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Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
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Another favorite of mine is SILVERHEELS, which was a three-issue series produced by Pacific Comics, up until Pacific ceased publication in 1984, scripted by Bruce Jones, with beautiful Frazetta/Wrightson-esque painted art by Scott Hampton.

[Linked Image from milehighcomics.com]

It took me a while to wrap my head around what Jones was trying to do with the series. While set in the future, it has a late-1930's feel to it. It's a future where Nazis have taken over Earth and are exploring out into space, and are attempting to have their cadets join a galactic federation of alien races.
I think Jones was trying to tell a story from the perspective of how someone living in the late 1930's would envision the future, as at that time it seemed the Nazis (up till 1942) had taken almost all of Europe, and seemed would inevitably take over the world. That Earth's future would be ruled by Germany, and a master race of space-exploring "Nazite" Germans would colonize space.

The title character is Native American, and Silverheels manages with some cleverness and manipulation to join the Nazi military cadets to participate in the competition among them, to select one cadet to represent Earth in an extraterrestial alien federation, despite that Silverheels' fellow cadets clearly view him as racially inferior, and openly plan kill him at the first opportunity.

The three issues ended the series unresolved in May 1984 (Hampton apparently produced pages very slowly), when Pacific Comics folded.

And in 1987 Eclipse finally released a SILVERHEELS graphic novel that collects the 3 previous issues, with a 20-page new conclusion.




The three issues also contain a backup series that has another of my favorite sparsely-seen characters, "Robotus Ridiculous" by Ken Steacy.
Starring a robot named Flan, who is a mechanic by trade, and has a charming nostalgia for machines built in the 1950's, that he considers an era when machines were better built than in any era that came after it.

[Linked Image from 66.media.tumblr.com]

Flan also saves the world and gets impressive parades in his honor, and an issue later makes one mistake and is suddenly as globally hated as he was just adored. A very fun and playful character, and an interesting concept, of a robot who grumpily favors old technology, the same way humans are nostalgic for and glorify past eras.

Also nice were several artist portfolios of Hampton and Steacy, with photos of the artists and many nice pin-up pages.


Updated, with links to all 3 issues of SILVERHEELS, to enjoy both the Scott Hampton and Ken Steacy stories I mentioned:

https://readallcomics.com/silverheels-1/
https://readallcomics.com/silverheels-2/
https://readallcomics.com/silverheels-3/


I couldn't find the later SILVERHEELS graphic novel (1987) that reprints these Hampton stories, with a 20-page conclusion, apparently not online yet.

An interesting sidebar I found out since my previous post, on The Lone Ranger TV series, the actor who played Tonto was Jay Silverheels, a Native American. I'm sure influential on Bruce Jones selecting that name for the character.

But the site does have PIGEONS FROM HELL, Hampton's other Eclipse graphic novel (1988), that is also gorgeous, adapting the famous Robert E. Howard short story.

https://readallcomics.com/pigeons-from-hell-full/