Random Happenstance

Sometimes, when a comic series is reprinted, it can be lavished with all sorts of loving care like remastering colors, cleaner printing, archival paper, and so forth. All of which is later reflected in the price tag, so I often complain I want to just read the comic: print it on paper-paper, get it out cheap, call it a day. Which was generally how Quality seemed to roll! I thought they were lowballing this one in particular, but maybe...well, maybe just a bit. From 1991, Loner #3, written by Barrie Tomlinson, art by David Pugh.

Unlike most Quality books, this wasn't a reprint of a 2000 AD series; but one that had been published by Fleetway called Wildcat from 1988. From the covers, I would've guessed it was older than that; those seem slightly dated for '88; which might explain its short run before it was folded in Eagle. The premise was, scientist Turbo Jones becomes Earth's Jor-El, as he can't convince earth's government that the planet was going to explode within 12 years. So, Turbo went public, selecting and screening volunteers, and building the spaceship Wildcat in orbit. He selects three lieutenants, at least two of whom had kicked in about $20 million apiece towards the mission, but were hardly space tourists: laser-blasting feminist Kitten Magee, and former bounty hunter Loner. (The third lieutenant, Joe Alien, sounds like he'd be a Spock type.) With his modified revolver "Babe," Loner would be the sole member of an exploratory mission to a new planet: Kitten had an all-girl crew backing her up.

This issue continues Loner's adventures on the planet, where so far he had been split into two, and one of those shrunk to a couple inches of height! The friendly 'Fuzzball' aliens he had saved before help him out, with the small Loner eventually restored, then the two merge back into one when they return to the Wildcat. In another short, an alien's gas makes Loner's skin see-through; which then gives a fright to a mutineer who tries to abandon ship. Then, Loner meets a small alien creature he calls "Trunky" that looks like a possum with an anteater's nose and three tails.

At first glance, I thought Quality had just slapped this out; but I guess it's probably printed the way it was, with larger margins, because they had to fit the proportions of a British magazine into an American comic. The Wiki entry does suggest that having a black lead at the time--again, 1988--would have been "slightly revolutionary," and Loner was designed well; but it's standard space adventure stuff. This was, of course, a random find from some quarter bin; and I was going to mention that most of the Wildcat/Loner stuff had been collected, that was a few years ago and would run you a bit unless you go digital. I'm not sure Kitten's tales were reprinted, though, which almost makes me want to check those out!