DC Previews 01-2020

SPOTLIGHT
STRANGE ADVENTURES # 1
written by TOM KING
art by MITCH GERADS and EVAN “DOC” SHANER
cover by MITCH GERADS
variant cover by EVAN “DOC” SHANER
blank variant cover
After winning five Eisner Awards and topping year-end “best of lists,”
the comic book of 2019 was Mister Miracle. The comic book of 2020 will
be Strange Adventures.
The Mister Miracle team of writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads
are joined by fan-favorite artist Evan “Doc” Shaner to bring you an epic
tale in the tradition of Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and DC: The
New Frontier—a story of blood, war, and love that readers will be talking
about for years to come.
Adam Strange is the hero of Rann, a man famous throughout the
galaxy for his bravery and honor. After leading his adopted home to
victory in a great planetary war, Adam and his wife Alanna retire to
Earth, where they are greeted by cheers, awards, and parades. But not
all is as happy and nice as it seems, as the decisions Adam made during
battles on Rann come back to haunt his family and threaten the entire
DC Universe. And now a surprise DC hero will have to choose between
saving Adam Strange and saving the world.
A story like no other, Strange Adventures is an ambitious, thrilling,
shocking, and beautiful 12-issue saga that will push Adam Strange to
the breaking point—and beyond!
ON SALE 03.04.20
$4.99 US | 1 OF 12 | 40 PAGES
CARD STOCK COVERS
FC | DC
This issue will ship with three covers.
Please see the order form for details.
ADAM STRANGE—WAR HERO OR WAR CRIMINAL?
STRANGE ADVENTURES BLURS TRUTH AND FICTION
Interview by Albert Ching
Adam Strange is a hero...right? After leading his adopted home of Rann
to victory in interplanetary conflict, Strange returns to Earth to share his
story—which leads to his past coming back to haunt him in deadly and
potentially catastrophic ways. The Eisner Award-winning Mister Miracle
team of Tom King and Mitch Gerads are joined by fan-favorite artist Evan
“Doc” Shaner to tell Strange’s story in Strange Adventures, as DC’s
space-faring hero attempts to separate truth from science-fiction.
It’s easy to frame Strange Adventures as the follow-up to Mister
Miracle—you and Mitch, 12-issue series, exploring a lesser-known
DC hero. In what ways do you see the two series as relating to each
other? In what ways is this a different type of story for you, Mitch and
Doc Shaner?
Like Mister Miracle, Strange Adventures is hugely ambitious. It’s once
again our attempt at something like Watchmen or DC: The New Frontier—
a contained story that speaks to its time and expands what comics can
be. Not saying we can do it or have done it, but we’ll try—or rather we’ll
keep trying. Unlike Mister Miracle, this isn’t another tale of one man’s
angst or trauma or recovery. Strange Adventure is fundamentally about
something larger, deeper, and darker; it’s trying to speak to the nature
of truth and how our assumptions about that nature can tear us apart.
What drew you to Adam Strange? What did you see in the character that
made him right for this story?
Adam Strange is one of a long line of characters—like Tarzan and Flash
Gordon, stolid men with dimpled chins who thrive in “foreign lands”—
who stand in as a metaphor for a 19th century European dream of
colonialism. Of course, colonialism was never really like this dream, and
it’s that contrast that interests me: the bloody gap between the myth
and the reality.
What inspired the split narrative of the series?
I wanted to tell two stories simultaneously and have them play off each
other: the story we tell others and the story others tell about us. To
represent these two aspects, we use two of the best artists in comics,
then we weave those two tellings together in odd and new ways that
I don’t think anyon’s seen in modern super hero comics. So it’s a way
to do something new and different and hopefully something cool and
compelling.
It’s exciting to see you working with Doc Shaner again, several years
after Justice League: Darkseid War: Green Lantern—what’s it been like
collaborating with him on a long-term story?
It’s awesome, it’s brilliant, and it’s beautiful. Doc has that rare gift
that artists like Darwyn Cooke, Alex Toth, and Alex Raymond had: that
insane ability to draw comics the way people imagine comics to be, a
sort of Platonic comic ideal. If you go up to any person on the street
and have them close their eyes and think of what a comic looks like,
they’re seeing Doc Shaner panels. Now when we contrast those to
Mitch’s signature real world grounding of comics, it creates a delightful
tension that reflects
the gnawing tension
at the heart of the
series.
How has this
story pushed your
partnership with
Mitch Gerads in new
directions?
Well, we’re finally off
the nine panel grid, so
he at least speaks to
me now. Every once in
a while.
interior art by
Evan “Doc” Shaner
(above) and Mitch
Gerads (right)
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