1986: Luger

Luger (1986) #1-3 by Bruce Jones, Bo Hampton, Tom Yeates, et al.

Bruce Jones wrote a bunch of comics for Pacific Comics, and was (sort of) inherited by Eclipse when Pacific went under. But this is his first new work for Eclipse he’d done, I think.

As you may have guessed from the name “Luger”, this is an action/adventure story, and Hampton and Yeates does that stuff perfectly. There’s a lot of extremely well-rendered guys punching each others for pages.

And, since this is a Bruce Jones book, there’s at least one random scene of gratuitous (i.e., that doesn’t lead anywhere plot-wise) violence against women per issue.

But this is a very entertaining book. A recurring theme on the letters page is that every twist in the plot (and it’s a very twisty plot) comes as a genuine surprise… but they aren’t random plot developments, either. They make sense, and that can be exhilarating.

Oh! This book was originally written when Jones was at Pacific? So I guess he didn’t really do any new work purely for Eclipse? Except a couple of issues of the horror/sf anthologies later…

Plot twist ahead!

You have to wonder how much thought Jones put into this book. Here’s a standard rape-as-viewer-titillation scene, right?

And in the next panel Jones makes the implied explicit; making fun of the reader perving out on teh sexay rapee. Or is he? Jones is slippery.

There’s a backup feature in only one of the issues, and it’s the most random of random things: It’s a three page tribute to Carl Barks by Vittorio Giardino, translated from the original Italian. It’s a really sweet strip, but… what? Why here?

But then again, why ask why?

Oh, I didn’t mention what this book’s about, did I? No. But I think the panel above is sufficient explanation.

This story has never been reprinted, which is really weird. It’s a self-contained, entertaining, very pretty story. You’d think there’d be a market for it. Perhaps 65 pages makes for a too-slim volume for a reprint project these days?