Dara Naraghi has been running a features on his blog called Indie Cover Spotlight where he goes through his longboxes and pulls out the amazing, unlikely, and just plain forgotten indie comics of yore, say, like this cover of something called STAR RANGERS by Dave Dorman, a loving tribute to Fredric Wertham.
Or Chakan the Forever Man, who is actually quite Unforever, despite being turned into a video game:
The story behind Chakan is that he was such an accomplished swordsman that he challenged Death itself to a duel. If he won, he would be granted eternal life. Sure enough, he won, but ended up with one of those Faustian deals. He was granted eternal life, but in return he was compelled to hunt down and eliminate all evil from the world. Only then would he know peace.
But wait, there’s more to this story. Don’t ask me how, but somehow this little black and white indie comic was picked up by Sega and turned into a video game for the Sega Genesis!
There’s much more, some of it well remembered, some best forgotten—and one or two might just stir up memories in some of you reading this. Ah, the ’90s.
Dara is a bottomless well of bizarre indie comics knowledge and minutiae. It’s astonishing the stuff he pulls out of those longboxes.
Chakan was a great game for Sega. Don’t remember the comic.
Very cool homage to Wally Wood and pulp “peril” art on that cover (no one draws funky tubes like Wally).
Chakan! Ha ha! I remember that book too well…. My brother used to be really into picking up unique-looking indie books and Chakan was one he really enjoyed. So, when the game came out, I remember he and I were both like, “Chakan??? Wow!!!!”
That Star Rangers cover is amazing!
@Matt: what can I say…young, impressionable Dara discovered comic book shops in the mid 80s, at the height of the first b&w indie comics boom, so that’s the stuff that’s always stuck with me.
I love going back and flipping through my back issues. So many of today’s big name artists got their start in those indie books, which makes great fodder for the Monday Morning “Guess the Artist” feature on my other blog.