Broken Frontier

How would Babe Ruth fare against a Randy Johnson fastball? How would Jim Brown do against the NFL defenses of today? How would Jimmy Connors perform playing across from Roger Federer?

People always wonder how the legendary names in any particular field would carry themselves working with their present day counterparts. Sometimes, we actually are able to find out. The 2001 movie The Score was promoted on Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton—arguably the best actors of their respective generations—sharing the screen together.

Comic fans get to experience this as well tomorrow with the release of Dark Horse’s City of Others #1. The title will pair up two of the biggest names in horror—legendary artist Bernie Wrightson and superstar writer Steve Niles.

Bernie Wrightson made his professional comic debut almost 40 years ago, with 1968’s House of Mystery #179. His moody and atmospheric artwork made him a natural for the horror comics that were popular at the time.

He is most well known for co-creating (with writer Len Wein) DC’s Swamp Thing, one of the company’s longest lasting supernatural characters. There have been many swamp creatures in comics—Marvel’s Man-Thing, Hillman’s The Heap—but Wrightson’s slick design of the Swamp Thing made him stand out from the crowd.

Wrightson has practiced his craft for a number of companies over the years, most notably Warren’s horror magazines Creepy and Eerie. His work on the theatrical poster and comic book adaptation for the Stephen King film Creepshow led the artist to collaborate with the author a number of times, doing spot illustrations in several of King’s novels.

Perhaps his most personal work was pen and ink drawings he did for an edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He spent almost seven years doing the illustrations, and the time, care and love is seen in every piece of art.

Steve Niles’ writing first appeared in Eclipse Comics’ 1990 offering, Orbit #1, adapting a Neal Barrett Jr. story. But he first came to attention of many comics fans with 2002’s 30 Days of Night series for IDW Publishing. His unique, why-hasn’t-anyone-else-thought-of-that idea of setting a vampire story in Barrow, Alaska—where the sun doesn’t come out for a month—established him as one of the premier names in modern-day horror.

He has gone on to create several more mini-series spinning off from 30 Days of Night as well as original works of horror such as Wake the Dead, Freaks of the Heartland, and the Cal McDonald series. He has also caught the attention of the folks at DC, who have published his Batman: County Line and Creeper mini-series.

So here we have two masters of horror—one old school and one new school, uniting on a unique tale of terror. A professional killer comes across two of his targets in a dark alley that just won’t die. This pulls him into a mystery that changes everything he thought he knew. Is he a human, or is he Other?

This series marks Wrightson’s return to making comics after a long hiatus. Dark Horse sure realizes that this is a big deal and is giving Wrightson the focus of much of its publicity for the title.

Niles and Wrightson seem to be a match made in heaven. Both have a unique vision and excel at the vivid detailing of the gruesome and the macabre. Their collaboration can turn this into something memorable and even historic.

So Ruth vs. Johnson will never happen and Jim Brown and Jimmy Conners are not likely to come out of retirement. However,  we do have two undisputed master of horror comics uniting tomorrow. If you don’t check their offering out, you might just regret it.

Also out this week:

• Eternals #7: The second of Neil Gaiman’s foray into the Marvel Universe ends with this issue. The Eternals, who have had their memories erased, have blended in with humanity. Slowly, they have come to realize who they really are. But will it be too late to stop the evil plans of Spike and his henchmen?

I am saddened by the coming of this issue. Not only because a good series is ending, but also because this might mark the end of Gaiman’s involvement in writing comics. He has found a new home for his writing on the book store shelves (and at the same time the New York Times Bestsellers list) and in Hollywood. Their gain most likely means comics’ loss. We may never see a comic series written by Neil again. And if that doesn’t make you sad, nothing will.

Neil Gaiman (W), John Romita Jr. (A), Marvel Comics, $3.99. Final Issue.

• Civil War: Frontline #11:  While the main Civil War series closed up shop last week, this companion series has lasted a week longer. The events in the series have led up to reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd each finding out the true reason behind the recent conflict. What they know could cause the situation to explode if the general public ever knew the truth. How will they, or even should they, tell what they know.

I enjoyed this series even more than the main Civil War title. Paul Jenkins did a good job showing the war from a more human perspective. Sure, the back-up which served to introduce Robbie “Speedball” Baldwin as the S&M flavored hero called Penance seemed a bit forced, but the main story played up the conspiracy angle while fleshing out the motivations of the parties involved. 

Paul Jenkins (W), Ramon Bachs (A), Marvel Comics, $2.99. Final Issue.

• Blood Nation #1: Disclaimer time: Broken Frontier is owned by Platinum Studios, the company which also puts out this comic book. While it might seem that this is a case of a company promoting itself, nobody came to me and told me to include this issue this week. It simply is a number one coming out from a new company and I selected it for that reason. That’s it, that’s all.

That being said, the title focuses on a world twenty years in the future, and Earth is being plagued by a vampire epidemic. The vampiric horde has even claimed its own sovereign nation, called Blood Nation. This calls on the government to send Captain Ethan Cutter and his team to infiltrate the nation to make sure it doesn’t expand any farther.

Rob Moran (W), Rob Moran & James Devlin (A), Platinum Studios, $2.99. Four-Issue Mini-series.

• Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9: For those of you who couldn’t wait for the DeMeo/Bilson run on this comic to be over: Rejoice! This issue starts the Marc Guggenheim era. Fresh off his run on Wolverine and running concurrently with his work on Blade, he brings his action-packed writing style to the Scarlet Speedster.

This issue will be a settling in period for Guggenheim, a one-issue tale relating to Bart Allen choosing between the Teen Titans and the Justice League of America. The writer will begin next issue describing Bart’s attempts to adjust to his new hometown of Los Angeles, his applying to the Police Academy to follow in his grandfather Barry’s footsteps, and having to face the Flash Rogues Gallery.

Marc Guggenheim (W), Ron Adrian (A), DC Comics, $2.99. Ongoing Series.

• Action Philosophers #8: Senseless Violence Spectacular: This has to be one of the weirdest titles on the market today. It also is one of the most educational. Winner of the Xeric Grant Award in 2004, this series is a creative non-fiction account of the lives of some of the greatest philosophers of all time. It goes to prove that learning can be fun and philosophy doesn’t have to be stuffy and boring.

This issue focuses on Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer (three philosophers that had nothing to do with violence, hence the ‘senseless’ in the title) and features “You’re a Good Man, John Stuart Mill!,” a look at the British philosopher done in the style of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts.   

Fred Van Lente (W), Ryan Dunlavey (A), Evil Twin Comics, $2.95. Ongoing Series.   

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William Gatevackes is a professional writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer. He writes periodic comic reviews for PopMatters and writes title descriptions for Human Computing’s Comicbase collection management software.