Showcase Corner - Amethyst Princess Of Gemworld!

I've had this Showcase volume tumbling around the house for several years now and finally got around to giving it a proper read. I found the Amethyst Princess of Gemworld stories to be at once light-hearted romps of magical fantasy with all sorts of mystical critters, a young girlish heroine (Alice of Wonderland anyone?)and some right proper villains. The series was written by the team of Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, but I picked it up because of one reason -- Ernie Colon. Colon has been a favorite artist of mine since I "discovered" his work on the Atlas-Seaboard offering Grim Ghost. Colon had a energetic light style that was ideal for any number of different kind of comic stories, ranging from romps in Harvey's Enchanted Forest to satire on the streets of NYC with Damage Incorporated. 

The saga of Gemworld kicks off in the pages of The Legion of Super-Heroes when it was common for DC to preview new series in side the pages of other popular comics (a good trick that). We meet our villain Dark Opal and his henchman Sardonyx who do battle against an ogre named Granch and a lovely woman named Amethyst. Colon's artwork in this story is especially moody and atmospheric and I only wish the whole run had been in this style. Now admittedly I'm seeing these pages in black and white which serves Colon's work especially well, but as it turns out this is a series that depends on color to an unusual degree to communicate its themes. It is a credit to Colon and the writers that I never got lost in that regard despite the lack of color. 

We get a more in-depth view of Amethyst in the debut issue and learn that she is in part a much younger Earth girl named Amy in one of those twists that often occur in these fantasies is actually an older woman and monarch of the Gemworld. The story then is designed to keep us grounded a bit, though to be honest the series rarely makes effective use of this aspect of the story. Or maybe I just didn't care that much about it to begin with. The Billy Batson-Captain Marvel thing is a commonplace of sorts and it works well enough here, but really seems not to add much that I can see to the saga's outcomes. 

I'm not going to bother to detail the doings of the various issues, save to say that we meet an astonishing array of characters, the many varied bejeweled kingdoms of Gemworld and the leaders thereof. Some of are trustworthy and some are not. Amethyst is seen as something of a savior on this new world and her battle against the odious Dark Opal is the core of the storyline. 

Ernie Colon's artwork is what brought me to this series and he doesn't let me down. I wish he'd been allowed to do all the covers as the ones he does for the five, but George Perez is brought in after that and it's an amazing thing that I see that as a drop off in quality. Perez is a master and his Gemworld covers are as pretty as you'd expect, but they lack that certain tension that Colon's have. 

This was a maxi-series and as such comes to a proper conclusion after twelve issues. But apparently sales had been quite good and the series is promoted to regular run status after an annual and a crossover in the pages of  DC Comics Presents. 

DC was smart to limit the intervention of their regular heroes in the workings of Gemworld, but of course having Superman check out the thing cannot hurt sales. 

Sadly the regular series begins without Colon (save on inks in the debut), though the use of Ric Estrada is not much of a drop off for my tastes. I've always liked Estrada's energetic open style. The storytelling does diminish in his issues, showing just how effective Colon had been handling the large cast in the maxi-series. The dynamic of Amy's interaction with Gemworld is altered a bit and she starts going there in her dreams which undercuts the alternate timelines changes which made the maxi-series interesting. It keeps us on Earth more but that's not to the benefit of the series in my mind. 

Amethyst battles against a new enemy named Fire Jade who of course has secrets. The series suffered from the malaise that can strike any good saga which reaches an ending and them must plod on for the sake of sales and that's the sense of similarity to the proceedings. Much of the strife in the new storyline seems familiar. 

Things pick up for me when Ernie Colon returns to take control of the comic art and despite the fine work of Estrada and fill-ins by Kurt Schaffenberger and Dan Jurgens, the series is brought back to life with the return of Ernie. 

Alas the story ends abruptly in this only Showcase volume. I don't suspect I'll ever get anymore Gemworld stories, but reading these was a particular treat and allowed me to enjoy the work of a true underrated master comics storyteller -- Ernie Colon. 

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