Doc Stearn…Mr. Monster (Eclipse 1985-1987)
…Whoops, entered it on my master list of ’80s vote-getters under “Mr. Monster” instead of the full real name, as shown above, which is why I didn’t get to it ’til the Ms. Sorry, person who voted for this comic and was probably wondering why I skipped it!
Anyway, Michael T. Gilbert based this wacky monster-non-approving hero on a relatively straight-laced and public domain Golden Age comics character by the same name, and he and William Messner-Loebs and, of course, the amazing lettering of Ken Bruzenak, Other creators would hop on board, such as Alan Moore scripting an adventure in #3 (pictured), but it was mostly Gilbert who was the master of ceremonies here.
There were a number of spin-offs, including Mr. Monster’s Super Duper Specials reprinting Golden Age material with new wraparound comics by Gilbert. All good, but the two “Hi-Shock Schlock!” issues are indispensable.
I’m not going to try to list every Mr. Monster spin-off here, as there were plenty, running well into the 2010s, from its original home at Eclipse, to Image Comics, to Tundra, to Dark Horse and more. There was even a Penthouse Comix publication that had a Mr. Monster story…which, despite being called “Penthouse Max,” I think it was…if not general audiences, at least non-porn. Wasn’t like I was going to sell anything called “Penthouse” to kids, regardless.
While most of the spin-offs post that initial Eclipse series were more in the wild comedic over-the-top mode, the most notable follow-up may have been the eight part mini-series from Dark Horse. It was in black and white, a sharp contrast to Doc’s usual colorful adventures, and it was a more-or-less serious retelling of the character’s origins. Quite good, beautifully done, but at the time I felt like the character’s humorous momentum was curtailed by this somber aside and it never really got back on course.
I mean, clearly there was still plenty of funny Mr. Monster to be had, and I bought and enjoyed pretty much all of it, but I never really got that same…entertaining, “anything goes” anarchic feeling that I had in that original 10-issue run. Don’t get me wrong, that origin mini is great, but if you read the funny Mr. Monster first and decide you like it, maybe read the rest of the output before tacking that backstory.
Ms. Tree (Eclipse/Aardvark-Vanaheim/Renegade Press 1983-1989)
Okay, how many times have I told this story? I was buying the Ms. Tree comics, an ongoing saga about a lady detective and the tangled web her violent tactics can weave, for quite some time before getting my job working at a comic book store. Early at that job, someone asked for the Ms. Tree back issues. I replied, “sure, let me get the Ms. Trees for you…wait, hold on. ‘Ms. Tree.’ ‘Mystery!’ I get it!”
Because, you know, I never had occasion to say the name aloud before. I only ever just saw it as a name. “Ms. Michael Tree.” Also, I was a dumb teenager. Even by “dumb teenager” standards.
But anyway, Ms. Tree started out in Eclipse Magazine #1 in 1981, with the first chapter of a serialized story by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty. It ran there for a few issues before graduating into its own 50-issue-long ongoing series…Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Stories for hte first three issues, before shorting to Ms. Tree for the rest of its run through three publishers (noted above). Early issues of the run (including the Eclipse Magazine stories) were reprinted in the ’80s in a three-issue book series called Files of Ms. Tree, but currently the UK publisher Titan is releasing new reprint volumes (the newest one, Heroine Withdrawal, coming this October).
During that initial run, there were a couple of fun spin-offs, including a 3-D issue that features the cleverly named new story “Death, Danger and Diamonds” (because…3 Ds, you see) and a reprint of a story from AV in 3D (the Aardvark-Vanaheim 3D special). The new story here is reprinted in Files of Ms. Tree volume 3 in 2-D black and white, if you’d rather read it that way. In addition, there’s a crossover mini-series with E-Man‘s Michael Mauser called The P.I.s which is worth a look.
After that main run wraps up, the saga continues over at DC Comics as Ms. Tree Quarterly and Ms. Tree Special. Those end in the early-mid 1990s and I think that’s more or less been it since then for new Tree stories. At least in comics, as the character did appear in a prose novel by Collins, Deadly Beloved, released in 2007. Which I’m pretty sure I have around here but haven’t got around to reading yet. (There are a handful of other prose short stories with Ms. Tree, two in the Files collections, and then a couple that appeared in mystery anthologies in the early ’90s.
Speaking of reading…like I said above, I did read all of the comics. It’s a fun, occasionally violent, occasionally brutal, occasionally…Shakespearean? (Romeo and Juliet specifically, when Tree’s son and the daughter of a mob boss fall in love). Plenty of melodrama to be had, and Tree’s tactics have serious consequences for her (turns out you if you solve all your problems with violence, folks are gonna look a bit askance at you). Also, the cover pictured here is maybe the best cover of the series…really lets you know what you’re in for.
Of special note is #50 from Renegade, which includes a flexidisc with “The Theme from Ms. Tree” as performed by Cruisin’ (Collins on keyboards, if memory serves). There’s a CD (long out of print, I’m assuming) that has the track on there, too.
Neat Stuff (Fantagraphics 1985-1989)
For whatever reason, though I was on the lookout for new alternative material around the mid-1980s, and I was buying Fantagraphics label-mates like Love and Rockets and Lloyd Llewellyn, among others, I didn’t really catch onto Peter Bagge’s Neat Stuff until, well, way into its run. Like, “the last couple of issues” late.
I’ve no excuse. I mean, I saw them on the shelves. I knew it existed. I just never got around to picking it up, and now that I’m in my strange “let’s fill holes in my comic collection” phase of acquiring original publications of material I mostly have otherwise, maybe this is a run I can eventually acquire.
I must have liked those two issues of Neat Stuff enough to pick up his new comic-book-sized series, Hate, when it started in 1990. The new series focused on the l life of Buddy Bradley, the approaching-adulthood slacker son of the Bradley family that had been a prominent component of the preceding Neat Stuff. At any rate, I was totally in the Bagge (hold for applause) for these comics, so when Fantagraphics collected the older Bradleys material, as well as other work from those magazines, into four trade paperbacks, I bought them all.
I’m not 100% certain how to best describe Neat Stuff. Wild, occasionally vulgar, humor with unpleasant characters in upsetting situations that will shame you into laughing, and it’s terrific. There is a slipcased hardcover set The Complete Neat Stuff currently available if you don’t want to be a weirdo like me who wants to get the all the originals to see this material in its initial context.
• • •
That’s enough of that…will be on to part nine of this overview of the one-voters from
this survey soon. Thanks for reading as always, pals, and I’ll see you back here soon.