Out of the Past
"TALES FROM THE ORB"
A retrospective of the Eagle series by Neil Vokes, Rich Rankin, Jack Herman, Gary Fields and others, from Crystal Comics, Apple Comics and Comic Zone Comics, 1986-1992.
Copyright © 2006, Glenn Walker
Normal people know what they were doing when JFK was shot, when they heard John Lennon was killed, and when the Towers fell. I stress the word 'normal,' because some comics fans aren't normal...
Although nowhere near as deadly serious as the above notable events, folks who are really into their hobbies also remember moments that changed their interest in those hobbies. Comics readers all have their favorites. I have a fondness, a guilty pleasure, in reading stuff like Justice League, Avengers, Flash, and anything from the Golden Age. I also love some independent books that no longer exist, some that folks still love and some that folks don't even remember - among them - Coyote, Captain Canuck, Nexus and others, but especially Eagle. I remember when I purchased my first issue of Eagle.
My friend Mike and I were scoping out the new comic book shop in Berlin, NJ, Comic Zone. This was actually a big thing. At the time folks were either stuck with getting their comics at the mall Heroes World or places that looked worse than the Android's Dungeon on "The Simpsons," so a clean friendly place that was extra-local was a big deal.
Comic Zone, run by Rich Rankin and his wife Pattie, was a great store, because it was clean and friendly and as far from a D & D player's basement as possible. All good things. I looked forward to talking comics at the store every week almost as much as I did getting my comics. Rich and Pattie were great folks as were the clientele.
Anyway, back to the story at hand. I remember that first trip to Comic Zone, and meeting Rich, who I soon found was the inker and co-creator of some black and white independent comic called Eagle. Never heard of it, didn't care. Black and white? Independent? Could not care even less. But I was polite, and took the free copy of Eagle #12 that Rich gave me for starting my reserve at the store.
Eventually I got around to reading it, believe me, it wasn't on top of my pile. Eagle #12 was the supposed 'origin issue' which answered questions from the previous eleven issues. It was confusing, cosmic and intriguing - all at the same time. Much to my surprise, Eagle was a combination of many different genres - martial arts, science fiction, detective, supernatural... damn, they got me...
I was trapped, and tricked. Black and white comics then and since, for the most part, don't interest me. Comics are about color, just my opinion, but Eagle proved me wrong. Like watching a subtitled foreign film, if it's really good, you forget all about the subtitles. Same thing here - the story and art was so good, I didn't miss the color. These were characters designed for black and white, so well designed that when they appeared on color covers, it just didn't look right. This is a skill that Neil Vokes continues to improve today with projects like The Black Forest and The Wicked West. Black and white and shades of gray - Vokes is the master.
That next trip to Comic Zone had me purchase the next issue as well as Death's-Head #1, a spin-off featuring a prominent character from #12. Over the following weeks I managed to pick up the eleven previous issues, not an easy task, mind you, considering it was a popular book, especially at that store. I remember particularly buying a washed-out sun-faded copy of Eagle #9 just to complete my collection because it was the only one left. I was hooked.
Eagle is one of a few independent comics that are available as an ebook, making it an innovative concept even today, almost two decades latter. Here's the synopsis of issue one from Adobe Reader:
"In a decadent megalopolis, the mystery man Eagle seeks redemption from his dark past by the tip of his sword. Back in print and with a new forward and pin ups by Neil Vokes, this genre-fusing, martial arts-fuelled science-fantasy is grim, gleeful, elegant and loaded with non-stop action."
That of course is the long story short. Eagle is set in a world where the alien Talik invasion takes place in the late 19th century affecting the culture and technology of Earth in the 20th century. Into this strange but familiar world comes Richard Eagle, a psychic detective and immortal swordsman armed with a mystic Orb that grants him special powers. Eagle, proclaimed by the police a vigilante, protects Crystal City to rid it of its criminal element.
Eagle #1, "Night of 1000 Ninjas!" is Kill Bill decades before Kill Bill. The action is purely cinematic, the flow and continuity flawless. If the Shaw Brothers made comic books, this is what it would look like. In hindsight, no wonder this issue hooked so many people who to this day remain fans of the character and its creators.
Writer Jack Herman provides the characters with dialogue and thoughts that expose the depth and instill a third dimension to black and white figures that under any other pen would be flat and two-dimensional. The magic of Vokes' work is only refined to its crisp effect by inker and co-creator Rich Rankin. A highlight of this team-up was how often they would put themselves into the art.
There was also innovative, for the time, use of different shaped dialogue bubbles and boxes for Eagle, the Orb and others. Even the lettering, on the cusp of the craftsmanship of John Workman and before it was all with computers, has a unique edge. Kudos go out to Gary Fields for his patience and skill.
Over the next few issues Eagle begins to build an unwanted rogues gallery: Lord Kagami, super-criminals Wulfgar and Acacia, Mayor Thornton, Kuzlak, the Red Dragon Association, the various nameless assassins that give issue #2 that Game of Death feel, and of course Death's-Head (or as Marvel's legal department has since insisted, Death's Dark Angel). DDA shows up in Eagle #4 from the dark future and hunting another refugee from that time. This skull-faced mute creature is also a miracle of design for the black and white palette.
Death's Dark Angel however is not strictly a foe for Eagle; he also has direct and disturbing ties to him. DDA is, as we learn during the long-hyped origin issue #12, what Eagle will become in the far distant future. But that's a whole 'nother story. DDA was slated for his own six-issue limited series from Crystal Comics, and one issue was produced under the title Death's-Head. Marvel's legal department, citing an obscure British character they owned, forced the name change to DDA. The remaining stories were eventually published as back-ups while Eagle was at Apple Comics.
As I said before, Eagle #12 was the big reveal, the origin issue. It's not that the origin of Eagle wasn't fulfilling, but my mind goes back to when Rich had told me of an early project he and Neil had tried to sell to Marvel at one time - an origin story for Wolverine. Yes, it was something everyone wanted to know but conventional wisdom suggested keeping it mysterious and vague worked better for the character. My thoughts exactly on Eagle. I liked being in the dark better, always guessing and being surprised. The book lost something at this point, not quality mind you, but mystique.
It became a different book after that. Whereas Eagle existed in a world that simply was as it was, no explanation, it just was - now everything was up front. Stories began to revolve around the Taliks and Eagle's past - and no mystery. It wasn't better or worse than before, just different.
By this time the black and white independent glut had begun and many companies went under, Crystal Comics unfortunately was one of them. After a few months, eagle returned to the shelves, continuing the numbering with #17, under the mantle of Michael Catron's Apple Comics. Unfortunately the death of the black and white independents took its toll once again and Eagle went down again in 1990 with issue #23.
The title returned with a last gasp in 1992, under the publishing banner named Comic Zone after Rich's comic shop. The four-issue mini-series, "The Dark Mirror Saga" featured new stylistic art that felt wrong to me at least. Even if there was the same creative team at work, the whole book had a different feel at this point, perhaps it was time to say good night. While Eagle had seen better days at this point, it was still hands down one of the best books out there.
Time went by, Comic Zone closed, Rich left the comics biz and Neil went on to quite a bit of success as an artist. Besides the aforementioned Wicked West and Black Forest, Neil's pens and inks have produced some great Superman and Tarzan adventures to just name a couple. But ask him anytime, and you'll find his heart is still with his first creation, Eagle.
Rereading these early stories the two things that strikes me is that they hold up amazingly well two decades later, and that if Eagle was published today I would definitely be buying it. The latter point may be becoming a reality shortly, as co-creator Neil Vokes promises that Eagle will be making a comeback. Keep your eyes on his website for news, I know I will.