Veteran comic book cartoonist
Joe Staton was still relatively new to the field when he drew the first two issues of Charlton Comics'
Space: 1999 series, but he handled the assignment marvelously. Case in point: this terrific cover painting for Issue #2, pitting an unarmed Commander John Koenig against a massive, indigo alien warrior in hand-to-hand combat. I've always really loved this cover, with its fiery, crimson sky and simple, effective composition.
The story it accompanies is pretty nifty, too. Also drawn by Staton, with a script by
Nicola Cuti, its plot - which has Koenig and and the alien stranded on a planet together, beginning as enemies and finally working together - prefigures
Enemy Mine (and the Barry B. Longyear story it was based on) by nearly a decade.
Joe Staton also co-created (with Cuti) the super-hero series
E-Man for Charlton before moving on to DC Comics, where he drew virtually every major character in their line, including a long run on
Green Lantern. As it happens, he's a friend of mine, and a valued collaborator. He's drawn several of my comic book scripts, including my crime comic/graphic novel,
Femme Noir: Dark City Diaries
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