I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here, but I’ve certainly brought it up on Bluesky that I now have about 92% of the Elementals comics from the ’80s and ’90s, missing only a couple of the issues from the mini-series, and the very last couple of Elementals minis spit out by a dying Comico. (I’m only bothering with the first Elementals Sex Special since it’s the one with actual work from the series creator Bill Willingham.)
Anyway, I held off reading the Elementals Specials (not to be confused with the Sex ones) until after I finished the entire first series. I know Special #1 fits in somewhere during that first run, while #2 leads up to launch for Elementals #2. As such, as I was reading through the first series, I saw some letters page reactions to the first Special and it seems to be a fairly positive reaction.
I’d known for years Special #1 was a Very Important Issue, addressing the problem of child abuse, probably hinted at by that cover of haunted children’s faces (and one kid with glowy eyes, which is a thing from the story). Willingham draws the book with Rich Rankin inks, while Jack Herman scripts, and the story is…mmmm, not the greatest. A member of the Elementals, Tommy AKA Monolith has psychic visions of children being killed by some mysterious being, and we get a slew of dead kids in this issue, which is, needless to say, distressing. Which is the point, of course.
Spoilers for a 40-year-old comic, but the supernatural murderer turns out to have been the victim of abuse himself as a child, “repeating the cycle” as they say, and he’s talked down and neutralized.
Aside from that last little bit, we don’t really get too deep into the whys and wherefores of the topic at hand…it’s a lot of action and killing and Elementals lore and I don’t know what anyone would have taken from this, really. I mean, it’s fine as what is basically a solo Monolith adventure, but feels kinda shallow.
Of note, though, is the editorial page in this issue. Included is a letter where Comico’s rep reached out to an organization that was working against this sort of treatment of children, asking if they wanted to place an informational page in the comic as outreach.
The response that garnered was as follows, from the director of the organization:
Hoo boy, As it says in The Muppets (2011):
Now, I think she’s justified in saying no…the story is pretty violent, and I would imagine off-putting to someone I’m guessing hasn’t had much experience with comics. Willingham provides an editorial response, stating that this is a comic presented in the Elementals milieu, with supernatural beings and serial killers simply being just part of the context into which the topic of abuse has been slotted. Also, that “violent, upsetting” content should be used to get the point across to audiences. And here, in this case, I think I get what Willingham is saying
Not directly addressed is this accusation from the director’s letter:
“The graphic violence and physical abuse that occur probably will not help prevent child abuse and in fact may encourage it.”
Oh man, I think if I were Willingham that bit would have pissed me off the most. What a thing to say to someone, “your comic is so bad it may cause murders.” I mean, holy shit. Honestly, I can understand most of the points being made from both sides of this argument, but this add-on is just over the top.
This was the mid-1980s when all this was goin’ on. The general public’s increasing awareness of comic books was slowly creeping up. Watchmen wouldn’t come out until a few months after Elementals Special #1 was released, and thus hadn’t yet entered the conversation, but Batman: The Dark Knight had come out just the month before. Comics were on the verge of booming into enormous popularity, and with wider availability and access comes wider criticism.
At the time of this letter exchange, we weren’t quite there yet, but the stirrings of public unrest were there, as more “mature” content began to get mainstreamed (as much as a comic shop was “mainstream” then) into store racks. Discussions of violence in comics were increasing, like in this article from a 1985 Comics Journal: “The Ratings Debate – Violence and Sex in Comics: How Will Publishers Cope with It?” Or this article by Heidi MacDonald, which has lived rent-free in my head for nearly 40 years. And c’mon, X-Men fans had been long debating whether Wolverine was too violent…or not violent enough.
I don’t know that this director was exposed to any of this early tumult in the comics biz…well, actually, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. This exchange, however, remains as a precursor to the debates and accusations and straight-up witch hunts that were to follow in the coming years.
Like I said, I didn’t think the Elementals Special was a great comic. I mean, kudos to the creators for using their platform to address an important topic, but it feels more exploitative than educational. That may just be the nature of the series’ overall tone, or the story in which it was expressed, or whatever. Just overall, the execution just didn’t work for me, but other folks wrote in and really liked it, so Your Mileage May Vary, as it always does.
EDIT: Lars recently did his own overview of this issue, with more visuals of the actual contents than I provided.
Hey, I read this book earlier this year: https://comico-complete.kwakk.info/2026/02/08/1986-elementals-special/
My theory is that Comico saw this issue as an opportunity to get some press of the “Biff! Boom! Pow! Comics aren’t for kids any more!” variety, which is why they made it into a special (even if it reads pretty much like a normal Elementals issue), and why they sent a copy to that poor woman who had to read it.
When she responded with (I’m paraphrasing) “get away from me, you freaks” they should perhaps have realised that this wasn’t going to work, but instead they published both that deflating letter and Willingham’s really touchy response. It’s just a weird publication all over.
I’m impressed that the publishers weren’t so mortified by the response that they folded up shop forever. But “hey guy, we’re trying to end child abuse over here not promote it” is a hell of a thing.
It’s a good, grim little read but Willingham wanted it to be *worthy* so he self-consciously and awkwardly tried to jump on a bandwagon.
Would the infamous exploitation movie I Spit On Your Grave have been improved if its makers had reached out to rape crisis centres?
@Lars Ingebrigtsen – thanks for the extra context and information. I’ve only ever owned a handful of Comico comics. I’m curious read some of your other reviews and learn more about the various titles.
Maybe their pitch letter to the organization should have mentioned “If you don’t want to participate we’re gonna publish your response letter and a self-righteous reply to it.” I get the point you are making Mike, and I agree that her response goes way too far, but Willingham just comes off looking hurt and petty.
My knowledge of the Elementals is limited to them being superheroes based on the elements (duh), they were created by Willingham and published by Comico, there are copyright/publishing shenanigans with the later issues, and of course that there is a SEX Special issue.
I do not know the names or code names of the character so when I read the inside front cover letter I thought “Wow that’s brave and helpful of whoever this guy Tommy is to admit this, and give it more real world context; that couldn’t have been easy to write.” When I learned that it was actually the character in the story it felt maudlin and goofy. As always, just my two cents.
Ok on another point altogether. Monolith’s (cool name btw) costume of brown and red!!!???
Has there EVER been a character that looked good in mostly brown and orange/red? Power Man from the 60’s? – nope, Karate Kid? – nope, Crimson Fox from the JLE? – nope. Seems like a hard color combo to pull off.
@Sean – I’m looking for you to pull some ultra obscure golden age or indie superhero out of your encyclopedic hat to prove me wrong. Don’t let me down! ; )
In retrospect, I was trying to be a little even-handed regarding Willingham’s response, even though I think the comic as a whole did not succeed in its apparent purpose. It is a little persnickety, but I may have been cutting him a little slack as he was defending his particular platform from a letter that basically said “your stuff sucks, dude.” Both sides had points to make, both sides had problems with their approach…yes, I’m “both sides”-ing it, my apologies.
Ultimately I think I was more interested here not in who was right, but in how this fit in with the current climate regarding the perception of comics. Here we have one side saying “comics can tell important stories,” and the other saying “ew, really, have you seen comics?” — a microcosm of what was already happening and what was to come. Though Lars brings up the idea that this was just a cynical attention grab from Willingham, and I can’t discount that.
@LouReedRichards
I think Comico released some fairly strong titles. Definitely the first Grendel (Hunter Rose) stories by Matt Wagner are a good read; although I didn’t read all of the other Grendel stuff. Also, Wagner’s Mage: The Hero Discovered is a good read.
I would also recommend Justice Machine; the basic premise is a group of superheroes who work for an authoritarian “Big Brother” government on a planet called Georwell (as in George Orwell) who think of their world as a utopia. They persue a criminal to Earth and then come to the realization that Georwell is actually a fascist dictatorship once they are exposed to ideas of democracy and liberty that they encounter on Earth. Mike Gustovich created Justice Machine, and it ran for a few issues as a magazine sized comic through Noble Comics from 1981-1983 before Comico picked it up.
Unfortunately, Gustovich later sold the I.P. and I believe a few other small time comics companies tried to revive the characters a few times, but I think the Noble and Comic runs are the best.
Beyond The Elementals, which I recall starting off strong but kind of dwindling, Comico also did a four issue Justice Machine/Elementals crossover mini-series, a Rocketeer run which is definitely worth picking up, The Jam Urban Adventure one-shot, The Maze Agency, Ginger Fox, Next Man, Evangeline, a nice run of Jonny Quest stories which are fairly fun to read, Star Blazers, and various Robotech comics–if that’s your thing. I would rank Comico in the Top Four of ’80s Independent Comics publishers, along with Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics, and First Comics.
As for Golden Age characters with brown and red, I’m sure there are some obscure ones out there, like a third string Timely character who fell by the wayside–Rockman, who made his debut in USA Comics no. 1, August 1941. He was revived in The Twelve limited series a few decades ago.
Incidentally, everything I’ve read about Comico’s current owner Andrew Rev suggests he’s an exploitative fabulist (and not the good kind of fabulist) to be avoided at all costs. (See also: Keya Morgan.) Which is why the Elementals are better off dead.
Regardless of the quality of this story, the argument that reading it would create child abusers/murderers is…dubious at best. Normally, I’d say that argument can be nuanced and interesting, but not this time.
@Lars: I read some of the Elementals reviews on your blog. Very entertaining!
@ Mike – all good points and sorry if my post neglected the aspect of the state of comics in ’86.
I’m sure everyone generally thinks of the time that they got seriously into comics as a perfect jumping on point, and arguments can be made for pretty much any year.
I got the initial bug in ’84 but by 1986 I was primed for all of the good, and bad that comics had to offer. I was too immature/dense to get on the Dark Knight/Watchmen bandwagon, but it did feel like there was a change going on, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I also appreciate the point that Willingham was offended by the absurd response he received, but I am surprised that he really thought the organization would have a favorable response to it.
@ Sean – thanks for the rundown of the Comico books. I think the only one I ever bought new was Johnny Quest, and that was probably mostly for the Steve Rude artwork. For some reason I just don’t remember my LCS carrying their titles. In hindsight it was a small shop, with a decent but somewhat limited selection. I wonder if the larger shops in other parts of the city (The Lion and Unicorn, Curious George’s – any old school Birmingham, AL comics fans out there?) carried more of the line.
Thanks for the info on Justice Machine – I saw pics of them, but never knew what their deal was. Sounds interesting. Grendel, Mage, and the Jam I’m more familiar with. I have some Jam and Mage issues I’ve never gotten around to reading, someday…
Ahh I knew you’d come up with somebody – Rockman, well it only helps prove my point, not a good look.
Of course I forgot probably the most important Brown/Red guy out there – The Juggernaut, his actually works for some reason.
Oh well, to quote the fIREHOSE – “Another Theory Shot to Sh!t” : )
@Oliver – same!
@Thom H. – yeah it’s a silly and tenuous kind of argument to make. I guess it plays into to the “D&D and heavy metal made my kid into a monster” moral panic of the time.
@ LouReedRichards
I recall The Jam being an enjoyable read by the late, great Bernie Mireault–whose art style and sense of humor was always fun. The series went through a ton of independent publishers, however.
If you ever decide to give The Justice Machine a go, the good news is that Noble Comics only published five issues, most of which can be bought inexpensively. The first issue might cost a bit more due to the John Byrne cover art. And the Justice Machine Annual no. 1 (guest starring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) published through Texas Comics might be a bit expensive as it marks the debut appearance of The Elementals. But beyond that, Comico published 29 issues plus one annual of The Justice Machine (and the four issue Justice Machine/Elementals mini-series), so it won’t break the bank to collect this series. I can’t speak to the handful of issues published in the ’90s by Innovation, as I have not bought those.
But the overall characters I found interesting. It reminded me a bit of a Bronze Age Legion of Super-Heroes and X-Men mash up.
Challenger is the middle aged leader and tactitian of the group, who is older and has been in the game a lot longer. Think, Batman, Captain America, and Deadshot.
Blazer is a young lady with more or less Human Torch or Morning Star from The Elements powers, and she is Challenger’s daughter. She is the novice of the team.
Diviner is Challenger’s ex-wife–but not Blazer’s mother. She is a bit of a Marvel Girl/Dream Girl character who can also interface with digital technology.
Titan is a mutant who can increase his size up to 30 feet, making him the Colossal Boy/Giant-Man of the group.
Demon is the resident egotist and super martial artist, with enhanced speed and stamina–sort of a Timber Wolf/Karate Kid of the team.
And Talisman is a charismatic gambler who is a mutant with good karma who can always defeat his enemies…kind of like Nemesis Kid and maybe a bit similar to Gambit–although he was created before Gambit.
And I forgot to mention that you can actually start with The Comico run, which more or less gives a slightly reworked run down of the backstory of The Justice Machine.
And the writing by Jenny Blake Isabella, and Doug Murray, and Michael Eury delving into the interdynamics in the group and whether they should stay on Earth or try to liberate their home world Georwell is quite good.
Holding off on the Elementals Specials until finishing the first series so they slot into the right place is a very collector way to read, and being at about 92% of the run is impressive. I run Voxalike, a guide site for a browser dubbing party game, and older indie superhero dialogue is often hilariously fun to read out loud.
@Sean – Thanks for the info and run down of the characters!
After reading your comment I went and checked out Lars’ post about the title. Maybe that swayed my opinion, but I’m not sure the book will be to my liking.
The art by Mike Gustovich looks like standard 80’s indie superhero stuff, not great, not horrible – kinda like what you’d see in a role playing manual. It’s funny, I just happened to be looking at my old Who’s Who ( A series I dearly love) and noticed Gustovich did the revised Crimson Avenger entry. That entry always stuck out to me because of how awkward it is, esp. his chin. It’s an image that has stuck with me for almost 40 years!
I haven’t gone diving through the cheap bins in a long time, the next time I do though I’ll keep an eye out for the title and see if it reading a whole issue grabs me more. Your enthusiasm for the title is definitely a point in its favor!
Also: Challenger is dressed in a brown and red costume!!! : )
@LouReedRichards
To each their own–but I wouldn’t put too much stock in Lars’s review of the Comico Comics Justice Machine run.
I read some of what he wrote about it, and there was quite a bit of snark and condescension on his part. Also, Lars doesn’t even know who the former Tony Isabella –now Jenny Blake Isabella–is.
It’s easy to write a piss take on a series, or lambast it due to the time period it was created in or because it started off as an Indy comic, but it requires empathy to get into the mindset of what Mike Gustovich was originally going for with The Justice Machine concept.
But you are correct about Challenger wearing brown and red.
Of course I know who Isabella is — and I said so in the blog post about Justice Machine.
@ Lars
“…while I’m not familiar with Isabella’s work (I think?)…”
1987: Justice Machine – Comico Complete https://share.google/q4Pd8H9zTkasczBKu
“Elementals Sex Special”
What a title!
“response”
Willingham is notoriously prickly.
Everyone play nice, please. Sean, you made your opinion known, just leave it be.
I know Mike said that enough is enough, but… Somebody on the internet is wrong!
OK, ok, ok, but I just want to point out that the complete sentence snipped was “So I thought we’d be in safe hands, because while I’m not familiar with Isabella’s work (I think?), Isabella is a professional with a long career. ” I don’t know how one would draw the conclusion that I don’t know who Isabella is from that.
OK, done! Sorry! Shouldn’t have said anything!
@ Sean
I get the points you are making.
I DID say I’ll grab one if/when I encounter one in the cheapo bins. I’ll reiterate that I think your enthusiasm for it counts as much if not more than the review. That comes from enjoying several years of commenting back and forth with you, and respect for the incredible depth of knowledge you seem to possess on any topic related to comics.
@ Lars
I have enjoyed what I’ve read on you blog. It is very snarky (though surprisingly sharkless). I get that’s the tone you’re going for and have kept that in mind, esp. when I don’t agree with your conclusion.
This post about the Elementals helped clarify something that I guess I’ve held onto subconsciously for a very long time. When it comes to independent publishers I much prefer non-superhero and superhero adjacent* work like Nexus to superhero/superteam related material. I guess that Marvel and DC have covered that ground so relentlessly that almost anything similar from an indie feels like a knock-off, or as I mentioned, somebody translating their RPG characters into a comic. I’m not saying that’s “right” or “wrong” just my opinion, and only based on a smattering of indie superhero books I’ve read and not like a systematic review or anything comprehensive.
* Still looking forward to eventually cracking open these Mage, The Jam, and couple of Grendel issues I have.
Best to everyone,
LRR
Lars – that’s fine, your contributions (and yours too, Sean!) are always welcome. I just want to keep any arguments from breaking out here. Everyone just please keep in mind that your pal Mike is medically required to remain stress-free!
Mage is quite entertaining, and that issue of The Jam from Comico is great.
It’s such a shame that nobody’s collected all the Jam material — it was published by a handful of different publishers over a long period, so I guess nobody feels “ownership” over it. Before passing away, Bernie Mireault wrapped the series up, even (in an edition of 810 copies!), so it should make a nice hefty complete collection.
But I guess if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s unlikely that it’ll ever happen… *sigh*
My pal Nat did some reprinting of Bernie’s Jam material, but to have it all in one big ol’ omnibus would be great. I have it all, but would still love to own a complete book of it.
And I’m on the record regarding Mage being one of my all-time favorites.
Oh, darn! I totally missed those! And they all seem to be out of print now? I just snagged The Jam: Urban Adventure: Beginnings from ebay, but the other two I that don’t have (Turbo #2 and Short Stories) aren’t even available there…
I guess they were mostly available as Kickstarter (or something?) items? Or something? So the people who bought copies are sitting on them, understandably…
My search skills must be bad — found the Short Stories collection now, so I snagged that one up. And also the A-Girl collection that I saw that he had published, too. I’m also tempted by the To Be Announced collection, but I’ve got all the issues, so… :-)
So much good stuff: https://www.aboutcomics.com/wp/category/comic-book-collection/
So, in the interest of fairness and just to clarify what I meant by what I wrote (since it got brought up), my intention was to point out that “Blogger X,” based on the awkward phrasing of his sentence structure, seemed, at the time of said blog post, to be unfamiliar with and/or hadn’t read any specific comics written by Isabella prior to Justice Machine– although he was aware that Isabella wrote comics professionally.
So, based on how that was phrased, it seemed reasonable to parse it that “Blogger X” had, up to the point of said blog post, having not read (or possessing zero memory of ever reading) any of Isabella’s Bronze Age comics stories — including, but not limited to, Black Lightning (a character Isabella created), Luke Cage Power Man, Iron Fist Ghost Rider, Captain America, The Champions, etc., did not know who Isabella was in the sense of not knowing or having bothered to read any of Isabella’s works. So, fine, I will concede that “Blogger X” had a superficial knowledge of Isabella being a comic writer at the time that said blog posting was posted.
I guess I could have phrased it as: “Blogger X isn’t even familiar with (or wasn’t even familiar with at the time of said post) Isabella’s pre-Justice Machine oeuvre.”
And why would that matter, you might ask? Well, because from my perspective, if one has at least a passing knowledge of what a comics writer has written and has read some of that writer’s past works, one can gain more insight into what that writer is about or at least is trying to convey, or perhaps where that writer’s other projects were more successful or better received than the particular series in question that one is reviewing in a blog project.
Personally, I like the stories by Isabella that I have read (not that I have read them all), and I consider them a good writer–and I appreciate how they write captions.
But, different strokes for different folks.
Giving credit where credit is due, at least “Blogger X” acknowledges that Justice Machine was one of Comico’s best sellers (although he seems puzzled by it), selling more that 70,000 copies per issue at one point (but, who knows, maybe many thousands of copies were being kept as back inventory by Ralph and tons of other inveterate comics shop owners back in the glorious ’80s?).
We can also find common ground on enjoying at least some of the Doug Murray run of JM.
However, I give demerits for the repeated references to JM member Talisman as “the beardy guy” (is that supposed to be funny, because to me it just comes off as trite…) instead of just respectfully calling him “Talisman.”
So, in conclusion, I will just restate that my take is that Justice Machine may not be perfect, but it is an entertaining enough ’80s comic read. And, I wonder if Gustovich regrets having sold the property?
I will also say that I think Gustovich’s art is fairly good on the whole, (but, sure, there are flaws here and there) and giving credit where credit is due, he did go from fanzine artist to professional artist and was inking stuff at DC Comics by the late ’80s. I think that on the issues wherr Dell Barras was inking over Gustovich’s pencils the book looked pretty professional.
I also think that, in our present dystopian age, a Justice Machine streaming series (serving as an allegory for what we are currently living through) could be a very interesting premise.
I am also in complete agreement with everyone who feels that a complete collection of Bernie Mireault’s The Jam stories would be truly great.
@LouReedRichards
Thanks for the kind words. And at the end of the day everyone has their own opinions and tastes.
I can see where for some people having more superhero books from independent publishers wasn’t really what they were looking for. However, as I have no doubt mentioned before, I feel that the ’80s had a lot of great independent books in various genres for varied tastes. And I still think that DNAgents was a fun series where Mark Evanier, Will Meugniot, and other artists went a few steps beyond the standard fare that DC and Marvel were churning out at the time.
Lars – I think several of Nat’s books were printed on demand from Amazon…I can’t recall if any or all of these JAM books were, I just asked Nat for copies for my shop and he just brought ’em over himself!
Sean – While I’ve always enjoyed all the work by Jenny Blake Isabella that I’ve read (even getting to tell her my love of the Hawkman issue with Kite Man she wrote), I’ve never sampled Justice Machine. I do have the Justice Machine Featuring the Elementals mini to read eventually, but it’s written by Willingam. We’ll see if this inspires me to look further into the team.
I do have the Justice Machine Annual with the first appearance of the the Elementals, but haven’t read the JM part.
I’ve NEVER read any Justice Machine, and now I want to!