Look, if I wanna remember it with girls riding dinosaurs, I'm gonna remember it with girls riding dinosaurs.

I've mentioned this one before on the strength of its Bill Sienkiewicz cover, which is so great but also possibly indicative of this company's problem. From 1995, Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe #2, "A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma" Written by Lawrence Watt-Evans, pencils by Mike Harris and James Callahan (page 3), inks by Aaron McClellan and Frank Percy.

This was arguably the flagship of new company Tekno-Comix, and despite having concepts from Gene, additional characters and such from his wife Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, additional additional work from D.C. Fontana and Ron Fortier, as well as a scientific advisor; it is largely unreadable. Having the first issue next to me might help, but only slightly: scientist Alexander Grange has been recovered by Penaltra, an operative for something like the Federation. Wait, their ship's name was the Deliverance? Go to warp nine, I hear banjos...Grange doesn't understand why the planet and the people are completely different from how he remembers them; and as he and Penaltra enter a simulation of the world, they find an inexplicable woman riding a dinosaur. Penaltra thinks Grange is imagining her, possibly not taking things seriously; but after a restart she's still there. The locals describe her as from a nearby tribe of wanderers, but they recognize her more than Grange: no one had been doing research like his studies of the "Old Ones" in decades.

Grange and Penaltra then review a massive info-dump, wherein billions of alien refugees from the Andromeda galaxy settled on the planet Malay, which was then going to be hit by an asteroid. While a missile was able to destroy the asteroid, the explosion also took out the hyperspace beacon, cutting the planet off. Both of them are starting to realize the planet might not look like they were expecting, but while Penaltra discusses it with her crew, the weirdly-pupilless Grange steals a shuttle, intent on finding answers... 

There's an old joke, how do you make a million in comics? Start with ten million! Somebody put some money into Tekno: they also had Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, a couple books from Neil Gaiman concepts, and Isaac Asimov's I-Bots had Howard Chaykin, Steven Grant, and George Perez working on it! I haven't read those, but I liked Mike Danger even if they totally backpedaled off of the original hook for the second series. It definitely feels like they put all of their money and effort into certain aspects, and completely whiffed on the others. Still, I hope this original cover is on a wall somewhere; it deserves to be seen.

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"The End" Week: Xander in Lost Universe #8!

I'm trying to get a head start this year, so this fine September morning I'm trying to grind out the first of this year's "The End" posts on the last issues of various comics. And today we start with a title that already had one, but the publisher apparently went under before it could get a third relaunch: from 1996, Xander in Lost Universe #8, "Dark Angel Descending" Written by Ron Fortier, art by Ron Randall.

Sometimes, I'll go out of my way to pick up the last issue of a series, in the hopes that the story will get wrapped up with a neat little bow. No dice this time: just in time for the last issue, we get the secret origin of the title's Big Bad/Bad Girl, Sensua. Although she appeared to be a woman with a penchant for leather jumpsuits and open tops, sadism, and universal domination; here it's revealed that Sensua was actually an energy being, dating back nearly to the start of the universe. After she devours one of the alien Wehni, she becomes addicted to their "nearly limitless power" and wants to consume the entire race. She hunts them for about a billion years or so, but the Wehni had long ago escaped to a "Lost Universe" she couldn't reach. Still, Sensua notices humanity and other races evolving; and while they were powerless and feeble, they were inventive...

Merging with an unborn baby, Sensua is able to take human form, although her mother seems to notice her evil immediately. Along with a genius-level intellect, Sensua also discovers (quickly, and easily) how to manipulate men; even using her wiles to start an intergalactic war. From there, behind the scenes, she creates the Federation Plan*Net; all part of her plan to use humanity to find the Wehni. Six hundred years later, the framing device for this issue is Sensua telling her story to a cat burglar, but he's merely a creation of her power, something for her to talk to until she gets bored.

The Lost Universe titles were based on notes from Gene Roddenberry, so I couldn't say how much of this was based on his work, or was Fortier's creation. I know Roddenberry's Andromeda also featured a Starfleet/Federation analog that didn't entirely live up to its ideals, but a nearly omnipotent femme fatale doesn't seem like the type of detail he would've included. This issue also featured part five of Tekno/Big's crossover "The Big Bang" (referred to as "The Big Crossover," in house ads) but while six first issues and a #0 were planned for April 1996, I'm not sure they were ever published! You could kind of tell they were hemorrhaging money, since their first issues had Bill Sienkiewicz covers, then Jae Lee, then whoever...

I had considered blogging the rest of the series before getting to this issue, but it wasn't great: every time it seemed to settle on a direction, it would shift just as quickly.
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Seriously, I thought I was missing a #0 issue.

It's odd to pick up an old first issue, and find out you're coming in midstream. Like this issue! From 1995, Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe #1, "O Brave New World" Written by Lawrence Watt-Evans, pencils by James Callahan, inks by Aaron McClellan; with a concept from Gene Roddenberry and additional characters and development from Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Bill Sienkiewicz did the cover, along with some for the rest of the series; and they're pretty much the selling point for them. (Seriously, his cover for #2 would probably sell some issues of any random book you chose to put it on!)

Regardless of the level of the Roddenberrys' involvement, this issue seems to be written like part of a TV pilot, albeit the first fifteen minutes or so: Dr. Alexander Grange, returning to his homeworld Malay after recovering from a coma, finds he may have been gone for much longer than he expected. And...that's about it. It's pretty sparse, all things considered. The ship, which I believe was called the Deliverance, isn't named here; nor is his companion Penaltra given any motivation--why she's there, why she brought Grange there, what she knows, nothing. I'm not sure either character would be around by issue #6 or so, so it may not matter; in hindsight, that's almost like an actor leaving a series...

Man, I must've been flush with cash in 1995 to keep dropping it on this series. I know I read Tekno Comix Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger as well, and that had better stories from Max Allan Collins and more consistent art from Eduardo Barreto, hence that series lasted a lot longer.
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A reminder why this series was forgotten:

Sometimes at the local comicon, or if I hit a store I haven't picked clean before, I check for some books I used to have but lost over the years. And then sometimes, I'm reminded why I lost them. Like today's book! From 1995, Tekno Comics Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe #7, "Crash and Burn" Written by Ron Fortier, pencils by Mike Harris, inks by Aaron McClellan. With a nice Bill Sienkiewicz cover!

This was actually the last issue of this series, although it was quickly relaunched as Gene Roddenberry's Xander in Lost Universe. I want to say the Xander character was a cloned version of another from the first run, but I'm a little vague on the details, and he doesn't appear this issue anyway. The starship Deliverance loses power and nearly crashes into the planet Malay, but a plucky young engineer restores systems as the pilot figures the planet deflected the ship when it came too close. I know I read this issue when it came out, and I thought it was a little thin then, too; and it may or may not have had anything to do with the previous six or so issues. (This was the nineties, so there were a lot of #0 issues; the next one would be a #0.)

Also this issue, an appearance by Lady Sensua, who I think was the big bad behind the scenes through most of the book; and appeared usually in leather pants, leather jacket, and possibly a leather bra.


Lost Universe, or sometimes even more specifically Xander, was billed in ads as "The Final Legacy of legendary Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry." But it wasn't: both Andromeda and Earth: Final Conflict would come after had been cancelled. I was curious if anything from this comic was later used in those series, but didn't see anything that looked like it carried over yet. (I liked Andromeda, although I didn't see every episode, which may be why I can remember it fondly.) I don't recall if Lost Universe made it to the end of the line, before Tekno went under...
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