Just Plain Strange: Twitch (Justin Hampton, 1994)

Halloween month wouldn't be complete without a story about a black cat!

Justin Hampton is a Seattle-based artist best known for his fantastic rock posters that he's created for concerts over the past two decades. He's also dabbled in animation and even comics as well, although the latter is few and far between.

Twitch #1 is one of those very few comics he's created, and it features four of his original stories and a poem. Included are "Hareraiser", "Fraidy Cat", "Fugitive of the Soul", "Death Bed Ear", and "Unraveled". Most of these are lighthearted romps, as well as hilarious. "Hareraiser" has to take the cake as the best story about a woman and her troubled dog (and their neighbor's prized, dead rabbit).

But today the focus is on "Fraidy Cat", in honor of Halloween Month. This is a well-drawn 12-page story about a black cat and it's battle against a possessed oven-pad that was discovered in a drawer full of witchcraft items. Here it is in it's entirety:

To check out more of Hampton's work, visit www.justinhampton.com.

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Just Plain Strange: Power Comics #1 (Power Comics Company, 1977)

Power Comics #1 came to fruition in Lansing, Michigan where writer T. Casey Brennan (of Creepy fame) brought together a group of writers and artists in the hopes of creating and publishing their own comic series.
Released in 1977, the first issue featured four stories, one of which featured Dave Sims' first aardvark. Sims had been working on Cerebus the Aardvark around the same time, which would be released later that year.

Here's a quick overlook of each story:

A Gift of Wonder - Written by Brennan and penciled by Vince Marchesano. A short story about how a man of the mystic arts is sensing the world of magic interloping with reality.

                             Page from "A Gift of Wonder":

The Belt of Americe - Story by Jerry Younkins with art by J.J. Friel. Tells the tale of Valkus the sea-dweller, whose curiosities of the land above leads him to leave the waterworld behind. There he finds a woman in distress and saves her from an onslaught of Beast Men. He is brought to the Queen Americe where it is learned that the Beast Men are preparing to take the city. Together with the power of the Queen's belt, Valkus uses his powers of the occult to destroy the Beast Men, but he loses the spell of transformation needed to stay on land and is banished to the sea.

                                  Pages from "The Belt of Americe":

Nightwitch Rising! - Written by Grant Stevens with artwork by Skip Williams, this story explains the origin of Nightwitch. It begins with the trial of Hemsut,  the last witch of Atlantis. She is persecuted for her powers by a hooded order called The Twelve. Hemsut believes in the power of Ka, which she unleashes on the unsuspecting order.

This event ends up becoming a dream for a woman named Onyx Moro(first day on the job at a mental institution), who happens to be dreaming while connected to a REM scanner that disconnects during the chaos. Fast forward to a mental patient (who is really the demon Azimuth), who escapes and starts killing everyone...including throwing Onyx out of the window, 32 stories to her death.

Hemsut appears to Onyx moments before her death and explains her true purpose, that she is a descendant of Atlantis and wields the power of Ka. Onyx can either die or be reborn with her true Ka powers, which she chooses, and Hemsut and Onyx merge into one being...the Nightwitch. The story ends as the Nightwitch fights and destroys Azimuth, then returns all of the hospital's employees to a point in time before the incident occurs, curing the mental patient in the process.

                               Pages from "Nightwitch Rising!"

                          
                              Back cover of Power Comics #1 depicting Nightwitch:

A Boy and His Aardvark - Written by Brennan and penciled by Dave Sims, this is the story of a boy and his aardvark...and a dad and his penchant for guns. It's an odd one, but it's pretty cool to see a pre-Cerebus aardvark in the story. Check out the full five-page story here:

 

As you can see...the Aardvark has the best lines. Power Comics only lasted five issues before the group of collaborators moved on to other projects. The artwork is well done and although the stories are hit and miss, the Nightwish origin is nice to see and the Sims' aardvark would be key for collectors. Well worth a pickup.

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Just Plain Strange: Summer Goes Slowly (Greg Vondruska, 2006)

What better way to celebrate the last days of summer by talking about one of my favorite summer memoirs. Created by artist Greg Vondruska (with publishing help by the Arts Council of Hillsborough County), Summer Goes Slowly is a collection of comic-strips based off of Vondruska's childhood. We see Greg's first kiss, watch Doctor Who with his friends, take a bad fall off his bike, get teased at school and much more. It's a childhood almost anyone can relate to, especially if you grew up anywhere between 1978-88.

Reading Summer Goes Slowly will really take you back, and it's surprising how often another kid's childhood can mirror your own. Watching Greg awkwardly ask girls out, get hit with his retainer on, or just enjoy a piece of pizza felt entirely similar to my own youthful memories...which made the book an even more enjoyable read.

At 48 pages, Summer Goes Slowly will fly by and you'll be done with it in ten minutes...but it will be a book you'll want to come back to, if only to channel the memories of your own childhood. Check out more of Vondruska's work at www.gregvondruska.com.

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Just Plain Strange: In His Steps (Spire Christian Comics, 1977)

Spire Christian Comics have always been somewhat of an enigma among collectors in the comic world, and are sought after regardless of individual belief. That could be due to Al Hartley's eye-appealing artwork, or the strange fact that sex, drugs and violence are interwoven into Hartley's vision of the biblical parables he is portraying here. After all...this was the seventies.

Hartley made a name for himself drawing Patsy Walker "the prettiest girl in town!", a collaboration with Stan Lee in the late 50's in the hopes that more teenage girls would buy Marvel titles. Patsy would go on to become the heroine Hellcat in the 70's, and would also end up marrying the Son of Satan. I find this particularly interesting in that Hartley grew discontent with the material he was drawing for (like the Pussycat series), and became a born again Christian around this time.

With his newfound faith, Hartley looked for a publisher to create a new Christian comic series which would become Spire Christian Comics. Hartley was also working for Archie at the time, which allowed him to integrate Archie characters into the Spire line.

And in 1977 Hartley adapted In His Steps, a parable about a transient who walks into a church and dies while pleading to the Pastor about the lack of local Christian's good will, causing that Pastor to ask..."What Would Jesus Do?". The message hits church-goer Ed, who decides to end sexual advertisements in the local paper he runs.

Similar occurrences happen as other fellow church-goers begin to make their decisions based on the "What Would Jesus Do?" phrase. The pastor decides to spread his message at "the strip" which is full of XXX nude bars, drugs and strippers. A "tramp" attends one of the meetings and is prayed for, but runs out while a Christian pleads God's love for her. The stripper declares she is "Hooked on sex and drugs!" and "Let me go to Hell...the devil's waiting for me!". Surely every stripper must be thinking this...

But somehow the Christian woman is able to talk the stripper girl into coming home with her, and begins on a path to become a child of God. But at the next meeting out at the strip, an angry crowd (tired of the pastor's preaching) assembles and begins to throw bottles at him. A bottle hits the stripper girl and somehow she is killed. We never learn if she was saved in time, or if she went to hell!

The story skips on to the Christian followers continuing to follow the pastor's message, and as the years go by some are able to change for the better while others forget about the message and fall back into their evil ways. The story ends as one of the fallen Christian's tries to rob the pastor...then realizes who he is robbing and quickly regrets his actions and asks for forgiveness, causing the pastor to lead  him back to the strip where he now runs a Church conveniently located right next to the local peep shows.

Al Hartley's artwork has always been consistently good in each Spire comic, and that hasn't changed here. He draws a hilarious contrast between rich people driving Rolls Royce's and yachts while others are living in van's and whacked out on pills, beer and pot. While Hartley's artwork has good intentions, there is no denying the ironic plot points he instills within these parables.

I believe ultimately Hartley was attempting a scare-tactic in the hopes that the kids that read these comics would listen and become followers of God. And as said earlier, this was the seventies...so the content was a little more extreme based on what kids were being exposed to back then. Today, opinions on the Spire series vary...some readers are creeped out by them, while others feel they are a fun remembrance of their childhood. Regardless of opinion, they remain a little strange as far as Christian comics are concerned.

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Just Plain Strange: Wolff & Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre #8 (Exhibit A Press, 1995)

I admit I had never heard of this Wolff & Byrd series when I saw this issue initially, but I am a sucker for giant one-eyed tentacle thingies like the one on this cover, so I decided to give this series a shot. Wolff & Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre is a lighthearted series heavy on chatty dialogue and situational humor. The two counselors run a law-firm that helps monsters and supernatural beings with legal issues, often getting into conflict with the creatures all at the same time.

The series is created by Batton Lash who writes and pencils the book himself. In this issue Wolff & Byrd go out of town to attend a convention, leaving their secretary Mavis to handle all of the monsters while they are gone...which is a handful. Another attorney named Tobias Bascoe comes over to the office to work on a case, and gets into trouble in the library by accidentally summoning a creature called Th'Lulu from another dimension.

I found the humor in this issue pretty hilarious at times, particularly the part where Th'Lulu has the hots for Mavis as she reveals that alien monsters have a thing for human females. Lash also has a way for developing his characters fully through said humor, making for an interesting cast.

 

 It's fun stuff, and Lash's pencils are great and remind me kind of like Archie comics at times, which makes sense as he did work for Archie in the past. Although there is a ton of dialogue in this issue and it can trail off at times, it seems like a series worth checking out further. I would say Wolff & Byrd #8 was a pleasant surprise and a good read.

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Just Plain Strange: Agony (Raw, 1987)

Let me give this to you as straight and narrow as I can: Agony is the most depressing thing I've ever read. It's also one of the most hilarious books I've ever read, and some of the best/worst artwork I have ever seen. Confused yet?

Agony features Amy and Jordan, two friends who are fired from their jobs due to gross incompetence. They decide to go to a movie to cheer up, but the movie is too depressing. They leave the movie and all of the sudden a ghoul comes out of nowhere, rips Amy's head off, and throws it into a fish tank in a nearby aquarium. If that is not bad enough, Jordan attempts to save Amy's head and his legs are bitten off as he is swallowed by the fish! All of which happens in the first dozen pages or so...

The pair continue (after their respective heads and limbs are reattached) on numerous dreaded adventures, from visiting a native tribe and getting blown up then attacked by a bear, to Amy getting infected and having her flesh fall off and her head enlarged, to getting evicted and thrown in prison where they are beaten and tortured, and so on and so on. There is no chance for happiness for these people...ever.

Writer/Artist Mark Beyer's sense of style and approach really makes Agony stand out. Critics may easily write off the poor artwork (as it is amateur at best) and senseless plot, but they may be missing the point. Beyer gives hope to aspiring artists everywhere, whom may never have gotten past their stick-figure phase. Here, Beyer is showing us that almost anyone can draw as long as they can tell an engaging, effective, and hilarious story.

And what a great wake up call reading Agony was. Because in life, nothing ever goes the way you want it to. And while maybe not to the same extreme, we've all had our own Amy and Jordan moments.

If you have yet to read Agony, do yourself a favor and pick this up immediately. Your psyche will thank you for it.

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