It’s the end of August and summer is winding down. Yes, technically it doesn’t actually end until September 23rd. However, the unofficial end of the summer season here in the States is Labor Day, which is only a week away. Most people regard these as the closing days of summer.
So before all the kiddies return to school I wanted to end the summer with an appropriate post. Let’s cast our eyes back to 1988 and the pages of Amazing Heroes #138, their second annual swimsuit issue.
For younger readers, Amazing Heroes was published by Fantagraphics between 1981 and 1992. It featured in-depth articles and interviews on both mainstream comic books and the ever-growing independent scene. For most of its existence Amazing Heroes was edited by Kim Thompson.
Amazing Heroes had a few swimsuit editions in the late 1980s and early 90s. Unlike many of the comic book swimsuit specials that would follow from other publishers that were tacky T&A fests, Amazing Heroes approached theirs with tongue planted firmly in cheek. A diverse selection of artists contributed to their specials.
The cover to Amazing Heroes #138 is penciled by the legendary Neal Adams and inked by Art Nichols. It features four lovely ladies from Adams’ creator-owned Continuity Studios books. I’m not familiar with the gals in the middle. But on the left is Ms. Mystic and on the right is Samuree. I always chuckle at this one. In the Ms. Mystic series the title character’s costume is always rendered by Adams with zip-a-tone. So the joke here is that, in lieu of a swimsuit, Ms. Mystic is wearing an actual sheet of zip-a-tone to the beach.
I got this autographed by Adams recently. It’s a lovely piece by him, a playfully sexy pin-up illustration. I hope one of these days Adams collects his creator-owned material into trade paperbacks. I feel that is an often-overlooked aspect of his career.
Here’s a look at just a few of my favorites from the many great pin-ups featured in Amazing Heroes #138…
John Workman renders Big Barda of Jack Kirby’s New Gods in a bikini. Workman is best known for his extensive work as a letterer, frequently working with Walter Simonson. But Workman is also a talented artist. As can be seen from this, he also possesses a great sense of humor. This is a cute send-up of good girl art, simultaneously sexy and self-deprecating. That “tapioca pudding” line totally cracks me up.
If you are Fantagraphics and you’re going to do a swimsuit special, certainly you’re going to ask two of your best artists, Love and Rockets co-creators Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, to contribute a piece. After all, both brothers are well-regarded for their depictions of the female form. Of course, Beto and Jaime draw some good looking guys, too. Here’s a jam piece by Los Bros Hernandez. On the left is Israel by Gilbert. On the right is Danita by Jaime.
This pin-up and a great deal of other material that had originally appeared in a variety of places was reprinted in the Hernandez Satyricon trade paperback. As much as I love Gilbert & Jaime for their very compelling characters & intricate plotting it was also nice to have many of their beautiful pin-ups gathered together in one volume.
I really enjoy Fred Hembeck’s fun, cartoony artwork. He is a huge fan of Silver Age comic books, especially the Marvel Comics work of Steve Ditko. Hembeck has done quite a few loving Ditko homages over the years, including this one, “Surfing in The Ditko Zone.” It brings a smile to my face seeing Doctor Strange, Clea and the dread Dormammu in swimsuits riding the waves in one of Ditko’s psychedelic alternate dimensions.
As I’ve mentioned before, my girlfriend Michele is a fan of Omaha the Cat Dancer by writer Kate Worley and artist Reed Waller. I’ve never read the series, but Michele has all of the collected editions, so one of these days I’ll sit down and immerse myself in it. Omaha is an exotic dancer / stripper, and the book is definitely for mature readers. The series was partly created as a protest against censorship. It perfect makes sense that Waller would draw Omaha as “Ms. First Amendment” here. It’s a beautiful illustration.
In the late 1980s Eclipse Comics was publishing their revival of the Golden Age aviator hero Airboy written by Chuck Dixon. The talented Bo Hampton was one of the artists who worked on it. For this swimsuit issue Hampton renders Airboy / Davy Nelson III, the near-mindless swamp monster known as the Heap, and the femme fatale Valkyrie at the beach. I always chuckle at the sight of the Heap in a pair of swim trunks!
IDW is currently reprinting Eclipse’s Airboy in a series of trade paperbacks. I recommend getting them. They contain excellent writing and artwork.
Here’s a great pin-up of the whole crew from Evan Dorkin’s irreverent creator-owned series Pirate Corp$ / Hectic Planet jamming at the beach. It always amazes me at the insane amount of detail, as well as the just plain insanity, Dorkin always manages to pack into his artwork. He draws a huge crowd of characters and successfully invests each one with an individual personality. Dorkin is definitely one of the most talented and underrated comic book creators around.
In the late 1990s Slave Labor Graphics released three trade paperback collections of Hectic Planet. You can find them on Amazon at affordable prices. Again, I recommend them. Dorkin did good work in those stories.
Bringing things to a close, here is a scan of the original art for a pin-up of Purity Brown and Nemesis the Warlock from the pages of 2000 AD drawn by Bruce Patterson. As an inker, Patterson has worked with a diverse number of pencilers. This piece demonstrates Patterson is also able to do extremely good work on his own. Purity Brown of course looks damn sexy in her black bikini. As for Nemesis, there’s comedy gold in seeing the alien chaos lord clad in a black Speedo holding a beach ball.
I won this on Ebay in the late 1990s. Only a couple other people bid on it, so I got it for an amazingly low price. I owned it for almost 20 years before eventually selling it to another collector when I had some bills I had to pay. The art board Patterson drew on had warped a bit by the time it made its way into my hands, but it still looked great. This is a piece that I feel, due to the subtle shading Patterson utilized, did not reproduce especially well on black & white newsprint.
Older fans often look back at the demise Amazing Heroes in 1992 as an unfortunate setback to serious journalism on the industry. I think that’s a valid argument. Even more so when you consider that following in Amazing Heroes’ footsteps was Wizard Magazine. If Amazing Heroes was the New York Times of comic book reporting then Wizard was definitely the NY Post!
Many of the old Amazing Heroes issues can be found on Ebay for low prices. They’re well worth picking up for the interviews and the in-the-moment examination of the dramatic changes the comic book industry underwent throughout the 1980s. And, of course, you also had fun features like their swimsuit specials.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 