An epic conclusion I can heartily get behind

Lost in Space: Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul trade paperback
Bubblehead Publishing
Creators: Bill Mumy, Michal Dutkiewicz, Thom Zahler and John P. Severin
Publication date: October 2005

We’ve been looking at some continuations of the “Lost in Space” television program in comic book form.

Four weeks ago, I wrote about a couple hardcover collections based on some unproduced scripts written for the fourth season of the television series that never happened. As discussed previously, these tales read and felt very much like episodes of the program, which was no surprise, being based on scripts from one of the television program’s writers.

Last time, we looked at the first 14 issues of the Innovation Lost in Space comic book series. This series launched in 1991, and I bought many of those first 14 issues when they were originally published. Many of those issues were very good, especially the ones written by Bill Mumy, the actor who originally portrayed Will Robinson on the show and who served as creative consultant on the Innovation comic. This series continued the adventures of the Robinson family — Professor John and Maureen Robinson; their three children, Judy, Penny and Will; Major Don West; Dr. Zachary Smith; and the Robot — picking up the story three years after the end of the television series.

I enjoyed this Innovation series when it came out, and my enjoyment was no less today, reading or re-reading the various first 14 issues (12 regular issues and two annuals) 30 years after their initial release. Issue No. 12 of the Innovation series, one of the several penned by Bill Mumy, was to serve as a bit of a turning point for the comic series, as discussed in my last post. Issue No. 12 depicted the Robinsons and company finally finding the correct route to their destination, Proxima 4 in the Alpha Centauri star system. It also gave a glimpse at the beings of Aeolus 14 Umbra, the original saboteurs of the Jupiter mission who enlisted Dr. Smith. These beings awaited the arrival of the Robinson crew so they could finish the job of killing the earthlings when their ship landed.

The plan was for Bill Mumy to be the sole writer of the next 12 issues, the entire second year of the series, and these 12 issues would tell the tale of the Jupiter 2 finally arriving on the fourth planet in the Alpha Centauri system and what became of the crew after. The subtitle for this year’s worth of stories was “Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul.”

In a text piece at the back of issue No. 12, Bill Mumy wrote about his thoughts on the comic series so far and where he thought it should go. He wrote:

“Well, we’ve learned a lot about our friends on the Jupiter 2 since Innovation began publishing this comic book: The Jupiter 2 was constructed from a crashed alien ship; the mysterious organization known as Aeolus 14 Umbra has been unmasked; the complicated Colonel/Doctor Zachary Smith has shown us his best and his worst; the loss of one Robinson child; Judy’s conflict with abandoning her professional career as an actress; Will’s frustrations as his sexuality awakens; Professor Robinson’s deep religious beliefs; Maureen’s ability to see the positive in all situations; and Don being the focus of not only Judy’s affections, but Penny’s, as well.

“... I personally wanted to take Lost in Space to the next level … change things … resolve things … take the characters to places I felt they needed to go. … We’re going to ‘stir the soup’ up here, quite a bit.”

The Innovation title had a rather erratic release schedule during its publication history. According to Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, it took 23 months for those first 14 issues to be released. The irregular release is why I stopped buying the title when it came out; I simply lost track of it. Issue No. 13, the first installment of “Voyage,” was released on July 13, 1993, again according to Mike’s Amazing World of Comics. Issue No. 18 was released a mere four months later, on November 1, 1993, according once again to Mike’s site. Simple math will tell you that issue No. 18 would have been “Voyage” part six of the planned 12.

And then Innovation went out of business.

I wasn’t buying any Innovation books at the time, but the closing came as a shock, according to Bill Mumy’s text piece at the beginning of this trade volume. And the story of the Jupiter 2 crew went unfinished for more than a decade.

As far as I know, Bubblehead Publishing — an obvious reference to the physical appearance of the Robot — has only one book in its publishing catalog. This volume was published in 2005, just in time for the 40th anniversary of Lost in Space, and it finally published the complete “Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul” storyline that Bill Mumy and Michal Dutkiewicz planned.

I came across what I felt at the time was a reasonably priced copy of the trade while trying to complete my run of the series over the years. But I confess, this was also the reason I was a little hesitant to re-read the Innovation series, culminating in my first reading of this story. As I said, I really liked what I had read previously of the series, especially the issues written by Bill Mumy. But I was nervous as to whether I would like this “final” story.

I needn’t have worried.

The story begins where issue No. 12 left off, with the Jupiter 2 and its crew entering the Alpha Centauri solar system. The Robinsons, West and Smith have been lost in space for nearly eight years by this point, and they are temporarily uncertain as to how to proceed. Did humans launch other missions that have already arrived and begun to colonize Proxima 4 as planned? Or did the disappearance of the Jupiter 2 spell the end of the Alpha Centauri mission? Lacking any concrete information, the decision is made to follow the original plan and find a place to land on Proxima 4.

The Jupiter 2 crew is unaware that the Aeolians are waiting for them, but readers learn for the first time that not all the Aeolians are in agreement on how to proceed. The Aeolians are not native to Proxima 4, but they have been there for more than 100 years and seek to exploit the seemingly abandoned technology they discovered on the planet. One of the Aeolians, J’Ahl, has manipulated events to lead the humans to their destination so he can torture and kill them. He believes all humans are responsible for the death of his son.

Shortly after the Jupiter 2 lands on Proxima 2, the Aeolians disable the robot and capture the humans. J’Ahl decides he is going to use the humans as test subjects for “the great machine,” one of the pieces of technology the Aeolians found on Proxima 4 but don’t truly understand. Some of the Aeolians oppose this plan, but J’Ahl, driven insane by grief and revenge, begins slaying his own people rather than listen to opposition. Finally, J’Ahl uses the great machine … and the humans disappear. But what happened to them?

The 360-page story is not without a few problems to my mind. The depiction of the Aeolians, for example, seems to fluctuate quite a bit throughout the tale. There are several instances where the coloring in the book hinders the storytelling of the art. The transformation that John Robinson goes through in this story, while a nice nod to longtime fans of Guy Williams — the actor who portrayed John Robinson in the show — stretches the reader’s suspension of disbelief a bit too much. There are several lettering mistakes throughout that can be a bit jarring.

But overall, this was a terrific story that takes the Robinsons, Major West, Dr. Smith and the Robot on an epic journey and leaves them in the only place fans of “Lost in Space” could ever truly accept. I applaud those connected with producing this story, and I’m glad to have it in my collection. If you’re a fan of the property, especially the original television program or the Innovation series that led to this trade, I think you’ll enjoy “Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul,” too.

This series provided a solid wrap-up and more

Lost in Space (1991)
Innovation
Creators: David Campiti, George Broderick Jr., Bill Mumy, Matt Thompson, Mark Goddard, Miguel Ferrer, Kevin Burns, Terry Collins, Karen May, Robert M. Ingersoll, Peter David, Eddy Newell, Mark Jones, Michal Dutkiewicz, Peter Murphey, John Garcia, Barb Kaalberg, Dan and Dave Day, George Perez, Joe Dunn, Shane Glines, Jim Key, Scott Rockwell, Vickie Williams
Release date: July 1, 1991, to June 1, 1993, for issue Nos. 1-12 and two annuals, per Mike’s Amazing World of Comics

Strap in; this is going to be one of my lengthier posts.

Last time, we discussed a pair of Lost in Space hardcovers published about five years ago and adapted from some unfilmed scripts written for the 1960s television series. I wanted to read through those hardcovers before re-visiting this early 1990s comic series because they were chronologically earlier adventures of the Jupiter 2 crew.

I bought and enjoyed the first 11 regular issues and the first annual of the Innovation Lost in Space series when they were released, but the title came out somewhat sporadically. I enjoyed what I’d read of the series and had since purchased the later issues. The plan was to someday re-read this series to see if it still held up and finally read the issues I had missed the first time around.

I was prompted to moved that Lost In Space reading project from sometime to now after a very nice retrospective article in the pages of Back Issue magazine published by TwoMorrows Publishing. The specific issue was No. 128 from July 2021, and the issue focused on a number of Bronze Age TV tie-in comics. The Lost in Space article covered a number of topics, but my interest in this series was rekindled by the excellent coverage Back Issue did on the Innovation title. The article included a lot of quotes and behind the scenes information from David Campiti and Bill Mumy, among others.

The Lost in Space comic Innovation launched in the summer of 1991 begins following the Robinson family — John and Maureen Robinson and their three children, Judy, Penny and Will — Major Don West, Dr. Zachary Smith, and the Robot three years after the end of the television series. That means the ship has been lost for six years by this point. The series involved a number of creators, as evidenced by the lengthy list above, but also featured input by several of the original cast members, most notably the adult Bill Mumy, the actor who portrayed Will Robinson in the three-season television program. Mumy wrote several of the stories in these first 14 issues (12 regular issues and two annuals) and also served as a creative consultant for the overall series.

There had been efforts to either re-launch the show or otherwise continue the adventures of the Robinson family, but many of them were reportedly stymied by none other than series creator Irwin Allen. Bill Mumy himself had created and tried to launch a motion picture that would resolve the Jupiter 2 crew’s story only to be told “no” by Allen, according to a text piece Mumy wrote for one of the Innovation issues.

Then along came David Campiti, a fan of the show and the then-publisher and editor-in-chief at Innovation Comics. Campiti wanted to bring Lost in Space to comics. At the time, Mumy told Campiti the chances were slim that approval would be forthcoming, but that if Campiti could get the go-ahead, Mumy would like to be a part of the process. Obviously, permission was granted, but various difficulties among the initial creative team led to further delays.

Finally, the stars aligned and Innovation’s Lost in Space debuted on July 1, 1991, according to Mike’s Amazing World of Comics. That first issue depicts the Jupiter 2 crew being forced to land on yet another planet for repairs. Once there, they are beset by some plant monsters, the ship is further damaged and Dr. Smith discovers a hidden memory chip buried deep inside the Robot — a chip which has not only recorded his original sabotage of the Jupiter 2 but many other details from before the launch of the Alpha Centauri colonization program.

The first issue cover (and many of the subsequent covers, too) featured a gorgeous painting of Will, Penny and Judy Robinson along with the Robot in peril outside the Jupiter 2. The story presented the familiar characters, and while plant monsters might immediately conjure mental images of some of the sillier television episode plots, the threat is presented in the issue as a serious one, and the crew reacts accordingly.

I very much enjoyed the first issue, and I apparently wasn’t the only one to do so. The series was popular, and the first two sold-out issues were each reprinted in a couple of specials that featured new covers and additional behind-the-scenes materials. The third and fourth issues, a two-part story, were the first to be written by Bill Mumy. Those two issues were also later collected and re-presented as a square-bound comic, again with a new cover and bonus materials.

The Innovation Lost in Space series explored a number of interesting topics. Issue No. 9 of the series, for example, features another tale written by Bill Mumy and sports a George Perez cover. This issue details the environmental and sociological impacts on a planet resulting from one of the Jupiter 2’s many forced landings. Issue Nos. 3-4, that first story written by Mumy, involve the Jupiter 2 landing on an inhabited planet with several warring factions and depicts how the denizens of that planet react to the space travelers. Other issues go more deeply into the various characters’ lives and motivations before the Jupiter 2 mission began. Along the way, readers are even given their first glimpse of the mysterious Aeolus 14 Umbra, the individuals who hired Dr. Zachary Smith to sabotage the Jupiter 2 mission that resulted in the Robinsons — and Smith himself — being lost in space.

Issue No. 5 was another stand-out, helping as it did to reconcile the sillier aspects of the television show with the more realistic presentation of the Jupiter 2 adventures in the comic. This issue presented the story of the Jupiter 2’s accidental encounter with a meteor shower from two very different perspectives. The image at the top of this post is from issue No. 5. The top half of each page is devoted to John Robinson’s log recording and presents the events in a realistic manner in keeping with most of the rest of the Innovation series. The story on the bottom of each page is the same adventure, but told from the perspective of Penny Robinson’s diary, where she details the family’s adventures, but in a more fanciful fashion. The Robot is less logical and more humorous, for example, in Penny’s version of events. And while Dr. Smith’s actions in both narratives are similar, his motivations and the circumstances around the events are very different.

A central theme throughout the Innovation series is the adolescence and resulting loneliness of Penny and Will Robinson. I don’t know that exact ages for these two were ever given in the television series, but I know from interviews that Bill Mumy was 10 when the series began filming. Assuming his character was the same age and Penny was about 12, the pair are 16 and 18, respectively, when the Innovation series begins. They have their family with them, and Judy and Don were always a couple, but there are no other humans with whom Penny or Will can form friendships or romantic attachments.

While this would be a very real issue the Robinsons would have to deal with at some point, the artists involved, especially in the early issues of the Innovation series, took the concept to an extreme with Penny. The familiar diamond pattern on Penny’s uniform tops in the television program became a cut-out emphasizing her cleavage. I’m not opposed to “good girl” art or pretty pictures of pretty women, but things got a bit out of hand when several of the early issues of the comic depict Penny in her underwear or barely-there pajamas. But thankfully that tendency went away as the series continued.

Bill Mumy’s was not the only influence from Hollywood on the Innovation series. Issue No. 7 focuses on Major Don West, and Mark Goddard, the actor who portrayed West in the television show contributed to the plot of the issue. Miguel Ferrer, an actor and friend of Bill Mumy, contributed to the plot of the first Innovation Lost in Space annual, which features a villain who physically resembles Ferrer.

Then, in issue No. 12 of the Innovation series, the Jupiter 2 crew manages to finally find their way to the Alpha Centauri solar system. The events of the comic series to that point have taken another one to two years of the characters’ lives, so they are faced with the prospect of finally touching down at their destination after being lost in space for nearly eight years. Unless the agents of Aeolus 14 Umbra can finally end the Robinson family once and for all, that is.

The Innovation comic series didn’t end after these first 14 issues, although it very easily could have. But let’s hold off on exploring issue Nos. 13 onward for next time. Join me back here in two weeks for the epic story titled “Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul.”

A Love Story About Detectives; A Detective Story About Love

Reading the detective stories in Ms. Tree Quarterly reminded me of another series I'd been wanting to try, one I thought was somewhat similar. After giving the first 10 issues of this other series a try, however, I found that the only thing it really has in common with Ms. Tree is that both series are good reads.

Ms. Tree's tales are quite a bit different in tone from those of Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The latter series specializes in done-in-one mysteries wherein the author supplies enough clues along the way that readers who are so inclined can try to solve the puzzle right along with the main characters.

The series stars Jennifer Mays, owner and lead investigator for the Maze Agency. Often assisting her in her sleuthing is boyfriend and crime-fiction author Gabriel Webb. Just as much a part of the series as crime conundrums is the growing relationship between Mays and Webb, much like in the television series "Moonlighting."

Some of the mysteries in those first 10 issues which the characters must unravel involve the apparent theft of the frames from some expensive paintings, a murder over lost episodes of a famous 1950s television sitcom, the apparent return of Jack the Ripper, plus a murder mystery game which turns all-too real and employs a locked-room whodunit at the same time.

Barr's writing is the constant in this series, which began life at Comico in 1988 and produced seven issues through June 1989 with much of the interior and cover art supplied by then newcomer Adam Hughes.

That was it until December of 1989 when Innovation picked up the series and continued the original numbering with issue No. 8, still by Barr, Hughes and Rick Magyar. Innovation continued the series through issue No. 23, with a Special and an Annual to boot. They even put together a trade collection of the first four issues in a black-and-white format.

The Maze Agency Special No. 1 featured a stunning cover by Bill Willingham and Magyar. The Special also reprinted the very first Maze Agency story, which was illustrated by co-creator Alan Davis. I'm not sure where this tale was originally published, or when, but it makes a nice addition to the Special, which also includes Davis' original character designs for Jennifer Mays and Gabriel Webb.

With issue No. 11 of the Innovation series, the art team became more irregular and featured such names as Darrick Robertson, Rob Davis and Robb Phipps. This last penciler, Robb Phipps, did issue No. 14, among others, of which I now own several of the original art pages. From the pages I have, this story seems to involve Mays and Webb attending the execution of a convicted murderer who is killed mysteriously before the state can end his life. Hughes didn't do interiors for the series after issue No. 12, but did return to do several covers beyond that point.

Since the Innovation series ended, The Maze Agency has had a number of revivals, first at Caliber Comics in 1997, and later at IDW Publishing in 2005. I enjoyed these first 10 issues enough, that I have ordered the remainder of the Innovation issues, as well as the IDW ones, and am anxiously awaiting their arrival so I can read those as well. Haven't found anyone yet with the Caliber series for sale, but I'm keeping a lookout for them.