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Battle Beasts
Placeholder for a collection of the four issues of Battle Beasts published by Blackthorne Publishing in 1988.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
John Stephenson
169 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
John Stephenson is a consultant and writer on:
* e-learning
* work-based learning
* learner centred curriculum design
* development of capability strategies
John Stephenson is a consultant and writer on:
* e-learning
* work-based learning
* learner centred curriculum design
* development of capability strategies
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 6, 2017
This was a tie-in to one of my favorite toys as a kid, and to me was about perfect at the time apart from the lack of color, but I was old enough not to color it myself. Although Overstreet doesn't list them as worth more than a contemporary comic book, the prices on eBay are outrageous, so I will treasure mine.
As an adult, it's easier to see the flaws, but it still works for me, at least taken as children's literature. To some, Battle Beasts were a scam way of playing paper-rock-scissors with action figures, but to me, the rubsigns, based on stress test technology and originally Autobot/Decepticon symbols that Hasbro decided to divorce from Transformers when they imported them. Horny Toad and Knight Owl were Decepticons, while Rocky Rhino was an Autobot, but John Stephenson was given free reign in the development of the series, casting Horny Toad as leader of the good guys and Knight Owl as hotheaded comic good guy, and Rocky Rhino as a dumb villain who talks like the Hulk too much after the blatant jab at getting the Hasbro license from Marvel was featured in Bighorn Sheep's cameo as Horny Toad's close friend in the first issue.
The premise for me was just about perfect. I wasn't allowed to have G.I. Joe as a kid (in spite of my dad having been in the air force) because my parents didn't want to encourage me to be military cannon fodder. It ought to be said that my dad joined the Air Force in 1961, and he and most of the others wanted to do their service in peace time, which often involved protecting people involved in the civil rights movement. I was allowed to have toys like these that might be considered "war toys," but were more fantastic, medieval, or futuristic. I loved the design of the toys (which I am lucky to still own, although they are in storage), armored anthropomorphic animals with weapons that often looked more ceremonial than practical, but the simplistic backstory of constant fighting needed some work, since pointless fighting was not appealing to me even as a kid.
Stephenson (whose sons owned the toys) presents us with a two-sunned planet known only as the world, which was violent in ancient times but currently peaceful. What follows is a sort of trope common in horror but less common in adventure--interference with a ceremony thought to have no real power resulting in disaster. Because of the ambitions of Δ Chameleon, who believes himself superior because of his ability to change sign, the world explodes in madness and becomes his for the taking. Only those present at the ceremony are left sane, but the power of the sunburst can save them from the madness, but not the uncontrolled changing of the signs. Horny Toad, representing water, Gargantuan Gorilla, representing wood, and Knight Owl, representing fire, are the World's only hope to resume their ways of peace. The Soulspirit, a sort of goddess figure, directs them to find the ancient Sunburst Warrior, who but sleeps, even though the Beasts have believed him dead,
In the second issue, the Beasts get equipped with two of the chariots (the two I didn't own until clearance time), which are guarded by Deer Stalker and Major Moose. I didn't pick up on the markers of Major Moose's Canadian accent until adult rereading. At the end of the issue we are introduced Ruhin, a gelatinous evil counterpart to the Soulspirit, the Devil in all but name and appearance.
I actually had the fourth issue first, and the inking is more detailed than in the previous three issues, which look like an adult coloring book by comparison (and thus a bit disappointing when I found them). The inking this issue is credited to Rachel "Fuzzy" Haze and the Skeleton Crew, whom I had to add to the Comic Book Database, and whom I could not find in a Google search. Since female artists were uncommon (though hardly unheard of) in 1988, this is definitely a mystery, although how much of this inking is by her compared to the even more mysterious "Skeleton Crew" is also a question. Oddly enough, we see nipples on the Soulspirit in one panel, and she intentionally covers her breasts with her arm on the same page, particularly unusual given the intended audience of the comic and the female illustrator. In the first issue, her cloak covered her torso.
Although it was obvious, even as a child, that Pirate Lion was most likely being indicated as the Sunburst Warrior, the next issue, which we were told would be called "Good Morning, Sunburst," which sounds to me like a Hair reference, never appeared, and was one of the most disappointing unresolved cliffhangers of my childhood. There was always the possibility that this was a red herring, although with the series on the brink of cancellation, this seems unlikely.
While Stephenson does a good job with going against certain stereotypes, such as Owl being brash an naïve, a lot of the more overarching tropes are obvious. We also see numerous individuals who look like Sawtooth Shark, Crusty Crab, and Slasher Seahorse. Although Gorilla complains about the discomfort of the ceremonial armor, they are never shown wearing anything else even in the illustrations of the origins of their powers, consequently the lack of individuality among the Beasts is an ignored issue, which I suppose doesn't matter if everyone is consumed in a desire to fight. Also, it's not clear how the good Beasts got the Beasts to fight against Ruhin if Ruhin is drawing power from their fighting amongst themselves and they haven't used their Sunburst power on all of them. Still, it's a good metaphor for the political situation now and in 1988. It's also padded out with too many fight scenes. Almost nothing to advance the plot happens in the third issue apart from Chameleon's attempt to hypnotize Ruhin, the rest being wandering, infighting (bad/mad guys)/bickering (good guys), and fighting.
Overall, while not a perfect comic book, and it might seem too childish to fans of the rather bloody IDW series, it's a very impressive offering from a short-lived comic book company, both in terms of the writing (if, again, too Stan Lee-like), and the artwork by Andy Ice, which shows heavy influence from the Battle Beasts poster premium, especially in discrepancies from the toys (the lack of pupils on Tarsier Tyrant, the white rather than black ears of Panzer Panda). When Ice left Blackthorne, he worked on the animated series based on The Wizard of Oz. I don't know if he's the dentist that is currently at Andy Ice's website linked from his page on the Comic Book Database.
As an adult, it's easier to see the flaws, but it still works for me, at least taken as children's literature. To some, Battle Beasts were a scam way of playing paper-rock-scissors with action figures, but to me, the rubsigns, based on stress test technology and originally Autobot/Decepticon symbols that Hasbro decided to divorce from Transformers when they imported them. Horny Toad and Knight Owl were Decepticons, while Rocky Rhino was an Autobot, but John Stephenson was given free reign in the development of the series, casting Horny Toad as leader of the good guys and Knight Owl as hotheaded comic good guy, and Rocky Rhino as a dumb villain who talks like the Hulk too much after the blatant jab at getting the Hasbro license from Marvel was featured in Bighorn Sheep's cameo as Horny Toad's close friend in the first issue.
The premise for me was just about perfect. I wasn't allowed to have G.I. Joe as a kid (in spite of my dad having been in the air force) because my parents didn't want to encourage me to be military cannon fodder. It ought to be said that my dad joined the Air Force in 1961, and he and most of the others wanted to do their service in peace time, which often involved protecting people involved in the civil rights movement. I was allowed to have toys like these that might be considered "war toys," but were more fantastic, medieval, or futuristic. I loved the design of the toys (which I am lucky to still own, although they are in storage), armored anthropomorphic animals with weapons that often looked more ceremonial than practical, but the simplistic backstory of constant fighting needed some work, since pointless fighting was not appealing to me even as a kid.
Stephenson (whose sons owned the toys) presents us with a two-sunned planet known only as the world, which was violent in ancient times but currently peaceful. What follows is a sort of trope common in horror but less common in adventure--interference with a ceremony thought to have no real power resulting in disaster. Because of the ambitions of Δ Chameleon, who believes himself superior because of his ability to change sign, the world explodes in madness and becomes his for the taking. Only those present at the ceremony are left sane, but the power of the sunburst can save them from the madness, but not the uncontrolled changing of the signs. Horny Toad, representing water, Gargantuan Gorilla, representing wood, and Knight Owl, representing fire, are the World's only hope to resume their ways of peace. The Soulspirit, a sort of goddess figure, directs them to find the ancient Sunburst Warrior, who but sleeps, even though the Beasts have believed him dead,
In the second issue, the Beasts get equipped with two of the chariots (the two I didn't own until clearance time), which are guarded by Deer Stalker and Major Moose. I didn't pick up on the markers of Major Moose's Canadian accent until adult rereading. At the end of the issue we are introduced Ruhin, a gelatinous evil counterpart to the Soulspirit, the Devil in all but name and appearance.
I actually had the fourth issue first, and the inking is more detailed than in the previous three issues, which look like an adult coloring book by comparison (and thus a bit disappointing when I found them). The inking this issue is credited to Rachel "Fuzzy" Haze and the Skeleton Crew, whom I had to add to the Comic Book Database, and whom I could not find in a Google search. Since female artists were uncommon (though hardly unheard of) in 1988, this is definitely a mystery, although how much of this inking is by her compared to the even more mysterious "Skeleton Crew" is also a question. Oddly enough, we see nipples on the Soulspirit in one panel, and she intentionally covers her breasts with her arm on the same page, particularly unusual given the intended audience of the comic and the female illustrator. In the first issue, her cloak covered her torso.
Although it was obvious, even as a child, that Pirate Lion was most likely being indicated as the Sunburst Warrior, the next issue, which we were told would be called "Good Morning, Sunburst," which sounds to me like a Hair reference, never appeared, and was one of the most disappointing unresolved cliffhangers of my childhood. There was always the possibility that this was a red herring, although with the series on the brink of cancellation, this seems unlikely.
While Stephenson does a good job with going against certain stereotypes, such as Owl being brash an naïve, a lot of the more overarching tropes are obvious. We also see numerous individuals who look like Sawtooth Shark, Crusty Crab, and Slasher Seahorse. Although Gorilla complains about the discomfort of the ceremonial armor, they are never shown wearing anything else even in the illustrations of the origins of their powers, consequently the lack of individuality among the Beasts is an ignored issue, which I suppose doesn't matter if everyone is consumed in a desire to fight. Also, it's not clear how the good Beasts got the Beasts to fight against Ruhin if Ruhin is drawing power from their fighting amongst themselves and they haven't used their Sunburst power on all of them. Still, it's a good metaphor for the political situation now and in 1988. It's also padded out with too many fight scenes. Almost nothing to advance the plot happens in the third issue apart from Chameleon's attempt to hypnotize Ruhin, the rest being wandering, infighting (bad/mad guys)/bickering (good guys), and fighting.
Overall, while not a perfect comic book, and it might seem too childish to fans of the rather bloody IDW series, it's a very impressive offering from a short-lived comic book company, both in terms of the writing (if, again, too Stan Lee-like), and the artwork by Andy Ice, which shows heavy influence from the Battle Beasts poster premium, especially in discrepancies from the toys (the lack of pupils on Tarsier Tyrant, the white rather than black ears of Panzer Panda). When Ice left Blackthorne, he worked on the animated series based on The Wizard of Oz. I don't know if he's the dentist that is currently at Andy Ice's website linked from his page on the Comic Book Database.
Displaying 1 of 1 review