Renegades & Aardvarks Redux

Let’s start off with a list of all the comics, and then there’s a summary after that.

There! That’s the lot.

I started this blog series in early February, and here we are now in May, so it took me about three months to cover Aardvark-Vanaheim and Renegade Press. The bulk of the reading required for this series was taken up by a single title: Cerebus. The 300 hundred Cerebus issues, alone, are more than the 278 non-Cerebus issues published by these two intertwined companies. (But then again, I bailed after 150 Cerebus issues.)

To recap briefly: Aardvark-Vanaheim was started by Dave Sim and Deni Loubert in 1977. They got divorced, and Loubert started Renegade Press, taking all the non-Cerebus series with her in 1985. Renegade Press ceased publishing in 1988, and Cerebus continued until the early noughties. (Isn’t that what we agreed to call that decade? No?)

Unusual for a comics company that went under, Renegade apparently didn’t owe anybody any money — not even the printer. Loubert managed to pay everybody (even if sometimes later than some of them wanted), and wound down Renegade in a somewhat orderly fashion, instead of going bankrupt.

There had been rumours of Renegade shutting down for half a year before it happened — which in itself was detrimental, because it means that distributors are more likely to decide not to pay you if they can get away with it, creators being more skittish about committing to doing a book with the company, and comics buyers perhaps avoiding your books, since they’re just going to get cancelled anyway.

Reading interviews with people from around this time, it seems like some people thought that being published by Renegade was a kiss of death: If that logo was on the cover, shops were less likely to carry your book.

I thought this was pretty strange at first blush: Renegade had some series that were pretty well liked, and had a somewhat high profile (as these things go). There’s Flaming Carrot, Wordsmith, Ms. Tree, The Silent Invasion, Cases of Sherlock Holmes… Books that would continue (at least for a while) after Renegade shut down.

But then there’s the rest, and you can kind of go “oh yeah” — if you’ve been landed with these books, perhaps that would make you sceptical. Because some of the books Renegade published were pretty bad? Some of them have charm and are unassuming, so you can’t really … work up much of an ire towards them, but amateurish junk is amateurish junk, even if it has charm.

And it engenders distrust if you publish a lot of that.

Which Renegade did.

Comics buyers are also notorious cheapskates. Renegade published (mostly) 24 page comics, printed on the worst newsprint on the stands, for $2. This was at a time where Marvel published comics at 75c, and other alternative publishers tried to at least give some semblance of “higher class” by using better paper or getting a club-house feel going, and there’s nothing of that from Renegade: You just get the floppiest of floppies.

And did I mention the ads? No? Here’s one that announces all the publications from January 1986:

It’s certainly an… aesthetic? But this sort of thing certainly isn’t classing up your $2 24-page newsprint floppy.

But the thing is: As a teenager, I overlooked all of this, and I bought almost everything Renegade published, because Renegade would publish oddities that nobody else would have taken a chance on. I’m not sure you can say that Friends, Love Fantasy or Kafka were actually… good… but they were weird as fuck. At least they tried to do something different. And that was enough for me.

I’ve enjoyed re-reading these books — even the horrible ones.

OK, let’s round off this with an index, vaguely separating the books into vague groups:

Cerebus

Reprints

Misc

Humour

Action/Adventure/Mysteries

Anthologies

Autobio

Romance

Sci-Fi

The biggest groups here are “Reprints” and “Humour” and “Action” and “Adventure”, I guess?

A&R1990: Cerebus #139-150

Cerebus (1990) #139-150 by Dave Sim and Gerhard

So, Renegade Press is now a thing of the past, so all I have to do in this blog series is about 150 issues of Cerebus, and then Cerebus Archives and Glamourpuss, and…

Let’s get to it.

Sim starts off with a jibe at people who didn’t think there was enough Cerebus in Jaka’s Story…

The first issue in the Melmoth sequence sets the scene quite nicely: We’re in a bar/hotel on the way up to Upper Iest, but almost down in the lower city. (Cerebus is often kinda vague on where it’s set, so that’s nice.) But… doesn’t the mountain look taller than it used to? I remember it at being squatter…

The first issue is Normalroach getting used to Cirinists running the show.

So Normalroach can’t even kill the Most Horrendous Waitron Ever. It’s not really the most auspicious start … it’s just not that funny?

All of the issues in this batch are 40 pages and up (I think), with the longest counting in at 56 pages. There’s just 20 pages of Cerebus material, though, so it’s due to Sim printing a buttload of letters, as well as printing various bits as back-ups. Here we have a Stephen Bissette 24 hour comic, which was a craze at the time. People are still doing them, I think? It’s Scott McCloud’s invention.

Then we start the story: It’s all about Oscar Wilde’s last days.

Remember that Oscar guy from Jaka’s Story? That’s a different Oscar. Here we have Oscar Wilde complimenting his writing, saying how ingenious the storytelling was… or, to put it another way, Dave Sim complimenting himself on his storytelling.

(The prose bits in Jaka’s Story were pretty bad.)

Sim isn’t really experimenting that much with the art as in his earlier days… and when he does, it’s not as successful as his earlier days. This just looks awkward.

Finally! A page of Connie Lingus and her favourite book.

Jaka’s Story ended with Cerebus returning to the tavern Jaka danced at… and she had been taken by the Cirinists. He spends most of Melmoth in this semi-catatonic state… which I’m not sure makes sense. So — is he assuming that Jaka is dead? Is that a natural assumption to make? He knows that Jaka is Lord Julius’ niece — does it make sense to jump to the conclusion that the Cirinists would kill her for dancing in a tavern? He found Missy (the doll) — but surely Cerebus doesn’t know how important that doll is to Jaka?

I know, we’re talking about Cerebus here, and 90% of questions people have about characters doing stuff is “well, they’re kinda stupid”, and that goes double for Cerebus himself. Still, here it just seems egregious: Sim needs Cerebus to just keep still for 12 issues, so … this is what he came up with, I guess: He’s catatonic because it’s convenient for the story.

It makes some emotional sense, though. But as readers we’ve just read that Jaka is fine and well (sort of), so it doesn’t make all that much dramatic sense.

And I’m not sure the bit about gold does, either: Cerebus has given the tavern owner a gold coin as payment (apparently one of seventeen in circulation in Iest), which makes the tavern owner very rich indeed, because Cerebus had basically had all gold coins removed from circulation.

But… no city is an island (except island states) — gold is plentiful outside of Iest. If gold was this valuable, then surely people from outside would come in, buy up all the property, and make gold plentiful again. And… the Cirinists have all of Cerebus’ gold, so why aren’t they letting it rain, building all the stuff they find useful (they’re big on social reform).

It’s… it’s as if Cerebus is written by somebody with little sense of how economics work.

(Is that a *gasp* I’m hearing?)

This is the best letter that arrives.

An excerpt from a 24 hour comic by Scott McCloud. I like this style — he should have done more in it.

Gerhard build a model of the tavern to better draw it.

Heh heh. Prince Mick (Jagger) had to get a haircut.

As usual, Sim’s only way to make the plot progress is by having things happen by accident, so he just has all these people from the past happen to walk by the tavern Cerebus is sitting outside. At least this time there’s some semblance of logic to this: Anybody walking from/to Upper Iest will pass by this tavern, since it’s on the winding road up the mountain. (I’m not sure that bit actually makes that much sense, either — it seems awfully narrow if it has to carry all the goods needed up there…)

Sim does his own 24 hour comic, and it’s about what a bitch this woman is. (She may or may not stand in for all women who goes to bars.)

Sim doesn’t answer any of the letters, and I’ve only skimmed them, but there seems to be an awful lot of these… er… people who have… er… problems… with women.

At the start, the previews/extras are all by pretty big names, but that sort of dissipates — instead we get a bunch of people that are up and coming, like Daryl Cunningham here. Sim was big on self publishing those days, and I think most (all?) of them are self-publishers.

Sim weighs in on what word best describes women.

Finally! Something happens! It’s a mystical vision of Sim/Astoria being the same or something. It’s nice, and I was really excited for a couple of pages.

Oh, yeah, I haven’t mentioned that about half (or more?) of the pages are taken up by scenes of Oscar Wilde dying in bed while his friends are caring for him. And writing letters. The friends are kinda under-developed as characters? I’m guessing the text bits are actual excerpts from their letters, but it’s hard to tell the friends apart.

I’m not sure these bits are totally successful.

Sim introduces a new character — a waitress who does uptalk? So she talks like this? You know?

I wasn’t quite sure what Sim was going for here… but it turns out that she’s really nice person — she takes care of Cerebus, and slowly brings him back to life. It’s therapy? But unconscious? You know?

The back-up things turn even stranger. Was Sim just printing whatever at this point? (Constantine Markopoulos.)

Sim also prints a Corben excerpt from Corben’s unfortunate 3D computer modelling phase.

Michael Moorcock apparently writes in with a graceful note to tell Sim that he doesn’t want to receive any further complimentary copies of Cerebus.

And Neil Gaiman (!) does a 24 hour comic about emperor Heliogabolus, who sounds like a party dude. But does he exist?

Apparently!

Elagabalus[a] or Heliogabalus[b] (c. 204 – 11 March 222), officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for sex scandals and religious controversy.

Sim comes to the conclusion that being gay (as abhorrent as he finds it) is just like being a comics nerd (as abhorrent as we find that).

Wilde dies. It’s kinda moving.

Oops! It turns out that the Moorcock letter was fake. Oops!

Did I mention Sim’s reliance on coinkidink as the driving force in the “plot”? Yes, indeed — here where the two Cirinist guards just happen to be chatting about torturing Jaka, the love of Cerebus’ life, a couple meters away from where Cerebus is sitting.

Now that’s Grade A worldbuilding!

Cerebus then kills the guard, making everybody go “boo yah!”, and then…

… we helpfully get a flashback to somebody infodumping facts about Cirinists to Cerebus.

It kinda feels like Sim has just given up on giving any structure to the story (as it is), and is just winging it. I mean, he’s still relying, endlessly, on all the story elements he did in the first dozen issues, but seeding mysteries/information for future events has pretty much stopped, and he has to resort to convenient infodumps instead.

Ivan Brunetti! Does a fumetti! It’s vaguely amusing.

Ng Suat Tong writes in The Comics Journal #154, page 37:

DAVE SIM IS A CONSUMMATE and, at
times, very subtle satirist. He is the epitome of
the opinionated asshole, and his Cerebus re-
mains one of the few truly profound works
available in comics. Melmorh is the fifth book
in Dave Sim’s Cerebus epic. It is a milestone
of sorts for Sim, because no other artist has been
obstinate or crazy enough to devote himself
solely to the production of more than 150 issues
of a comic. As a result, Cerebus reflects the
growth and changing concerns of its creator.

[…]

Would a dedicated artist like Sim insert ir-
relevant comedy at the beginning of such a
serious drama? The possibility exist, as he
has a tendency to soften the brooding intensity
of his scenes by juxtaposing gag sequences. On
the other hand, his intentions might be the exact
opposite of this — that is, to intensify the mood
of the serious segments of the story. An example
is in Melmodl #7, when archbishop Posey gets
frightened by his own reflection. This seven-
pagecomic sequence follows a “painful” scene
in ‘which Oscar attempts to get Out Of bed.
However, by the seventh page. when Posey is
sentenced to five years of hard labor by the
Cirinists, the reader is trying to stifle a yawn.
Sim’s’ technique is faultless. but the sequence
is too familiar, especially to a generation brought
up on Saturday morning cartoons. Weighty
drama like Melmoth is diluted by such juxtaposi-
tions. and the overall story suffers as a result.

[…]

The Oscar Of Melmoth is a mere shadow Of
the witty intellectual portrayed so vibrantly in
Jaka ‘s Story. Wilde suffered from a bacterial in-
fection of the middle ear (otitis media as a symp-
tom of tertiary syphilis) and died Of an acute
inflamation of the brain (meningitis). Oscar is
thus shown with a bandaged ear and in a severe
febrile state. With each issue, he grows increas-
ingly emaciated and confused. In an age before
the advent of penicillin, Wilde’s condition was
largely untreatable. Sim effectively depicts the
confusion, dementia and suffering which would
have been evident in Wilde’s gradually deter-
iorating condition. A minor slip-up is seen in
Melmoth #9 when Ross returns to lest at Turn-
er’s behest. Ellmann states that Wilde “had a
fortnight’s beard” at this point in time, but Sim
omits this in his illustrations.
The near-verbatim transcriptions Of Ross and
Turner’s letters, together with Sim’s keen inter-
pretation of them may not, however, be suffi-
cient to produce any significant emotional im-
pact upon the reader. The portrayal of Oscar in
Jaka ‘s Story may help to elicit some sympathy
from readers, but the fact is that real life has
dictated that Wilde’s death would be neither
remarkable nor exceptionally moving. The
tragedy of Wilde’s story lies in his eloquent
defence, conviction, imprisonment and rapid
decline in the space of three years. These events
are not found in either Jaka ‘s Story or Melmoth.

[…]

There is a significant subplot which runs
through Melmoth that concerns Cerebus. At the
start of Melmoth, he is seen clinging tightly to
his sword and Jaka’s doll, Missy, totally deva-
stated by the sudden loss of his loved one. (A
recent interview with Steve Bissette [Comics
Interview #1071 reveals that Sim had remained
similarly unapproachable and contemplative
after breaking up with his girlfriend.) One can-
not help but notice that even as Oscar sinks
deeper into the arms of death, Cerebus acquires
increased confidence and vitriol. For example,
Melmorh #7 begins with Cerebus engaging in
some acrobatic nut-eating and exchanging some
icy words with a neighbor, an improvement over
his usual blank stare in the previous issues. Im-
mediately following this, a transcription of Reg-
inald Turner’s letter to Robert Ross states, “I’m
afraid it’s all over with Oscar.” Cerebus’ gradual
return to normalcy culminates in an act of vio-
lence that closes the novel. It is a watershed of
sorts. Sim has never depicted violence quite so
graphically before. The reader experiences a
sense of exhilaration and release which is almost
cathartic. This feeling is heightened by the fact
that the previous 38 issues had moved along at
a deliberately leisurely pace.

[…]

Melmorh addresses many things, but it is first
and foremost an artist’s tribute to a great literary
figure. When did Sim’s interest in Wilde begin?
Was the desire to do a biography of Wilde a sud-
den whim which would have been better served
in a mini-series? •How much sophistication
should we allow a work like Cerebus? Only Sim
has the answers to these questions. The reader
can either trust that Melmoth fits into the
thematic whole Of Sim’s epic Or debase this
particular segment as being and
pretentious. Sim has stated that to avante-garde
cartoonists, Cerebus is little better than a Marvel
comic, but in an artform where works of erudi-
tion and pathos are sorely lacking, Cerebus is
a stream in the desert.

Jason Sacks writes in Amazing Heroes #197, page 68:

Sometimes it’s harder to write a
positive review than to write a nega-
tive one. With a negative review, one
can ate least pick out (and pick on)
those aspects of a comic that are
poorly executed. But what can you
say when a comic is very nearly
perfect?
Cerebus #150 is the halfway point
of what arguably may be called the
greatest comic series of all time. Dave
Sinis art is as brilliant as usual, the
plotline is fascinating, the cover is
subtly striking and even the lettering
is head and shoulders abcwe any comic
on the market either yesterday or
today. All of this almost goes without
saying.

Oh, so Cerebus did assume that Jaka was dead?

Also it’s super unclear that the reason Cerebus is so shell-shocked is because he thinks Jaka is dead. I had to read that elsewhere to understand. Why does he think Jaka is dead?

*:

Melmoth is a tragic book superbly executed. The shorter length (a mere 250 pages) suits the subject perfectly – a breath of fresh air after the literal weight of earlier volumes. This is a thoughtful, literary book, with intertwining plots, that is nothing less than a pleasure to read.

And another review:

I always really liked this storyline because it was such a departure from Cerebus‘ story, and it was a good example of Dave’s storytelling skill even when he wasn’t working with his own characters. I know for a lot of people, it was a bit frustrating having Cerebus as a supporting character for 45 issues, but it obviously makes the conclusion of this book exceptionally intense. I think, too, that we all maybe needed a bit of a break from the aardvark after finding out just how terrible he really is. However, it was a harbinger of things to come—Dave would come to see Cerebus as a bit of a public forum for his own opinions, eventually to the detriment of a large portion of his reader base.

I think Melmoth is fine — Cerebus’ apathy and stirring from that apathy is well rendered — it’s just… not that interesting?

Or perhaps my problem is that I just don’t have anything to say about it. Writing this blog post has brought home to me that I don’t really enjoy writing about Cerebus: There’s too much that annoys me about it. And plenty of other people have nattered on about Cerebus endlessly, so it seems pointless.

I don’t think these blogs about Cerebus is much fun to read, either, so I’m just going to bail. Besides, I think it’s pretty much downhill from here? If I remember Mothers & Daughters correctly, the only thing of importance that happens is that Astoria shows up and says that all the plots and mysteries that had happened in the first 100 issues of Cerebus were just piffle? I may be misremembering, and now I’ll never find out!

Yes! I FAILED! My Aardvark Vanaheim / Renegade Press Total Re-Reading project is an abject failure! I’m going to stop here, with 150 (well, 149) issues to go.

*phew*

That’s a load off my mind.

So everybody (heh heh) waiting for my oh-so-insightful comments on, say, Going Home — sorry. Ain’t gonna happen.

The End.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

A&R1988: Spiral Cage

Spiral Cage (1988) by Al Davison

Here we are — the final Renegade Press comic. (It’s possible that other comics trickled out after this, but it’s the last #1, though.) And it’s a total outlier in the Renegade library: For one, it’s not a newsprint pamphlet — instead it’s a squarebound book with white paper: The only publication they did in something other than their normal format.

This “prestige format” thing was a much-used signifier of “serious comics” (pioneered by the Batman thing Frank Miller did, I guess), and Deni Loubert wanted to pivot towards graphic novels, but this was the only one she published before shutting down Renegade.

And it’s a comic I bought as a teenager. (Hm. Well. I had just turned 20, I guess.) And I remember feeling that it was a very special publication: Something new and fresh and exciting, but not completely successful?

Let’s have a look.

OK, first we have a dedication, and then a title page…

Then an introduction by Alan Moore, which must have been a nice get for Renegade.

Oh, yeah, another thing that makes this somewhat anomalous: Al Davison is a British artist, and Loubert had mainly worked with Canadian or American creators.

Then we get an introduction by Davison, and by this point, I’m thinking: Can any comic take this much portentous front-loading? They’re setting themselves up for disappointment by faffing around to this extent before getting into the book itself.

And then it starts, and we go over the same thing we’ve already done in the introduction.

That’s not a good start, is it?

How much is a stone anyway? Hm…

Oh my god! She’d worn herself down to almost nothing! 40kg!

I’m not sure whether using the busy scribbles in the margins and the outer edges is an effective design choice? I mean, it does reflect the general messiness of the contents, but…

Anyway, this not so much a traditional autobio story as a collection of glimpses from Davison’s life…

It’s told in a kinda loosely associative way, and when it works (like the spread above), it really works. (The page to the right there is downright pretty.) But it’s over before we really get into the rhythms of it — it feels like a work that should have been at least three times as long, but instead we’re left hanging with a feeling of “what was that about, then?” That is, it feels like it’s lacking some kind of… arc. It’s true to life in that there’s no resolution, but it’s a bit formless?

Then we pad out the volume with a short story that’s pretty nice.

And incongruously in a book like this, we get some in-house ads. “Renegade Clears The Air”? What’s that about?

Alternative cover, I guess?

Amazing Heroes #145, page 215:

With Spiral Cage, artist/writer A1
Pavison presents some dark fantasies
with some heavy autobiographical
leanings. His work, highly lauded by
fellow-Brit Alan Moore (who will be
doing the introduction) has appeared in
Renegade Romance, the Pulp File of
WOMsmith, and The Cases of Sherlock
Holmes. This time around, Davison
produces striking tales similar in tone to
early Might Zone and Outer Limits
episodes, containing an unusual melody
of wonder and hope in what are often
situations of despair and confusion. And
he doesn’t go retreading plots and
dialogue leading up to a cheap shock,
either. Davison has said of his stories,
‘I’ve always thought a good comic could
deal with the serious side of relation-
ships, not just the schmaltzy stuff. I’ve
tried to combine humor and romance to
emphasize the serious undercurrent.”
And so it is with his Spiral Cage
vignettes, such as his ‘A Tale from the
Attic” feature, that Davison combines
unlike elements to emphasize other
pints which reject the common impres-
Sion of gore and mindless violence in
favor of feelings more eerie and therefore
more haunting.
Spinl Cage will be magazine-sized
one-shot of 56 black-and-white pages
(white paper stock) with full color ccwers
at $3.00. Spiral Cage ships August 5th.

Nancy Collins writes in Amazing Heroes #153, page 70:

The Spiral Cage is•a look at the life
of a handicapped child, growing up
in a world seldom glimpsed—or
understood—by “healthy” people.
The narrative visits different periods
in Davidson’s life from birth to
adulthood. The segments dealing with
his childhood and early adolescence
are, by far, the most poignant and
imaginative. The narrative elements
dealing with his adult life and its
sorrows, however, come across as
pretentious and self-indulgent. The
artwork chronicling the adult
Davidson’s. activities is competent if
uninspired “realistic” comic book
stuff, completely at odds with the
exuberant style used to illustrated the
exploits of his younger incarnation.
(The sequence where the three-month-
old child, recuperating from what
would be the first ofa lifetime full of
“corrective surgical procedures,”
dreams of flying is damn near heart-
breaking.)
I e consider Davidson’s (to my
knowledge) American debut, albeitly
flawed, a positive step in the direction
of presenting the “secret” ‘M)rld of the
disabled in a manner that attempts to
entertain without exploiting and
educate without preaching. Highly
price of admission..

A much-expanded version of The Spiral Cage was released later by Active Images:

The book’s zine-like quality may be jarring to the casual eye, this format also shows its strengths as a brutally honest chronicle of a man developing as a person and an artist.

It seems well-received:

The artwork is in black and white, varying in style from quick scratchy sketches to dark meticulous chiaroscuro drawings. The narrative jumps back and forth; it is not the most homogenous or coherent of works, but this fragmented format perhaps reflects Davisons feelings, and it adds to the overall power of the book.

Well, since this is the final blog post about a Renegade comic, I might as well cover Renegade’s denouement here, too. Let’s go:

The Comics Journal #127, page 19:

Renegade “Refits”
Publishing Strategy
Despite their persistence, rumors of
Renegade Press’ demise are ready
exaggerated, according to puilisher
Deni Loubert, but creators are owed
money and comics titles are being
cancelled to allow Renegade a chance
to “stabilize.”
“I’ve been fielding a lot Of calls to
kill that rumor,” Loubert said. ‘ ‘The
reality of the matter is that I’m late
with a few creators, about 35 to 40
days late — I’m not going to pretend
otherwise, because they can tell you
otherwise — but I’m on time with our
printer because that is our agreement,
Renegade is an ongoing concern.
Reports circulated in late January
that Loubert is contracting Renegade
— reports that she confirmed, though
she disclaimed their obvious interpre-
tation: that Renegade is closing shop
“I’m looking to get out of doing
ongoing titles and concentrate on
graphic novels and deluxe packaging
this year, ” Loubert said, adding that
she’s been tapering Renegade’s out-
put for atx»ut six months. ‘ ‘The market
is not such to support a lot of ongoing
monthly books, so I’ve been pursuing
other projects trying to homes
for the regular titles I have.”
Refitting. In fact, Renegade is divest-
ing all of its ongoing titles — Cases
of Sherlock Holmes, Wimmen ‘s Com-
ic, Agent Unknown, Suburban Night-
mares, Wordsmith, and Ms. Tree —
while pursuing bookstore distribution
of upcoming One-shot albums. [Lou-
bert and Ms. Tree co-creator Max Al-
Ian Collins confirmed that only “the
final stages of negotiations” remain to
•place the title with “one Of the big
two. “l. Loubert is herself concen-
trating on freelance writing, from TV
and ammation to comics projects for
other publishers.
“I’ve been working On my writing
projects, developing various things,
projects that I don’t have to come in-
to the Office every day to oversee, and
I’m refitting Renegade to do more Of
it,” she said. ‘ •In fact, I’m on deadline
with some TV projects right now.”
Renegade has announced three ma-
jor titles for 1989, all graphic novels
aimed at bookstores (through an un-
disclosed distributor) as well as the
direct sales comics market. A1 David-
son’s The Spiral Cage, released last
August to comics shops, will arrive in
bookstores, [Albert said, “probably
next month [i.e. March].” Randy
Renaldo’s Rob Hanes, Boy Detective,
M. Dalton Allred’s Dead Air, A1
Davidson’s The Spiral Cage: Diary of
an Astral Gypsy. and a two-volume set
called Horse are also scheduled.

Of those graphic novels, only Spiral Cage happened — you have to imagine that the sales of this weren’t huge. Dead Air appeared from… Slave Labor? I remember buying it, so that didn’t disappear completely. And Horse? Also from Slave Labor, but it was cancelled after the first volume. Of those, Dead Air had to be the one with the most commercial possibility, so it’s odd she didn’t start with that one…

“Ned really misunderstood what I
was saying.” Robbins said. “Deni is
and has been slow in paying, and I
don’t know that that will be a secret
to anyone — everyone knows she’s
somewhat casual with the way her
books come out, but she does pay her
creators, and she is very slowly pay-
ing the printers, getting the money
together and then payiny the printer
and printing the books. ‘
Said Leialoha: “All I know is she
pays them and then they ship them.
Krypto the Acid Dog was supposed to
be out sooner than it was, but Deni had
a cashflow problem and since [Pre-
rryl’ve been printing for her for a long
time — she found Preney; they’d pro-
bably never have started printing com-
ics if not for her; Cerebus is still
printed there — so they’re On good
terms. so, when she sends them some-
thing, they print it, and then she pays
them and they ship them.”

So Loubert was on a no-credit arrangement with Preney Print and Litho — which had to make things difficult: It’s a cash flow problem.

The Comics Journal #127, page 20:

More rumors. The recent rash Of
rumors about Renegade’s demise ap-
parently grew after a discussion bet-
ween Loubert and Suburban Night-
mares/Silent Invasion creator Larry
Hancock.
Hancock said he talked with [Albert
in mid-January atxyut taking Suburban
Nightmares, which Renegade publish-
ed in four issues, to NBM for album
collection.
‘ ‘She said we should go ahead and
talk with NBM,” Hancock said, “and
then we got into a discussion of the
general state of affairs, talking about
how she’s going to start winding things
up. She said she was finding the writ-
ing she was doing in animation was
giving her better return and that she
was actually having to put money in-
to Renegade.’
After chat, Hancock found Ren-
egade a topic of discussion on the
Books Do
Furnish
A Room
Compuserve network, and reported
Loubert’s remarks. Word spread from
there.
“I thought I was reading her right
about suspending Renegade altogeth-
er,” Hancock said, “but in a subse-
quent phone conversation she said that
wasn’t really what we had talked a-
bout, and replaying the conversation
it appears I was reading more into it
than was meant.
‘ ‘The whole thing arose from a pri-
vate conversation I was having, but
I’ve always heard rumors about how
well or poorly Renegade’s been do-
ing,” Hancock added. ‘ ‘This time I
was reading something into a conver-
sation I had with Deni herself. She has
since told me she is not closing up, ami
I have never had problems with her
saying she was doing one thing and
turning around and doing another.
Sometimes she’s not been able to do
things she said she was going to as
quickly as we all want. but I have
never had troubles with her.”
Hancock added that “it’s hard to say
how much [Loubertl had changed her
mind in the second conversation be-
cause she was choosing her words
more carefully and said I read too
much into our earlier conversations,
which I can see,’
Still, another Renegade creator drew
the same conclusion from a similar
conversation with Loubert.
More rumors, and debt. “I talked to
Deni because she owes me money for
Agent Unknown,” said writer Bob
Sodaro. “She told me she’s closing up
shop.
‘ ‘I just asked her how things were
and she was nebulous because she
wasn’t sure on what she’d be doing
other than trying to close up shop with-
Out owing any money. I heard this
straight from her,” Sodarosaid. “She
just said she was tired of being a pub-
lisher and worrying about money all
the time and she wasn’t having fun any
more.”
Sodaro, whose book Renegade re-
cently cancelled. said Louberl told him
she was “in the process of placing pr0-
perties with other companies,” was
‘ ’embarking on a writing career, ” and
“thinking of opening a handy-craft
shop.

[…]

Alive and… well. In the single inter-
view Loubert gave, she explained the
remarks she said her creators had
misinterpreted
“I’m looking to get out of doing on-
going titles and concentrate on graphic
novels and deluxe packaging,” she
said. “What I’m doing now is what
I formed Renegade for, which is a
series of projects, graphic novels, of
limited length. When I started this, you
couldn’t do this sort of thing and get
by, but with increasing exposure in
bookstores, it’s very practical now.
“Bookstores truth to tell are more
Of a market for serious graphic n0-
vels,” she said. “The audience has not
expanded enough in the direct sales
market.
• •I see the way the market was
going, and when the cash flow gets
bad, the book flow gets bad. The deal
I have with my printer is I pay as I go,
so I can’t get behind; I don’t ship a
book until the bill has been paid,”
Loubert said; “it’s better than ac-
cumulating a debt like Comico•s (to
Sleepeck Printing, see Newswatch,
Journal #1181. I believe it’s the only
responsible way to do it. Sometimes
it frustrates me because it means I’ve
had to hold books that are finished and
print them when the money gets in —
that’s one reason I’ve taken on the
freelance work, because the royalties
can bring in some money.
“It’s forced me to cut back output,
especially this year,” she continued,
“but it also means I’m ahead of the
game because if I don’t have the mon-
ey to pay for it, I don’t print it, and
so I don’t play catch up to my printer
bills.”
Businessmen. Loubert lamented the
rumors Of Renegade’s impending de-
mise because “it hurts business when
people think you’re going out of busi-
ness, when you’re really tying to keep
things going and active.”
“If distributors think you’re going
out of business, they think they can cut
back on a cost from a publisher who’s
not going to send them more prcxluct;
they’ll stop payments to that publish-
er,”
she said. “They’re just being
good business men, but it makes sur-
Vival that much more difficult.”
The future. Loubert reiterated that
Renegade is not out of the picture.
“You have to remember that we
have the three (graphic novell projects
in works for this summer, though I am
getting out of doing ongoing monthly
comics. It’s important to me that Ren-
egade remain stable because even ifl
bow out in a year or so I want to do
so in a way that allows me to return
to the industry at any time. ‘ ‘—GSB—

The above is from the Alternative Comics Cadaver Derby, and Renegade isn’t given much chance of survival because it just doesn’t pander enough. (It’s a humorous overview of all alternative comics publishers.)

The Comics Journal #130, page 25:

Renegade Shuts Down

Renegade Press is “on hiatus for a year
Or two,” according to a May 30 an-
lmncement from Publisher Deni Lou-
ert. The company’s final releases —
Tony Bravado #2 and Ms. Tree 49
and 50 — shipped July 15.
“I’ve been doing this for 12 years,”
she told the Journal, referring to her
eight years as Aardvark-Vanaheim pub-
lisher and the four she’s spent publish-
ing Renegade books, “and I kind of
need a break. I’m just exhausted —
ernotionally, financially, and every way
you can think of.”
Laubert said she would spend the
foreseeable future on writing projects
(including a pair of feminist story col-
lections with writer Chris Palomino),
and ‘,wrking as office manager for Phil
Yeh’s non-profit Cartoonists Across
America literacy project.
“I guess it’s no surprise to anyone,”
Loubert wrote in an official announce-
ment May 30. “We’ve shipped fewer
and fewer t»oks in the last year, and
it’s been tougher and tougher to keep
going.”
In fact, speculation on Renegade’s
future has hovered for months on the
question of the company’s viability,
and the Journal reported in February
[see Newswatch, Journal #1271 that
Loubert had “refitted” her publishing
Strategy to spend more time writing
and to reduce Renegade’s increasing-
ly unprofitable output. At that time,
Loubert said she intended to redirect
Renegade to kmkstore-directed graph-
ic novels and insisted that “Renegade
IS an ongoing concern.”
Loubert told the Journal May 31,
“I’m just burnt out on the responsi-
bilities of it; 90 percent of this deci-
Sion is that I’m not enjoying it any-
more. I’ll tell you, another thing is I
have no concept of where the market
is going. It’s not supporting the kinds
of things I want to publish; it’s not the
same market as 10 years ago.
“I don’t think the guerilla attitude
that was around 10 years ago when
Dave [Siml started Cerebus and Wen-
dy and Rich Pini started Elfquest still
exists. Now people move into the busi-
ness in a calculated way. That guerilla
attitude of 10 years ago — “Damn the
let’s do what we want to do;
let’s see if we can do it!” — just isn’t
around any more. There’s an awful lot
of companies coming in with the
thought that they’re going to make a
killing; that’s their attitude. It doesn’t
affect my ability to survive, but it af-
fects my enjoyment of what I do.”
BEkground. Inuberl launched Rene-
gade Press in 1985 after leaving Aard-
vark-Vanaheim, which she founded in
1977 with Cerebus the Aardvark crea-
tor Dave Sim. Loubert and Sim were
married in 1978 and divorced in mid
1983, though the pair continued uork-
ing together for about tm years. Even-
tually, the business arrangement also
dissolved, and Sim retained the aard-
vark and the imprint while Loubert
took the several titles they had begun
publishing — among them Flaming
Carmt, Ms. Tree, and Normalman —
moved to Southern California, and
formed Renegade Press.
A small outfit publishing only black-
and-white comics, Renegade had re-
leased numerous titles by the time of
its announced demise. Among them
were Gene Day’s Black Zzppelin
(begun in 1985); Dan Day’s Cases of
Sherlock Holmes (1985, now published
by Northstar); Bob Burden’s Flaming
Carrol (brought from A-V with #6,
March 1985, now published by Dark
Horse); Steven Seagle and Stefano
Gaudiano’s Kafka (1987); Ernie col-
on’s Manimal (1986); Brad Foster’s
Mechthings (1987); Max Collins and
Terry Beatty’s Ms. Tree (brought from
A-V with #19, June 1985 — Loubert
reported the title has been signed by
DC Comics; Collins would not con-
firm this report); Arn Saba’s Neil the
Horse (from AV with #11, April ’85);
Valentino’s normalman (#8 co-pub-
lished with A-V, early ’85; published
by Renegade with #9, June ’85);
Michael Cherkas and Larry Hancock’s
Silent Invasion (1986, collected by
NBM); Cherkas, Hancock, and John
Van Bruggen’s Suburban Nightmares
(1988); Jim Valentino’s Vålentino
(1985); Bill and Barb Rausch’s
Vicki Valentine (1985); Darrigo and
R.G. Taylor’s wordsmith (1985); and
the anthologies Revolver (1985), Mur-
der (1986), Renegade Romance, and
Wimmen ‘s Comix (both 1987, the lat-
ter returned now to Rip Off Press).
Most of these titles had completed
their runs or been cancelled some time
before the “hiatus” announcement.

hyment, Plans. Loubert said Rene-
gade would honor its outstanding debß
to creators.
“Whatever money I owe them will
be paid, ultimately,” she said. ‘ ‘Some
of my creators have said, ‘We know
what’s going on, why don’t we call it
a loss,’ and I love them for it. I don’t
have the finances to pay everyone off
all at once right now, but paymenß will
be made.”
Loubert addressed a rumor that she
has waited tables to generate needed
cash.
“That came out of the three weeks
I was doing some waitressing to pay
off some money I borrowed; it’s not
my new career,” she said. “I work at
a lot of things; that was one I did for
a brief while.”
Loubert insisted she will not “dis-
appear” fmm comics, noting her work
with Cartoonists Across America.
“Renegade simply is not really sup-
ported by the market right now,” she
said. “l don’t know; some people are
making it: Dark Horse has made a
great success; Fantagraphics has a
healthy line-up. Maybe it’s not what
you do so much as how you do it.”

Heidi MacDonald writes in Amazing Heroes #141, page 47:

Loubert remained the A-V publisher through its expan-
Sion into publishing other titles, but eventually the Sim
marriage crumbled. For a while, Sim and Loubert
attempted to keep their business relationship intact, but
eventually, Loubert decided to set up her own shop and
move to sunny California. This was back in 1985.
“It was a poor time [to start a comics company] and
there was no way to know it at the time,” she recalls.
“At the time I formed Renegade, Aardvark-Vanaheim
had been going strong, Comico and Eclipse and First were
all going. There were plenty of little companies going,
but not the number you have now. B&W was still the
small thing that not a lot of people were doing. It seemed
like a good idea. It looked like the market could support
it. My supposition was why couldn’t the market support
it? The books already existed in the market, whether they
were under Aardvark-Vanaheim’s banner or Renegade’s
banner they were still books that were out there in the
market. To add two or three more seemed a natural thing
to do. It wasn’t like a new kid coming on to do it. I already
had an existing relationship with distributors who knew
basically what to expect out of me. What I couldn’t
foresee was what happened with B&W’s, the boom and
the bust. Although I did warn everybody against it in The
Comics Jourhal and in editorials months before it
happened. ‘ ‘
And so Renegade found itself buffeted about by that
mass hysteria known as the black and white boom.
Ironically, Renegade, which was publishing such
established and acclaimed series as Ms. Tree and Flaming
Carrot, never benefited from any of the boom. “lhe damn
thing was, the boom benefited new books. The people
who were booming were the new books, looking for the
new Cerebus, Elfquest, Turtles. What they didn’t under-
stand was that when each of those books came out,
nobody paid any attention to it.
“We couldn’t give away Cerebus #1, back in the old
days. We have pictures of me standing behind tables with
stacks of them trying in vain to pry little kids away from
their Marvel Two-in-One. So, basically, all of these
people were running around looking for the new Cerebus,
new Turtles, whatever, and because the titles I was
publishing already existed, they weren’t #1 ‘s and they
weren’t new books and they weren’t self-published [they
were ignored].”
Ironically, if the bust didn’t help, the boom didn’t hurt
that much. Still, most Renegade titlesgot caught in the
market’s downward trend. More educated retailers is the
only way to a more stable market, Loubert argues. “It’s
taken us about 10 years to get a direct sales market. And
now it’s in trouble, because the puklishers and artists grew
faster than the market could handle. What we need to
do now is educate the retailers and that’s going to take
the next 10 years. Maybe we have to wait until we have
enough Bill Liebowitz’s [owner of the Golden Apple
chain in Los Angeles, widely recognized as one of the
most progressive comics shops in the nationl in the
business to support this. I’d rather have one Golden Apple
than 10 little hole in the wall rinky dink shops. They aren’t
the guys I need.”
Loubert is moving into writing comics, with an up-
coming story in Renegade Romance, illustrated by Steve
Leialoha, as well as non-comics freelance projects.
However, for all the headaches, Loubert remains
committed to publishing the kind of eccentric titles that
she wants to see.
“I’m not going for new projects. I’m looking to
continue to work with the artists I work with now. Larry
Hancock and Michael Cherkas have a miniseries coming
up this summer called Suburban Nightmares and Michael
is developing a new series for the fall or winter that will
be continuing the same paranoia theme, called The New
Frontier, which is a line from a JFK speech. It’s a continu-
ation of the concept of suburbia in the late ’50s. In the
way Silent Invasion dealt with UFO paranoia, and Subur-
ban Nightmares deals with the Red scare, New Frontier
deals with another kind of paranoia that is very predomi-
nant at that time period.
“Developing projects is a lot of fun. It’s like a birth-
ing process. It’s very frustrating to try to do this in a
time when the market is hostile to almost anything I’m
doing, but at the same time when you get something really
good come out [it’s very satisfyingl.” She sees Renegade
as publishing the work of specific creators, rather than
specific projects. “It’s real interesting to work with
somebody who is as creative as I feel the people I work
with are, and see things grown and develop out of them.
To watch Arn [Saba] develop Neil for television and know
that I’m partially responsible for it, because of the fact
I gave him the chance to do it as a comic book first and
develop his ideas through that, is very satisfying.”

And with that, the Renegade portion of this blog series is over. I’ll do a final index/bloviating post to sum it all up, but I have to finish reading the Cerebus issues first, and that’s gonna take a while.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

A&R1988: Starbikers

Starbikers (1988) #1 by Ronn Sutton

Sutton writes an introduction and explains what this comic is: It’s a reprint of Starbikers stories that had appeared in the Vortex and Black Zeppelin anthologies. The reason for this reprint is that they were launching a new ongoing title — T-Minus-1 — that had Starbikers as the lead feature. So that makes sense.

The stories themselves, on the other hand, are a pretty odd bunch. I’ve recently read the anthologies where these appeared, and they were pretty odd in that context, too… we start off, for instance, with an Oscar Wilde thing.

But with more guns.

The second story seems to actually introduce us to a character that seems very similar to the one in T-Minus-1, so it’s probably the same guy?

The final story is an O. Henry thing about time travel, and the relation to the other stories seems pretty tenuous.

All the stories have pretty impressive artwork, though — especially the fun layouts.

Amazing Heroes Preview Special #10, page 114:

STARBIKERS
SPECIAL
Witten ard mustroted by RONN SUTTON
ore-shot; 40 black-arOttite $395; Wn
SPECIAL STUDIO
When Renegade’s T-Minus One S-F anthol-
ogy got clearance for Ron Sutton went
to work on producing new adventures of the
Starbikers, but only one issue got off the
ground.
Now, Ron’s ten pages for T combine with
17 new pages to make this special. There will
From Starblkers Speclal #1.
also be an additional eight page Starbikers
story and some pin-ups.
The special will introduce such characters
as Mainliner, Rock-a-Billy the Kid, Sorryboy,
and Teflon, and witl further explore the
mining planet turned hell-hole called Trench-
world.
All stories in this special will be complete
and all plotlines resolved, and Sutton even
promises a four page spread!

This apparently never happened.

Sheldon Wiebe writes in Amazing Heroes #162, page 61:

STARBIKERS
Starbikers is a collection of vignettes
published by Vortex and Black
Zeppelin. The basic premise is Hell’s
Angels of the future.
These future-bikers ride hover-
cycles and pretty much do as they
please. They sell dope, hire out as
mercenaries and generally do what-
ever. it takes to survive, legal or
otherwise.
Because Ronn Sutton is, admittedly,
an artist first anda writer second,
Starbikers is a very visual book.
Sutton has a striking, very lean style
that seems more angular than fluid.
Although he cites Steranko as his
major influence and source of initial
inspiration, there are hints of
Infantino, Colon and other artists
whose angular styles have had an im-
pact on North American comics.
Steranko’s influence is most keenly
felt in the layouts. Sutton’s layouts, like
Steranko’s, are anything but mundane.
Size, shape and sequence of panels
vary from page to page. Unlike a num-
ber of would-be comics artists, the
variety in Sutton’s layouts does not
make it hard to follow the story. This
is, perhaps, Sutton’s greatest strength
as an artist: the reader’s eye is drawn
through the story in the desired
sequence.
As a writer, Sutton does leave a bit
to be desired. His dialogue is stilted
and his captions tend to be a bit florid.
Still, he shows a real grasp of the
storyteller’s an in the way his script
and art complement each other rather
than repeat each other. His captions
are not limited to merely listing or
itemizing the contents of the panel.
His dialogue is not limited to the sim-
ple affirmation of what appears before
the reader.
While it is otwious that Ronn Sutton
has imagination and wit and style—it
is also obvious that the stories con-
tained in Starbikers are from a time
when he was defining his personal
style.
Starbikers is a brief overview of
Sutton’s improvement as a creator
from 1983 to 1985.
As such it is interesting, entertaining
and not quite like anything else I’ve
ever read.
If you haven’t read the earlier incar-
nations of these Starbikers stories, I
can, with some slight reservations,
recommend this book. Be prepared
for a work-in-progress. Be prepared
for some awkwardness. Most of all,
be prepared for something just a bit
different.
GRADE: FINE

Here’s a review from the intertubes:

I like that each of the four stories is a little different: The first and last are artsy and prosey, like illustrated short stories, while the middle two are easier to follow, more straightforward and actiony. But I just didn’t care for any of the characters, and the stories were too short and seemed to lack purpose. Like New Ruins for Old – sucks that the bikers’ situation got worse, but…so what?

As far as I can tell, the Starbikers stuff has never been reprinted, but it looks like it was continued in a Caliber anthology?

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.

A&R1988: T-Minus 1

T-Minus 1 (1988) #1 by David Day, Ronn Sutton, Gene Day and Dan Day

So this is basically yet another Day Brothers anthology (and Renegade had published more than a handful of thse)… but teaming up with Ronn Sutton this time around.

We lead off with a Starbikers story (David Day inking Sutton), and … it doesn’t seem to have been made for this comic? It says “continued next issue” and then continues on the next page. So this was made for a different anthology, perhaps? It’s also quite frustrating: The first two five page segments just set up the world this is taking place in, and then it ends.

The second story has Sutton inking David Day, and it looks like they had fun working on this, but I really have no idea what this was supposed to be about.

Finally, Dan Day illustrates one of Gene Day’s stories.

This page is presumably written by Deni Loubert? If so, she explains that she doesn’t really like anthologies a lot… which is weird, since Renegade published so many of them.

This was planned as an ongoing series, but that didn’t happen, since Renegade closed up shop a couple months later.

Sheldon Wiebe writes in Amazing Heroes #162, page 58:

Considering how big anthology
comics were in the “golden age” it
seems hard to believe that there are
so few successful anthology books in
the comics field today.

[…]

T-Minus-l is a new anthology title
from Renegade Press (thank you, Ms.
Loubert).
It features three stories: a new
“Starbikers” tale, a “Sam Deuce”
story, and a story from the unfinished
file of the late Gene Day.
“Goon Shmv” is the Starbikers seg-
ment in this anthology’s debut issue.
The story and pencils are by Ronn
Sutton and the inks by David Day.
This episode is the best of the Star-
bikers tales to date.
The art is improved (Day’s inks are
very sympathetic to Sutton’s pencils
.and that’s sympathetic as in sym-
pathetic vibrations, or resonance… )
and Sutton’s writing skills continue to
grow.

[…]

In “Manic Monday,” we are intro-
duced to Sam Deuce, a 22nd-century
He looks like Bogie with a
patch over his left eye. He is cool,
professional and up to his eyeballs in
gambling debts.
“Manic Monday” deals with
Deuce’s attempts to avoid termination
by a giant robot for failure to pay his
debts.
The story is fast paced and
humorous. The art is very nice. David
Day can write and his pencils are well
laid out. Ronn Sutton’s inks seem as
good for Day’s pencils here as Day’s
inks were for Sutton’s pencils on
Starbikers.
“A Shroud of Tattered Grey” is the
final story.
It is an ultra-gritty post-nuclear-war
horror story that features Dan Day’s
art over a story by the late Gene Day.
The art is about the best I’ve seen
from Dan Day and the story is utterly
gripping.
If you want to see a thoroughly
plausible version of how the world
could end, this one is for you. If it
doesn’t give you nightmares, you
aren’t human.
Overall, T-Minus-l is well-worth the
two bucks you’ll have to pay for it.
It is intelligent, articulate and
effective on virtually every level. It
contains action, suspense, humor and
horror in equal doses.
I hope T-Minus-l succeeds (I mean,
sells). We need more anthology books
in comics and this one is first-rate.
GRADE: VERY FINE

Amazing Heroes #145, page 229:

Ronn Sutton is also offering an
ongoing storyline with Starbikers, a
group of individuals which Sutton
describes as “Hell’s Angels of the
future.” In this particular future, Star-
bikers Sorry Boy, Teflon, and Rockabilly
the Kid ride “hover-bikes” and square
off against the law enforcers from the
local starship. In issue #1, Show,”
the Starbikers must battle 40 marshals
when they attempt to obtain, the
contraband items caffeine, nicotine, and
alcohol. That plotline continues through
to issue #4, when Sutton involves the
group in an intergalactic war. Sutton,
who is writing, drawing; and lettering the
series himself, gets an assist on the first
issue when David Day provides the inks.
(Conversely, Sutton does the inking on
David Day’s first Sam Deuce story,
“Manic Monday.”) Sutton promises lots
of action, and says his artistic style is
heavily influenced by the work of Jim
photo references,”says Sutton.. e includ-
ing those of himself. “Rockabilly the Kid
looks like, well, a lot like me,” comments
Sutton.

It looks like these plans were abandoned after Renegade shut down.

This blog post is part of the Renegades and Aardvarks series.