{"id":6259,"date":"2011-06-04T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=6259"},"modified":"2011-06-03T11:23:33","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T11:23:33","slug":"alien-legion-a-grey-day-to-die-an-epic-graphic-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/06\/04\/alien-legion-a-grey-day-to-die-an-epic-graphic-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien Legion: A Grey Day to Die – An Epic Graphic Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Carl Potts<\/strong>, Alan Zelenetz<\/strong>, Frank Cirocco<\/strong>, Terry Austin<\/strong> & Steve Oliff<\/strong> (Marvel)
\nISBN: 0-87135-207-9<\/p>\n

During the 1980s the American comics scene experienced a magical proliferation of new titles and companies following the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sale straight to retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned copies from non-specialised shops, the industry was able to support less generic titles and creators were able to experiment without losing their shirts.<\/p>\n

In response Marvel developed its own line of creator-owned properties during the height of the creative explosion, generating a number of supremely impressive, idiosyncratic series on better quality paper in a variety of formats under the watchful, canny eye of Editor Archie Goodwin. The delightfully disparate line was called Epic Comics and the results reshaped the industry.<\/p>\n

One of the earliest hits was a dark, lovely and compelling science fiction serial with a beautifully simple core concept: the Foreign Legion of Space. Created by Carl Potts, Alan Zelenetz and Frank Cirocco, The Alien Legion<\/strong> debuted in its own on-going series in April 1984, running for 20 issues, before re-booting into a second, 18 issue volume. The series has come and gone ever since, most recently from Dark Horse Comics – who have begun compiling the series into collected omnibuses -and there is, of course, a movie in the offing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In 1986 the creators produced an all-new one-shot for the satisfyingly oversized Marvel Graphic Novel line (#25 if you’re counting): a venue for a variety of \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153big stories\u00e2\u20ac\u009d told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm, similar to the standard European format of the times) featuring not only proprietary characters but also licensed assets like Conan<\/strong><\/em>, creator-owned properties like Jim Starlin’s <\/em>Dreadstar<\/strong> <\/em>and media tie-ins like <\/em>Willow<\/strong> <\/em>or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

The Legion keeps the peace of the pan-galactic Galarchy on a million worlds spread over three galaxies: a broad brotherhood of outcast sentients united by a need to belong and a desire to escape their pasts. For such beings honour and tradition are the only things holding them together.<\/p>\n

This grimly engaging tale finds series regular Commander Sarigar dispatching his best troops from Nomad Squadron (humanoid liberal Torrie Montroc, self-serving sociopath Jugger Grimrod, telepathic Meico, serving grunts Durge and Torqa Dun plus despondent retiring veteran Skathe Mescad) to a distant world for a dirty \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wet-work\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mission. Although most find the task distasteful, Grimrod is eager to practise the skills the Legion usually punishes him for indulging in\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The Technoids are a growing movement among many sentient species, espousing participant evolution and the replacement of organic features with cybernetic and mechanical parts. These aggressive cyborgs believe flesh is outmoded and aren’t too fussy about whether the surgeries are voluntary\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Technoids have battled the forces of the Galarchy for decades: in fact the most cherished victory legend of the Legion involves four heroic troopers who held off a thousand cyborg foes and chose death before surrender\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Now the Technoid leader Deathron has moved into politics and stands ready to convince an entire planet to trade their flesh for steel and plastic – a perfect opportunity to assassinate the head of the insidious movement. However nothing is ever easy for Nomad and Dethron has a hidden surprise waiting for the already unsettled and disconcerted soldiers\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Terse, tense and compellingly action-packed, this imaginative yarn by Potts and Zelenetz is splendidly readable and instantly accessible to those unfamiliar with the series, whilst the larger pages allow Cirocco and Terry Austin’s magnificent art and the inspired colouring of Cirocco and Steve Oliff to leap out and grab the reader. Sheer space opera gold and well worth tracking down.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1986 Carl Potts. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carl Potts, Alan Zelenetz, Frank Cirocco, Terry Austin & Steve Oliff (Marvel) ISBN: 0-87135-207-9 During the 1980s the American comics scene experienced a magical proliferation of new titles and companies following the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sale straight to retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Alien Legion: A Grey Day to Die – An Epic Graphic Novel”<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[101,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-graphic-novels","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-1CX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6259","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=6259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}