[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 7)

SHADE: THE CHANGING MAN (1990-1996)

I mentioned last blog post that a lot of the early 90's comic reading for me was dominated by DC/Vertigo and the range of cool, yet darker, comic series. Hellblazer, Kid Eternity, Doom Patrol, Enigma, etc. But just after Sandman started, another really experimental comic came along that had me even more hooked, and remains my favourite series of all time - Shade: The Changing Man.

With the early covers by Brendan McCarthy (yes, the Brendan McCarthy that brought Mad Max: Fury Road to life), the title really stood out on the shelves as being something a little weird. After all, the "New McCarthyism" as he was credited sometimes was certainly not your average comic cover design. (see left)

The insides were even weirder in places, but the story reflected that. I'd never read any of the first incarnation of Shade from 70's, so this was my first experience of Rac Shade - a poet from another world who leaves his body behind on Meta to inhabit the body of Troy Grenzer - a serial killer about to be executed.

Shade teams up with Kathy, whose parents were killed by Grenzer, and Lenny, and they travel the US in a weird roadtrip to battle the madness that is infecting the land.

It's nuts. Whole sections are within "the Madness" and you could spend days trying to see all the detail within those pages. Not only was Peter Milligan's storylines bonkers and brilliant, but the art...

Oh the art...

One of my favourite artists, Chris Bachalo, who I'd first seen in an issue of Sandman, brought the madness to life in some of the coolest artwork I've seen.

Bachalo's style was simply amazing, and iconic with the cross hatching on the character's noses. I loved it. I still love Bachalo's art, and have followed it through his career into Marvel's Generation X, X-Men and Doctor Strange. It's awesome.

Over the years, Shade died about four times, inhabited different bodies, and different cool coats. It got really weird and surreal, but I loved every minute of it. 

Ultimately, it came to an end, and I was really excited recently when Gerard Way announced his DC imprint (Young Animal) would see a new series called Shade: The Changing Girl. It was good, but compared to Way's awesome revival of Doom Patrol it just wasn't as weird, or gripping as I'd hoped. The new Doom Patrol did it so much better. Oh well...

My dream would be for Noah Hawley, who did the awesome TV series Legion, would decide to make Shade into a TV series, inspired by Peter Milligan's run. Oh, we can hope...

[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 6)

SANDMAN (1989-1996)

If I tried to cover everything that is in the mind-blowing Sandman comic that was published by DC/Vertigo from 1989-96, I would be here for months. Sandman was a bit of a revelation. A character I hadn't heard of before, with cool Dave McKean covers, and a lead character that was the ultimate goth - I thought I should check it out. I think the first issue I picked up in the comic store was issue five or six, but luckily I was on board early enough that I could get the first missing issues before they went up in value to crazy money.

Sandman wasn't a superhero comic as I was expecting. It was about The Endless - godlike entities that govern the universe. Destiny, Destruction, Death, Desire, Delight (who became Delirium), Despair, and the title character of the comic, Dream. Dream, or Morpheus, starts the series mistakenly captured by occultists hoping to capture Death, wishing immortality, but they imprison Dream for seventy years. They take away his objects of power, and when he finally escapes he enacts vengeance on his captors, needs to reclaim his objects, and restore order to his realm, The Dreaming.

Some dreams have escaped into the waking world, and the story of Dream's hopes to fix everything that has happened while he's been imprisoned takes him on a journey of self discovery and his ultimate fate. It's epic. I mean, seriously epic. Tales that span millennia, incorporating award winning Shakespearian storylines, and starting the rationalisation of the "dark DC Universe". Talk about a massive undertaking. Add to this, it was still part of DC continuity, and included appearances from John Constantine, the Martian Manhunter, and even Batman and Green Lantern - but Sandman, along with Books of Magic, helped define the universe.

Neil Gaiman's writing is emotional, clever, and so brilliantly researched - not just in the comics he was unifying, but in myth, literature and storytelling, that I often felt that I only skim the surface of the references and meaning within those pages.

Seventy Five issues later it came to an emotional end, but it wasn't the last we'd see of Morpheus. Sandman: Overture is one of the most gorgeous comics you'll see. The legacy of Sandman still continues today, with The Sandman Universe comics and the return of the spin off comics The Dreaming, The Books of Magic and Lucifer - yes, that Lucifer that became the TV series you all love...

I'm excited to see what Netflix do with the forthcoming Sandman series...

Back in the early 90's, just about everything I read came from DC's Vertigo imprint. And thanks to that, comes tomorrow's comic...