Hexagon Comics -Strangers 12: In the Era of King Kabur

 

Jean-MarcLofficier; art by Eduardo Garcia, Manuel Martin Peniche, Christophe Ouvrard; cover by Manuel Martin Peniche.

7x10 square bound trade paperback, 

94 pp 

b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-313-2 

US$12.95

Contents:
- Foreword by J.-M. Lofficier
- In the Era of King Kabur by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Manuel Martin Peniche
- Behold Baltazar! by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Manuel Martin Peniche & Christophe Ouvrard
- Morgane Hunted by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Eduardo Garcia 
- Mr. 17 Unmasked by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Christophe Ouvrard

HOMICRON is a NASA scientist whose body is inhabited by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha.
STARLOCK is the former servant of supremely powerful cosmic entities.
FUTURA is a mysterious woman from a parallel dimension.
JAYDEE is a teenage alien metamorph who may well be the deadliest killing machine in the universe...
These characters, all “strangers” to Earth, are brought together by TANKA, a former jungle lord who has been recruited by entities from our planet’s farthest future to be their agent and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces.

In this twelfth volume of Strangers, Tanka, Homicron and Starlock have traveled back in time to the era of King Kabur to try to learn how the legendary hero once defeated the alien Wan Lords. Meanwhile, in the present, the C.L.A.S.H. has its hands full with Mr. 17, whose secret identity is at last revealed, while Futura comes across a new threat...
 
Special guest-stars: King Kabur! Morgane!

Stating that Tanks's masters are "sexist" because the outfit left for Dr Towers made her look like Princess Leia's slave girl .... yeah, there are a few of the Strangers characters she needs to lecture on that one (I am not mentioning Futura by name).  But in the Age of Barbarians you dress to blend in -first rule of time travel. Slightly depowered our heroes still get to meet Kabur. (The Avengers never met Conan!).

There is also a point in the story in which Kabur meets his son. It does not go well. 

On my first looking at this story I did not think that Peniche's style of artwork would be the wisest choice.  However, on sitting down and looking at it I can say that his style does work. It sort of looks like a mix of an Indie style you might have gotten in the old Harrier Comics and a UK weekly adventure comic. So, yeah it works fine.

I was not as keen on Ouvrard's style. Backgrounds, etc all looked fine but his characters tended to look rather cartoony/anime like which threw things off for me. Garcia's artwork with its clear black and white style worked.  

With Mr 17 Unmasked we were back with Ouvrard and the style really showed through and I suspect that Ouvrard is a budding Mangaka -it is evident in the characters, backgrounds and so much more. I have nothing against Manga (as I think everyone knows) but for me the style clashed with the more Western styles used in the rest of the book. That is just me and I know how popular Manga is but my eyes are old!

Overall, I would say that this was a great cross-over and adventure/action book and "Manga style" probably adds a few bonus points to it.  Good solid stories and dialogue and at the price well worth getting a copy to add to your comic collection.