John Byrne was born on tomorrow's date in 1950. Byrne was arguably the most potent artist during the Bronze Age of comics on titles such as The X-Men and Fantastic Four for Marvel and later on Superman for DC. His Indy comics also made quite an impression with titles such as The Next Men and Babe. I first fell in love with his work at Charlton on Doomsday +1. But my favorite Byrne character will always be Rog-2000.
One of the seminal books in my collecting history is
E-Man #6. The book tumbled into my hands at the perfect moment and reignited my interest in Charlton, an interest that has rarely dimmed since.
But what I didn't know then, is that
E-Man #6 also debuted (in color at least) a brand-new character and to no small extent a brand-new talent. John Byrne drew Rog-2000, the first of several back up features in the already superb Cuti and Staton comic with Nick Cuti scripting. Adding that wonderful spice immediately made this the best comic book of its time.
Rog-2000 was Byrne's creation for the CPL Gang, a cluster of Charlton fans including Bob Layton, Roger Stern, Duffy Vohland, and a few others, some more named "Roger". "Rog-2000" was added to the staff by Byrne as an inside joke.
He was a mascot of sorts who first shows up atop a letters page, his crusty nature in plain view due to that delightfully evocative posture.
He showed up in a few bits of spot art.
And then he debuted in his own story of sorts in
CPL #11 under a typically excellent Alex Toth cover, which also starred the CPL Gang itself. Here's that story.
Soon thereafter he popped up in E-Man #6 and made a total of four appearances in the E-Man series.And here with a splash gallery are links to the Charlton stories themselves.
THAT WAS NO LADY @ DIVERSIONS OF A GROOVY KIND
WITHERING HEIGTHS @ DIVERSONS OF A GROOVY KIND
ROG-2000 VS. THE SOG @ DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KINDHe shows up on a few
The Comic Reader covers.
A few years later those stories were collected in a Pacific Comics magazine-sized B&W reprint, and alas poor Rog-2000 diminished into the West it seemed.
Apparently during its last years Charlton toyed with the notion of reprinting some Rog-2000 stories. This cover was apparently done for the reprint and is credited to Nick Cuti, the writer of the series.
(Nick Cuti)
Rog-2000 did pop up at First Comics in E-Man #1 as part of their very funny Hostess Ad parodies.
And it was rumored he might make an appearance of sorts in Byrne's She-Hulk run.
Rog-2000 is too good a character to languish, but that's exactly what has happened. John Byrne is likely right to keep Rog limited, as his shine might rub off with too much exposure. To be truthful, I'm sure I'd find his new incarnations suspect, but there's no denying the sparkle on that chrome, it glittered very brightly for a tiny time.
Rip Off
Like yourself, Rog 2000 (and E-Man ) both hold a special place in my "Comic book heart"
ReplyDeleteI just adore those comics, produced so many decades ago now. They embody the very luster of my youth.
DeleteI remember seeing an issue of the E-Man that had a Rog-2000 story in it at my local library when I was a kid. John Byrne is one of my Favorite artists. I would love to know some of the back story of The Next Men revival at IDW. When he brought it back Byrne did not bring it back like he said or with the cover he said. He talked about having to change it because of Doctor Who but never said what exactly. He always intended it to be a finite series, but it seems like he rushed the ending.
ReplyDeleteI only have the first volume of the Next Men from IDW, so I've not seen any new material he produced for that run. Byrne lost a bit of the spark in his later work in my eyes, but even weak Byrne was still worth the time.
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