored few, chosen by either divine guidance or a frivolous fate (take your choice) to confront those demons. A series of events both traumatic and enlightening stimulate his curiosity and reawaken long-repressed memories. And Lucas realizes that before he can truly get on with his life, he has to make peace with his past and the horrible secret which has imprinted him. And so, like other seekers before him, Lucas sets out on an odyssey of self-discovery, a pilgrimage . . . into the Mystery.

Creator J.M DeMatteis writes delightful, sophisticated fairy tales for grownups. His best works explore the Ultimate Question of the meaning and purpose of life, and this series could have been his magnum opus. Unfortunately DC Comics, which has published some great metaphysically-themed titles, has yet to learn how to market them effectively to the New Age community. This title died a very premature death, and more's the pity.

Black Orchid (DC; 22 issues). Once they existed in countless numbers, swarming the landscape, swimming the waterways, riding the air currents -- numerous species of elemental entities, blithe spirits with gossamer forms. They are integral to the balance of our fragile eco- system, nurturing the life forms born of earth, air, fire, water. Once perceived by humans (who called them fairies, nymphs, water sprites), their existence was honored, even celebrated -- till one day scientific reasoning declared them figments of imagination and relegated them to the realm of myth and folklore. Strip-mined of their native habitats, run over by fire-breathing machines which churn the soil, topple ancient timber and foul the elements, the nature spirits have died off or been driven away. And Man, in his neurotic desire to subjugate the planet, marches down a road to extinction.

But Great Mother has her ways. Enter Black Orchid. Once she was Emma Halliwell, a female human being who was captured by gangsters and burned alive. The ruins of her body were rescued by a scientist with a mad (or maybe inspired) dream to save a dying world by melding human awareness and plant consciousness. Emma's life essence was replanted in a greenhouse, nurtured and reborn. Now she is special, an anomaly, a living plant, a human orchid. She has heightened senses and a unique gift, one that may be every woman's fantasy. She has the power to use her scent to cloud men's minds, influencing their behavior, bending them to her will.

Confused about her origin and searching for identity and some sense of purpose, she roamed the world of humans. Unknowingly, she attracted the attention of a secret government agency who sees her as the ultimate weapon. On the run, she sets off on a vision quest to the Amazon rain forests. There she experiences an extraordinary initiation, riding a Green Dream back to the dawn of time and the origin of the elementals. Emerging, she awakens to her destiny: to restore the natural order and rebirth the race of nymphs. This gentle, perceptive, enchanting eco-fantasy was one of my favorite comics when it was around. Then DC strip-mined it from its schedule. There's a lot of discussion currently in the comics community about what kind of comics might appeal to girls and women. This certainly was one of them, and it could have been a hit if it had been properly nurtured (i.e., promoted) and allowed time to grow.

The Doom Patrol (DC; 87 issues). The Doom Patrol is a motley group of weirdly handicapped misfits drawn to combating strange evils, like a possessed painting that eats the city of Paris, or the Decreator (the living essence of God's Shadow, who drops out bits of reality like missing socks, or the pen you dropped and couldn't find), or Danny, the sentient transvestite street (he dresses up the macho gun shops with colorful curtains). Or the two alien races embroiled in a war over the possession of a twig from the original Tree of Life. Or the Beard Hunter, who collects facial hair the way Indians collected scalps. Or . . . well, you get the idea. Doom Patrol was a surrealistic hodgepodge of provocative concepts whose storylines hung onto reality by a very slim thread. And like all surreal art, the result is both jarring and enlightening, forcing us to look at familiar ideas and images in new, startling ways.

The last two years of the book introduced a writer new to comics yet familiar to New Age readers. Rachel Pollack stands with feet planted in both the New Age and the comics community. She wrote The Unquenchable Fire, a metaphysical novel, and has authored several highly regarded books on Tarot. Pollack's fountain of knowledge about occult, metaphysical and spiritual traditions made her an inspired choice as writer. During her two-year run on the book, Pollack mischievously played with gender identity, incorporated ideas and imagery from primitive shamanism, Goddess worship and Jewish mysticism, explored the metaphysical mysteries of menstruation, and the cosmic secrets of Kabbalah. Among the oddball entities encountered by the D.P: the Identity Addict, who could manifest various forms and abilities and who belonged to a 12-step group for heroes addicted to the use of super-powers; the Master Cleaner, who erases karma after death but grew impatient and tried to do the job all at once; and a renegade Hassidic miracle man trying to stop a cult of messianic magicians from healing humanity too soon and too fast. Unfortunately, such enlightening ideas were lost on the typical Doom Patrol reader and after a gradual slump in sales, the book was unceremoniously canceled. However, Pollack still sporadically writes for comics. Time Breakers, her most recent mini-series for DC's Helix science-fiction imprint, explores the implications of time travel.

Kid Eternity (DC; 16 issues). He was killed prematurely. In compensation for his loss of life, the celestial forces made him an immortal and gave him power and a purpose. Now he's on a mission from Eternity to raise humanity's consciousness and help nudge us through the next stage of evolution. The Kid has the ability to reanimate the dead, which leads to scintillating conversations with the likes of Freud, Jung, and Lizzie Borden. And he's watched over by the Keeper, a fat, bald Buddha-wannabe who hasn't quite accepted the role of cosmic nanny. This irreverent melange of pop metaphysics and New Age psycho-baubles mixed crazy wisdom with clever witticism and may have been too hip for its own good, since Kid Eternity is again deceased.

The Dark Dominion (Defiant Comics; 10 issues). Michael Alexander is a researcher into Michael Alexander is a researcher into paranormal phenomena and author of a book titled Dark Dominion. He's learned how to enter the Quantum Substrata, that shadowy dimension just beyond our ordinary senses, where the energies of good and evil manifest as angelic and demonic entities. In the quantum realm his appearance takes on a golden glow. Yet from his vantage point in quantum reality the "hard world" is dark and bleak, revealing sinister overtones. Ordinary people going about their business are seen to have ugly demons attached to them, demons of fear, lust, anger, greed, guilt. Deep beneath the bowels of Grand Central Station in New York City, Michael discovers a ragtag community of outcasts who also can perceive quantum reality. Looking to him as their savior, they've nicknamed him Glimmer (as in "a glimmer of hope"). At first a reluctant "ghostbuster," Glimmer is swept up in a nefarious plot orchestrated by a diabolical businessman who wants to use the potent energies of the quantum realm to subjugate the world.

The Dark Dominion was one of several titles set in the Defiant Universe. Together they were interweaving a sophisticated tale of parallel worlds and paranormal powers that incorporated some of the latest thinking from quantum physics. Then the publishing company abruptly went bust during the Great Comics Implosion of 1995. Now Defiant comics can be picked up for pennies (well, maybe quarters).

Leonard Nimoy's Primortals (Tekno-Comix; 15 issues). The Primortals are animals that were stolen by aliens and genetically re-engineered for intelligence. But one has reverted to his ancestral savage behavior and is returning to homeworld Earth. In the USA, Project SETI has received a signal from outer space that appears to be of genuine extraterrestrial origin. Humanity's "first contact" is imminent, but how should we respond? For the scientists involved, it's a monumental discovery. For various businessfolk, it's a chance to cash in. For the media, it's guaranteed ratings. But then a second signal is intercepted . . . and this one is a warning...

This comic successfully trod a line between space-faring fantasy and speculative science. Primortals was the premiere title from Tekno-Comix, a new hotshot company with major financial backing and grandiose delusions of using their comics as a springboard to lucrative other media like computer games, interactive CDs and movies. Tekno solicited concepts for comics from pop culture celebrities like Nimoy, Neil Gaiman, Isaac Asimov, then turned those ideas over to other writers. The various Tekno titles weren't bad, but they weren't exceptional, either. Tekno also got caught up in the tailspin of the Comics Implosion. Their publishing schedule became irregular, and it was recently revealed that Tekno also went bankrupt. Smart dealers are already trying to unload their backstock for cheap.

Jon Sable, Freelance (First Comics; 83 issues). Jon Sable is a freelance mercenery, a paladin for hire. If the job feels right, he'll do it. But he's no psychotic vigilante; he cares for people. A former Nam vet and Olympic athlete, Sable ran a safari business in Africa until his wife and kids were brutally murdered. After tracking down the killers, he returned to the States and fell into a successful job writing children's books under a pseudonym. He wants to settle down and get married again, but the past keeps coming back to haunt him.

Jon Sable is James Bond without the earth-rattling plots and fantastic devices. It was a well-written, natural-paced adventure comic with believable stories and human-scale action. Sable got hurt, made serious mistakes, worried about growing old. With issue #51, the title was shortened to just Sable to capitalize on a short-lived TV adaptation. Creator Mike Grell finally left the series which meandered for awhile under other writers until mercifully getting the ax. Image Comics recently published a Sable mini-series which must have sold well enough that the title is returning this fall. So go grab up any available back issues of the original series before dealers jack up the prices.

The Hacker Files (DC; 12 issues). Published in 1992, this series tried to capitalize on the explosion of interest in personal computers. The comic starred Jack Marshall, a burned-out, hippie-ish, free-lance keyboard jockey code named Hacker. It was written by Lewis Shiner, a cyberpunk sci-fi writer whose background in computer science and vast memory storage of techo-lore ground the comic in (virtual) reality. Lewis took his cues from the headlines, spinning cyber-yarns about the Pentagon's vast computernet, the Tienanmen Square massacre in China, Justice Department raids on computer bulletin boards, global software piracy and artificial intelligence. The comic featured eye-grabbing, computer-crafted covers, and the last two issues incorporated computer-generated graphics into the storylines. After a dozen downloads, The Hacker Files was deleted. You don't have to be computerlit to enjoy this comic, which was probably ahead of its time.

Meta-4 (First Comics; 3 issues). August 16, 1987: the Great Harmonic Convergence. While we meditated on the powers that be, they ruminated on us. That night a bolt of sentient cosmic energy zapped four youths. In a coma for three years, they recover and discover they've been gifted with paranormal abilities related to the four elements. They've been chosen for a heavenly mission: to serve as guides to others awakening to their cosmic divinity. They have friends -- including Dr. Fortean of the New Age Institute -- and enemies both political and cosmic, who want to control them.

Meta-4 was the first comic set squarely in the context of the New Age. It had a light but respectful tone and was equal parts New Age and UFO lore, cosmic philosophy and social satire. It was first published three issues before pulling the plug on all of their fantasy comics. Meta-4's creator Stefan Petrucha later went on to write some of the early issues of the X-Files comic. Years from now, after the New Age community finally discovers comics and the hunt is on for back issues of notable series like all of the above, the three Meta-4 comics are sure to become prized finds.

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