Wow, the last day of 2013. What a year it's been. One of the best. One of the worst. Yeah, that kind'a year. That kind of thinking led me to this year's "Endings" post:
Killraven/War of the Worlds "Mourning Prey". Enjoying the sophisticated beauty of both the prose of Don McGregor and the art of P. Craig Russell,
Killraven/War of the Worlds in
Amazing Adventures was one of the most critically acclaimed and well-loved series at Marvel. Many called it the best thing Marvel published (personally, it's high in the "one of the best" list for moi). In fact, when word got out that
Amazing Adventures was going to be cancelled, fandom started a letter-writing campaign to save McGregor and Russell's baby.
Sadly, it wasn't enough, but the fact that the series elicited such a strong response from Marvel's more mature and serious (and vocal) fans says to me that Mighty Marvel made a mistake in cancelling
AA. Imagine how different fandom's voice would have sounded if we'd had the Internet back then... Ah, well. Let's take a few minutes to enjoy the final lyrical-yet-savage earth-conquered-by-martians saga of the Groovy Age. From
Amazing Adventures #39, here's "Mourning Prey".
Hey, we don't wanna end our old year or start our new year on a downer note, do we? Gotta give Mighty Marvel it's due, as less than a decade later they did allow McGregor and Russell the opportunity to re-unite and tie together the major loose ends of the
Killraven/War of the Worlds saga in
Marvel Graphic Novel #7 (1983).
Dauntless Don did write a mini-series to finish the whole
Killraven saga, but he and Marvel have never been able to come to terms on how/when/where to publish it. Maybe one'a these fine days, Marvel will come to its senses and do whatever Don tells 'em to do! Oh, yeah, I said I didn't wanna end on a downer note, didn't I? Well, hey, at least with Dauntless Don doing his part we have hope, right? That's something!
Okay, tomorrow we'll welcome in 2014--and it'll be a lot more light-hearted atmosphere. I hope! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
