The "Evil" Astro: NOW! Comics for a new generation

[Fauna]

A lot of the longtime members of this forum already know this story, but in light of the influx of new members, I feel it'd be good to reintroduce it. I'm talking about the time Astro got an American comic book in the eighties.

I first found out about it through thumbnails on a website by former forum user Dr. Frag, back in 8th grade, but much to my disgust there wasn't any information elsewhere online. By the time I was in 12th grade I'd completed a series of reviews (warnings for profanity within) and put the whole 20-issue run online, and completely dug up the whole story behind the series. It's as follows...



In 1987, there once was a comic studio called NOW! Comics that was working on comics based on Speed Racer, Green Hornet, ALF and...ugh...Married With Children. Company owner and arch-devil Tony Caputo was interested in making something based on Astro Boy, which at the time was in legal turmoil since the closing of Mushi Productions. A man only known as Mr. Sezuki, presumed the English licencor of the 1960's anime, sold Caputo the rights to make an Astro Boy comic, and Osamu Tezuka had no idea this was going on. Caputo was going to hire diehard Astro fan Brian Thomas to do art...



...but contracted cover artist Ken Steacy offered to do full art and be paid in Canadian dollars, which were vastly cheaper to American dollars in the late eighties. Guess which one Caputo hired.



Cheap or not, Steacy didn't care about Astro, and his art ranged from "going through the motions" to "doodles on a napkin slathered in airbrush paint". It got worse and worse until the original writer quit, then sales dropped dramatically, and Steacy quit. He wrote a scene that killed off Astro in the end of one issue, leaving the now-hired Brian Thomas to have to draw Astro exploding to death and then somehow have him back to normal by the next installment. Sales increased with Brian's improved direction, but when distribution widened, the series wasn't quite selling enough and it was discontinued in 1989.

The series is, for the most part, a clustered mess that's acid on the eyes. Astro is moody and violent, at one point hinting about making a bloodbath of his human oppressors and shooting at cops' feet with his finger laser...the worst thing he does is STICK HIS WHOLE HAND IN AN INJURED SOLDIER'S WOUND AND FEEL AROUND and it's supposed to be the moment when he realizes humans and robots are different. Dr. Tenma is psychotic and, at one point, tortures Astro by putting a robot spider capable of electric shocks inside Astro's chest cabinet. Hamegg is a canned Italian stereotype and his creeper attitude to Astro is super unsettling. Duke Red appears as a snivelling, bribed underling for a butch general. And Steacy's art is all like:



It's a shame, since he actually makes some really good art when Caputo's not making him draw little boys at gunpoint. I made it my goal when I was 14 years old to find out what was going on with this series, and now, I am the expert on this awful, awful thing. I'd like to thank Tawashi Bus Hat and Brian Thomas himself for the support. (Brian also advised me not to contact Caputo, proving Caputo is the devil.)

Basic name conversion list, for the most part taken from the 1963 dub:
Tobio Tenma: Astor Boynton
Dr. Tenma: Dr. Boynton (and his mysteriously dead wife, Jean)
Hamegg: Mr. Cacciatore
Duke Red: Tas Tamil (his kids look exactly like him)
Astro's Parents: Rebecca and Elmer
Dr. Fooler: I.Q. Plenty (guest-starring an awful talking dog named Spud)
Uran: Astro Girl

You got questions, or want more pictures? I'll give you all you want! Let's gab!

[BlueCore]

I agree with this series being... Well... Disturbing? Yes. Definitely disturbing.

I actually went to my first comic convention this year and found 8 comics of this series.
Not knowing anything about the series, I bought all of the 8 books for 18 dollars.
I got home that night and read the books from cover to back and I was surprised! It was not like anything of Astro Boy I had ever read. And those comic books aren't even next to my collection... That's just how much I didn't like them.

The next day when I went back to The convention, some one offered my another one of the NOW! Comic Astro Boy edition and I refused to touch it.

It was amazing art! Don't get me wrong.it's just a little disturbing that our dear Astro was digging around inside soldiers wounds and shooting at cops feel and just being more aggressive. It was different.... Very different

[Prettywitchiusaka]

Oh yes, I've seen youmention this before on your blog.

I must say, I haven't had a chance to read them just yet, but judging from the reviews you've done, they sound pretty awful.

One last note though, I don't know whether or not Tenma killing his co-workers with a machinegun is either frightening, or illogically hilarious.

[Fauna]

One last note though, I don't know whether or not Tenma killing his co-workers with a machinegun is either frightening, or illogically hilarious.

That's the thing, though...it turns out that he completely imagined three murders in issue eight because he's totally banana sandwich. Here he thinks he's choking I.Q. Plenty in a hallway:



Shortly after this, he thinks a woman in the group is actually his dead wife and runs off sobbing. It's like an awful fan fiction.

@BlueCore: Gah! I at least had some information beforehand, but I can't imagine going into the series completely unknowing...what issues do you have? One of the last few where Brian Thomas has series control is actually my favourite of them all, but way too many of the rest are awful. (Particularly the ones Steacy had to write and draw himself.)

[Prettywitchiusaka]

[QUOTE=Prettywitchiusaka;200926]One last note though, I don't know whether or not Tenma killing his co-workers with a machinegun is either frightening, or illogically hilarious.

That's the thing, though...it turns out that he completely imagined three murders in issue eight because he's totally banana sandwich. Here he thinks he's choking I.Q. Plenty in a hallway:



Shortly after this, he thinks a woman in the group is actually his dead wife and runs off sobbing. It's like an awful fan fiction.

@BlueCore: Gah! I at least had some information beforehand, but I can't imagine going into the series completely unknowing...what issues do you have? One of the last few where Brian Thomas has series control is actually my favourite of them all, but way too many of the rest are awful. (Particularly the ones Steacy had to write and draw himself.)[/QUOTE]

Hmm...so you could really say that THIS particular version of Tenma has completelyembraced hi coo-coo for CocoaPuffs versona.

To be honest though, I wouldn't mind seeing Linkara do a review of these comics.

[1magus]

I hope they have these available somewhere at someones booth at Comic Con International, I get to go hehe!