May the Hyperborean (1994)

 

Cover of PLOGG #1 (1994)

 May the Hyperborean, a little barbarian girl from the north, was originally featured in a prose story, "Nightmare in Metal", in 1990.  In December of 1991 I decided to start my own small press, Plogg Press, and designed a logo inspired by Jim Steranko's cover for THE INCREDIBLE HULK SPECIAL #1 (1968), which always thrilled me.  (Hulk's face was redrawn by Marie Severin, who was the Hulk's regular artist, and who also drew that issue.)

THE INCREDIBLE HULK SPECIAL #1 (1968), cover by Jim Steranko (and Marie Severin)

The next month, January 1992, I started working on a May the Hyperborean comic.  For some reason I made her a teenager.  I think I had in mind Robert E. Howard's Conan, whose original stories in WEIRD TALES in the 1930s followed no chronological order, jumping around from the Cimmerian's teens to his 40s.  I've since kept May at about age 9, just as Little Orphan Annie never aged.  As long as Archie comics are around, there will always be enough teen comics in the world.

Unused rough pencils for first page

I hadn't drawn a full comic since 1984, so I was rusty -- very rusty.  To make matters worse, I was working longer hours than a Victorian child in a cotton mill, six days a week.  I just didn't have time.  I drew the first three pages in 1992, and the rest in 1994, all in pen and ink.  (As you can see, I used dirt cheap 3-hole sheets of paper.)  I didn't finish the 16-page comic till the summer of 1994, two and a half years later.  I painted a cover for it and "published" the first issue of PLOGG early in August of 1994 in an edition of 40 copies.  I'm guessing you don't own one of these babies.

May pg1

May pg2

May pg3

May pg4

May pg5

May pg6

May pg7

May pg8

May pg9

May pg10

May pg11

May pg12

May pg13

May pg14

May pg15

May pg16

The Hip Horrors

 

The Hip Horrors first appeared in a short story titled "Animal Friends", in HIP HORROR COMICS, one of my hundreds of home made comic books, in 1982, but which I cover-dated June 1968.

I was always a fan of horror movies, especially the Universal horrors of the 1930s and 1940s.  I also liked Roger Corman's productions of the 1960s, and anything with Vincent Price in it.  But I also really liked the mixture of horror and humour, such as the classic ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, or the Bowery Boys, when they found themselves in haunted houses, and Corman's THE RAVEN, with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, who also starred in another horror spoof, THE COMEDY OF TERRORS.  Every week I watched the monotonous but entertaining HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN.  The list goes on.

I also bought Stan Lee's MONSTER MADNESS, and collected the "You'll Die Laughing" bubble gum cards, circa 1973.

The Hip Horrors are a quartet of London hippies whose favourite hangout is a nightclub called the Ganymede Spectrum Sanctuary.  They also take it upon themselves to battle vampires, werewolves, zombies and other supernatural creatures that cross their paths.  The group consists of Mary Jane Jones, the brains of the bunch, and perhaps the most fearless; Carl Caine, calm and rational, the voice of reason; John Bedford, a Jughead Jones-type character, who is often found sleeping or eating, and is somewhat indifferent to monster hunting; and Jim Spencer, a gravedigger by profession, who is cowardly and would rather steer clear of monsters, but is the toughest member, and won't back down if the fight is brought to him.

The following 10-page story, "He Was A Middle-Age Vampire", was extemporaneously written and drawn in pencil on 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper folded in half (as was HIP HORROR COMICS), probably in 1983.

Hip Horrors pg1

Hip Horrors pg2

Hip Horrors pg3

Hip Horrors pg4

Hip Horrors pg5

Hip Horrors pg6

Hip Horrors pg7

Hip Horrors pg8

Hip Horrors pg9

Hip Horrors pg10

Set the Controls, Chapter 5: Gaol

 

STC page 81

STC page 82

STC page 83

STC page 84

STC page 85

STC page 86

STC page 87

STC page 88

STC page 89

STC page 90

STC page 91

STC page 92

STC page 93

STC page 94

STC page 95

STC page 96

STC page 97

STC page 98

STC page 99

STC page 100

STC page 101

STC page 102

STC page 103

STC page 104

STC page 105

STC page 106

STC page 107

STC page 108

STC page 109

STC page 110

STC page 111

STC page 112

The story was supposed to continue, but Chapter 6 was barely even started when I abandoned the project.  Here, then, are the last two pages of SET THE CONTROLS:

 

STC page 113

STC page 114

Mis-quoth the raven, "No more!"