The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Six.
Continuing on with the single-voters in the Final ’90s Countdown poll….
Finder (Lightspeed Press, 1996-2005)
Now I remember Finder as being a popular book with the indie comics cognoscenti (comicsnocenti?). It had relatively strong sales for us at the previous place of employment, and its many wonderful and strange covers always caught my eye and stood out on the rack.
And of course, it’s yet another title I haven’t read, either through lack of time, or lack of money in that “Working for The Man” stage of my life, before I became The Man and opened my own shop. And of course now I definitely don’t have the time. Or money.
But anyway, I’ve seen creator Carla Speed McNeil’s work often enough to know I enjoy their artstyle…a clean, confident cartooning line that’s immensely appealing and again, like other books before and after on this Final ’90s Countdown list, make me feel like a real dummy for not reading their primary work of Finder before.
The book itself, from what I’ve gathered from researching AKA Googling, takes place in a future Earth where technologically-advanced domed population centers are surrounded by aboriginal tribes trying to survive in a desolated world. The initial focus is on an aboriginal detective named Jaeger, who recurs throughout the series and its many storylines as either a main or supporting character. (If you want to Read More About It by someone who’s actually read the comic, this seems like a good essay on the topic.)
The series was self-published by McNeil for 38 issues, before they moved to a webcomic format in 2005. Unfortunately, the webcomic, and even the Lightspeed Press page, appear to be gone (or taken over by squatters). If the webcomics are availahle somewhere I’m not seeing, please let me know. There was also a serialized story in Dark Horse Presents.
It appears all the Finder stories, including the webcomics and the DHP story, have been reprinted in paperback form, either in 11 single volumes, each containing one multi-issue story. The first two volumes are in fact parts one and two of a single story, which have also been reprinted together in a smaller book with some expanded material.
Speaking of Dark Horse, they’re the company that’s maining the print form of Finder, which as of their most recent printings, collection the series as follows: the first 8 paperbacks are reprinted in The Finder Library volumes 1 and 2. The remaining three stories are each reprinted in their own individual volume. Availability to comic shops appears spotty at the moment, with only one book offered in any of my distributors’ listings. I do know these are highly regarded works, so with any luck they’ll be around again in short order.
An HTML error in my previous post make a point I was making unclear in the last paragraph. The line was supposed to be “…is a virtue for the Metamorpho comic.” The title was dropped out. Sorry about that.
This was my vote. I think it’s a really good comic!
Dark Horse also released a hardcover collection of the Talisman arc (volume 4 in the original releases).
I’m pretty sure that the newest collection (Chase the Lady) was partially serialized on McNeil’s Patreon after DHP was cancelled. (And I really need to get around to reading it, since my copy has been sitting in my “to read” pile for way too long.)
The collections are available digitally to libraries through services like Hoopla.
McNeil’s linework is so beautiful, like all the best aspects of Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez combined. I’m glad it’s usually printed in black and white so we can see it in detail.
I’ve read a little bit of Finder, and I admire McNeil’s dedication to seeing their vision through even though the format has changed more than once.
My favorite work of theirs is probably the Frank Ironwine one-shot from Avatar Press. Just gorgeous art on a little throwaway detective story.
This is a great comic and well worth reading.
I wouldn’t call the world outside the cities “desolate”, there seems to be plenty of nature and human population. I’m not sure the series is set on Earth though, there’s at least one completely non-humanoid sentient species (think less-toothy velociraptors with opposable thumbs).
Surely, the comicsnocenti is… Ann Nocenti.
“The book itself… takes place in a future Earth where technologically-advanced domed population centers are surrounded by aboriginal tribes trying to survive in a desolated world. ”
Something like that! (I got a tpb for free. I couldn’t get into it, but the art was good).
Another good choice! McNeil’s characters and world-building are well-done, and the art is appealing. I have the two library editions, I’ll have to snag the last 3 volumes at some point.
@ Greta
That’s mighty punny!
@JesuswasBatman
What about:
GodwasSuperman
and
TheHolySpiritwasWonderWoman
?
Jesus was Batman? No, no, no that was Bruce Wayne!
(Speaking of the ‘90s)
@Mike Sterling
Re: Your Bluesky post about Choice Comics–the covers for Choice Comics no. 1 and no. 3 are actually pretty amazing looking! They should make facsimile editions of all three issues. I am now very curious about Kangaroo Man.
“Jesus was Batman?”
I think he’d be one of the X-Men- they’re ALWAYS coming back from the dead!