Frank Brunner’s Seven Samuroid


By Frank Brunner (Image International)
ISBN: 0-943128-06-4

The 1980s were a fertile time for American comics-creators. It was as if a brand new industry had been born with the proliferation of the Direct Sales Market and dedicated specialist retail outlets; companies were experimenting with format and content and economically, times were good so punters even had a bit of spare cash to play with.

Moreover much of the “kid’s stuff” stigma had finally been invalidated and America was catching up to the rest of the world in acknowledging that sequential narrative might just be a for-real, actual art-form…

Consequently many young start-up companies began competing for the attention and leisure-dollars of fans grown accustomed – or resigned – to getting their on-going picture stories from DC, Marvel, Archie and/or Harvey Comics. European and Japanese material had been creeping in and by 1983 a host of young companies such as WaRP Graphics, Pacific, Eclipse, Capital, Now, Comico, Dark Horse, First and many others had established themselves and were making impressive inroads, all supplemented by the rapid rise of a healthy plethora of comics criticism, collection and informational magazines…

New talent, established stars and fresh ideas all found a thriving forum to try something a little different both in terms of content and format. Even smaller companies had a fair shot at the big time and a lot of great material came – and too often, quickly went – without getting the attention or success it warranted.

One of the most overlooked but just plain fun features came from an unlikely paring of star artist Frank Brunner and a printing company based in New Zealand, which tapped into the growing zeitgeist of Japan’s burgeoning robotic warrior knights or “mecha” and the modern pulp space opera of the first Star Wars generation…

In the future the great Galactic Union succumbed to war brought about by political ambition and economic greed. At the height of the conflict a group of wise men created a small force of super-robots hardwired with the unflinching principles of ancient Earth’s noblest warriors; dedicated to preserving all innocent life and defending the oppressed; whether organic or mechanical.

These Samuroids were then bonded with the personalities of valiant volunteers whose intellects were transcribed into the awesome automatons. However after decades of constant struggle even the unceasing efforts of the puissant mechanicals were not enough to stave off an era of darkness, decline and destruction…

Two millennia later the universe is a place of chaos and anarchy dotted with small emergent enclaves of brutal feudal “civilisation” still limited to their own isolated, hostile star-systems. On the planet Ion, freedom fighter Zeta leads a band of rebels battling the rise of a new Dark Imperium. Hunted by sky-borne troops in deadly gun-ships, she falls into a cave and discovers a ponderous solitary figure: Ultek the Samuroid.

The tragic undying warrior has stood sentinel in this dark hole since he and his fellows failed in their appointed task centuries ago, contemplating the horrors he was built to prevent and all the lives he was forced to take. However his broken soul is fired up at last when the Imperium troops savagely attack, wounding Zeta.

Roused to action, Ultek destroys the monstrous thugs and joins Zeta’s cause, determined to thwart the expansionist horrors of the voracious Imperium and its mad monarch, The Mikado…

To this end he seeks out the other surviving Samuroids, who have indeed fallen low…

After millennia their quasi-mystical power-source Reiki is all but exhausted. Another mecha Sarr donates his reserves to scientists in hope of their synthesising a substitute fuel whilst Ultek returns to the stars in search of more old comrades. He finds two aboard an ancient Galaxy-Union Star Battle Wagon, converted into a vast and corrupt travelling carnival. They are unresisting slaves of its vile master, Strom Bolla…

Sark and Gorr have bartered their honour for dwindling rations of Reiki, but Ultek finds a valuable friend in the brave but inconsequential droid Toto who describes himself as an “honorary Samuroid”. With precious time passing and desperately determined to free and rehabilitate his fallen comrades Ultek joins the Carnival as a gladiator, but before he can make his move events spiral out of control when the decrepit warship is attacked by two more Samuroids Hum-Run and Dagg…

United at last the Seven Samuroid return to Ion where the rebellion has fared badly under the Mikado’s barbarous assaults and horror, glory and restored honour await them…

That or final irrevocable death and darkness…

At first this book (published in the overlarge 285 x 220mm European Album Format) might seem a creature of unlikely marriages: adapting the classic plot and ever-so-serviceable themes and motifs of Akira Kurosawa’s Shichinin no Samurai to the heavily technocratic milieu of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica is not so big a leap, but much of this sci fi romp is exceedingly dark and decidedly mature in content and Brunner’s superbly humanistic illustration is often at odds with the grubby, grimy tone and faceless  dehumanising technology and hardware of the storyline.

Stuffed with in-jokes and dry asides, this tales also skirts rather than embraces the spiritual aspects of the original Seven Samurai but does pay lip-service to the all-embracing warrior code of Bushido as well as finding room for romance and a happy ending of sorts.

All in all this is a very queer beast indeed from a time when anything seemed possible, but in the final analysis provides a huge amount of old-fashioned thrills, chills and spills, making it well worth the time and effort of fans of movie and cartoon fantasy as well as classic comics adventure.
© 1984 Frank Brunner. All rights reserved.