Trying to track down a 1980s comic story...
December 7, 2010 2:24 PM Subscribe
Help my husband find this comic strip he remembers from his childhood (UK, 1980s, his words below)...
"It's mostly likely to have been a back-up strip in Doctor Who Weekly, the Star Wars serialisations, or 2000 AD, because they were pretty much the comics I read.
"It starts with...I want to say mysterious threads falling from the sky. And these threads cause time on Earth to slow down.
"I remember it as being - oh, spoilers! - a downbeat ending where everything stops.
"This strip may have been original for the comics, or it may have been a reprint from earlier to just use as filler."
Any ideas for what it is?
"It's mostly likely to have been a back-up strip in Doctor Who Weekly, the Star Wars serialisations, or 2000 AD, because they were pretty much the comics I read.
"It starts with...I want to say mysterious threads falling from the sky. And these threads cause time on Earth to slow down.
"I remember it as being - oh, spoilers! - a downbeat ending where everything stops.
"This strip may have been original for the comics, or it may have been a reprint from earlier to just use as filler."
Any ideas for what it is?
(I'm remembering The Changes, which is probably not what you're looking for)
posted by scruss at 2:54 PM on December 7, 2010
posted by scruss at 2:54 PM on December 7, 2010
Adding to scruss' point, 'Look In' also did comic versions of tv shows. Could it have been something from Sapphire and Steel? They had a story line where time stops.
posted by biffa at 3:15 AM on December 8, 2010
posted by biffa at 3:15 AM on December 8, 2010
Might have been a 'Tharg's Future Shocks' episode from 2000AD. They were one-off strips often where something apocalyptic happened.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:18 AM on December 8, 2010
posted by Happy Dave at 4:18 AM on December 8, 2010
I read the Future Shocks (and Time Twisters) in 2000AD assiduously when I was a kid and the description doesn't bring any to mind.
posted by biffa at 6:18 AM on December 8, 2010
posted by biffa at 6:18 AM on December 8, 2010
Response by poster: Okay, more from him:
"It definitely wasn't a TV show. I know that Sapphire & Steel storyline very well, and it wasn't that.
"The more I think about it, the more I think it was an American strip...like a one-shot Tales of the Watcher thing, because I'm sure in the Star Wars comics - late 70s' Star Wars comics - there were more back-up strips than the main storyline so they could string it out.
"So I'm guessing that they'd be like reprints from, like Tales of Suspense, sort of 60s' Silver Age...all very nuclear family with the skirts a certain style...that was kinda the vibe.
"There were frames of talking heads on the TV saying the scientists had no idea what was happening. And they sort of used dots to show that time was slowing down. 'Scientists...have...no...' sort of thing."
Back to me:
So I'm guessing maybe Marvel/EC sci-fi anthology series? I know I used to read a bunch of Weird Science, but I don't remember this story personally...
posted by Katemonkey at 12:34 PM on December 8, 2010
"It definitely wasn't a TV show. I know that Sapphire & Steel storyline very well, and it wasn't that.
"The more I think about it, the more I think it was an American strip...like a one-shot Tales of the Watcher thing, because I'm sure in the Star Wars comics - late 70s' Star Wars comics - there were more back-up strips than the main storyline so they could string it out.
"So I'm guessing that they'd be like reprints from, like Tales of Suspense, sort of 60s' Silver Age...all very nuclear family with the skirts a certain style...that was kinda the vibe.
"There were frames of talking heads on the TV saying the scientists had no idea what was happening. And they sort of used dots to show that time was slowing down. 'Scientists...have...no...' sort of thing."
Back to me:
So I'm guessing maybe Marvel/EC sci-fi anthology series? I know I used to read a bunch of Weird Science, but I don't remember this story personally...
posted by Katemonkey at 12:34 PM on December 8, 2010
Response by poster: Also, he's now been through all of Strange Tales in the Grand Comics Database, and didn't find it there - but there were a few that didn't have any information.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:07 PM on December 8, 2010
posted by Katemonkey at 2:07 PM on December 8, 2010
Best answer: So this guy Nathan Leeds emailed me, after finding this on a Google search, and sent me scans of the story in question, which totally made my husband's day.
The story is called "Threads", written by Mat Warrick with art by Gonzales, and it was originally in Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction and published by Marvel. My husband thinks it was probably republished in the back of a Star Wars comic in the 80s in the UK.
So Nathan? You're awesome.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:15 AM on January 8, 2011
The story is called "Threads", written by Mat Warrick with art by Gonzales, and it was originally in Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction and published by Marvel. My husband thinks it was probably republished in the back of a Star Wars comic in the 80s in the UK.
So Nathan? You're awesome.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:15 AM on January 8, 2011
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posted by scruss at 2:52 PM on December 7, 2010