Re: Indiana Jones Dark Horse Comic Books

Posted by Brisco from fwk098144.res-hall.nwu.edu on May 24, 1999 at 15:03:30:

In Reply to: Indiana Jones Dark Horse Comic Books posted by Brett (Yasim) Lambert on May 24, 1999 at 12:03:35:

: Have any of you ever read the IJ Dark Horse Comic Books? If so, what did you think of them? So far, I've read the Iron Phoenix and Sargasso Pirates. Iron Phoenix was okay, could have been drawn better (Indy looked like Robert Redford at times, and other times looked like a Hillbilly, when he was beaten up), so far of the 2 in the series of 4 books I read, Sargasso Pirates is really excellently done. The artwork is better (good move on getting a different artist) and that woman, Cairo, whoah, is she ever hot! :) I can't wait to read the rest. Also, Indyfans, how many of the Indy comic books are out there? Give a list.

I wasn't a big fan of Leo Duranona's (sp?) artwork in "The Iron Pheonix" and "The Arms of Gold," either, but both series had other merits. Here's my take on all the DARK HORSE Indy comics I can remember off the top of my head:

1. Fate of Atlantis: Very good story (pretty much the same as the game, but with some differences and a synthesis of the different "pathes," good artwork by Dan Barry (though it is a kind of "cartoony" style and doesn't really look much like HF, if that kind of thing matters to you. Personally, I'd rather see good, original art than bad, bland art that does resemble the actor.) The coloring started out OK, but by issue 4, it became horrendous. Way too much pink in atlantis! A good comic all around, though. Issue #2 (Iceland) was the best, and is also the hardest to find. (Fewer copies were printed for some reason.) There is a trade paperback collection available, as well as a signed version.

2. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Very faithful adaptations of the episodes. Mostly Dan Barry art again, and it's all very good. As with the show, I definitely prefer the teenage Young Indy stories to the Little Young Indy stories. The twelve comics are split six and six among the two. The best of the series was "Verdun 1916" and "Vienna 1916(?)" Hollywood Comics published trade paperbacks of some stories. NOTE: Dan Barry's Old Indy does not have an eyepatch. His Indy at all ages, while never looking quite like the appropriate actor, looks very much like it is the same person at different stages of life, which is impressive.

3. Thunder In the Orient: Story and art (mostly) by Dan Barry, and his best job. This was my favorite Indy comic series. An epic scale (six issues, none wasted) with great characters and an appropriately impressive artifact (the scrolls of Buddha) from a major religion left unexplored by the movies. Also teriffic exotic locales never used in the films. Very much in the spirit of the movies, and it moves quickly along. I even liked the little kid. It's also nice to see the Japanese Army as villains as opposed to Nazis. Utterly fantastic covers by Hugh Fleming (most particularly the one with the Colossus on the cover). The artist who fills in on the final issue (somebody Spiegal?) does a wonderful job, too. DEFINITELY worth tracking down. A must-have.

4. Arms of Gold: Great story, but the art, by Leo Duranona, didn't impress me too much. The colors were wonderful, though. I loved the first issue, in which Indy never dons his "costume" (except in the very first few pages), set entirely at Barnett College. Very evocative of the 1930s time period. Storywise, the second best.

5. Shrine of the Sea Devil: EXCELLENT, FANTASTIC, TERIFFIC artwork by Gary Gianni, who also wrote the story. The story itself is pretty basic and more Jules Verne than Indy, but the artwork makes it more than worthwhile. This was originally written for serialization in Dark Horse Comics, an anthology series, and worked great as a serial. It incorporates the YIJC tradition of hooking Indy up with historical figures. Did I mention how wonderful the art was? It's highly detailed, and every character has a very distinct personality. Indy looks like HF, too. Another must-have.

6. The Golden Fleece: Sub-par art and poor coloring detract from this interesting premise, set in 1941 during the German invasion of Greece. There are some great scenes (the bicycle chase) and ideas (where the fleece is found), but the whole story feels compressed in two issues. The dragon at the end was a bit much, too. I may have liked the art better had it been black and white or better colored. Still enjoyable for fans of Greek mythology (which I am).

7. The Iron Pheonix: OK story gets a little too far out of Indy territory at times. It plays out too much like it's based on a video game (which it was, though the game never came to be) and the story contridicts the novel "IJ & the Philosopher's Stone" which utilised the same artifact to better effect. It's good to see Indy operating in 1947, post-WWII, but people getting attacked by plants and an army of undead Nazis seem more appropriate to an Evil Dead story than an Indy one. Leo Duranona supplies the art again, and it's about on par with Arms of Gold. I liked the Ireland segment the best. The Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail make guest appearances in a hallucination scene in a Tibetan monestary. Fantastic covers by Dave Dorman.

8. The Spear of Destiny: Dan (?) Spiegal, who finished up Thunder In the Orient, illustrates this one. His art isn't quite as good as it was in the former series, but it's still good. The story (set in 1945, I believe) must have been fairly forgetable because I can't remember much about it. It's nice to see Indy's dad again, though, and the story has a prologue that takes place right at the end of Last Crusade.

9. The Sargasso Pirates: Overall, a very different kind of story from all the others, and very good. As the movies took their cue from the adventure serials of old, this series, appropriately, takes its cue from adventure comic strips in newspapers. Rather than utilising whole page breakdowns as most comics do, this is almost entirely told in three panel segments. Each segment ends in a cliffhanger, so that it could be published daily in a newspaper. The excellent art by Eduardo Baretto recalls the same style as the story, and characters are named after great comics artists of the past. The coloring is Sunday newspaper strip-like. I loved the way the story worked in with the "missing" segment of Last Crusade, filling us in on what happened to Indy after the Coronodo sank and he was left floating. I also liked that Indy grew a full beard when stranded on an Iceberg for a long period of time. I thought the story got weaker once he was amond the pirates, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable series. Alex Ross provided the covers for the first two issues.

Well, I may have missed a series, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I wish there were more. If you haven't read all of these, then you have some real treats ahead of you. Make "Thunder In the Orient" and "Shrine of the Sea Devil" top priority. Almost all of these books can be ordered from Dark Horse's webpage, www.dhorse.com. I'm not going to go into the Marvel "Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" series (of which there are wildly divergent opinions on this board) or the French comics right now, but they're also out there. As Michaelson said, you can find all of this information from the front page of Indyfan.
Matt

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: : Have any of you ever read the IJ Dark Horse Comic Books?  If so, what did you think of them?  So far, I've read the Iron Phoenix and Sargasso Pirates.  Iron Phoenix was okay, could have been drawn better (Indy looked like Robert Redford at times, and other times looked like a Hillbilly, when he was beaten up), so far of the 2 in the series of 4 books I read, Sargasso Pirates is really excellently done.  The artwork is better (good move on getting a different artist) and that woman, Cairo, whoah, is she ever hot! :)  I can't wait to read the rest.  Also, Indyfans, how many of the Indy comic books are out there?  Give a list.

: I wasn't a big fan of Leo Duranona's (sp?) artwork in "The Iron Pheonix" and "The Arms of Gold," either, but both series had other merits.  Here's my take on all the DARK HORSE Indy comics I can remember off the top of my head:

: 1. Fate of Atlantis:  Very good story (pretty much the same as the game, but with some differences and a synthesis of the different "pathes," good artwork by Dan Barry (though it is a kind of "cartoony" style and doesn't really look much like HF, if that kind of thing matters to you.  Personally, I'd rather see good, original art than bad, bland art that does resemble the actor.)  The coloring started out OK, but by issue 4, it became horrendous.  Way too much pink in atlantis!  A good comic all around, though.  Issue #2 (Iceland) was the best, and is also the hardest to find.  (Fewer copies were printed for some reason.)  There is a trade paperback collection available, as well as a signed version.

: 2. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles:  Very faithful adaptations of the episodes.  Mostly Dan Barry art again, and it's all very good.  As with the show, I definitely prefer the teenage Young Indy stories to the Little Young Indy stories.  The twelve comics are split six and six among the two.  The best of the series was "Verdun 1916" and "Vienna 1916(?)"  Hollywood Comics published trade paperbacks of some stories.  NOTE: Dan Barry's Old Indy does not have an eyepatch.  His Indy at all ages, while never looking quite like the appropriate actor, looks very much like it is the same person at different stages of life, which is impressive.

: 3. Thunder In the Orient:  Story and art (mostly) by Dan Barry, and his best job.  This was my favorite Indy comic series.  An epic scale (six issues, none wasted) with great characters and an appropriately impressive artifact (the scrolls of Buddha) from a major religion left unexplored by the movies.  Also teriffic exotic locales never used in the films.  Very much in the spirit of the movies, and it moves quickly along.  I even liked the little kid.  It's also nice to see the Japanese Army as villains as opposed to Nazis.  Utterly fantastic covers by Hugh Fleming (most particularly the one with the Colossus on the cover).  The artist who fills in on the final issue (somebody Spiegal?) does a wonderful job, too.  DEFINITELY worth tracking down.  A must-have.

: 4. Arms of Gold:  Great story, but the art, by Leo Duranona, didn't impress me too much.  The colors were wonderful, though.  I loved the first issue, in which Indy never dons his "costume" (except in the very first few pages), set entirely at Barnett College.  Very evocative of the 1930s time period.  Storywise, the second best.

: 5. Shrine of the Sea Devil:  EXCELLENT, FANTASTIC, TERIFFIC artwork by Gary Gianni, who also wrote the story.  The story itself is pretty basic and more Jules Verne than Indy, but the artwork makes it more than worthwhile.  This was originally written for serialization in Dark Horse Comics, an anthology series, and worked great as a serial.  It incorporates the YIJC tradition of hooking Indy up with historical figures.  Did I mention how wonderful the art was?  It's highly detailed, and every character has a very distinct personality.  Indy looks like HF, too.  Another must-have.

: 6. The Golden Fleece:  Sub-par art and poor coloring detract from this interesting premise, set in 1941 during the German invasion of Greece.  There are some great scenes (the bicycle chase) and ideas (where the fleece is found), but the whole story feels compressed in two issues.  The dragon at the end was a bit much, too.  I may have liked the art better had it been black and white or better colored.  Still enjoyable for fans of Greek mythology (which I am).

: 7.  The Iron Pheonix:  OK story gets a little too far out of Indy territory at times.  It plays out too much like it's based on a video game (which it was, though the game never came to be) and the story contridicts the novel "IJ & the Philosopher's Stone" which utilised the same artifact to better effect.  It's good to see Indy operating in 1947, post-WWII, but people getting attacked by plants and an army of undead Nazis seem more appropriate to an Evil Dead story than an Indy one.  Leo Duranona supplies the art again, and it's about on par with Arms of Gold.  I liked the Ireland segment the best.  The Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail make guest appearances in a hallucination scene in a Tibetan monestary.  Fantastic covers by Dave Dorman.

: 8.  The Spear of Destiny:  Dan (?) Spiegal, who finished up Thunder In the Orient, illustrates this one.  His art isn't quite as good as it was in the former series, but it's still good.  The story (set in 1945, I believe) must have been fairly forgetable because I can't remember much about it.  It's nice to see Indy's dad again, though, and the story has a prologue that takes place right at the end of Last Crusade.

: 9.  The Sargasso Pirates:  Overall, a very different kind of story from all the others, and very good.  As the movies took their cue from the adventure serials of old, this series, appropriately, takes its cue from adventure comic strips in newspapers.  Rather than utilising whole page breakdowns as most comics do, this is almost entirely told in three panel segments.  Each segment ends in a cliffhanger, so that it could be published daily in a newspaper.  The excellent art by Eduardo Baretto recalls the same style as the story, and characters are named after great comics artists of the past.  The coloring is Sunday newspaper strip-like.  I loved the way the story worked in with the "missing" segment of Last Crusade, filling us in on what happened to Indy after the Coronodo sank and he was left floating.  I also liked that Indy grew a full beard when stranded on an Iceberg for a long period of time.  I thought the story got weaker once he was amond the pirates, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable series.  Alex Ross provided the covers for the first two issues.

: 
: Well, I may have missed a series, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  I wish there were more.  If you haven't read all of these, then you have some real treats ahead of you.  Make "Thunder In the Orient" and "Shrine of the Sea Devil" top priority.  Almost all of these books can be ordered from Dark Horse's webpage, www.dhorse.com.  I'm not going to go into the Marvel "Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" series (of which there are wildly divergent opinions on this board) or the French comics right now, but they're also out there.  As Michaelson said, you can find all of this information from the front page of Indyfan.  
: Matt

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