Young Gods & Friends [Hardcover]

What you have collected in "Young GODS and Friends" are all of the chapters of the early stages of the saga that were published in "BWS: Storyteller," up to the point where BWS suddenly stopped working when the title was cancelled by Dark Horse Comics: the second to last page is almost completely inked, but not colored, and the final page is still mostly rough pencils. Also included are: "The Pizza Story," which serves as prelude introducing Adastra on Earth dealing with one of her worshippers while trying to deliver pizzas; a series of aborted attempts at reviving the Destiny story line; "The Party," a collection of vignettes; and assorted fragments, one of which would constitute an alternative version of a key scene in "The Pizza Story." The result is the complete uncompleted "Young GODS" (The "Adastra in Africa" story published separated was originally intended for Storm of the X-Men, so I count it separately).

I had the first six episodes of "BWS: Storyteller," so it was nice to see what I had missed in being unable to track down the rest of the published issues. Original fans of the series might be disappointed in that this collection does not complete the Young GODS saga, but this was the beginning of a much longer story and BWS was laying down the initial threads of the story (for example, look at the first dozen issues of "Cerebus" and see how you could ever have anticipated the "High Society" storyline). What we have here is the beginning of something and while it is getting interesting it is not yet to the point where we are clearly on to something great.

The idea of "BWS: Storyteller" is the most important one here, because Barry Windsor-Smith's emphasis is clearly on the writing. "BWS: Storyteller" featured "The Freebooters" and "The Paradoxman" in addition to the "Young GODS," and coming up with 32-pages each month was a bit of a strain at times. For those of us who remember being disappointed when the new issue of "Conan the Barbarian" was a reprint or drawn by Gil Kane because young Barry Smith had missed another deadline, there are some pages here that show us what things would have looked like if he had rushed. Of course, "rushed" BWS is still better than what most mere mortals can do, and there are some stunning panels, usually full-page or full-spread, that serve as reminders of what this guy can do as an artist. "Young GODS and Friends" gives us an idea of what he can do as a writer.

Of course, after reading this you have to wonder if companion volumes for "The Freebooters" and "The Paradoxman." Be aware that "Young GODS and Friends" is oversized, so the reproduced pages are the same size as "BWS: Storyteller," the difference being that this is a hardcover collection. So if they come up with companion volumes we can use them to sandwich our original "BWS: Storyteller" comics between.

BSW:STORYTELLER collected several ongoing series by Windsor-Smith, including one known as the "Young Gods." On it's surface it seemed highly derivative of Jack Kirby's "Thor" for Marvel, as well as his "New Gods" and "The Forever People of Supertown" for DC. But that was part of the trick to it all, at least I think it was. You were suppose to think Kirby and then watch as Windsor-Smith put his own little twists on the whole concept of beings who were considered gods.

These were gods who were, as one editorial put it: "sexy, ribald, politically incorrect, and outrageously funny."

The story begins on the eve of the wedding of Prince Heros, a somewhat reluctant groom, who decides he needs to go off carousing one more time before he is forced to settle down. He and his cousin, Strangehands, set out for a little adventure engaging in "dragon chasing." Also along for the ride is the lovely but foul-mouthed Princess Adastra, sister of the bride-to-be. Things don't go quite as planned, of course.

Unfortunately, the series was never completed in its original run. But, this volume collects issues one through 9 plus the previously unpublished issues 10 and 11. It also adds new material created for this edition. Windsor-Smith is not for everyone's tastes, but if you are a fan, this is a must have for your collection.