#8 (June 1994)



Is this the female art version of a Good Girl cover? Rieken and D’Mer are trying out for Stryper, it seems.



Story “Knights of the Angel, Part III”: Galahad materializes in modern day. His horse is immediately mowed down by a box truck. He euthanizes the poor beast with his sword, then flees a crowd of gawkers while shouting in Welsh.





At the Norfolk waterfront, Rieken and D’Mer discuss the polluted bay. They notice Dunstan, a magic-using thief, talking with his client Corrine, a clothing designer whose work has been ripped off by a competitor. Corrine loves Rieken’s hair and agrees to join his quest.



They also note another passerby who gives off a strong Ovanan vibe; they give chase. Rieken also discovers the liability of floor-length hair when the passerby steps on it, tripping him. Seems that his illusory disguise, which at the moment is some sort of Drum Major costume, doesn’t actually change his underlying appearance.



Brent and Liana encounter wounded Galahad in an alley. They’re already headed to a medical student (Chris D'Errico) to procure Phenobarbital for Liana, so they bring Galahad along. Medical students can’t prescribe drugs. Perhaps they want him to steal some for them?




Galahad needs an x-ray, but on the way to the hospital, some Martin Institute goons accost Liana and her friends. She zaps them.



Editorial: Back in issue #6 when explaining the persecution of the Irish, Doran apparently enraged two black readers who felt she was insensitive to the challenges they faced. She responds at great length.



She then gives a history lesson about the persecution of the Irish by the British beginning with an invasion in 1171. She points out that as bad as slavery was, American Indians faced genocide instead. Yet despite these historical atrocities and their modern fallout, America today is still a place of far more racial equality than India, Rwanda, Guatemala, China, or other places where most people wouldn’t want to live anyway.

Bonus Art: She also includes a page which I assume comes from the original WaRP version of issue #1, showing the arrival of Rieken and D’Mer. Those WaRP issues were done in pencil only without ink, allowing for greyscale lighting effects that look cool. Doran's love for her characters is apparent.



My Two Cents: This is a way more meaty issue, with substantial plot movement on all fronts. It also set off major “plot ripped off” alarm bells in my head – with Grant Morrison being the culprit. The story of Galahad here in A Distant Soil so far is “Arthurian knights wage war against the Faerie. One brave knight duels the enemy leader then falls through a mystic portal into modern times, suffering a wounded horse and a language barrier.” This is exactly what happens in Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight #1 (2005). Has he ever acknowledged Doran as a source?

Most of those bands had the crazy hair but not the crazy wardrobe to match, opting instead for more rugged duds.  Incidentally, the Art Adams/Ann Nocenti character Longshot was based on Limahl from Kajagoogoo (the one in the black shirt just above).



While Paul Smith modeled X-Men's beggar queen Callisto after Tom Petty.

Issue #9 (August 1994)



It’s the Nineties, the era of the big gun!

Story “Knights of the Angel, Part IV”: This entire issue is an extended fight sequence between Liana’s friends and the Martin Institute thugs. Galahad’s magic sword proves useful against a careening sedan, while Brent suffers an asthma attack. Lots of anime-style motion lines. The issue culminates with a gun being shoved in Brent’s face…



Story “D.W.I.”: Written by Mary Jo Duffy, art by Doran. Sergeant Minetti is drinking at a bar and recognizes two guys who had been involved in a drunk driving incident years before. They’re drinking heavily again. Minetti beats one of them up – I think? It’s not clear in this four page vignette. Doran has said that Minetti is based on the several Irish policemen in her family, including her father. She used to depict him as Native American, then changed him to Italian but kept his Native American name.



My Two Cents: Not much to say since this issue is all about an action sequence that would be really tedious to narrate. It flows well, though. I got confused at one point because the duo of Galahad (long white hair) and Donny (swarthy, mulleted) looks similar to Rieken and D’Mer, who do not appear in this installment at all. Pages 2 and 3 were transposed when originally published, which confused the action a bit but ultimately made no big difference.

In fact, I myself own it in the collected anthologies from Image a few years ago. But the contents vary from the original publication order, most notably the absence of "Season of Spring" so that the first time we hear of Seren and Etan becomes confusing if all you have is the main story.  Plus Doran's extra material is interesting.

Issue #11 (April 1995)



Story “Knights of the Angel, Part V”: Liana’s seizure ends, and she and mind-linked Rieken begin to recover. During the seizure, Abdiyya (now known as Lady Bast) was able to read Rieken’s mind and learn that he himself is the Avatar of Ovanan of whom he had told Liana back in issue #2. I don’t believe that detail was known at the time. Anyway, Lady Bast likes the cut of his jib and agrees to join his crusade to dismantle the Ovanan hierarchy.





Rieken, D’Mer, and Bast return to Minetti’s house, where Liana is now recuperating, watched by her friends. Dunstan and Corrine arrive shortly, bringing the team size up to eleven, and a whole lot of bickering breaks out. Shockingly, Minetti suggests that it might have been a relief for everyone if Liana had a fatal seizure. What’s with this guy?



The good guys travel to a field to rendezvous with Rieken’s spaceship, but a detatchment of Ovanan soldiers attacks them, riding hover scooters. In the massive melee, Rieken’s ship arrives, then an even bigger enemy ship arrives and opens fire. Rieken goes all nova flare (as depicted on the cover, in an image originally intended as an interior splash page, hence the B&W) and destroys the enemy cruiser. The good guys race onto their own ship in hopes of a getaway. But Rieken’s stunt has helped make the Ovanon Hierarchy aware of his activities.



My Two Cents: One of the dangers of manga art style is a sameness of faces. It’s probably one of the reasons that superheroes wear unique costumes, as an aid in reading. Up until this point, it was easy to tell the characters apart because only a few were in a given scene. But now they are all together, and real attention to detail is required to understand who is doing what, especially without color to help.

The narrative at present is further confused by intercutting the battle with a discussion amongst members of the Ovanan Hierarchy elite on board the Siovanin. We haven’t been properly introduced to these characters, so their presence here adds complexity without clarity. One more mystery for the future, at this point.



A big clue emerges when D’Mer calls Rieken “Seren.” You may not recall (from the backup story in issue #7) that Seren is the foster brother of Liana’s dad. (Or worse, you’re reading this story in the collected anthology which omits the “Season of Spring” backup story, in which case you have never head of Seren before now.) I was initially confused by this point, thinking that maybe Seren had arrived to help Rieken, and they both just had the same beautiful white manga hair. But nope, they’re the same guy. Apparently the Hierarchy believe that Seren/Rieken has been in a trance on board their own ship during the entire story. So they're surprised by this show of power down on Earth and think it was Liana.

Issue #13 (June 1996)



Story: “Ascension Part II”: Seren/Rieken is still in a coma from his exertions in issue #11. Lady Bast agrees to help D’Mer train the human heroes to pass as Ovanan. They already have good hair, so there’s that. D’Mer gets a transmission from Major Kovar, who is in on the whole plot; he knows Seren has sneaked away to help the rebellion, and that’s why Kovar is guarding the empty bedroom so diligently. So, one mystery solved. (Volume 1 of the July 2013 TPB collection ends right in the middle of this issue.)



The rebels explain their plan to Jason. They want him to use his disruptor power to kill Avatar Seren, whom they see as the linchpin of Ovanan power. If Jason won’t help, they’ll have to kill him. And if he says he will help, he’ll have to undergo a painful trial to verify that he’s no spy. Great.



A rebel lady named Beys disguises Jason as a healer and gives him a tour of more of Siovansin. He nearly blows his cover by reacting in horror to a suicide, which is apparently no big deal around here. Sightseeing seems a huge unnecessary risk, but at least it benefits the reader.



Sleeping Rieken/Seren recalls his childhood. Sere explains patiently to young Seren why it’s good and right that Avatar Etan (Aeren and Seren’s foster father) is slaughtering children deemed unworthy of life. Sere threatens Seren that he’ll end up on the corpse heap too if he doesn’t embrace this way of thinking. She is also clearly molesting him.



Then we flash forward to adult Seren/Rieken making contact with Liana across the gulf of space. Sere is trying to get Seren to burn out Liana’s mind, but he resists. Is this why Liana has seizures now?



Sketches: Doran recounts how she began writing and drawing this story when she was ten years old. Art samples through the years follow.



Editorial: Doran announces that due to further deterioration in the indie distributor market, issues #15 and following will be under the Image Comics banner. Doran credits Erik Larsen with convincing her to join the Image team. Pre-orders have already risen substantially due to Image’s promotional support. Yay! Doran apologizes for ditching the few distributors that were still carrying her, since Image has an exclusive deal with Diamond.

My Two Cents: Cool cover! This issue mainly fleshes out the people and motives of the anti-Ovanan resistance and shows some of the horrors against which they are reacting. In the flashback, Niniri tells young Seren that the Avatar is “the spirit of our creator, come in human form.” I wouldn’t expect the Ovanan to describe themselves as human. Maybe it’s a translation quirk from their language? The origin of their very human-looking people has not been explained yet.

Issue #14 (August 1994 according to the indicia, but probably July 1996)



This is an all-sketchbook issue with no story. Doran had long intended to publish the sketchbook as a stand-alone item with a lengthy interview. But her deal with Image required her to suddenly be more prolific, and she felt she needed a breather issue, so here she offers an inside look at the evolution of the characters. For instance, Jason began as fan-fic of Element Lad from the Legion of Super-Heroes, then got a heavy dose of angst from Chris Claremont’s early 80s X-Men.