Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Wednesday Cover: SPACE: 1999

I've been watching the 1975 television series Space: 1999 on Blu-Ray over the last month or so, and it got me reminiscing about the comic book series published by Charlton Comics. The first two issues were drawn by my pal Joe Staton, but the next several were rendered by John Byrne, who would soon move onto superstardom at Marvel Comics, most notably as artist of The Uncanny X-Men.

Anyway, this is the cover to his second issue (#4), which manages to make two guys watching a video monitor look exciting. I'm not sure that putting the character of Victor Bergman's back to the reader is a great artistic choice, but, to be fair, if you're a fan of the show, there's no mistaking that head! Like Byrne's other early covers for Charlton, it also appears to have been hand-colored with markers.
at

3 comments:

  1. Andy7:26 AM

    I LOVED both the show and the comic book back in the day!

    Tell me... do you think the series holds up 35 years later?

    ReplyDelete
  2. jason12:10 PM

    Man, this was one of my favorite issues as a kid. I was always fascinated by the cover... and more than a little puzzled that it has nothing to do with what actually happens inside.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christopher Mills3:44 PM

    Andy - that's a tough question. If you liked the show as a kid, and can still appreciate and admire its pre-CGI miniature effects and astounding (for TV) 2001-inspired production design... then, yeah, it holds up.

    The stories are still both simultaneously absurd and pretentious, and the acting is still wooden (again, I think they were going for a Stanley Kubrick/2001 style, there, too), so, if that's likely to bug you....

    Anyway, I love it for what it is, and am thrilled to have the new HD Blu-Ray discs.

    ReplyDelete