1984 #5 - Warren

Feb. 1979 - Warren set aside the typical "Giant Boobed Space Succubuses from the Planet Sexyon" cover for a more low-key one, courtesy Patrick Woodroffe. Why do I get the feeling this issue sold less?

First up is "The Greatest Hero of Time and Space" by Alabaster Redzone (cough) and Strontium Whitehead (cough cough) with art by Jose Ortiz.

A young lad arrives at his uncle's home, and is regaled with stories of his fabulous exploits. The story features several splash page-type images, each mimicking an old-timey, pulp hero-ish adventure tale, all of them quite spiffy:

...the story ends with a giant orgy. It is 1984.

Next is "Idi and the Ratmen of Hunger Hollow", another goofy, irreverent tale by Strontium, this time with art by Estaban Maroto, followed by "Timothy Sternbach and the Multi-Colored Sunrise" by Gerry Boudreau and Alex Nino, who turns in his usual maddeningly complex and detailed art job.

Next is "I Wonder Who's Squeezing Her Now", by Nick Cuti and the crackerjack art team of Ernie Colon and Wally Wood, in a tale originally meant for the aborted Warren mag Pow!:

Next is "Luke the Nuke Brings It In" by Jim Stenstrum and Rudy Nebres, about a dim-witted space traveler.

The color feature is "Mutant World" by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben, who always brought his "A" game for his Warren stuff:

Next is "The Box!" by Len Wein, Mike Nasser, and Alfredo Alcala...no, this isn't a DC book, though you would think so from that creative line-up. The Box is a machine in charge of keeping the masses happy, which never works for long.

"Killman One", by Redzone and Herb Arnold is next, about an interstellar hitman with a tough job ahead of him...bumping off his wife!

Last is Rex Havoc and the Asskickers of the Fantastic in "The Spud From Another World or: Who Goes There?", by Jim Stenstrum and Abel Laxamana, in a goofy yet heartfelt tribute to the original short story that the classic film The Thing was based on.

A solid issue--any story with this much Stenstrum was usually a good thing, and "Squeezing" is a tantalyzing glimpse of what Pow! could've been.


The 2008 New York Comic Con is coming up, and I plan to spend at least some of my time there stocking up on some fun/cool/just plain goofy b/w magazines to talk about here. To that end, I'm going to give the blog a little break since I pretty much have gone through everything I have on my shelf.

So meet me back here on Monday, April 28th, for more black and white goodness!

1984 #1 - Warren

The debut issue of 1984, Warren Publishing's infamous adults-only sci-fi magazine!

From what I've read, 1984 was meant as more of a creative outlet for Bill DuBay, with Jim Warren having less direct authority over the magazine.

By this time, running the company mostly by himself for decades had taken a toll on Warren, so it only made sense that he would start letting some of his trusted lieutenants take more control of the company's output.

And judging by this first issue, Bill DuBay certainly was putting his all into 1984--this debut issue contains no less than ten stories, and features no ads(save for two 1984-related ones). A promising start, no doubt.

On the inside cover is an editorial by DuBay, titled "Remember the Good Old Days? Who Would've Thought They'd Return...in 1984?" In it, he lays out a sort of Mission Statement for the magazine, talking about the pure thrill kids had reading the adventures of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and The Shadow, and how 1984 is an attempt to return to that kind of fun in comics, with a dollop of adult irreverence.

It all sounds so good, but then you get to this, the first word balloon on the first page of the first story, "Last of the Great Joy Juice", by DuBay and Jose Ortiz:

Hmm...I don't remember the word "Jizzum" in any Flash Gordon story, but I'm no expert.

I don't mean to be too harsh, and the first story--about a group of space travelers protecting the universe's last amount of biological material needed to make babies--is fun. But it's full of really foul language, a lot of it gratuitous, and it seems to be in direct conflict with the tone established in the editorial.

Next is Nick Cuti and Esteban Maroto's "Saga of Honeydew Melons", about an enterprising inventor who comes up with the ultimate robot, a stripper who is sexier than any "real" woman. And Maroto certainly knows how to deliver sexy:

Definitely an adult story, but it has charm, snappy dialogue, and a few surprises. Honeydew Melons will not stop trying to entertain!

Next is "Once Upon Clarissa", by DuBay and Alex Nino, who of course delivers an astonishingly-detailed job, told entirely vertically. It's about an artificial woman named Clarissa, and how it doesn't stop men from being men.

Next is "Quick Cut" by Wally Wood, who also really delivers an amazing art job. I love this opening shot:

...it's a classic Woody mix of childlike characters, fantasy, sex, and violence. Nasty fun.

Following that is "Bugs", a short piece by DuBay and Joe Vaultz, about interstellar vermin, and then next is the color feature, "Mutant World" by Richard Corben. I find a lot of Corben's work depressing, because it so heavily concerns itself with death, decay, and malevolence, yet the execution is so well done that I always enjoy it...sort of.

Next is "Faster Than Light" by the always-inventive Jim Stenstrum and Luis Bermejo, who also delivers a boffo splash page:

...it's about a Mister Zong and his attempts to run cruises around the galaxy, and all the problems you can run into, like being sucked out of air holes and giant space rats. Stenstrum's stories are always fun, brisk, full of irreverence yet have a light touch, and this one is no exception.

Next is "Angel!" by DuBay and Rudy Nebres, the first adventure of a gorgeous woman who learns to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Angel is certainly sexy, but at times Nebres' work is so dense I had a hard time figuring out what was looking at!

Last is "Momma, Can You Hear Me?", by Cuti and Nino, a really solid tale of a how a guy ended up as half-robot and his search for his past. Sad, but told with wit and featuring a more restrained but just as--if not more--effective art job by Nino.

A very solid start to the magazine--the sheer amount of material in this first issue is staggering--and most of the stories range from very good to superb. Whatever 1984(and then 1994) eventually turned into, it started off with a bang(several, actually).

1984 Subscription Ad - Warren

Even the ads for 1984 featured nudity!

Definitely an unusual sales pitch...