I first discovered Budd Root's Cavewoman comics on a trip moving my brother from Virginia to Georgia more than a decade ago. I found several issues of Cavewoman: Rain on the magazine rack in a shopping mall book store. I admit, the covers caught my eye, and I rifled through the magazines and the few comics on the rack looking for all that I could find. I came away with copies of issue Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. Many of the issues were second or third printings — something I was unfamiliar with at the time — and because the subsequent printings had different covers, I actually came away with two different copies of issue No. 5.
That's five parts of an eight-part story. Obviously, missing the final chapter means I was missing the final resolution to the tale. Baring that fact, however, I can sometimes figure out what is missing from the books before and after a gap. For instance, I might have been able to figure out what happened in the missing issue No. 3 by reading Nos. 2 and 4. What seemed odd to me in this instance though, is that issue No. 4 seemed to pick up immediately after issue No. 2. Very little development must have occurred, I figured, in that missing issue, but that didn't seem to fit events in the issues I had.
Over time, I'd given up ever trying to find copies of the issues I was missing. They truly seemed to be scarce, as many shops I'd visited had no copies in their back issue stock. A few times I'd even tried to find out if there had ever been trade collections of Rain or the original series that preceded it, but to no avail.
I'd see solicits for new Cavewoman series by Budd or other creators, but I tended to pass those by as they all seemed quite sporadic — both in terms of timing and publisher, as the series moved around a bit — and I'd never been able to finish Rain. In fact, not too long ago, I even decided to give up the search and sell the copies I had of Rain. The search seemed that hopeless.
Then a few months after selling the issues I had, I started to see copies of some Cavewoman trades showing up online and my interest was rekindled. I managed to snag a slightly used, but still in great shape, copy of the original series trade. Finally I had the original story that tells how little Meriem Cooper ended up traveling back to prehistoric times with her Gramp, and how he'd ensured she could survive both the trip back in time and the prolonged stay back in the time of dinosaurs. And also how her hometown of Marshville, Ore., managed to be transported back in time as well several years later.
I also came across and bought a brand new copy of the Rain trade collection. Likely, I paid a tad too much for that one, but it arrived not too long ago, and I'm reading it now. This trade even solved the mystery of that missing issue No. 3 that must not have advanced the Rain plot much at all. It seems issue No. 3 was an interlude that had nothing really to do with the SEVEN-part Rain saga. It was merely stuck there in the middle and got numbered as if it was a chapter, but it wasn't.
Anyway, I haven't quite made it to the end of Rain yet, but once I finish it for the first time, I've also found a trade collection of Cavewoman: Missing Link, adding a third cavewoman story to my collection.
Now, Cavewoman is not for everyone. There are brief bits of nudity, and there can be a lot of gore — both of the human and dino variety — so it isn't really an all-ages book. But it is very pretty to look at, and Root's tales have a charming, storybook quality beyond the cheesecake factor that make them equally fun to read.
If you're unfamiliar with the series but want to give it a try, order with care as the character has proven to be popular enough that in addition to the great stories, there are also several Cavewoman-themed pin-up books out there featuring great — but often adult — art based on the series by Budd Root and a number of other talented creators.
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