So when I met Robert again, this time at the recent 2009 Long Beach Comic Con, he presented me with a full set of his earlier mini-series 'Menthu' to read and possibly review here.

Robert mentioned, (possibly as a warning?), that it was not at all like 'The Roach'.  And it wasn't.  So what was it about?

Here's the PR for issue #1:  Rashan N'Shanga's world has just turned upside-down. Overnight, he's become an Egyptian sungod and he now has to set out on a quest to figure out exactly what being a"god" means. Rashan's sojourn will span across our world and into Egyptian mythology's netherworld.

Here's the PR for issue #2:  Rashan's situation goes from bad to worse as he appears in the TaDjesart, ancient Egypt's "Underworld," on the unholy river, the Tuat. But if he thinks sharing unknown time in a boat with a rotting corpse for an oarman is "worse," then the "worst" is yet to come.

Here' the PR for issue #3:  In part 3 of 4, Rashan N’Shanga has finally been reunited with his father, Anhur, ancient Egypt’s God of War. After being "snack food" for a fire-breathing snake—not to mention being fished out of the river, half-dead—Rashan’s ready to relax & enjoy this reunion. But the young immortal has more hard facts of his origin to learn. And Set has NO intentions of allowing his 2 mortal enemies to enjoy a "happy ending".

I'm not going to post the PR for issue #4 here, as I don't like to post 'spoilers warnings' for the endings of mini-series if I can help it.  And with this mini-series already published, why give away the ending?

Very briefly, let me state Robert's publishing history of this 'Menthu' series.  Robert first started coming up with this mini-series back in 1991 when he listened to the CD titled "The Seven Souls" by an electic, ever changing group called 'Material'. The CD had seven songs, of which five of them contained narration by William S. Burroughs about Egyptian mythology.

Robert says "A chord deep in my imagination was struck when I heard the CD".  In 1992 Robert, while driving up the Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey, CA, came up with the story outline in his head.  However he didn't feel that he could do justice to the story until he improved his storytelling abilities.  By 1996 he was ready to start with the actual story.   In 1997 he published the first issue of Menthu, and then the second issue.  However, distribution problems kept him from finishing the series at that time.

In 2004 Robert decided to restart the mini-series, and had the art redone as well as the coloring and other production values.  This time he had the whole four issues of the mini-series printed in advance, so there would be No distribution issues.

Those involved with the mini-series production were: Robert Roach, Larry Welch, Bryan Taylor, Tony Stewart, and Yumi Roach.

Okay... so much for the PR and the history of this mini-series.  What did I think of this mini-series of Robert's?

Well, I found the story arc itself to be well paced, not rushed and most importantly not stretched out to fill the four issue story arc.

The dialogue of the characters were fitting and what I would expect those beings to possibly talk like.  The research behind this story arc had to be a project in itself, what with the variations of the stories from ancient Egypt, and with the different names of the gods used by other conquering nations since then to refer to the Egyptian gods.

The art is in a style that adds distinction to the panels, but it is the coloring of this series that really brings out the flavor of the artwork to me.  Additionally the paper used for the cover and the interior pages really makes the total package jump out at me!  

The lettering is something a lot of readers don't really notice unless it bothers them.  Here the lettering fits each scene and each character without interferring with the artwork.

The cover art by Tony Stewart is well done, and most importantly doesn't conflict with the interior art.  Too often nowadays when the cover artist and the interior pages artist are not the same person, a browser  / possible purchaser of the publication will think 'what happened?!' when turning to the splash page with much different art than the cover.   Not here, the artwork flows smoothly between cover and interior pages.

I enjoyed reading this mini-series, especially with the letter columns taking the time to publish letters from those that saw the earlier publications from 1997 and then viewed new pages online from the revised edition.  Plus the time that Robert Roach spent in explaining what had happened to bring this mini-series to a restart and a conclusion.  It had to be hard to have 'letter columns' in a mini-series when the whole series was printed at once!

For those blog readers of mine that are into this type of story genre in prose form, I would have to say that it should be a very good read for them!  Add to it being told in very nice panelized sequential artform, and you have another winner from the Black Inc. Imprints / Hometown Productions publishing group!

To get started reading the first issue of the series just click the following link to be taken to Hometown Productions store: http://hometownprods.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=28  

Thanks again to Robert for bringing this earlier work of his to my attention, AND also again to Dale Wilson of of DWAP Productions who has turned me on to several works that other members of The Antidote Trust have turned out!

AND... Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!  We do blog daily on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events including some TV shows and theatrical films as they are shown!  

PLUS... Welcome to ALL of You that were reading the eBay Version of our Blog prior to eBay closing 'their eBay blogs platform'.  That version of our Blog had 1.37 MILLION page views before the closure... However, This Blog version is the same Blog that has been published at the same time the eBay version was being published.  I've been publishing this version since September 2007, so it has the same Fun Stuff You are used to on the eBay version you were reading!

Speaking of eBay... Be sure to check out our new listings of comics, graphic novels, Comic Con exclusives and more pop culture items for sale in our online eBay Featured Store that our blogs are based on!  It's due to sales at this online store that keep us going with the ability to post blogs like the one you have read here today!

So, I'm moving up tomorrow's scheduled blog post to today, as tomorrow is the day of rememberance for Veterans Day.  Here's the link to last year's blog post that is being heavily viewed overnite, (click here.)

Last year I was prompted to blog after seeing that CNN was airing their morning program from the deck of the USS Intrepid.  That ship is part of the Museum in Manhattan that Tina and I saw on a past trip to the Big Apple Con's "The National" comic book convention. The photo I used in last year's blog post showed several different exhibits at the Museum, including: The USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier, the USS Growler Nuclear Submarine, and the Concorde.

Tomorrow is our nation's day for honoring all of the Veterans that have served the country throughout its' history.

As you can see from the above two pictures, my Dad and Grandfather both served their Country.  (As well as multiple ancestors; plus earlier and current family members including uncles, nephews and now nieces!)

My dad served in the US Navy for 21 years.  One of his earlier cruises was on the USS Yorktown, a sister ship to the USS Intrepid that was pictured in last year's blog post.  So touring the USS Intrepid was 'like' looking at the same ship my dad served on those many years ago. My Dad's ship, the USS Yorktown has also been converted to a museum, and is ported in Patriots Point, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

My dad's dad was also a veteran, serving for his country in WWI. Ollie Hamersky, served under General John J Pershing in Europe, and made it back home after being gassed in the trenches. Unfortunately his childhood buddy, Henry Zerener, (the shorter man in the photo with him at left), never left Camp Funston at Fort Riley, KS.  Henry died from one of the illnesses that was rampant in the States during 1918.

So today, this blog post is dedicated to them, my other past and present family members, And to all the men and women who have served in our armed forces during our nation's history!

As for the comic book connection... War comics have been part of our heritage since even before the USA entered into WWII.

Captain America and other USA patriotic super-heroes in early 1941 helped shape America's thinking about what was going on in Europe before the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7th.  Captain America was shown punching Adolf Hitler on the cover of  Captain America Comics #1. 

Which by the way, was just featured on the November 8th episode of 'Brothers & Sisters'!  Did You catch that?  Scotty Wandell's father Wally is shown to be a long time comic book collector, and gives Scotty a copy of Captain America #1 at the end of the episode so Scotty and Kevin can sell it and then start their family...

Anyways, the comic book cover I chose to adorn the top left of this blog post is just one of thousands that I have owned during my many years of collecting. It was probably due to the fact that aircraft carriers like the one shown on the cover were the biggest man made objects I had seen or been in during my early childhood that made me pick that one up. (The comic is from January 1958.)  On the West Coast and in the Midwest when I visited family back there, there weren't any skyscrapers, so aircraft carriers made a BIG impression on me!

As also previously blogged about, it was my Aunt Marge and Uncle Howard McIntosh that really started me on reading comics.  However my own personal comics collection grew to  a much larger size while our family was stationed at the USN base on Kodiak Island 1963-1966.

That's because that other than fishing or hunting or crabbing, there just wasn't much else to do on an Island that only had a few miles of roads!  Plus at the Navy Base barbershop there were all kinds of comics to read and exchange with!  Yeah, Marvel Comics were hitting it big during that time, but with spotty distribution to Navy Bases, I couldn't always get the next 'continued story' issue, so I also read other comics but exchanged them back for Marvels when available!

Anyways, enough going off on another tangent here this morning...  As you have seen from the above,  Veterans Day, veterans, and war comic books mean something to me.  And No, I'm not a 'hawk' or even a 'dove'.  I just appreciate that comic books have not always been about 'super-heroes'!

My thanks to the veterans, and those veterans that also came back and worked in comics and added a sense of realism into the comic books that they had a hand in creating.

Of course I wasn't the only one... there were many blog posts, and several TV segments about the man who passed away at the age of 76 after an extended hospital stay.

Shel was also mentioned as being 'involved' in the Detroit Triple Fan Fair before coming out to the San Diego area.

Below are paragraphs from earlier blog posts I published after meeting Rick Murphy out here in Carlsbad of all places back in February of 2008.  Rick had moved out here temporarily and he noticed my comic book t-shirt I was wearing while out on errands one day.  He struck up a conversation with me, and said he had a mini-warehouse of personal effects.

We went over the items that he had in his personal collection, and I helped him sell a few at that the time.  Since then Rick has moved on to the Las Vegas area. My thanks again for the info that he was able to share with me before leaving the SoCal area!

The illustration shown at the top right  of this post is a reproduction of the 1st appearance of the Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF). One item in Rick's collection was one of these 14" x 22" poster boards that was used to promote the 1st Triple Fan Fair!  However Dan's original was discolored with age.