Three decades is a long time. Where were you back in the mid to late nineteen eighties?
Maybe you were blow-drying your gel-caked hair, bent at the waist, so as to get Morrissey-like height on your mop. Maybe you were tapering the pant legs of your jeans with safety pins. Maybe you were trading “googly eyes” and “scratch ‘n’ sniff” stickers with friends at recess.
I was busy with my first job, establishing the J&J Detective Agency with my gumshoe partner and long-time friend, John, sleuthing for clients’ (the neighbour’s kids) lost hockey cards or stolen comic books in exchange for jaw breaker candy, popsicles and legally obtained (traded for services rendered) hockey cards and comic books. At twelve years of age, I knew the job’s pension was crap, but the work itself was kinda fun for a Saturday afternoon.
In 1987, comic book legends Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the hottest tickets in the industry at the time, were midway through writing and drawing the eagerly anticipated graphic novel Games, starring The New Teen Titans – DC Comics’ monthly breadwinner.
Abruptly, that worked stopped. And was never heard from, save rumours and whisperings, again.
The New Teen Titans: Games
Written by: Marv Wolfman
Illustrated by: George Perez
DC Comics
Flash forward to Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – nearly twenty-five years later – and a newly finished Games is finally on store shelves!
It’s strange, really. At a time when DC is launching all of their rebooted and rebranded comics for a new era, here’s a hardcover graphic novel, 144 pages in length, that harkens a by-gone era that the company has truly left in the rear-view mirror. Games is unabashedly entrenched in the continuity of the day: Nightwing sports his funky 1980’s acrobat attire and Jericho’s hairstyle is still, well, poofy.
Beyond the melancholy return to a group of characters that were industry top sellers back in the day, the real draw here is seeing Wolfman and Perez work their magic together again. They spent the better part of five years together on The New Teen Titans in the 1980’s, establishing their partnership as one of the greatest in comic book history. Not that he’s ever been away from the industry, but it’s a joy to see Perez’s tightly detailed line work and intricate panel construction again, this time revolving around a set of characters that made him a fan favourite.
We’ve been waiting for The New Teen Titans: Games for nearly thirty years. Make the run today to your local comic book shop.
Right now, for both old and new fans, The New Teen Titans: Games is waiting for you.
Every Wednesday, JP makes the after-work run to his local downtown comic book shop. Comics arrive on Wednesdays you see and JP, fearful that the latest issue will sell out, rushes out to purchase his copy. This regular, weekly column highlights a particularly interesting release, written in short order, of course, because JP has to get his – before someone else does!
