Mindless Ones

Being an irregular series wherein I spotlight some particularly beautiful cover runs, from some comics you might have forgotten about, or never seen before. This time it’s Comico’s surprisingly high quality 80’s JONNY QUEST run.

Jonny Quest, as a franchise, never really had an impact in the UK. Not the original 1960’s TV show, the subsequent 90’s updates or the computer games. In fact it’s probably more recognisable for elements of it that crop up in the post-modern lampooning of shows like Sealab 2021 or The Venture Bros. Jonny quest was/is a plucky blond moppet who accompanied his explorer dad, Dr Benton Quest on rollicking globetrotting adventures accompanied by his faithful dog Bandit, chum Hadji and all round tough guy Roger ‘Race’ Bannon. It was, as is to be expected, good, clean and relatively insipid fun more likely to create a nostalgic glow in a certain demographic than inspire any kind of critical reappraisal. File under Scooby Doo and move on.

Which makes the 1980’s Comico series all the more surprising for the relative sophistication brought to the storytelling and the stellar list of creators it attracted. This was a franchise tie-in to a then defunct kids cartoon that featured work from William Messner-Loebs, Adam Kubert, Bill Sienkiewicz, Marc Wheatley, Marc Hempel and Dave Stevens and many more, all under a steady editorial steer from Diana Schultz (soon to depart for Dark Horse, where she helped nurture a similarly solid creative roster). Between them they crafted engaging, charming stories that caught the flavour of the original series whilst adding a good dash of narrative sophistication. There’s a strong flavour of Eisner’s The Spirit to this iteration, with the shifting perspectives and cute narrative tricks and flourishes.

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In the fourth heart-wrenchingly dramatic episode of SILENCE! Gary Lactus debuts his awesome, thought-provoking Fantastic Four super ballad… The Beast reveals his new job… and the sex life of the FF is discussed with real intellect and insight. Then!! the two rogues proceed to discuss a plethora of last weeks comics including Fantastic Four 603 (moments!), Shavid Hane and Daky Kine’s Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred no.2 (jazz!), Prophet no. 2 (no alien vagay-jay’s this time!), Wolverine and the X-Men (corporate enthusiasm!) and sort of talk about Red Lanterns and JL: DARK (nee Nowhere) . Then (because they are erudite and broad-minded) they talk about the artwork of Marc Hempel, the recent quasi-superheroic film Limitless and in true Mindless fashion ham-fistedly make their way through this week’s upcoming releases!

IS IT MORE THAN YOU CAN TAKE?!!?

(soft answer: yes)

(MINDLESS ANSWER: HELL YES! TAKE ME TO IT!)

P.S Listeners are encouraged to send us drawings inspired by Gary’s song for inclusion in the SILENCE! Gallery to

mi**********@ho*****.uk

NSFW

Part 1
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/silence004a.mp3]
Click to download

Part 2
[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/silence004b.mp3]
Click to download

Sonny Liew is an extremely talented comics creator working out of Singapore. He has worked on high profile releases for the Big Two, such as Re-Gifters and My Faith in Frankie for Vertigo, and Sense & Sensibility for Marvel. But his recently released collection of his own Malinky Robot comics through Image are perhaps the best indicator of his idiosyncratic and hugely engaging style.

We caught up with Sonny recently for a freewheeling chat about his craft.

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