About ten years ago(maybe longer), when I was first considering self-publishing, I was digging through old magazines and comics at McKay's Used Books in Knoxville, TN. I happened to come across a curious little book called the Wizard of Time. It called to me. I could tell by looking at the cover that it was a self-publishing endeavour. Some one had no doubt poured a lot of money, effort, and hopes into this one. So it was coming home with me.
I immediately devoured the book upon getting home and enjoyed it thouroughly. The comic was a bit short, but had no shortage of creativity. The story follows Simon Dobb, a talking anthropomorphic dog guy archaeologist and his clairvoyant duck ladyfriend Cathryn Mead as they stumble upon a segment of the legendary, all-powerful Time Helix. It has apparently distorted/evolved a race of natives on the planet they are exploring into a smiley-face cult who are obsessed with perfection and happiness. The issue ends with the pair captured and placed in a giant smiley-face cave which devours them as the natives tell them they'll "come back smiling-or won't come back at all." I found it pretty creepy and it was a cliffhanger very much in line with the kind the classic Doctor Who series would have had. Of course I was always a big fan of a lot of the Disney TV animation- Talespin, DuckTales, etc. Wizard of Time was very much in that vein of doing a serious adventure series with cartoon animal characters. The Wizard of Time, which had a cover date of 1986, was at least 10 years old at the time I discovered it and I figured since I had never heard of it, issue 1 was probably also the last issue (or it was so underground I could find little trace of it, even on the internet.)
For ten years, I would occasionally do searches on the internet with little or no success. Finally, a few weeks ago I found out that there had indeed been an issue 2 and 3 an promptly ordered them from Mile High Comics.
I have to say after the 10-year wait, I was a little dissappointed. The books aren't bad, just not quite up to the standard set by the first issue. While the first issue's art was more streamlined and graphical, the two new issues feature more detailed, if sometimes poorly-conceived illustration. Usually weird anatomy or poses...but superdetailed! Also, new characters start showing up, distracting you from and taking pages away from them main plot. It doesn't really help that the first story arc doesn't quite get resolved before the series abruptly cuts off. I feel like I have less closure from 3 issues than I did from just 1.
But the most disappointing thing a out the Wizard of Time is that there isn't more of it. Does anyone know anything else about the Wizard of Time and its creator David House? Any one know how to contact him? If so, please let me know.
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