Brand Echh: Galaxia #1

As the Direct Sales comic book market opened up as a viable alternative to mainstream distribution at the start of the 1980s, all sorts of different publishers leapt into the fray with their own offerings, hoping to strike it big. More than a few of these were initially offered as black and white magazines along the lines of what Warren Publishing and Marvel had been doing in years previous. But the Direct Market wasn’t quite as welcoming to this format as you might think–they had tooled their stores for comic book product, and so releases that fit into standard comic book-size racks was always preferred. but before anybody could really figure that out, there were a slew of new black and white comics magazines offered for sale.

One such publication was GALAXIA, which released a single issue in 1981. The creation of Marvel and DC artist Rich Buckler, it was intended to be a creator-owned home for his own characters and concepts, and those of a few friends. It also had a decidedly religious bent to it somehow, as all of the different stories in some way related to a universal struggle between light and dark, good and evil. None of it was a polemic, but there was certainly a consistent point of view on evidence in the work.

GALAXIA contained four stories, each one slightly different in its genre. The opening tale was WARLORDS OF LIGHT written by Emmanuel Colon and with some early artwork from a young Mark Texiera and Butch Guice. It was a fantasy sword-and-sorcery epic with some science fiction components to it to tie it in to the overall mythology. In that respect, GALAXIA was set up much like the eventual CrossGen line was, with different series in different time periods and genres connected by a common mythology. it’s honestly the least involving strip in the issue, a bit ponderous and self-important in that way that starting writers can sometimes get. it’s clear that Colon was deeply invested in the story that he was telling, but s a reader, I didn’t follow suit.

The second story was more than a little familiar. It was called BLOODWING, and what it was is Buckler’s third attempt to launch his creation Gideon Cross. Prior to this, Buckler and David A Kraft had done the first version of this character for the short-lived ATLAS COMICS under the title of DEMON HUNTER.

Brand Echh – Demon Hunter #1

DEMON HUNTER only lasted for a single issue before ATLAS gave up the ghost, but Buckler wasted little time before bringing the character into the Marvel Universe in his final Deathlok story in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #33. There, his costume colors were tweaked, his name became Eric Simon Payne and he was called Devil-Slayer. But the same character otherwise. This was Buckler going back to the well to recapture his creation.

This BLOODWING chapter is relatively short, only twelve pages in length, and it stops in mid-story in a manner that makes me think that some of this material may have started life as DEMON HUNTER #2 several years earlier and was repurposed for this release. Either way, Bloodwing/Demon Hunter/Devil-Slayer was a pretty cool concept, a wild mash-up of 1970s demonology, Godfather-influenced organized crime, super-heroics (especially the more mind-expanding cosmic brand of the 1970s as practiced by Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart) and the sorts of lethal tough guy loner heroes who starred in revenge movies and paperback book series. But once again here, Gideon Cross failed to find an audience.

The third entry, Astron, Star Soldier, also predated GALAXIA. He was the creation of Tom Sciacca, who had self-published his adventures in a one-shot a few years earlier, ASTRAL COMICS. Sciacca was involved in the publication of GALAXIA–it was released under the ASTRAL COMICS imprint–so it was natural that his character would become a part of it. The lead character was an Earth astronaut whose ship collided with an alien vessel. The force of the explosion fused the two together, creating Astron. It was a forerunner of the fusion concept later used as the basis of Firestorm over at DC. There were no credits on the story in GALAXIA, but it’s clear that Buckler and likely a few of the other contributors also lent a hand on this Astron story in jam fashion.

The final story in the issue was SOJOURNER, which Buckler drew not in his typical Neal Adams-influenced style, but rather in sharp emulation of the work of Jack Kirby. And that’s really no surprise, as it’s clear to any reader that Sojourner was very much influenced by Kirby’s Fourth World material and the manner in which Kirby would use biblical and mythological concepts in a science fantasy setting. Buckler swipes Kirby all over the place in this story–you can source the artwork he’s lifting on practically every page if you’re of a mind to.

For all that it was derivative as hell, SOJOURNER was a pretty fun outing if you were able to get into the spirit of it. While Buckler didn’t have Kirby’s raw imagination and narrative drive, he was adept at channeling and reproducing some of the flavor of Kirby’s works while smoothing out some of the King’s quirks when it came to dialogue. It didn’t have the substance of the Fourth World, but it succeeded on style. The lead character, Godwulf, is a demi-god in the mold of Thor, Orion and eventually Captain Victory, and he’s surrounded by a human companion and a strange alien life form as he battles for peace in a hostile universe.

GALAXIA was right on the crux of being an elaborate fanzine, and so this first issue also includes a page of capsule movie reviews by Tom Sciacca of the sort you might find in a fan publication. This was a pretty good moment for fans of science fiction and fantasy films in general, judging from the list of movies that Sciacca opines on here.