The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Three.
Okay, before I launch into the festivities, I wanted to point out that I was recently sorting out some comics at home and discovered I had two copies of a particular hard-to-find comics ‘zine with an original Jaime Hernandez cover. In fact, it’s an issue of Wood-Eye, the anthology digest that me ‘n’ my pals put together in the mid-1990s (thus keeping with the theme of today’s post). I put on the eBays for folks to fight over…auction ends this Wednesday, so bid early, bid often!
And now, for today’s entry in your favorite books from the Final ’90s Countdown:
Archer & Armstrong (Valiant, 1992-1994)
Released as Valiant Comics was still in its prime hotness during the ’90s comics market boom, and drawn by the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith (for at least a few issues), Archer & Armstrong hit the ground running and picked up a lot of fans from the get-go. Alas, as you can tell by the dates noted above, the original run of the series was one of the many, many victims of the ’90s comics market crash, not helped by the fact that Windsor-Smith departed art chores after issue #12. (Not to cast aspersions on those who came after…Mike Baron boarding as writer was a good hook to try keeping readers around.)
Despite the short run, folks even today still hold the series in high regard, and relaunches of the series by other hands have been attempted throughout the 2000s.
The comic centers around a super-powered duo…super-fighter and somewhat sheltered Archer, paired up with the immortal yet slovenly Armstrong. The two (and I had to look this up, as it’s been a while) find themselves in conflict with The Sect, a secret religious cult, and I seem to recall it all being of a humorous bent, but serious when it needed to be. Plenty of humorous conflict between the worldviews of our two leads, an nearly-guaranteed effective trope in buddy-adventures like this one.
There were also ties to the larger Valiant Universe as a whole (aside from the Unity crossover in issues #1 and #2), as Armstrong’s brothers were the Eternal Warrior and the Timewalker, both immortal beings that also had their own individual series.
As inferred, I did buy this series, as well as the rest of the Valiant line, and it really felt they were building a coherent shared universe with a consistent look and feel. A lot of that tone seemed to go away after company cofounder and creative glue Jim Shooter left the company. I ended up dropping all the titles shortly after Shooter’s departure, and I noticed sales on the books had declined as well at our shop. And when the bottom fell out of the marketplace, Valiant went with it.
A lot of Valiant’s early success was tied to the sudden increase in comic speculators, pushed along by Wizard and other Wizard-a-likes that came along. The release of Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 in 1993, overordered and undersold, was one of the events that either helped to bring on the comics crash or was a symptom of the same. Regardless, that was one of the nails in the coffin of Valiant’s desirability to collectors.
In regards to Archer and Armstrong, the first issue of the series (a #0, of course — it was the 1990s) was the primary “hot” book of the run, and even now can still sell relatively quickly, if not as expensively. And of course there were the “gold” editions (like the one pictured here) that commanded some demand, and still do as “rare” items. (Last issues of various classic Valiant series also can be at a premium, due to their low print runs.)
If you wanted to read some of these original Archer and Armstrongs today, you’re in luck, as a paperback reprinting #0 through #12, the entirety of Windsor-Smith’s run, is currently available. A number of years ago there was a Classic Omnibus that reprinted the whole series, as well as some tie-in material. Out of print now, but maybe you can track it down.
Though it’s been a long time since I’ve read these, I do remember enjoying them quite a bit, even after the Windsor-Smith departure. These comics are well-remembered for a reason.
Never read it, don’t even remember seeing it. Then why comment? Because there’s a pupil at my son’s school called Archer Armstrong, and boy do I want to ask his parents if they were inspired by a 90s Valiant comic…
This was one of my favourite Valiant titles but it definitely lost focus (and a lot of its charm) once BWS left. I dropped it in the middle of the Shadowman crossover because by that point it stopped being fun.
The vibe of Archer & Armstrong reminded me of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Road movies. A worldly straight man and his naive partner stumbling into and through stories that were bigger than they were but they then had to take part. Add in the comedic writing and it was something that I’ve not seen captured since, even in the Valiant reboots.
Yeah, the BWS were great, but after he left the whole series fell off a cliff.
Mike Baron took over A&A???
Noted conservative Mike Baron???
Wow. I’ve read the early issues and do have the omni, but that just seems like an insane choice of new writer.
The 00s revival by Fred Van Lente and a whole host of writers (including early work by Emanuela Lupacchino) was fantastic (and Mike Baron would likely hate it).
That initial BWS run may well have been peak 90s Valiant. I kept those Archer & Armstrong issues long after I had gotten rid of all my other classic Valiant books. Fred Van Lente et al’s 2012 reboot was similarly great.
There’d be a lot more Valiant on this list if I didn’t have to narrow down my vote to just my favorite.
“Mike Baron boarding as writer was a good hook to try keeping readers around.”
I liked his Punisher work, but everything else was hit or miss.
“And when the bottom fell out of the marketplace, Valiant went with it.”
As if a giant toilet had been flushed.
“Because there’s a pupil at my son’s school called Archer Armstrong”
I DON’T buy that being coincidence!
“And of course there were the “gold” editions (like the one pictured here)”
Making a shiny GOLD version of a shiny YELLOW cover is pretty stupid. they could have avoided that problem by making that one SILVER.
The Gold version of A&A #0 has a gold corner box, not a gold logo.
Now Eternal Warrior #1, that one has a gold corner box version (“flat”) and a gold embossed logo (which also has a gold corner box) version.