This is a weird one. According to PBG, the name Blaze Barlow came to him while driving, which sparked a madcap plot spotlighting theological themes he was exploring at the time. The first story arc (which ended up being the only one) appeared in First's short lived anthology series.
First Adventures #1-4 (1985-6) - Blaze Barlow and the Eternity Command
Pencils: Kelley Jones, Barry Crain
Inks: Barry Crain, Keith Wilson
An injured guy on the run stumbles into a private eye's office. So far, so familiar. Except here the client is a fallen angel, disguised in a hastily formed body of cake and chocolate, and the P.I. is a hard-bitten chain smoking immortal in the form of an adolescent, Blaze Barlow. Blaze's associate Nocturne is the ultimate femme fatale with seduction powers, while muscle is provided by Spike, who is literally covered in retractable spikes. The angel is pursued by the Apocalypse Squad, gun toting soldier angels, which should give you an indicator of the level here.
Gillis teamed once again with Micronauts partner Kelley Jones on the opening strip, but Jones got tied up finishing The New Voyages, so inker Barry Crain stepped up on pencils for the concluding 3 parts. Crain's cartoonier visuals may be less accomplished than Jones', yet seem a better fit to the knockabout subject matter.
The gang escape to a trans-dimensional knees up run by fun addicted entity the Party Animal. There are some familiar background guests from the world of comics, including New Mutants' Warlock and Megaton Man. One party guest Blaze has an unknown beef with is Warp's Lord Regulus, aka The Outrider. Following an interrupted duel, Regulus winds up tagging along with the ragtag Eternity Command. Gillis must've liked the When Titans Clash punning title to this story, "When Titans Party", as he reused it a few months later on what turned out to be his final Eternals issue.
In the finale it's revealed that the angel has stolen God's dice (for playing with the universe, geddit), hence incurring the wrath of Jhvh-i, as he's known here. If that all sounds a bit silly, well that's entirely the point. Humour is subjective; I have a penchant for the absurd, yet have never quite connected with PBG's particular brand of surrealism. Blaze is a fun enough read at face value, although the mystery of who Blaze, Nocturne and Spike actually are will ever remain so. The other two strips in First Adventures, Dynamo Joe and Whisper, spun off into their own books, leaving Blaze and crew holding the short straw.
Grimjack #31 (1987) - Munden's Bar
Pencils: Tom Artis
Inks: Sam Grainger
Blaze and the Eternity Command return for a crammed, convoluted send-off. Blaze wants to open the gate to Warp's Fen-ra for some reason, but Cynosure's champion Phaeton stands in his way. Phaeton escapes through a mirror dimension (using a mirror, naturally), unleashing what I presume to be Blaze's female counterpart, Breeze Labrow. An obligatory bar fight ensues, ending in true Blaze fashion, where all the mayhem doesn't add up to much.
This story is most notable for being the first pairing of Artis with Gillis. Dynamo Joe artist Doug Rice introduced the two and they became best friends, collaborating on a few projects together, which I'll get to... eventually.
Comments
Post a Comment