Inspiration from comics : Ranx (NSFW)

Warning : I should probably warn you that though I have kept most of the hard pictures out of this post, the Comic I'm about to talk about contains some adult material some may not appreciate.

During my review of the comics I have that prove to be inspirationnal for my hobby, I managed to completely miss one of the most evocative : RANX

I have no idea how I overlook that one but trust me, if a comic defines the 80's aesthetic and culture, it's that one (IMHO, YVMV...).

Ranx is an Italian-french comic whic was published in the early 80's in Italia and later in Heavy Metal. The graphic style is recognisable amongst thousands thanks to Liberatore's use of Pentone pens and his style employs many of the codes of his time.

The most fascinating bit about this comic is that it takes place in the late 80's/early 90's but many elements of the universe are clearly futuristic. The first one is obviously the fact that the hero, Ranx, ia an android built with the parts of a Rank Xerox copier but his technology seems to be quite advanced as he can hack sound systems, record TV shows for his girlfriend and things of the sort.

Like many comics of its time, the world of Ranx is a parody of the world in which it was written. Like you would expect in 2000AD publications like Judge Dredd or others or what you can find in the Incal and most of the Jodoverse, you can find all the features of our modern world exagerated to the extreme. Violence is ever present, sex is everywhere, drugs and rock and roll probably being the lesser evil of all in all that mix.

Inspiration from comics... the oriental side

Well since the presentation of my comics collection seems to have been of interest, I think it's only natural I present you another part of it and specifically all the production from asia (mostly Japan and Corea).

Like in the previous article, I'll list the different titles in the order in which they appear in the shelves.

I'd like to explain that Japanese comics and animes arrived in France in the 80's (well a bit earlier but that's when they became that big). Thanks to TV channels buying them because they were cheap and to visionary publishers who understood that France (being a country of comic books) would welcome diversity, the whole genre has become as natural to people born in my generation as any other thing. Since this is also the time when I discovered miniatures, fantasy, sci-fi, Heavy metal and all that, I just cannot dissociate all those now and they all merge into what drives me now hobby wise.

The great permeability between french and japanese cultures (not apparent at first sight) has lead to changes in many fields (sports, cooking...) and comics and anime are only one of them. TV series like 'Ulysses 31', the 'mysterious cities of Gold' or 'Jayce and the wheeled warriors' are probably one of the consequences that may be the most familiar outside.

This is just a way for me to express how Japanese culture has been influencing French culture for more than 30 years even for those who're not into it as deeply as I am with Kendo, Taiso, comics or gastronomy.

Some of the comics I'm going to present here are true classics but some others are a little less well known. The description I'm making of them may often seem disturbing or not very welcoming but as much as I do love those titles, I know some of these leave no middle ground between hate and love.

Technical warning : It may come as something obvious to those who read a lot of them but more and more mangas (if not all nowadays) are published in their original sense of reading (meaning right to left). This is of course the best of things as it doesn't change the original work and avoids silly mistakes when transaltions of left/right do not match the reversed picture or when full page pictures don't get reversed and become awkward.

If the idea of reading from right to left is worrying you, know that the human brain is a wonderful adaptable thing that it will manage to learn and forget about the issue in no time making it as natural as reading from left to right.

Inspiration from comics... the occidental side

Being of an obsessive kind comes in different flavours... spending a lot of time/energy/money on little soldiers is one kind but obsession rarely comes alone...

One of the obsessions that has been accompanying me for as long as modelling has is comic books. I'd even go as far as to say they're 2 sides of a same thirst for escapism.

I was reading Colin's articles about 2000Ad publications and about the Incal and thought I could probably add a few inspirations of mine. The inspiration used to create the Warhammer universe through books and films (Starwars, Alien and many others) is well known but there are plenty of sources that are either not as well known and which have influenced game designers in the past OR new material that can inspire them and most importantly US hobbyists.

I'll take this occasion to share my collection, or at least part of it, with you and I really hope I can give you the will to open some of those. (I'm not posting it to brag or anything but more to let people get the exact references and see what others things I read I didn't mention here).

Now my collection is an atrocious mixture of comics of all sorts and origins (both in time and space) so I'm going to split this review into east and west like in good ol'days. I'll start with the occidental side of the collection based on pieces from Europe (and therefore UK) and the US with a slight southern America detour...

Being french, you'll find that all this is very oriented as all countries don't have the same access to the same titles and the translation issues may also have helped or handicaped some of them getting to France or getting out of it. My point is that I'll comment on what I know of the french versions of the titles (except for a few for which I've had the opportunity to compare with originals).
Not all of those titles will be available abroad depending on where you live but if you ever feel like giving a go at one of them, please do not hesitate to ask me for help/advice.

Since I'm failing at finding a proper order for all this I'll just list things as they appear on the shelves. The way books are placed in the shelves is due to the place available for a good part but I've also tried to keep a certain consistency as you'll see... (I'll be skipping some titles that have little relevance to the kind of models I paint but that doesn't mean one bit they're no good, far from it).