Swords of the Swashbucklers #1
God, I miss Bill Mantlo! Really, I should say I miss Bill Mantlo’s writing. He is still alive, but after the hit and run accident that left him badly injured and mentally impaired to this very day, Bill Mantlo, who wrote so many wonderful comics, won’t be writing any new adventures. So, I have got to take solace in the Mantlo stories I haven’t read yet.
Now, I have read this particular issue. It has been in my collection for quite some time. Years before, I got it as part of a truly legendary “Big Black Garbage Bag” full of comics given to me by one of my gifted teacher's close friends. It was good to recently read it again, briefly reliving the joy of first acquiring it and so many other comics for free, and even better to know I have the next seven or so issues ahead of me.
The premise is a familiar one, pirates in space, but Mantlo’s writing and Jackson “Butch” Guice’s art carries it off crazily well. Swords of the Swashbucklers is driven by several strong female leads, peppered with plenty of dialect and characterization, and swimming in so much period-piece stuff dressed up as sci-fi. So much so, that you could be forgiven for thinking it was a Chris Claremont production. The rival captain that has it in for Raader does remind me a little of Callisto, former leader of the Morlocks in the pages of X-Men.
Truthfully, I think Mantlo pulled this concept off as good or even better than Claremont. It’s a little-known gem and has me looking forward to finding out the fate of Raader and her crew all these years later. I just need the graphic novel that kicked it all off and my collection will be complete!
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