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Hard Time: The Complete Series
From Steve Gerber, the late creator of subversive classics like Howard the Duck, Hard Time is one of his most unique creations! What was supposed to be a stupid prank ends up costing four students their lives - and 15-year-old Ethan Harrow his future. But something powerful has been growing within Ethan, and now it's escaped.
When Ethan and Brandon agreed to prank the jocks at school, Ethan thought they would get a laugh. When Brandon goes over the edge... Ethan manifests some metaphysical force that kills his friend. The results of the trial are swift and severe, and the judge sentences Ethan to 50 years in prison. Will this powerful force living inside Ethan end up being a source of power, a chance at redemption, or the cruelest of curses? And is there anyone who can help him control it?
Collects Hard Time #1-12 and Hard Time: Season Two #1-7.
When Ethan and Brandon agreed to prank the jocks at school, Ethan thought they would get a laugh. When Brandon goes over the edge... Ethan manifests some metaphysical force that kills his friend. The results of the trial are swift and severe, and the judge sentences Ethan to 50 years in prison. Will this powerful force living inside Ethan end up being a source of power, a chance at redemption, or the cruelest of curses? And is there anyone who can help him control it?
Collects Hard Time #1-12 and Hard Time: Season Two #1-7.
464 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2020
4 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Steve Gerber
642 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 24, 2020
The story of a teenager sent to prison for 50 years after being involved in a Columbine-style shooting. While in prison, he discovers he has powers to astral project. This is an odd duck for a DC book. (Hey, it's Steve Gerber. Of course I had to throw a Howard the Duck reference in there.) It's unclear if it's even set in the DC universe because there's no mention of it in the book at all. It actually feels like more of an Image book. There are a lot of subplots involving other prisoners that tend to drag out and hang around too long. The book is also very dark at times.
I really enjoyed Brian Hurtt's art. Even though it's slightly cartoony, it fits very well.
I really enjoyed Brian Hurtt's art. Even though it's slightly cartoony, it fits very well.
January 2, 2021
It's good to have one of Steve Gerber's final books finally available in its complete form, even if it took 15 years.
This is pretty much Oz the comic, with two big twists. First, our protagonist is a teenager found guilty for his participation in a Columbine-style shooting (in which he did none of the shooting). Second, he also has the psychic power to send forth his spirit.
The book manages the balances between those different elements quite well. it's a great character piece, an intriguing prison drama, and a weird new-age story. It was unlike almost anything being produced in 2004-2006, before the rise of the new Image, and it remains a strong book today, even if it might have less of an overall arc that similar crime books like 100 Bullets.
The second "season" (issues #13-19 in this collection) is weaker than the first, primarily because it discards most of its original characters, and their replacements are never as enthralling. The last issue, which had to rather suddenly wrap up the series (after DC reneged on the issue 12-issue contract for Season Two) comes off surprisingly well: it's a good finale for the series.
A minor masterpiece from master creator Steve Gerber (and Mary Skrenes, who did all of the later writing after Gerber sickened).
This is pretty much Oz the comic, with two big twists. First, our protagonist is a teenager found guilty for his participation in a Columbine-style shooting (in which he did none of the shooting). Second, he also has the psychic power to send forth his spirit.
The book manages the balances between those different elements quite well. it's a great character piece, an intriguing prison drama, and a weird new-age story. It was unlike almost anything being produced in 2004-2006, before the rise of the new Image, and it remains a strong book today, even if it might have less of an overall arc that similar crime books like 100 Bullets.
The second "season" (issues #13-19 in this collection) is weaker than the first, primarily because it discards most of its original characters, and their replacements are never as enthralling. The last issue, which had to rather suddenly wrap up the series (after DC reneged on the issue 12-issue contract for Season Two) comes off surprisingly well: it's a good finale for the series.
A minor masterpiece from master creator Steve Gerber (and Mary Skrenes, who did all of the later writing after Gerber sickened).
November 28, 2020
This is basically PG-13 Oz. Or CW oz. Or...well it's basically OZ but without the brutality.
That isn't to say it's a kid friendly version. I mean the story starts with a school shooting. So it's a dark take into the world of powers. The thing is the book tries to give you about 15 different storylines but the author doesn't do a great job juggling it all. By the halfway mark I was getting bored with about half of them.
Luckily the art is solid, and the pacing isn't horrible, and it does have some interesting moments of prison life. But with much better prison stories out there, you can find better. A 3 out of 5.
That isn't to say it's a kid friendly version. I mean the story starts with a school shooting. So it's a dark take into the world of powers. The thing is the book tries to give you about 15 different storylines but the author doesn't do a great job juggling it all. By the halfway mark I was getting bored with about half of them.
Luckily the art is solid, and the pacing isn't horrible, and it does have some interesting moments of prison life. But with much better prison stories out there, you can find better. A 3 out of 5.
December 12, 2023
It’s another tragedy, another excellent comic cut short. This seems to be a pattern with many of my favourite writers, but none more so than Steve Gerber, who hardly ever seems to get the opportunity to wrap up a series on his own terms. Though maybe calling it a Gerber book isn’t quite right, since the series was primarily written by Marie Skrenes, a frequent collaborator of his since the 1970’s (see Omega the Unknown for a story the two wrote with similar sensibilities to this one). The original pitch was his at any rate, but due to health reasons the scripting duties were ultimately handled by her. It’s a little strange to find such comfort in the lives of violent criminals in prison, and yet as I settled in to reread the complete collection, it felt like coming home.
It all begins when 15-year-old Ethan Harrow is involved in a school shooting incident, and despite not shooting anyone himself, he is sentenced for multiple murders to 50 years in prison. A youth of 15 being sent to the company of adult inmates, many of whom are vicious murderers, some sex offenders, especially when said youth is small for his age and was so even years before, sounds like a recipe for disaster, and it is. And yet, in very short order Ethan Harrow makes more friends behind bars than he ever had on the outside, and what friends! Hard Time did not have a cast as large and varies as Oz, the go-to comparison for a drama set in prison, nor did it have anywhere near the time to spend on exploring these characters, but what we get is good. Very good.
So beginning again with Ethan Harrow, who hides his insecurities under snide remarks and a smart mouth, there’s Cole, a large African American man who arrived at the penitentiary on the same bus, the nature of his crimes never directly explained (many of the inmates are the same, we only know of the crimes that landed a couple of them there), Cole acts as a voice of reason, a street smart, savvy ally of sorts, but while he gives Ethan useful advice, he’s no father figure, no new best friend ready to risk his neck to protect Ethan from the many, many, many troubles the young man lands himself in across the series. On the same bus there was also the fast-talking and cocky Lopez, a man entering prison with great confidence on account of his relationship to the criminal gang called imaginatively Los Diablos.
The gangs, there are only two of them here, Los Diablos, led my Mr. Alcazar (a very serious, very respectable gentleman), and the Aryans, led by Raeder (who is sadly no Vernon Schillinger). The affiliations between the rest of the inmates are looser, and while these two gangs are at constant odds with one another, it’s hardly the focal point.
Other cast regulars include Curly, Ethan’s grumpy, Vietnam veteran cellmate, the oldest inmate to contrast with him being the youngest. There’s Dr Dinkens, the prison psychiatrist who suffers from a chronic case of infected sinuses and contrary to all expectations seems to care about his job. There are a few different kinds of raving madmen, from run-of-the-mill religious fanatics of the Christian persuasion to “Fruitcake” Mullins, who claims to channel the spirit of a Sumerian priestess (not all madmen are created equal) and of course there’s Cindy.
Oh Cindy, you adorable nincompoop. Cindy was born Edward Thomas Crane, but as is shown in two issues dedicated to her (It’s All About Cindy! and Bodies & Souls), grew finding the female side of things more suited to her nature. Cindy is also dyslexic and only learning to read and write properly while in prison, a slow process. Cindy may not be lacking in intelligence, but she is certainly lacking in wisdom, making bad decisions one after the other, mostly in her choice of men. There is a streak of optimism in her that seems completely at odds with the circumstances in the prison, but it’s a contagious kind of optimism.
While Ethan is stuck in prison for the foreseeable future, life goes on outside. His mother, a single parent, begins an affair with his lawyer. A relative of Curly’s discovers his existence. The girlfriend of one of the victims of the shooting tries to reach out to Ethan and struggles with the shock of all that happened, keeps seeing ghosts.
Right, the ghosts. From the very beginning of issue 1, something supernatural is afoot. I will not spoil here what that is (more so than I already have) but this is indeed a story about something far more than ordinary criminals. There are forces here of good and evil (Fruitcake Mullins makes a point of differentiating between being evil and being a criminal, even a violent and depraved one) and if only the series had lasted longer, these elements would’ve been explored in far greater depth.
Depth, that’s something that there’s still some here to be found. Ethan is sentenced to 50 years despite not shooting anyone himself, but he did participate, he was an accomplice. The reason for the shooting was bullying, which lasted for years, was ignored by the teachers, and was steadily growing worse. A much older Gerber book, Man-Thing, tackled a character who was being bullied for his weight, and Omega the Unknown featured it as well. Gerber and Skrenes clearly have much to say on the subject, and what they have to say is angry, outraged even, the events they depict (this time with the help of artist Brian Hurtt, who pencilled the whole series) are ugly and lacking any nuance, much the way it is in real life. Bullies are not who they are because of abusive parents or difficult lives, they are the way they are because they choose to be so, and their victims have no choice in the matter. I was left with less sympathy for the bullies who were shot and killed (or in one case, left crippled for life) than I did for someone who murdered a baby with a brick or the person who strangled his wife.
Oddly enough, the bullying Ethan endured at school seems worse than the violence he encounters while in prison, he can shrug off an honest beating from actual adults without falling into a pit of despair like he did in school, why is that? One likely explanation could be found in simple respect. His bullies all looked down on him (both figuratively and literally), and while the other inmates still tower over Ethan, they do not treat him as a nothing, they respond to him as a threat the same way they would to each other. There’s a respect here, one where Ethan is for the first time in his life recognized by his peers, and as I said before, in prison he very quickly makes more friends than he ever had outside.
And then the rest of the series is wrapped up in one issue, skipping the remaining 49 years of Ethan’s 50-year sentence because things had to be wrapped up. 12 issues for season one, 7 issues for season two. If ever a series deserved a longer run, here it is. Even having five more issues to make both “seasons” the same length would’ve been good. As it stands, reading Hard Time basically means getting 1/50th of a story, but it’s an enjoyable 1/50th.
It all begins when 15-year-old Ethan Harrow is involved in a school shooting incident, and despite not shooting anyone himself, he is sentenced for multiple murders to 50 years in prison. A youth of 15 being sent to the company of adult inmates, many of whom are vicious murderers, some sex offenders, especially when said youth is small for his age and was so even years before, sounds like a recipe for disaster, and it is. And yet, in very short order Ethan Harrow makes more friends behind bars than he ever had on the outside, and what friends! Hard Time did not have a cast as large and varies as Oz, the go-to comparison for a drama set in prison, nor did it have anywhere near the time to spend on exploring these characters, but what we get is good. Very good.
So beginning again with Ethan Harrow, who hides his insecurities under snide remarks and a smart mouth, there’s Cole, a large African American man who arrived at the penitentiary on the same bus, the nature of his crimes never directly explained (many of the inmates are the same, we only know of the crimes that landed a couple of them there), Cole acts as a voice of reason, a street smart, savvy ally of sorts, but while he gives Ethan useful advice, he’s no father figure, no new best friend ready to risk his neck to protect Ethan from the many, many, many troubles the young man lands himself in across the series. On the same bus there was also the fast-talking and cocky Lopez, a man entering prison with great confidence on account of his relationship to the criminal gang called imaginatively Los Diablos.
The gangs, there are only two of them here, Los Diablos, led my Mr. Alcazar (a very serious, very respectable gentleman), and the Aryans, led by Raeder (who is sadly no Vernon Schillinger). The affiliations between the rest of the inmates are looser, and while these two gangs are at constant odds with one another, it’s hardly the focal point.
Other cast regulars include Curly, Ethan’s grumpy, Vietnam veteran cellmate, the oldest inmate to contrast with him being the youngest. There’s Dr Dinkens, the prison psychiatrist who suffers from a chronic case of infected sinuses and contrary to all expectations seems to care about his job. There are a few different kinds of raving madmen, from run-of-the-mill religious fanatics of the Christian persuasion to “Fruitcake” Mullins, who claims to channel the spirit of a Sumerian priestess (not all madmen are created equal) and of course there’s Cindy.
Oh Cindy, you adorable nincompoop. Cindy was born Edward Thomas Crane, but as is shown in two issues dedicated to her (It’s All About Cindy! and Bodies & Souls), grew finding the female side of things more suited to her nature. Cindy is also dyslexic and only learning to read and write properly while in prison, a slow process. Cindy may not be lacking in intelligence, but she is certainly lacking in wisdom, making bad decisions one after the other, mostly in her choice of men. There is a streak of optimism in her that seems completely at odds with the circumstances in the prison, but it’s a contagious kind of optimism.
While Ethan is stuck in prison for the foreseeable future, life goes on outside. His mother, a single parent, begins an affair with his lawyer. A relative of Curly’s discovers his existence. The girlfriend of one of the victims of the shooting tries to reach out to Ethan and struggles with the shock of all that happened, keeps seeing ghosts.
Right, the ghosts. From the very beginning of issue 1, something supernatural is afoot. I will not spoil here what that is (more so than I already have) but this is indeed a story about something far more than ordinary criminals. There are forces here of good and evil (Fruitcake Mullins makes a point of differentiating between being evil and being a criminal, even a violent and depraved one) and if only the series had lasted longer, these elements would’ve been explored in far greater depth.
Depth, that’s something that there’s still some here to be found. Ethan is sentenced to 50 years despite not shooting anyone himself, but he did participate, he was an accomplice. The reason for the shooting was bullying, which lasted for years, was ignored by the teachers, and was steadily growing worse. A much older Gerber book, Man-Thing, tackled a character who was being bullied for his weight, and Omega the Unknown featured it as well. Gerber and Skrenes clearly have much to say on the subject, and what they have to say is angry, outraged even, the events they depict (this time with the help of artist Brian Hurtt, who pencilled the whole series) are ugly and lacking any nuance, much the way it is in real life. Bullies are not who they are because of abusive parents or difficult lives, they are the way they are because they choose to be so, and their victims have no choice in the matter. I was left with less sympathy for the bullies who were shot and killed (or in one case, left crippled for life) than I did for someone who murdered a baby with a brick or the person who strangled his wife.
Oddly enough, the bullying Ethan endured at school seems worse than the violence he encounters while in prison, he can shrug off an honest beating from actual adults without falling into a pit of despair like he did in school, why is that? One likely explanation could be found in simple respect. His bullies all looked down on him (both figuratively and literally), and while the other inmates still tower over Ethan, they do not treat him as a nothing, they respond to him as a threat the same way they would to each other. There’s a respect here, one where Ethan is for the first time in his life recognized by his peers, and as I said before, in prison he very quickly makes more friends than he ever had outside.
And then the rest of the series is wrapped up in one issue, skipping the remaining 49 years of Ethan’s 50-year sentence because things had to be wrapped up. 12 issues for season one, 7 issues for season two. If ever a series deserved a longer run, here it is. Even having five more issues to make both “seasons” the same length would’ve been good. As it stands, reading Hard Time basically means getting 1/50th of a story, but it’s an enjoyable 1/50th.
March 3, 2022
Well damn, I don’t give many books 5 stars but this one really does deserve it. This book has so much life to it, I really struggled to put it down. It touched on so many life issues but never once felt preaching, this is one of the best comic books I have read, period.
To add that that, its fun, has supernatural elements and even a few easter eggs if you look for them.
I would recommend to have a dictionary ready as you may need it from time to time.
To add that that, its fun, has supernatural elements and even a few easter eggs if you look for them.
I would recommend to have a dictionary ready as you may need it from time to time.
July 1, 2023
This hard-time-long-sentenced tale is admirably well written! It's got crime, drama, emotional and sexual conflicts, and of course, scy-fi! All characters are well developed and it's such good fiction! The drawing is also very good, it helps us immerse deeply into this story. Despite the final volume had been cancelled, I personally think they did an outstanding job of giving this story a proper ending. You won't regret entering this world!
October 7, 2022
3 and 1/2 stars. This is begging to be a tv series, mainly because the issues are so episodic. A kid who is involved in a school shooting navigates his way through a rough prison system...and then finds out he can astral project. Has a little bit of every big issue involved in prison and life. Well written, and I cared for the characters...or most of them.
January 4, 2021
TW: transphobia, homophobia, mention of rape, school shooting, bullying, racism against black and latinx characters (physically & verbally), difficult childbirth, religion (via a zealot)
May 31, 2023
A book that has aged weirdly. It is 100% a book from the early 00s. Still good.
February 2, 2025
Between 4.78 to 5 star rating
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews