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Hard Time #1
Hard Time: 50 to Life
Hard 50 to Life
144 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Steve Gerber
637 books66 followersSteve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men,
The Phantom Zone
, and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 3, 2018
The elevator pitch for this book:
Take one of those quippy, teen actor-type kids from Stranger Things, give ‘em a superpower, put ‘em in a prison story like Oz and let’s have the guy who created Howard the Duck write it. We can save money on color ink by having the comic be monochromatic, except when the “spirit creature” appears, then we can run the budget on red/orange.
Other things to dislike:
Every prison trope you can think of is included, so if you have a jail house (of the male genre) story in mind, this would be a terrific resource to mine for already second-hand characters.
The story becomes unfocused and seems to get away from Gerber somewhere south of the middle of this book.
This was written over a decade ago, but the cavalier approach to school shootings and the subsequent criminal justice bungle-of-a-follow-through will give the reader a maddening rage-induced headache.
The power itself is hard to get a bead on. At first, I thought he was Cyclops Jr, then something from Stephen King’s Carrie, and finally, perhaps, a not-so-evil demon.
What’s to like?
The kid is funny, but in a real prison he would have been shanked in the prison yard for being a mouthy punk on page 12. End of comic.
Bottom line: This wouldn’t have seen the light of day back in the heyday of Vertigo.
Take one of those quippy, teen actor-type kids from Stranger Things, give ‘em a superpower, put ‘em in a prison story like Oz and let’s have the guy who created Howard the Duck write it. We can save money on color ink by having the comic be monochromatic, except when the “spirit creature” appears, then we can run the budget on red/orange.
Other things to dislike:
Every prison trope you can think of is included, so if you have a jail house (of the male genre) story in mind, this would be a terrific resource to mine for already second-hand characters.
The story becomes unfocused and seems to get away from Gerber somewhere south of the middle of this book.
This was written over a decade ago, but the cavalier approach to school shootings and the subsequent criminal justice bungle-of-a-follow-through will give the reader a maddening rage-induced headache.
The power itself is hard to get a bead on. At first, I thought he was Cyclops Jr, then something from Stephen King’s Carrie, and finally, perhaps, a not-so-evil demon.
What’s to like?
The kid is funny, but in a real prison he would have been shanked in the prison yard for being a mouthy punk on page 12. End of comic.
Bottom line: This wouldn’t have seen the light of day back in the heyday of Vertigo.
February 27, 2010
I don't have much experience with Steve Gerber's work, other than a few of the She-Hulk issues he did in the 90's. But I have heard a lot about his reputation as a great comic writer. I read a retrospective of Gerber's work after he died (too soon) a few years back, and the author of the piece spoke positively about HARD TIME, one of Gerber's final projects.
The basic story is as follows: 15-Year-Old Ethan Harrow is sentenced to 50 years in jail for his participation in a school shooting (although he didn't actually hurt anyone...). After a quick opening, the rest of the series takes place in the maximum security state penitentiary, where Ethan is quickly introduced to the dangers of prison life. Oh, and did I mention that he also has the freakish power to astrally project a spirit of vengeance to punish other inmates who mess with him? The coolest thing about that power is that Ethan is unaware of it--the hulking red ghost only operates when he's asleep, and he seems to have no control over it...
This volume collect the first 6 issues of the HARD TIME series. Gerber gets to work quickly and accomplishes a lot in these 6 issues--he introduces and develops numerous memorable characters, sets up interesting conflicts, fleshes out multiple plot lines, and provides some satisfactory resolution while opening even more mysteries.
Gerber is a very solid writer. His dialogue is great and he moves the plot along at a swift clip. This first volume is pretty dense, with very few wasteful or gratuitous splash pages. Not only has this volume made me want to check out the rest of the series, it's made me want to read Gerber's other works as well.
Unfortunately, only the first 6 issues of HARD TIME were ever collected in trade paperback. Luckily, I was able to snag the 13 remaining issues of the series out the the 25 cent bin at my friendly Local Comic Shop. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone able to scrounge it up from the back issue bin. While it may not have made a big commercial splash, it's definitely not to be missed.
The basic story is as follows: 15-Year-Old Ethan Harrow is sentenced to 50 years in jail for his participation in a school shooting (although he didn't actually hurt anyone...). After a quick opening, the rest of the series takes place in the maximum security state penitentiary, where Ethan is quickly introduced to the dangers of prison life. Oh, and did I mention that he also has the freakish power to astrally project a spirit of vengeance to punish other inmates who mess with him? The coolest thing about that power is that Ethan is unaware of it--the hulking red ghost only operates when he's asleep, and he seems to have no control over it...
This volume collect the first 6 issues of the HARD TIME series. Gerber gets to work quickly and accomplishes a lot in these 6 issues--he introduces and develops numerous memorable characters, sets up interesting conflicts, fleshes out multiple plot lines, and provides some satisfactory resolution while opening even more mysteries.
Gerber is a very solid writer. His dialogue is great and he moves the plot along at a swift clip. This first volume is pretty dense, with very few wasteful or gratuitous splash pages. Not only has this volume made me want to check out the rest of the series, it's made me want to read Gerber's other works as well.
Unfortunately, only the first 6 issues of HARD TIME were ever collected in trade paperback. Luckily, I was able to snag the 13 remaining issues of the series out the the 25 cent bin at my friendly Local Comic Shop. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone able to scrounge it up from the back issue bin. While it may not have made a big commercial splash, it's definitely not to be missed.
March 21, 2018
Seriously good stuff. The characters are a good mix of decent traits, ugly characteristics, and just enough justification for the complexities of their personalities. You can understand why Cole is sympathetic to the new kid, but also willing to unleash a brutal beating on Gatherwood.
Brian Hurtt's artwork does a great job capturing the characters.
Brian Hurtt's artwork does a great job capturing the characters.
December 12, 2016
It's too bad this didn't sell any better back in the day. Gerber combined social consciousness and a compelling story in this short series from DC's experimental Focus line. It had an even shorter run after the Focus line folded (uncollected) that wrapped the story up. The entire series is worth finding.
October 27, 2023
I think something in Gerber might have broken after he was fired from Marvel. He collaborated with Mary Skrenes, which is the same team that produced Omega the Unknown, but while the writing is competent and does a good enough job at framing character moments, it is also much less experimental and ambitious than Omega. Sales do not usually correspond with quality, but I will say that I can see why Hard Time never found an audience even though Omega is remembered by enough people that it got a reboot. A second series was in production, but it went the way of every Gerber project and got cancelled. Poor guy.
I'm not a fan of the art either.
I'm not a fan of the art either.
March 10, 2022
A fifteen year old gets sent to prison. He is pretty tough for a young kid stuck in this environment. Every prison cliché is thrown into this story. Then he discovers he has a strange 'power'. This certainly helps him maneuver his prison life and keeps things interesting. Pretty good artwork, even if it is a bit 'cartoon-y'.
June 20, 2021
Great concept. Lovely artwork. Engaging Story.
August 25, 2007
Graphic Novel. Entertainment Weekly called this Oz meets My So-Called Life. Sort of, but not really. Ethan Harrow is fifteen and gets fifty to life for holding up his school with his best friend. His friend is actually the one who does all the shooting, but he dies in a freak accident and Ethan gets saddled with the jail time. The state pen is a lot like high school, but nothing like MSCL. This book is all about prison politics. No one's talking about their feelings here. You've got your Aryan thugs, your Jesus freak, your tranny named Cindy, your various guards and gangs and personnel. Our man Ethan is quiet and smart, with a dry sense of humor and the quirky ability to move outside his body and fuck shit up. The art is realistic and natural, the dirty, muted colors perfect for the setting. On a technical level, DC did something new with this trade. Each issue's "previously on" page is moved to the back of the book, allowing the reader to just enjoy the story without being interrupted by information we just read. It makes the story more cohesive and everyone feels a lot smarter. Not much happens in this book -- it's mostly just an introduction to the characters; I'd love to read more, but this is the only trade available. Sigh.
September 2, 2012
Two teenage geeks break into their school cafeteria brandishing guns. Several people die, some suffer mental instability afterwards, one of the perperators collapses and the surviving one is sentenced to 50 years of hard time. In jail however, a different story of him unwinds.
Why did a harmless, 'nice boy' like him end up at the wrong end of a gun in a high school shootout? How did his companion really die? Why does he seem to be a trouble-magnet even in jail? And how does he stay alive, and what's more unblemished throughout? The answer lies with a forgotten Sumerian war goddess.
Full of eye-poppingly colourful characters, sublime plot twists and edge-of-seat action, the 50 years are gone you know it. Ethan's story is the kind of story that makes comics/graphic novels take literature a few notches higher.
Why did a harmless, 'nice boy' like him end up at the wrong end of a gun in a high school shootout? How did his companion really die? Why does he seem to be a trouble-magnet even in jail? And how does he stay alive, and what's more unblemished throughout? The answer lies with a forgotten Sumerian war goddess.
Full of eye-poppingly colourful characters, sublime plot twists and edge-of-seat action, the 50 years are gone you know it. Ethan's story is the kind of story that makes comics/graphic novels take literature a few notches higher.
February 14, 2011
This book was about a 15 year old kid named Ethan Harrows, who was involved with a shooting at his school. After he was caught and taken to court he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. As he spends some time in prison he meets new friends and enemies. It is tough for him to get use to the new changes he has experienced.
I liked the book because it was easy for me to understand and it was interesting. I also liked how they set up the story. This made the book really fun to read.
I would recommend this book to teenagers because it would be important for them to figure out the consequences for bringing a weapon to school. I feel that teenagers should know the experience that Ethan had in prison.
I liked the book because it was easy for me to understand and it was interesting. I also liked how they set up the story. This made the book really fun to read.
I would recommend this book to teenagers because it would be important for them to figure out the consequences for bringing a weapon to school. I feel that teenagers should know the experience that Ethan had in prison.
February 9, 2013
I'm reading this because the second volume was released (in collected form) several years later. Even though I'd consider the subject matter mature I really appreciate how the author kept the language clean. It's about a coming of age boy struggling to stay alive with strange, unknown powers that gets locked into a prison with adults. The writing and art were really good, but the moody, saturdated coloring--despite being ahead of the curve with digital advancement--was unusual because there are fewer pages featuring people with flesh tone colors. Most of the time people are colored blue and look like ghosts.
May 31, 2009
This was interesting. I like reading graphic novels about things that there aren't many graphic novels about: in this case, prison.
A 15-year old kid gets 50 years in prison for a ill-conceived school prank in which classmates got killed. Naturally, he runs into a lot of trouble with the prison pecking order. But for reasons not adequately explained, the kid can sort of astral-project a reddish demon that totally goes nuts when he is angry or in danger.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, but I'm not sure it was an ending. If there's more of this, I would read it.
A 15-year old kid gets 50 years in prison for a ill-conceived school prank in which classmates got killed. Naturally, he runs into a lot of trouble with the prison pecking order. But for reasons not adequately explained, the kid can sort of astral-project a reddish demon that totally goes nuts when he is angry or in danger.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, but I'm not sure it was an ending. If there's more of this, I would read it.
January 13, 2013
A really intriguing mix of prison drama and super powers (or at least super power). The result is totally innovative and it’s a really good read too, thanks to the strong characterization and the character-driven storyline.
I was bummed when DC abandoned the TPBs for Hard Time in 2004, as they tend to for any non-top-selling series, and I’m thrilled that a second one is finally out this year. Hopefully we won’t have to wait until 2022 for the third and final volume (but with DC you never know).
I was bummed when DC abandoned the TPBs for Hard Time in 2004, as they tend to for any non-top-selling series, and I’m thrilled that a second one is finally out this year. Hopefully we won’t have to wait until 2022 for the third and final volume (but with DC you never know).
Read
January 25, 2011This book is about a young kid who went to local high school with his best friend. They wanted to pull a prank. But his friend wanted more. His friend went on a killing spree during the big prank. He shot every one in sight. So harrow had no choice. He killed his best friend Ethan. But it was not harrow who really did it. It was a demon in him. So now he is in jail severing a 50 year sentence. Now he really has a problem. He must now learn to control the demon within.
July 14, 2014
For a comic book, this is brilliant but disturbing. Steve Gerber possessed real insight into the decadence of modern society. Alas, Steve Gerber's poor heart was profoundly afflicted by the pain of that decaying world, so much so, that, frequently, he fell into deep despair. You feel that in these pages. I pray for his soul ... Co-writer Mary Skrenes is still with us and seems to have been a life-long friend and comfort to Steve. God bless her.
http://corjesusacratissimum.org
http://corjesusacratissimum.org
February 11, 2013
I read this series back when it first ran, and loved it even more reading through the collected edition. Fantastic series that ended too soon, by the late Steve Gerber. The second volume has finally been released in trade...hopefully it doesn't take them years to get around to reprinting Season Two.
June 2, 2013
I'm usually a big fan of Mr. Gerber's, but this one, while not bad, wasn't one of his better tales. I haven't gotten around to reading the rest of the series yet, so I'm hoping the story gels more in future TPBs of the series.
August 22, 2012
The life of a 15 years old in prison with powers added to the mix. Interesting and great atmosphere.
May 29, 2014
Very solid series intro, with compelling characters and a unique situation. Sadly, the series didn't last long. But I'll be picking up the rest of it for sure.
November 7, 2007
Smug self-righteous racist crap that is poorly researched and badly written.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews