THE LIONHEART STORIES
USAGI YOJIMBO #35-36
Mad Cosmos
Lionheart interviews
a variety of conspiracy theorists, bigfoot hunters, and alien
abductees, researching an article on fringe groups. Despite his
experiences with aliens and monsters, Lionheart is hard pressed
to accept their tales of alien Santas, possessed presidents and
talking hairless apes. Lionheart's skepticism convinces them
that he is an alien agent, and kidnap and interrogate him. However,
since he is smart and they are gullible, it's no big trick to
escape their clutches.
A personal favorite, and in
fact somewhat personal. Lionheart's view on aliens, monsters
and UFOs is mine. I grew up devouring UFO literature and
believing it all, immersing myself in writing and reading science
fiction. Eventually though, I had to discard my beliefs in the
face of overwhelming non-evidence and simple logic.
I am both Mulder and Scully - I want to believe, but I won't
believe blindly. There are aliens and UFOs, but they are not
kidnapping and impregnating talk show guests. Elvis may still
be alive, but he isn't living on an island with Hitler and Marilyn
Monroe.
USAGI YOJIMBO (Mirage studios)
#15-16
Real Heroes
Big, loud, stupid,
physically impossible Super Heroes are the focus of Lionheart's
last published story, ironically enough. Beast is a pea-brained
strongman and Beauty is a spike-heeled, french cut, giant cleavage
superbabe whose hair and breasts comprise 80% of her body weight.
Lionheart's interview reveals them to be dysfunctional and not
particularly bright, and earns them the nicknames of Feast and
Famine.
When Feast attempts to wreak his revenge on the media, it leads
to an unmasking of the sinister force behind the drug - enhanced
superheroes: a 15 year old boy with big power fantasies.
LIONHEART IN COLOR! I guess
you could call this color.
At least I got to say something about Image Comics Superheroes
before I was crushed underfoot by their lurid juggernaut. Without
hating the people at Image, I hate what they did to comics. It
is not, I repeat, NOT a remarkable achievement to sell millions
of comic books by filling them with violence and gorgeous babes.
Within a year, it seemed every superhero had become like Feast
and Famine: either a WWF psycho or Pamela Lee Anderson.
That said, plenty of fun to skewer their unimaginative crap.
PSYCHOTIC is also the word for the color in this, the only color
Lionheart story. The superbly gifted Eric Vincent provided the
color keys for the story, and I was thrilled to have him. Unfortunately
whoever did the actual colorizing was on some great acid; normally
you'd only see these colors if struck hard on the head. More
about this terrible color in the gallery.
ON TO THE LIONHEART GALLERY
