The Coming of Gun Fury!

Gun Fury 1-5 (Aircel Comics/Malibu Graphics, January - May 1989)
Story and Pencils: Barry Blair

Inks and Washes: Dave Cooper

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

In a city where innocent citizens are being preyed upon by the rich and powerful, and by the violent and psychopathic; where the media lies as much as they tell the truth; deluded goofballs can't tell the difference between comic book fantasies and reality, a cry went up for a hero. Gun Fury answered that call... to the regret of many.

"Gun Fury" was a 10-issue series by Barry Blair and Dave Cooper, with the latters artistic style becoming increasingly dominant as the series progressed. Published by Aircel (which was by this time an imprint of Malibu Graphics) from January of 1989 through October 1989.
It featured broad, often crude, satire of the "grim and gritty" comics that were trendy at the time, as well as making fun of fandom and comics industry.

The first five issues are liked by several intertwining storylines and subplots. Along the way, the title character Gun Fury as a demented, ultra-violent hero who's part 1960s Batman and 1980s Punisher. His secret civilian identity is Jack Luger, mild-mannered staff writer at Fan Graphics, a firm that publishes several entertainment-related magazines and comic books. He has a money-grubbing, homophobic boss, and a go-getting investigative journalist female co-worker with a superhero fetish. 

In the first issue, Gun Fury's boy sidekick, Ammo, is killed in a clash with minions of the mysterious Master. Over the next few issues, he adopts and breaks in teenaged orphan Peter Pane as the new Ammo while simultaneously protecting the boy from the Master's agents, including fellow superhero Captain Rearguard who is duped into furthering the evil schemes. Meanwhile, a second more odious threat is lurking in the shadows, preparing to ooze onto the scene. 

Over the course of five issues (which form a complete, self-contained storyline), Blair and Cooper poke fun at superheroes as they were developing in the mid-1980s and into the 1990s... all grim and gritty and violent in the wake hits like "The Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns", with a few dollops of hamfisted social commentary thrown in for  good measure. Perhaps the most clever aspect of Blair's approach to the topic was having the grim-and-gritty co-exist with the lighthearted melodrama and downright goofiness that were the hallmarks of the superhero comics he'd grown up with. It gives a bizarre feeling to Gun Fury's world that is perfect for the title.

What is less perfect is Blair's sense of comedy. While this is an effective spoof in broad strokes, it's less effective when you zoom in. 

First, Blair was just not very good at coming up with one-liners, and the timing is even sometimes off on gags that span panels or pages. His inability to come up with zingers that hit home is particularly obvious when he's trying to play with characters making unintentional double-entendres that are supposed to be plays on sexual activity--homosexual activity in particular. It's particularly painful when it comes to Gun Fury exclaiming "Justice is about to spurt from my loins!" (or some such battle-cries). Some of those kind of jokes made around the superhero suffering from PTSD known as Captain Rearguard work a little better, but not by much.

Second, some of the humor is just too mean-spirited for my tastes--and I'm the guy who produced things like "Bill Clinton Meets a Girl Scout" and "Super Muslim Bros." Reading these comics, it appears that Blair might have hated comics fans, comics retailers, and comics critics in general, and Gary Groth (the founder of Fantagraphics and a key figure in the comics industry when this series was published), since they're all stupid, perverted, gross, and/or money-grubbers who are corrupt to the core. Some of the shots at the comics industry are dead-on, but others just feel like Blair is grinding his personal axes and isn't terribly concerned if he's being funny or not. 

The best of Blair's industry commentary can be found in the scene where the Gary Groth stand-in is berating an editor and a pair of talented hacks for not delivering the promised issues, despite having been paid. The scene ends with the trio heading off to find ANOTHER publisher from whom to get paid for not producing a product. Most of it, though, just feels too venomous and personal to be amusing.

One thing that is of high-caliber and always close to perfect is the art. While not quite at the level of Blair and Cooper's other major collaboration, "Jake Thrash", the combination of Blair's slick, cartoony-with-a-slant-toward-the-manga-style (a decade or more before EVERYONE started doing it) and Cooper's chunky inks and brilliantly applied washes was the perfect visualization for the mixture of old-school superhero posturing married with modern-day gore and violence. The occasional playfulness with the "language" of comic book storytelling that shows up in the art is also very well done. The page below is from "Gun Fury" #1, and it's one of my favorites from the entire series.

Sometimes, when I break out these old comics and re-read them for review purposes, I find myself disappointed; I find that something I have fond memories of doesn't match those memories. That is not the case with "Gun Fury". I had the same reaction to reading it now as I remember having back then--it's fun but flawed. It's got great art and it's a decent spoof of All Things Comics as they stood ca. 1989, but it's dragged down by the writer spewing too much venom in various directions.

Watch this space for thoughts on "Gun Fury" #6 - #10. (Meanwhile, if you have any memories or opinions about "Gun Fury" or any other Aircel Comics, that's what the comments section is for! Also, for an excellent exploration of the man behind the creation, Barry Blair, click here.)