Reviewing 1991's Angel and the Ape mini-series

Years ago, I picked up the first issue of this mini-series from a local convenience store*. I was familiar with Batman, Superman and the like -- and even dimly aware of superheroes like Dr. Fate -- but Angel and The Ape would hardly be household names anywhere. I read the first issue with earnest and was disappointed to find that I was 11 years too late to wait for the next issue. Without a local comic shop to go to, I resigned myself to not knowing how this series ended... until now, that is!

First thing's first, some background information: created by the famous E. Nelson Bridwell (best know for The Inferior Five), Angel and The Ape first appeared in 1968's Showcase #77. The premise was simple: Angel O’Day was a lady detective and Sam Simeon was a comic book artist and a talking gorilla. Together, they fight crime. Jokes arising from the unusual pairing and cultural fads (such as a cover depicting Sam A product of the "groovy" era of comics arising from the popularity of the Adam West Batman TV show), they starred in their own bi-monthly series for 6 issues in 1969. As with most characters from this period (Detective Chimp, I’m looking at you!), they were relegated to Z-list status and seemingly lost in the shuffle of Crisis on Infinite Earths, along with dozens of other characters that DC had amassed over 50 years. What happened to all those characters after the Crisis was explored in a more dark and serious manner in Grant Morrison’s seminal run on Animal Man.

Angel and the Ape v1 #3 (1969) Bob Oksner cover.

Phil Foglio had made a bit of a name for himself in the black-and-white, indie comix scene of the late 80s with books such as Myth Adventures and Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire. He was hired by DC to write and draw this revival mini-series. That being the case, you get a real sense of authoritative intent and uniqueness in this mini-series that was rather refreshing compared to the 'Ford assembly-line' quality of the other comics of this era.

page from Myth Adventures #1 (1984). published by Warp Graphics.
Pencils by Phil Folio, inks by Tim Sale

The cover of the first issue is something of a joke on the 'grim and gritty' trend for comics at the time. The cover text boldly states “THEY’RE BACK... BUT WHO ARE THEY, WHAT ARE THEY NOW?” Angel and Sam are presented in dark silhouette, however, you can clearly see them as their normal lovable selves in the upper left hand corner near the date and issue number.

Angel and the Ape v2 #1 (1991). Cover by Phil Foglio.

The storyline is simple, but effective: it tells the origin story of how a young Angel met Sam in Africa. It cuts to years later when they’ve become established detectives in New York City. Sam is going out on a lunch date with Dumb Bunny from the Inferior Five (and half sister to Angel). Bunny ducks out of lunch with Sam and asks Angel to go with her to talk about things.

panels from Angel and the Ape v2 #1: mocking the grim
turn Batman had taken since the death of Jason Todd

At lunch, she admits to her sister that she’s in love with Sam and want to be his girlfriend. Angel is taken aback at this, both for the obvious physical implications (Bunny says she’s not interested in sex anyway) and for the moral reasons -- like him being essentially a part of their family. It’s also implied that Angel has feelings for Sam herself, but won’t admit it.

panels from Angel and the Ape v2 #1

During this time Sam is dropping off some art pages to "DZ Comics" when he sees that he’s turned into a human and everyone else has turned into a gorilla. After a spit second, they all turn back to normal, and everyone is shocked at his gorilla appearance after his concentration is broken (Sam uses light mind control to make people not notice or care that he’s a gorilla). It turns out this is all part of a scheme orchestrated by Sam’s grandfather, none other than Gorilla Grodd.

Grodd is worried about the population growth of Gorilla City becoming unsustainable into the twentieth century, and when he approached King Solovar about this issue Solovar felt that when that time came they would be ready to show themselves to the world. Grodd doesn’t buy it and has found a green glowing entity called the "Green Glob" to alter reality to destroy humans by making them unintelligent gorillas. He needs Sam’s telepathy to communicate with the glob, to obey his commands. Sam doesn’t want any part of it, but he’s kidnapped by Grodd. Angel and Bunny try to contact the Justice League, but after a typically crass phone conversation with Guy Gardner, Angel, Bunny and the rest of the Inferior Five decide to rescue Sam themselves.

panels from Angel and the Ape v2 #2: Guy Gardner being Guy Gardner

In the middle of the third issue there is a cool sequence where Angel is experiencing Sam’s memories of Gorilla City and his grandfather, while a fight between Grodd and the Five are happening in the bordering panels. It reminds me a little bit of Sergio Aragonés' comics in MAD magazine.

It's in the rescue that Grodd breaks Bunny’s neck, telling Sam the only way to save her is with the glob. Grodd comes off as a particularly menacing villain in this comic’s universe. He’s almost like a Sideshow Bob or Mister Burns (from the early seasons of The Simpsons), since his adversaries are more comical and simplistic, he becomes more diabolical and evil.

The whole cast of characters comes off like a comfy sitcom from the 70s -- similar to the Mary Tyler Moore show. Angel is an optimist (Mary Richards), Sam is her more earthy, pessimistic co-worker (Lou Grant), Dumb Bunny is the lovable, airhead blonde (Georgette) and etc.

It ends with Sam communicating with the glob and using its powers to outsmart his grandfather. He gets the glob to give Grodd an uncontrollable desire for junk food which distracts him long enough for Solovar’s forces to raid his hideout. Sam asks the glob to heal Bunny, with it does. It also briefly turns Sam back into a human and the romantic tension between Angel and Sam is address by the two, but they decide to remain friends and Sam turns back into a gorilla.

panels from Angel and the Ape v2 #4

It’s a decent little story, my only criticism would be that it maybe gets a little too heavy on the romantic triangle between Sam, Angel and Bunny, and that distracts from the storyline. I have a feeling like they might have been expecting this to turn into an ongoing series, and they would play the "will they/won’t they" angle up like many romantic sitcoms. It’s also unfortunate that the cool subversion of the 'damsel in distress' trope is a bit undone with the neck-breaking "women in refrigerators" moment with Bunny and Sam.

The last issue of the mini-series finishes off with a belated but interesting letter column. It seems like I was not alone in being unfamiliar with the Silver Age incarnations of A&A and The Inferior Five. Many of the letters lamented the fact that there had been such sparse material in the "humor" genre of comics.

In the letter column, series editor Mike Gold defends the cartoony style by citing the fact that one of the most respected comic artist of all time, Will Eisner, drew in a cartoony style. Gold also cited a few other artists with cartoony styles (ex: Howard Chaykin, Joe Staton, Frank Thorne and Rick Burchett), and points out that if you take away the hard angles in Todd McFarlane's and Frank Miller's art, even they would be perceived as cartoony. 

. Foglio’s style is "Cartoony", but expressive. It would be very easy to turn his art into animation. Under different circumstances, I could see this being adapted to an animated TV show (resting somewhere in tone between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Tick).

1991 was not a year receptive to this book; when the first issue was published in March 1991, the classic Batman "Venom" storyline ran in Legends Of The Dark Knight, Marvel was publishing its seminal "Weapon X" storyline in Marvel Comics Presents and Todd McFarlane was in the midst of his run on Spider-Man. Drugs, madness and pain. This was what comics where turning into. Foglio would go on to do a Stanley and His Monster mini-series for DC, and now runs a successful webcomic, Girl Genius.

Lighthearted and quirky revivals of groovy 60s characters is not what the audience was craving. I won’t go so far to say it’s perfect or somehow a lost masterpiece, but it’s competently done and a readable comic in an era where that would become more and more rare as Extreme 90s artists would throw graphic storytelling to the wind in favor of cool action figure designs. There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and, for under 5 bucks to get all four issues, it still holds up today as an enjoyable read.

If DC ever does put out a collected edition, it would be nice if they included the original 60s appearances as well as the 2001 Vertigo revival by Howard Chaykin.

Angel and the Ape pin-up by Phil Foglio

*Editor's note: Anthony explained that his convenience store sold bagged bundles of back issues -- mainly Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, Valiant, and Continuity (circa 1986-1994). It would be a mixed bag with no particular theme other than 10 comics for around 2 bucks. This is why Anthony has such a  well-rounded knowledge of late 80s/early 90s comics. ;) 



-Anthony Kuchar

Anthony hails from Welland, Ontario. A Graduate of Brock University’s Dramatic Arts Program, he has been involved with the theatre scene in Niagara for many years. Anthony has had an interest in comics since he was young and his favorite 80’s DC books are Batman: The Cult, Sandman, Frank Miller's Ronin and Watchmen.

Titans Hunt: first impressions part 2

Welcome to the second of two articles with Erik Tramontana's review of the 1990 - 1992 Titans Hunt story arc that ran through New Titans #71 to New Titans #84. 

This is Erik's very first reading of Titans Hunt, and he managed to read all 14 issues in one sitting. The are lots and lots of SPOILERS in this article. You've been forewarned.

When we last left off, the Titans had definitely seen better days: Titans Tower had been blown up, a few Titans had been killed off or gone missing, and one of their own had been revealed to be the leader of a criminal organization hell-bent on destroying the Titans. More importantly, where are Starfire, Raven and Changeling/Beast Boy in all of this?

The New Titans # 77 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

One of the rockets [from issue #75] lands in Russia, where it is found by Red Star.

re-introducing: Red Star! Art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

Back in NYC, emergency crews respond to the explosion of the Tower. Nightwing, Pantha, Phantasm, Arella, and Mento fly the T-Jet to follow the path of the rocket to Russia.

In "Science City" Russian scientists are trying to repair Cyborg. His body was damaged by the rocket crash and he has no memory of his previous life. The Russians don't want to give him back, so they order Robot Vic to attack the Titans.

Cliffhanger #4! What's up with Cyborg? Art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

The New Titans # 78 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Lewis, Montano, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Wonder Girl and Terry return from vacation and are (understandably) shocked to see the ruins of Titans Tower. Police tell them that the Titans owe the city money for the damages.

Back in the USSR, Cyborg is ordered to stand down -- the Russians were just trying to prove the point that Cyborg belongs to Mother Russia now. The Titans insist on taking him back, and Cyborg switches to attack mode for real this time. Red Star promises to watch over him in America while the Titans try to restore his memory: compromise! The Titans, Red, and Cyborg return to the States. 

the NEW and IMPROVED Cyborg! 

Donna gets a hold of the team on her communicator. Back at the apartment Pantha and Donna fight until Phantasm breaks it up. After the good guys explain what happen, Wildebeests attack the apartment. They take Nightwing, and then some weird God-Thing takes Donna away.

Nightwing finds himself in Jericho’s lair, where he discovers the Titans were never actually launched in rockets (well, except for Cyborg). It was all a ruse and they are strapped naked to some kind of mind transference machine.

Cliffhanger #5! Also: warranted nudity!

The New Titans # 79 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Cullins, Swan, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

(ART NOTE: PARIS “BLUE BEETLE” CULLEN AND CURT “SUPERMAN” SWAN SHARE ART DUTIES ON THIS ISSUE. COINCIDENTALLY THIS IS THE POINT WHERE TITANS HUNT BEGINS TO GO OFF THE RAILS, BUT IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT)

Joe keeps killing henchmen who ask too many questions. Terry Long is freaking out at Troia’s disappearance. Cops are looking for clues about the missing Titans. The captain’s relationship with Nightwing is strained now that City Hall wants the Titans out of NYC for good. The Captain and a detective find a grizzly murder scene. Councilwoman Alderman is attacked in the bathroom and tied up and gagged. Someone is now impersonating her. None of this is interesting.

A "Terry Long" moment.

Aqualad busts out of his bacta tank- he is choking and doctors don’t know how to help. Back in the lair, Joseph begins the mind transference machine, but wait... what? Terra is back? How?? And who are these jabronis with her???

Cliffhanger #6!

The New Titans # 80 (1991), by Wolfman, Cullins, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

The editor’s note says “To Be Read After New Titans Annual #7”, but we’re not doing that. Waverider peeks in and determines Nightwing is NOT going to become Monarch (oh dang, is this an Armageddon 2001 tie-in? PASS).

In the far-off future of 2001 we are introduced to the Team Titans of Future Past: Nightrider, Mirage, Killowat, Redwing, Birdguy, Goth-Chick, Face First, Migraine, and Terra. They are boring and nobody cares about them. (I just made half of them up just now and you didn’t even notice.)

Donna Troy’s baby is destined to be Lord Chaos, I guess, so the Team Titans need to go back in time and KILL SARAH CONNOR DONNA TROY. They make the leap back to 1991. Lord Chaos monologues that Troia did not teach him to use his powers properly so he had to kill her, and all the other Titans too. Some other garbage happens and Lord Chaos also timejumps back to 1991. To save the future, Donna Troy Must Die.

"DONNA TROY MUST DIE!" -- what a twist!

[Editor's note: I told Erik that he didn't have to get too in-depth with the somewhat forgettable Team Titans spin-off series, and he happily complied. Any volunteers? -Justin]

The New Titans # 81 (1991), by Wolfman, Swan, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Aqualad is in critical condition. Lilith calls to say she has info about Donna. Lilith says Donna is no longer on Earth.

Now Pariah from Crisis on Infinite Earths is at Lilith’s apartment, where he warns that all creation will be destroyed but he welcomes the peace and quiet. Pariah tells Phantasm that the universe will end and there’s nothing to be done about it. Riveting stuff.

After a heart-to-beard talk with Terry Long, Pariah says Troia is on New Olympus. And then New Olympus appears... to be continued in War of the Gods. A crummy commercial?

The New Titans # 82 (1992), by Wolfman, Grummett, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

The Jericho Gambit, Part 1: Jericho is monologuing to Nightwing again and he breaks out of his restraints. Wildebeests want to kill him but they have orders to lock him up instead. In the cell with him is the original Wildebeest.

At the apartment, Raven’s mom points out that Jericho has a soul-self like hers and Raven’s, but his is a lion and therefore more powerful. Terry Long bitches her out.

Back at the ranch, Arella had been attacked by that same soul monster and it killed a bunch of people. Now she realizes it was Joseph’s soul. It tried again to kill her but couldn’t, and that’s where Terminator found her way back in issue #73

Lilith and Slade begin to suspect that Trigon has been possessing Joseph. Troia comes back from War of the Gods, pissed off and ready to brawl.

I'm not even sure if this is considered a BIG REVEAL or not...

The Team Titans from the future are spying on this meeting from a neighboring rooftop.

The OG Wildebeest tells Nightwing that he started the group as an offshoot of HIVE, with the idea that they’d all look the same but would only pull jobs one at a time, hiding numbers and motives. Then Joseph took over through force, and when the real Wildebeest questioned him they locked Wildebeest in the dungeon.

Slade discovers the location of Joseph’s lair by studying his paintings of the New York skyline (which is such a Grand Admiral Thrawn move) and they all sneak in. A door inside the hideout leads to...wait for it… AZARATH!

This MUST be a cliffhanger...

Meanwhile. the editorial team seems to have a sense of humor, and have updated the letterhead to the letters page:

The New Titans # 83 (1992), by Wolfman, Grummett, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

The Jericho Gambit, Part 2: Joe has the (naked) Titans strapped to the machine, while Deathstroke and company find themselves in Azarath, only it looks different since the last time Lilith was there.

Joe kills Original Recipe Wildebeest and brings Nightwing out from his cell.

Slade splits the team into pairs. Phantasm is somebody we know, and Slade has figured it out, but advises him not to tell the others yet.

Redstar, Troia, Pantha, and Lilith beat the hell out of some Wildebeests. They break into the lab where the Titans are being held (including Nightwing now). Nightwing is all “get me outta here”. Deathstroke and Phantasm find a brain in a jar, and are promptly attacked by Beests. Hey guess what, Nightwing is now being controlled by Joseph. He lets loose the soul-lion and fights Pantha. Joe knocks out Deathstroke (WHICH IS BOLLOCKS) and chains him up in the lab. Joe monologues that “I- We- Are Azarath!”

Here’s a little backstory: Way back in New Teen Titans #5, Trigon and the souls of Azarath merged and lay dormant inside of Joseph Wilson for years. The souls want to inhabit the Titans’ super-bodies to level up, with the end goal of using Superman as a host. As the souls try to enter the Titans, Joe has a moment of clarity and tries to fight the souls away. He is unsuccessful and the body swap proceeds as planned.

Joe briefly regains control and he asks his dad Slade to kill him. AND... HOLY CRAP! ... HE DOES IT!!!

Now THIS is how you resolve a 14-issue story arc!

And, in this issue, more fun with the New Titans letterhead:

The New Titans # 84 (1992), by Wolfman, Grummett, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

The Jericho Gambit, Part 3: Stabbing his only living son in the back with a sword messes with Deathstroke’s head a bit. Danny Friggin Chase (remember him?) is all “Durrr, I did what you told me to Dick. Nobody was supposed to die.” I thought this moron died back in issue #73. The Titans are alive but still unconscious. Joe crumbles to dust in Slade’s hands. Slade understandably starts wrecking the place. Azarath possesses the Titans according to plan. The one inhabiting Starfire tries to upgrade to Donna, but is kicked in the tits by Nightwing (seriously). Beast Boy turns into a dinosaur thing and fights Redstar and Pantha.

"WHUMP"

Raven beats up on Danny and Lilith, Lilith tries to get through to Raven, they fight. Danny ports them inside the evil soul and they fight naked red Raven. They use the power of Azar to defeat Trigon and Azarath. Danny doesn’t make it (too bad).

The second (and hopefully FINAL) death of Danny Chase.

Azar calls all the souls back home and the Titans are themselves once again. They all cross the dimensional bridge home, THE END.

Issue #84's letterhead for the letter page:

BONUS: Issue #85, which I didn’t read, apparently explains what the deal is with Phantasm and Danny Chase, and it’s unbearably stupid:

convenient explanation ejecting Phantasm from the team

...and one final letterhead:

This letterheads hints at the upcoming battle between Nightwing and Deathstroke in New Titans #86. Incidentally, Dick's costume get thrashed, and he gets a new, updated Nightwing costume afterwards.

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

Wow. I can see why this storyline had a reputation as a must-read for all these years. For one thing, it’s completely nuts. Like Hush would do years later, this story throws nearly every villain the Teen Titans ever fought at them all at once, at breakneck speed. If you were a lapsed Wolfman-Perez New Teen Titans fan in 1991, I imagine this was a total blast to read.

Yeah, it’s way too long (with two separate crossover events getting their own issues plus whatever the hell Team Titans is supposed to be) and it’s a blatantly obvious attempt to make the Titans more like the X-Men, but darn it if I didn’t really enjoy reading this. Sure, there are too many characters, the villain’s plot makes no sense, and there are more dangling lines than a bass fishing tournament, but this is superhero comics, baby! I’ll take ten more stories like this -- where seasoned pros are working their asses off to give the people what they want -- than any of the juggalo noise coming out of the post New-52 DC “Entertainment.”

Titans Hunt is well worth the time and effort it takes to track down. Who knows, maybe if the new version sells really well we can get a nice hardcover omnibus to display on the shelf next to our Teen Titans Games Graphic Novel. Stranger things have happened.


----

...and this concludes Erik Tramontana's review of the early 90s Titans Hunt story arc. In his final e-mail to me after submitting this article for posting, Erik concluded with "I think I'm done with Titans Hunt. I'm exhausted.". 

We really want to thank Erik for 'taking one for the team' on this one. He's also absolutely right; there is currently NO version of this story arc available in collected format, and Erik needed to track down these individual issues himself (e-bay?). Really impressed with his dedication here. 


Extra:

If you liked this review, you're also probably going to enjoy our interview with Tom Grummett from the 2016 Montreal Comicon, in which he spoke his work on the Teen Titans and his participation on the Death and Return of Superman. 

Titans Hunt: first impressions from reviewer Erik Tramontana

Inspired by Michel Fiffe's recent New Teen Titans deep dive, I decided to finally read a story arc I'd heard about for years but never actually read: Marv Wolfman and Tom Grummet's Titans Hunt. And lemme tell ya, it's a doozy.

I'd read all of the Wolfman-Perez classics, and the Lonely Place of Dying issues of New Titans, but other than that I went into this run cold. I was slightly worried that I wouldn't be able to piece together the status quo as I went, but it turns out it didn't matter since the status quo is blown up, literally and figuratively, over the course of these fifteen issues. If you, too, know and love the New Teen Titans characters but lost touch with them some time around 1986, take a journey with me through the at-times-incomprehensible-but-never-boring Titans Hunt.


[If it isn't obvious by now, there's going to be lots of spoilers in this review. If you have any interest in reading Titans Hunt and experiencing first-hand all the cliffhangers and 'big reveal' moments that await -- stop now, track down the story arc, and re-visit us when you're done. Otherwise, read on. -Justin]

The New Titans # 71 (1990), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

There's going to be a party tonight for the Titans' anniversary. They are not "Teen Titans" anymore, though, as it states that Dick Grayson is 21 years old. Donna "Troia" Troy and Terry "That Creep With The Beard" Long are going on a vacation to Greece. Dick "Nightwing" Grayson and Kori "Starfire" Anders are blissfully in love, but surprise, Dick is acting uptight.

In the hours before the party, Nightwing helps a girl who wanders onto a window ledge and Starfire foils a mugging-- but the victim injects Kori with a hypodermic needle. A monster beats up Starfire and pays the old lady -- with exploding money (lol) -- out of sight of any witnesses. Dick rescues a little girl.

exploding money

The monster, now identified as Wildebeest, attacks Vic "Cyborg" Stone next, as he reminisces about the events of New Teen Titans #1.

Vic is trapped in an explosion while trying to rescue schoolchildren. Wildebeest then captures Raven as she tries to help a woman trapped by a mental patient. The complete madness she experiences overwhelms her empathetic abilities. Wildebeest captures Joseph "Jericho" Wilson when he is out on a date. Gar "Changeling, not Beast Boy" loses control of his animal powers at the opera. Nightwing finally shows at the restaurant for the party and is promptly taken out by Wildebeest. Changeling's adopted dad, Mento, hires Slade Wilson (aka: Deathstroke: The Terminator) to find the kids.

The New Titans # 72 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, McCraw, Peterson- Ed.

Terminator is supposed to meet Aqualad and Golden Eagle, but Wildebeest shows up instead. Wildebeest kills Golden Eagle (it's OK, I never heard of him either).

death of a relatively unknown Titan. art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

Deathstroke goes to Nightwing's apartment and Wildebeest is waiting for him and they fight. Wait, what, there are TWO Wildebeests? Deathstroke jumps from the fire escape. The two Beests argue over whose assignment this was supposed to be, in a scene right out of The Venture Bros.

Mento and Deathstroke go to Titans Tower and use the computer to look up known Titans associates. A Wildebeest follows them and snoops in on the non-password protected computer after they leave the room. Then the Wildebeest Society chases Slade and Mento to Donna's apartment and blow it up. Luckily Donna and Terry (eww) are still in Greece.

Aqualad's body is found, not breathing and unresponsive.

Cliffhanger #1 - death of Aqualad? Art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

The New Titans # 73 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Mento and Deathstroke bring Aqualad to the hospital. They put him in a convenient water tank while they wait for a response from STAR Labs.

Back at Titans Tower, Mento contacts the family members of Titans while Deathstroke takes the Titans jet to see Raven's mom, Arella. On the farm, Slade finds dead bodies everywhere (along with Arella in a state of shock and "Paradise Lost" written on the wall in blood). Meanwhile, two Wildebeests are sent to find Danny "Cousin Oliver" Chase. Arella tells Terminator that she tried to create Azarath on Earth, but now everyone is dead and she blames herself for bringing Trigon to this dimension. Deathstroke tells her it is not her fault and the Wildebeests are the ones responsible. Arella leaves on the jet with Slade.

At a mall, Danny Chase is telepathically tormenting some would-be jewel thieves when the Wildebeests show up and begin to attack him. Danny appears to be vaporized.

Danny Chase being a sadist

Arella and Deathstroke arrive just in time to fight off the Council of Wildebeests (who by this time are given henchmen numbers so the reader can tell them apart), and then somebody called The Phantasm shows up and scares away the bad guys.

introducing: Phantasm! art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

The New Titans # 74 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Introducing Pantha! In the secret lair of the Council of Wildebeests, Beests # 8 and #14 are punished for their failure back at the mall. As punishment, 14 must kill 8. A mysterious female figure watches from a rooftop. 8 and 14 fight, 8 flees. Beest #9 catches him -- and is killed by 8, who takes 9's mask and passes himself off as Beest 9 (IMPORTANT NOTE: BY THIS TIME I AM THREE BEERS IN AND THIS NUMBERED WILDEBEEST THING STARTS TO GET REAL CONFUSING). 

Meanwhile X-24, aka Pantha, is chased through the Wildebeest compound. She kills #29 and escapes. 14 wanders into a mad science lab, where an evil scientist is trying to mutate somebody. So far Weapon X-24 is the only successful experiment. Back outside and on a rooftop, Pantha vows to kill all of the Wildebeests, and then foils a mugging.

introducing: Panthra! art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

Deathstroke and Arella show up because the police band radio said something about a mugging and super powers. They fight with Pantha and she runs off. They follow her in a helicopter, while the mysterious Phantasm looks on.

Some of the Wildebeests are suspicious of #14 and his habit of asking questions and not murdering people. 8 (in #9's mask, remember) tries to kill 14 because he thinks 14 is a spy. Turns out Wildebeest #14 is Nightwing!

minor reveal

Nightwing fights the Beests, who let slip that they are only after Titans with super powers. Dick is beat up and dragged off by Beests. Pantha finds a shred of Nightwing's costume, and then Deathstroke and Arella try to get her to help find the Titans, but she refuses. After she leaves she is approached by Phantasm who says, "You and I will join forces. And neither Wildebeest nor Titan will stop us." There was a lot going on in this issue.

The New Titans # 75 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Nightwing is beaten by the Wildebeests and shown the stasis tubes where the Titans are being held. Bumblebee, Francis Kane, Chris King, Cyborg, Starfire, Changeling, Raven are all naked and cryogenically frozen. Outside, the Beests blow up Deathstroke's helicopter. Deathstroke lands in the river and makes a swim for it, then finds himself being sucked up through the filtration intake right into the Beest hideout. Deathstroke finds Nightwing inside and discovers that his son, Joseph (aka Jericho), is the leader of the Wildebeests!

Big REVEAL #1! art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

Why is Joe evil now? How can he talk all of a sudden? WHO KNOWS. Pantha and Phantasm fight Beests outside, and Pantha breaks back into the lair. Eeevil Joseph presses a button that launches the stasis tubes like missiles, and they shoot into different directions. One of the rockets explodes -- a Titan has been killed! What a cliffhanger!

Cliffhanger #2! WHO DIED? Art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

The New Titans # 76 (1991), by Wolfman, Grummet, Vey, Costanza, Roy, Peterson- Ed.

Jericho takes over Pantha's body with his mind-control powers. Somehow Phantasm pushes him right back out. Joe monologues a bit about being "The Voice! The Harbinger! The Power!" and then starts wrecking it up, causing the lab to blow up. The good guys escape and Joe vanishes into thin air.

Everyone reconvenes at Titans Tower. Pantha and Deathstroke scuffle, because there's only room enough for one Wolverine on this team.

Teen Titans? More 'Team Tension'! Amirite?

Slade leaves her tied up. Wildebeests attack the tower and Phantasm releases Pantha from her bonds. Nightwing and Deathstroke fight off the Beests and Pantha and Phantasm join the fray. They try to unmask one of the Beests and he self-destructs. Arella freaks out and heads to the sub-basement to hide. Suddenly all of the Wildebeests start disintegrating -- it was a suicide mission! Turns out the attack was only a diversion, as the Wildebeests planted bombs all around Titans Tower during the fracas.

Phantasm magically tosses all of the bombs that were on the T-Jet out through the skylight and they take off, just as Titans Tower explodes!

Cliffhanger #3! Homeless Teen Titans! Art by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the letterhead for the letters page in issue #76 had been updated:

[Okay, we're only 6 issues deep into Titans Hunt and we've seen Golden Eagle killed, Danny Chase vaporized, Aqualad put into a coma, Titans Tower blown up, Jericho turned traitor, two new characters introduced (Phantasm and Pantha)... but most importantly, this article has run longer than our allotted character count for a single web page.

Join us for part two as Erik Tramontana reveals who died in that rocket, the mystery of the Team Titans and how this whole story arc resolves. There's still (at least) eight issues left to this thing. -Justin]

Mark Belkin interviews Doom Patrol illustrator Richard Case

I can safely say that the Grant Morrison and Richard Case's run on Doom Patrol is my favorite run of comic books of the 1980s. The first issue was as good as hearing my first Cure song. Being introduced to the Brotherhood of Dada was like my first Sisters of Mercy album and the interplay between Cliff, Crazy Jane and Rebis was like listening to the second side of DM101. It’s sad I don’t see these characters today, but they will always be there in that psychedelic, wild, British Invasion, lysergic acid diethylamide made into comic book form. I could probably write a book about the run, so I felt very fortunate that Richard Case spoke to me about his life, and his time on Doom Patrol. -Mark

Mark Belkin: I want to thank Richard Case for joining DC in the 80s for this interview.

Richard Case: You're very welcome, thanks for inviting me.

Belkin: I’m working on a Grant Morrison-era Doom Patrol article, and wanted to start by talking about your run — from issue Doom Patrol v2 #19 (1989) until... when did your Doom Patrol v2 run end?

Case: I worked until Doom Patrol v2 #66 (1993) — which was 3 issues past Grant Morrison's last issue. His last issue was #63. So I did the first 3 of the actual Vertigo issues, which started with #64 which was written by Rachel Pollack. I stuck around long enough to bridge the gap from the regular series into Vertigo.

Doom Patrol v2 #19 and #66: both covers illustrated by Richard Case

Belkin: Doom Patrol was one of your first comic book runs.

Case: Yeah, it was the second thing I did after working on Dr Strange for Marvel. It was for 1988's Strange Tales, originally. Strange Tales was split between Dr Strange and Cloak and Dagger at the time. This ultimately led to me penciling the first four issues of 1988's Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (also by Marvel). I was living up north, and decided to move to North Carolina in the meantime, and figured before I moved away from New York (where all the publishing houses were) it wouldn't hurt to shake some hands over at DC and show my work around. As a freelancer, you'd want to be able to do that. I did NOT expect, y'know,  two weeks after moving to North Carolina for them to try to contact me and basically offer me something — which turned out to be Doom Patrol. I was a little reluctant at first, I really liked Doctor Strange, but as soon as I saw Grant's proposal for what he had planned — that was a no-brainer — I could tell right away that this was going to be an AMAZING book to work on.

Richard Case pencils from Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #2 (1988)

Belkin: Do you remember what initially sparked you in Grant's proposal and made you feel that this a book you'd be excited to work on?

Case: It was a number of factors. Already you could tell that he was going to play up the 'weirdness' of those characters. At that point, the book [Doom Patrol] had kinda started to feel like a "poor man's X-Men". Honestly. [Marvel's] X-Men, at the time, was kinda like the 'sexy' characters, and they [the then-Doom Patrol creative team] were trying to really 'sexy it up', at least that was kinda my feel to it. I think Grant said it best in the proposal: "These are heroes that, if they were sitting on the subway, you would NOT want to sit next to them. They're the weird characters who are just a little upsetting/off-putting somehow." So there was that element — which seemed very interesting to me — the whole weird/surrealistic stuff he was going to play in.

He'd even had already mentioned the Brotherhood of Dada as an upcoming storyline, Coming right out of art school, that sounded really cool to me that I'd get to play around with that kind of stuff. The psychological element — introducing a character like Crazy Jane, introducing the element to Rebis of the Negative Man and... we tried to actually get Negative Woman to be the other being that was fused, but for whatever reason, they didn't let us do that - so that's when he introduced Dr. Eleanor Poole who ended up fusing with Larry Trainor to become Rebis.

Those elements. It wasn't JUST big fight scenes, there was also that 'psychological element' thing I thought was going to be really interesting and fun to draw.

Belkin: What other themes, when first seeing the early scripts and going into the The Painting That Ate Paris, what kind of things were you seeing that you were excited to draw?

Case: A number of things. Even architecturally, Grant kept challenging me with things like the Scissormen storyline where we end up in all this Gothic architecture (cathedrals and etc). Red Jack's temple/house was very much modeled after Versailles — we put a lot emphasis in the chandeliers and water fountains in there. That was a fun challenge, it wasn't always fun - perspective-wise,... but it was a helluva lot to fit in, especially for a monthly book.

Doom Patrol v2 #23 (1989)

Belkin: Walt Simonson just stopped by to say hello so we had to stop the interview for a minute.

Case: Just to backtrack a little, before I was doing comics, I interned for Walt Simonson. While still in school, I did an internship with him. That definitely helped open some doors and even got me in at Marvel in the first place. I interned with him for a few months, and then after I graduated I was his assistant for a little while. He still had a studio in New York (Upstart Studios), at the time, there were several other artists there as well; so I assisted Jim Sherman a bit with some coloring work and I met Elaine Lee there. That was a good to "get my feet wet" in a few different ways. My first actual comics credit is for helping color an issue James penciled, and Elaine did half the colors and brought me over to help color the other half the issue. I was totally surprised to see my name in the credits, because, it's like "who am I?" (laughs) That was really part of my way in.

Belkin: At the time, Grant Morrison was known for his surreal, almost psychedelic, work. When you received the scripts did you have to change anything mentally? Get into a sort of 'mental place' when you had to draw them?

Case: I kind of feel like I was already 'there'. That was, again, part of what attracted me to the project. I grew up on super-hero comics — to me it wasn't as fun to draw 'straight-forward' super-hero stuff. The fact that they were having 'challenges' — that weren't just straight-forward fisticuffs and big explosions and stuff — that was all very interesting to me. Coming up with different ways to visualize some of that, is really what it was. Even the symbolism kinda stuff that we started delving into — he would give me a good idea of where to take that so I kinda understood where he was coming from with that. I would do a lot of my own research. Often when I got a script, (this of course was before there was an internet) to do any of the reference gathering, I would plan on spending the day (or at least half a day) down at a library at the local university just looking up all of these references that he would put into a script. To me, that was actually a fun part of the puzzle — it was interesting reading and following up on "where is he coming from with some this stuff?". I found that interesting.

Doom Patrol #38 (1990)

Belkin: Earlier I spoke with John Workman. and he said he would get your pencils and there was one with a girl sitting and he said he felt that he didn't even want it inked since it was such an amazing image on it's own. Do you remember that story? It might've been Alice? Do you remember that at all?

Case: No, I don't.

Belkin: I’ll have to try to find that panel with John Workman in the future. Did you have a lot to contribute to the Brotherhood of Dada (as far as the look and etc)?

Doom Patrol v2 #26 (1989)

Case: Those characters Grant definitely did sketches for — he's actually a pretty decent artist himself. He had a pretty good idea as to the general look — like some of the details... I'm thinking like Mr Nobody himself... he kind of envisioned him. He was a little blockier, I kind of gave some extra life into him, I definitely gave him a lot more animation. I figured "there's a chance for a character to be very animated". But even details on a character like Sleepwalk — where it worked out the silhouette profiles for the eyes, the little beds on the shoulder pads, pajama pants, the big boots — that was all him. So yeah, he designed those characters, I just had fun drawing them. For some of the detail work of some of those, I was looking at — there was a French fashion designer named Jean-Paul Gaultier...
    .  
Belkin: Sure, Gaultier, yeah. The pointy bras. Madonna...

Jean Paul Gaultier concept art + Madonna. source unknown

Case: At that time, he did — in The Face magazine (which was a British magazine) — he did his own version of super-heroes. I borrowed a little bit of some elements of that. His work was really fascinating — it was totally avant-garde to cutting edge kind of stuff. It really felt right for some of those kinds of characters. Funnily enough, a few years later, he did the designs for The Fifth Element. I could see a lot of that, and it totally felt of the same universe of where we coming from for the designs we were coming up for some of our characters.

Belkin: In the run of issues, like the Painting that Ate Paris, were you incorporating different art movements or ideas into comic book form?

Case: Absolutely, yeah. And that was very much the area where I felt like... y'know, trying to take Futurism and Constructivism, and then figure out how to draw that as comic book pages, and still have a fight scene falling through it the whole way was a very interesting challenge. Some of them I think came out okay, others like Fauvism didn't really — some of the ones that were very much just color-on-color, that was hard to figure out how to translate that - because I'm just responsible for the black and white art. I did leave a lot of notes for Danny Vozzo who was coloring it. Especially back then, the computer coloring was still new and fairly limited. It was a little better than just standard four color, but there was only so much we could do to get that across. Some of those, I feel didn't work as well, but it was definitely a fun challenge to try it out. Yeah, that whole experience was great.

Doom Patrol v2 #29 (1990)

Belkin: Were there any difficulties working with Grant at the time? Were there at times where you would get something and have no idea what's going on?

Case: There was a couple times I'd call him because, again, pre-Internet and no e-mail. Some questions I'd convey to my editor to try to get an answer, other times I needed an answer a little more directly so I'd give him a call. Back then he didn't even have his own phone — it was just a hallway phone. So I'd call over there, somebody would answer it, and I'd hear them go walk away and then a couple minutes later Grant would show up at the phone. Of course I'm paying 1987 international phone rates this entire time. Plus, he has a fairly thick Scottish accent, so it was a little tough — he's trying to talk me through it and it was a little hard to understand. Yeah, so there was those natural kind of difficulties. (laughs)

But honestly, he knew he was throwing a lot of 'out there' concepts in there. For the most part, he described them very well in his scripts — enough for me to be able to draw it. Those times were not all that often and I honestly can't even remember any of the specific things I called to ask about, at this point. It was a long time ago.

Belkin: Was Danny the Street one of them?

Case: Danny was pretty well-defined, because Danny was the thought-child of Brendan McCarthy and Grant. I think Brendan had even done some sketches of Danny — I did a lot translating to flesh it out to a full street - I actually modeled a lot of the shops on Danny from local shops in small towns that I either lived in or lived next to in North Carolina. I live in a town called Hillsborough, it's very close to Chapel Hill, but it is a small little town with a Main Street. There's even little elements — there was a 'weigh yourself'' machine in there...just an obscure little thing... right next to a bank. I slipped that in there at some point. Even the shape of the lamps are based on that — except I just curlicued them and stuff like that. The basic framework of it all came from real life. The movie theater came from a town only a couple of towns away that was an old-fashioned movie theater. I was like "that looks perfect" and just modified it some, but the basic look of it was already there.

Belkin: Did you enjoy drawing Robotman — who was consistent but maybe with metal parts — or Crazy Jane who was almost always a new character? Was that a lot of fun?

Case: Oh yeah, she was great fun to draw just because of that. With every personality I'd try to get that across — and some of them were fairly nuanced. Obviously there's the ones like Black Annis or Flaming Katy where she completely transforms herself, but other ones, it's just almost the way she looks at you and to try and get that across in just the way I shaped her eyebrow or curled her upper lip or something like that. I'd even do little things where I drew the hair slightly different if she's flipping back and forth. That was obviously a lot of fun.

And Cliff is such a plucky character — a fun character to draw. I always especially liked drawing him if he got punched in the mouth and his jaw was kinda hanging off a hinge.         

Doom Patrol #46 (1991) - Crazy Jane, Robotman/Cliff Steele and Danny the Street

Belkin: At the time, was there a huge "oh my god, this is kind of big" thing going on? Like the reactions at comic conventions? Were you guys reaching rock star status?

Case: We definitely hit that 'cult status' at that time. By then, I was doing San Diego every year. Grant did at least a number of those shows every year. We'd do group signings and have a pretty good line, I still have friends that I met — that I met at one of those shows and we'd became friends over time — kinda stuff. It was never a HUGE seller, but it definitely had that element where it felt like we were getting recognized a lot. I know in some of the British fanzines they'd even have a list of the most popular or best titles over there and Doom Patrol v2 was in their 'top ten' almost consistently at the time. So that was cool.

Belkin: Now, John Workman said that there were some changes in the art early on, and that somebody else changed the way your drawings came out. Did you ever find the finishes changed from your original vision?

Case: Yeah, and I wasn't always happy with the inks. I was VERY happy with Scott Hanna's inks from issue #20 to #24, but he moved on to another project, and we got John Nyberg — who is a much 'brushier' inker. I didn't feel like our stuff really gelled at first all that well. But I started going a bit bolder with my line — and we balanced it out a little bit — so by the end of his run I was definitely happier with the results we were getting. But, yeah, we did eventually get to a point where I started trying out a little bit, and I did ink little bits and pieces here and there, whole sections at points, and then the very last issue that the two of us [Morrison and Case] worked on, I inked it all myself. I was like "Ah! I finally got my chance to ink a whole issue!" — of course I would ink it completely different these days. Evolution as an artist right there for you.

Belkin: And then you went on to [Neil Gaiman's] Sandman, and now you do animation...

Case: Actually, I do concept art for video games. That's the field I'm in now. I'm doing a lot of environmental stuff and some character work. I still dabble in comics. Annie Ammo. Slowly writing that and drawing it. But since I'm doing it all myself on the side of doing a day job, it goes very slowly. Once I have a block of it done, then I'll actually release some more of it. We had a website — a web release-type comic for a while — and I contributed little small stories. The main story is still yet unseen.

Belkin: We'll watch out for that. Thanks for joining us today, Richard.