Out of the Vault - MythAdventures

I'm gonna' ride this Foglio train till it falls apart, apparently.

So when I did my post on D'Arc Tangent, I mentioned that the format was inspired by Elfquest, from WaRP Graphics. Well, not too long after D'Arc Tangent faded away, Foglio was back in another book in the same WaRP-style format. It was MythAdventures, published by (of course) WaRP Graphics.

MythAdventures started off as an adaptation of Another Fine Myth, by Robert Asprin. Foglio wrote and penciled the adaptation, which was inked by new talent Tim Sale (who would later come to prominence on both Batman and for his work onf the TV series Heroes) and lettered by M. Lucie Chin.

The story concerns a young magician's apprentice named Skeeve, whose teacher is killed moments after summoning a fearsome demon. It turns out that the "demon" is actually a dimension-traveling magician named Aahz. Aahz (who has lost his magical powers in the summoning) takes on Skeeve as his apprentice, and together the two battle against the evil wizard who killed Skeeve's master in a plot to take over the dimensions.

The books are breezy fun, full of fast action, witty dialogue and truly awful puns. Foglio added a layer of cartoonish action in his adaptation. For instance, in this dialogue scene, Aahz pulls a Bugs Bunny-style costume change.



Some have taken issue with the liberties Foglio took with the story, but how boring would it have been to read a comic story that adapted everything word for word?

After 6 issues, MythAdventures changed format from magazine size to a regular-sized comic book. Foglio left the book after 8 issues, finishing the first novel adaptation. The art was then taken over by Jim Valentino. Valentino's art didn't have the same verve that Foglio's did, and the book faded away after four more issues. Years later, Valentino left his job at Marvel to become one of the founders of Image Comics, so he made out all right, although the rest of us suffered.

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. You're saying, "But Fraze, what I really want to know is, did Foglio hitchcock in this one?"

Did he ever. While the book is bursting with little in-jokes and cameos--including a Lawgiver Robot from Buck Godot, along with Buck himself, Godzilla and the elves from Elfquest (to name a few)--Phil and Dixie and little Growf the dragon are featured in a subplot that runs across two issues during a visit to the Bazaar at Deva.