The Sidhe are Celtic and stories of them appear in other Celtic cultures, especially Ireland. Ban Sidhe evolved into banshee. I suspect Doran's use is more based on the Irish legends.

Issue #17 (December 1996)



Story “Ascension Part V”: Dunstan and Galahad have a lengthy conversation. Dunstan is a Sidhe (fairy) assigned to guard a mystic portal in Appalachia. He got bored there and set off into the world, connected with Corrine, and has been living as a human. Galahad came to modern times through an unknown portal that opens on the streets of Norfolk, and he can only return to Avalon through that same portal. If Galahad is separated from all the clothing and articles he brought through the portal, he will die. Most of them have already been burned, bhut he still has his sword. Dunstan theorizes that the Avatar is an Ovanan version of a Sidhe, powered by the collective imagination of his people.



D’Mer spars with Minetti, earns a broken rib for his trouble, and explains how humans, though short lived, have “Asa’ka,” a spark of life not found in immortals like the Ovanan.



Lady Bast plies D’Mer with questions as she mends his rib. D’Mer’s back story comes out: He’s a prince but a slave even among his own people, a member of a royal harem, foresworn to sex with any woman but his wife, but apparently other men are fine. Bast submits to a loyalty scan by Rieken; her seduction bears fruit.



Lettercol: Haven’t seen one of these in a while! Doran explains why authors have to shield themselves from unsolicited story ideas that could lead to lawsuits. She laments that mid-90s Aquaman with his harpoon prosthesis looks “like a can opener on steroids,” but she loves Phil Jimenez’ Tempest series.

My Two Cents: I haven’t read a lot of female-written comics; how could I? There aren’t tons to choose from. I’m struck by Doran’s focus on character interaction rather than action or even plot movement. At this point, she still has loads of exposition to unload due to the large number of characters, each with a backstory she’d been thinking about for fifteen years or more at this point.



There are also several sketchbook pages. Doran was quite good even at age 13. These characters have been germinating a good long while; She clearly sees A Distant Soil as her life’s work. Some people make art to make money, and some people make money to make art. Doran is one of the latter. Gotta give her credit for that.

The trouble with sex in comics is if you're not into the same stuff as the creator, like Liana you just get the ick factor. Especially that creepy woman with the tarted up little boy, major ick! Okay it reveals character for another major character, but 'dealing' with such things in a comic book story? I'm old-fashioned that way, as opposed to the graphic novel could produce a serious work of adult literature people. Uh, have you not heard of text books that a lot more adults will approach than a comic book? That's traditionally been the big pond where recognized and historic breakthroughs in writing have occured.

While I remember liking the original, this er, tarted up A Distant Soil is feeling really not my kind of thing. The undergrounds at their 'worst' still had that humorous angle that made things semi-palatable, and I just would much rather have serious sf/f or super comics be G rated. I can't say I ever had any involved fantasies about an Aquaman (or Hawkman), but I did think of scenarios involving my arriving at the X-Men mansion, or like Jessica Drew in Spider-Woman being a detective in San Francisco, but this was all pretty G rated. A Distant Soil mark II is intense in a way U.S. soaps I don't watch seem to be, if you approach at all you must have total investment to begin to follow it, and all the supposedly glamorous looking characters are too hard to relate to, and sometimes to tell apart. You can open yourself to be psychoanalyzed by commenting on such things but mainly these later comics are all just too much of a number of things for me. Doran seems very combative too, and I'd be put off that I'd get my head bitten off for lack of total support of everything in the comic. It does help if the creator seems somewhat likable. I have bought comics based on wanting to support diversity.

Yes, I see the Japanese wandering-eye and design elements, the soap character-centric approach I usually respond to... but with the explicit physical and psychological lusting stuff (shades of later Claremont), the hair-metal and Michael Jackson/Prince/Bowie bi-type fashions, it adds up mostly to ick, and that I really don't care or want to see what happens next to most or any of them. The art ranges from great and lively to overly posed... the story being told is not always served well though the individual page might be more frameable. It wouldn't be the gay content here that rubs me the wrong way either, nor the aliens or time travelers, as I usually find such characters interesting.

As far as women writing comics, I think of Starstruck, Evangeline, Elfquest, and... Omaha The Cat Dancer! I surprised myself buying that comic for quite awhile and I think it was as much Kate Worley's writing as Reed Waller's art. The sex parts seemed relatable in spite of they're being animal headed folks with tails... quite an accomplishment! I found most other similar animal comics frankly embarrassing (not Albedo/Usagi though). I found the Elfquest elf sex content fine as well. This later A Distant Soil is, for those who read science fiction, somewhat like the unedited full-length Heinlein Puppet Masters compared with the original much slimmer paperback edition. If you like a lot of variety in lusting characters including age ranges and semi-incest maybe you're in heaven, but for everyone else... well... I can't say for 99% of supposedly adult post Anne Rice vampire stuff either... I never read those. With staying G rated you can add what you want to things, here it's all spelled out and yet feels restricted while paradoxically an example of full creator freedom.

I remember some comments John Byrne made about Chris Claremont adding things about characters after the fact that made him go 'too much information'. There were definitely things in later X-Men comics that eventually ruined it for me and made me go from liking characters to finding them icky. Their reunion doing a Justice League and Doom Patrol meet space vampires six-parter still had a lot of that, eww, not again feel! I think the earlier A Distant Soil had less and thus more. I'm still in shock about all the really shitty stuff Colleen Doran says she experienced though. I've heard a few other stories from a couple of women in comics and it makes me very angry too and will for a long time I think.

Issue #19 (April 1997)



Story “Ascension, Part VI”: Seren explains to Lady Bast that “Rieken” is not just a false identity he adopted for sneaking around. He actually absorbed the personality of a man named Rieken, a Resistance leader serving under Seren’s foster brother Aeren, during a rebel mission gone awry. Sometimes Rieken’s personality asserts itself, making Seren act more brave and clever than his usual stammering self.



Sere doesn’t take long to replace the fallen seer Merai. Is the new guy a slender male with awesome hair and outrageous couture? How did you guess? His name is Prince Emeris, and he apparently has a history of bad blood with Seren and a history of unrequired desire with D’Mer, so he’s highly motivated to put his telepathic jamming powers to work.



Jason completes his initiation ceremony into the Resistance, which requires him to stab his own hand. He has a flashback to his childhood which would be totally new ground for readers who hadn’t seen any of the “Seasons of Spring” story.



The heroes on the botanical tugboat spend several pages disguising themselves as Ovanans. A guard costume proves too big for Liana, so she gets a shambling robe to wear. The presence of a child in Rieken’s retinue will give him a reputation as a pedophile, which is frowned upon but not illegal among his people.



Lettercol and Editorial: Doran is shocked to run across explicit A Distant Soil fan-fic “that depicted Rieken as the slut of the universe.” Her three pieces of advice for aspiring artists: Stay organized; stay fit (i.e. exercise daily); get a good lawyer. She may not be able to accept story ideas from fans, but she’s happy to share fan art, as below:



My Two Cents: The mind-meld which caused Rieken's consciousness to get confused with Seren's reminds us of two other similar events. One is Spock's mind stuck in Doctor McCoy's head in the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock film. The other is Carol Danver's mind getting mixed with Rogue's mind after Rogue spent too much time absorbing Carol's powers, as seen here in X-Men #171 and #182:

I wouldn't be one to say a given genre or mix of genres is itself defective. The TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was a great soap opera/action/horror/comedy show. It's all right there in the title. But the movie with Kristie Swanson botched the same basic idea and character. Implementation is everything.

But genre shifting can confuse audiences. I liked the first season of "Stranger Things," but the tonal shifts of the second and especially third season, into action and comedy instead of horror, were not what I was expecting from the same show. Some of that may still be a matter of implementation. X-Files had its occasional comedy episodes too, and I liked those just fine.

Audiences like to know what to expect. The Sondheim musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" was getting tepid responses from audiences. They weren't sure they were supposed to laugh at what they were seeing. So Sondheim wrote a new song "Drama tomorrow; comedy tonight" for the beginning of the show. The tone was made clear. Audiences started laughing a lot more.

Red Letter Media has an excellent discussion of this issue, with movie illustrations, in their takedown of "Revenge of the Sith." Start at the 20:43 mark here:



A Distant Soil starts off with aliens for the first half dozen issues. Then two issues of medieval fantasy. Then it amps up the sexuality to a degree unhinted at the beginning. The tonal shifts are jarring, especially with a teen girl protagonist who, as a stand-in for the audience, keeps reminding us how distasteful all the sexuality is. It's almost like Doran wrote herself into the story, criticizing her own work.

Issue #20 (June 1997)



The Story (no title!): Nine issues after leaving Earth, the botanical survey craft carrying our heroes arrives at the Siovansin flagship. Reynaldo the homeless guy panics and makes a Star Trek joke.



Later, Rieken gets an unwelcome communication from the new Hierarchy member Prince Emeris, who is asserting a prior ownership claim on D’Mer. Not good! Major Kovar warns that D’Mer’s capture would mean doom for the revolution; he will have to die. Rieken won’t hear of it but offers no alternative.



My Two Cents: It’s all about palace intrigue. Rieken (still not revealing himself as Seren) is sneaking almost a dozen humans onto the imperial flagship; that doesn’t speak too well for security protocols. Emeris is a new hissable bad guy who’s reduced Seren to tears.

Issue #22 (December 1997)



The Story: The mission to assassinate Seren falters almost immediately when the Resistance fighters stumble into a security detachment. First they try to fake their way past. Failing that, a bloody combat erupts, with casualties on both sides.



Jason and Ninivir exit the Siovansin ship for a spacewalk. Jason’s jet pack, damaged by the recent battle, lofts him away from the ship into space. Next issue he'll be quickly safe again; this is one of the few fake cliffhangers in this whole series.



Upstairs, Rieken is prepping the heroes for their own assault on vital areas of the Siovansin. D’Mer touches a laser pistol, which triggers a hypnotic suicide suggestion buried deep in his brain previously by Prince Emeris. Liana prevents D’Mer from blowing his own head off. D’Mer, shamed at his weakness, flees the scene.



Lady Niniri of the Hierarchy mind-scans Dacia, a wounded guard, learning of the Resistance plot. Dacia played a much larger role in previous versions of this story. Her death cameo in this version is an example of restraint on Doran's part, declining to include the character in the story just to indulge the author's interest.



Lettercol and Editorial: Doran swears she hasn’t forgotten to finish the “Seasons of Spring” flashback story. No, there will never be a color edition of this series. Doran lists her favorite films, from “Auntie Mame” to “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” She includes several sketches, including an early Lady Bast that reminds her of Frazetta’s babes. “They always seem to have childlike faces and impressive bottoms!” Doran is excited that the next few issues will be monthly. Does that turn out to be the case? Nope!

My Two Cents: A good action issue, with each character behaving according to motivations laid out over the last several issues. As we might expect, the two revolutions are interfering with each other.



As Jason prepares for his mission to assassinate Seren, the other rebels are grossed out by his PDA with Beys. This series is filled with humorous peanut gallery moments like the ones below and above. I haven’t bothered to call them all out in my reviews, but they’re not the sort of thing we usually see in comic books. There are many widescreen panels in which each character gives his thoughts on the current scene.