Amazing Heroes Issue #149- Cover

Amazing Heroes Issue #149- Cover

periodical
comic strip

This issue of Amazing Heroes, No. 149, was published on September 15, 1988. It sold for $2.95 in America, $3.95 in Canada. The text “Amazing Heroes” has a purple font-color with a white back shadow. Additional text on the page includes the main feature, Grimack, whose title on the cover says in all capital letters “The New Grimmer GrimJack!” as well as the word “Mundens,” again in all capital letters. “Mundens” is a part of the cover art with the letters in green and an oval circling the letters. Both the word and circle are designed to look like wood and is similar to an “open” sign. The rest of the cover art are characters from Grimjack, Grimjack being the biggest drawing. Located in the center of the page, his top-half (the page ends at the bottom of his torso) is covered in bulky clothes: a red scarf with a gold star pennant, a belt with pouches strapped across his chest, and a purple pirate-like jacket with a string full of ears sewn to the right shoulder (left side of the jacket from the reader’s perspective) and tags of symbols on a string underneath the ears. He is holding a Japanese sword covered in graphic blood in his right hand and in his left hand he is holding a loaded gun with an ammunition belt. The gun reads “Just Say No!”. Half of his face is shadowed in blue. He has a cigarette hanging from his mouth and his red hair is blowing to the side. He has red, bushy eyebrow and a menacing look on his face. In the background is a woman wearing sunglasses, fishnets, and a scandalous one-piece holding a saxophone. there are two small signs in the background indicating a western vibe. Around Grimjack are raunchy, large, western and punk style characters all holding weapons.

Grimjack is a character that can be referred to as an antihero. Antiheroes popularized after the ending of the Vietnam War. As opposed to heroes, antiheroes obtained justice in less-than peaceful ways, more in a vigilante way. They went around legal-bureaucratic agencies and took their crusade for justice into their own hands, they themselves acting on what they believed to be right, no matter how much violence it took. This cover sets the tone of antihero aggressiveness. Comic books that had more aggression, and even more panels in the comic, were the result of aggressive spaces during the times they were published in. The same format of this issue of Amazing Heroes is similar to a 1939 cover of Detective Comics, where Batman is on the cover making the same grimacing face as Grimjack is here, with action scenes smaller around him. This parallel shows the stylistic repetition that is used to get the reader’s attention throughout comic book history by using aggression as an appeal. It also shows the thematic similarities between two comics and how timeless the use of darkness and violence can be to draw attention to the political climate and to curate an aggressive curiosity for what will happen in the comic. This comic also has a very bright background in contrast to the shadows and discoloration of Grimjack, very similar to a remake of Green Lantern Green Arrow No. 7 where there is a scene of a modern crucifixion, or a dark message in front of an intensely light background. This juxtaposition is a tendency used throughout comics. The position of intense brightness to propose a dark story draws readers in and is used to make a statement about the importance of antiheroes’ tactics of dark justice and to increase sales based on curiosity and aggression.

Cover Artist: Flint Henry & John Nishimoto
Editor Evermore: Kevin Dooley
Art Director: Lynette Alcorn-McCubbin
Associate Editor: Bruce Walrad
Editors in the Wings: Kim Thompson & Chris McCubbin
News Correspondent: Michael Johnson
Production Assistants: Mark Thompson & Jason Jeffers
Typesetting: Linda Gorell & Arlene Easter
Circulation: Rachel Enger & Carol Kovinick-Hernandez
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Printed at: Port Publications, WI

MSU Special Collection Comic Art, PN6725.A47

Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

September 15, 1988

Tiffany McIntyre

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6-5/8 & 10-1/4 in.

English

Periodical

1981-1992