Strike! #1



Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Tom Lyle-pencils, Romeo Tanghal-inks, Kurt Hathaway-letters, Ron Courtney-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Synopsis: In the Pimlico section of Baltimore, two young men, Dennis and Bobby are walking down the street. Bobby is raggin' on Dennis because he is ditching going to the movies to study. Unfortunately, also on the street is Tito Marcus and his gang of losers, who immediately circle around the weak prey. However, Dennis has spirit and speaks up when Tito snatches his Popular Science magazine...



Tito thinks Dennis is talking big and asks if he knows who Tito is and Dennis proceeds to correctly identify him as a drop out and loser who talks big with his friends, but begs money for beer and cigarettes from his hardworking mother. The truth hurts and Tito immediately takes it out on Dennis, with heroic 5 to 1 odds. Dennis is getting splattered into the pavement, until a slick dude, named PJ comes along and tells Tito he is punching "his man, Dennis." Tito immediately begs off of the bigger shark and is told to scram, as Dennis tells Parnell (the self-styled PJ) thanks. Parnell tries to school Dennis on the cynical ways of the world; but Dennis isn't going for easy drug money and petty crime, as he sees hard work and study as the road to a better life and one that won't end with a bullet to the head.

Dennis comes home to the sounds of his mother arguing with her live-in (and freeloading) boyfriend. he climbs up into the attic to escape the noise and to read his magazine. While he is up there, he finds a loose board and discovers a hideaway, with a diary, which proves to be the journal of one Robert T Carlisle, aka Sgt Strike. Dennis reads on.

In 1934, a meteor crashed in Siberia, setting off a shockwave felt in Tokyo. Those near the crash site died horribly; but, further away, people exhibited amazing abilities. The Soviet government sent in a large group of soldiers to bring out the meteor for study. Those first on scene soon die, but a human relay passes it from one pair to another, before succumbing to the dangerous effects. They eventually get the meteor to a truck and a lead case, where the radiation is shielded and it is taken for study. Soon, Hitler learns of the orb that was encased inside the meteor, that emits the strange power. He sends a team of fallschirmjager to steal it from the lab and bring it out. it is brought to a concentration camp to study, using prisoners as labrats. Eventually, they are able to create a harness that can safely adapt the power of the object. In 1943, an Allied commando team parachutes in to find the object and bring it out, for study. They quietly eliminate sentries and infiltrate the camp, heading for the infirmary, as the logical place of study. There, they find the horrors of Nazi experiments and a soldier loses his cool and unloads his weapon into the researchers and guards. The gunfire alerts the Germans, who bring up armor to reinforce a response team. The commandos return fire, while a group searches for the orb. they find a steel vault and blow the door with demolition charges. There, they find the harness. One of them puts it on, to carry it out quickly. he messes with the control knobs and is thrown across the room with an energy jolt, that knocks him out. he misses the Germans killing off the cornered commandos and wakes up in a pit, with dead bodies on top of him. He quickly gets out and, seeing his dead buddies, goes berserk. He crashes into the massing soldiers like a one man army, throwing men left and right, killing with a single punch. he lifts a bulldozer up and tips it over. He destroys a section of fence and then rips out a wall for the prisoners to escape, leading the way, after grabbing an MG-44 to blast away any guards. He escapes and makes his way back to Allied lines.

Back in England, he surprises a Colonel Matteson, while wearing a mask, and demonstrates a new weapon..himself, and punches the hood of a jeep and rips out the engine, holding it aloft, one-handed. Soon, he becomes the Allies secret weapon...Sgt Strike!



He fights the good fight, then continues to work, in secret, for the government, against America's enemies. However, he soon learns that some of those enemies are within, as the anti-Communist fervor has bred a new group of would-be tyrants, who trample on civil rights. Sen McCarthy turns his sights on the Army and Col Matteson is targeted. Sgt Strike is ordered to turn over the harness. He refuses and battles his way through G-Men and disappears. The journal has a picture of a woman and child, as Carlisle says he something to protect, now. Dennis is stunned. Inside the hideaway, he finds Sgt Strike's uniform and the harness. he puts them on and activates it and gets thrown across the attic and knocked unconscious.

The comic ends with a historical piece by Chuck Dixon, detailing the origin of Sgt Strike. he was one of the lead characters for a small Golden Age publisher, Happy Comics, who produced comics for the Jolly Farmer Food Company, in the Midwest, for packaging with their cereals, as a premium. They soon found that the comics actually boosted sales of the cereals, which were a low end product, with poor quality. This led to bigger budgets for further issues, with the anthology All-Thrill Comics and follow ons Prairie Crimbusters, All-Kid Comics, Jungle Devils, and Sgt Strike's War Adventures. Joining the sergeant were characters like The Rattler, a trenchcoat wearing Shadow wannabe, the White Lion, a Tarzan ripoff, and singing cowboy Kid Lightning. The company proved shorter lived than most, as their benefactor was destroyed in the market, by companies like Kellogs and Post. The heroes faded into oblivion and were not heard from again. the cereals had only been distributed in parts of the Midwest, which made them very rare and very obscure.

Except...they never existed. Chuck made the whole thing up. He would carry the con across the first few issues of the series, adding back-ups with "reprints" of the adventures of Sgt Strike, The Rattler and The White Lion. They were all brand new, done in a pseudo-Golden Age style. Chuck was so convincing with his details that even CBG's Don Thompson began to question how he had never heard of these comics, before Chuck finally owned up.

Thoughts: As you can see, I don't have many art examples for these, as the only source I could find is the Total Eclipse blog, which features a retrospective and individual articles on Eclipse's many titles, with rather sarcastic and denigrating tone, and some outright incorrect assumptions, in some cases. However, it does have images from a good deal of the Eclipse line, making it a pretty darn good sampler of their wares.

I stumbled across Strike! while in college, after it was already canceled. Scout and Airboy led me to other 4 Winds material and Tom Lyle had started on the new Starman series, with Rogern Stern and I liked his art. So, a superhero title from him was a no brainer. It wasn't what I expected but I got into it, quickly. The parallels to Captain America and similar patriotic heroes is obvious and deliberate. In 1989, I went to my first comic convention, a small one in Augusta, Georgia, about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Charleston, SC, where I was stationed. It was a small affair, mainly just dealers; but, there were a few pros, with Lyle being the most prominant, with a regular gig, at DC. I got a sketch of Sgt Strike from him and talked to him about his work at eclipse, particularly Skywolf and Strike! He told me that Chuck had wanted to do a Captain America-type patriotic hero, who was more soldier than super, and wasn't above killing people (this was when Cap had sailed through WW2, without mowing down hordes of Nazis, as he was one of the good guys, despite the old Timely stories). They soon featured Sgt Strike, who carried a Colt M1911 and a bayonet, and routinely utilized a Browning M2 .50 cal machine gun, the way other soldiers used a BAR. Let's see Rambo heft one of those and fire it! he also confirmed that the fake backstory of the character was Chuck's idea, to give a greater weight to the Sgt's adventures.

What we have here is an intriguing, if hardly original story, with a nice twist on the formula. No potions are involved; just pulp science. There were actual meteor strikes in Siberia, including one in 1908, which devastated a huge area of landm known as the Tunguska Event.

Chuck grafts that concept onto pulp and comic origins, mixes in Nazi concentration camp experiments (similar to Stan Lee's Destroyer) and then gives us a purely Army super-soldier, complete with Army colors, rather than the gaudier patriotic colors. he then gives us a darker take on things, right into the McCarthy era, driving away our hero. This provides the backdrop for Dennis, our new generation Strike, as we see how this young wannabe engineer handles his discovery and uses it to deal with the problems in his life, as well as deals with the forces looking for the harness and the legacy of Sgt Strike.

There was quite a bit of this kind of deconstructionist take on superheroes going on, from the really dark ones, like Rick Veitch's The One and Alan Moore's Miracleman and Watchman, to things like Marvel's Squadron Supreme, DC's Captain Atom, and Dark Horse's The American. Strike won't end up being quite so memorable, though it isn't for lack of trying.

Airboy #29



Ooooh.....zombie fallschirmjager!

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Ron Randall-pencils, Kim DeMulder-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Skywolf: Chuck-writer, Graham Nolan-pencils, Mark Nelson-inks, John Clark-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat-editor

Synopsis: Misery has tapped the Flying Dutchman to pilot his Airtomb, in a further attack on the Air Fighters.



He's introduced to his co-pilot, an expert on flying large aircraft..............



...Howard Hughes! Also an alternate world expert on rocket packs.

They reach the monastery and see the zombie approaching the grounds, from the nearby cemetery. Hirota warns Davy and he sends the Heap to go hold the gates (after he squishes some rat bikers with a road hog). Manic is excited, as he recognizes that reinforcements are coming. Davy and Hirota retreat back to the monastery and pick up Iron Ace, literally, along the way. Manic and the rats move in, while Davy keeps up covering fire. The Heap swats zombies as the Airtomb drops their fallshirmjager over the monastery...



Iron Ace gets new legs attached and he and Hirota join Davy in laying down defensive fire. Manic and his troops storm in. Davy sees the Airtomb, for the first time. Iron Ace fires rockets, from a pack on his back and scores direct hits. The Airtomb is hit hard and withdraws, as it seems subjected to physical laws, outside of Misery's realm. Iron Ace uses his machine guns to keep the rats and zombies away, joined by Davy's M-60 and Hirota's katana. Hirota gets wounded in the leg. Davy two fists an M-60 and a G-3 battle rifle to hold of the attackers and hits a fallschirmjaer, who drops his potato masher grenade, which explodes and knocks Manic down. He crawls for a bazooka. he fires it at the monastery and Davy is knocked out by the explosion. Manic finds Iron Ace's broadsword and raises it to decapitate Davy, when Iron Ace turns up to defend Davy, a battle axe in his hands.



Skywolf:

A woman is tied to a chair. Two hoods hold a gun to her head, demanding to know where a goldmine is. They are interrupted by Skywolf, who kicks in the door and tells them to "Unhand that woman, you rats!"



Then, they break for a commercial for Sugar Bullets!

The real Skywolf is watching and goes ape-defecation. He's at Pancho's Fly Inn, with the pilots from Edwards Air Force Base. The date is July, 1951. Skywolf is told it has been on for months and everyone assumed he was getting royalties. it's a cheesy favorite of the pilots. Skywolf doesn't share the joy, especially since he isn't sharing the sponsor's money. Chuck Yeager gives him a bit of needling about grandstanding and Skywolf offers a retort, then quickly regrets it as he knows that Yeager is a better pilot and turned down big money to fly the X-1...



Sky apologizes and decides to head to Hollywood to lay his case on the table. he goes to the studio and the guard waves him in, thinking he is the star, in costume and then Sky storms the set and confronts the director...



Hmm, based on those comments, I guess Mr Carstairs, the star, is busy staying clear of True Confidential. He drives through the studio gate and the guard realizes he has waved in two Skywolves. He arrives on set to find the real deal about to pummel the director, to the delight of the co-star, Lana Tyrell. He grabs Lance Carstairs by his scarf and points out the subtle differences. Meanwhile, a gentleman by the name of Beautiful Beau sees that his car has been damaged by Carstairs He goes to express his displeasure.

Sky finds out that the sponsor, Jolly Farmer Foods, is responsible and gets the address. As he leaves, Lana Tyrell sends him an invitation to return...



Outside, Beautiful Beau finds the man in the wolf costume. Skywolf isn't in the mood to play and decks the bohunk. Beau isn't used to getting dumped on his can and tosses Skywolf around a bit. They trade more punches and Beau is tired of playing and lifts Skywolf up by his jacket and cocks his arm back to finish him, when Lana rescues him by threatening Beau's true love, his car, with a crowbar. He drops Skywolf, who tells Lana he owes her one. She says to pay her back with dinner and they'll be even...unless he wants to throw in breakfast, too!

So, he's got that going for him!

The letters page features some flunky assistant editor of Soldier of Fortune Magazine (which is bigger fantasy than this comic ever was) calling the gang a bunch of Commies and they will never read the comics they sent them. Chuck says their loss, but stops short of calling them a bunch of armchair warriors who have (mostly) never served in the military...any military. I'll take care of that for him. So, SOF Magazine....watch the birdies.......

A female reader, who was reading her dad's copy, chastizes them about the Valkyrie mini, calling her a Nazi and that the Soviets have a real beef, but hadn't read the last issue yet. Chuck points out Val switched sides in 1943, in the Hillman comics and that she is exonerated of war crimes in the climax. said reader also thinks that the ad for the Air Maidens Special depicts Val's wartime squadron and hits them for historical accuracy, for Black Angel. Chuck sets her straight on the time frame and then notes, accurately, that the Germans had black Tunisian soldiers fighting in Italy, as well as an Indian force.

Thoughts: The Airboy story continues to be light on story; but big on action. Chuck just keeps throwing supernatural enemies at the Air Fighters, like a game of Plants vs Zombies. It isn't deep; but, it's fun! Ropn Randall seems to be having a ball with the mayhem and the Heap gets to tear up rats. Also, they can rack up a bodycount that doesn't count, since they are already dead or are transformed vermin. So, win-win!

The reference to Howard Hughes flying large aircraft, obviously, is in relation to the Spruce Goose, his massive flying boat, made of wood. It was made entirely of birch wood, as aluminum was at a premium and was the largest flying boat every built, designed to carry 150,000 pounds, 750 troops, or 2 Sherman tanks. The official designation was the H-4 Hercules. Development faced multiple delays and a new government contract, reducing the order from 3 to one aircraft. The war ended before it was built and Hughes was called before a Senate committee, in 1947. During a break in the hearings, he took a group of onlookers and reporters on taxi tests and the aircraft lifted to a height of 70 feet, for 26 seconds, over a distance of one mile, at a speed of 135 mph. It was never actually flight tested and was never flown at an operational altitude as it was still subject to ground effect for its short flight. Its lifting capability was also never tested. It ended its days as a tourist attraction, in California, before eventually being relocated to Oregon. The former hangers were converted to sound stages, for use by Hollywood, where filming for Titanic occurred.

Skywolf continues the fun, with a foray into Hollywood, in the 1950s. Graham Nolan gives it a cartoony look that suits the lighter story. This was the beginning of tv and the fictional tv shows is akin to stuff like The Lone Ranger and Captain Video. The Jolly Farmer Food Corporation is the same fictional cereal company that Chuck was passing off as the sponsor of Happy Comics, in Strike!, where he concocted a fictional comic book publisher in the 1940s, who produced Sgt Strike comics. That should have been a clue that he was talking s@#$ about the Golden Age comics that no one had ever heard of; but, it seems that no one was prepared to cry BS, at that point. I would also guess that the people who were asking about Happy Comics were probably not reading Airboy. Some, maybe, but Strike! was trying for the superhero audience, while Airboy had long ago given up on attracting the spandex fanboys and hoped to make do with action lovers.

Pancho's Fly Inn was the bar at Pancho's Happy Bottom Dude Ranch and Riding Club, which was a favorite of Chuck Yeager and the test pilots at Edwards, who would be featured in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, and become some of the Mercury Seven. Yeager was the Man, among test pilots....a man born to fly. Everyone tried to be like him, right down to his laconic drawl, on the radio, which became the standard of communication for pilots. In the scenes, Chuck has Yeager make mention of "..that movie, 'bout that Limey makin' mach one." That was a British film, The Sound Barrier, directed by David Lean. It was based on British attempts to break mach one, inspired by Geoffrey de Havilland Jr, who was killed while trying to do so in the DH 108. Yeager had broken the sound barrier in 1947, in the Bell X-1; but, his name and much of the flight details had been kept secret or downplayed and many believed the film depicted the truth. Problem is, that film was released in 1952, one year after the setting for this story. Whoops!

Beautiful Beau seems to be, somewhat, inspired by Gorgeous George, who was the biggest draw in pro wrestling, in the early 50s. George Wagner had been a journeyman wrestler who was very technically skilled, yet never really drew money, until he bleached his hair blond and came up with the Gorgeous George persona, complete with a valet who sprayed the ring with perfume and his own golden Georgie Pins, which he tossed to the audience, as he pranced and preened to the crowds catcalls. However, he was of average size, not the mountain Nolan depicts. Lana Tyrell invokes ideas of Lana Turner, whose role in The Postman Always Rings Twice made her a superstar. She was also known for an affair with the violent LA gangster, Johnny Stompanato, who was stabbed to death by Turner's teenaged daughter, who grabbed a kitchen knife to defend her mother against Stompanato's abuse. The pair were seen in the film LA Confidential, based on the novel by James Elroy, which utilized much of real Hollywood for background detail (He used Howard Hughes and his company as background for his previous novel, The Big Nowhere).

Pro wrestling was a big deal, in the 1950s, featured in prime time broadcasts, on the Dumont Network. Gorgeous George was the biggest national star and sold more tvs than Uncle Milty or Lucille Ball. George was a mainstay of the Los Angeles promotion, which helped connect Hollywood and pro wrestling, with the likes of George, Freddie Blassie, Count Billy Varga, NWA World Champion Lou Thesz and more.

The opening scene, from the Skywolf tv show, is rather reminiscent of the 1950s Superman tv series, with George Reeves. Countless episodes feature Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen tied up, waiting for Superman to come to the rescue. Nolan should have had Skywolf duck a pistol thrown at him, by the hood! Similar scenes were staple of Saturday matinee movie serials, which greatly influenced early adventure tv shows (both in plots, action and budget)

Really great issue.

Airboy #30



Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-writer, Ron Randall-pencils, Kim DeMulder-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Skywolf: Chuck Dixon-writer, Graham Nolan-pencils, Mark Nelson-inks, John Clark-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat-editor

Synopsis: Iron Ace is all that stands between Manic and an unconscious Airboy. Manic has his old sword, but Iron Ace has a battle axe and is swinging it for all he is worth. Manic tells him to take his best shot and he does...right in the goolies!



Manic sicks the rats on him; but he kicks rodent ass. A pair gets to Davy and have a knife ready. Misery thinks he will triumph, but Hirota fills them full of holes, before collapsing. manic tries the bazooka again, but Iron Ace is better than the Terminator. He breaks the bazooka tube with the axe, then drives Manic right to the Heap....



Manic is spent and Misery is defeated. Except, Davy appears to be dead...or, at least, Iron Ace thinks so. Misery perks up. Can it be? Has he won...



Nope. The Heap transfers Manic's life force to Davy, reviving him. Hirota and Iron Ace rush Davy to a hospital and he wakes up in a ward, where he mistakes a candy striper for Valkyrie. Davy settles back.

Meanwhile, 4 floors below....wouldn't you know it; Hirota brought Davy to the only hospital that has something criminal going on?



Skywolf:

Skywolf is meeting with a slimeball....corporate representative...from the Jolly Farmer Food Corp, who have appropriated his likeness, claiming he was a public figure and never trademarked his costume and mask. Rather than punch the s@#$burger in the mouth, Sky uses a bit of stragedy and asks what would happen if he went around saying Suggar Bullets gave him the trots? Suddenly, the rep is very amenable to negotiation. Sky meets up with Lana, who supplied transport and they head for a party, where he will meet the Head Tractor Driver, at Jolly Farmer. Well, after calling the star of the show something that Mrs Slocombe always spoke dearly of...

(Warning: Double entendre run rampant...)


Later, after a bit of fun, Sky gets dressed in a dinner jacket, borrowed from the studio, accented with his mask, of course...



He's just now learning about Sen. McCarthy and his band of merry fascists. They hit the party and Skywolf is quite popular with the crowd, who want to hear about his wartime adventures. he just wants a beer and sneaks back to the kitchen to get one. There, he meets Grant Clardy, who offers him $1.5 million to be an official spokesman. Skywolf reverses his beer. All he has to do is make some personal appearances, sign autographs, signa few contracts, take a loyalty oath...



They want him to disavow Link Thorne as a Commie and prove his loyalty. he tells him to stuff it up his silo and tells him he was the one who busted Link out of the Nationalist prison...the guy on his cereal boxes. he tells him to take his face off the boxes and return trademark or his next phonecall will be to McCarthy. Clardy thinks he is a nut and a fool and Lana is highly aroused.

Thoughts: Our supernatural donnybrook ends with the Heap F-ing up Manic, permanently and saving Davy. Pretty nice ending, though it is a bit too convenient that the hospital to which he is taken has shenanigans going on, for next issue. Kind of reminds me of an episode of New Tricks, where they get into a car accident, trying to stop Jack Halford from killing gangster Ricky Hanson, and end up in a hospital, where they learn of an unsolved death that occurred there and investigate, while recovering. (Good show, that, while the original cast was involved).

Skywolf is a bit of fun and commentary on the 1950s, with McCarthy and his Constitution stompers in action (though he didn't start that s@#$ and both parties were involved in the mess) and a bit of Hollywood. I recommend the movie Trumbo, for a view of the writers experiences during this period, and the blacklist. Skywolf echoed many sentiments as he is asked to sign a loyalty oath, after serving in two wars. Dalton Trumbo was a veteran of WW2, while John Wayne, who was part of the group going after "Commies" in the motion picture industry, sat the war out. Russel Johnson, the professor, on Gilligan's Island, echoed similar sentiments as he was a bombadier, during the war, and was angered by Ronald Reagan's actions as President of the Screen Actor's Guild, with Loyalty Oaths and the like. He remarked on it in his memoir, about his career and doing GI.

Letters page has a long one, from British LOC writer Malcolm Bourne, who frequented columns at Eclipse (here and Miracleman) and Comico (Grendel).

Skywolf meets back up with Jack Gatling, next issue; so, you know he will be in the s@#$ again.

Next: Prowler #3

Strike! #2



Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-story, Tom Lyle-pencils, Romeo Tanghal-inks, Kurt Hathaway-letters, Ron Courtney-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Synopsis: Denis mother and her boyfriend Sid are arguing, when they hear a loud thump from upstairs. They call up to Dennis and Sid makes threats about what he'll do, if Dennis has broken anything. Dennis comes downstairs, wearing the Sgt Strike uniform and the power harness. He mouths off to Sid, goading him into hitting him and when he does, Sid nearly breaks his hand. Dennis tells him off and throws him through the front door. he tells him to get out of their lives, permanently. Dennis' mother asks if he has gone not, why he is dressed like a hmophobic slur and asks how they are going to make ends meet without Sid's unemployment check. dennis answers by lifting the refrigerator over his head, with one hand.



Dennis tells his mother about the stash he found, while he eats them out of hosue and home. he is still trying to figure out how to make fast cash, but talks of being a superhero, but not a chump. he decides to power down the harness, since he doesn't need it at the moment and immediately passes out.

That night, Dennies hooks up with Bobby and, after cleaning out his college fund, they take a cab to an even worse neighborhood. They go into a bar and Dennis tells Bobby to wait why he goes into the john. Bobby is counting the seconds until his death, when Dennis returns and challenges anyone to try and whup his ass, for $400. He finds a pigeon, gives the stakes to the bartender and then Michael Buffer makes the intros and Dennis gets a surprise...



With his glasses broken, Dennis keeps hitting the wrong guy, but his opponent gets right in his face, so Dennis can knock him out with a single uppercut. Someone tries to knife him in the back and the blade breaks on his back. He basically kicks the collective asses of the entire bar. He and Bobby leave before the police show up.

The papers are filled with the story of a "superman" who trashed a bar and those papers land on the desk of a man named Rickles (ya hockey puck!). He pules out an unsolved case file and begins reading. he then briefs his men and gives them their marching orders. The broken glasses suggest a need for an optometrist, so someone is sent to check them out. Others are told to check high school and college records for a match for the young man, going back 3 years. Others are told to sift the files for anyone associated with Sgt Strike still alive. Rickles goes off to talk to a man. He tells everyone he wants the power harness.

Rickles goes to lean on an old man, in a wheel chair, in a nursing home. He says the man told him the harness was destroyed 30 years ago. He makes threats. The old man, Col. Mattelson tells Rickles to lean closer and then tells him to go to hell, since Eclipse wouldn't let Chuck have him tell Rickles to go @#$% himself.

A week later, we see Dennis working out, while Bobby kibbitzes. He says the harness works in proportion to his strength, so he is building it. It also seems to affect his metabolism, so he is getting more out of his workouts (sounds like steroids, actually) and he is consuming a lot of calories. he goes downstairs for more food, whle Bobby turns on the Equalizer, and he finds hi mother sitting at the kitchen table looking scared. he walks into the room and is grabbed behind and forced down by Rickles and his men, who are heavily armed. Dennis is not wearing the harness. The hold a gun to his head, while Rickles tells them to tear the house apart.

There follows a text piece about All-Thrill Comics and one of the features, The Rattler, a pseudo-Shadow pulp-style hero. Then, there is a reprint of a 1940s Sgt Strike adventure, which looks very Silver Agey, with pseudo Kirby layouts .

Thoughts: So, Chuck continues his story of a modern superhero, with a more real world approach to situations. The premise here is a Captain America-type super soldier, but minus the Code-approved morality and the superhero cliches. Dennis' first actions with the suit are to take his revenge on Sid, yet another bully in his life. Sid is an unemployed freeloader, sponging off Dennis' mom, treating her badly and pushing Dennis around. He doesn't seek work (and it never finds him) and Dennis goads him into giving him an excuse to throw him out...literally! His next thought (after fuel) is how to make fast cash with the harness. In this, he mirrors young Peter Parker, as his first thoughts were also making a buck. Instead of going on Ed Sullivan (kind of hard to do, in 1987), he goes down to a bar to make a bet and take down the biggest dude. Not much different than the Raimi Spider-Man, where Peter takes on a pro wrestler (also in the comics) to make a fast buck, though this is neither worked pro wrestling or a toughman contest (which were a thing, in '87) Dennis learns a few things about the harness. While he uses it, it eats up a lot of energy and also feeds him energy. When he shuts it off, he crashes. His metabolism is jacked up, which is part of that energy exchange. This is similar to how Mike Baron was handling Wally West, in the new Flash series, as he presented the idea that Wally had to consume massive amounts of calories because of his hyper-metabolism.

Dennis also figures out that he hasn't thought things through, as the first action of the fight is breaking his glasses and the harness doesn't fix his myopia (or possibly astigmatism). Still, Dennis gets the job done; but, this alerts some nasty people who know about the harness. That suggests government people, the very people who wanted the harness because they didn't trust the original Sgt Strike, since he balked at some of their "missions." In that, Chuck adds things like the CIA's history of dirty tricks, both in the McCarthy era and after and then-current operations, like the Iran-Contra pipeline.

We also see how easy it is to track down someone who so publicly displays superpowers, if you apply a bit of intuition and deductive reasoning, as well as have some backhistory. The spooks (the CIA guys) comb the details from the bar fight and then investigate the clues, like the broken glasses, the description of Dennis, and their knowledge of the man who was Sgt Strike. They are able to trace Dennis to his home, which just happens to be where Sgt Strike had lived. It doesn't take differential calculus to solve this equation. The professionals get the drop on the naive kid, without his harness.

If this had been DC, this would have been heavily marketed and discussed; but, it went largely unseen in comic shops, as DC and Marvel were busy flooding comic stands with new series, mini-series, special projects and other things. The indies were also trying to grab for the Direct market dollars and 1987 is a major year for the indie market, with comics from First, Eclipse, Comico, Now, Vortex, Fantagraphics, Kitchen Sink, Dark Horse and Malibu/Aircel/Eternity. A lot of product is hitting the stands and it takes a lot to stand out in that crowd. A superhero needs something big, and Tom Lyle isn't there, yet. He's still pretty new at this, though he had several Skywolf stories under his belt. Thing is, those are classic adventure stories, not guys in spandex, punching each others. The superhero market was dominated by the Big Two and they weren't releasing their stranglehold. It also didn't have the power of Alan Moore's Miracleman, or the superstar creator. It mostly fit in with Eclipse's previous superhero attempt, New Wave, which died a quick death. Liberty Project was also on stands, with a different hook, of petty criminals turned into government agents, though DC was already there, with Suicide Squad. Both Dixon and Liberty Project's Kurt Busiek were mostly rookies; but, they were damned good writers, added something different to their superheroes, but no one saw them. They would end up using them to audition for work at the big two (though Dixon stuck by Eclipse for quite a while).

Tom Lyle's not bad; but, he doesn't quite have that confidence in his art and he isn't quite as slick as he would become, on Starman.

The back up story is a bit of fun; but, Chuck's little in-joke of fake 1940s stories kind of exposes itself with much more modern-styled art. had he claimed it was a Silver Age publisher, he might have gotten away with this. It definitely doesn't look very Golden Age. Also, his stories about Happy Comics and Jolly Farmer Foods sounded pretty BS to me, when I read the first issue column and then this second. The art was also another point that had me skeptical.

So, story is good and it's different, even though it has many echoes to Captain America and Spider-Man. That gives it a familiarity to at least make you curious and then Dixon hits you with the variations on the formula.

Next: Scout #24

Airboy #31



So, what, we turning this thing into a romance comic now?

You know; we are 31 issues into Airboy, plus 3 issues of a Valkyrie miniseries, on reprint volume of Hillman stories and Valkyrie still doesn't have a real name? Even Skywolf is Lawrence Wolfe, as dopey as that sounds (and you can blame Hillman for that). We have Davy Nelson, Saburo Hirota, Robert Britain, Lawrence Wolfe Jr, Link Thorne, Jack Gatling...but no name for Valkyrie. The Flying Dutchman also never had a name, though I believe there was an allusion to his first name being Jan, in a Hillman story. Not even something silly, like Gerta von Bustenhalter!

Creative Team: Chuck Dixon-story, Ron Randall-pencils, Kim DeMulder-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat yronwode-editor
Skywolf: Chuck-usual, Graham Nolan-pencils, Mark Nelson-inks, John Clark-letters, Olyoptics-colors, cat-blue pencil

Synopsis: Davy is in Napa County Hospital, after the battle with Manic, the rats, and the fallschirmzombies. Lest we forget, something shady is going down within the hospital. Hirota is visiting Davy, who, despite his money, doesn't seem to have a private room...



Davy shares his room with some dude who finds time to mousse his hair, while lying in a hospital bed, and listens to a Walkman, with Star Trek on the tv. He calls Hirota a "Jap" and Davy promises to make using a straw a permanent exercise, if he ever does it again. They are interrupted by an 80s fashion disaster...



Guess her acid-wash jeans were still in the laundry. They make nice and Davy hems and haws and Val pretty much nails the issue and tells Davy the feeling is mutual...



Davy gets relationship advice from Mr Mousse-Head, though I have to say, ditching your subscription to Guns and Ammo is pretty sound stuff.



Meanwhile, our killers are disposing of the body, which Davy happens to spot from his window. He hops into his torn up uniform and climbs out the window, while his roommate calls dibs on his medication. The killers get away, in a van and Davy runs into the candystriper, from last issue and commandeers her car to give chase. Her name is Sandy.

Of course it is!

They lose track of the van and decide that they had better turn back, when lights come up suddenly upon them and they find themselves at gunpoint.



They get dumped in the van, with the dead guy and a bunch of propane tanks. Sandy recognizes the stiff and said he worked in a research lab, with viruses and such and was a creep. Davy kneels down to look at him and cons the hood into thinking he is alive and speaking. The idiot leans in and gets clubbed in the back of the head by Davy's cast. They can't find his gun, but decide to jump from the van when it slows for a curve. They bail out and roll to the shoulder of the road. They move on through the trees, looking for another road and discuss the name Davis, uttered by one of the masked dudes. Sandy doesn't know a man named Davis but says it might mean the city of Davis, as The Univ of California-Davis was doing biological research on viruses, and the lab was doing work in conjunction with them. So, we are headed to campus. Sure enough, the masked dudes take some lab workers at gunpoint and tell them to lead them to some viruses, as the story comes to an end.

Skywolf: December 1951, Istanbul. Skywold and Jack Gatling are in a bar, in Istanbul, celebrating after delivering some aircraft to the Turkish government, on behalf of the US government. The Turks don't seem to mind of a couple of drunken Americans walk around armed to the gills with firearms and hand grenades, as Skywolf says he will probably head back to Korea, while Jack offers him a lift, since he has to ferry supplies to Saudi Arabia and could continue on to Korea and pick up a contract. But first, Skywolf will have to pick up the Bald Eagle...



Sky wakes up aboard Jack's plane, over the Arabian desert, as he says he is ferrying supplies to an archeologist, who is searching for the head of the Colossus of Rhodes. Jack explains why it is somewhere in Saudi Arabia and not the island of Rhodes...



They land and meet Caroline Rensfrew, daughter of the archeologist (who looks quite fetching in jodhpurs and a safari shirt) who says her father has radioed that he has found the Colossus, but he has some local trouble and fears for his and the statue's safety. Skywolf moans about Gatling getting him in another shooting war/treasure hunt, but goes with him. Caroline horns in too, and Gatling relents, as Abu Inman, the source of the trouble, might have someone looking for her. She's read too many story papers and Skywolf is sweating alcohol and testosterone and Gatling begins to regret his choice of company...



They move out in a truck, loaded for the desert, while Skywolf and Caroline "entertain" Jack with cowboy songs (She thinks Roy Rogers is smashing....I can picture Hayley Mills playing her part, in the movie). Jack spots some Arabs on camels, firing weapons in their direction; probably Abu Inman's men (the bad guy). Skywolf grabs his Thompson to discourage them and tells Gatling to move on for a bit and he will catch up. He fires it like someone in a Warner Bros gangster film, yet somehow hits some of the Arabs. The rest ride off. Skywolf starts heading after the truck tracks and runs straight into a haboob. He soon finds himself falling under the weight of the swirling sand.

Thoughts: Val loves Davy and Davy loves Val (despite her fashion choices, though his clothes aren't exactly Armani). Meanwhile, rather than a drug trafficking tale, we find ourselves in someone trying to steal bioweapons. A bit convenient that the hospital lab is doing viral research for the university, in potential bioweapons, as such things tend to be down in government labs and private facilities. I suppose, they may be looking at infectious diseases and viruses, under a medical profile, while these guys are looking at the biowar angle, rather than hijacking a bioweapons project, though it doesn't quite read that way.

Seriously, though...a California candystriper, named Sandy? What is this, 1965? I'm waiting for Frankie and Annette to show up and the hoods to be working with Eric Von Zipper!

Not the most inspired plot; but, we will see where it goes. Hopefully, Valkyrie will join in and do something besides swap spit and model puffy sleeves and silly looking harem pants. I kind of picture her more as dress and heels kind of gal, based on being pulled out of the 1940s; or, at least something a bit more classic in style than whatever Ron Randall found in a catalog. I realize they wanted to keep the plunging neckline motif going; but, I just don't buy that look on Val. Marlene, maybe. Maybe he should have given the Pander Brothers a call; I'm sure they could have whipped up something suitably 80s, yet less JC Penny-looking.

Skywolf continues the adventure fun and Graham Nolan's light touch helps sell the comedic aspects well. Caroline seems rather thinly sketched; but, she is just there to be the damsel, I'm sure. I kind of like the Hayley Mills-speech pattern. The Colossus of Rhodes bit seems like it was swiped from Raiders (ancient treasure hidden away by storm in the Middle East, trucks, camels & tommy guns)...we just need a few ex-Nazis to wrap up the package. Abu Inman is just a name, at this point; but, he sounds rather stereotyped, with gun-wielding Arabs on camels. I can hear him voiced by Vic Perrin, like Dr Kassim, in "The Curse of Anubis," on Jonny Quest. Even so, this is classic adventure fun, which is why I still favor the back-up feature over the star.

Prowler #4



Creative Team: Tim Truman-story, John K Snyder III-art, Tim Harkins-letters, Julie Michel-colors, cat yronwode-editor

Synopsis: Scoot & Leo face Leo's old foe, Legendre, who holds a baby, who holds the secret to immortal life...



The students are Legendre's future pawns, in positions of importance, carrying out his agenda. He hands the baby over to a monster in a doctor's scrubs and Leo presses a hidden button and a small frame pistol slides into his hand, from his sleeve (Heaven's to Jim West!) and he shoots the doctor. He tells Scott to grab the baby, then get down, as he pumps more lead into the undead doctor. he blows the ehad off, but, it comes back for more...



Leo pulls a grenade and threatens to kill them all. Legendre backs down and Leo and Scott leave, with the baby. Legendre feeds Raven, leader of the students, to his little pet.

Scott and Leo go to the mission, after leaving the baby at a hospital, with the police. They tool up, as Van Helsing fixes them something to eat. Scott is near the breaking point. They are attacked by zombies and the Blood Cult. Leo blasts their heads, but Scott still can't see they are in a fight for survival and is loathe to kill. The creature turns up, on Raven's body. Leo throws it into a fryer then goes and grabs a flamethrower to finish it off. Scott is still stunned, reeling from the fact that martial arts just don't cut it. Leo goes outside and finds Legendre...



He shoots him and then takes Van Helsing to the hospital. He remarks later that no body was found.

The back up, with Graham Nolan on art, finishes the origin of The Prowler, as Leo first adopts his costume and faces Murder Legendre and his zombies.



Thoughts: Our story wraps up in violence, though it feels like there is a chapter missing, relating to the baby. Really, this series need a little more detail in the plot; but, it is trying to emulate the classic pulp stylings, which means fast moving plots, lots of action & violence, and weird and horrible villains. It has all of that, in spades; but, it kind of fails to do what modern comics did well, fleshing out the characters more, developing them as more realistic people. I suppose that is a bit at odds with a pulp hero who is fighting zombies; but, people like Howard Chaykin, Dave Stevens, Michael T Gilbert, and Mike Mignola managed it. Truman does, too, in other work; but, it feels a bit thin, here.

Snyder's art is suitably gruesome, while Nolan has anice 1940s touch.

Murder Legendre is the villain from the 1932 horror film, White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi and the origin story features a much closer likeness to Lugosi





That's it for Scott and Leo, for now. They will return in Revenge of the Prowler. They will also adapt White Zombie, with the Prowler mixed in and Leo and Scott will partake in Total Eclipse.

Next, Strike! #3.