Friday, July 11, 2008

1984 3


Another big issue of 1984, with a whopping nine stories. The cover, featuring a hunter shooting a large snake/dragon like creature is by Patrick Woodroffe.

First up is "Squeezin's" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). And get this... the story is not about sex! A new President of the US is elected only to find out that all world wars have been caused by a pair of mutants, one American, one Russian, whose petty fights with each other cause epic battles on a much greater scale.

Next is the first in a new series, Idi Amin, entitled "Whatever Happened to Idi Amin?" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features Idi, an African dictator who was stopped by the US's DDT (Department of Dirty Tricks) by being put into the body of a white woman. Idi's followers set off a world war which has ravaged the Earth, and turned most people into horrific mutants. Our story features a DDT agent, Adam aka Dogmeat who accidently reawakens Idi from suspended animation within the Sphinx and they team together to escape from the mutants. As usual Maroto's art is absolutely amazing, far above anything else in the issue.

"In the Beginning" is next, by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), about scientists sending people back in time to find the first organism on Earth. What they find however are millions of organisms, who end up killing the men send back. It ends up that the start of life on Earth was organisms within the poop of aliens who were passing by!

Part three of "Mutant World" is next, with art by Richard Corben and story by Jan Strnad. Demento is tricked by some other mutants (called Bugs) into giving them all his food while he confonts a bunch of scary monsters. He escapes and finds the woman he met in Part 1, but she is captured by some other mutants.

"Bring Me the Head of Omar Barsidian" follows, with art by Rudy Nebres & Jim Janes and story by Bill Dubay. The story is about a woman spacepilot and her alien comrade who pursue and defeat the evil Omar.

"The Strange Adventure of Doctor Jerkyll!" follows, with story & art by Nebot. It features a scientist who creates a potion that turns him into a very large breasted woman, who finds a man and sleeps with him. The doctor awakens as a man, creating quite the situation, and is unable to turn back into a woman, yet that doesn't stop him from becoming pregnant! A very fast paced story with no dialogue.

Seventh is "Scourge of All Disneyspace" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A ship of all women space pirates capture a civilian vessel in Disneyspace. Its the future, and men apparantely don't have penises anymore, with the exception of a single man on the ship who has sex with the captain and is then taken away to have sex with all the women. Gee, and here I thought I might get through a 1984 issue without Dubay doing one of these types of stories!

"Commfu" is next, by Abel Laxamana (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). The story features the rampage of a lunatic who is part of a government plot where homicidal maniacs are recruited as agents.

Last is "The Harvest" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is in my mind the single worst and offensive story in the history of Warren Publishing. It takes place in the future, where 'The Corporation' has put all black people in the world into various gaming reserves, where white people come to hunt each year. The story focuses on a father & son who shoot a pregnant black woman then tear the baby out of her, calling it veal. I'm not one to throw out the term 'racist', but when you look at this story, plus the one "Freedom's Just Another Word" from Creepy 53, and the calling of multiple characters with racist names like "Spook" and "Spade", Bill Dubay's got a hard time avoiding being called that. This story's so over the top and disgusting it makes me want to vomit.

1 comment:

alex said...

Totally agree with your comments on "The Harvest" - amazes me how the hell the magazine got away with such foul declaration of racism.