Everything's normalman!

This is an exceedingly fun black and white comic book volume that likely needs to be in every true blue comic book fan's collection somewhere. For relatively small money you can own The Complete normalman by Jim Valentino. Valentino, one of the guys who would become part of the infamous Image group started his comics journey with this satire on the superhero comic which posited a "normal man" on a world overrun with supermen, superwomen, superteens, and such.

normalman began as a try-out back-up feature in Dave Sim's Cerebus, specifically issues fifty-six and fifty-seven. Then as quick as that it leaped into its own self-titled comic run from the Aardvark-Vanaheim brand. What we get is a romp of a soap opera with all manner of gags and comic book tropes getting trounced before our very eyes. It's a wild ride, but a familiar one to anyone who has  read as many classic comics as folks likely to frequent this blog have done.

The covers to the series are remarkable in that each is a spoof of a different genre and most feature a particularly famous classic comic book cover turned more than a bit sideways for our viewing pleasure. Here they are, many with their inspirations.

normalman even makes a guest appearance in Aardvark-Vanaheim's Journey series, a clever spin on the marketing the character often ridicules.

Then thee came a change, and this is where I left the series originally many moons ago. Aardvark-Vanaheim underwent a split as Dave Sim and his wife parted ways each taking some of the titles with them. normalman became part of the Renegade Press brand after one joint offering.

Renegade Press then went on to finish the original storyline.

The story wrapped up appropriately in the normalman 3-D annual in 1986.

Slave Labor Graphics collected the saga in 1987. And that was all she wrote for normalman and his pals for many years.

Then after the aforementioned Image brand was ignited Jim Valentino dusted off normalman for a one-off romp with Donald Simpson's Megaton Man as well as many other Indy stars of bygone eighties.

In 2004 normalman celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a new story, the last to date.

All this comics goodness can be found in glorious black and white in the pages of The Complete normalman.

Dig up a copy if you can, it's well worth the effort, especially for those who are tired of paying too much for too little entertainment.

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Life On Mars!

Mars is a smart sassy sci-fi tale which blew across the comics landscape in the midst of the early 80's Indy burst, made a mark and then disappeared. That was the case until a few years ago when IDW put out a rock solid trade of this idiosyncratic story of life on Mars. This was one of First Comics most idiosyncratic comics, and alas one of the few which didn't latch onto a sufficient audience to run its full fourteen issues, but sadly the initial story was squeezed into twelve. All twelve are here and more.

The scenario is this, a striking redhead named Morgana Trace motivated by her genius and her profound injuries leads a scientific mission to begin to terraform Mars. Morgana lost the use of her legs when young and her father was killed also by by an act of violence. She grows up to create technology which contributes to the terraforming of Mars and which under that lesser gravity might restore her own mobility which is assisted by mechanical means. But after starting the mission the team loses contact with Earth and fearing the worst, goes into a ten thousand year hibernation while the Martian landscape beneath them changes to meet their needs. But when Morgana revives she finds herself alone save for the ship's computer and she goes to find her comrades.

What follows is a raucous and sometimes hallucinatory adventure as she discovers much about her surviving comrades, the planet , and herself. This volume is loaded with background information by Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel on the creation of this story and gives real insight to the rather deep meaning of it all.

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Artifacts Of Ylum!

I've tried to live a life with few regrets, but when it comes to reading comics, one regret I have for certain is that I did not keep up with Steve Rude's and Mike Baron's Nexus series as it rambled across the comics medium. This rather adult and sometimes sardonic re-imagining of the classic Space Ghost character for a harder, meaner universe has a lot to offer.

I was all in for Nexus from almost the beginning, starting with the second magazine-sized black and white issue from Capitol Comics. I pretty quickly nabbed the debut sporting its decidedly awesome Paul Gulacy cover image, and it was off.

The origin of Nexus is one of the best in comics. He's a driven, nearly mad protagonist who slays mass murderers, himself being the son of one such villain. He grew up isolated and alone save for some possibly imaginary alien friends on a the moon Ylum and became empowered in ways both frightening and even to him mysterious. Great, great premise -- a sleek spaceship arrives unexpectedly and a handsome and enigmatic figure emerges to confront some killer with his crimes and deliver judgment and punishment simultaneously. Powerful stuff!

The book became a color offering in regular size for a time from the small Capitol brand before they went bust.

That's when I abandoned ship. Not because as Judah Macabee screams above, that I was bored, but because financially I had to choose to support a growing family and not read nearly every independent comic book on the market.  Because as we all know with great responsibility comes great need for ready cash flow.

So when Nexus migrated to First Comics, I didn't follow. So when I sat down with the Nexus Omnibus Volume One a few weeks ago, these stories were all brand new to me. Imagine buying up comics and storing them in a  cave for decades before you can read and enjoy them. That's what finding this omnibus reprint is like in many ways, these are comics I've never read, but always wanted to and now  I can for small money and with relative ease. Fantastic!

The First Comics run begins with a salty crossover as Mike Baron's Badger gets a guest-shot in a trilogy of Nexus issues which finds him and Judah crossing over into a bewildering world located within a black hole. It's clever and witty stuff from the gang, and a swift entertaining read.

The collection ends with a trio of stories which begin to address the mystery of the origins of Nexus and of Ylum itself. For all the froth and bother in the front of these narratives, there is always a deep dark core which gives Nexus a gravity missing from many other comics. This is at once light entertaining fare and profoundly disturbing material, all inside the same package -- a wonderful balancing act by Baron and Rude.

The second omnibus awaits. It won't be years but mere days before I again explore the fascinating caves of Ylum.

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