Here's a double-barrel blast for the youngsters in the audience: once upon a time, not only was manga not readily available and cheap (yet alone ubiquitous); but there weren't a lot of American artists influenced by anime. Shocking, I know, but back in the day, 'anime' meant Battle of the Planets or Robotech: you may have heard of others, but tracking them down, in English, would be akin to trying to hunt down Bigfoot starting from Florida.
Put like that, 1986 seems like a million years ago: no internet, no cell phones, the NES was the only game in town...and now it sounds more like Gilligan's Island. Do kids get that reference? As usual, let's move on.
Seriously though, Doug Rice may have been one of the earlier anime-influenced artists, both here and later on DC's Manhunter, the Mark Shaw version, again with Ostrander. Later issues of Dynamo Joe would also feature work by Phil Foglio and Ben Dunn. The book was a war story, a sweeping epic of alien empires, and had giant robots hitting things and each other. I think I would remember reading the Foundation trilogy or Dune books (past the first couple), if they had promiently featured giant robots.
Or, excuse me, 'battlesuits,' as the robots are referred to in this series. I know lots of series from Gundam to Patlabor to this comic have used different little aphorisms or misnomers like 'mobile suit,' or 'battlemech,' to try and disguise the fact that these are giant robots. True, some of these are far removed from the Super Giant Robots of my youth, like Grandizer (aka Grendizer, Goldorak, Steve...) and Gaiking: brightly colored, invulnerable megaliths, with kid pilots that shouted the names of their weapons as they fired. Dynamo Joe was a fun little comic that took a little from both schools.
Anyway, when I think of 'battlesuit' I think smaller, more man-sized: Iron Man being a prime example, most of his villains, X-O Manowar, Prototype, Spitfire, the Atomic Knight...
From Dynamo Joe #3, "In the Ashes" Written by John Ostrander, created and pencilled by Doug Rice, inked by Brian Thomas and John Nyberg.
I've never read Dynamo Joe, but I do have GrimJack #30, where Joe and his crew wind up in Cynosure by accident and hilarity ensues.
ReplyDeleteGilligan's what?
ReplyDeleteTerrific series, and one that really deserves a reprinting in compilation form...or better yet, a new story arc. Some of Foglio's best writing, on par with Buck Godot and his contributions to Girl Genius.
ReplyDeleteComes in just behind Major Bummer in my list of comics that I really miss.