{"id":16768,"date":"2017-05-01T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=16768"},"modified":"2017-04-29T15:19:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T15:19:40","slug":"rocket-raccoon-tales-from-half-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2017\/05\/01\/rocket-raccoon-tales-from-half-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Raccoon: Tales from Half-World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bill Mantlo<\/strong>, Mike Mignola<\/strong>, Al Gordon<\/strong>, Milgrom<\/strong> & various (Marvel)
\nNo ISBN:<\/p>\n

You can’t have failed to notice that the second Guardians of the Galaxy<\/strong> movie has thundered into theatres this season, so in a spirit of mirror-image opportunism I’ll be shuffling in short reviews of some of the many tie-in books the House of Ideas has kindly dashed out to celebrate the filmic franchise in the hope of making a few more readers out of viewers\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Tales from Half-World<\/strong> came out in 2013 (and is still readily available in both printed and digital formats) and provides a cheap and cheerful way to see the militant mystery mammal’s first scene-stealing starring role.<\/p>\n

Rocket Raccoon<\/strong> was a throwaway character who first appeared in backup serial ‘The Sword in the Star’<\/em> in Marvel Preview<\/strong>#7 in 1976. In 1982, his originator Bill Mantlo brought him into the mainstream Marvel Universe with a guest-star role in Incredible Hulk<\/strong> #271 (May). Like the Punisher<\/em> and Wolverine<\/em> in previous years, the hairy iconoclast then simply refused to go away quietly\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A few years the furry force of nature popped up again in a new-fangled format for comicbooks: a miniseries\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The 4-issue Rocket Raccoon<\/strong> Limited Series was cover-dated May to August 1985 and crafted by Mantlo, then neophyte penciller Mike Mignola, and inkers Al Gordon & Al Milgrom and presented a bizarre and baroque sci-fi fantasy blending the charm of Pogo<\/strong><\/a> with the biting social satire of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest<\/strong> (and vice versa): all whilst ostensibly describing a battle between Good and Evil in a sector of space crazy even by funnybook standards.<\/p>\n

Rocket was one of many sentient and dedicated talking animals in the impenetrable, inescapable Keystone Quadrant<\/em>: a Ranger in charge of keeping the peace in a troubled atmosphere where robots and anamorphic beasties went about their ordained task. That was caring for the distinctly odd and carefree humans known as The Loonies<\/em> on their idyllic, sybaritic planet Halfworld<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the critters were too much like their human charges.<\/p>\n

When a brutal shooting war between voracious apex toymakers Judson Jakes<\/em> and Lord Dyvyne<\/em> leads to Rocket’s girlfriend Lylla Otter<\/em> being kidnapped, the entire planet goes crazy wild, or perhaps more appropriately\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ‘Animal Crackers’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In rescuing her, Rocket and faithful deputy Wal Rus<\/em> have to contend with a murderous army of mechanised Killer Clowns<\/em>, face an horrific, all-consuming bio-weapon at ‘The Masque of the Red Breath’<\/em>, and even team up with arch-foe and disreputable mercenary bunny Blackjack O’Hare<\/em> in ‘The Book of Revelations!’<\/em> before finally uncovering the horrendous truth behind the mad society they so unquestioningly defend\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The final chapter shakes everything up as ‘The Age of Enlightenment’<\/em> sees the shocking end of The Loonies, allowing the Raccoon and his surviving companions to escape the confines of the eternally segregated Keystone Quadrant into the greater universe beyond\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This razor-sharp, spectacular slice of riotous star-roving action is a non-stop feast of tense suspense, surreal fun and blockbuster action: well-tailored, on-target and certain to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comics incarnation.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2013 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Mantlo, Mike Mignola, Al Gordon, Milgrom & various (Marvel) No ISBN: You can’t have failed to notice that the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie has thundered into theatres this season, so in a spirit of mirror-image opportunism I’ll be shuffling in short reviews of some of the many tie-in books the House … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Rocket Raccoon: Tales from Half-World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[182,125,79,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guardians-of-the-galaxy-graphic-novels","category-humour","category-marvel-superheroes","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4ms","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}