Saturday 8 December 2012

Sark The Sleeper

Well, that's a let down - the next few issues of Lion & Thunder that i'd bought were right dull affairs, even Adam Eterno. Where's Black Max when you need him? At the 15th Dec issue though, a new tale begins, one i don't remember and have never seen written about anywhere:
"Sark The Sleeper" is unusual in that its a SF tale in this title, normally the nearest we get to it is the odd alien popping up to confound our heroes. Also unusual is how this first episode drops straight into the story - no formal introduction to the two characters and no place setting other than "It was unknown, unexplored territory - on all sides the jungle lay, evil and menacing." in the first box. Of course, this is intentional for the twist at the end of the three pages - the two medieval-appearing lads shelter from jungle beasties and find themselves in a laboratory and awaken "The Sleeper", a mythical God-like being to them, who turns out to be a regular joe who they've accidently woken up aftera thousand years in suspended animation. It jolly good stuff - very Twilight Zone, with a touch of Planet Of The Apes about it. And the arts nice too. No idea who's it by, but still nice:

1 comment:

Stephen Poppitt said...

This strip ran in 'Lion' from 1973-12-15 [issue #1119] to 1974-05-18 [issue #1136], i.e. for only 18 weeks, because 'Lion' was cancelled, ending with issue #1136.

The strip deserves to be better known, but ended prematurely, and thus in a dreadful anti-climax, because of the comic's cancellation.

The strip was loosely based on the short story 'Universe' by A.E. Van Vogt.