Comix International #3 - Warren

Another example of Jim Warren and Co. being way ahead of their time, Comix International was a higher-price, deluxe package featuring some of their best work in full color on high-grade paper.

Alas, it was a little too deluxe for most comic fans at the time, and the title folded after five issues. Of course, in just a decade, comic publishers would start packaging the best of their back material in ever-increasingly higher-priced editions.

This third edition opens up with "Mind of the Mass!", by Greg Potter and one of Warren's color pioneers, Richard Corben. It stars the simple-minded but monstrous-looking "Child", who wanders into a small village and of course is immediately thought to be a monster who must be hunted and killed. It's a grim story, and it only gets grimmer in the second Child tale, "Childhood's End", where this hulking misunderstood brute makes a gesture proving his inner humanity. Corben's color work gives these stories the mood of a sad, bloody children's storybook tale.

Corben also illustrates "Wizard Wagstaff", written by Jack Butterworth, a goofy tale of a wizard and some guys who deal with turning werewolves fairly well. "An Angel Shy of Hell!" is written by Warren regular Jim Stenstrum and again drawn by Corben, a mordant tale of post-WW III America. Or is it just the beginning?

Jeff Jones writes and draws "Harry", with color by Corben, about a young girl with a very overactive imagination. The next story, "Dead Run", also by Jones, runs a brief two pages(!) and is basically just a black humor gag sequence; y'know, just like an Archie comic if everybody died at the end.

"A Wonderful Morning!", with story and art by Fernando Fernandex, about a wonderful world of peace and tranquility...and no adults. "Puppet-Player!" is by Jose Bea with color by Michele Brand, and is about a puppet-master who has come to hate his puppets, and vice-versa.

Dax The Damned stars in "Chess", by Estaban Maroto. Dax was a sci-fi version of Conan who finds himself in a life-size, life-and-death game of chess. Lots of topless demonic women and beheadings, which is always nice. Next is "Mates", by Dough Moench(yes, that's what it says) and Maroto, a funny tale about a spaceman who visits a planet entirely inhabited by women. Not as good as it sounds...

Moench and Maroto also contribute the final tale, "Black and White Vacuum to Blues", a very seventies tale of a clown who finds himself time-and-dimension hopping, trying to convince his pursuers that it's all for sport, as a sick form of entertainment. It's got robots, indians, vampires, and a Message. Fun stuff.

The color here is a bit garish in places, but Warren was trying something not really done before in regular comics publishing--full-out color from cover to cover--but overall it makes for a pretty nice package. Warren mostly chose stories that worked just fine with color and by artists who envisioned their work in color in the first place(Corben especially). It's too bad that readers weren't more receptive at the time to such a deluxe package.