Strange Adventures

This weekend Liz & I went to a local* comic book shop that we drove by a few weeks ago while en route to a shopping expedition. One thing KC's Comics had was a lot of bagged sets. I fully admit I'm a sucker for bagged sets. "Here's a complete set of something, no hunting, and it's all here for a fraction of cover price!" I found a four issue miniseries Vertigo put out in '99 called Strange Adventures, a revamp of classic pulp sci-fi comics from the '30s. What really caught my eye was two of the contributors on issue #1: Dave Gibbons & Frank Quietly. I figured if nothing else the art would be nice. Sure enough, all four books were pretty damned good! Most of the stories were fairly predictable, their Twilight Zone twist endings too obvious, but the stories and art were still enjoyable. My favorite story was in issue #2, written by Bruce Jones with art by Edvin Biukovic, called "Third Toe, Left Boot." It was a haunting tale of space mercenaries. Excellent stuff.

This series really kicked up my desire to find a good sci-fi anthology comic. I don't think they even exist anymore. I've considered reading 2000 AD, but I think most of their stories are set in one of their established universes (ie Judge Dredd), and that's not what I'm after. I'm looking for something like this miniseries: 2-3 standalone stories per issue that are complete and self contained. Recently I was getting something of a fix from BOOM! Studios' Zombie Tales and Cthulhu Tales, which are obviously single themed, but entertaining. Unfortunately, both series ended after 12 issues (most likely planned all along), and it doesn't look like there are any plans to renew them in the near future.

If anyone can recommend a series let me know (I'm not holding my breath though).

* "local" around here means within 30 miles.