The other day I was visiting the local clearance bookseller, where all manner of books end up, and saw a pile of “Miracleman: The Golden Years” by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. So I had to buy it. I grew up on British comics (including Starlord, Tornado and 2000AD, plus some old Eagle comics) but hadn’t read any recently, plus I like some of Gaiman’s stuff, so it seemed like the thing to do. An eclectic collection of stories looking at life in the new utopia (distopia?) enforced upon the world in the near future (with some transhumanist-type themes in places). Definitely different from the other comics I’d read recently and I may go off and find some more issues. (For those of you who are interested in the character its history makes interesting reading – see the link above).
It got me thinking about other non-US comics I’d read as a kid, and I remembered that my brother had bought the first (and only) issue of “Captain Sunshine” – a NZ superhero comic. It even came with a cool sundial watch. I have dim recollections too of it being somehow promoted at our primary school but I can’t remember why – though there may have been an ecological thrust to the comic. (Colin Wilson, the artist, went on to do work for comics like 2000AD after it.) The internet being like it is there’s information here and I’m now looking for a copy of that first issue, hopefully with the Solar Watch or whatever it was called.
More information at Kiwi Comics: History Questions (scroll down for Captain Sunshine).
