Hexagon Comcs: STRANGERS 11: FINALLY... ZEMBLA!

 

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

94 p. 

b&w

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-267-8. - 

US$12.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-strangers-11-finally-zembla.html

by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez, Nestor Vargas Campo; cover by José Luis Ruiz Pérez.

Contents:
- Foreword by J.-M. Lofficier
- CHAOS IN KARUNDA by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez
- ZEMBLA VS YATAN! by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez
- FRANCE UNDER FIRE! by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Nestor Vargas Campo
- RETURN OF THE ATTATURKEY by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Nestor Vargas Campo


HOMICRON, a NASA scientist whose body is possessed by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha. 

STARLOCK, a servant of the Towers, supremely powerful cosmic entities. 

FUTURA, a mysterious woman from a parallel dimension. 

JAYDEE, a teenage, alien metamorph, abandoned on Earth as a baby, and 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 “time agent” and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces.

In this eleventh volume of Strangers, the heroes clash with the renegade Salamandrite known only as Mr. 17, to prevent the return of his alien masters, the Wan Lords, whom Kabur once defeated in the distant past...

First, they travel to the African jungle of Karunda, and then to a secret research facility in the South of France, to stop Mr. 17 from using dimensional gateways to bring the space vampires to Earth.

Special guest-stars: The Guardian of the Republic! Zembla! And the amazing Attaturkey!

Strangers always reminds me to a degree of John Byrne's Alpha Flight. Though more correctly I suppose it was more like the Bronze Age Avengers where there were regular members and gust stars. "Season 4" helps you sort out your volumes for reading and once you get a nice stack of Hexagon books that helps.

With Lofficier writing the stories and maintaining the continuity he has created (before Hexagon Comics (Cool French Comics has not been updated since 2017 but is full of information and recommended https://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/  The knowledge of these characters and the continuity he has established makes for some excellent cross-overs and here we see a story with some twists and a dark secret held by Yatan.

All a good fun read but then we have the art. The first two parts drawn by the late Jose Luis Ruiz Perez that cannot be faulted. Wonderful to see and sad that we will see no more of his work.  Nestor Vargas Campo illustrates the next two parts and his artwork is a different style to Perez but equally as distinctive with solid blacks, grey toning and cross-hatching  which really suits black and white comic strips.

I do recommend Hexagon Comics and particularly Strangers and these are good comics that remind me of what Marvel used to be in the 1970s and 1980s before 1990s rot set in. Check out their web site and remember: this is the age of the Hexagon!