Here’s another comic-adjacent project with an interesting sci-fi pedigree

Leonard Nimoy’s PriMortals: Target Earth prose paperback
Aspect Science Fiction/Warner Books
Author: Steve Perry
Release date: March 1998

Leonard Nimoy’s PriMortals was a comic series first published by Tekno Comix beginning in 1995. The actor most known for portraying Spock in "Star Trek: The Original Series," as well as in subsequent films and Trek television series, reportedly got the idea for the series after visiting a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) installation. Science fiction author Isaac Asimov was credited with adding several more concepts to the narrative, and a variety of comics writers and artists also contributed to bringing the series to life.

A race of aliens called the Paxus Majae visited Earth during the Jurassic age and harvested a number of species from the new planet. In the centuries since, the Majae have elevated the intelligence of those former Earthlings and others from a number of other planets. Zeerus, a criminal Avitaur (think a humanoid pterodactyl), escapes from Majae custody and heads back to his native Earth in the late 1990s in a stolen spacecraft. His goal is to trick humans into helping him fight the Majae, who are likely following him.

I was curious about a number of the Tekno Comix titles including Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Universe, Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger and others. Most of the company’s initial offerings focused on the concepts and contributions of known authors and celebrities, and I must confess, their strategy worked on me.

The comic version of Leonard Nimoy's PriMortals followed Zeerus as he makes first contact with a number of humans on Earth. Zeerus is indeed pursued by representatives of the Majae, chief among them a being known as PriMaster, who looked like a slightly more alien Martian Manhunter to me. The story was indeed interesting and lasted for 15 issues before Tekno Comix changed its name in 1997 to Big Entertainment and relaunched most of its existing titles with new numbering.

The second volume of PriMortals lasted nine more issues, plus a two-issue limited series and a few one-shots. The story never ended, but as I recall, Zeerus made planetfall on Earth, followed by PriMaster and his entire crew, drastically changing mankind’s view of our place in the cosmos as well as throwing the planet into the middle of an interstellar conflict.

As I said, the story never ended. Instead Big Entertainment stopped publishing its comics titles. While I liked the series when it was coming out, the lack of an ending caused me to lose interest over time, and many of the Tekno and Big Entertainment titles I once owned have since been sold off to other comics readers.

Just before Big Entertainment stopped publishing comics, however, this prose paperback novel appeared on book store shelves in March 1998. The story is much the same as I remember the comics portraying, but this must have been intended to be the first of a series of novels, fleshing out only the earliest stages of the comic tale. Many of the characters in this novel were also in the comic series, but their respective stories are much more detailed, and this novel makes for an interesting read.

As the escaped Zeerus enters our solar system, he send a message to Earth. It will still take the Avitaur nearly six months to travel to our planet, but he wants to reach out, establish contact and begin his manipulation of humans as soon as possible before PriMaster arrives. Among the human characters are Stewart Davies, a college student, computer game designer and part-time SETI worker, who first receives and de-codes Zeerus’ message; Jake Holcroft, the young computer hacker who stumbles on the top-secret communications; Major Steve Hayes, the Army officer charged with tracking down Jake; General Larry Hightower, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States; and Hightower’s girlfriend, White House Chief of Staff Laurie Sherman.

The novel focuses on Zeerus’ and humanity’s preparations for this historic first contact and ends when the giant Avitaur lands his craft on Earth. PriMaster and a few members of his crew are mentioned in flashback thoughts Zeerus has to give the reader Zeerus’ background, but the tale is really just getting started when this nearly 300-page book comes to an end. I’ve looked for subsequent books in the series, but while Steve Perry has authored many other novels, this is the only PriMortals book I have ever found besides the comics themselves.

Having said that, Target Earth is still an excellent read that held my interest despite my already being familiar with the story being told. It has my heartiest recommendation, and if anyone connected with Big Entertainment is still out there looking, I would be interested in more of the story.

Two Great Flavors. One Great Read.

Mike Danger may not be a familiar name to some, but he was a hard-boiled private detective who headlined a new comic-book idea dreamed up by a young writer named Mickey Spillane in 1940. No one bought the comics concept at the time, however, and Mike Danger got an overhaul, being reborn as Mike Hammer, star of several crime noir novels and later a television program.

But Mike Danger was just too tough a character to roll over and die to make way for another.

In 1995, a new comics company named Tekno Comix began publishing several different titles representing a variety of genres. They had super-heroes with the I-Bots, mystical elements empowered women to take up the mantle of Lady Justice, science fiction was the name of the game for Lost Universe and Primortals. Tekno almost served as a precursor to CrossGen in that regard and one other. The company had a number of big-name creators in their stable and serving as inspiration, folks like Neil Gaiman, Gene Roddenberry, George Perez and Max Allen Collins.

Collins, no stranger to crime fiction, worked with Mickey Spillane to finally bring Mike Danger to the medium the character was created for. Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger was one of Tekno's debut titles and continued for a total of two volumes and 21 issues, all of them written by Collins.

In those adventures, Mike Danger begins in the world of 1952, a private detective who often solves cases for his war buddies with the help of his beautiful secretary/confidante/partner, Holly. Mike travels from 1952 into the future by means of the first story arc and subsequently spends a great deal of time "trapped" in the year 2052, so much of the series combines the familiar trappings of both the crime noir and sci-fi genres to great effect.

Art chores are handled by a variety of greats such as Eduardo Barreto, Steve Leialoha, Frank Miller, Peter Grau, Walter Simonson, Steve Erwin, Terry Beatty and Brad Gorby.

The second volume of the series began in 1996 when Tekno Comix changed its name to Big Entertainment, and all of the publisher's books re-launched with new No. 1s. There was no break in the series story-wise. So just imagine that Vol. 2, issue No. 1, of Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger is really just issue No. 12 and you get the idea.

I highly recommend the series. If you've never tried it before, seek them out. These are truly good comics, combining humor, drama, imagination and a whole lot of two-fisted action, kiddie cops!